The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

59

September 2018

The morning drifts slowly towards lunchtime and Kim says, ‘You can go now, Sophie. I’m OK here now. Ryan’s on his way.’

‘Ryan?’

‘My son. I’ve been trying to get hold of him all morning. Had his phone on silent.’ She rolls her eyes. ‘But he’ll be here in a minute. You go. I’ll be fine.’

Sophie waits for Kim’s son to arrive; when he does, a few minutes later, he immediately collapses into his mother’s arms and starts to cry and Sophie closes the door quietly behind her and heads back towards the Maypole.

A figure across the common is also walking towards the school and it takes a moment for Sophie to realise that it is Lexie. She’s carrying shopping bags, on her way back from the Co-op. She slows down to wait for her to catch up and then greets her with a tight smile.

‘They’ve found something,’ she says to Lexie. ‘In the secret tunnel at Dark Place.’

Lexie’s jaw drops and her eyes open wide. ‘Oh my God,’ she says. ‘Is it him?’

‘Him? Who?’

‘The boy. Zach.’

‘What makes you think that?’ she asks carefully.

‘Well, if the police have found something and that was the last place they were seen …’

‘“They”? But you said “him”. The boy. As if …’ She stops and then pulls in her breath. ‘Lexie,’ she says, ‘I hope you won’t take this the wrong way, and I’m not insinuating anything here, I promise, but … I saw you had a copy of my book in your suitcase yesterday and I think you know that there’s a passage in the book about a detective finding a cardboard sign just like the ones here and it seems like such a weird coincidence. I mean, the “Dig Here” signs? Did you have anything to do with them?’

Behind them the church bell rings, just once. The question sticks in the air between them, thick and raw, like a clamp holding open an incision.

Lexie doesn’t answer at first. And then, almost imperceptibly, she nods.