Read Online Beautiful Death by Fiona McIntosh - Free Book Online

till just before midnight, and dialled her number. He hit her voicemail yet again.
    Now he was worried. Dare he risk it? Yes . He scanned through the numbers in his phone until he found the name of her store and hit the call button. No one answered. Now that was strange. Lily and her mother worked from the early hours to buy and prepare their flowers for the day’s trading. Perhaps Lily’s silence meant there was something going down in the family — there was no other reason the shop would be closed. Had they found out about him?
    He skipped through the numbers again till he found the one he was looking for and had never rung previously. He rang it now, holding his breath.
    ‘Hello?’ a small voice answered.
    ‘Alys?’
    ‘Yes.’ The girl sounded shaken. ‘Who’s this?’
    ‘It’s er, it’s Jack. Jack Hawksworth.’
    ‘Lily’s policeman?’
    He was pretty sure Lily had admitted to her young sister that she was seeing Jack and the girl hadbeen sworn to secrecy. ‘Yes. What’s wrong?’ Her voice sounded strained.
    Alys began to cry.
    ‘Alys? . . . Alys! What’s happened?’
    ‘Lily’s missing,’ she stammered.
    ‘What?’ Missing ? That word was so wrong.
    ‘We haven’t seen her since yesterday. My parents are with the police now. I’ve been sent to my room.’
    ‘Police?’ The irony was missed on Jack as he struggled to grasp that Lily’s family hadn’t heard from her either. He cleared his throat to help clear his mind. ‘Listen, Alys, where was she last seen?’
    ‘She had a full afternoon of deliveries, I think. I don’t really know the whole story because I’ve just come back from an overnight camp,’ she explained tearily.
    ‘I see.’ What a stupid thing to say. He didn’t see. He didn’t see anything because it wasn’t making sense.
    She sniffed. ‘I thought she might have been with you to tell the truth,’ Alys added, a slight edge of conspiracy in her tone — but also hope.
    ‘No, I . . . I . . .’ Jack could feel the situation spinning out of control. His mind was already racing to how the police would find out about him, how it was going to look when they needed to ask questions about his relationship with Lily when he was spearheading the most prominent and ghoulish case in the country. ‘Alys, you mustn’t say anything about me,’ he blurted. ‘For Lily’s sake,’ he added, feeling treacherous.
    ‘I haven’t. I promised Lily I wouldn’t.’ She was resolute.
    ‘Good. Keep that promise. It’s only going to look bad. I’ll ring the police and explain, but we don’t want your parents getting any more upset.’

    ‘They’ll die if they find out, or if Jimmy finds out . . . our family’s name will be blackened.’
    Jack couldn’t give a flying fig about Jimmy-bloody-Chan. ‘Then just say nothing. No one has to know about me. Lily and I are just good friends anyway,’ he said, despising the cliché as it escaped his lips. ‘We always knew it couldn’t turn into anything beyond friendship.’ At least that was honest. ‘Now, dry your eyes and try and stay calm. I’m going to do everything I can to find Lily, I promise you, Alys. In fact by tonight I’m sure we’ll all know where she’s been.’ Making a promise like this was suicidal — he knew better than this!
    Joan signalled to him that something urgent was happening.
    He rolled his eyes. How much worse could today get . . . and it wasn’t yet eight. ‘I’ve got to go, Alys, okay?’
    ‘Okay,’ she said in a small voice. ‘Will you call again?’
    ‘Promise. Now be strong. I’ll talk to you later.’
    He heard her sniff before she hung up. He turned back to Joan distracted, and made himself focus. ‘What’s up?’
    She looked grave but very little could unnerve Joan. ‘Another body I’m afraid, Jack, and the day’s hardly begun. I’ve got Malcolm on the line. He was rung first,’ she said, throwing up her hands. ‘Apparently they weren’t told that Panther is formally in