Corinne heard the squeal and realised that it was
Daisy, and almost instantly regretted leaving her outside, in harm’s way.
She almost leapt out of the chair and was at the
office doorway in a few seconds.
There she saw another woman, one who did not look
very friendly, standing a short distance from Daisy, who in turn, looked
terrified.
Felicity spoke first, “Corinne, I presume. Harry sent me.”
“How do I know that’s true? He’s in hospital. You should know the police will be here any
minute.”
“You mean Detective Sykes. Good.
You shouldn’t be afraid of me. My
name is Felicity and your brother and I have been working on the Jones’
cases. He told me he’s asked you to get
some information off Sykes, and that I should keep an eye on you. The people he’s been dealing with,” she took
another look around the room, checking to see if anything had been moved, “are
very dangerous.”
“We should be leaving, now, Corinne. This woman can take care of matters. This is too much for either of us to get
involved in,” Daisy found her voice, but it was shaky.
“We’re here to meet Sykes. I’m staying.”
Daisy looked at Corinne, then Felicity.
“Go sit down before you fall down,” Felicity said,
then watched Daisy pick her way carefully through the books to the sofa., and
sit.
To Corinne Felicity said, “I’m assuming his office
is as messy as this.”
“Someone was looking for something, and they found
it.”
“What do you mean?”
“In here.”
Corinne went back into the office and Felicity followed her.
When they were both standing behind the desk,
Corinne showed her the bottom of the drawer, and the piece of paper still taped
to it.
“A not so unique hiding spot,” Felicity muttered.
A closer inspection showed the fragment to be from a
legal pad, same as the notes she could see in the open files. If he had written something on one of the
sheets, perhaps, if she could find the pad, there might be some trace of what
had been written.
“Look for a blank writing pad,” Felicity said.
“Why?”
“Because that page was ripped from one, and if we
find it...”
“...it might still have a trace we can use a pencil
to shade over the indentations.”
Maybe not as silly as she looked, Felicity thought, though
coming to the office alone was not such a smart move. That man watching them below might have
followed them up. It wasn’t a pleasant
thought about what might have happened to them.
Ten minutes searching, in the office, and outside,
yielded a “found it” cry from Corinne.
She brought the pad back into the office and cleared
a spot on the desk., Felicity had the
pencil ready. After looking at the page
in the light, the indentations were just discernible. She lightly shaded the area and words began
to appear.
Corrine could see it was a scrawled address in her
bothers handwriting, and it looked like it had been written in a hurry. A familiar address though she could not say
then why it seemed familiar to her. Had
it been mentioned in passing at home?
“You recognise it?”
Felicity had noticed the expression change on Corinne’s face.
“It seems familiar, but no.”
Felicity wrote it out again and gave the copy to
Corinne. “Keep this safe. If the people who did this wanted that
address so badly, then we need to be very careful what we do with it.”
“We tell the police, that’s what we do. Clearly, it means something. It might be where they took Harry.”
“It might.
But I want to check it out first before we do anything hasty. If we give it straight to the police we may
never find out what the significance of it is.”
Clearly, Corinne didn’t want to agree.
“For Harry’s sake Corinne. Just a couple of days.”
“Two days then.”
She carefully folded it and put the sheet in her inner pocket.
Corinne looked at her watch. Another half hour before Sykes arrived. She had intended to go through Harry's case
notes before the Detective arrived but not knowing what she was looking for,
and the possibility the files could be scattered anywhere on the floor made her
think it was not a good idea.
Lunch might be a better option. There was a Starbucks just up the street.
“Sykes won’t be here for another half hour. I suggest we get some coffee, and you can
tell me how it is you know my brother.”
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