Page 39 of Artful Deceit
“Not really.” He flashed an apologetic look. “If anyone finds out I let you do a ride along, I’ll be in trouble.”
“You’re going in the car?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“That’s a bad plan. We should run.”
He stopped and stared at her. “Excuse me?”
“It’ll be quicker.” She wrinkled her nose. “Well, not quicker since we’re not actually that fast, but we’re fit.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If the thief is out there, they’ll see the police car coming. It’ll scare them off. If we go on foot, we have the element of surprise. Tell me that doesn’t make sense.”
“It sort of makes sense,” he said begrudgingly.
“This isn’t London,” she said. “Things are different here.” She bounded off the bed. “Let’s go catch a bad guy.”
“All right,” he said eventually. “I’ll just have to tell control they’ll need to reach me on my mobile.” While he did that, he went to put his boots on, but Lily pushed them aside and put his running shoes in front of him instead.
“What are you doing now?” he asked when he got off the phone.
“If you run in those boots, you may as well turn up with the sirens blaring. They’ll hear you coming from here. Plus, you’ll be slow in your boots.”
“I’m actually pretty used to running in my boots.” He didn’t argue further though, just shoved his feet into his trainers and made for the door.
The jog sobered Lily up entirely. At a remote cottage on the northern side of the island, she hung back while Flynn went to speak to the man who’d called the police. Apparently, he seemed a little sheepish – not sure now that the shadows he’d seen had really been a person at all.
His neighbours – half a mile away – reported that their usually docile dogs had been barking like crazy around half an hour ago. It was very close to the time the guy claimed to have seen someone lurking.
Half an hour had passed though, so presumably if someone had been there, they weren’t around any more. The two of them wandered the dark lanes for three quarters of an hour and were talking about heading home when the dispatcher called Flynn’s mobile and told him another call had just come in from Mirren Treneary – saying she’d spotted someone in her garden. He started to give the address, but Flynn told him he didn’t need it and would call him back to keep him updated.
“Old Town Bay,” Lily said as they shifted into a slow jog.
“I don’t think we’ve got much hope of catching him now.”
“Why not?”
“It’s Mirren Treneary. What are the chances she hasn’t called her sons? And then what are the chances that twenty Treneary men haven’t just descended on her and scared whoever it was off?”
“There aren’t twenty of them,” Lily said with a smile.
“There are enough to intimidate any sane person.”
“True.”
They hadn’t got far when Flynn’s phone rang again. He looked at the screen. “It’s Trystan Treneary.”
“Put him on speaker,” Lily said as they slowed their pace.
“I’m on my way,” Flynn said when he answered. “Are you with your mum?”
“I’m at my place, but Denzel’s with Mum, so she’s fine. Noah and I can be there in a matter of seconds if needed, but for now we’re keeping the lights off and lurking behind the curtains trying to spot whoever’s out there. Kit and Seren are doing the same around the other side of the bay, and I’ve rung around as many neighbours as I can wake up. Everyone’s sitting in the dark, keeping watch. The chatter on the WhatsApp group is pretty entertaining.”
“But there’s no sign of them now?” Flynn asked.
“No. Mum and Denzel are certain they heard someone. They could only make out shadows, but they’re both convinced it was a person.”
