by Anita Waller
‘No!’ Freda was adamant.
’Then stay with us,’ said Pat quietly. ‘We’ve loads of room and you know how much Josh enjoys your company. Please, Freda. We can’t leave you on your own. Josh, talk to her!’
‘Freda, we need you with us. No arguments,’ said Josh. ‘We’ll go and get whatever you need and you’re to come back with us. Besides, you’re the only one I can have a sensible conversation with around here. This lot are all a bit flaky for me.’
She looked disgruntled. ‘Are you all going to be like this with me?’
There was a chorus of yeses.
‘Two weeks maximum,’ she said. ‘After that, I’m going home. And, young Josh, it’s Aunt Freda, not Freda.’
‘Yeah,’ he said, emphasising the slight American drawl that had entered his speech since Dawn and he had emigrated to the States, ‘that’s fine by me, Freda.’
Dunbar was furious with himself. He could have put a police car at Stonebrook for a couple of nights; he shouldn’t have listened to the Farmers when they had said they would keep Ken and Brenda safe. Yes, they had kept them safe but Treverick was clearly in close proximity and if a car had been on surveillance at Stonebrook, just maybe...
He sighed. It was going to take more than luck to get this dangerous man off the streets and give closure to the Farmers. He pulled up outside the hospital and went in to see if there had been any progress with Grace. He hoped he would remember that in the hospital she was Angel. It was easier at the Farmers where she was always referred to as Grace.
Sarah was sitting at Angel’s bedside reading The Philosopher’s Stone to her. He smiled as he thought of his wife’s enthusiasm for the Harry Potter books and then sombrely reflected that the little girl in the bed would have known nothing of the wizard’s popularity. She had so much catching up to do and that probably involved learning to read above all else.
He moved closer.
‘Angel. Sarah,’ he greeted them but only Sarah smiled. Angel merely stared.
‘Angel, I need to borrow Sarah for a minute. Is that ok?’
She nodded and turned her head sideways into the pillow.
Sarah followed him outside the room.
‘Has she said anything?’
‘Snippets and she only speaks to me. It seems to me that it was fear, pain and adrenaline that made her speak to the Wainwrights. In here, she simply doesn’t find it necessary. She has said that Daddy never spoke to her except when she was in the bath in his room. He just said she was beautiful and she was not to speak. And really that sums up all she has said.’
‘How do you think she will react when we break the news that she has parents, that Daddy isn’t Daddy?’
Sarah felt angry. ‘I think you need to forget her parents for the moment. They’re not important. This little girl is seriously damaged and I don’t know which is worse, the physical or the mental. Either way, I think you are weeks rather than days away from disclosing anything to her. Let her be a child in a safe environment for a while before you start introducing her to the world. You haven’t found him yet, have you? And he’s obviously still targeting the family. I understand that beautiful little cottage is now burnt to the ground. She can’t be put back into that danger, not yet, not ever.’
Dunbar stared at his WPC in shock. To have spoken to such a senior officer in such a strong manner was totally against the rules, and yet he found himself apologising to her.
‘Hey, I’m sorry. And of course, she will never be in any danger again. Treverick will slip up. His anger towards the family will cause him to become careless. He’s already out of control. He burnt that cottage down expecting Mr and Mrs Buckingham to be in it, when in actual fact there was absolutely nothing in it, not even so much as a tea towel. It had been cleared earlier that day. Look, go back to Harry Potter with her and let’s look forward to the day when she can read it for herself.’
They both re-entered the room and Angel smiled at Sarah. She completely ignored Dunbar but he spoke to her anyway.
‘Angel, I’m going to go now. I do need to ask you something though. Did you ever live in another house with Daddy? Or did you always live in the one you ran away from?’
She turned away from him once again and he sighed. ‘Okay, sweetheart, I’ll leave you two on your own. Enjoy the book, Angel.’ He raised a hand in salute to Sarah and left the room.
