By the time Jenna returned from a nightmare of a school run, trying to calm the little ones down and assure them she was fine, there was no sign of Paige. Though she wasn’t surprised, she was angry and worried, and half ready to start banging her head against the wall again. It had been a dreadful start to the day, one of the worst, but she had to get a grip. She couldn’t allow herself to lose it like that again, or God only knew what kind of mess they were going to end up in.
I’m sorry about earlier, she texted to Paige. I know I expect too much of you. Please call or text when you get this and I’ll come and get you.
If she was at school, it would have to wait until later. Please God, let her be at school.
She spent the next hour clearing up the kitchen, bundling clothes into the wash, scrubbing felt-pen drawings off windows, and trying to find cases for DVDs. Every few minutes she checked her phone, but there was nothing from Paige, and as time passed her guilt and worry escalated sharply. She tried ringing, over and over, but kept going to voicemail. “Paige, please call me,” she said the first time. “Darling, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said the next time, “please let’s talk.” In the third message she said, “Paige, this isn’t fair. You know how much you mean to me, and you know I’ll be thinking the worst, so please either text or call so we can sort things out.”
By lunchtime there was still no word, so she rang the school.
A terrible fear came over her when she was told that Paige wasn’t there.
“I don’t mean to pry,” Mrs. Haynes, the form tutor, said, “but I’ve heard there are difficulties at home. If we can help in any way—”
“I need to find her,” Jenna broke in shrilly. “We had a row this morning. Is Charlotte Griffiths there? She’ll know where she is.”
“I’ll track her down and make sure she calls you.”
Only as she rang off did it dawn on Jenna that she hadn’t seen Charlotte in a while. Those two were never out of each other’s pockets, were constantly texting or FaceTiming if they weren’t actually together, so what had happened to make them fall out? If they had fallen out…
Though she guessed Charlotte’s mother, Lucy, would be at work, she tried calling anyway and was about to leave a message when her line signaled an incoming call. “Hello?” she said, quickly switching over.
“Hi, it’s Charlotte. Mrs. Haynes told me to call you.”
Jenna’s heart was thudding. “Do you know where Paige is?” she asked, trying to sound calm.
“No, I haven’t seen her,” Charlotte replied.
Oh God no. “Since when?”
“I don’t know. A couple of weeks, I guess. She hasn’t been coming to school. I thought she was…you know, sick or something.”
“No, she’s not. Do you have any idea where she might be going?”
“No, sorry. She doesn’t speak to me anymore.”
“Why? What happened?”
“We kind of had this bust-up. She thought I was…She accused me of telling people stuff about her.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“Just stuff.”
“Charlotte, please. I’m very worried. We had a row this morning and I think I’ve really upset her. I need to find out where she is.”
“I’m sorry, but I honestly don’t know.”
“Does she have any other friends who might know?”
Charlotte fell silent.
“Are you still there?” Jenna urged.
“Yes, I’m here, I’m just trying to think…I mean, there’s this friend she has online…I don’t know her name, or not her real name, anyway. She says it’s Julie, but to be honest, I don’t even know if it’s a girl.”
Jenna tried desperately not to overreact. “Do you think she could be with this friend now?”
Charlotte sounded wary. “I suppose it’s possible, but this Julie person never wanted anyone to know who she was.”
Reading everything terrible into that, Jenna said, “Is there a chance anyone else might know who this Julie is?”
“I shouldn’t think so. As far as I know, Paige is the only one she chats with.”
“You mean online?”
“Yeah. They private-message on Facebook and some other sites as well, I think. I don’t really know, because I was never invited to join in.”
Jenna’s mind was racing. “Will you ask around, try to find out if anyone knows who this Julie might be?”
“I’ve already done that and no one does. I did it so I could show Paige she was trusting the wrong person.”
“Why did you think that?”
“Because this Julie would never say who she was. In my book, if you’re a real friend you don’t have to hide who you are.”
Jenna couldn’t think of a good reason for it either. “OK. Promise me you’ll call if you see her, or if you hear anything that might tell us where she is.”
“Promise.”
As she rang off her mother came in the door. “Paige is missing,” Jenna blurted out, and found herself close to panic simply on hearing the words.
Kay’s eyes were wide with alarm.
