Derek saw her out, then looked at the clock: four-thirty.
It’s already first thing,
he thought as he went back in to see how his wife and daughter were coping. Not that the hour mattered: they would be unlikely to get any sleep.
***
‘She’s been through a lot, you shouldn’t be so hard on her,’ Derek said.
He and Penny were sitting at the kitchen table, sipping coffee. Tina was asleep on the couch, her face buried in the bunny toy she’d had since she was tiny. Derek’s heart had caught in his throat when he saw her like that: he hadn’t seen her cling to the toy so fiercely in five years or more.
Penny sighed, ran her hand through her hair. ‘How could she have been so stupid?’ she asked Derek for the umpteenth time that morning. ‘First off, defying us, then dragging Annie into it, to share the blame, I suppose, then getting into a stranger’s car. How many times have we told them?’
Derek covered his wife’s hand with his own. ‘She’s a kid. She made a mistake. She’s barely twelve years old, remember.’
‘Annie’s only eight.’ Penny’s voice caught when she spoke of her youngest daughter and she started crying again. Since she had opened the door to find Tina on the step, she seemed to have been either in a rage or in tears. ‘Where is she, Derek? Who has her?’
‘I don’t know, love, but the police will find her. They know what they’re doing. Tina told them everything she could, that’ll all help.’
‘I just want her home. She’s so little …’
‘I know, love, me too.’
‘She’ll be scared out of her wits.’
‘Mum? Dad? I’m sorry.’ Tina stood blinking in the kitchen doorway, fluffy bunny trailing behind her. Her father held his hand out to her and she ran to him. Penny hugged her, too, and the family huddled together, no one speaking, just holding on.
By eight o’clock, the police were back in the house. There had been a car outside all night, but the officers in it had given the family privacy. A different policewoman, this one out of uniform, was explaining her role in the investigation.
‘I’m Ruth Crinson,’ she told them. ‘I’m your Family Liaison Officer.’ She smiled, aiming for reassurance. ‘Basically, I’m your link with the investigation and the outside world. I’ll keep you up to date with everything that goes on.’
‘Do you have any news for us now?’ asked Penny.
Ruth shook her head. ‘We’ve got people searching for the car, the abductor and Annie, but no one has seen anything yet. We also want make sure the wider public are aware of the search for Annie. The Press Office are working on information for the media, they’ll help us get the story out there.’
‘We gave the bairn’s last school photograph to the policewoman last night,’ said Derek.
‘Yes, I saw that.’
‘Will we get it back?’
‘Just as soon as they’re finished with it, I promise.’
‘Do you want a cup of tea?’ Penny went to put the kettle on without waiting for an answer, just to have something to do.
The morning wore on. The doctor came to check Tina over and declared her none the worse, physically at least, for her experience. Ruth Crinson wanted to question Tina herself to see if she had remembered anything new, and so Ruth, Penny, Derek and Tina took their seats around the kitchen table. Penny had made yet more tea and Tina was nursing a glass of apple juice.
‘Tina, I want you to tell me everything you remember about last night, absolutely everything. Just talk me through it as it happened. Okay?’
Tina nodded. ‘Okay.’ She started telling her story again, how she and Annie had pretended to their gran that they were really sleepy and wanted to go to bed early, then put pillows under the bedcovers so Gran would think they were in bed if she looked into the room. They sneaked out of the house, climbing out of the bedroom window onto the porch roof and then clambering down the drainpipe to the ground. They walked to the Metro station, excited and giggling, and caught a train to Newcastle, then were swept up in the stream of people heading for the concert venue. CCTV would confirm timings: there were spots where the girls would have been caught on camera.
Tina told again about the concert finishing late, running to the Metro station to find that the last train to Sunderland had gone, catching the one to Heworth to get nearer home. ‘I didn’t have enough for a taxi,’ Tina told Ruth. ‘I bought T-shirts for me and Annie. Hers was pink and mine was blue. They were expensive.’
