‘Damn! I’m sorry about your sister, and about the missing woman, but we’re up to our eyes here.’
‘I’m sorry, too, Cas, but this is something I have to do. Get Larry in to help you,’ he said, referring to an ex-copper they sometimes used when they were backed up. ‘I’ll get back just as soon as I can.’
‘Yeah, I guess.’
‘Oh and, Cas, can you run a few checks for me?’
‘Geez, he leaves me in the lurch, then wants favours.’ She sighed. ‘Okay, give. What do you need?’
‘See if you can get a fix on Natalie’s mobile for me.’ He reeled off the number. ‘It’s a longshot. I’m guessing it’s either switched off or in a poor coverage zone, but we need to go through the motions.’
‘Okay, I’m on it. Anything else?’
‘Well, yeah. There are three guys Natalie dated.’
Her groan, followed by a barrage of colourful language, filled his ear. ‘And I suppose you want background checks on all three.’
‘Just the basic stuff,’ he replied in his most persuasive tone, giving her all the details he had. ‘Oh, and while you’re at it, see what you can find for me on the missing woman herself, Natalie Parker.’
‘Just the basics, huh? Well, that’s all right then.’
‘Sarcasm doesn’t suit you,’ he said, chuckling.
‘Sarcasm and I are joined at the hip. It’s what gets me through the daily grind.’ Another martyred sigh. ‘Leave it with me. I’ll get back to you.’
‘I owe you.’
‘And I plan to collect.’
That was what worried Tyler, but he had no time to dwell upon his partner’s romantic aspirations. He picked up the bag containing his laptop and found his way to the residents’ lounge.
‘Nice,’ he said, looking around the light, airy room that had been tastefully renovated and furnished with what appeared to be genuine antiques. Alexi was sitting at a walnut secretariat situated below a window that offered a pleasant view over the gardens. Tyler could see Cosmo and Toby on the lawn, chasing a ball, and one another.
‘The furniture has been in Drew’s family for generations, apparently,’ she said, immersed in something on her computer screen and not looking up as he approached. ‘I’m a bit scared to sit at this desk in case I cause any damage.’
‘I hear you.’ He peered over her shoulder. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Running a programme to crack Natalie’s email password.’
Tyler set his own computer up on a table next to her desk, and told her what arrangements he’d just made.
‘Good.’ Finally she looked up and gave him her full attention. ‘I think it would be better if you rang the bank,’ she said, somewhat reluctantly. ‘If I give my real name, the connection might be made to the paper, which doesn’t always work to my advantage.’
Tyler wanted to say he could understand why, but refrained. Tarring all reporters with the same brush was a bit like saying all coppers were bent, he grudgingly conceded. Whatever Alexi’s ultimate intentions might be, there was no doubting her determination to find Natalie.
‘Whereas being a PI opens all sorts of doors,’ he said flippantly.
‘I’ve got the bank’s number here,’ she said, bringing up the appropriate screen and reeling it off. Tyler punched the digits into his mobile. ‘Put it on speaker.’
Tyler elevated one brow and complied with her request. He jumped through a few hoops and was finally put through to the assistant manager, a guy called Cole, which was as high up the tree as he was likely to get. He quickly identified himself and told the man why he was calling.
‘I can’t tell you anything about a customer’s account,’ Cole replied crisply.
‘She’s gone missing,’ Tyler repeated. ‘We don’t expect you to tell us anything, but we do know she had healthy balances in both her business and private accounts.’
‘I can’t confirm that.’
Tyler blew air through his lips and strove for a patient tone. ‘We wondered if there had been any unusual activity on those accounts. Large sums of money being transferred, that sort of thing. If so, the police would be very interested.’
‘They haven’t been to see us about it. If they suspect Ms Parker has been targeted for her money, we ought to be the first place they look.’
‘It’s still early days and the police prefer to think she’ll reappear.’
‘Well then, I—’
‘If you have concerns about activity on her accounts you can contact…’ Tyler extracted the card from his wallet that the PC had left with his sister. ‘PC Taylor at this number.’ He read it off. ‘Concerned friends reported Ms Parker’s disappearance to Lambourn Police Office but, as you probably know, it’s only open part time. However, PC Taylor knows all about it and can be reached any time on the number I’ve just given you.’
