Free Little Face by Sophie Hannah Page A

evidence. Get this developed and you'll see lots of photos of the real
Florence. With me and David, at the hospital and at home.'
    `Thank you.' He picks up the film, puts it in an envelope and writes
something on it that I can't see. Slow, steady, methodical. `Now, if I
could take some details.' He produces a notebook and pen.
    His lack of urgency infuriates me. `You still don't believe me!' I snap.
`Fine, don't believe me, I don't care if you believe me or not, but,
please, get a team of detectives out there looking for her. What if you're
wrong? What if I'm telling the truth, and Florence is really missing?
Every second we waste could be a second closer to disaster.' My voice
shakes. `Can you really afford to take that risk?'
    `Do you have any other photos of your daughter, Mrs Fancourt?
Ones that are already developed?'
    `No. Call me Alice. What's your name? Your first name, I mean.'
    He looks doubtful. `Simon,' he says eventually, cornered. Simon. It
was on David's and my shortlist for Florence, if she'd been a boy. I
wince. For some reason the memory of the list is particularly painful.
Oscar, Simon, Henry. Leonie, Florence, Francesca. ('Fanny Fancourt!
Over my dead body,' said Vivienne.) Florence. Mrs Tiggywinkle. Little Face.
    `The hospital photographer was supposed to come and take her picture while we were on the ward, but she didn't come. Her car broke
down.' I begin to sob. My body convulses, as if an electrical charge is
running through it. `We never got a "Baby's First Photo". Oh, God.
Where is she?'
    `Alice, it's okay. Try to calm down. We'll find her, if ... we'll do the
best we can.'
    `There are other photos, apart from mine. Vivienne took some when she came to see us in hospital. She'll be back soon, she'll tell you
I'm not mad.'

    `Vivienne?'
    `David's mother. This is her house.'
    `Who else lives here?'
    `Me, David, Florence, and Felix. He's David's son from his first marriage. He's six. Vivienne and Felix are in Florida at the moment, but
they're coming back as soon as Vivienne can get them on a flight. She'll
back me up. She'll tell you that baby's not Florence.'
    `Your mother-in-law's seen Florence, then?'
    `Yes, she came to the hospital the day she was born.'
    `Which was?'
    `The twelfth of September.'
    `Has Felix seen Florence?'
    I flinch. It's a sore point. I wanted Felix to meet Florence before he
went to Florida. He could have come to the hospital after school,
before going to the airport, but he had a snorkelling lesson at Waterfront that Vivienne insisted he should attend. `The last thing you need
is for him to associate Florence with missing something he loves,' she
said. `There's no rush for him to meet her, there'll be plenty of time
later.' David agreed with his mother out of habit, and I didn't challenge
her because I knew she was afraid on Felix's behalf. You can't argue
with fear.
    She assumes he will be as reluctant to share his kingdom as she herself was as a child. I think she's wrong. Not many children are as territorial as Vivienne was. She even objected to sharing her parents'
attention with the family dog, who had to be given away when she was
three. I wanted to ask his name when she told me this story but didn't dare. Ridiculously, I'd have felt disloyal showing an interest in Vivienne's rival.
    `No,' I say. `Felix was at school when Vivienne came to the hospital, and then they went away later that same day.'
    `He's been away for a fortnight? Isn't it term time?'

    `Yes.' At first I don't see the relevance of the question. `Oh, but the
school Felix goes to is very accommodating,' I add when I do. They
have little choice. Vivienne is one of their more generous board members. They wouldn't dare to tell her when she can and can't take her
grandson on holiday. `He's at Stanley Sidgwick.'
    Simon raises his eyebrows a fraction. Everybody has heard of the
Stanley Sidgwick Grammar School and Ladies' College, and most
have strong views about them of one sort or