already fishing in her pocket for a business card.
‘No problem,’ Kathy said, putting the laptop on a side table and running her finger across the mousepad. Carol handed over her card, which included the generic email for MIT. They all waited while Kathy set the upload in motion. ‘Done and dusted,’ she said, returning to her partner in the armchair. Carol, acutely aware of Seth’s eyes on her, hoped the screen-saver would cut in sooner rather than later.
‘DCI Jordan was asking when we last saw Seth,’ Julia said, reaching up to clasp Kathy’s hand.
‘After Julia left for work, I walked down to the bus stop with Seth. Usually he goes off to school on his own. It’s only a three-minute walk to the bus stop. But we were low on bread and I decided to walk across to the supermarket. So we set off together. The bus arrived almost as soon as we got to the stop, and I waved him off. That must have been about twenty to nine. He’d already arranged to have a sleepover with his pal Will, so he had clean pants and socks and shirt with him.’
‘And as far as you know, he was at school all day?’
‘When he didn’t come home today as usual, I called the school,’ Kathy said. ‘They told me he hadn’t been in at all today. So I asked about yesterday. And he was in all his classes. I admit, I wondered if he’d sneaked off somewhere with his girlfriend and Will was covering his back. It wouldn’t have been like either of them, you understand? They’re not wild lads. But you wonder, don’t you?’
‘It’s only natural. We’ve all been teenagers,’ Carol said. ‘I certainly didn’t tell my parents all I got up to.’
‘So I checked with Will and with Lucie, his girlfriend. That’s when I found out he wasn’t at Will’s and never had been. Will said Seth had told him yesterday morning that he wanted to take a rain check, he had other plans.’
‘And Will didn’t ask what those other plans might be?’
Kathy’s brows furrowed. ‘Not that he’s telling me. He might be a bit more forthcoming to someone with an official reason for asking, though.’
‘That’s not fair, Kathy,’ Julia protested. ‘You’ve no reason to believe Will hasn’t told you all he knows.’
Kathy rolled her eyes skywards. ‘You’re so trusting. If Seth told him not to say anything, he’s not going to tell me, is he?’
Carol let the moment settle, then said, ‘Have you heard anything from Seth at all since he left yesterday morning? A text? An email? A phone call?’
The two women checked with each other, then both shook their heads. ‘Nothing,’ Kathy said. ‘Not that that’s unusual. He doesn’t usually make contact unless there’s a reason. Like a change in arrangements. Which he didn’t communicate to us this time.’
Kevin cleared his throat. ‘Is his girlfriend at home?’
‘Yes. I spoke to her on the landline at her house,’ Kathy said. ‘The last she saw of him was at lunchtime yesterday. They ate together in the school canteen - they’re in different streams so they didn’t see each other in class. But he didn’t say anything to Lucie about not going to Will’s. She still thought the sleepover was on.’
‘Did he often have a sleepover on a school night?’ Kevin asked.
Kathy looked as if she wanted to slap him. ‘Of course not. We’re not the kind of wishy-washy liberals who let their kids run the game. Last night was out of the usual run of things. Will and Seth are big grunge fans, and one of their favourite bands was doing a live webcast. We said they could hang out together to watch it for a special treat.’ Her breath seemed to stick in her throat and she coughed helplessly. When she recovered, eyes streaming and face suffused with blood, she gasped, ‘Some fucking treat.’
Julia put her arm round her and leaned her head against her arm. ‘It’s OK, Kathy. It’s going to be OK.’
‘Is there anybody else you can think of that he might have gone to visit or gone to meet?’ Carol said.
‘No,’ Kathy said wearily. ‘We’ve already tried his other school friends, but nobody’s seen him since yesterday.’
Carol wondered if there was a tactful way to broach the subject of Seth’s biological parentage and realised there wasn’t. Still, it had to be dealt with. ‘What about his father?’ she asked.
‘He hasn’t got a father,’ Kathy said, weariness tempering what was obviously a source of irritation to her. ‘He’s got two mothers. End of story.’
‘Seth was conceived via AID,’ Julia said, her arm tightening round her partner. ‘Back in the days of anonymous donors. All we know about the donor is that he was five foot eleven inches tall, slim build, with dark hair and blue eyes.’
‘Thanks for clearing that up,’ Carol said with a smile.
‘Is that all they tell you?’ Kevin said. ‘I thought you got a sort of pen portrait. What they did, what their hobbies were, that sort of thing?’
‘It varies from clinic to clinic,’ Julia said. ‘The one we used only gives you the bare minimum.’
‘So there’s no way the father could track down his kid and make contact? Or Seth could track down his father?’ Kevin asked.
‘It’s donor, not father. No, it’s completely anonymised. Not even the clinic knows the name of the donor. Just their code number,’ Julia said. Her patience was clearly thinning.
‘And why would Seth do that? He’s never shown any curiosity about his donor. He’s got two parents he loves and who love him. Which is more than a hell of a lot of kids can say,’ Kathy said, openly belligerent now.
‘We appreciate that. But we do have to explore every possibility. ‘
‘Including homophobia,’ Kathy muttered. To Julia: ‘I told you what it would be like.’ Before Carol could respond, the doorbell pealed out. ‘I’ll get it,’ Kathy said, bounding out of the room. They heard the murmur of voices, then Kathy returned with Stacey Chen in tow. ‘It’s another one of your lot.’
‘DC Chen is our ICT expert. We’d like your permission to examine Seth’s computer,’ Carol said.
