Page 69 of The Twins

“No, and I’ve said more than I should.” She sounded upset now. “But please, get her back, she’s precious, to us all.”

“We will.”

“And I’ll call the partners, let them know what is happening.”

“Okay, thank you, Mary.” Finn hung up. “Bollocks, this is not good.”

“What’s going on?” Jamie wandered in through the back door. Dalton was with him. The sunny weather of late had tanned his skin and lightened his already blond hair.

I looked between them. A handsome millionaire and a calm-in-a-crisis doctor, it could only do us good to have them on board. “Rebecca has gone missing,” I said.

“Rebecca, your new woman, the one who was here yesterday?” Dalton asked, his blue eyes narrowing.

“Yeah.” I clenched my fists; my adrenaline was surging. The need to run or fight or shout and break something was almost overwhelming. “That’s the one.”

“She’s a lawyer, right?” Dalton said.

“Yeah, and her profession got her a stalker,” Finn snarled. “A guy called Reg Jacks, or so we think.”

“Disgruntled client?” Jamie asked.

“Yep.” I paced to the window and stared out. “We need a plan.”

There was a moment of quiet. My brain was whirring. What was the best course of action? Where should we start?

“The prison,” Phil said. “Get the CCTV and see if she got there.”

“Good, yes.” Finn twisted his hands together.

“Mitch will be able to help with that,” Dalton said. “If that’s where she was last.”

“Yeah, it is,” I said. “As far as we know.”

“Is he on duty today?” Jamie asked. “Mitch.”

“Yes,” Phil said. “Day shifts this week.”

“Then come on.” I grabbed the keys to our shared vehicle. “Let’s get to the station, Finn, we’ll call Mitch on the way, bring him up to speed and get him to meet us there if he’s out on patrol.”

Soon we were pulling up outside Headington Police Station. I leaped out and took the wide steps two at a time.

“What can I help you with?” an officer said from behind a reception desk. His smile was rigid and his movement slow.

That irritated me. Where was his sense of urgency?

“We’ve come to see Officer Cooper,” Finn said. “He’s expecting us.”

I pulled out my phone and drew up Mitch’s number. But I didn’t have to dial because a door opened and Mitch strode out in his smart dark uniform. He had all the usual paraphernalia attached; radio, cuffs, truncheon, a bunch of keys.

“I’ll take it from here, Brad?” he called to the officer on reception.

“You sure?” Brad eyed us both suspiciously. Our Irish accent could do that, and right now, panic had made our vowels even thicker.

“Yeah, no problem.” Mitch flicked his head. “This way, I think I’ve got something.”

“You have?” My guts churned. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? What if he had something horrific like…no, I didn’t want to let my mind go down that route. This situation was frightening enough as it was.

We followed Mitch into a side office, and he stooped over a computer, clicked on the screen. “This is the recording from Bullingdon entrance an hour ago.”