Snatched by Unknown

months earlier, but it had never gone to court, due to a lack of cooperation on both sides. And, apart from a couple of old convictions for fighting, the only recent notes on Terry related to allegations of domestic violence, and trespassing on his estranged wife’s property without her consent – none of which had progressed to formal charges, because Sue had apparently refused to take it any further when push came to shove.
    All of which seemed like the usual tit-for-tat games of an estranged couple, in Jay’s opinion, which made her curious to know why everyone seemed to have turned against them so vehemently.
    Traditionally, communities like that tended to be pretty evenly divided when there was a marriage breakdown; some siding with the victim, the rest with the villain. But, in this case, it seemed that neither of the Days had much support. And Terry’s troubles seemed to have extended to work as well as home, according to his foreman, who had told her, when she’d contacted him to try and get Terry’s address, that Terry had been forced to change shifts a few weeks back after suffering months of harassment from the workmates on his regular shift.
    So, were they just horrible people who deserved everything they got? she wondered. Or were the neighbours and workmates just a particularly vindictive bunch? Either way, the Days certainly seemed to have a lot of enemies – any one of whom could have been the shadowy figure seen running from the scene after the window had been smashed tonight.
    When Carole Miller had finally returned her call and given her Terry’s address, she’d gone straight over there, only to find that Carole had beaten her to it and he’d already left – leaving several scantily dressed drunken teenage girls having a party there in his absence.
    Wondering if maybe there was some truth to the pervert rumours after all, Jay had reminded herself as she headed over to the hospital that whatever Terry Day had or hadn’t been getting up to with the Lolitas, at least he’d had the grace to tear himself away and go to his son in his hour of need. And one parent was better than none, given that the boy’s mother still hadn’t turned up.
    Jay had left three messages on Sue Day’s phone now, trying to convey the urgency of the situation without shocking her with actual details. Although she’d been sorely tempted to spell it out, if only to give Sue a kick up the backside for switching her phone off. Surely the whole point of having a mobile was to make sure that you could be reached in an emergency, so God only knew what her poor kids had been going through if they ’d been trying to get hold of her tonight – which was very likely, Jay thought, since it had now been ascertained that the electric had run out at some point before the fire had started. But maybe that was the exact reason why she had turned her phone off: so that her kids couldn’t interrupt whatever fun she was having with a trivial thing like needing money for the meter.
    There was still no sign of Nicky, and the fire crew were convinced that if she had been there she’d left before they arrived. And, if that were true, then Jay could think of several possible reasons why.
    She could have nipped out to get money off her mother for the electric, for example, unaware that someone had smashed the window and started a fire in her absence. Or maybe she’d panicked when the house was attacked and had run out to escape the fire, forgetting that Connor was still inside. Or she could have been injured, and was now wandering the streets in a state of shock. She might even have started the fire herself and run away. Or maybe she just wasn’t as conscientious as everyone seemed to believe, and had simply sneaked out as soon as her mum’s back was turned, leaving her little brother alone for the night.
    Any of those scenarios was feasible, but Jay would still have expected Nicky to have come home by now, or at the very least been seen.