“You’re right,” said Enid as I walked back into my room after
the end of a hard days work.
“Thank-you,” I said, dropping down onto my bed. “What am I
right about?”
“Something stinks about this whole Rosie/Ella thing,” Enid
replied. “Did you know that they have arranged for her to be
adopted?”
“What!” I stuttered.
“Adopted,” Enid repeated.
“But her parents,” I started.
“That still isn’t proven,” Enid replied.
“I’ve got to ring them,” I said. “They have a lawyer, if
he’s worth his salt, he’ll be able to put this on hold.”
“Hello, Ian?” I said as the call was answered.
“Is this important?” he asked. “It is quite late.”
“Very,” I said. “The home have arranged for Ella to be
adopted tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Certain,” I replied.
“Isn’t telling me this risking your job?” he asked.
“I’m working out my notice,” I replied. “So it doesn’t
matter. What matters is that this adoption is stopped.”
“I’ll get on to my lawyer right now,” he said, hanging up.
“Why would they do this?” I asked Enid. “What is so
important about keeping this child from her parents.”
“It’s a good question,” said Enid.
“I can’t help thinking it has something to do with those two
accidents,” I said, slowly. “How come no one noticed that Ella
was with her mother, I mean there were people around when the van hit
her, how come no one mentioned that she was walking with a child.”
“That is a very good question,” said Enid. “But where do we
find the answer to that.”
“A hit and run in a busy street, the Police would have been called
in,” I said.
“And?” asked Enid.
“Statements would have been taken,” I said. “But how can we
get to see them?”
“If you were human,” said Enid. “With difficulty and it
would take a long time, but you aren’t,” she smiled and waved her
wand and we were in a room surrounded by filing cabinets, the drawer
of one was open and a couple of files were sticking up. I pulled
them out of the drawer. One was related to Ian’s accident, the
other to Jessie’s hit and run. In the file about Ian’s accident
there was a photo, of the scene taken later that day, in the
background was a van which fitted the description of the one that ran
Jessie over, there was a dent in the nearside front wing and someone
seemed to have been caught washing it. The filing cabinet was
labelled dead cases.
“I think Ian’s lawyer needs to see these,” I said.
“So do I,” Enid replied waving her wand. We were standing in
front of Ian’s parents home and a car was pulling up. Before we
had a chance to say anything Ian dashed out of the house and walked
down the path to meet whoever was in the car.
“Now what do I do?” I muttered.
“Take the files to them,” said Enid giving me a little push.
“How did you get here?” asked Ian.
“A friend brought me,” I smiled. “They gave me some files
that we thought might be of interest to you,” I added handling them
over to Ian’s lawyer.
“I’ve been trying to get these,” he said. “But I was told
they were shredded, how did you get them?” he added.
“Does it matter?” asked Ian.
“These show that procedure wasn’t followed,” said the lawyer.
“Does that matter?” Ian asked.
“Yes. Questions that should have been asked weren’t, the
investigations weren’t followed through properly and they were put
to one side. Either they weren’t seen as important enough to
follow up on or someone didn’t want to find the answers,” the
lawyer replied.
“So why have they suddenly found someone to adopt Ella?” I
asked.
“She must be part of the puzzle,” he said.
“I’d better get back,” I said.
“Thank-you for these,” said the lawyer. “We’d better get a
move on,” he added to Ian and I watched them drive off.
“Get me back to the home,” I said to Enid.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“They may not wait till morning to move her,” I said as she
whisked us back there.
I heard a car pull up as soon as we got back to my room and looked
out of my window. There should have been lights on, but the place
was in darkness.
“Odd,” I muttered as I heard the front door open and close. I
walked out into the hall and went to the top of the stairs, taking
care to keep in the shadows. There were people talking in hushed
voices by the front door.
“Is this normal?” Enid asked.
“No,” I whispered. “They are up to something.”
“I think we can guess what,” muttered Enid.
“Fetch the girl, she can be well away by the time that lawyer gets
a hint that anything is amiss,” said one of the people from the
car.
“Where’s her room?” asked Enid.
“This way,” I said, running down the corridor. “What shall
we do?” I asked looking down on the sleeping child.
“We pack her things,” said Enid, waving her wand. “And then
we take her to her Mother,” she added with another wave of her
wand.
As Ella’s room disappeared from view I saw the startled look on
Mrs Walters face as she opened the door to find that Ella was no
longer there.
We were standing outside Jessie’s parents home and I was carrying
a sleeping Ella. Enid knocked on the door and vanished.
“Hello,” I said to Jessie when she opened the front door.
“What?” she said looking confused. “You’d better come in,”
she added when she realised I was carrying Ella.
“The home had arranged for Ella to be adopted,” I said.
“Ian rang me about that, him and his lawyer are going to stop it
first thing,” she told me.
“They were going to take her away tonight,” I said.
“So by the time they’d got there,” Jessie stuttered.
“Ella would have been long gone,” I said. “And they would
probably have destroyed any paper trail that might tell us as to
where she was.”
“Why are they doing this to us?” Jessie asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “But they seem to be covering
something up, but hopefully this will help to provide a few answers.
Is it OK if I leave her here with you?”
“Of course,” said Jessie. “It’s what I’ve been dreaming
of.”
“Let’s hope we can keep her here with you,” I said heading
back to the door.
“What will you do?” Jessie asked.
“I’m going to see if I can find out any more information,” I
smiled as I waved good-bye to her.
“Let’s go delving,” said Enid with a wicked smile on her face.
By Janice Nye © 2020
