The call came just after midnight. Vera was still dressed, dozing in front of the embers. It came on her work mobile and made her start, the sound jerking her awake, making her aware of every pulse of her heart. Who phoned at this time of night if it wasn’t an emergency?
She didn’t recognize the voice at first, because the words were tumbling over each other, jumbled, and because she was still caught in the place between sleep and wakefulness. She only heard the panic.
At last the words made more sense. ‘He’s gone! We were in all night but someone must have got in and taken him. We can’t lose another child.’ It was Jill Falstone, beyond herself with fear.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
HOLLY WAS IN BED BUT STILL awake when Vera rang. She never slept well. At night, the control that made her life ordered and predictable during the working day slipped away and she was overcome by unwelcome anxieties, jumbled misgivings. Her muscles tensed and her thoughts raced. She’d started running in the hope of stilling her mind, becoming physically tired, but even so most nights she struggled to sleep.
When her phone rang, she knew it would be about work. She had a few friends, but nobody sufficiently close to call her in the early hours of the morning.
It was Vera, speaking as she was driving. The signal cut out occasionally and Holly could hear the background rumble of the Land Rover’s engine.
‘I need you to go to see the Falstones at Broom Farm. The little lad’s gone missing. Thomas, Lorna’s bairn. I was only there this evening and now it seems he’s vanished into thin air.’ A pause. ‘Get Joe Ashworth out too.’
‘Are you on your way there?’
There was a moment of silence and Holly thought she’d lost phone reception. In the end she caught the end of Vera’s reply.
‘I’m better looking for the boy. I think I know where he might be.’
The line went dead. Holly tried to return the call, but there was no answer. She dressed and hit Joe Ashworth’s number. She thought Vera had phoned her first so she’d be the one to disturb him at home. There was a delay, then his voice.
‘Yes?’
In that one word she could tell he’d been asleep. ‘I’ve just had a call from the boss. She wants us at Broom Farm, the Falstones’ place.’ Holly was already running down the stairs to the lobby, car keys in hand.
‘Why?’
‘The little boy, Thomas, has gone missing.’
‘How did that happen?’ Now he was wide awake.
‘I don’t know. I can’t get through to Vera for more details.’
Holly heard a muttered conversation in the background. Joe must be explaining to Sally what was happening. Holly heard him raise his voice, a response to something Sally had said. ‘How would you feel if one of ours had disappeared?’ There was a brief silence before he came back onto the line. ‘I’ll be there.’
When Holly arrived at the Falstones’ farm, Joe was already in the house. He’d been there before and the satnav had taken her a long way around, but still he must have driven ridiculously fast to have arrived ahead of her. She saw him through the window, sitting at a farmhouse kitchen table. As she got out of her car, she felt a sting against her face, tiny darts of ice, more like hail than snow. She knocked and went straight in.
Joe introduced the Falstones to her. They were still in the clothes they’d worn during the day. ‘This is my colleague, DC Jackman. Holly.’
She sat next to him. ‘I know you might already have explained to Joe, but could you tell me what happened?’
The couple sat opposite, radiating tension. Rigid. Holly could almost taste their anxiety, bitter on her tongue.
‘I put Thomas to bed at seven-thirty,’ the woman said. ‘He’s a good little sleeper. Usually he doesn’t move until morning. Your boss turned up not long after and we chatted for a bit. Robert and I watched the ten o’clock news and were about to go to bed ourselves, but somehow, we got to talking. Things maybe we should have said a long time ago. It was gone eleven-thirty by the time we made a move. I love looking at Thomas when he’s asleep.’ She gulped back a cry. ‘But he wasn’t there.’
The man was making an attempt to hold things together. ‘The lad’s been sleeping with Jill and I moved out to the spare room. Not for any reason other than that we thought he needed to be with someone.’ He looked at them both to understand they got the message: There’s nothing wrong with our marriage. ‘We thought if he woke and found himself in a strange place, he should have his gran there. We couldn’t get his cot from Lorna’s house until your forensic chaps had finished and then it didn’t seem urgent right away.’
‘So, he could have climbed out if he was in your bed and not in a cot?’ Holly tried not to turn the words into an accusation. The couple were obviously distressed and guilty enough.
‘That’s what we thought at first,’ Jill said. ‘But he’s only just started toddling and the doors were all shut. We’d put pillows on all sides so he couldn’t fall out. Where could he have gone?’
‘You’ve searched the house?’
‘Of course! Everywhere.’
‘The front door was unlocked,’ Robert said. ‘We don’t lock up until we go to bed. Someone could
