‘No, we can’t do this standing in the reception area,’ said Kate. Once Jean and Joel had signed in and were given passes, Harris met them at the entrance into the station.

  ‘You’re a policeman?’ asked Jean, looking him up and down and hesitating before she took his hand to shake it.

  ‘Yes, I’m Detective Chief Inspector Ken Harris. I will be there in the room, but considering you hired Kate and Tristan to investigate Charlie’s disappearance, I’ll take a back seat whilst they tell you what is happening. Please come through.’

  Kate saw Jean glance back at Joel as they walked down the corridor and then came to a large airy office. There were two sofas and a couple of chairs.

  ‘Please sit down. Do you want tea or coffee?’ asked Harris.

  ‘No, just please, tell us. Tell us what you know. I haven’t been able to sleep,’ said Jean. She eased herself onto the sofa. Joel sat beside her. He was now white as a sheet. Tristan and Kate sat opposite, and Harris was the last to sit down after closing the door.

  Tristan looked at Kate, and she nodded.

  ‘Okay, as you know, you asked us to investigate—’

  ‘Just answer yes or no, is the body of that little boy Charlie?’ said Jean putting up her hand.

  ‘No. The body of the young boy we found on Danvers Farm is not Charlie,’ said Kate. ‘The body we found is of David Hartley.’

  There was a long silence.

  ‘David Hartley?’ asked Joel, sitting forward on his chair. ‘But I thought the police arrested Libby and Steve Hartley with their children David and Daisy?’

  ‘They did. But that not the full story,’ said Kate. She took a deep breath. ‘A few hours ago, the police took DNA samples from David Hartley and Daisy Hartley. Their samples were run against the samples that you and Joel gave us—’

  ‘No, no, no, you don’t. Don’t you dare!’ said Jean, cutting her off and putting a hand to her trembling lip. Kate nodded.

  ‘David Hartley, who is now thirteen, is not actually David Hartley. His DNA matches you, Jean and you, Joel. And we are certain that David is actually Charlie.’

  There was another long silence. Jean just stared at them, and Joel looked between them.

  ‘Hang on,’ he said. ‘What the hell… Are you saying that Charlie isn’t dead?’ asked Joel.

  ‘That’s correct. The boy that Libby and Steve have been bringing up for the past eleven years as their son. David, is actually Charlie.’

  ‘No! Are you sure?’ said Joel. Jean’s mouth was wide open.

  ‘We have DNA samples from you both, and the boy we thought was David Hartley, his DNA matches with your maternal DNA, Jean, and your paternal DNA, Joel,’ said Kate. ‘Joel. Did you and Becky have any other children?’

  ‘No! Of course not.’

  ‘Did Becky have any other children?’

  ‘No,’ said Jean quietly.

  ‘Then that boy, David Hartley, is Charlie,’ said Kate.

  Jean went very pale and then got up, leaning on her stick.

  ‘Where is he? Can I see him? He’s alive. Charlie is alive?’

  Joel stood up with her.

  ‘Please, Jean, Joel, can you sit down,’ said Kate. ‘There are things we need to explain.’

  ‘But I can see him? He’s here?’ repeated Jean.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Oh my God.’ Turning to Joel, she leant into him, and began to sob. He put his arm around her shoulders.

  ‘How did you find all this out?’ asked Joel, his voice choking.

  ‘It was Kate and Tristan’s investigations,’ said Harris. He indicated that Jean and Joel should sit back down, and then went and sat back down at his desk.

  ‘It all came down to the evidence taken from the Anna Treadwell crime scene,’ said Kate. ‘Anna had been concerned about the now-deceased David Hartley’s welfare. On one of her social worker visits, she found a diary written in a blue exercise book by Libby Hartley, and she read it and took it. The nature of the entries must have been disturbing but confusing. We also found a scribbled note in Anna’s official work diary…’ Kate reached out, and Harris handed her the original piece of paper from the evidence store, which was wrapped in thin plastic.

  ‘This is a poster for a fun run,’ she said, holding up the bloodstained poster. ‘It was found in Anna’s work diary. You can see where Anna has written some hasty notes on the reverse, but some of them were obscured by her blood. This was found blood-spattered at the crime scene.’

