This time, my wishful thinking didn’t deceive me; it wasn’t the wind whispering in the treetops. This time, I could hear children’s voices. Pressing myself against the wall next to a pot plant, I peered into a window. An empty sitting room with a faded floral couch. The next room, a study with an antique scroll-top desk. Mel and Deirdre were nowhere to be seen. Were they still packing the car? I prayed that Deirdre hadn’t taken the gun out of the ute.

As I approached the next window, the voices grew louder. Positioning my body flat against the wall, I tipped my head slowly forward and stopped breathing.

My Tinker Bell.

Not a photo on the front page of the newspaper.

Here in the bedroom.

Alive.

Sitting on the floor, building a tower of blocks with Sammy.

Bella must have felt my presence because she looked up from the blocks and grinned at me with delight. I tried to open the window, wrenching it upwards as hard as I could, but it didn’t budge. It must be locked from the inside. Bella started to run towards me, but I waved her backwards. Sammy would be calling for Mel right now. I had to be fast.

The garden bed had a border made of rocks and I grabbed one, testing its weight. I slammed it against the window; it made a loud thunk but it wasn’t hard enough to smash the glass. The rock reverberated in my hand. Bella and Sammy had skittered across to the far wall. I tried again, throwing the rock this time, praying that it wouldn’t hit the children. The glass cracked into a hole with sharp jagged edges. Using another rock, I pushed the broken bits out of the pane. As I had feared, Sammy was calling for his mother.

‘Quick, Bella, come over here.’ My beautiful girl was almost in reaching distance. ‘Be careful of the broken glass.’

How would I lift her across the window frame without cutting her? Scanning the room, I saw Dora the Explorer propped up on one of the beds.

‘Grab Dora and hurry!’

Bella brought the doll over and I watched the closed door, dreading that it would burst open at any moment to reveal Deirdre and her shotgun. Placing the large doll as a blanket across the broken glass, I pulled Bella towards me, my arms wrapped awkwardly around her, trying to avoid pressure on the cast.

‘Why break window, Mummy? What about the door? Naughty Mummy. Deedee will be cross.’

‘I know, Tinker Bell. That’s why we need to be quick.’

She was almost in my arms when the door opened.

Not Deirdre but Mel.

‘What are you doing?’ she screeched, darting towards us. ‘I rescued her. We’re all going on a trip together.’