The Missing Hours by Emma Kavanagh Read Free Book Online Page B

face.
    ‘Mind,’ Vida’s voice startles me, flicking its forked tongue against my consciousness, ‘you know about the psychiatrist, don’t you?’
    ‘What?’ I grip the arms of the chair tighter, partly to prevent me from launching myself at her.
    ‘Selena was seeing some psychiatrist, up in London.’
    I study her. ‘You said she didn’t speak to you. How would you know that?’
    The elderly woman tosses her head, a light blush creeping across her features. ‘There was a card, from a Dr … Mini-something, in the kitchen. Psychiatrist.’ She looks up at me. ‘Well, I couldn’t help it. It was just lying there.’
    ‘Maybe it’s someone she works with,’ I suggest. ‘Selena is a psychologist.’
    ‘No, she’s definitely seeing him. There was an appointment on her calendar for next week.’
    ‘Right. And where’s her calendar?’
    This time she at least has the decency to look shamefaced. ‘The office.’
    I feel the sinking begin to recede. This woman is not a credible source of judgement, for me, for Selena. I watch as her eyes dart around the living room, from the tasteful, expensive furniture to the family pictures taken in exotic destinations, and can see her lips tightening in disapproval. She is someone who is disappointed in life, loaded with bitterness. She is not someone who should be allowed to define success. Not mine. Not Selena’s.
    I stare at her, let the silence hang. ‘You went into her office?’
    ‘Well,’ she says, blustering. ‘I was just … checking.’
    ‘Checking?’
    ‘In case Mrs Cole was in there.’
    She stares at me, bold, the faintest flush of red to her cheeks.
    ‘Right,’ I say.

 
Case No. 16
Victim: Victor Cannon
Location: Beirut, Lebanon
Company: Cannon-Kane Financial Services
3 September 2006
Initial event
Mr Victor Cannon, founding partner of Cannon-Kane Financial Services, failed to arrive home from work on 3 September. Mr Cannon is a UK national, but has operated his business out of Lebanon for the past ten years. At 7.15 p.m., Mrs Hala Cannon, Mr Cannon’s Lebanese-born wife, became concerned for her husband and contacted his office. Concerns were further raised when it was ascertained that Mr Cannon had left his office at 4.45 p.m., indicating that he was returning directly home. According to Mrs Cannon, he should have arrived by 5.30 at the latest. All attempts to raise Mr Cannon on his mobile or to identify any locations in which he might have stopped were unsuccessful.
A search of the local area was conducted. Mr Cannon’s car was found in the car park in which it was usually left, with no sign that he had in fact returned to it.
At midnight, Mr Cannon’s business partner, Mr Soad Kane, raised the alarm. An initial call was placed to Cannon-Kane’s insurers, Biltstrom, in which Mr Kane expressed fears that Mr Cannon had been kidnapped en route to his vehicle. This fear came on the back of a series of kidnap-for-ransom events experienced by employees of the Cannon-Kane company in previous years.
Response
The response team consisted of myself (Ed Cole) and Selena Cole. Having received the initial call at 2.16 a.m. on 4 September, we were on the ground in Beirut twenty-four hours later. The Cole Group was familiar with both Mr Cannon and the Cannon-Kane company, having provided consultancy services on all three previous kidnap-for-ransom events experienced by the company in its recent history.
Upon arrival at the scene, a command room was immediately put in place within the buildings of Cannon-Kane, and contact was made with all relevant parties. What then followed was highly unusual within the case history of the Cole Group.
We received no contact from the kidnappers.
Seventy-two hours passed, in which the emotional state of Mrs Cannon became increasingly fragile. No calls were made to either the Cannon home or the Cannon-Kane offices. No ransom demand was received.
At the end of this seventy-two-hour period, Selena Cole put forward the idea that