A Face To Die For (40 page)

As it turned out I needn't have worried one iota. Totally absorbed in her future motherhood role, she wasn't a bit concerned.

'I'm so flattered that you wanted someone to look so like me again,' she said, studying the photos. 'She really does too, doesn't she? Of course you're giving her the greatest break
any
model could wish for, Annabel. I hope she knows how lucky she is.'

Seated with her hands resting on her swollen stomach it was all in such striking contrast to her emaciated look of several months back. She grinned. 'I'm not jealous you know. Does that surprise you? It surprises me actually. I've come to terms with myself at last Annabel. I realise I'll never model again, and that's that.'

It hardly seemed like Kate talking. She'd always been so desperately concerned about her career waning; now here she was accepting it so graciously.

'I'm happy you feel like that. I admit I was rather dreading you seeing these shots.'

'Well you shouldn't have been,' she laughed. 'Annabel, I've been thinking ... after the birth I seriously think I’d like to open up my own model agency.' Her eyes sparkled momentarily with enthusiasm before saddening a little. 'But, first things first. I just wish I could enjoy my pregnancy more. All this bed rest is hell. Roll on the birth I say! Oliver and I will be getting married afterwards too. Best for the baby, don't you think?'

I smiled, nodding in agreement. Her scars had healed up and she was allowed to wear more makeup now. But I'd noticed her hair had lost some of its lustre. She was pale and all-eyes, and constantly tired. Oliver was right; the baby was draining a lot from her.

Following a pleasant Christmas and New Year in North Wales, I returned to London determined to get the Winter Cruise range started, including the
Kate Marshall Solar
Swimwear
collection. I had already completed my designs and this was now in production. Jules was handling things brilliantly, and with Lynda's part-time help we were still a perfect team.

Holly’s replacement for Kate had proved to be a perfect choice, giving the Christmas perfume promotion campaign a massive boost. Sales figures were the best for three years.

*

During late January I decided to visit Vanessa in Surrey for the weekend to enjoy a spell of domesticity with her and her two adorable children. I arrived on a crisp, bright Saturday morning to find Rowley, as expected, about leave for a rugby match.

'Oh, thank God you're here,' he groaned as I entered the front door. 'Vanessa's feeling pretty rough in there on the sofa.' He nodded in the direction of the sitting room. 'Poor old thing's got a damned awful migraine.'

Lucy came running to greet me and began hugging my hips and Matthew was trying to show me a new Tonka toy.

'Look, Ann-bel, it lifts things!' shrieked Matthew.

'Shut up Matt! Annabel, you'll play with me, won't you?' babbled Lucy. I nodded helplessly at both kiddies.

Rowley pulled an embarrassed face. 'I’m afraid it's Nanny's weekend off too… and I can’t miss this match. I say would you mind awfully giving Vanessa a hand with these two? She really is suffering, poor old love.' He looked anxiously at his watch. 'Look, must dash. Damned sorry about all this, Annabel. Sure you can cope, old girl?'

I nodded again in helpless nervousness. 'No problem, of course I'll help.' Having had so little experience of children though I felt slightly inadequate, especially when most women of my age were married with families. And here I was, feeling anxious to be simply helping out with Vanessa's two.

However, once I saw Vanessa, my heart sank to the floor.

The curtains were drawn to partially darken the sitting room and she was stretched out on the sofa looking dreadful. Her wan face told me she was obviously feeling extremely poorly. Oh my God, it didn't look as if I'd be simply
helping
with the children; I would probably be in complete charge of them! Hell, I was literally being thrown in at the deep end and I felt barely able to swim. Would I be able to cope?

'I'm so sorry,' she gasped, holding her head. This only came on suddenly about an hour before you arrived. It's really bad. Oh, I feel so sick...' Leaning over she retched several times into a bucket beside the sofa.

'Mummy sick! Mummy sick!' yelled Matthew while Lucy, handing her mother a wad of Kleenex, tried to quiet him.

'Vanessa, you must get yourself to bed,' I said, suddenly taking control of the situation. 'You'll be better resting upstairs ’till it passes. Don't worry, the children will be fine with me, won't you kids?'

