Trust Me - T.M. Logan Page 0,24

she answered her phone.’

‘What else did she say?’

I think back to the conversation. It feels like it happened days ago, not hours, the tingle of adrenaline still keeping me fully present in each passing moment.

‘We just talked about the baby, mostly. She walked off the train at the next station and I found that note in the rucksack.’

He picks the note up off the table, reads it again.

‘And now here we all are,’ he says. His eyes go to the silent TV screen again, the national weather forecast.

‘What did you do to her?’ I say quietly. ‘To Kathryn? Did you shoot her?’

‘What?’ he says distractedly.

‘She was only young, not much more than a child herself.’

‘She knew what she was doing.’

‘You were calling her on the train earlier, weren’t you? Calling her over and over again, trying to find out where she was?’

‘Is that what she told you?’

‘She got off that train to draw you off. To lead you away from the baby, to protect Mia from you.’

He takes another long pull on the energy drink. ‘No.’

‘You were waiting for her at Seer Green. You found her, and then you came to find Mia. How did you even know where we were, anyway? We could have gone anywhere when we came out of Marylebone, and you weren’t on that train. But you still knew where we’d be.’

He indicates the sling, stuffed into his black rucksack.

‘GPS is a wonderful invention.’

I sift through the few facts in my grasp. It is the only explanation that makes sense.

‘You were tracking her too?’

‘I needed to know where she was going.’

‘You were stalking her.’

He snorts but says nothing, turning back to the TV, where the regional London news bulletin is just starting. The presenters, a young blonde woman and a grey-haired older man, stare seriously into the camera, their mouths moving silently as they introduce the first item.

‘But she didn’t know you’d put a tracking device in the sling,’ I continue. ‘So you did whatever you did to her and then came to find Mia, finish the job.’

He finishes the energy drink and crushes the can in his fist.

‘Sounds like you’ve got this all figured out, Ellen. So tell me, if you’re so clever, why didn’t you try to escape when I left you alone just now? I thought you might at least try to get the hood off.’

I curl my bleeding foot further under the chair, glancing again at the half-open door to the kitchen where broken glass is pushed into a corner. ‘I didn’t want to leave Mia.’

‘Someone else’s kid, someone you don’t even know? I don’t get it.’

‘That doesn’t surprise me.’

He shakes his head in disgust. ‘You have no idea what’s going on.’

I hesitate. ‘So tell me.’

‘The less you know, the better. For your own sake. The less danger you’ll be in.’

I look at him for the first time, really look at him, his bloodshot eyes and sallow skin. Try to see Mia’s features in his, in the face of this man who seems set on destroying his own flesh and blood.

‘You don’t have to do this, you know,’ I say. ‘Let me take Mia to the authorities, to the police.’

‘You really haven’t been paying attention, have you?’

‘You can just walk away. I won’t tell anyone about any of this, about you. I swear.’

‘Oh, you swear, do you?’ His voice is heavy with sarcasm. ‘Well that makes everything all right, doesn’t it?’

‘Just let me take Mia and—’

He shushes me with an outstretched palm. The news report has switched to a reporter standing outside a large redbrick building with a taxi rank behind her, people hurrying past. The screen switches again, to a still that looks like it’s been taken from a CCTV camera. The quality is not great, but there is no mistake who is in the picture.

A woman carrying a baby.

An image of me and Mia.

11

He sits up, rigid in his chair.

‘Shit,’ he mutters, stabbing at the volume button on the TV remote as the screen plays grainy black and white footage of me walking out of Marylebone train station a few hours ago.

‘. . . asking anyone who may have seen the woman in the Marylebone area to come forward with any information,’ the reporter says solemnly into camera.

Dominic hits rewind, his attention fully focused on the screen. He runs it back to the start of the bulletin as the two studio anchors introduce the lead story.

‘Police are investigating the abduction of a three-month old baby this evening and the disappearance