Honeytrap: Part 2 Read Online Free PDF

with his new mates, having a few beers, checking out the Liverpool pubs. It had been her turn to travel this weekend, but she’d cried off after organising the interview with Sylvie.
    She had thought that a long-distance relationship wouldn’t be a problem, not for six months, but they were only three months in and already starting to miss weekends. Last time, a fortnight ago, it had been Neil who’d cancelled, and now it was her. She wasn’t sure how much it mattered. Maybe it didn’t. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.
    Jess was pondering on whether there was actually any truth in this when a black cab turned into the close and drew up outside number six. She quickly slid down the seat, trying to keep out of sight. Sneaking a peek over the dashboard, she saw Joshua Keynes climb out, pay the driver and head for his front gate. He was alone – of course he was – and seemed to be acting in a normal fashion.
    But that didn’t mean he wasn’t guilty. Where had he been between leaving Wilder’s and coming home? Four hours in which he could have been doing anything. But if he had abducted Sylvie, he must have had some form of transport; he could hardly force her into the back of a cab without anyone noticing that something was amiss. And it couldn’t have been planned. Keynes would have had no way of knowing that Sylvie was going to walk into the bar tonight.
    Jess was about to give up and go home when something odd happened. After the cabbie had driven off, Keynes glanced furtively up and down the close and then got his phone out. Instead of going through the gate, he paced alongside the hedge. It was, she surmised, a call he didn’t want his girlfriend to overhear. Why else would he be standing out in the rain when he could be warm and dry inside?
    But, suspicious as his behaviour was, it still didn’t prove he’d done anything to Sylvie. He could just be ringing his bit on the side, whispering sweet nothings before he went inside to join his fiancée. She curled her lip, wondering why it was that some men just couldn’t keep it in their pants.
    Keynes finished his call, gave a smug smile and returned the phone to his pocket. He swung open the gate and disappeared from view. Jess hung on, waiting for … Well, she wasn’t quite sure what she was waiting for: perhaps for something dramatic to happen or for a flash of inspiration, something that would give her a lead as to what had actually gone on tonight. The minutes ticked by. Eventually, she had to accept that this was it. She gave one last glance towards the house, sighed, started the engine and set off for home.
    ‘I’ll be back,’ she murmured in her best Schwarzenegger accent. ‘You can count on it.’

12
    Harry woke up on the sofa on Sunday morning with a thick head and a mouth that tasted like last week’s rubbish. The smell of whisky floated on the air. A half-empty bottle was still on the coffee table and he squinted at it resentfully, remembering the self-destructive indulgences of the evening before. Whisky and self-pity was never a good combination for someone with a man-sized dent in his pride.
    Slowly, with a groan, he pulled himself into an upright position. What had he been thinking? Ellen had made her feelings clear when she did a bunk from the hotel. He’d thought it might be different when they came face to face, but it wasn’t. He winced as he thought about the moment she told him that she was widowed. Perhaps if he’d responded differently, said something else, done something else … but what?
    Harry dragged himself to the shower, stripped off his clothes and gave himself up to the stream of hot water. He stood there for a long time, trying to wash his hangover away. When it became apparent that this wasn’t going to happen, he got out, dried himself, brushed his teeth, shaved and dressed.
    In the living room he tidied up and opened all the windows to let in some fresh air. He made coffee and toast, took two aspirin