Virtual Justice (4 page)

“Pleased to meet you. Your photo doesn’t do you justice, my dear. Shall we?”

Bella’s confidence rocketed, and her cheeks warmed. “It’s lovely to meet you, too. Have you been here before?”

“Once or twice, yes.” He opened the door and motioned for her to lead the way.

A party was going on, and the place was rowdy compared to the other times Bella had visited it with friends. She had an inkling that the noise would drown out any conversation they might embark on. Not ideal for a first date.
If that’s what this is.

He must have been reading her mind because he leaned forward and whispered, “Shall we find somewhere quieter?”

“I think it would be better.”

He took her hand, and they retraced their steps outside to the car park. “We’ll go in my car, okay?”

Without hesitation, she nodded eagerly. He clicked the key fob, and the doors unlocked, opening the door for her. She jumped into the comfortable leather seat. She wasn’t clued up about cars and had no idea what make it was. All she knew was the plush interior smelled as if it had just come out of the showroom.

Putting the key in the ignition, he turned and gave her a warm smile. “I know a nice little pub down by the river. Have you eaten?”

“No. Down by the river would be lovely. Is it far?”

“A few miles, not too far. They do a fantastic lobster dish there. Do you eat that sort of thing?”

If I had the money I might!
“Now and again, I do.”

Within five minutes, they were leaving the luxury of his car and entering an equally luxurious restaurant. At least it was luxurious compared to the kind of restaurant she was used to.

After ordering, he reached across the table for one of her hands. “While we wait for our food, I want to know all about you. Where were you born?”

“Not far from here. I’ve always lived in this area. What about you?” She couldn’t believe how relaxed she felt in his presence. He certainly knew how to put a woman at ease.

His brown eyes twinkled in the candlelight. “Up north, a little town in Yorkshire.”

“Oh, you don’t have an accent.”

“No, my parents moved around a lot when I was a child, what with Dad being in the Army. And what do you do for a living, Miss Croft?”

“Please, call me Bella.”

“Bella, that’s a lovely name. What job do you do?”

Damn! How can I tell him I stack shelves at the supermarket for a living?
“I work in a bank…‌behind the scenes,” she added quickly, in case he asked which bank and showed up to
find her not working there.

He continued to ask about her, and his attention to her answers surprised her. No man had ever shown so much interest in her. The meal was the tastiest food she’d eaten, and come the end of the evening, she felt as if she glowed with complete satisfaction. He was the perfect gentleman and insisted on paying the bill, when most men would have asked her to go halves.

Walking in the moonlight back to his car, he tucked his arm through hers and veered off down a path along the river. “It’s a lovely evening for a walk.”

“Isn’t it just.” She beamed. For some unknown reason, she felt as if she belonged. At home in his presence, she’d waited years to feel this way—her entire life, really.

They walked, chatted and laughed. Then he stopped and turned to face her. “You’re beautiful. Do you mind if I do this?” Before she could ask what he meant, he bent down and kissed her gently on the lips. The kiss took her breath away, and when he wrapped his arms around her, she thought she had died and the angels had whisked her off to heaven.

Slowly, he withdrew and searched her face. She was still reeling and gasping, trying to replace the breath that he had sucked out of her. His hands travelled up her arms, and he caressed the back of her neck. She moaned as her ecstasy started to mount.
Is this truly happening to me?
His hands weren’t rough in the slightest as they massaged her neck and then moved around to her throat. Her heart pounded against her ribs so hard that she thought it was about to burst through her ribcage.

“I’m sorry,” he said, breaking the spell he’d put her under.

Confused, she asked, “For what?”

“I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you like that, not on a first date.” He took her hand, and before she had a chance to argue, he led her back to his car.

Inside the vehicle, they fell into an uncomfortable silence. She couldn’t help blaming herself for the way the evening had turned on its head. Without realising it, she had messed things up again. He drove back to the Cross Keys Pub and dropped her off beside her car. As she reached for the handle, he whispered, “Can I see you again?”

Her heart missed several beats. She glanced at him in open-mouthed amazement. “Of course. I’d love to see you again.”

“Good. Give me your number, and I’ll call you during the week.” He kissed her on the lips and held her tightly. “I sense this will be the beginning of a stunning new relationship, for both of us.”

