Her One Mistake(22)

“And what exactly were you doing?” In contrast to the softness of Harriet’s voice, Brian’s was fiercely powerful. “When she went missing, what were you actually doing that meant you weren’t watching my daughter?”

“I was waiting for them at the front.”

“But I want to know what you were doing,” he said. “Because it wasn’t what you should have been.”

“I was with Evie,” I said. “I was just waiting.”

“Were you on your phone?” he barked. “Did you get distracted?”

“I, erm, well, I looked at my phone, but only for a moment. I was still keeping an eye on the children and—” I stopped. Of course I hadn’t kept an eye on the children or none of us would be here. If I had, Alice would be asleep in her bed upstairs.

“But you weren’t watching her, were you?” Brian’s words felt like they had been screamed at me, but in reality they were tense and quiet as they hissed through his teeth. He’d moved forward until he was almost hanging off the sofa. His face was now only inches from mine, and as much as I wanted to recoil, I couldn’t move. “And you didn’t see a thing,” he said, and all I could do was shake my head again, while tears now sprang out of my eyes and slid down my cheeks. His gaze was drawn to them trickling down and I rubbed at them roughly with the back of my hand. He looked like he was about to comment, when Harriet spoke timidly from behind him.

“How was she?”

Brian inhaled a large breath through his flared nostrils.

“Sorry?” I leaned to one side so I could see past Brian.

“How was Alice? Was she happy?”

“Yes, she was perfectly happy.” I tried a weak smile. I knew Brian had every right to be there, but how I wished I could take hold of Harriet’s hand and speak to her alone. Just her and me. “She was playing with Molly,” I said. “She seemed absolutely fine. She wasn’t upset about anything.”

“What did she have to eat?” Harriet asked.

Brian swung around to look at her. “?‘What did she have to eat?’?” he repeated.

“Yes,” she said quietly, her gaze drifted up to meet his. “I want to know what Alice ate at the fair. Before she—” Harriet stopped.

“She had some cotton candy,” I said quickly. The tears continued to run down my face. I stopped bothering to wipe them away as I remembered how carefully Alice had picked at her treat.

“Oh!” Harriet threw her hand to her mouth. “She’s never had cotton candy before.”

My heart plummeted. Harriet’s eyes were wide and wet with tears. I wanted to tell her that Alice had enjoyed it; I was sure she would want to know that, but already Brian was speaking again.

“You mean you didn’t give her lunch—” he snapped, suddenly cut off by the sound of an eerie, painfully long wail filling the room.

Harriet slumped forward, her hands gripped tightly to either side of her head. “I can’t bear this anymore. Get out, Charlotte!” she screamed. “I need you to go. Please, just get out of the house.”

Brian immediately grabbed her rocking body in his arms, whispering words I couldn’t hear. “Please just leave, Charlotte,” she sobbed.

I stood up, my legs shaking. I couldn’t bear this anymore either.

In the doorway Angela held out a hand as she stood to one side. Numbly I edged toward her. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered, tears now cascading down my cheeks unchecked.

“Don’t tell me you’re sorry again,” Brian said over his wife’s head. His cheeks were blotched in patches of fiery red. “You can go back to your children now. You managed to take them home safely.”

“I think you’d better go,” Angela said as she led me into the hallway.

“I’m going to do everything I can,” I sobbed. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get Alice back. Can you tell them that? I’ll do anything.”





NOW


And you hadn’t heard from Harriet at all after that evening you went to their house?” Detective Rawlings asks.

“That’s right.”

“Not until this morning,” she says. “Thirteen days later.”

“No.” I feel my chest getting tighter. “Not until she called me today.”

I can feel the ground start to soften beneath me and the air feels heavier. I expect her to ask me more about the call but she doesn’t, and I realize there’s no point in me trying to second-guess why.

“You said you would have liked the chance to talk with Harriet on her own. Why?”

I shift uneasily. “I guess because it’s Harriet who’s my friend and I didn’t know Brian. I wanted—” I break off and slump in my seat, looking up at the clock. Its bright red digits blur in front of me. “I wanted the chance to tell her on her own just how dreadful I felt,” I admit eventually.

“I hoped that if I could talk to Harriet, just the two of us the way we used to, then I could get her to see I hadn’t done anything wrong, like Brian was implying. Yes, I’d let them out of my sight and I wished more than anything I hadn’t, but I was still there, I was a few yards away, and Alice really did just vanish. I wanted Harriet to understand I was looking after her like I’d promised, only—” Tears prick at my eyes. “Only I also knew I wasn’t.”