69236538256563

RACHEL
I slept only fitfully after looking online. The phrases I’d read repeated in my head over and over
again. When I woke up for what felt like the hundredth time, the Stormtrooper clock beside the bed
read 4.47 am. Ben’s bedding was twisted around me and I felt exhausted and cold. Nicky was
sleeping in my room, with the door open. I didn’t want to wake her. I crept downstairs quietly and
didn’t turn any lights on.
On the kitchen table I found her laptop. I opened it and the glow from the screen lit up my fingers,
poised over the keyboard. It asked me for a password. I watched the cursor blinking as I tried to think
what it might be. I knew it wouldn’t be the name of any of her daughters. She’d lectured me once on
password security and the foolishness of using your children’s or pet’s names. I tried ‘Rosedown’,
which was the name of the cottage we grew up in. ‘Incorrect password’ was the computer’s response.
I tried ‘rhubarbcustard’ – a reference to Nicky’s blog. It didn’t work. I had one more shot at it, and no
clue what to try. On a whim, because it was my password in spite of her advice, and because my
exhausted brain couldn’t come up with anything else, I tried ‘Benedict’.
It worked. I leaned back in my chair in surprise, but then I felt a rush of affection towards Nicky:
my bossy sister, a proud enough aunty to use Ben’s name as her password.
Now that I was in, I searched ‘Benedict Finch Missing’. News items from all different sources
appeared on the screen. The story had exploded. Images of me from the press conference appeared
alongside Ben’s photo: my bleeding head, my white pallor, my body language and my angry eyes.
Many of the news headlines were blatantly aggressive towards me.
But I still couldn’t help myself.
Like a moth to a flame I clicked on the Facebook site.
There were hundreds of posts. The top one was from somebody called Cathy Franklin.
Cathy Franklin The mother has done something to him thats obvious
2 hours ago · Like
Stuart Weston Police wouldn’t have let her tlk at press conf if they suspected her
2 hours ago · Like
Cathy Franklin Stuart that’s not true has been seen before that people crying in press confs have been convicted.
about an hour ago · Like