Page 211 of The Silent Appeal

Message exchange between Carol Dearing and Dustin Perez on June 2, 2025:

[Message retrieved from deleted cache]

6:44 p.m. Carol wrote:

This is Nicky-Rose, Carol’s daughter, using her phone.

6:45 p.m. Dustin wrote:

Is everything ok? Your mum seemed distracted when I spoke to her earlier.

6:47 p.m. Carol wrote:

Mum’s fine. Dustin, a guy I knew as an acquaintance in Bridgetown showed up here Saturday. He was pretty dodgy over there and he’s here to do business, if you know what I mean. No one likes the way Lockwood has become a county lines hub.

6:51 p.m. Dustin wrote:

If you were to say anything to me, no one would ever know where the info came from. You have my word.

6:55 p.m. Carol wrote:

He wanted me to do an exchange for him, talked about big deals he had lined up. His people have a thing going in Squires, the coffee shop.

6:56 p.m. Dustin wrote:

I know it. Typical. It’s the place you least expect.

7:13 p.m. Carol wrote:

I refused, but he kept on and I couldn’t walk away—didn’t want to make him angry. He mentioned a deal this Thursday: a Canadian national called Katrina Neale is the buyer and he’s got a local ex-con called Isabel Beck to do the drop.

7:15 p.m. Dustin wrote:

Ok.

7:22 p.m. Carol wrote:

I only remember the names because I know them both. Please make sure they never find out I told you anything. Isabel is easily controlled, she probably doesn’t even know what she’s doing. Neale is super-shady. There were rumors in Bridgetown she was involved in the disappearance of a girl. Nasty stuff.

7:24 p.m. Dustin wrote:

Right. Do you know times, etc.?

7:25 p.m. Carol wrote:

6 p.m. this Thursday.

7:26 p.m. Dustin wrote:

I’ll send this in. Not working myself that night (got a few days off for the play), but if they think it sounds juicy then they may look into it.

7:26 p.m. Carol wrote:

Oh, it’s juicy. I’d recommend that they’re there.

7:27 p.m. Dustin wrote:

Thanks for letting us know, Nicky-Rose, and please delete this from Carol’s phone. I don’t want her worrying about anything during play week.