Ready or Not by Rachel Thomas Read Free Book Online Page B

the photo, Ben Davies was sitting on a mountain bike, one foot on the ground to steady himself.
                  ‘When was this taken?’ Kate asked.
                  ‘About six weeks ago,’ Robert Jennings said. ‘Christmas present,’ he added, gesturing towards the bike.
                  An expensive bike, thought Kate as she continued to study the photo. Very generous. No children of their own, she guessed.
                  ‘I know you’ve already been asked this,’ Kate said, ‘but have you checked around Ben’s friends?’
                  Both Caroline and Robert nodded.
                  ‘Anyone you may have missed out?’ she continued.
                  ‘Not that we know of,’ Caroline said. ‘Ben doesn’t have that many friends at school. There are a couple of boys he hangs around with, but I’ve spoken to both their mothers and they haven’t seen or heard from Ben.’             
                  Kate paused. ‘What about his family?’ she asked. She picked up the photograph from the table. ‘May I keep this?’
    Caroline nodded.
    ‘Is there anyone Ben may have gone to stay with?’ Kate asked.
                  Caroline sipped at her tea. ‘I know his mother died,’ she told Kate. ‘It was quite a few years ago now, but I don’t know much else about his family. Not the extended family, anyway.’
                  Kate nodded and took some notes. Caroline told her that this wasn’t the first time Ben had taken off without telling anyone where he was going; although, she added, he had never been gone longer than twelve hours. Kate found herself having to make a conscious effort to avoid Caroline Jennings’ face; the anguished, fraught look she wore was an expression that Kate was far too used to and understood all too well. If she looked at her for too long, she would remember exactly how it felt, and she didn’t want to. She couldn’t allow herself to. 
    Ben Davies was probably hiding out somewhere, trying to purposefully cause as much concern as possible, Kate suspected. He was probably streetwise, confident and able to look after himself until the novelty wore off and he was bored. If he hadn’t been gone for three days already she’d have fully expected he would be back soon, with his tail between his legs and an empty, hungry stomach. If this was just a cry for attention, if only he could understand what he was doing to his foster parents, Kate thought.
                  Although it was a relief when a child was discovered, or returned, safe and sound, it was also frustrating for Kate when someone wasted police time in this way. For every ten children who returned home safely – the ones who ran away after a family argument, or who hid and sulked when something hadn’t gone their way – one child was genuinely missing, exposed to the elements or, in the worst of cases, in the hands of someone who meant them harm.
                  For every moment Kate wasted on a child who had run off in a sulk, she lost a vital minute on a child who had been abducted or worse. Stacey Reed, Kate thought, unable to distract her focus from the girl. Where are you?
    *
    Before the Jennings left the station, Kate took a short list of telephone numbers from them and spent the next half hour calling Ben’s friends and relatives to confirm that nobody had seen Ben since Sunday. She had also taken a list of addresses and was planning the order in which she would visit them as she was leaving the station. Although Caroline Jennings had made the calls herself, it was not unusual for the friends of a missing child to cover up and lie for them. It was unlikely that Ben Davies would have hidden outdoors overnight, no matter how much worry he wanted to cause or how much attention he wanted to gain. No doubt he would be hidden at a friend’s house, carefully