hear anything from him, or if you hear anything about his whereabouts from a friend or relative, anything like that, OK?’
‘Thank you.’ Gemma stood up slowly and held out a hand first to Helena and then to Devon, a delicate silver bangle glinting on her wrist.
‘Thank you,’ she said again. ‘I really appreciate this.’
‘You’re welcome. And I know this is an easy thing for me to say but try not to worry too much. As I said, most people who go missing do turn up, and usually pretty quickly. We’ll let you know if we find anything. Devon will see you back out to reception. Take care now, OK?’
Gemma gave her a watery smile, and Devon led her out of the room.
When he returned, Helena was still sitting at the table, staring at the wedding photograph.
‘So – what do you think?’ he said.
She turned to look at him.
‘I don’t know. Yes, he fits the pattern, if there is one. Age, appearance. And they live in Clifton, very close to The Downs in fact, so the location fits too.’
She tapped the page where she’d written Gemma and Danny’s address. Devon sat down beside her, and there was silence for a few seconds as they both gazed at the smiling man in the picture, then Helena sighed.
‘Oh shit, I just don’t know, Devon. I mean, this guy’s only just moved here from London, there’s no way he can have any connection with the other two. We haven’t even found any connection between them yet, have we, other than their physical appearance? They worked in totally different fields, didn’t know each other, no friends or associates in common, nothing. This Danny works in IT, different again, and as he’s only just moved in …’
She sighed again.
Devon nodded slowly, eyes still fixed on the photograph.
‘I know, I know. It’s just so fricking weird that our murder victims look so alike, and now this guy too … but you’re right, guv. We have nothing at all to go on at the moment, do we? So, what do we do with this?’
She paused for a moment, thinking, then decided.
‘Right. Look, we don’t have a third body right now, do we, just a missing man. For now, anyway, and please God it stays that way. But at the same time, the similarity in appearance, the fact that he’s not contactable … so let’s run this as a sidebar to the main investigation. Mervin Elliott and Ryan Jones must be our priorities, OK? But can you take this on, just for twenty-four hours or so initially, until we see what’s what? And let’s keep everything crossed that he turns up, and that this is all a big coincidence.’
‘Sure. I’ll get onto it right away. Oh … and by the way, Muriel? Really?’ He grinned widely.
‘Shut up. And if that gets out, I’ll know exactly where it’s come from. Now get out of here.’
‘I’m going, I’m going. And your secret’s safe with me.’
Still grinning, he stood up and left the room. Helena’s eyes returned to the photograph on the table in front of her. Yes, it might well be just a coincidence that a man who looked like Danny O’Connor did had now gone missing. But there were suddenly too many damn coincidences floating around, and she didn’t like coincidences. Didn’t like them one little bit.
Chapter 5
I typed a full stop, then read the sentence I’d just written. Urgh, what a load of rubbish, I thought. It didn’t even make sense. I tapped the backspace key furiously, deleting the words, then pushed my wheelie chair back from my desk in frustration.
The room was stuffy, too warm, and I felt nauseous, my stomach churning, another night of little sleep leaving my head muzzy and my eyes sore. I’d dragged myself into the spacious bedroom I was using as a home office an hour earlier, really needing to get my article finished by lunchtime, but how could I concentrate on writing about the heavenly massages and delicious, fresh food I’d experienced at the spa on Friday when I was so desperately worried about my husband? I’d still heard nothing from him, my phone silent, my email inbox empty, and when I’d called the police first thing that morning, desperate to find out if they’d come up with anything, I’d been told, gently, that there was no news as yet, but that they’d be in touch as soon as they had something to report. And so I’d taken Albert out for a