Page 47

CHAPTER 47

SALLY – D AY F OUR

‘You think they’ll get a breakthrough. With Dawn Meadows?’ Sally’s rocking to and fro, seated on one of the high stools at the breakfast bar that divide the kitchen area and the large dining room cum family space.

‘Let’s hope so.’ Carol is leaning against the kitchen worktops. ‘You want some toast, honey?’

‘No. Not hungry.’

‘Well, I’m making some for myself. Maybe try a half piece? You have to eat, darling.’ She twists her body to take bread from the ceramic bread bin, dropping three slices into the toaster and depressing the lever. ‘No word from Matthew?’

‘No nothing. It’s odd. Him dashing out. Not answering texts. With so much happening.’ Sally is still rocking but more gently. ‘Apparently, they’re going to show Adam Meadows’ photo to the witness from the car park. See if he was the guy carrying the girl who might be Amelie.’ The hugeness of this statement makes Sally sit up straighter. ‘So it could be today.’ Sally taps the palms of her hands together. ‘It really could be today, Carol.’

She finds it so difficult to sit still. Never knowing what to do with her hands. Her arms. Her body no longer comfortable in the space around her. Before he left earlier, Matthew tried to encourage her to take a bath. To relax her body. But she keeps trying to tell them all – Matthew, Sally and the FLO Molly: any attempt at relaxation or rest feels like a betrayal. Like the hugging. She pushes the bar stool back and starts to pace the room.

‘How do you think she’ll be holding up?’ Sally pauses. ‘Amelie, I mean. How do you think she’ll be coping? Matthew won’t talk to me about that. Finds it too hard.’

‘She’s a strong girl. Didn’t you say she had had counselling to try to build her resilience. After that cathedral case. The shooting?’

‘Yes, she did.’

‘Well. That will help her.’ Carol’s tone is steady as the toast suddenly pops up.

She’s referring to the sessions organised after the Hill family were caught up in a cathedral shooting a few years back. A graduate was shot at the very moment her certificate was handed to her. Matthew and Sally and Amelie happened to be in Maidstead and saw the panicked crowds running away from the cathedral. Matthew told Sally and Amelie to run to safety but he turned back towards the drama. His police training kicking in. Sally had begged him not to go but he wouldn’t listen.

Afterwards Amelie had nightmares. Was afraid to go to school. And refused to return to Maidstead for a long time. But the counselling, which included art therapy, made a real difference. She was taught to use a ‘worry jar’. To write down her worries and put them in the jar. Pack them away. It had helped a lot. Week after week there were fewer notes in the jar until eventually it stood empty on the kitchen windowsill. Sally thinks of that jar and remembers how it made her sigh with relief every morning she came downstairs to make coffee. To find it still empty.

‘And she’s older now,’ Carols adds as she moves to the fridge for butter. ‘She’s very bright. You’re always saying how pleased her school is. Her amazing reports. And she knows how very loved she is. You have to stay strong, Sally. To believe she’ll do OK.’

Sally takes her phone from her pocket as Carol moves across the kitchen space to place a plate in front of her with half a piece of buttered toast. ‘It’s weird he’s not answering messages,’ Sally says finally. ‘Do you think I should phone Mel?’

At that very moment there is the doorbell. It’s the FLO. Sally stands and hurries to the door. ‘Let’s see if Molly knows anything.’