The Stolen Child

by Sanjida Kay

  ‘So. You actually left the building at two thirty-six p.m. Which would have given you time,’ Clegg says quietly, ‘to drive back to Ilkley, collect your daughter from Mr Mitchell, hide her somewhere, and then go to the hospital to meet your wife.’

  ‘No! That’s not what happened. You can’t seriously believe I kidnapped my own daughter?’

  Collier leans forward. His hands are large and red, the skin flaking. ‘Why don’t you tell us what did happen?’

  My heart is in my throat. That can’t be right. How could Ollie have left his office just after two thirty but only reached Airedale two and a half hours later? Ollie is white. He licks his lips. He puts one hand on mine. I grip Ben tighter and he wriggles and starts to cry.

  ‘You have to believe me,’ he says, looking at me. ‘I was in meetings, I left around four, like I told you.’

  I jiggle Ben up and down to try to calm him. Ruby is immediately at my side.

  ‘Do you want me to take him?’

  I shake my head.

  ‘I would never, never hurt my daughter. You don’t really think I’d do anything to Evie, do you?’ He’s looking from me to Collier and Clegg and back at the officers.

  ‘She’s not actually your daughter, though, is she?’ says Collier.

  ‘She’s my daughter! She is my fucking daughter!’ he shouts and Ben howls more loudly.

  I get a bar of chocolate from the cupboard and give it to Ben. I’m trembling and I think I’m going to be sick again. Could there be any truth in what they’re saying? Why would he lie though? Why? I can’t believe it. Ollie wouldn’t—

  ‘Where were you? Where the hell were you? Why did it take you so long to get to the hospital?’ I shout.

  ‘I did have a meeting,’ he says, swallowing. ‘I did switch on my phone and I got your message.’ He looks ashamed. A pleading tone comes into his voice. ‘But it sounded like you had things under control. There wasn’t anything I could do right away. And my meeting was with a prospective client who runs an art gallery. It was important. If he wanted us to take on the gallery’s accounts, it would be huge. It’s The Ormond Gallery – a franchise. It would have meant the accounts for the entire business, nationwide, and most of the artists they represent. So I went to the gallery and then I took a taxi to the hospital. I didn’t realize how serious it was with Ben or I would have cancelled. And I didn’t tell you, because—’

  ‘– you didn’t want me to know that you put a work meeting ahead of our son’s life,’ I say.

  ‘I really thought it was just—’

  ‘Just what?’ I snap. ‘I ring you from an ambulance, to tell you that Ben is unconscious, the paramedics have no idea what’s the matter with him and we’re heading for A & E and you didn’t think that was serious?’

  He runs his hand through his hair. ‘Then you left me another message and a text saying Ben was stable, you were in hospital… I didn’t think another hour would make any difference – and if this meeting went well —’

  ‘– you’d be made partner of the firm,’ I finish for him.

  ‘Chocolate,’ Ben grins and gives me a sloppy, sticky kiss.

  He’s never eaten this amount in his life. He wipes his hands down my jumper.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ says Ollie. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Can you verify this meeting?’ asks Collier.

  Ollie nods. He pulls a business card out of his pocket. It says The Ormond Gallery, in gold lettering. He turns it over to show the detective the number he’s scribbled on the back.

  ‘That’s the owner’s private line. His assistant called a taxi for me.’

  He hands it to Collier who passes it to Clegg. Clegg immediately walks to the far end of the living room and dials the number.

  ‘I had my phone on silent. I was checking all the way through the meeting. If Ben had got worse, I would have left, I swear. But he was in the best place he could be. And you were with him. Times like that, a baby needs his mum.’

  ‘You…’

  I can’t bring myself to look at him. I get up and take Ben over to the sink to clean him up.

  ‘Checks out, boss,’ says Clegg after a few moments.

  ‘Check him out too,’ says Collier brusquely.

  I assume he means the proprietor, in case he’s lying. I have to believe Ollie even though I’m shocked at his callousness.

  ‘On it,’ says Clegg.

  He returns to the window bay and I hear him arranging to meet the gallery owner.

  ‘So now what?’ I say. ‘Now that you know my husband has not abducted our daughter.’ I put Ben down and he toddles over to his toys in the corner of the room.

