Disappeared: MANTEQUERO BOOK 2 Read Free Page A

sort of place she imagined Miss Blacker living in.
    Miss Wetherspoon came bustling back into the room. “I don’t think it’s working at all,” she said. I can’t see a pilot light or anything. It’s always the way, isn’t it? The owner goes away and all the life support systems break down.”
    She gave Alison a wintry smile.” I really can’t decide what to do. June should have been back on Saturday but she didn’t turn up and hasn’t called and I know for a fact she didn’t take her mobile phone with her.”
    She was walking into the kitchen as she said this, closely followed by Alison, still clutching the little cat. “I tried ringing her sister,” she went on, reaching into a cupboard over the sink and bringing down a small tinfoil tray of cat food and a bag of biscuits, “but she didn’t seem to know anything.”
    She bent down to retrieve two dishes from the floor and set them on the counter where she began to spoon food from the tray into the smaller of the two. The little cat watched with hungry eyes, following Miss Wetherspoon’s every movement. “As a matter of fact,” the old lady said, pausing with her hand hovering over the cat’s dish, “she was rather abrupt.”
    Unable to contain herself any longer, Jessica launched herself at the counter and fell upon the food. “Oh dear,” said Miss Wetherspoon, inserting the last spoonful of cat food into the dish and then gently picking up cat and dish and depositing them both on the floor. “She said she hadn’t had any contact with her sister for several weeks and had no idea where she had gone or why she hadn’t returned.” She pursed her lips in disapproval. “Given that June has practically brought up her daughter for her, I thought that was a rather peculiar attitude.”
    Alison remembered Miss Blacker talking about her niece – Poppy? Pammy? – neither name sounded quite right.
    Miss Wetherspoon began pouring biscuits into the other dish.
    Alison felt disoriented. She had come to rescue Miss Blacker but Miss Blacker wasn’t there – had never returned. She had gone off on holiday and never come back. Leaving her little cat and her beloved niece. She hadn’t phoned or written or got anyone else to contact anyone.
    She leaned back against the table and rubbed her hand on her forehead.
    “I can ’t believe she’d do that,” she said at last. “Just go away and not come back. I can’t believe she wouldn’t contact you.”
    Miss Wetherspoon placed the biscuit dish on the floor next to the other dish. Jessica glanced at it then went back to devouring the meat.
    “That’s what I think,” she said, grimacing slightly as she straightened up. “Completely out of character”
    “So what do you think happened?”
    Miss Wetherspoon shook her head.
    “Something must have happened to her,” Alison said, her visions of Miss Blacker falling down the stairs replaced with car accidents, drowning, kidnap, rape. “Do you know exactly where she was going? Her flight details or anything?”
    Miss Wetherspoon shook her head again. “Only that she was going to Spain and coming back this Saturday. When she didn’t come I checked my calendar in case I’d got the date wrong. I don’t usually get things like that wrong.” She shrugged and Alison thought, I bet she doesn’t. I bet everything she does is neatly organised.
    “That was why I rang her sister. I thought she’d be able to confirm.” She glanced over towards the door and Alison saw a board with various papers and cards pinned to it, including one headed ‘IMPORTANT NUMBERS’. Directly below the emergency numbers, the doctor and the vet, was Ruth – 3048952.
     
    “Is this her?” Alison began to rummage in her bag for a pen and paper. She was ready to go round to the sister’s and throttle the information out of her if necessary.
    “Yes, dear. But I genuinely don’t think she knows anything.”
Alison stopped rummaging, feeling deflated.
    The little cat, having finished