Chapter 27 Fenna – Day 6
Black spots cloud Fenna’s vision. Her mind leaps to a nightmarish place that no parent should ever be forced to confront.
‘Alba,’ she yells, sprinting closer.
Relief floods her body when she sees a plastic limb at an angle, a painted-on smile and big eyes staring up at the sky.
Alba’s doll is floating on the surface.
She stumbles against a sun lounger, hitting her shins, her legs unable to hold her up any longer. Tears make her vision blur.
The pure joy that her baby girl hasn’t drowned is replaced with another terrifying thought. Where is she?
Carla is missing. Alba is missing.
Theo appears on the steps.
‘I’ve come back from a run and I heard shouting. Mum said you’ve lost Alba?’ He pants. Sweat patches under each armpit. His face is puce pink.
Lost her.
Fenna wants to scream that she hasn’t lost her. She wasn’t in charge of her.
She cups her mouth with her hands. ‘Alba!’
‘Luke’s on his way back. We’ll find her. Stay calm.’ Theo places a sweaty palm against her bare shoulder. The touch makes her jolt.
‘Alba? Alba!’ The side of her lips split as she stretches her mouth wide enough to bellow her daughter’s name.
‘Let’s spread out. She can’t have gone far,’ Theo suggests.
‘No one’s been watching her for hours. Who knows where she could be,’ Fenna cries.
She pats down her pockets to find her phone. She needs to call the police and get them to put out an alert for a missing child.
Marianne trots down the steps, holding Raffi in her arms. ‘Julietta’s gone to have a good look in the house. We need to stay calm. Oh hello, Theo. Is Rosie not with you?’
‘No. I went for a run.’ Theo answers. ‘Rosie’s having a lie down.’
‘Are you sure that she’s having a lie down?’ Fenna spins to face Theo.
‘What? Yes, why?’ Theo wipes his face on a towel from the sun lounger.
‘Your mum thought you had both gone for a walk.’
‘I must have misheard.’ Marianne chimes. ‘It’s hard to keep on track of everyone.’
‘Something is going on with your weird fiancée,’ Fenna replies through clenched teeth.
‘What?’
‘She’s been creeping around the garden at night, writing cryptic notes. Saying how she’s lying about something.’ Rosie’s whispered voice picked up by the baby monitor comes back to her. ‘We don’t know this woman.’
‘Fenna?’ She turns at the sound of Luke’s voice, but not before catching the look of confusion on Theo’s face.
Her husband races over. Gerry follows close behind.
Luke wraps his arms around her and the tears she was trying to hold back erupt. She tries to tell him what’s happened. Her voice is shaking. Whilst they’re all standing here, Alba might be in trouble.
‘Take a deep breath,’ Luke orders, rubbing her clammy back.
Fenna gulps air as Marianne explains how there has been a mix-up with who was watching Alba. ‘. . . And I thought Rosie and Theo were out together but apparently she went for a lie down.’
‘Rosie told me she was going for a walk,’ Luke interrupts. ‘Perhaps she’s in one of the gardens with Alba?’
‘Has anyone checked the outhouses?’ Gerry suggests.
The old outhouses down the valley are still pretty much the death trap they were when the house was built. There’s a river that runs at the far end of the olive grove. The danger is endless.
Everything Fenna thought about Rosie swirls around her mind as she watches the men race off. She stumbles to her feet to follow them.
Rosie’s got something to do with it. She’s sure of it. She hates herself for not trusting her gut. What if something has happened to her daughter? How will she live with herself?