Bella left the car, feeling as if the soles of her shoes consisted of cushioned air.

CHAPTER THREE

“S
o, where do you want to start?” Tony was in the middle of making a full English breakfast while Lorne sorted through the sheets of notes she’d made while sitting up in bed the previous evening.

“At nine, I’ll be ringing the law firm where Karen works to see if her boss, Sheila Davison, can shed any light on why she’s disappeared.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

“How’s your leg today?”

“Bearable. Ignore it. I usually do.” Tony placed a plateful of bacon, sausage, and fried egg in front of her.

She tried not to screw up her nose at the fat the meat was swimming in. He’d done his best, bless him. “You should get to the doctor’s before it flares up again. You need to listen to your body more, dear husband.”

“Yeah, yeah. Yadda, yadda. And after you’ve rung Karen’s boss, what then?”

Lorne dipped a piece of toast in her egg yolk, expecting it to be runny. It wasn’t, and she stifled a laugh. Tony loved runny fried eggs and usually complained if he didn’t get one. She watched him do the same to one of his eggs and then stare at the plate when the yolk refused to run. She knew he wouldn’t complain about it, though. That wasn’t the “done thing” to complain about the food he’d cooked himself.

“Then I thought we could both take a ride out to see Karen’s former boyfriend. Ask him what he makes of her disappearance. Are you up to that?”

“Am I ever. It’ll be good throwing my weight around for a change.”

“Yeah, you’re so under the thumb here, aren’t you?”

He grinned at her, his breakfast covering his usually white teeth. “It has been said.”

“Cheeky bugger. You wait. I’ll get my own back on you for that remark.”
And for the lousy breakfast.
Making out she was full, she pushed her plate to the centre of the table. “That was lovely. I couldn’t eat another thing.”

Tony eyed her suspiciously but let the matter lie. “Are you going to ring Katy, maybe get her to look into things at that end?”

“I thought I’d ring her after today’s visits were out of the way. We’ll have more to go on then. Let’s see what this lovely—I use the term loosely, of course—ex-boyfriend has to say first.”

Tony pushed his half-eaten breakfast away and rubbed his stomach. “I guess my eyes were bigger than my belly. I couldn’t eat another thing.”

Lorne smiled and nodded as she sipped her mug of bearable coffee.
Yeah, it’s tough eating shoe leather at the start of the day, ain’t it, kiddo?
Maybe the time had come for another cookery lesson in the Warner household. Judging by what she’d just sampled, a lot of the knowledge she’d imparted so far had fallen on extremely deaf ears.

“Morning, all.” Charlie bounded into the room, full of joy. “Did I miss breakfast?”

Lorne kissed her daughter on the cheek and let Tony answer the question. “Not much to miss really, Charlie. It was a practise run-through that went horribly wrong,” he admitted.

Charlie laughed and headed over to pop some bread in the toaster. “Yeah, I kind of worked that one out for myself.”

“Don’t forget you’ve got that couple calling in this afternoon to look at Sooty the poodle. Any chance you can give him a bath this morning?”

“I’m sure I can fit it in. Will you be out all day on this new case of yours?”

“Just the morning, I hope. You’ll be okay by yourself, won’t you?”

The toast popped up, and Charlie smothered it in butter and marmalade, then sat down beside Lorne at the table. “Nothing too taxing for me to do around here this morning. I’d like to slot in some training with Rusty if I have some spare time. He’s coming along great. Seems to really enjoy it, too.”

“Working dogs tend to enjoy the interaction more than just sitting in their pens all day. You’re doing an excellent job with him, with all the dogs. I’m so proud of you stepping up to the plate after…”

With sticky marmalade-covered fingers, Charlie patted Lorne on the back of her hand. “I know, Mum. Granddad would have been proud of me.”

Lorne brushed away the tear that had dropped onto her cheek. “He would have. I miss him so much.”

“We all do, Mum. After all, he kept us all in line, didn’t he? Whether we realised it at the time or not.”

Lorne contemplated her daughter’s observation and nodded. “I guess he did. I hadn’t really thought about that before. Anyway, we should be back for lunch. Is that all right?”

