LITMIR.BIZ

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meaning her husband?’

      ‘Apparently.’ Only day one of the investigation and Sally already sounded weary.

      They abandoned their car at the side of the road and walked the short distance to the driveway of the house. Sean stopped and looked around, silently surveying every inch of the house and street, looking up as well as at eye level. Only cops looked up as they walked. Many of the surrounding houses had lights on although it wasn’t fully dark – people still used to the habits of winter. Sean searched the windows without thinking, his eyes waiting to be attracted to something they hadn’t yet seen. Across the street a curtain twitched as his eyes passed – a neighbour who’d been spying on them guiltily trying to disguise their curiosity. Good, Sean thought, nosy neighbours were often the best witnesses. Sometimes they were the only witnesses. He made a mental note to shake up the neighbour’s world as soon as he’d finished with Russell.

      He turned towards the house and saw Sally was already waiting for him at the front door. Impatience was not a trait he’d associated with Sally until Gibran almost ripped the life from her. He reasoned that, like most people who’d sailed too close to death, she could no longer bear to waste a second of life. He strode to the front door faster than he wanted to and reached for the bell before hesitating and using his fist to pound on the door instead.

      ‘That doorbell must have been pressed a hundred times since she was taken,’ Sally told him. ‘If indeed she was taken. Any forensic use it might have had is long gone.’

      ‘Good practice is good practice,’ was all he said.

      A silhouette inside the house moved quickly to the door and opened it without caution. A tall slim white man in his early thirties stood in front of them. He looked tired and despondent. Everything about him reeked of desperation, not least the way he rushed to the door. He looked disappointed to see them. Sean knew he’d been hoping it was his wife, coming home to beg forgiveness for her infidelity, forgiveness he was all too willing to offer. ‘Yes?’ he said, his voice no less strained than his body and face.

      ‘John Russell?’ Sally asked.

      ‘Yes,’ he confirmed.

      ‘Police,’ Sally informed him bluntly. ‘We’re here about your wife.’

      Sean saw the blood drain from Russell’s face and knew what he was thinking. ‘It’s all right,’ he tried to explain. ‘She’s still missing.’ He watched Russell start to breathe again and held his warrant card at eye level so that even through his panic Russell could see it clearly. ‘Detective Inspector Corrigan and this is Detective Sergeant Jones.’ Sally’s face remained blank. ‘May we come in?’

      Locked in his moment of private torment, Russell took a few seconds to react and step aside. ‘Sorry. Of course. Please, please come in.’ He closed the door behind them and led the way to a comfortable kitchen-diner.

      Sean glanced at the bric-a-brac of the couple’s lives: photographs of holidays together, more elaborately framed photographs of their wedding taking the prime spots on side tables and hallway walls. They looked happy living their unextraordinary lives, content with their lot, blissfully ignorant of the things he saw every day. He guessed they were planning to have children soon.

      ‘Would either of you like a drink?’ Russell offered.

      ‘No thanks. We’re fine.’ Sean spoke for both of them. ‘We just wanted to ask you a few questions about your wife, Louise.’

      ‘OK,’ Russell agreed. Sean could tell he was nervous, but not in a way that suggested guilt.

      ‘When did you last see her?’ Sean asked.

      ‘Tuesday morning. I left for work at about eight thirty and she was still here, but when I got home she wasn’t.’

      ‘And that was unusual?’

      ‘She nearly always got home before me. I work longer hours.’

      ‘Did she say she was going out after work? Maybe you didn’t hear her when she told you. Maybe you were distracted. We all live busy lives, Mr Russell,’ Sean suggested. ‘My wife reckons I only hear about a third of what she actually says.’

      ‘No,’ Russell insisted. ‘We don’t live like that. If she’d been going somewhere or if she was going to be late she would have made sure I knew and I would have remembered. This is all a waste of time anyway. She didn’t go out for a night out with her friends and she hasn’t run off with another man. If you knew her, you wouldn’t think that, you’d be looking for her.’

      ‘We are looking for her,’ Sean reassured him. ‘That’s why we’re here and that’s why I have to ask some difficult questions.’ Russell didn’t respond. ‘Even the people closest to us sometimes have secrets. If we can find out any secrets Louise had then maybe we can find her.’

      ‘Louise didn’t have secrets from me,’ Russell insisted.

      ‘What about you from her?’ Sally asked clumsily. It was a question that needed to be put, but not now. Not yet.

      Sean swallowed his frustration with Sally. ‘Maybe something that seemed innocent to you, but that you didn’t want her to know, something that might have upset her enough to make her want to be alone for a few days?’

      ‘Such as?’ Russell asked.

      ‘Anything,’ Sean answered. ‘An old girlfriend contacting you or a large bill you’ve been hiding from her because you didn’t want her to worry about it. Maybe she thought it was a breach of trust.’

      ‘No,’ Russell slammed the door of possibility shut. ‘There are no old girlfriends, no money worries. We’re careful.’

      Sean took a few seconds to consider before making his final judgement. Russell had nothing to do with his wife’s disappearance and couldn’t help Sean find her. There would be no secret lover and she wasn’t going to return in a couple of days telling anyone who would listen that she’d needed a little time alone. Something terrible had happened to her, something beyond her husband’s imagination, beyond almost everyone’s imagination. But not Sean’s.

      Despite the warmth of the central heating Sean felt the hairs on his arms and neck begin to tingle and rise. He found himself looking back towards the front door. He saw the faceless silhouette of a man coming through the door, knocking Louise Russell to the ground, somehow overpowering her and taking her, dragging her from her own home, the place she felt safest.

      He didn’t know how many seconds he’d been absent for when Sally’s voice dragged him back.

      ‘Guv’nor?’

      ‘What?’ he replied like a man caught daydreaming.

      ‘Anything else we need to know?’

      ‘Yes …’ Sean turned to Russell. ‘You said her car was missing too?’

      ‘That’s right,’ Russell answered. ‘That was when I realized something was wrong, when I saw her car wasn’t on the drive. I just had a bad feeling. Then I came inside and found her handbag and phone, but she wasn’t here. I’ve already given your colleagues a description of her car and registration number.’ Sean glanced at Sally, who confirmed with a quick nod of her head. ‘Is there anything else you need?’ Russell asked tiredly.

      ‘No,’ Sean told him. It was obvious the guy had had enough of giving the same answers to the same questions. ‘You’ve been really helpful, thanks.’ Russell said nothing. ‘If I could just ask you to try and avoid the hallway by the front door as much as possible until I can get our forensics people to have a look at it.’ Russell looked at him accusingly. ‘I like to be sure,’ Sean reassured him. ‘Check every possibility.’

      ‘If you think it’s necessary,’ Russell agreed.

      ‘Thank you,’ Sean said. ‘And one last thing, before I forget. Who is her best friend? Who would she confide in?’

      ‘Me,’

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