I Choose You Read online

  Elise stared up at Nathaniel and then turned to Miles, who’d found some satisfactory trash to watch on TV. ‘What did you just say, love?’

  ‘I shouted to Uncle Sonny on my way back to school, but he just looked at me and carried on walking.’

  ‘You couldn’t have seen Uncle Sonny. He was at work earlier.’

  Miles frowned. ‘No, he wasn’t. Me and Ida saw him after school.’

  ‘Hang on a minute. Why did you come back here? I thought you stayed for basketball practice after lessons, after I told you not to,’ Elise said, letting him know he shouldn’t have gone against her instructions.

  Miles looked up, trying to think through the day’s events, gauge if he was in a lot of trouble or not. ‘I wasn’t going to basketball practice and then I changed my mind because Ida met up with Alistair on the way home and I was bored, so Granddad said I could go back to school if I wanted.’

  ‘And Granddad walked you back?’ Nathaniel was always telling Ray he didn’t want the children walking anywhere on their own, especially through the park.

  ‘No, by myself. Granddad had a strange man here. He said he couldn’t leave him.’

  ‘A strange man?’ Nathaniel looked at Elise, who was gently rocking Buddy.

  ‘He came out of Granddad’s office and said he was me, myself and I. He had an eye patch, like a pirate.’

  ‘Okay. One of Dad’s patients,’ Elise whispered to Nathaniel.

  ‘I thought you told him not to have patients here when the children are over?’

  Elise sighed, as she always did when he questioned her father’s actions, but he didn’t care, especially when it came to his children. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘He can’t help it if there’s a bit of a crossover. And that’s all it would have been, he promised me.’

  ‘Bloody hell, Elise, you don’t know what sort of nutcases he has on his books. And Miles isn’t old enough to walk through the park by himself.’

  ‘If they were that bad, they’d be locked up.’

  ‘Look at the situation we’re in now.’ Nathaniel raised his hands.

  Elise ignored him. ‘Try Alistair again, will you? See if he knows anything.’

  ‘I called already, he’s not answering.’

  Elise turned her attention back to Miles, who was now absorbed in the TV programme.

  ‘So, Ida stayed at Granddad’s with Alistair when you walked back to school?’

  ‘I think so.’ Miles shrugged. ‘Granddad and Ida were arguing about something just before I left.’

  ‘What were they arguing about, love?’

  ‘Where’s Ida?’ Miles appeared to suddenly realise his sister wasn’t there.

  ‘She’s with the doctors because she’s poorly, they’re trying to make her better.’ Nathaniel dialled Alistair’s number but there was still no answer.

  ‘Are we staying at Granddad’s tonight?’ Miles switched the channel.

  ‘Shush a minute, your dad’s talking on the phone.’

  Nathaniel left a message on Alistair’s voicemail, telling him to call them urgently.

  ‘Still no answer?’

  Nathaniel shook his head. He was beginning to wonder if both kids had got themselves into trouble.

  His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden arrival of a couple of detectives.

  ‘Where’s my daughter?’ Elise demanded of them. ‘What’s happened to my dad?’

  The detectives introduced themselves as DI David Davis and DC Alex Chilvers, the latter a woman, despite her name.

  ‘Mrs Munroe,’ DC Chilvers said, ‘we don’t know where your daughter is at the moment, but our officers are out searching for her and we’re doing everything we can. We just need to ask you a few questions.’

  Nathaniel and Elise looked at one another.

  ‘What do you mean, you don’t know where our daughter is?’ Nathaniel asked.

  ‘We believe your daughter was attacked sometime this afternoon. Dr Coe and Sonny Travers found her, but since then she’s disappeared.’ DC Chilvers allowed the words to settle.

  Nathaniel and Elise stared at the officers, trying to take in everything they were saying.

  Elise said, ‘We were only told she’d been attacked . . .’

  ‘I’m sorry no one has been in to explain everything to you, Mrs Munroe. As you can imagine, the first few hours in any investigation are crucial. Our priority is finding your daughter.’

  ‘So she ran off? Her injuries couldn’t have been that bad then?’ Elise stood up and propped Buddy up on some cushions. ‘I need to find her. I can’t sit around here doing nothing.’