‘What happened to the T-shirts?’ Ruth asked.
‘They must be in the man’s car still.’
‘How did you get home after you escaped from the car?’
‘I recognised the road from driving along it with Mum and Dad. We go that way to Asda sometimes, or to Newcastle. I followed the road back home.’ She sneaked a look up at her mum. ‘It took a long time, because whenever I heard a car, I hid in case it was the man looking for me.’
‘Do you have a mobile phone, Tina?’
Tina nodded. ‘I lost it when I ran away. I dropped my bag.’
‘How come you didn’t ring for help when you were stranded? You could have called your parents or your gran. Why didn’t you do that?’
Tina took her time before answering. ‘I was scared to,’ she said eventually. ‘I knew we’d be in dead trouble.’ She flicked another glance at her mum. ‘I knew there’d be hell to pay.’ Her arms were folded on the table; she rested her head on them and cried quietly. Derek stroked her hair.
‘That’s enough for now,’ Ruth said, recognising that the child had had enough. ‘We’ll talk more later.’
‘Will there be anything on CCTV from Heworth Metro, do you think?’ asked Penny.
‘It’s possible. We’re checking that now. With a bit of luck, we’ll get a look at our man, maybe even get the car registration plate. That would be a massive help.’
***
Annie awoke to find the man leaning over her. She blinked and rubbed her eyes: she felt groggy and disorientated, didn’t recognise the room she was in, wondered where she was. The man had made her drink a mug of hot chocolate when they got back to the house the night before. It had made her go to sleep.
‘Good morning, Sarah. How are you today?’
‘I’m not Sarah,’ she told him. ‘I’m Annie. I want my mum.’
The man smiled and sat down on the edge of the bed. ‘No, child,’ he said to her. ‘You’re Sarah. You have a new name and a new life.’ He stroked her hair. ‘You’re our little girl now, God’s precious gift, and we’re going to look after you properly. Not like those other people, letting you out on your own at night. Anything could have happened to you.’
Annie began to cry.
***
‘Bit of good news,’ Ruth Crinson announced. ‘We’ve found Tina’s bag.’
‘Where was it?’ Derek yawned and rubbed his eyes.
‘At the side of the A19, on the slip road for the Wessington Way turn off.’
‘That was after he went the wrong way,’ Tina chirped up. She had been driven along the road earlier in the day and had pointed out the place where she thought the man had pulled his car off the road and she had hidden in the bushes. Scenes of Crime Officers were busy both there and at Heworth Metro station.
There was a knock at the door and Ruth went to answer it. ‘Television crew,’ she announced, coming back into the kitchen. ‘They’re going to set up outside for the interview.’
Ruth wasn’t convinced this was a good idea at all, but it was a
fait accompli
. When Penny had rang work that morning to explain what had happened and arrange for some time off, her boss, whose daughter worked on the local TV news, had offered to see what he could do to help. A couple of phone calls later and it was all arranged: they would run a live interview with the Snowdon family on the lunchtime show.
Ruth had spoken to DSI Philip Hardcastle, the senior investigating officer, and while he was no happier than she was, the police much preferring to handle media contact themselves, he was philosphical. ‘They’d be getting doorstepped by the press sooner or later anyway,’ he had said. ‘Just do what you can and make sure the helpline number gets an airing.’
Derek stood up and stretched. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I’ll go and tell Penny.’ He headed upstairs to their bedroom, where, with Derek’s encouragement, his wife had gone for a lie down. She hadn’t expected to sleep, but she was sound when he went in. He didn’t want to wake her, she looked so peaceful and she needed the rest. They were exhausted, all three of them. The television crew saved him the trouble by clattering around outside and she sat up, blinking as he opened the curtains.
‘TV crew,’ Derek told her by way of explanation. ‘They’re getting ready for us to do the interview.’
‘I’m not sure we should.’
‘What?’
‘I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think we should do it.’
‘Pen, love, you arranged this. You invited them here. You can’t just send them away.’
