Where Everything Seems Double by Penny Freedman (popular romance novels .txt) 📕

laughter and DS Hapgood gave him a quelling look. She leaned forward and said very quietly, ‘Were you having a relationship with Dumitru, Freda?’

It was Freda’s turn to laugh. ‘No, of course not,’ she said, and then, as DS Hapgood was looking nonplussed, she asked, helpfully, ‘Would you like me just to explain what happened?’

‘I think we would,’ Jane Hapgood said, and sat back in her chair.

Freda had thought about this. This was what she had been expecting to do, not answer pointless questions. So she had thought about what she would tell them and what she wouldn’t. She didn’t know if Ruby and Grace would tell them all about how the others had been involved, but she didn’t think she needed to get into that anyway. All she needed to do was to tell them how she guessed where Ruby was and how she got Dumitru to take her there.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘Well, it was quite simple really. I thought I might have worked out where Ruby Buxton was. You see, I couldn’t understand why Grace didn’t come home. I’d got friendly with some of Grace and Ruby’s friends and they talked about how close Grace and Ruby were – even after Grace went away to Alcott Park they were always texting and Facetiming each other – and I couldn’t understand why Grace hadn’t come home when Ruby went missing. I know she was supposed to be in a show but there are always understudies and if my brother had gone missing I’d have wanted to go home no matter what.’ She stopped for a moment. ‘My auntie came up here from London when I – when nobody knew where I was. It’s what you do, isn’t it?’

Jane Hapgood nodded. ‘Go on.’

‘So I thought the only reason must be that Grace knew where she was, and that probably meant that she was with her.’

‘And you didn’t tell anyone about this?’

Freda hesitated. ‘I wasn’t sure. It was only a guess. So I asked Dumitru.’

‘Why did you think he would know?’

‘Ruby used to talk to him. The others said she had a crush on him and was always finding excuses to get him alone and pour out her troubles. I didn’t think he’d taken her but I thought he might know if she was with Grace.’

‘And did he?’

‘No. But he knew about her dad and he knew she was unhappy, and he thought I was right.’

‘So why didn’t you tell anyone then? Your gran, for instance?’

She wasn’t going to tell them about being pissed off with Gran, so she said, ‘We didn’t have any proof, and Dumitru didn’t want the police to go looking for her. He said he would go and find her himself. He couldn’t phone her because she’d left her phone behind, so he was going to go and fetch her. He said she had to come home and she and Grace should go to the police about their dad. He thought he was a really dangerous man. He’d beaten Dumitru up because he thought he could tell him where she was. He knocked him down with a cricket bat and then kicked him about. And then when Dumitru didn’t tell him anything he said, ‘Then she must know’, and Dumitru thought he meant Susan, and he might hurt her.’ She stopped. ‘And we were too late to stop that.’

‘Why did you go with him, Freda?’

‘I wanted to. I thought I might be able to help persuade her to come home – being the same age and everything. And it was my idea, after all. Dumitru didn’t want to take me but I made him.’

’How did you do that?’

Freda looked down so that she didn’t have to meet anyone’s eye. ‘I blackmailed him,’ she said.

Her mother exploded. ‘Freda, don’t talk nonsense!’

‘Would you like to explain?’ Jane Hapgood asked.

‘Can I ask something first?’

‘Of course.’

‘Is Dumitru alive?’

‘He is. And expected to recover. Your gran called the ambulance just in time.’

‘Well, I don’t want to get him into trouble,’ Freda said, ‘because he was a hero and he was trying to protect us when he was stabbed. There was something I knew he’d done – not really a crime, but he’s nervous of the police. Where he comes from the police aren’t like they are here. So, could this be off the record?’

Jane Hapgood looked round the room. ‘You don’t see any recording equipment here, do you? This is all off the record. DC Abington here is taking a few notes but he may not need to note this.’

‘All right,’ Freda said. ‘Well I knew he had boosted some stuff from the hotel.’

‘What sort of stuff?’

‘A duvet and towels and stuff.’

‘And how did you know that?’

‘They were in his car. When I went to ask him about where Ruby was he said we should go and talk in his car because that would be private, and I saw them on the back seat – with the hotel logo on them – and I knew they were the things I had seen him carrying from the hotel to the car park late one night.’ She turned to her mother. ‘And before you ask, I was out in the car park late at night because I was ringing you. Remember – when we first arrived?’

‘Did he tell you why he had taken the things?’ DC Abington chipped in with a question.

‘He’s starting college in Carlisle in September and he’s got a room in a house there but he has to take all his own stuff – bedding and crockery and things – and he hasn’t got any money. He needs it all for the college fees and for rent. He said the hotel had loads of spare stuff and they wouldn’t miss it.’

‘But you threatened to tell them?’

Freda looked down at her lap. This was a part of her story that she wasn’t proud of. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I knew he was really worried about anyone finding out. He said if it