The following day when Nancy arrives at the ward, there are pressing staffing issues due to a stomach bug outbreak. Everyone has to accommodate additional duties, so it’s nearly midday before she manages to get to Jo Deacon’s room.

‘OK, let’s try something,’ Nancy says. ‘Can you blink, Jo? Just once.’

She can almost feel the intense effort emanating from the patient.

Jo blinks.

‘Fantastic! Now, can you blink twice, please, Jo? Just two little blinks, if you can.’

Again there is a pause while Jo seems to gather energy, and then she blinks. Just once.

Nancy waits, staring down into the glassy, grey eyes.

A minute later, Jo blinks. Twice.

Nancy reins in her excitement. ‘I’m going to ask you a really simple question,’ she says evenly. ‘If you can, you’re going to blink twice to answer “yes” and blink once to answer “no”. Here goes. Do you understand, Jo?’

Jo blinks twice. Not clear, neat blinks, more of a frail fluttering, but it’s an amazing development and Nancy’s heart soars with hope for Toni Cotter.

This patient is nowhere near a vegetative state following a stroke, as several doctors have diagnosed. Jo Deacon is suffering from locked-in syndrome.

Nancy has no personal experience of the condition, but, over the years, she has heard about such cases. Locked-in syndrome can completely paralyse the patient. Sometimes, the only action they’re able to perform of their own accord is to blink. It’s extremely rare, but Nancy is convinced that Joanne Deacon is locked in, and aware of everything happening around her.

She knows she has an ethical responsibility to inform the doctors immediately and she has every intention of doing that. Very soon.

But, ethical or not, Nancy’s priority is not Joanne Deacon.

It is Evie Cotter and her family.

---

Nancy spends the following days dashing around the ward, fulfilling her general duties to the patients on Ward B. She keeps a close eye on Joanne Deacon’s room, monitoring when the doctors visit so she can return to the patient and be assured of a little time undisturbed with her.

Jo tires very easily. After a relatively short period, she stops blinking altogether and returns to her previous unresponsive state. But over a period of two full days, Nancy had been able to establish answers to several initial questions.

‘Did you abduct Evie?’

Yes.

As soon as Jo had blinked in the affirmative, Nancy was desperate to ask how and why, but of course none of these answers could be satisfied by a mere yes or no blink.

To alleviate Jo’s tiredness a little, Nancy graduated to asking Jo to blink just once if Nancy said the right answer. It worked well for some questions, and this afternoon she had one particular question in mind. Nancy waits until the doctors have seen Jo and then, near the end of her shift, she takes her chance to sneak into her room once again.

‘Is Evie still alive?’

Jo ignores the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and blinks once when Nancy gives the option ‘I don’t know’.

Nancy tries not to let her frustration show. How can she not know? If Jo is the person who abducted Evie, then surely she must know.

She picks up her homemade letter board.

‘You can spell out words,’ she explains. ‘I will read the lines of letters very slowly and you can blink once when I say the correct one. Let’s have a go.’

The process is long and laborious. Jo manages to blink a few times but the letters spell nothing. Nancy quickly realises the letter board is too much, too soon.

She feels her heart clench as Evie’s innocent face floats before her mind’s eye. Heat floods through her and the urge to physically shake Jo Deacon forces her to turn around and take some deep breaths until she feels calm again.

‘Let’s go back to yes and no answers,’ she says evenly. ‘Do you know where Evie is?’

No.

It’s all she has time for before the end of her shift, and she doesn’t want to overtire Jo. These initial questions are of the utmost importance and she has to keep Jo onside.

If she asks the right ones, then surely, even without the help of the letter board, she can help Toni Cotter begin to unlock the mystery of her missing child.

---

On the way home from work, Nancy makes a detour to Muriel Crescent. She knocks on the door of Toni Cotter’s house and her mother, Anita, answers.

‘How is she?’ Nancy asks in a low voice. Anita shakes her head sadly.

Toni sits, a crumpled wreck, in the same corner of the couch as when Nancy visited three days earlier with DI Manvers.

