rows of parked cars anyway, yelling and looking between each one.
Then I caught sight of a black BMW four-wheel-drive pulling out of a space in the far corner. I turned and ran straight toward the exit. Perhaps if I was fast enough, I’d be able to cut them off. Perhaps he’d stop. Perhaps anything.
I was still twenty yards off when the car reached the exit. As he passed, Miles turned and looked at me, his face expressionless. From the back, carefully strapped into a booster seat, Theo waved cheerfully.
104
PETE
I WAS TERRIFIED, OBVIOUSLY. But there was also a part of me that was thinking, Right, you’ve done it now. Because now I could tell the police that Theo had just been abducted in direct defiance of a court order. Now it would be Miles’s turn to explain himself to social workers and detectives and lawyers. And in all likelihood, to a judge as well.
Finally, he’d gone too far. I had right on my side, and I was going to make sure the full might of the law came crashing down on him.
I pulled out my phone. Then I hesitated. If I called the police straightaway, they’d tell me to wait where I was until they could get someone out to me. Once they realized it related to an existing custody case, they might even decide it wasn’t urgent. And my priority had to be making sure Theo was safe.
I’d call them from outside the Lamberts’ house, I decided. That way the police would show up right on Miles’s doorstep.
I ran to my car and drove to Highgate, breaking the speed limit all the way.
I got to the Lamberts’ house, but the BMW wasn’t outside. For a moment I thought I’d simply beaten him to it. But then I realized that was unlikely. Miles must have taken Theo somewhere else.
A shiver ran down my spine. Miles loved his son—adored him. Surely Theo couldn’t actually be in danger?
I stabbed the entry buzzer, then impatiently ran up the steps to the front door. It seemed to take an age for anyone to come. When the door finally opened, I saw why: Lucy was on crutches. One foot was bandaged.
It wasn’t hard to guess what had happened. Miles must have blamed her for their defeat in court. But right at that moment, I had little sympathy for her.
“Oh, Pete,” Lucy began. “How lovely—”
I cut across her. “Where’s Miles?”
“Miles?” She stared at me, confused. “He’s at work.”
“He’s got Theo. In the car.” I gestured at the empty driveway. “He doesn’t usually take the car to work, does he? Think, Lucy. Where could he have taken him?”
She still looked blank. “I don’t know.”
I must have clenched my hands with impatience, because she flinched and said quickly, “They sometimes go to the Heath. To the boating pond. Theo loves the ponds. And the rugby pitches, of course.”
“Thank you.” I ran to my car and started it. Just as I was about to drive off, my phone pinged. I looked down at the screen and saw the name. MILES LAMBERT.
And a message.
But the other one said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.
105
PETE
I RECOGNIZED IT INSTANTLY, of course. It was from the Old Testament. The woman who said she’d rather go along with Solomon’s judgment, and see the disputed child killed, than give up her claim to it.
The police would never understand what it meant, not without knowing the whole background. But I did. It was a death threat. Perhaps not even a threat—this might be Miles’s way of telling me what he’d already done.
I felt my bones turn to icy water at the realization that Theo could be dying at that very moment.
I don’t know how I drove to the car park beside the Heath. From there you could see how Highgate got its name. Below me, all of London was spread out in one huge, overwhelming vista, from Canary Wharf in the east to Paddington in the west, with St. Paul’s and the Shard in the middle. It was a view that had featured in at least a dozen sappy romantic comedies, and I was desperately scouring it for just one thing.
A tiny person in jeans and a red hoodie. Perhaps with a tall man in a well-cut suit by his side.
There was nothing. No one on the rugby pitches. And no one at the boating pond. Just a few dog walkers and joggers, braving a blustery wind.