When Will There Be Good News?

'Look, look what Sadie found in Dr Hunter's garden,' the girl said, thrusting a manky piece of green cotton into Louise's hand.

'Sadie?'

'Dr Hunter's dog.'

'What is this?' Louise asked doubtfully, holding the scrap of green between thumb and forefinger.

'It's the baby's bit ofblanket, his comforter,' Reggie said. 'He won't go anywhere without it. Dr Hunter would never have left it behind. I found it in the garden. Why was it in the garden? It was already dark when I left and he had it in his hand then, and look at it, that stain there, that's blood.'

'Not necessarily.'

Archie had something similar, a bit of egg-yolk-yellow plush that had started life as a duck hand-puppet before the stitching gave way and the duck was decapitated. He couldn't go to sleep at night without it, she could see him now clutching it fiercely in his hand as if his life depended on it. Only in sleep did his fingers uncurl. He was the deepest sleeper. Louise would creep into his room in the middle of the night to cut toenails, remove splinters, swab cuts and grazes, all the little acts ofeveryday child maintenance that would cause him to scream the house down in daylight hours. He would rather have been separated from Louise than from that bit of yellow material.

She handed it back to the girl, saying, 'Things get lost.' Accidents happen. Milk gets spilt. Platitudes rain.

'Mr Hunter said Dr Hunter drove down,' Reggie said, 'but her car was in the garage. There was nothing wrong with it when she drove home in it yesterday. She's gone away but she never told me she was going, which isn't like her at all and Mr Hunter says she's visiting a sick aunt but she's never mentioned the existence of an aunt to me, I spoke to her friend Sheila at work and she was supposed to have gone to Je

'Take a breath,' Louise advised.

'She's disappeared,' the girl said. 'I think someone's taken her.'

'No one's taken her.'

'Or Mr Hunter has done something to her.'

'Done something?'

The girl dropped her voice to a whisper, 'Murdered.'

Louise sighed inwardly. The girl was one ofthose. An over-excited imagination, could get stuck on an idea and be carried away by it. She was a romantic, quite possibly a fantasist. Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey. Reggie Chase was a girl who would find something of interest wherever she went. Training to be a heroine, that was what Catherine Morland had spent her first sixteen years doing, and she wouldn't be surprised if Reggie Chase had done the same.

'It happens that I was at Dr Hunter's house earlier today,' Louise said. 'I was seeing Mr Hunter about something quite unrelated.'

'That's a fu

'And that's all it is,' Louise said sharply. 'A coincidence. Mr Hunter told me that his wife had gone away, to stay with an aunt who isn't well.' 'Yes, I know, I said that, that's what he told me but I don't believe it.' 'The aunt isn't a matter of faith, she's not Father Christmas, she's a relative. She's not part ofsome grand conspiracy to hide Dr Hunter.'

'No one's seen Dr Hunter. No one's spoken to her.'

'Mr Hunter has.'

'He says.'

Louise sighed heavily. 'Look -Reggie -why don't I give you a ride home?' 'You should get the phone number for the aunt of Dr Hunter, make sure she's OK. Maybe you could send someone to the aunt's house in Yorkshire, someone local. Hawes, H-a-w-e-s. Mr Hunter won't give me an address or a phone number but he'd have to give it to you.'

'Enough.' Louise held up a hand like a traffic cop. 'Leave it alone. Nothing has happened to Dr Hunter. Come on, my car's not far away.'

'Find out ifthe aunt exists. Get hold ofDr Hunter's mobile it's in , the house, then you can see if the aunt really phoned her.'

'Car. Now. Home.'

She said she had saved the life of a man at the train crash. More fantasy, obviously. Louise should have sent a uniform to talk to her. Ifit had been about anyone else she would have done, it was just that she had claimed Joa

I might go away. Escape for a bit. Her husband's finances were in meltdown, he was walking on the dark side with some questionable people, the marriage was probably falling apart and Andrew Decker was back on the streets. Who wouldn't disappear? Was the marriage falling apart, or was she just projecting her own feelings on to Joa

Joa

'A burden you have to carry through the rest ofyour life,' Joa

Of course she didn't need to drive all the way out to Musselburgh and back in rush-hour traffic. 'It's out ofyour way,' Reggie said. It was, but she didn't care. Not out of any real consideration for the girl, it was just a time-spi

Louise, that was who.) 'What's Dr Hunter like?' she asked Reggie Chase on the drive to Musselburgh and the girl said, 'Well .. .' It seemed Joa