Her Last Tomorrow Read Online Free PDF Page A

if people aren’t at home, but obviously we can’t get into anyone’s back gardens without their permission.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ Tasha asks, her face showing incredulity. ‘Surely if you think she’s hiding in someone’s garden you need to look in all of them.’
    ‘I’m afraid it’s not quite that simple,’ McKenna says. ‘We’re doing what we can. For a start, if she is hiding, we don’t want to alarm her by leaping over fences and storming the area. We want her to come out and back home.’
    This seems to have pacified Tasha.
    ‘There are a couple of things I need to check with you, though, Mr Connor. I’ve just been across the road speaking to your neighbour, a Mr Francis?’ McKenna’s intonation rises on the name, indicating that perhaps I should have a clue as to who this Mr Francis is. She sees the lack of recognition on my face and elaborates. ‘At number 39, directly opposite you.’
    ‘Oh, Derek,’ I say. This is the first time I’ve ever heard his surname.
    ‘His house overlooks yours, so I thought maybe he might have seen something.’
    ‘Yes, that’s what I thought,’ I reply. McKenna and Tasha both look at me. ‘I went over to speak to him. When you left earlier. I wondered if he’d seen any strange cars knocking about or anything like that.’
    ‘Yes, Mr Francis did mention that you visited,’ McKenna replies. I try to detect the tone in her voice, but she’s kept it as neutral as possible. ‘He said he didn’t see anything. Nothing out of the ordinary, anyway,’ she says. ‘I presume he told you the same thing?’
    I nod.
    ‘Can you confirm what time you put Ellie in the car again for me please?’ McKenna asks.
    ‘I’ve already told you this. It was a few minutes before nine.’
    ‘Jesus, Nick,’ Tasha says. Trust her to be more worried about Ellie being a few minutes late for school than the fact that she’d just disappeared off the face of the earth.
    I look at McKenna. ‘We were late. I fell asleep,’ I say, before turning my glance back to Tasha. ‘I’d been up since five.’
    ‘Mr Francis told me he was doing his ironing in his living room, in front of the window, from a quarter to nine until just before quarter past, when we turned up,’ McKenna says. ‘He would’ve had a clear view of your driveway, wouldn’t he?’
    ‘I guess so,’ I say.
    McKenna nods, not breaking eye contact with me. ‘Not only did Mr Francis say he didn’t see anyone odd lurking around, nor Ellie walking off. He says he didn’t see you putting Ellie in the car in the first place.’
    I see Tasha’s head spin round towards me out of the corner of my eye.
    ‘What? No, that’s not possible,’ I say, but McKenna continues.
    ‘He says the first sign of life he saw was you leaving the house and jogging down the road a few seconds before we got here in the police car.’
    ‘He’s lying. He must have seen. He sees everything! How the hell could he miss that? Have you looked at his record?’ I say, feeling the beads of sweat breaking on my brow. ‘There’s something not right about him. How do you know he hasn’t got her? There are stories about him.’
    ‘Mr Francis said he thought it was a bit odd,’ McKenna continues, ‘because you usually set off for school with Ellie some time between eight-fifty and just gone nine.’
    Tasha looks at me again. I could really do without her judging me over what time I manage to get her to school, seeing as she’s long gone and farting about in London by then.
    McKenna stands and paces about the living room as she speaks. ‘In fact, he says he went over and knocked at your door a bit earlier this morning. The postman delivered one of your letters to him by mistake, apparently, so he brought it over for you. He says you didn’t answer.’
    ‘Well, no. I mean, I heard the doorbell go but I was busy getting Ellie ready for school. It’s not exactly easy doing it on your own,’ I say, darting a look at Tasha out of the corner