Unable to see her, but desperate to find her, I had to throw caution to the wind. ‘Rachel Burton?’ I called out, hoping she was there somewhere. The orderly looked startled, confused by what I was doing. ‘Is Rachel Burton here?’ The murmuring fell away and everyone turned to look. The orderly realized something was wrong and tried to take hold of my arm, but I rushed into the centre of the room, hoping someone would reply. ‘Rachel!’ There was silence as all those faces looked blankly at me. The nurse shook herself into action and jumped up. ‘Rachel Burton!’

Then, in a blur, the orderly was making for me, but Tibbot got in his way and they smacked against one of the seats, struggling. The nurse ran towards them too, sending a tray of food crashing to the floor, until Tibbot drew out his warrant card. ‘Police,’ he shouted. ‘Let go.’ The man did as Tibbot commanded, and there was an eerie sort of calm as we all stood facing each other.

The silence was punctuated by a quiet voice, timid as a shrew’s, almost too timid to be heard. ‘Over there,’ it said. It was an old woman with straggling, near-transparent hair, thinning on the top. ‘She’s over there. Rachel.’

19

We followed the woman’s thin finger to a figure in the corner of the room with her hands clasped together and her back hunched over so we couldn’t see her face.

‘Rachel?’ I said.

She lifted her head and I caught sight of the features I had seen in the photograph from a few years earlier, but they were changed almost beyond recognition. Where the printed image had been of an attractive young woman, her dark hair tied back, here I saw her as if she had aged by a decade, her hair now matted and greying. And yet her eyes were keen as they locked on to mine.

‘Rachel Burton?’ I asked, as we edged towards her.

She made no reply but stared at the doorway. We spun around to find Larren looking furious. Another orderly appeared behind him.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ he demanded. ‘Get out!’

‘You said there was no Rachel Burton here,’ I replied. His jaw worked as if he were trying to speak, yet no words came from his mouth.

‘That car’s stolen,’ Tibbot added. ‘Should we take a look in your garage? Now, we need to talk to her.’

Larren wiped his brow on his sleeve. ‘Bring her to the visiting room,’ he muttered to the orderlies. ‘They’re police.’ I felt a thrum of nerves. So long as he kept thinking we were there on official business, we would be safe. But if he began to doubt us, there was no guessing what the outcome could be.