Katy had spent the whole day feeling as though what she was about to do was painfully obvious to everyone. The five grand in the safe seemed to be taunting her from across the office and she couldn't help the wave of nausea that rose up inside her every time she thought about the man that she was meeting later that afternoon.

After Whitney asking, for the third time that morning, whether she'd spoken to the accountant yet, Katy sighed and reluctantly checked her emails. A deep frown marred her features as she read the words he'd sent her, before snatching up her mobile and finding his number in her contacts list.

Running a hand through her hair agitatedly, she waited with growing impatience for her call to be answered. It felt as though her accountant was being deliberately annoying to pay her back for not getting in contact with him straight away.

"Jeff? What's all this about?" She demanded, dispensing with pleasantries in her desire to know what was going on.

"As I stated in the email, Miss Mitchell–"

"Yeah, yeah, I read the email." Katy sighed. "I don't understand though."

"On Monday a large sum of money was deposited in the R&R business account. It was such a considerable amount that it would definitely raise some awkward questions."

"But where is it from?"

"I was hoping you'd have some idea of that, Ms Mitchell." Jeff sighed. "I have to tell you that if this money has been deposited in the account for nefarious reasons–"

"Nefarious reasons." Katy rolled her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Twenty-five thousand pounds is a massive amount of money to be deposited in one lump sum. If this has anything to do with Philip Mitchell or–"

"The R&R is mine." She informed him firmly. "It has nothing to do with anyone else. If I find out that Phil or anyone else are trying to interfere with my business, I'll kill them myself."

"I'll try and forget you said that, Ms Mitchell."

"Is there any way of tracing where that money came from?" Katy asked, resting her forehead on her palm wearily.

"All I can see is that it came from a Spanish bank account."

"Spanish?"

"Does that tell you anything?"

"Not really." Katy chewed her lip. There was no way Tyler or his family would have twenty-five grand to put into her account and, even if they did, it didn't make sense anyway. "So what do we do?"

"For now, I suggest transferring the money into a separate account." Jeff told her. "Until we can verify the provenance it's safer to keep it out of the R&R's accounts."

"OK, do it. I'll see if I can find anything out this end. Let me know if anything else happens."

"As long as you take my calls."

She rolled her eyes. "OK, OK."

Ending the call, she thought hard for a long time, staring into space and chewing her lip as she considered where the money might have come from. Again, as it had when she received the letter that she had thought had come from her mother, she thought of Daniel and Carlos Belan. She still couldn't work out why they would be trying to contact her; as far as she knew they had no idea that the twins even existed, let alone that they were Daniel's.

"Katy? We could do with a hand out here." Leon knocked on the office door before poking his head inside. "The lunchtime rush is more of a rush than normal for some reason."

She nodded and moved across the room to join him, trying her best to forget about the situations that seemed to be unfolding around her.

"Gran, change of plan. I need to stick around here for a while, so can you keep hold of the kids for a bit longer? I'll make it up to you, I promise."

Katy had spent the afternoon working her way through the accounts, trying to find a clue as to where the money had come from. She was also acutely aware of the time, keeping one eye on the clock as it crept closer and closer to five.

At ten to, she had closed down her computer and moved across to the safe. Once the five grand was stowed safely in her bag, she pulled out her phone and called her grandmother, bracing herself for an argument after she'd made her request.

"Fine." Glenda sighed deeply. "D'you want me to come and get Ruby?"

Katy frowned, her hand stilling on the zip of her jacket. "What d'you mean?"

"Well, I assume Jay dropped her with you and if you're caught up in–"

"Jay? What are you talking about?"

"When I went to pick her up from dance club they said that her uncle had already collected her. Seeing as Jay's the only uncle the school would recognise and let her go with, it must have been him."

"I never asked Jay to get her." Katy was on her feet, rushing out of the office without a second thought. She ignored everyone as she ran down the stairs and out into the street, making her way to the funeral parlour. "Hang on…"

"You alright, babe?" Jay asked, looking confused as she burst into the room.

"Did you collect Ruby from dance club?"

He frowned. "No? You never asked me to."

"Shit!"

"What's going on?"

Remembering that she was still on the phone, Katy told Glenda she'd phone her back and hurriedly ended the call. Turning back to her cousin, she hastily explained what was going on. From the ashen expression on Jay's face she realised that he really had no idea what might have happened to her daughter or who might have picked her up.

"Let's get over to the school and see if they caught her on CCTV." Jay suggested, already grabbing a set of car keys from his desk.

"I ain't going in a hearse."

He rolled his eyes. "Course not, come on."

On the way to Walford Primary, Katy phoned Jack and Phil, telling them both what had happened. Immediately, both men had leapt into action, telling the young woman that they would ring around and see what they could find out.

Feeling sick to her stomach, Katy followed Jay as he rushed towards the reception, ringing the bell continuously until someone appeared behind the glass. Katy could barely speak, letting Jay do the talking as she clenched and unclenched her fists at her sides and waited to hear something useful that might give her a clue as to what was going on. A heavy weight in the pit of her stomach reminded her that she was sure she knew who had taken her daughter, but she couldn't bring herself to admit it. Admitting that Dean Parry had taken Ruby would mean that she had failed to protect her. It would be her fault that her daughter was missing.

"As you can see, a young man collected Ruby at twenty-eight minutes past four." The headmaster told them, pointing to the CCTV image. He fast-forwarded a couple of minutes, showing Glenda arriving just over five minutes later. "Seeing as Jay Mitchell is on the approved list to pick Ruby up, we didn't think to–"

"This is Jay Mitchell." Katy snapped, motioning towards him. "That clearly isn't."

