Simon Kernick - Deadline

'Mr Daroyce and his people are currently under surveillance, so if they are involved, we'll know about it very quickly.' Bolt paused. 'But our source tells us that your husband phoned Daroyce last Sunday night, saying he was going to get him his money in the next few days. That was only two days before the kidnapping.'

'So you're saying he is involved?' she asked, her voice cracking.

'We have to face up to the possibility that he is, yes.'

'He wouldn't do this, you know. He really cares for her.'

The room fell silent. Bolt leaned forward in his seat.

'What we keep coming back to, Andrea, is that if your husband wasn't a part of this conspiracy, how did the kidnappers know his and Emma's movements? We think the abduction happened in the car park of the dental surgery where Emma had her appointment.'

Andrea's eyes filled with tears. 'Don't use that word, abduction. It makes it seem, I don't know, like some paedophile snatched her and she's not coming back.'

'I'm sorry. Snatched. But the point is, the kidnappers knew she was going to be there. And we need to know how.'

Marie came back into the room with the coffee for Mo and Andrea. Andrea waved hers away.

'Who's got access to this house, Mrs Devern?' asked Mo, taking his coffee and thanking Marie. 'And who knows the code to your burglar alarm, aside from you, Mr Phelan and your daughter?'

'No one except the cleaner, and she's been doing the house for years.'

As Mo took down the cleaner's details, Bolt's mobile rang. It was the surveillance team leader. Bolt excused himself and walked to the other side of the room out of earshot.

'We've got an IC1 female stopping at Mrs Devern's security gate. Black hair, early forties. She'll be ringing the bell any moment now.'

The buzzer sounded in the hallway, and Matt Turner poked his head round the living-room door.

'Are we expecting anyone?' Bolt asked him.

'Not that I'm aware of.'

'OK, ignore it, then. Let's hope they go away.'

A few seconds later the buzzer sounded again, longer this time.

'Oh shit,' said the surveillance team leader down the phone.

'What is it?'

'She's unlocking the gate, and now she's coming through.'

Bolt cursed. This was the problem with operating out of a private address. He hung up as the key turned in the lock and the front door opened.

'Andrea?' came a woman's voice, followed immediately by an accusatory 'Who are you?' as she saw Turner.

'It's all right, Isobel, I'm in here,' Andrea called out, getting to her feet quickly. 'It's my business partner,' she added by way of explanation.

Bolt and Mo exchanged glances as Isobel Wheeler, the other half of Feminine Touch Health and Beauty Spas, came into view. She was a striking woman in her mid-forties whose shoulder-length black hair and olive skin suggested eastern Mediterranean parentage. She was wearing a short black dress that finished halfway down her thigh, and which Bolt thought would have suited a slightly younger woman, and black high-heeled court shoes. She didn't do a lot for Bolt, but he could see why some men might go for her.

Isobel and Andrea greeted each other with a kiss on both cheeks.

'I came to see whether you were feeling any better,' Isobel said, breaking away and surveying the room with a cool confidence that was only a hair's breadth short of arrogance. 'What's going on? Who are all these people?'

Bolt opened his mouth to reply but Andrea beat him to it. 'Pat's gone missing,' she said worriedly. 'I haven't seen him for days.'

Isobel looked shocked. 'Is that why you haven't been in this week? You weren't ill, then?'

Andrea shook her head. 'No. I've been waiting for him to come home, and he hasn't. The police are looking for him.'

'What do you think's happened? Did you have an argument or something?' There was something accusatory in Isobel's tone.

'No, it wasn't like that. He just didn't come home one night. I don't know what's happened.'

Isobel turned to Bolt. 'Why aren't you out there looking for him?'

'I don't believe we've been introduced,' he said coolly. 'You are?'

'Isobel Wheeler,' she snapped. 'Why aren't you looking for him?'

Bolt didn't like this woman at all, but knew better than to react to her rudeness.

'We are looking for him,' he explained calmly, 'but unfortunately there's no law against a man leaving his house, even for an extended period of time, and at the moment there's no suggestion of foul play.'

'Pat wouldn't just walk out,' she said firmly.

'You know him well, do you?'

'I know him well enough,' she said curtly before turning back to Andrea. 'And you can't think where he might be, Andi?'

Once again, Andrea shook her head. 'I've tried everywhere. I've got no idea where he is, or why he went.'

Bolt was impressed by the way she was holding up, but he also found the smooth and natural manner in which she lied unnerving.

Isobel stared at Andrea for a couple of seconds, then leaned forward and gave her a hug.

'Do you want me to stay here with you?' she asked.

'I'll be all right, I promise.'

'Keep me posted of progress, OK?'

'Of course I will.'

'And don't worry about anything at work; it's all being sorted.'

Andrea managed a weak smile. 'Thanks, Iz. I appreciate it.'

'Now, if you'll excuse us, Miss Wheeler,' said Bolt, 'there are details we need to take down from Mrs Devern.'

Isobel nodded brusquely. 'Call me,' she told Andrea, then pushed past Turner and walked back out into the hallway.

Bolt followed her out and opened the front door for her.

'Have you any idea what's happened to him?' Isobel whispered as she stepped past him on to the steps. 'I mean, really? Because four police officers seems an awful lot to come round to take a missing person's details.'

Bolt shook his head. 'No, we haven't, I'm afraid.'

She gestured in the direction of the living room. 'Watch her,' she said, but before Bolt could ask her to elaborate she'd turned and walked away down the garden path.

Bolt watched her go, wondering what she meant. And wondering too why at no point had she asked where Emma was.

'I thought you said only the cleaner had access to the house, Mrs Devern,' said Mo as Bolt reentered the living room.

Andrea was back on the sofa, looking flustered. 'Sorry, I forgot that I'd given a key to Isobel. It was last year. I asked her to check the place while we were on holiday.'

'And there's definitely no one else we should know about?'

She shook her head firmly. 'Definitely not.'

Bolt thought of what Isobel had said on the doorstep.

'Do the two of you get on well?' he asked.

Andrea nodded. 'Well enough. She's my business partner. I've known her for years.' Then her expression changed. 'You're not saying she's got something to do with this as well, are you? First you accuse Pat-'

'No, no,' he said hastily, 'of course not. But we don't think this is a random act. If your husband wasn't involved, we still need to know how the people targeting you knew your movements, and one of the ways would be by bugging your house.'

'But you said you found no bugs.'

'There were none when we looked this morning, but if someone other than you had access, they could have removed any listening devices.'

'Jesus, this is ridiculous. Isobel's a lawyer, not something out of MI5. What would she gain by any of this?'

'We're just trying to cover every angle, that's all,' he said, knowing that if he told her about Isobel's affair with her husband it would probably prove the last straw.

Andrea reached over to the coffee table and picked up her cigarettes again, taking one out of the pack and lighting it.

'Mike,' she said, looking him squarely in the eye, 'is there something you're not telling me?'