PROLOGUE

The fair was thriving with the entire town flocking to its magical lights like moths to a flame. The aromas of burgers, hot-dogs, popcorn cooking in the distance and the sickliness of candy floss filtered through the air causing all those families and couples who were brave enough to spend an afternoon there to crave all of them at the same time. The sunshine beat down heavily upon them, their thirst for something sugary and cold was overwhelming. Children shrieked in the distance, their excitement levels peaking at an almighty high, as they looked around in wonder at the incredible prizes and toys that seemed priceless to them.

Jason Gideon stared in wonder at his two children – Stephen, the oldest, begged his mother for an ice-cream, and his youngest, Grace, who stared around at her surroundings in wonder, her eyes wider than they'd ever been as she took in the delights of the fair – and felt the luckiest he had ever felt.

He had spent much of the week wanting nothing more than for a case to close early so that he was able to spend some quality time with his family. As the days passed and the case looked to be no further forward than when they first took it on, it seemed unlikely that he would be able to take the afternoon off and take his children to the fair. It was a simple want, but an important one, nonetheless.

"Daddy, look…" Grace said as she pulled at his arm. He knelt beside her and looked in the direction of her small pointed hand and smiled. A light brown teddy bear, almost triple the size of her, hung from the stand, its unseeing eyes claiming her as its owner. "I love him…"

"Have you got a name for him?" Jason Gideon asked his young daughter, who then turned to him with wide, excited eyes. She nodded animatedly. "Because he must have a name if he's going to be coming home with us!"

"Yes, Daddy," Grace smiled her devilish grin. She lowered her voice to just a mere whisper and turned to him, her hand cupping over his ear so only he could hear. "His name is Daddy. So, when you at work, he with me."

And it was at that moment that the familiar feeling of guilt pierced through his heart and stunned him into silence. He knew he worked long hours, he knew that… but his wife had always told him that whilst his own children are at home with her, safe, warm and loved, that there are other people's family members out there scared, vulnerable and fearful that their last day would be upon them. He knew his wife was right, she always was, but the amount of guilt he would feel when he'd return home from a case to find his children in bed after a week or more of not seeing them would always be prominent and overwhelming. He loved his job, but he loved his family more, and it was tough that there was no balance in his life. One of them would always falter with him not being present; and he wondered which one would be first to break.

His life was perfect, idyllic even. He was incredibly lucky to find such an understanding and dedicated wife who loved him for everything that he was and everything that he wasn't. He had flaws like everyone else, but he often wore them like scars upon his body. He always wished that he would be able to spend longer than a few hours with his wife and children, but to him, those hours meant everything to him.

"That's a perfect name," he whispered, knowing that he couldn't show his sadness to her. Though she was young, she was inquisitive. "And when you're missing me, you have him to cuddle and talk to, yeah?"

Grace nodded with a smile. "He not as tall as Daddy. But he taller than Grace."

Jason Gideon laughed at his daughter's comment before placing a kiss upon her forehead. "Let's get you that big teddy bear," he said as he stood to his full height, felt the light weight of her hand in his, and moved towards the stall. After a few games and a few too many dollars later, the teddy bear named Daddy was won and given to Grace. As she carried the teddy bear back to her mom and brother, the bear dwarfed her whole frame.

But they always say that lives can be changed in a moment. A split second. A blur. A lapse in judgement and reality, and that one moment – where time slows and yet the mind and body feel heavier than ever – can change a person forever. And that seemed to be true for a lot of people, and in Gideon's case, he relied on moments like that. But when it came down to it, it was other families these things happened to, not him or his family.

The fair was meant to be a happy time, but it would curse him for years to come.

They were a family of four, and in that moment – when time slowed before him as he moved his attention to a loud clatter that surrounded him – they were another statistic of a couple with a missing child. The teddy bear had been dropped to the ground and his daughter was gone.

Seconds turned to minutes; minutes turned to hours; hours turned into days; days turned into weeks; weeks turned into years; and his daughter, his young, innocent and beloved girl, was never returned to them.

That was the catalyst for the change in him. He threw himself into work, working longer hours, spending more and more time away from his broken family. His marriage broke down shortly after Grace's disappearance, but he always kept her ring, a keepsake of what they used to be and what he had lost. It was his reminder of everything that he had lost in that split-second moment. He berated himself for taking his eyes off her for that moment, and in those years after her disappearance, he relived that day over and over.

Each year, he returned to the fun fair in the hopes that he would find her again, that she would appear beside him, older now and able to carry the teddy bear without it weighing her down. He wondered what she would look like now if given the chance; would she resemble her mother, or bore his dark features?

And maybe that was why he was so compassionate with every case that came his way. He always imagined her being beside him when horrific cases came his way, knowing that he had to work hard just as he would hope someone working her missing case would. As the years passed by and the deadline of seven years flew by, she was declared dead by the state. Everything that she had been and everything she was promised to be was diminished just as the hope in his heart was.

Gideon could never forgive himself for taking his attention away from his young daughter for those mere few seconds, as those few seconds were enough for her to be snatched from his life. It had been twenty years since she was ripped from him, and not a day went by where he didn't relive every single moment leading up to her being taken. Her soft voice filled with happiness at her new friend; the way her hand held his tightly that had been there and then gone in the space of a heartbeat; the insufferable pain he felt when he couldn't see her in the vast crowd. Pain and guilt were all he knew now. But with no sightings of her whatsoever in those years, he never gave up hope that one day she would find her way back to him whether she was alive or dead.

He knew the outcomes to cases like these, and most of the time, they were heart-breaking conclusions to open wounds that never seemed to heal. And in his line of work, he couldn't think of a conclusion that didn't end with that. He just couldn't. He had waded through every inch of hell searching for her, and he still had to hold onto that last bit of hope.

It was the only thing keeping him on this earth.