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Daniel scowled. “You left town.”
“I was too young to get married. So was she.”
Daniel folded his arms across his chest. “There’s no chance I would’ve ever let you marry my sister. Not after you killed my –”
Jake’s irritation snapped and he launched himself at Daniel, grabbing the front of his uniform. “Shut your fucking mouth. He was my best friend.”
Daniel shoved Jake – freeing himself from his grip. “He was my little brother.”
The photographers behind started flashing their cameras excitedly at the scuffle, so Astrid quickly intervened. “Excuse me, but if my sister’s gone missing, don’t you think we should be trying to find her. Not standing around fighting each other and reminiscing about what might’ve been?”
Daniel turned to face her, straightening his tie. “You’re right Astrid.” He pulled out his notebook. “So, Jake, apparently you were the last to see Emma – according to Morag. Is that right?”
Jake glanced at Astrid’s mother. “Emma came here last night and tried to… talk to me. It was around midnight. I told her to go home.”
Daniel smirked at Astrid. “Yeah, apparently you were already entertaining her sister.”
“Now look here,” Martin said. “Your job is to find Emma, not to judge Astrid.”
Daniel laughed. “I’m not judging Astrid – she can do whatever she likes with whoever she wants. But I am judging you, Jake. You’re prime suspect number one and I need to ask you some questions. You wanna do this the hard way, or the easy way?”
Jake leaned toward him. “You know I didn’t do anything to Emma. Astrid will confirm I was with her all last night. So I suggest you either arrest me or back the fuck off.”
Daniel took a step away. “I can’t arrest you yet. But I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a job to do.”
Daniel turned and strode off down the street.
“Yeah,” Jake said, watching him. “What a pity it won’t involve doing any actual police work.”
Chapter Fifteen
Jake and Astrid walked back with her parents to their house, and they all gathered in the kitchen. Sally had been in the middle of making breakfast before they’d left, so they all sat at the table and enjoyed some coffee and pancakes.
Astrid was confused and worried about her sister. It was true they didn’t get on, but it sounded as if she’d genuinely gone missing. How the hell were they going to get her back? Astrid understood why her parents had alerted Daniel to this situation, but he was such a sleaze – she wondered whether he’d be much help at all. Really, they needed the national law enforcement involved… the CIA or the FBI. But how did you even go about contacting those types of people?
“So you don’t think she’s run away?” Astrid asked, sipping her coffee. “Not that you can actually run away when you’re nineteen.”
Martin sliced his pancakes. “Look, we didn’t want to say anything in front of Daniel or those journalists, but we had a call from a man saying Emma was with him, and if we wanted to see her again, we should wait for him to call back and follow his instructions. We hoped Jake might be able to help.”
“Sounds like a kidnapping,” Jake said. “Sure, I’ll do all I can. I’d better get rid of those journalists first somehow. Maybe I’ll call Joseph and ask him if there’s anything he wants me to say to them. Hopefully the headlines tomorrow won’t link me with Emma’s disappearance. Joseph doesn’t need that kind of negative publicity.”
Astrid smiled. It was so sweet it was that Jake was more concerned with Joseph’s public image than his own reputation.
“Jake, we know you didn’t do anything to Emma,” Martin said. “I just want you to know that.”
“Thanks, Martin.”
Sally rested down her knife and fork. “And we certainly don’t trust Daniel – never have. The way you figured out what Emma had done yesterday was impressive. We hoped perhaps you could help get to the bottom of this too.”
“Well, okay, let’s start right here... Do you have any idea who could’ve kidnaped her?”
“We can’t think straight,” Sally said. “We don’t have any money, so it doesn’t make sense why anyone would do this.”
Astrid’s phone rang in her purse. She grabbed it. “It’s probably my supervisor. I need to send my report on Graves today… Hello?”
The voice was croaky and deep, sending shivers down her spine. “Astrid Lawrence?”
“Yes?”
