No Going Back Read Online Free PDF Page B

Daniel had put it down to the natural stress of a worried father, but with hindsight he wasn’t so sure. Was it the dog he didn’t want close to the child or Daniel himself? Had Reynolds been afraid of what she might say?
    The cry he had heard when Reynolds had found Elena had been bitten off short – perhaps by a hand being clamped over the child’s mouth to ensure her silence. What if it had been a cry of fear?
    The computer coughed up its results for his latest search and Daniel turned his attention to these, pushing aside his empty bowl. Listings for ‘The Pines, Devon, caravan’ were numerous, but after half an hour or more trawling through them, Daniel still hadn’t found a caravan park of that name anywhere, let alone within a reasonable distance of Stack Bridge.
    A search of the online phone directories didn’t produce anything more helpful and Daniel gave up, deciding to ask at the local post offices the next day. He wished he’d thought to get the 4x4’s number plate.
    Sitting staring at the screen, his mind drifted again. Had the older girl really not heard their shouting when the dog had lost her scent, or had she been hiding somewhere, watching fearfully as they hunted for her? And why had Taz lost what had seemed to be such a strong trail? Katya might have waded up or down the stream with the intention of confusing the dog, but if that was the case, why had she then returned to her father of her own volition shortly after?
    It brought him back to the original question: what was it that the girls feared? Had it really been a case of a family row that had gone too far, or was it something more sinister? Was their father abusive? Was he even their father? Daniel fervently wished that he’d asked more questions when he’d had the chance.
    Reynolds had said that the authorities seemed uninterested, but Daniel was beginning to doubt that he’d ever called them. He turned cold as he realized that in helping the two men, it was just possible that he’d unwittingly delivered a young girl back into the hands of her abusers.
    He toyed with the idea of calling the police himself, but several minutes passed and he made no move towards the phone. After all, what could he tell them? That two girls had been lost on the moor but had now been found? Case open, case closed, as far as they would be concerned. They were unlikely to be interested in a handful of unproven suspicions.
    Quite apart from this, he had his own reasons for avoiding any contact with the police, being well aware that it would set off a chain of questions, starting with ‘May I ask who’s calling?’ and quite possibly culminating in them running a search and turning up his record, and that was something he could well do without.
    With a sigh he turned off the computer, picked up the day’s paper and transferred to the sagging leather sofa, where the dog presently joined him.
    That night, for the first time in several weeks, the nightmares returned.
    With a busy schedule of deliveries the following morning, it was nearly two o’clock when Daniel slammed the door on the empty lorry for the last time and was able to concentrate fully on what had been in the back of his mind all morning. He wasn’t going to know any peace of mind until he’d settled one thing: had Reynolds contacted the emergency services the day before or not?
    If he had, then – like him or not – Daniel had no real reason to suspect the man of any wrongdoing. If he hadn’t, then he’d blatantly lied, and if he’d lied about that, what else might he have lied about?
    Just what he could do about it if he found out that Reynolds’s story was made up, Daniel didn’t know. His first problem was how to discover the truth without exposing himself to the curiosity of the local police.
    â€˜How did it go yesterday? Did you find those girls all right?’ Fred Bowden came towards Daniel as