Disappeared Read Online Free Page A

hedges.
    A mushroomy smell vied with the oversweet scent of rotten damsons as Daly climbed out of his car. He was confronted by a gaunt woman in her sixties, wearing a voluminous dressing robe. Even in the dark with the wind blowing Eliza Hughes’s gray hair across her face, the fear could still be seen shining in her eyes. At first Daly thought she might be deranged, but when she started speaking, her voice was sharp and clear.
    “I’ve checked the outhouses and the fields. There’s no sign anywhere. It’s no use, he’s long gone.”
    She brought Daly into the house and, flourishing a key, unlocked the door into the missing man’s bedroom. It reminded Daly more of an interrogation room than a bedroom, with its bare walls devoid of photos or decoration, the tiny window and the bright shadeless bulb hanging from the middle of the ceiling. In the center of the room was a bed with security bars and a pressure mat laid out on the floor. On a small dressing table, a candle had burned out with a pile of paper ashes stuffed around the wick. Something about the candle struck him as odd, but he could not quite place what it was.
    “What happened?” he asked.
    “I put David to bed at the usual time, raised the bars, and switched on the pressure mat. It should have triggered an alarm if he slid out.”
    “And it was switched on?”
    She nodded.
    “Your brother is an ill man?” asked Daly surveying the room.
    “He has dementia. Some days he doesn’t even remember where he is and confuses me with our mother. I’ve asked for more help but you know what social services are like. Anyway, David would never have coped with life in a nursing home.”
    Daly checked the back door and saw that it had been splintered with a crowbar. It was reasonable to conclude that burglars had indeed entered the property. He took Eliza by the arm and sat her at the kitchen table.
    “It appears that your house has been burgled, Miss Hughes. Have you checked your valuables?”
    “There’s nothing of any worth here. All they took was his medication and clothing,” she replied.
    “There is also the possibility that your brother woke up in a confused state and simply walked out after the burglars, whoever they were,” suggested Daly.
    She got up and busied herself making tea. “They’ve taken him away. They’ve been watching us for weeks.”
    “Who?”
    “I have no idea. But there was a storm one night last week. A cow broke loose and went on the rampage, tearing up the back garden and knocking over pots. I chased it back up the field and phoned its owner.”
    She handed Daly a weak cup of tea.
    “While I was up there I found a hole had been cut in the hedge. There were cigarette stubs and footprints in the ground. Ever since then I’ve felt there was someone out in the dark who shouldn’t be there.”
    “Do you have anything of value in the house?”
    “Nothing beyond what’s sentimental. My brother spent his life going to church, tending his farm, and hunting ducks in the winter. He treated his fields as God’s allotment. Work was its own reward.”
    Daly nodded but thought of all the bachelor farmers who had died leaving a small fortune squirreled away in their mattresses.
    “If your brother was taken away against his will, surely he would have made some noise or struggle?”
    She looked at him blankly. “Unless he was unconscious.”
    “Can you think of anyone who might want to do something like this to an old man?”
    “No. David kept on good terms with everyone. Before he took ill.”
    Daly surveyed the sparse bedroom again. Old age had few comforts or pleasant surprises. Perhaps the old man was terrified of illness and death and had done a bunk. Daly thought of all the times he wouldn’t have minded dropping out of his own life, at least for a while.
    He left Eliza in the kitchen and walked out into the darkness. In the low huddle of outhouses, the beam of his torch picked out rusty chunks of machinery, an overturned