Lola is Missing: A totally gripping crime thriller (Detective Rachel Prince Book 1) by Alison James

Author:Alison James [James, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786813312
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2018-02-06T23:00:00+00:00

‘Where are we going this time?’ Brickall asked as they set off on their ninth joint road trip along the clogged London-to-Brighton trunk road. It was a dour, squally early-December day, with damp leaves blowing on to the car windscreen and sticking there. ‘Michelle’s house or Lisa’s?’

‘Neither. Eastwell nick. When we were there last time, I asked them to go through the CCTV from the shop opposite Happy Nails, and Leila Rajavi just emailed to tell me they’d found something.’

While she was checking the contents of her inbox that morning, Rachel had also emailed Lee Knightley and asked him to try and track down TruthTella’s identity. Statistically the odds were on him or her being a crank, a fantasist, but it still seemed worth investigating.

Rajavi led them into a vacant interview room and set up a computer monitor, arranging chairs in front of it so that Rachel and Brickall could watch the footage.

‘The shop has an old-fashioned analogue system where you take out tapes and replace them with a fresh one when they get full. The owners were in the habit of keeping the tapes for several months before recording over them, rotating and re-recording in a loop. This is from late June.’ She pressed play.

The image was of mediocre quality, but clear enough to show Michelle sitting across from a woman at one of the manicure tables. The time stamp showed that it was 8.30 in the evening, and there was no one else in the salon. The woman, who looked somewhere between thirty and forty, had her hair in a ponytail and was still wearing a parka, as though she didn’t intend on staying. She and Michelle spoke for a few seconds, then Michelle went out of the room, heading in the direction of the office, where the safe was kept. She came back thirty seconds later with a bulging envelope, which she handed to the other woman. The woman took out a couple of bundles of notes and started counting them, then, once she had checked them, shoved the envelope into her coat pocket and left the salon.

‘So what’s that then?’ asked Brickall. ‘A bung? A bribe? Blackmail?’

‘We don’t know yet,’ said Rajavi. ‘It might not be any of those things. But we do know who this woman is.’ She brought up another file, which showed footage from further down the street, recorded the same evening. The woman in the parka climbed into a small, rust-streaked hatchback along from the nail salon and drove off. ‘We ran the plate and the car is registered to a Stacey Fisher, of 27 Merrion Drive, Eastwell.’

‘Michelle’s online mate,’ said Rachel. ‘At least she’s the one who’s always defending her honour on the Lola Jade message board.’

‘Have you spoken to her?’ Brickall asked.

‘Not yet. I wanted you to see this first. But we can bring her in now if you like?’

‘Excellent idea,’ said Brickall. ‘Send one of your trusty woodentops to get her, if you’d be so kind.’

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