Maybe time to leave?
Yeah. But a quick run up there? Quick check of the bedroom?
Worth a shot.
And she got up from the chair and headed to the stairs.
***
The headlights moved, and now there was no doubt that the car was coming this way.
No cause for alarm.
Jack would just keep looking.
No worries, he thought
The lights growing bigger, the shape of the vehicle, slowly being revealed.
Until …
Jack could see that what was making its way slowly to his parking space on the dark street was a cop car.
He swiped at his phone, typed the simple message.
Fast. To the point.
Leave.
***
The bedroom.
And as she crept into the dark room, she could only think of images planted by Hollywood. Of people who wander upstairs, or down to a basement.
And what they find.
The oh-so-scary things they could find.
But here, all she could see — with the bit of light spilling from the en-suite bathroom nightlight — was the made bed, chest of drawers with a mirror, wardrobe, a wooden chair — and a neat row of shoes — dress shoes, a pair of too-white trainers, and some beaten up old boots that must be for gardening.
Or pet feeding.
The night light, letting her see the chest of drawers.
She opened the top drawer.
***
Jack looked at the phone. No response. No “OK” to signal that Sarah was immediately on her way out.
Come on, he thought.
He hoped that the cop car would just coast right by him.
But he could tell from the vehicle’s slowing that that wasn’t going to happen.
Slowing. Then pulling behind Jack, bright lights filling the inside of the Rav-4.
Jack typed again.
Company.
***
Top drawer. Neat rows of socks. Hard to say what colour in this gloom, but all dark. Rolled into perfect balls. And the same for the rows of underwear.
Like soldiers lined up to march off to war.
Next drawer. Similar protocol for T-shirts and dress shirts. Stacked in neat piles.
Third drawer. Ties, and casual shirts, all arrayed with the same amazing orderliness.
And this guy just ran away to Morocco?
Last drawer.
She opened it quickly.
No clothes.
Instead — other things.
***
The Bourton cop had gotten out of his car with a massive flashlight that Jack knew could be used to — literally — blinding effect.
The windows of the Rav-4 had been halfway down.
Now the cop tapped the window, and said: “Sir, could you roll down the window please?”
Jack gave the man a smile, the damn light making sparks appear before his eyes.
“Certainly. Sure,” and Jack hit a button, and the window fully opened.
“Something wrong, officer?”
The cop hesitated.
“American?”
“Guilty,” Jack said. Then immediately regretted his choice of word.
The cop nodded.
Then: “Waiting for somebody, sir?”
“Hmm?”
The cop flashed the light left and right.
“Don’t believe you live around here, sir? I’m pretty certain I know everyone who does. No,” the cop paused as if the next word itself was suspicious, “Americans, for sure.”
Jack looked at the house.
Did Sarah get his message?
What would she do, seeing the cop out here? Would she even see the cop?
But when Jack hesitated …
“Sir — I think it’s best if you stepped out of the vehicle for a moment.”
And all Jack could think was: shit.
***
Sarah shut the drawer, not believing what she had found.
Whatever would Jack say?
And what did it mean?
Then she turned, and saw, outside … lights.
Lights.
To the window.
The police car. Jack getting out of the Rav-4.
God, she thought. My phone. Downstairs.
She’d only been up here a few minutes. Leaving the phone behind.
And now …
Though the evening was warm, humid, she suddenly felt so cold.
26. Q & A
The cop was young, Jack could see.
And, he guessed, maybe now on alert. Probably not every day that a 6’2” American guy hangs around for apparently no reason.
Jack had hoped to avoid this. He got out the car.
He guessed that this street, maybe Bourton, was as quiet as Cherringham. And a guy sitting in the dark, in the passenger seat of a car, gets noticed.
“Can I ask you again, sir, what are you doing here?”
The cop kept the light on Jack’s face, but with enough spill that he’d also spot any movement to get something …
Which for this cop — who probably watched crime shows from America — could be a knife, a gun …
After all, Jack thought, I am an American.
Jack did have a few stories floating around, prepared.
But now — standing on the street, looking into the glare of the foot-long flashlight — they all seemed …
Thin.
Perhaps unbelievable.
“Well, you see. Nice night.”
Jack looked at the door to the house. Maybe he could put the cop off.
“After dinner. Wanted to sit …” Then a new idea. “Don’t feel too good. Get some fresh air.”
And as soon as he said the words, they sounded false.
And if this kid standing in front of him had any instincts at all, he’d pick up on that right away.
***
Now Sarah — phone and hard drive recovered — could look out at the scene just outside the door.
Getting pulled out of the car — not expected.
And she wondered what Jack could say, would say?
Would the cop see the dark house, and wonder, maybe I’d better take a look?
And Sarah knew — if she was going to do anything at all to retrieve the situation, it had to be now.
She took a breath.
And she marched to the front door.
