Page 28 of The Stolen Child

‘It’s okay, honey. Don’t get upset. We’ll stay,’ Jason reassured her.

Kevin raised his hands in defeat. ‘Fair enough. But in the meantime think about the lawyer. If this inspector starts making any accusations when you go down this morning, you immediately call a halt and say you need your lawyer present. Give me a call here, and I’ll get it sorted.’

NOW

July 2023

Lily

Phibsborough, Dublin

Lily looked back and forth between the photograph of Robert, aged forty-two, and at Zach, comparing the two, as her mind raced. There was little more than a passing resemblance between them. Zach was clearly delusional. So why say it? Had he fixated on Lily maybe and wanted to establish a connection? That didn’t sit right with her, though. They’d only had a couple of sessions, hardly enough time for him to have an unhealthy obsession with her.

‘Are you okay?’ Zach asked, moving closer.

Lily took a step backwards.

‘Sorry,’ Zach said, holding his hands up as if in surrender.

Lily sat down, her breath ragged, as if she’d run a three-minute mile.

‘It’s the shock,’ Zach said kindly. He poured two glasses of water, mirroring the trick Lily often used with her clients when they became overcome with emotion.

She took the glass offered and gulped the water down. As she composed herself, she looked at Zach, wondering what to do next. She was the professional, and it was clear that this man had issues. He had convinced himself that he was her brother, attaching himself to her family because his own was unhappy. Was he a fantasist or simply confused? She knew it was her job to help him, but first of all she needed to confirm whether he was dangerous.

‘Zach, why do you think you are my missing brother?’

He pointed to the flyer, to the two photographs and then back to his own face as if this explained everything.

‘But you look nothing like Robert. You’ve got a square jaw; Robert has an oval face. And your nose is different. Yours is much smaller than his.’

‘We have the same eyes.’ Zach removed his glasses and presented himself to Lily in a Clark Kent/Superman reveal.

She studied his face and then looked down to Robert’s eyes. ‘Okay. Your eyes are similar. But the rest, sorry, I don’t see it.’

‘I’ve been researching age progression technology. I assume they’ve used your mother, your image, and this one of Robert at two years old to create forty-two-year-old Robert.’

Lily nodded warily. She didn’t like to think that anyone was researching her family. It felt intrusive, and every antenna in her body screamed stranger danger.

‘But the forensic artist is missing one half of Robert – of me – for the progression: my father’s face. So it stands to reason that without that there would be differences in the final result.’

Lily could not deny the logic in this argument. But the way Zach was referring to himself as Robert so emphatically made her deeply uncomfortable.

Then Zach reached into his pocket again and pulled out a bundle of photographs. ‘Can I show you something?’

Lily figured that there was little point in saying no. Zach was clearly on a mission.

He passed the snaps to her as he said, ‘These were taken on my third birthday and the others, later that year.’

Lily looked down and felt her body tremble as she took in every detail of the first image. A little boy, sitting in a high chair with a big smile on his face, looked at a cake with three candles on it. Blonde curl and sparkling steel-blue eyes smiled up at the camera.

That boy, whoever he was, could be Robert’s double.

‘You see it too, right?’ Zach asked, his voice little more than a whisper.

Lily couldn’t speak. The air in her body had vanished, and she couldn’t breathe. Tiny dots danced in front of her eyes, and the room swam around her. She felt arms round her, steadying her. The dots disappeared, bringing sharp focus. Lily reached her hand up to touch Zach’s solid and muscular arm. And she caught a sob before it escaped.

‘Robert . . .’