Page 129 of Making a Killing

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Adam Fawley

1 August 2024

20.25

We’re on our feet applauding when the email from Gis comes in. Robin Tierney’s mobile company have sent through the location data for her phone.

I sense Alex stiffening beside me so stuff my phone back in my pocket and concentrate on the curtain call. Lily is lined up with all the other little kids, bowing and beaming like she just aced the Dying Swan. Though as far as I could tell – and I admit, I’m no expert – she didn’t put a pointe wrong.

‘She spent hours practising,’ says Alex, reading my mind. ‘She wanted you to be proud of her.’

I turn to her, genuinely shocked. ‘But I am. She must know that – I tell her all the time.’

Her face softens. ‘I know. But don’t we all want to be praised for the things that don’t come naturally? I mean, she knows she’s clever, she doesn’t need you to tell her that.’ She smiles. ‘But that doesn’t mean you can stop, OK? Never stop.’

We go outside to wait for her and I nick a quick call. He must be at home – I can hear Billy in the background.

‘So what does the location data say?’

‘Ah, well it’s actually rather revealing. The phone’s completelydark from June 15th to the 24th, when suddenly there’s a ping in Miami.’

‘Miami?’

‘Yup.’

‘So they were in the US by then.’

‘One of them, at least, yeah. But we still have no idea where they were during those ten days. Could have been here, could have been in the US, who knows.’

‘And where does the phone go after that?’

‘Orlando, on the 27th, which is where some of the WhatsApp messages to Tierney’s family were sent. Next up Atlanta two days later, the day of the phone call to Mrs Tierney. Then several more pings in Atlanta and three in Nashville on the 7th July, all of which must be emails and WhatsApps with the family, because there are no more calls. And finally Chicago on the 23rd.’

‘Sounds like a bloody road trip.’

He laughs. ‘Yeah, tell me about it.’

‘And we have no idea where the phone is now.’

‘Nope. Completely dark. Could be anywhere.’

I look up to check but there’s still no sign of the kids; Alex is talking to one of the other dads.

‘What about that hire car?’

‘Ah,’ he says, ‘that’s interesting too – it was dropped off at the Hertz depot in Evesham sometime between the evening of Saturday 15th June, when Gary saw it, and the morning of Monday 17th, when the office reopened.’

‘Evesham?’

‘Yeah, I wondered about that too. It’s a specialist van depot, so a car like that shouldn’t have been left there in the first place.’

‘But presumably it’s the nearest Hertz to Hescombe? If you just wanted rid?’

‘In one. Apparently, it was just left on the street and the keys shoved through the office door. Hertz were pretty pissed off, actually, because it meant two of their guys had to schlep allthe way up there from Heathrow to bring the bloody thing back.’

I hear a shuffle of papers, Janet calling his name.

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