‘Ring me if there’s anything and if you go back out. I want to be there. I have my own issues with that bitch.’
‘We’ll keep you informed,’ says Niall, ‘but any issues you have, you need to keep a hold of. Joe’s our concern right now. Not the reasons she wanted to hurt us.’
Bettina looks contrite. ‘You’re right, of course. I’m sorry, I’m just tired. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. When I think about it I just get so damn angry.
‘Get some rest,’ says Niall, ‘We’ll ring you later.’
‘Right now I just want to hug my son,’ she says. ‘Oh my God, I’m sorry, that was really insensitive.’
‘No it’s not, it’s what any mum would do,’ I say. ‘Go and hug him Bettina, and don’t let him go.’
We drive back to our own house in silence, both too busy searching. We wander around inside. The house seems so empty, and quiet. My insides twist, I can feel the impression of Joe in the house, echoes of him running around making noises as his Lego figures begin battles with each other, or his voice shouting ‘Muuuuuum, I need you.’ I walk upstairs and into his bedroom. It’s a complete mess. There are figures all over the floor. His pyjamas are thrown in a heap where he took them off, and the books and magazines he’s read are strewn across the bookshelves rather than being placed back in a tidy order. I think of all the times I’ve nagged him to tidy his bedroom and now I just want to see him in this room, being Joe; a messy, nine year old kid. I don’t need to close his bedroom curtains, yet I do. I see his bedtime pal, a soft blue rabbit that he still takes to bed, a reminder to me that he’s still my little boy, no matter how fast he seems to be growing up. I curl up on his bed with the rabbit and hold it close, breathing in the smell of Joe on it, and wondering where my son will be spending the night, praying he is safe and warm. I tell Joe goodnight and hope wherever he is he can hear me. I fall asleep on his bed, stress makes me blank everything out.
For a few blissful moments when I wake, I have peace, and then it all floods back. How can I have fallen asleep whilst my son is missing? I don’t know what the time is, but it’s becoming lighter. I run to our bedroom where Niall is asleep, sitting up in bed, my mobile at the side of his own. I pick it up but there are no messages or missed calls. It does inform me however that it has just passed five am. I ring Monique’s number again.
‘Mum?’
‘Joe? Oh my God, Joe. Are you okay?’
Niall shoots up in bed. ‘You’ve got him?’
I wave a finger to warn him to be quiet.
‘Hi mum, you have to be quiet cos Auntie Mon is sleeping. She was awake nearly all night. You’ve nearly woke her up. It’s really early you know?’
‘Joe, where are you? Do you know?’
‘Have you forgotten silly? Auntie Mon said she’d told you where we were going. She said it was a surprise.’
‘Is Matt with you?’
‘No. Auntie Mon took him home. It’s been awesome mum, she’s bought me new clothes and toys and everything.’
‘Joe listen to me. I’ve forgotten where she said she was taking you. Can you tell me?’
‘We’re in Manchester. We’ve been to the Science and Industry Museum, and today she’s taking me to Legoland Discovery. She’s promised me loads of Legos.’
‘Joe, something’s happened and I need you back home. Nothing to worry about, but the police need to see Monique.’
‘Has her mum died?’
‘No, but it’s something like that. I don’t want you to worry her, so I’m going to come and get you both, and I don’t want you to tell her anything okay? Not even that you’ve talked to me. Can you do that?’
‘Course I can. I’m not two.’
‘Do you know where you are?
‘We’re in a hotel called Doubletree. It’s easy to remember cos you just have to think of two trees. It’s near the train station cos we didn’t have to walk far. I need to go now mum, Auntie Mon’s waking up.’
‘Okay, Sweetie, try and stay at the hotel as long as you can.’
‘Okay, Mum.’
He hangs up and I shout all the details at Niall. He calls the police and I ring Bettina, whilst throwing things in my handbag.
The police tell us to wait to hear from them. We have no intention of waiting in Sheffield, so they agree that we can travel to Manchester, and we arrange to wait in a cafe upstairs in Piccadilly Train Station.
