Behind Closed Doors by Michael Donovan

but I gave Gina my experience which was that in the investigation business there’s no such thing as coincidence. When you’re looking at one funny going-on and stumble across another there tends to be a correlation between the two.
    â€˜Larry may be searching for Rebecca,’ I postulated. ‘Maybe she’s eloped with some rich guy.’
    Gina shook her head. ‘Rebecca didn’t run off, Mr Flynn,’ she said. ‘She wouldn’t mislead her friends like that.’
    â€˜Intentions change,’ I suggested.
    Another emphatic shake. ‘She’d have called Sadie at least.’ Gina thought of something else. ‘If she’d run off, why are the Slaters keeping it a secret?’
    I gave her a grim smile. That was my own question, the one which made me doubt the elopement theory. Would a family hide the fact that their daughter has run away out of sheer embarrassment? Sure they would. But there was a factor that argued against it.
    â€˜If Rebecca had run off,’ I said, ‘the Slaters would be talking to Sadie. She’s the one person who might know something.’
    Gina nodded. We were on the same track. ‘They’ve done the opposite,’ she said. ‘They’ve cut Sadie out, just like me.’
    â€˜Which means that they know Sadie knows nothing,’ I said. ‘Therefore they know that Rebecca hasn’t run away.’
    The old lady unsealed a new pack and lit up. ‘So someone really has taken her?’ She looked at me like I’d let her down.
    â€˜It’s beginning to look that way,’ I said. ‘We just need to figure a reason that would explain why the Slaters haven’t gone to the police. Kidnap for ransom might keep them quiet, but the Slaters don’t stand out from the crowd as an obvious target. There are far richer pickings around town. Unless financial extortion wasn’t the purpose.’
    Gina sucked at her cigarette and watched a couple of swifts squabbling in the garden.
    â€˜The Slaters may have something the abductors need,’ I said. ‘Slater’s line of work suggests possibilities. But we may be wide of the mark with abduction. It’s still possible that the thing is to do with the family itself.’
    â€˜You think Larry and Jean might have harmed her?’ Gina was right back with her first supposition.
    I held up my hands. ‘The question is,’ I said, ‘do we take this further? If we dig then we’ll find out what’s going on. But my feeling is that we’ll be fighting the family all the way. I’ll need to put in the hours, ask my partner to help, maybe grease a few palms. It’s going to be expensive, Gina.’
    Gina shook her head, blew smoke.
    â€˜Do whatever you need,’ she said. ‘Let’s get Rebecca back safe. I’ll handle the bill.’
    â€˜Fine,’ I said. ‘We’ll step things up a gear. Give us three or four days. We’ll find her.’
    Gina nodded but her expression told me that she was thinking the same as me. Three or four days was a long time if the girl was in trouble; something bad may already have happened. I was confident we could find her, but that didn’t mean she’d be okay.
    I headed to the Slater house. If Larry was out then I wanted to take a look at Jean Slater’s day.
    The early morning drink I’d spotted yesterday didn’t point to anything particularly productive in her schedule. If Jean just stayed cooped up inside the house I’d waste another half day. But it was the best shot I had before bringing Shaughnessy in and starting the heavy digging.
    In the event Lady Luck presented a better option. As I turned into the lane I had to pull the Frogeye hard into the verge to avoid becoming roadkill under the wheels of a four-by-four coming out. My mind was on avoiding the agricultural-size Michelins, but I caught a peripheral glance of Jean Slater’s face up behind