She stared at me for a moment, and then she left the room. Wow… did it feel good that she just accepted me bossing her around like that? Yeah it did. She needed looking after, and I planned to do just that.
Those pills were hitting me harder than expected, but then when did I last even eat? This case was fucking with my life, big time.
While Julie was upstairs, I dialled the number that Jeff had given me when he emailed.
“Adam?”
He’d obviously entered my details into his phone. That sped things up a bit.
“Yeah, hi Jeff. Sorry it’s taken a while to touch base. Had a bit of a run in this morning, and I’m currently highly medicated, but I can let you know that we’ve had the results back from tracing phones for Harvey and Lenore.”
I heard him hiss in a breath. “Have you found him?”
Julie’s dainty footsteps started on the stairs, coming back to me, in those fluffy pyjamas, I hoped.
“Not yet, sir. I’ll email you the tracking info that we found, but his phone has been off for some time now. It may not be anything to worry about. He could simply have lost his phone, or even changed the phone and number, if there was an issue with the old one. He headed out of town, into Oxfordshire, but that’s where the trail ends. I’m going to touch base with the police there tomorrow, and see what shakes loose.”
Jeff sighed. “I suppose that’s a start. I’d hoped this would yield faster results.” Yeah, you and me both, mate. In some ways, this job would get easier when the fucking corpse showed up.
“With regard to Lenore, she’s currently in the South of France, at some place I can’t even try to pronounce, but she’s been there almost a week. This could be why you’re not getting through to her. You know what signals are like in the rural areas.”
Jeff was silent for a moment. “And Harvey’s phone didn’t ping there too?”
If it had, he’d be dead there instead, not that any of them are even there. I smiled at Julie as she reappeared. In different fleecy pyjamas. With fucking kittens on. I dragged her into my lap, ignoring her protests, while I wrapped up my call.
“I’m sorry, Jeff, no. Doesn’t mean he isn’t somewhere nice. Just means we’ll have to try a little harder. I’ll email both reports to you, anyway. You can have a read, and see if any of it helps. Tomorrow I’m hopefully meeting with a representative from the insurance company Harvey used for the shop. They may have heard from him, but they won’t tell me over the phone. Probably not face to face either, but it’s worth a try.”
It was bullshit. Of course I wasn’t going there. No way in hell they’d tell me a damn thing. And they shouldn’t. I mean, I could be anybody. I could be a bad guy. Maybe I’d already crossed that line.
I moved my head, and the room shifted oddly to the side. Fucking pills.
“Anyway, I will check in again tomorrow. I need to sleep off these fucking pills. Take care, Jeff, and remember to keep in touch, if you see or hear anything relevant.”
I ended the call, and tipped my head back against the cushions behind me.
“Are the pills too strong?”
I shook my head, and the room swam a little again.
“I’m fine, my little angel. They’re hitting a little hard, that’s all. Or maybe they’re mingling with the scotch I used as a painkiller earlier.”
She slapped my chest. “You’re not supposed to drink alcohol with them!”
I opened my eyes, my eyebrows shooting up, making me wince.
“Ahem… who are you beating up on here? I’ve had my fill of that today!”
She glanced at something behind me, and shook her head.
“I’m being a dummy. I bet you haven’t eaten. Let me get you something.” She tried to slide off my lap again, and I pulled her back against my chest.
“You don’t have to do anything for me, okay? Just let me hold you a while.”