Read Online While My Eyes Were Closed by Linda Green - Free Book Online

say, pointing to the path.
    ‘Did anyone else see her fall over?’
    ‘I don’t know. My eyes were closed. I told you, we were playing hide-and-seek.’
    She is writing all this down in her notebook. I wonder if she thinks I am a bad mother. Maybe not. She doesn’t look old enough to be a mother herself. Although that’s a bit rich coming from me.
    ‘OK. Can you take me to the exact place you last saw her?’
    I head over to the little path. PC Reynolds and the male copper, whose name I have already forgotten, follow. Other people look down and clear the way as we walk. Like they are embarrassed because something bad has happened and they don’t want to look me in the eye.
    I stop at what I think is the right place. I look back to the tree where I was counting and try to work out exactly where she was when I heard her cry.
    ‘Here,’ I say. ‘This is where she fell. She screamed and I ran over to check she was OK, and then I went back to that tree to count while she hid again.’
    ‘And can you remember if you heard her footsteps running away? Or anyone else’s voice?’
    I shake my head.
    ‘No. My phone rang, see. I had to answer it. Work, you know.’
    I shrug, sure she does think I’m a bad mother now.
    ‘And how long was it before you started looking for her?’
    ‘I don’t know. I mean I was talking on my mobile for a while, and then I shut my eyes and pretended to count in case Ella was looking, and then when I opened them I realised I’d lost her balloon.’
    ‘Her balloon?’
    ‘Yeah, a red one from the lad’s party she went to earlier. I was looking after it for her. I only realised it was gone when I started looking for her.’
    I look down at the ground, knowing how shabby it all sounds.
    ‘So perhaps it was as long as five minutes altogether?’
    ‘Yeah,’ I say with a sigh. ‘It was probably a good five minutes or so.’
    She nods, walks a little distance away and speaks into her radio. I look around and see that there are three other coppers in the park now. I see the flashing lights in the car park and hear another siren from the road that runs alongside it. More coppers appear a moment later. They are running this time. I brush my hair away from my face, aware that my hands feel clammy. This is real. It is happening to me. I am not going to wake up from this.
    I hear an out-of-breath voice say, ‘Lisa.’ There’s a hand on my shoulder. For a moment I think it is Alex but turn to see Dad standing there in a grease-stained T-shirt and jeans which are belted too tight under his belly. He hugs me. I can feel him shaking. I have never known him shake before. Maybe that is why I start feeling sick.
    ‘Why haven’t they found her yet?’ he asks.
    I shrug, unable to produce any words.
    He goes up to the male copper and points accusingly at his face. ‘What are you doing standing around here? You should be out there looking for her.’
    ‘Sorry,’ I say to the copper. ‘He’s my dad.’
    The copper turns to Dad. ‘I can assure you both that we are doing everything we can but we have to go through set procedures in cases like this.’
    ‘I don’t care about your fucking procedures. She’s four years old. I want everyone out there on the streets looking for her.’
    ‘Dad, don’t,’ I say as PC Reynolds comes back over to us. ‘They’re doing their best.’
    ‘Well their best’s not bloody good enough. She’s not here, is she? It’s a waste of time looking for her here.’
    ‘Sorry,’ I say to both the coppers. ‘He’s a bit upset.’
    ‘I understand that,’ says PC Reynolds. ‘But in a missing-persons case we always start with a thorough search of the area where the person was last seen. That’s what the officers are doing now.’
    She gestures across the park. There must be at least eight pairs of coppers searching now. It’s as if they are multiplying every time I look up. It should make me feel better but it doesn’t. It makes me feel worse.
    Another copper is