Page 158 of The Silent Appeal

Subject: Tomorrow

Dear Dustin,

At the sleep out a light fell from the rig onto one of the new girls. There was a mad dash to the hospital, and now her part in the play is hanging in the balance.

At one time I might have been disappointed to miss out on the gossip, but I’m thanking my lucky stars I decided to go home last night. I need my beauty sleep!

Anyway, would you like a lift to Mendhams tomorrow, or is it the week you said you’d be working? I can fill you in on everything that happened, which included the vicar telling a ghost story and scaring the children. Line learning for me today! Carol

To: Carol Dearing

From: Dustin Perez

Date: April 27, 2025

Subject: Re: Tomorrow

Dear Carol,

For all the shut-eye I had this weekend I might as well have been at the sleep out myself. Who’d join the police, eh?

Things are hectic at the nick and we’re all under pressure. There’s been a significant rise in drug dealing and related antisocial behavior in Lockwood and the surrounding area, which won’t be news to you I’m sure, our crime stats were on the news just last week. My team has to make a dent in the supply chain and identify county lines players, all with a severely reduced workforce. We’re already prioritizing targets: “overlooking” menial runners and going for the higher-ups, but we’re hampered by the rising trend for hallucinogens—LSD infused into blotting paper in perforated sheets like stamps, often printed with colorful designs so the supplier knows which batch is theirs. They can move £10k of product in a greeting card envelope through the post and sell it in an hour on a Saturday night.

Even find myself longing for the days when it was all shifty geezers on street corners flogging weed and coke, not least because we’ve had so many incidents of kids taking a tab without knowing what it is or how high it’ll make them. LSD-related hospitalizations due to accidents or psychosis are through the roof. Sorry, inadvertent pun there.

Anyway, I got in at 5 a.m. and if I’d remembered there was a fried breakfast at the church hall, I’d have been tempted to smother my woes with a bacon sandwich.

To answer your question, yes please, I would like a lift to rehearsal tomorrow.

All the best, Dustin

Message exchange between Nicky-Rose Dearing and Kevin MacDonald on April 27, 2025:

9:10 a.m. Nicky-Rose wrote:

Meet today?

9:11 a.m. Kevin wrote:

Want to but lots going on.

9:12 a.m. Nicky-Rose wrote:

Let me know.

Message exchange between Isabel Beck and Nicky-Rose Dearing on April 27, 2025:

9:55 a.m. Issy wrote:

Hi there! Have you unpacked your bag yet?

9:58 a.m. Issy wrote:

When you do, you’ll find something unexpected!

9:59 a.m. Issy wrote:

A little pressie I made for you