by Anita Waller
She looked uncomfortable, unsure whether to believe them or not.
‘There are more people that your Mummy and Daddy will help you to meet. You have lovely grandparents. Grandparents are the people who had your Mummy and Daddy. There is just one other thing we haven’t told you yet.’
She flinched.
Sarah laughed. ‘It’s not bad news, Angel. Please believe us when we say your worries are over. That awful life you had is gone forever.’
‘Is that it?’
‘No.’ Sarah cast a glance at Karen and Karen waved her hand towards her. ‘Go ahead,’ she said.
‘When you were born, Angel, your Mummy and Daddy named you. Your real name isn’t Angel, it is Grace Elizabeth Farmer.’
There was silence in the room, a silence that stretched and stretched.
The three adults stared at each other. They had expected some reaction but not the negativity that had happened. Jake Dunbar spoke first.
‘Angel? Honey? Do you like your name?’
Sarah reached out and took her tiny hand. ‘Angel?’ She felt sick. The child’s reaction hadn’t been what they had expected.
Karen too felt uncomfortable but they could not have progressed with getting the little girl back to her parents without imparting the knowledge of her true name to her. Her name was who she was, who she would eventually become. A very personal part of her.
It was clear that Angel had been overwhelmed by the information she had been given and it was just as clear that the three adults had grossly underestimated what her reaction would be. It seemed that Angel had never thought for one minute that her name would be something different to the one that they had continued to call her all the time she had been in hospital. As she buried her head into the pillow she felt, without knowing what the word meant, betrayed.
Sarah rummaged through her bag and took out a small notebook. She had, at various times, made notes in it for things that Angel had needed bringing in to the hospital to make life a little brighter. Now she used it for something else.
Grace Elizabeth Farmer
She tapped Angel on the shoulder and the little girl stared at her. Bewilderment was written across her face.
‘Look,’ Sarah said. ‘Tell me these letters.’
Angel shook her head. ‘No.’
‘I’m asking you to do this for me. You know I love you very much and now I’m asking you something. Please tell me these letters.’ She very carefully avoided using her name, unsure what the reaction would be.
A moment of rebellion flitted across Angel’s face and then she sighed. ‘You’re bullying me.’
‘I am not bullying you, cheeky madam,’ Sarah laughed with relief. Angel had struggled with the letter j and Sarah had jokingly said she would bully her into recognition of it.
Angel took the piece of paper from Sarah and stared at it. ‘Is this me?’
All three adults nodded.
Angel spoke in phonetics. ‘G...R...A...C...E...E...L...I...’ and she paused. ‘What’s that?’
Sarah quietly said ‘Zed,’ and Angel nodded in agreement.
‘Z...A...B...E...T...H...F...A...R...M...E...R. How did I do?’
‘Perfect,’ Sarah responded with a huge smile, and Karen clapped.
‘That’s awesome! You’re doing so well. Sarah’s been a really good teacher. You’ll not be long before you’re tackling Harry on your own!’
‘It’s long, isn’t it? My name, I mean.’
‘When you go home to your Mummy and Daddy, they will just call you Grace. When you go to school, you will be called Grace Farmer. Be proud of your name, Grace. It belongs only to you.’ Karen smiled at the young girl who was in need of so much care. ‘They can’t wait to meet you. Do you think you are ready to see them?’
Chapter 15
Lauren hadn’t slept. Several times during the night she had got up and gone into the pretty room they had prepared for Grace’s return. It was pink, just as any little girl’s bedroom should be. Olivia approved of it without really understanding that the little girl moving into the room was there forever. She wanted her own lemon coloured bedroom to be changed to pink, just like Grace’s room. Noah merely gurgled.
But Lauren was scared. What if Grace didn’t like them? What if she couldn’t settle? Couldn’t understand the restrictions of living family life?
By nine o’clock they were ready to go. They had decided to leave Olivia and Noah with Pat and David; there was no way of knowing how Grace would react and they considered their current priority was Grace’s wellbeing. Dunbar had phoned the previous night to say the consultant would like to meet with them before they saw Grace, as he wanted to explain medical issues to them.
Lauren, more than Pilot, had thought about Grace’s physical problems that were going to haunt her for the rest of her life. She would welcome hearing about what they had to face.
Tears flowed unchecked down her face. Pilot didn’t know what to do, what to say. The damage inflicted to Grace’s little body meant that she wouldn’t have children of her own and in that moment Pilot knew exactly how Jack and Brenda Andrews must have felt when confronted with exactly the same issues. He sat by Lauren’s side and pulled her to him.
‘Come on, sweetheart. We’re strong enough to get through this. Yes, she is damaged but she will learn to live with that when she is older. We can control everything else with medication, which she is already having, and you heard what he said. A sexually transmitted disease is quickly cleared up these days. We have our daughter back; let’s help her start living a proper life now. She must never see our tears. Agreed?’
Lauren nodded, not having any words.
They sat for five minutes and then Lauren excused herself to go and wash her face in preparation for meeting the one person she had ached to hold for over seven years. She did not want her daughter to see a red face made blotchy by tears.
She came back to Pilot looking a different person.
‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s meet Grace.’
Dunbar was sitting on a chair outside the waiting room. He stood as they came out of the door and pulled Lauren to him. He kissed the top of her head and said ‘Okay?’
She nodded.
‘We’re fine. We’ll deal with it. I’m assuming you know?’
‘Apart from Grace’s immediate carers the only people who know are myself, Karen, her psychiatrist and Sarah Miller. Grace herself believes her medication is to help make her better after Treverick hurt her. She will have to be told the truth about her injuries one day, of course, but that day is some way off. And the STI will be a dim and distant memory by then anyway. Now come on, I’m taking you to meet your daughter. She couldn’t eat breakfast this morning, so I’m guessing she’s nervous, excited, unsure...’
‘Like us, you mean?’ Pilot laughed. ‘We can’t wait. I think we’ve been patient enough.’
Dunbar led them down two long corridors and then Lauren spotted Andy Johnson and another PC she didn’t recognise, sitting on chairs outside a room. She gasped and pulled Pilot along.
‘She’s in there, isn’t she?’
‘Whoa,’ Dunbar laughed. ‘Don’t go barging in. You’ll frighten her half to death. Let me go in first. Sarah and Karen are already with her – Sarah has been teaching her to read. She will have been working on her letters with her to take her mind off what is to happen.’
Both policemen stood and together saluted the couple facing the huge challenge. Dunbar turned to Pilot and said ‘Those salutes aren’t for me.’
He looked through the small window set into the door. He knocked and opened it slightly.
‘Anyone in?’ he asked.
‘No!’ came a chorus of three voices. And then a smaller voice said,
‘Maybe. Or maybe we’ve gone to Hogwarts.’
He pushed the door a little wider and they went into the room.
Lauren’s first sight of her daughter after all those years astounded her. She was like a dainty little flower fairy,
beautifully formed, tiny. So tiny. Her blonde hair hung around her shoulders and she had dazzlingly clear blue eyes.
She walked to the side of the bed and touched the little girl’s hand. ‘Can I hold you?’
There was a short hiatus while Angel thought about it.
Sarah was still holding on to her other hand waiting to let go as soon as the child decided to welcome her mother. The silence in the room was overwhelming; nobody dared to breathe, aware of just how important the next couple of minutes would prove to be.
‘Yes.’
Sarah let go and Lauren pulled Angel to her. ‘I’ve waited so long...’
Pilot moved to the other side of the bed and Sarah stood, relinquishing her charge to Angel’s parents. She glanced across to Karen and saw tears that matched her own. Neither of them had been sure how Angel would react when she saw her parents who were strangers as far as she was concerned.
‘Welcome home, sweetheart.’ Pilot spoke for the first time. ‘I’m your Daddy. It’s so good to see you again.’
His smile was proof of what he was saying. Angel looked at him but there was no answering smile. It was clear she was wary of him but everyone had expected that.
Lauren began to speak. ‘So you’re coming home today! You’ll get to meet your brother and sister although your brother is a little baby and won’t know who you are. Olivia, your sister, can’t wait to meet her big sister.’ She felt as though she was babbling. She was babbling.
‘I’ve packed a bag. Hermione is coming with me.’
‘Hermione?’
‘My unicorn. Look,’ and from the top of the bag she pulled the soft toy.
‘She’s beautiful,’ Lauren said. ‘And her horn is the same colour as your bedroom. I also have something for you.’ She delved into her bag and pulled out a small pink teddy bear. ‘The day we had you was Christmas Day and Father Christmas visited you in the morning and left this for you. I’ve saved it all these years because it was the only thing I had that belonged to you. Now it’s yours again,’ and she handed it over to her first-born.
Dunbar intervened.
‘I think it’s time we made a move. Let’s get you out of here and home where you belong. Come on, gorgeous girl, you have some goodbyes to say.’
Outside the door stood what appeared to be an army of medical staff, their smiling faces lighting up the corridor. As she left the security of the side ward, everyone broke out into spontaneous applause. They all seemed to speak at once, everyone happy to see the little girl ready for going home. She had touched them all when she arrived in such a dreadful state and now she was leaving for such a dramatically better life. The two policemen escorted the family back to the car park where Pilot’s car had been parked for the last couple of hours. He had followed instructions to the letter regarding where he should leave it – they wanted no problems as Angel left the hospital.
She turned at the last minute and waved to the staff, who had accompanied them to the doors.
As one, they chorused ‘Bye, Angel.’
She waved again and shouted back to them.
‘I’m Grace now. Grace Elizabeth Farmer.’
There was a huge cheer and she climbed into the car. Lauren reached across to strap her in with the seat belt and felt Grace’s hands creep around her neck. ‘You’re my Mummy,’ she whispered.
‘Yes, I am,’ Lauren replied. ‘And don’t ever forget that. I’m your Mummy.’
Treverick was furious. He watched them leaving the car park and stormed back into the building. He abandoned the white doctor’s coat in the room where he had stashed his own jacket and left the hospital via the basement.
When he got her back, she could drop the Grace nonsense. He wanted his Angel back.
Angel, his Angel.
