No Hiding Place: An edge of your seat mystery/thriller. (DI Sally Parker thrillers Book 2) (10 page)

“Perfect. We really appreciate
your assistance. It’s important we catch the culprit who attacked
Gemma quickly. If this man is innocent, it’s just as important for
us to discount him from our enquiries ASAP.”

He nodded and set about his
task. Sally and Jack left the room to give him the space he needed
to work. “Want to drop by this bloke’s house tonight?” Jack
asked.

Sally winked at her partner.
“If his place is near, we might as well.”

“Thought you might say that,”
Jack grumbled good-naturedly.

“So glad I didn’t disappoint
you, Jack.”

Bill walked out of the office,
handed the CD case to Sally, and marched up the corridor back into
the bar area. “Take a seat there, and I’ll ask Terence to join you
in a sec.”

Sally and Jack waited another
minute or two for the young man with spiky red hair to sit down
opposite them.

“The boss tells me you want to
have a quick chat about Taylor Hew.”

“That’s right. Do you know him
well?” Sally asked.

Jack flipped open his notebook
and began taking notes.

“I know
of
him. Couldn’t
really say that I know him well. What’s he done?” he asked,
grinning cheekily.

“We just want to have a chat
with him. Do you know what car he drives?” Sally batted away the
young man’s question with one of her own.

“One of those posh sporty cars.
Sorry, cars aren’t really my thing.”

“Do you think it might be a
Porsche?” Jack prompted him. “Everyone knows what a Porsche looks
like.”

The man’s eyes widened. “Er…
not me, sorry. Not unless you tell me what colour it is. I’m good
with colours. That’s about all, though.”

“The thing is, it’s hard to
make out the colour of the car on the CCV footage we’ve viewed.
Never mind, we’ll do a check on the database tomorrow and see what
we come up with. Bill told us you thought the man was local.”

“Sort of. He’s not a regular
here but pops in now and again. I can’t give you his exact address,
but I know it’s around the Ketteringham area. I think I overheard
him mention that he was looking at buying a property close to where
he lives now, and Ketteringham came up in the conversation.”

“That’s great. I don’t suppose
you happen to know where he works.”

“I think he’s one of these
up-and-coming property-developer types.”

“Okay, that’s a start at least.
Is he married?”

The young man shrugged and
shook his head. “That, I can’t tell you.”

“Never mind. You’ve been really
helpful. We’ll let you get back to work now.” All three of them
rose from their seats. Sally waved at the owner of the pub and
mouthed goodbye to him.

Outside Jack asked, “Do you
want me to get on to control for his address?”

Sally looked at her watch. “Why
not? Mum’s going to be pissed off with me being late anyway. What
does another few minutes matter? Are you all right to
continue?”

“Shit happens. This is
important, boss. We need to chase it up ASAP.”

“I’m glad you agree. You call
the station, and I’ll ring my mother.” They stood at opposite ends
of Sally’s car and placed their calls. “Mum, it’s me. Sorry, I’m
going to be held up.”

“That’s all right, dear. I’ll
dish up ours and put yours aside for when you get here. Nothing
major wrong, I hope?”

“It could be, Mum. I’ll tell
you all about it later. Thanks for understanding. Sorry for messing
you around. See you later.” Sally ended the call as Jack joined
her.

“Okay, I have his address. Want
to take the two cars again?”

“Makes sense, and then we can
go our separate ways afterwards.”

“I’ll lead the way then,” Jack
suggested.

Sally waited for Jack to drive
past her. She tailed him through the windy country lanes until they
finally arrived at Taylor Hew’s address. The gated house was
spectacular; white with rounded windows sitting under an impressive
reed-thatched roof. Jack joined her as she got out of her car.
“Bloody hell. I think I’m in the wrong career.”

“We both are, Jack. I can’t see
his car anywhere. Can you?”

“It could be in a garage. Hard
to see what’s on the other side of the wall from here. Let me try
the intercom.”

Sally got up close to the gate
and strained her neck when she tried to look around the front wall,
alongside the gates, of the impressive house. It proved to be a
waste of time.

