Never Out of Sight: The chilling psychological thriller you don’t want to miss!. Louise Stone

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СКАЧАТЬ swallowing hard, ‘I didn’t actually speak to her. I remember now, she had texted me, and I left her a message to say she could stay at her friend’s house. She didn’t say anything about being ill.’

      DI Carter nodded slowly. ‘You didn’t check that she was there?’

      I pursed my lips. ‘No. She’s sixteen. Not six.’

      ‘Keira…?’

      ‘Sullivan.’

      ‘Keira Sullivan. Does she live locally?’

      ‘Yes, at Rose Cottage on the next street. Drury Lane.’ I leant in towards him now. ‘You should go over there.’

      DI Carter raised an eyebrow.

      I caught sight of Stephen clenching his fists. ‘Freya, stop it.’

      ‘Don’t tell me to stop. I don’t know why you can’t see that Keira Sullivan is bad news. She may have once again led Zoe down the wrong path,’ I said. ‘I don’t trust Keira, I never have.’

      Stephen looked at me, then at the detective. ‘She’s Zoe’s best friend, and Freya tends to blame everything on her.’

      I blinked, shook my head. ‘No, I don’t.’

      Stephen lowered his voice to a growl, puffed out his cheeks. ‘Yes you do. You don’t know what’s going on in your daughter’s life, and so when anything goes wrong you blame Keira. Never yourself. You even blame Keira for the trouble last year.’

      I shot Stephen a look.

      DI Carter frowned. ‘Trouble?’

      I shook my head, wishing Stephen hadn’t brought it up. ‘They were just trying things out…’ My voice trailed off, my words left hanging in the air. I started to cry again, hot, salty tears soaking my shirt.

      Stephen placed a hand on my back and rubbed firmly, almost too firmly. I looked at him, caught his eye. He thought my views on Keira irrational.

      ‘Dr Hall,’ DI Carter said soothingly, holding my gaze. Beside me I could sense Stephen’s temper rising. He always hated it when people called me Dr Hall – made him sound less than me somehow, just a mere mister, he’d said to me when we were designing our wedding invitations.

      ‘Mrs is fine,’ I said quickly. ‘Sorry, I meant, the whole thing with Keira and the drugs was a big misunderstanding.’

      DI Carter made some more notes and said, ‘Drugs?’

      ‘It turned out Zoe got caught up in something silly with Keira and some other girls from school. They were just experimenting, it was nothing serious, blowing off some steam after finishing their GCSEs. But she and Keira both left that school and are now doing A-levels at Burford College.’ My lower lip trembled and I felt Stephen press his hand even more firmly into my lower back. ‘If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s probably mine. I should have been more vigilant.’ DI Carter frowned and I broke away from his stare. Stephen dropped his hand.

      He nodded. ‘I’m assembling a team. We’ll need to look at her laptop, her things, and talk to her friends and teachers.’

      ‘Would you like to see her room?’ I stood and started to walk up the stairs, not waiting for the DI’s answer.

      I entered Zoe’s bedroom with trepidation; I had come in here earlier, having got off the phone to the police, and ransacked the room for a note, for a clue, for anything. Now, I wanted to smooth the duvet cover, tidy away the books I had upturned in my frenzy. What if Zoe should walk in and see the mess? She would take it as an invasion of privacy.

      The doorbell rang again and my stomach leapt before I realised Zoe wouldn’t need to ring the bell. Unless she had forgotten her key… I pushed past the DI, who was inspecting drawers in the desk with rubber-gloved hands, and ran down the stairs. Stephen had beaten me to it.

      A woman in her forties and a man in his thirties stood on the doorstep. ‘Hi, we’re here for DI Carter.’

      I nodded slowly, crushed with disappointment. ‘Upstairs.’

      They gave a half-smile and made their way upstairs to join their senior. Stephen turned to me. He tried to take me in his arms, but I pushed him away. There was no time for the pretence of a happy marriage.

      ‘No,’ I said. ‘Not now.’

      He let go.

      ‘How can you remain so calm?’ I asked. ‘Is it because you somehow think I’m at fault here and you feel like the virtuous parent? That’s what you want, isn’t it? You want me to spend the rest of my life wracked with guilt.’ I paused. ‘She’ll be back. She’s just trying to get our attention.’

      ‘What the hell are you going on about? Calm?’ I heard his voice pitch higher. ‘Calm? You think I’m calm? I can’t bear the lack of control I have over this situation. I feel sick, Freya, sick.’ I saw his chin quiver. ‘At first, I thought you might be right; that we were getting ourselves in a state over nothing. But she never ignores me, never.’ He rubbed his unshaven cheeks. ‘I’m not calm, Freya, trust me.’

      I nodded, the fight leaving me. He was right; Zoe wouldn’t let it go on this long.

      Then my thoughts reverted back to Keira. She was holding out on me, I just knew it. She knew something and I was determined to find out what. I would have to find out myself; I couldn’t tell Stephen my suspicions.

      I went through to the kitchen and tried Zoe’s mobile again. It hadn’t even rung through earlier. Now, I couldn’t believe it: it rang.

      I gasped, waiting with bated breath. ‘Please. Please.’ I made such a tight fist with my free hand, my arm twinged with pain. ‘Pick up.’

      The tone stopped and there was a sound, someone breathing.

      ‘Zoe?’ I gripped the phone. ‘Is that you, sweetheart?’

      The breathing caught, faltered and started up a regular rhythm again.

      I pointed upstairs to Stephen to indicate DI Carter should pick up another phone; he needed to hear this. Stephen stood staring before spurring himself into action and running up the stairs two at a time. I heard murmured voices upstairs and then the click of another phone – probably the one in the bedroom – being picked up.

      ‘Zoe?’ My heart was pounding. I wanted to reach through the phone and hold her close. ‘Zoe?’

      The line went dead.

      I slid along the wall to the floor, the handset crashing onto the kitchen tiles. Footsteps on the stairs, in the hall.

      DI Carter filled the kitchen door frame, darkening the room. ‘We’ll trace it.’

      I nodded, silent tears coursing down my face once again. Stephen moved past DI Carter and sat next to me, drawing me into his arms. I stiffened with the unfamiliarity of it.

      ‘Talk to Keira,’ I said through my sobs. ‘She must know more than she’s letting on.’

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