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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

‘How could we have proved he hadn’t left the UK?’ asks Hagen. ‘We couldn’t have known he wasn’t there until we found him here. We didn’t drop any balls, Rachel. We just juggle so many of them, it isn’t humanly possible to keep all of them in the air. If we’d been allowed to stay dedicated to this case, chances are we’d have got a faster result. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just think how happy Mr and Mrs Keslake are at this moment.’

Naylor recalls giving Claire Ferrers the news Evan had been found, the car journey to Pontefract, the way Claire ran down the hospital corridor to find her son, and knows Hagen is right. Better late than never.

‘Someone had better call Mr and Mrs Ferrers,’ she says. ‘It’ll be great news for them.’

‘I hope so,’ says Hagen. ‘Maybe we should let them enjoy their Christmas first.’

Naylor understands his diffidence. There’s no doubt Claire and Matt will be relieved Evan’s tormentors are finally behind bars. But their arrests bring the prospect of courts and prosecutions, and proceedings which may cause as much stress to Evan as they will to those sitting in the dock.

FORTY-FIVE

FORTY-FIVE

25 December

Christmas morning, 6.30 a.m. Sitting in his chair with its view out of the window, Jack has drunk a pot of tea, but has no appetite this morning for his toast and marmalade. The blackness from outside seems oppressive, but there’s no prospect yet of sunrise lightening the sky.

He’s thinking about Christmas mornings of days gone by: boyhood days, the almost sleepless Christmas Eves and the unbearable excitement of the weight of a full Christmas stocking on the end of his bed, the thrill of a new bike or sledge under the tree. He’s been remembering too his first Christmas with Dora, when he bought her an engagement ring that cost him a month’s wages. In later years, that ring looked as cheap as it was, a tiny chip of a solitaire she needed a magnifying glass to see. As time went by, he bought her better jewellery, but the first ring he bought her never left her finger.

Now she’s wearing it in her grave.

He feels that pain again in his chest. It’s come and gone more regularly these past few days, a crushing, aching pressure which makes his fingers tingle and numbs his shoulder. If he sits still, it will shortly pass, and when it passes, he’ll go and find his tablets and his inhaler.

The kitchen door opens, and Evan is there, looking small in his dressing gown – though Claire’s recently bought him new slippers to replace his outgrown old ones – and carrying a pair of Christmas stockings.