Chapter Seven
JULIE
I couldn’t believe the biker guy was also the investigator that Mr Clarke spoke to. Maybe he’d been worried, when he saw what was happening across the road from him. Or maybe he knew exactly who Mr Clarke was, before he ever spoke to him. Up close, he was just as intimidating. Large. Manly. Older. The right kind of older. The kind of older that made me want to snuggle into his arms, and let him hold me. Old enough that he’d know exactly how to make me scream his name.
And he was right beside me. When his knee had pressed against mine, I felt a wave of need. A need for him. It was crazy. I didn’t know anything about him. He could be an awful person, but my body warmed at his presence, nonetheless.
Slut! Don’t cheapen him, by letting your whoreish body touch him!
So I’d gasped, and he’d actually cared that I seemed uncomfortable. All the signs pointed to him not being as scary as he’d looked at first. He had light hair. The salt and pepper look. He was clean shaven. His eyes were a greyish blue colour. There was something so appealing about him.
“Are you okay?” He asked suddenly, and I realised that my intense scrutiny of his features hadn’t gone unnoticed. I know I blushed. I shuffled away from him, realising just how much closer I’d moved.
“Sorry. Long day at work. I’m shattered.”
He tilted his head. “What do you do?”
And here it comes. Cue the usual disappointed face. The usual ‘I wish I hadn’t asked’ expression. I really didn’t want to see it on his face.
“I work in an office. In accounting.” He raised his eyebrows. “Do you enjoy it?”
Nobody had ever asked me that before. Isn’t that strange? I smiled.
“Yes. I actually do. Wow. Nobody ever cared about that before.” His forehead creased into a frown, and I instantly regretted it.
“Sorry. I’m making no sense. Ignore me. I’m tired. I’ll fall into bed when I get home.”
He smirked, then looked for Mr Clarke again.
“It’s getting icy out there tonight too. You’ll need your wits about you, for the drive home.”
I looked away. “I don’t drive. But I’ll keep my wits about me when I walk home.” I forced a giggle after my words, so he wouldn’t realise how exhausting I already knew the walk would be.
“Happy to give you a lift home.” He said, a moment later.
Mr Clarke reappeared then, sliding another glass of wine in my direction, and a glass of coke for Adam. For himself, he had another of those dark drinks that I couldn’t identify.
We both thanked him, and he let out a sigh.
“I don’t know how any of this works. What do we do, Mr Teller?”
“Call me Adam, please.”
He sipped his coke, grimacing slightly.
“Well, first things first, you give me as much information on your son as you can. Friends, places he goes, anything you can think of that gives me places to start. I’ve got people I can get looking into trying to trace his phone, and that kind of stuff. The main thing is, I need to know everything you can tell me about Harvey. The more information I have, the better chance I have of tracking him down.”
He nodded. “Well, the only friend he has is a lady called Lenore. Lenore Williams. They’ve known each other a decade or more. She’s a good place to start, but I’ve been struggling to reach her. And now… now I’m starting to worry that the same thing has happened to her as well. First Julie’s friend vanished, and Harvey was helping look into it. Then he disappeared, and now Lenore isn’t answering. It might all be connected. My god. I need to mention this to the police.”
Adam held up a hand. “Just wait a minute. Look… it sounds complex. Send me everything you have on both of them. And Julie, can you give me everything you have on your missing friend? Once I’ve got everything, I can do all kinds of magic to find connections between them, and call in some favours from people you won’t have access to. Don’t jump to any conclusions. And please. Don’t involve the police too much. Believe it or not, that ties my hands. PIs aren’t required to be licenced in the UK. Not yet, at least. And that means we have absolutely no rights to work with, or request information from the police. The minute you get them on all of this, you’re ensuring that I won’t legally be allowed to look into any of it. But look at it this way. They’re understaffed, and crime is high. I’ll be exclusively focused on your case.”
Mr Clarke groaned. “Look I can give you a few days, and then I’m going to the police with everything. I can’t take risks with my son’s life.”
Adam nodded. “I completely understand. Email me what you have, at the contact info on the card I gave you. I’ll get on this straight away for you. I’ll keep you updated daily, and I’ll brief you on rates when I have all the info. You haven’t retained me yet, and I can’t work on anything, until I know as much as possible, and get you to sign a contract.”
Mr Clarke nodded. “I’ll do that. Julie, love, you need his business card too. So you can do the same.”
I turned to Adam, watching him reach into his jacket, retrieving a square piece of card. As he held it out to me, I prayed our hands would touch when I took it from him.