Chapters (55)
- Cover
- ANNA WHARTON
- Dedication page
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- Praise
- THE IMPOSTER
Footsteps around her, Alec’s uneven gait. The scanner greedily eats up detail she herself longs to consume. The office is getting busy, Chloe knows she needs to look busy too. She picks another cutting from the pile.
ANGIE LATEST: POLICE DIVERS DREDGE RIVER
The next one:
BOGUS SIGHTING WASTES POLICE TIME
Another:
LOCALS RALLY FOR ANGIE VIGIL
The next couple of hours pass as the news rolls in from the wire. Reporters empty their shorthand pads at the news desk, and the editor’s office door opens and shuts as the day’s splash is decided upon. Among the chaos of the newsroom, Chloe works diligently through the Angela Kyle file. She knows it wouldn’t ordinarily take this long, that she doesn’t need to read all the cuttings. There are some she manages to resist, especially when she feels Alec’s eyes on her. But when he’s lost among the metal filing cabinets, when she hears the clang of the drawers as he removes and replaces files, she takes those few precious seconds to find out more.
ANGIE’S FATHER IN SHOCK ARREST
Her stomach turns under her desk. This one she has to read.
POLICE swooped last night on the home of missing city girl Angela Kyle, arresting her father in a shocking turn of events. Patrick Kyle was taken to the city’s Bridge Street police station and questioned for two hours after an anonymous tip-off from the public. But the bungling act by police proved to be the result of nothing more than a prank call, and Mr Kyle was released without charge. The city’s police chief has since apologized unreservedly to the Kyle family.
Speaking exclusively to this newspaper, Patrick Kyle said, ‘Yes, it was upsetting, but it also reassured us that the police are taking our daughter’s disappearance very seriously. We welcome every lead being followed up, we support the police in investigating every suspicion, it’s the only way that we will get our Angie back.’
There’s another picture – the same again. The pair of them united. Impenetrable. Their loyalty to their daughter constant, steadfast, intoxicating.
By mid-morning the sandwich man arrives and Chloe tears herself away from her desk to buy a tuna baguette from the trolley. She keeps her eye on the file all along for fear that Alec might take it. He still hasn’t spoken to her, but she comforts herself with the thought that she’s insignificant enough for yesterday’s absence not even to be noted.
Eleven thirty rolls around, the newspaper is put to bed, and the editor’s office door opens. Alec approaches her desk.
‘Er, Chloe . . .’ he says, coughing a little into his hand, ‘Malc would like a word in his office, if you’d like to . . .’
His sentence trails off, but he gestures for her to follow him.