Anna did not know whether to laugh, cry or scream when she saw Chloe sitting behind her desk nibbling on a sandwich. So she followed her instinct and just rushed into the office.
‘Oh, sweetheart, you had me so worried,’ she said excitedly. ‘Thank goodness you’re all right.’
It was an emotional reunion for both of them with tears, hugs and loud sighs of relief.
Anna was brimming with joy. She’d got her daughter back for a second time, but was still reeling inside from the fright she’d had.
Chloe looked awful. There were wounds on her face and her clothes were badly stained. Her hair was a dirty mess and there were dark crescents under her eyes.
‘I rang the hospital and told them to tell Tom that you’re no longer missing,’ she said. ‘He was so worried about you. He was unconscious for most of the night and so he couldn’t tell anyone what had happened until he woke up.’
‘It was horrible what they did to him, Mum,’ Chloe said. ‘There was nothing I could do when they drove away with him on top of the car. I’ve been so scared that they killed him.’
‘He’s got some broken bones and a sore head, but he’s already on the mend.’ Anna gestured at the wounds on Chloe’s face – the gash on her chin and the bruised lump on her forehead. ‘You also look as though you’ve had a rough time of it. You told Max that you haven’t been physically assaulted. Is that true, sweetheart?’
Chloe nodded. ‘I fell over a couple of times while running, but I’m not hurting as much as I was last night.’
‘Well I want to know exactly what happened to you. And you need to tell me about the couple who brought you here. Max said they didn’t come inside the building.’
‘They went straight home,’ Chloe said. ‘They’d only just found out that their son was dead.’
Anna told Chloe to sit back down while she closed the office door behind her. Walker was standing outside and she gave him the thumbs-up sign.
Then Anna pulled up one of the other chairs so that she could sit next to Chloe.
‘You have to tell me everything,’ she said. ‘I want to know exactly what happened to you after you left the house with Tom yesterday. Then we’ll go home, you can have a long, hot bath and we can spend the evening together.’
‘Can you take me to see Tom first?’ Chloe asked.
Anna smiled. ‘Of course. The hospital isn’t far from here and I know it will cheer him up no end.’
Chloe leaned back in the chair and her face crumpled in thought.
‘So in your own time, sweetheart,’ Anna said. ‘What happened?’
*
Chloe’s eyes were bright with tears as she spoke about her ordeal. As Anna listened, the blood seemed to clot in her veins and she felt an ache swell in her chest.
The events Chloe described were horrendous, and Anna was amazed that her daughter managed to hold it together so well.
It began with the attack on Tom and how she watched the rioters beat him up and then drive off with him on the bonnet of his car.
‘I screamed at them to leave him alone,’ Chloe said. ‘But they ignored me.’
Then she saw a man spraying words on their front door while another man was urinating against the wall next to it.
‘That was when I started running, but was I hit by a motorbike, which knocked me out,’ she said, her voice shaking.
She explained how she almost fell victim to two creatures who wanted to rape her, and how she witnessed a boy being beaten up. And then a shadow flickered across her eyes as she spoke about how she was trampled on by a mob of rioters before being carried into a shop.
‘That was why Ryan was killed,’ she said, sobbing now. ‘It was really, really terrible.’ She struggled to describe the scene in the shop and Anna only just managed to hold back her own tears.
It shocked her that she herself had actually heard about some of the incidents on the news and she’d even seen the clip posted online of a hooded youth hurling a petrol bomb into the gift shop, killing the man named Ryan who had rescued Chloe from the street.
Anna made a mental note to get in touch with Ryan’s mother and with the lad’s friend Wesley who had saved Chloe from the fire. She would thank them both personally, let them know how grateful she was.
There was a faraway look in Chloe’s eyes as she stopped speaking. Anna could see that she was physically weak, drained of energy, traumatised. And she knew that the full weight of shock had yet to kick in.
Anna reached out and stroked her daughter’s cheek.
‘You’ve had a terrible experience, sweetheart,’ she said. ‘You got through it because you’re a sensible and mature girl, and I’m proud of you. Now I want you to wait here for a few minutes while I have a quick word with Max and the others. Then we’ll head off to the hospital. OK?’
Chloe nodded and indicated her can of Coke on the desk. ‘Can you ask the lady to get me another one of these please?’ she said.
Anna grinned and told her she would.
Back in the ops room she asked Constable Bryant to get Chloe another drink and then filled DI Walker in on what Chloe had told her.
‘I’ll have to take her home,’ she said. ‘It’s bad timing, I know, but I don’t have a choice. She needs me right now.’
‘Of course she does, guv,’ Walker said. ‘And it’s not a problem. We’ve got everything under control. I’ve spoken to Nash and he knows what’s happened. He says he’ll be in later and he accepts that we won’t be making much progress today because those of us who’ve been working through the night need to get some shuteye. Meanwhile, the powers that be are bracing themselves for another hellish night on the streets, and that will slow things down as well.’
‘I won’t be back tomorrow unless I can find someone to stay with Chloe. I don’t want to leave her alone.’
‘I don’t blame you. Just let me know.’
‘Have you heard from DI Benning? He was going to the mortuary for the formal ID.’
‘He came straight back here afterwards and he told me the parents confirmed the dead boy is indeed their son, Jacob,’ Walker said. ‘He then said he was going to follow up on what you were told about Mark Rossi having a stepbrother he doesn’t know who might be living in Camberwell.’
‘That’s right. He’s another potential suspect, but an outsider at best. So where is Benning? I don’t see him here.’
‘He’s one of those I’ve already sent home to get some rest,’ Walker said. ‘I thought he was looking pretty rough as well as tired. I get the impression he’s taking the boy’s death really hard.’
‘He told me he blames himself for not finding Jacob,’ Anna said, and felt a tad guilty for not making Walker aware of his fellow DI’s health problem. ‘But I think we would all feel the same in his shoes.’
Walker nodded. ‘I know I would.’
He then informed Anna that they still hadn’t managed to trace Michelle Gerrard and Roy Slater, but would hopefully be gaining access to both their homes later in the day or tomorrow.
‘Forensics are still sifting through the stuff from the cellar,’ Walker continued. ‘And they’ve now got the letter and photo that was sent to Mark Rossi. We’ve just got to wait for the results to come through. But nothing’s moving at its usual pace because of the riots.’
‘And that will continue to be a problem for us and everyone else,’ Anna said. ‘Those nutters out there seem determined to drag this out as long as they can.’