It didn’t sound like it to me.
‘Right,’ said the policeman, standing up. ‘Time for us to leave.’
I walked the two officers through to the hallway and out onto the driveway.
‘Do you still need the list of names and addresses of our party guests?’
‘That will depend on what your daughter has to say. I’ll let you know.’
The two officers climbed into their car and drove away, and I went back to the kitchen.
‘I want to go to the hospital,’ Georgina stated determinedly.
‘We will in the morning,’ I said.
‘I want to go now. I need to look after my little girl.’
‘She’s not a little girl anymore.’ I said it quietly and gently. ‘She’s a fully grown young woman.’
‘To me, she’ll always be my little girl,’ Georgina said, looking across the table. ‘And I want to see her right now!’
‘But even if we do go to the hospital, there’s no guarantee the police will let us see her.’
‘I still want to be close by, in case she needs me.’
Even I could see that further argument would be futile. Either I drove Georgina to the hospital or she would drive herself, and I wasn’t at all sure that her mind was sufficiently rational under the circumstances. James was certainly in no fit state to get behind the wheel of a car. He was the only one who had continued drinking after the party had come to an abrupt halt, and he still had a can of lager in his hand even now.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I’ll take you to the hospital.’
‘Will you be all right to drive?’
‘I’ll have to be,’ I said. ‘James, you stay here in case the police call again on the landline.’
‘Why would they do that?’ he asked, somewhat slurring his words.
‘Just stay here in case they do,’ I said, resisting the temptation to get cross with him.
‘All right,’ he said, standing up and swaying slightly. ‘No problem.’
If he had any more alcohol, I thought, he wouldn’t hear the phone even if it exploded.
We didn’t hit a tree, or anything else for that matter, and made it to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading without incident.
I parked in front of the impressive porticoed north entrance and decided not to bother paying the parking charge — surely no one would be checking at three o’clock in the morning.
The only entrance we could find open at this time of night was the Accident and Emergency department on Craven Road.
Even at this hour, the department was quite busy, with at least fifteen people sitting on metal chairs waiting to be seen, a couple of them holding babies.
‘We’re enquiring after one of your female patients,’ I said to the young woman sitting behind a glass panel in the reception. ‘Her name is Amanda Newton. We’re her parents.’
The receptionist typed something into her computer before looking up at us through the glass.
‘She’s no longer here in A&E. She’s been taken upstairs to the general admissions ward.’
‘Can we see her?’ I asked.
‘Visiting times are from two o’clock in the afternoon until eight o’clock in the evening,’ the receptionist replied unhelpfully.
‘But we have come here especially,’ Georgina pleaded. ‘Amanda went missing from her home, and she was found and brought here by the police.’
She looked at us, as if deciding. ‘I’ll give the ward duty nurse a call.’
We waited as the call was made. I could hear that it was ringing, but it was quite a long while before it was answered.
The receptionist turned away from us as she spoke, so I couldn’t make out what was being said on either side. After a couple of minutes, she turned back, holding her hand over the phone mouthpiece.
‘Your daughter is in a side room under protection. She’s not permitted to receive visitors.’
Georgina burst into tears and begged. ‘Please, can we see her?’
‘It has been a very emotional evening,’ I explained. ‘Please ask the nurse if it would be possible to see her just for a moment, even if it’s just through a window or through a crack in the door. So we can reassure ourselves that she is safe and well.’
The receptionist turned away and spoke again into the phone before once more turning back to us.
‘The night duty nurse is seeing what she can arrange. But she would have to find someone from security to come and collect you, and it might take a while. If you still want to wait, go and sit over there.’ She pointed across at some of the metal chairs.
‘Thank you,’ I said.
We went over to the seats.
‘I need to go to the loo,’ Georgina said, walking off towards the ladies.
As I sat down, my phone rang.
I looked at it. No Caller ID had appeared on the screen.
Who on earth could be calling me at this hour?
‘Hello,’ I said slowly, answering.
‘Is that Chester Newton?’ asked a funny-sounding voice, all high pitched and squeaky, as if using an electronic voice changer or a swazzle, like Punch in a Punch and Judy show.
‘Yes,’ I said warily. ‘Who is this?’
‘See how easy it was for me to take your daughter,’ said the squeaky voice. ‘In the future, you will do as I say, or next time she’ll come home in a body bag.’
Chapter 7
‘Are you all right?’ Georgina asked, coming back from the ladies. ‘You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.’
‘I’m fine,’ I said, waving a hand at her. ‘I’m just tired.’
‘Mmm, me too.’ She yawned and sat down next to me.
I didn’t tell her about the phone call — of course I didn’t. It would have sent her into a wild panic — as it had me.
Was it real or just a prank? Had the person on the other end of the line, man or woman, really taken Amanda from our home and deposited her in Pangbourne? And, in particular, was the threat to kill her next time real? What did the person want me to do? What did he or she mean by ‘In the future, you will do as I say’? Had I not done something they had asked for in the past?
My thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a man in black trousers and a white shirt, with Security emblazoned across each black epaulette. He also had an identity card hanging on a lanyard around his neck.
‘Mr and Mrs Newton?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ I replied.
‘I’m Justin from hospital security. Please come with me.’
We stood up and followed him through two sets of double doors to a bank of lifts.
‘The police have given instructions that no one should speak to your daughter other than the medical team,’ Justin said formally as the lift doors closed behind us. ‘Anyway, she’s fast asleep. She has been sedated.’
‘Sedated? Why?’ Georgina asked.
‘You will have to ask the doctors that. It seems she was quite agitated when she was brought in.’
‘Just seeing her will be great,’ I said, trying to be positive.
He pushed the button for the fourth floor, where we followed him down a brightly lit corridor to the general admissions ward. He placed his identity card against a small device on the left-hand wall, and the door opened automatically towards us.
‘You will need to be quiet now,’ Justin said in a whisper.
We nodded.
He led us around a corner to a side room where another similarly dressed security guard was sitting on a chair outside the door. He stood up.
‘Your daughter is in here,’ Justin said. ‘We will open the door for you to see her, but you must not go in or make any noise. Do you understand?’
‘Yes,’ we whispered together.
He opened the door and stood aside.