‘How will that help us?’
‘I’m not sure yet, but I’m guessing this agency, or whoever ran it at the time, was a big influence in Natalie’s life.’
‘A girl never forgets her first madam.’
Tyler shot her a sardonic look. ‘Top end joints like that one are very selective about who they groom for their particular version of stardom.’
Alexi regarded him quizzically. ‘And you’d know this because…’
‘I just do. The madams, as you call them, take a motherly interest in their girls. This one might actually have been the saving of Natalie, if she was going off the rails.’
Alexi looked at him askance. ‘Sleeping with men for money saved her?’
‘There’s money and then there’s money.’
‘I’ll take your word for it.’ Alexi continued to peer at the screen. ‘She must have changed her name to Parker just before she moved here to cover her past in case anyone got curious about her nefarious activities. Perhaps she still sees a few of her old clients, which would be why she retained the tools of her trade.’
‘That’s possible, but if she was serious about settling down, why would she continue turning tricks in her own backyard?’
‘I haven’t figured that part out yet.’ She frowned. ‘Maybe she doesn’t. Cheryl says she often goes away for a night or two on business.’ Alexi giggled. ‘She obviously neglected to say what kind of business.’
Tyler chuckled. ‘Good old Cas. She got into her bank accounts.’ They peered together at the figures scrolling down the small screen. ‘She retired with over half a million in the bank.’
‘We already knew that.’ Alexi sighed. ‘I’m in the wrong business. None of the careers advisors at my school pointed out the financial advantages in Natalie’s particular line of work, which is a clear and definite oversight. Do you think I can sue?’
Tyler raked her body with his eyes; slowly, suggestively. ‘It’s never too late to change direction.’
Alexi hastily turned her attention back to the screen.
‘Seriously though,’ Tyler said, amusement in his tone, ‘girls in the high end of the business get taken to swanky business parties and need to be able to look and talk the part, every bit as much as they need to be able to service their clients efficiently in the bedroom. If they’re canny, like Natalie obviously is, they can make a small fortune.’
‘Yeah, I get that part.’
‘It looks like she bought this place for two hundred grand, cash. Then she applied for planning consent for the annexe, got it approved, got business use, and paid for all of that in cash, too.’
‘That must have made a dent in her nest egg,’ Alexi said.
‘It did.’ Tyler continued to read the figures. ‘Those statements we saw dated back before she shelled out all the cash. She was down to less than a hundred thou by the time her business premises were finished.’
‘And now?’
‘Double that amount.’
They looked at one another. ‘Her business can’t have made that much money so quickly, can it?’ Alexi asked. ‘If it has, I’m definitely in the wrong line of work.’
‘She’s been getting regular payments of a thousand quid a time ever since she moved here. But they’ve gone into her personal account, and we know she keeps fastidious records for her business activities.’
‘Payment for services rendered? Would she be able to ask that much?’
Tyler shrugged. ‘Depends on how good she is.’
‘Have you ever paid that much?’ she asked mischievously. ‘Or do serving detectives get freebies?’
He drilled her with a look. ‘If she has a specialty…you know, Miss Whiplash, or catering for guys who like to be humiliated, or dressed up as adult babies and expect to have their backsides wiped with—’
‘Too much information,’ Alexi said hastily, killing his sentence with a horrified look.
Tyler chuckled. ‘You did ask.’
‘Yeah, my mistake.’ Alexi took a closer look at the figures as Tyler scrolled through the pages. ‘What about these amounts? Seven thousand, nine thousand. There are quite a few deposits in four figures.’
‘Made quite recently.’ Tyler looked pensive. ‘What the hell did you get yourself mixed up in, Natalie?’
‘Those amounts would fly beneath the banking radar, so she wouldn’t need to explain where they’d come from,’ Alexi said slowly. ‘Where did they come from, Tyler?’
‘Beats the hell out of me.’ He leaned back and stretched his arms above his head. His T-shirt rode up, giving Alexi a close-up view of washboard abs and the trail of curling chest hair that disappeared beneath his waistband. ‘Putting the squeeze on ex-clients, perhaps?’
