Page 82 of Darling Girls

Norah nodded, though she didn’t exactly know his full name. ‘Yes! Ask him – he’ll tell you.’

Finally, the policewoman nodded and headed for the door. Before she left, Norah added, ‘Make sure they’ve searched the house thoroughly. Check the rubbish bins, too.’

Norah felt encouraged. Amy had to be somewhere. And when the police spoke to Dirk, they’d have to start taking the sisters’ claims seriously. She just hoped they moved quickly enough to find Amy, wherever she was.

Around lunchtime, they were shown to a lunchroom at the police station, where they were greeted by a social worker they didn’t recognise.

Her name was Genevieve, and she wore Doc Martens and a pretty floral dress. She brought them salad rolls and more chocolate bars to eat but she didn’t know anything about the case, so Norah had to sit by the cracked-open door to eavesdrop on the police in order to get information.

‘Their stories are consistent,’ Norah heard Max saying to someone.

‘They may have planned it,’ another cop said.

‘Possibly,’ he said. ‘Yet they’re not identical. They each described the events in different ways, but the events are the same.’

‘Okay, but –’

‘I believe them, Jerry. I’ve always thought something wasn’t quite right with that Wild Meadows woman.’

They stopped talking then, and Norah heard a new, third voice speaking.

‘You need to see this,’ the voice said.

Norah leaned closer to the door.

‘Are you girls thirsty?’ Genevieve said. ‘I can get you something to drink from the vending machine.’

‘Shh!’ Norah said.

‘Where did you find this?’ Norah heard Max say.

‘Wild Meadows. In the basement.’

Norah peeked around the doorframe and came face to face with Max, who was walking towards them. In his hand was a knitted doll with blonde hair and blue eyes.Amywas written across her chest.

‘That’s the doll I found in the basement the day Amy and I were locked down there,’ Jessica said.

Max frowned. ‘You’ve seen this?’

Jessica took the doll. ‘I thought it was weird that Miss Fairchild had a doll called Amy because it’s definitely older than our Amy.’

Max looked at the doll. ‘So it’s not possible . . .’ He paused, winced. ‘It’s not possible the dollisAmy?’

‘It’s adoll,’ Norah said slowly, as if she were talking to an idiot, which apparently she was. ‘Amy is a human.’

Max exhaled. He looked sad. As if he wanted to believe her, but it was impossible.

‘What about Dirk?’ Norah said. ‘Did you speak to him?’

‘My colleague did.’

‘And?’ she demanded. ‘Did he tell you? About Amy’s birthday party? The pony rides?’

Long exhale. ‘Dirk has no knowledge of a little girl called Amy living at the farm.’

‘Bullshit!’ Norah cried. Clenching her fist, she slammed it into the wall, which buckled slightly; it was barely thicker than paper.

Max didn’t seem concerned. ‘He did say . . .’