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Chapters (62)
  1. Title
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. About the Author
  5. About the Book
  6. Dedication
  7. Your Worst Nightmare
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. The Answer to All Your Prayers
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. Somebody Else’s Child
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. FORTY
  50. FORTY-ONE
  51. FORTY-TWO
  52. FORTY-THREE
  53. FORTY-FOUR
  54. FORTY-FIVE
  55. FORTY-SIX
  56. FORTY-SEVEN
  57. FORTY-EIGHT
  58. FORTY-NINE
  59. Sunlight on Water
  60. July
  61. September
  62. Acknowledgements

‘I caught him taking pictures of Izzy. Not naked, nothing like that. But he’d got her in her bedroom wearing my lipstick and one of my silk scarves, and he was encouraging her to do these poses, what I suppose you’d call coquettish. Something about it made me feel sick, but when I challenged him he got really angry. He said I was deranged, that he loved the kids and they were just having a bit of fun playing supermodels, but I felt I couldn’t trust him any more. You read so many horror stories, don’t you? It was over for me, after that. A couple of days later I told him to pack his bags and off he went.’

‘What happened to the pictures he took?’

Lindsey’s hands go to her face. ‘I don’t know. Oh my God. You don’t think . . . If he’s done anything with those pictures, I’ll kill him.’

‘Are you aware of the Evan Ferrers case?’ asks Naylor. ‘An abduction, late last year?’

Lindsey nods.

‘I heard about that, yes. A boy taken on his way home from school.’ She stares at Naylor. ‘Not Gary’s school? Was he working there? You know, after the incident with Izzy, I thought about reporting him, but I didn’t because I thought it was just me. Tigress mummy, over-protective, you know? He must have passed all the DBS checks to be working in schools, mustn’t he?’ Naylor’s eyebrows rise. ‘Oh my God. I did the right thing getting him out of here, didn’t I?’

‘You absolutely did,’ says Naylor. ‘I just hope for the children’s sake you did it soon enough.’

‘Now that’s what I call a result,’ says Hagen, as they walk back to the car. ‘If Prentice is still caretaker at Evan’s school, he’ll be easy enough to track down. I’ll put a call in and get someone to bring him in.’

He presses the button on his key fob to unlock the car doors.

‘This fella asking questions about the car a while back,’ he goes on, climbing into the driver’s seat, ‘and us here on an anonymous tip-off. I don’t suppose our anonymous tipster by any chance goes by the name of Ron?’

‘I’ve no idea what you’re talking about, Bradley,’ says Naylor.

FORTY-THREE

FORTY-THREE

22 December

In the interview room, Gary Prentice has adopted a bored expression which doesn’t quite hide the spark of arrogance in his eyes. His solicitor is a dour, middle-aged man who’s glanced at his watch once already, and clearly doesn’t expect to be here very long.