  ‘Mrs Munroe, you need to stay calm and we’ll explain everything to you, as soon as we have the facts. It doesn’t help anyone if we speculate. Sit down, please.’

  Elise reached for Nathaniel’s hand and they both sat down.

  ‘Firstly, I need to ask who lives here with your father. All of you?’ DC Chilvers opened her pocketbook.

  Elise and Nathaniel exchanged puzzled looks.

  ‘No. Just my brother-in-law Sonny,’ said Nathaniel, quickly becoming irritated. ‘We live a few streets away from here. Our apartment was burgled earlier today.’

  ‘Did you report it?’

  ‘That’s not quite right, Nathaniel,’ said Elise. ‘Our flat was broken into and Ida’s room was trashed. We think her laptop was stolen.’

  DC Chilvers looked up from her note-taking. ‘You reported it?’

  ‘Yes, for fuck’s sake,’ Nathaniel snapped. ‘We reported it before all this happened. Before we knew someone had attacked our daughter. Do any of you talk to one another?’

  ‘Nathaniel, little ears,’ Elise hissed, nodding towards Miles, who was standing in front of the television, transfixed by his programme.

  ‘Mr Munroe, you’ll appreciate that when we’re sent out to different jobs, it takes a while for information to be collated and compared. We’re relying on all of you to tell us as much as you can remember. Can you confirm who lives in your father-in-law’s house and who lives in your apartment with you?’ DI Davis addressed them both.

  ‘When are we having dinner?’ Miles wandered over to Elise and leant against her legs.

  ‘Just go and sit quietly for a few minutes and we’ll sort something out.’ Elise stroked the back of Miles’s head and turned her attention to the police officers. ‘My father lives in the house with my brother, Sonny. Sonny John Travers. Nathaniel and I live in our apartment with our children, Ida, Miles and Buddy.’

  ‘And how old is your brother?’ DC Chilvers continued to note everything down in her pocketbook.

  ‘Thirty-six, thirty-seven, I’m not sure.’ Elise was beginning to feel uncomfortable. She didn’t like people prying into their private lives.

  ‘You don’t know how old your brother is?’ DC Chilvers stopped writing. ‘Is he a half-sibling?’

  ‘No. Why do you ask?’

  ‘He has a different name to your father.’

  ‘My mother had him adopted just after he was born. Sonny employed an agency to find us. About three years ago, I think.’ Elise lifted Buddy on to her lap; he was beginning to fidget. ‘He’s a barrister.’

  ‘Yes, I know Mr Travers. I’ve met him in a professional capacity.’ DC Chilvers showed no emotion, neither a smile nor an offer to elaborate any further. She just carried on writing. ‘And your mother’s name?’

  ‘Ingrid Coe. She’s deceased.’ Elise glanced across at Miles, wondering how much he could hear, but he seemed totally absorbed in Deal or No Deal.

  ‘Recent?’

  ‘No, she died when I was eleven. Suicide. Well, we think it was.’

  DC Chilvers frowned. ‘You think it was?’

  ‘Have you heard of the Suicide Watcher cases?’ Nathaniel reached his arms out to Elise, so she could hand Buddy over.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Both our mothers were victims.’

  ‘That’s not quite right, Nathaniel.’ It was a subject they had always disagreed on. Elise had attend
ed a support group, set up for anyone dealing with the aftermath of suicide, and that’s how they’d met. It had been founded by a woman called Donna Levisham, but she’d moved away, and it was eventually taken over by Magda King, Alistair’s mother. The group had quickly become known as a place for the Suicide Watcher’s alleged victims.

  It irritated Nathaniel when she contradicted him.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ DC Chilvers said. ‘It’s not important at this stage. We just really need to know who is presently in Ida’s life. People she spends time with on a regular basis. We also need to know if there’s anyone you might be worried about. Anyone who might have upset Ida recently?’

  ‘I can’t think of anyone. Is my father hurt?’

  ‘No.’ DC Chilvers frowned. ‘Mr Travers found your daughter and may have chased her assailant from the property. As far as we know, neither he nor your father was involved in the attack.’