  Kate read from the paper: ‘“diagnosis of bipolar disorder”. Anna wrote notes about her visits to Danvers Farm when she saw Libby. We know that Libby Hartley has a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Anna, then writes, “child always seemed happy/thriving”. This is her writing about David, the original David Hartley. “Visited the fourteenth of June as part of a routine follow-up. No one was in and I left a note asking to call me.” Lower down Anna writes, “visited again on twenty-third of June. Rang the bell, no answer, then I saw mother, that’s Libby, through the side window of the house, hiding. She reluctantly came to the door. I said I needed to see them for a follow-up appointment. She let me in but wouldn’t let me see the boy, who she said was poorly in bed and half asleep. I demanded to see him. The child’s head had been shaved. A drastic change in appearance. Weight loss, question mark.”’

  Kate looked up at them.

  ‘Jesus,’ said Joel. ‘She visited on the twenty-third of June. That was a couple of days after Charlie went missing.’ Kate nodded.

  ‘Yes. Anna also wrote more at the bottom of the page, but you can see here where it was obscured by blood-splatter from the crime scene.’

  Kate held up the frantic black writing with the bloom of blood obscuring it.

  * * *

  Is father well? Spoke of diabetes due to poor diet

  * * *

  Is the mother’s dia

  * * *

  Does David have p

  * * *

  ‘The first time me and Tristan saw this evidence, we took photos of it and then printed it off at home. I didn’t realise that the text obscured by the blood spatter might be recoverable on this original copy. Detective Chief Inspector Harris’s forensics team was able to highlight the ink underneath the bloodstain using a luminol lamp, and this was what they found.’

  Harris took a sheet of paper off his desk. He handed it to Kate. The luminol lamp had highlighted the rest of the writing under the ink in white.

  ‘You can see the missing text highlighted here,’ said Kate.

  * * *

  Is father well? Spoke of diabetes due to poor diet

  * * *

  Is the mother’s diary genuine? She talks of burying a child, but is this her mania/bipolar?

  * * *

  Does David have passport? If the child has a passport, then easy to pass off one baby as another

  * * *

  ‘Jesus,’ said Joel, taking the paper and looking at the ink. ‘Why didn’t anyone make the connection to Anna Treadwell? And why didn’t Anna flag her concerns earlier?’

  ‘The connection was made by chance, with the short story,’ said Tristan. ‘And Anna must have had to get things in place with her office in social services before going back to Danvers Farm with the police. Her suspicions had to be checked out. But before she could do that, she was murdered.’

  It hung in the air.

  ‘When was she murdered? Didn’t anyone suspect anything?’ asked Jean.

  ‘We believe Anna was murdered in the early hours of the 25th of June,’ said Harris. ‘But her body lay undiscovered for two weeks until the 8th of July, when her neighbour found her body. And then it didn’t make the news until a few days after that.’

  ‘In the meantime, Libby and Steve Hartley left the country later on 25th June, and went to Spain for three weeks,’ said Kate. ‘They had a passport for the now deceased David Hartley, which they used for Charlie. You can see where Anna had written in her notes obscured by blood, “Does David have passport? If the child has a passport, then easy to pass off one baby as another.’”

  ‘My nephew recently had to have a passport done for my sister and brother-in-law’s holiday,’ said Tristan. ‘It’s laughable that you must have a passport picture of a baby. They all look the same and change constantly.’

  ‘Jesus,’ said Joel. ‘So, they left the country with Charlie as David and… then what?’

  ‘They came back three weeks later and went to live on a new farm in Shropshire where they brought Charlie up as David,’ said Kate. ‘And then they had a daughter, Daisy.’

  Jean was staring into space; she looked dazed.

  ‘But what about us? We’re Charlie’s family. Have you asked David if he remembers us? What if you’re wrong?’

  Kate put her hand on Jean’s arm.

  ‘No, we haven’t. And this might sound harsh, but what do you remember from when you were three?’

  Jean opened and closed her mouth again.

