He thought for a moment before nodding. ‘Ok. I’ll back off. But only for tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow.’
‘Jesus!’ Matilda cursed, turning back to the house. How can someone so young and inexperienced ooze such confidence and pugnaciousness? Wanker.
Ellen opened the door before she had time to ring the bell. ‘He’s been out there for about an hour.’
‘Whichever dickless president presses the nuclear button first, the only creatures left roaming the planet will be cockroaches and journalists,’ Matilda said, entering the house.
‘And I’m sure they’ll be very happy together,’ Ellen said with a smile.
In the living room, Craig was sitting on the sofa next to the coffee table where the phone was. He was dressed in a mismatched tracksuit. Linda was curled up next to him. She looked shattered despite having slept for more than fourteen hours. Her hair was knotted and dry. Her skin was blotchy, and her half-open eyes were red.
Matilda gave them both a wan smile and sat on the edge of the armchair opposite. In the background, she could hear the sound of Riley giggling. She guessed Jodie was with him. Sian and Ellen hovered at the side of the room.
The clock was ticking.
The atmosphere in the room was dark and heavy. Apart from the noise from Riley’s bedroom, the silence was palpable. Linda kept wiping her eyes and rubbing her red nose with a soaked tissue. Craig was biting on his bottom lip and drumming his fingers impatiently on the arm of the sofa. He was a seething mass of emotions which threatened to erupt at any moment.
Four o’clock came and went.
‘How long do we leave it?’ Craig asked, breaking the silence like a hammer to a window.
Matilda looked at her watch. It was three minutes past four.
‘What was the exact time the call came through?’ Matilda looked to Sian.
Sian flicked through the pages of her notebook. ‘Seven minutes past four.’
‘They’re not going to wait until bang on seven minutes past four for fuck’s sake,’ Craig said, his face reddening in anger.
‘We don’t know that, Craig,’ Ellen said. ‘We don’t know how their minds are going to work. At the end of the day, they want their money, so they’ll stick to their plan.’
‘But we don’t have that kind of money,’ Linda said, struggling to keep hold of her tears.
‘We need to take this one step at a time,’ Matilda said. ‘When that phone rings, you need to speak calmly and slowly. Ask to speak to Keeley. If they ask if you have the money, tell them yes. Then we’ll go from there.’
‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ Linda said. She was a physical and emotional wreck.
‘You have to,’ Craig said harshly. He put his thick, muscular arm around her and pulled her close to him. She sank into his embrace and smiled when he kissed the top of her head. ‘I’ll be with you. We’ll get through this together. I promise.’
Matilda watched them. Two doting parents who had done nothing wrong forced to endure the nightmare of one of their children being stolen from them. It broke her heart to witness them falling apart. She turned away quickly to look out of the window. She had to stop thinking of them as Philip and Sally Meagan. This was a completely different case. She knew the Meagans. She didn’t know the Armitages. One of them could be responsible for Keeley’s disappearance. They both could.
Linda’s face was blank. Her eyes were red. She looked genuinely anguished. Craig was more difficult to read. He was being the caring husband and father, trying to be strong for them all. Trying. Matilda didn’t like that word. It smacked of someone putting on a performance.
Time ticked by agonisingly slowly. Seven minutes past four came and went. As did ten past. As did half past.
‘They’re not calling, are they?’ Craig asked.
‘It doesn’t look like it,’ Matilda said reluctantly.
‘Oh my God, they’ve killed her,’ Linda cried. ‘They’ve killed her. They’ve killed my baby. Oh Jesus Christ, Craig, they’ve killed her.’ She collapsed into her husband and he held her tight, rocking back and forth on the sofa to try and calm her down.
Linda couldn’t manufacture all those tears.
Matilda gave the nod to Ellen while she and Sian stepped out of the living room.
‘You knew there wasn’t going to be a phone call,’ Sian said quietly.
‘I didn’t know for sure, but I’m not surprised the phone didn’t ring.’
‘Why?’
‘Simply because they don’t have the money. If someone kidnaps a child for ransom it’s from someone who obviously has the means to pay. And these people don’t.’
‘What now?’ Sian asked.
‘I want Sebastian Page found.’
‘Uniform are outside his flat, but he hasn’t come home.’
‘Run his registration number through ANPR, get it picked up and hunt him down,’ Matilda said through gritted teeth. She took a deep breath to calm herself. ‘Tomorrow, at first light, we start a search. I want a full team out here looking in every park, alley, field and wood. We’re on the outskirts of Sheffield. There’s farms and woodland close by; they all need to be searched. I want dogs out here and a helicopter in the sky. We rip this whole place apart until we find her.’
‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’ Sian asked.
Matilda took a deep breath. ‘It would appear the kidnap was a hoax to cover up what’s really happened. In my opinion that can only mean one thing.’
They heard movement and turned around to see Jodie standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She’d overheard every word.
‘She’s dead?’ she asked. Her voice was fragile. Tears were streaming down her face. ‘You think she’s dead?’
‘Jodie, we’re hoping and praying that Keeley is alive and safe, but we have to think of every eventuality,’ Sian said, running over to the girl and holding her by the shoulders. ‘I know you may think we sound heartless, but we’re just doing our job. It’s not easy. I’m sorry.’
Jodie sniffled. ‘I don’t want …’
‘What? What don’t you want?’ Sian asked.
‘I don’t want this to drag on. Mum won’t survive. If she really is dead, you need to find her body. Mum isn’t strong like Sally Meagan. She won’t be able to cope with not knowing what happened.’
Matilda stood back and watched as Jodie fell apart and Sian tried to placate her. In the living room, Linda was sobbing loudly, and Ellen was making all the right noises to try and make her feel better, but her words were falling on deaf ears.
It was happening all over again. A child had been kidnapped. The ransom demand had gone awry and Matilda was standing in the middle of the fallout. The sensation of her phone vibrating in her jacket pocket made her jump. She pulled it out and saw it was an email from Valerie. The subject line read ‘Carl Meagan’. There was no message, just an attachment. Matilda knew what it was. She opened it and looked at the face of the boy who was calling himself Carl Meagan.
Chapter 18
There was a great deal of work to be done – so much to organise for the search to begin at first light tomorrow morning, and Matilda wanted a press conference as soon as possible so Craig and Linda could get the whole country looking for their daughter. However, for once, she was going to listen to what Valerie kept telling her: delegate. She told Sian to get the search set in motion and sent an email to DI Brady to set up the press conference. Matilda needed some time away from the Armitage family.