“No answer. Looks like your
first assumption was accurate. Maybe he’s out on the prowl for his
next victim.”

“You can cut that out, matey.
We don’t know he’s guilty of anything other than talking to Gemma
yet. Let’s hold fire on casting such aspersions for now, okay?”

Jack shrugged. “Okay. What do
you want to do now?”

“We should call it a day. Maybe
get on to the station again, ask uniform to keep an eye out for the
car. There can’t be that many Porsches in the area. We can come
back tomorrow to question Taylor Hew.”

Sally got out of the car at her
parents’ home and paused when she heard the commotion coming from
the kitchen. She slipped her key in the door and stood in the
hallway, listening to her parents arguing. Dex ran up the hallway
to greet her. She placed a finger to her mouth and told her
faithful companion to be quiet. He rolled over and demanded a tummy
tickle while she continued to listen to the confrontation her
parents were having.

“Don’t give me that same old
excuse, Christopher. That bloody job has been half-completed for
months now. I’m fed up with tripping over that damn pipework. You
promised
me you’d have it finished by the start of the
summer, and now we’re swiftly moving into the autumn.”

“But, Janine, you know my
circumstances. The paid work has to come first. Either that or the
bank is liable to repossess the house.”

“And whose bloody fault is
that? I told you—no, I
begged
you—not to take out that
blasted loan last year. I’m nearing sixty, for Christ’s sake! The
last thing I wanted was any kind of mortgage or loan around my neck
at my age. I should never have listened to you in the first
place.”

Sally’s eyes teared up. She had
no idea her parents were riddled with debt. She knew her father had
been ripped off by someone he’d carried out some building work for
the previous year, but her parents had kept from her the fact that
they were short of money. She wished she could help them out
financially, but Darryl had left her high and dry in that respect.
Hence the tiny flat in Norwich.

Dex’s moaning increased. He was
such a sensitive soul; hated the sound of raised voices. Sally
decided that she’d heard enough and walked into the kitchen, where
she found her parents on opposite sides of the room, glaring at
each other.

Her mother’s mouth dropped open
the second she saw Sally. Recovering well, she said, “Hello,
darling, not as late as you anticipated then, after all.”

“Cut the crap, Mum. I heard you
arguing. Why didn’t you tell me things were so bad?”

Her father cleared his throat
then threw himself into a chair at the table. “To be frank with
you, love, it’s none of your concern. You’ve had more than enough
shit of your own to deal with this year. Why should we heap our
burdens on your young shoulders, too?”

Sally walked over, placed a
gentle arm around her mother’s shoulder, and guided her to the
table. After pushing her into the chair next to her father, Sally
sat down opposite them and reached for each of their hands. Her
father’s was hot and sticky, which immediately caused her to worry
about his heart. He’d had serious health issues over recent years
and was still under the specialist. “Okay, you guys need to listen
very carefully to what I have to say, without interruptions.”

Both her parents nodded and
took turns sighing heavily.

“We’ll listen, although I have
a feeling we’re going to feel like chastised children at the end of
our little chat,” her mother said, her own eyes moist with
tears.

“If you think that, Mum, then
you really don’t know me well.”

Her mother opened her mouth to
speak again, but Sally issued her a warning glance, and her mother
reconsidered her actions.

“I’m disappointed that you have
let things slip to this stage. You should have told me, even asked
my advice. Whether you care to admit it or not, I’m a grown woman,
not a child anymore. Yes, I’ve had my problems this year. However,
that doesn’t mean that I have to wallow in self-pity and ignore
what is piling high on your plates at the moment. If you need
financial help, then I’m going to give it to you. No arguments, you
hear me? Don’t answer that—it was a rhetorical question. Thanks to
your kindness, I moved in a few months back when I was in trouble.
If you’ll have me back, I propose giving up my teeny-weeny flat and
move in here. How about that? Will you have me?”

Tears flowed freely from her
mother’s eyes, and she grabbed her husband’s hand. “Only if you’re
one hundred percent sure, darling.”

“I agree, with one
stipulation,” her father stated.

Sally tilted her head. “What’s
that, Dad?”

