him. She found a tissue in her pocket and blew her nose. He pulled her closer. She had let him kiss her, and as his tongue gently explored her mouth, his other hand had moved to her breast and stroked it tenderly.
This was going too far. His tongue was making her want to gag, and she thrust him away forcefully.
‘A kiss, you said. Just a kiss. I’m not going to do this. I’m not. Get out of my car. Get out.’ She put her head back down on the steering wheel, choking on her grief. The tears wouldn’t stop coming, and she could hardly hear when he spoke softly, right against her ear.
‘This isn’t over. Don’t kid yourself. This isn’t over by a very long way.’ Muffled as his voice was, she could hear the pent up fury. She heard the door open and sensed rather than heard him getting out of the car. There was no mistaking the slam of the door, though, or the sound of tyres skidding on gravel as he sped off down the unlit dirt track.
She barely remembered putting the car into gear, or driving slowly back the way she had come. Almost blinded by the hot tears that spilled relentlessly down her cheeks, she had turned up the back road, away from the village. She at least had the sense to drive back the long way round, where she was less likely to pass anybody.
Ellie was jolted out of her reverie by a shocked recollection. There had been a car. She had completely forgotten about it, because her mind had been exploding with the torment of it all. There were no street lights, of course, and the car had its headlights on full beam. She had been blinded for a few seconds, and saw nothing of the car - only an impression of something blue or black maybe. A large saloon car, she was fairly sure. But the driver would have seen her. And her dark red Mercedes was one of a kind in the village. Why had nobody mentioned her? Surely an innocent person would have reported her distinctive car to the police?
But that hadn’t happened. Nobody had come forward.
Was that because the driver was the person who knocked Abbie over, or even the one who had abducted her? A cold feeling of remorse settled deep inside her. If the driver was also the person that knocked Abbie over, Ellie could have been withholding vital information for days.
‘Ellie? Ellie? Are you okay?’ Kath was talking to her. ‘You were miles away. Is something the matter?’
Ellie gave herself a mental shake. She was going to go to the police, as soon as her shift finished. Enough was enough. She would just have to live with the consequences.
‘Sorry, Kath. I was just thinking about a couple of things that I was meant to do at home, and I’d forgotten all about. Nothing important. I’m sorry, did you need me for something?’
‘No, it’s nothing. I was going to go and get something to eat, if that’s okay. I might get a bit of fresh air as well. Let you get on with your job.’
Ellie smiled as she watch Kath reach over and kiss Abbie’s forehead.
‘Back soon, sweetie,’ she whispered.
Left alone with Abbie, Ellie went through some of her usual patient routine, washed her and changed her dressings. She was pleased to see that the child’s legs were looking much better, and the cuts on her feet were healing well. It was time for her break, so she had a quick chat with the nurse looking after the patient in the next bed. It was an agency nurse that Ellie hadn’t met before, but she would keep an eye on Abbie.
* * *
Ellie didn’t normally take her full break, but today she needed it. She had to work out what she was going to tell the police. Much as she was dreading it, this was something that she had to do. She could imagine the look of contempt in Kath’s eyes if she ever found out that Ellie might have been able to lead the police to the driver of the car, which may possibly have shed some light on the abduction. Ellie had asked if she could be Abbie’s named nurse, to look after her on every shift, and if her silence were discovered it might suggest a level of sinister intent that simply didn’t exist.
She couldn’t begin to describe how she felt about herself at