Her One Mistake(17)

“I understand your need to be out there, but honestly, this is the best place you can be right now.” She turned to Harriet. “Tell me about Charlotte,” she said. “Do you leave Alice with her often?”

“No,” Harriet said. “I’ve never done it before.” Her hands felt hot and sticky as she pulled them away from Brian and ran them down the front of her skirt.

“So who would you usually leave her with?”

“I’ve never left Alice with anyone.”

“Never? And your daughter’s four?” Angela looked surprised. It was a reaction she was used to.

“Harriet doesn’t need to leave Alice with anyone,” Brian interjected. “She’s a full-time mother.”

Angela gave Brian an inquisitive look but didn’t respond. Harriet presumed that if Angela had children herself, then she probably left them a lot, especially with such a demanding job.

“But today you needed someone to look after her?” Angela asked. “Was Charlotte your first choice?”

“Yes,” Harriet said. She didn’t add that her friend was her only choice.

“So is Alice happy with Charlotte? Does she know her well?”

“She’s known her since she was born,” Harriet said. “I met Charlotte before I was pregnant.”

“And, Brian.” Angela turned to face him. “You were fishing today? Where do you go?”

“Chesil Beach,” he said. “But why do you need to know this? Surely I’m not under suspicion?”

“No. It’s just crucial we build a complete picture of everyone close to Alice. But Chesil Beach is a lovely spot,” Angela said. “My dad always went there. He said there was nothing better than sitting alone on the beach with a bottle of beer and a fishing rod. Do you go alone?”

“Yes. And I don’t drink.”

“My father used to go out on a boat too. There’s a lovely spot just past—”

“I never go on boats,” Brian said. “I don’t leave the beach. But if you need to verify I was there with someone, you can ask Ken Harris,” he said. “He was out on his boat today. He would have seen me.”

Her husband had never mentioned anyone he fished with before. She always presumed he kept to himself.

“Thank you, Brian.” Angela smiled. “And I’d like some details about your class, too, if that’s okay, Harriet?”

Harriet nodded and stood up to get the enrollment papers from her handbag.

“And I wonder if you wouldn’t mind getting me Alice’s toothbrush?” Angela said as she jotted notes on her pad.

“What?” Harriet stopped still and turned to look at Angela.

“Her toothbrush. It’s just standard procedure so I have something of hers.”

“Oh Christ,” Brian muttered, pressing the palms of his hands against the table and pushing his chair back so it screeched across the floor. “You’re thinking this already?”

? ? ?

HARRIET SLID OUT of the room, up the stairs, and into the bathroom where she could no longer hear Brian talking to Angela. Her hands shook as she clutched the sink. She knew they wanted Alice’s toothbrush for DNA. That meant they were already thinking the worst—that they would find a body instead of her daughter.

Alice’s princess toothbrush slipped through Harriet’s fingers as she reached out to take it, tumbling into the basin.

The two remaining ones didn’t look right on their own. His navy, pristine brush and hers with its bristles sticking out in every direction. She grabbed Alice’s brush and stuck it back in the pot. Angela could have a new one, an untouched one from the drawer. There were two still boxed in there, she thought as she ran her fingers over the hard plastic.

“What are you doing?”

Harriet looked up and saw two faces in the mirror. Hers was wet with tears that streamed down her cheeks in rivers. She hadn’t even noticed she had been crying. And Brian’s, whose reflection loomed over her shoulder as he turned her around to face him. Wiping away her tears with one stroke of his thumbs, he left a trail of dampness across her cheeks.

“They need this toothbrush, Harriet,” he said, and reached over to pluck it out of the pot and take it back down to Angela.

She stared at the empty space he left behind, wondering how he was able to function so easily. A carelessly picked photo that was probably the first one he came across and now he was readily handing over their daughter’s toothbrush. But Brian was good at holding it together. He was doing what was necessary to help the police find their daughter, meanwhile Harriet was left replaying the memory of Alice brushing her teeth that morning.

“Finished, Mummy,” she’d said, automatically opening her mouth wide for Harriet to check.

“Gorgeous,” she’d told Alice. “The tooth fairies will be pleased with how sparkly they are.”

A fresh wave of tears left Harriet clinging onto the sink again as if it were the only thing holding her up, until eventually Brian reappeared and pried her hands away, leading her back down to the kitchen where Angela was patiently waiting.

“I need to know what she was doing when our daughter went missing,” Brian demanded as he ushered Harriet into a seat and sat down next to her. “I want to know what Charlotte was doing, because she obviously wasn’t watching Alice.”