‘They’ll think we did it.’
‘Who?’
‘Them. People. They’ll think we’re like all those other parents who cry for their kids on telly, then it turns out they were the ones to have done away with them.’
‘No.’
‘Like that Sion Jenkins.’
‘No, love, they won’t. People know we’re not like that. Besides, there’s Tina to speak up about what happened. When she tells her story everyone will know it wasn’t us and they’ll help find the man who took Annie.’
‘I don’t want her on the telly.’
‘But—’
‘No “buts”. She’s not going on telly and that’s final.’
‘Pen, love, Ruth said Tina’s story would really, really help. People will listen to her, they’ll want to help her find her sister.’
‘Ruth isn’t Tina’s mum. I say “no”.’
They heard the doorbell ring and headed downstairs. As they reached the bottom, Ruth opened the front door and she stood back to allow Derek’s mum to step inside. Mrs Snowdon stopped dead when she saw her son and daughter-in-law.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, tears in her eyes. She looked wretched, exhausted, and Derek realised he and Penny probably looked like that, too.
‘It’s not your fault, Mum,’ said Derek. ‘You weren’t to know the girls would sneak out like that.’
‘Penny, love …’
‘You stupid old cow!’ Penny lashed out at her mother-in-law, slapping her hard across the face.
‘Penny!’ Derek manoeuvred his wife out of the way and put his arms round his mother. She was crying, and when she took her hand away from her cheek, the impression of Penny’s hand, red and angry, was clearly visible. Ruth hustled Penny into the kitchen and nodded to Derek to take his mother into the sitting room.
Twenty minutes later, Derek’s mum had been despatched homeward in a taxi and Penny sat at the kitchen table puffing on her first cigarette in over ten years, scrounged from a young police constable. He was currently on his way to the shops to pick up a couple of packets of smokes and a lighter for her.
‘I asked Mum to give it a couple of days,’ Derek told Ruth. ‘She just feels so guilty, though. She wanted to see Penny and apologise in person.’
‘Well, it’s not her fault, but her timing couldn’t have been worse. We’re due in front of the cameras in ten minutes.’
‘Christ.’ Derek ran a hand over his face. ‘I should go and shave.’
Ruth went into the kitchen. ‘How are you holding up, Penny?’ She squeezed her shoulder. ‘Are you up to doing this interview? You don’t have to, you know.’
Penny stubbed out the cigarette with a shaky hand. ‘I’m okay. It’s just talking, isn’t it? Asking for help. I can do that, for Annie.’
‘I’ll be with you. So will Derek.’ Ruth took a deep breath. ‘It would be really helpful if we could have Tina there, too. It would give a powerful message if she told everyone what had happened and asked for help finding her sister.’
Penny pursed her lips, then said: ‘Absolutely not. I won’t have my child exploited. I won’t make her stand in front of everyone and explain how her sister is God knows where because of her stupidity and selfishness.’
‘She made a mistake, that’s all.’
Penny was suddenly angry again. ‘A mistake! Is that what you call it? My Annie could be dead because of that little fool’s mistake.’
Ruth heard a sniff and turned to see Tina in the doorway, clutching the fluffy bunny to her chest; she turned and ran up the stairs. Ruth ran her hand through her hair: the poor kid would have to wait. She had enough on her plate right now with the parents and the television crew.
***
‘We just want our little girl back,’ Derek was saying into the camera. ‘Our little Annie. She’s so precious to us, both our daughters are, our family won’t be complete until we have Annie safe at home with us. Please, if you know anything at all, if you’re the one who’s got her, we just want her back. Our Annie. Please.’ He ran out of words, turned to Penny and put his arm around her.
‘If you know anything at all, please get in touch,’ Ruth was saying. ‘If you’ve seen anything, if you suspect anything, please tell us. No call is a waste of time and yours might just give us the piece of the jigsaw we need to get Annie home safe to her mum and dad.’
‘How’s Annie’s sister coping?’ the reporter asked.