Who Took Daisy-Mae?: Eden Reid, #4

By Beverley Carter

On a busy city street in broad daylight, a toddler is violently snatched from her mother. Despite there being dozens of witnesses, no sign of the child can be found. Eden Reid attempts to comfort Lauren, the distraught mother, but as the hours following Daisy-Mae’s abduction turn into days, Eden senses there is more going on than Lauren is telling police. As Eden attempts to uncover the truth, she finds herself caught up in the lives of a super-rich, childless couple, teenage surrogates and a surrogacy agency that doesn’t ask too many questions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beverley Carter
• Release date: Mar 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386088943

Book preview

Chapter One

Lauren McKenna waited impatiently as the passengers in front of her slowly left the bus. Despite the fact that at least a dozen people had funnelled out into the street, the bus seemed as cramped as ever. Unaccustomed to being in an enclosed and crowded space, Lauren tightened her grip on the buggy’s handles and tried to fight the anxiety that was building within her. She felt her pulse quickening and inhaled deeply to try to calm herself but the aroma of aftershave, perfume and the general mixed bodily odours of being so close to other people made her nauseous. She was standing with her back to the stairs that led to the upper deck and a large handbag belonging to a woman standing a couple of stairs up was digging into her back. She glanced anxiously around and swayed as the bus pulled away. The bus’s windows were so heavy with condensation that she couldn’t see out and she was too short to see over the shoulders of the passengers in front of her. A minute or so later, the bus swerved out of the line of traffic and into its next stop, the passengers swaying in unison. Lauren exhaled slowly, trying to steady her pulse. She needed to get off at this stop and she was counting slowly in her head to keep calm. A gap appeared near the doorway and Lauren pushed the buggy through the open doors and past the small huddle that had formed at the bus stop, their heads bowed as they lit cigarettes in cupped hands. Lauren scowled at them and swerved the buggy around them, careful to avoid the lit cigarettes held precariously between the various smokers’ fingers that swung dangerously close to her small daughter’s face.

‘Whassat? Whassat?’ said Daisy-Mae, pointing a chubby finger at the advertising hoarding they were passing.

‘They’re ducks, sweetheart,’ said Lauren. Relieved though she was to be off the bus and into the open, the air here smelt of diesel fumes and tobacco smoke. There seemed to be a general dampness too. Judging by how dark the sky had become, rain couldn’t be far away. She cursed silently for the umpteenth time that morning that she’d had to come into the city and expose Daisy-Mae to all these toxins. Lauren squatted down in front of the buggy and checked that Daisy-Mae’s coat was zipped up. She tugged at the straps that held Daisy-Mae in the buggy to test that they were still secure. Lauren smiled at her daughter then stood up and pursed her lips as she pushed the buggy past the hoarding. More so-called luxury housing was being built here. As if Cambridge didn’t have enough of that already. Lauren could feel her anger building again as she pictured the cramped flat she rented in Bedford. It was cheap because it was away from bus routes and convenient for nothing but at least it was near open farmland. She continued past the hoarding and wondered who the prospective residents of this new development might be. It wouldn’t be her, that was for sure. They were now level with the image of a perfect couple of indeterminate age, a dark-haired man and a woman with waves of blond hair tumbling over her shoulders. Between them swung a toddler, about the same age as Daisy-Mae. The toddler was gazing up her parents, her rosy-cheeked face frozen in laughter, while an older brother rode a bicycle a little way ahead of them, his face turned back towards them. He too was laughing. The ducks that Daisy-Mae had spotted bobbed contentedly between lush green rushes on the surface of a pristine river, the backdrop of which was an artist’s impression of how the new housing would apparently look when it was completed. It was all so unfair.

Lauren gazed upwards at the stark grey breeze block walls and the dark red steel joists. It didn’t exactly look idyllic right now. But at least the breeze blocks seemed to match the ominous dark clouds that threatened a downpour at any moment. None of it seemed to bear much resemblance to the advert with its perfect family in its perfect little world, with a perfect blue sky dotted with perfect bloody clouds. They had their happy ever after, didn’t they? What a fairytale, Lauren thought. Did anyone really believe that crap? If her life so far was anything to go by, all you could really expect was stress, poverty and exhaustion. Oh and being a social outcast and to blame for all the country’s ills, don’t forget that. Bloody single parents. But mostly exhaustion. Oh yes, don’t forget the never-ending, energy-sapping total, utter, complete exhaustion. Where’s my happy ever after, thought Lauren. The high pitched jingle of a bicycle bell rang out behind her and Lauren realised she’d drifted into the side of the pavement that was reserved for cyclists. She hurried over to the pedestrian side, cursing as she did at the lunacy of putting cyclists and pedestrians together, separated by a bit of faded white paint on a pavement pockmarked with discarded chewing gum. Bicycles are vehicles for crying out loud; they should be on the road, not the bloody pavement.

