There’s a second door in the room. A key dangles from the lock. Sienna is pointing at it. She wants me to open it. With my hand on the handle, my heart in my mouth, I close my eyes and pray. Please let my little girl be safe.

‘Mammy. Mammy.’ I hear her voice in the darkness. Sienna switches on the light. Amber is pulling herself off the bed. She rushes to me when I collapse to the floor.

‘Mammy!’ she cries, falling to the ground by my side. ‘I’m okay, I’m okay.’ I can hardly hear her over my own relieved sobbing.

Chapter Forty-Seven

Burke is standing in the apartment with another cop handcuffing Joyce McCarthy when I come out of the bedroom with Amber huddled under my wing. Nobody called her. She followed us.

Amber is trembling in my embrace but has no physical injuries. She’s saying nothing, clinging to me, wiping a mountain of pain away with her embrace. Burke nods at me, smiles a little before mouthing, ‘Is she okay?’ I nod back, there’s plenty of time to talk later. Now I must get Amber out of this building.

An ambulance is parked behind one of the police cars when we get outside.

‘I’m not getting into that.’

‘You don’t have to, Amber. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.’

Her face is swollen, red from the tears she must have been crying all night.

I’m wiping Amber’s face with a cold towel kneeling against the wall when she tells me that Joyce assured her she wasn’t going to hurt her. Amber believed her. She begged and begged, asking to go home, knowing myself and Tom would be worried sick. But Joyce said she had to wait until the morning. She wanted us to be worried sick.

I want to ask Amber how she ended up with Joyce in the first place. Why she lied about meeting Kenny. I want to apologize to her for taking my eye off the ball, for not being there when she needed me. But not now. Now I need to hug her. Make her feel safe.

A few minutes later, Tom jumps out of a car, eyes searching for his daughter. Tears slide from down my face when I see him, the man is lost. I wave at him, let him know where we are. On seeing her Dad, Amber pulls from my side and runs into his arms. I’m so happy.

For the first time since Amber went missing my body feels like my own. I slump into the stone step I’m resting on.

Donna is standing a few feet away telling a detective her version of what happened. There is no sign of the gun.