The Missing Children Case Files

Chapter Ten

Then

Wareham, Dorset

The walk to school on Monday morning was a lot more painful than Natalie had anticipated. After the grilling from her mum and dad, she’d ended up leaving late and missing the early bus. She preferred catching the early bus as it was always quieter than the later one. By the time she reached the bus stop, the line was already ten-deep with students of varying ages. On any normal day, she would have had time to bypass the bus stop and walk to school before the morning bell sounded, but with every step such agony, her pace was much slower today.

When the bus had arrived, it had already been packed with teenagers wearing the same dark green blazer and tie as herself. There were no seats available, but at least the bus driver allowed her to squeeze on, perched perilously just behind the yellow line. Three stops later, and she was practically bundled from the bus as the throng of students pushed forwards to get in through the gates to see friends and copy homework before the bell.

Natalie had looked for, but failed to find, either Louise or Jane in their usual hangout at the far side of the playground near the enormous sports centre. When the bell had sounded, she’d hobbled as quickly as she could in through the main doors, up the stairs to the first floor, and along to class 9-E. No sign of Louise or Jane in their seats either, though the space at Sally’s desk was almost haunting. Natalie deliberately kept her eyes from looking over at the desk, as if Sally’s absence was news to her, as it would have been to most of her other classmates, who were shouting and cooing and gossiping about last night’s Hollyoaks.

Mrs Engleberry – their registration tutor – arrived two minutes later, and was just wishing everyone a good morning when a knock at the door was followed by Louise and Jane scuttling in and taking their seats on the far side of the class. With heads bowed, they quickly apologised for being late, but neither looked at Sally’s desk and both avoided eye contact with Natalie.

When the second bell sounded to announce assembly, Natalie did her best to cut through the flow of classmates to stand beside Louise and Jane, but both were too far ahead and showed no interest in waiting for her.

Louise is probably just feeling guilty about slapping my cheek last night, Natalie tried to reassure herself, though in truth it should have been her avoiding them after what had happened, and she wasn’t enjoying this cold-shoulder treatment.

What about the pact? They were supposed to be in this together, weren’t they? Didn’t that mean banding together and supporting one another through thick and thin?

Assembly was as irrelevant as ever but a real strain for Natalie to remain standing for the entire fifteen minutes of sermons, school hymn and notices. The fact that the canteen was serving spaghetti carbonara was hardly newsworthy; besides, they’d all see the canteen menu when they went in for lunch anyway.

Natalie finally managed to collar the pair of them at mid-morning break, having twice missed them before and after double-science. She didn’t want them to know she suspected they’d been avoiding her all morning, but she couldn’t keep from checking that they’d both stuck to the plan so far.

‘Sally’s mum was on the phone to mine first thing,’ Natalie bowled out with right away.

Before she could check whether their mums had received similar calls, Louise grabbed Natalie’s arm hard, pinching the skin, and yanked her out of earshot of anyone else.

‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ Louise snapped.

Natalie rubbed her arm gingerly. ‘What? All I asked was—’

The spiked glare fired by Louise was enough to stop Natalie repeating her mistake. ‘Jane and I were thinking that it’s probably best if the three of us just lay low today. Yeah? Don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves. Sally’s mum is bound to have phoned the school to say that… she won’t be coming in today, but it’s probably too early for her to phone the police.’

Natalie’s eyes widened but she didn’t speak.

The police? Natalie hadn’t even thought through the full repercussions of what they’d done last night. Would the police really get involved? Natalie had been so concerned with just getting home without her parents discovering she’d snuck out that she hadn’t dared to fast forward to possible ramifications.

‘So we’ve just got to stick to our story, yeah? We’re all agreed? Last night didn’t happen. None of us snuck out, none of us went to the woods and we don’t know what happened to… her.’

But we did sneak out, Natalie wanted to roar, and we do know what happened to Sally.

‘What’s with the face, Nat?’ Louise challenged.

Natalie met her gaze but had no idea what shapes her face was pulling.

‘Have you already told someone?’ Louise continued.

‘What? No,’ Natalie spat back. ‘I wouldn’t!’

Louise was eyeing her suspiciously and then something silent passed between Louise and Jane, but Natalie had no idea what the exchange meant.

‘I swear to you! I didn’t tell anyone.’

