Chapter 7

1st October 2015: 10:22 am.

“Now, let’s go back a few steps. You say that you’re car wasn’t working,” Detective Russell said after he introduced himself and offered me something to drink. I was going to say something rude to him. Make it known that my daughter was missing. I wasn’t in the station to take a break before I went back home and did some work. I was in the station for one reason and one alone and that was to find Barbara.

“My daughter is out there.”

“Not the one that you came to the station with…”

“I don’t care what her name is, she’s not my daughter. Here,” I said as I passed him a photo. His partner looked at it and then they exchanged glances.

“Have you called your husband?” Detective Russell asked, waiting for some kind of reaction.

“No.”

“Do you want to call him?”

If I did, then I wouldn’t need their permission to do so.

I repeated to myself over and over again, try and stay calm. I tried to focus on something. Anything in the interrogation room. I was whisked in as the officer who’d brought me in filled them in on Barbara being missing, and I hoped that their investigation technique was a lot better than their whispering skills, because I heard everything they said and then, to make matters worse, the officer said, “And she was with a girl when she reported her daughter missing.”

Detective Russell replied, “I see.”

I wanted to ask him what he saw, but then I remembered that I wasn’t supposed to hear their conversation. It felt like some kind of joke. I wondered if they were taking me seriously? I decided that they couldn’t be, otherwise they would be looking. I just gave them a picture, so they could see. I wasn’t offering them a means to discuss my personal life as he replied, “Pretty girl, your daughter. But then again so is the one that you were with.”

Again, another statement for a reaction. Between Dwight’s chubby cheeks and beady eyes staring at me, the white walls, and the metal table that I had rested Barbara’s back pack on, there was nothing in this room. It was clear that I was being watched by others through the large mirror facing me. Probably by the same officer that had brought me in.

“I don’t feel well,” I sighed as desperation started to take over. I knew any minute I was going to rant, lose control, and the focus would no longer be on getting Barbara but on my mental health.

“Do you want some water?” Dwight asked as he struggled to stand up from his metal chair. Maybe he was bored and that was his job, to fetch refreshments for people that were being questioned. I found myself not caring as I nodded and said, “I don’t want to worry my husband. He’s in the Far East.”

Saying it out loud sounded stupid when I knew that he was no where near Asia.

“I see. But then maybe he would know who would have taken her.”

What was he trying to say?

Did he think that this had been Ted’s idea, to swap children’s at the Tube station? If so, then he didn’t know my husband at all. Not the way that I did.

“Ted would be too worried about getting his next million in the stock exchange today. Orchestrating a way to kidnap his own daughter would be the furthest thing from his mind. Besides if I called and told him that I’d taken the underground today, he would think that I’d completely lost my mind.”

Dwight and Russell looked at each other, but then Dwight cleared the air as he handed me the glass of water which should have been clear, but was a cloudy color. On any other day I would have cared, I would have passed on the water and said that I needed to go to the bathroom. This wasn’t any other day and for that reason, I needed some water. Even if it was only a sip.

“Her husband’s Ted Rogers. You know, he’s always in Forbes..”

Dwight was going to explain some more, but then Russell had a smile on his face, the one that people tend to get whenever my husband’s name was mentioned. Someone important. Probably fixing this problem would result in a promotion. I used to drop Ted’s name in the past when I thought that it meant something, but I didn’t care any more. Especially because I planned to leave him.

As Detective Russell quickly tucked in his shirt and stood up, he asked, “Can I have your daughter’s photo again?”

I handed it to him without hesitation. I could tell that he was a man on a mission. But, I needed someone else on the case. Someone I knew I could trust and wouldn’t let me down.

I put the damsel in distress expression on my face, hoping that he would think of himself as my hero. Someone who could be relayed on.

Dwight jumped up. “Where to, boss?”

Russell said, “Don’t worry we’re going to find your daughter,” then he turned to Dwight and said, “Let’s start with the cameras at Victoria.”

I sighed with relief that things were moving. I wasn’t being seen as the crazy woman. I just hoped that the woman whose daughter I came in with had money. Otherwise she would suffer the same treatment I had a few minutes ago and her daughter indeed would continue to be lost.

***

“Will, I need you.” I didn’t bother with a friendly conversation. I was calm. Collected. But most of all, desperate.

“Where are you?”

“Kensington Police station.” I waited for it to register. Yes, I was desperate. I wasn’t at home, at school or anywhere else where I may need a little hand.

I needed a big fucking hand.

Will said, “I’m on my way,” and hung up the phone.

I didn’t need to explain anything to him. He knew for me to call him from the station that things were bad. I used to have a mom, a few years ago. She would have been my first point of call. Then my husband, before I’d found out that he was having an affair. Now, I only had one person I could really trust. The rest of them were mainly Ted’s friends’ wives. The type that gossiped and wanted to make sure that their circle of friends were only rich wives. The ones that wanted to improve their status so that they could feel superior to the others that were supposedly their friends. I didn’t need them. I only needed Barbara. I never knew my dad, seeing as he’d run off when I was a baby. He couldn’t handle it. Just like my husband, always looking for a way out. Will had been my best friend at college and, although we’d grew apart once I married Ted, he was the one that became a shoulder to cry on once my world tore apart. He’d tried to help me in the past and stop me from using drugs, but I’d turned to my husband like a loyal wife.

I just had no idea that my husband was far from loyal until it was too late. I needed Will now. Someone I could rely on and who wouldn’t let me down. He had no promotion to gain or favors owed from Ted. Nothing would stop him, I knew that. I felt like a bird locked in a cage. Unable to leave, and worst of all, unable to fly.