Read Missing, Presumed for Free Online Page B

then kisses the back of it and this seems to give him pause. Her hair is grey, in a straight bob, with a beautiful streak of white framing her face. Her coat hangs expensively, her fingers glinting with diamonds.
    ‘Sit down, darling,’ she says, her voice quavering with suppressed tears. ‘We must help them in any way we can.’
    Sir Ian takes up a chair next to his wife.
    ‘Thank you,’ says Harriet. ‘Edith’s phone shows a few missed calls from you over the course of the weekend, Sir Ian. Were you having trouble reaching her?’
    ‘We always have trouble reaching her, don’t we?’ he says to Lady Hind. ‘She’s terrible at calling back. So we call, and we call.’ At this he gives Harriet a strained smile. ‘We were anxious to know her plans for Christmas, weren’t we, darling?’
    ‘She hadn’t told you her plans for Christmas?’ Manon asks, directing the question at Lady Hind.
    ‘Edith’s fond of prevaricating. She can be … non-committal, would you say, Ian? With us, anyway. We’d agreed she and Will would spend Christmas with us in London and then she’d said, “You never know”, or something to that effect.’
    ‘You never know what?’ asks Manon.
    ‘I took it to mean she couldn’t be certain Will would join us.’
    ‘So there was trouble between them?’ Harriet says.
    ‘No, not trouble,’ says Lady Hind. ‘Ambivalence, I’d say. They’re only twenty-four, after all. They’re not married.’
    ‘And this ambivalence,’ says Harriet, ‘would you say it was more on her part than his?’
    ‘Yes,’ says Lady Hind.
    ‘Has there been any violence between them – heated rows, say? Would Edith have reason to be fearful of Mr Carter?’
    ‘No, no, no,’ says Sir Ian. ‘It’s not like that. It’s ordinary stuff. Will is a marvellous fellow, devoted to Edie.’
    ‘But if he sensed her feelings were cooling, perhaps—’
    ‘Detective, we are not that sort of family. I’m sure you deal all the time with people whose lives are chaotic, who drink and brawl and abuse one another. But none of us – these things are not part of our lives, our experience. I’d be very surprised if Will is involved in this.’
    ‘Right,’ says Harriet. ‘Can you think of anyone who would want to harm Edith?’
    The Hinds look at each other, their expressions bewildered. ‘No, we really can’t,’ says Lady Hind. ‘Can you tell me, how do you … Please, you have to find her, I can’t … The thought of her lost, you see …’ Her eyes brim as she looks at the officers, one to the other.
    ‘I’ll explain how we go forward from here,’ says Manon. ‘Search teams will work in concentric circles out from the house and, at the same time, we’ll be building a picture of Edith, working outwards from her most intimate circle – yourselves, Will Carter, Helena Reed. We’ll look at all aspects of her life, based on what you tell us, her phone, computer, bank cards. So it’s important you leave nothing out.’
    ‘She doesn’t have any bank cards,’ says Sir Ian. ‘She feels the whole banking industry is corrupt. According to Edie, if none of us used banks, then the whole global economic collapse wouldn’t have happened. It’s not a view I share, but she holds these beliefs very strongly. If she could pay everyone in muddy vegetables and repaired bicycle tyres, she would, but her landlord wouldn’t have it.’
    ‘OK, so how does she live? Where does her income come from?’ asks Harriet.
    ‘Me,’ he says. ‘I give her a MoneyGram transfer via the Post Office every month – £1,500 on the first. She pays the rent on the cottage in cash to the landlord – that’s £750, I think. He lives next door. I pay the utilities directly from London. The rest she lives off.’
    ‘So there would’ve been quite a lot of cash in the house,’ says Harriet. ‘She would have been seen collecting wads of it at the Post Office …’
    ‘Look, I feel it’s risky,’ says Sir Ian. ‘And I’ve argued