Page 68

CHAPTER 68

MELANIE – D AY F IVE

In the freeze frame, Melanie is thinking that it happened too fast. No matter the planning and the training and the agonising over all the options, it always in the end happens too fast.

In a single beat she is ordering the armed officers forward to check the body on the ground. An officer lifts John Miles’ gun into the air. Another checks his pockets. Clear. Ambulance required .

Others on the team quickly check first Olivia and Chloe – mother and daughter – ambulance needed – and then inside the caravan.

The ambulances parked on a bridlepath move quickly forward, and then, from behind, Melanie hears Matthew calling.

‘Amelie? Amelie!’

She turns her head to see him punch his police guard on the chin and run down the slope towards the caravan.

‘Amelie! Amelie!’

Eyes turn. Guns turn. ‘It’s the father. Matthew Hill. Don’t shoot!’ she barks into her radio. ‘Tall, fair man. Amelie’s father. Don’t shoot.’

Melanie is holding her breath as all eyes turn back to the caravan. She’s waiting for the officers to come out of the caravan, but Matthew keeps running right up to the door where two uniforms grab him. Hold him. Oh, dear God no , she thinks. Eventually the search team emerges but they are shaking their heads. ‘Caravan clear.’

Something terrible twists inside her. Still Matthew is struggling and shouting.

‘Amelie! Where is Amelie?’

Up on the hill still, Sally has fallen to her knees.

Melanie moves forward as Chloe is lifted on to a stretcher, her mother leaning over her, crying and stroking her head. Matthew is casting his head around, still held by two officers.

‘Check the car,’ Melanie orders on her radio as she strides to the first ambulance to speak to Olivia.

‘Olivia?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you know what happened to Amelie?’ She tries to mask her panic, to keep her voice gentle as Olivia steps up into the ambulance alongside Chloe.

‘Is she not with you?’ Olivia looks horrified. ‘He said she ran away. I thought she found you. That she brought you here.’

‘No. She didn’t.’

‘Oh my goodness, no. He took her into the woods. I’m so sorry. I tried to stop him. I really did try to stop him.’

‘Can you tell us anything else? Help us to find her?’

‘There were two shots.’ Olivia is sobbing now, hand over her mouth. ‘We were in the caravan. We couldn’t see. I’m so, so sorry.’