Little Girl Gone

by Stephen Edger

  ‘What’s important in times of extreme stress like this is remaining patient,’ Trent continued. ‘The suspect we arrested yesterday is in breach of the terms of his release and will likely face a further spell behind bars as a result of what we discovered yesterday. I know it doesn’t help you, but the world is a marginally safer place as a result of our actions.

  ‘I wanted to speak to you directly about the email you received yesterday,’ Trent continued without missing a beat. ‘I have a specialist trying to trace the IP of where the message originated, and that should hopefully steer us towards whomever sent it. However, it’s important for you to realize that the person who sent the message may not be the person who snatched Carol-Anne. Either way, though, I assure you we will take action against whoever sent the message. You have my word.’

  ‘How did the sender know Carol-Anne was missing before the appeal was televised?’

  Trent’s face remained unmoved. ‘There are some twisted people out there who get pleasure from causing distress to others. You have to bear in mind that although the appeal wasn’t broadcast until six p.m., it was actually recorded an hour before, so while the information wasn’t in the public eye, the story was out there. How so many people learned you were the mum of the missing girl is still being investigated. From what we’ve managed to deduce so far, someone you used to go to school with was the first to make the link.’

  Trent paused and pulled a piece of paper from within her jacket, unfolding it and passing it to Alex. ‘At 18:02, this woman tweeted you directly using the hashtag #Carol-Anne, asking if you were okay. Presumably she recognized your daughter, and it spread from there. I’m aware of some of the abuse you received following this message, and I’m sorry that you had to read it. I have forwarded the messages on to the cyberbullying team who will take appropriate action.’

  ‘I know all this,’ Alex snapped before she could stop herself. ‘I just want to know where my daughter is. It’s been almost two days and you don’t seem any further along than when it happened.’

  It was Trent’s turn to look over to Ray. ‘I can assure you we are doing everything within our power to find out where she is and bring her home. I wish I had more positive news to share. Believe me when I say we are working flat out. Ray will be able to confirm how hard the team are working.’

  Ray looked over at the sound of his name, and for the first time Alex was surprised to see an absent look in his eyes, like a lost child anxiously hunting for a parent.

  ‘Does the name Jack mean anything to you?’ Trent pressed. ‘Do you know anyone called Jack? Or is there a Jack from your past that the email message could be referring to?’

  Alex had asked herself the same question over and over as she had lain awake in bed in the early hours of the morning. The response was always the same.

  ‘No, I don’t.’

  ‘You don’t have any friends – or enemies – called Jack? What about you, Ray?’

  He shook his head. ‘Nobody who would do something like this.’

  Deep lines formed in Trent’s forehead. ‘It’s just … very specific: “if you kill Jack, I will give her back”.’

  Alex was beginning to feel nauseous. ‘What are you getting at?’

  ‘Well it may be nothing. Let’s just say – for argument’s sake – that the email was from the person who snatched Carol-Anne. He knows he took her from you, and how to get in touch with you. He’s even gone to the efforts of making his message rhyme. What’s the point if you don’t know who Jack is?’

  ‘If I knew I would tell you. I swear!’ Alex pleaded, feeling as though nobody was listening. ‘There’s nothing I want more than to have my little girl back.’

  26

  After half an hour of questions and challenges, Trent got up to leave, though not before asking Ray to follow her back to the car. A look was exchanged between Isla and Trent. And as they left, Ray could hear Isla trying to comfort his wife.

  ‘My car,’ Trent said, a command rather than a question.

  She was parked thirty or so yards down the road, away from the house and out of view of the kitchen windows at the front of the property. He couldn’t tell whether the chosen space was deliberately parked so far away, or whether it had been the only available option.

  He climbed into the passenger side, unable to escape the feeling that he was about to get a bollocking, maybe because Owen had come clean about their private chat yesterday.

  Trent climbed in behind the wheel, making no effort to start the engine or fasten her belt. She remained in silence, as if trying to summon the words she wanted to say. Then, allowing her gaze to fall on her window, head turned away from Ray, she said, ‘Is there anything you want to tell me?’

