Who are you?
Bloody Mary.
Thank you.
We'll be starting our descent soon.
Thank you.
-I've got to go. -Yeah, yeah, go. I'll sort it.
Bye.
I'll be back in just a sec, honey.
Fuck.
Mummy.
Hi.
-Hi. I'm so sorry, Miss Thompson. -Hi.
-My plane was late. Hi. -Mrs Blix, it's the third time this week.
Yes, I know. I'm really, really sorry.
But I'm… I'm not that late today, am I?
-Did you come through town? -Yes.
-Yeah, those roadworks are a nightmare. -Oh, my God, yes.
The traffic is awful. I'm…
But I'm sorry, Miss Thompson. It will not happen again. I promise.
Well, I hope you have a splendid rest of your evening.
You too. And thank you so much for waiting.
- Oh, my God. - I'm Rebecca.
-Hi. -I'm Josie's mom. She's new this term.
Oh, yeah. I know.
Lucia hasn't stopped talking about her since they met.
-Oh, sweet. -I'm Elisa.
Were you… Were you late too?
Oh, no. We just stayed to keep Lucia company.
That's so kind. Thank you. Wow.
Hello.
-Hi, Mummy. -Hi, darling.
Can I go over to Josie's house to play?
-Oh… -You know,
it's been really sweet of Lucia to welcome Josie to class.
I moved around a lot as a kid, and it sucks to be the new girl.
-Oh, well. -Please. Can we?
They're the best of friends now, aren't they?
Ooh. Oh, I'm sorry. I'll just be a sec.
Please. Josie's mum says it's okay.
-Oh, darling, not tonight, Lulu. -Please, Mum.
Well, I'd love to have her.
Oh, I… Maybe another time.
We like to plan the…
…play dates in advance.
-Come on, Lulu, we have to go. -Please. Please, I'll be really good.
-Please. -Oh, my God,
-you're so cute. -Well, look, it's really no hassle
if Lucia wants to hang out with us. We're just off the Forest Road towards Mottram.
-Oh, nice. I love it around there. -Please, Mummy.
Can you get your bag?
I'm coming. I'm coming.
-I'm so sorry. -Please, please, please.
- Well, okay, okay. - Yes.
- Can you move please? - Are you sure?
Yeah, of course. We'll have a great time.
- Okay, just give me your bag. - Yes, yes, yes.
Uh, take my number.
Oh, my son has my phone.
I'm sorry. Just a sec.
Put your number in mine,
- and I'll text you. - Can you move?
- Mum! Mum! - Thank you.
I'm coming, darling. I'm coming. Please.
- Okay, I'm calling myself, so I have you. - Mummy.
-Okay, all right. -Thank you, Mummy.
-Be good. -I will, I will.
-Two hours, okay? -I'll be really good.
- Two hours. Okay. - Mum!
- I love you. Okay, I'm coming. Thank you. - See you then. Bye, Mum.
I'm coming. I'm coming.
-Thank you. Bye. -Mum!
-I'm sorry. -Come on! Hurry up!
Ten mouthfuls of curry for 20 minutes of Pokémon Moon. Deal?
One mouthful for one hour of Pokémon Ultra.
No, no, no, no, no.
That is not even a negotiation, Georgie. That was terrible.
Georgie, that was the deal. Come on.
Hi.
How was your day?
Cluster…
from beginning to end.
Yeah, best we can hope for is a short sentence.
I'm sorry.
You worried?
No.
-Anyway, how's everything here? -Good.
Yeah. How's my boy?
-Lucia's on a play date… -All right? You okay?
…and George and I are negotiating curry for Pokémon.
What is that? A charity event?
George thinks I'm lowballing him. Don't you, Georgie?
Good lad. That's it.
Go in hard. Stick to your guns, mate.
- Fred. - I don't even have a gun.
Sorry.
Okay. So they're gonna fight now.
Yes!
Hi, Rebecca.
- Mummy. - Oh, hi, darling.
Can I please stay for a sleepover?
-Please, please? -Oh, Lulu, I don't… I don't think so.
You've never done that before, and you… you don't even have your stuff with you.
You could bring it over. Please.
Hey, it's Rebecca.
That is such a generous, kind girl you've got there.
-Hi. -They have been badgering me
-for a sleepover. What do you think? -Oh, that's sweet, but I…
Lucia's never had a sleepover before.
Oh, God, Josie's been on a few. I was a wreck the first time.
I'm just worried that she'll change her mind
in the middle of the night.
Oh, come over. See how she's settling in.
You could bring her stuff.
Decide when you get here.
