The Other People: A Novel(48)

It had been a long time since Gabe had been comforted by anyone. Touched by anyone. Gabe tried not to think about it too much. But, sometimes, it got to him. He yearned to be part of a couple again. To have a female body next to his at night. To share secret smiles, kisses, jokes. Even if, for a long while, the communication between himself and Jenny had been more in the way of stone-cold silences. He even missed that.

You don’t need another person to make your life complete. But life, like a jigsaw with missing pieces, is hard to complete on your own. And there endeth the drunken philosophy for the evening. His phone started to ring.

“Hello?”

“Gabriel?”

A woman’s voice. No one else called him Gabriel.

“DI Maddock?”

“Can you talk? Is this a bad time?”

“Yes. I mean no, I can talk.”

“Where are you?”

“A hotel.”

“No van?”

“Not tonight.”

“Okay. Which hotel?”

“Erm, Holiday Inn, off Junction 18. In the bar.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in about half an hour.”

“Why? I mean, I didn’t expect to hear from you again so soon.”

“There’s been a development.”

“What sort of development?”

“I’ll tell you when I get there.”

“Can’t you just tell me on the phone?”

“No.” A pause. “You need to see this.”





Katie pulled up near the park. She felt nervous and guilty. She had never left Sam and Gracie on their own at home before. Christ. She could be reported to the police. She had locked the door but left Sam a key. In her sternest voice she had told him not to open the door to anyone but her. She would be half an hour, tops.

He had rolled his eyes. “I’m not an idiot.”

“I know. You’re very grown-up, which is why I’m trusting you like this.”

“Where are you going, Mummy?” Gracie had asked, hovering at the living-room door.

“I just have to help a little girl who is in trouble.”

“Why?”

“She’s your cousin, and she’s lost, and I have to bring her back here.”

“We have another cousin? What’s her name?”

“Alice. Now, I’ll make hot chocolate for everyone when I get back. Okay?”

“Yay! Hot chocolate!”

The park was only a ten-minute drive away. Katie knew it well. She had played there herself as a child and even taken Sam and Gracie once or twice. But this evening it looked smaller and more run-down than she remembered. The street felt narrow and gloomy; several of the streetlights were broken.

Still, the girl had been clever. The school was just up the road and parents would often bring their children here to let off steam on the way home. Of course, at seven thirty, all the other children had gone—back to nice, warm houses with families that loved them. Or so Katie liked to think. Perhaps that wasn’t true. Perhaps some went back to homes where their parents argued and threw things, or to homes where Dad was busy, and Mum didn’t care, and they were left to fend for themselves. It was easy to imagine that other people had the fairy tale, but the truth was the shiny front doors, hanging baskets and neatly mown lawns didn’t tell the whole story.

She locked the car and looked around. No sign of anyone; even the small bungalows that lined the road looked quiet and empty, only the faintest slivers of light through pulled curtains. She shivered.

What are you doing here, Katie? You should be home, with your own children. Let the police deal with this.

She zipped up her jacket and shoved the thoughts away. Whatever was going on, a little girl was in trouble, and if either of her children were ever alone and scared, then she hoped someone would help them. It was something their dad had always said to them: If not you, then who?

She entered the park and walked along a pathway that ran past a small pond. The playground was on her left. It looked deserted. She took out her phone and pulled up the most recent number. She pressed call. Distantly, she heard the sound of another phone ringing. She waited and then a small figure emerged from the shadows beneath the climbing frame.

“Alice?”

The girl hovered uncertainly. She was very slight, dressed in jeans, Uggs and a dark hoodie. In one hand, she clutched a small pink rucksack decorated with purple flowers. Katie’s heart constricted. She looked so young, so vulnerable.

“Are you Katie?”

Katie nodded. “Yes, I’m your—” She hesitated. “Aunt” sounded odd when they had only just met. “I’m your mum’s sister.”

The girl looked down, her face cast into more shadows. “Fra—…Mum told me, if something ever happened, that I should call you. That you would do the right thing.”

“Where is your mum, Alice?”

“I— I don’t know.”

“Is she in some kind of trouble?”

Alice nodded then jumped at a rustle of bushes from the right. Katie jumped, too, squinting into the semi-darkness. The girl’s twitchiness was contagious. Probably just a bird or the wind. Still, Katie realized that she didn’t really want to hang around here in the deserted park any longer.