  It had to be about the chat with Owen. On the off-chance he was wrong, he wasn’t prepared to give her anymore rope to hang him. ‘Like what?’

  ‘This isn’t easy for me, Ray. You’re one of my best detectives, and you’re also Alex’s husband. If there’s anything you want to tell me about what happened on Tuesday, now is the time to do it.’

  He looked over at her in confusion. ‘What are you getting at?’

  Her head turned so she could look him in the eye, clearly using her own internal polygraph to judge his response. ‘Are you aware, or have you become aware, of any information which could directly impact our investigation into the disappearance of your daughter?’

  He fixed her with an assured stare. ‘Don’t you think I’d tell you?’

  Her face remained emotionless. ‘Okay, let me rephrase, has Alex confessed anything to you since she called to report the abduction?’

  She was clearly driving at something. For now he couldn’t quite see what.

  ‘You think I’m hiding something? Whatever it is you want to know, just come out and ask me.’

  She nodded. ‘Okay. There’s no easy way to ask this, so I’m just going to spit it out and hope you understand.’

  His shoulders tensed involuntarily.

  ‘Why was Alex arrested last year?’

  His vision blurred. ‘How did you hear about that?’

  ‘Never mind how I found out about it. What happened and why didn’t you mention it sooner?’

  His throat felt unbearably dry. ‘Because it has nothing to do with any of this.’

  ‘I’ll be the judge of that.’

  Ray shook his head. ‘No. First of all, you tell me how you heard she’d been arrested. We weren’t in Hampshire when it happened, and as she was never charged there should be no formal record of what happened.’

  Trent kept her voice low and calm. ‘That’s why I want you to explain it to me. Come on, Ray, you know I have to turn over every stone. Don’t make me bring Alex in to explain it herself. I already have an idea of what went on, but I’d rather hear it from you than rely on office gossip.’

  ‘Gossip? Who else knows?’

  ‘Nobody here, I assure you. Listen, one of my old DCs from when I worked in Manchester called me when he heard about yesterday’s appeal. We got chatting and he brought it up in conversation. I hadn’t even mentioned either of your names and he asked if I remembered the wife of one of the DSs down here who was pinched at the back end of last year. Of course, I knew nothing about it, but he remembered Alex’s name. He wasn’t lying, was he, Ray?’

  Closing his eyes, Ray wished he was anywhere else right now. Realistically it had only ever been a matter of time until she’d found out about what had happened, and why his sister had been so keen to come and visit.

  ‘We were on holiday,’ he said, finally opening his eyes and admitting defeat. ‘A week away in Lancashire, staying in a caravan on a holiday park. It was Carol-Anne’s first trip away, and a break away we all needed. You have to understand it wasn’t Alex’s fault. What happened, I mean.’

  ‘My source said it had something to do with some type of medication?’

  Ray nodded. ‘After the miscarriage, Alex hit rock bottom. She attended counselling, but it did very little to
improve her symptoms of depression, and she was eventually prescribed a mild antidepressant. It wasn’t until the third day we’d been away that she admitted she’d accidentally left the pills at home.’

  ‘Did she volunteer that information, or did she try to hide it from you?’

  He didn’t like the implication in the question. ‘Why?’

  ‘Please, Ray, humour me.’

  ‘She didn’t tell me straight away. I was looking through her handbag for my phone and noticed she didn’t have the pills. That’s when she told me. She said it wouldn’t be a problem. She said she was feeling good about things, and would simply start them again when we were home. She thought it would be too big a challenge to get a fresh prescription issued while we were away and it was too far to drive home to get them. What can I say? She seemed happy enough, and as far as I was concerned the sooner she was off those pills the better. So, we proceeded with the holiday.’

  ‘When did you first become aware something was wrong?’

  ‘We had booked the caravan from Saturday to Friday and on the Thursday morning she woke with a migraine. I asked if she wanted me to go out and get her some medication but she said she thought a walk and fresh air would clear her head. She left Carol-Anne with me as I was planning to take her to the paddling pool on site.

