‘How’s school? Does she have any favourite lessons?’
‘Maths. She’s good at it, too. I don’t know where she gets it from. I’m useless with numbers. She got a certificate last year for one hundred per cent attendance. She loves school.’
‘Any best friends?’
He frowned as he thought. He took a deep breath. ‘I don’t know. I think Jodie would be your best bet to answer that one.’
‘What does she like doing out of school?’
‘She’s a big Disney fan. She’s got all the DVDs. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve sat through Frozen. She enjoys drawing too. She’s always drawing pictures of clothes, especially dresses. She designs dresses for Elsa to wear. She even drew a wedding dress once. She said it was going to be the one she’d wear when she was old enough to get married.’
‘Does Keeley think about things like that? Getting married?’
‘No. I think it’s the whole Disney princess thing? I expect she’s waiting for Prince Charming to ride up on a white horse and whisk her off to his castle.’ He smiled.
‘Craig, if someone acted the Prince Charming to Keeley, a stranger, is she the type of girl to go off with them?’
He paled instantly as if all the blood had been drained out of him. ‘You mean, grooming her?’
Ellen nodded. ‘It’s not easy to hear, I know, but I’m afraid I have to ask these questions.’
‘To be honest, I’ve no idea. When we bought her the tablet, we told her all about not talking to people she didn’t know. We go through it from time to time and it’s got all those protection locks on it, but these people are sneaky fuckers, aren’t they? I like to think she’s sensible, but at the end of the day she’s only nine. If somebody told her they had a castle and horses, I think she may fall for it.’
‘I’m sorry, I had to ask,’ she leaned forward and placed her warm hand on his.
‘That’s ok. You need to know these things. If some sick bastard has laid one finger on her, though, I swear to God, I’ll rip him apart.’
‘She wouldn’t.’
They both jumped at Jodie talking from the doorway. Ellen quickly removed her hand from Craig’s.
‘Sorry?’ Ellen asked.
‘What you said, about Keeley falling for someone who said they had a castle and horses, she wouldn’t. I’ve told her all about the internet. I’ve explained, in detail, what people are like on there. Whenever anybody new starts chatting to her on Snapchat, she tells me, and I sit with her, and watch the conversation play out. She’s a good girl. She wouldn’t go off with a complete stranger.’
‘You seem very confident about that.’
‘When I started picking her up all the time from school, we came up with a safe word that only me and her knew so if I had to arrange for someone else to collect her, I’d give them that word and she’d know it was ok to go with them. I never had a reason to use it.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Craig said.
‘That’s very sensible of you, Jodie,’ Ellen smiled.
Jodie went over to the fridge, took out a can of Coke and pulled out the chair at the top of the table. She swiped a speck of fluff from her father’s jumper, closed a magazine left open, and sat down.
‘We’ve had lessons in school about strangers approaching you online and how predators try to groom you. I wanted to make sure Keeley was safe without frightening her.’
‘Would Keeley go off with someone she knew if they turned up at the school, without seemingly needing a safe word?’ Ellen asked.
Jodie’s bottom lip began to wobble. ‘I can’t protect her all the time,’ she cried. ‘I’ve warned her against strangers, but how do you warn someone against people they’re supposed to trust?’
‘Like who?’ Ellen asked.
‘I think we should leave it there,’ Craig said. He leaped from his seat and went over to his daughter. He held her firmly in his arms, pulling her tightly to his chest, and stroked her hair as she cried loudly.
‘Jodie, is there someone …?’
‘Please. Can we leave it for now?’ Craig demanded.
‘Of course. I’ll just …’
Ellen left the room and closed the door on Jodie’s cries and Craig making reassuring noises.
She stood in the hallway and ran her fingers through her greasy hair. She looked into the living room and saw Riley strapped into his highchair. He looked back at her with a vacant stare. She went in and picked up the small penguin he’d been playing with that had dropped on the floor. She handed it back to him.
‘Here you go, sweetheart.’ Over her shoulder, she saw an episode of Pingu playing on TV. The sound had been muted. She looked back at Riley. He was smiling. ‘What happened here last night, Riley?’ She asked him quietly.
Chapter 12
Matilda knocked on ACC Masterson’s door and waited for Valerie to tell her to come in. It was a long wait.
‘Come in.’
Matilda pushed opened the door and carefully entered, closing it behind her.
Valerie wasn’t behind her desk, as usual, buried under a mountain of paperwork and reports. In fact, her desk was relatively tidy. The ACC was standing by the window, her back to the room, gazing out at the sprawling view of Sheffield in autumn. Beyond the double glazing, new buildings were rising as Sheffield continued to go through its seemingly endless regeneration process. The high street was facing the same hardship as others up and down the country. People didn’t seem to want to shop on the street anymore, preferring to do it online. Shops were closing, footfall was easing, and city centres were turning into ghost towns. Sheffield seemed to have the solution. A new cinema had recently opened, and a bowling alley and pool hall were scheduled to open sometime next year. New restaurants and coffee shops were popping up, and, thanks to the new HSBC headquarters opening next summer, the city centre would hopefully start to see people return, if not to shop, then to be entertained.
Valerie’s eyeline followed a crane as it turned, carrying a heavy slap of concrete high up above the streets of the city centre.
‘Do you think Sheffield needs any more hotels?’ She asked, not turning around.
‘I don’t know. I haven’t given it much thought,’ Matilda said, stepping further into the room.
‘Apparently there’s going to be one where the old market was and there’s talk of an Ibis at the bottom of the Moor, right next to the Premier Inn. Who knew Sheffield was in such high demand.’
‘It’s not exactly a holiday destination,’ Matilda sniggered.
‘No.’
‘Is everything all right?’
Valerie turned from the window. She looked smart in her crisp uniform. Her grey hair was swept back. She was a small woman, barely over five feet tall, but her personality was titanic, as was her reputation as a powerful leader. However, recent events had taken their toll. Her face was heavily lined and there was an air of sadness about her which filled the room.
‘Fine,’ she quickly replied, taking her seat behind the enormous desk.
‘How’s Arthur? Any news?’
Valerie visibly sank in her seat. Her head bent down to her chest. She sniffled. She wiped away a tear before looking up.