Deadly Lies Ann Girdharry (read aloud .txt) 📖

was let down by my partners and they scarpered. And Uncle Ronnie was family and he let me down too.’

‘I see.’ Grant glanced at the file in front of him. ‘It resulted in a custodial sentence.’

Harry’s expression turned sulky. He nodded.

Tom had read the details. Harry received a short prison sentence for bankruptcy. A prison sentence for bankruptcy was unusual. It meant Harry’s business affairs had not been above board. In the court notes, it said Harry borrowed money fraudulently and set up a second business to try to bail out the first. No wonder Ronnie hadn’t wanted to get involved.

Harry’s attitude came across as whining. The man thought Ronnie owed him something and should have been willing to step in. But why? He was Harry’s uncle, he wasn’t Harry’s keeper.

‘And neither you nor your father have had much contact with Ronnie and Joan up until now?’ Grant asked.

‘Not them, no. We always kept contact with cousin Alice though,’ Harry said, ‘because when I needed help Alice put in a good word for me with her dad, or she tried to. She’s the only one I got on with. Poor Alice. Uncle Ronnie always thought so much of himself but he was mean.’

Grant cleared his throat. ‘Thank you for coming in, Mr Hardman. I’ll be in touch if there’s anything else.’

Back in the team cubbyhole, Grant turned to Delaney. ‘Observations?’

‘It was interesting how neither of them mentioned Jack. Alice was the one who had all their sympathy.’

‘Yes. I’d say Jack Glover is getting a lot of negative attention.’

Just then, Grant’s day took a turn even worse as DCS Fox paid a visit. She rarely came down to the team space, which they affectionately called the cubbyhole, though goodness knows what Fox called it.

She marched straight up to him.

‘Progress?’ she snapped.

‘Jack’s business associates and Philip and Harry Hardman have been interviewed. Harry Hardman is the most likely candidate. He seems to believe his uncle owed him. Thing is, a grudge against Ronnie isn’t sufficient grounds for kidnap. It would be a huge step and frankly I don’t see Harry as having the nerve for it. Even if he did, has he got the brains to pull it off? We’ll see what the background checks pull up though I’m not hopeful.’

‘Why do I feel this is going nowhere? The press are gnashing their teeth. And so am I. Anything on the pyjama?’

‘Nothing so far, sorry ma’am.’

‘Sorry ma’am my arse. We’ve passed the twenty-four-hour mark! Find them or I’m throwing you to the press and they can rip you to pieces themselves. Anything from the public response?’

‘We’ve had a string of suspected sightings. No pattern and they’re scattered across the UK. Constables are following up. I double-checked but there are none so far I’ve flagged as priority and McGowan has ruled out the Badawi girls. They were both seen at their universities early morning and they’re too far away to have been directly involved in the snatch. And both sisters have short hair so they’re not a match for our mystery woman who was seen in Joan Hardman’s street.’

Fox leant her knuckles on a desk giving a good resemblance, he thought, to an orangutan. ‘Shit.’

He knew she was thinking the same he was. That the longer it dragged on the smaller the chance was of finding the girls.

‘Shit exactly. Ms Silver is back at the Glover house and I’m sending Delaney over there now.’

Fox narrowed her eyes. ‘You think there’s more there, don’t you?’

She knew him better than he realised.

‘Just what we don’t need,’ Fox said. ‘Questions about the family. If you’ve got something on them I want to hear it.’

‘Nothing definite. But both parents are hiding something and I’d bet my life on it. I’ve one more person to interview – Daniel Pearson, the man accused of embezzling funds.’

‘The clock is ticking, Grant.’

She really didn’t need to tell him that.

‘We’re going flat out. Something’s got to give soon and if it doesn’t, we’ll need to prepare the family to do a press appeal.’

A press appeal would be a harrowing ordeal for Alice and Jack though sometimes it brought information from the public which would not have come by any other means.

Fox was grinding her teeth and Grant wondered if she was about to repeat the lame dog comment. He really didn’t need it. Time to make a speedy exit.

‘Don’t give up hope,’ he said. ‘I need to see the accountant as quickly as possible.’

‘Then bloody well get over there.’

At the edge of his awareness, Grant registered the temperature had picked up, which was a sign real spring was on its way. It would soon be lambing time which was his favourite season because he liked to see new life coming back into the world. His pleasure from it likely came from the long list of murder cases he’d worked. It also explained how Grant enjoyed holding babies – a fact his wife never failed to remark on.

Grant drove like fury. Daniel Pearson lived on the outskirts of Himlands Heath and down a narrow lane. Grant took in the details of the property. The roof of Pearson’s cottage looked in need of repairs and so did the fencing. If Pearson had been embezzling funds from Hardman Construction, as Joan claimed, he certainly hadn’t invested it in his house.

Pearson was slow to answer the door. Grant remembered Joan mentioned Pearson had health problems and he wondered what those might be. The door opened to reveal a man in his sixties, roughly the same age as Ronnie. Pearson was tall and thin, with wispy sandy-coloured hair. He was slightly stooped and his complexion seemed sallow.

‘I’m Detective Chief Inspector Grant. May I come in?’ He’d deliberately not called ahead.

‘What for?’

‘The Glover children, Lisa and Emily, have been abducted. You must have seen it on the news.’

The man’s mouth fell open, then he pressed a hand to his stomach. ‘Goodness, I don’t know what to say. How terrible. Please come through and no,