I Found You Read Online Free Page B

was.’
    Lily breathes in hard. She must try harder, she reminds herself, harder to be pleasant. ‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘I’m feeling very stressed. Last night was the first time we’ve spent a night apart. I didn’t sleep. Not one minute.’ She waves her hands about, desperately, before bringing them back into her lap.
    The WPC softens when she sees the tears filming across Lily’s eyes and squeezes her hand gently.
    ‘So.’ She takes her hand back. ‘You got the text at five last night. Then . . . ?’
    ‘Nothing. Nothing. I rang him first just after six, then again and again and again until his phone ran out of charge.’
    The WPC pauses for a moment and Lily gets the feeling that it is finally sinking in, that for the first time since Carl didn’t come home last night someone believes that he might actually be missing and not in another woman’s bed.
    ‘Where does he catch his train from?’
    ‘Victoria.’
    ‘And always the same one?’
    ‘Yes. The five oh six to East Grinstead.’
    ‘Which arrives in Oxted at?’
    ‘Five forty-four. Then it is a fifteen-minute walk from the station to here. So he is home at five fifty-nine. Every night. Every night.’
    ‘And do you work, Mrs Monrose?’
    ‘No. I study.’
    ‘Whereabouts?’
    ‘Here. It’s a correspondence course. Accounting. It’s what I was studying at home, in the Ukraine. I left college to be here, with Carl. So, now I finish what I started.’ She shrugs.
    ‘And how long have you been here? In the UK?’
    ‘One week. And three days.’
    ‘Wow,’ says the WPC. ‘Not long.’
    ‘No. Not long.’
    ‘Your English is excellent.’
    ‘Thank you. My mother is a translator. She made sure I could speak it as well as she does.’
    The WPC puts the lid on her pen and looks at Lily thoughtfully. ‘How did you meet?’ she says. ‘You and your husband?’
    ‘Through my mother. She was translating at a financial services conference in Kiev. They needed people to look after the delegates – you know, show them about, get them taxis, that kind of thing. I needed the cash. I was put in charge of Carl and some of his colleagues. It was obvious from minute one that I would marry him. From minute one.’
    The WPC stares at Lily, seemingly mesmerised. ‘Wow,’ she says. ‘Wow.’
    ‘Yes,’ says Lily. ‘It was very wow.’
    ‘OK.’ The policewoman slips the pen into her pocket and folds up her notepad. ‘I’ll see what I can do. Not sure we’ve got quite enough yet to open this up as a missing person. But call again if he doesn’t show up tonight.’
    Lily’s heart drops, brick-heavy inside her. ‘What?’
    ‘I’m sure it’s nothing sinister,’ the WPC says. ‘Honestly. Nine times out of ten it’s just something completely innocuous. I’m sure he’ll be home before bedtime.’
    ‘Really?’ she says. ‘I know you don’t believe that. I know you believe me. I know you do.’
    The WPC sighs. ‘Your husband, he’s a grown man. He’s not vulnerable. I can’t open a case. But I tell you what, I’ll check his details against our database, see ifanyone matching his description has been brought in for any reason.’
    Lily clutches her heart. ‘Brought in?’
    ‘Yes. You know. Brought into the police station. For questioning. And I’ll cross-reference with local hospitals. See if they’ve treated him.’
    ‘Oh God.’ Lily has been picturing this all night long. Carl under the wheels of a bus, stabbed and left for dead in an underpass, floating face down in the dark water of the River Thames.
    ‘It’s all I can do for now.’
    Lily realises that the WPC is doing her a favour and manages a smile. ‘Thank you,’ she says. ‘I really appreciate that.’
    ‘I’ll need a photo, though. Do you have a recent one?’
    ‘Yes, yes, of course.’ Lily fumbles with her handbag, opens her purse, pulls out the photo-booth snap she has in there: Carl looking serious and handsome. She passes it to the WPC, expecting her to pass some