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Kay didn’t disagree. “I have Euan’s number,” she said, taking out her mobile. “I’m sure he’ll come right away.”

Not at all sure the local bobby was going to be up to this, Jenna said, “Maybe we should ring 999. She’s only fifteen. She’s not at school…”

“If we do that, we’ll go through to some central switchboard and they’ll end up sending Euan anyway. Let me call him.”

“OK. I’ll go up and see what I can find on her computer.”

Minutes later she was staring at Paige’s laptop screen in helpless frustration. The machine was password-protected and none of her attempts so far had cracked it.

“Euan’s on his way,” her mother declared, coming to the door. “So’s Bena.”

“You rang Bena?”

“She rang me, and I told her what was happening.”

Remembering how dependable Bena could be in a crisis, Jenna nodded. “Do you have any idea what password Paige might use?”

“I’m sure my guesses would be the same as yours: the dog, the children, her school, you and Jack, me and Grandpa, favorite bands…”

Jenna looked around the walls and typed in every name she could spot, but none of those worked either. Going downstairs for her mobile, she rang Charlotte.

“It’s Jenna. Can you call me as soon as you’re free?” she said into the voicemail. “Or text me if you know the password to Paige’s computer.” Clicking off, she tried Paige again, but still no reply.

“She has to be somewhere,” she muttered as Kay came down the stairs. “Can you think of anywhere?”

Kay’s expression was intense as she thought, but neither of them could come up with anything that seemed to make sense.

“I’m going to search the garden,” Kay announced. “Sometimes, when I was young and felt things getting on top of me, I used to hide in the shed.”

Just after her mother had gone, the back door opened and Bena came in.

“Any news?” she asked, the sight of her worried face making Jenna feel even worse.

Jenna shook her head. “I can’t get into her computer. I thought that might tell us something.”

“Euan’s just pulled up.”

Hating the thought of the police being involved, though relieved he’d arrived so quickly, Jenna went to open the front door.

Euan was already getting out of his car; he was a large man with florid cheeks, sandy hair, and kindly blue eyes. “So what’s all this about young Paige doing a moonlight?” he asked as he came in, making it sound like a load of old nonsense. “She’s a sensible girl, so I can’t see she’ll have gone far. Just forgot to tell you, I expect.”

Appreciating his efforts to calm her, while not feeling calmed at all, Jenna said, “We’ve been having some problems….Jack’s left home….I’m not sure that has anything to do with where she is now, I’m…She’s…I found out yesterday that she hasn’t been to school for a fortnight, and now Charlotte…You know Charlotte?”

“Griffiths?”

She nodded. “She told me this morning that Paige has been communicating with someone online. Apparently this person calls herself Julie, but Charlotte’s not even sure if it’s a girl.”

Euan was looking more concerned now. “So when did you last see her?” he asked, taking out his notebook.

“This morning. We had words, and I said some things—we both did. She was still here when I left to take the younger ones to school, but by the time I got back she’d gone.”

He nodded thoughtfully as he noted this down. “Has she taken anything with her?”

Jenna went blank. “Uh, I…I didn’t check.”

“Then it’s worth having a scout round her room to see if anything’s missing.”

They looked up as Kay came in.

“She’s not out there,” Kay informed them.

Starting for the stairs, Jenna said, “Mum, can you check the cupboard in the hall to see if any backpacks have gone? She wouldn’t have been able to get into the attic for anything bigger.”

Moments later Euan followed her into Paige’s room.

“Her computer’s still here,” she said, “but I can’t get into it.”

“Nothing appears to be out of place,” he commented, surveying the room. “She’s quite tidy for a teenager. Can you check her wardrobe and drawers?”

Jenna found herself shaking as she pushed aside underwear and socks, containers of costume jewelry, nail polishes and hair slides. “It’s hard remembering everything she has,” she said, “but nothing seems to be missing from the drawers.”

As she checked the wardrobe Euan went around the other bedrooms opening doors and cupboards to see if Paige had squirreled herself away there.

“She hasn’t taken her toothbrush or toothpaste,” Jenna announced, coming out of Paige’s bathroom. She felt almost weak with relief, as though she needed to sit down and take a few breaths, but she wouldn’t be able to until they were certain Paige was safe.

