Read Never Go Back for Free Online

train’s arrival in Dundee and was more or less certain that Askew had still been there then. He also recalled registering Askew’s absence some time later, but was vague about when that would have been.
    Harry and his companions did not actually take seriously the idea that Askew was missing until the train entered the outskirts of Aberdeen and the guard announced their imminent arrival at ‘our last and final station stop’. A hasty check of the nearest loos began, but Askew was in none of them. They did find his bag, however, left where he had stowed it on the rack, and duly took it along with theirs when they stumbled off the train into the grey chill of an Aberdeen afternoon.
    They followed the ruck of passengers off the platform assuming Askew had for some reason gone to the front of the train and would soon be sighted. But he was not. They lingered on the concourse, expecting him to appear from one direction or another. But he did not. Harry accompanied Lloyd and Judd back to the train, where the cleaners were already at work and the guard assured them that all the passengers had left. He surmised that their friend had simply got off earlier. Why Askew would have left his bag behind was a puzzle the guard neither needed nor wished to dwell on.
    Back on the concourse, Johnny Dangerfield had arrived to collect them. A weather-beaten but still handsome figure in Barbour, guernsey, corduroys and brogues, he had kept the trimmed moustache and Brylcreemed hairstyle of his youth, but the moustache had lost most of its colour, while his face had reddened with age and whisky. The twinkle in his eyes, that had once been like Venus in the night sky, was now more akin to a distant star in an unnamed galaxy. But there was still enough dash about him to suggest he had left an E-Type in the car park, rather than the minibus he had actually hired to transport them to the castle.
    Harry had expected to see Chipchase at Dangerfield’s elbow, but there was as little sign of him as of Askew. The mystery of Askew’s whereabouts took priority, however, and it was not until a deputation, which he and Dangerfield were both part of, had been despatched to the railway police office, that Harry had the chance to ask after his old friend.
    ‘Did you leave Barry in the van, Danger?’
    ‘Fission? No. Actually, this is a bit of a double whammy, chaps. Fission’s sister died last night. Her husband’s in a godawful state, apparently. Fission’s had to fly down to Manchester. He’s not going to be able to join us.’
    ‘Sister, did you say?’ It was the first Harry had ever heard of Chipchase having siblings, dead or alive.
    ‘Yes. Know her, did you, Ossie?’
    ‘No. Actually, I didn’t.’
    ‘Well, there it is. Can’t be helped. At least we know where Fission’s gone. Unlike Crooked, blast the fellow.’
    The railway police were not a lot more helpful than the train guard. The officer on duty took a note of their friend’s apparent disappearance, but emphasized that much the likeliest explanation was that he had got off the train at an earlier stop or had disembarked at the front on arrival at Aberdeen and left the station, forgetting to take his bag with him.
    It was only then that Harry remembered Askew’s mobile. Why not simply ring him and ask where the blue blazes he was and what he thought he was playing at? But no-one had the number. Lloyd, indeed, did not even know Askew possessed a phone.
    ‘He never made or took a call while I was with him yesterday. Or while we were at my daughter’s.’
    ‘He took a call on the train,’ said Harry. ‘While we were having lunch.’
    But no-one else had noticed. And some suggested Harry was confused.
    ‘Your powers of observation while under the influence were always close to zero, Ossie,’ said Tancred. ‘I can’t think age has improved them.’
    Harry could not find the energy to be riled by this and it was generally agreed that none of them could claim more than partial