Having secured a promise from Cole that he would make the call if he thought it appropriate, Tyler cut the connection.
‘You’d think I just asked him for the combination to his bank’s safe,’ Tyler said, screwing up his features in disgust. ‘If something happens to Natalie because he procrastinated I shall make his life a living hell.’
‘Easy tiger.’
‘Yeah well, bloody little Hitlers like him make me lose my rag.’
‘Do you think he will call?’
‘If there’s anything there, then he probably will. Eventually. His own arse would be on the line if he didn’t and fraud is subsequently uncovered. I recorded that call so he can’t deny it took place.’
‘Very trusting of you.’ Alexi grinned. ‘I like your style.’
‘All Cole cares about is his career.’ Tyler allowed his impatience to show. ‘Anyway, if he does contact Taylor, he’s just a local bobby. I’m betting he’s given Natalie’s disappearance a case number, made a few desultory enquiries and left it at that. But if he gets more solid information that implies a crime’s been committed he’ll have to pass the case on to the Thames Valley police.’ Tyler stretched his arms above his head and smiled at her. ‘Okay, so let’s take a look at Natalie’s dream dates.’
‘How many of them are there?’
‘Three.’
‘And she dated all three of them?’
‘Two of them just once. One of them three times.’
Alexi brightened. ‘The three-time winner sounds hopeful.’
‘Let’s take a look see.’ He pulled up the Heart Racing site and accessed the restricted area. ‘Ah, the power,’ he said, grinning.
Alexi stood behind him, resting her hand on the back of his chair. She smelled of a light floral fragrance and herbal shampoo. He liked the way she smelled. He liked everything about her, which irked the hell out of him. She was a reporter. Reporters were bad news. Hold that thought, Maddox.
‘Pull up a chair,’ he said easily.
‘Er, you’ve accessed the female clients’ list,’ Alexi pointed out to him. ‘Looking for a date?’
‘I was looking to see what Natalie posted about herself.’
‘Oh, right. Good thinking.’
There were several pictures of Natalie—arranging flowers, playing with a dog, out walking along a country path.
‘They look like the real deal,’ Alexi said. ‘I don’t think they’ve been photo-shopped, but Cheryl will be able to tell us.’
‘Tell you what?’ Cheryl’s voice asked from the hallway. She poked her head around the door. ‘I just came up to tell you it’s lunchtime and heard my name being taken in vain.’
‘These are the pictures Natalie posted of herself on the dating site,’ Alexi explained. ‘Is this how she looks in real life?’
Cheryl peered over their shoulders. ‘That’s her,’ she said. ‘No adjustments necessary.’
‘A pretty lady,’ Tyler said, printing off a couple of the better ones.
‘Yes, she is.’ Cheryl sighed. ‘We’re having lunch in the bar, if you’d like to join us. Drew likes us to be visible.’
They both
stood up.
‘Sounds good to me,’ Tyler said. ‘I could eat a…well, I probably won’t be too popular around these parts if I finish that statement.’
‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ Cheryl replied with an impish smile. ‘But horsemeat doesn’t feature on our menu. We’re aiming to stay in business.’
‘Stay, baby,’ Alexi said to Cosmo who, along with Toby, had come in from the garden and joined them. ‘I’ll be sure and bring you something.’
Cosmo sent her an assessing look, then curled up in a patch on sunshine on the window seat. Toby, naturally, curled up right along with him.
Cheryl laughed as they made their way down the stairs. ‘A symbiotic relationship, if ever I saw one. You’ll just have to stay with us permanently Alexi, there’s no help for it. Toby will be heartbroken if his new best friend leaves again.’
‘Don’t tempt me.’
A wide archway led from the vaulted entrance hall to a welcoming, tastefully appointed bar with racing memorabilia decorating the walls. Photographs of locally trained horses winning races, pictures of trainers shaking hands with…well, Tyler knew little about horses and absolutely nothing at all about the people at the top end of the sport, so he had no idea who the bigwigs were. There were signed race-meeting programmes in frames that presumably were significant, and racing colours also in frames, as well as watercolours depicting various aspects of the sport.
