Free The Trafficked by Lee Weeks

of him shaking hands and smiling with famous speakers who had come to impart their wisdom to the pupils. He didn’t look like such a happy man today, though.
    ‘Thank you for seeing us, Mr Roberts. My name is Inspector Mann of the Hong Kong Police. I am here to assist the Metropolitan Police in the investigation into Amy Tang’s disappearance. Could you tell me what kind of checking procedure is in place for exeat requests and who is responsible for making sure the request is genuine? I appreciate you have told others but I would like to hear it from you.’
    ‘I am happy to help, so far as I can. I will do anything to get the child back. Her loss would be disastrous for the school. Most of our income comes from overseas children. It would be catastrophic if this situation were not resolved expediently and satisfactorily.’
    Becky and Mann exchanged glances. The headmaster was not making the best of impressions.
    ‘Sometimes the child will tell us that they have been invited somewhere, then we ask for it to come in writingin some form or another—an email has become an acceptable method. If we do not know the person then the usual thing is for the housemistress or master to contact them to ensure that they are prepared to take full responsibility for the wellbeing of that child whilst they are off school grounds. If we are satisfied that all is in order we authorise.’
    ‘The child is collected from where? This office?’
    ‘No, not generally. Ordinarily, the child has been invited to go with another pupil and is simply picked up at the same time. It’s always on a Saturday after the matches and match teas are done. The children tend to gather in the various common rooms. Those that have an exeat get picked up from there.’
    ‘And in Amy’s case?’
    ‘The request came in email form. I have it here.’ He handed it to Mann. ‘I believe she received a text telling her to meet her host at the side entrance that leads to the car park.’
    ‘And in between those two things? Who phoned and checked this person out?’
    ‘I am afraid it wasn’t done. The housemistress forgot to do it. She has been having some personal problems recently and…’
    ‘So none of your staff got a look at the person?’
    ‘No. I’m afraid not. Can I just say that we have never encountered a problem of this type before. We would expect to be confident that the child was going home with someone they knew. Amy is twelve. We expect the child to be quite responsible by that age.’
    Mann was not warming to Mr Roberts.
    ‘What would have been going on at the school at that time?’
    ‘It was Saturday afternoon so all the pupils would have finished morning lessons. They would have been either at sports matches—playing games against other schools—or unwinding in common rooms.’
    ‘Do you have a photo of Amy?’
    ‘Yes.’ Headmaster Roberts went to his desk, dug into a file, and produced one standard Christmas shot for the child to take home to the parents in the holidays. He also had one of her and the other four members of the school chess club. The third picture was of Amy holding a picture she had drawn. It had
runner up
written beneath it. She was short and square—a plain child with glasses and a mouth full of braces.
    ‘So, what kind of child would you say Amy is? Would she go with someone she didn’t know? Someone she didn’t feel comfortable with?’ asked Becky.
    Mr Roberts screwed up his face ‘It’s always possible. She wasn’t so much of a loner, but she is self-contained—she is happy to go along with things. She is used to a system. She doesn’t often step outside that. She’s been boarding here since she was six. It was the first time she had ever had an exeat in all those years.’
    They left the headmaster’s study and turned to walk down the long, straight, flagstone corridor that led through the two sets of fire doors to the side entrance and the visitors’ car park.
    ‘So this is where the girls saw