Читать книгу The Choice - Alex Lake - Страница 14

She didn’t react for a few seconds, then, as the words registered, her mouth fell slightly open.

‘Gone?’ she said. ‘What do you mean gone?’

He swallowed. His heart was racing and his mouth was dry and it was hard to speak. Annabelle was staring at him, her eyebrows knitted together in a deep frown.

‘I …’ he started, ‘I went into the shop to get the stuff. I left the kids in the car—’

‘Oh my God.’ Her eyes widened. ‘Matt. What happened?’

‘I wasn’t gone long, maybe only a few minutes. I checked out of the window and they were OK, but—’

‘Matt, what are you saying? Tell me what happened?’

‘—after I paid and went outside the car was gone.’

‘Gone?’ He could see his words were not fully sinking in. ‘How could the car be gone?’

‘Somebody took it. But – Annabelle. The kids were in it. They took the kids too.’

His wife didn’t answer. She folded her arms, then lifted one hand to her mouth, then put her hands in her lap.

‘What?’ she said, a barely controlled panic in her voice belying her attempts to compose herself. ‘What did you say?’

‘The car was gone. With the kids.’

‘Maybe they took off the handbrake and it rolled away.’

‘No. I checked.’

‘Maybe you didn’t check in the right place.’ She stood up. ‘We need to look for them. We can take my car. Maybe they drove it off somehow. Or the police moved it. If it was parked illegally the police may have moved it. Did you call them?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I didn’t.’

‘You didn’t? Why not? We have to call them, now!’

‘We can’t.’

She was staring at him, her eyes wide, her nostrils flared. ‘Why not? Of course we can call the police. Our children are missing!’

‘We can’t,’ he said. ‘There’s more. And it’s worse.’