‘How tall?’
‘He was tall like Daddy. That tall.’ She held her arms out as wide as she could.
‘Did you see his face or his clothes?’
‘Ghosts don’t have faces, except Casper because he’s a cartoon.’
‘Where did he go?’
The little girl scrunched her button nose and shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I hid on the floor and counted to ten. Then I looked out of the window again.’
‘And what did you see?’ Gina held her breath.
‘Nothing, silly.’ The little girl giggled. ‘Ghosts go whoosh and you can’t see them anymore. But I was scared so I screamed for Evan.’ She frowned. ‘Evan said it was a fox but it was a ghost.’
‘You have been really helpful, Cally, so thank you very much.’ Gina nodded to Doug. ‘May we have a word downstairs?’
He nodded. ‘Right, little Cally, I need you to stay in bed with Olaf and wait for me. I’ll be up in a minute to read you a story. Do you want to watchFrozenon the iPad?’
The little girl nodded enthusiastically.
The man grabbed the device and began setting the film up.
‘Where’s Mummy?’
‘She’ll be home soon, darling.’ He passed her the iPad and Cally snuggled under her blankets and began to watchFrozen. Doug led Gina and Wyre onto the landing. ‘What am I going to tell her?’ He scratched the grey hair on his head.
Gina didn’t have an answer to that question. ‘I wish I had answers for you. I’m really sorry but I’ll need to ask you a few questions.’
The man nodded, his face washed out, eyes dark ringed with tiredness; the lines edging them, deep and creased. ‘They’re all I have, Annabel and Cally. Please find her.’ He led them back downstairs and into the kitchen and closed the door.
‘I’m sorry to tell you that it’s looking likely that she was taken from the scene. Her friend, Jennifer Bailey, was left behind and has sustained some serious injuries.’
‘Is Jen okay? I’ve known her since the two were at school. Best friends, they were. She was always stopping at our house.’
‘She’s being treated in hospital at the moment. I don’t have all the details yet.’
‘So, someone took Annabel? Is that what you’re saying?’
‘It’s a line of enquiry that we’re investigating, which is why we need to know a little more about her. Has she had any problems with anyone that you’re aware of?’
The man slammed a hand onto the worktop, causing the mug tree to rattle. ‘I can’t lie. Grant has been a real arse. He’s been having it away with their childminder. Annabel found out and they’d been arguing. I never liked him. The man has always been the same except Annabel has only just seen through him. I can sense his type from a mile away. I had friends like him in my younger days, never did approve of that kind of behaviour. People who cheat deserve all that comes to them and he didn’t deserve my daughter. That man also said some things that were below the belt. Can you believe it? He’s the one who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants but he accused her of having an affair.’
Gina suddenly felt a little more alert. ‘Who did he accuse her of having an affair with?’
‘What does it matter? She wouldn’t do that to her family.’
‘We still need his name just so that we can eliminate him from our enquiries.’
He stared, tight-lipped.
‘Please, Mr Latham, we just want to bring your daughter home and the more information we have, the better.’
‘Some teacher at the school she works at. Annabel and I are close, she tells me things, speaks to me about her problems. We lost her mother when she was eight so I’ve been Mum and Dad throughout her life. She told me that he accused her of seeing someone else and that he works at the school, that’s all she said. We both knew he only said that because he’d been cheating.’
‘Do you have the name of the teacher?’
‘No. I didn’t ask and she didn’t tell me. I got the impression that she was upset about something else but she didn’t tell me what. I don’t push her. If she’s upset, she knows she can come to me, that’s the way it’s always been.’
