“Does this lady have a name?” Mallory asked. He seemed to have a way with kids, so Rob let him take the reins.
“She said to call her Rose.”
“Rose?”
“Yes, she said that was her favourite flower.”
“Oh, I see. And what did Rose look like?”
Katie shrugged. “She was normal.”
“Did she have dark hair?” Mallory pointed at Lisa’s hair.
Katie nodded, her eyes wondering. She was getting bored with the conversation.
“Could you draw her?” Rob asked, thinking that might keep her engaged.
She perked up.
Lisa went to get some paper and crayons.
Rob made himself another cup of tea. A million questions flew around his head, but he had to leave this to Mallory.
When Lisa returned, she set the paper and crayons in front of Katie and told her to draw the lady who’d kidnapped her.
Rob grimaced at her choice of words.
Katie frowned. “She didn’t kidnap me. She looked after me ‘cos you were away.”
“I didn’t go away.” Lisa stared at her.
“That’s what she said.” Katie frowned, momentarily confused.
“Is that what she told you?” Mallory kept his voice even. He didn’t want to alarm her.
She nodded. “She said mummy had gone away and I was to stay with her for a few days until she got back. She was nice. She had lots of Barbie’s and we drew pictures and played in the garden with Flash.”
Rob glanced at Mallory. “Flash?”
“He’s her doggie.”
It was the woman with the dog. That’s how she’d got Katie to go willingly with her into the reserve. She’d concocted a story about her mother going away.
Katie was drawing a woman with dark, slightly wild hair, wearing jeans and sturdy hiking boots. Rob watched as she drew a cloudless blue sky.
“Did she meet you on the street corner while you were waiting for Candy?” asked Mallory, getting back on topic.
Katie nodded but carried on drawing. The woman stood on a green lawn, filled with flowers.
“Then where did you go?”
Katie looked up. “We fed the ducks.”
At the old reservoir.
“What happened to your backpack?” he asked.
She screwed up her face. “I don’t know, I think I lost it.”
Because the woman threw it into the reservoir when Katie wasn’t looking, weighed down with a stone. Followed by her phone. Perhaps Katie had been looking after the dog, or distracted by the ducks.
“And then did you go for a walk or did she take you to a car?”
Katie thought for a moment. “We walked along the river with Flash, then got into her car.”
“You drove to her house?”
Katie nodded. Rob realised it wasn’t flowers in the garden, but strawberries.
“Did she grow strawberries in her garden?” he asked.
Katie smiled. “Yes, we picked them. They were yummy.”
“Katie,” said Mallory. She glanced at him. “Did you know Rose from before?”
“I don’t think so.” Then she tilted her head to the side. “Maybe. I thought she was one of Mummy’s friends.”
“I don’t know anyone called Rose,” said Lisa.
“She may have used a different name.” Rob kept his tone conversational so as not to spook Katie.
“Was it far?” asked Mallory.
“Huh?”
“When you drove to her house.”
“Not really. She gave me a chocolate croissant.”
“Had you finished it by the time you got there?” Mallory asked.
Katie shook her head. “No.”
So, the woman’s house must be within a fifteen, twenty-minute drive from here.
“And what did it look like, this house?” Mallory asked.
Katie sighed. “It was small, like a doll’s house.”
Rob frowned. “Like a shed in the garden?”
“Yes, like that, but it was a big one. It had a sofa and a TV and everything. I watched Cartoon Network.” She cast a sly glance at her mother.
“I don’t let her watch that channel,” Lisa whispered. “I prefer CBeebies.” The BBC kids’ channel was more educational.
“Did she leave you alone?” asked Mallory.
“Yes, but I’m a big girl now.” That sounded like something else the woman had told her.
“You weren’t scared?” asked Rob. How could she not be in a strange and unfamiliar place?
“I had Flash with me.”
Still...
“You’re a very brave girl, Katie,” he said. “Very grown up.”
She grinned.
“What about at night?” asked Mallory. “Were you alone at night too?”
“No, don’t be silly. Rose was there,” she said. “But Flash slept with me.”
The shed was big enough for two beds at least, and presumably a kitchenette, or at the very least a place to eat.
Katie drew big red fruit hanging off a bush. “Are those apples?” he asked.
“No, they’re tomatoes.” She gave him a ‘seriously’ look.
“Oh, sorry. Silly me.”
She giggled.
Before they’d begun the questioning, Katie had been given the all-clear by a paramedic. It appeared no harm had been done, thank God.
Rob still couldn't believe it. He’d asked for a miracle and it seemed he’d got one. Here was their missing girl, hale and hearty and back with her mum.
Katie put her crayon down. “Can I go and play now?” She glanced at her mum. “I don’t want to talk anymore.”
Rob would have liked to question her some more, but he recognised the need for caution. He didn’t want to wear her out. They could always come back later.
“Can I keep this picture?” he asked her.
She nodded, sliding off her chair.
Lisa hugged her. “There’s a good girl. I’ll make you some lunch in a little while.”
“Okay.”
Katie skipped out of the kitchen and moments later they heard her footsteps going upstairs.
Lisa gazed at the doorway, remembering. “I can’t believe she’s back. I thought I’d lost her.”
Rob couldn’t either, to be honest. “I don’t think the woman who abducted her planned to harm her,” he said carefully.
“Why did she take her then?” asked Lisa, her brow furrowed. “Why take someone else's child if you’re just going to let her go?”
Rob shook his head. “I don’t know, Lisa. I’ve never had a case like this before. But Katie gave us some useful information, so we may be able to trace who took her from any DNA or fibres on the dress she was wearing.” They’d also taken samples from her hair and fingernails in the hopes it would give them a clue as to where she was taken.
“She could have had