“So on the face of it,” Euan said, “we don’t have any reason to think she’s not planning to come home?”

Jenna shook her head. “Unless this Julie person is providing everything she needs.” Why had she just said that? She’d frightened herself again, just when she was starting to think it might be all right.

Euan was frowning pensively. “I’m going to call this in,” he decided. “It probably won’t be given a high priority, with it looking more like a truancy than anything else, but it won’t do any harm for her picture to be circulated so the beat officers can keep an eye out for her.”

“I’m worried about this Julie character,” Jenna persisted. “What if it’s a man, someone who’s been grooming her?”

“Jenna, it’s Charlotte for you,” Bena announced, bringing Jenna’s mobile into the room.

Grabbing it, Jenna said, “Charlotte, thanks for calling back. We need to get into Paige’s computer. Do you have any idea what the password might be?”

“I’m not sure….I mean, she might have changed it….”

“Please, just tell me what you think it is.”

“I don’t know that she’d want me to.”

“Charlotte, the police are here. If she’s been communicating with someone who won’t give their real identity…You have to understand how serious that could be.”

Still sounding reluctant, Charlotte said, “OK, you can try Oliver18.”

Having no idea of the relevance of that, or even caring, Jenna turned on the laptop and typed it in. The machine unlocked. “That’s it,” she cried, her voice heavy with relief. “Thank you, Charlotte. And her Facebook account? Would that be the same password?”

“You can try, but she kept changing it because of all the crap she was getting.”

“What sort of crap?”

“You’ll see if you can get on. She’s been using other sites as well, like AskFM and Pheed and Tumblr, though they’ll be mostly on her phone.”

“What kind of sites are they?”

“Social media, same as Facebook, but it’s easier to be anonymous on some of them.”

Jenna was trying to log in but couldn’t manage to open any of the accounts. She looked at Euan, not sure what to do.

Holding a hand out for the phone, he said, “Charlotte, it’s Euan Matthews here. Are you at school? If you are, I’m going to come by and see you. I’ll call Mr. Charles myself to let him know I’m on my way.”

Taking the phone back from him, Jenna clicked off as she said, “What are we going to do about the computer? Is there a way of getting into her accounts?”

Moving it around so he could see the screen himself, Euan checked the Internet search history and found all the websites Charlotte had mentioned and more. “The last time she used it was just after three this morning,” he said, “but I’m not technical enough to find out who she might have contacted or what kind of exchange there might have been.” Closing the laptop down and unplugging it, he went on, “I’ll have our tech guys take a look at it. Meantime, you need to sit tight here and let me know right away if you hear from her.”

—

Five hours or more had passed since Jenna had returned to the house and found Paige gone. There was still no word from her. Jenna was beside herself, hardly knowing what to do from one minute to the next. She’d left more messages, sent her mother to search the beaches and coastal paths with Waffle, and asked Bena to drive around the countryside and villages trying to spot her. All reports back were negative, but she’d told them to keep going until just after three o’clock, when Euan rang to let her know that there had been some developments.

With her heart in her mouth she listened as he said, “First of all, a couple of CID officers are on their way to see you.”

Panic instantly flared. “Why? What’s happened?” she cried.

“Nothing’s actually happened,” he replied, “but my conversation with Charlotte has raised some concerns. It seems Paige has been the victim of some pretty unpleasant bullying at school.”

Jenna was suddenly struggling to think straight. This wasn’t what she’d expected to hear, and yet…“She tried to tell me,” she gasped, “but…I didn’t think…I didn’t realize…What have they been doing to her?”

“Mostly bombarding her with hate mail in an effort to make her feel small and disliked, sending lots of spiteful messages on Facebook, ridiculing her, doctoring explicit photographs to try and make it seem they’re of her. Apparently it’s turned more physical lately, punching, slapping, sticking her head down a toilet and making her drink urine…”

Jenna could hardly believe it. “Who’s been doing all this?” she demanded furiously.

