‘I was supposed to get you out of the garden and into the alley where I knew they’d be waiting. I threw the ball over but you wouldn’t fetch it. I didn’t know what to do when you made us go inside the house for tea so I pretended I’d left my fleece outside, opened the gate and let Bruno out. You were supposed to go and look that way on your own but—’

‘I had Leah with me, and you didn’t want to put her through it.’ Carly gave a wry smile, although inside her heart was breaking. ‘That’s understandable, she is your sister.’

‘You’re my sister too,’ Marie said. ‘But yes, when you took Leah I panicked and followed you. When the men grabbed you both I couldn’t let you go through it alone. I thought… I thought I could make it fun.’

It’s a game, isn’t it? Marie had kept saying. Perhaps she really believed that, Carly thought. Perhaps that’s the only way her mind could cope with it.

But Carly’s mind couldn’t cope with what she was hearing now. She just couldn’t process it all. Her body was ice. Her teeth rattled together.

‘Carly, please. Now you know we can—’

‘There is no we.’ Carly picked up her bag from the floor.

‘Carly, please don’t leave.’

Carly turned to look at the girl she once thought of as her sister. The desperation on her face. She sighed. ‘Get your coat. Your coming with me.’

‘Where?’ Marie’s face creased with anxiety.

‘To the cashpoint. I’ll give you some money. Not enough, but some, but we’re not doing the TV interview. We have to think of Leah.’

It took three attempts for Marie to push her arm into her sleeve, she was trembling so hard. ‘Thanks. Afterwards, can you drop me somewhere?’

‘Where?’

Marie told her. Carly wished she had never asked.

Chapter Fifty-Five

Leah

Now

Archie is missing.

I don’t stop to lock the back door as I run through the kitchen and grab my mobile.

Archie is missing.

If I call the police now they’ll want me to stay home so they can send someone out, and how long might that take? With my track record of reporting things that aren’t real they probably won’t rush with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing. Anything could happen to Archie, could be happening to Archie. He was taken in the same way as we were. It stands to reason he’ll have been taken to the same place.

A new angle.

You can’t get more dramatic than this. The open gate, the missing dog, my son being snatched. Part of me wants to think it’s a stunt Simon and Marie have planned together for money. How much would the TV and newspapers pay for an exclusive of this story? A lot, I bet. If Marie is involved she wouldn’t hurt Archie, would she? I may have drifted apart from my twin but deep down I believe she wouldn’t hurt anybody. Yet… I remember the mice on the doorstep.