Deadly Lies

and she was eager to get to work.
She tied back her dark hair and splashed her face with water. Working with Grant was the biggest adventure of her life. She’d come a long way from being a kid dumped in a children’s home. Ruby had lived through plenty of bad times until her passion for understanding the criminal mind had brought her to Himlands Heath. Her first meeting with Grant had changed her life. It had freed her from the bad secrets of her own past and it had put a serial killer, the one from her nightmares, behind bars.
Ruby felt she’d landed on her feet because Grant was the best mentor she could have wished for and him believing in her made Ruby believe in herself.
Cramming down a couple of cereal bars, she set up search parameters on her laptop and launched the program. Looking through past cases of abductions would help her find common patterns about the psychological make-up and traits of kidnappers.
Eerily quiet and grey, the streets were cold and her breath misted in the air. Some nicer weather had arrived for the days but the mornings were chilly and damp and they would be for a long time yet – that was early spring in England for you, and Ruby was glad she had invested in a warm coat.
The taxi seemed to take an age to arrive at her door.
‘Drive as quickly as you can,’ she told the driver. ‘It’s an emergency.’
Alice and Jack Glover lived in an area full of nice houses. Their property had a picture window at the front and a huge conservatory on the side which looked like a mini-version of a botanical garden. There were swathes of snowdrops and daffodils along the front path and a large well-tended garden. This was a family with a decent income although it seemed they didn’t like to be flamboyant.
At the door, a uniformed constable checked Ruby’s details.
‘DCI Grant is expecting you,’ the constable said.
Inside the house, Ruby could hear voices, including the chief’s. She walked along the hallway passing a lovely, and probably very expensive, painting of a Sussex landscape. Grant was sitting in the lounge. At the back of the room, technicians were scrambling to set up computers and phone connections. She guessed the equipment must be standard in a kidnap case for if an abductor contacted the family and so incoming communications could be monitored.
The room looked like something out of a home décor magazine with a white stone fireplace and a cream carpet. Grant was in an armchair. He was facing three people who were sitting side by side on a sumptuous sofa – a blonde woman, then a man in the middle, and next a dark-haired woman. They were all a similar age, probably late thirties, so almost ten years older than Ruby. The children’s mother was easy to spot because she looked as if she’d been smacked into by a bus. She was wearing a green evening dress which complemented her fair hair. The dress must have been elegant at some point but her make-up was horribly smeared and her hair and clothes were a mess. The last couple of hours must have been hell for Alice Glover and it wasn’t over yet. The man in the middle must be the father.
‘Hello Ruby,’ Grant said. ‘I’d like to introduce my colleague, Ruby Silver. She’s a psychologist.’
The man got up to shake her hand. ‘Jack Glover,’ he said.
Jack had brown eyes which were full of pain. He faltered, so Ruby spoke for him.
‘I’m here to assist DCI Grant.’
The dark-haired woman dabbed a tissue at her nose. ‘You’re very young. I didn’t know the police employed psychologists.’
Ruby was used to being dismissed because of her age. She’d studied hard and she had a talent for criminal psychology but the real source of her expertise sprang from her upbringing. Which, of course, was something she never discussed. Only Grant and Tom Delaney knew the details.
‘It’s more common than you think,’ Ruby said. ‘Are you a friend of the family?’
‘I’m Natalie and I live next door. Alice and I are friends.’
From how Natalie’s leg was pressed up against Jack’s, Ruby wondered if Natalie might be better friends with Jack than she was with Alice.
Grant leaned forward. ‘I know this is a terrible time but, as I explained, the more information you can give me, the better chance we have of finding Lisa and Emily. Let’s go through this one more time and I’d like to start with where you both were this evening.’
‘We’ve already told you everything,’ Alice said. ‘I can’t repeat it all.’
‘My wife’s exhausted. Why do you keep asking questions? You should be out there tracking down this maniac!’
Ah, so Grant was piling on the pressure. Which meant he had his reasons for scrutinising the parents. Ruby sat down quietly. With his hair silvering at the temples and grey eyes, Grant looked polished in his grey suit, though he’d been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. With victims, Grant had what Ruby called the golden touch, and she could see he’d already won the respect of the family because they were hanging on his every word. This was the man they were pinning their hopes on.
Grant spread his hands in an apologetic manner. ‘Please, if it wasn’t important I wouldn’t ask. Let’s go through it one more time.’
Natalie groaned and rested her head back against the sofa.
Jack started talking. He wasn’t good looking though Ruby quickly realised she’d misjudged him because Jack was the sort of man who attracted women’s attention. He had a deep voice and charisma and a lot of masculinity. She found herself staring at him. Jack told them how he and Alice had been at a dinner party hosted by a friend.
‘Like I already told you, Inspector, they aren’t our friends,’ Alice said. ‘I don’t even know why we go there. Carmichael is a business associate.’
Picking up a piece of paper, Grant ran