Page 75 of Three for a Girl

She looked at him, and arched her eyebrow.

“I don’t know what else to say.” He admitted.

“Lennox loved his motorbike, probably as much as me, gave her a name and everything.”

“What name?”

“Matilda.”

“Matilda the motorbike.”

“Yeah.” Ally laughed. “I hated that bike even more when he named her.”

“But you compromised.”

Ally nodded. “And it worked out, I learned to live with Matilda. Communication and compromise. They’re key to a solid relationship.”

Chad’s gut tightened, and he stared at the shepherd’s pie.

“I let him take me out on the bike and in return, he became a vegan and wore the hideous jumpers I used to knit him.”

Chad laughed.

“One will definitely be coming your way at Christmas.”

“I look forward to it.”

“Christmas, snow, ice, frost, sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?”

The kitchen stayed relatively cool, but the rest of the house was sauna hot. The hottest summer since records began the radio kept telling him.

“Lennox loved the summertime. He’d sit outside on his deckchair and drift off, wake up three hours later bright pink, and hobble about. Silly bastard.” She snorted. “But, god, do I miss him. I retired for six months, thought I’d get a nice carefree job, but I couldn’t bear it. My mind, my memories, they were eating me alive, so I came back.”

“And you feel better for it.”

“Yes, I do.”

“I’m glad you did come back.”

She grinned at him, dropping her gaze.

“So what did I miss at work?” he asked.

Ally took a deep breath. “Kerion’s heart had been removed, and is unaccounted for. More blood samples were found in the car in Kerion and Ellen’s garage.”

“Gary’s?”

“We don’t have a match on the database, but it’s human blood. Josh did some more digging, and found another missing person with links to Ellen’s page, and the missing people coincide with Ellen and Kerion being paid a hefty amount of money.”

“Kerion and Ellen were what, abducting them?”

“Maybe.”

“And then what did they do?”

“No idea, but they’re all still missing, one dating back to six years ago. All aged between fifteen and eighteen.”

Chad slumped. “I missed a lot then.”

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