Dead Pretty - Samantha Towle Page 0,27

come get you.”

“Oh gosh. Yes, I’m coming now.” She rounds the desk.

I step back out of the doorway, allowing her through, and then I follow her back to the main desk, where Detective Sparks and Detective Peters are still waiting.

“Officers …” Margaret says, holding her hand out to shake theirs.

I stand just off to the side. Not too far away that I can’t hear their conversation, but enough that I’m no longer a part of it.

After their brief introductions are done, Margaret says, “You’re looking for Mike?”

“Yes,” Detective Sparks says. “We need to speak to him urgently. We’re told he’s not answering his cell?”

“That’s correct. I called this morning when he didn’t turn up for his shift. It’s not like Mike. In the two years he’s worked here, he’s always been on time. Never had a day off. So, it seemed odd that he hadn’t called. I left him a voice mail, asking him to call me back, but I still haven’t heard anything. I was going to go to his house later to check on him.”

“Speaking of his home, can I confirm his address with you?” Detective Peters says to Margaret.

“Of course.”

He hands Margaret a slip of paper.

“Yes, that’s Mike’s address,” she says, reading it before handing it back.

The detectives share a look that I can’t decipher.

“Can I ask what this is concerning? Is Mike okay?”

“It’s a police matter,” Detective Sparks answers curtly. “But the moment you hear from Mike, I want you to call the station immediately.” He takes a card from his pocket and places it on the desktop. “This is a central number, but ask for either myself or Detective Peters, and you’ll be put straight through to us.”

Margaret picks up the card, holding it to her chest. “Okay.”

“The moment you hear from him,” he emphasizes as though Margaret didn’t get the importance the first time.

“Thanks for your time,” Detective Peters says.

They both turn to leave, but then Detective Sparks stops and turns back. His eyes finding mine.

“I didn’t catch your name, Miss …” He steps back toward me.

Something in his tone makes my stomach turn over.

I swallow down. “Hayes. Audrey Hayes.”

He nods, as though he expected me to say that name all along. “A question, Miss Hayes … how did you know we were police officers?”

My eyes go to Detective Peters, who is standing where he stopped, and then back to Detective Sparks. I notice how dark and scarily intense his eyes are. “I’m sorry?” I respond, a little confused.

He smiles that awful smile again, a bemused look on his face. “When we first arrived, you greeted us by saying officers. Neither of us is uniformed or wearing badges.” He shrugs. “Curious, I’m just wondering how you knew we were police.”

He’s trying to put the question off as nothing. Just mere curiosity. But I know better.

I swallow again. It’s a nervous tell, but I can’t stop myself from doing it.

I shrug and smile the best I can. “A lucky guess.”

Detective Sparks stares at me a moment. “Most people would say it’s unlucky when we come calling.” He taps his fingers on the wooden desktop with finality. “Have a good day, Miss Hayes.”

And then they’re both gone, and I let out a breath that feels like it was trapped in my lungs for hours.

I’ve been distracted all day. Ever since that visit from the police and that detective’s parting words to me. He knows I have a past with the police, all because of my stupidity.

It will undoubtedly make him curious about me. And when he looks into my name and comes up dry, that will make him even more curious.

Because Hayes was my first surname. Before it was changed to Irwin when I was adopted.

When I moved here, I just went back to my old surname.

Audrey Irwin was the name that was in the news for months.

It was the name linked to the killings.

But it won’t be hard for a police officer to trace Audrey Hayes to Audrey Irwin.

Fucking. Fuck.

And even worse, Margaret shared information with me that she’d discovered not long after the police left—that Sarah Greenwood, the woman who had been murdered, was Mike’s girlfriend.

And now, he’s missing.

The assumption is that he killed her and is now on the run. But Margaret finds it hard to believe. She said Mike isn’t a killer. I don’t know the guy well enough to form an opinion.

The one thing I do know is, it’s always hard for people to accept that someone they know and care