Ellen Devonport entered Riley’s bedroom with a mug of tea in her hand. Linda had been out of bed for less than half an hour and she was busy with a cordless vacuum cleaner. She’d woken just after lunch time and felt drained, tired, and sick. A quick shower hadn’t helped. There was so much she had to do.
‘I’ve made you a cup of tea,’ Ellen said.
Linda jumped, not realising there was anybody in the room with her. She turned around. ‘I bet you spend a great deal of your time making tea,’ she said, putting the vacuum cleaner down and taking the mug.
‘It’s part of the training course,’ she said with a smile. ‘How do you feel?’
She thought for a moment, both hands wrapped protectively around the mug. ‘Numb. I want to cry but I don’t think I have any tears left.’
‘I know it doesn’t sound like much, but we really are doing everything we can to find Keeley.’
‘I feel sick for going to see Sally Meagan like that. Do you think I should apologise?’
‘I’m sure she understands what you’re going through.’
‘Will you apologise for me?’
‘I’ll mention it to DCI Darke.’
‘I was horrible to her as well. I bet you all think I’m a complete cow.’
‘Not at all.’
Linda began tidying the room, putting toys away and folding up clothes. ‘Do you have kids?’
‘No.’
‘When you have children, you want to do everything to protect them from what’s happening in the world. You do your best, but you can’t wrap them in cotton wool forever.’
‘I think you’ve done a wonderful job with Jodie and Keeley. They’re model children. And Riley,’ Ellen turned to look at Riley in his bed. He was sitting up in the corner wearing his protective helmet so he wouldn’t bang his head against the bars. He was playing with a book made out of fabric, each page making a crinkling sound as he scrunched it up. ‘Well, he’s just lovely,’ she smiled.
‘I love him to pieces,’ Linda said quietly. ‘I blame myself for the way he is.’
‘Why?’
‘When I discovered I was pregnant, I was shocked. I didn’t want a third child; two was enough. It took me a long time to get used to the idea of three kids. When he was diagnosed with epilepsy, I blamed myself. It was my fault he was ill because I had thought such horrible things.’ Her voice began to crack.
‘That’s rubbish, Linda. You can’t manufacture an illness.’
‘The night he had the big seizure that caused him to stop breathing was the first night since he’d been born that I’d had a drink. Well, I’d had a few drinks actually. I woke up to go to the toilet; I’ve no idea what made me go and look in on him. He was so still. I thought he was dead.’ She put the mug down on the windowsill and went over to the bed. Riley looked up and held his arms out to her. She reached down and heaved him up. ‘He’s suffered for what I’ve done. I’m a bad mother.’
Ellen was on the brink of tears. ‘You’re not, Linda.’
‘And now Keeley’s been taken. They’re being punished because of me.’ She cried and held Riley close.
Ellen leaned out of the bedroom and called for Jodie. She appeared almost instantly. Ellen asked her to take Riley which she did without question. Ellen took Linda and led her into the kitchen where she sat her down at the table.
‘Linda, none of this is your fault. You love your children and you’re doing the best for them. You and Craig are wonderful parents. You’re not to blame. What happened to Riley is just … well, it’s nature. There’s nothing we can do about that. However, we can do a great deal for Keeley, and we will.’
Linda reached for the kitchen roll on the unit behind her, tore off a few pieces and wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
‘If I ask you a question, will you tell me the truth?’
‘Of course I will.’
‘What is the likelihood of you finding Keeley?’
‘I don’t know percentages, but I can tell you every police officer in Sheffield is working on this.’
‘But you don’t know where she is or who’s got her?’
‘Not right now we don’t, but we’re talking to so many people who know her or who were in the area at the time she disappeared. In this day and age, with all this technology, somebody will have seen something.’
‘I don’t know what I’d do without her. She’s always smiling. She always cheers me up when I’m feeling a bit low.’
‘Linda, can I ask you a few questions about the call from the kidnapper?’
‘Ok.’
‘What was their voice like? Was it male or female?’
Linda sniffled and wiped her nose as she thought. ‘I’m not sure. He didn’t say much.’
