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safely.’
    ‘Mum,’ I said softly, ‘I really understand what you’ve been through. I’ve been through it too! But you mustn’t let it destroy your trust in me. I’m still the same Cal.’ I paused then, because what I’d just said wasn’t really true any more.
    Something stirred deep in my mind–a warning. You are overlooking a very important connection , said a tiny voice. Like when I’d first seen the key with the black tag thrown on Rafe’s bed, and couldn’t recall what it unlocked. Now, I triedto reach back into my memory for it, but in a flash it was gone. For a crazy moment, I wondered if the guy who looked just like me had something to do with Gabbi’s disappearance.
    ‘Please, Cal. I’m begging you,’ said my mother, gripping Rafe’s hand, her knuckles white once more. ‘Tell us where she is.’
    Rafe looked at Mum before he spoke. ‘Cal, there is a freshly deposited layer of DNA in Gabbi’s room that belongs to you. That means you were the last person there, so there is no point in lying to us. It’s only going to earn you more time behind bars. Please consider your poor mother and do everything you can to cooperate with the police investigation. Before it’s too late …’
    ‘There’s this guy,’ I said, tentatively, ‘that I’ve seen around the city a couple of times. He looks exactly like me.’ I searched my mother’s face, desperate for an answer, desperate to find some sort of recognition in her eyes. ‘Mum,’ I pleaded, ‘could I have a twin?’
    Just as I finished the last word, Rafe pounced on me. Mum jumped up from her chair, crying.
    ‘Stop it!’ I yelled as Rafe shook me. ‘Get off me!’
    ‘No, you stop it! These lies! And now some crazy nonsense about a twin! You’re sick, boy!Sick! How can you distress your mother like this? Can’t you see you’re breaking her heart? We just want to know our Gabbi’s OK!’
    I felt his fingers closing around my throat, and heard my mother screaming as he shook me as hard as he could. I struggled uselessly, hindered by the wrist restraints.
    Within seconds the police officer who’d left the room raced in again and hauled Rafe off me. ‘Calm down, mate,’ he said. ‘Take it easy. I understand how you feel, but you can’t be jumping on the kid like that.’ He shot me a filthy look. ‘He’ll be safely locked up in the remand centre tomorrow.’
    Rafe pulled himself together, straightening his tie and smoothing his hair down. His eyes had welled up with tears–something I’d never seen happen to him before. For a moment his face reminded me of Dad.
    ‘I’m sorry, officer,’ he said. ‘I let my feelings run away with me. It’s the boy’s mother I’m concerned about. She’s been through so much. Too much for one person. We just hoped that Cal would … would … I don’t know. Gab’s been missing for days now. It’s been too long. Come on, Win. Let’s go. I don’t want him upsetting you any more.’
    Rafe put his arm around my mum and beganguiding her out of my room. I wanted to cry like a baby. I wondered if the people who were trying to destroy our family had made a start on my mum as well. As if someone had cursed her. Crushed her spirit, and left a changeling in her place.
    ‘Please, darling,’ said my mother with tears in her eyes, turning back as she left. ‘Please, Cal, where is my daughter?’
    Her desperate wailing trailed off as she and Rafe left me behind. Alone again.
    Once upon a time, this might have broken my heart. But not now–not after all I’d been through. Over seven months on the street, surviving day by day, had made me tougher. If my mother believed these terrible things about me, then I didn’t need her.
    Words suddenly spilled out of me; I shouted them into the empty air: ‘I’m going to prove to you that you’re totally wrong about me! I don’t know how I’m going to do that right now, but I’m promising you that I’ll get Gabbi back and then maybe you’ll realise how