The Holiday

‘Don’t go there. He can’t have gone too far. He’s a ten year old on foot. The police should be able to track him. They said they’d bring a dog.’

The twenty minutes it took the police to arrive seemed a lot longer to Helen and Terry. They were relieved when a patrol car pulled up in front of their house. Five minutes later a second patrol car with a police dog and its handler arrived. The dog was introduced to Toby’s scent and immediately appeared to pick up his trail at the front doorway of the house. The dog crossed the front lawn and stopped at the kerb in front of the house next door. The trail ended there.

The policeman handling the dog spoke to the sergeant interviewing Helen and Terry, and then returned the dog to the back of his patrol car.

‘Looks like your son probably got into a car in front of the house next door,’ said the sergeant.

‘What does that mean?’ asked Helen.

‘Means we have a bit of a problem, Mrs Moore. It looks like either your son has been taken or he had help.’

‘If he got into a car, he could be anywhere by now.’