* * *
As they left the house in the dark of night, the only illumination was provided by the moon overhead and the pretty lights strung around the inlet. There was a little glow of lamplight in the windows of the village’s night owls who were blissfully oblivious to what was going on outside.
‘I’ll go knock for Kenneth. His mountain rescue training might help,’ Reid informed the small group.
‘Good idea. Jules, you walk over towards the museum,’ Caitlin said. ‘Ruby, you check around the hall. Dex, can you check all around the campsite? And Mitch, you go up the road leading out of the village going north.’ Her friends headed off in their separate directions.
Where would a tired-out, scared five-year-old girl go? She doesn’t know the area. She has no friends here. Where on earth would she go? Caitlin headed for the Skye bridge. If Sophie was planning to go back to Edinburgh, she’d know they had accessed the island by that route.
As she walked, Caitlin saw the police car with its blue lights flashing, entering the village from the north. It slowed when it reached Mitch and she saw him gesturing towards Archie’s.
Caitlin walked up onto the bridge, but there was no sign of Sophie. With her little legs, she surely wouldn’t have gone much farther. After around fifteen minutes, she saw that the police had joined the road search. She could see their hi-vis jackets glinting in torch light and could hear the intermittent calling of the little girl’s name.
She didn’t want to think about the time she had lost Grace in a large supermarket, but the panic she’d felt on that day came back to haunt her. She had turned her back for a split second and was then plunged into the worst kind of distress a parent can experience. She remembered the way she had frantically rushed around the aisles calling Grace’s name, her heart almost bursting from her chest, and her mind conjuring up the worst of scenarios. Some shoppers stared blankly at her as she manically asked them if they’d seen a little red-haired girl, while some joined in the search, assuring her that her daughter couldn’t have gone far – the same thing she’d said to Archie.
Grace had eventually been found in the toy aisle, under a pile of teddy bears where she’d hidden ‘to be safe’. After that, Caitlin had sat Grace down and they had formulated a plan for the future should they, god forbid, be separated like that again. The relief she’d felt on finding her child had rendered her an emotional, sobbing wreck for days as she played over in her mind the ‘what ifs’.
* * *
The search for Sophie had been going for an hour now and the sinking feeling inside of Caitlin had worsened substantially. Archie had texted repeatedly asking if there was any news and she had stopped replying because telling him no was breaking her heart. She knew it must be upsetting for Reid too, seeing as Evin had run away when his mother had decided he was to live with her. Thankfully, the woman saw sense and he was returned to his dad, albeit with a broken ankle. Caitlin’s stomach lurched at the thought of Sophie being injured and she had to stop to bend double for a moment until the feeling of nausea passed.
As she stood, she heard movement behind the nearby bus stop. A rustling and a snuffling sound. Warily, she tiptoed to the location of the noise, unwilling to spook whoever, or whatever, it was.It’s probably a fox, she thought, but had to check.
Behind the bus stop was a large gorse bush and the branches at the bottom were moving even though the night air was still. She shone her phone torch at the bottom edge and a bark made her jump.
‘Bowie!’ she exclaimed. ‘Sophie? Sophie, are you there?’
No reply came and Caitlin’s breathing rate increased. What was she going to find? Her palms were sweating, and her head was pounding.Please let her be okay. Please, please…
A shuffling sound could be heard again, and Bowie was pulled back with a yelp. Oh god, had someone got Sophie under there? Were they trying to keep her quiet?
‘Who’s there?’ Caitlin asked in a stern, assertive voice that she’d had to pull from nowhere. ‘The police are here, so you’d better come out.’
Caitlin realised she was unarmed, so if there was indeed an assailant under the bush, she was putting herself in danger. However, undeterred and putting her own safety aside, she stepped closer.
‘You’re surrounded. Come out!’ she hissed.
Another scuffling noise ensued, and Bowie pulled loose and ran from under the bush. Caitlin managed to step on his lead to stop him from going anywhere.
‘Got you.’ She gripped the lead in her hand and wrapped it around her wrist. ‘Now who is under this bush?’ she demanded, again sounding far braver than she was feeling with her weak knees and thumping heart.
Suddenly, from amongst the sharp spikes a mop of dark hair appeared. ‘Ouch! Owww,’ Sophie cried as she freed herself from the thorny branches.
‘Sophie! Thank goodness!’ Caitlin lurched forward and pulled the little girl into her arms. ‘Are you okay, sweetheart? What were you thinking? Why did you run away?’
Sophie didn’t answer.
Releasing Sophie, Caitlin fired off a text to Archie, not wanting to let go of the girl long enough to make a call.
Got her! All fine. Bringing her back now!
She called out into the night, ‘I’ve found Sophie! She’s safe! We’re over by the bus stop!’
Sophie was sobbing now. Her arms were covered in scratches and her face was dirty from where she had been hiding.
‘Sophie, sweetheart, can you tell me what happened?’ Caitlin asked in a soft voice as she cradled the crying child.
‘I want my mummy,’ Sophie replied through sharply inhaled breaths.