I’ve never known such extremes of time, the journey was fraught and passed in the blink of an eye; we were so busy trying to rush there. Now waiting at this station, I feel like I’m in a scene from The Matrix, like time is passing so slowly I can see people moving in extreme slow motion. A policeman comes upstairs and approaches us; he’s an older guy, grey and balding. He’s overweight and I wonder how he can possibly run after anyone who might have my son. They surely should all be built like Superman. But of course he isn’t a superhero, just an ordinary person. I simultaneously feel sorry for the fat copper at the same time as I want to grab every fit young person in the train station and get them to help us.
He sits down alongside us and introduces himself as PC Trevor Irwin. The three of us are sitting with untouched drinks, bought only because we felt we needed to justify taking up the area.
We all wait for him to speak. It’s the longest moment of my life to date.
He places his hands on his knees. ‘I’m sorry, but they’d checked out before we got there.’
It’s too much. I hunch over and clutch my head in my hands. ‘They can’t be far. How could you let them get away? Niall, oh God, Niall.’
He places his arm around me. ‘Sssshhh, it’s okay.’
‘What if we never find him?’
I place my hands over my eyes. He’s gone again. This morning he seemed within reach, and now he could be anywhere.
‘We’ve got people stationed at Lego Discovery,’ says PC Irwin.
‘She’ll not go there now,’ I say. ‘Joe either told her I’d called, or she figured it out. Either way, she’ll be on her way somewhere else by now.’
‘Well at least you can feel reassured that she’s keeping him safe.’
‘Reassured?’ I shout and others in the cafe turn and look at us. ‘She could be doing anything to him.’
He turns and places a hand on my arm. I want to smack it off.
‘Does she have a good relationship with your son? You said he seemed happy when he called? Maybe she’s genuinely taken him on a break.’
‘Niall, get this man away from me, I swear to God…’
‘With all respect PC Irwin, our son has been abducted by someone with a Personality Disorder. Hence the great police intervention.’
‘Okay, Mr Lawler, fair enough. I just hoped it could be a mistake. We’re doing all we can.’
‘She could hurt him,’ I say. ‘When she’s caught she’s going to end up in prison, so what does she have to lose?’
‘There’s a big difference between kidnapping and murder, Mrs Lawler, and to be honest, if she’s really lost it upstairs,’ PC Irwin points to his forehead as if I don’t understand what he means, ‘it’s a psychiatric ward that’ll end up with her.’
‘You mean she can kidnap my son and not even go to jail?’
‘If she’s mad, they usually end up in a secure ward like Rampton, near Nottingham. That’d be my bet with someone like her.’
‘Do they let them out?’
‘Depends what they’ve done, and if they’re able to function in society again.’
‘So potentially she could walk free?’
‘Yeah, if they feel she’s recovered.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’
‘Yeah, well that’s the system. Between you and me I can’t say I agree with it. I’ll be glad when I retire in a few years. All I do is arrest folks and watch half of them walk free and the others aren’t inside for two minutes before they’re back out robbing innocent folks, but anyway, you d
on’t need to hear my moaning. We’ll keep in touch, but for now, you need to decide whether to stay in Manchester or head back home.’
I look at Niall.
‘We’ll head back home,’ he says. ‘I doubt she’s still in Manchester.’
Its then that PC Irwin’s radio crackles into action.
‘Excuse me a moment.’
He walks over to the edge of the coffee section. I wait a moment and then jump up and follow him, if there’s news I want to listen. From this point you can look out over the crowds of people arriving in Manchester or rushing to catch trains out of here. They resemble little busy worker ants, everyone doing a job they think is important but really in the scheme of life, it’s a small part of everything. I consider all these people with their own stories. I wonder if anyone else’s is as hellish as ours is right now? Are Joe and Monique maybe down there somewhere?
PC Irwin turns to me. ‘Well there’s nothing with regards to Miss Henry and little Joe, but they’ve arrested a Dr Matt Bailey. Apparently he had the brass neck to turn up for work today.’
