his hands and his mouth exploring every inch of her body before making sweet, meaningful love to her – it had been meaningful to her, anyway – her heart dipped painfully. He’d held her so close afterwards, as if he would never let her go. And now it seemed he had let her go, without even a goodbye, and it hurt, excruciatingly.
Drawing in a shuddery breath, she took another large sip of her wine. She was grateful that Becky had turned up with an ear and a bottle after she’d poured her heart out to her on the phone. She didn’t generally drink during the week, but realising that Joe didn’t care about her as much as she’d thought he did, she’d decided there were worse things she could do than break her own rules. Sobbing herself to sleep and staying in bed until she got over him wasn’t an option with a child to look after. Had Joe considered that when he’d decided to take the coward’s way out and not return her calls? That she would still have to drag herself up and keep going for Ollie’s sake? Probably. Her soldiering on because she had no other choice would allow him to waltz off with a clear conscience, wouldn’t it?
Feeling suddenly desperately lonely, her heart sank another inch. And then jolted when her phone rang right next to her on the table. Even knowing she shouldn’t jump to answer it, she snatched it up anyway.
‘Joe?’ Becky asked, as she checked the number.
‘Finally.’ Sarah ran a hand under her nose, glad that he couldn’t see her, still in her jeans and her rescue centre T-shirt that smelled of dog. She hardly noticed it any more, but she was sure other people might. As for her mad crop of mousy curls, even Becky had looked a bit startled when she’d answered the door. It had clearly turned into an even more unflattering demented frizz after she’d got caught in a torrential summer shower earlier.
‘I’ll just pop to the loo,’ Becky said, giving her hand a squeeze as she got to her feet. She really was a good friend. Sarah smiled appreciatively. Perhaps she should just give up on men, since she seemed to make such a mess of everything.
‘Sarah, hi, it’s Joe,’ he said as she braced herself and took the call.
‘I gathered,’ she said. ‘I also gathered you’ve been rather busy,’ she added, trying to keep the sarcasm from her voice.
‘Yes. Sorry about that.’ He hesitated. ‘Look, Sarah—’
‘I won’t keep you long,’ she cut in quickly, her stomach twisting as she imagined what he was about to say. ‘I just needed some advice. A favour, really.’
‘As in?’ he asked cautiously.
‘I found Laura’s Facebook profile,’ she said, deciding not to beat around the bush, on the basis that he already thought what he thought about her anyway.
‘Right,’ was his weary response, which succinctly summed up how he felt.
‘She’s been married.’ Sarah pushed on regardless. ‘She said she hadn’t. She also has a child.’
He went quiet, then, ‘A child?’ he repeated, his tone incredulous.
‘A boy,’ she confirmed. ‘He has blonde hair, blue eyes – and she’s never even mentioned him.’
‘I see,’ Joe said, and paused.
Did he see? Whether or not he was reassessing his opinion of her didn’t matter. What mattered was did he see?
‘And you think he looks like Ollie?’ he asked, after an interminably long moment.
He did. Sarah breathed a huge sigh of relief. ‘Remarkably like him. I wondered if you could find out more about him, and about Laura’s history? There’s not much to go on on her profile, other than the posts. I’m going to speak to Steve, obviously, but the more information I have, the better. He might already know, of course, but you have to wonder why he’s never mentioned it. Why neither of them have said anything about the existence of this child.’
Joe hesitated before answering. ‘I’d like to help,’ he said, after a second. ‘The thing is, I’m not sure how I can. The national database will only identify people who’ve committed a crime, and Facebook is a tricky area. We would need to make a legal request to access data. We can apply directly to Facebook now, but it’s still a lengthy process. If there’s a risk of serious injury, death, or imminent harm to a child, they might release data, but—’
‘There is a risk of imminent harm, Joe, to Ollie,’ Sarah interrupted forcefully. ‘And what about the child? Where is he?