Gillard sighed. ‘Have you tried ringing her?’

‘Yes, but not for several hours. There was no reply.’

‘Let’s have another go.’ Gillard reached across for the paperwork, tapped out the number on his desk phone and heard it ring out. It then went to a message service which said the mail box was full. He shrugged, waited a minute, then tried again. This time the phone was answered.

‘Hello, is that Beatrice Ulbricht?’

It clearly wasn’t.

Townsend watched his boss. There was clearly a lot of background noise, even he could hear that. Machinery, it sounded like. He watched as his boss repeated the name loudly, spelling it out, then began to make some notes. Gillard wasn’t wearing the kind of expression that marked the happy discovery of a missing person, safe and well.

‘Can you hold it all for me?’ Gillard asked, and then read out his police credentials. ‘Yes, the entire container.’

Gillard hung up.

‘Who was that?’ Townsend asked.

‘Someone called Gladys at the Brentford waste transfer station. She’s got Beatrice’s phone. Found in a consignment of rubbish.’

‘Oh shit,’ Townsend said. ‘That’s not good news.’

First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Canelo

Canelo Digital Publishing Limited

Third Floor, 20 Mortimer Street

London W1T 3JW

United Kingdom

Copyright © Nick Louth, 2020

The moral right of Nick Louth to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781788636971

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Look for more great books at www.canelo.co