Page 40

CHAPTER 40

MELANIE – D AY F OUR

One cup of coffee and Melanie’s mind is racing as she prepares for the team’s breakfast update. She FaceTimed George again while he munched cereal and he says the arm’s not too painful but she’s still feeling horribly torn as she jots notes for the meeting.

The headlines? Adam Meadows is being brought to Devon for questioning again, under arrest this time as he’s been lying and concealing evidence about his wife. Local police are doing a second full search of his properties. The bank’s now confirmed that Dawn Meadows has an active bank account still listing the marital home with Adam, despite his protestations otherwise. They’re checking her card records and are to provide details of any purchases or ATMs used. Hopefully that data will be in later in the morning.

Statements have been taken from the two drivers identified by Matthew from the overnight review of the car park footage. One’s potential dynamite. The driver says he saw a man carrying a girl in a green dress across the car park. The witness asked if they needed help but the man said no. He said his daughter was diabetic and had just fainted. She’d skipped breakfast and just needed some orange juice from the car and her mother to take her readings again. The witness said he was worried but the man seemed on top of the situation. Reassuring. Don’t worry. We’ve got this. She’ll be fine. Just needs some sugar. But infuriatingly, just like Zak and the canal sighting, the driver did not see where the girl was taken. The car park was L-shaped and the man carrying the girl walked around a corner out of sight so the witness could not identify the car.

I’m sorry. After checking they were OK, I went to my own car and didn’t see where they went. I feel terrible now but at the time I remember being impressed at how calm he was. I have two kids myself and thought – I’d be a nervous wreck if one of them had diabetes. Never occurred to me he might be lying. You just don’t think like that ...

Melanie pauses. Narrows her eyes. So the update is Amelie definitely tried on the green dress as suspected. She somehow wandered through the rear security door by the canal. It was supposed to be locked but was used sneakily by staff from the shop for a quick smoke and hence was unlocked. One of the staff has since admitted they put the bag over the security camera as there had been a memo warning them not to use the rear path for smoking. The staff didn’t want to get caught.

So why did Amelie walk out of the rear door instead of joining her mother at the front? Was she trying to steal the dress? Or did someone distract her? Adam Meadows? Was he the man who carried her across the car park? And how did he knock her out? Some kind of drug? Was Dawn with him? Was that it? All planned?

Melanie taps her pen against the lined paper as she makes notes. She scribbles – update on all Matthew’s past cases. It’s important to keep an open mind. Not get tunnel visioned. Matthew has convinced himself that Dawn Meadows is behind Amelie’s disappearance. And maybe she is. But Matthew’s laser focus on the Meadows is partly driven by his own sense of guilt about the death of Jacob Meadows, and she’s seen one-track thinking go wrong in too many investigations.

She sighs. Rubs her nose which is suddenly itching. She can feel adrenaline pumping as she moves into performance gear. She needs everyone chasing the other drivers in the car park in case someone can describe the car that took Amelie so they can track it. She needs her team upbeat. Firing on all cylinders today. Amelie has been missing for far too long.

Melanie puts her notebook in her pocket and takes out her phone to take in the screen saver of George. Smiling at the beach. She feels a powerful internal lurch. That longing again to just get in the car and be with him. She breathes in and out slowly to ride the discomfort, blows her son a kiss. Then she closes the phone, leaves the small office which has become her overnight camp and heads out into the main corridor.

‘Morning, boss.’ Alison, the detective, passes her with a takeaway coffee in hand. ‘Sorry. I would have got you a cup if—’

‘It’s fine,’ Melanie says, finding a smile.

And then Sam suddenly emerges from the main office, eyes wide.

‘Boss. Big news.’ He lets out a huff of air. ‘We’ve found Dawn Meadows.’