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‘Bloody cheek, expecting a reward,’ Hannah said when the man was safely out of earshot. ‘That makes it sound like Finn’s a lost labradoodle or something.’
‘No, I should have thought about offering a reward,’ I said, annoyed the idea hadn’t even occurred to me.
‘Why?’ Hannah challenged, still fired up with indignation. ‘It shouldn’t be about money, and it’s not like Finn’s been kidnapped and you have to come up with the ransom to get him back.’
I bit my lip and turned away from her gaze, feigning a sudden interest in the pub’s bouncy castle.
‘Oh, Gemma, really?Kidnapped?’
‘It was fairly low down on my list of possibilities,’ I mumbled, reaching for my sandwich before she could ask me what other outlandish theories I was still harbouring rather than face the one everyone else thought was obvious.
‘I suppose a financial incentivemighthelp,’ Hannah conceded, after chewing over both the idea and her lunch for a moment. ‘But it would need to be a large enough amount to make it worthwhile. You don’t have that kind of money lying around, do you?’
There wasn’t much about my life Hannah didn’t know, but on this particular issue she wasn’t entirely correct.
‘Actually… I might be able to lay my hands on some money.’
‘Please tell me you’re not thinking of doing something illegal,’ she pleaded, only half joking.
I gave a small laugh. ‘Of course not,’ I replied, reaching into my bag for my phone. ‘Well, it might be a tad immoral, but it’s definitely not illegal.’
Hannah set aside her plate, her expression suddenly serious. ‘Go on,’ she urged.
I twisted on the bench, using my body to cast a shadow across my phone’s screen. ‘Finn and I opened a joint bank account after we found that cottage last summer.’
‘The Toadstool place, the one that fell through?’
‘Mushroom,’ I corrected her, surprised to feel a sting of disappointment still at finding and then losing our dream home. ‘We pooled our savings for the deposit, and then when it all fell apart, we just left them in the account.’ I sighed sadly. ‘We were going to start house-hunting again after the wedding.’
There was a long pause, which, good friend or not, Hannah didn’t know how to fill. I used the time to log in to our account and key in the passcode. Two more taps of my fingertips and the page opened before me.
Hannah craned forward in her seat. She was way ahead of me on this one. She’d already guessed what I’d find.
My frown was the first giveaway, quickly followed by a confused shake of my head.
‘There must be some sort of mistake,’ I said, buying a few more precious moments before I was forced to acknowledge what I was seeing.
Hannah’s voice had hardened. ‘Has he taken it all?’ I’d never heard her sound so cold.
‘No. Not all of it. Just fifty thousand. He left three for me.’ I gave a small broken sound. ‘Oh, and the interest. He left me that too.’
*
There was a brandy in my hands, and I had absolutely no idea how it had got there. Hannah must have gone into the bar to buy it. It was hard to say which burnt more: the fiery liquid scorching my throat or my eyes from staring unblinkingly at the page displaying the recent transaction on the account.
‘When did you last check it?’ Hannah asked.
‘A week or so before the wedding.’
‘And you’ve not thought to look since then, not even after everything that’s happened?’ The tone of her voice and the look in her eyes said:Because I sure as hell would have done.
‘No,’ I lied. Because of course I’d thought of looking. In the middle of the night, when every worst fear seemed like a real possibility, of course I’d thought of checking the account. But it would have unravelled me. I couldn’t allow myself to stop believing in Finn. I still couldn’t.
Hannah’s nostrils flared as she exhaled heavily. If she was a dragon, she’d have scorched half the garden by now.
‘You have to get back in touch with the police. Maybe now they’ll actually do something to find Finn. Now that a crime has been committed.’
I put down the brandy. There was still half a glass left, but I couldn’t finish it, not if I wanted to drive home. ‘Finn hasn’t done anything illegal.’
