Read Stolen for Free Online Page B

even know I was married to him until a few months after we’d been friends.’
    ‘How did she find out?’
    ‘She just mentioned one day that she used to go out with someone called Henshaw and we realised it was Paul.’
    ‘And it didn’t bother you?’ Lawton said. ‘I don’t think I’d like to know my friend used to go out with my husband.’
    ‘No. Me and Paul had already been together for four years. I just found it funny that they’d ever been together. I couldn’t imagine them as a couple. Still can’t.’
    ‘And what about Paul? How did he react?’
    ‘He was surprised. She was a blast from the past. He asked if she was still a nutter and that was it really.’
    ‘A nutter?’ Gardner asked.
    ‘He just thought she was a bit mad, you know. They’re so different. That’s why I thought it odd that they’d ever been together.’
    Gardner scratched at his ear and made some final notes. Abby tugged at the sleeve of her jumper.
    ‘Is any of this actually helping?’ she asked.
    ‘We need to make sure we cover everything,’ Gardner said.
    ‘But Jen didn’t take Beth. She didn’t hurt me.’ She took a deep breath and felt the tears burning her eyes again. She swiped at her face with the sleeve of her scratchy jumper. ‘I’m sorry. I just want to find my little girl.’
    ‘I know,’ Gardner said. ‘And we will. I know this is hard. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling right now but I need you to keep going. Just answer my questions, even if they might seem stupid. Okay?’
    Abby swept the hair from her face behind her ear. She nodded at him.
    ‘Okay. You didn’t tell anybody else you’d be going to see Ms Harvey?’
    Abby closed her eyes. She knew there was no one else. Who else would she tell? Then she had a thought. Her eyes opened.
    ‘I was at the doctor’s,’ she said. ‘Before going to Jen’s, I went to the doctor’s. I was on the phone to Paul and we were talking about it.’ Abby felt sick. She tried to remember who’d been there, who was listening. The receptionist? The man with the crutches?
    Gardner made a note. ‘Which surgery?’
    ‘Kirkleatham Street,’ she said.
    ‘In Redcar?’ he asked and Abby nodded. ‘Okay, we can check,’ he said but Abby didn’t know what that meant. He could check if any rapists or kidnappers had made an appointment that morning on the off chance? ‘Okay, let’s go back. Let’s start with this morning before you left to go to Ms Harvey’s.’
    Abby told him about having breakfast, about losing her keys and running late. About the visit to the surgery and the drive up the narrow country roads. Gardner took notes and nodded in the right places. He stopped and asked questions to clarify and confirm. After what seemed like a long time he finally put his pen down and folded his hands on the table top.
    ‘Okay. Is there anything else you can think of? Anyone out of place? Anything suspicious? Maybe it wasn’t even today, maybe in the last few days? Maybe further back. Anything at all?’
    Abby started to shake her head and then thought of something she’d ignored at the time as nothing more than an inconvenience, perhaps a malicious act by bored teenagers.
    ‘Someone slashed my tyres,’ she said.
    ‘When was this?’ Gardner asked.
    ‘January, I think,’ she said. ‘Maybe the beginning of February. Not long after Beth was born.’
    ‘Did you report it?’
    ‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I had no idea when it was done. I didn’t use the car for a couple of weeks so when I noticed it could’ve been done the night before or days before. I just thought it was kids or something. I had better things to worry about.’
    Gardner nodded but she thought he seemed a little disappointed by her response. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Was that an isolated incident? Nothing else happened around that time or since then? No one you can think of that might have reason to harass you?’ He stared at her and she felt her mouth go dry. ‘Anything