  ‘Sonny found Ida?’ Nathaniel stood up. ‘You need to tell us exactly what’s going on. We didn’t know that.’

  ‘Where are my father and brother?’ Elise got up from the sofa.

  ‘They’re at the station answering some questions. The most important thing is that you tell us everything you can remember. Is there anyone you can think of who might have been bullying Ida?’

  ‘No, I just told you.’ Elise gripped her face and began to cry. ‘Why aren’t you out looking for her?’

  ‘We have officers out there right now. At this stage, we don’t know what’s happened to her. Your father says he found her lying on the floor with what he thinks was a head injury. He called an ambulance, and sometime between your father going outside to get the paramedics and coming back into the room, your daughter disappeared.’

  ‘But you just said Sonny found her. Which is it?’ Nathaniel was becoming more irate.

  ‘It appears that Mr Travers found your daughter first, but believes he saw an intruder in the garden, so he pursued them.’

  ‘Why didn’t Sonny call an ambulance?’ Nathaniel frowned, trying to make sense of what was being said to him.

  DC Chilvers paused and observed them both. ‘Mr Travers believed your daughter was dead when he found her.’

  ‘Does he know who it was? In the garden, I mean?’ Nathaniel leant against the wall, wanting to fall through it like he was in a dream.

  ‘Unfortunately, we don’t know any more.’ DC Chilvers stood up, excused herself and left the room. They could hear her talking to someone outside the door.

  ‘I’m sorry no one has been in to explain things to you in more detail.’ DI David Davis took over from DC Chilvers. ‘As you can appreciate, trying to locate someone in the dark and wet weather is increasingly difficult the later it gets, so we’re working as quickly as possible to find your daughter and her attacker.’

  ‘So you think Ida has run off and her attacker is somewhere else?’ Nathaniel felt strangely relieved that a someone had been spotted, that this person might be close by and easy to locate.

  ‘It’s a little more serious than that, Mr Munroe. Your brother-in-law was chasing someone he’d seen in the garden. At the moment, no one knows if this is the person who attacked her or an innocent member of the public. Our officers are currently searching the area and conducting house-to-house enquiries.’

  ‘No one told us any of that.’ Elise’s words were full of tears and Nathaniel went over to comfort her.

  ‘So you could be looking for more than one person?’ Nathaniel said desperately.

  ‘Possibly. We’re keeping an open mind.’

  Elise took Buddy from Nathaniel and placed him in his car seat. ‘I need to see Sonny and my father. I need to know what happened.’

  ‘You can’t do that, Mrs Munroe. Your father has been taken to the police station, along with Sonny. We’d like you to stay in here while we explain what we need you to do. Save your energy for your daughter, that’s the most important thing to do right now.’

  ‘What are you doing with my father?’

  Nathaniel could see Elise was becoming dangerously angry; her quiet voice and creased brow were always a sign she was going to erupt. ‘My daughter’s been abducted and now you’re expecting me to sit here while you manhandle my father?’

  ‘Sit down, Mrs Munroe, please. We haven’t finished.’ DC Chilvers was blocking Elise’s way out of the door upon her return to the room. ‘No one is manhandling your father. His clothes have been taken for forensic analysis, along with your brother’s, and they’ve both agreed to visit the station to answer some questions, purely for us to get as much information from them as we can, while it’s still fresh in their minds. We would like you to do the same. You will also need to find alternative accommodation. Can you stay with relatives or friends?’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be staying here and waiting for my daughter to return.’

  ‘Your other two children will need somewhere secure to stay. Do you have any other family they can go to?’

  ‘I want my boys with me,’ Elise snapped.

  ‘I’ll book us into a hotel and ask my dad and stepmum to come and collect Miles and Buddy – they don’t live far away.’ Nathaniel looked across at Elise, pleading with her not to make things more complicated than they had to be. ‘They’ll be better off at my dad’s, they need to be settled.’

  ‘Okay, just leave the details with one of us as soon as you know.’ DI Davis turned to his DC. ‘Can you arrange for an officer to drive the family there?’

  Just as Nathaniel’s phone pinged, alerting him to an email, another officer knocked on the door and entered.

