Jonathan and Thelma had been invited to the tea party, much to Val’s relief. Thelma was a good friend and Val was aware of her quiet sympathy and support. Jonathan was far removed now from the supercilious young man he had been when she had first met Sam. The brothers behaved to one another more as brothers ought to do now, as friends rather than as adversaries.
It was early on Monday afternoon when Val received a phone call from Cissie. Her friend’s words fell over one another as she told her some news.
‘Val, I’ve got summat to tell you. You know Megan, my friend, the one that looks after Holly? Well, her husband, Harry, he’s a dustbin man, and this morning they found a pram. It was left in a back alley, like, as though it was rubbish to be collected.’
‘Where? Where was this?’ asked Val.
‘In Queensbury. Not the posh end where you live; the other end. Anyroad, Harry went and asked the woman about the pram: was it really rubbish? And she knew nowt about it. It had just been left there. And Harry guessed at once that it must be yours. A Silver Cross, a big cream one …’
‘Yes, that’s right. It must be ours. Oh, Cissie, do you think that Lucy might be there, somewhere near there?’
‘Well, the woman knew about Lucy being missing because of the news on the wireless and in the paper, but she’d not seen a baby or heard one crying.’
‘So … what’s happening now?’
‘Well, Harry and his mate got in touch with the police and they’ll be following it up right away, so I thought it best to let you know. Sounds hopeful, don’t you think?’
‘I suppose so,’ said Val uncertainly. A pram with no baby in it? But it was hardly likely that Lucy would still be in the pram. She had been missing now for three days.
‘It seems as though somebody’s dumped the pram because it’s too much of a giveaway,’ said Val.
A myriad thoughts were racing through her mind. She might be near there or she might be far away. She might be safe and well or she might be … She could not bear to let her mind dwell on her worst fear. She tried to speak calmly now.
‘Thanks, Cissie. And say thank you to Harry. I don’t know him but it’s the first real clue we’ve had.’
‘Must go,’ said Cissie. ‘I’ve just collected Holly from Megan’s. That’s when Harry told me about it. I’ll get myself some lunch now.’
‘How’s the job going?’
‘Oh, smashing! I’m really enjoying it. Keep yer chin up, Val. There’ll be some good news soon – I feel sure of it.’
Val’s hands were trembling as she put down the phone. But she picked it up again almost at once to ring Sam at the mill.
‘Let’s hope it’s a breakthrough,’ he said quite calmly. Throughout the trauma, Sam had tried to keep his cool. ‘Try to keep calm, love. I expect Hazel, or someone, will be calling on you soon to keep you up to date. See you at teatime, darling. I’m sure this is a good sign.’
Val tried to tell herself that Sam was right and that Lucy would soon be found. Russell could not possibly understand all that was going on, but Val was beginning to realize that he was a very astute little boy. She knew he had been listening to her side of the telephone conversations with Cissie and with Sam.
‘Lucy coming back?’ her asked now.
‘We hope so, darling,’ Val replied. ‘Perhaps … quite soon.’
‘Want Lucy …’ he said, as he had repeated so often over the last three days.
Val found it hard to believe that there could be such a change in him. He was subdued and, on the whole, obedient. But the streak of wilfulness was still there beneath the surface. It seemed as though there were times when he wanted to be defiant, then changed his mind. Who could tell what was going through his little mind? Did he, somehow, blame himself for Lucy’s disappearance? Or did he think that if he was a good boy then she might come back? Val only knew that she was relieved that she was not putting up with his bouts of bad behaviour at the moment. It was one – very small – blessing in the midst of all their trauma.
As she had expected, it was not long before Hazel called round to tell them the news that Val admitted she had already heard.
‘We are concentrating our search in that area,’ she said. ‘We feel sure that your little girl must be somewhere in the vicinity. It seems as though the woman – or whoever it is – got rid of the pram and is keeping Lucy hidden. If that is the case then she can’t hide away for ever.’
Hazel stayed a little while to give moral support to Val. She had been designated as their family liaison officer, and Val certainly felt more hopeful when she was around.