  Collier says, ‘Has probably not abducted your daughter. We haven’t verified it yet. We’re still trying to trace Mr Mitchell. We’ve got a team of officers covering the route from your house to the school – calling door to door, going through every shed, garage, outbuilding – like I said. We’ve broadened our search to the nearby villages and towns – Burley, Addingham, Guisley. We’ll keep looking across the moor – it’s such a large expanse of wilderness and we’ve only covered a fraction of it. No one can smuggle Evie out of the country – the alert on the ports and airports is still in place. More officers are going through CCTV footage back in the station.’

  ‘Is that all?’ I whisper.

  It’s no different to what Collier told us they were planning to do yesterday. There must be something they can do to find Evie’s father.

  ‘How can you still not know where Mitchell is?’ asks Ollie.

  ‘Believe me, Mr Morley, we’re looking for him. The Cumbrian Constabulary have set up several stop-and-search points. They’re checking cars, asking if anyone has seen him or Evie.’

  The Lake District is such a vast area, I think.

  ‘He could be bloody anywhere,’ says Ollie, recovering some of his spirit.

  Collier and Ruby exchange glances. She knits her hands together and takes a deep breath before gazing steadily at me.

  ‘When a child goes missing,’ she says carefully, as if this was a speech she’d rehearsed, ‘the first thing that we do—’

  ‘– is suspect the family. I know. You’ve wasted a lot of time on that already,’ I interrupt.

  Ollie looks at me gratefully. He thinks I’ve forgiven him.

  ‘– is check the location of all the paedophiles in the area,’ says Ruby.

  I put my hand to my mouth.

  ‘We go through the sex offenders’ register and then we ascertain where they all were at the time of the child’s disappearance. We’ve got a team who are working through our list of known offenders.’

  I retch over the sink.

  ‘In the meantime,’ says Collier, ‘we’ll need a statement from the two of you. For the media.’

  Ruby starts to rise from her seat. There are deep lines between her thick eyebrows.

  ‘No!’ I say to her, wiping my mouth. ‘I don’t want help.’

  And I don’t want to stand hand in hand with Ollie in front of the town’s journalists, pleading for our daughter, while some pervert watches us and gets a kick out of our pain.

  ‘Whether you like it or not, this will be all over the news before the day is out,’ says Collier. ‘Experience tells us it’s best to speak to the press. If you can give a statement to the media it’ll help take the pressure off. Unless you give them something, they’ll keep badgering you until they get their soundbite – and it might help us find your daughter. I’ll leave you to talk it through with Ruby,’ he adds, rising stiffly to his feet. ‘She’ll set it up if you want to go ahead. Don’t use your landline. Let the answerphone pick up. If we have news, we’ll ring Ruby or call you on your mobile.’

  I stand at the window and watch Clegg and Collier leave. Ollie lifts Ben up and sniffs his bottom, wrinkles his nose.

  ‘Stinky,’ says Ben.

  I can’t bring myself to turn around and face my husband. He takes Ben upstairs to change him. I blame him. If only he’d answered his p
hone. If only he’d been honest. If only he weren’t so obsessed with work. If only he’d put his daughter first. Maybe the truth is, he stopped putting Evie first once Ben was born.

  ‘Men can struggle to accept a child who isn’t their biological offspring. It would be natural for him to feel less strongly about Evie,’ says Ruby. It’s as if she can read my mind.

  Still, I’m shocked at how brutal it sounds when she says it out loud. It is what some of the adoption books say – that men don’t bond as well as women do with children who aren’t theirs. I tell myself to stop Ruby speaking; her words are like a toxin seeping into my mind, and it’s going to poison my feelings for Ollie.

  ‘It’s not true,’ I say. ‘Ollie has always loved Evie. Right from the start.’

  More than I did, I think, but I don’t say that. In those early, difficult weeks when she was in the incubator, and I could summon no feeling for her, I never doubted Ollie’s love for that little baby.

  Ruby changes tack. ‘We need to talk about the media statement. I know it sounds bloody awful and it’s going to be traumatic – but it might help. Even if you decide you don’t want to do it, I still need to brief you.’