“I mean, not missing,” Jenna stumbled. “Yes, missing…I don’t know where she is. Apparently she hasn’t been going to school…Oh, Mum, I shouted at her this morning…I said things—”
“There’s no point going over that now,” Kay interrupted sharply. “If she’s gone off in a temper, she’ll cool down soon enough. What we need to know is why she hasn’t been going to school.”
“Because someone called Julie has got to her. Don’t ask me who this person is. Even Charlotte’s not sure, and if Charlotte doesn’t know…” Jenna put a hand to her head. “It’ll be some godawful pervert who’s befriended her, lured her out of school to do things with her—”
“Before you go any further with that,” Kay cut in, “she’s been coming home every night, and—”
“And acting very strangely. You must have noticed that she hardly speaks to us anymore. She’s not interested in anything we have to say, never wants to do anything with us. I keep putting it down to her age and to Jack leaving, but now that I know about this…” Jenna’s eyes were heavy with foreboding. “Mum, what am I going to do? I can’t just sit here. She’s out there somewhere, and I don’t know what she’s doing, who she’s with…I have to call the police.”
Kay didn’t disagree. “I have Euan’s number,” she said, taking out her mobile. “I’m sure he’ll come right away.”
Not at all sure the local bobby was going to be up to this, Jenna said, “Maybe we should ring 999. She’s only fifteen. She’s not at school…”
“If we do that, we’ll go through to some central switchboard and they’ll end up sending Euan anyway. Let me call him.”
“OK. I’ll go up and see what I can find on her computer.”
Minutes later she was staring at Paige’s laptop screen in helpless frustration. The machine was password-protected and none of her attempts so far had cracked it.
“Euan’s on his way,” her mother declared, coming to the door. “So’s Bena.”
“You rang Bena?”
“She rang me, and I told her what was happening.”
Remembering how dependable Bena could be in a crisis, Jenna nodded. “Do you have any idea what password Paige might use?”
“I’m sure my guesses would be the same as yours: the dog, the children, her school, you and Jack, me and Grandpa, favorite bands…”
Jenna looked around the walls and typed in every name she could spot, but none of those worked either. Going downstairs for her mobile, she rang Charlotte.
“It’s Jenna. Can you call me as soon as you’re free?” she said into the voicemail. “Or text me if you know the password to Paige’s computer.” Clicking off, she tried Paige again, but still no reply.
“She has to be somewhere,” she muttered as Kay came down the stairs. “Can you think of anywhere?”
Kay’s expression was intense as she thought, but neither of them could come up with anything that seemed to make sense.
“I’m going to search the garden,” Kay announced. “Sometimes, when I was young and felt things getting on top of me, I used to hide in the shed.”
Just after her mother had gone, the back door opened and Bena came in.
“Any news?” she asked, the sight of her worried face making Jenna feel even worse.
Jenna shook her head. “I can’t get into her computer. I thought that might tell us something.”
“Euan’s just pulled up.”
Hating the thought of the police being involved, though relieved he’d arrived so quickly, Jenna went to open the front door.
Euan was already getting out of his car; he was a large man with florid cheeks, sandy hair, and kindly blue eyes. “So what’s all this about young Paige doing a moonlight?” he asked as he came in, making it sound like a load of old nonsense. “She’s a sensible girl, so I can’t see she’ll have gone far. Just forgot to tell you, I expect.”
Appreciating his efforts to calm her, while not feeling calmed at all, Jenna said, “We’ve been having some problems….Jack’s left home….I’m not sure that has anything to do with where she is now, I’m…She’s…I found out yesterday that she hasn’t been to school for a fortnight, and now Charlotte…You know Charlotte?”
“Griffiths?”
She nodded. “She told me this morning that Paige has been communicating with someone online. Apparently this person calls herself Julie, but Charlotte’s not even sure if it’s a girl.”
Euan was looking more concerned now. “So when did you last see her?” he asked, taking out his notebook.
“This morning. We had words, and I said some things—we both did. She was still here when I left to take the younger ones to school, but by the time I got back she’d gone.”
He nodded thoughtfully as he noted this down. “Has she taken anything with her?”
Jenna went blank. “Uh, I…I didn’t check.”
“Then it’s worth having a scout round her room to see if anything’s missing.”
They looked up as Kay came in.
