The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves

Author:Ann Cleeves
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

* * *

They met in Vera’s office, crowded in. Charlie was there, but they were just her core team. The main briefing with the other agencies would come later in the day. This was one of the tiny office’s ice-box days, and Joe kept his coat on. Vera seemed not to notice the cold. She sat behind her desk, the others perched around her.

‘What have we got? Concrete stuff, that I can understand. No stories. Not yet.’

‘There’s still no sign of Chloe,’ Charlie said. ‘Her face has been on the telly, and all over the local press. Nothing. It’s as if she’s disappeared into thin air.’

‘So she’s either bloody good at playing hide-and-seek, or we’re looking for a body now.’ Vera snapped her mouth shut and sat, stony, staring out at them. ‘Or somebody’s helping her.’

‘Nobody’s seen her in Gillstead, though we know her grandfather sprang her from the home to bring her to the village for a day trip,’ Joe said.

‘And he didn’t mention it to me, even though we spent a couple of hours together yesterday.’ Vera was angry now. ‘I’ll be speaking to him as soon as we’ve finished here.’

‘The black Volvo,’ Joe said. ‘The one Jimmy Hepple saw at the common where Chloe spent her first night, and probably the one that Chloe mentioned in her diary as hanging around outside the home. I think the same car was seen in Gillstead the night before you found Brad Russell’s body.’

‘How do we know it was the same vehicle?’ Vera sounded sceptical. ‘Plenty of big black cars around.’

‘Not in Gillstead at eleven-thirty at night. Not with a local registration plate.’

‘True, and something similar was seen outside Chloe’s mam’s house too.’

‘You got that info from Mary Lister?’ Charlie had the knack of seeming to speak without opening his mouth.

Joe thought he’d make a cracking ventriloquist. ‘Aye. She thought there were two people in the front of the vehicle. Men, she said at first, but when I questioned her, she wasn’t so sure.’

‘I’m surprised she was sure about anything,’ Vera said. ‘Pitch black and hurtling through the village.’

‘There are street lights right outside her house.’ Joe knew better than to allow Vera to wind him up. ‘And it wouldn’t have been hurtling. There’s no off-street parking in the village and you’d have to slow right down to get past all the parked cars. Not unless you wanted to lose a wing mirror.’

Vera nodded to accept the argument. ‘So we need to find that car. Let’s check out the vehicles owned by everyone involved in the case. See if anyone owned a black Volvo with an ND plate. If Brad was there, we should be able to find a trace of him.’

‘That lets Stella Marsh and her father out then,’ said Rosie. ‘Neither of them owns a car. A matter of principle.’

‘Let’s check if they have a driving licence. No reason why they wouldn’t hire one.’

‘A bit unlikely surely,’ Rosie said. ‘You wouldn’t hire a car and let it sit outside Rosebank night after night.

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