Page 22 of Final Betrayal

‘Sit on the chair, Boyd.’

‘Sorry.’

Lottie couldn’t help the snarkiness in her voice. It stemmed from the twisting of her gut instinct. ‘Something’s wrong. I’m worried about both Amy and Penny. No one has seen either of them since Saturday night. Their phones are off. And there’s no answer at Penny’s apartment.’

‘Her mother wasn’t much help either,’ Boyd said.

Lottie thought of the navy-suited woman they’d met at the council offices. Breda Brogan was efficient and to the point. She hadn’t seen her daughter in over a week. Penny had her own place now. Did her own thing.

‘We’ll need to check out her apartment again.’ Lottie looked out to the general office. ‘Where’s Kirby?’

‘Talking to the Whyte’s Pharmacy employees.’

‘Jesus, it doesn’t take a whole morning to talk to a couple of shop assistants. I hope he’s not in the pub.’

‘I’m here.’ Kirby shoved his bushy-haired head around the door. ‘Nothing to report, I’m afraid. But it was good to get talking to real people again.’

‘And what are we?’ Boyd said. ‘Rhetorical question.’

Lottie asked, ‘None of them know anything about where Amy might be?’

‘No, boss.’

‘Any arguments or rows?’

‘All hunky-dory as far as I could gather, until about a month ago. The pharmacist mentioned there was a bit of trouble with Penny Brogan, and one of the assistants told me that Amy got her dad to fire Penny.’

‘What did she do?’

‘Pilfering.’

‘Pilfering? That’s an odd choice of word.’

‘Stealing, then. Hiding stuff in her handbag. Cosmetics. Lipsticks and nail polish. Not drugs. Not as far as they knew, anyway.’

‘And none of the staff know where Amy might be? A boyfriend that her dad doesn’t know about? Come on, Kirby.’

‘Sorry, boss. They appear to know nothing about her private life. Just that it was very unusual for her to miss work unless it was a Sunday. Everyone said she was dedicated.’

‘Right so. Thanks.’ Lottie leaned back in her chair and resisted the urge to slam her feet up on the desk. ‘It’s not yet forty-eight hours since the girls were last seen or heard from; once that deadline has passed, we need to publicise their disappearance.’

‘I’ll do that tomorrow, then,’ Kirby said.

Once the detective had left with a visible bounce in his step, Lottie smiled over at Boyd. ‘One man’s misery is another man’s joy.’

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’

Her mobile phone rang. She saw ‘Mother’ on the screen and handed the phone to Boyd.

‘Tell her I’m not here. I went out and left my phone on the desk. Anything.’

Boyd answered it. Lottie straightened up in her chair as she saw the colour fade from his face.

‘What? What is it, Boyd?’

She leaned across and took the phone from him.

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