  ‘I started to worry when I hadn’t heard from Alex by lunchtime. Her phone was switched off, and I had no way of tracing her. At two, I was starting to panic that she might have been knocked over or rushed to hospital or something, and that’s when there was a knock on the caravan door, and I saw two uniformed officers there. They told me Alex had been arrested and that she had been asking for me. She’d told them my rank and had kept insisting it had all been a big misunderstanding.’

  ‘She abducted a child from a park, Ray. That’s more than a misunderstanding.’

  He sighed, his heart aching at the trauma of those days in Manchester. ‘She didn’t think she’d taken a child. She thought she’d collected Carol-Anne, and it was only when the child’s mother saw her leading the girl away that all hell broke loose. When the arresting officer allowed me to see Alex I realized just how bad a state she was in. Wandering the streets outside the holiday park, she’d come across a small local park. Her counsellor later said that without the antidepressant, and with the migraine tearing at her every thought, Alex must have become disoriented. Even after we’d explained to her what had happened, she looked at me like I was crazy.

  ‘She kept insisting that she’d taken Carol-Anne to the park, and as they’d tried to leave, she’d been apprehended by a crazy woman claiming that Carol-Anne was hers. And then the police had been called, and Alex had been cuffed. She resisted when they’d given the girl back to her real mother which obviously didn’t help the situation. Even when I told her Carol-Anne had been with me all day, she claimed I was wrong. It was a genuine mistake: in her mind she hadn’t intended the little girl any harm. It wasn’t Alex’s fault.’

  ‘She was lucky the other mother and the detectives in charge were so understanding. She could easily have been prosecuted regardless of the mitigating circumstances.’

  Ray knew she was right, and that was why he’d insisted she continue her counselling and the prescribed medication. ‘As I said, that has nothing to do with this.’

  Trent sat forward. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Absolutely!’

  ‘Is she still taking antidepressants?’

  This was his chance to come clean and to tell Trent his own fears about Alex’s mental health. She hadn’t been acting irrationally. He hadn’t noticed her acting any differently, and maybe it was possible that she no longer needed the pills, or maybe she was still taking them and it was just that they hadn’t been in her handbag.

  Biting his lip, he said, ‘As far as I’m aware.’

  ‘The evening after the abduction I asked Alex whether she was on any medication, or whether she’d had anything alcoholic to drink prior to her trip to the car park. She answered no to both questions.’

  ‘She must have been confused.’

  Trent was now shaking her head in sympathy. ‘We spoke to her counsellor – Dr Kirkman – and although he couldn’t tell us the reason for her appointments with him, he did say that she hadn’t been to see him in over two months. Be honest with me, Ray: when did you last see your wife take her medication?’

  He closed his eyes again, trying to recall any memories of the two of them from the last couple of months. He’d spent so much time out of the house, he could barely remember a single conversation they’d shared in all that time.

  ‘We know that Alex drove into that car park when she said she did,’ Trent continued, ‘we know she had an interview lined up, for which she was running late. And we know that there was no child in that car when we arrived at the car park. Those are the only facts that are irrefutable. There is no evidence that Carol-Anne was in the car with Alex when she arrived in the car park, and there is no evidence that the car was tampered with in any way.’

  Ray’s eyes snapped open. ‘What are you saying?’

  Trent leaned closer to him. ‘I’m only telling you this because we’re friends and I consider you a damned fine detective, but as of this moment Alex is our prime suspect in the disappearance of Carol-Anne.’

  27

  Trent’s questions had lasted for half an hour, yet it had felt so much longer to Alex. How many different ways could she tell her what had happened at the car park? It felt like she’d repeated the same story more than a hundred times, and now even she was beginning to doubt the key facts. Were they all right? Had she fabricated the entire story?