  I clench my jaw so I don’t say anything rude in response. She’s just trying to do her job.

  ‘I’ll do it. I’ll make sure Ollie does too. Go ahead and set it up.’

  We have to do everything in our power to get Evie back, even if I have to pretend not to think about the paedophiles watching us, one of them perhaps knowing where Evie is.

  Ruby is on the phone when my mobile rings. I jump. I’d almost got used to not having it but Clegg handed it back to me this morning. It’s Gill. She was out with the search party this morning. Perhaps she’s seen Evie. I snatch it up.

  Gill sounds frantic. I’ve never heard her lose her cool like this before, even when she was at her most stressed, during finals at university. I can’t make out what she’s saying.

  ‘Zoe? Are you there?’

  ‘Yes, sorry. It’s not a good time, Gill.’

  The disappointment is making me bitter. Why the fuck is she ringing me with her problems right now?

  ‘Zoe, please listen. I know this is really, really awful for you, but Andy is not involved.’

  ‘I know,’ I say. Why does she feel the need to tell me that?

  She takes a gulp of air.

  ‘We’re at the police station. He’s being questioned. The police think he could have something to do with Evie… with Evie’s disappearance. But you know Andy would never—’

  ‘What?’ I say, ‘Why would they think —’

  ‘Because of the present. You remember, the prayer book? Andy found it in Sophie’s room. It’s got his fingerprints on it.’

  ‘He took it out of the wrapping paper to see what it was.’

  ‘That’s right! That’s why his prints are on it. But the police don’t believe him. You have to tell them!’

  ‘Okay,’ I say. ‘I’ll speak to Ruby. She’s our liaison officer. I’ll call you back.’

  ‘Thank you, Zoe, thank you.’

  ‘What is it?’ asks Ruby, putting down her phone.

  Ollie brings Ben back downstairs.

  ‘It’s our friend, Andy. He’s being questioned. He found one of the presents Evie received – the Muslim prayer book.’

  Ollie looks shocked. ‘I told Collier that.’

  ‘So it’s probably just routine, then,’ says Ruby. ‘They’re talking to all the parents of the children in Evie’s class.’

  ‘But not formally. Not in the police station.’

  She’s silent.

  ‘Andy’s been our friend for years,’ says Ollie. ‘His daughter, Sophie, is Evie’s best friend.’

  I remember the conversation I had with Andy when I was trying to work out who Evie’s biological father could be. He said he’d slept with prostitutes. He said it meant Evie’s father could be anyone. And my first thought had been: even you.

  ‘He’s so fond of Evie,’ I say out loud.

  ‘That’s right,’ says Ollie. ‘He’s always loved her—’

  ‘– like his own daughter.’

  And we both look at each other and I hate myself for the way I’m starting to be suspicious of anyone, even my best friend. But it is possible. It could just be possible.

  ‘It was the only present that didn’t appear in the garden,’ says Ollie. ‘It turned up in Andy’s house. And the writing inside was different to the writing on the outside of the presents.’

  I nod. I feel sick and then a huge and terrible rage overwhelms me. ‘What do we do?’

  ‘There’s nothing you can do,’ says Ruby. ‘He’s being questioned. Collier and Clegg will get to the bottom of it.’

  ‘Gill wants me to tell them to release Andy.’

  ‘You can’t,’ says Ollie, echoing Ruby. ‘You mustn’t.’

  ‘If he didn’t have anything to do with Evie’s disappearance, they’ll let him go,’ Ruby says.

  Andy wasn’t there last night when I tried to call him. I rang and rang and he didn’t answer. He didn’t even pick up his own kids from school that day. What did he say he was doing? Teaching some adult education course? So he could… I put my hands over my ears as if I can somehow drown out my own thoughts. There is no one left I can trust.

  ‘I need to keep looking for Evie,’ I say.

  Ruby hesitates and then nods. ‘Have you got any folding steps?’

  I’m so surprised I answer: ‘In the garden shed.’

  I put my walking boots on and grab my rucksack from where I’d left it yesterday, still filled with snacks and warm clothes for Evie, and kiss Ollie and Ben goodbye. Ruby marches into the garden and fetches the steps.

