‘Could you show us?’ Joe was already on his feet.
Robert Falstone led them through a painted door to the rest of the house. It was clear the kitchen was where the couple spent all their time and this was like entering a different world. An abandoned film set. They walked down a corridor and in the hall light, through an open door, Holly saw a living room, furnished with a faded sofa and armchairs, an upright piano against one wall. On the other side there was a formal dining room with a large, ugly table and four chairs.
‘They were my parents’ things,’ Robert said. ‘We don’t use them much.’
The air was chill away from the Aga. A heavy curtain covered the front door. Robert pulled aside the curtain and opened it. The small spiky snowflakes had grown larger and the ground was already speckled white. They looked out on a garden, a lawn and borders. Again, the only light came from the house.
‘Jill’s the gardener,’ Robert said. ‘In the summer it’s glorious. We were thinking we’d get a swing for the bairn.’ This time he was the one almost to lose control.
‘Would you still park in the yard if you were coming to this side of the house?’ Holly tried to picture the place with the sun shining. There was a patio with a wooden table, the chairs tipped into it, so the snow slid off.
‘Aye, then walk round the house. Once you could drive right round to the front, but we put up a barn, so there’s no access now.’
‘Did you hear a vehicle this evening?’
Robert shook his head. ‘But then, I don’t think we would. The wind was so loud and we had the telly on all night. We didn’t hear your boss until she knocked.’
‘And you wouldn’t have heard this door being opened?’
‘I don’t think we would. Not from the other end of the house.’
Holly was thinking it would have taken some nerve to come in and snatch the boy. The couple might have been deep in conversation in the kitchen, but the abductor wouldn’t have known they’d stay there, that they wouldn’t come regularly to check on the child or use the bathroom. ‘You never thought to lock this door? After two murders close by?’
Robert shook his head. ‘We have our way of doing things. A routine. It would never occur to us to change.’
Holly could see that was true. The everyday rituals held them together, even with the arrival of the child.
‘Usually I went to see Thomas every hour or so,’ Jill said.
The start of another ritual? Holly imagined the woman marking the time, by a specific programme on the television, getting up from her seat, climbing the stairs to enjoy the sight of her grandson. ‘But not tonight?’
‘No! Tonight, we were so wrapped up in our own affairs.’ There was a pause, then she wailed, ‘I should have checked.’
‘Can we see where he was sleeping?’
The stairs went up at an angle, close to the front door. The four climbed them in silence. There were three bedrooms and an ancient bathroom. All the doors were open, all the lights on, evidence of the frantic search which had taken place. Holly saw into a small room which they must be preparing for the baby. Wallpaper was being stripped and there was a dust cover on the floor. She wondered if once Lorna had slept there. They walked on.
‘This is our room,’ Jill said. ‘Thomas has been sleeping here with me. As I told you, I’d put him in the middle of the bed with pillows at each side to stop him rolling out.’
It was a big square space. The furniture was the same vintage as the stuff in the formal rooms downstairs, heavy, solid, built of a dark wood. A wardrobe with a brass key and a dressing table. The bed had sheets and blankets, not a duvet, and two bolsters still sat with a space between them, where the boy had been sleeping. A sash window looked out over Jill Falstone’s garden. It had been covered by a red velvet curtain. The floor was bare, apart from a rug close to the bed, the boards stained almost black. Standing at the entrance Holly saw a set of footwear prints, faint but muddy on the wooden floor.
‘You don’t wear outdoor shoes in the house?’
Jill shook her head. ‘We leave our mucky boots in the porch.’
Holly had thought as much; they were both wearing slippers, shabby sheepskin affairs.
‘It seems that somebody has been in.’ Until then Holly had thought they’d find the boy hiding somewhere in the house. Now she saw that Vera had been right to react as she had.
‘What can we do to get him back?’ Robert turned so he was facing the detectives, determined. ‘We’ll do whatever it takes.’
‘Of course.’ Joe paused. ‘You haven’t had any message on your phone? Any threats or demands?’
‘I don’t know!’ Panic seemed to be robbing Jill of all reason. Holly was pleased Joe was there. He would keep them both calm. She wasn’t sure she’d have the patience or the sympathy to see the couple through it. ‘Not on the landline. I’ll check my mobile. Not that there’s much signal in the house.’
‘I’ll go,’ Robert said. Holly thought he was pleased to have an excuse to leave the room. He was finding this unbearable.
‘Can you check if any of Thomas’s clothes are missing?’ Joe asked.
‘His outdoor things were on this chair.’ Jill was crying now, large tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘I should have noticed before. Then we wouldn’t have wasted time looking before calling your boss.’ She paused. ‘Where is she? Where is Vera?’
‘She’s looking for Thomas, of course,’ Joe said. That seemed to satisfy the woman and to stem her panic a little. ‘Why don’t you come downstairs into the warm with me? I’ll need a description of what the lad was wearing and we’ll check your phone for messages. We’ll leave Holly here
