‘Where?’
‘Not far from New Street station.’
‘Birmingham?’ she asked, scrunching up her nose. She shook her head. ‘He hates crowded places. Someone must have taken his car, stolen it and dumped it.’
‘The car was locked and didn’t appear to have been tampered with.’
‘Oh.’
Beth seemed to be forgetting the small matter of Gabriel withdrawing a large amount of money.
‘I’ve spoken with Craig, and Gabriel hasn’t been in touch with him.’
‘Why would he if he’s in hospital somewhere with amnesia?’
Oh dear, this was going to be harder than she’d thought. Maybe she could buy a little time until the penny dropped without her having to force it.
‘He told me they haven’t spoken since your wedding day.’
Beth closed her eyes for a second and shook her head. ‘Oh, it was just awful. We had a dance towards the end of the night and his hands were all over me, running up and down my body. I tried to get away from him, but he kept pulling me closer and telling me I’d married the wrong brother.’ She shuddered. ‘The memory still makes me nauseous. I ran to the bathroom trying to hide my tears, but one of his cousins saw me in there trying to get myself together. I refused to tell Gabe at first; they were brothers. I knew how close they were. I didn’t want to spoil that, but he just kept badgering me until I blurted it out. There was a huge argument and they haven’t spoken since.’
‘Did Gabriel ever talk about trying to patch things up?’
Beth shook her head. ‘He would never have placed me in the position of having to spend time around him. Just the thought of it makes my skin crawl. I’m sorry you wasted your time, but Gabe would never contact Craig.’
Stacey nodded her agreement.
‘So can you see on CCTV who drove the car? Maybe the direction in which they went?’
Stacey shook her head. ‘No CCTV on this particular car park. His passport wasn’t in the car, but his phone was.’
‘That proves someone must have taken him. Gabe would never just leave his phone.’
The penny hadn’t dropped and it was clear to Stacey that it wasn’t going to.
‘We think he did exactly that, Beth.’
‘Wh…What?’
‘Given that your husband withdrew a large sum of money on the morning he disappeared, parked his car close to a very busy train station and left his phone, it leads us to believe that Gabriel has decided to take some time out, away from his job, away from everything.’
‘No. No. No. I don’t believe it. He wouldn’t let me worry in that way. He’d at least let me know he was safe. I think you’re adding two and two and getting five. There could be any number of reasons for the money and the passport. He wouldn’t just up and leave. You have to understand how close we are. We are everything to each other.’
Stacey took a breath. ‘He may have decided to take some time to think things through, get his head straight.’
‘About what?’
‘Beth, there’s no easy way to tell you this but it seems that Gabriel was developing feelings for someone else.’
Beth’s mouth fell open and she stared for the longest minute.
‘No chance. That’s rubbish. Gabe would never cheat…’
‘Nothing physical,’ Stacey clarified. ‘It’s more of an emotional connection.’
Too late, Stacey realised that was probably the worst thing she could have said, but the truth wasn’t hers to censor.
‘No. I’m sorry but nothing of the sort was going on either physically, emotionally or any other way. I would have known.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘Who told you this nonsense?’