Read Double Dealing (Detective Sergeant Catherine Bishop Series Book Two) for Free Online

she wouldn’t do that.’ Mark’s voice was firm. ‘Her mum’s not easy to live with. Their house is the last place Lauren would be. Now Lauren’s dad has retired, she’s even worse, going on and on at him. No, Lauren won’t be there. Maybe she’s been in an accident?’
    She didn’t reply, and after a few more questions, Mark found himself outside the station again, wondering just what he’d achieved by going there. Perhaps he should have stayed away.
     
     
      ‘Do you think she’s got a new boyfriend then, Sarge?’ Detective Constable Dave Lancaster asked over the hubbub of the office. Catherine shook her head, her mouth full of chocolate digestive.
      ‘I bet she’s just sleeping off a hangover somewhere, but . . . Do me a favour, Dave, see if you can find out whether she’s back in the country at least. Maybe she’s just missed the ferry or forgotten her phone charger. I’ve got her car registration number here too.’
    Lancaster nodded, his eyes bright.
      ‘I’ll do it now, ma’am.’
      ‘And don’t call me ma’am!’ she bellowed after him as he trotted away from her desk. ‘If you must call someone ma’am, make it the Super, she loves it,’ she added in an undertone. ‘Makes me feel like the Queen.’ She practised a royal wave. ‘No good, I haven’t got the wrist action.’
    Chris Rogers grinned at her. ‘Wonder why that is?’
    Catherine stood to mime a belly laugh, then chucked a pen at hi m before logging into her computer as she sat back down. Lauren Cook, age twenty-four. No criminal record, and neither had Mark. Well, there wasn’t a lot they could do. Lauren Cook was a responsible adult with no history of mental or other health issues. If she’d decided to have an extra day or two in Amsterdam without telling her husband, then that was up to her.
     
     
     
    Back at home, Mark Cook was on the phone again. Lauren’s parents need to know that he had reported her missing, though he knew she wasn’t at their house. He steeled himself, ready for the inevitable onslaught of questions.
      ‘So you’ve not heard a thing from her and the police won’t help?’ Celia Chantry was outraged. Mark closed his eyes for a second, willing himself to stay calm.
      ‘I saw a detective. She said to give it another day or so and to contact her again if Lauren hadn’t shown up by then,’ he told her.
      ‘Fat lot of good that is, she might be dead in a ditch somewhere,’ Celia snapped. ‘It’s not like Lauren, did you tell them that?’
      ‘Yes, I . . .’
      ‘Did you, Mark? Because I know you, you’re a lovely lad but you’re too soft. You need to be firm.’
      ‘I was, I told her.’
    He could hear Celia having a mumbled conversation, no doubt with Lauren’s dad Geoff. You had to feel sorry for the poor sod; it must be like being married to a whirlwind. Still, they’d been together a long time. There was no harm in Celia, Mark acknowledged, she was just overwhelming.
      ‘Right.’ She was back on the line, loud and clear. ‘Geoff and I are getting in the car now. We’ll be with you soon, then we’ll all go down to the police station and give them what for. Fobbing you off like that, honestly, it’s disgusting. What do we pay our taxes for, that’s what I want to know.’
    Mark made a feeble attempt at protesting, but reasoning with Celia in full flow was like trying to stop an express train by shouting at it. No chance.
      ‘We’ll see you soon then. Have the kettle on. Bye now.’
    Resignedly, Mark slipped his phone back into his jeans pocket. He should have known. At least he’d tidied up.
     

11
     
     
     
     
    Catherine sat alone, sipping orange juice and nibbling at the corner of a cheese sandwich that she didn’t want. It was late for lunch, but she’d been trying to avoid the canteen. She should have brought a snack in from home but then she’d have had to come down here in the end, she couldn’t avoid it forever.
      The double doors