Page 10 of Savage Obsession

“Are you missing Lily, too?” I croon. I lift my hand to scratch his ears.

He licks me and edges forward. His collar is a bright-purple leather band, and he has a bone-shaped tag announcing him to be ‘Henry’.

I wonder?

I try ‘Henry’ with and without a capital H, then add 1, 2, 3 to make it up to the requisite eight characters.

The screen opens to reveal Lily’s screen saver, a picture of an excited Henry chasing a ball.

“You and I are going to get on,” I murmur, reaching down to pat him again.

He lays his muzzle on my knee as I scroll through the device.

I start with her emails but find nothing of note. A couple of adverts for concerts, masses of promotional stuff trying to get her to buy games or clothes, most of them unopened.

Do kids even use email anymore? Or Facebook?

I find she’s reused the ‘Henry’ password on her Facebook account, but as I suspected, she’s an infrequent user. Same goes for Twitter and Instagram. Just as well really, as she’s too young to be on those platforms. Are there no safeguards? And what was Julia thinking of?

She does have WhatsApp, though, and it’s there I strike gold.

I add myself as a contact and begin exploring her messages. She’s part of a group called ‘Cool Kids Club’ which appears to be based around school friends. There’s a lot of chat about homework, clothes, parties, and boys. I grit my teeth. My baby isn’t old enough to be worrying about boys, and I’ll chop the bollocks off any young chancer who tries it on with her.

There’s one other child who she seems to exchange most messages with, a girl called Monika. I settle in to scroll through.

And a rage descends, more murderous than any I’ve ever experienced before.

Monika: You need to tell someone.

Lily: I told Mom. She doesn’t believe me.

Monika: Tell school.Lily: [Spewing up emoji.]

Monika: Shall I tell my mom? Smart kid.

Lily: [Horrified face emoji.] Don’t you dare!

Monika: Sleepover?L

Lily: [Smiley face.] I’ll ask my mom.I scroll down to the most recent messages.

Lily: He’s back. Stayed the night again.Monika: [Sad face emoji.]

Lily: OH MY GOD! He actually walked in while I was in the bath. Dated four days ago, the day before she disappeared.

Monika: [Horrified face.] What happened?

Lily: He stood there, just looking. For ages.

Monika: Shit. Does your mum know?

Lily: He told her it was a mistake. He’s a liar. He was leering.

Monika: Come round

Lily: No. Meet me tomorrow.

Monika: Where? Usual place?

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