‘He’s a good little boy, isn’t he?’ said Hazel as she watched Russell playing with his cars on the floor.
Val could not help but give a wry smile. ‘He seems so at the moment,’ she replied. ‘We’re hoping it will last.’ Russell was far enough away not to hear the conversation, but Val spoke quietly. ‘We’ve had endless trouble with him, actually. We adopted him when he was seven months old. His parents were killed in a car crash.’
‘Oh, yes, I seem to remember the incident,’ said Hazel. ‘It was very tragic.’
‘Yes; we thought we were doing the right thing. I was having difficulty in conceiving. And then, not long after we adopted Russell, I realized I was expecting Lucy.’
‘Not unusual,’ said Hazel. ‘So you had your hands full with two very young children, and Russell … He resented his little sister, perhaps?’
‘He was a holy terror!’ said Val. ‘Believe me, there were times when I almost regretted what we had done. But now, we can scarcely believe that he is the same child. He keeps asking about her, about Lucy. Where is she? When is she coming back?’
‘Well, let’s hope it isn’t long before we have some good news. You can be sure that you will be kept up to date about everything. I’ll say cheerio for now, Val. Keep your pecker up, as my mother would say!’
Val smiled. ‘Yes, and my mother always says that no news is good news. But that’s hard to believe when you’re waiting, isn’t it?’
‘Well, perhaps the next news will be good news. Bye for now, Val. Bye-bye, Russell.’
Russell, at the other end of the room, looked up and wiggled his fingers in a wave, as he had done since he was a baby.
‘Bye,’ he murmured, then returned to his police car.
It was another anxious afternoon for Val, stretching into evening when Sam came home. She was daring, though, to feel a little more optimistic, and Sam agreed with her that the signs were more hopeful. Or was he only saying that to make her feel better?
He went to work on Tuesday morning, leaving Val to face another long day of waiting. She decided to start on a task that would keep her occupied, sorting out her wardrobe and drawers, exchanging her warm winter clothes for her lighter spring and summertime clothing, which had been stored away in a wardrobe and chest of drawers in the spare room. The weather was still chilly at times, though, even though it was April.
It was around ten thirty, when she had been busy at her task for half an hour or so, when the doorbell rang.
‘Bell ringing, Mummy,’ said Russell.
Val felt her heartbeat quicken, as it always did now at the sound of the doorbell or the telephone.
‘Stay there, Russell,’ she said. ‘I’ll go and see who it is.’
She was half expecting that it would he Hazel and, indeed, it was. This time, though, the young policewoman was beaming, her smile seeming to stretch from ear to ear.
‘I’ve come to take you down to the station,’ she said. ‘We’ve got your little girl there, waiting for you.’
‘Oh … thank you so much …’ Val burst into tears as she flung her arms around Hazel. ‘You’ve found her! She’s all right?’
‘Yes; a little dazed, of course. She doesn’t know what’s going on. But she has come to no harm.’
Russell appeared at the top of the stairs, eager to see what was happening.
‘Can he come with us?’ asked Val.
‘Yes, of course he can. And we’ve phoned your husband. He’s meeting you at the station.’
Val dashed up the stairs. ‘Come on, Russell. We’re going to have a ride in a real police car. You like police cars, don’t you? And we’re going to bring Lucy home! Isn’t that lovely?’
Russell nodded. ‘Yes … Lucy. I like Lucy.’
Val and Russell arrived at the police station ahead of Sam. Lucy was sitting on the knee of another policewoman, not crying or looking unhappy but seeming a little puzzled. Her brown eyes stared at Val for a moment or two, then she smiled and held up her arms. At ten months’ old she was not really talking, just making baby sounds, although Sam had convinced himself that she could say ‘Da-da’. Val knew that the ‘d’ sound was easier for a baby to pronounce than ‘m’ for Mummy, but she had smiled and said, ‘Yes, maybe …’
There was no doubt now that Lucy recognized her mother. She gave an excited little chuckle as Val picked her up and hugged her, kissing her downy soft cheek and stroking her dark brown hair. She could not prevent the tears from falling as she sat down with her child on her knee, but everyone understood. How could it be otherwise?
