Missing Fay by Adam Thorpe

Author:Adam Thorpe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House

He nods slowly, as if she’s recited from the Book of Common Prayer. Probably a mistake. Bugger-it-all-up Sheena.

Blue Monday followed by Blue Tuesday. Already the third week of 2012 and it still sounds futuristic. February round the bloody corner, as if it can’t wait. And then Fay appears in school uniform, albeit with her shirt hanging out. Apologises for being ‘lippy’. Her fleeced coat looks even bulkier on her; she seems thinner, or Sheena has just forgotten. She is such a serious kid. ‘Forgotten all about it,’ Sheena says in the middle of checking a size. She thinks of what Mike said, but it all goes out of the window in front of the actual child. Because that’s all Fay is: a child.

It’s two thirty on Wednesday. ‘School pack up early, did it, Fay? Another conflagration?’ The girl looks shifty in her uniform, multicoloured backpack frayed at the corners. She’s already taken off her coat, hanging it carefully on the hook in the pantry, and is folding the Kenzo rompers that some wild three-year-old strewed over the bench, ‘helping’ his proud mother. ‘You know what, sweetheart? It’s good to see you again. I have been wondering.’

‘Wondering what, like?’

‘Whether you’d ever pay me the privilege. Why don’t you make us a cuppa?’

‘I can stay for supper, if you want, after work.’ Her emerald eyes are gleaming with hope.

Oh no. Not with Gavin coming, scented candles and all. Unless Gavin is cancelled. For ‘security reasons’ he’s refused to give her his mobile number. If she’s not in, he said, too bad; I’ll go down to the pub. He’s a little paranoid maybe, but she feels more secure that way. No texts to be discovered. No voice messages. Not that she’s afraid of being found out. She’s not breaking any regs, but the newspapers can make a scandal out of anything. ‘A string of sex partners … running a toddlers’ clothes shop … reputation in tatters … middle-aged curvaceous blonde … predatory baby-snatcher … school questioning its work-experience policy in the light of … an application of more robust safeguarding arrangements … ’

‘Sorry, hun, I prefer you to get the school bus,’ she tells Fay, ‘as it’s a school day. I don’t want trouble.’ Fay nods, used to disappointment. She is picking golden hairs off a cloche hat of dark-green felt, the kind of task she enjoys: the whole shop, Sheena tells her, is a magnet for hairs and dustballs. Fay spends the afternoon religiously dealing with it.

When the girl goes off to the loo upstairs just after five, Sheena finds herself discreetly checking that the light fingers haven’t been at work again. An old book is one thing, a Sonia Rykiel pink tulle dress with diamanté is something else. She does a quick visual sweep of the empty boutique, then attacks. The backpack – a well-worn Adidas sports bag, the zip awkward – is happily loaded with school textbooks and a pencil case, but no stolen items. It smells a little of cigarettes, but that might just be the ambient fug in the Ermine abode.

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