Left ambiguous, but the implications are dark.

"Damn it all," Cecil said as he walked quickly over to the purse. He bent down and picked it up, careful to keep his balance on those high heels he was now wearing. "Can't forget this."

He held the strap of the purse in a feminine hand, and put it over his shoulder and walked away. He was impressed that no one had taken it and when they realized they had forgotten it, they knew they had to retrieve it. It did contain her ID, her credit cards, her debit card, and more to the point it was a purse right beside a brick sidewalk near the road. It wouldn't take a genius detective to figure how that something was amiss.

But now, Cecil thought as he walked away, hearing the heels click on the brick with each step, we can relax some. If no one knew where she was taken, it would be much harder to even realize that an abduction had even taken place, especially when "Mrs. Seymour" could just walk into a police station at any time and prove she was still around!