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‘Stacey!’ she shouted.
                  A man at the back of the group turned his head briefly before continuing on his way. Kate caught up with him and muttered an apology as she side-stepped in front of him, narrowly missing the heels of a young woman who was pushing a pram. The little girl and the man were now feet ahead of her.
                  ‘Stacey!’ she called again.
                  The little girl with the frog rucksack turned her head, causing the man holding her hand to slow down. He turned when he saw the girl looking behind, craning her little neck to see who was shouting.
                  The man looked back and, seeing no one other than Kate, turned to her and asked bluntly, ‘What?’
                  Kate stopped suddenly, almost tripping over herself. She stared at the little girl, her big chocolate brown eyes looking back at her. It wasn’t Stacey, of course. Her hair was too dark – brown, not mousey – and her face entirely different, her features softer; her face a little younger.
                  ‘I’m sorry,’ Kate spluttered, stumbling on her words. ‘I thought…’ She struggled to catch her breath and wondered when the hell she had become so unfit. ‘I thought you were someone else.’
                  The man tutted impatiently and tightened his grip on the little girl’s hand. He shook his head, tugged at the child and turned his back on Kate. They walked away quickly, the child’s little legs moving quickly to keep up with the man, and without a second glance he and the little girl who wasn’t Stacey Reed disappeared into the crowd.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Four
     
    Kate knew she’d get a bollocking if Chris or the Super found out she was questioning Dawn Reed and Nathan Williams again, but as far as she could see she was left with no other option. Everyone else seemed ready to accept them purely as victims, yet that was something that kept drawing Kate back; something as yet inexplicable. Dawn had been in and out of the station regularly during the past two months, and Nathan had been interviewed several times at the house. Kate had been told to ease off; she’d squeezed them as much as she could and, as Superintendent Clayton kept reminding her, Dawn and Nathan were the victims here.
    Really though? Were they really the victims here, she’d thought. From what she could see, Stacey was the victim. If finding the little girl alive and safe involved a slight harassment of her mother and mother’s boyfriend then so be it. As far as Kate was concerned it was a small sacrifice for the couple to pay in order to help progress on the case regarding their missing daughter.
    Anyway, Kate knew there was something more. There was something she couldn’t quite pinpoint: something that just didn’t feel right. She’d felt it the first time she’d been to Stacey’s home and she was bloody sure she’d feel it again; that hunch, that itch that just wouldn’t go away.
    Besides , it was healthy to break the rules now and then. That’s what they were there for, weren’t they?
                  She paused at the Reed’s front door, checking for signs of life before ringing the bell. Inside, she heard the sound of laughter trickling from the front room and the TV glowed dull orange behind the cheap net curtains of the living room window.
                  Kate rang the bell.
                  A few moments later a young man who looked as though he’d washed his hair in the chip pan opened the front door. His skin was equally oily and his expression changed as he registered Kate. He sighed: a loud, exaggerated exhalation that said, ‘what now?’. Nathan Williams, Stacey Reed’s step-father. Kate had mistrusted him since their first meeting. If she hadn’t suspected him regarding Stacey’s disappearance she’d have suspected him of