Page 28 of The Boathouse by the Loch (The Scottish Highlands #4)

Jake was intending to play it cool. He was going to stay calm, but coming up against five men – even if they were all well into retirement – was making Jake nervous. He held up the gun.

‘Patrick!’ one of the men exclaimed. ‘What the hell have you got yourself into?’ Inexplicably, they were all still sitting at the table, holding their cards as if at any moment the game would resume, and Jake would just go away.

‘On the floor, all of you.’ Jake waved the gun at them as if to say he meant business.

No one moved.

‘Now, look here son,’ Virgil began.

‘NOW!’ Jake tipped the table over for effect to show them he was serious. He’d seen it countless times in the movies; make a bit of noise, do some violence to an inanimate object – it soon got people going.

Slowly, with much complaining about arthritis and ailments Jake had never even heard of, they got on their knees.

‘Not you.’ Jake pointed the gun at Patrick Ames.

‘You’d better have a very good reason for pointing that gun at me,’ he said coolly .

‘Ask him where he got the gun,’ said Virgil. ‘This isn’t bloody America. You can’t just walk into a gun shop and buy one.’

‘Is it even real?’ asked another guy, who was still smoking his cigar.

‘Of course it’s bloody real,’ said Jake, hoping they didn’t catch the waver in his voice. Jake had never seen a real gun, let alone handled one.

Jake couldn’t believe the nerve of them all, throwing questions around when he was meant to be in charge. He was the one with the gun. He focused on Patrick.

In the corner of his eye Jake noticed movement. He swivelled his head and caught one of Patrick’s friends try to get up. ‘Stay sitting down and put your hands behind your heads.’

One by one they obeyed.

Jake waited until they all complied then he turned his attention back to Patrick. ‘Now I want to know what you have done with Natty.’

‘I still don’t know what …’ he stopped abruptly. ‘What are you talking about?’ His eyes suddenly darted around his apartment, where Jake had flung open all the internal doors, searching his flat.

‘She’s missing? My granddaughter is missing? You’ve got to tell me what happened. We’ve got to go find her.’

‘Stop bullshitting me,’ Jake spat. He had expected this; he had expected him to plead for his life, but not to start trying to save his own neck by telling such abject lies. ‘Tell me where she is – goddamn you! Tell me.’

The silent promise he had made to himself that he would return to Faye’s flat with her daughter was ringing louder in his ears with each passing moment. The possibility of losing them both was becoming painfully clear. He would never forgive himself if he didn’t get her back.

Jake started to go over his last conversation with Natty, when he’d spoken to her over the phone the previous evening; perhaps if he had told her when he planned to return from Scotland, instead of just replying with a vague soon , he wouldn’t be there right now; she wouldn’t be gone.

Of course, he knew that was absurd. It wouldn’t have made any difference.

It had nothing to do with him going away.

But for some reason, he still felt responsible, and that it was up to him to find her.

‘Now I’m going to ask the question just one last time, and so help me if I don’t get an answer …’

One of the men on the floor spoke up. ‘Tell him, Patrick. For god’s sake, tell him where she is.’

‘I can’t. You know I haven’t seen my granddaughter in an absolute age – through no fault of my own, I might add.’

Jake shook his head. ‘You’re lying.’

‘Why do you think I follow my daughter on Facebook? For any snippet of information I might get about my own granddaughter. But she rarely posts anything, and certainly no photos – nothing about Natty. Except that one time just recently about her headteacher training course, and how she wouldn’t have been able to continue it if it wasn’t for her new, and very reliable, wonderful babysitter, Jake. That’s you, isn’t it?’

‘It’s true,’ said Virgil. ‘He doesn’t see his own grandchild.’ The other men joined in voicing their agreement.

Jake couldn’t think straight with the cacophony of voices. ‘SHUT UP!’ he shouted. He knew what he had come here to do; it should be straightforward. So why wasn’t Patrick telling him where she was?

‘Can you tell me how long she’s been missing?’ said Patrick, his even tone of voice not hinting at his current predicament.

‘May I remind you that I’m the one holding the gun?

I’m the one in control,’ said Jake, aware that his unnaturally high-pitched tone of voice was betraying his true feelings; he did not feel fully in control of the situation.

From the very start, things had not gone according to plan.

‘And I don’t have to answer your questions.

’ All the same, Jake did a quick mental calculation; he’d got the call from Faye mid-morning.

It was the last day of the school summer term.

She’d said something about dropping Natty off at breakfast club, which she did every day before work.

But then she’d had a call from the school a while later because Natty had failed to turn up at breakfast club.