“She’s not out there,” Kay informed them.
Starting for the stairs, Jenna said, “Mum, can you check the cupboard in the hall to see if any backpacks have gone? She wouldn’t have been able to get into the attic for anything bigger.”
Moments later Euan followed her into Paige’s room.
“Her computer’s still here,” she said, “but I can’t get into it.”
“Nothing appears to be out of place,” he commented, surveying the room. “She’s quite tidy for a teenager. Can you check her wardrobe and drawers?”
Jenna found herself shaking as she pushed aside underwear and socks, containers of costume jewelry, nail polishes and hair slides. “It’s hard remembering everything she has,” she said, “but nothing seems to be missing from the drawers.”
As she checked the wardrobe Euan went around the other bedrooms opening doors and cupboards to see if Paige had squirreled herself away there.
“She hasn’t taken her toothbrush or toothpaste,” Jenna announced, coming out of Paige’s bathroom. She felt almost weak with relief, as though she needed to sit down and take a few breaths, but she wouldn’t be able to until they were certain Paige was safe.
“So on the face of it,” Euan said, “we don’t have any reason to think she’s not planning to come home?”
Jenna shook her head. “Unless this Julie person is providing everything she needs.” Why had she just said that? She’d frightened herself again, just when she was starting to think it might be all right.
Euan was frowning pensively. “I’m going to call this in,” he decided. “It probably won’t be given a high priority, with it looking more like a truancy than anything else, but it won’t do any harm for her picture to be circulated so the beat officers can keep an eye out for her.”
“I’m worried about this Julie character,” Jenna persisted. “What if it’s a man, someone who’s been grooming her?”
“Jenna, it’s Charlotte for you,” Bena announced, bringing Jenna’s mobile into the room.
Grabbing it, Jenna said, “Charlotte, thanks for calling back. We need to get into Paige’s computer. Do you have any idea what the password might be?”
“I’m not sure….I mean, she might have changed it….”
“Please, just tell me what you think it is.”
“I don’t know that she’d want me to.”
“Charlotte, the police are here. If she’s been communicating with someone who won’t give their real identity…You have to understand how serious that could be.”
Still sounding reluctant, Charlotte said, “OK, you can try Oliver18.”
Having no idea of the relevance of that, or even caring, Jenna turned on the laptop and typed it in. The machine unlocked. “That’s it,” she cried, her voice heavy with relief. “Thank you, Charlotte. And her Facebook account? Would that be the same password?”
“You can try, but she kept changing it because of all the crap she was getting.”
“What sort of crap?”
“You’ll see if you can get on. She’s been using other sites as well, like AskFM and Pheed and Tumblr, though they’ll be mostly on her phone.”
“What kind of sites are they?”
“Social media, same as Facebook, but it’s easier to be anonymous on some of them.”
Jenna was trying to log in but couldn’t manage to open any of the accounts. She looked at Euan, not sure what to do.
Holding a hand out for the phone, he said, “Charlotte, it’s Euan Matthews here. Are you at school? If you are, I’m going to come by and see you. I’ll call Mr. Charles myself to let him know I’m on my way.”
Taking the phone back from him, Jenna clicked off as she said, “What are we going to do about the computer? Is there a way of getting into her accounts?”
Moving it around so he could see the screen himself, Euan checked the Internet search history and found all the websites Charlotte had mentioned and more. “The last time she used it was just after three this morning,” he said, “but I’m not technical enough to find out who she might have contacted or what kind of exchange there might have been.” Closing the laptop down and unplugging it, he went on, “I’ll have our tech guys take a look at it. Meantime, you need to sit tight here and let me know right away if you hear from her.”
Five hours or more had passed since Jenna had returned to the house and found Paige gone. There was still no word from her. Jenna was beside herself, hardly knowing what to do from one minute to the next. She’d left more messages, sent her mother to search the beaches and coastal paths with Waffle, and asked Bena to drive around the countryside and villages trying to spot her. All reports back were negative, but she’d told them to keep going until just after three o’clock, when Euan rang to let her know that there had been some developments.
With her heart in her mouth she listened as he said, “First of all, a couple of CID officers are on their way to see you.”
Panic instantly flared. “Why? What’s happened?” she cried.