Russell tiptoed up to his mummy and little sister. Very gently, he reached out and touched her little hand. ‘Hello, Lucy,’ he said, and she closed her fingers around his hand.
‘She’s pleased to see you,’ said Val. ‘You’re her big brother, aren’t you? And you’re going to help Daddy and me to take care of her. We mustn’t lose her again, must we? What happened?’ she asked, turning to the police sergeant who had been in charge of the case.
He was just about to answer when the door opened again and Sam came into the room. Lucy stared at him, just as she had stared at Val for a moment, then she held out her arms.
‘Da-da …’ she said quite distinctly, although whether it was intentional because she recognized her daddy, or just baby talk, no one could be sure.
Sam was delighted, of course, and so was Val as they laughed together, with Russell joining in with the jollity.
‘Lucy looks fit and well,’ observed Sam. ‘She’s come to no harm, then?’
‘No, no real harm,’ replied the police sergeant. ‘I was just about to explain everything to your wife as you came in. We discovered her about half a mile from where the pram had been left. It had been abandoned there to put us off the trail, but we felt that it would be only a matter of time before we found your little girl. Hazel was the one who found her.’
He looked at Hazel and she continued with the story. ‘Yes, that’s right. There was a call from a neighbour to say a baby was crying next door. We’d had a few such calls but this was the one we’d been waiting for. I think the woman knew it was only a matter of time before we caught up with her. She didn’t try to deny it. She’d suffered a miscarriage a few weeks ago, the second one she’s had in the three years since she married her husband. He’s away from home a lot of the time. He’s a coach driver for a travel firm, and if it’s a long trip to the continent he can be away for two or three weeks at a time. She had been suffering from depression and he took time off work. But she had seemed to be recovering, so he went back to work. He’d been away for just a few days when … all this happened. She’s told me this herself, quite coherently. As I said, I think she knew she’d be caught.’
‘Poor woman, whoever she is,’ said Val, remembering how she had felt following her own miscarriage.
‘It’s a serious offence, though, Mrs Walker,’ said the police sergeant. ‘We’ve got her in custody now and she’ll be charged with abduction. There may be extenuating circumstances. It’s up to the magistrates to decide but we have to do our duty.’
‘No, I don’t want to press charges,’ said Val. ‘Do we, Sam?’
‘Er … I suppose not,’ said Sam. ‘We’ve got Lucy back and she’s come to no harm. Maybe it was a spur of the moment thing, seeing the pram there.’
‘That is what we believe,’ said the sergeant, ‘but we have to follow the correct procedure. Some people might not be as understanding as you are. If that’s what you want, though, we can talk to her, make her understand how serious it is and let her off with a caution.’
Val nodded. ‘Yes, I think so. I had a miscarriage, you see, and one or two other disappointments before that, and I got very depressed for a while. Not that I ever thought of abducting a baby; I was never even tempted. But who can tell what was going through the poor woman’s mind?’
‘It’s true that Lucy was well looked after,’ said Hazel. ‘She – Claire’s her name – had everything prepared ready for her own baby. Nappies and baby clothes, feeding bottles and tins of milk, and a cot with sheets and blankets. It was very sad. She was living in a sort of dream world for a few days.’
‘Can I see her?’ asked Val. ‘Not just now, but … sometime?’
‘That might not be a good idea, Mrs Walker,’ said the sergeant.
‘But I do understand,’ said Val. ‘Sam and I had only been married for a couple of years but I got it into my head that we were never going to have a baby of our own. That’s why we adopted Russell. And then, soon after, lo and behold! I was expecting Lucy. So I was wrong, wasn’t I? It was only a matter of time. I was impatient. And it might be the same for … Claire.’
‘It wasn’t wrong to adopt Russell, though, was it?’ said Sam.
‘Good gracious, no!’ said Val, horrified at the suggestion. ‘He’s our son and Lucy’s our daughter.’
