Read Online I'm Virtually Yours by Jennifer Bohnet - Free Book Online Page B

should have told her though about the party on Friday night being on one of the tourist boats. He’d been afraid she’d immediately say no and he did so want her to go to the party with him.
    Could he get her on one of his own boats before the end of the week? A sort of practice run? Try and convince her she was safe with him there? Would she even try if he suggested it? He’d never forget the look of sheer terror on her white face the day he’d wanted her to get in the dinghy.
    Will drained his coffee. He had to try. Tomorrow he’d come clean about Friday night’s party and suggest that he take her for a ride in the workboat to help her overcome her fear before then. Insist, if he had to, that she boarded the workboat for a ride out to the barge. Put pressure on her by saying she wasn’t doing her job properly for Worldsend if she didn’t inspect the barge.
    But even as he settled on this masterful plan he knew that if Polly became distraught at his suggestions he would find it difficult not to put his arms around her, say it didn’t matter and kiss her unhappiness away.
    Will glanced at his watch. 12.30. If Jack Pettyjohn was going to do anything tonight it would probably be within the next hour. He stood up and stretched, glancing across towards the boat yard slipway as he did so. Shit. The wind and the rain had masked noises he would normally have registered.
    Black Sam was rowing the tender from Pettyjohn’s yacht towards the slipway with Jack Pettyjohn himself sitting on the bulwark. Will’s eyes narrowed as he saw the can between Pettyjohn’s feet. Petrol.
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    CHAPTER NINE
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    The gale force winds died down overnight and by the time Polly made her way along the harbour towards the boatyard Thursday morning, the sun was shining and things were getting back to normal.
    To her surprise the big wooden doors were still shut and padlocked. There was some sort of commotion going on down towards the slipway and Polly could see Ben waving his arms angrily. Jack Pettyjohn was standing to one side watching — a curiously triumphant smirk on his face.
    A police car, its blue light still flashing, was parked askew across the road blocking any further traffic while two police officers tried to calm Ben down.
    â€œBen, you’re overreacting. Calm down,” one of them said. “Otherwise I shall have to arrest you for disturbing the peace and I really don’t want to do that.”
    Ben glared at him. “You know as well as me, there’s others here a darn sight more guilty than me. Arrest them,” and he jerked his head in the direction of Jack Pettyjohn. “I want to know where my son is. You sure you haven’t got him in a cell somewhere on trumped up charges again?”
    The policeman shook his head. “We were hoping you’d be able to tell us where Will is.” He turned his head away as his radio crackled into life and listened intently.
    Polly touched Ben on the shoulder. “What’s going on?”
    Ben sighed. “Wish I knew, Polly. Apparently Black Sam has gone missing overnight. Jack Pettyjohn here has told the police that Will threatened them both recently when they had a row so now the police have turned up here wanting to question Will. Trouble is he’s disappeared too. The last time I spoke to him was late last night after we’d been upriver to sort out a broken mooring. He was planning on staying on the workboat.”
    â€œYou’ve been over to the barge?” Polly asked.
    Ben nodded. “Yes. No sign of him. And that’s another thing. I had to go over in the dinghy — the workboat is missing from its mooring.” Ben looked at the empty space where the thirty-foot boat with its wheelhouse, heavy-duty winches and generator was usually moored.
    â€œCould Will have had an emergency call from someone and taken the boat upriver to help? Or maybe a fishing boat along the coast needed