A Child is Missing
Faith groaned as she tried with her IPod, the songs really low and mumbled.
She'd been trying for an hour to work out why the headphones weren't working and she'd just given up.
She looked up to see a man with large glasses and aged about forty walk in. "Who are you?" she questioned.
"I'm Mr McLaughlin. Mr Milligan said you were getting new staff members for the week?" Faith remembered.
Mike had said that they'd get some staff members in for the next week while May-Li was ill and that they'd be studying them for work. Mr McLaughlin, Mr Kelly and Ms Wilson.
Faith got up, deciding to make a good first impression. "How are you?" she asked. Then Mr Laughlin handed Faith a bag and she nearly dropped it from the weight. "Put this in the office, kid."
***Mr Kelly scanned the hallway, while Ms Wilson was unpacking. Mr Kelly was in his late twenties, but looked and acted older, with a brown jumper and a black booklet.
He frowned as Ms Wilson, a normal looking woman in her twenties with orange earrings and flat brown hair, pulled a suitcase in.
"Damn kids," she whinged, "anyone would think being an orphan was fun."
Mr Kelly looked at her, slightly smiling. "It's only a week, honey. Then we'll have enough money to go to the Caribbean." Ms Wilson held her shoulder bag, smiling up at him.
Then they looked at the stairs. Harry was standing there, arms on the bannister. "Who are you?"
Ms Wilson came up, smiling. She knew how to handle little kids. "Hello there, my name is Ms Wilson. Mr Milligan is here to see us." Then she grinned, showing her pearly teeth. "Don't be scared. We're here to protect you."
Harry raised an eyebrow. This woman didn't seem right. Then the office door opened. Mike stood there.
"Hello Mr Milligan," Mr Kelly went to Mike, "I am Mr Kelly, Mr McLaughlin is in the kitchen and this is Ms Wilson." Mike put his hand out as the two shook them. "Nice to meet you. Oh, call me Mike. By the way, you do realise it's only temporary?"
Ms Wilson nodded. "Mr Kelly and I are training to be social workers. Mr McLaughlin said that would be fine if we could watch the kids."
She gave that flattering smile. Mike diverted his eyes to Mr Kelly, making Ms Wilson frown. Well, he wasn't easily distracted.
That night, Faith was in the den, using the laptop, when she seemed to notice something.
It was a news article. It depicted a large orange-brick house, with ivy and a small tree outside, with crime scene tape around. The word 'orphanage' caught her eye.
MASS DISAPPEARANCE AT NORFOLK ORPHANAGE
Between 7th April and 18th April, school authorities were told that the eight children residing inside, between the ages of four and sixteen, were going to France on holiday.
However, on 21st April, police came round to see why the eight children had not attended school that Monday. They found a horrific scene.
The bed sheets were all on the floors, the kitchen was a mess, with weeks-old food left behind, the television was still on and there was curtains loose.
But the worst part was that the head care worker, Mr Joseph Hamilton, was dead.
It is unknown how long he was dead for, as police decided to do an autopsy. But the eight children from inside the orphanage are still missing.
Their passports had been stolen, and this gave an idea that they were taken abroad.
The children, James Colton, 16, Tammy Headway, 14, Timothy Calsta, 14, Ruby Whittle, 12, Ronald Grayson, 11, twins Mandy and Mindy Sampson, 9, and Evie Cameroon, 4, are missing. The social workers reportedly with them at the time were found to have had fake records.
The social workers called themselves Peter Taylor, James Britton and Cathy Kelly. These names have since been announced as false.
Peter Taylor was in his late forties, James Britton estimated to be between 25 and 35 years old, according to different accounts, Cathy Wilson between 20 and 30 years old, according to different accounts. Suspect sketches of them are below.
The article went on, saying what the children looked like. Three black, two white, two mixed-race, one Asian. One had asthma, Tammy had broken her leg three months earlier.
But Faith just didn't seem to connect the dots.
If she had, a lot of trouble would have been avoided.
In the den, sitting on the sofa, Mr Kelly and Ms Wilson were opposite the children. They didn't know what to ask the new staff, and were confused as to why they looked a little stern.
"How long will you be here?" Carmen finally managed to ask, after endless silence.
Mr Kelly answered, "Well, not very long, a few weeks, I guess?"
Harry then questioned, "Are you here while May-Li's sick?"
Ms Wilson nodded.
Then she smiled at them all, creepily. "Don't worry though. The time will just fly past. And you'll notice a lot of changes. Soon."
Tyler was in his room later, thinking. The new social workers seemed odd. He'd seen one of them with a shoulder bag and she never took it off, even when she went in the bathroom. He wondered what she had inside.
He looked outside his room to see the woman talking on a phone, drumming her nails on the bannister. "Yeah, yeah." She mumbled, "The nine o'clock train. Yeah. Turkey. Turkey! How many times do I have to tell you?" then she sighed. "All right. All right. I'll pay you for your trouble."
She swore as she turned the phone off and started putting it in her bag. Then she heard a crash downstairs and ran.
Tyler decided this was his only chance. He tiptoed up to the bag and used the light on her phone to look at what was inside. Small bits of jewellery, not quite exciting, a guidebook of Germany, a small set of papers held together by elastic band.
He looked at them. They went back over a year and a half.
There was a black booklet in the bag. Tyler had an idea.
Looking in, he ripped what seemed interesting, went back to his room and turned the lamp on.
He stared at the paper as he held it close.