‘And that’s enough to be going on with for the moment,’ said Sam with a smile. ‘Now, it’s time we were going back home, isn’t it? Time to get this little girl settled in her own home again. We can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for us; for finding Lucy and taking care of my wife.’ He turned to Hazel. ‘You just being there for her has made so much difference. I had to carry on working and I was worried about Val being on her own.’
‘It has been my pleasure,’ said Hazel. ‘I could say that it’s all in a day’s work but it’s meant much more than that. And it’s been a happy ending. Some of these cases, very sadly, have a tragic outcome. I shall keep in touch with you.’
‘And we have your pram here,’ said the sergeant. ‘We’ll make sure it’s returned to you, and it’s come to no harm either. As Hazel says, we’re delighted at the result. Take care now, all of you. Bye-bye, Russell; you look after your little sister.’
Russell nodded seriously. ‘Lucy,’ he said. ‘I like Lucy.’
Val sat on the back seat of the car with Lucy on her knee and Russell at her side. He held Lucy’s hand all the way home, not speaking at all. He broke his silence when Val asked what he would like for dinner.
‘I don’t think Daddy needs to dash back to work straight away,’ she said, ‘so you can choose something, seeing as it’s a special day.’
‘Sausage and mash!’ he shouted. ‘And ice cream and jelly.’
‘I don’t know about jelly,’ said Val. ‘It won’t set in time. We can have jelly tomorrow with banana in it. You like that, don’t you? But we’ve got ice cream in the fridge. Pink and white and chocolate. How about that?’
‘Yummy!’ said Russell, a word he had heard his cousin, Rosemary, and Auntie Cissie’s little boy, Paul, exclaim. ‘Lucy have some too?’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Val. ‘Perhaps just a little bit, because it might be rather cold for her little tummy.’
Russell leaned across and kissed his little sister’s cheek. ‘Hello, Lucy,’ he said again, looking pleased that she was home. ‘I love Lucy, Mummy.’
TWELVE
‘Wonderful news!’ Janice called to Phil when she put down the phone on that same Tuesday evening. ‘That was Val. Lucy has been found, safe and well.’
‘Wonderful!’ repeated Phil. ‘I guessed as much when I heard your side of the conversation. What happened?’
‘Oh, she’d been snatched by some woman who’d had a miscarriage and was depressed. Val seemed to be pretty understanding about it all. I don’t know that I could have b
een so forgiving. But Val has been through it herself – the miscarriage, I mean. And apparently Russell is being a very good boy. That’s a change, isn’t it? I hope it lasts.’
‘Yes, he was a little rascal, wasn’t he? Anyway, I’m glad it’s all ended happily. I can’t imagine how we would feel if we lost our Sarah. Well, I don’t suppose you can imagine it, can you, unless it happens to you? I don’t suppose you told her much about our own plans, did you?’
‘No, that can wait. It’s too soon to think about sending out invitations, isn’t it, because we’re not sure ourselves just how long it’s going to take.’
The work was progressing well on the conversion of the two properties into one. The builders were now working on the upstairs rooms. It was not too difficult a task for experienced builders to knock down part of the adjoining wall to give access to the rooms next door. When the work was completed there would be four bedrooms, a larger kitchen and bathroom, and a spacious dining-cum-living room.
The downstairs conversion would extend the dining area, making a larger restaurant with a small bar area at one end, a larger kitchen and a cloakroom and washroom facilities for the clients. This would be the last work to be done, and it would involve closing down for a couple of weeks. They were still hoping, however, that the new premises would be ready by the end of May.
It was a big undertaking, certainly a challenge and, maybe, something of a risk, but all had gone well so far. Bella, the owner of the florist’s shop, had been delighted when they’d told her what they had in mind, and, because they were friends, she had reduced the price a little, pleased that the premises were to be put to good use.
The bank manager, too, had been obliging, knowing how Grundy’s had prospered since the opening two years previously. It was possible that they would need extra staff but, at the moment, they were content with the status quo.
‘I wonder if Ian will come and work for us during the summer?’ said Phil. ‘We could use him if he’s available but he might prefer to stay in Blackpool. What do you think?’
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