Chapter 9 –

Sam noticed the change in Alice's posture and the look of surprise on her face, she could feel Rachel was still sleeping against her as Sam manoeuvred carefully so that she could look over.

"What's happened?"

Alice picked herself up from the armchair and walked over to where Sam was propped up, passing her the phone she didn't say a word, letting the information contained in the message to speak for itself. Sam frowned as she digested the information, a match had been found with a girl who had been reported missing from a children's home five years ago, the girl's name had been Rachel Carden. Sam craned her neck and looked at Rachel but the girl was still sleeping, if it was the same person that it would mean that Rachel was only 12 years old, Sam closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to come to terms with everything. According to Alice's police information Rachel Carden had been placed into care when she was four years old, nobody knew who her dad was and her mum had been sent to prison for drug dealing, there had been no other family to take care of Rachel so the local authority had taken her away. What did spark Sam's interest was the fact that when Rachel's mum was released from prison she made no effort to reclaim her daughter and showed no interest when she was reported missing.

"Do you think it is her?"

Sam passed the phone back to Alice and watched her shrug her shoulders.

"Until we can speak to her we won't know, she trusts you and I'm hoping that will help us to tap into those memories."

"If she doesn't want to remember then it will be hard for us, I've seen soldiers with PTSD and it is a timely and difficult condition to treat."

"Time is a luxury we don't have, the attacks on the local gang are worrying and I want to get ahead and find out who is in this group and stop them."

The determination in Alice's voice perked Sam's attention, she hoped that Alice would temper that when Rachel woke up and they attempted to speak to her once again.

Rachel opened her eyes and immediately saw the unfamiliar environment, the pain in her body momentarily forgotten as she stood up and looked around the room. The last thing that she could remember was being in the hospital, her wrists bound and her mouth gagged, panic rushed through Rachel's body and she suddenly seemed to find it impossible to breathe. Sam immediately jumped up and stood in front of Rachel, placing her hands on Rachel's shoulders and gently bent down.

"Rachel look at me."

Sam spoke firmly as Rachel dropped her head and closed her eyes, the voice seemed familiar but everything in her mind was jumbled up.

"Rachel!"

Sam knew that she needed to be firmer, to shake Rachel from the nightmare that even though she was awake she seemed to be still in the midst of it. Quickly she moved her hands away from Rachel's shoulders, lifting them up to rest on her cheeks before she moved Rachel's head up until their eyes met. Sam let out a sigh of relief as she saw the glint of recognition in Rachel's eyes.

"We're at the safe house with DI Parker."

Rachel nodded her head as allowed Sam to move her back to the sofa while Alice wandered off into the kitchen, emerging moments later with a glass of water, the room silent as Rachel drunk the water and adjusted to her surroundings. Sam could tell the Alice was getting impatient but there was no way that she was going to risk Rachel's health.

"Sorry."

Rachel's voice was quiet as she passed the glass back to Alice who quickly shook her head and Sam was relieved to see that the detective was showing Rachel some compassion.

"It's ok Rachel please take your time."

"What's going on, something has happened hasn't it?"

Rachel looked hard at Alice, she hadn't seen the detective act so kindly to her before and instinctively she felt defensive. Alice quickly turned to look at Sam but she shrugged her shoulders and kept an eye on Rachel as she heard Alice clearing her throat.

"We think we know who you are so I want to know if I can ask you some questions?"

"Who am I? Please can you tell me?"

Rachel's voice was anxious as she first turned to Sam before she leant forward and concentrated on Alice.

"Can you tell me what your first memory is?"

Alice spoke quietly as she watched Rachel take a deep breath and close her eyes before she sought out Sam's hand and clasped it tightly as she thought.

"My mum taking me to school."

"That's good, have you any memories of your dad?"

Rachel just shook her head firmly as Alice smiled and took a moment.

"Can you remember any of your teachers?"

"Yes a Mrs Hill."

"That's great Rachel, can you tell me how old you think you are?"

"Twelve."

The tears trickled down Rachel's face as Alice swallowed hard trying hard to keep her own emotions at bay.

"I think that your name is Rachel Carden, that you are twelve and that at aged 7 you went missing from a children's home."

Sam kept her hand tight around Rachel's before she reached around and moved closer while Rachel absorbed the information.

"Rachel I think that a group calling themselves Poseidon took you and somehow you have managed to escape with your life but I think that there are other girls like you that they have and are doing the most terrible things to."

Alice let the words linger in the air, she knew that she had probably overstepped the mark but that it had needed to be done, the seeds to reactive the hidden memories needed to be sowed and hopefully with Sam's encouragement they would start to grow quickly.