by Alex Lake
‘No,’ Julia said. ‘Only myself or Brian or Edna pick her up, and she knows not to go with strangers.’
‘Could another parent have seen her alone and taken her home? Maybe tried to call you?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Julia looked at her phone. ‘There are no missed calls.’
‘It is possible, though,’ PC Davis said. ‘Who would be the most likely to do something like that?’
Julia looked down. Her shoes were scuffed from the search in the village. ‘Perhaps Dawn Swift’s mum, Gemma. Or maybe Sheila Parks.’
‘Could you call and ask them?’
Julia nodded and found Gemma Swift’s number on her phone. Gemma picked up on the second ring.
‘Hi Julia,’ Gemma said. ‘How’s it going?’
She hesitated for a moment, hoping that Gemma would fill the gap with a declaration that Anna was with her and she hoped Julia didn’t mind but she’d brought her home when she saw she was alone at the school and she’d meant to call but the girls wanted a snack and then the dog had to be fed, and you know how things can get away from you.
‘Are you there, Julia?’ Gemma said.
‘Yes. Gemma, did you happen to see Anna at school today?’
‘No. Why?’
‘I was late. And when I got here she was gone.’
‘What do you mean, gone?’
‘She wasn’t at the school. I can’t find her.’
‘Oh my God.’ The horror in Gemma’s voice was like a sudden blow to the stomach. It crystallized everything that was bad about this situation into one moment, and it left Julia short of breath.
This is real now, she thought. This is the real thing.
‘Jules,’ Gemma said. ‘Can I help?’
‘I don’t think so. The police are here.’
‘I’ll call round some people,’ she said. ‘The more people looking the better.’
Julia was suddenly sick of this conversation, sick of everything it meant.
‘I have to go,’ she said. ‘Thanks Gemma.’
‘Could you call the other person you mentioned?’ PC Davis said. ‘And anyone else that springs to mind. In the meantime, I’m going to radio in for some more officers.’
Julia nodded. Mrs Jacobsen gestured towards her office.
‘You can go in there,’ she said. ‘Have some privacy.’
Fifteen minutes later the door to Mrs Jacobsen’s office opened. PC Davis came in. He had the false smile of someone who had bad news but wanted to be reassuring.
‘We did not find Anna on the way to your house,’ he said. He paused, ‘so we have to consider the possibility that she’s a little further afield.’
Julia reached for Brian’s hand again. This time he took it.
‘What does that mean?’ Julia asked. ‘Where’s Anna? Where’s my daughter?’
PC Davis shuffled uncomfortably from foot to foot.
‘My colleague will be here shortly,’ he said. ‘She’ll have more information.’
v.
Twenty minutes later a woman in a dark suit came into the headmistress’s office. She was in her late thirties and had a confident bearing, the kind that comes with many years of taking control of situations. Don’t worry, everything about her was saying. I can fix whatever’s wrong here.
‘Mrs Crowne?’ she said. ‘I’m Detective Inspector Wynne.’
Detective Inspector Wynne had short blonde hair, blue eyes, and an unsmiling expression. Her eyes were steady and intense, but she looked tired; there was a puffiness to the dark circles around her eyes that suggested lack of sleep or too much booze, or both.
Her demeanour was calm and professional, but to Julia it looked as though DI Wynne took her job too personally for her own good. Not that Julia cared: she wanted DI Wynne to feel like finding Anna was the most important thing in her life.
The detective looked at Julia, then at Brian, then back at Julia. Her expression softened. ‘Mr and Mrs Crowne, I understand that you are worried – more than worried, I’m a mother myself – but try not to be. The vast majority of the time we find the child and everything is ok. And trust me, we will do everything we can to find her.’
‘Thank you,’ Julia said, feeling no calmer at all. ‘So what’s next?’
‘Perhaps you can take me through what happened. Step by step, if you could. As much detail as you can remember.’
‘There’s not much I can tell you,’ Julia said. ‘I arrived here around three thirty—’
‘Late,’ Brian said. ‘School finishes at three.’