  ‘Charlie was my little boy. How can he just not remember?’ she asked.

  ‘There’s one thing I don’t understand,’ said Joel. ‘If Libby Hartley abducted Charlie the night he went missing, how did she get him?’

  ‘Yes, and this was written on Anna’s paper,’ said Kate. “They are a strict Christian family, but behaviours have changed since the husband’s alleged affair. Husband flagged concern about pagan influence.” During our investigations, we spent a lot of time at Devil’s Way, working out a timeline of what might have happened to Charlie. We think that Charlie came out of the tent, got lost in the long grass outside and between the tree and Devil’s Tor, and he walked along the river, crossed a small wooden footbridge towards something called the Pixie Tree, which is close by on the other side at the end of a small stream. It’s a pagan site where people make offerings or ask for luck or forgiveness. We believe that Libby drove to the Pixie Tree that night. One of the police officers who visited Danvers Farm the next day said Libby and Steve’s car was messed up and in a real state, covered in mud. Like it had been driven across the moors. We think that just as Libby arrived that night and went to the tree, Charlie came stumbling up to the pond, lost, and in her mental state and having just buried the body of David, she took him.’

  They were silent in the room for a long time.

  ‘But that’s a guess, isn’t it?’ said Joel.

  ‘No. David is Charlie. We know this now through DNA. There was only a short window where Charlie could have gone missing. The long grass disorientated him. There was a bridge over the river, which isn’t there now. He got lost, crossed it, and by chance, fate, or bad luck, he arrived at the Pixie Tree just as Libby Hartley was there. She’d accidentally killed her child by rolling on him in bed. And she was mentally ill and in the grip of bipolar, which made her bury David. All of this is happening to her. She’s losing her mind. And then she sees Charlie appear at the edge of the water, just as she wishes to bring David back or ask for forgiveness.’

  Jean shook her head.

  ‘What if you’re wrong? Or the DNA test is wrong? I can’t believe it, only for it to be snatched away when you realise it’s a mistake.’

  ‘We have a confession from Steve Hartley,’ said Harris. ‘He has confirmed that David Hartley is Charlie.’

  ‘And he went along with this?’ said Joel, showing a flash of anger for the first time.

  ‘He states that he panicked,’ said Harris.

  ‘I panic plenty in my life. I don’t abduct children,’ said Jean.

  ‘He didn’t know that David had died, or that Libby had buried the body. He only found out that she’d abducted Charlie when the police came knocking on the door at the farm the next day. He said he’d been out working. He was suddenly placed into this nightmare and he panicked and they decided to leave the country and take Charlie. He said he thought they would be questioned at the airport, but when Charlie was waved through on David’s baby passport, he felt there was no going back,’ said Harris.

  ‘Well, he’d better not come anywhere near me or Jean,’ said Joel.

  ‘What about Libby?’ asked Jean.

  ‘She collapsed. She’s being treated in the hospital.’

  Jean opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again.

  ‘And you think that Libby and Steve Hartley killed Anna Treadwell?’ asked Joel.

  ‘A thumbprint was recovered from the claw hammer used to kill Anna Treadwell. The thumbprint matches Libby Hartley’s prints that we took earlier today,’ said Harris. ‘We still don’t know if Libby acted alone.’

  There was another long silence.

  ‘What happens now? Can we see Charlie? I want to see him!’ said Jean.

  ‘We have an unprecedented situation,’ said Harris. ‘David and Daisy will have to be taken into custody by social services now that both of their parents are in prison. However, David, Charlie, is your child, and your grandchild. So, naturally, you should automatically have custody of him.’

  ‘What about Daisy?’ asked Joel.

  ‘That’s the other issue.’

  ‘No! Charlie is coming with us. I’m not leaving here without him!’ said Jean. ‘And this little girl, we can’t leave her.’ She pushed on her walking stick and struggled to her feet. ‘Where is he? I’d like to see my grandson.’

  ‘Jean, please. We need to work out how best to do this,’ said Kate.

