Then She Was Gone Read Free

detective. ‘What? Why are you asking me that?’
    ‘I think it’s a perfectly reasonable question. Do you throw things around, maybe punch a hole in a wall, or rip a door off its hinges?’
    ‘No, I do not. I can get cross sometimes, but I’m not violent . . .’
    ‘Ah, but that’s not strictly true, is it?’ the detective said, moving past him and perching on the edge of a chair. ‘We know, for example, that you received a police
caution for being involved in . . .’
    ‘That was nothing,’ Tim interrupted, but then he stopped himself. He breathed in and out and fixed the detective with a stare. ‘What has this got to do with anything? Can you
tell me what you’re doing to find Molly?’
    ‘Can we go over things again? I want to make sure we have all the information on Molly as best as we possibly can.’
    Tim wanted to walk out, get away from the woman and from the house. To be back in that moment, in the park, pushing Molly along. Free and happy. Instead, he was forced to stand there and
listen.
    ‘Why haven’t you been in touch with your parents?’
    ‘We’re not close,’ he said after a few seconds, trying to remain calm. ‘There’s no reason to have them involved.’
    ‘We’ve spoken to them,’ the detective said, looking at him with those inquisitive eyes of hers. ‘I don’t think they were all that happy to find out from the TV that
they were grandparents. Bit of a shock, I think you can imagine. Did you not think to get in touch and let them know what was happening?’
    ‘No, I didn’t. As I said, we’re not close.’
    ‘Falling out? Temper get the better of you?’
    This time he made a movement towards the door, but the male detective standing in the doorway stopped him in his tracks. ‘Why are you asking me these questions?’ Tim said, turning
back to the female detective. ‘They have nothing to do with Molly being missing. Have you found Lauren yet? That’s what you should be doing. Finding her and seeing if she has taken my
daughter.’
    ‘Calm down, Tim. Come and sit down.’
    He looked back at the male detective who was still staring at him and decided to sit on the sofa. Settled on the edge. ‘Please, just tell me what you want to hear. I just want you to find
her.’
    ‘We understand that. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, though, which is making our job just that little bit more difficult. So, how about we clear those up and then we will be
in a better position to find your daughter. Sound fair?’
    Tim nodded, wrapping his arms around himself and leaning forwards.
    ‘You said you’d been with Lauren for just under a year,’ the female detective said, confusing him by changing tack. ‘Did she ever meet any of your family?’
    He was beginning to see how his answers were unlikely to help him. ‘No, she didn’t. There was no reason for her to meet any of them. I wasn’t close to them, so why would I
introduce her to them?’
    ‘Did she meet any of your friends?’
    ‘I don’t really have any friends. I left all that behind a long time ago.’
    The detective made some sort of noise under her breath. ‘So, she wasn’t introduced to your family, or friends, yet you were living together and she became pregnant. Were you working
at the time?’
    ‘Yes, I worked from home. Tech support for various websites. I have my own business.’
    ‘You don’t speak to your family, you have no friends, you work from home and your neighbours don’t know you exist. That seems a little like isolation to me. Is that
intentional?’
    He didn’t know how to respond, so he shrugged his shoulders instead.
    ‘We’ve tried to locate Lauren from the information you’ve provided us with, Tim, but we’ve been unsuccessful.’
    ‘I don’t understand . . .’ Tim began, before being interrupted.
    ‘I’m saying, we’ve checked into every local and national database. We’ve also checked again at your previous address, with your old neighbours and