“Me?” She stared at the baby in yellow held by the nurse. “Oh, yes,” she said, attempting a smile, “of course. If you don’t mind.”

Patrick said, “You don’t have to, babe, if you don’t want to.”

“I do,” she said quickly, “I do want to. I do.”

She cradled the baby in her arms and crossed her legs underneath. Morgan watched her from above the bottle as he suckled. The milk was disappearing fast.

“His eyes,” said Patrick, “are they changing colour? They used to be blue, didn’t they?”

“You see it too?” she said.

“Well, sure. They look kind of green at the edges.”

Ruthie said, “Riley too, actually, when you look closely. How odd.”

“It’s odd, isn’t it?” said Lauren. “Really odd, right?” So it wasn’t just her, she wasn’t imagining it. “They’re changing, right in front of us. And you can see it too. Can’t you?”

She knew she’d said something, or done something strange, by the way they all looked at her then, sort of sideways.

Ruthie said,“Yes, but honey, I don't think it’s that odd, not really.”

“No?”

“Babies’ eyes do change colour,” said the nurse.

“They do?” said Lauren, feeling the tremor in her voice.

“Yes, often. Especially if they start off blue. It’s nothing to worry about.”

“But no one in our family has green eyes. No one.”

When she looked again at Morgan’s eyes they were closed. In Ruthie’s arms, Riley had finished his milk and was also asleep.

“Peace at last,” said the nurse.

Chapter 31

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

AUGUST 16TH
11 A.M.

Harper’s email pinged with a message from Forensics. The subject line read: GPS analysis results. When she opened it, she saw that it contained a map showing the location of Natasha’s phone at several critical points. There was the phone, right by the cafe at the exact time the cafe staff confirmed that Lauren had left with the stroller, after her coffee with Cindy and Rosa: the GPS signal was nearby, but on the other side of the river. So, Natasha had been watching Lauren from the far bank, perhaps concealed behind the bushes that grew there.

The text message that corresponded to the coordinates read: Why can’t you love me the way you love her? She’s nothing special.

Further points on the map showed that Natasha had followed Lauren upriver for a while, but then gone past the bench where Lauren had been sitting and back towards her own car. At the approximate time the babies were taken, Natasha was at least half a mile further on, sending Patrick a long apology for everything she’d said and done, and begging him to reply.