‘That’s it then.’ Niall stands up and looks from the copper to myself and Bettina. ‘He’s our best lead, so let’s head back to Sheffield.’
We actually start to feel a little hungry so we stop off at a McDonald’s drive thru for a small meal. I order a happy meal and put the toy that comes with it safely away in the glove box to give to Joe when he’s finally home. I have to believe he will be back soon. Whilst we’re parked, I decide to send another text to Monique, not that she’s answered the several I’ve sent so far.
‘We can get past this, whatever the problem is. Don’t make it worse, send Joe home. Put him on a train, he’ll be fine. I’ll wait at the station for him. Run away. Just please let him come home.’
‘The police told you not to contact her, they have strict procedures,’ Niall huffs and looks at me, ‘but then again, when have you ever done as you’re told? You’re wasting your time you know?’
I turn my head away from him in disgust and look out of the window.
Bettina rings home to check that Tyler is okay. ‘He’s not missing me at all, being spoilt rotten by his grandmother. Apparently she’s let him have chocolate for dinner. Chocolate.’
It brings a rare smile to my face. In the school holidays, Joe and myself quite often eat a chocolate breakfast from the secret stash I keep hidden upstairs away from the two male chocoholics in my home. It means we can laze around in bed until lunchtime, watching TV. Then when Niall gets home from work, we tease him by saying we had a pyjama morning and he pretends to be disgusted that we had chocolate for breakfast. Good times and I have to believe, to have faith that those times will be back. I vow to let Joe have a chocolate breakfast once he’s back with us.
‘Sounds yummy to me.’ I say.
‘What is?’
‘A chocolate lunch.’
‘Lauren, I said that over five minutes ago.’
‘Oh, sorry.’
‘Why don’t you rest your head and try and catch a bit of sleep,’ says Niall. ‘We’ve got about another thirty minutes before we’re home, you look all in.’
I do as he says and shut my eyes. The food in my belly and the lull of the car take over and give me half an hour of peace from the current hell of existence.
We drop Bettina off at her mother’s once again. It begins to feel like Groundhog Day. Niall promises to let her know as soon as we hear anything. We’ve been home less than half an hour when there’s a knock at the door. Why does no-one ever ring the doorbell? It’s PC Sheldon, the local bobby who we first met when the burglary had happened.
‘Hello, Mr & Mrs Lawler. I’ve just come to update you on our interview with Dr Bailey. Can I come in?’
We show him through to the lounge. We are so calm and well mannered, when I know that all we really want to do is yell at him to tell us what’s going on. Niall goes through the motions of asking if he wants a drink and he says yes. I am in turmoil inside, and this guy wants us to wait while we get him a drink? This is another Matrix scene that extends on for what seems like twenty minutes, but can only really be about three.
PC Sheldon wriggles his bottom on the settee to get in a comfy position and thanks Niall for the tea placed in his hands.
‘You’d be amazed how many people don’t offer you a drink. I’m parched. I’ve not had a chance to call anywhere for one, been really busy today.’
‘No problem,’ says Niall. ‘What do you have to tell us?’
‘Right,’ says PC Sheldon sitting forwards. ‘We’ve had Matt Bailey in custody since nine thirty this morning when, as I believe you’ve been told, he turned up to work. He was accompanied to the station where he requested legal representation and was then interviewed.’
‘Does he know what she wants with Joe, and did he say why he’d been helping Monique?’ Niall asks.
‘It appears he’s been rather duped by Miss Henry. She told him that you, Mrs Lawler, had stolen Mr Lawler,’ he nods towards Niall, ‘away from her, and that you’d taken away their adopted son Joe.’
‘What?’
‘Indeed. He says he had no reason to disbelieve her, she showed him photos of herself with Joe–’
‘Photos we’ve taken of her with our son?’ I say.