-Hey. -Hi.
Hi. Come in.
Hi, thanks so much. And thank you so much for doing this.
- It's so sweet. - Oh, no, of course.
The girls are downstairs. They're having so much fun.
- Come up. - Thanks.
Oh, your house is amazing.
You could do photo shoots here.
Oh, my God, no. I wouldn't let those guys in here.
I used to be a make-up artist. I know what they get up to.
Oh, really? Can I have a look?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead. -Thanks.
Oh, your garden.
So what do you do now?
I gave up work to spend more time with Josie, you know.
-And the hours were killing me. -Oh, I can imagine.
-So what about you? Do you work? -Yes, I do.
I'm, um…
I'm flight crew, but on private jets.
I've always wanted to fly on a private jet.
What's it like?
Well, it's not as glamorous as it sounds, unfortunately.
-But we do serve great champagne. -Well.
And lots of it.
- Do you want a drink? - Yes, please.
- Kombucha? - Yeah, sure.
It's not quite champagne, but it costs nearly as much.
We'll do champagne next time.
Great. I look forward to it.
Yeah, I do actually really miss travelling now that Josie's in school, you know.
I mean, Jack's away all the time with work.
-What does he do? -He works for a bank.
Clients, deals, loans. Too big to fail, all that.
Thank you.
Lucia mentioned your… your husband is a lawyer, right?
Oh. Did she?
Yeah. Fred. He's a criminal lawyer.
-Oh, wow. That must be fascinating. -Yeah, I guess.
I mean, for him, but it's not without its drawbacks.
It's got quite a lot of… Oh.
- Mummy, look, we're twins. Look, Mummy. - Oh, girls. You look amazing.
- You're it. - No, you're it. Josie, you're it.
- Let me see. - You haven't caught me yet.
Sorry. Do you mind not…
Oh, sorry. Is…
Sorry. I'm just not comfortable with people taking pictures
of my daughter without my permission.
I didn't even think. I'm sorry.
It's fine.
Well, look, she clearly wants to stay, so here's her sleep stuff.
And this is Minky Mouse.
-She won't sleep without that. -Cute.
Well, thank you again, and if there is any problem,
no matter what time, you just call me.
Yeah, of course.
-Are you sure? -She's gonna be fine.
Thank you so much. This is really sweet of you.
- You're very welcome. - I'll see you tomorrow.
Yeah.
Okay, twinnies, I'm leaving.
Lulu.
Love you.
Love you too, Mummy. Bye-bye.
Hi, darling, how are you feeling?
- Did you call Rebecca? - Uh, yes.
Uh, well, she called.
She said, uh…
she's taking the girls swimming and she'll drop Lucia back by 12:00.
Oh, that's so nice.
And how was Lucia?
Uh, yeah, good.
Yeah, Rebecca…
Rebecca said she was fine.
- We're here, Elisa. - Okay.
- Um, I've got to go, Fred, darling. - Fine.
I'll call you later.
- Okay. Love you. - Okay. Love you. Bye.
Hello. Welcome.
- Hi. - How are you?
- Good to see you. - Hi.
-Welcome. -Good to see you. Welcome.
Here we are, sir.
- Hello. - Hi, darling.
Can I speak to Lucia?
Oh, she's not back yet.
I left a message for Rebecca.
- Well, that's odd. - Yeah.
Oh, they must have been held up,
or maybe they stopped for lunch or something.
What time did she say she'd drop her off?
Uh, 12:00.
Fred, it's 2:30.
- Is it? - Yeah.
Fuck. Shit. Sorry.
So… …I'll call her now.
Now, just… just quickly…
You know when Lucia called yesterday, w-was that from Rebecca's mobile?
Yeah, why?
No, it's just, uh, when Rebecca called this morning,
the number was withheld.
What are you doing here?
-Did you not get my messages? -No, I've got no service.
-Did you get hold of her? -No… well, she's not picking up.
Well, are you calling the right number?
I-I'm calling the number that you left on the fridge.
Look, I was gonna go to the house, but I didn't have the address,
and I tried calling the school, but it's a Saturday, so,
you know, I didn't know what to do.
Well, we need to go over there now.
Maybe her phone is broken. She could have had an accident.
Yeah, well, you'd think she'd find a way to get hold of us
or send someone to the house.
What if she's unconscious somewhere?
Try again.
-Yeah, here we go. Here we go. -Okay.
Hi, hi. We've just come to pick up Lucia.
Uh…
We're looking for Rebecca? The, um…
Rebecca, the woman who owns the house.
I'm here to clean.
No one lives here.
