‘Stay put, I’ll only be a minute.’
I fill Jill in on the situation, then bolt around to the back of my flat where my trusty sky-blue bike with its wicker basket is leaning up against the wall.
My chest is begging for oxygen as I pedal flat out, and I arrive at the library green in record time. The camper van’s doors are closed and Reeni is standing in a huddle with Jackson and Milo and Milo’s best mate, Dillon.
‘He’s about this high,’ says Reeni to the group. She’s using her hands to describe Olly and even from here, I can see them shaking.
‘No sign of him?’ I call, dismounting and wheeling my bike up the curb onto the grass.
Jackson nods at me in greeting. ‘Ellie.’ His eyes are dark and serious, and I can see the tension running through his body.
Reeni shakes her head. ‘No.’ Her voice wavers.
‘We’ll find him.’ Jackson’s voice is calm and rings with authority. ‘We’ve already got people looking back around the library and down the road into the village. Milo and Dillon, you two go onto the beach in the direction of the village and I’ll go on in the direction of the huts. You and Ellie stay here.’ He cups Reeni’s arm gently. ‘We’ll find him.’
‘I can’t stay here,’ Reeni says, looking around her wildly. ‘The more people looking, the better. Aaron’s on his way to help. I need to be doing something.’ She’s hopping around from one foot to the other as if the ground is on fire.
‘Jackson’s right. If he comes back looking for you, you need to be here,’ I say.
‘I’ve messaged the community alert line. They’re experts at missing children. They’ll put an alert out to all the shops.’ Jackson’s mum is sitting at a nearby table. I’d missed her when I first arrived. She looks a little brighter than the last time I saw her and has a rosy hint to her complexion. Tippi’s lead is looped around her wrist and she’s holding her mobile. ‘Ellie, you go look too. I can stay with Reeni.’
‘Please, Ellie. He’s in those red dungarees with a dinosaur on the front that he loves, with a navy T-shirt. I don’t know what I’ll do if …’ Reeni’s face crumples.
‘Don’t panic. He won’t have gone far,’ I say, far more calmly than I feel.
‘Let’s get going,’ says Jackson, and he crouches down to say something to his mum, who nods at him, then pushes him away.
I give Reeni a hug and whisper in her ear. ‘It’s going to be fine. We’ll find him.’
She squeezes me back then starts pacing, shouting Olly’s name out loud. I jog to catch up with the group, who are walking down the concrete steps to the beach. Everyone pauses when we get to the sand.
‘We’ll go this way,’ says Milo, pointing towards Thorbridge.
‘He loves hiding in the long grasses,’ I say, the back of my throat dry from the tension.
‘No problem. I’ll keep an eye on the dunes as I walk,’ says Milo, and he and Dillon set off, calling out as they go.
Jackson’s hazel eyes don’t flinch from staring straight at me, although now it’s only us, I can’t hold his gaze for more than a couple of seconds. I switch to look around me.
‘You’re with me then?’ he says.
‘Olly loves to play hide-and-seek when we’re out.’ I nod downthe beach. ‘There are a few little sneaky paths through the dunes we sometimes use.’
‘OK. Let’s go.’
We walk down the beach, calling out ‘Olly’ every so often. I make sure I’m on the dunes side of Jackson to stay away from the incoming tide. The beach is quiet, which helps, as a little boy alone wearing scarlet would be easy to spot. I show his photo on my phone to anyone we meet, but so far, we’ve had no luck. The silence is giving my head space to imagine horrible things.
‘The sea’s so close. He’s only tiny.’ My words catch in the back of my throat. ‘What happens if he’s …’
‘Don’t let yourself think that,’ says Jackson. ‘As soon as he went missing, we had customers looking. And the sea is where Reeni went and looked first before she even told us he was missing.’
‘Olllly,’ I shout at the top of my voice. ‘Olly. Where are you? You won; you don’t have to hide anymore.’
My words are met with a squawk from a low-flying seagull and the sea breeze whistling in my ears. We keep walking. Intermittently, I spin around to look behind us, just in case, but there’s no little boy in sight.
‘Have you had the café long?’ says Jackson.
‘Hmm.’