“That your name goes on the
deeds of the house.”

Her mother glanced sharply his
way then back at Sally. “What a great idea. That would work well
for all of us.”

“I was going to suggest that I
should take over the mortgage payments. I’m doubtful about my name
appearing on the deeds, though.”

Her mother’s beautiful smile
returned, pushing aside the tension that had crumpled her forehead
moments earlier. “It makes sense. Although, I do think we should
contemplate going halves on the mortgage repayments. I’d hate to
feel as though we were using you, love.”

“No, Mum. It’s all or nothing.
I take it the house would be left to me in your wills anyway, so
all we’ll be doing is bringing the date forward, yes?”

Her father left his chair and
circled the table. He pulled Sally to her feet and squeezed her in
a suffocating hug. “I can’t thank you enough for this, love. If it
hadn’t been for that bastard ripping me off last year, we wouldn’t
be in this mess. That’ll teach me not to trust folk again.”

“No good blaming yourself, Dad.
Doing this will benefit all of us in the long run. I miss you guys
and the little man over there.” Sally looked over at Dex curled up
on his bed, eyeing them all, wondering what was going on. “I’ll
make an appointment to see the bank manager as soon as I can,
although I have another big case to contend with as of today. I’ll
tell you about it after dinner. Come on, Mum, shake a leg. I’m
ravenous.”

“Cheeky! It’s all ready, love.
It just needs zapping for a few minutes. Christopher, I know we
don’t usually drink during the week, but this is cause for a
celebration. Break open that good bottle of wine we’ve been saving
for a special occasion.”

Sally’s father didn’t need
telling twice. While Sally took the glasses from the glass cupboard
in the kitchen, her father sought out and opened the nice bottle of
Chateauneuf-du-Pape Sally herself had bought her parents a few
years earlier.

What started out as a gloomy
evening turned into a lovely family get-together full of happy
memories. Bedtime loomed before Sally realised she hadn’t told her
parents about the case she was working on. After inviting herself
to stay in the spare room, she decided to leave the conversation
until the morning.

She sorted out a suitable
change of clothes from the spare outfits she kept at the house then
spent the night cuddled up to Dex. He moaned contentedly in her
arms until they both fell asleep.

Sally left the house at seven
thirty the next morning. The storm clouds that accompanied her to
work did little to spoil her happy mood. Her heart was lighter
after she’d seen the broad smiles plastered on her parents’ faces,
over the swift breakfast she’d consumed at her mother’s
insistence.

Jack’s car was already in the
car park when she arrived, so she made her way up to the incident
room alone for a change. “Morning, Jack. Find a snake in your bed
or something?”

“Ha, ha! I’ve been known to
arrive before you on a few occasions. No need to make a big deal
out of it.”

“That’ll be
very
few
occasions. Any news on Taylor Hew from the night patrol?”

“Nothing. He didn’t return home
last night. Should we go out there this morning?”

“That’s what I was thinking,
unless something major crops up. Want a coffee?”

“Thanks.”

Sally walked over to the
vending machine and bought two coffees. She placed one on Jack’s
desk and took the other one through to her office to aid her in her
attempt to tackle the morning post. About an hour into the chore,
Sally’s office phone rang. “Hello, DI Parker.”

“Ma’am, we had an incident
reported overnight that I think you should be aware of,” the female
voice on control informed her.

“What kind of incident? A
murder?”

“No, ma’am. It does look like
an attempted murder, though. The victim is in hospital.”

“And you think this is related
to the murder enquiry we’re dealing with at the moment?”

“I think there are
similarities, ma’am. Thought you should know right away.”

“Okay, I’ll look into it. Give
me the details of the attack and the hospital the victim is
in.”

After jotting down the details
of the incident, Sally hung up and shouted for Jack to join
her.

He swiftly appeared in the
doorway, wearing one of his notorious frowns. “You hollered,
boss?”

“Get ready to go, Jack. I’ve
just been informed about a brutal attack on a young woman. The
attack took place down a country lane. Sound familiar?”

“Bloody hell. Are we talking
about the same vicinity here?”