Blink(18)

She bounded upstairs again.

‘Mummy, wake up,’ Evie called, shaking her arm. ‘I want to go outside.’

But Mummy did not stir.

‘Mummy, PLEASE!’ Evie yelled into her ear. ‘You’ve got to wake up NOW.’

Evie stood up and stamped on the bare floorboards. She ran back downstairs and into the kitchen. If her friends thought Evie wasn’t here, they might go back home and she didn’t want that.

The key was in the lock so Evie reached forward and wiggled it. She tried the handle but the door was firmly stuck. She twisted the key this way and that, took it out and then slid it back in. She turned it hard to the left and heard a click. This time when she tried the handle, the door opened. A rush of warm breeze caressed her face and Evie smiled, turning her face up to the sun.

But there was nobody in the yard.

Her smile faded and she sat on the step, tracing a pattern in the dust with her fingertips.

‘Buster, fetch!’ someone called out.

The funny yelp sounded again and a tennis ball arced over the hedge and landed on the grass.

Evie jumped up off the step and ran down towards it in bare feet and pyjamas.

A brown and white ball of fluff barrelled through the hedge and made the yelping noise again and again.

It was a puppy! A real, live puppy.

‘Hello, cutie,’ said a tall man with a spotty face on the other side of the hedge. ‘What’s your name, then?’





17





Three Years Earlier





Toni





My eyelids flipped open. The bedroom was flooded with light. For a few seconds, I didn’t recognise the room or know why I was there.

‘Evie?’ I called, coming to at last. No answer. ‘Evie!’

I pulled on leggings and a T-shirt and rushed downstairs. The TV was on but the living room was empty.

I ran through to the kitchen to find the back door slightly ajar, the key hanging loosely from the lock on the inside.

In places, the sun had broken through the thick cloud covering and now weak shafts of light shone through the opaque glass in the door, illuminating the kitchen flooring in random patches. It felt like mid-morning but there was no clock in here so I couldn’t be sure. How on earth had I slept so long?

‘Evie!’ I yelled as I shoved my feet into the flip-flops by the door and half fell into the tiny yard. I scanned the scrubby grass lawn and the edge of the ugly panelled fence.

I could see immediately that she wasn’t there.

My breathing became erratic. I just couldn’t seem to suck enough air into my lungs. I leaned heavily on a broken plastic garden chair near the door. One of the damaged legs gave way and I stumbled, twisting my ankle slightly.

I yelped in pain.

‘Mummy!’ Seconds later, a beaming Evie emerged, crawling on all fours, through a hole in the hedge that had been masked by overgrown foliage.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ I rushed towards her. ‘Where have you been?’

‘My fault, sorry.’ The head and shoulders of a tall, skinny young man appeared over the hedge. He grinned, revealing blackened teeth. ‘She wanted to see the new puppy.’

The oldest trick in the book, which every parent in the country warned their kids against.

‘Who are you?’ I snapped. ‘I’ve been looking for her everywhere. I thought—’

‘I’m Colin,’ he said, the grin turning to a frown. ‘Mam said she’d met you the day you moved in, yeah?’

This must be Sal’s eldest son. The convicted criminal.

‘You alright?’ He stared at me with cold eyes. ‘You look like you’re about to pass out any second.’

‘Of course I’m not fu—’ I looked at Evie, who was wide-eyed, taking it all in. I bit back my language. ‘I’m most definitely not alright. I come downstairs and find that a strange man, who I’ve never seen before, has taken my daughter out of the garden without my permission.’

‘Now, just hold on a minute.’ I noted the seamless switch to a more aggressive tone. ‘The kid crawled through the hedge when she heard me playing over this side with our Buster. She’s been out here on her own for bloody ages. More to the point, where have you been?’

‘Evie,’ I called in clipped tones. ‘Inside, now.’

‘Mummy, no! Colin said I can help him feed Buster.’

I bet he did.

‘Inside. NOW!’ I raised my voice.

Infuriatingly, Evie looked at Colin in the hope he might support her pleading.

‘You’d best go inside, flower,’ he told her. ‘Looks like your mam’s about to have a bloody hernia.’

I held out my hand in a gesture of affection to Evie but she stormed past me, back inside the house.

‘It’s NOT FAIR!’ she yelled as she slammed the kitchen door behind her.

I turned and glared at Colin.

‘Lovely little girl you’ve got there, missus,’ he smirked, taking a deep drag on a roll-up. ‘Sweet as sugar, she is.’

When I got inside, I felt grimy just from talking to him. Evie was back in the living room and had closed the door.

‘Evie,’ I said softly, walking in. ‘Don’t ever go out there again on your own without telling me. Do you understand?’