‘Are you certain it was a man you spoke to?’
‘I think so,’ she frowned.
‘What about any accent? Did he sound local?’
‘No. It was sort of … flat, monotone.’
Ellen thought for a moment. ‘Did he seem anxious or scared?’
‘No. He was very calm, neutral, almost like …’
‘Go on.’
‘Like it was a recording.’
‘A recording?’
‘Yes, as if, the words had been typed into something and a computer was reading it out. Like, if you ask Siri a question and it gives you a reply, it was like that, but not.’
‘Would you say it was like the caller was speaking through a voice changer?’
‘Yes,’ she said, animatedly. ‘I’d say exactly that.’
‘Right.’ Ellen took a notebook out of her pocket and made a note.
‘Is that helpful?’
‘Yes. I think it might be.’
‘Why would the kidnapper do that, though? It’s not like calls are recorded, is it?’
‘No.’
‘So why go to all that bother?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe they thought you might recognise them.’
‘Do you think it’s someone we know?’
Ellen hesitated. She took a deep breath before answering. ‘Personally? Yes, I do.’
***
Matilda was sitting in front of Valerie’s desk while she explained the scant details from the British Embassy in Paris. Matilda looked drawn. Every time she thought of Carl, she thought of the nightmare she had lived through at the time with her husband dying. All the dark memories came flooding back and she realised how much she missed him. If Carl could be found, maybe she would finally be able to close a door on that whole period and move on.
‘I’m afraid the French police don’t seem to see this case as urgently as we do,’ Valerie said. ‘You’d think a simple task of emailing a photograph over wouldn’t take long, but I’m still waiting.’
‘What do we know of the people who took him?’
‘Nothing.’
‘How can that be?’
‘Police Nationale in Marseille are dealing with it. I’ve no idea if any arrests have been made or who they’re talking to.’
‘Bloody hell! Where is this boy now?’
‘He’s in police protection but I don’t know where.’
‘How long is all this going to take?’ Matilda asked, getting flustered.
Valerie shrugged. ‘Matilda, are you all right?’
‘I’m fine.’ Liar.
‘Would you like to take the rest of the day off?’
Matilda frowned. ‘How is that even possible with a kidnapped girl on our hands?’
‘Christian can take over.’
‘No,’ she took a deep breath and composed herself. ‘Look, if this boy is Carl, then that’s amazing. It’s the best news in the world. Why should I want to take time off? We can’t do anything until it’s confirmed.’ She looked at her watch. ‘Shit. I should be getting back to Stannington.’
‘How are the family doing?’ Valerie said, standing up.
‘Not good.’ Matilda headed for the door. She turned back to look at her boss. ‘Will you call me the minute you hear anything from France, or when they send you the photo?’
‘I will.’
‘Any news on Arthur?’
‘No change,’ she said, looking down.
‘We seem to spend most of our lives waiting around for things to happen, don’t we? We’re not as in control of things as we’d like to believe.’
‘You can say that again. Go on, get back to Stannington,’ she said, rushing her out of the office.
Valerie turned her back on Matilda and looked out of the window.
Matilda stood in the hallway, her back pressed firmly against Valerie’s closed door. She felt a prickle of heat creep up her back and her vision began to blur. She looked ahead and the corridor appeared to be closing in. It seemed like her panic attacks were returning.
‘Walpole, Compton, Pelham,’ she said under her breath.
When Matilda first went off work following her husband’s death and Carl going missing, she had. been assigned a therapist to talk through her issues with. A coping strategy for the panic attacks was to control her breathing by concentrating on a single topic. For Matilda, that was reciting the names of the British Prime Ministers. It worked, too. It had been a good couple of years since she’d had to manage her focus. She’d thought she was back in control, able to face anything life threw at her. She was wrong.
‘Pelham-Holles, Cavendish, Pelham-Holles, Stuart, Grenville. Oh for fuck’s sake,’ she chastised herself as she stormed off down the corridor.