“Nothing’s actually happened,” he replied, “but my conversation with Charlotte has raised some concerns. It seems Paige has been the victim of some pretty unpleasant bullying at school.”
Jenna was suddenly struggling to think straight. This wasn’t what she’d expected to hear, and yet…“She tried to tell me,” she gasped, “but…I didn’t think…I didn’t realize…What have they been doing to her?”
“Mostly bombarding her with hate mail in an effort to make her feel small and disliked, sending lots of spiteful messages on Facebook, ridiculing her, doctoring explicit photographs to try and make it seem they’re of her. Apparently it’s turned more physical lately, punching, slapping, sticking her head down a toilet and making her drink urine…”
Jenna could hardly believe it. “Who’s been doing all this?” she demanded furiously.
“The culprits are being rounded up as we speak, but it isn’t the source of our biggest concern. Mr. Thomas, the technology master here, has taken a look at her computer, and the contact she’s been having with this Julie Morris is of a very grave nature.”
Jenna couldn’t breathe. She desperately wanted the world to stop so that none of this could go any further.
“In the last few days she’s been visiting suicide sites,” Euan told her gently.
Jenna sobbed a scream. “No! No! She would never do that. Please, you have to believe me….Oh my God, Paige. My baby. What are we going to do?”
“We’ve already raised the alarm,” he assured her. “This is high priority now, and we’ve alerted all local and national media outlets. Everything’s going to be done to find her, Jenna, I can promise you that.”
“But what if…what if she’s…?” She couldn’t say it. Oh dear God, dear God, Paige! Paige! Paige!
“The CID officers should be with you shortly,” Euan continued. “You need to tell them everything you know about Paige’s friends, her movements, anything you can think of, even if it doesn’t seem relevant. They’ll talk you through it, and they’ll want to search the house for any journals or letters that might give them a clue as to where she might be.”
This wasn’t real. It was a nightmare, and she was going to wake up any minute. Paige would be walking in the door, or coming down the stairs, or standing right here in the kitchen making toast.
“A detective’s already talking to Charlotte,” Euan went on, “and we should know more once the police experts have their hands on the computer. It’s on its way to Bridgend now, and hopefully it won’t take long for them to come back with some answers.”
Jenna spun round as someone opened the back door. Please God, let it be Paige.
It was her mother, looking glazed with shock as she was followed in by two strangers who Jenna realized must be the CID officers. “Your colleagues are here,” Jenna said to Euan.
“OK. Charlotte wants to come and see you as soon as they’ve finished with her.”
“Yes, please tell her to do that.” Ringing off, she tried to explain to her mother what was happening, but found herself starting to break down. She wanted to run, scream, tear down everything that stood between her and Paige, if only she knew what that was. In the end she managed to say, “Paige has been visiting suicide websites.”
Kay looked as though she’d been struck. Her mouth opened, closed, and opened again. She turned to the officer closer to her, a short, plump woman with wispy dark hair and several moles on her cheeks. “Has my granddaughter…?”
“We don’t know anything yet,” the officer told her in a tone that was neither friendly nor hostile. To Jenna she said, “I take it you’re Mrs. Moore, Paige’s mother?”
Jenna nodded as she tried to pull herself together. Suicide websites. Why would she visit them unless the thought was in her mind? Jenna could feel herself backing away as though physically recoiling, her hands coming up to stave off the terrible threat of the words.
“I’m DS Lesley Mariner,” the female detective was informing her. “This is DC Rob Fuller. Is there a Mr. Moore?”
Jenna took a breath and dashed back her hair. “He’s in the States, on business,” she replied.
“Is there any chance your daughter might have gone to join him?”
Jenna blinked in shock. The thought hadn’t even occurred to her. “I don’t think so,” she said. “They haven’t been getting along. He’s there with his…with another woman and her children.”
“I see.” The officer looked around. “Is there somewhere we could sit down?”
“Yes, yes, of course. Mum, would you…”
“I’ll make some tea,” Kay told her. “Bena’s going to pick up the children. I’ll ask her to take them to her place for now.”
Jenna was barely listening. She was shaking so hard it hurt. All she could think about was her baby, her precious, beautiful firstborn who was out there somewhere. Please God, let her still be out there. It can’t be too late. I’ll never survive if it is.
