Page 118 of Friend of the Family

Tilly’s room was on the next floor up. Amy expected to hear Rosemary creeping downstairs as she approached, but there was still not a sound. She quickened her step. Tilly’s bedroom door was ajar, the soft glow from the night light seeping onto the landing.

As she crept inside, her heart seemed to stop beating. Tilly’s bed was empty. The covers were crumpled, the soft imprint of her head still on the pillow, as if she had been there only recently.

‘Tilly?’ she said out loud.

She felt her hand come up to her chest as she forced herself to breathe.

‘David! She’s not here!’ she called, backing out onto the landing. She could hear the panic in her own voice.

David came running upstairs, taking two steps at a time. ‘They’re not up there?’

Amy shook her head. An image flashed into her head: Rosemary’s grey woollen coat had been on the banister when they had left to go to dinner. But it was no longer there when David had put his own jacket in the same spot.

‘Where are they?’ said David, looking at his watch. ‘Surely she hasn’t taken her out?’

Amy tried to hold onto that thought. That was what it must be. Rosemary was a soft touch when it came to her granddaughter. She imagined them watching a movie together, mischievous, laughing, snuggling up, Tilly demanding popcorn.

‘Call her,’ she said urgently.

David pulled out his phone and frowned as he looked at the screen.

‘“Have a good night”,’ he muttered out loud.

‘What? What’s happened?’ asked Amy.

‘Mum sent me a message.’

‘How could you not have noticed?’ she said, suddenly feeling more anxious.

‘We were driving, at the party, I don’t know . . . She sent it at nine thirty.’

‘Call her,’ said Amy, louder, more desperate now.

David was stabbing at the keyboard. He put the phone to his ear.

‘Where are you?’ A pause. ‘What do you mean, on your way back to Esher?’

Amy’s heart was pulsing louder as she waited for him to tell her what was going on.

‘Why? Why did you do that?’

He barely waited for Rosemary to answer before he ended the call and looked at Amy.

‘Mum’s gone home,’ he said, his face pale and rigid.

‘Has she got Tilly with her?’

David shook his head. ‘Juliet came to the house. Said that we’d asked her to take over the babysitting so that Rosemary didn’t have a late night with such a long drive home.’

‘Juliet came to the house?’ Every nerve ending turned cold.

David nodded. ‘Mum set off half an hour ago and left Juliet and Tilly here.’

‘Then where are they now?’ said Amy. She knew without a doubt that her daughter was in danger.

Chapter 39

Amy ran down the stairs, slipping twice in her haste and banging her coccyx. Somewhere she registered pain reverberating around her body, but she could think about nothing but fi