There was silence for a moment while Sarah picked up the book and found the last page she had read. She settled herself comfortably into the armchair again with the book open on her knee at page 39. Harry was about to be rescued by Hagrid and Angel needed to know about such important matters.
‘Tin house,’ said Angel. ‘Like a tin can.’
Chapter 11
Dawn had volunteered to stay at Hillside for the afternoon and help Lauren organise a suite of rooms for Ken and Brenda.
Josh, along with Freda, Pat and David had driven back to Moorgate Manor to prepare a room for Freda, still loudly insisting Treverick wasn’t going to change her life, and that she was definitely only staying two weeks with the Farmers. The police had better bloody find the obnoxious little runt damn quickly were the last words they heard from her as David’s Lexus disappeared down the drive at Hillside.
Dawn, Lauren and Pilot moved the big desk so loved by John into a utility room at the back of the house. All three of them stood and looked at it.
‘It really is a lovely piece of furniture,’ Lauren said. ‘At least with it out of the way in here we won’t get any more wax crayon marks on it.’
‘Maybe we could see about sending it to auction, or something,’ Pilot mused. ‘I really can’t see any of us using it and if someone needs something as special as this, then maybe we should think about letting it go.’
Lauren nodded. ‘I know what you’re saying. We don’t appreciate it, and someone else will.’
‘I would,’ Dawn said quietly. ‘I would appreciate it. And love it. And keep it safe from wax crayons.’
Lauren turned to look at her. ‘It’s yours. No idea how you’ll get it in your hand luggage though.’
Dawn’s smile lit up the room. ‘Don’t you worry about that. I’ll sort shipment out before we go home. Thank you so much. We’ll have it valued and I’ll pay whatever it’s valued at.’
Both Pilot and Lauren laughed.
‘Yeah, right. As if we’d take it. It’s yours, Dawn. You loved him, you made him happy and you gave him Josh. The desk is yours.’
Three hours later, things looked different at Hillside. Ken and Brenda now had a sitting room with an adjoining ensuite bedroom and a room designated as the kitchen area.
Brenda looked inside it and smiled.
‘There’s no cooker, no sink unit, no cupboards, no washer, no dryer, no fridge – but it’s a lovely kitchen.’
Lauren frowned.
‘Don’t be facetious, Nan Brenda. It will be a kitchen, but in the meantime, we all eat together. I’m organising the kitchen tomorrow.’
‘Bit slow, aren’t you?’ Brenda asked with a twinkle in her eye. ‘What on earth have you been doing all day?’
Lauren gave her a loud kiss on the cheek, hugged Ken and disappeared to prepare their meal. As she walked down the hallway she shouted, ‘And it’s Yorkshire puddings tonight, Granddad, just for you!’
Lauren couldn’t sleep. She was putting on a brave face with all the joviality and banter during the evening meal, but she was scared. And she was finding it very difficult being patient with regard to her first-born daughter. She needed to see Grace, to hold her at last and to let her know that nothing would hurt her now. She would be safe for the rest of her life.
Dunbar had phoned to say there was very little progress, she still wasn’t talking and there was the possibility of yet another operation in the pipeline.
Lauren’s thoughts returned to her daughter. She wondered what she looked like. Did she have blonde hair like hers or dark hair like Pilot’s, and what colour eyes did she have? It was hard waiting to see her but ju
st to know she was alive would have to be enough for the moment.
Dunbar was with Sarah. She had sent a text to say she had a tiny piece of information and she would return to the station when her night shift operative took over.
‘Her exact words were tin house, like a tin can,’ she said. ‘I asked what she meant and she said it was cold, small and tinny with two small beds that they sat on during the day with the curtains closed. That was all I could get out of her. I recognise the signs when she wants to shut out the world now; she sits and shakes her head from side to side. She didn’t want any more questions.’
‘It sounds as though he kept her in a caravan at first then and it must have been for two or three years if she can remember it. So, does he still have that caravan? Is that where he’s run to? For fucks sake, we’re in Cornwall. There are more caravans than houses here.’
Sarah had never heard him swear before but understood his frustration. Where do you start looking for one caravan in a county full of them?
