Page 42 of The Mistake

Natalie drags her eyes up to meet DI Travis’s face, her heart frantically crashing against her ribcage. ‘He was … overwhelmed,’ she says eventually. ‘We both were. Neither of us were expecting another child, and discovering I was pregnant … Well, it meant we had to change our plans.’ Natalie has been as honest as she feels she can, but doesn’t say what she wants to say, what shebelieves to be the truth. That Pete was horrified to learn that Natalie was pregnant. That Pete never wanted Erin at all.

Pete

Pete thinks he’s probably walked miles in the minutes since they arrived at the hospital. After pressing his face to the window of the hospital room, his heart in his mouth as Erin was poked and prodded and strapped to various machines, the same nurse had come out and told him in no uncertain terms that he was to leave. Now, he paces in a shabby waiting room, the walls scuffed and the hospital blue lino cracked in places. If there was anywhere that reeked of despair and desperation more, Pete isn’t sure he could find it, but still he can’t stop pacing, his filthy trainers squeaking on the lino as nervous energy floods his veins.

The nurse has promised the doctor will come and find Pete the minute there is any news, the moment he is allowed to see Erin, even if it is through glass, and while he realistically knows it’s only been a short while since he was escorted to the waiting room, time is elastic and it feels like days – weeks – since they left him in here.

The door handle turns and Pete pauses in his pacing, suddenly not sure he wants to know what the doctor has to say, but when the door opens it isn’t the doctor standing there.

‘Nat. Oh God, Nat.’ Pete stumbles towards her, tripping over his own feet, his arms outstretched.

Natalie’s face is washed of colour, her hair slipping out of the messy bun she stuffed it into for the party. She still wears the hot pink sundress, but now there is an old chunky cardigan around her shoulders, one that she usually wears only at home, when the weather is really cold. It makes Pete think of Christmas, of Natalie standing in a steaming hot kitchen pulling a roast outof the oven. It looks oddly out of place in this cold, sterile room, with posters advertising counselling on the walls.

‘Where is Erin? Is she OK?’ Natalie’s voice is thick, the words coming out in a strangled choke. As she draws the old cardigan tighter around her body her hands shake, and Pete feels a surge of guilt as his gaze reaches her eyes. Salt stains her cheeks, her face drawn, and she looks fragile, as if one tiny push could break her like glass.This is your fault, a voice hisses in Pete’s ear – the sound of his own conscience.You’ve done this to her.

Swallowing down the guilt choking him, Pete moves towards her. ‘I’m still waiting for the doctor. They said in the ambulance she’s going to be OK … She’s in the best place, Nat. She’s going to be fine.’ The lie sits heavy on his tongue, bitter and tangy, and he swallows hard as he reaches out and pulls Natalie towards him. She freezes, her body going rigid, and before he can speak, she pulls away, crossing her arms over her body and stepping towards one of the plastic chairs against the wall.

‘Nat …’ He wants to tell her he loves her, that he’s sorry – so, so sorry – but movement in the doorway alerts him to the fact that they are not alone. In fact, their entire exchange has just been very closely observed.

‘Pete?’ A dark-haired woman who looks vaguely familiar steps into the room. ‘My name is DI Travis. I brought Natalie here in the police car.’ She smiles, and Pete feels himself relax a tiny fraction. ‘Would you mind just stepping outside with me for a moment?’ She looks at Natalie. ‘Natalie, I’ll send my colleague in to sit with you, all right?’

Natalie nods, and Pete sees that her expression isn’t quite as blank as it was back at the house. Still, though, it doesn’t seem as though the full force of what has happened has hit her yet.

Once out in the corridor, Pete pulls the door to the waiting room closed behind him, feeling as if this will protect Natalie from anything the police officer has to say, but instead of speakingto him here, Travis gestures for him to follow her into an empty office further along the hall.

‘Take a seat.’