***
“So, just took a few minutes, parked here, got comfortable and—”
Jack heard the door open.
No quiet, sneaking-out twist of the door knob. But quick and loud, and Sarah even talking to him as she came out.
“No, Jack, no sign of him. You’d think he’d—”
The cop’s light wavered from Jack to Sarah.
“What? Hang on — Jack — what’s going on here?”
And Jack quickly guessed Sarah’s game. At least part of it.
“This very nice officer came by, and was curious why I was outside. Didn’t want to mention Tim. Not till you checked.”
And Sarah walked right over to the young cop.
“I am so glad to see you,” she said. “I suppose Alan Rivers asked you to drop by?”
“Sorry madam — Alan — from Cherringham?”
“Absolutely. He’s such a sweetie — I told him how worried I was about my friend, Tim.”
“Friend?” the cop said, not at all sure what was happening.
“We, um, see each other from time to time. So I have a key to his place. If you know what I mean.”
Jack saw Sarah flick her eyebrows at the young cop and lean in a little closer, one hand gently on his shoulder.
Shameless, he thought.
She dangled her car keys …
“Anyway I was a bit worried he hadn’t been in touch. So I thought I’d just drop by, see if he’d left me a note. Seems he’s just upped and gone!” She shook her head. “Looks like — I read that relationship completely wrong. Again �
��”
Brav-o, Jack thought.
And then Sarah quickly turned the tables on the cop. “His office said he’d gone on holiday — to Morocco. Seems like a long way to go to avoid me — don’t you think?”
The cop — backlit — nodded. “Um, yes, it does.”
“Oh, you’re a sweetie too, aren’t you!” Sarah dug into her purse. “Anyway, if you hear anything, give me a call. I mean, I’ve had guys do runners before. But I really didn’t see this one coming.”
Jack took a breath.
They just might be out of the woods.
“Sarah, guess we should head back?”
The cop took Sarah’s business card with his free hand.
“Um, yes, madam,” he said.
Sarah’s eyes locked on him.
Then to seal the deal …
“I’ll tell Alan I bumped into you,” Sarah said. “Hear anything about Tim, or any questions, you will call him, won’t you?”
A meek nod from the cop.
“Boys will be boys, I suppose,” she said, patting the cop on the arm before hurrying round to the driver’s side.
And their bit of breaking and entering just vanished on the street, like a passing summer fog.
Jack nodded and smiled at the cop, who had thankfully lowered the flashlight.
His big event of the night fizzling away.
Jack said nothing when he slid beside Sarah. She turned the ignition key.
Threw the car into gear and — lights on — pulled away.
***
And when they took the first corner, Jack laughed.
“You — are something else.”
“Couldn’t very well leave you out there being interrogated, now could I?”
“I don’t think that cop knew what hit him.”
“You know, I learned that from you. Be bold, and full steam ahead.”
“Well it worked. So — find anything?”
“Did I.”
She took a turn onto the main highway back to Cherringham.
“I—”
But as she started, her phone — plopped into the small well near the emergency brake — trilled.
Jack leaned close.
“Chloe.”
“Oh, God yes. Put it on speaker. I’ve been waiting for her to check in.”
Jack picked up the phone, hit the speaker symbol, and then listened as mum and daughter chatted.
Sarah’s discoveries would have to wait.
***
He listened as Chloe, so excited, described the hostel they were staying in — in Paris.
Jack — suddenly thrown back thirty years to the first of so many vacations in Paris with Kath.
The midnight walks along the Seine. Little bars in the Latin Quarter.
That picture-perfect hotel in Montmartre …
The Eiffel Tower suddenly visible in the distance through tall city blocks.
Oh, to be young and in France.
And he waited patiently, as they talked, and Sarah drove, Cherringham not far away.
***
Just as they neared Cherringham, the call ended.
“Well, that sounded great,” Jack said.
“Yeah — can you imagine? That’s the age to experience France full-on.”
“You worried for her?”
“That obvious, hmm?”
“It’s natural. You’re her mom. But, you know, Chloe’s got her head screwed on right. And she’s with friends, no?”
“I know,” said Sarah. “And I also know, if she’s anything like I was at that age …”
Jack laughed.
“Well, you survived, didn’t you?”
“Only just, Jack,” said Sarah, now laughing too.
“I bet.”
He looked out as they entered Cherringham, the carnival lights still twinkling, flags moving in the gentle breeze.
“So — before — you mentioned some discoveries?”
“Oh, right,” Sarah said, returning from her thoughts. “Well — I found Tim’s computer. But, every email was gone.”
She took the turn that would lead to down to Cherringham Bridge, then just a bit further on to Jack’s boat.
“That’s pretty suspicious. And also inconvenient.”
She nodded. “But I grabbed some of his hard drive. Unless they were experts, I should be able to track all the deleted mails.”
“Really?”
“No promises, but if they weren’t pros, it should be possible.”
