No One I Knew by A McDine (best e book reader for android .TXT) 📕

the business for them so I could give them the opportunities I never had. The best schools, amazing holidays, friends with connections.

Would they have been just as happy at the village primary school, spending a week every summer in a mobile home in Dorset? Of course they would. They didn’t give a monkey’s about their school’s Oxbridge success rate, or that their friends’ parents were surgeons, business consultants and barristers. It was as if I was seeing everything clearly for the first time in years. I had projected my wants and needs onto Nate and Immy and had worked like a dog to achieve my version of success, sacrificing so much along the way. But I didn’t want that life any more. I wanted out.

‘Makes sense,’ DI Jones agreed. It took a moment to realise he was talking about Sheila and not me. ‘We found a one-way ticket for Eurotunnel in one of her kitchen drawers. She made the booking on Tuesday.’

‘She was planning to take Immy to France?’ I gasped.

‘France, Spain, who knows?’ He felt his pockets for his phone. ‘I need to call the DCI to give her the heads up. Will you be all right?’

How could I ever be all right while Sheila was out there somewhere, waiting for another opportunity to take my daughter?

‘Just find her. Please,’ I said.

He nodded and was halfway across the room when he stopped and turned to me. ‘Sheila doesn’t have a criminal record. There aren’t any intelligence reports on her. She’s never come to the attention of social services or the mental health team. On paper she’s a model citizen.’

It wasn’t the apology I felt I deserved, but I accepted it anyway. None of us were perfect, after all. I smiled bleakly. ‘I’ve known Sheila for six years, and I didn’t once suspect her of taking Immy. She had us all fooled.’

Chapter Fifty

A longing to wrap my arms around Immy and feel her heart beating against mine came out of nowhere, and I wriggled off the bed and left the side room.

‘Where’s my husband?’ I asked the two officers standing sentry outside the door.

‘Along the corridor,’ the taller of the two said, dipping his head towards the nurses’ station.

‘Thanks.’ A thought occurred to me. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be watching Immy, not me?’

His colleague rocked on his heels and smiled. ‘Don’t you worry, Mrs Cooper. No one’s getting past us.’

‘You hope,’ I muttered under my breath as I hurried along the corridor, my shoes squeaking on the polished floor. A nurse looked up from behind a computer and smiled.

‘They’re in the playroom,’ she said. ‘Second door on the right.’

A sea-themed mural on the far wall dominated the playroom, with a jolly-looking octopus surrounded by clown fish, angelfish, a mermaid, two turtles and a grinning shark. To the left was a large bookcase and melamine units holding plastic trays in primary colours, but my eye was drawn to the boy sitting at a table just inside the door. Not much older than Nate, he was carefully colouring in a picture of a donkey wearing a sombrero. His blond hair was wispy and his skin wax-pale, and I flinched before I could stop myself.

‘Hey!’ I said in a bright voice, over-compensating. ‘I’m looking for my little girl. Immy. I don’t suppose you’ve seen her?’

He glanced up, smiling. ‘She likes Paw Patrol, doesn’t she?’ I followed his gaze to a clear plastic box filled with Paw Patrol figures on the floor by the bookcase.

‘She loves it. Skye’s her favourite character,’ I said. ‘D’you know where she went?’

The boy fixed the lid on a blue felt-tip pen and picked up a brown one. ‘One of the nurses took her somewhere while her dad was on the phone.’

‘One of the nurses? Do you remember which one?’

‘I haven’t seen her before,’ said the boy, his head bent as he coloured in one of the donkey’s ears. ‘She must be new.’

A sense of unease lifted the hairs on the nape of my neck, but I forced myself to smile. ‘Thanks. I’d better go and find them.’

I looked up and down the empty corridor. ‘Immy!’ I called. ‘Ims, where are you?’

Stuart appeared at the far end of the corridor, his phone wedged between his ear and his shoulder. He took one look at me and murmured, ‘Look, I need to go. I’ll call you later.’

A wave of panic gripped my chest, squeezing it tight. ‘Immy’s gone,’ I cried.

‘Gone?’

‘Christ, Stuart, you were supposed to be looking after her!’

He clasped my shoulders. ‘For goodness’ sake, calm down. I left her in the playroom while I made a quick call. I was gone a couple of minutes at most.’

‘She’s not there now, I’m telling you.’ I felt the blood drain from my face as I pointed to the playroom. ‘The boy in there said she went off with a nurse. One he didn’t recognise.’ I stifled a sob. ‘What if Sheila…?’

‘Breezed straight in, past two burly police officers? I don’t think so. I’m sure there’s a simple explanation.’ He took my arm and guided me along the corridor to the nurses’ station, smiling at the nurse behind the computer. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve seen Immy?’

Her brow furrowed, and the vice around my chest tightened another notch. ‘I thought she was with you?’ she said. Then her face cleared. ‘No, wait a minute, I think Josie took her to the toilet.’

‘Josie?’ I said.

‘One of the healthcare assistants.’

I ran a hand through my hair. ‘Are you sure?’

‘I am. In fact, here they are now,’ she said.

‘Mummy!’ Immy cried, running down the corridor towards us, a large woman in a white tunic and black trousers behind her. Immy stretched out her arms and I scooped her up and buried my face in her hair so no one could see my tears.

We left hospital the next morning, once the paediatrician had given Immy a clean bill of health. He assured us she shouldn’t suffer any lasting effects. I wished the same could