Lauren’s jaw ached and she realised she’d been clenching her teeth. This was something she’d done since childhood, a habit that had resurfaced in recent months. She checked her watch; it was already gone half past eight. She picked up the pace a bit; it wasn’t far to the café but after the effort that it had taken her to get here so early in the morning, she didn’t want Nick to have given up and left before she’d even arrived. It’d had better be worth it, she thought. Daisy-Mae was practically eighteen months old now and she’d not had a penny off Nick. He’d been ignoring her texts and phone calls for months, so when he sent her a text message a few days ago asking her to meet him, she didn’t think she should refuse. Despite the difficulty, and expense, in getting herself and Daisy-Mae into the centre of Cambridge at this ungodly hour. And despite her misgivings about meeting him at all.

Lauren knew what it meant. It could only mean one thing. Nick wanted visitation. Well, he could bloody well pay her what he owed her first. And if he wanted some sort of shared custody, well he’d have one hell of a fight on his hands after the way he’d treated her. Lauren bit her lip. She felt sick at the thought of having to share Daisy-Mae with anyone, let alone Nick. He’d got her into this situation. It was his fault she was struggling financially. It was his fault she’d only ended up graduating with a third and it was his fault she was bringing up Daisy-Mae as a single parent. If he thought he could just pick up the phone and she’d come running, well. Lauren shook her head and swore silently. He had picked up the phone and she had come running.

She stopped at the edge of the kerb, waiting for a break in the traffic so that she could cross. The people on both sides of her were smoking. She edged slightly closer to the road so that Daisy-Mae wouldn’t have to inhale their poisonous fumes. Lauren glanced over the top of the buggy at her daughter. Daisy-Mae seemed quite content watching the world around her whilst clutching the little fluffy mauve rabbit that accompanied her everywhere. A large green van pulled up close to the kerb and Lauren automatically pulled the buggy backwards. She glanced up, there was a thickset man in front of her, dressed in black. He swung his arm and punched her in the side of her face. The force of the blow knocked Lauren to the ground, where she hit her head on the hard concrete paving slab. Momentarily stunned, she blinked several times, trying to focus on the strange black tree trunks that surrounded her. Her vision sharpened and the tree trunks morphed into trouser-clad legs. She could taste blood and her whole head pounded. But something else wasn’t right. She sat up. Her head spun and she felt sick. The van was no longer there and nor was the buggy. Daisy-Mae had gone. Someone somewhere was screaming.

Chapter Two

Eden Reid pushed through the crowd. She was already on her phone, barking directions to the emergency operator. ‘It was a green transit type van with flowers on it, you know, like a florists’ van? The first part of the registration was CH16, no not G, C. C for Charlie. I didn’t get the rest. Thanks, yes I can hear the sirens now.’

Eden stooped down and put an arm around the woman. She hadn’t stopped screaming since she’d sat up. ‘It’s okay,’ said Eden, ‘the police are coming. They’ll get the van.’

Lauren realised that the screaming she could hear was coming from her. Someone was trying to comfort her, a woman with a light brown face and deep brown eyes. Kind eyes. Lauren’s jaw hurt and it wouldn’t close properly. She leaned over and vomited onto the path. Some of it splashed someone’s shoe and they moved sharply away. There was an arm around her and Lauren clung to it. It was the woman with kind eyes. Lauren couldn’t breath. She was shaking and she felt dizzy. She seemed to be gasping and sobbing with her whole being. Something purple lay on the ground in front of her and Lauren reached for it; it was Daisy-Mae’s fluffy rabbit and it was too far away.

Eden saw the rabbit lying on the ground and picked it up and passed it to the woman, who grabbed it and clutched it to her chest, while mouthing the words ‘Bun-bun’ over and over.

A police car pulled over to the side of the road where they were sitting and two officers got out and cleared a space in the crowd. One of the officers began speaking into his radio whilst the other one crouched down in front of them. Lauren looked at him. He was about forty and clean shaven, with close cropped dark hair. He had a tan, which she thought was odd for November, but it made his blue eyes stand out. They were a greyish blue, not the deep sapphire blue of Daisy-Mae’s.

‘Okay,’ he said, ‘I just want to establish the facts. Your name is?’

‘Lauren McKenna.’