‘I was late,’ Julia admitted. ‘But I thought she’d be here!’
‘That’s ok, Mrs Crowne. Just the facts for now, please. Did the school know you would be late?’
‘No! I was stuck in a meeting and my phone was dead and I couldn’t call them.’
‘In a meeting?’ DI Wynne said.
‘I’m a solicitor. Custody cases, mainly.’
‘I see. Well, it’s a busy job. So when you got here, there was no sign of Anna?’
Julia explained what she had done, how she had guessed that Anna would be in The Village Sweete Shoppe and gone down there, how she had asked some people for help, how she had searched the village until Brian called. When she was finished, DI Wynne nodded and chewed her lip thoughtfully.
She turned to the headmistress. ‘Mrs Jacobsen, I’ll need a list of all the parents and children who were at the school today, as well as all the employees of the school, whether they were here or not.’
Mrs Jacobsen nodded. ‘It’s not only parents who pick up the pupils,’ she said. ‘But we have a register of all those who are permitted to do so. I can let you have it.’
‘Do you have CCTV inside the school?’
Mrs Jacobsen’s mouth tightened into a slight moue. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘We do. Much as I prefer the promotion of civil liberties – we aim to produce responsible citizens who do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, and not because they think they are being observed – we have bent to the general panic about these matters and have installed CCTV.’
‘You must be glad you did, now,’ DI Wynne said. ‘And there might be something else in the area we can use. Could you make sure that the officers get access to the CCTV?’
‘Of course,’ Mrs Jacobsen said. ‘Right away.’
‘I have a question,’ Brian said, turning to the headmistress, his face a dark red. ‘How the hell did this happen? I thought the teachers did not let children out of the grounds unless they knew there was a parent there?’
That was right, Julia thought. The school had a pick-up policy and it was strictly adhered to. Only parents or designated carers could pick up children, although they were not allowed on the school grounds; the pupils were accompanied to the school gates and handed over to their responsible adults. In the case of an adult being late, they were to notify the school, and that pupil stayed inside. If, as Julia had done, the adult failed to notify the school, then the child would be ok: they would be left at the gates with a teacher, and brought inside to wait.
But it hadn’t worked this time.
‘I’ve spoken to the teachers,’ Mrs Jacobsen said. ‘They said that they thought you were there, Mrs Crowne. They expected you to be there since you had not called to say you would not be.’
‘She wasn’t there, though, was she!’ Brian said. ‘And you were supposed to take care of my daughter! That’s what we pay your obscene school fees for!’
‘Mr Crowne,’ the headmistress said. ‘The school adhered to its policies. I am sure the CCTV will show that. We do everything we can to ensure the safety—’
‘But not enough!’ Brian shouted.
‘We have policies in place that have been independently reviewed and which are in accordance with all necessary legislation,’ Mrs Jacobsen said. ‘And I am, of course, open to any questions you and Julia might have, but I’m not sure that now is the best time to discuss them.’
‘Fine,’ Julia said. ‘We can discuss it la
ter.’ She glanced at DI Wynne. ‘For now we need to concentrate on finding Anna.’
‘Precisely,’ DI Wynne said. ‘If you could get me the CCTV and the personnel list, that would be a start.’ She turned to Julia and Brian. ‘I’d like a recent photo of Anna, as well. So that we can alert other constabularies and the border control folks.’
‘You think that’s necessary?’ Brian asked. ‘You think she might be being taken out of the country?’
‘I wouldn’t jump to conclusions,’ DI Wynne said. ‘But it’s a precaution worth taking.’
‘God,’ Brian said. He covered his eyes with his hand. ‘This can’t be happening. It just can’t. Not again. I can’t believe it’s happening again.’
vi.
Detective Inspector Wynne stared at Brian.
‘Again?’ she said. Her calm expression was suddenly more urgent. ‘You’ve had a child disappear before?’
Brian shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Not a child. My father. He left home when I was in my early twenties. He vanished. Didn’t leave a note; nothing. Just went.’
