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

"Of course I did. Leilani said she and her husband were equal partners, but they made their own decisions. He had no right to veto where she worked just because he was the man."

Abbie scoffed. "Rubbish. This isn't a patriarchy thing. I can't imagine any police officer would like his or her spouse working for dangerous criminals. It isn't only that it looks bad for the police officer. There's the danger element."

"She wasn't in danger," said Christine. "She'd have been fine if she didn't start feeding me information about these guys."

Abbie shook her head. She couldn't buy this. Wouldn't.

"What about this information feeding. Leilani came to you because there were no other cops she felt she could trust. Except that can't be true. What about her husband?"

"Leilani was a straight talker," said Christine. "Told me if her employers learned she'd expressed concerns to a police officer, there was every chance they'd ensure both she and the officer disappeared. Supposing, that was, the officer wasn't the one to blow the whistle on Leilani."

Abbie took this in. "Her story was that she was thinking of her daughter? If she didn't involve Idrissa, and things went wrong, there was a chance the crooks would leave Isabella with at least one parent."

"Exactly," said Christine. Then held up her glass. "I need another. Anyone else?"

No one else did. Christine rose and kept her feet well as she moved to the kitchen. Such was the benefit of regular heavy drinking sessions—increased immunity. While she poured another glass, Ana tapped her own, still half full, and gave Abbie a meaningful glance. Abbie nodded and hoped her eyes expressed that Ana should leave it well alone.

Ana nodded in return.

When Christine came back with her fresh glass, she said, "If you don't believe Leilani would work at Lucky Draw against Idrissa's wishes, what's your explanation?"

"Obvious, isn't it? The only explanation is that she had his blessing."

 "And why would he give that?"

There were a couple of potential answers to this question, so far as Abbie could see. The first was that Ndidi was taking bribes from Lucky Draw, as Gary had claimed. In this scenario, Lucky Draw might have insisted Leilani take a job at the casino to ensure Ndidi continued to toe the line. Unhappy with being forced to do so, Leilani might have fought back against her husband and the crooks for whom she now worked by passing incriminating information to a third party. In this case, Christine. This theory made sense of why Orion would kidnap Isabella as taking her might give him access to a police detective and any valuable information on casino workings acquired by Leilani or Ndidi.

Though that theory fit, Abbie leaned towards an alternative solution that was brewing in her mind. As she did not want to believe option A and wasn't yet sure about option B, Abbie decided to divulge neither scenario.

"I don't know," she said instead. "But if Leilanli did have her husband's blessing, then he's been lying to people by telling them she left him and Isabella. He must know she's dead."

Which, again, didn't prove corruption. If the owners of Lucky Draw had discovered Leilani's betrayal and murdered her as punishment, Ndidi might keep that quiet for fear they would come after him as well, should he reveal he knew what they did. As Ndidi had told Abbie, he wouldn't want to leave Isabella parentless, or worse, risk Lucky Draw punishing his child for his wife's transgressions.

That Ndidi had not vanished along with his wife might suggest he was not working for Lucky Draw. Would they not have believed he was colluding with Leilani in investigating them otherwise?

Unless he was the one who discovered his wife's betrayal, and he was her executioner.

That was a theory Abbie was keen to park for now. To move away from it, she turned to the anxious Christine.

"I'm guessing it would make no difference if I said you are not responsible for whatever happened to Leilani?"

"Correct."

"Okay, but you're not responsible. Leilani knew what she was getting into, and it isn't her fault either. If someone killed Leilani, the fault lies purely with Leilani's killer and with whoever ordered the murder."

"I was right," said Christine. "That didn't help."

"Of course not," said Abbie. "But it was important to state anyway. You suspected Hammond of killing Leilani?"

The fast move on was intentional. Guilt was like quicksand. If you dwelled in it for more than a few seconds, it started to pull you down. Pretty soon, you realised there was no escape.

Christine shrugged. "Maybe he discovered what she was up to. Either way, I doubt it was he who ordered her murder. More likely, Leilani's employers. She was watching them. I was watching Hammond."

"How closely?" asked Abbie. The question wasn't particularly subtle, and Christine picked up on Abbie's meaning immediately.

"I was keeping a close eye on him until Leilani went missing. After that, I became borderline obsessive. I had to sleep, but whenever I could, I was on his tail. I took stupid risks. It was amazing he never realised and confronted me."

Especially if you were drinking as much while tailing him as you are now, Abbie thought, as Christine polished off another glass of wine.

"It was just over a week after Leilani disappeared that someone killed Hammond in a home invasion," said Christine. "That was the point of your question, right? You want to know if I saw anything. More than that, you want to know if I was involved."

Abbie spread her hands. She wasn't going to be bashful. "Were you?"

"I wasn't, nor did I see anything. Believe it or not, I was having one of my rare spells of sleep while someone was breaking into Hammond's home and murdering the corrupt cop."

Abbie didn't know whether she believed this or not but would take the claim at face value for now. After all, this exchange was about trust.

"Presumably," said Abbie, speaking with some caution, not wanting to rile Christine, "Hammond's death could have been your golden ticket. He was the man you were sent to investigate. His