in each arm, and gave them a huge hug. They were the best.
‘Right, you two,’ Max said. ‘You can watch half an hour of a DVD, and then we’re doing something else. Ruby - you get to watch for being brave, and Jake you get to watch for being honest. Ah ah - NOT in my media room, thank you very much. In the playroom. Scoot!’
Max pulled out a chair and sat down.
‘Tom - how are you? Do you fancy another coffee, because I desperately need one - mainly on the basis that it’s a bit early for a beer.’
Ellie could see Tom looking at her to assess his welcome. She didn’t think she could cope with half an hour alone with Max just now, so she tried her best to give Tom an encouraging smile, and he took the hint.
‘Thanks, Max. That would be great, if I’m not taking up too much of your time.’
‘I have a half hour reprieve, mate - and I plan to enjoy it. The joys of school holidays. Normally we plan loads of family trips, but with Ellie working this week I’ve drawn the short straw.’ It was clear from Max’s grin that this wasn’t an issue for him. ‘What are you two nattering about, anyway?’
‘Abbie Campbell,’ Ellie said.
‘God, yes - that’s terrible about the Facebook stuff isn’t it? Ellie told me. It sounds like she was stalked.’
‘Sadly it looks as if you’re right - Abbie was targeted for some reason,’ Tom said.
‘Why did this person have all the fake friends, though?’ Ellie asked.
‘Anybody with no friends would be a bit suspicious, so they make up a number of phoney identities, and all friend each other. He’ll probably have approached other girls - real ones - too. Whoever this abductor is, he’ll most likely have targeted people of a similar age with a low number of friends - the ones that might be desperate.’
Max was shaking his head as he brought over the cups of coffee and sat down at the table.
‘So somebody has cold-bloodedly planned this - to befriend Abbie. But why? It doesn’t make any sense. Were any of the other kids in the network targeted, do you know? The real ones, I mean.’
‘I don’t know,’ Tom said. ‘It looks as if it was focused on Abbie - but she may just have been the first target. People reveal so much stuff about themselves nowadays - everywhere they’ve been, or worse still, where they’re going. It’s a gift to criminals. Imagine a young girl who’s missed the last bus? She posts something about it as she sets off to walk home - forgetting that she’s previously posted where she was going that evening – even down to the specific location. Sorry to say it, but even if she hasn’t been daft enough to mention the bus number, she’s easy pickings for anybody who’s been watching her.’
‘Is it really that dangerous?’ Ellie asked. She wasn’t much of a social networker herself, but lots of her friends were.
‘It can be if you’re not careful,’ Tom answered. ‘A woman was murdered because she changed her status on Facebook from married to single. It appears her husband wasn’t too impressed. But even if you’re careful yourself, a real stalker will contact your friends and get to know them, and get them to reveal private stuff about you.’
‘Why can’t they catch them, then? Surely things can be tracked back through the internet?’
‘In theory, but there are techniques people can use to make it difficult as far as this sort of crime is concerned. There are ways of rerouting communications round the world several times to make it very hard to trace back. Hopefully this guy isn’t so savvy and might have given something away.’
‘You keep saying ‘he’ - and I know that makes sense. But surely she wouldn’t have got in the car with a man, would she?’ Ellie asked.
‘Well, she was expecting Chloe’s mum. If a man had turned up and said “Are you Abbie? I’m Chloe’s dad - her mum was in the bath and we didn’t want you to have to hang around” would she have believed him? I suspect she would, you know.’
‘So this is cyber-stalking, is it?’ Max asked.
‘Strictly speaking cyber stalkers only stalk you online, and not in the flesh. Digitally enhanced stalking is a different issue. That’s when people use online information or a mobile phone or whatever to stalk you for real.’
‘Mobile phones?’ Ellie said. ‘What on earth can