“No,” said Lauren, “no.” Her head was the only part of her that she could move and she shook it, no no no. The repetitive motion was soothing, so she kept doing it. “Why am I strapped down?” she asked. “Are you taking me to prison?” She thought of the bad thing she had done, trying to get rid of the evil babies into the river. No one seemed to understand why she’d done that, even though she kept telling them. I need to put them back in the river, where they came from, so that I can get my own boys back. She’s got them under the water, that woman. That’s where she lives, that’s where she’s taken my boys.

The policeman sat next to her. “I’m just going to explain what’s happening, Lauren. You’ve not been arrested.”

“No?”

“No, love.”

“So why have I been tied up? Let me go if I’m not under arrest.”

“It’s to protect you. We’re detaining you under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act. That means we’re taking you to a place of safety as we deem you to be a danger to yourself and others at this time.”

“Oh, no,” she said, “you really don’t understand. I wasn’t harming them. They live there, don’t you see? They came from there, I was just taking them back. They don’t belong here, and my boys don’t belong down there.” Her voice cracked and broke as she thought of her lost little boys, under the water, needing her but not being able to find her. “You’ll see,” she begged in a whisper, “just let me out. I know what I have to do.”

The police officer said, “The detention lasts for seventy-two hours, during which time you’ll be assessed by a doctor who will decide if you need to be detained under Section 2, which lasts for a little while longer.”

Three days. How long until Morgan and Riley forgot about her altogether? She needed to find them right now.

“They won’t drown, not those two in the stroller. They can swim. I’ve seen them before, in their normal bodies—they look like eels, not like babies at all. I saw them in the hospital, in the basket she had. But Morgan and Riley, they’ve never even been to a pool, they’re too little. They won’t know what to do. Something’s gone wrong, don’t you see? I need to put it right. Just please, let me go, please.”

“You’re a lucky lady, actually. Usually we’d have to take you to the station temporarily but we’ve called the Hope Park unit and they have a spare bed, so we’re taking you straight there. You’ll be nice and comfy. Not like in the cells.” The man gave a small chuckle.