She sat down in her chair once more and glanced around, mentally counting the boxes in her room, and running through their contents in her head.

She picked up her glass of red wine from the small antique table beside her chair and sipped it, savouring its warmth. She didn’t see clutter around her or chaos – what she saw was her possessions, things she loved and needed. Today she needed the comfort more than ever. But no matter how hard she tried to calm herself and tell herself that Michael was right, she didn’t need to worry, her daughter’s disappearance did worry her – greatly. She knew that Jessie wouldn’t do this to her mother without good reason.

Chapter One Hundred and Two

Chapter One Hundred
and Two

DI Timothy Branch was annoyed. He had been told in no uncertain terms to use every resource at his disposal to locate Michael Flynn’s daughter. Easier said than done – the girl had been around the turf more times than a Grand National winner.

He had put the word out, but she was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t relishing telling that to Michael Flynn – the man seemed to think he could somehow conjure the girl up from thin air. If only it was that easy. He now had the unenviable task of admitting to the man who had been paying him shedloads of money for a lot of years, that he couldn’t help him. Jessie Flynn was, without doubt, a missing person.

Michael Flynn’s minions had already questioned everyone in his daughter’s orbit – and not in a nice way. Branch’s men had been called out to disturbances by concerned citizens many times over the last few days. He had been expected to ensure that the people concerned didn’t have to deal with the police on top of everything else. Not that any of the victims were willing to press charges, but it was still very stressful. It had been a hard few days for him in particular. He had been forced to show his hand as a bent copper. He hadn’t meant it to be common knowledge. But what could he do about it? As Michael Flynn had so forcefully pointed out to him, this was what he had been paid so handsomely for – even he couldn’t argue with that.

Chapter One Hundred and Three

Chapter One Hundred
and Three