Read The Score for Free Online Page B

about your daughter. You shove a note under my garage door and you don’t even call the local police.’
    ‘I know. But I was in a panic, Cat.’
    She felt her anger fading. There was nothing phoney about Tilkian’s reactions. He was a man overwhelmed by his own loss. Or, more accurately, his fears about a possible loss.
    ‘Facts, Martin. Start with the facts.’ Cat’s voice was gentle. She had a notebook and pen stowed on her bike, but there’d be time for all that later. She’d start this as a friend. See how to take it later. Tilkian nodded, gathering himself.
    ‘Esyllt’s been away at college in Cardiff, but her college room is only for term times. She broke up weeks ago, she’s been here most of the time since.’
    He was about to rush forward in the story, but Cat raised a hand to stop him.
    ‘She sees her friends when she’s here, presumably? Everything seemed normal?’
    ‘She doesn’t really have friends here. She thinks the locals are, well, a bit rough and ready.’
    ‘She leaves here when?’
    He named a date. Cat counted backwards. It was two days before he’d shoved the note under her garage door.
    ‘Leaves for Cardiff?’
    ‘Yes. I drove her. Left her at her college dorm block. Apparently, she’d sorted out a way to get access to her room. She was fed up here. You know. Teenage girls. You can’t fence them in too much. The way to lose them.’
    Cat nodded. It must be hard being a single dad. Maybe it was a bad move of his coming out here to Tregaron. You keep them safe for a while, but they feel the safety and want to fly from it. Cat knew the feeling.
    ‘OK. So you drop her in Cardiff. By car?’
    A nod.
    ‘Everything fine? No hint of a problem?’
    ‘No, it all seemed, well, fine.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘It
was
fine. For a while. She was texting, calling. Just like normal. We spoke every day. Always do.’
    Cat frowned. This wasn’t heading the way she’d been expecting. She asked the key question. ‘When was the last time you spoke to her by phone?’
    ‘Four days ago.’ His voice a whisper. ‘Her phone has been switched off ever since.’
    ‘And before then, everything was normal?’
    A nod.
    ‘But you wrote to me a week ago. You left a note under my garage door. Started calling not long after that. That was
before
she went missing.’
    ‘I had this awful feeling. I was worried.’ He shrugged. ‘Dad’s intuition, call it.’
    Cat stared at him. The silence pooled in the room for a second or two.
    ‘There was a guy.’
    ‘A guy?’
    ‘Weird-looking. White streak in his hair.’
    ‘Approximate age?’
    ‘I don’t know. Forty, maybe.’
    ‘Description? Fuck, Martin, work with me. I’m on your side.’
    He seemed to pull himself together. ‘White guy. Pale. Jeans, I think. Dark jacket. Nothing so unusual. Black hair, or dark anyway.’
    ‘And you saw him where?’
    ‘He was around here. I saw him twice in Tregaron.’
    ‘So? What made you suspicious?’
    ‘Nothing really. Not then. He was in town, just glancing at her from a distance. I noticed him – because that white streak in his hair made him look like a badger.’
    ‘So then you take Esyllt into Cardiff, drop her back there. Everything’s OK.’
    ‘Yes. Then she tells me she saw that guy again. The badger. She didn’t think it was a big deal. Just a coincidence.’
    ‘And that’s when you get scared. When you start trying to contact me.’
    ‘Right.’
    ‘Why me, not the police?’
    ‘You are the police.’
    Cat looked hard at Martin’s face. He looked resigned to the worst but part of him was still praying for a reprieve. It was a reaction she had seen before. Denial, fear, hope. She knew she didn’t have the full story yet, but you often didn’t. Not straight-away, not ever.
    ‘What about her friends? You’ve contacted them?’
    Martin nodded, sort of. ‘Nothing. They’re all abroad on holiday, know nothing.’
    ‘She knew the other Tregaron girl who’s gone? Nia Hopkins?’
    ‘I don’t