‘When did Margo leave Ellie’s house?’
‘At half past five, according to the Beares. Margo told them she was going back to her grandmother’s. It’s really only round the corner and it was still light. They offered to walk her back, but she refused.’
‘And when did you realize Margo had gone missing?’
‘When I showed up this morning. It was about 10 a.m. Ellie admitted she was covering for Margo and said Margo had deliberately set out yesterday evening to walk to Holtleigh from Brayworthy.’
Brayworthy. That’s what’s bothering him. Daniel’s mother and Margo’s friend aren’t the only people who live in Brayworthy. The Knoll family live in that massive house at the top of the hill. Hilltop House, that’s it. Not a very imaginative name, but it does what it says on the tin, he supposes.
His mind drifts down the corridor to the interview room where Harry Tomlinson is being questioned in connection with Joshua’s murder. A thought entwines itself around his brain and his stomach fizzes in fear.
Tomlinson spent last night in police custody, here, at the Devon and Cornwall Police Headquarters in Middlemoor, in a holding cell. He can’t have taken Margo, if she has indeed been taken. But is there any way Joshua’s murder and Margo’s disappearance could be linked?
Chapter 30
Carla
NOW
Daniel has gone over everything at least three times in the car on the way to the Devon and Cornwall police headquarters, but I’m still horrified as I listen to what he tells Ian. Not that there’s much to tell him. We have no idea where Margo is. I can’t wrap my head around it. She has been missing since yesterday evening. She’s only eleven. My stomach keeps constricting in fear and I’m struggling to get enough air into my lungs. Questions hare around my head. Has she spent the night outside? I shudder. It’s October. Recently, the weather has been mild in the daytime, but it’s cool at night. Is she alone? Is she hurt? Where is she?
I’ve checked my phone over and over and turned the volume right up, as loud as it will go. As I pull my mobile out of my handbag to check it once more, it rings. I jump and almost drop it.
‘It’s Iris,’ I say.
Iris has the answer to one of the questions I’ve been asking myself. The most important one. Margo has been taken to the North Devon District Hospital, in Barnstaple.
I leap to my feet and Daniel follows suit. We promise to keep Ian updated and race downstairs and out to the car. It takes us several minutes to even get onto the link road. I would have gone the other way, through Crediton and then along the A377, but I manage to hold back my remark. Daniel’s driving, not me, and there’s probably not much in it – either way it will take us well over an hour to get to Barnstaple.
Olly texts to say Ash is taking Iris and him to the hospital. That makes me feel a little better. They’ll get there before us. I ring the hospital and speak first to a receptionist, then to a nurse on the children’s ward.
‘How is she? What happened? Is she hurt?’ It comes out in a frantic rush.
‘We don’t really know what happened,’ the nurse says. ‘We’re running tests.’
That’s far too inconclusive for my liking and I’m about to demand more information, but the nurse offers to take the phone to Margo.
‘Yes! Yes, please,’ I say. I put the call through the speaker so Dan can hear Margo, too.
Seconds later, Margo squeals down the phone. ‘Mummy!’
Tears course down my face, but I try to keep them out of my voice. ‘Margo, honey, Daddy and I are on our way. Olly and Iris will be with you any minute now. Are you OK? What happened?’
‘I don’t know, Mummy. I feel sick and dizzy and tired.’
‘Sick and dizzy?’ Daniel’s almost shouting. His knuckles are white as he grips the steering wheel. ‘Are you hurt?’
‘My head hurts, Daddy.’
I open my mouth, about to ask Margo if it’s a headache or if she has received a blow to the head, but Daniel places a hand on my knee.
‘Get some rest, Margo,’ he says. I can tell by his face he’s forcing himself to sound a lot calmer than he feels.
I take his cue. ‘If you go to sleep, we’ll be there when you wake up,’ I add.
‘Hurry,’ she says.
I grimace. If Daniel drives any faster, we’ll be in serious danger of not getting there at all. Or of ending up on hospital wards ourselves.