“The culprits are being rounded up as we speak, but it isn’t the source of our biggest concern. Mr. Thomas, the technology master here, has taken a look at her computer, and the contact she’s been having with this Julie Morris is of a very grave nature.”

Jenna couldn’t breathe. She desperately wanted the world to stop so that none of this could go any further.

“In the last few days she’s been visiting suicide sites,” Euan told her gently.

Jenna sobbed a scream. “No! No! She would never do that. Please, you have to believe me….Oh my God, Paige. My baby. What are we going to do?”

“We’ve already raised the alarm,” he assured her. “This is high priority now, and we’ve alerted all local and national media outlets. Everything’s going to be done to find her, Jenna, I can promise you that.”

“But what if…what if she’s…?” She couldn’t say it.
Oh dear God, dear God, Paige! Paige! Paige!

“The CID officers should be with you shortly,” Euan continued. “You need to tell them everything you know about Paige’s friends, her movements, anything you can think of, even if it doesn’t seem relevant. They’ll talk you through it, and they’ll want to search the house for any journals or letters that might give them a clue as to where she might be.”

This wasn’t real. It was a nightmare, and she was going to wake up any minute. Paige would be walking in the door, or coming down the stairs, or standing right here in the kitchen making toast.

“A detective’s already talking to Charlotte,” Euan went on, “and we should know more once the police experts have their hands on the computer. It’s on its way to Bridgend now, and hopefully it won’t take long for them to come back with some answers.”

Jenna spun round as someone opened the back door.
Please God, let it be Paige.

It was her mother, looking glazed with shock as she was followed in by two strangers who Jenna realized must be the CID officers. “Your colleagues are here,” Jenna said to Euan.

“OK. Charlotte wants to come and see you as soon as they’ve finished with her.”

“Yes, please tell her to do that.” Ringing off, she tried to explain to her mother what was happening, but found herself starting to break down. She wanted to run, scream, tear down everything that stood between her and Paige, if only she knew what that was. In the end she managed to say, “Paige has been visiting suicide websites.”

Kay looked as though she’d been struck. Her mouth opened, closed, and opened again. She turned to the officer closer to her, a short, plump woman with wispy dark hair and several moles on her cheeks. “Has my granddaughter…?”

“We don’t know anything yet,” the officer told her in a tone that was neither friendly nor hostile. To Jenna she said, “I take it you’re Mrs. Moore, Paige’s mother?”

Jenna nodded as she tried to pull herself together.
Suicide websites. Why would she visit them unless the thought was in her mind?
Jenna could feel herself backing away as though physically recoiling, her hands coming up to stave off the terrible threat of the words.

“I’m DS Lesley Mariner,” the female detective was informing her. “This is DC Rob Fuller. Is there a Mr. Moore?”

Jenna took a breath and dashed back her hair. “He’s in the States, on business,” she replied.

“Is there any chance your daughter might have gone to join him?”

Jenna blinked in shock. The thought hadn’t even occurred to her. “I don’t think so,” she said. “They haven’t been getting along. He’s there with his…with another woman and her children.”

“I see.” The officer looked around. “Is there somewhere we could sit down?”

“Yes, yes, of course. Mum, would you…”

“I’ll make some tea,” Kay told her. “Bena’s going to pick up the children. I’ll ask her to take them to her place for now.”

Jenna was barely listening. She was shaking so hard it hurt. All she could think about was her baby, her precious, beautiful firstborn who was out there somewhere.
Please God, let her still be out there. It can’t be too late. I’ll never survive if it is.

“We need to talk about what happened prior to Paige leaving,” Lesley Mariner began once they were in the sitting room with the connecting doors closed. “I believe that was around nine this morning.”

“That’s right. I don’t know the exact time, because I wasn’t here. I was taking my other children to school.”

“What ages are your other children?”

“Josh is eight, and the twins are five. Is this relevant? How’s it going to help find Paige?”

“We’re trying to establish whether one of her siblings might know where she is. Maybe she talked to one of them.”

“She’s hardly been talking to any of us lately. She’s been in her own world…I thought it was about her dad leaving…I mean, I knew she was having problems at school; I just never realized they were so serious.”

“So she spoke to you about the bullying?”