Abigail: Chapter 13
I raced to the van and practically flew along the M4 back towards Abigail’s house, my mind racing as I drove. Ransom note? Death threats? Body parts? My stomach churned and I shook my head to banish that last thought. Goodness, I hoped not. The miles passed in a blur and I arrived at Abigail’s front door in record time. I'd barely finished knocking when the door opened.
“Charlie, come in.”
I followed Abigail into the kitchen, fearing the worst, and looked around. I couldn’t see any bloody fingers so that was something at least.
She'd been so distraught on the phone I didn't bother with pleasantries. “Where's the letter?”
“Letters,” Abigail said, correcting me. She pointed to the table where I saw two envelopes with little windows.
Windows on envelopes usually only meant one thing. Bills. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“They’re bank statements.” She reached over and pulled one out of an envelope and handed it to me. “Look at them.”
I glanced through the statement. There were quite a lot of transactions but she wasn’t in debt and I was still none the wiser.
“Look at the cash withdrawals. The locations.” She grabbed the statement from me and sighed. “Winslow. Barnstaple. Colchester. Where’s Colchester?!?”
“You mean you didn’t make these withdrawals?” Suddenly the penny dropped.
She shook her head. “Do I look like someone who has time to go skipping halfway across the country to withdraw money?”
“Any chance your card has been lost or stolen?”
“Nope. It’s right here.” She pulled her purse out of her bag and waved a debit card at me. “So if I didn’t make them, who did?”
That was a very good question.
“Do you think they’re holding him hostage? Making him take the money out in exchange for not …” Abigail clapped a hand over her mouth and started sobbing again.
“I don’t know. But if they are, they’ve just made a very big mistake.” I smiled at Abigail. “Look at it this way: this is the first real contact you’ve had for months.”
“You think he’s still alive?” She spoke in a whisper.
“I don’t know. But this is a good sign. It’s a trail to follow. What I need you to do now is take a deep breath, make us both a cuppa, and together we’ll go through this carefully, pick out the clues. Okay?”
She nodded, wiped her eyes and put the kettle on. That was one thing my mother was right about: there was nothing that couldn’t be faced so long as you had a cup of tea. I was more of a coffee girl of course, much to my mother’s fury, but the hot drink principle still stood. While Abigail made us a drink I took another look at the transactions. I could take an educated guess which were Abigail’s but going through them together would give her something to focus on. It also might get her talking. I needed to raise the subject of the life insurance, I just wanted to make sure I did it carefully.
We were close to finishing the second statement when my phone rang. It was Rob, hopefully with the information he’d promised me, but I wasn’t keen to have that conversation in front of Abigail.
“Rob, hi there. I’m just in the middle of something right now. Alright if I phone you back in about half an hour?”
Rob and I had been friends long enough for him to know that when I told him I was in the middle of something, it would serve him well to not ask questions so he agreed and I hung up.
“Sorry about that. One of my contacts but he can wait. It’s important we get these squared away first. Talking of which … I met with one of Toby’s work colleagues earlier. Was with him when you rang in fact. He mentioned something about life insurance. Has someone from his office been in touch with you about that?”
“Life insurance? For Toby? No? Should they have?”
I watched her carefully as she spoke and my gut told me she was telling the truth. “It’s not a problem, I don’t think they can do anything about it just now anyway. Just wondered if you’d heard from them.”
“No, nothing.”
“Not to worry then. Do me a favour would you? If they do call, tell me, okay?”
“Of course. Anything.” Abigail glanced down at the statements and when she looked up again she appeared puzzled. “Toby wasn’t paying into any life insurance policy. If he had been, it would have been on the bank statements wouldn’t it?”
“I’m not sure. I guess so. Honestly, don’t worry about it for now. I’m sure if it’s important someone will call you.”
All the same, I made a mental note to ask Bill about it the next time I saw him. It was entirely possible that Toby could have been paying into a scheme directly from his payslip. But why wouldn’t he have told his wife about it if he was? And hadn’t Mr James said Toby was a consultant? If that was the case, I wasn’t even sure if he’d have a payslip. Too many questions for my liking.
“Are you okay?” Abigail was looking at me with a strange expression on her face.
“Sure, why?”
“You were frowning. I thought maybe …”
“What?”
Abigail shook her head. “Nothing. Just reading too much into everything I guess. I always do that. One of my many faults.”
“No harm in reading people. I do it all the time, I have to.”
“Really?” Abigail sounded surprised.
“Of course. How else am I meant to tell the good guys from the baddies? You wouldn’t believe some of the people I meet doing this job.”
What I didn’t tell her was that the jury was still out on both her and her husband. If the innocent wife routine was all an act she was an incredible liar but I found it hard to accept that anyone could really be as happily in love as she claimed to be. I shook the thought from my head and, with a glance at the time, made my excuses. I needed to get home so I could phone Rob back. I couldn’t wait to hear what he’d found for me.