After Anna by Alex Lake

smiled. Anna was in the corner of the shot, just to the left of the gates, and she looked up at the teacher. Julia’s heart lurched at the sight of her daughter’s face. She looked puzzled, about to ask the teacher for something, and Julia knew what it was.
    It would have saved her.
    She’s going to ask her where’s my mummy ? Julia thought. And if she did, Miss Gregory would have kept her back.
    But Miss Gregory was busy. And a second later, Anna looked to her left, and walked out of the camera’s range and out of the world.
    So that was how it had happened. The teachers were distracted for a moment, and a moment was all it took.
    Julia put her head in her hands. In her mind’s eye all she could see was Anna, on the verge of asking where her mummy was, but not doing so. And why not? Was she too polite to interrupt? Did something attract her attention? Is that why she walked away?
    ‘It’s not a lot of help,’ Wynne said. ‘And unfortunately there is no CCTV covering the outside of the school.’
    ‘So this is the school’s fault?’ Brian said.
    ‘I couldn’t say.’ Wynne sipped her coffee. ‘They could have a better security system, but then that’s always true. No system is perfect. We like to think that it is, but there’s always a risk. That’s why we need them in the first place.’
    ‘Yes,’ Brian agreed, ‘but they should have had more cameras, surely! And more teachers accompanying the kids!’
    ‘I understand your frustration, but that’s a matter for you and the school, Mr Crowne,’ Wynne said. ‘The problem I have is that Anna vanishes from the CCTV footage and at that point we lose track of her.’

    ‘Why?’ Julia asked. ‘Why would she walk off like that?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Wynne replied. ‘There are many explanations. Perhaps she thought you – or someone – might be parked up the road. Or maybe she saw a dog and went to stroke it, or maybe she just felt like it. The problem is that it only takes a few seconds, and – well, anything can happen.’
    ‘Have you interviewed the other parents?’ Julia asked. She felt unnaturally calm. Perhaps it was the exhaustion, perhaps the shock of seeing Anna on CCTV.
    ‘Yes. A couple of them think they saw Anna leaving the school, but they can’t be sure.’ Wynne said.
    ‘So she was seen?’ Julia persisted. ‘Who saw her?’
    ‘Two of the mums said they thought they had seen her, standing there, but they just assumed that someone was there to meet her.’
    ‘They didn’t check on her?’ Brian asked, his voice rising. ‘They saw that she was alone and they didn’t bother to check?’
    DI Wynne sipped her coffee. ‘We mentioned that to them. They said that they were focused on getting their children in the car and buckled up and, when they’d done that, Anna was gone. They didn’t give it too much thought. They just assumed she’d been picked up as normal.’
    Picked up as normal .
    The words hung in the room like an accusation. DI Wynne shifted uncomfortably in her chair, evidently aware how it had sounded; Brian looked out of the window.
    Julia pushed her coffee away. It was cold, undrunk since DI Wynne had brought it for her. Since Anna’s disappearance, the smell of food and drink had made her nauseous. Even though she’d seen the CCTV, she had her own image of what had happened: Anna walking out of the gates, looking around for her mum, or dad, or grandma, some of the other parents glancing at her, then settling on their own kids, bending down to kiss them and ask them how the day had gone while Anna moved to the edge of the crowd, still searching for her parents.

    And maybe someone taking notice who shouldn’t have and asking her if she was ok, then taking her hand and walking away with her before anyone could notice.
    And it was her fault. Never mind the school. Maybe they could have done more, but at root it was her fault. If she had been there, then it wouldn’t have happened. She knew Brian would try to