Her One Mistake(16)

Harriet obligingly sat at the table, blankly watching as Officer Shaw murmured a good-bye and left the kitchen. She wondered what the arrival of a new detective meant for them. Meanwhile Brian had insisted he would make a cup of tea for everyone, as he pulled out a chair for Angela.

“Thank you very much, Brian.” She smiled at him, and Harriet immediately wondered if she shouldn’t have been so ready to let their new guest make the drinks, but she had no desire to do it.

“So you’re a detective?” Brian asked her.

“I am,” she said. “I’m here to keep you updated, and if there’s anything you need, you just ask. We find families prefer having one person to speak to, someone they can get to know.”

“But ultimately you’re a detective?” Brian asked again.

“Yes. I’ll be liaising with the officers who are looking for Alice,” she said.

Harriet knew that wasn’t what Brian meant, but he didn’t respond as he dropped teabags into mugs, took the milk from the fridge, and gave the bottle a little shake before carefully pouring it in. They both knew Angela was also there to gather information from inside their four walls that could be fed back to the officers at the station.

“I feel like we don’t know anything,” he said when he carefully placed mugs in front of Angela and Harriet. “Officer Shaw didn’t tell us much. We don’t even know who’s looking for Alice.”

Brian had always had a light tan on his face and his cheeks usually wore a ruddy tinge above his neatly trimmed stubble, but right then they were drained of color. Harriet was grateful for him making conversation. If she opened her mouth she was afraid she might break down again and that wouldn’t get them anywhere.

“Well, right now there are many officers looking for her,” Angela said as Brian joined them at the table.

“Where are they looking?” he asked. “How many people are out there?”

“As many as we have. We’re treating your daughter’s disappearance with the highest priority.”

“Will you find her?” he asked, his words cracking as they left his mouth.

“We will,” Angela replied, and she looked so certain that for a moment Harriet believed they would.

“But you haven’t found the other one,” Brian continued. “He’s still missing after months.”

“There’s no reason to think the two cases have anything to do with each other at this stage.”

“But they might,” he persisted. “That kid went missing exactly like Alice, so they could be linked.”

“Mason,” Harriet said softly. “His name is Mason.”

They both paused and glanced at her, as if they’d forgotten she was there. Mason Harbridge wasn’t just a kid, he was a boy with a name and a mother who’d publicly fallen to pieces. Harriet knew everything about the case, having pored over the news, becoming obsessed with the story as it had unfolded bit by bit. The fact he had gone missing from a village like theirs in Dorset made it feel so close to home.

More than once, fingers had been pointed at the parents, but Harriet didn’t believe they were involved. Her heart went out to them when she saw the press invading their lives, exposing everything about their family for the world to see. No one thought that seven months would pass and there’d still be no news of little Mason.

“Like I said, there’s nothing at all linking Alice’s disappearance to Mason’s,” Angela said. “As far as we know, your daughter walked away from the fair on her own volition and is lost.”

“I just can’t believe no one saw anything,” Brian seethed, shaking his head as he sat back in his chair. “There must have been crowds of people there.” He looked from Angela to Harriet. “I don’t get it. I don’t get it at all.” Brian stood up and walked to the sink, leaning his back against it and holding his hands together in front of his lips as if in prayer. “God, I mean why, Harriet?”

“Why what?” she asked, although she knew exactly what he meant.

“Why was Alice with Charlotte? Why wasn’t she with you? Where were you?”

Harriet bit her bottom lip. She felt Angela’s eyes on her.

“I was taking a class,” she said.

“A class? What do you mean ‘a class’?” He rested his hands on the counter as if he was trying to steady himself. “Harriet?” he said again. “What class are you talking about?”

“A bookkeeping class,” she said finally.

He stared at her, his whole body frozen, until his lips eventually moved but they didn’t make a sound. When they did, his voice was soft. “You never mentioned a bookkeeping class to me.”

“I did,” Harriet said slowly, keeping eye contact with him. “I told you about it last week.”

Brian’s eyebrows furrowed deeper as he came back to the table and sat down next to her again. She could sense his confusion, but she also wanted to remind him that none of this mattered.

“No, my love,” he said softly as he held out his hands to her, palms upturned on the table. “No, you definitely didn’t.” Harriet lowered her hands into his as his fingers curled around them. “But it’s not relevant right now, is it? Finding Alice is paramount.” He turned back to Angela. “I want to be out there looking for my daughter. I feel useless sitting here.”