Child Taken: A chilling page-turner you will be unable to put down

by Darren Young

  When her shift ended at three, she went back to Sam’s and, old battered laptop on her knees, began looking at places she might rent in Southampton. She was surprised at the cost; even for a basic studio apartment, she quickly calculated, any additional money from her new salary would soon be swallowed up. It hardly seemed worth it.

  Danni looked around at the spare room she had called home for two weeks, which was currently covered in piles of clothes as well as the odd bag and a few pairs of shoes, and began to click on to the details of some of the apartments at the lower end of the price bracket. She needed a fresh start; whatever happened next.

  An hour later, Sam walked in and Danni heard her kick off her shoes in the hallway the way she had often done when she’d had a rotten day at work. She called out to her.

  ‘That good, eh?’

  ‘Worse,’ Sam shouted back, and Danni heard her walk up the stairs. Her friend opened the door and surveyed the scene.

  ‘I’m going to tidy up when I’ve finished looking at this flat.’

  ‘Sod tidying. Let’s have a drink.’

  A minute or so later, Danni’s laptop was in its bag and they were on the sofa and Sam had poured two large glasses of wine.

  ‘So, bad day?’

  ‘Sometimes, working with family can be the worst.’

  Danni smiled sadly. Her friend put her hand on her forehead. ‘Sorry. You know what I mean. How’s things?’

  ‘I sorted my start date in Southampton,’ Danni said.

  Sam looked at her suspiciously.

  ‘What?’ Danni asked.

  ‘All the stuff you have going on and that’s the thing you tell me about?’

  Danni snorted. ‘There’s nothing else to tell.’

  Sam emptied half her glass. ‘Dan, I’ve known you how long?’

  Danni squirmed in her seat. She’d never been good at hiding things from anyone, and she’d found it practically impossible to hide anything from Sam since they were at junior school.

  ‘Laura didn’t want me to say anything.’

  Sam laughed to herself and then narrowed her eyes and looked straight at Danni.

  ‘Screw what Laura wants. Tell.’

  Danni brought her friend fully up to date with everything, from the letter she’d found right up to the attack on Laura’s mother. Sam, unusually for her, listened without interrupting or passing judgement until Danni had told her everything.

  ‘Jesus, Dan.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘This is a mess.’

  Danni nodded.

  ‘Laura’s put you in danger.’

  ‘I know you don’t like her but she’s on my side. And it’s her mum that was hurt.’

  ‘So go to the police,’ said Sam sternly.

  ‘It’s not that simple.’

  ‘Why not? Because of “the story”?’ She made air quotations as she said the last two words.

  ‘She’s got this far. But if we go now and I tell them I think I was abducted, imagine if I’m wrong.’

  ‘I know. It’d destroy your dad.’

  ‘It’d destroy both of us.’

  Sam nodded slowly. But she didn’t let go. ‘But he’s been lying to you all this time. He can’t blame you for … any of this.’

  ‘I just want to be sure.’

  ‘Isn’t this attack the last straw?’

  ‘We don’t know he was definitely involved.’

  Sam’s eyes widened. ‘I thought it was me who had the doubts. But ever since we met Laura, someone has been trying to stop you getting to the truth.’

  They sat in silence for a minute and finished their glasses, and Danni poured them another.

  ‘So you meet Sandra and then what?’ asked Sam.

  Danni looked at her. She had played out two dozen possible scenarios in her head already that day, and in half of them Sandra had seen something in her that she recognised. It wasn’t the same thing, it was nearly always different things: her hair, eyes, a freckle, a smell, even a smile. She didn’t tell Sam this, worried that it sounded as though she had already made her mind up about who she was, and she hadn’t.

  ‘Depends on what she says.’

  ‘You must be terrified.’

  Danni nodded and lowered her head. Sam put an arm around her shoulder and they sat on the sofa for a few minutes, each with their own thoughts.

  ‘So if she says you are her daughter?’

  ‘Then we go to the police,’ Danni said firmly.

  ‘And if she says you’re not?’

  In the other half of the scenarios she’d rehearsed that day, that was exactly what had happened, and it scared Danni because she knew that she’d just want to run: straight out of the room, the building and as far as she could away from everything.

  ‘That’s what I want to happen.’

  Sam looked at her. ‘But it wouldn’t definitely mean you aren’t her. She just might not recognise you. And there’s still all of the other stuff.’

  ‘Whatever happens,’ said Danni, ‘I need to know everything.’

  60 | Laura

  Laura had less than thirty-six hours to do a lot of things.

  First and foremost, she wanted to spend as much time as possible with her mother, who had been kept in hospital overnight for observation at her husband’s insistence. She also had to go the Gazette and cross a few things off her list or hand them over to other people, as David had suggested.

  And she wanted to set up the meeting with Sandra and get her things packed for the journey on Thursday morning; she had planned to leave in the early hours so that she missed the worst of the traffic, and also because the weather forecast wasn’t good for that afternoon.

  Her mother was looking and feeling a lot better after her night on the ward. The swelling in her cheek had gone down, and her cut, although still quite nasty, looked much less painful when Laura visited her just before lunch.