  ‘Come on,’ she shouts to me, as she positions them by the chestnut tree. We climb up, hold onto the trunk, step on a fence post and jump into the bridleway. It’s such an ingenious way of escaping the journalists, I forget to tell her I don’t want her with me.

  ‘It won’t take them long to figure out this path is here and then they’ll be peering in your house from both sides,’ she says matter-of-factly.

  She unfolds an OS map and radios one of her colleagues.

  ‘The search party is here,’ she says, showing me on the map. ‘Or is there somewhere else you want to go? Some place that’s special to Evie perhaps?’

  I’ve got a splitting headache. I’m nervous it’s going to turn into a migraine. The last time I had one was just after Ben was born and it wiped me out for two days. I can’t risk that happening now. My mind feels fuzzy and I’m not clear what Ruby is asking me: does she think Evie has run away and hidden in a place she loves? Or is this somewhere to go to remember Evie, almost like a memorial? Surely that can’t be what Ruby means. I shake my head and stop abruptly: the pain has sliced right through from the front to the back of my skull. Why would Evie run away? She didn’t mean what she said when we argued. I remember her story about the princess who escapes from her evil step-parents. I think of all the other stories she’s written about the moor, mainly featuring Rombald’s giant, who supposedly stamped on a rock that split into the Cow and the Calf. Kate Stevenson was right when she told the police that Evie is fascinated by this wilderness.

  ‘Do you have any paracetamol?’

  ‘No, sorry. And I wouldn’t be allowed to give you any even if I did,’ she says.

  Her tone is sympathetic though. She hands me a bottle of water.

  ‘Let’s go up Hangingstone Road. That’ll be the quickest way to reach them,’ I say, ignoring her question about Evie.

  ‘I can radio for a car if you like, to drive us to the edge of the moor. The journalists know what yours looks like and we don’t want to go back down there.’

  I shake my head again and grit my teeth at the pain singing through my molars. ‘No, I want to look for her as we walk.’

  It feels utterly futile, but I can’t think of anything else I can do and I can’t stay in the house while Evie is out here somewhere. I h
ave to hold on to the hope that I might find some fragment of her clothing or something that would indicate she’s been here. Ruby and I walk on opposite sides of the road. I take the edge by the moor; there’s no pavement, but I scan the rush-filled ditch. The urge to hold Evie in my arms, to smell her hair again, is overwhelming. I have a pain in my ribs so sharp my breaths are shallow. We’re walking in a capsule of mist that’s growing darker by the minute. There’s only going to be another hour or so of daylight. I stifle a sob.

  We pass the car park below the Cow and Calf and even now, in the fog and drizzle, there are a few diehard tourists buying ice cream and cups of Yorkshire tea. I find it hard to believe that anyone is capable of doing anything even remotely normal when my daughter has been taken.

  A little further on we go by the Cow and Calf Hotel and I turn away so I don’t have to see the punters enjoying an early-evening beer as they watch Sky Sport. Maybe it’s seeing those men with their pints, but I think of Jack and all at once I’m filled with rage again. Ollie’s right. It was Jack, not Andy, who was responsible for Evie. How dare he hand her over to anyone else without talking to me first?

  ‘Why the hell hasn’t Jack got back to me?’ I say to Ruby. ‘I should never have trusted him with her.’

  ‘Don’t blame yourself, love. We don’t know if he’s taken her. And there was no reason not to trust him. He looks after loads of kids in that school. Not just Evie.’

  ‘It’s the perfect cover, though, isn’t it? I mean if you’re a paedophile. Perhaps he’s been waiting for Evie to reach some kind of magic age and he can’t contain himself any more. Ben getting sick gave him the opportunity he’d been waiting for. He told me Ollie picked her up but, really, he’s taken her. And we’ll never see our daughter again.’

  ‘Don’t,’ says Ruby. ‘You mustn’t think like that. We’ll find him.’

  I press my hands against my temples.

  A little further on we reach the track that Harris drove down to take Ben and me to his house, and I hesitate. I can’t see far because of the mist. It’s stony and muddy and barely wider than a bridlepath. Ruby consults the map.

  ‘We need to go a bit higher before we can cut across and join the search party,’ she says.