The Child’s Secret

Jasmine gave her the best scowl she could manage given that her face had been painted bright orange. ‘I’m staying in character.’

Keira spun around in the pretty silver dress that Jasmine thought a bit too sparkly for one of the townspeople of Oz but her friend had insisted on being noticed. ‘Then so am I,’ she announced before coming to an uncertain stop. ‘But won’t we get in trouble?’

Lifting her nose in the air, Jasmine said, ‘Of course not. I asked Miss Jenkins and she said I could. And if I can, so can you.’

Jasmine was riding on a high and couldn’t have been more proud of herself. She had conquered her fears, and even though she had been shaking like a leaf she had stepped out on stage. Her newfound assertiveness had made it impossible for Miss Jenkins to refuse her request to stay in her costume that little bit longer.

‘Come on, my little Munchkins,’ Miss Jenkins told them as she led the remaining cast out towards the main entrance. ‘The sooner I get you lot handed over to your parents, the sooner we can all go home.’

Jasmine and Keira were holding hands as they stepped through the last set of double doors and were almost trampled over when the group surged forward while Jasmine became rooted to the spot.

‘Come on, Jazz,’ Keira said, tugging at her hand.

‘Look,’ she said, still refusing to move. Her eyes were fixed on the tall man with broad shoulders standing with her dad. ‘It’s Mr McIntyre.’

‘Who?’

‘Don’t you remember? He’s the man who told us about the Wishing Tree.’

Keira looked at him suspiciously. ‘But that was an old man with a beard.’

‘It’s him,’ Jasmine said without a shadow of a doubt.

‘What’s he doing here then?’

Jasmine bit her lip. ‘Do you think it has something to do with the Wishing Tree?’

‘Oh, Jasmine, why do you keep going on about that stupid tree?’

‘Because it has special powers, stupid.’

‘I’m not stupid – you’re stupid. And the Wishing Tree is just a stupid story that’s been made up like Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy.’

‘It is not! How do you explain how my dad got a job then?’ Jasmine replied with a frown that made her brow itch. When she rubbed at it, the orange face paint flaked beneath her fingers.

Keira swatted her friend’s hand. ‘You’re making a mess of your make-up.’

Jasmine scowled again. ‘The tree made my wish come true, Keira,’ she persisted.

‘Then how come it didn’t grant my wish then? I asked for Leah to take me with her when she went to see the new Avengers film in 3D, but she didn’t.’

Keira’s fourteen-year-old sister, Leah, was regularly called upon to babysit her younger sibling and occasionally Jasmine too since the two often came as a job lot. ‘She took us to the park though.’

‘Only because she wanted to meet her boyf—’ Keira’s voice broke off and her mouth was agog as she stared in the direction of Mr McIntyre. He wasn’t talking to Jasmine’s dad any more. ‘Oh. My. God.’

Jasmine followed her gaze. ‘What?’

‘Did you see that?’

‘No,’ Jasmine said. ‘What was it?’

‘Miss Jenkins has just kissed …’ she began but then felt the need to repeat herself and said with a hiss, ‘She just kissed the Wishing Tree Man.’

‘Yuk!’ the girls said in unison.

Leah appeared from nowhere and gave Keira a shove. ‘Will you two get a move on! Mum’s waiting for you!’

Before being dragged off by her sister, Keira turned back to Jasmine one last time. She stuck a finger down her throat to demonstrate her disgust but Jasmine remained straight-faced and solemn as she approached the group of adults that included her parents. Her mum was the only one who wasn’t deep in conversation and she was waiting with a smile.

12 (#ulink_89846f6d-b99e-5d98-85f5-4dd64681c3ad)

Jasmine’s home: Wednesday 7 October 2015

Laura’s muscles had tensed to the point where she could hardly breathe. She was sitting on the edge of her seat, her arms wrapped around her body as she rocked back and forth. Her nose was still blocked even though she had managed to hold back the flood of tears for the past half an hour. She was staring at a stain on the rug where Jasmine had spilled some blackcurrant juice the night before. It had been a minor mishap and yet, at that moment, it felt as if that grey mark she had tried so hard to scrub away was all she had left of her daughter.