  The truth was she couldn’t be certain of anything anymore. And she desperately needed someone she could pour out her heart to. Sophie next door was the closest thing she had to a friend. There was Noemi as well, but she was more Sophie’s friend than Alex’s, and although they got on well enough, they’d never met up without Sophie there to rely on. Noemi always seemed so busy, though Alex couldn’t recall mention of any serious boyfriend. With her stunning looks and job at a major IT company, no doubt she’d had plenty of offers.

  Alex sent Sophie a quick message, hoping she would be able to spare a few minutes for a phone call.

  ‘You’re out of milk,’ Isla said, poking her head around the door. ‘I’ll nip to the shop to get some, unless you want to go …?’

  Alex looked up from the phone’s screen. ‘No, I don’t think I can manage even a simple conversation in a shop. Do you need any money?’

  Isla remained where she was, considering Alex’s fragile state. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to come? It might do you some good to get some fresh air.’

  Alex didn’t want to go anywhere. Just the thought of bumping into a neighbour terrified her. Either they’d stare at her with pitying, judgemental eyes because they’d figured out the girl in the police appeal was hers, or worse still, they’d notice she didn’t have Carol-Anne with her and would ask where she was. Neither outcome filled Alex with inspiration.

  Isla continued to stare at Alex for a moment as if expecting her to change her mind. As Alex’s gaze returned to the phone, Isla closed the door and made her way outside.

  ‘Where are you, my precious angel?’ she asked as she caught sight of a photo hanging on the wall.

  The snap had been taken by a professional photographer in a studio after Alex had won a competition for the shoot. The prize had included one free image and a ten per cent discount on any other images they purchased afterwards. It had been so tough to narrow it down to just one image, and this had been the best of the lot. Carol-Anne had been sitting playing with a stuffed zebra that she had found in the photographer’s box of toys and games. He’d told Alex to call to Carol-Anne and he’d managed to capture the image just as her innocent eyes had met with Alex’s, the first glint of a smile spreading across her cheeks. If ever an image screamed how precious, vulnerable and innocent she was, this was it. Trent had asked if they could use t
he image for the appeal, but Alex had been unable to bring herself to agree. If she had, the image would have been forever tarnished. This way she got to keep her child’s sweetness to herself.

  The ringing doorbell caught her attention, and as she looked at her watch, she realized Isla had been gone for ten minutes already. Rehanging the frame, Alex left the living room and was about to open the door when the caller thumped an angry fist against the door, causing Alex to gasp.

  ‘I know you’re in there,’ a gruff voice boomed from outside. ‘Open the fucking door!’

  Alex froze, her hand at her mouth. She wasn’t expecting a visitor, least of all an angry man whose voice she didn’t recognize.

  The banging continued. ‘Oi, let me in! It’s fucking freezing out here.’

  Alex remained rooted to the spot, terrified that any movement would confirm her presence inside. Maybe whoever it was would go away if he thought she wasn’t home. Then another thought stuck in her mind: what if this was Simon?

  ‘I’m getting fucking angry! You’ll let me in if you know what’s good for you.’

  Why had he come here? He’d only sent the email last night. Did he now know the police were hunting for him? Had he come to kill her?

  The door shook as the banging grew louder and more violent. ‘You’d better fucking let me in!’

  Alex dived into the kitchen, dropping to her knees so she would be out of sight of the outside world. Sliding across the cold linoleum, she stopped when she reached the sink, and remained there while her mind debated whether she could risk a look at the man still banging on the front door. If he continued much longer, he was sure to burst through.

  Gripping the edge of the counter with her fingers, she took a deep breath, gradually straightening her legs, just enough so she could see over the lower edge of the window frame. Heart thundering in her chest, her eyes fell on a scrawny young man in a torn and weathered leather jacket, his T-shirt flapping in the wind, and long greasy hair like the mane of a lion.

  Who the hell was he, and why was he so desperate to get in? His face was gaunt and covered in acne scars, and she would swear she’d never seen him before in her life. She was just about to drop down again when their eyes met for the briefest of moments, and he was banging on the window before her hands made it back to the floor.