The Guilty Couple(22)
‘Right.’ Smithy pulls at one of the desk drawers. ‘What are we looking for? A piece of paper with some numbers and dates on it, right?’
‘Yes.’ I head for the bookshelves and scan the books. It’s unlikely Dom would have returned it to the same book but he’s always had a terrible memory. If he put it back he’d know where to find it again.
Although …
A new thought hits me as I move from bookshelf to bookshelf, looking for a neon spine amongst the faded green and navy vintage hardbacks that Dom bought for decoration but has never read. If Grace was right about what she heard and he has threatened Dani he’ll have hidden her repayment schedule well. It might not even be in the study anymore. It could be on him for all I know. I join Smithy at the desk as she yanks open the bottom drawer and carefully flicks through each of the A4 pads she pulls out.
‘Nothing.’ She carefully replaces them and closes the drawer. ‘You?’
‘The book’s not here.’
‘Crap. Where do you want to look next?’
‘Bedroom? You take the living room?’
She nods and we peel off in different directions, padding silently on socked feet.
I speed up the stairs and my heart twists as I pass Grace’s bedroom. It’s the only room in the house that has changed. Gone is the mountain of soft toys on her bed, the unicorn bedside light and the posters of woodland animals. There are anime and manga posters everywhere now: Japanese schoolgirls in short skirts with huge expressive eyes. Only two teddies remain on the bed: a large white rabbit we gave her for Christmas when she was three and a glow-in-the-dark musical seahorse I bought when she was two months old in a desperate attempt to get her to sleep. It didn’t work but she took it everywhere with her – to nursery, to the park, for a bounce on our garden trampoline. I lived in fear of her losing it and, for the longest time, two other seahorses lived in a cupboard under the stairs. I scan the room, looking for other traces of me, but there’s not so much as a photograph. I move away, heart stinging. That is why I’m doing this, not just to clear my name and get revenge on Dom and Dani, but to repair the damage that’s been done to my relationship with Grace.
I burst into the room I used to share with my husband and head for the chest of drawers. I’m rummaging through the sock drawer when I hear a shout from downstairs.
‘Smithy!’ I hurry down the stairs so quickly I lose my footing and have to grip the banister to stop myself from falling. As I right myself Smithy appears in the hall.
Her face is taut with fear. ‘We need to get out. Now! There’s a cop in the driveway and she’s staring right into the house.’
Chapter 16
DANI
Dani is pressed up against the side of Dominic’s house, not moving a muscle, listening for the sound of footsteps or voices. She doesn’t know if they’ll come from the front of the house or the back but she hopes to god that, if they do come out of the back door, they don’t choose this side of the house to make their escape.
There was no sign of Olivia Sutherland or Kelly Smith as she drove slowly back down Oakfield Road. She circled around a few nearby streets, scanning the alleyways and gardens for two female figures dressed in black, but they’d vanished.
There were three possibilities: either they’d made their escape, they were hiding, or they were breaking and entering. She was pretty sure neither of them had spotted her, which made escape or hiding unlikely. That left one option – they were up to no good. Knowing what she did about Olivia it was unlikely Smithy had turned her to a life of crime so, if they had illegally entered a house, it had to be Dom’s.
Dani parked up a little way down the street and strolled back to the house. The gates to the short driveway were open. They’d been closed on her first drive past. Glancing around to check she wasn’t being watched, she approached the front door and tested the handle. Locked. If Liv and Smithy were inside they’d found an alternative way in. All the windows to the front of the house were closed and secure and when she checked the sides of the house and the back, slipping down the narrow fenced walkway that separated the building from its neighbours, there was no sign of forced entry. Dom was AWOL and it was early afternoon which meant Grace was still at school; the house should be empty.
As she returned to the front she started to doubt herself. Was it really Smith and Sutherland she’d seen? Given the conditions of her licence, it would be a bit fucking stupid of Olivia to return to the family home. She’d have to be desperate or … a thought hit her … or there was something inside the house that she was desperate to get hold of. There was no way Olivia could know about the recording that Dominic claimed to have. Or could she? Dani felt a flicker of fear. If Dominic’s ex-wife was out to prove that she’d been framed then it wasn’t just him she had to watch out for, it was Olivia too.
She’d been about to walk back down the driveway when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flicker of movement in one of the ground-floor windows, a dark shape darting from one side of the room to the other.
Someone was in the living room.
She shifted out of sight, down the walkway at the side of the house, then crept towards the back. Instinctively she reached for her radio to call for back-up, then paused. Arresting Olivia would remove one threat but it wouldn’t remove both. Dom would still have the recording and the handwritten loan agreement. Sending Olivia back to prison wouldn’t magically provide Dani with the thirty grand she needed to save her sister’s life.