It's a-a holiday let.
- No-- - No, yeah…
…the family that live here, where… where are they?
The family that live here in the house?
No. No, no. That's like a hotel.
I'm sorry. I'm here to clean. I-I…
I clean here.
I think I'm gonna be…
We have to call… we have to call the police.
We have to call them. We have to call them right now.
We have to call them.
What do you make of this then?
Pretty messed up.
Kid's cute.
-That helps. -Fuck off, Tom.
Good morning, everyone.
I'm Detective Inspector Shona Sinclair.
The missing child is Lucia Blix, nine years old.
She was taken sometime between 9:00 p.m. on Friday and 2:30 p.m. yesterday.
She was staying at the home of a school friend, Josephine Walsh.
We believe Lucia was taken by Josephine's mother, Rebecca Walsh.
We believe Rebecca Walsh to be an alias of this woman.
She provided false ID to the school.
The E-FIT is based on a description given by Mrs Blix.
We urge anyone who recognises this woman to get in contact with the incident room.
I'm now gonna hand over to Mrs Blix.
This is a difficult and distressing situation,
so there will be no questions.
Please be respectful.
Thank you.
Rebecca,
words can't describe the pain we've been in as a family
since you took Lucia.
We are appealing to you,
and to anyone who thinks that they may be able to help,
to please go to the police.
Rebecca, you are a mother too.
I'm asking you now, one mother to another,
please, please don't hurt our daughter.
You said Lucia was a kind and generous little girl.
She is.
She needs to be at home with us, with her family.
Please, please.
Let her come back home safely.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs Blix.
That's all for now.
Elisa, do you regret leaving Lucia alone with a stranger?
Mrs Blix.
Why Lucia?
Why you?
I'm sorry.
You did really well.
Right, well, uh, what next?
I want you to go home.
Try and get some rest.
DC Coolidge will be there for you if you need anything at all.
-What, in our house? -I think it's a good idea
to have someone there in case Rebecca makes contact.
Right, right.
Yeah, okay. I mean, if you're okay, just, you know, keep him a bit longer.
No, no, I-I want him here.
No, no, no, that's… that's not a good idea.
Yeah, of course, yeah.
Yeah. I-I know. I know.
All right, Mum. Thanks.
- Fred, I really need George home with me. - No, no. It's not a good place
-for him to be right now. -We're his parents.
-He needs us. -It's not a good place for him to be now.
Oh, God.
I feel like he's watching us.
Yeah, well, that's exactly what he's doing.
You know, he's watching how we behave, who we speak to.
Just to see if we are in any way involved in our daughter's disappearance.
Yeah, that's his… that's his job.
I don't think I can do this.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
Hey.
Right, we'll find her. Yeah?
We'll find her.
Yeah, 'cause we have to.
Yeah, we'll find her.
Yeah.
We have to, okay?
Okay.
For fuck's sake. What's she doing here?
Oi, you!
On it.
What are you doing? You need to leave.
Sorry, I'm covering this for Dash Voice.
The Blix family are not speaking to the press.
Yes, I'm very…
Hey, come on. Have some respect.
Yeah, fine. I'm going.
Selma, where's your copy?
I need it now.
Okay, thanks.
Put alerts on so we know if it's used again.
Okay, bye.
Yeah?
The credit card used to rent this place.
What about it?
Details were stolen in a data breach last month.
Fuck me.
So, we could be looking at an OCG then.
And Fred Blix is working on a case that involves organised crime.
Lucia's a pretty white girl. Could be stolen to order.
Mm-hmm. I don't buy it.
Why target a kid like her?
Middle-class child taken from a play date in Cheshire.
All ports checked?
Alerted them last night, boss.
Good.
-Dougie, what have you got for me? -Not much.
I'll tell you what you're giving me.
House made of glass.
Four bedrooms, games and pool room and surprisingly thorough cleaners.
Dusting the kitchen surfaces took all morning.
We got partial prints,
but it's been used as a short-term rental, so it's most likely multiple subjects.
We did find this.
Could be Lucia's.
Mrs Blix mentioned a toy mouse.
- I'll let you get on. Thanks, Dougie. - Mm-hmm.
Hi. Sorry, are you, um, Louise Thompson?
Lucia Blix was in your class.
Uh, yeah, can I help?
Yeah, sorry, I'm Selma Desai. I'm a reporter with Dash Voice.
Look, I shouldn't be talking to the press. It's not appropriate.
Well, it can be off the record if you want.
Just background, if you like. I mean, what did you make of Rebecca Walsh?
Yeah, she seemed normal.
Like all the other mothers.
