Chapter 13: The Back Bedroom

Marianne's POV

I read the note standing up, and then I sat on the stripped bed because my legs went.

"He's had her taken," Joss said.

"Look at the window."

The sash was propped open with Poppy's hairbrush.

Outside, the porch roof was wet, and there was a trainer print in the moss at the edge.

"She climbed out," I said. "Three weeks after having him, with a baby and a carrier bag."

Joss put his fist against the wall and did not hit it.

"She knew I'd be seeing Dennis this morning," he said. "She saw it coming before I did."

Her phone lay on the pillow beside the note.

I tried the baby's birthday, and the screen opened.

There was only one thread, from a woman called Landlady.

Room's still yours, love. Same key under the same pot. Bring the little one.

"Leeds," I said. "She told me she went back to Leeds."

"She left the phone so he can't follow it."

"Then we follow her."

"In what? Everyone in Halifax knows my truck. Dennis has two prospects who do nothing but sit at the end of roads."

I went down the stairs and out of the back gate in yesterday's blouse.

Pauline was in her yard in a dressing gown, pegging out tea towels in the cold.

She looked at my face and took her car keys off the nail inside the back door.

"It's the Micra," she said. "It's got half a tank and a smell of Polos."

"Pauline, I can't tell you why."

"I didn't ask you why." She put the keys in my hand and shut my fingers over them. "Bring her to me after. I'll not be asked twice."

It was a little terraced house in Burley with a cracked step.

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