The Girl Who Vanished

Previously

…A routine wake-up call, a gentle knock on the door, a murmured “Lily, honey, time for school.” The silence that answered was not the sleepy silence of a teenager refusing to stir, but a profound, unnerving stillness. She’d pushed the door open, her heart already a frantic drum against her ribs. Lily’s bed was neatly made, the pillow plumped, the sheets tucked with an almost military precision that was entirely unlike her daughter. It was a bed that had never been slept in. Panic, cold and sharp, had pierced through Mrs. Evans’s morning haze. She’d rushed into the room, her husband, Mr. Evans, following close behind, his own sleep-fogged confusion quickly replaced by a d