Jake momentarily forgot about the gun in his hand, and looked at his watch.

It was six pm. She’d been gone ten hours. Ten hours !

‘Oh god! She’d been missing ten hours!’

Suddenly the men on the floor were all talking at once, saying something about being around the kitchen table all day, give or take lunch, and breaks – especially toilet breaks. Bladders weren’t what they once were. It was one of their weekly marathon sessions.

Jake didn’t believe a word of it. ‘You’re friends of his. You’d cover for him,’ he barked.

‘That’s right,’ said Virgil, ‘we are all friends of his. Friends that go way back. Friends that don’t want to see him get hurt.

But,’ he paused, ‘just because we’re retired from the force doesn’t mean we have any less regard for truth and justice.

Believe me, son, if we knew Paddy had done something wrong, had taken his granddaughter like you say, we would tell you in a heartbeat. ’

Jake regarded each of the men nodding their heads, each of the men’s earnest expressions.

They obviously didn’t know why Paddy was estranged from his daughter – because he was good friends with her ex, Natty’s father Yousaf, and had taken his side when they’d split up, choosing not to believe Faye when she’d told him that Yousaf had attempted to take her daughter.

He needed to think. If what they were saying was true, that Patrick had been there all day, then Yousaf had taken Natty himself.

But he must have got the information on the whereabouts of her school and her routine from her grandfather.

Something didn’t ring true, though. Yousaf was a kind, gentle soul, according to Faye.

He didn’t sound like the kind of man who would snatch Natty.

That would be very different from trying to take her away with him before they were estranged.

Natty didn’t know her father now. She wouldn’t have gone willingly with a stranger.

Jake was getting tired of excuses. It still had to be Patrick.

Maybe he’d said he had to nip out for the morning paper.

That was more plausible. But even as he thought it, it sounded ridiculous.

How long would it have taken him through rush hour traffic to get to the school, grab Natty, take her to wherever her father was, and then rejoin the game?

He was back to thinking about Natty’s father. ‘Who took her – was it Yousaf?’ said Jake. ‘Who did you arrange to be outside her school when Faye dropped her off this morning – who was it?’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’ exclaimed Patrick. ‘If she’s missing, why aren’t you out pounding the streets looking for her, for Christ’s sake, instead of in here waving a gun around interrogating me? What in heaven’s name has Faye been telling you?’

‘She told me that you wouldn’t believe her when she broke it off with Yousaf because he’d attempted to take Natty away.’

‘You mean that visit to Oman so his family could meet his daughter? ’

‘Yes,’ said Jake, seething.

‘He’d have brought her back.’

‘On a one-way ticket?’

Patrick sighed heavily. ‘Look, Yousaf wouldn’t do that. She was mistaken.’

‘Then why is she convinced those plane tickets she saw were one-way? Why can’t you believe her that she wasn’t mistaken?’

Patrick frowned. ‘But he’s such a nice guy.’

‘Didn’t you consider for a moment that your friendship with him clouded your judgement? Maybe he is, as you said, a nice guy, but it sounds as though he was pressured by his family to—’

‘Oh, god!’ Patrick interrupted Jake. ‘Are you saying he’s back? That he took Natty?’

Jake stared at him. ‘You really have no idea who took Natty, where she is – do you?’

‘Of course I don’t! I wouldn’t consider for one second helping Yousaf take Natty away from us.

I haven’t seen or heard from the man in years.

All I have left is my daughter and granddaughter, and now I don’t even have them because Faye won’t forgive me.

Why did I put my friendship with Yousaf before my own daughter?

I’m an idiot. Now I’m just a sad old man with this lot for company. ’

There were murmurs of agreement from the floor.

‘Know this,’ said Patrick. ‘I had nothing to do with Natty’s disappearance.

Nothing.’ He looked Jake in the eye. ‘I miss them like a man dying of thirst misses water, with all my heart and soul, and I don’t care what you believe.

My granddaughter is at this very moment out there somewhere, quite possibly with her father, a man she doesn’t know.

You’d better shoot me now and be done with it, so at least you can stop wasting time and get out of my apartment and find her. ’ He pointed at the door .

Virgil commented, ‘I’m sure it’s a fake gun, Patrick.’

Jake dropped his arm to his side and stepped back.

His thoughts were not on the man in front of him, but somewhere else – a place that terrified him.

He’d been so convinced that he’d find Natty there with her grandfather, not helping Yousaf take her away, but simply facilitating a reunion that he knew Faye would not want.

What he’d never considered was the possibility that Natty was gone – and would never be found.