Bring Him Back Read Online Free PDF Page A

into the hole, pulled out a pinch of it and examined it. Drew Hunter was fair, like his son, and Ben had been told his hair was long and straggly. This was short and very dark, almost black. Definitely interesting. Ben carefully dropped some strands of it inside an evidence bag, sealed it and slipped it into his pocket.
    ‘Milk Thistle?’ the woman in the health food shop said some time later, peering through her thick spectacles at the bottle Ben was showing her. ‘Why yes, it’s very popular as a liver cleanser. A lot of customers come to buy it after Christmas and New Year, when they’ve been overindulging a little.’
    ‘You mean, in drink?’ Ben said, and the woman nodded. ‘Would it help for hangovers, things like that?’ he asked.
    ‘Also to help support internal organs after a period of abuse,’ she replied.
    ‘So an alcoholic might use it?’
    ‘If they were trying to detox themselves,’ she said. ‘Studies have been done that show how it can help regenerate the liver.
    ‘Sounds like I need some more of it for myself,’ he said dryly.
    ‘Or people on a crash diet, to help protect against the release of toxins.’
    ‘And what about this?’ He showed her the bottle of small white pills he’d found in Drew’s bathroom.
    ‘Nux Vom,’ she said, recognising it instantly. ‘Same idea, only this is homeopathic, not herbal.’
    ‘Does it work?’
    ‘Oh, it works, all right,’ she said. ‘Just ask my husband.’
    Ben bought another lot of each by way of thanking her for her help, and left the shop thinking about what he’d learned. First, no booze anywhere to be found in Drew’s house. Now this. It looked as if the guy was pretty serious about cleaning himself up and purging the toxic effects of drink from his system.
    As he walked up the street towards his car, checking the address for A Stitch in Time, Ben took out his phone and called Jessica at home. She answered on the second ring, as if she’d been hovering nearby waiting for a call.
    ‘What have you found out?’ she said breathlessly.
    ‘Was Drew seeing anyone recently?’ Ben asked.
    Jessica sounded taken aback. ‘As in, a girlfriend?’
    ‘One with short hair, very dark brown or black.’
    ‘I don’t think so. I’m sure I’d have heard it through the grapevine. Who’d want him anyway, in the state he’s in half the time?’
    ‘What about friends who might have visited him?’
    ‘I really don’t know. Most of our friends stopped socialising with him when we broke up. Why are you asking?’
    Ben told her about the hair in the bath. ‘But what does it mean?’ she said, sounding baffled.
    ‘I can’t be sure, of course. But I think he dyed his hair sometime not long before abducting Carl. And cut it, too. There were scissors in the bathroom cabinet. The blades were rusty, like they’d be if you used them to cut wet hair and put them away in a hurry.’
    ‘But his hair wasn’t short,’ she said. ‘It was long and straggly. I told you, I was shocked by his appearance. And you’ve seen the police sketch.’
    ‘My guess is that he’d already done the job on himself by then, to save time, and that he was wearing a wig,’ Ben said. ‘And I’d bet that he’s done the same for Carl, too, immediately after the snatch. Maybe at his place but more likely somewhere else, somewhere isolated and private, like a beach hut. Dyeing the boy’s hair wouldn’t have taken long, maybe forty minutes from start to finish.’
    ‘I can’t even imagine what he must look like with dark hair,’ Jessica said, sounding aghast.
    ‘Exactly. So it’s possible that they used the ferry after all. Drew’s hideout could have been somewhere en route from your house to the port, so they’d have had time to do the job and still make the last ferry, well before you and Mike got out of the cellar and raised the alarm. That’s how he managed to fool the cops when they reviewed the CCTV footage, because they only had your description of a