There was no time for Cassie to hug or reassure her daughter, the priority was to find Finlay and Bon-Bon.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Within no time Cassie had organised a search party, having rounded up some of the neighbours, including the Enforcers, as well as Nina who was just back from work. Unsurprisingly, the Enforcers were scandalised when they learnt about Bon-Bon.
‘What?’ cried Cheryl, ‘you’ve had a dog living with you all this time?’
‘But it’s against the rules!’ exclaimed Joanna.
Stemming the flow of petty outrage, Cassie said, ‘You can sort that out later, for now finding Finlay and Bon-Bon is all that’s important.’
With everyone equipped with torches and mobiles, Cassie marshalled the party into an effective task force, directing them to search in couples the vast area of grounds. She sent the Enforcers and their husbands to search the bin store area and garage block, also inside any unlocked garages.
Rosalyn was still vociferously blaming Emily and Venetia for Finlay’s disappearance, so Cassie decided it would be better for neither of them to accompany the distraught mother, and so she asked Nina, always the most composed of people, to pair up with Rosalyn and search the stretch of riverbank where the lower branches of the willow trees were now deeply submerged by the raised level of the water. There was a chance that Finlay could have taken shelter from the rain within the canopy of thebranches, although it was beyond her why the boy had decided to go out into the dark when the weather was so horrendous.
The Gilburns from No.8 hurried away to search the area around the tennis court and the Bennetts from No.7 set off for another stretch of the riverbank, and the Atkins from No.3 offered to search the huge expanse of lawn, leaving Cassie, Emily and Venetia to search the woods. As Venetia said, she knew the woodland area better than most, so it made sense that she led the way.
‘It could be that Bon-Bon ran off to the place where we always walk and then Finlay chased after him,’ Venetia explained. ‘It would be so easy to get lost in amongst the trees, it would be like a maze to such a young child.’
As plausible as this suggestion was, it upset Emily more than she already felt. ‘He’ll be so scared if he’s lost,’ she said in a small tight voice, sounding like a scared child herself.
The cold rain stinging against her face, Cassie caught hold of her daughter’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. ‘We’ll find him,’ she said, ‘I promise.’
‘But what if—’
‘No!’ Cassie said sternly, stopping Emily from saying the unthinkable, ‘we’re not going to consider any what-ifs, because they’re not going to happen.’
With Venetia striding on ahead while calling out to Bon-Bon, and Cassie and Emily sticking as close to her as they could and shouting Finlay’s name, the light from their torches flashed off the trees. It gave CassieBlair Witch Projectchills, a film she hadn’t thought of in years.
High above their heads, the tree branches creaked and swayed in the fierce wind and gripping her daughter’s hand more firmly to chase off the fear that was growing in her, Cassie shouted louder still to Finlay. Emily did the same, combining her voice with Cassie’s, but the wind was so wild even in the relativeshelter of the woods, their voices were snatched away, and Cassie doubted they’d be heard. She doubted too that they would hear a small boy cry out to them or hear Bon-Bon barking in response to their shouts.
It was good that Venetia knew the woods as well as she did because after what felt like a lifetime of searching and shouting until they were hoarse, Cassie had the unsettling sensation of being thoroughly disorientated. She didn’t have a clue where they were in relation to the Hall or the river.
Just as she was going to check with Venetia that she still knew where they were and that they weren’t going round in useless circles, the trees thinned, and their torches picked out a large area of overgrown grass lined on one side by towering rhododendron bushes that loomed out of the darkness like enormous unworldly monsters and demons.
‘We’ve reached the river,’ Venetia called back over her shoulder, her voice barely audible in the wind and the rain that lashed down on them, now they were away from the shelter of the trees. In the beams of light from their torches, Cassie saw that Venetia was right, for there ahead of them was indeed the river. She had no idea how they’d reached it but as they drew near the swell of the water, it looked black and oily and eerily menacing in the darkness. It had none of its usual benign charm when the sun was shining on it.
‘What was that?’ asked Emily urgently.
‘What was what?’ answered Cassie.
‘I think I heard something … a voice. A cry.’
All three of them came to a stop.
‘There!’ cried Emily, pointing ahead of them. ‘It’s Finlay!’ She broke into a run through the long sodden grass and Cassie chased after her, the pair of them dodging around Venetia, the light from their torches bouncing high and low as they went.
The nearer they got to the river, the more clearly Cassie couldhear and see that Emily had been right. They had found Finlay! He was crouched on the ground and crying hard. Crying was good though. It meant that nothing seriously bad had happened.
But another glance at the river told Cassie something seriously badhadhappened.
Leaving Emily to deal with Finlay, she dropped her torch, pulled off her sopping wet parka, removed her shoes and waded into the blackness of the water.
Surprised how deep it was and gasping at the icy coldness of it, she had to swim the last few yards to where poor Bon-Bon’s lifeless body was caught in a tangled mass of driftwood and river debris. Scooping him up in her arms, and clutching him against her chest, she swam on her back to the riverbank using just her legs. From behind her, she could hear Finlay crying even harder and then there was another cry, a deeper and throatier cry and it tugged at Cassie’s heart.
Before she had reached the bank, Venetia had waded into the water and was taking Bon-Bon from Cassie. Cradling her beloved dog tenderly in her arms, the woman let out an unbearably piteous moan of anguish.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