Oh, uh… …and Josephine?
She's sweet.
A polite child.
A little quiet, maybe.
But I didn't really get to know her. She'd only been with us a short time.
- Didn't she join at the beginning of term? - No.
Look, I already went through all of this with the police.
Her mother requested an emergency transfer.
She was being bullied at her previous school.
Ah, and, uh, before Lucia was taken,
did you have any reason to talk to Elisa about Lucia?
Anything out of the ordinary?
She was frequently late for pickups, but nothing more than that.
Anything at all?
I mean, even little details can be incredibly important.
Look, I'm sorry, I really do have to go.
How are you doing?
So, um, we found this.
Does it belong to Lucia?
Uh… …yes.
Yes, it does. Yeah.
She's never spent a night without it.
Sorry.
We're considering the possibility that Rebecca was hired for the job
and Josephine wasn't her child.
Elisa, everything she told you may have been false.
No, that's not possible. Uh…
The relationship, it was… it was so natural and so real.
I don't know how anyone would have faked that.
Why would anyone do that?
You know, go-go to those kind of lengths?
I need you both to think.
Is there anyone who might have had a grudge against you?
Any reason to want to hurt you?
No.
No, I don't think so.
Fred, what about you?
Well, what about your case?
Right, yeah, yeah, I'm defending a client who was coerced
into laundering money by a criminal gang.
You know, he's given evidence against them.
Okay.
I'm gonna need to speak to the SIO on your case.
We're also gonna be looking into your home life.
So, I'm gonna need passwords for your phone, your email accounts,
-your social media accounts too. -Yeah, of course, yeah.
Fred?
Um…
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I-I think I'd like to speak to Elisa alone for a minute, if I can.
I think we might need to hear this.
No, I need to speak to her first, thank you.
What?
What is it?
Here, come on.
What's going on?
Fred, you're really scaring me. What?
Elisa, nothing happened, right.
Not really.
But, uh…
there…
there… there was a woman.
Do you want to come through?
Yeah.
The first message is from Sarah Banks on the 13th of January last year.
"Hi there. Hope you don't mind me saying hello.
I see you took the family to the mini-golf.
I was there the same weekend.
Did your little one get scared by the Aztec god head as well?
Mine had a full meltdown."
Fred then replies,
"Oh, that's so random, no…
…my little one didn't, he's like his dad, very brave."
Fred, was that the first time you came into contact with Sarah Banks?
Ah, yes.
Yeah, although I never would have started that conversation.
Yet you switched to communicating by text.
Sarah asks, "Does your wife go running with you?"
Fred replies, "Nah, she's the queen of Pilates but hates the cardio stuff."
Sarah replies, "Does she?"
And then there's a smiley face upside down, you then reply with a wink.
This is from a week later, the 23rd of February.
Sarah texts at 6:03 p.m., "Home alone?"
Fred replies, "Yep, E's working late, kids at my parents."
Sarah replies, "Wanna FaceTime?"
A 17-minute FaceTime call then follows. Fred, what happened during that call?
Uh, I mean, I think, you know, we… we… we would have talked.
Oh. Okay.
The next morning a message from Fred,
"Last night was amazing, can't believe how sexy you are."
Sarah replies,
"Do me a favour, every time you fuck her, think of me."
Fred then replies, "Done."
The messages continue in a similar manner for a few weeks.
Sarah sends several messages asking to meet up.
These are all unanswered by Fred.
And these are met with escalating anger from Sarah.
A message from Sarah on the fourth of April at 8:32 p.m.,
"I've fucking had enough of you,
go back to your perfect family and enjoy it while you can."
Fred then replies, "What's that supposed to mean?"
And the final message from Sarah is at 8:41 p.m.,
"Enjoy your little life while you still have it.
You're going to be so fucking sorry for this."
Fred, was that the last communication between you and Sarah Banks,
uh, just over a year ago?
Yes.
Um,
so,
this is the clearest image that we could obtain from the CCTV from the school.
It's of Rebecca Walsh.
It seemed that she knew exactly where to stand to avoid the cameras.
Fred, I need you to focus.
Is this Sarah Banks?
So hard to tell. I… I…
I don't know. I don't know.
Fred, you had video calls with her.
Obviously you weren't looking at her face.
I know this is painful,
but this is our best lead as to why Lucia might have been taken.
Yeah, I mean, I would definitely know if I saw her again, but with that, no.
I'm sorry. I…
Do you think Sarah Banks took Lucia?
Honestly, at this point, I just don't know yet.
But you can trace her, right? From her Instagram, her phone.