“We need to talk about what happened prior to Paige leaving,” Lesley Mariner began once they were in the sitting room with the connecting doors closed. “I believe that was around nine this morning.”
“That’s right. I don’t know the exact time, because I wasn’t here. I was taking my other children to school.”
“What ages are your other children?”
“Josh is eight, and the twins are five. Is this relevant? How’s it going to help find Paige?”
“We’re trying to establish whether one of her siblings might know where she is. Maybe she talked to one of them.”
“She’s hardly been talking to any of us lately. She’s been in her own world…I thought it was about her dad leaving…I mean, I knew she was having problems at school; I just never realized they were so serious.”
“So she spoke to you about the bullying?”
Bullying! How could someone be bullying her daughter without her knowing? “She said some girls were picking on her and being mean. I should have paid more attention, but she never made a big deal of it. It’s my fault, though. If I’d listened properly…I know her so well, I’d have realized…If it weren’t for everything else that was happening, I would have known…”
“Everything else?”
“My husband leaving. It’s shaken us all.” She gasped for breath. “I—I haven’t handled it well.”
“When did your husband leave, exactly?”
“About six weeks ago.”
“And they were close, he and Paige?”
“Yes, very. He’s her stepdad, actually, but she’s taken it hard.”
DS Mariner glanced at her colleague, apparently his cue to take over.
Sitting forward, Rob Fuller fixed her with his pale gray eyes, his freckly hands gnarled together like tree roots. “Are you aware of anything inappropriate ever taking place between your husband and daughter?” he asked evenly.
Jenna stared at him speechlessly. Surely to God he didn’t mean…“No!” she cried angrily. “How can you even suggest it? My husband would never—” She broke off, remembering that she’d never thought he’d leave. But not this. No. Never this.
“I realize you haven’t seen any of the social media postings as yet,” Fuller continued, “but it’s being suggested, actually more than suggested in some, that your husband left home because you discovered he was having sexual relations with your daughter.”
Jenna felt as though she was losing her mind. She stared at the detectives wide-eyed with horror, unable to believe what they were saying, that they would even be thinking this way when Paige was missing. “I swear to you,” she said brokenly, “that isn’t true. He left home to be with another woman. Her name is Martha Gwynne. I can give you his phone number….Nothing like that happened between him and Paige. If it had, I would know.”
Lesley Mariner was watching her closely.
“You have to believe me,” Jenna insisted. “My husband is a lot of things, but he’d never, never do anything like that. You need to find out who’s been saying these things and ask them what grounds they have for such terrible accusations.”
“It is being looked into,” Fuller assured her, “but please try to understand that we’d be failing in our duty if we didn’t take the allegations seriously.”
“She was being bullied,” Jenna almost shouted. “Isn’t that the sort of thing bullies say?”
“It has certainly been known. It’s also, on occasion, turned out to be true.”
“Well, not on this occasion. I know my daughter—she’d never allow anything like that to happen to her. She has a strong mind, she isn’t afraid to speak up for herself, and she’s never, ever shown any fear of her father.”
“Have you informed your husband yet that she’s missing?”
Jenna blinked. Then, realizing what they were driving at, she said, “The only reason I haven’t is because Euan only just told me, right before you walked in the door, that Paige has…that she’s been visiting suicide…” Her voice failed as the horror of it swamped her again.
Mariner started to respond, but Jenna cut her off.
“Listen, I realize you have to do your job, but how is this helping to find my daughter? She’s not with her father. If you like, I’ll call him right now to establish that. Or I can get her passport to show you. She wouldn’t have been able to leave the country without it.”
“It would be helpful to know if it’s still here,” Mariner conceded. “And to speak to her father.”
Running upstairs to her bedroom, Jenna took out the passports, her hands shaking so badly she could hardly hold them. Paige’s had to be there. Please God, it has to be.
It was, and she almost unraveled with relief as she ran back down to the sitting room and shoved it at Mariner. By then her mother had brought in the tea, and Jenna could only pray that Kay hadn’t heard what had been going on so far.
“I’ll call Jack,” she said, picking up the landline.
Aware of their scrutiny as they sipped their tea, Jenna scrolled to his number and pressed to connect. On the second ring she went through to voicemail and had to stop herself screaming in frustration. “You have to call me back right away,” she told him. “There’s a problem with Paige. We don’t know where she is. The police are here and they want to speak to you.”