‘Right and it’s your child who’s been abducted, is that correct?’

Lauren nodded. ‘My daughter, Daisy-Mae.’

‘And how old’s Daisy-Mae?’

‘She’s nearly eighteen-months,’ said Lauren.

‘Okay,’ said the police officer. ‘So you were both on foot here were you when it happened?’

Lauren frowned. ‘Daisy-Mae was in her buggy.’ She glanced around from left to right, as if expecting to see the buggy.

‘They took it,’ said Eden. ‘The man who took Daisy-Mae took the buggy too.’

‘Okay, you saw this did you?’ asked the Police officer.

Eden nodded. ‘I’m the one who called it in, Eden Reid. I was standing right behind them both when it happened. We were all here, just waiting to cross the road. The van pulled up, it was a large green transit type van with flowers on the side. It looked like a florist’s van. The side door opened, a man jumped out. He hit this lady in the face and as she fell to the ground, he picked up the buggy with the baby still strapped inside and he put it into the back of the van and jumped in after it. Then the van just drove off. It all happened so fast, nobody had a chance to do anything. It carried on down the road in that direction.’ Eden pointed to the left.

The policeman nodded. ‘Well they won’t get far,’ he said, ‘there are cameras all over this city and we seem to have plenty of witnesses to what happened. The ambulance will be here soon to see to that cut on your head. I take it you don’t know the man who did this? Is there anyone you can think of who would want to take your daughter?’

Lauren shook her head. She rubbed at her hair and then stared at the sticky red tips of her fingers.

‘Is this a normal route for you to take?’ asked the police officer. ‘Would you usually be walking along this road at this time of the morning?’

Again Lauren shook her head. ‘I’ve never been into Cambridge at this time. If I come in to go shopping, it wouldn’t be until much later. And it would be a Saturday, not a week day. And I haven’t been here in ages. Not since before I had Daisy-Mae.’

‘Okay,’ said the policed officer. He nodded and smiled kindly. ‘Did anyone else know that you were coming here today?’

Lauren frowned for a moment. ‘No,’ she said, ‘well, only Nick.’

‘Nick?’ asked the police officer.

‘Nick Vincent,’ said Lauren. ‘He’s Daisy-Mae’s father. He texted me a couple of days ago and asked me to come in and meet him. I was supposed to be there at half past eight, but the bus took a bit longer than I thought it would.’

‘Okay, where were you supposed to meet him?’

‘In the Odd Oar’s Café. It’s just up the road a bit; we were nearly there.’

‘Has Mr Vincent got any reason to have taken Daisy-Mae?’

Lauren shrugged and shook her head. ‘I don’t know, maybe. But he hasn’t even seen her. I’ve been trying to get him to pay his share for months but I’ve been mostly ignored.’

‘So you and Mr Vincent are not currently in a relationship?’ asked the policeman. Lauren shook her head. ‘Okay, when was the last time you saw Mr Vincent?’

‘It was ages ago. October 3rd, the year before last.’

‘You remember the exact date?’

‘Of course I do,’ said Lauren. ‘It was the day I had my twelve week scan. So it can’t have been Nick, can it? That’s the only picture he’s ever seen of his daughter - that grainy black and white scan.’ The policeman nodded but looked unconvinced. He flashed a glance at Eden. He’s thinking the same thing I am, thought Eden. He’s thinking that if Nick Vincent wanted to take Daisy-Mae, he didn’t need to know what his daughter looked like. All he needed to know was where they’d be at a certain time and whether it was him personally, or someone else, all they needed to know was what Lauren looked like. A woman pushing a buggy is hardly difficult to spot, even on these crowded streets.

The crowd shifted a little and two paramedics appeared, a slightly overweight middled-aged woman and a skinny younger man.

‘Right, let’s get a look at you,’ smiled the woman.

‘I just want my daughter,’ said Lauren.

‘Course you do, pet,’ said the paramedic, ‘but let’s make sure you’re all in one piece, okay?’

Eden stood up, but Lauren clutched at her arm. ‘Please don’t leave me,’ she said. Her eyes looked pleadingly at Eden.

The police officer said ‘is there someone we can call for you?’

Lauren shook her head. ‘I don’t know anyone round here. Please, I don’t want to be on my own. Sorry, I’m being stupid; you probably have to be somewhere.’

Eden crouched back down. ‘I can stay with you if you want me to. It’s only work and they’ll understand.’

‘I don’t want to get you into trouble. They won’t sack you or anything will they?’

Eden shook her head and smiled gently. ‘Probably not. I’m not that easy to get rid of. I’m early anyway but