‘Well, anyway, he was convinced. In relation to the crash into your husband’s car, she got him to ask a colleague to be a witness against Mr Lawler, so that you,’ he again nods at Niall, ‘would be blamed.’ She told him she was trying to discredit Mr Lawler as a father figure in order to get her son back. Mr Bailey, for all his brains as a Doctor, obviously must have left his decisions to another part of his anatomy.’
Niall looks at him, unamused, and the policeman flushes slightly and coughs.
‘Anyway, she then told him that Mrs Lawler had been violent with Joe, and he agreed to help get him back after school, thinking that she was going to take him home and call social services. She dropped him off home saying she’d be in touch when she had things sorted and that was the last he’d heard. He’s rather shocked at the reality of the situation.’
‘I’d like five minutes with that man alone,’ says Niall. ‘Can you arrange it?’
‘I’m afraid not, although I do understand how you must be feeling.’
Niall looks at him with such menace and fire, I imagine PC Sheldon’s eyebrows singeing off.
‘I haven’t had personal experience of kidnap, but I do have to handle delivering and hearing bad news day in and day out; some of the things that happen to people,’ he pauses, ‘well, let’s just say that I’ve felt similar to how you must feel now.’
I look at PC Sheldon, his youth belies the fact that during his career he’s no doubt been the bearer of bad news, over and over again.
‘I know what you’re trying to say,’ I tell him, ‘and of course you can’t beat him up, Niall, however you feel. He’s just another misguided fool who took in what she said – like me, in fact. Do you want five minutes in a room with me about what I’ve let happen to Joe?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ He stands up and smacks his fist into the door, the same fist that had punched Seb in the eye.
‘Dear God,’ I state. ‘Give me strength.’ I go and fetch a bag of frozen vegetables and a tea-towel from the kitchen. I hand them to him. Both he and PC Sheldon have sat in perfect silence whilst I’ve done this.
‘I still don’t understand why she’s doing this to us. I haven’t done anything to her. Do you think she’s one of those people who have gone mad because they haven’t got kids? She faked a miscarriage, you know?’
‘I don’t know,’ he answers honestly. ‘It’s usually a baby that’s taken in that sort of case.”‘Well, if that’s all,’ I say, ‘we’d like to be alone for a while.’
‘Oh, of course. They’re charging Dr Bailey with -’
I hold my hand up. ‘I don’t really care what happens to him. He’s nothing to me. I just want m
y son back.’
He nods.
I let him out and return to the lounge. My phone beeps. I run to it and look at the screen.
17 Ruskley Park Road. Bring Bettina and no police. If I see a policeman I’m out of here with your son. You want him, I want Bettina. I’ll swap you. Seven pm.’
‘Niall,’ I gasp. ‘It’s her.’
Chapter 23
We spend the next couple of hours debating whether or not to call the police. We agree we won’t at this time, but make sure we have our mobiles close to hand. I put my ‘attack alarm’ just inside the top of my pants. We agree to travel in separate cars. Niall still has his courtesy car that hopefully Monique won’t have seen. He works out a route that means he’ll be parked further down the street, while I will be there with Bettina. We call her and not surprisingly, faced with such a situation, she says she needs time to think about it and will call us back.
‘No, I’m on my way to yours now,’ I say. ‘Do not phone the police and put my son’s life at risk, but have a decision of whether or not you’re coming when I get there.’
I pull up outside her mum’s house at six fifteen. There’s no way I’m being late. I run up to the doorway and ring the bell. Bettina comes to the door; she’s still in her slippers.
I fold my arms. ‘So you’re not coming then? Do you not care about my son?’
‘I don’t know what to do, Lauren. If she does something to me, she would potentially leave Tyler without a mother. He’s already got a waste of space for a dad.’
I grip my head in my hands, messing up my hair. ‘But if you don’t go, she might harm Joe and I’d never see him again. Can you live with yourself if something happens to him? Well, can you?’
‘No.’ She sighs and grabs her coat and stuffs her feet in her shoes. ‘I’m just going to tell them I’m going out.’
Five minutes pass. I can’t keep my legs and arms still and keep looking at my watch.
She appears in the doorway with her bag.
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