He did know something about expensively refurbished houses, and could tell a fortune had been sunk into this one. The original fireplace had been restored, with a huge mirror filling the space above the marble mantle and a leather fire seat surrounding the polished brass fender. There were shelves of old books, all covering different aspects of the sport of kings, judging from Tyler’s brief glance at their spines, and his feet sank into expensive, thick pile carpet. The bar itself appeared to be well-stocked. It was tended by an attractive young woman who chatted with a half-dozen racing types occupying the stools surrounding it, all of whom nursed meagre half pints of beer. Less than half of the tables were occupied, all by men who appeared to be immersed in business conversations, eating and drinking sparingly. Tyler suspected they were using the place to impress, but were obviously slow to put their hands in their pockets. He wasn’t optimistic about Drew seeing a return on his investment any time soon.
There were closed double doors at one end of the bar with a sign above them indicating the restaurant was situated behind them.
‘We don’t open it at lunchtime,’ Drew said, following the direction of Tyler’s gaze. ‘It’s not cost effective. The demand is for bar food on weekdays.’
‘It looks good,’ Tyler replied, glancing at a bursting sandwich being served to someone at an adjoining table.
‘So, what do you fancy?’ Cheryl asked, handing him a menu.
Tyler perused it, noticing a clever combination of traditional sandwiches and soups, alongside sushi, tapas and exotic salads. The work of the temperamental chef he’d already heard about, presumably. He opted for a roast beef sandwich.
‘I’ll take a Caesar salad,’ Alexi said. ‘I’ve already eaten more than usual today. I can’t believe I’m hungry again.’
‘So,’ Drew said, after he’d fetched drinks for them all from the bar. ‘How’s the sleuthing going?’
Alexi told them about his call to the bank.
‘We’re going to start looking into the people she dated after lunch,’ she added. ‘We’ll know more after we’ve done that.’
‘My partner’s looking into their backgrounds,’ Tyler said, taking a swig of local beer and nodding his approval. ‘It’s often the things people don’t make public that hide the clues.’
‘Doesn’t your sister’s agency vet them?’ Cheryl asked, toying with the stem of her orange juice glass.
‘She tries, but only so much probing is possible without invading a client’s privacy. There has to be an element of trust in such a personal business.’
‘There are only so many things you can lie about and get away with, I guess,’ Alexi remarked.
‘Exactly. If someone goes on a date and finds the person they hook up with has lied about something important, like…say, their occupation, or if they’re clearly a lot older than they implied, or behave inappropriately, then Katie’s people give the offender the equivalent of a yellow card. If it happens a second time, they will be removed from the agency’s database. Two strikes and you’re out. Like I was telling Alexi earlier, the Online Dating Association has a code of conduct which Katie’s agency rigidly adheres to.’
Their food arrived, which kept them all quiet for a few minutes.
‘Hmm, this is good beef,’ Tyler said.
‘Locally produced,’ Drew replied. ‘We try to source all our ingredients locally.’
‘Tell me more about Natalie herself,’ Tyler invited. ‘My partner is looking into her background, but—’
‘Why?’ Cheryl asked defensively. ‘She didn’t abduct herself.’
‘No, of course not, but I need to get more of a picture about her private life. It might help us to figure out what’s become of her. Does she have a sick sister, aunt, cousin, niece…I don’t know, someone she cares about enough to drop everything and dash to the rescue without telling anyone.’
‘I didn’t see any family pictures at all in her cottage,’ Alexi said.
‘I don’t think she has any family,’ Cheryl said in a considering tone. She glanced at Drew, who shook his head. ‘It’s funny, but we never really talked much about what she did before she came here. She said she’d been married for a while but it didn’t work out, and that she didn’t have any kids. It was like she didn’t want to talk about herself. She always turned the conversation on to her business, or her hobbies—’
‘Photography and walking?’ Alexi asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Did she belong to a photography club, or an organised walking group?’ Tyler asked.