  ‘Can I have a word, boss?’ It was a Scenes of Crime officer. Nathaniel couldn’t help noticing all the protective clothing and surgical gloves everyone was wearing.

  DC Chilvers followed DI Davis out of the room, passing Nathaniel, who was rooted to the spot and staring at his phone.

  ‘Wait.’ Nathaniel handed his phone to the officers, who took it and peered at the screen. ‘I’ve just received an email from Ida.’

  Elise moved towards Nathaniel, confused by what he was saying. She snatched the phone and looked at the screen. In big capital letters it read: WHO AM I?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THEN

  Alistair had been Ida’s best friend since they were six years old and he’d arrived at the school as a newcomer. When he was born, his father had wanted to bring him up in his home country of Scotland, but after six years he had decided to move back to London. Alistair’s mother, Magda, had grown up there and she missed her family. Her brother Gordon had committed suicide many years ago and she was eager to set up a support group for other people affected by a similar event. That was how she’d met Ida’s parents and the connection was soon made, so their children played together at school.

  As soon as Ida had decided Alistair was going to be her new friend, all the children who’d ridiculed his Scottish accent decided he was a bit of a novelty. But ten years of solid, loyal friendship had begun to change in more recent months – the inevitable between teenagers of the opposite sex. Alistair had decided he might feel differently about her now. He recalled the temper she’d been in earlier, one of many in the past few days.

  Alistair pulled his hood up and made his way home. After they’d had an argument at her grandfather’s house and she’d told him to get out, he’d texted and asked her to meet him in the cricket pavilion situated in the park at the back of Ray’s house. He wanted to give her the birthday present he’d bought her – a double-coin gold chain. It had cost him all his wages from working at the golf club, but he knew she wanted one and it was her sixteenth birthday.

  Alistair had waited for twenty minutes but Ida hadn’t turned up, so he’d gone to Ray’s house so he could talk to her and explain things. He hadn’t been expecting to be chased across the park by her uncle, and he was wondering if Ida had told him what happened between them.

  Once Alistair had ditched Sonny, he returned to the cricket pavilion and waited. He dial
led her number again and left a message telling her she was being silly. Looking at his phone, he’d had another call from the number he didn’t recognise. Whoever it was had been calling for the last hour but not leaving a message, and he hadn’t called them back in case it was a scam. But as the signal on his phone improved, it pinged, letting him know he had a message. He dialled his voicemail and listened. It was Nathaniel, asking him if he knew where Ida was, and could he call him back. His phone started ringing, and a brief spark of hope it was Ida lit in his chest, but he was disappointed to see it was the unknown number. He answered it this time, realising who it was.

  ‘Alistair? It’s Nathaniel. Where are you?’

  ‘On my way home. What’s going on? Where’s Ida? She was supposed to meet me in the cricket pavilion.’

  ‘Alistair, did you and Ida have some sort of argument earlier?’

  ‘No . . .’ Alistair hesitated, and then decided not to tell him about the harsh words they’d exchanged after school – Ida had been in such a foul mood. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘It looks like she’s . . . we don’t know what’s happened to her. She’s disappeared. The police need to ask you some questions. I’ve tried to call your mum and dad, but I can’t get hold of them either.’

  ‘Disappeared? I’ve only just seen her.’

  ‘When? You can’t have.’

  ‘Well, it was a couple of hours or so ago now, but I left her at Ray’s.’ Alistair heard Nathaniel swallow hard. ‘Why do the police need to speak to me? I haven’t done anything wrong.’

  ‘You need to go to the police station and make a statement. The police will need to talk to you, Alistair. Why didn’t you answer the phone earlier? Don’t you listen to your voicemail?’

  ‘I didn’t recognise the number. I—’

  Before Alistair could finish, Nathaniel had hung up. ‘Prick,’ he muttered under his breath. Checking his phone for any messages, Alistair decided that if it was that serious, the police would have called him by now. He noticed two emails. One was a delivery notice about a book he’d ordered, and the other was from Ida. He smiled, she was fine and there was nothing to worry about, but when he opened it, he stared at the message in capitals that had also been sent to Nathaniel, Elise, Sonny and his mother: WHO AM I?