“Sure. Any chance you can bring some chips back with you? I don’t think I could bear Tony cooking for me today. If breakfast is anything to go by, I think he needs to take the day off on the domestic-duties front.”

Her cheeky comment landed her a playful punch to the upper arm. “That’s it. Spatulas drawn, young lady. We’ll have an omelette challenge at the weekend, and your mother here can be the judge.”

Lorne’s eyes widened in dread. “What? No way. I kind of value my life. There’s no way I’m getting in the middle of a possible daughter-stepfather tussle. No way, José.”

“Coward.” Tony grinned from ear to ear. “Which other mug can we get to judge the contest?”

“I have to ring Katy later. I could invite her over for the weekend, I suppose.”

Charlie laughed. “You better not tell her what we have planned. She’s sampled Tony’s cooking before, hasn’t she?”

“Why, you…” Tony picked up a piece of Charlie’s toast and stuffed it in his mouth before she had a chance to stop him.

Instead of ranting and raving as she once would have, Charlie shrugged and smiled. “I’m not surprised you want something edible in your stomach. Your efforts weren’t up to scratch, after all.”

Lorne laughed at the banter between her husband and daughter and marvelled at the difference in Charlie since she’d taken on the responsibility of running the kennels.
What a lucky woman I am.

“Right, less of this chit-chat. Some of us have work to do.” She gave Charlie a wink, left the table, and walked into the lounge, where she called Karen’s boss.

“Hello, is it possible to speak to Sheila Davison?” Lorne asked the bright-sounding secretary who had answered her call.

“She’s with a client at the moment. Can I take a message?”

“Could you ask her to call Lorne Warner as soon as she’s free, please?”

“Of course. Can I ask what it’s concerning?”

“It’s regarding one of her employees.”

“I’ll give her the message and ask her to contact you as soon as she’s free.”

“Thank you.” Lorne hung up and paced the lounge while she waited for the solicitor to ring back. The call came through ten minutes later.

“Hello, Ms. Warner. This is Sheila Davison.”

“Ah, Ms. Davison, thanks for calling back so promptly. I was wondering if you had time for a quick chat about Karen Meldrew.”

“Of course. Do you mind me asking who you are?”

“I’ve been hired as a private investigator by her sister, Stacy, to look into the case.”

“I see. Well, I’ll do anything I can to help find Karen. She’s a lovely girl. Where do you want to start? Would it be better to do this in person? I don’t have another appointment for an hour or so.”

“In person would be better. I could be there in half an hour.”

“Good, I’ll see you then.”

Lorne glanced up to see Tony leaning against the doorframe. “I take it we’re going out now.”

“Off in five, if that’s all right with you.”

“No problem. I’ve just got to move a couple of bags of dog food in the kennels for Charlie, and I’ll be with you.”

•\ \ \ \ \ •\ \ \ \ \ •

Sheila Davison greeted them with a sadness-tinged smile. After shaking hands, she invited Lorne and Tony to take a seat opposite her in her small office.

“How can I help?”

“You can tell me if you’ve noticed any change in Karen recently?”

“Nothing that I can think of. Karen’s worked for me for the past five years. Exemplary attendance and work record. If there had been anything out of the ordinary, at least one of those things would have slipped, wouldn’t it?” The woman picked up her fountain pen and placed the lid on it before setting it back down on the ink blotter in front of her.

Lorne nodded. “Have you employed any new members of staff lately? I’m wondering if there has been a conflict of sorts that I should be aware of?”

“No. We’re a small firm, and the staff have worked with me for years. Times are tough. If anything, I’ve had to lay some staff off, not take any extra on. Things would have to be pretty drastic around here for me to sack Karen. Like I’ve said already, her work is exemplary.”

“Oh well, I guess that draws a line under that possible issue. Have you noticed any change in her at all over the past few weeks? Anything?”

“Thinking about it, she seemed brighter in herself, more confident, I suppose I’d have to say. I never really got around to asking her why.”

“When did you notice the change in her?”

“That’s hard to say. Maybe a month or so ago. I could have a word with the other members of my staff to see if they can come up with anything. Maybe she confided in one of them.”

Lorne smiled. “That would be great.”

Sheila Davison left her office and returned wearing a frown.