The only other tangible link Jasmine had left behind was her Minnie Mouse umbrella, but the police had taken it away for tests. Her daughter had been hiding beneath it while Laura told her not to splash in the puddles, to behave herself for Natalie, and to hold Keira’s hand on their way to school that morning. She hadn’t bothered to step out into the rain herself to make sure Jasmine reached their neighbour’s house, despite there being a knot of anxiety in her stomach. She had been sick with worry about other things – everything except Jasmine arriving safely at school – but what if it was the last time she would see her daughter? What if whoever had taken her had been watching her careless farewell?

Don’t, she told herself. Don’t give up – not yet.

Her head pounded as she tried to find a more palatable answer. What if Jasmine had walked past their neighbour’s house on purpose and had run away? Then why had her umbrella been shoved into a nearby hedge? Natalie and Keira had found it when they had given up waiting for Jasmine and had called at the house to pick her up.

The door creaked open, pulling Laura away from dark thoughts that were too terrifying to contemplate. Her hand went to her throat and she pulled at her polo neck dress to give her more room to breathe. ‘Any news, Michael?’ she asked the family liaison officer as he poked his head into the living room.

The answer was apparent from the sympathetic look on his face. ‘Sorry. I just thought you’d like to know that DCI Harper is with Mr McIntyre who says he hasn’t seen Jasmine this morning.’

‘He’s lying,’ Finn said with snarl. ‘Give me five minutes with the bastard and I’ll get the truth out of him.’

Laura could taste the tears she was holding back, but it was the bile rising in her throat that made her gag. It was the last shred of hope she had been clinging onto, and, unlike her husband, she firmly believed that if Jasmine had been with Sam, she couldn’t be in safer hands. But if Jasmine wasn’t there, then where was she? If she had run away, where else would an eight-year-old child go? And if she hadn’t run away … As a sob tore from Laura’s lungs, she felt intense pain like a red-hot poker stabbing into her ribcage, making her gasp.

‘Are you all right, Laura?’ Michael asked.

Holding a hand to her left side for support, she took a few juddering breaths before speaking. ‘Sorry, just a twinge. I’ll be fine in a minute.’

Oblivious to his wife’s distress, Finn’s rant continued unabated. ‘I told Harper how Sam must have known what he was doing from the start,’ he said to Michael. ‘Anna – Jasmine’s teacher – told me how he actually tracked me down after meeting our Jazz. Who helps a complete stranger get a job unless there’s an ulterior motive? I should have seen it coming. If anything I blame myself,’ he said, shaking his head.

Laura was staring at the rug again. So do I, she thought and almost said it out loud.

‘Looking back, it’s so bloody obvious,’ Finn continued. ‘All that nonsense he told Jasmine about the Wishing Tree. Has Harper asked him about that? It was a sick and twisted trap to lure little girls. He’ll know where she is and if he’s so much as touched a hair on her head—’

‘If Sam says he hasn’t seen her then I believe him,’ Laura said, unable to hold her tongue a second longer.

‘Yeah, but you’re just as gullible as our Jazz when it comes to the wonderful Sam McIntyre. You were even more infatuated, and don’t go denying it. Well, I hope you’re pleased with yourself, Laura,’ Finn snapped back before the two resumed their vigil in silence.

13 (#ulink_f27b3c9b-f7c2-5ffc-b5f4-7cfd305ab0f3)

Thursday 9 July 2015

Laura crouched down as the little girl with the bright green wig and orange face ran into her arms. The flaking paint on her daughter’s face would leave a dusting of colour on her dress, but Laura couldn’t have stopped Jasmine hugging the life out of her even if she had wanted to.