Once again Cheryl and Drew shared a glance and simultaneously shook their heads.
‘She never said if she did,’ Cheryl replied.
‘We need to go back to her cottage,’ Alexi said. ‘Take a closer look at her files. After we’ve looked at her email, of course. That’s the most likely place to learn more.’
‘I feel bad not knowing more about her life,’ Cheryl admitted. ‘I’m a rubbish friend.’
‘You trying to steal my crown?’ Alexi asked.
Cheryl shook her head. ‘I’m fairly sure she had no family at all. I do remember her telling me she was an only child and that both her parents were dead.’
‘So,’ Tyler said musingly, ‘it begs the question, where did a middle-aged woman who lives alone and runs a modest one-woman business out of her back garden, get so much money?’
‘Divorce settlement?’ Drew suggested.
‘Possibly, but it’ll show up in Cassie’s background check if that’s the case.’
‘We don’t know how much money she actually has,’ Alexi pointed out.
‘No, but we know that two years ago, when she first moved here and had a paper statement from her bank, she had over a quarter of a million quid spread between her deposit account and various investments. And she didn’t take a business loan to get started.’
Drew and Cheryl looked flabbergasted.
‘Well,’ Drew said, recovering first. ‘We did wonder how she could afford a share in a racehorse. Now we know, I guess.’
‘But not where the money came from,’ Cheryl said. ‘That’s a lot of change.’
‘Did she talk about horses a lot?’ Tyler asked.
‘All the time,’ Cheryl said, nodding. ‘She was obsessed with the sport.’
‘A lot of people are. That’s why they buy shares. So they can go to the glamorous races, be in the owners’ enclosure, stuff like that,’ Drew said.
‘Did she have any favourite trainers? Any horse she was seriously interested in?’
Drew and Cheryl looked at one another and shook their h
eads. ‘If she’d found a horse, she didn’t say anything to us,’ Cheryl said.
‘Same goes for trainers,’ Drew added.
‘Did she have any other particular friends in the village?’ Tyler asked.
‘Not really,’ Cheryl replied. ‘She was friendly with everyone, but also very private. I think I was her only female friend. She dated occasionally, but there was no one special. That’s why she started online dating. She said good men were rarer than an honest politician.’
Tyler smiled. ‘Interesting comparison. Okay, we’ll have to wait and see what Cassie comes up with.’
Drew got up to speak to a couple of suits at another table when they beckoned him over.
‘That happens a lot,’ Cheryl said. ‘It can be annoying, but if we want to succeed, we’re never off duty.’
‘We need to get back to work, too,’ Tyler said, putting aside his napkin and draining the last of his beer. ‘Thanks for lunch, Cheryl. Put it on my bill.’
Chapter Six
‘A lady of mystery,’ Alexi said as they climbed the stairs, side by side. ‘The more I learn about her, the less I feel like I know her.’
‘Everyone has a past.’
‘Sure, but I get the impression Natalie was being deliberately evasive. Most women confide in their girlfriends, look to them for advice, or just get together to have a good bitch about the men in their lives. But Natalie seemed to avoid making female friends.’ She wrinkled her brow. ‘I wonder if that was because she didn’t want anyone getting close enough to ask awkward questions. Cheryl, the only girlfriend she had, knew nothing about her relationships and was too polite, or too taken up with her problems with this place, to probe. But it still strikes me as odd that Natalie offered up nothing about herself.’
Tyler shot her a look. ‘Do you kiss and tell?’
‘This isn’t about me.’ She paused. ‘Do you think Natalie kept people at arm’s length because she had something to hide? The source of that money perhaps?’
‘I can’t see the issue arising. On the surface, she doesn’t live the life of a woman with money to burn. Her home is modest and she works hard.’ Tyler opened the door to the guest lounge and ushered Alexi through it ahead of him. ‘Anyway, there could be a genuine explanation for her bank balance. We don’t know how long ago her parents died and if she came into an inheritance when they did. Her husband might have been well off and she got a good settlement when they split. She might have won the lottery.’
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