‘Have you heard from him since?’ DI Wynne asked.
‘No.’ Brian looked at his hands. He picked at the cuticle of his left index finger. ‘Not a word. Not even a Christmas card.’
‘And you don’t know where he is? He just disappeared?’ DI Wynne pressed.
‘Yep.’ Brian shrugged. ‘It was during the school holidays. Dad was a headmaster. He was nearing retirement. One day he was there, and the next he wasn’t.’
‘And you don’t know why? Or where he went?’
‘No. No idea.’
Julia knew that Brian was not quite telling the truth. Yes, he had no idea where his father was, but he did have some idea of why he had gone there. He had told her once – and made her swear that she would not ever tell Edna that he had discussed it with her – that he suspected his headmaster father had been having an affair with a younger member of staff and had run away with her. He wasn’t sure – his mother never talked about it – but he had managed to piece that much together over the years.
Still, he had no idea where his dad had gone, nor why he had never got in touch with him.
Julia had an idea. Not of where he was, but of why he hadn’t been in touch. She suspected it was the price he paid for his freedom: Jim had an affair and Edna gave him an ultimatum: get out of her life and start again with his girlfriend somewhere far from her, and she’d let him go quietly. Let him avoid the disgrace. The catch was that he had to stay away, from both her and Brian.
Or he could stick around and she’d make his life a misery. And Edna would be good at that.
So off he’d gone, probably to some beach in Spain or chalet in Switzerland, where he spent his days hiking and reading and skiing while his young bride taught in an international school and had discreet affairs of her own.
Maybe, anyway. Julia didn’t know for sure. All she knew was that it had hit Brian hard, and now, from his point of view, it was happening again.
‘We’ll want to get in touch with him,’ DI Wynne said. ‘Any information you have would be most helpful.’
‘I don’t have any,’ Brian said. ‘I can ask mum.’
‘Thank you,’ DI Wynne said. ‘I appreciate it.’
She wouldn’t get much from Edna, Julia thought, but she could try.
‘Right,’ Brian said. ‘And that’s enough standing around. I’m going to look for my daughter.’
Julia watched him leave. She looked at DI Wynne.
‘I’m going too,’ she said.
DI Wynne nodded. ‘Of course. I’ll be here.’ She wrote down her phone number. ‘Call if you find her.’
As she picked up her car keys, her phone rang.
It was Edna. She lifted the phone to her ear. Before she could speak, she heard Edna’s strident tones.
‘Julia, what’s going on? Brian left me a message, about Anna. I tried to call him but he didn’t answer.’
Julia swallowed, hard.
‘She’s missing,’ she said. ‘She’s gone missing.’
There was a pause. ‘What do you mean, missing? When?’
‘After school. She wasn’t here when I came to pick her up.’
‘How’s that possible? The school has policies. They have to—’
Julia interrupted her. She was going to have to say this sooner or later, and it was better to get it out of the way.
‘I was late,’ she said. ‘I was stuck—’
‘But the school know to hold the children back, if a parent is going to be late.’
‘I didn’t call,’ Julia said. ‘My phone was—’
‘You didn’t call?’ Edna said. ‘Julia, what on earth got into you?’
‘I was telling you, my phone—’
‘Never mind,’ Edna said. ‘There’s no time for talking. We need to act. I’m at home, but I’ll be there as soon as I can. Twenty minutes, at the most.’
DI Wynne caught Julia’s attention.
‘Who is it?’ she asked.
‘My mother-in-law,’ Julia said. ‘She’s coming to help.’
DI Wynne nodded. ‘Could I talk to her?’
Julia passed her the phone.
‘Mrs Crowne,’ she said. ‘This is Detective Inspector Wynne.’
Julia heard Edna’s voice on the other end, faint, but still recognizably Edna. It sounded as though she was giving orders, taking charge.
‘Thank you for the suggestions, Mrs Crowne,’ DI Wynne said. ‘We have everything in hand. What would help us most is if you could go to your son’s house and wait there. There is a possibility Anna will find her way home and we need someone she knows to be there if she does.’