‘What about your mum and dad?’

‘Nobody, I swear.’

‘What did they say about your leg?’

Natalie looked down to where both girls were now staring, and saw evidence of the dark patch seeping through the large plaster beneath her dark tights. She’d known the walk to the bus would be too much, and clearly her efforts to clean and treat the wound had failed. She hadn’t been able to bring a spare plaster in case the first one failed, and now she’d have to try and snatch one from the medical bay. If she told the school nurse that she needed it for her leg, the nurse would insist on examining the wound, and then alarm bells would sound.

‘You’d better get that cleaned up,’ Louise said, her words delivered with no empathy.

Louise and Jane began to move away, until Natalie reached out for Jane’s arm. It was clear Louise had appointed herself the new leader of the group, but Jane had said nothing to suggest she was in complete agreement with Louise’s suggested approach. Jane had always been a bit of a sheep so it was no surprise that she’d yet to speak out against Louise. If Natalie could exert some control of her own, then maybe Jane could be persuaded to her way of thinking instead.

‘Jane, would you be able to help me to the nurse’s office?’

Jane’s eyes widened and she looked to Louise for an answer.

‘No,’ Louise confirmed. ‘We agreed it’s best if we all go our separate ways today. If the nurse sees two of you and that leg, she’s going to start asking questions – the kind of questions that neither of you are up to answering. Trust me; it’s better this way.’

Jane didn’t look back, pulling her arm away and following Louise the shepherd.

The day dragged to lunchtime. Natalie had tried to make up a story about a fellow student injuring a hand, but it had been a bad idea to lie to the nurse about the real reason she required a large plaster. She’d eventually relented and pointed at the stain beneath her tights, but had refused to remove her tights to allow the nurse to see the wound. With little other choice, the nurse had handed over the plaster, and Natalie had hurried off to the girls’ toilets to swap it over.

She had winced and silently wept as she pulled the old one off. The wound had looked deeper somehow than when she’d cleaned it in the shower this morning, but it was probably just the amount of fresh blood that seemed to be weeping from it. She did her best to dab it with tissue paper, but even that stung, so she had dabbed for as long as she could before squashing the fresh plaster over the top. Wrapping the old plaster in more tissue, she’d dropped it into the dustbin before she’d hobbled back to class.

When the lunch bell sounded, she hadn’t wanted to leave the classroom, such was the burn and ache in the area surrounding the wound, but Mrs Engleberry had insisted everyone leave the room so she could go and have her lunch. Natalie had made her way to the lunch hall, sat alone, and eaten the spaghetti carbonara she had ordered. It had tasted cold by the time she’d made it to her seat so she’d only managed half of it before giving up; she didn’t have an appetite, what with everything running through her mind.

How different things might have been had she not bowed to Sally’s pressure and agreed to meet them at the gap in the perimeter fence. Sally might still be missing, but at least Natalie wouldn’t be living with the guilt of her own part in the sticky mess. But then, had she not agreed to go with them, maybe Sally would be here now.

Louise and Jane were the last to return to the class, and for all of Louise’s noise about them all staying apart, the two of them had remained suspiciously close. Natalie had never felt as isolated as she did in that moment. She wasn’t entirely to blame for what had happened, and if those two were planning to tell the truth, and hang her out to dry, then she would need to be ready with her own version of events. But who could she turn to when the truth had such implications? Once upon a time, she would have trusted Louise with any and all secrets, but a line had been drawn, and even in Sally’s absence, it appeared there would be no return to the old ways… to the better times.

Mrs Engleberry was late back to class and when she did enter, there was a tall woman in a business suit alongside her.

‘Class 9-E, quiet, please,’ Mrs Engleberry told them, and the hum of chatter instantly quietened. ‘Good, thank you. Before we get going with our French lesson, a couple of you are needed to speak with Detective Constable Fiona Rimmington. So, Louise Renner, Jane Constantine, and Natalie Sullivan, please go with DC Rimmington now, and wait in Mr Panko’s office until she’s ready to speak to you. Don’t worry, girls, you’re not in any trouble.’

Natalie’s head snapped from the tall detective to Louise, but her former best friend made no reaction to the news. She was cool as a cucumber, whilst every bone in Natalie’s body sensed that the truth of last night was about to spill, and it was only a question of which of them cracked first.

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