The phone was an unregistered mobile and her Instagram was deleted months ago.
We do have access to the data,
but we're also looking at other ways of trying to trace her too.
- And this text line should be-- - What happened to my copy?
Okay, yeah, great.
-Your buttons are wrong. -No, they're not.
What happened to my article?
What's going on with you, Selma?
And, sorry, what is all this stuff about organised crime?
I wrote it.
I had to fudge it from BBC News because you missed your deadline.
Yeah, by, like, two minutes.
I was getting background on the Blix case.
It was an hour and I couldn't publish it.
I mean, what is all of this about Elisa Blix's job
and how she'll cope with the scrutiny on the family?
I just think we're not seeing the full picture.
Don't go for the mother.
The mother's always the story.
Not in the first 24 hours, when her child's just gone missing.
It's Sunday, I've been here since six.
I'm going home.
Well, when is an acceptable time to go after the mother?
I spoke to police contact involved in the CCTV trawl at the school.
Rebecca Walsh knew exactly where the blind spots were.
She knew where to stand so she wouldn't get caught on camera.
This was planned meticulously.
Yeah, it supports the organised crime angle.
-You know I'm getting changed, right? -Right, okay,
but why go through all that trouble? Why not just grab a random kid off the street?
I don't know. When the police find out we can report it.
Elisa's all over Twitter and Facebook too.
No privacy controls, thousands of likes on every post.
Well, she gets flame too. Like really bad stuff.
What are you saying?
I think this was targeted.
They didn't just want any child, they wanted Lucia.
This is about Elisa, for sure. Something's not right about her.
And we can run the story when you've got something real
based on more than Selma's little spidey sense.
I'm sorry I missed the deadline.
I was focused on the background story. It's important.
I don't know what it's like to live inside your head.
Can't you just put an alert
-on your phone or something? -I did. I do.
Next time I will. I promise.
Hi, darling.
Come here to me.
Hello, hello, hello, hello.
I missed you, I missed you, I missed you.
- Did you have a good time at Grandma's? - Mm-hmm.
Oh, I missed you so much.
Thank you so much. I really… I really appreciate it.
I thought I'd stay a couple of nights.
-Help out with, uh-- -Oh, that's not necessary.
-It's okay. -It's no trouble.
Uh, Mum, no, it's… it's okay.
No, no, you must be exhausted. You don't want to be cooking.
-Fred. -We appreciate the offer, Mum, really.
But, you know, I think we're…
we're trying to have some sense of normality.
Well… …families need to be together at times like this.
Has someone hurt Lulu?
What? Who told you that?
It was on TV.
What? You let him watch the news?
No, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, listen, listen.
We don't know where Lulu is right now, but we're gonna find her.
-Yeah, we're gonna find her. -Yeah, we're gonna find her. All right?
Why don't you go upstairs and put your pyjamas on,
-and I'll be up in just a minute, okay? -Yeah, go on. There's a good man. Go on.
Lucia's my granddaughter too.
She's spent half her childhood with me while you were up in the air.
Just…
Please go home.
We need to be alone.
Please.
Listen, I'll call you as soon as we hear anything. Okay?
Can you just please be somewhere else?
Did you do two minutes, darling?
I did four. Two for Lulu.
You're such a good brother.
Mmm.
Now, if you get scared tonight, you can come in and sleep with me, okay?
Can Lulu get in too when she comes back?
Absolutely. Of course she can. She's gonna come home soon, isn't she?
Mm-hmm.
Love you.
Okay.
Sleep well.
Can we talk about this?
Why?
So you can apologise?
Yeah, well…
I'm sorry. I…
I am. I'm-I'm so, so, so, so sorry.
Yeah, I know, Fred.
But I don't want you to be sorry.
I want you not to take cases that mean we have to put three locks on our front door.
And I really want you not to have phone sex
with some random fucking woman you met on the Internet.
What?
You know, somehow I always end up becoming the bad parent, don't I?
Oh, my God.
Yeah, but you know what, I would never…
You would never what?
I know that I would never let Lucia stay with a woman that I didn't know.
Yeah, see, you're right. We shouldn't talk about this now.
Who are you?
I'm asking you now, one mother to another, please don't hurt our daughter.
Please don't hurt our daughter.
I feel like I'm losing my mind.
The people who took Lucia planned it meticulously.
I need a passport.
Well, we have to appear to be on their terms, yeah?
People have found it so difficult to understand
your decision to leave Lucia with a virtual stranger.
She's hiding something. I know it.
Did they get to you?
Did they take her?
I'm here now, and I'll never let you go again.