  ‘You just missed your dad,’ she said, and Laura was a little relieved, as she knew he’d want to check that she had called Danni. Her father had stayed at the hospital overnight too, finishing his shift and then getting a makeshift bed made up in his wife’s ward, which was now resting up against the wall.

  ‘Are you staying another night?’

  ‘Your dad’s going to talk to them during his break. But I feel fine.’

  Laura left at four o’clock and went home to let Mimark out and prepare a meal in case they did let her mother out that evening. She had just put a frozen lasagne in the oven to heat through when her father came in, clearly in a hurry.

  ‘I need a holdall and some fresh clothes.’

  ‘Is she …’

  ‘They’ve discharged her. But you know your mother: she won’t move until she looks her best.’

  ‘I’ll get them,’ Laura told him, and ran up the stairs and put a set of clean clothes and some toiletries into her mother’s overnight bag. When she got back into the kitchen, her father was already in the doorway, his fingers tapping impatiently on the doorframe. ‘I’ll come with you,’ Laura said; she turned the oven down and adjusted the timer, then followed her father out and locked the door behind her.

  The worst of rush hour was over, but the temperatures were getting lower by the hour and there were two warnings on the radio as they drove to the hospital about icy roads and the potential for snow. Laura sat quietly and they barely exchanged a word until they were a mile from the hospital.

  ‘It’s great she’s coming home.’

  Her father didn’t answer. She tried again, but he only looked at her and then back at the road. The brake lights on the cars ahead all came on. This stretch of road was always busy as ambulances and visitors made a right turn into the drop-off area.

  ‘You can’t give me the silent treatment for ever.’

  He edged forward and sighed. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘she asked me not to tell you this, but she’s terrified of leaving the hospital.’

  ‘What? She said she felt better earlier.’

  ‘What�
��s she going to say, Laura? Because of what happened, I want to stay in there for ever?’

  Laura looked down.

  ‘She asked me if I could get them to keep her in another night,’ he added.

  ‘This is my fault. I’ll talk to her.’

  ‘Don’t! She’s embarrassed enough as it is. This has really shaken her.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘I wish you’d told us what was going on. All this lying and sneaking around has devastated her. She thought you could tell her anything.’

  ‘Look, I know I’ve fucked up.’

  ‘Laura!’

  She hadn’t ever sworn like that before in front of her father.

  ‘I never wanted anyone to get hurt,’ she said, her voice cracking. She realised she was trying hard not to cry and she bit her lip. Her father seemed to see, even though his eyes were fixed on the brake lights of the cars in front of them.

  ‘Did you call that girl?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You told her you couldn’t carry on?’

  Laura hesitated for a split second too long.

  ‘I’ll take that as a no.’

  She had always thought of him as a strict father, with discipline high on his list of traits, and she accepted that as it came with his personality and his profession; a hospital theatre wasn’t generally a place for mavericks. And so she’d always tried hard to not give him reason to be angry with her.

  But now he was. She saw the hurt in his eyes.

  ‘I thought you said you were sorting it,’ he said.

  ‘I was.’

  ‘But?’

  They took the final exit at the roundabout and then turned into the hospital grounds, following the one-way system around to the huge pay-and-display car park at the rear, and the staff car park beyond that.

  ‘Danni can’t do this on her own, Dad.’

  Laura thought he might be angry enough to hit her. He was gripping the steering wheel so hard his hands were going red, and he was taking deep breaths to calm himself. They pulled into a space marked Reserved in the staff car park, but, when he turned towards her and saw her face, the anger seemed to disappear.

  ‘I do get it, you know,’ he said, more softly than she expected. ‘It’s a big story. I know they don’t come around very often.’

  ‘That’s no excuse for what’s happened.’

  ‘But if someone wants to stop you that much? Enough to hurt people you love.’

  Laura nodded. Surprised. ‘I know I’m very close.’

  ‘Close enough to take all these risks?’

  Laura hesitated before she answered and then nodded. ‘I hate what happened to Mum. But the truth has to be worth the risks, doesn’t it?’

  Her father thought for a moment and smiled. ‘I’m proud of you, Laura. I know I’m angry at what’s happened, but I’m proud that you’ve not backed down.’

  A tear trickled down her cheek before she could stop it. ‘I want to help Sandra and Danni. It’s not just the story.’

  He took her hand. ‘We always taught you to look out for people.’

  ‘If I broke the story now, it would rip Danni and her father apart. For good. I can’t let that happen because of me unless I’m sure.’

  Laura’s hand was trembling and her father squeezed it gently. ‘I get that. But I’ve got to think of Mum first,’ he said.

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘But I can’t just ignore your feelings either,’ he added. ‘I know how much this means to you. What were you planning on doing next?’

  Laura’s eyes widened, and she told him about her plan to put Danni and Sandra Preston together and that she was trying to keep David Weatherall out of the loop for now because she’d already got in enough trouble at the paper as it was.

  ‘After they meet, if Sandra thinks it’s her,’ she said, ‘then I’ll go to the police.’

  Her father looked over at the hospital doors and checked his watch. He looked at Laura, right into her eyes.

