Looking through my window for so long, I’m starting to realize what others see through their own.

Aaron is outside before his feet have touched the ground and we watch him run round the garden with his arms out, then find his football and kick it against the back fence.

Mum starts clearing the table, and I practice what I’m going to say in my head. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It only needs to sound true. I don’t want to ruin her Sunday, but, whatever day I say it, things will change. And I don’t want to wait too long, just in case.

Nia pats me on the shoulder as she gets up and whispers, “Keep thinking, Sherlock.” She has no idea I’ve already solved it.

Proper detectives wouldn’t be scared to shout the truth. It’s what they’re there for. But that’s not my job, and the proof suddenly feels like a lie.

“Mum?” I whisper, but Nia is talking over me.

“Where’s Aaron?” She’s looking through the patio doors and something’s different. There’s a hole in the fence where there wasn’t one before.

“What is that?” Nia asks.

When Jay comes closer, he says, “That’s weird.”

I follow them outside, echoing them as they call for my stepbrother. But he doesn’t come back.

On the ground next to the hole is a round piece of wood with nails poking out. It’s the same color as the fence on one side and it fits the gap perfectly.

“Aaron!” Jay yells louder this time and then, when he pokes his head through the hole, “Shit.”

“What is it?” Mum asks.

“This isn’t another house. It’s something else.”

Jay runs back down the garden, and Mum stares at him while Nia keeps searching. I kneel down and look through the hole. On the other side is a pool of water surrounded by bricks, and there’s a large building with metal pipes looped round the top. But that’s not what I’m looking at.

At the opposite end of what we always thought was someone else’s garden is a gate and a padlock lying cracked and open on the ground.

There was another hole, one we didn’t see until now. It’s only big enough for someone small to climb through. But the gate moving back and forth in the wind is large enough for anyone to walk out of.

I’m still staring when I see Jay walk into the area from the other side. He’s out of breath and, when he catches my eye, he looks terrified.

That’s when I turn to Mum and Nia and say, “I know who has him.”

76

“Will is someone else,” I say. “His name’s Logan Connolly. The Pearces kidnapped him.”

“What are you talking about?” Mum asks.