Click, click, flash, flash, questions from the floor, short replies giving nothing away.
Now it’s time for the main attraction – the parents. Amber will do the talking, rather than George. The mother is always more convincing, more sympathetic. This is an important moment in the investigation. The parents’ performance is crucial to securing public support. Will people judge Amber and George for leaving their baby and find them guilty? Of course, they will. They’ll feed them to the social media lions.
The detective passes Amber the microphone and she holds it shakily. Her eyes are red and she’s cried all her make-up off. When she starts to speak, her voice sounds weak and reedy, as if the words are being pushed through water.
Now she’s addressing me personally. I hug Mabel tightly and listen.
‘Please, please, I beg you, bring our little girl back safe and well. We miss her so much and she’ll be missing us too. You’ve torn our lives apart, our whole family’s broken. Just do the right thing. Please. Bring her back.’
‘But we are doing the right thing!’ I say to Mabel, spinning her round and lifting her up. ‘Do you know what? I think Mummy’s secretly pleased that you’re with somebody who really loves you, somebody who wants to look after you all the time.’ I kiss her on the nose. ‘All this weeping and wailing is just for show.’
Chapter Eighteen
Day Two without Mabel
Ruby and Lewis sit on the sofa crying and holding hands as they watch the press conference on the evening news.
‘I can’t believe it,’ she says. ‘I just can’t believe it. How can this be happening to us?’
‘I know,’ he replies, squeezing her fingers. ‘It’s a nightmare.’
The item ends with a final plea for witnesses to come forward, then the newscaster moves on to the next story. Ruby reaches for a tissue and blows her nose. ‘They didn’t mention me by name,’ she says. ‘That’s odd.’
Lewis turns the TV off. ‘The police try to keep some details close to their chest. It helps sort out the cranks.’
‘Suppose so.’ She grimaces at the thought of anyone wanting to hamper the investigation. ‘Mabel’s been missing for …’ she counts back in her head, ‘over thirty-five hours. That’s a long time. They should have found her by now.’
‘The police are taking it really seriously, Rubes, they’re pulling out all the stops.’
‘The longer it goes on, the less chance there is of her being …’ She doesn’t finish the sentence. ‘Remember that case a few years ago when a teenager went missing? It was the uncle that killed her. The mother knew she was dead but she made this great big fuss, immediately printing off T-shirts, trying to fundraise. The police knew she was behaving suspiciously. They suss these things out straight away.’
‘No one could say Amber and George were behaving strangely in that media conference,’ says Lewis. ‘They both looked devastated.’
‘Yes, they did,’ she admits. ‘But did you see all those ribbons around the trees? Lilac for Lilac Park, I guess. And the posters saying Mabel is Missing? I’m surprised at Amber – she normally hates that kind of public show.’
‘She might not have had anything to do with it. It looked like a bunch of locals trying to help.’
‘Trying to get in on the action, more like.’ She sighs heavily.
Lewis gets up and goes into the kitchen. She hugs a cushion in his absence. Since she returned from the police station yesterday afternoon, she has barely left the sofa. Her head is throbbing and her body aches all over, as if she’s suffering from the flu. Lewis took today off to be with her, but he has to return to work tomorrow. She’s terrified of being left alone.
He comes back with two bottles of beer and a packet of crisps tucked under his arm. He sets them down and bursts open the packet, spreading the crisps out on the foil. ‘It’s the last one,’ he says. ‘We’ll have to share.’
‘Thanks.’ She pops a solitary crisp into her mouth, then puts the cold bottle to her lips and takes a large swig. The gassy liquid combines with the well of tears in her throat, making her splutter.
‘I feel so sorry for you,’ he says, rubbing her back. ‘I wish I could make it better.’
‘I wish Amber would call.’
‘So you keep saying, but she’s not going to. Not until she’s ready.’
‘She doesn’t want to talk because she knows I know she’s lying.’