“That, without a doubt, is not the same woman I spoke to on Tuesday. But it’s the same child. That’s Leonie.”

“What?”

They all stared at the screen.

“What does this mean?” said Atkinson.

“It means,” said Jo, “that whoever’s got Leonie, it isn’t the same woman who left the New Park Estate on Tuesday, carrying her.”

“So, the woman I spoke to … wasn’t her mother? Or was her mother? If … then … so who is this?” Diane grabbed her own head as if she was in sudden pain. Harper thought, Yup, investigation, suspension.

“Could have been anyone,” said Joanna. “And who knows where the real Constance has gone. If this woman is even really called Constance. Meanwhile, there’s a seriously injured man lying comatose in a hospital bed, whose child may have been abducted.”

Joanna looked again at the image on the tablet. An invisible child, no records, no way of knowing that she even exists, except for this bit of footage. Well, thought Jo, she’s not invisible to me.

She turned to Atkinson. “We can do facial recognition with Leonie. We’ll be able to track her that way and find out where she’s gone, and who with. Come on.”

They stood up and started to leave the room.

“Wait,” said Diane. “Let me see it one more time.”

Harper handed over the tablet.

“So strange,” said Diane.

“What is?” asked Harper.

“This woman, she’s wearing exactly the same clothes as the woman I spoke to.”

“Really?”

“Yes, and she had the same bag, that changing bag.”

Very odd indeed, thought Jo.

“There is one difference, though.”

“What’s that?”

“That leather hold-all thing she’s got. I never saw that.”

When they zoomed in, the item was clear to see. Strange that they hadn’t noticed it before, wrapped across the woman’s body exactly like a papoose. In the footage, while she held tightly on to the child with both arms, at all times one hand possessively gripped the edge of this papoose as if it contained something equally as precious.

CHAPTER

23

THEN

Ruby

November

“MAMMA BEE!”

Ruby lived for the sound of the little feet padding down the hallway in her direction. The baby had progressed this week, from bum-shuffling to running in a matter of days. Ruby wasn’t worried about her development anymore; she’d looked it up. Sometimes kids didn’t walk until they were two, sometimes they talked nonstop from before the age of one. Leonie was a child of extremes, but she certainly progressing within the wide range of “normal.” It was like a miracle; you could almost watch this person growing in real time.

“Look, Mamma Bee, got socks!” Leonie pulled her socks off, one by one. “Here go!”