After ringing off she wrote down his number and handed it to Mariner. “In case you want to call him yourself.”
Taking it, Mariner said, “Tell us about your own relations with Paige since her stepfather left. What have they been like?”
Jenna glanced at her mother as she replied, “The same as always. I mean, not the same. It’s hard to put into words. We’ve all been very upset. I don’t know if you’ve ever been through anything like this, but it changes everyone.”
“What happened before she left this morning?”
“We had…The stress of everything got to me, and I shouted at her. I said things…” She started to shake again. “I didn’t mean what I said, she should have known that…”
“What did you say?”
“I told her to get out of my sight.”
“Anything else?”
“Isn’t it enough? If she was going through her own hell, and we know now that she was, it was the last thing she needed to hear from me. Oh God, I had no idea….I can see now that she kept trying to tell me, but I…I wasn’t listening….This is all my fault.”
Passing her a cup of tea, Kay said stiffly to Mariner, “My granddaughter is missing. Can we please get down to the business of finding her?”
Mariner eyed her with interest. “For the record, are you Mr. or Mrs. Moore’s mother?” she asked.
“Mrs.,” Kay replied. “Is someone monitoring Paige’s phone? I believe you can trace her that way, provided it’s switched on.”
“It’s being done,” Mariner assured her. “At the moment it doesn’t seem to be active, but as soon as that changes I’ll be informed.”
Jenna couldn’t bear it. Paige’s phone was always active. She never turned it off, for anyone or anything, unless it was out of battery.
Starting for the stairs again, she said, “We need to know if she took her charger.”
Finding it plugged in next to Paige’s bed, she gave a sob of relief. This was the reason the phone wasn’t active, because it had run out of battery. It wouldn’t be anything more sinister than that; she simply wouldn’t allow it to be.
She was about to turn away when her eye was caught by a large plastic bag next to the nightstand. Opening it, she was momentarily puzzled, taking out long black feathers, a wad of silver foil, a pot of colorful crystals, and a stick wrapped in black ribbon. Then, realizing what it was, she sank down on the bed, so horrified at herself, so riddled with guilt, that she wanted to howl and sob and tear out her own hair. It was the start of a Venetian mask, the mask she’d promised to help with but forgotten all about.
How was she ever going to forgive herself?
Grabbing the bag to her, she held it as tightly as she longed to hold Paige. “We’ll make it,” she whispered desperately. “I swear we’ll finish this together.”
Please God, let that come true. It just has to.
Knowing she had to pull herself together, she put everything carefully back in the bag and headed down the stairs just as the landline started to ring. Expecting it to be Jack, she quickly snatched it up.
“Jenna? Is that you?” a voice enquired.
“Yes. Who’s this?”
“Your agent,” Philip Springford informed her. “You sound hassled. Is this a bad time?”
“Yes, I’m afraid it is. Can I call you back?”
“Of course. I’m leaving the office in half an hour, but you can get me on the mobile.”
Wondering if there could possibly be a worse time for her publisher to be putting on the pressure, she rang off, but jumped as the phone rang again.
“What the hell’s going on?” Jack demanded. “Where’s Paige? What’s happened to her?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Jenna told him, trying to sound calm. “She left this morning, and the police wondered if she’d come to join you.”
“What? Why would they think that? And why are they involved?”
Taking a breath, she said, “Apparently Paige has been the victim of bullying at school—so badly, it would seem, that she’s started looking at suicide websites.”
Jenna felt the word hit her like a blow again, and knew it would be the same for him.
“Please tell me you’re not serious,” he managed at last.
“You know I wouldn’t joke about something like this.”
She heard him swallow. “Don’t you have any idea where she might be?”
“None. The police are talking to Charlotte and trying to track down a friend she’s made on the Internet called Julie Morris. Does the name mean anything to you?”
“No. Is she the person who’s been doing the bullying?”
“I don’t know yet; I’m still waiting to find out more. It only came to light this afternoon when Euan went to the school.”
“Jesus Christ, I can’t believe this is happening. How could you not have known she was being bullied?”
