Lost Cause (A Daisy Dunlop Mystery ~ Book 1)

Chapter Sixteen

Solomon dropped the phone back onto its cradle, happy with what he'd achieved. Life was much easier without Daisy around. He checked the time. She must have finished breakfast by now. He figured after the drama the day before she hadn't had time to organize another disaster and could be trusted to make her own way to the office. However, it was almost ten, and she was still a no-show.

With a growl, he got to his feet and tugged his suit jacket on. He had less than an hour to find her if he was to make it to his first appointment on time. His phone vibrated, and he pulled it out of his pocket. Daisy. He hit the button to accept the call.

"Where the hell are you?"

"Good morning to you too."

"Don't be bleedin' funny. Why aren't you here?"

"I've been a bit tied up."

"What?"

"Well, more handcuffed than tied. Dan Maloney says I can go for now."

"I told you to stay away from him."

"He insisted I come and help him with his inquiries."

"What? Where the bleedin' hell are you?"

"Call yourself a detective. I'm at the fucking police station, where do you think I am?"

"Why?"

"Come and collect me, and I'll tell you."

"Why can't you get back here on your own?"

"I'm in need of transportation."

"What about your car?"

"It's been impounded."

"Why?"

"I have to go, Solomon. The other inmates want to use the phone."

"Daisy? Daisy!"

She'd hung up on him. He growled with frustration. Bollocks. What the hell had she done now? Clearly she couldn't be left alone for a minute. Perhaps he should leave her in the tender loving care of the cops. She would be safe in a cell. He was tempted to called Detective Maloney and have him keep her for the day.

Instead he locked up the office and drove through town. The car park across the road from the station was full so he risked leaving his SUV in a ten-minute loading zone. He would be five minutes, and he was loading something, a millstone that currently hung around his neck. On reflection he should have offered Paul an alternative option to pay back the pain he'd caused him. A bullet in the arse would be quicker, and less agonizing than the havoc Daisy was wreaking on his life and business.

Solomon shoved the door to the police station open and sighed. A gaggle of miscreants and weirdos took up the space in the lobby. He stood straight, shoulders back, adopted an air of a man who belonged there and approached the counter.

"Excuse me. I'm here to collect Daisy Dunlop."

The desk sergeant grabbed his pen back from a kid using it to graffiti the timber countertop. "You'll have to wait your turn."

"It's urgent."

"It always is."

Solomon frowned. "Fine. But you'll be having to explain to Detective Maloney."

"Explain what?"

"Why Ms. Dunlop missed her appointment with the psychiatrist, again. You can also tell him until she's seen someone from the medical profession and taken her medication my hands are tied. He'd best be seeing the judge about a court order to get her locked up for her own good and to have her case rescheduled. In the meantime, I suggest he keeps her in the cells overnight."