‘Thank goodness, it’s not my problem,’ she said. ‘I’m back with Angel tomorrow so I’ll see if I can get anything else out of her, but I won’t push her. She’s really so fragile, so insecure. I almost think she would welcome Treverick with open arms now the pain of what he did to her has subsided, purely because she knows him and she doesn’t know anybody else she is meeting now. It must be so scary for her.’
Dunbar looked at her. ‘We can’t wait much longer, Sarah. We need to talk to her, or at least the professionals who know what they’re doing need to talk to her. She has to know that Daddy isn’t her real father but she does have a birth Mummy and Daddy. And she needs to know the truth about her abduction. When they talk to her, I want you there. She trusts you.’
When Sarah arrived to take over from Alison Grainger at eight o’clock, it was to hear the news that Angel had experienced a very disturbed night. She had slept very lightly, and had talked constantly in her sleep. She had mentioned Sarah’s name several times and had even cried aloud for her.
Sarah quickly entered the room, taking off her coat and smiling at her young charge as she did so.
‘Morning, sweetheart. Slept well?’ and watched in consternation as the young girl burst into tears.
‘I dreamed, Sarah. I dreamed about Daddy. He hurts me; don’t make me go back to him, Sarah.’
Sarah pulled Angel into her arms and held her tightly. ‘I promise you that you will never go back to him, my little love. I promise you. He will never hurt you again and he will be punished one day for what he did to you. We do need to find him but I don’t think you know where he is, do you?’
Angel shook her head. ‘I don’t know anything. I don’t know places. I can’t read like you can.’
‘Listen to me. There are people who can talk to you who have been trained in getting words out of people when they think they don’t know anything. If I brought someone to see you and promised to stay with you, would you talk to them?’
‘A lady?’
‘Yes, I will make sure it is a lady if that is what you want.’
Angel nodded. ‘Maybe that is okay,’ she said.
And it was as simple as that, or as complicated. Karen Eaves was chosen to talk to Grace and beforehand, closeted with Dunbar, spent two days discussing the case. She met Lauren and Pilot, along with Olivia and the tiny Noah and was then introduced to Ken and Brenda. This would be the home that Angel would be returning to, and she had to understand everything about it.
Dunbar then took her to Moorgate and introduced her to the other set of grandparents, David and Pat, along with Freda, Dawn and Josh. When she came away, she thought of how much Angel had missed. What had come out of her visits was just how much love the little girl was going to experience, a love that had been there from the day of her birth.
Karen went home at the end of the second day and wrote. She made so many notes that her head was buzzing. The next few days would be so important to everyone and it had to be defined.
That night, Sarah went to bed feeling sick. She knew what was to happen the following day and knew it was the right time. Angel had started to open up a little bit more and an expert would be able to make more of that.
Of one thing she was sure. Sarah wasn’t leaving Angel’s side whilst they were talking to her. She had a promise to fulfil.
Chapter 12
Sarah introduced Karen to Angel, only to see Angel turn her head into her pillow. She prayed that all the softening of attitude from Angel over the past few days wasn’t going to take a backwards step and leaned over to stroke her head.
‘It’s okay, sweetheart. Karen isn’t here to hurt you, just to talk to you.’
Angel didn’t move and Karen sat down at the opposite side of the bed so that Angel would have to physically move to see her. She somehow had the feeling that when Angel did that, the ice would have been broken.
Sarah held Angel’s right hand, and gently squeezed it. ‘I’m not leaving you,’ she said. ‘Will you listen to what Karen has to say?’
There was no movement from the bed.
‘Angel?’
Still no movement.
Karen spoke softly. ‘Angel, I have something for you. This is yours and it’s to keep always.’ She reached into her bag and handed Angel a pure white unicorn with a pink horn. ‘Do you like unicorns?’
Angel’s eyes moved and lifted towards Sarah. ‘Angel,’ she said, ‘a unicorn is like a horse but with a horn on its head. A magical horn. This is lovely. Doesn’t Karen deserve a thank you?’