‘The sort of thing that would get her killed?’
‘Yeah, if she was daft enough to go down that route. And Natalie doesn’t strike me as being stupid. She knows how the game’s played and which lines are never crossed.’
‘But if she crossed them?’
‘Then we will definitely have to delve into her murky past a bit deeper and see what’s what.’
‘You don’t have to do that. Once we’re sure this has nothing to do with your sister’s agency, you can leave the sleuthing to me.’
He subjected her to a slow, lazy appraisal. ‘Fed up with me already?’
‘Your partner wants you back.’
‘She’s my partner, not my mother.’
Their gazes duelled. ‘If you say so.’
‘I do. And this business with Natalie has got me intrigued, so I’ll hang around for another day or two, then see where we are.’
‘Okay then, but for what it’s worth, I still think Natalie was serious about finding Mr Right and settling down, putting her previous life behind her. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have joined your sister’s organisation.’ She shrugged. ‘Stands to reason.’
‘I’m inclined to agree with you. Although she could have joined because she was lonely. Servicing the occasional punter does not for a social life make. From what she told Cheryl, she wanted normal, which means going to the pub in sloppy jeans, without bothering to put makeup on or get dressed up to the nines. Choosing out of the way restaurants to try or getting theatre tickets because she wants to see the show. Being herself, in other words, rather than whatever her escort expects her to be.’
‘Cassie didn’t find any evidence of a husband?’
‘No, she must have lied about that, too. It would seem odd, I suppose, an attractive woman like her without an ex-significant other.’
‘We haven’t found a will, or even any mention of a solicitor here amongst her sparse paperwork.’
‘We can find out easily enough who represented her in the purchase of this place and for building the annexe. People usually stick to the same outfit for all their legal needs.’
‘Except they won’t tell us diddly-squat.’
Tyler conceded the point with a nod. ‘They would probably tell us if they drew up her will, but not what was in it.’
‘Well, I don’t think we’ll find anything else here,’ Alexi replied. ‘Time to go and call on Walker, although I’m thinking it less and less likely that anyone connected to the dating agency has anything to do with her disappearance.’
‘Katie will be glad to hear it.’
‘Come on then, let’s…’
They froze when Natalie’s landline rang. She glanced at Tyler, suspecting he felt as much like an intruder at that point as she did. The answerphone cut in and they heard Natalie’s voice—a soft, well-modulated voice, asking the caller to leave a message. It was the first time they had actually heard her speaking voice. To Alexi it made her seem more human somehow and reinforced her concerns for her welfare. She hated herself for the conclusions she’d jumped to. The fact that she’d started to think less of her since discovering she was a hooker. That was wrong, and Alexi gave herself a mental dressing down. Natalie had had a tough start in life and, without knowing more about her, Alexi was in
no position to stand in judgement on the choices Natalie had made.
Natalie, said a male voice into the phone. This is Charles. I shall be down your way on Saturday and wondered if you could make some time for me. Please let me know.
‘Damn,’ Alexi said when the message ended. ‘He didn’t leave a number.’
‘And he withheld his,’ Tyler added, having dialled 1471. ‘Never mind, he can’t hide from Cassie.’
Alexi resisted the urge to make a noise and give her presence away while Tyler chatted with his possessive partner. He asked her to check Natalie’s phone records and, specifically, to discover Charles’s identity.
‘Right,’ he said, pocketing his phone. ‘Let’s get ourselves over to Hungerford.’
They left Natalie’s workshop, having set the alarm and locked the door behind them. Cosmo materialised from the undergrowth and preceded them to the car.
‘How does he do that?’ Tyler asked.
‘He’s very perceptive.’
‘Obviously.’
‘Well, he stopped you in your tracks this morning, when you crept up on me.’
‘He scared the shit out of me, if you want to know the truth.’
Alexi chuckled. ‘That’s my clever boy!’
‘I was on the verge of signing the pledge. I mean it’s gotta be a bad sign when a guy starts imagining flying felines launching aerial attacks. Anyway, just for the record, I was not creeping, I was investigating. I do not creep.’