***
One girl missing and one boy possibly found. Such a cruel twist of fate that one family’s suffering might be coming to an end while another’s was just beginning. And in the middle of it all was Matilda Darke.
Matilda thought she had her emotions under control; that she was a strong and independent woman. However, all it took was one piece of bad news to bring her back down to the wreck she was in the early days following James’s death. She was reminded of this fragility as she made her way back to Acorn Drive.
Carl’s return would be headline news across the world, but the flip side of the coin would see the story of Keeley’s disappearance. Two missing children. One found. One lost. Matilda vilified by the press once again. At the time it had happened with Carl Meagan, she had been numb to the onslaught, away from work on an enforced sabbatical. This time … it didn’t bear thinking about.
There were more cars parked on Acorn Drive than last time. As soon as Matilda pulled up, she knew why. Out of the Skoda in front stepped Danny Hanson. Matilda rolled her eyes. She wished that man would fall down a hole somewhere.
‘What are you doing here?’ She barked at him, harsher than she expected.
‘Don’t panic!’ He held up his hands in surrender. ‘I haven’t been knocking and upsetting anyone. What can you tell me?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Oh, come on. A missing girl. A ransom demand. Sound familiar?’
‘You’re a parasite, do you know that?’
‘I’ve been called worse.’
‘Look, Danny, you really need to piss off. The kidnappers could be watching. If they see press outside the house they might panic and not call.’
‘Whereas seeing the famous DCI Darke pull up isn’t conspicuous at all,’ he said flippantly.
Matilda stopped halfway up the pavement, turned and leaned in close to him. She had no idea how old Danny was but his smooth skin, lack of stubble and large puppy eyes made him look as if he was barely out of his teens. She imagined him using his smiling eyes, his little-boy-lost act on interviewees to extract any kind of information for a story. ‘Danny,’ she said calmly. ‘I don’t like you and you don’t like me. Now, I don’t give a shit what you write about me in that printed toilet paper you call a newspaper, but in that house is a family going through hell. Give them some consideration.’
He thought for a moment before nodding. ‘Ok. I’ll back off. But only for tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow.’
‘Jesus!’ Matilda cursed, turning back to the house. How can someone so young and inexperienced ooze such confidence and pugnaciousness? Wanker.
Ellen opened the door before she had time to ring the bell. ‘He’s been out there for about an hour.’
‘Whichever dickless president presses the nuclear button first, the only creatures left roaming the planet will be cockroaches and journalists,’ Matilda said, entering the house.
‘And I’m sure they’ll be very happy together,’ Ellen said with a smile.
In the living room, Craig was sitting on the sofa next to the coffee table where the phone was. He was dressed in a mismatched tracksuit. Linda was curled up next to him. She looked shattered despite having slept for more than fourteen hours. Her hair was knotted and dry. Her skin was blotchy, and her half-open eyes were red.
Matilda gave them both a wan smile and sat on the edge of the armchair opposite. In the background, she could hear the sound of Riley giggling. She guessed Jodie was with him. Sian and Ellen hovered at the side of the room.
The clock was ticking.
The atmosphere in the room was dark and heavy. Apart from the noise from Riley’s bedroom, the silence was palpable. Linda kept wiping her eyes and rubbing her red nose with a soaked tissue. Craig was biting on his bottom lip and drumming his fingers impatiently on the arm of the sofa. He was a seething mass of emotions which threatened to erupt at any moment.
Four o’clock came and went.
‘How long do we leave it?’ Craig asked, breaking the silence like a hammer to a window.
Matilda looked at her watch. It was three minutes past four.
‘What was the exact time the call came through?’ Matilda looked to Sian.
Sian flicked through the pages of her notebook. ‘Seven minutes past four.’
‘They’re not going to wait until bang on seven minutes past four for fuck’s sake,’ Craig said, his face reddening in anger.
‘We don’t know that, Craig,’ Ellen said. ‘We don’t know how their minds are going to work. At the end of the day, they want their money, so they’ll stick to their plan.’
‘But we don’t have that kind of money,’ Linda said, struggling to keep hold of her tears.
