At 7:30 p.m. a woman wearing a smart blue dress with a light gray jacket stood in front of number eleven and spoke into a microphone. A man with a large camera on his shoulder filmed her. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but she kept turning toward Mr. Charles’s house and pointing and then she held up a large piece of paper, which must have been Teddy’s photograph. It was all over in ten minutes, and as soon as she’d finished the report she took off her gray jacket and fanned at her face. A police officer in a suit approached them and I thought he was going to ask them to leave, but he seemed pleased to see them and shook their hands before checking his watch. After they’d left, Officer Campen appeared carrying a roll of yellow tape. He spoke to a few passersby who were hanging around outside Gordon and Penny’s house, and they drifted off toward the end of the road.
7:43 p.m.—Still no sign of Teddy Dawson. The police are now taping off the end of Chestnut Close.
Penny Sullivan from number one was walking around the close with a tray of orange juice.
“Ice-cold orange juice?” she said to each one. “Something to cool you down, officer?”
Some of them waved her away with a nod and a smile, too busy to speak to her, and a few took a glass and drank the cold juice in one go. Penny returned to number one, probably looking through her kitchen cupboards to see what other refreshments she could rustle up.
The other search party came back at 8:17 p.m. Dad had his shirtsleeves rolled up and was carrying his suit jacket over his shoulder. Jake’s older brother, Leo, was talking on his phone, and Rory Jenkins was eating some sort of nutrition bar. He looked up at me as he crossed the road toward his house and I stared back. Eating at a time like this didn’t seem right. He brushed the crumbs from the front of his T-shirt, watching me all the time. Hannah came out to meet him and put her hands up to her husband’s face and kissed him. He threw a heavy arm around her shoulder and they walked slowly back to the house, Hannah’s huge stomach swaying from side to side. The sight of it made me feel sick, so I went to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on my face until I felt better.
Dad came in telling Mum they’d found nothing and that they’d shut the end of the road off so no one could come onto the close without permission. I heard them move into the kitchen to start on dinner. The door of number three opened and Melody jumped down the step and skipped across the road. I groaned. She was heading straight toward us.
“Hello, Melody, love,” Mum said quietly when she opened the door. “Go on up, I’m sure Matthew would like some company right now.”
I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t like any company right now.
“Hi, Matty!” Melody said as if it was just another day and nothing had happened, like a small child going missing. She came into the office and looked around, staring at the elephant mobile.
“Oh wow. Is your Mum having another baby?”
She spun the mobile with her finger and the elephants hurtled around and around.
“No. Look, can you not do that, please?”
The elephants spun faster and faster until two of them became tangled up and she stopped.
“So what’s with all this stuff then?” she said as she poked about in the bags under the mobile. On one of the boxes was a photograph of a chubby, blond baby boy, a toothless smile on his face as he sat happily in a brilliant white diaper.
“It was for my brother. He died. Look, can you not touch anything, please?”
Melody stood up.
“Died? What do you mean he died?”
“He died, okay? What do you want, Melody?”
I stood with my arms folded. I wondered what she’d do if she knew he was dead because of me. I could tell her—just like that. It was all my fault, Melody. Now will you go away and stop bothering me?
She sat on the edge of the desk.
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know.” Her face looked sad. “That must be hard for you.”
I nodded. In my head I was making a mental note of everything I now needed to clean after she’d gone:
Edge of the door, doorframe—whole door?
Elephant mobile—how can I clean that?!
Desk. Clear everything off and blast with antibacterial spray.
“Did you see the newspeople here earlier? My mum thinks he’s just wandered off somewhere. Do you? Or do you think someone has taken him?”
I shrugged. “I would have thought if he’d wandered off he would have been found by now,” I said.
She picked up my notebook, which was next to her on the desk.
“Oh wow, this is brilliant!” she said as she read. “You’ve got everything in here! You should show this to the police! 5:23 p.m. Mr. Charles is mowing his lawn again. It’s the fifth time this week.”
She giggled as she turned a few more pages. I stepped across the room.
“Can you give that back to me? It’s private.”
“10:02 a.m. Old Nina is watering her pots.”
Turning to the last page, she read what I’d written in silence and then glanced up at me; her face looked horrified. Looking down again, she read aloud:
“Melody Bird. An unlikely suspect, but she does go to the graveyard A LOT. Would she know of some place to hide him over there?”
I jiggled around in front of her, wanting to snatch the book back but not quite finding the courage to do it.
“Matthew? Do you think I took Teddy?”
She had tears in her eyes.
“I … I … No, of course not.”
I quickly grabbed the book from her, forgetting I wasn’t wearing any gloves. Her mouth hung open.
“It’s nothing, Melody! I was just bored, writing some stuff down. It’s not important.”
“But … but I don’t understand. Why would you think I did it?”
“I don’t know! I just wondered why you go to the graveyard so much. That’s all. I just thought there may be something over there you were hiding. It doesn’t matter, I was just writing anything down.”
I dropped the notebook onto the desk. Melody put her hands on her hips as she came toward me.
“I didn’t take Teddy Dawson and I can’t believe you’d say such a thing. I thought we were friends?”
I pressed myself against the windowsill.
“That’s the first I’ve heard about it,” I said.
Melody gasped, and then she spun around and ran down the stairs.
I made my TV debut at 9:03 p.m. Mum screamed upstairs at me.
“MATTY! Quick, get down here!”
I jumped off my bed, and for a few blissful seconds it felt like I was just running downstairs for dinner, like I used to. Dad was standing by the conservatory door, eating a bag of chips. Mum was perched on the edge of our cream leather sofa, staring at the large flat screen.
“He’s just wandered off, that’s all,” said Dad. “They’ll find him. He’ll be home before it gets dark, you mark my words.”
I glanced out at the yard. It was getting dark already.
Dad tipped the chips bag up and shook the crumbs into his mouth. I hated it when he did that.
“Where would he have gone though, Brian? We’ve looked everywhere. Penny said they’re searching the building site near the old swimming pool now.”
There was a large development of houses being built on the edge of town, and now I was picturing Teddy, toddling along, staring up at the giant, dinosaur-like cranes. Could he have been so hypnotized by them he missed a deep crater and fell in? It was unlikely. The whole area was pretty secure with high fencing, and besides, it was busy around there. Surely someone would have spotted a little boy wearing a diaper, all on his own?
Mum jumped out of her seat and pointed at the TV.
“Look! It’s on!”
A woman was standing on our street talking into a microphone. I recognized her as the reporter wearing the gray jacket who’d been standing outside just before the police had taped off the road.