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‘Jack! I’m so glad you called. I just got off the phone with her—she’s fine, well, she’s okay all things considered.’
I must have let out the biggest sigh of relief. I hadn’t realised I was holding my breath. ‘I’m so glad to hear that. Do you know where she is? She’s safe?’
‘I know exactly where she is even though I don’t know how to get there. I’m so glad you called because she’s staying at your cottage in the Lake District.’
I nearly dropped the phone. What?! How?! I was struggling to comprehend what was going on.
Candace continues. ‘She drove there the night of the fire. She said she just wanted to be alone.’
‘Fire?! What fire?’ I jump out of my seat and nearly shout into the phone.
Dalton puts his coffee down and looks at me.
‘Two nights ago. There was a huge fire at her block of flats,’ Candace explains slowly.
‘Oh my God...’ I feel like I’m going to throw up.
‘I only know because I heard about it on the news, and I called Leyna non-stop until she picked up.’
She picked up for Candace... I know her words aren’t meant to hurt me, but they do. Why didn’t Leyna just come here? Why didn’t she wait for me? I would have taken her home—I would have taken care of her. I would do anything for her. ‘Thank you, Candace.’
‘Listen Jack, I’ve known Leyna a long time. Don’t take it personally that she just took off, okay? Sometimes she just needs a bit of alone time.’
‘I understand.’ I really don’t understand but that isn’t important just now. Being with Leyna is all that matters.
‘Good. But just so we’re clear, youaregoing to go to her, right?’ Candace says, adding, ‘I don’t like the idea of her out there on her own, even if that’s what she thinks is best.’
‘I don’t want her to be alone either. I’ll leave right away.’
I hang up and start running around the house, collecting things.
‘Whoa, Jack. Slow down. Talk to me—what’s up?’ Dalton follows me into the bedroom where I’m shoving clothes into a bag.
‘Apparently, there’s been a fire where Leyna stays. So she ran out of the wine and cheese do, only to see her apartment block on fire.’
‘Jesus,’ Dalton says quietly. ‘Do you know where she is?’
‘She’s at my cottage, and I’ve got to go there. Now.’ I feel frantic. It’s a two-hour drive away. My phone rings again and I swipe the red button to dismiss the call. But it rings back right away. It’s Kenny. ‘Christ.’ I answer the phone. ‘Kenny, this is not a good time.’
‘Hello to you, too. You’re going to want to hear this but you’re not going to like what I have to say.’
‘Do you ever call me with good news?’
‘As a general rule, private investigators don’t bring good news.’
Fuck. It was now or never. I stand by the front door. Dalton takes my bag out to the car. ‘Go on then, Kenny.’
‘I’ll start by saying that I’m sure that you won’t be charged, lad. But it turns out that drugs have been sold and stashed in those two restaurants.’
‘You.Are.Fucking.Kidding.Me.’
Kenny starts to explain. ‘I had my suspicions, but when I took one look at your manager I knew right away. You can’t hide it if someone knows what to look for. Did a few simple strip tests around the restaurants, just to see if it would show up there too and they lit up like a Christmas tree. There was cocaine everywhere. Did a bit of a search myself and found a few bags of the stuff. That’s when I knew I’d need to get the cops involved.’
I’m struggling to process everything Kenny is saying to me. Fucking drugs being stashed in my restaurants. No wonder no one was going there anymore. ‘How did it stay a secret for so long? Wait, who was it? Who was the ringleader?’
‘Your general manager, Daryl. He was one of the only employees with access to the two restaurants. And I caught the little shit red-handed.’
Fucking Daryl.I knew it.