‘If you say so,’ Alexi replied with a knowing smile. ‘In which case, you might want to change your technique. It looked a lot like creeping to me.’
‘I prefer to call it stealth.’
Alexi pressed her key fob and the doors to her car beeped open. ‘Hmm,’ she said absently.
‘And what does that mean? Hmm?’
‘Just hmm.’
Tyler shook his head and opened the passenger door. Cosmo climbed into the backseat under his own steam this time, but Alexi hadn’t even pulled the car back onto the road before he again draped himself around Tyler’s neck and started up the purring routine.
‘Aw, Cosmo,’ Tyler said, chuckling as he stroked his head. ‘People are gonna start talking unnatural relationships if you keep this up.’
Chapter Eight
It was gone five in the afternoon by the time they left Natalie’s cottage. What sunshine there had been had given up trying to compete with the heavy clouds, and a light drizzle fell on the Mini’s windscreen.
While Alexi concentrated on the road, Tyler used the opportunity to steal oblique glances at her, noticing things that hadn’t previously been apparent. The line of faint freckles across her nose. A tiny scar just below the hollow at the base of her neck. The cute way she mangled her lower lip between her teeth when she concentrated on overtaking. A tough career lady who probably didn’t realise she oozed femininity. She had worked her backside off to establish her career, only to have the rug pulled out from under her. She was feeling a little vulnerable because of it, and Tyler could tell that annoyed her. She didn’t like to feel, much less show, any signs of weakness.
‘I wish to God it would rain or not rain,’ she muttered. ‘I hate half-measures.’
‘Want me to drive?’
She puffed out her chest, forcing her breasts against the fabric of her sweatshirt, Tyler couldn’t help noticing. ‘No one, but no one other than me, ever drives Fabio.’
Tyler quirked a brow. ‘Fabio?’
She patted the steering wheel. ‘Fabio, meet Tyler. Tyler, this is Fabio.’
‘Pleased to meet you, Fabio.’ He grinned. ‘What happens now? Is there a protocol? Should I shake his gearstick, or something?’
‘Absolutely not! You hardly know one another. Keep your hands to yourself, Maddox.’
‘Where have I heard that before?’
‘I can’t begin to imagine.’
Alexi continued to look at the road ahead as she fought a grin. He wanted to tell her to let it out. She had a lovely laugh, throaty and uncontrived. When she did let her guard down her smile was sincere, pushing up into her eyes and emphasising the silver flecks dancing in their depths. Tyler had been told once by a doctor he’d briefly dated that the muscles needed to smile with one’s eyes are involuntary, only becoming engaged in an authentic smile, as opposed to the courtesy variety. Watching Alexi at that moment, he could well believe it.
‘Should we have called ahead?’ she asked. ‘What if Walker isn’t home?’
‘Better to catch him off guard. If he’s retired, this is a good time to catch him at home.’
‘I guess.’
Walker lived in a substantial house on a large plot. It was fronted by a pristine lawn, trimmed to within an inch of its life, not a flower or shrub in sight. The barren garden screamed of a man living alone. No woman would be able to resist planting up the borders and adding a few tubs of colourful flowers here and there. Tyler wondered if garden-loving Natalie had seen it and, if so, what she’d made of it. Would it leave her feeling challenged or depressed?
‘Stay, baby,’ Alexi said to Cosmo when Tyler disentangled his feline neck-warmer and placed him on Alexi’s vacated driving seat. ‘We won’t be long.’
Cosmo let out a low mewl, turned in several tight circles and settled down for a snooze.
‘It’s a tough life, mate,’ Tyler said to him as he too exited the car.
They were encouraged to see a top of the range Audi parked in front of Walker’s garage. Tyler pressed the bell and waited. A short time later the door was opened by a short man wearing casual trousers with razor-sharp creases and a navy polo shirt. He didn’t look as good in the flesh as he did in the picture they’d seen online that had failed to impress Alexi. But there was a warmth and openness about the man that Tyler thought women would find attractive. Far from seeming annoyed at being interrupted by strangers, he offered them a pleasant smile.
‘Darren Walker?’ Tyler asked.
