James Mohktar watched the small woman. He did not want to startle her but he must now make his presence known. He stepped from the shadows using her name in an effort not to alarm her.

Her head swung round and her hands flew to her mouth in fright.

‘I am Detective Sergeant James Mohktar, Mrs Campbell. We have been searching for you. Your daughter is very worried.’

He flashed his card at her and she stared at it in incomprehension, then up at him. His face was gentle and her fear subsided. He put out his hand to help her up and she took it. She had the air of someone who was suddenly unsure who they were or how they came to be in this place.

James Mohktar said again, ‘Your daughter has been very anxious for you, Mrs Campbell. I came here because I believed this to be the place you might come. I would like you to come with me now to Seremban. It is there we can explain to you…what was found here.’

Fleur shivered as if waking up. She met his eyes. ‘You found my five-year-old daughter here. I know this.’

‘Mrs Campbell, we will have to do DNA. tests before we know for certain it is your daughter. Come, my car is a little way only, up on the road. Let us go to telephone your other daughter, to tell her that you are safe.’

Fleur closed her eyes. ‘Nikki! Oh…God…I…What was I thinking of?’

Mohktar reassured her quickly. ‘It is okay, lah! Your daughter flew to Singapore when you went missing. She is on her way here as we speak.’

Sitting in the back of James Mohktar’s car, Fleur said inconsequently, ‘I asked a taxi to wait for me, further down on the road.’

‘I will speak with him as we pass. Do not worry.’

Mohktar spoke into his crackling phone in rapid Malay and then he dialled Nikki’s mobile phone. She answered breathlessly. ‘Yes?’

‘Miss Montrose, we have found your mother. She is safe and quite well.’

‘Oh, thank God! Can I speak to her?’

Mohktar turned to Fleur. ‘Will you speak with your daughter to reassure her you are safe, please?’

Fleur hesitated and then nodded and reached out for the phone.

‘Mum?’

‘I’m so sorry, Nikki…I…’

‘Don’t be sorry. It’s all right. Please don’t be sorry. I’m just so relieved you’re safe…’ Nikki’s voice quavered. ‘Mum, I’ll be with you in about two hours. Wait till we get to you…don’t do anything on your own…I want to be with you…We’ll…do this together, OK?’

‘Thank you.’

Fleur’s voice sounded so old to Nikki. Old and defeated and without hope.

SEVENTEEN

When the call came from DS Mohktar to say he had found my mother I was sitting up in the chair waiting for morning. Jack was still fast asleep and I had shaded a lamp and begun to read Fleur’s Hundertwasser book.

Of course, I knew a bit about him. There is a public loo in Kawakawa that attracts a lot of Germans and I had gazed at his prints in touristy shops. He was one of those painters you stared at for a long time, revelling in his sense of colour without really understanding what he was about; a painter you knew you would return to one day to delve deeper.