Jenna was about to rage back when she stopped herself. The last thing they needed was to reduce this to a ludicrous showdown between them. “The police want to talk to you,” she informed him, “but before I pass you over, I want to know if you’re coming back.”
“Of course I’m coming back. I’ll be on the next damned plane if you haven’t found her by the time it leaves.”
“And if we have found her? You’ll stay there?”
“Just put the police on.”
Handing the phone over, Jenna walked into the kitchen, not wanting to hear the conversation, not wanting to do anything at all apart from find her daughter. “Where is she, Waffle?” she asked tearfully as she stooped to stroke the dog. “We have to find out where she is before it’s too late, or we just won’t be able to carry on.”
The police questioning went on and on, as did the search of the house. Their computers were confiscated. Though Jenna knew that parents were almost always the first suspects when something happened to a child, the fact that they might actually think that she or another member of the family was this Julie Morris beggared belief. However, she didn’t argue; there was no point, as it hardly mattered what they did with the computers or anything else, just as long as they found Paige.
It was just after six when Euan turned up with Charlotte and her mother, Lucy. By then the detectives had left with an assurance that the search for Paige would continue through the night and they’d be in touch the instant there was any news.
“I’m your Family Liaison Officer,” Euan informed Jenna as she hugged Charlotte tightly. “I’ll be with you until they’ve found her.”
“I’m so sorry about this,” Lucy cried, clearly distraught. “If I’d known…I still don’t understand why you didn’t tell me,” she said angrily to Charlotte.
“Paige didn’t want me to,” Charlotte retorted stroppily. Then she turned to Jenna. “She was worried about you,” she told Jenna. “She didn’t want to load any more on you, but I said she should.”
Directing Charlotte to the kitchen sofa while Euan and Lucy sat on the bar stools, Jenna encouraged Charlotte to tell her everything she knew. “Please don’t hold anything back,” she urged. “No matter how bad it is, I need to know.”
“That Kelly Durham has been a bully all her life,” Lucy jumped in forcefully. “I can’t tell you how many kids she’s picked on over the years, and she always bloody gets away with it. And do you know why? Because her grandfather makes donations to the schools. It’s like he buys her a free ride to do whatever the hell she wants and there’s never any price to pay. She’s a nasty piece of work, always has been, always will be—just like her mother.”
Jenna’s eyes moved to Charlotte as Charlotte said, “It’s not like she never gets into trouble or anything, but she puts on this act when she’s questioned by the teachers, crying and pretending not to know what they’re talking about. She makes out like other people have hacked into her computer, or that she was just having a joke and it got taken the wrong way. Then when she comes out she gets all threatening again, only worse.”
Torn between anger and frustration, Jenna forced herself to remain calm as she said, “Tell me what happened with Paige.”
As Charlotte went through it all, constantly breaking down, Jenna couldn’t stop herself crying either.
“I just can’t bear to think of it,” she said when Charlotte had finished. “How can people be so cruel? Why on earth did this dreadful girl pick on her? What’s Paige ever done to her?”
“She’s clever and pretty and everyone likes her,” Charlotte replied.
“But not enough to stand up for her and make them stop?”
“I tried, all the time, I promise, but she’d never let me tell anyone, apart from once when we went to Miss Kendrick. Paige didn’t want to, but when they started saying stuff about her dad I said I’d go myself if she didn’t.”
Grateful to Charlotte for that, Jenna said, “And what did Miss Kendrick do?”
“She called Kelly in, but like she always does, Kelly denied it, then twisted things round to try and make it look like she was as much a victim as Paige.”
“Didn’t Miss Kendrick investigate?” Lucy wanted to know.
“Not really, but to be fair, I don’t think she realized how bad it actually was. Paige didn’t tell her because she was really worried about how much worse it might get if she reported it, and she was right to be worried, because it did.”
“That was when they pushed her head down the toilet?” Jenna asked.
Charlotte nodded miserably. “It was disgusting. They ought to be arrested for doing stuff like that.”
Or made to suffer the same thing, Jenna thought bitterly, and she’d happily be the one to do it. “So tell me more about this Julie.”
“That’s just it—I don’t know anything. It was only ever Paige that she contacted, and the weird thing was she always seemed to know what was going on. Or she’d tip Paige off to warn her not to be somewhere, or tell her to look at a certain website…It was dead spooky if you ask me, but Paige never seemed to see it like that. She believed this person when they said they’d been bullied too, and that was why they wouldn’t let on who they were, because they didn’t want anyone coming after them again.”