‘We need to take this one step at a time,’ Matilda said. ‘When that phone rings, you need to speak calmly and slowly. Ask to speak to Keeley. If they ask if you have the money, tell them yes. Then we’ll go from there.’
‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ Linda said. She was a physical and emotional wreck.
‘You have to,’ Craig said harshly. He put his thick, muscular arm around her and pulled her close to him. She sank into his embrace and smiled when he kissed the top of her head. ‘I’ll be with you. We’ll get through this together. I promise.’
Matilda watched them. Two doting parents who had done nothing wrong forced to endure the nightmare of one of their children being stolen from them. It broke her heart to witness them falling apart. She turned away quickly to look out of the window. She had to stop thinking of them as Philip and Sally Meagan. This was a completely different case. She knew the Meagans. She didn’t know the Armitages. One of them could be responsible for Keeley’s disappearance. They both could.
Linda’s face was blank. Her eyes were red. She looked genuinely anguished. Craig was more difficult to read. He was being the caring husband and father, trying to be strong for them all. Trying. Matilda didn’t like that word. It smacked of someone putting on a performance.
Time ticked by agonisingly slowly. Seven minutes past four came and went. As did ten past. As did half past.
‘They’re not calling, are they?’ Craig asked.
‘It doesn’t look like it,’ Matilda said reluctantly.
‘Oh my God, they’ve killed her,’ Linda cried. ‘They’ve killed her. They’ve killed my baby. Oh Jesus Christ, Craig, they’ve killed her.’ She collapsed into her husband and he held her tight, rocking back and forth on the sofa to try and calm her down.
Linda couldn’t manufacture all those tears.
Matilda gave the nod to Ellen while she and Sian stepped out of the living room.
‘You knew there wasn’t going to be a phone call,’ Sian said quietly.
‘I didn’t know for sure, but I’m not surprised the phone didn’t ring.’
‘Why?’
‘Simply because they don’t have the money. If someone kidnaps a child for ransom it’s from someone who obviously has the means to pay. And these people don’t.’
‘What now?’ Sian asked.
‘I want Sebastian Page found.’
‘Uniform are outside his flat, but he hasn’t come home.’
‘Run his registration number through ANPR, get it picked up and hunt him down,’ Matilda said through gritted teeth. She took a deep breath to calm herself. ‘Tomorrow, at first light, we start a search. I want a full team out here looking in every park, alley, field and wood. We’re on the outskirts of Sheffield. There’s farms and woodland close by; they all need to be searched. I want dogs out here and a helicopter in the sky. We rip this whole place apart until we find her.’
‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’ Sian asked.
Matilda took a deep breath. ‘It would appear the kidnap was a hoax to cover up what’s really happened. In my opinion that can only mean one thing.’
They heard movement and turned around to see Jodie standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She’d overheard every word.
‘She’s dead?’ she asked. Her voice was fragile. Tears were streaming down her face. ‘You think she’s dead?’
‘Jodie, we’re hoping and praying that Keeley is alive and safe, but we have to think of every eventuality,’ Sian said, running over to the girl and holding her by the shoulders. ‘I know you may think we sound heartless, but we’re just doing our job. It’s not easy. I’m sorry.’
Jodie sniffled. ‘I don’t want …’
‘What? What don’t you want?’ Sian asked.
‘I don’t want this to drag on. Mum won’t survive. If she really is dead, you need to find her body. Mum isn’t strong like Sally Meagan. She won’t be able to cope with not knowing what happened.’
Matilda stood back and watched as Jodie fell apart and Sian tried to placate her. In the living room, Linda was sobbing loudly, and Ellen was making all the right noises to try and make her feel better, but her words were falling on deaf ears.
It was happening all over again. A child had been kidnapped. The ransom demand had gone awry and Matilda was standing in the middle of the fallout. The sensation of her phone vibrating in her jacket pocket made her jump. She pulled it out and saw it was an email from Valerie. The subject line read ‘Carl Meagan’. There was no message, just an attachment. Matilda knew what it was. She opened it and looked at the face of the boy who was calling himself Carl Meagan.