Pete feels a flicker of alarm. The office is tidy, the desk clear, and on one side of the table is a single chair. On the other side are two more chairs, one of which is already occupied by another police officer. DI Travis squeezes around the edge of the desk and sits beside him.

‘This is my colleague, DS Haynes,’ she says. ‘We just have a few questions for you, Pete, that’s all. I’ve already had a good chat with Natalie on our way over here.’

Pete doesn’t know if that’s allowed. All he knows about police procedures is what he’s seen on the telly, and they always say you have to have a lawyer present before they can formally question you. At the thought that this is just an informal chat to find out exactly what happened earlier tonight, he feels able to breathe again.

‘I want to ask you about this evening, Pete,’ Travis says, her voice clear in the quiet room. Her tone seems friendly and Pete shifts in his seat, trying to appear relaxed, even though his pulse is still clattering. ‘There was a party at your house, is that right?’

‘Yes, that’s right. For Emily – our daughter’s – eighteenth birthday.’

‘Lovely.’ She gives him a brisk smile. ‘Did anything happen at the party that perhaps wasn’t … expected? Someone showed up you didn’t invite, or any kind of altercation? We’re just trying to find out exactly why someone would want to take Erin.’

Pete’s mouth goes dry. Where does he even start? ‘There was …’ He clears his throat. ‘There was a little bit of friction earlier on in the evening. My daughter hadn’t told her boyfriend she was planning on going to university, and he became quite upset about it. They had a … Well, they had words about it, and Emily was quite upset. I asked Jake to leave.’

‘How did Jake react to that?’

‘Well, he wasn’t too pleased,’ Pete says. A nugget of something that might be fear worms in his belly.Could Jake have done this?‘He told me I would regret throwing him out of the party.’

DI Travis raises her eyebrows at this. ‘Sounds like he was pretty angry.’ She glances down at her open notebook, the pages filled with scratchy writing as though a drunk spider had fallen in a pot of black ink. ‘No other arguments? Altercations?’

Pete shakes his head slowly, before pressing a finger to his lips. ‘Oh, I think my wife had words with a friend of hers.’

‘Would that be …’ She consults the notebook again. ‘Eve?’

‘That’s right. Natalie was growing concerned that Eve has developed an unhealthy interest in our family.’ Pete doesn’t mention the fact that he was the one who initially said this to Natalie. That he’s the one who thinks Eve is slightly crazy. ‘She’s always at our house. Always telling Natalie how to deal with Erin’s sleep problems, even though she doesn’t have any experience raising kids. She doesn’t have any children of her own,’ he clarifies. ‘Eve left the party,’ he goes on as the detective leaves a pregnant pause. ‘Someone should probably see where Eve was when Erin disappeared. She left the party, but she could easily have sneaked back in. She’s quite familiar with our house – she knows which bedroom Erin sleeps in.’ As he says it, Pete feels a flicker of something that could be vindication, mixed with horror. Vindication because if Eve did do this, then Pete was right about her all along – horror because that would mean Natalie will feel responsible, and Pete is already afraid of her fragile state of mind. He knows this statement will lead the police to Eve’s door, will presumably lead to her being questioned, but what he’s saying is true.

‘OK.’ Travis nods as her colleague scribbles notes in his own notebook. ‘What about the other guests. Was there anyone there who perhaps shouldn’t have been at the party? Someone who heard about it and turned up anyway? You know what it’s like.There’s always someone who thinks they’re entitled to an invite, isn’t there?’

Pete licks his lips, his tongue like sandpaper.She knows about Vanessa. Someone has told the police that Vanessa was there – who, though? Natalie? Stu?Pete presses his foot to the floor, trying to stop his knee from jiggling under the table. ‘Could I possibly get a drink of water?’ He tugs at his collar. The room is stiflingly hot, the way hospitals always are. DI Travis nods, and there is a brief pause in her questioning as she waits for her colleague to return with two plastic cups of water.

‘So Pete, back to the party – any uninvited guests?’

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