Tom was still in the recovery room when they got to the hospital. He was wide awake and smiled broadly when he saw Chloe. But within seconds they were both overcome by emotion and began to cry.
Anna struggled to suppress her own tears as she watched Chloe trying to articulate her feelings.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t save you from those men,’ she was saying. ‘I tried but they wouldn’t listen to me. And then … and then they took you away and I didn’t know what else to do but start running.’
Tom put his good arm around her as she leaned over the bed and told her that he thought she was the bravest girl he knew.
He then asked Chloe what had happened to her. This time she seemed to find it a little easier to talk about, and her voice was clearer and more measured.
Tom was left clearly shaken by what she had been through. He squeezed her hand and shook his head.
‘You’ve had far too many bad experiences for someone so young,’ he said. ‘Let’s hope that from now on life will be much kinder to you.’
‘I’ll second that,’ Anna said.
Tom then asked Anna how serious things were on the streets. Indicating the small TV on a stand in the corner, he said, ‘I’ve seen bits on the news and it seems like the police have lost control of the situation.’
‘We’re having a hard time coping,’ Anna said. ‘These are so much worse than the riots of 2011. The amount of damage being done is off the scale.’
‘What about the case you’re working on?’ Tom said. ‘The boy in the cellar.’
‘It’s progressing, but slowly,’ Anna replied.
‘So will you be back on the job tomorrow?’
Anna shrugged. ‘That depends on whether I can find someone to be with Chloe. I’ve got a couple of friends who will hopefully let her stay with them while I’m working. If they can’t for any reason then the team will have to manage without me.’
‘But I don’t want to stay with any strangers,’ Chloe moaned. ‘Please don’t make me.’
‘Why not let her stay here with me?’ Tom said. ‘We can keep each other company and she’ll be perfectly safe.’
‘I can bring my tablet and some books,’ Chloe said, smiling. ‘And some games as well.’
Anna didn’t bother to argue, mainly because she thought it was the perfect solution to her problem. She also hoped it would prove to be a good opportunity for them to bond.
‘It’s a deal then,’ she said. ‘I’ll drop her off in the morning and pick her up when I’ve finished for the day.’
When they got home the first thing Anna did was grab a tin of wood stain from the garden shed. She used it to brush over the words sprayed on the front door. She then ran a bath for Chloe and had a quick shower herself.
She caught sight of the time as she was pulling on her dressing gown, and was surprised to see that it was already four p.m. The time had flown by, and it was no wonder that she felt sleep-deprived and hungry. She’d managed to fortify herself with cups of coffee during the day but she hadn’t eaten a thing.
‘What would you like for dinner?’ she asked Chloe when the pair of them got together in the kitchen.
‘I’d love a pizza,’ Chloe said.
‘Then a pizza it is, plus chips and some baked beans.’
She was glad to see that Chloe was looking so much better now that she had washed her hair and exchanged her dirty dungarees for her bright yellow pyjamas.
Anna stopped what she was doing and stared at her. She’d only had her back for a month and she hadn’t let her out of her sight in all that time. But only now did it occur to her just how grown up she appeared to be. Rather than a twelve-year-old she looked more like a girl in her mid-teens. Was that because so many terrible things had happened to her? Anna wondered.
‘I’ve put some Sudocrem on these,’ Chloe said, and showed Anna the grazes on her knees and elbows from where she had fallen over. ‘They still hurt but only a bit now.’
Anna was suddenly reminded of when Chloe fell over in a playpark and landed on a jagged rock. She was two and it was just before her father abducted her and took her to Spain.
That was the last time Anna got to nurse any of her daughter’s many minor injuries, and she remembered it now as though it had happened yesterday rather than ten years ago.
Once again the tears threatened and so Anna busied herself with making the dinner.
After they’d eaten, they sat on the sofa in the living room and Anna put on the television. Chloe surprised her by asking if they could watch the news.
‘Are you sure you don’t want to watch a movie or something?’ Anna asked.
‘I’m sure, Mum.’
Sure enough, there was wall-to-wall coverage of the riots.
‘I saw you earlier talking to reporters,’ Chloe said, looking at her mum. ‘Will you be on again tonight?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Anna replied. ‘But it’s possible, I suppose.’
‘Well promise me that you’ll catch whoever put that boy in the cellar.’
‘I’ll do my best, sweetheart.’
‘Did you have to tell his mum and dad what happened to him?’
Anna nodded. ‘I’m afraid I did. It wasn’t easy – naturally they were very upset.’
‘When that man Perez abducted me, I was really scared,’ Chloe said. ‘But I was lucky because at least I wasn’t put in chains.’
Anna was so moved that she leaned over and put her arm around her daughter.
‘I could never love anyone more than I love you, sweetheart,’ she said.
Chloe looked up at her and for a fleeting moment Anna thought that she was going to say that she loved her back. But instead, she said, ‘You don’t have to keep saying sweetheart to me, Mum. I’ve got used to Chloe now so that’s who I am. I think it’s a nicer name than Alice anyway.’
Anna’s heart jolted into her throat and suddenly she couldn’t speak. Chloe, for her part, seemed totally oblivious to the impact her words had had on her mother. Her gaze returned to the TV and she carried on watching the news.