  ‘OK. I’ll cover for you. Go and do what you have to do.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Make sure Mum doesn’t find out. But promise me that once you get them together … ’

  ‘I break the story or I go to the police,’ Laura said.

  Her father nodded. ‘We should be getting inside; she’ll be wondering where I am.’

  They got out of the car and walked towards the big automatic entrance doors. The hospital staff had thrown large quantities of grit and salt down to stop anyone slipping on the icy footpaths.

  ‘At least if anyone did fall, they wouldn’t have far to go.’ Robert smiled and put his arm around his daughter.

  ‘Dad … ‘ Laura said, putting her arm around his waist.

  He looked at her.

  ‘Thank you.’

  61 | Danni

  Laura had apologised for calling so early and waking her.

  At Sam’s house Danni was often the last one to get up, as Mrs Newbold would be pottering about well before daybreak as she got ready to leave for one of her cleaning jobs. Then she would often hear Sam as she got herself ready about an hour afterwards; she would lie under the covers until she heard Sam leave, and use that as her cue to get out of bed.

  But Laura’s call had woken her and she hadn’t heard Sam at all, and it took a few minutes for her to remember that Sam wasn’t working anyway. Her boyfriend had a meeting in London and three rare days off afterwards, so she was getting a train to the capital that afternoon and they were going to stay with his parents until the day he flew back to Dubai.

  It didn’t sound as though Laura had slept at all. She said she had already written a first draft of the article for if Sandra made a positive identification; she told Danni that she needed to have it ready, because, if she did need to submit the article, there would be no time to put it together afterwards; the police and rest of the media would simply swamp them.

  After giving Danni the details, Laura told her she was calling the unit to make the final arrangements with Sandra. ‘She’s not going anywhere,’ was her rationale for leaving that part till last.

  Danni put her phone down and knew she had to talk to Sam. She went to her room and put her head around the door that Sam always left ajar. ‘Are you awake?’

  Sam didn’t ever lie in, but she’d been up late packing, and Danni felt guilty for disturbing her.

  ‘What’s up?’ said Sam, peering over the heavy duvet.

  Danni stepped into her room and closed the door. Light peeked in through the edges of the curtains and there was a soft red glow from the alarm that said it was twenty minutes past eight o’clock.

  Sam sat up.

  ‘I wanted to talk to you before I left,’ Danni whispered, even though they were the only people in the house. She sat on the edge of Sam’s bed. ‘When you get back from London, things might be … you know.’

  Sam nodded and smiled. ‘Let me know what happens tomorrow.’

  Danni nodded but, even in the dim light, her friend recognised her uncertainty and asked her about it. Danni told her that the enormity of the situation was beginning to hit home and she was scared in case she hadn’t done the right thing.

  ‘Dan, I think you’re well past that point.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Look, no one’s been more sceptical than me. About Laura and everything.’

  Danni nodded slowly.

  ‘But even I admit, too much has happened and you need answers.’

  ‘Even if it tears everything apart?’

  Sam shrugged. ‘Whatever. You can’t go on like you are, can you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘So it’s torn anyway. At least you’ll know why.’ Sam put her arm around Danni’s shoulder and pulled her close to her. ‘I know it’s hard, but what choice do you have?’

  ‘You’re right.’

  ‘I know I am.’ Sam smiled.

  ‘Next time I see you, who knows who I’ll be,’ said Danni, trying to make light of it.

 
Sam saw through the forced smile and looked at her. ‘It won’t change anything with us.’

  They hugged. Danni glanced at the clock over Sam’s shoulder. It was almost half-past eight and she had to leave for work.

  She had a feeling that, in a little over twenty-four hours, nothing was ever going to be the same again.

  62 | Laura

  Laura had called the unit at High Cliffs House and spoken to Sandra.

  She had told her that she wanted to bring Danni in to see her, but that it was important no one at the unit knew about it because, if they did, there would be reporters and newspapers all over the place.

  Sandra made it clear she didn’t want that either.

  When Laura got to work, a few minutes late, David was too absorbed with something on his computer screen to even notice her, and she got to her desk and began sorting through her notes to find the article she was working on: a story about two local tradesmen who’d been shortlisted for a national competition, but who had a fierce rivalry that was threatening to spill over and scupper both their chances. She was halfway through her second rewrite when she looked over at the editor, still at his desk looking at his screen, his hand slowly stroking his chin. As if using a sixth sense, he seemed to know she was watching him and he turned quickly to face her; too quickly for her to look away. He didn’t look pleased, Laura thought, and he stared for longer than she found comfortable.

  Then he looked back at his screen and continued reading and Laura watched him, with an inexplicable feeling that something was wrong, and that she was very much at the centre of it.

  Laura looked back at her article and shook her head. But when she looked at David a few minutes later he was looking directly at her again and this time he beckoned her to come to his office. She sank a little in her chair and then stood up, took a deep breath and walked over.

  ‘Come in,’ he said softly when she tapped the door with her knuckle. ‘Sit down.’

  Laura sat with her hands on her lap and watched as he tapped some keys on his keyboard and frowned. Then he tilted the screen so that she could see it.