The next morning Robbie was at breakfast early. He'd not slept well. As the window frames of his hotel room creaked with the warmth of early summer sunshine he had lain awake for a long while before rising and going down to the dining room. He kept an eye out for McLeod but as he ate his breakfast and the other team members started to fill the tables it became apparent that Iain was obviously still with Laura, at Ash Rake House. Robbie confirmed this further when, after breakfast, he went out into the sunshine and took a short walk in the gardens. It was a glorious morning. The sky was a pure blue and cloudless and a white mist hung over the gardens, fading by the minute as the sun warmed the earth and the air. The birds were singing and the blackbird from the day before was triumphantly performing his rich and well-rehearsed song from the highest chimney top of Stone Edge House Hotel. Robbie watched him for a few seconds before returning back to the hotel via the carpark at the front of the hotel.

The car park was full but Iain's car was nowhere to be seen, neither was Laura's. It had crossed Robbie's mind that Laura could have made her way from Ash Rake House in her car.

But that was clearly not the case either.

The morning was to be taken up by a final group seminar, the intention of which was to wrap up the events of the teambuilding week and discuss its outcome. Robbie scowled at the thought as he waited in the reception area before the start of the morning's schedule. He looked absently at the cabinets again in the reception and felt once more in his jacket's breast pocket, the little box that contained the Blue John Stone locket that Laura had given him for Lyn. He was still scowling when Hathaway joined him in the reception. Hathaway had suited up smartly for the morning seminar as had Robbie. In stark contrast Thompson swaggered by the pair of them on his way into the seminar room dressed in casual clothes and trainers.

Robbie shook his head in irritation.

"Morning, Sir," Said Hathaway. He had also noted that McLeod and Hobson had been absent from breakfast and the implications of such that it might have on his boss. He noticed Lewis kept an eye on the hotel entrance, clearly watching to see when McLeod, and therefore Laura might appear. It seemed, however, that Lewis was watching in vain.

The seminar was at 10. By 9.55 neither Laura nor McLeod had made an appearance. Still Robbie kept watch on the car park.

"Sir, we should go in" Hathaway ventured to his boss, checking his own watch and seeing it was one minute to ten.

"You go, I'll be there in a sec" Robbie replied but gave no reason or excuse for the delay.

The hotel was now fully booked with another group of delegates on a team-building week. A few of them passed Robbie as Hathaway made his way through to the conference room. Amongst them, Robbie saw Sam who came over to say hello.

"You off caving again?" Robbie asked with a smile. He genuinely liked the lad.

Sam shook his head. "No, the whole system is flooded from yesterday's rain and it's not drained off into the sough yet, so no caving today, it's paintballing instead for this lot" and Sam nodded his head towards the new group of colleagues that were chatting excitedly in the hotel's foyer.

"The sough?" Robbie repeated the word that Sam had used.

"Yeah, the underground channel that takes the water down the valley and into the river, we seem to get more rain these days than when the thing was built so it goes through the paces." Robbie nodded with interest. He had wondered how long the caves remained flooded after heavy rain. Sam pointed to an area on a large framed Edwardian map that was on the wall next to the reception desk. He showed Robbie where the caves and old mines were. Robbie studied the map for a while after Sam had gone. The mines and caves were close to the village of Ashlow and to the southwest there was a tiny hamlet called Ashlow Sough. Robbie also saw Ash Rake House marked clearly on the map between the mine entrance and the sough. He saw Ash Rake, the lead mine on the land behind Ash Rake House marked on the map too, positioned almost halfway between the larger mines and the sough. Robbie found himself frowning again, his thoughts went briefly to the view of what he now knew was the lead mine rake behind Laura's aunts house when he and Sam had driven by the day before.

He checked his watch again. It was 10:04. Robbie felt a rush of anxiety. Laura was a stickler for punctuality.

There was something wrong.

Even if, and he reluctantly ran the idea through his mind, Laura had spent the night romantically with Iain she was not the sort to mix private life with work. She would never let a relationship halt her professionalism. Robbie knew she prided herself on the fact. With a start he realised that the dread he suddenly felt wasn't to do with the fact that Laura had left with McLeod but more to do with the fact that she hadn't appeared for the morning's events.

With this heavy on his mind Robbie made his way briefly out to the carpark for a final scan of the cars. He looked down the driveway to the main road, wondering if, out of the morning mist, Iain would drive up, with Laura. But there was no sign of anything. It was time for the last resort. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and with concern on his brow he tapped through his call list until he got Laura's number. He called it and it went straight to answerphone. He hung up without leaving a message. He waited a few minutes and tried it again, and again a minute or so later. Still it went to her answerphone. He rightly assumed that the mobile phone signal was bad at Ash Rake House but also surmised that if Laura was on her way to the hotel then the call would have got through at some juncture.

He kept trying her number.

But the call wouldn't connect. And still there was no sign of Laura or McLeod. Robbie began to feel dread again. The feeling came up from his stomach, rising on a gush of anxiety which he was struggling to contain. Thoughts flooded his head, swirling incoherently at first as they rose higher and higher, before coming to still in his mind, and, he realised, presenting to him a scenario that, second by second seemed to piece itself together in his mind. If he hadn't had the experience of decades of policing and detective work behind him, he may have dismissed the thoughts as mere panic, a jumbled hyperbole in his head made worse by the jealousy and other emotions he felt. But as he stood in the reception and looked at the old map and felt the box in his jacket pocket that Laura had given to him the day before, a catalogue of facts seemed to present to him. Like belongings lost in muddy waters, resurfacing on deep currents, things appeared in his mind seemingly out of nowhere.

Some of those things in his head didn't make sense but other things were too clear to ignore and there and then, Robbie knew one thing for sure.

Something was very wrong at Ash Rake House.

Hello folks. I hope you are all ok. Well, holidays and Christmas is upon us and I hope that means for me that I can write a little more. I do hope so because I am enjoying writing this story and I am very glad you are joining me for the ride because it's getting to the part I've been desperate to write and share for a very long time. Thank you once more for taking time to leave a comment – it keeps me writing knowing you are all wanting to read a new chapter. So, until next time, peace and love to you all. . .

ML