Gone Astray Read Online Free Page B

her relentlessly
about where she thought Rosie might be – but she couldn’t for the life of her remember a single one.
    The first officers had arrived within twenty minutes, just as the emergency operator said they would. The woman also suggested she ask Sarah to come round and sit with her when Lesley admitted
there was no one else nearby she could ask. Her parents were in Cornwall, retired to a four-bedroom cottage overlooking the sea at Crantock Bay which she and Mack had bought for them. But even if
they were nearby, Lesley still wouldn’t ask them to come. Her mum’s ability to recognize her diminished with every visit and the last time she went she thought Lesley was a friend she
hadn’t seen since school. She might not understand Rosie was missing. Mack’s parents and older brother were even further away, in Falkirk in Scotland. That left friends, but the wide
social circle they were once part of in Mansell had shrunk to just one: Trudy, who lived two doors down from their old house on the Corley. But right now she was on a cruise around the Med, a
thank-you present for sticking up for them when other friends cut them off because Mack wouldn’t write them blank cheques. Trudy was the only friend who had never asked for a penny.
    So the job of staying with her until the police arrived fell to Sarah, her next-door neighbour on Burr Way and someone she only knew a little. She couldn’t fault Sarah’s reaction to
her request for help though – she had taken charge by calling Mack and leaving a message to ring straight back when he didn’t answer his phone, then ordered her daughter Kathryn to call
every friend the girls shared to see if any had heard from Rosie. All the while, Lesley sat sobbing quietly on the four-seater purple suede sofa in the lounge.
    It was like the panic that made her race around the house looking for Rosie had paralysed her limbs and all she wanted to do was to curl up in a ball and not think about what might be happening
to her little girl. Because every time she did, terror bubbled up inside her and her mind was flooded with horrible images of Rosie hurt and scared and crying for help.
    ‘Are you sure you don’t want one of these?’
    Sarah raised a glass filled with dark amber liquid in Lesley’s direction, her second helping from their drinks cabinet. It was for the shock, she said, but Lesley knew better. Sarah, who
didn’t work and whose husband was an in-house lawyer for a multinational bank, liked a drink and usually started early – the drama of Rosie going missing was just the excuse she needed
to top up what she’d already imbibed that day. The extent of her drinking was most evident up close, revealed by the broken capillaries mapping her cheeks, the reddened nose even the thickest
layer of foundation couldn’t quite cover, and the fleshy jowls that quivered as she spoke.
    ‘No, thank you,’ said Lesley, twisting the new tissue between her fingers. ‘What do you think they’re doing out there?’
    ‘In the garden? Looking for clues, presumably.’
    Lesley was overcome by a wave of nausea.
    ‘I can’t bear this, I really can’t,’ she said, her voice rising. ‘Why won’t anyone tell me anything?’
    ‘The chap in charge said two family liaison officers would be here soon to help you,’ said Sarah. She spoke in a clipped accent that was typical of Haxton’s residents and made
Lesley have to remind herself that Mansell was only five miles away and not in a foreign country.
    ‘I wish they’d get a move on though,’ Sarah added.
    Lesley seized on the comment.
    ‘I’ll be fine waiting on my own if there’s somewhere else you need to be.’
    ‘Oh, don’t be silly. I couldn’t possibly leave you now. No, I’ll wait until Mack gets home at least.’
    ‘What time is it now?’ said Lesley despairingly.
    ‘Four thirty. What flight is he catching?’
    ‘There’s one that gets into Gatwick at nine. So he should be home just after ten.’
    She