"Ms Mitchell, I don't know what to–"

"I don't want you to say anything." She snapped. "My daughter is missing because you let her go off with a stranger. You've lost my daughter less than two weeks after you lost my sister! What the hell are you even doing?"

"I'll call the police–"

"You've done enough."

Demanding a print out of the man who'd collected Ruby, Katy snatched it out of his hand and marched back to the car. She ordered Jay to drop her off on Victoria Road, refusing to tell him why. Marching into the café, she glanced around, looking for a glimpse of the man she was there to meet. Not seeing him, her eyebrows furrowed in confused. She knew she was very late, but it hadn't occurred to her that Dean wouldn't be there.

Still standing in the middle of the café, Katy looked distractedly down at her mobile as it began to ring. Anger surged through her as she saw Dean's name on the display and answered it with a furious jab of her finger. He started speaking before she could launch into a tirade against him.

"You're late."

"Yeah, I'm late, because I got a call to say that someone claiming to be my daughter's uncle had picked her up from club." Katy snapped. "Where the hell is my daughter?"

"She's safe." Dean promised. "I'm just getting to know my niece a little bit."

"I've got your money, Dean. We had a deal."

"I said ten grand."

"And I told you that wasn't possible." Katy snapped, storming out of the café and looking up and down the road. She guessed that he must be close by considering he must have seen her go into the building. "Where the fuck is Ruby, Dean? I swear to god if you've–"

"She's fine, I told you."

"I wanna speak to her."

There was a rustling and Katy heard him calling out to her daughter. After a pause, another rustle met her ears. She could have cried in relief at the sound of her daughter's voice.

"Hi, Mummy."

"Ruby, are you OK? Where are you? What's happening?"

"I'm fine." Katy could almost hear her daughter rolling her eyes. "Dean's brought me to the park like you asked. Are you coming soon, 'cos I'm really hungry."

Narrowing her eyes, Katy looked around again, realising that Dean obviously wasn't in the vicinity. He must have someone else watching out for her. Her anger rose at the realisation, but she forced herself to stay calm as she spoke to Ruby.

"Which park are you in, angel? I'll come and get you and we'll go for chips, yeah?"

"The normal one, silly. See you soon."

"Ruby? Ruby–"

"See, she's fine." Dean's voice replaced her daughter's and Katy clenched her fists, already striding towards the park. "I want that ten grand."

"I'll kill you for this." She threatened.

"What, like you did my brother?"

"What? I already told you I don't know where Nathan is."

"I don't believe you." He snapped. "I know you too well."

"I want my daughter back, Dean."

"I want my ten grand."

"What?" Katy laughed, rounding the corner at a run. "You think I murdered your brother and you just want ten grand? Makes me almost wish I had killed him if that's all it takes to get away with it."

"Don't play games with me, Mitchell." Dean threatened in a low voice. "I want that money."

Katy sprinted through the gap into the park, looking around wildly. There was no sign of them anywhere. Terrified, she ran along the path, looking desperately for her daughter. When she reached the exit on the opposite side, she ran a hand through her hair.

"Where are you? Ruby said you were at the park in Walford… how can I give you the money if I don't know where you are?"

"Oh… we're just leaving now." Dean told her, his voice lighter than it had been seconds earlier. Katy guessed it was for Ruby's benefit. "She's a bit hungry, so I said I'd take her for a burger. That's OK, yeah? Speak to you later."

"No! Dean!"

Katy ran into the street, just in time to see Dean standing by a car a little way away. He waved at her, before climbing in and driving away. Katy had no chance of reaching them, although she tried her best. The car had rounded the corner and vanished before she even reached the space where it had been parked.

Letting out a scream of fear and frustration, she ran her hand through her hair and looked around wildly, as if there would be some clue as to where they'd gone. Nothing helpful leapt out at her and she turned away, her heart thumping painfully in her chest.

Redialling Dean's number had no effect as it went to answerphone each time she tried. Changing tack, she called Jack, telling him exactly what had happened as she headed back to the Square. He swore down the phone, asking her what the hell she had been thinking, before ordering her to go straight over to his so they could work out what to do. She was unsurprised that he didn't even suggest calling the police.

Phil was already at Jack's when she arrived, scowling at her and launching into criticisms the second she walked through the door. The fact that her father had actually got the older man involved told Katy how serious he thought the situation was; Jack would never have called Phil otherwise.

"I can't believe how stupid you are." Phil was shouting, jabbing his finger in Katy's direction. "Why didn't you come to me straight away, eh?"

"Because I don't need you involved in this, Phil." She retorted irritably. "I can handle this."

"Yeah? You're doing a bang up job so far, ain't ya?"

"This ain't helping." Jack held up his hands, looking between them. "We need to work together to find Ruby before it's too late."

"He ain't gonna hurt her, is he?" Katy pointed out. "He's her uncle. He wants to get back at me for denying it. Ruby will be perfectly safe until we get her back."

"You sure about that?"

"I have to be, don't I?" She almost exploded, tears prickling in her eyes. "If not I…"

"Katy's right." Jack nodded seriously. "Parry wanted to get to know his niece. I don't think he's gonna hurt her."

"But we can't be sure." Phil pointed out, still pacing.

"Phil!" Jack scowled at him, knowing that Katy needed to think positively.

"He's right. We have no idea what Dean's planning." His daughter sighed, glancing towards her older cousin. "What do we do, Phil?"