Her One Mistake(74)

But I had never written my plan in the notebook. I’d only kept a record of the things Brian had told me and the way I believed them.

“I have to say, I’m quite surprised you allowed him to bring her here.” He screwed his nose up as he looked around the living room. Then he turned and smiled at me. “Ah, you’re wondering how I found the book, aren’t you?”

I shook my head, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. Of course I wanted to know, I just needed to see my daughter first. “Just tell me what you’ve done to her. Tell me you haven’t hurt them.”

“You see, no one knows you like I do, Harriet. Since Alice went missing, there’s been something about your behavior that hasn’t quite fit. It was more than Alice; you were acting strangely, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then two days ago I saw you pouring a pint of milk down the sink before telling me we’d run out and you needed to buy more.”

I slumped back into the chair. Brian was always loitering in the last place I expected to find him.

“I followed you. I waited until you’d turned the corner at the end of the road and I came after you. When you went into the phone booth and came out again ten seconds later, I knew you couldn’t have made the call you wanted. So as soon as you disappeared around the corner, I went in after you and hit the redial button.”

My fists clenched tightly at my sides. How could I have been so stupid? I played back the memory in my head, but I knew I’d been so intent on calling my father I would never have noticed Brian following me.

“He answered thinking it was you. ‘Hello Harriet,’?” Brian said with a snarl, failing to imitate my dad’s voice. “?‘I’m sorry I didn’t pick up, but Alice was hanging upside down on a tree at the end of the yard.’ When I said nothing, he spoke again, a lot more nervously this time. ‘Harriet, is that you?’?” Brian laughed and shook his head. “Eventually he hung up, and when I called back he didn’t answer. So that, my love, is how I found out you knew where our daughter was.”

“What makes you think it was my dad?” I said.

He chuckled. “Are you going to pretend it wasn’t? Alice was calling out in the background. I knew it was her, I just couldn’t work out what she was saying at first. Then I played it over and over in my head until I was convinced she was calling out ‘Grandpa.’?”

I held a hand over my mouth to stop myself from crying out. My need to see my daughter was so desperate.

“It made me think that whoever had her was some sick old man trying to make her think he was her grandfather, because supposedly she didn’t have a real one, did she, Harriet?” Brian spat. “My father is dead, and allegedly so is yours,” he said. “But then I wondered, what if yours wasn’t? After all, you never went into much detail about him. Always clammed up when you mentioned his dying. Never gave me any detail; I’d no clue what had supposedly finished him off. And the more I thought about it, the more it made sense that he could still be alive.” Brian paused. “Anyway, I did a quick online search and found there was every possibility of it because there was no record of his death.

“I knew I wouldn’t get the truth out of you, so I watched you even closer. You don’t always know when I’m watching you, do you? When you came back with your milk you protested you felt ill and asked me to get you a glass of water, which I kindly did. But when I left the room, after you accused me of swapping the photo of Alice, I didn’t go downstairs like you thought. I waited for a while to see what you did next, how deep your deception ran.”

“God!” I cried. “My deception?”

“I saw you fussing around on the floor next to the bed, moving your bedside table, then pulling out a notebook. You hid it under a floorboard, didn’t you, Harriet? I found it when I looked there later. When you were downstairs I pulled it out for myself and read everything you’d ever written. I knew then for certain your dad was alive and it was clear you wanted to get away from me.

“I found the card for the cottage and called the number. I told the woman a friend of mine, Les Matthews, had recommended the place, and do you know what she said, Harriet? She said, ‘How funny. Les is staying in the cottage at the moment.’ That’s your dad’s name, isn’t it, Harriet?” He tapped the side of his head with his finger, leaning in closely, teeth bared in a smile. “See, I remember the things you told me. The ones you don’t lie about.” He leaned back, savoring his words.

“I went to see your best friend that night,” Brian said in a sudden change of conversation.

“Charlotte?” I asked, stunned.

“I thought she must’ve been involved too, but the poor cow doesn’t have a clue what you’ve done, does she? I paid a visit to my old fishing buddy yesterday too, Ken Harris. What happened there, Harriet? Your dad manage to have a word with him and get him to withdraw his alibi?”

“No,” I said. “No, my dad knows nothing about any of your fishing buddies.”

“No, well, the man’s a drunk anyway,” he said eventually. “Doesn’t have a clue who he sees and who he doesn’t. The good news is he’s making another statement for me. They’ll soon know I was there after all that day, though it won’t really matter now, will it, my love? Very soon everyone will know this is all down to you.