Blind Angel of Wrath (The Blind Sleuth Mysteries 2)

10 An angel defeated

"Listen, Daisy Hayes, it says here, 'Mrs Hayes and Mr McCullough were not available for comment,' so how can you say that I went and blabbed to that reporter? It doesn't make sense!"

Daisy was on the phone again, trembling with rage and frustration. "Now you listen to me, you bastard! I find this whole thing very fishy, and that's an understatement!"

"Well, I can only protest my innocence again! The man must have overheard us at the opening, then he must have done some research. There's nothing in that piece that is not public knowledge. Your story was published as an inquest report at the time; my story has been all over the papers a year ago, because I did all I could to raise public awareness of Loretta's disappearance..."

"And then there's a large picture of me, in a high circulation Sunday paper!"

"I know! Very unfortunate! I agree with you entirely..."

"And you do understand what this means, don't you? I'll just have to stop my investigation, at least for the time being, as the whole situation has become too dangerous for me..."

"No, no, Daisy Hayes, you must carry on regardless! I know how much you care for poor Loretta, and as her father I'm very grateful for that. But that is precisely why you must carry on. Do it for her. And if this unfortunate business in the Sunday paper can encourage the pervert to manifest himself, all the better!"

"Yes, but that's easy for you to say; you're not the one at risk!"

"Well, whether you keep searching or not will no longer make a difference in that respect. The harm is done; you might as well carry on!"

"You certainly have the gift of the gab, don't you, McCullough?"

But it was no use. The man had already hung up. Daisy felt like dialling back immediately and venting her fury some more, but she already knew that the man would not pick up the phone a second time.

Right after Mrs Maurois had read the article to her, Daisy had started to hear of it left and right. She had found out that everybody had read it. For instance, when she had gone to work on Monday, the first of her two and a half weekly workdays at the group practice, her favourite colleague, Astrid, had discreetly taken her aside. "My dear Daisy, are you aware of the fact that there's an article published about you in a major national Sunday paper?"

"I suppose you're referring to 'Blind Angel of Wrath'?"

"Yes! And is it true? Did you find out singlehandedly that your husband had been poisoned by his crew?"

"Well, that's not exactly what happened..."

"And are you really looking for this Loretta girl?"

"Yes, that much is true."

"Well then, you are a real-life blind sleuth! Incredible, you never cease to amaze one! Nice picture of you, by the way..."

Then Victor had phoned and told her, "Now I'm starting to understand what kind of a dirty little game McCullough is playing. One way or another he must be responsible for this..."

"Yes, but he's never going to admit it."

"True, and short of leaving the country for a while, there's nothing you can do about it."

"Well, I'm hoping that Rick will come back one of these days. When he gets in touch, which he's bound to do eventually, I'll ask him to take me with him to Singapore or Sydney or somewhere like that..."

"Do that, yes. It would be a relief to us all—I mean also Blanche, and the crew of course—if we could be sure that you're safe."

With Stella, her mother-in-law, and Beatrice, and Margery, it had been rather touching. All three of them phoned to express their concern, but as they were "gentry"—whatever that meant nowadays—they would never admit to reading a Sunday paper, so they all had a similar story at the ready, to the effect that "the charwoman", or "a friend", a "colleague" had drawn their attention to the alarming article. Even her parents, who were not gentry, had found out about it indirectly, or so they claimed. At any rate, the story was being widely circulated, and even though Daisy knew that her fame would not last longer than a week or two, it was clear that the man who was responsible for Loretta's disappearance was not going to forget her that easily.