"Lincolnshire, 9, Norfolk, 8, Aberdeen, 11, Manchester, 4?" then a list of names. "Emily, Jack, Josh, Lucy, Daniel, Oliver, Grace, Mohammed, Andy?" it was written under Lincolnshire, circled, with two fourteens, one twelve, two elevens and three sevens.
Then he saw country names. "Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey…"
He turned over the page, "Rwanda, South Africa, Peru, Cuba, China, Japan, Thailand?"
He also saw a crudely-drawn map of Europe, with a dot in Switzerland.
Whatever he'd found, it wasn't normal.
Downstairs, Ms Wilson was screaming at Carmen, who'd dropped a plate.
"You stupid little cow! Don't you know you shouldn't be down here at night? If I could, I'd slap you silly!"
Then she pointed upstairs and Carmen rushed up. Ms Wilson then felt for her bag, noticed it had gone, and ran upstairs.
She saw the light of her phone by her bag and knelt down to grab it. Looking in her bag, she found the booklet had been opened. The front page missing. She saw the only room with a light and stormed in.
Tyler looked up as Ms Wilson entered. She smirked at him as he sat frozen. She leant down and with pristine nails picked up the piece of paper and read it.
"So," she calmly and eerily asked, "how much?"
Tyler squeaked, "Most."
Then she asked, "Do you know what this is?"
He shook his head.
"It's a complicated operation that actually provides quite an income. You don't think these earrings are cheap? Well, they are, but we're ready now."
Tyler then asked, "What are you going to do?"
She picked up the phone and pressed Mr McLaughlin's number. "Well, we'll see, won't we?"
The next morning, Mike was setting the breakfast table when he saw Mr McLaughlin in the kitchen, putting his phone down. "Mr McLaughlin?" he asked.
The man turned. "Oh, just sorting out a few orders. Getting a new mattress so I need to go soon."
Mike then asked, "Was there any trouble last night?" the other man shook his head. "No, no trouble."
Mike then asked, "Why's the minibus outside? We're not going anywhere today."
Mr McLaughlin simply told him, "Just wait for everyone else to arrive and it'll be simple."
Ms Wilson looked over the piece of paper in her hand. This had taken quicker than expected. In the last few, they'd masqueraded as social workers for just a few weeks. This one had to be taken forward. They'd contacted their customers and told them it may take a bit quicker.
Ms Wilson applied her lipstick in the mirror and pecked her lips. She smiled as she began to think. Oh, she knew what these kids went through. Care. She'd been a care kid. Until she decided to make her own way.
The others would be arriving soon. Just one driver, who didn't care much about who he took, two loaders, who didn't speak English, each paid about £250 there and back and they didn't care.
Ms Wilson looked over at McLaughlin, who was checking his watch. "How long?" "Ten minutes." "How many?"
"Six." Her eyes widened. "Really? The most we've done at once is four." "Kid," he teased her, "it's quick. Your fiancée's staying here and watching the rest. He's got them locked up in three rooms. It's easy."
Wilson queried, "Which ones?"
"Oldest boy, has cerebral palsy, just good to get out the way, oldest girl, black, about the age you were when you met Kelly, thirteen-year-old girl with flat brown hair, fourteen-year-old girl, Mediterranean, thirteen-year-old boy, mixed-race, fourteen-year-old boy, black."
Wilson nodded, hands on hips. "Who's left?"
He looked in his booklet. "Six-year-old girl, red hair, ten-year-old boy, blonde hair, eleven-year-old boy, dark hair, fifteen-year-old boy, dark hair, fifteen-year-old boy, brown hair, thirteen-year-old girl, black hair, but I seriously think we'll need to take them soon."
Ms Wilson then asked, "Where are we stopping this time?" "Once in Paris, then Amsterdam, we're skipping Berlin, Zurich, Rome, Athens and Istanbul."
She then smiled softly. "The next lot?"
"Well, we've got a call from Spain and two from China, one from Japan and one from Thailand. Also, there's one in Cuba, but he hasn't really decided."
Ms Wilson smirked, looking upstairs. "Things are going smoothly."
Jody's eyes flickered. The last thing she knew, she'd been at the table eating breakfast. Then she'd got blurred vision and fell asleep at the table.
She had no idea what it was, but she looked round.
It was Carmen's room. She was on one of the beds, with Floss on the other, fast asleep. She didn't know what was going on. Getting up, she tried the door, but found it was locked. She started banging, screaming.
The only person who heard the banging was Harry, who was in Frank's room. Waking up, he heard banging, Jody shouting and sobbing. He saw Rick on the floor, fast asleep. Harry just whimpered, looking round. He'd been trapped and had never felt so worried.
Johnny and Mo were in Mo's room, the windows boarded up with cardboard. Both fast asleep, oblivious to the noise outside.
Or even what future they may end up with.
In the minibus, Carmen's eyelids began to flicker. She could see that new guy, the older one, at the wheel. She was still in her pyjamas, completely drowsy and her head ached.
She looked across, her eyes still slightly blurred, and saw Tee in the opposite seat, head resting against the back. Looking behind her, she saw Frank and Faith on the seats behind them, and Tyler and Bailey on the very back.
Carmen tried sitting up, but felt her wrists wouldn't move. Both her hands and ankles were held together with zip ties.
Now her vision was getting better, she could see that Tee was tied up too, and that the new female care worker was coming on board.
As the woman sat down next to Carmen, the frightened teenager asked, "What's going on?" the woman looked at her, emotionless.
"Have you ever visited Greece?"
Carmen shook her head.
"Well, you're going there soon."
A/N: Do you like it?