  ‘No!’ cried Jean. ‘No! He's ours! Ours!’ She beat it out on her chest with her fist. ‘I asked you both to find him, and bloody hell, you’ve found him! I’m not sitting here a moment longer, knowing we’re in the same building as Charlie! Do you hear me?’

  Joel got up and stood with Jean.

  ‘Take us to see him,’ he said. ‘Now. Take me to see my son.’

  It was an odd moment as Kate and Tristan watched the reunion between David, Jean, and Joel through the safety glass of an office door. Jean looked at David, and they heard her say,

  ‘Charlie. Is it really you?’ She put out her hands and placed them on his arms, studying him. David stared at her as if she was mad and shook his head. Jean then turned to Joel with tears in her eyes. ‘It’s him, Joel. It’s our Charlie.’

  Jean grabbed Charlie in an embrace and he shrank back. Daisy stood to one side, bewildered. Joel towered over Jean and Charlie, and he stepped closer, put his arms around them both, and buried his face in Charlie’s hair, sobbing.

  ‘They’re all so confused,’ said Tristan. Kate watched as tears rolled down Jean’s cheeks, and she pressed her face into Charlie’s neck and pulled him close.

  ‘My boy, my boy,’ she was now saying. His arms hung at his sides as he was sandwiched between Jean and Joel, who were both sobbing. Charlie pulled himself free and stepped towards Daisy, who grabbed his hand.

  ‘What do you think will happen now?’ asked Tristan.

  ‘They need work it out. They have to,’ said Kate. ‘Come on, let’s leave them be.’

  They moved away from the door, leaving Jean, Joel, and Charlie and Daisy on either side of the room in a strange, fearful standoff.

  Epilogue

  SIX WEEKS LATER

  10th August 2018

  * * *

  It was a beautiful morning, and Kate and Tristan were watching the latest news report about the Charlie Julings abduction case – as it was now known. They sat in front of Tristan’s laptop and watched as Libby and Steve Hartley were led separately in handcuffs into Exeter Crown Court. The camera image then switched to a bank of journalists outside in front of a group of bystanders.

  ‘This morning, Libby and Steven Hartley were brought to Exeter Crown Court and formally charged with the murder of social worker Anna Treadwell in June 2007,’ said the news anchor. Anna’s photo appeared on the screen, taken from her social services pass, and another picture of her overgrown house on the cul-de-sac. The news reporter went on, ‘—and the subsequent abduction of Charlie Julings, who went missing eleven years ago on June 21st 2007. A separate charge of manslaughter has been brought against Libby Hartley for the death of their biological son, David Hartley. Steven Hartley pleaded guilty in court to all counts. Libby Hartley has put in a plea for diminished responsibility due to an undiagnosed bipolar disorder at the time of the manslaughter, murder, and abduction.’

  The camera angle then changed to Libby being led back out of court to a police van, half-covered by a blanket. She was flanked by two police officers, and she was being jeered and photographed by members of the public.

  ‘Charlie Julings has spent the past eleven years believing that his natural parents were Libby and Steve Hartley, and that he was David Hartley. He has since been reunited with his biological family.’

  The news report changed to the next story, and Kate and Tristan sat back in their chairs.

  ‘Jesus, do you think they’ll go down, Steve and Libby?’ asked Tristan.

  ‘I don’t know. I can’t imagine what it’s been like for David and Daisy. I mean, Charlie and Daisy. They’ve lived happily and normally for many years as a family.’

  Kate’s phone beeped with a message, and she saw it was Jean saying they were down on the beach. It was the first time that Kate and Tristan would get to meet Charlie with Jean and Joel since they’d been reunited at Exeter police station six weeks ago.

  Kate and Tristan left the office and walked down the sand dunes to the beach. It was busy with people swimming and sunbathing, but Jean, Joel and Charlie stood out from the crowd. They all stood awkwardly. Together, but apart. It had been Jean’s idea to meet in public in case tempers became frayed and Charlie wanted to leave.

  Jean was smoking a cigarette and leaning on her walking stick. Joel was beside her, holding a thin sweater, and Charlie was a few feet away, kicking at the sand with the toe of his trainers. He wore shorts and a T-shirt and looked taller than he had two months ago.