AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Joe immediately whistled and watched Marcus freeze. Marguerite watched Jeremy make a strange signal with his hand, after which the man by the kitchen door suddenly retreated and came to stand beside them.
“Who? Where? Your father?”
“I don’t know who he is,” she cried.
Joe had seen that look on her face several times before. It was the look of someone who had been bombarded with too much fear. Whoever she was connected to, whether it was Sayers or not, she was deeply shaken and barely coherent. With that, he immediately softened his stance toward her, namely because he suspected that to be harsh with her right now would leave her crumbling and unable to communicate at all.
Joe nodded at Marcus who followed Ben into the house. Once they had gone, Joe leaned back and looked into the terrified gaze of the woman who bothered him more than anyone ever had done in a very long time.
“Are you sure you don’t know him?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know where my father is. He should be home but he isn’t here.”
Joe swore. “Have you seen your father since the party?”
Too choked to speak, Marguerite shook her head. She was shaking so much she wasn’t sure her knees were going to be able to hold her up for much longer.
“Tell me where the body is,” he suggested. He looked up at movement in the kitchen doorway and knew Marcus and Ben were waiting for them to join them. “Come on.”
“I am not going back in there,” she whispered.
Joe looked down at the bag in her hand. “Where were you going?”
Marguerite shrugged. “I don’t know, but I can’t stay here.”
“Do you have any relatives in the area?” he frowned, wondering if she was going to go to Sayers.
She shook her head. “I have an uncle in Cumbria, so I might go there. I can’t go back in there.”
Joe sighed. “Well, you can’t stay out here, and I don’t think you should go wandering off on your own.”
He slowly released her and stepped back cautiously. He kept his hands out in case she started to fall again, but she held herself upright. However, the shivers that swept through her were visible and a clear warning of just how shaken she was, or how cold. Either way, she was going to be ill if he didn’t do something to help her. He suspected that another altercation like the one she experienced last night would just about tip her over the edge. To prevent that from happening he adopted a soothing approach which seemed to work on her.
“I need you to come back inside. You don’t have to go anywhere near the body if you don’t want to, but you cannot stand out here in the cold. You are freezing,” Joe murmured soothingly.
She shook her head. Joe sighed and dug deep for his patience.
“Look, if there is a body in the house then the killer might be around out here. I need to go inside, and you need to come with me where you are safe. I won’t hurt you, and neither with my colleagues. It is just not safe for you out here right now, just in case someone is lurking in this fog.”
He glanced around the garden. The three of them had done a very thorough search of the grounds and were relatively certain that nobody was lurking in the bushes but it was a situation that could change in a heartbeat. Thankfully, his reasoning seemed to penetrate her fear because she glanced hastily around and sidled closer toward him. Although reluctant, at least this time she went with him when he prodded her back into the house.
“Show us where he is,” Marcus murmured. His eyes met Joe’s for a moment, silently asking if there was any danger.
Joe shrugged. The tension within the house thickened as the men began to search.
“What’s your name?” Marcus asked when they converged at the bottom of the stairs.
“Marguerite.”
“This is your home, is it?”
She nodded.
&
nbsp; “Who else lives here?” Joe queried.
“Just me and my father. We have a housekeeper, Mrs Tingay, who comes in three times a week but she isn’t due in until Tuesday.” Realising she was babbling, Marguerite fell silent.
