The Imposter, Anna Wharton [romantic story to read TXT] 📗

ANGIE’S DAD: ‘I’LL NEVER FORGIVE MYSELF’

ONE hundred days after the disappearance of four-year-old city girl Angela Kyle, her father has given a heartbreaking interview to this newspaper.

Reliving the nightmare of that day on 27 October 1979, Patrick Kyle recalled the last moments at the play park with his little girl before she went missing: ‘I still remember her face every time I pushed her on the swings. “Higher, Daddy!” she said – she was fearless that girl. She was sweet, funny, bright, happy, caring. She laughed and laughed as I pushed her higher.’

Mr Kyle had taken his daughter for a play at the park in Ferry Meadows. The pair had only been there around ten minutes when he realized he’d left his blue Ford Escort unlocked. He turned his back to walk the fifty yards to the car park to lock it and when he returned, Angie had vanished.

‘As her father, of course I blame myself. I was meant to be her protector. I held her in my arms when she was just a few minutes old, I rubbed her tiny nose against mine, I promised her then that I would look after her, that she had nothing to fear, that I would always be there and . . . I wasn’t, was I? I’ll never, ever forgive myself for turning away for those few seconds.’

But that was all it took. Chloe knows how it feels – after all, isn’t that how she’d lost Nan?

Except her story had a happy ending. This cutting is from February 1980, and it is now 2004 and there is still no news. How does anyone go on like that? Left suspended between hope and grief. Life and death. Yet knowing every day that a call could come or she could walk through the front door.

She unfolds another cutting, careful not to pull too hard on the newsprint as she feels its resistance. Chloe shakes her head, doubting reporters ever treat the cuttings with the same respect. But she is in the business of preservation. Lives, stories, they’re one and the same.

She rearranges herself on the floor, lying now on her front as she opens up another half a dozen cuttings and lays them out, one on top of another, a run-through of all the ups and downs of the case. One cutting includes a reception class photograph; Chloe scans it for Angie. She finds her, as easily now as if she’d attended the very same class. They were the same age, Chloe reasons, she might well have.

SCHOOL FRIENDS’ VIGIL FOR ANGIE

CHILDREN at the school attended by missing city girl Angela Kyle have held a private assembly to pray together for her safe return.

Students and parents at Dogsthorpe Primary School filled a packed hall on Friday and remembered Angie with songs, pictures and performances. Maureen and Patrick Kyle were also present for what the headteacher described as a ‘celebration’ of Angie’s life.

Headteacher Vanessa Cooper said, ‘Angela is one of our reception class pupils and is a very popular little girl with lots of friends who miss her dearly. Many of the students’ parents and teachers have been aiding in the search for Angie and we realized the children wanted to do their bit too. The children were very clear they wanted to hold a “celebration” of her life.’

In the days leading up to the assembly, the children made colourful posters and chose some of Angela’s favourite songs to sing, including ‘I Can Sing a Rainbow’.

One of her friends, Rachel Barker, five, told this newspaper: ‘Angie is my best friend and I miss playing hopscotch with her.’

She picks up another cutting, pulling her pale blue notebook alongside it and writing down Rachel’s name. She’s not sure why, but it feels like something that would be useful to remember.

PARENTS PRAY FOR ANGIE’S RETURN

THE parents of missing city girl Angela Kyle made a late-night visit to their local church to pray for their daughter’s safe return.

Maureen and Patrick Kyle are said to be ‘devastated’ at the disappearance of their daughter five days ago from a play park in Ferry Meadows.

Desperate for any information, they turned to their local congregation, who arranged a special mass to pray for news of little Angie.

Father Martin Cunningham, priest at St Gregory’s Church, conducted the service. He told this newspaper, ‘I’ve known Maureen and Patrick and their families for more than a decade. In fact, I married them just six years ago. I also baptized little Angie. They are both devoted to their daughter and, as you can imagine, this last week has been agony for them. But their faith is strong and that’s what is giving them the strength to face every day at the moment – that and the hope each new day brings that Angie will be found.’

More than a hundred worshippers packed the church last night to pray for the family.

‘The power of prayer can be an incredible thing,’ Father Cunningham added. ‘And right now it’s fair to say that we are praying for a miracle.’

She writes down Father Martin Cunningham. Underlining it. Twice. On and on she goes through the cuttings, searching for more details, names, dates, places that might be worth revisiting. One cutting mentions a sighting in Highbury, north London. She writes it down, then scribbles it out when it’s later revealed as a hoax. Then writes it again, this time with a question mark on the end.

She searches for more tiny details about Angie, finding the name of her cloth cat and writing Puss in her book. In one article, Patrick Kyle mentions she was wearing shiny new red shoes the day she went missing. That goes into her notebook too. Each little detail she writes, feeding this ridiculous fantasy at the back of her head that maybe she could find some missing detail that the police overlooked.

Chloe looks up at the street lamps peering in from between the heavy curtains. Were the detectives this vigilant? She doubts it. To them, Angela would have been