She was referring to discussions she had had with Angel about please and thank you, something she had never learnt from Treverick and which she seemed to have grasped very quickly.
There was a muffled thank you from the pillow and she reached out an arm to touch the toy. She pulled it closely to her and slid it under the sheet.
Sarah heard her say something but didn’t quite catch what it was. She leaned closer to the little girl and heard her say,
‘Is it mine?’
‘It is, sweetheart. All yours.’
Angel moved her head and looked at Karen who hardly dared breathe. She watched as Angel put the unicorn against her face obviously enjoying the feel of the soft fabric against her skin.
‘Unicorn?’ Sarah nodded. ‘Can I call her Hermione?’
Sarah laughed aloud. ‘I’m sure J K Rowling wouldn’t mind. You can call her whatever you want.’
‘Hermione,’ she said and kissed the unicorn on its nose.
And still Karen waited. So much depended on gaining Angel’s trust. The little girl slowly turned her head towards the woman she didn’t know and stared at her for what seemed like hours but was actually about a minute. She was clearly weighing up the pros and cons of Karen being there, and Karen still waited.
‘Sarah?’
‘Yes, Angel. You okay?’
‘Yes. What does she want?’
‘To talk to you.’
‘Okay.’
And it was as simple as that.
She turned her body so that she was facing Karen and said ‘I am Angel.’
Karen smiled; what she actually wanted to do was laugh, dance, and sing around the room.
‘I know,’ she responded. ‘’You’re a very special little girl. I need to talk to you because you’ve been away for some time, and we’d like to know where you’ve been.’
‘With Daddy.’
‘And does Daddy have another name?’
‘Just Daddy.’
Karen noticed the simplistic style of answer coming from Angel and hoped that it would be enough to get the answers she needed in order to help her. It was obvious she had had no communication with anyone other than Treverick and had been given no education at all.
‘Thank you, Angel. I am not going to stay very long today but I will be back tomorrow. Is there anything you would like me to bring you?’
She looked alarmed. ‘Don’t bring Daddy!’
‘Angel, I promise you tha
t you will never have to be in the same room as him again, ever. It will be just Sarah and I talking to you. Would you like some sweets?’
Angel looked puzzled. ‘Maybe.’
‘Do you know what sweets are?’
‘Maybe.’
Sarah looked at Karen and shrugged her shoulders. Treverick must have used the word ‘maybe’ because it wasn’t the first time Angel had used it and yet it was quite a strange word to hear from a young child’s mouth.
‘Okay, I’ll check with your doctor and if they say you can have sweets, I’ll bring you some in. I’m going to go now; I don’t want to make you tired. Look after Hermione and I’ll see you tomorrow.’
She picked up her bag feeling satisfied that at least Angel had talked to her; the general consensus had been that she wouldn’t, not on this first visit. Sarah followed her outside the room and they spoke briefly before Sarah went back to sit by her charge.
Angel nodded towards the door. ‘She’s nice.’
‘Yes, she is, and we have lots of things to tell you, Angel, so when she does it will mean a lot of surprises for you. I want you to know that I will always be here for you. I am your friend. And now you have Hermione. She’s your friend too. Unicorns are magical and you can tell them your special secrets and they won’t tell anyone.’
There was a brief smile on Angel’s face and then she closed her eyes. ‘Can I sleep now?’
‘Of course. I’ll go and get a sandwich for my lunch while you’re napping and then we’ll read a bit more when you’ve had your rest. Harry will be waiting for you when you wake up.’
She left the room and went down to the hospital restaurant. Standing in the queue waiting to pay for her purchases, she allowed her thoughts to wander. What sort of person never allowed a child to have sweets, or a book or a soft toy? Treverick had so much to answer for and she wanted the day to come swiftly when he would be standing in that dock, being sent to prison for the rest of his life.
The man in the queue behind her reached across her to get some cutlery and she apologised for being deep in thought. He merely said, don’t let it worry you and she paid and went back to the side ward.