They fell silent as they contemplated that possibility. What could it have been? A prank that went wrong? Did they leave drugs lying around which Frankie had found and overdosed on? Maybe she fell down the stairs or out of an open window. Or did she wander out of the open back door while her sister and her sister’s boyfriend were having sex in her room? How far would a three-year-old go on her own? Patrick could picture it all too clearly: the accident, the desperation, the panic. And yet Alice, whilst obviously upset, hadn’t seemed utterly distraught when he’d interviewed her. She’d have to be a consummate actress to have pulled off that level of composure if she had just disposed of her little sister’s body.

‘What do you think Adrian?’ Suzanne asked. ‘Have you got any theories?’

Winkler pulled a face. ‘I don’t know. I can’t see the teenagers having the bottle to cover it up.’ Patrick felt irrationally irritated that he’d echoed his own thoughts.

‘But you haven’t got any better ideas?’ Carmella said.

‘Don’t start,’ Suzanne warned. She turned her attention to Patrick. ‘I think your third scenario sounds plausible. Let’s get Alice and Larry in now.’ She glanced at the clock on the wall and smiled wryly. ‘We could have this wrapped up by teatime.’

They agreed that Patrick would drive to pick up Alice while Carmella went to get Larry. They didn’t want to give either teenager the opportunity to warn the other.

Thirty minutes later, Patrick pulled up outside the Philipses’ house. He felt better now they were moving again. Call me DI Shark, he thought, ironically. Keep moving or die. The Philips residence was silent and still, but Helen answered the door almost immediately.

In a low voice, Patrick said, ‘I need to talk to Alice.’

Helen Philips had been stripped of her sheen. Her skin was dull, her clothes rumpled, and her eyes were bloodshot and puffy.

‘So do I,’ she replied. ‘Alice has gone.’

Chapter 29

Chapter 29
Alice – Day 5 – Late Afternoon

Alice awoke, drenched in sweat inside her sleeping bag. She knew immediately where she was; her brain didn’t allow her a moment of respite from the truth, from the horror of her situation. She needed to get out of this disgusting, stinking sleeping bag. But her body wouldn’t obey her brain. Instead, she lay helplessly as scenes from earlier that day replayed inside her mind.