When Nancy enters the room, Toni looks up sharply, desperate hope glimmering briefly in her eyes. Within seconds, it has fizzled out and evaporated, leaving her eyes dull and listless once more.

‘I thought it might be DI Manvers with news,’ she says quietly, looking down at her hands.

‘I wanted to call and see how you are.’ Nancy smiles. Have you heard anything from the police?’

‘They’re questioning people that knew Jo Deacon,’ Toni says, suddenly animated. ‘But she was such a loner, Nancy. No family or friends to speak of and they questioned all my work colleagues last time and didn’t come up with anything.’

‘You said the two of you were friendly. Didn’t she tell you anything about herself?’

Toni shakes her head. ‘She was always really guarded when it came to speaking about the past or about herself generally. She was more interested in me and Evie, for obvious reasons, we can see now.’

‘I suppose they have to go over it all again in case anything was missed the first time,’ says Nancy. ‘But surely, if Jo Deacon took Evie, there should be signs of that in her home.’

‘They’ve sent hairs and other bits off for analysis,’ Toni says. ‘What I want to know is, where is Evie now? What has Jo done with her if she isn’t at her house?’

Nancy shivers.

She knows then what her next question to Jo Deacon must be.

---

The next morning, Cheryl Tong, the ward manager, stops Nancy at the desk.

‘You’re back on Ward C,’ Cheryl says, handing her some wrongly directed mail for the other ward. ‘You can go there right away.’

Nancy doesn’t move. ‘But why?’

Cheryl looks up sharply. ‘Why what?’

‘I mean, I’ve only just come onto Ward B. Why am I being moved already?’

Unconsciously, Nancy feels her eyes drift towards Jo Deacon’s private room and she sees her manager register this.

‘There’s no specific reason, Nancy, just staffing logistics.’ Cheryl hesitates. ‘Although I have noticed you’re spending a lot of time in the stroke patient’s room.’

‘I do what I need to do in there,’ Nancy replies tersely. ‘Sometimes it takes a little longer because the patient is unresponsive.’

‘Well, they’re moving her later today, anyway,’ Cheryl says in an offhand manner. ‘Can’t say I’m sorry, if it’s true what she did to that Cotter girl.’

‘Evie,’ Nancy says. ‘Her name is Evie. Where are they moving her to?’

‘No idea.’ Cheryl busies herself with a pile of paperwork. ‘You’d have to ask Dr Chance.’

‘I just remembered I left my fob watch in there yesterday,’ Nancy says, feeling grateful she placed it in her handbag this morning instead of pinning it to her uniform. ‘I’ll just get it now and then I’ll get off to Ward C.’

Cheryl gives her a vague nod and moves to the other side of the admin station to take a telephone call.

Nancy enters the room. It’s quiet, save for the hiss of the respirator and the particularly loud tick of the wall clock. She pads over to the bed and leans forward so Jo can see her.

‘They’re moving me today, Jo. They’re short-staffed on another ward,’ Nancy says, leaning in closer. ‘I wanted to tell you that I saw Toni Cotter last night.’ Nancy pauses for a moment to observe her but there is no reaction at the mention of Toni’s name. ‘And I have one last question for you before I go.’

Nancy takes a breath.

‘Jo, do this for Toni. Was there someone else involved in the abduction of Evie? Yes? No?’

No reaction.

‘Jo, please. This is so important. Does someone else know what happened to Evie? Yes? No?’

No blink.

Nancy asks the last question again and adds in ‘I don’t know’ as an option, but still nothing.

Nancy looks over at the door. She doesn’t have an excuse if Cheryl Tong comes into the room right now. She’ll want to know what Nancy is saying to Jo and why she’s acting strangely with a patient.

‘Jo, please. For Toni’s sake, and for little Evie, tell me. Is there someone else involved, who knows what happened to Evie, knows where she is? Yes . . .’

And Jo Deacon blinks.

‘Does Toni know this person, like she knew you?’

Jo blinks.

The answer is, categorically, undeniably, yes.