When Kate said "they've taken her", it could have been an ill conceived statement to draw attention away from the parents and put in people's minds that she must have been taken.
It's not a natural thing to say when a child has gone missing. So she either deliberately said it to make people think that's what happened, or they knew people were coming into the apartment to "visit" Maddie.
Have only just discovered this thread, but yes I’m in my 60s a mother and grandmother and if one of my kids or grandkids went missing the last thing I’d be saying was that someone had taken them!
It’s one of those things you just wouldn’t say.
If I’d been in Kate’s shoes I would have said something along the lines of “I can’t find Maddie, where can she have got to?”
Saying she’s been taken is the worst case scenario that you wouldn’t want to say either out loud or to yourself.
It's the unlocked door that gets me!!!
As a child, I vaguely remember being left in a Butlins Chalet (The Red Coats had a listening service.) This was in the 1960s.
But the door was locked - I couldn't have wandered out and somebody trying to get in would have needed to kick the door in. No such safety for Maddie - free to wander out or for anybody to wander in.
But as I've said before, when this all kicked off, it was obvious from talking to my boss that leaving kids alone in the hotel room was the done thing. She more or less told me they'd left their grandchildren alone in the room while they and the parents went to the bar.
I reckon they didn't do it after Maddie went missing.
Shame a wee girl had to pay for price.
The unlocked door has always been a mystery to me too.
Would they have gone out leaving all their cash scattered on the bed and left the apartment door unlocked?
I don’t think so, so why do that with something far more valuable like your precious children?