Miss No One Mark Ayre (children's books read aloud TXT) 📖

"This informant came to you personally? To your front door?"

Christine nodded. "We'd met once before and got on. She had offered to take me for drinks with her friends, but I kept making excuses as to why I couldn't go. As you guessed earlier, I was keen to isolate myself because I didn't want to build any friendships on lies. So the friendship was a non-starter, but she remembered me when she needed somewhere to bring her suspicions."

Something was missing here; a vital piece of information. Abbie bookmarked her concern and waited for Christine to go on.

"When she arrived at my door, this witness, Leilani, told me she had thought I seemed honest when we met, though she didn't decide to confide in me because of that. Because I was new in town, she figured the casino owners hadn’t had time to get their claws into me. Because I was young, she thought they'd fail even if they tried. Almost everybody joins the police for the right reasons. The young are idealistic; it's time and experience that turns certain police officers into cynics, makes them more susceptible to corruption and bribery. Leilani was taking a risk but needed to talk to someone, and I appeared to be the safest bet."

Abbe nodded. If Leilani was determined to talk to someone and knew unknown corrupt officers were working at the local station, her options were limited. With Christine being new and young, she was the logical choice. But revealing her suspicions to a woman she barely knew still presented a considerable risk to the witness. Leilani was clearly incredible brave.

Or had been.

"So, what did Leilani have to say?" Abbie asked.

After a big swig of wine, Christine explained. Leilani had seen Hammond arrive at the casino through the back entrance a couple of times. There had been clandestine meetings. These were suspicious in and of themselves, but Leilani told herself Hammond might be interviewing the Lucky Draw owners as part of an ongoing investigation. He might have been searching for a way to imprison one or more of the crooks at the top of the casino's food chain.

The chances of this appeared to diminish to zero a day after the final of these meetings. Hammond returned to the casino, bought some chips, and sat at one of the exclusive tables. One of the tables at which people like Leilani, the people who weren't involved with the criminal side of the casino owners' business, were never asked to work.

"Way Leilani tells it," said Christine. "He was there for half an hour and walked away with winnings totalling a hundred grand."

Ana let out a long, low whistle. "Damn. That's good going."

"It's outstanding going," said Christine. "Especially for a man who, so far as I could tell, had never gambled a day in his life.”

Another whistle from Ana. Abbie was drumming her hands on the side of her chair but stopped when she started annoying herself with the sound.

"That's not a bribe," she said. "That's a payment. A big payment. Probably near enough double what Hammond would earn in a year. And a big old payment means a big old job."

"My thoughts exactly," said Christine.

"So your hopes of leaving were dashed, and your investigation kicked into high gear?"

"Right."

Christina took another swig of wine, and her face twisted as though the drink was off. It wasn't that. Abbie could see almost at once what it was.

"Let me guess," said Abbie. "You knew now you had to dig deeper, but there was only so much you could learn given your position. If you were afraid Hammond was about to do something major for the owners of Lucky Draw, what you would really need was an inside man." Abbie paused. Or woman.

Hands shaking, drink all gone, Christine nodded.

"I warned her not to take any risks," said Christine, confirming Abbie's suspicions. "I said she should carry on as normal. Not go looking for any information, but to tell me if she heard or saw anything else suspicious."

And, of course, Leilani hadn't listened. Christine should have seen that coming. Hadn't Leilani already proven she was willing to put her life on the line by opening up to Christine, a woman she barely knew, in the first place?

That didn't make it Christine's fault, and Abbie would never say it was. But it was clear what had happened next.

"Lucky Draw discovered what she was up to?"

"I don't know," said Christine, wiping her eyes. "All I know is, one day, the communication stopped. I hoped she was lying low because she was worried about being found out. Then, a few days later, I learned she was missing. That wasn't the story—the story was that she'd run off, disappeared in the night without a word, but I never believed that. She definitely vanished, but not by choice."

Vanished. Disappeared.

As the next question began to form on Abbie's lips, something clunked into place, and realisation hit her like a lightning bolt.

"You heard she'd disappeared in the night?" Abbie said.

Christine nodded. "That's right."

Abbie sighed. "Are you holding out on me, Detective Lakes?"

No answers were forthcoming, but Christine's cheeks flushed. Again, Christine confirmed Abbie’s suspicions without needing to speak.

"This witness, this brave woman," said Abbie. "Her full name... was it Leilani Ndidi?"

Christine closed her eyes. Forced herself to nod. Abbie fell back into her chair and let out a low groan.

"She's Isabella's mother."

Twenty-Seven

Leilani Ndidi. Wife of the detective inspector, mother of the kidnapped little girl.

"You weren't going to mention this?" said Abbie.

"I'm still not sure I can trust you."

“I’m the one you can't trust?" Abbie pointed at herself, incredulous. "You said yourself, everyone in the local community knows the owners of Lucky Draw are crooked. Especially the police. You can't seriously be saying no one found it suspicious that the wife of a detective inspector was working for these people."

"Like I said, she'd only been there a few weeks. Maybe no one knew."

"You knew," said Abbie. "Seeing as she told you, so you didn't ask what Ndidi felt about her