Jenna looked at Euan, who shook his head, clearly as baffled as they were.
“Everyone in our year is being questioned,” Charlotte told her, taking another tissue to dab her eyes, “and Kelly Durham’s mother was called to the school this afternoon. I don’t know what happened, but everyone’s saying Kelly’s going to be expelled—unless her granddad pays them off again.”
“But she wasn’t doing it alone?” Jenna pointed out.
“No, there’s a gang of them, but Kelly’s definitely the ringleader. Like Mum said, Paige isn’t her first victim either; she’s been doing it ever since she was in primary school. It’s like she gets off on it or something.”
Jenna looked at her mobile as it rang, but before she could answer Euan stopped her. “Is it a number you recognize?” he asked.
She shook her head. Her heart was thudding with urgency. Maybe Paige was calling from someone else’s mobile.
“Let me,” he advised, taking it. “It could be someone from the press and I don’t think you want to be dealing with them just now.” Clicking on, he said, “Hello, can I help you?”
Jenna’s eyes were fixed on his face as he listened, her hands, her heart, her whole self bound so tightly with hope she couldn’t even breathe.
“I don’t know how you got this number,” Euan said, giving her a rueful glance, “but please don’t call it again. If you want information, there are the official channels….OK, thank you,” he said, and rang off.
Crushed that it wasn’t Paige, and having to fight down yet more panic, Jenna turned back to Charlotte.
“I really thought it was going to be her,” Charlotte confessed weepily.
“So did I,” Jenna sighed.
“Everyone’s saying they’re going to join in the search if she hasn’t come home by tomorrow,” Charlotte told her. “I think they all feel really bad now that they didn’t stand up for her.”
And so they should. Cowards, every one of them. “Tell me about her password,” she said. “Is Oliver a singer or an actor or something?”
Charlotte colored slightly. “No, he’s a boy she really likes. He doesn’t go to our school or anything. He’s at college doing his A levels.”
Confused, Jenna said, “But how does she know him?”
“He’s the brother of someone in our year. We went to watch him play rugby a couple of times and she…you know…”
“No, I don’t know.”
“Well, she just liked him, but he had a girlfriend, so he wasn’t really interested.”
Jenna looked at Euan, wondering if he was thinking the same thing she was. “Is there any chance,” she asked Charlotte, “that this boy, or his girlfriend, might be masquerading as Julie Morris?”
Charlotte drew back in amazement. “I wouldn’t have thought so,” she replied. “I mean, why would they?”
“I don’t know.”
Euan held up her mobile as it rang again. Recognizing the name of Richard’s firm, her heart contracted as she nodded and took the phone.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been in court all afternoon,” he told her. “I called as soon as I heard. Is there any more news?”
“No,” Jenna replied, only just pushing the word through the tightness in her throat. “Apparently they’re going to keep the search going all night, if need be. Jack’s on his way back.” Was this really happening? It felt so surreal, so distant from where reality should be, that she could hardly get a grip on it—until it came back to hit her with all its terrible force.
“Is there anything I can do?” he offered.
“I don’t think so, but thanks for asking.”
“You know I’m at the end of the phone.”
“Thanks,” she said again.
“Call anytime, day or night. Promise?”
“I promise.”
Moments after the call ended Hanna came through the door and went straight to Jenna. “I don’t know what to say,” she said in a choked voice, hugging her. “When Mum rang me I didn’t even pack, I just had to get here….Oh God, Jen, to think of what she’s been going through and none of us knew.”
“She’s too brave for her own good,” Jenna said brokenly. “She’s always put other people ahead of herself, and now she’s done it with me and look what it’s costing her.” Her eyes went imploringly to her sister’s. “She won’t do anything stupid, will she?” she sobbed desperately. “Please tell me she won’t.”
“Of course she won’t,” Hanna replied firmly. “Not our girl. She’s brave, like you said, and resilient, and too full of love for life and her family and everyone else to try anything like that. She just needs to have some time to herself for a while, that’s all, get away from all those ghastly bullies. I’m sure she’ll call any minute now and say she’s sorry for causing so much fuss.”