The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) - Ann Cleeves Page 0,87

took her to Walden’s flat. They knew he wouldn’t be there because he was already dead. We could have arrived there soon after he took her to the pond. She couldn’t help interrupting. ‘Do you know what kind of shop was under the flat?’

But Christine just shook her head.

‘What did you do in the flat, Christine?’ Jonathan took up the questions again.

‘I watched the telly.’ A pause. ‘I like the telly.’

‘With the man who’d driven you there?’

‘He stayed for a bit. He gave me some crisps and a bar of chocolate. A can of pop.’ She shot a look at her mother. Perhaps she didn’t get fizzy drinks at home.

‘Did you ask why he’d picked you up?’

‘He didn’t say anything.’

Jonathan leaned forward and took Christine’s hand. ‘Did the man hurt you in any way? Touch you?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘He asked me lots of questions. It was like a test. I couldn’t answer anything.’

‘What sort of questions?’

‘I don’t know!’ She was close to tears. ‘I didn’t understand what he wanted. I said I wanted to come home. Back to my mum’s house. I didn’t want to stay in the flat and I didn’t want to go to Uncle Dennis and Auntie Grace’s place. I just wanted to come home.’

Jen could hear Susan muttering beside her. Some sort of apology or prayer. She turned and saw that the woman was weeping. Jen pulled out a tissue and passed it across.

Christine was speaking again. ‘The man said he couldn’t take me to Mum’s because he had to leave. He had important things to do. I could make myself at home until my uncle came. There was a bedroom if I wanted to go to sleep. More chocolate and more pop in the kitchen.’

‘And did your uncle come?’ Jonathan asked.

‘Nobody came.’ Christine was upset again now, reliving the panic, pleating the fabric of her top with trembling fingers. ‘I was on my own and I didn’t know what to do. I thought I’d go out and find someone, but I couldn’t get out.’ She looked up. ‘He’d locked me in. The man had locked me in.’

‘That must have been very scary,’ Jonathan said. ‘I’m so sorry you had to go through that.’

‘I didn’t know what would happen. I just wanted to be home with my mum.’

‘How many nights did you stay there, Christine?’

She screwed up her face with the effort of trying to work that out. But panic was taking over again and she was struggling to concentrate.

‘Did it get dark twice?’

‘I was there for a very long time.’ Jen thought she didn’t really know. She’d been terrified and confused. Christine looked at them and her words came out as a wail of pain. ‘Nobody came!’

‘We were looking for you, really we were.’ Now Jonathan seemed as upset as she was. ‘We just couldn’t find you.’

‘I ran out of chocolate and pop and there was nothing to eat. There were people in the street below. Men smoking and laughing and I shouted to them, but I couldn’t get the window open so they didn’t hear me.’

‘What happened next?’

‘The man came back.’ She was staring out at them, wanting them to understand now what she had been through.

‘Were there people in the street when he came?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘The street was quiet. Empty. It was still dark.’

‘So, it was probably early in the morning…’ Now Jonathan seemed to be speaking to himself. ‘And what did he do?’

‘He took me into the car and we went driving again, and then we went for a walk.’

‘What could you see on your walk? Could you see anything?’

‘Cows,’ she said. ‘I don’t like cows.’

‘What else?’

‘There were flowers. Yellow flowers. Then we came to some water and he said I should wait there. Somebody would come for me.’ She looked over to Jen. ‘And you did come for me.’

But not for hours, Jen thought. If it was early morning when you left the flat and late afternoon when we arrived. It was drizzling and you didn’t have a proper coat. You must have been desperate. Jen turned to Jonathan. ‘Can I just ask a question?’

He gave a little frown. ‘Just one. She’s been through so much.’

‘The flat where you stayed, what sort of state was it in? Was it tidy? Or very messy?’

‘It was quite messy after I’d been there,’ Christine said. ‘I didn’t know where to put all my rubbish. But it was tidy when I got there.’

So, if Christine had been taken to the Braunton flat, it must