She slowed as she neared the track that led along the river, to Jack’s boat.
“And whoever it was didn’t remove the search history. All the websites Mr Tim Simpson used.”
She stopped the car.
“Especially, the travel site.”
“But you’d need the password, no?”
And she laughed at that. “How about — I dunno — a martini for you, a G&T for me, and I show you what I found?”
“Couldn’t think of anything better …”
And he opened his door. A misty fog rose from the river. The running lights on the Goose glowing. Almost like a painting, he thought.
And he walked beside Sarah, eager to see what she found.
***
Sarah took a sip of her drink, while Jack looked at the password booklet.
The river was so quiet. They sat on the deck of the Goose with candles burning on the table.
“So that’s how you got into the travel site, his account?”
A nod. “Showed every trip he’s done for the past five, six years.”
“And let me guess — no Morocco?”
“Exactly.”
“And if that was the site he used, cheap, with his card details and all … that’s how he’d do it. But he could have used another site, hmm? A travel agent?”
Sarah shook her head. “That would be possible — but I know he didn’t.”
“Sound pretty confident — you think he didn’t go to Morocco?”
“I know he didn’t go to Morocco.”
Then she reached into her pocket while Jack waited.
***
And Jack flipped open Tim Simpson’s passport.
Then he looked up at Sarah. “How on earth did you find this?”
“Turns out Tim Simpson wasn’t very good at secrets.”
“I’ll say. And seems like he didn’t do much travelling.”
“Hmm?”
“No stamps, you know, when you enter a country?”
“Oh, that. Well, if he travelled inside the EU, there would be no stamps.”
“Right. My passport — the pages are just about full.”
“Still, we know one really important thing, Jack.”
He nodded. “Yeah. He is not in Morocco.”
“Exactly. Not that it tells us where he is.”
“Save that someone went to some lengths to make it seem like he left for an extended time.”
“That’s not the only thing. I got into his bank account — same password, which was helpful.”
“And?”
Sarah took another sip of her gin and tonic, the glass wet from condensation. “I’ll check it out in more detail tomorrow. But the last two transactions on his account — a bank transfer of fifty thousand in. And a cash withdrawal of fifty thousand the day after they last saw him in the office.”
“Really? All that cash …”
“I’m guessing, you think this must be foul play?”
“Don’t know if I’d say ‘must’. Not yet. But definitely pointing in that direction. The money. The imaginary trip.”
Sarah — as she did in Simpson’s house — felt another chill.
She knew that whenever she and Jack worked together there was always a moment where the subject of the investigation became a victim. Became real to them.
A moment when it wasn’t simply a mystery any more.
Not for either of them. But an injustice to someone that had to be corrected.
Perhaps, when it came
to murder, it was always that way.
“What now?” she said.
Jack stood up, walked to the railing of his boat.
“So. We now have some pieces of the puzzle.”
Sarah laughed. “Right. And all we have to do is put them together. Easy!”
Jack turned, grinning, “And maybe find pieces we’re still missing. Like why did Harry Tyler lie about not knowing Tim?”
“And what was Amanda’s sister doing fighting with her ex-husband? He’s not exactly the sort to hang out in an MP’s house.”
“And then — there’s the matter of the watch.”
“I’d forgotten that.”
“Tim goes to the dig. Lurking in the woods. Seems agitated. And then the corpse’s watch vanishes? I think we’re going to have to find it.”
“Well — I have files from Simpson’s hard drive still to check. I can start on that first thing in the morning.”
Jack nodded, as the shape of this began to resemble a case.
The pieces of the puzzle just needed to be fitted together.
“Oh, Jack, don’t forget — you’ve got to get the kids’ races sorted.”
“Right. God, that will be here soon.”
Sarah drained her glass.
They had plans. Now, getting late. Time to go.
“And tomorrow I got to play cricket.”
“So I heard.”
“Could you have a ‘go’ at explaining it to me? Maybe after one more time I’ll get it.”
And now Sarah stood up, laughing. “I think that task is beyond me, Jack Brennan. Just go. You’ll have a great time!”
And with that she walked to the plank leading off the Goose.
“I think,” he said, “the most fun will be had by people watching me attempting to play.”
One last turn from her.
Almost hard to leave.
“Who’d miss that?” she said. “Not me.”
And with that she walked down to the path, and back to her car.
27. Secrets
“I can’t believe I’m up so early,” said Daniel, spooning more cereal into his bowl and pouring on milk. “This is worse than school.”
Sarah stirred her tea and leaned against the cooker, watching her son slouched over his breakfast.
“I don’t recall anyone paying you to go to school.”
“They should!”
“Another month and you’ll have enough money saved for the new bike.”
“I won’t be able to ride it. I hurt too much. All over.”
Sarah tried not to laugh.
Daniel was two days into his part-time summer job at the Bell Hotel.
The Body in the Woods Page 14