It seemed Edna agreed. DI Wynne handed the phone back to Julia.
‘I’ll be here,’ she said. ‘Good luck.’
Ninety minutes later – ninety minutes that felt like nine hundred, or nine thousand – Julia was back.
She had driven every minor road she could think of, climbed out of her car and looked under hedges and in ditches. There was no sign of Anna.
She took out her phone and dialled Brian’s number. It rang through to his voicemail.
‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I’m back at the school. Call me if … if anything happens.’
Julia ended the call and stared out of the window.
She’s out there, she thought. She’s somewhere out there. I have to find her.
Julia had never considered the limitations of time and space. Sure, she’d wished for more hours in the day or had to prioritize one party over another because, like everyone, she couldn’t be in two places at once, but she had never really bothered about it. It was, at worst, an inconvenience; a fact of the universe that might have been an occasional pain, but which there was no point complaining about because there was nothing you could do about it.
For the last two hours, though, it had been the only thing that mattered. She wanted to be everywhere at once. It was the only way she could be sure she would find Anna.
But that wasn’t possible. You really can’t be in two places at once. You can occupy only one patch of earth, one volume of air. And the one she was in was not the same one as Anna.
And might never be.
She couldn’t keep that thought away. It forced its way into her consciousness, trailing hysteria not far behind.
What if she’s gone for good? Dead? Sold into slavery? Locked in a madman’s basement? What if I never see her again?
In the moments after she thought this way, before she was able to grab some small measure of control over herself, she was filled with an emotion so strong that it stopped her doing whatever she was doing. If she was drinking water, the cup would fall from her lips, the contents spilling over her hand and onto the floor. If she was walking she would sink into the nearest chair or against the nearest wall; if she was talking to someone she would stop, mid-sentence and clutch her hands against her stomach.
And it was all the worse because she was to bla
me.
It was incontrovertible. Yes, she may have some kind of paltry excuse – her meeting ran over, her phone was dead – but if you stepped away from the details, it was clear. If she had been there at two fifty-five, waiting for Anna outside the school gate, then Anna would be with her now. They’d be at home getting ready for Anna’s bedtime, maybe reading The Twits by now.
She definitely wouldn’t be here, at the school, sitting in the head teacher’s office with DI Wynne and a cup of coffee while, through the thick glass of the window, the sun dipped slowly over the horizon. And Anna wouldn’t be – well, Anna wouldn’t be wherever she was.
The door to the office opened and two police officers came in. They were both men, both in their twenties.
‘Did you find her?’ Julia asked, even though she knew from their expressions that they hadn’t.
‘No ma’am,’ the one on the left said. ‘Not yet.’
DI Wynne followed them in. She had her phone to her ear. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘I’ll let you know if anything changes.’ She cut the connection and looked at the officers. ‘Nothing?’
The one on the right shook his head. ‘Nothing. We’ve covered everywhere she could have walked to. Every street, every park. We’ve interviewed a lot of people – kids, adults, anyone – but no one saw her.’
Wynne pinched her chin with her thumb and forefinger.
‘And the other parents who were here to pick up their kids?’
‘We’ve started talking to them. We’ll get to most of them tonight, the ones that agree to it. Most will.’
The other officer spoke. ‘We’ve started knocking on doors. Asking homeowners if they have any information. We’re rounding up as many bodies as we can to start searching. And we’ll get a general appeal on local radio.’
They’ve done this before, Julia thought. Oh God, they’ve done this before. This really happens. And it’s happening to me.
‘Can I come?’ she asked, suddenly. ‘Can I come with you?’
‘To knock on doors?’ the officer said.
‘Yes. I’ll know if Anna’s there. I’ll just know. And if I call out her name then she’ll answer.’
The officer shifted his weight from foot to foot. He glanced at DI Wynne.
‘I think it will be better if we leave PCs Joyce and Bell to deal with that,’ Wynne said. ‘It might help things to go smoothly.’
