Finding Grace(52)

‘Anything,’ Blake says quickly. ‘We’ll do anything at all.’

‘A live television appeal. Tomorrow morning?’ The detective looks at each of us in turn. ‘Hopefully Grace will be back and we won’t need to go through with it, but if you’re willing, we could get the wheels turning right away.’

The note Bev received flashes into my mind. What if the person who sent it watches the appeal? Gets off on me looking desperate and upset? I push the thought aside.

‘Of course we’ll do it,’ I say as Blake eagerly nods his agreement. ‘We’ll do anything and everything in our power, to bring Grace back home.’





Thirty-Eight





Sixteen years earlier





The night at the Quayside with Stefan and the others was without doubt the best night out of her life so far. They had so much fun and best of all, she didn’t have to spend a penny of her own money!

Lucie was gratified that they stuck together as one big group as they visited pub after pub. Each establishment they stopped at seemed to have a happy hour, when drinks were ridiculously cheap, and what was more, each discounted beverage came with a free shot.

Stefan refused to let anyone pay for their own drinks all night. He was obviously the sort of person who was incredibly generous to his friends.

She got to know everyone a little better and warmed to one or two people in particular. Gregg, the red-headed guy who’d been sitting next to Stefan the day she’d first met them in the café, was funny, and Lucie found he had a self-deprecating sense of humour that she couldn’t fail to warm to.

‘Has Stefan got a good job?’ she asked Gregg, the alcohol warming her blood.

He blinked. ‘Why do you ask that?’

‘He’s paying for everyone’s drinks and I thought students were all supposed to be skint.’

‘Oh, right. See what you mean.’ Gregg laughed. ‘Let’s just say he makes enough to live a comfortable life.’

He nudged her playfully and she grinned.

Lucie squinted and tried to focus on a figure to her right. She’d noticed it before, someone standing in the shadows of the bar, seemingly merging back into the crowd when she tried to get a better look.

A flash of cropped blonde hair and high heels confirmed that it was Rhonda. The girl who’d been staring at Stefan the first time she’d met the group.

Lucie’s housemate, Angela, came over and Rhonda followed her.

‘Remember Rhonda?’ Angela introduced her. ‘She’s studying business and finance, so you two should have stuff in common.’ Angela stood on her tiptoes and looked across the room, her eyes searching something or someone out. ‘Stuff to do. Catch you later.’

Lucie and Rhonda sat together for a while, chatting inanely about their respective courses in a hesitant, polite way at first. Rhonda reached for her handbag and Lucie recognised it as a Gucci latest design from a fashion magazine she’d picked up in the library.

‘So, did you know Stefan before university?’ Rhonda ventured. It was pretty obvious to Lucie the other girl had waited until she could bring the conversation around to Stefan.

‘No, not at all. You?’

‘Oh, me and Stefan, we go back a long way.’ She smirked cryptically. She raised a hand to flick her hair back and a large ruby flashed under the lights in a ring on her right hand. ‘You and him are just friends, yeah?’

‘Of course!’ Lucie was beginning to resent Rhonda’s rather bold questioning. Despite her annoying manner, Lucie had to admit she was very attractive in a gamine, understated kind of way.

‘I just wondered if he’d asked you yet…’ She shook her head and laughed. ‘Ignore me. None of my business.’

Lucie didn’t respond. She thought Rhonda wanted to know if Stefan had asked Lucie out on a date or something. He hadn’t but that was none of her business.

‘You’re not talking shop, surely?’ Stefan appeared, bearing fresh drinks for both girls. ‘There’s really no hope for you. Enough, I say!’

A look passed between Stefan and Rhonda, so quickly, Lucie thought she might have imagined it.

He sat down with them, and before Lucie knew it, she was holding court, telling Stefan and Rhonda about her dream of starting her own accountancy practice in Nottingham after graduating. They hadn’t eaten yet, and her head seemed to swim with the lights of the bar and Stefan’s loud laughter as he gently poked fun of her in that harmless way he had. She put down her drink and he pushed another shot towards her.

‘Come on, drink up.’ Rhonda threw back her head and laughed. ‘We don’t allow lightweights in our inner circle, you know.’

A shiver of warning travelled down Lucie’s spine. Something inside was trying to tell her she’d had way too much to drink already, but she wanted to show Stefan she was more than just a na?ve little daddy’s girl, and she picked up the shot and knocked it back in one.

A flurry of applause rose up around her. It sounded like a slowed-down record in Lucie’s ears. She felt clever, powerful even, when she realised the others were watching her impressive display.

Yes, she was a bit queasy, but that was to be expected, as she wasn’t used to drinking. But she pushed the feeling away and, to the cheers of what seemed to her to be the entire bar, banged on the table for yet another shot.