“Look, I didn’t take Teddy Dawson! He just likes me because his sister called me a goldfish once and they used to point at me when I was looking out the window, that’s all!”
Detective Bradley narrowed his eyes.
“I see,” he said. “It’s just that every time we’ve asked Teddy where he’s been and who took him, he just gives us the one answer.” He paused for a moment as he looked down at his notepad, and then he looked back up at me.
“Fishy.”
I groaned and sat back.
“You’re the ‘fishy’ he’s talking about, aren’t you, Matthew? Did you tell him that was your name?”
“No! Why would I call myself that? I’ve never even spoken to the kid!”
Mum put a hand on my shoulder and I flinched.
“Calm down, Matthew. You’re not being accused of anything.”
“Well, if I’m not, then why are they asking me these questions, Mum?” I looked at the policeman sitting in my kitchen. “Why are you here? Why aren’t you out there searching the other houses?”
Dad was standing by the kettle. So far he hadn’t said anything. Detective Bradley looked down at his notepad.
“We only search properties where we feel there is a justified reason, and at the moment, none of your neighbors are suspects. Why did you tell Mr. Charles you thought Mrs. Nina Fennell at the Rectory had taken him?”
I needed to wash. My skin tingled from the germs crawling around on my skin.
“Matthew?” said Mum.
“We also had a visit from Ms. Claudia Bird and her daughter, Melody, down at the station. Ms. Bird also stated that you were making accusations against Nina Fennell. Is that correct?”
“Matthew!” said Mum. “I told you Old Nina didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“B-but how could you be sure, Mum?”
Mum could see that I was close to tears. She turned her attention to the policeman.
“How is Teddy, detective? Has he been hurt?”
He shook his head.
“He’s fine. He’s been taken to the hospital to be checked over, but the initial signs are that he’s extremely well and appears unharmed. His clothes will be sent off for forensic tests, and that will hopefully tell us more about where he’s been.”
When he mentioned the forensic tests his eyes fixed on my hands, on my latex gloves. The gloves that wouldn’t show any fingerprints. I slipped my hands off the table and onto my lap.
“Am I a suspect, detective? I’m in this house ninety percent of the time. How on earth could I kidnap and hide a toddler without anyone knowing? Without my parents knowing?”
Detective Bradley looked at my mum, his face searching for any clues that she was somehow in on this, and then he quickly glanced at my dad.
“You were the last person to see Teddy, Matthew, and now you’re the first person to see him return. And both times you didn’t see anyone else?”
“No!”
“And the time you saw him when he went missing. Did he call up at you then? When you were watching from the window?”
I opened my mouth and closed it again. Just like a goldfish. I wasn’t sure what to say.
“Detective, how old is Teddy?” Dad was joining in the conversation at last. I gave him a weak smile.
Detective Bradley looked a little taken aback at the question.
“Well, he’s a toddler. He’s …” He consulted his notes again. “Fifteen months old.”
“Do you have kids, detective?”
“I do, Mr. Corbin, yes. A boy aged three.”
Dad smiled.
“Ah, that’s lovely. So it wasn’t that long ago when he was learning to talk, no?”
“I, erm, no. No, it wasn’t that long ago.”
Dad folded his arms.
“Well, I’m no expert, but I would have thought a child aged fifteen months wouldn’t generally have much vocabulary. Would you, Sheila?”
I twisted my head around, my eyes pleading for Mum to back him up, and she burst into action.
“That’s right! Well, when Matthew was that age he wasn’t even talking at all! I think his first words were bum-bum, and that wasn’t until he was at least eighteen months old. And he only ever said that when he’d dirtied his diaper. I was so desperate for him to say Mummy that I got quite upset about it, didn’t I, Brian?”
On second thought, I kind of wished Mum had kept her mouth shut.
Detective Bradley looked thoroughly fed up.
“Okay, okay. Look, Mr. and Mrs. Corbin, I’m just here because I want to get an idea why young Teddy has become so attached to your son. That’s all it is.”
He laid his palms flat on the kitchen table.
“Now, Matthew. Just one more question before I leave, and then you can get on with your day.”
I nodded.
“I want you to really think about this before you answer, okay?” He leaned in toward me.
“Matthew. Do you know who took Teddy Dawson?”
My face reddened as I considered my answer. Did I have enough evidence to accuse Penny and Gordon? No. All I had was scraps. I could see Dad chewing on a nail out of the corner of my eye.
“No,” I answered. “I don’t.”
The top story on the news was that Teddy Dawson had been found safe and well, but that at this stage there was no indication as to where he might have been. By lunchtime it was story number four, and by 3 p.m. it wasn’t reported at all. A ferry had run aground in the Mediterranean and Teddy was officially old news.
I took a quick peek into my newly decorated bedroom, and to my amazement, it looked really good. The paint was dry and Dad was going to move my furniture back in today. The walls were smooth and Mum was right, Mockingbird’s Breast was indeed a lovely shade of white. The curtains had been washed, my window cleaned, and the whole room looked so much lighter. It was fine, better than I expected, apart from one thing. I looked at the space where the Wallpaper Lion had looked down on me, and it just looked bare. I went back onto the landing and took my binoculars out from my bedside table. Back in the office, I knelt on the carpet and steadied my elbows on the windowsill again as I focused on number one.
Melody appeared from her house and ran across the road in her pink flip-flops, heading toward the graveyard. It must be card-collecting time again.
