Page 114 of She Saw What He Did

‘Oh, I’ll get the manager,’ said the receptionist, getting flustered.

‘Was she going anywhere else aside from the Millers?’ asked Rose.

‘Not that I know of,’ said Weis, struggling to remember the conversations he’d had with Ellen.

He ought to phone Peter.

‘I need to phone her boyfriend,’ he said and stepped outside.

Peter answered on the first ring, his voice guarded. He doesn’t want to hear bad news, thought Weis.

‘Have you heard from her?’ Peter asked.

‘No mate, no one has. She returned her hire car, but she didn’t check out of the hotel. It looks like she’s gone missing.’

Chapter Seventy

Abby

Detective Weis stands on the doorstep with another officer. Sergeant Burden isn’t with them. I take a deep breath and tell myself it isn’t about Sam. They would have sent a woman officer. They can’t possibly know about the assassination attempt and if they do, there is no way they could have connected it to us.

‘Good morning, Mrs Miller. We’d like to have a word with you about Sergeant Burden.’

‘She hasn’t been here,’ I say. ‘They phoned and asked me. The last time she came was with you.’

‘Was that the last time you saw her?’

‘I just told you that,’ I say, feeling irritated. I want to study the instructions. I need to know exactly what I’m doing. I don’t want Lester seeing the police here. He’ll think we’ve betrayed him and then … No, I must not think about those things because Sam is going to be just fine.

‘Sergeant Burden has gone missing,’ says Weis bluntly. ‘We think Sergeant Ryan Lester may have something to do with her disappearance.’

‘What?’ I say, struggling to hide my shock.

‘You haven’t seen Sergeant Lester, have you?’ asks Weis, his eyes boring into mine.

‘I don’t think I know who he is,’ I lie.

‘You would have met him on St Cecilia’s,’ says Weis.

‘I don’t recall,’ I say, ‘I only remember Sergeant Burden.’

‘If you remember anything,’ says the other officer, ‘contact us.’

He hands me a card. I feel like all I ever do is take cards from police officers.

‘Yes, of course.’

Why don’t they go? I want to yell at them to fuck off. What if he’s watching? Oh God, does he have Sergeant Burden too?

Weis nods and they walk down the path. I force myself not to close the door immediately. Act normal, I tell myself. It’s hard, because I haven’t been normal for so long.

*

Weis was suspicious of Abby Miller. Something wasn’t right there. He turned to Layton.

‘I think we should get a warrant and search the Millers’ home.’

Layton raised his eyebrows.

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