“You’re not mad, honey. At least, we’re not supposed to call it that, according to the doctor. You just need a bit of a rest.”

She slipped her hand in his, squeezed.

“It’s good, don’t worry. It’s all good, don’t you see? I can see it was all in my head, and the solution’s simple. I can get better. I feel better already.”

“The important thing is, we have them. They came back to us. That stupid girl took them, but she brought them back.”

Lauren thought, if only that were true. But I’ll find them again, even if I have to do it alone. Even if it kills me.

“When they were gone,” said Patrick, “in that short time when we didn’t know where they were or who had them, I felt like I’d died and gone to hell. We’d lost our babies, and the life I took for granted had been lost along with them. I got a taste of what it must be like to lose them for good. It was devastating. It changed me.”

“Yes. I know,” said Lauren, thinking, it changed me too, but not because they came back; because they didn’t.

They stood on the edge of the estate, a little way from where the nurse was standing looking through the wire mesh of the security fence towards the valley. Pauline must have decided they’d had enough couple time. She started to wheel the stroller in their direction.

Lauren could feel the creatures getting closer. She began to tense up.

“I’m so glad you’re feeling better,” said Patrick, kissing her on the top of her head. “For a moment there, I thought I’d lost you as well.”

Lauren let her eyes drift down across the valley, where the sunset bloomed on the surface of the reservoir. “Hopefully I’ll come home soon, and we can get back to normal. Those boys need a mother, not a mental patient.”

“It’s not for long,” said Patrick, wrapping her in his arms, forming that barrier between his wife and the rest of the world. “It’s going to be alright, I think. We’re all going to be all right.”

Chapter 34

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“Is this right?” said Harper, hoping there’d been some mistake. Amy had directed her to an address she knew already from her days as a uniformed constable. The man who lived in this house was a known drug dealer, and was also on the “watch” list at the station for having links to extremist eco-anarchist groups.

Amy turned towards her from the passenger seat and looked up through her eyelashes. “Now, Jo. Gideon is an old friend, like I explained. He’s an absolute genius with technology, and I guarantee he’s trustworthy.”