Silence on the Island: A Detective Liam O'Reilly Mystery (DI Liam O'Reilly mysteries Book 7) by Stewart Giles

Author:Stewart Giles [Giles, Stewart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: STILL Books
Published: 2022-06-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

O’Reilly hit the ground hard. He opened his eyes and shot up so quickly the ginger tom on the sofa next to him leapt off and darted out of the door.

“What the hell?”

O’Reilly had dreamed about the motorbike ride again but this time he hadn’t remained, suspended in the air, he’d fallen to the ground headfirst. He rubbed his eyes and wondered why the dream had been different this time. He got up and made his way to the kitchen. He needed to apologise to Bram.

Assumpta turned to look at him as he came in. “Rough day, yesterday?”

“No worse than usual. I had that damn dream again but this time I ended up on the road. Where’s Bram?”

“He ran in and legged it through the cat flap. Have you two had a fight again?”

“I think I might have given him a bit of a fright. Is the kettle boiled?”

“Not long ago. I’ll make you a cup.”

“Thanks, Summi,” O’Reilly said. “I’m just going to splash some water on my face.”

He was barely halfway through his tea when his mobile phone started to ring.

He answered the call. “O’Reilly.”

It was DC Owen. “We’ve got another one, sir. Howard Ackerman has gone missing again. One of the night nurses had a peek inside his room and he wasn’t there.”

“Howard lives in one of the cottages, doesn’t he?”

“He was asked if he wanted to move to the main house for a few days,” DC Owen said. “And he agreed.”

“He probably just went to the pub again. Had a skinful and slept if off somewhere.”

“That’s what we’re hoping, but it’s a lot harder to slip off, unseen from the house than it is from one of the cottages.”

“I thought we had some uniform posted there last night.”

“PC Hill and PC Jolly have been there all night, sir,” DC Owen said. “But they were told to keep an eye on the cottages.”

“Are you there at the home now?”

“No, sir. DS Skinner and DC Stone have just got there.”

O’Reilly looked at the clock on the microwave – 7.45.

“I’ll see you at the station in thirty minutes. I’m sure there’s a perfectly rational explanation for Howard’s disappearance.”

“I couldn’t help overhearing,” Assumpta said.

“It’s probably nothing,” O’Reilly said. “But another old man has gone AWOL from the care home. But this one disappeared from the main house.”

“In the middle of the night?”

“That’s right. But Howard Ackerman has a history of this kind of thing, so he’ll probably show up. The night staff would have noticed if he’d tried to sneak past them in the main house.”

* * *

DS Skinner and DC Stone had been told something entirely different. The two detectives had spoken to both night nurses and Ian Small had told them it was possible to leave the house unseen by the nurses manning the front desk. Regulations stated that by law there had to be a fire escape in the home in the event of a fire breaking out at the front of the building. There was a door at the back that led to a flight of stairs.

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