ABDUCTION
BY CHARLOTTE LAMB
CHAPTER ONE
The pavement was crowded with jostling shoppers loaded down
with packages. Outside the library in the centre of the High Street, a group
of children in scarves and woolly hats were singing Christmas carols by
torchlight while one of them collected money from passers-by, shaking his
collecting tin hopefully beneath their noses. The late afternoon sky had a
threatening look. The temperature had dropped overnight and Marisa
thought as she looked up at the dark sky that she would not be surprised if
they were to have snow.
Jamie was tired and hungry. They were on their way home after a
walk in the park. Marisa walked fast, her slender figure warmly wrapped in
a sheepskin coat which still had an expensive look although it was now
three years old. Most of her money went on clothes for Jamie. She hadn't
been able to afford a new winter coat for herself.
Jamie suddenly pointed at a shop window, crowing and throwing
himself about in his pushchair. Marisa stopped, smiling, so that he could
admire the Christmas tree which had caught his eye.
'Pretty, isn't it?' she asked, bending to smile at him.
'Pitty,' Jamie said. He was beginning to talk, but so far his
vocabulary was small, and mangled, so that only Marisa was able to
guess what he was saying.
Remembering that she had promised to bring-Sally some cakes,
Marisa hurried on to a shop two doors away and parked the pushchair. 'I
won't be a minute, darling,' she promised Jamie, whose lower lip began to
tremble. He gave her an accusing look.
'Bad.' It was one of his favourite words because it was one which
even the dullest grown-up seemed to understand.
'I know,' she said, smiling. 'I'll be quick.' She hurried into the shop.
Sally rarely asked her to do anything and it always made Marisa feel
better to do something in return for all the kindness she and Jamie had
had from her.
She was in such a rush that she ran full tilt into somebody, knocking
all her parcels to the floor.
'Sorry,' she gasped, diving to pick them up.
The thin woman almost snatched her belongings away. No doubt
she was tired and cross, like Jamie. Christmas was an exhausting season.
Marisa apologised again, but only got a frosty glare.
'Oh, dear,' the baker said as she went up to the counter. 'Someone
was in a nasty mood.'
Marisa smiled at him and ordered her cakes, watching him place
