The Missing by Daisy Pearce

Author:Daisy Pearce [Pearce, Daisy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-08T23:00:00+00:00

Later, in the back of the police car, I felt the first warmth creeping back into my fingers and toes. Tony turned down the radio, which had already begun to play Christmas songs. He rubbed his forehead, flicking the indicator on as he made a right turn.

‘What’s going on, Sam?’

I stared at him in the rear-view mirror, unsmiling.

He sighed again. ‘You pull a weapon on a minor, you’ve been taking God knows what, you’re covered in blood – just help me out here, please.’

‘He said she made him do it. Charlie.’

‘I know, he told me. Poor kid’s terrified. Some girl put him up to coming into the graveyard to give you a fright. I don’t know what’s wrong with people. The world’s gone to hell.’

The rumble of the engine, the drone of the heaters. I tipped my head backward and leaned into the seat, suddenly sleepy.

‘I mean, you’re lucky you’re not under arrest for that knife.’

‘It’s an antique,’ I mumbled.

‘Yeah? Well, so am I.’

‘How did you know I was there?’

‘Your brother Rupert called me. He’s worried about you. Said you were going off to do some sort of voodoo with Edie’s friends.’

‘Ah.’

We let a minute or two pass. He cleared his throat. ‘Those girls aren’t going to help you find her, Sam. They’re as bad as the psychics that keep calling. You stay away from people like that. And you stay away from the Thorn family. All of them.’

The click of a lighter. He passed me a lit cigarette. ‘Smoke that and stay awake. I don’t want you burning the car down.’

‘He was frightened of me.’

‘I’m not fucking surprised. You had a knife on him.’

‘He smelled bad.’

‘Yup. The whole place smelled bad. We’ve had complaints. Dead rabbits everywhere. That man, Liverly, he’s gone to stay with his son. Indefinitely.’ His eyes flicked to me in the mirror again. ‘There’s been a bit of a backlash since he was taken in for questioning.’

‘Good.’

‘Sam, listen. I know how much you’re hurting. I know it’s hard for you to feel like you’re doing nothing, but this – this isn’t helping find your daughter.’

‘How would you know what’s helping? You’ve given up.’

Tony looked pained but said nothing as he pulled up outside my house. He switched the engine off and the two of us sat quietly in the dark for a minute, smoking. I saw the curtains of the house twitch over the road. I felt like waving at them. Fuck, I felt like flashing them. Top up, tits out. Come and see this, Graham, that woman over the road has finally lost her mind. Samantha Hudson, brought home in a police car. It wasn’t the first time a police car had drawn up outside our house but usually it was Edie inside, clothes ripped from fighting or banned from whichever shop she’d stolen from. ‘Can’t you keep her?’ I’d joked as the officer had brought her in, except, like every good joke, there was a hint of truth to it, wasn’t there? Pleading, almost.

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