Alex Lake - After Anna

‘Anyone else?’ PC Davis asked.

‘No,’ Julia said. ‘Only myself or Brian or Edna pick her up, and she knows not to go with strangers.’

‘Could another parent have seen her alone and taken her home? Maybe tried to call you?’

‘I don’t think so.’ Julia looked at her phone. ‘There are no missed calls.’

‘It is possible, though,’ PC Davis said. ‘Who would be the most likely to do something like that?’

Julia looked down. Her shoes were scuffed from the search in the village. ‘Perhaps Dawn Swift’s mum, Gemma. Or maybe Sheila Parks.’

‘Could you call and ask them?’

Julia nodded and found Gemma Swift’s number on her phone. Gemma picked up on the second ring.

‘Hi Julia,’ Gemma said. ‘How’s it going?’

She hesitated for a moment, hoping that Gemma would fill the gap with a declaration that Anna was with her and she hoped Julia didn’t mind but she’d brought her home when she saw she was alone at the school and she’d meant to call but the girls wanted a snack and then the dog had to be fed, and you know how things can get away from you.

‘Are you there, Julia?’ Gemma said.

‘Yes. Gemma, did you happen to see Anna at school today?’

‘No. Why?’

‘I was late. And when I got here she was gone.’

‘What do you mean, gone?’

‘She wasn’t at the school. I can’t find her.’

‘Oh my God.’ The horror in Gemma’s voice was like a sudden blow to the stomach. It crystallized everything that was bad about this situation into one moment, and it left Julia short of breath.

This is real now , she thought. This is the real thing.

‘Jules,’ Gemma said. ‘Can I help?’

‘I don’t think so. The police are here.’

‘I’ll call round some people,’ she said. ‘The more people looking the better.’

Julia was suddenly sick of this conversation, sick of everything it meant.

‘I have to go,’ she said. ‘Thanks Gemma.’

‘Could you call the other person you mentioned?’ PC Davis said. ‘And anyone else that springs to mind. In the meantime, I’m going to radio in for some more officers.’

Julia nodded. Mrs Jacobsen gestured towards her office.

‘You can go in there,’ she said. ‘Have some privacy.’

Fifteen minutes later the door to Mrs Jacobsen’s office opened. PC Davis came in. He had the false smile of someone who had bad news but wanted to be reassuring.

‘We did not find Anna on the way to your house,’ he said. He paused, ‘so we have to consider the possibility that she’s a little further afield.’

Julia reached for Brian’s hand again. This time he took it.

‘What does that mean?’ Julia asked. ‘Where’s Anna? Where’s my daughter?’

PC Davis shuffled uncomfortably from foot to foot.

‘My colleague will be here shortly,’ he said. ‘She’ll have more information.’

v.

Twenty minutes later a woman in a dark suit came into the headmistress’s office. She was in her late thirties and had a confident bearing, the kind that comes with many years of taking control of situations. Don’t worry, everything about her was saying . I can fix whatever’s wrong here .

‘Mrs Crowne?’ she said. ‘I’m Detective Inspector Wynne.’

Detective Inspector Wynne had short blonde hair, blue eyes, and an unsmiling expression. Her eyes were steady and intense, but she looked tired; there was a puffiness to the dark circles around her eyes that suggested lack of sleep or too much booze, or both.

Her demeanour was calm and professional, but to Julia it looked as though DI Wynne took her job too personally for her own good. Not that Julia cared: she wanted DI Wynne to feel like finding Anna was the most important thing in her life.

The detective looked at Julia, then at Brian, then back at Julia. Her expression softened. ‘Mr and Mrs Crowne, I understand that you are worried – more than worried, I’m a mother myself – but try not to be. The vast majority of the time we find the child and everything is ok. And trust me, we will do everything we can to find her.’

‘Thank you,’ Julia said, feeling no calmer at all. ‘So what’s next?’

‘Perhaps you can take me through what happened. Step by step, if you could. As much detail as you can remember.’

‘There’s not much I can tell you,’ Julia said. ‘I arrived here around three thirty—’

‘Late,’ Brian said. ‘School finishes at three.’

‘I was late,’ Julia admitted. ‘But I thought she’d be here!’

‘That’s ok, Mrs Crowne. Just the facts for now, please. Did the school know you would be late?’

‘No! I was stuck in a meeting and my phone was dead and I couldn’t call them.’

‘In a meeting?’ DI Wynne said.

‘I’m a solicitor. Custody cases, mainly.’

‘I see. Well, it’s a busy job. So when you got here, there was no sign of Anna?’

Julia explained what she had done, how she had guessed that Anna would be in The Village Sweete Shoppe and gone down there, how she had asked some people for help, how she had searched the village until Brian called. When she was finished, DI Wynne nodded and chewed her lip thoughtfully.

She turned to the headmistress. ‘Mrs Jacobsen, I’ll need a list of all the parents and children who were at the school today, as well as all the employees of the school, whether they were here or not.’

Mrs Jacobsen nodded. ‘It’s not only parents who pick up the pupils,’ she said. ‘But we have a register of all those who are permitted to do so. I can let you have it.’

‘Do you have CCTV inside the school?’

Mrs Jacobsen’s mouth tightened into a slight moue. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘We do. Much as I prefer the promotion of civil liberties – we aim to produce responsible citizens who do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, and not because they think they are being observed – we have bent to the general panic about these matters and have installed CCTV.’

‘You must be glad you did, now,’ DI Wynne said. ‘And there might be something else in the area we can use. Could you make sure that the officers get access to the CCTV?’

‘Of course,’ Mrs Jacobsen said. ‘Right away.’

‘I have a question,’ Brian said, turning to the headmistress, his face a dark red. ‘How the hell did this happen? I thought the teachers did not let children out of the grounds unless they knew there was a parent there?’

That was right, Julia thought. The school had a pick-up policy and it was strictly adhered to. Only parents or designated carers could pick up children, although they were not allowed on the school grounds; the pupils were accompanied to the school gates and handed over to their responsible adults. In the case of an adult being late, they were to notify the school, and that pupil stayed inside. If, as Julia had done, the adult failed to notify the school, then the child would be ok: they would be left at the gates with a teacher, and brought inside to wait.

But it hadn’t worked this time.

‘I’ve spoken to the teachers,’ Mrs Jacobsen said. ‘They said that they thought you were there, Mrs Crowne. They expected you to be there since you had not called to say you would not be.’

‘She wasn’t there, though, was she!’ Brian said. ‘And you were supposed to take care of my daughter! That’s what we pay your obscene school fees for!’

‘Mr Crowne,’ the headmistress said. ‘The school adhered to its policies. I am sure the CCTV will show that. We do everything we can to ensure the safety—’

‘But not enough!’ Brian shouted.

‘We have policies in place that have been independently reviewed and which are in accordance with all necessary legislation,’ Mrs Jacobsen said. ‘And I am, of course, open to any questions you and Julia might have, but I’m not sure that now is the best time to discuss them.’