He’d been without her for far too long and she was his child. He’d raised her, helped her when she started to walk, to talk. He’d waited for her to reach seven years.
He wasn’t young anymore and he couldn’t start over with someone else. No, she had to come home to him, to share his life in the caravan until he could sort out a more permanent home for the two of them. He knew the police had no idea he’d got the little hidey hole so when he did get her back it would be like the good old times in the house; safe, secure.
BOOK TWO
2003
GRACE
Chapter 16
Ken and Brenda Buckingham felt blessed. They had become settled with what Ken called ‘the young ‘uns’ and the rebuild of Stonebrook was underway at last. The Barkers had decided to go ahead with the purchase anyway. As they said, it had really been the business they wanted, not the cottage; that could be rebuilt and they had had total input into the new build. It had been a complicated situation but everything now appeared to be running smoothly.
After discussing the situation with Pilot and Lauren, who had told the Buckinghams in no uncertain terms that they did not want them going anywhere, they had agreed to build onto the side of Hillside to give them an extra room. They would live out their lives with the Farmers.
Grace had proved to be a quiet little girl, nothing like her younger sister. They had all bonded remarkably quickly and life was moving on.
Except, it wasn’t.
Treverick had once again disappeared and the police had no idea where his new hiding place was. Every caravan site within a twenty-five mile radius of the detached house had been visited, and every caravan checked. Most of them were occupied and the ones where they had received no response had been put on a list for a later visit. The list had some thirty caravans still on it but Dunbar was confident that a week of following up would have everyone checked.
All doctors and clinics in the area had dealt with requests for male STI patients but there had been remarkably few and all had checked out after production of warrants by the police. Dunbar had expected nothing from the STI lead – online pharmaceuticals around the world had a lot to answer for.
With no child to guard now, Andy Johnson had returned to his duties on the investigative team. He was the one who visited the small caravan site at Polzeath. Indeed, he had jumped at the chance. Polzeath beach was a particular favourite of his for the surfing that he enjoyed so much.
The beach was crowded when he pulled the police car on to the beach car park. He walked down the lane that led to the caravan park and poked his head round the door of the small reception building.
There was a buxom lady behind the desk and two customers, a stocky man who appeared to be about forty years old and a teenager with a small white dog on a lead. The dog barked as he entered and the girl pulled him to her side.
‘Max,’ she said, ‘stop it or I’ll roast you on the barbecue.’
Johnson grinned at her and saw the frustration on her face. The dog obviously barked at everyone. The older man moved to the girl’s side, tilted his baseball cap slightly and bent down to fondle the dog’s ears.
‘Hello,’ he said to the dark haired woman. ‘DC Johnson,’ and he showed her his warrant card. ‘I have two caravans that I need to check out with you. We couldn’t get any answer when we called last week.’
‘Right,’ she said, ‘what numbers are they?’
‘Sixteen and eleven.’
She pulled a book towards her and ran her finger down the list of names.
‘Number 11 is coming down tomorrow so you’ll have to come back then. He rang this morning to ask me to get some milk in and to check his gas containers.’
‘And number 16 is mine,’ the man said from his kneeling position. He looked up. ‘I wasn’t here last week, only came down this weekend.’ He stood and shook Johnson’s hand. ‘How can I help?’
‘We’re checking all occupants of all caravans, sir. Can you tell me your name?’
‘Liam Ryland. My wife is Jean but you can’t see her at the moment. She’s taken the car into Wadebridge to get some groceries in. I have some ID somewhere if you need it. I have a driving licence. Sorry, I don’t have a passport, we’ve n
ever been abroad so don’t need one.’ He opened his wallet and showed the driving licence to the DC.
‘That’s fine,’ said Andy. ‘I just need to make a note of your permanent address.’ He copied it into his book and then thanked him. ‘That’s fine, sir. I will need to see your wife. I take it she will be back later?’
Ryland shrugged his shoulders as if to say who knows.
‘Maybe,’ he smiled and put his wallet back into his pocket.
By the time they realised Liam Ryland didn’t exist, he had evaporated into thin air. They sealed off the caravan and sent the forensics team in; DC Johnson had the debriefing of a lifetime but Dunbar knew that whatever he could remember about how Treverick looked now, it would all have become irrelevant. He would have completely changed his appearance and vanished off the face of the earth.
They took Grace to the caravan. Dunbar felt that they needed to check every minute detail with regard to Treverick. He didn’t want to assume that this was the only caravan. It was possible that he had another one.
She began to scream as soon as she went through the door. They had their answer that this indeed was where he had kept Grace in the initial days of the abduction and had probably kept her there until she was around three years of age.
Sally Newsam, the lady in reception, confirmed that he had always spoken of his wife, Jean, and she had often made a point of asking him about her. He had always said she was good and he had always had a genuine reason for her not being with him. She would be shopping, or even at home in Stockport and she didn’t seem to be there that much when they had their baby. He had said he was the househusband as Jean had a career.
Dunbar had taken Karen with him to the caravan and she was left to deal with the distraught little girl.
‘You said... you said I would never have to see him again!’ Her face was red; she was absolutely furious with these people who said they would protect her.