Using the binoculars, I scanned Penny and Gordon’s driveway inch by inch, then slowly moved along the pavement. The wheels of a bike filled the lenses, and I looked up to see Jake circling around the street. He got as far as number one, then bumped down the curb and crossed over to start again outside Mr. Charles’s house. I carried on searching. A few stones and leaves caught my attention, but I quickly moved on when I realized they weren’t the Wallpaper Eye. After a few minutes I sat back. Jake was zigzagging across the widest part of our road now, darting this way and that. He skidded outside our house and created a swirl of dust just in front of Detective Bradley’s silver car, parked outside Mr. Charles’s house. Something fluttered up in the breeze, and I zoomed in as much as I could. It was lying flat on the pavement, and then a light gust of wind lifted it up and it tumbled toward Penny and Gordon’s house. I’d found it! I’d found the Wallpaper Lion’s eye! I grinned to myself and dropped the binoculars on the windowsill with a clatter.
I had to be quick or I’d lose it again. I ran out the door, past the police car, and across the road toward number one.
“Matthew! What you doing?” said Jake, pedaling up beside me.
“Nothing, Jake,” I said as I stood at the end of the driveway. He stopped his bike and watched me.
“It doesn’t look like nothing,” he said.
Gordon appeared from around the side of his house wheeling a black bin behind him.
“Ah, Matthew. How are you? Good news about young Teddy, isn’t it?” he said, but I didn’t look up.
“Yes, yes it is.”
I couldn’t see it anywhere.
“Is everything okay?”
Gordon walked toward me, leaving the bin in the middle of his driveway. I glanced up at him.
“I-I’ve lost something. I dropped it yesterday. I thought I saw it, but I can’t see it now. It’s blown away.”
Gordon looked around on the ground.
“Oh dear, let me see if I can help. What exactly are we looking for?”
His kind face smiled, and I felt a huge sense of relief that someone was helping me. It seemed inconceivable to think that only a few hours ago I thought he might have had something to do with Teddy’s disappearance.
“It’s a piece of yellow paper, about this big,” I said and I held up my gloved hand, making a circle with my index finger and thumb. As Gordon stared at my hand, Jake shouted.
“There it is!”
I looked to where Jake was pointing. There, by Penny and Gordon’s front step, blowing in the wind so that it appeared to be dancing around in a circle, was the Wallpaper Lion’s eye.
“Yes!”
Jake dropped his bike with a clatter and ran onto the driveway to join me.
The piece of wallpaper tumbled toward the front door and Jake laughed as we both tried to reach for it at the same time. I got there first, and as I picked it up I noticed something on the window. I straightened up, my eyes fixed on the glass as the veins in my body shriveled with coldness. I looked at Jake. He saw my face and I nodded my head toward what I’d seen. He frowned and took a step closer, and then he turned back to me, openmouthed.
Gordon joined us, his face beaming.
“Let’s have a look at what was so important then!”
I stared at him.
“What’s up, Matthew? You haven’t lost it again, have you?”
I held the Wallpaper Lion’s eye firmly between my thumb and finger.
“No, no. I’ve got it. It’s nothing really. It’s just a silly piece of paper. I thought I might need it.”
Jake stared at him wide-eyed, his mouth still hanging open. Gordon looked at us both, puzzled by our faces. I edged myself away slowly and Jake went to pick his bike up.
“Well, it must be important if you’ve been running around trying to catch it,” said Gordon, frowning.
I took two more steps. Detective Bradley was coming out of Mr. Charles’s house and heading toward his car.
“It’s nothing. Thanks. Thanks for helping me …”
Gordon shook his head, and then he suddenly reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I froze as he looked at me with his pale gray eyes.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Matthew?”
He looked at me and then at his house, trying to figure out what it was that had made us both react like we had. I tried to shrug him off, but he gripped me hard.
“I’ve got to go, can you let me go, Gordon?”
He shook his head.
“What are you up to, Matthew? You’re a nosey one, aren’t you? Always staring out of that window over there, always looking at matters that don’t concern you. Do you think it makes you look clever?”
Jake rolled up next to me.
“Didn’t you hear him? He said, let him go!”
Gordon didn’t even look at him; he just kept his eyes fixed on me. I heard the policeman’s car start up behind us and I looked at Jake, raising my eyes. It took a split second to register, but Jake understood and ran over to the car and banged on the glass.
Thump, thump, thump!
Gordon continued to study me.
“What is it with you, Matthew? What are you trying to prove to everyone? That you’re a normal kid with a normal life?”
He smiled sadly.
“I’d give up now, son, if I were you, you’re better off back in your window. You know nothing about life out here.”
He loosened his grip and I pulled my arm free.
“No, Gordon, you’re wrong,” I said and I stared back at him.
“I know everything.”
I ran home, past Jake, who was still talking to Detective Bradley, his face bright red as he pointed urgently toward Gordon and Penny’s house. I went straight up to the office without taking my shoes off and stood watching the street below. Jake was running home with his bike beside him. Detective Bradley was still sitting in his car with the engine running. Gordon had gone inside, the bin positioned at the end of the drive for tomorrow’s collection.
“Please, Detective Bradley. Go and take a look. Please,” I said quietly.
The detective pulled his seat belt across his lap, and then he stopped. The engine turned off and he slowly got out of the car, shaking his head. He looked around the street, then up at me, and he gave an exasperated sigh before casually strolling toward Penny and Gordon’s house. Standing on the driveway for a moment, he surveyed the front and around the car, and then he walked toward the window, his hand shading his eyes from the sun.
“Come on, come on … You’ve got to see it! Please!” I said.
He looked at the main pane of glass first, and then he walked closer to the front door and bent down to study a corner. Standing motionless for a moment, he then suddenly snatched the radio from his belt and began to shout into it urgently.
I sat down and let out a long breath and smiled to myself as I looked at the Wallpaper Lion’s eye in my palm. The relief I felt was immense.
He’d seen it.
I’d seen it, Jake had seen it, and now Detective Bradley had seen it as well.
It was there—in the corner of the side panel of glass, barely visible unless you stood at a certain angle and if the sun was in the right position.
It was a child’s sticky handprint.