‘Yes, what can I do for you?’
‘Don’t worry. We’re not selling anything. We were hoping to have a word with you about Natalie Parker. I believe you know her.’
Walker’s brows disappeared beneath his sparse hairline. ‘Natalie. Has something happened to her?’
‘What makes you think that?’ Alexi asked. So much for letting him do the talking, Tyler thought. Still, it was probably unrealistic to expect a reporter to keep her mouth shut.
‘Why else would you be asking about her?’ His smile faded. ‘Actually, do you mind telling me who you are?’
‘I’m Tyler Maddox, Private Investigator,’ Tyler said, holding out a hand which Walker instinctively grasped. ‘And Ms Ellis is assisting me.’
Tyler ignored Alexi’s glare, unsure if she was amused or annoyed by her demotion. Either way, he’d hear about it later, no doubt. Walker released Tyler’s hand and offered his own to Alexi, eyeing her speculatively, in no hurry to break the contact when she accepted it. He was a ladies’ man, then. Not that many men with eyesight and a pulse could fail to be impressed by Alexi, he conceded, but Walker’s appreciation was apparent in the not-so-subtle once-over he subjected her to. In your dreams, mate.
‘A PI.’ Walker took the card that Tyler handed him and studied it. ‘I’ve never met one before. Never imagined that I would have reason to, and still can’t.’
‘You haven’t done anything,’ Alexi said.
‘That’s reassuring. But if you’re here about Natalie, I have to assume something has happened to her.’
‘We just have a few questions.’
‘Then perhaps you’d better come in.’
Walker opened the door wider and ushered them into a sterile hall. The walls were blindingly white, the carpet beige, the only piece of furniture—a teak hall stand with an ornate mirror above it—expensive but…well, unexciting. A set of golf clubs leaned against one wall but there were no coats occupying hooks, no discarded shoes or junk mail; nothing apart from the golf clubs that wasn’t where it belonged.
>
‘This way.’
Walker opened the door to an equally unexciting living room that stretched the full width of the back of the house, also painted brilliant white. The beige carpet continued in here and was echoed in the colour of the leather furniture. The man was either addicted to beige or had employed an interior designer who lacked vision. No, scrap that, Tyler thought. Even the most uninspired of designers could do better than this.
There were a couple of half-decent paintings on the walls to relieve all that white, a large TV in one corner, a few tables and lamps scattered about, and not much else. No plants, ornaments, books, framed family photos or knickknacks to give it that homely feel. The items that had made it through the door were in perfect alignment, not a speck of dust in sight. It was a bit like he’d just moved into a place that was already furnished and he hadn’t yet stamped his personality onto it. It told Tyler a lot about the man they’d come to visit. He was meticulously tidy but his life lacked imagination. There again, perhaps he was colour blind.
‘Please, sit down.’ Walker addressed the comment to Alexi but Tyler assumed he was included in the invitation and sank into a soft beige leather chair which was, he had to admit, sinfully comfortable. ‘Can I get either of you anything to drink?’
‘No, thanks,’ Tyler replied. ‘We won’t keep you for long.’
He took a seat across from them. ‘Then how can I help you?’
‘We’ve been asked by friends of Natalie’s to see if we can find her,’ Tyler said, seeing no point in beating around the bush. ‘She hasn’t been seen for four days and—’
‘Four days. Oh dear.’ Walker scratched his head. ‘Still, that’s not so very long.’
‘It is when you have a business, obligations to fulfil, and you haven’t made arrangements to cover them in your absence, or warned anyone that you would be away.’
‘And you don’t answer your mobile,’ Alexi added.
‘Oh yes, I see what you mean. How distressing. But I’m afraid I can’t help you.’ He paused. ‘Since you’re here, I assume you know I met Natalie through a dating agency.’ Tyler and Alexi both nodded. ‘I’m a widower, recently retired and, to be frank, I’m finding retirement a bit lonely. It’s not the panacea it’s cracked up to be, you know. Perhaps I should have remained in London. Not that I had any friends up there really, just colleagues and acquaintances, but still, it might have been easier than starting completely afresh.’
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