To Catch a Rabbit Read Online Free PDF Page B

on one of his trucks.’
    ‘There’s a girl at HMP Moreton Hall.’ Jaz said. ‘She was picked up in a Chinese restaurant by Immigration. Her solicitor approached me about her grounds for appeal. The dates fit and if I remember rightly, she named Grimsby as her port of entry. Karen could you…?’
    She was already crossing the sloping wooden floor to get the file from the boardroom. The sound of her mobile stopped her. It hardly ever rang during the day. The two men watched as she fumbled to silence it. The name on the screen said Dad. In her haste, she hit the screen and realised she hadn’t stopped the call but answered it on speakerphone. The sound of her father’s voice saying, ‘Hello, hello, Karen’ filled the room. She looked helplessly at Jaz, mouthed, ‘It’s on the table, middle stack’, and slipped out through the other door on to the landing at the top of the stairs.
    ‘I’ll call you back, Dad. I’m at work.’ 
    ‘Wait, no, listen. Karen, please.’
    It was a tone she didn’t recognise. Later she would say that she knew something was wrong the moment she heard her father’s voice. She stood against the wall, turning her back to the office door.
    ‘What is it? What’s up?’
    ‘Is Philip with you?’
    ‘Phil? Why would he be?’
    ‘I’m sorry. Yes, it’s a long shot. Stacey phoned. She thought he might be here. But he’s not. I thought he might have come to you.’
    ‘I don’t understand’
    ‘He’s gone missing. Didn’t come back from a job yesterday. Stacey’s had no message from him and his phone’s just going to voicemail.’
    ‘Do you think he might have turned up at our house? I can go home if you like.’
    ‘Could you? I tried your home number but, obviously, you’re not there.’
    Why would her brother come to York? He made no secret of hating Max. She spoke to him on the phone every couple of months, but they hadn’t seen each other since they went to her father’s house in Hertfordshire, just before Christmas. Phil had brought little Holly down, but his wife had stayed at home. It was too near London and London - according to Stacey - was full of terrorists.
    ‘I’ll call you back when I get home,’ she said.
    Karen leaned against the cool plaster of the wall, trying to make sense of what her father had told her. When she went back into the office, the detective was alone again. She could hear Jaz in the boardroom shuffling papers.
    ‘I’m sorry about that. I don’t normally leave it on.’
    ‘These things happen,’ the detective said. ‘You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
    ‘I’ll be all right.’
    ‘Got it!’ Jaz emerged waving a manila folder.
    ‘You know, we haven’t been properly introduced.’ Moon offered his hand and she took it. It was as if he was offering her some of his strength and just for a moment she held on.
    ‘God, I’m so sorry! Karen, Charlie Moon. Charlie, Karen Friedman. Karen’s my right-hand woman.’ Jaz put the folder on her desk and began to shuffle through it.
    ‘Karen’s had a bit of bad news,’ Charlie Moon said.
    She wondered if he’d heard every word through the door.
    ‘If no-one minds, I think I need to go, I’ll make up the hours.’
    Jaz shrugged. He was reading the file of the restaurant girl.
    ‘I’ve left all the papers for Mr and Mrs Moyo on your desk,’ she said, as she put her coat on.
    ‘Brilliant. Did you make another appointment for them?’
    ‘It’s in the diary.’
    ‘Right Charlie, mate,’ Jaz said. ‘I can give you ten minutes, then you’ll have to piss off.’
    The two men turned their attention to the papers and she said goodbye. As she reached the door, Moon looked up briefly and she caught his eye.
    In the doorway to the street, she hesitated. The air outside was cold and the light sudden. She could still smell last night’s bonfires. Philip was missing. She wasn’t sure what that meant or what she was expected to do about it. Missing people were posters in bus