He raised the energy drink to his lips. ‘That’s what this is for. Win that an’ I’ve paid more of it off.’
‘Oh, Sandro … ’
His features hardened. ‘Don’t give me pity. Like I said, we weren’t all as lucky as you.’
‘Sorry. I didn’t mean … ’
‘I’ll still help you. I said I would. But I have to do that first.’
Whatever Marina was going to say next remained unsaid.
She grabbed her bag, snatched the phone out, put it straight to her ear. Heard a woman’s voice.
‘Listen … ’
69
Mickey and Anni had reached a dead end.
‘And this was the last reported sighting?’ said Anni.
Mickey turned round. ‘Yeah. After this, she’s … in the wind.’
They were following Marina’s trail on DCI Franks’s orders. After what they had discovered at the house, Mickey had expected to stay in charge of that, but Franks had different ideas.
‘I want you two out looking for Marina,’ he had said on the phone, directly after Mickey had received the call from Anni and they had realised who the child in the house had been. ‘The Birdies can deal with everything there. They can look for the missing girl. They’ll need to liaise with Suffolk since they’re already working on it. It’ll be a joint operation. I want you two trying to track down Marina. We find one of them, hopefully we find all of them.’
Mickey had tried to argue, saying that it wasn’t a good idea — and in fact against police policy — to investigate someone in the same department.
‘But you’re not, are you?’ Franks had replied.‘Investigating. You’re just looking for her. Granted, you find her and everything else might fall into place, but at the moment you’re just two colleagues tracking down a missing person who just happens to be known to you. Which should give you more insight into her whereabouts.’
Put like that, Mickey conceded, he could see the logic.
So he had waited for Anni to arrive, then they had both taken off in Mickey’s car, following the last known sighting they had of Marina: a small yellow car on the way to Clacton, seen passing a housing development that seemed to reach a dead end on a cliff against the North Sea.
Mickey stood there hearing the waves below, feeling the cold air all around.
He also felt something else. Anni’s arm snaking round his waist, her hand stroking his side. He looked round. She was right next to him.
‘You OK?’ she said.
‘Yeah,’ he replied, still staring past the houses to the sea. ‘Just … trying to think where she could have gone.’
Her grip tightened. ‘That wasn’t what I meant.’
He turned to her. Eye to eye. She really was exceptionally beautiful, he thought. He turned his head away, wondering what she was thinking. Anni stayed where she was.
‘I loved last night.’
Her voice sounded so small and warm against the cold air around him. He turned to her once more. Smiled.
‘So did I,’ he said. And laughed.
‘What’s the matter?’ She looked concerned.
‘It’s just … Nothing.’
‘No it’s not. What’s the matter?’
‘Oh … just stupid stuff. Worried that I’d messed everything up. That’s all.’
‘And why would you have done that?’
‘Because I have a tendency to. Everything that I want to go well, if I meet someone a bit special, it just … you know. You know what I mean.’
‘You haven’t messed everything up. Honestly.’ Her grip tightened.
He responded. ‘Good.’
She smiled. It gave way to a laugh. ‘So I’m a bit special, am I?’
He reddened. ‘I didn’t mean it that way.’
‘Not special needs, you mean?’
‘Definitely not.’
His phone rang. He answered it. Milhouse.
‘You working today, then?’ Mickey asked.
‘We’re all on overtime for this one.’
‘Justice never sleeps,’ said Mickey. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘Got some information for you. Emailing it over. The dead man’s been identified. Graham Watts.’
Mickey thought. ‘The guy whose car it was. Anything on him?’
‘Used to work for the Sloane family.’
‘Now that rings a bell.’
‘It should,’ continued Milhouse. ‘Stuart Sloane, the adopted boy who went mad with a shotgun and killed his family, was released from prison yesterday. And he’s gone missing. Graham Watts used to work for the family. Didn’t part on good terms, apparently.’
‘Connection, you reckon?’
‘The universe doesn’t believe in coincidences,’ said Milhouse. ‘And neither do I. But I just provide the information; what you do with it’s up to you.’
‘Do my best.’
‘You should have the email now. Happy hunting.’
He hung up.
‘Milhouse?’ asked Anni.
‘Tell you in the car.’
They turned, made their way back to Mickey’s car. Anni hadn’t removed her hand.
Mickey hadn’t removed his either.
70
‘Your voice is different,’ said Marina. ‘I’m not talking to a Dalek any more.’ There was no reply. ‘And you’re a woman.’
‘Well done.’ The voice was trying to sound flippant. And failing. It just sounded tired.
Marina felt there was a vacuum where the woman’s control should have been, and decided to fill it. ‘Look. It’s all gone wrong for you.’
‘Has it?’
‘I went to the house. I saw the body.’ No response, so she kept going. ‘Why don’t you give up, yeah? Just let me have my daughter back and we can leave it. It’s all gone wrong. Let’s salvage something. Give me my daughter and we can walk away. What d’you say?’
‘What a coincidence,’ said the woman’s voice. ‘I was just going to propose that myself.’
Marina said nothing. Just felt her heart rise at the possibility of the whole ordeal being over. Tried not to get too excited.
‘But there’s a condition.’
Her heart sank once more. She should have expected that. ‘OK, then,’ she said, as calm as she could