'Yes! Yes!' shouted Matt, as poor Vanessa groaned and covered her ears. Then she took my advice and slowly disappeared upstairs to rest in peace.

Later, after several games of Tiddlywinks, and lunch… the kiddies and I having negotiated a successful meal of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast; I wandered upstairs to check on Vanessa. She seemed a little better although she was still far from well enough to cope with two lively children.

'Will Rowley be back for supper tonight?' I asked.

'Yes, he'll get home as soon as the match is over.'

'Right, well then, I'll cook supper tonight for us all,' I announced. 'The children tell me they love spaghetti, so why don't I do my special authentic Italian spaghetti bolognaise tonight, that Luigi’s sister taught me to make?'

'Oh Annabel, would you? You are an angel. That would be wonderful. Rowley's sure to be starving when he gets in.'

'That's decided then. I'll just need a few extra special ingredients. So while you rest, I'll pop into Sainsbury's in town with the children to get what I want. I can take them to the park swings on the way back.'

'Oh Matt and Lucy will love that. Take my car as Matt's car seat and his pushchair are already in it. You'll need to fill her up with petrol though ... But there's plenty to get you into town. Pick some up at Mercers garage on the way back and charge it to our account.'

The kids were excited as I dressed them up for the cold. I fitted Matthew into his padded car seat and Lucy snuggled up next to him in the back of Vanessa's estate car. The petrol gauge showed a little below quarter full; fine to leave getting petrol until we drove home. Mercers Garage was, I believed, somewhere near the park. By now I was quite enjoying my new job as childminder for the day. It was nothing like as bad as I'd feared it would be.

Both children were being cooperative and seemed to like me caring for them. Lucy had been a sweetheart, advising me where things were kept as I'd prepared lunch and thankfully, Matthew had willingly taken his short nap afterwards.

'Otherwise,' Lucy had said forcibly, 'He'll be a ratty little monster for the rest of the day!'

The multi-story car park was full on the lower levels and so I drove up to the top floor, which was almost deserted.

I removed the pushchair from the boot and after unfolding it, wheeled it round to the side of the car. I was at the rear door about to lift Matthew out of his car seat when a rather scruffy young man strolled across to me from nowhere.

'Got the time, lidy?'

Lucy was by my side by now, having let herself out of the car. I looked at my wrist, only to find I'd left my watch on Vanessa's kitchen windowsill.

'Sorry, I don't appear... hang on though,' I said, leaning over to look in at the car's dashboard clock.

In a split second he'd grabbed my arm, pulling me back. Then I noticed the knife held at Lucy's throat. I gulped, a cold sweat of fear breaking out all over me as I realised the horror of what was happening. Lucy was standing still with two huge, petrified eyes gazing at me, a look of sheer terror on her little face, her breathing fast and shallow.

'All right, Lucy darling,' I said slowly to stop her shrieking out, which I feared she might do at any moment. God knows what the man would do with the knife if she did. 'Do just as the man says.' Lucy closed her eyes, cringing away from him.

Dear God, what should I do now? What will he do next?

The young man turned to me, still keeping the knife pointing at Lucy. I quickly glanced around; terror slicing through me. Not a soul about,
unbelievable
for a Saturday!

'Git back in, lidy. You too kid,' he said in a strong cockney accent. The hand holding the car door had dirty fingernails. In a split second I found myself noting all I could about him, from his long, lank, greasy blond hair and pointed features, down to his torn jeans and scuffed, muddy shoes. I reckoned he was about nineteen or twenty. He smelt of sweat, cooking fat and stale cigarettes.

'Please don't hurt the children,' I pleaded, as I belted Matthew up in his car seat again. 'Don't be frightened sweetheart, I whispered to him. He was grizzling at not being taken out of it after all. 'Don't fight darling, please, we must do
exactly
as the man says.'

Matt looked at me, a confused look in his eyes, 'Wanna get out, Ann-bel! Wanna get out!' Then he started to yell.

'Shh, in a minute...shh, there's a good boy,' I whispered, having feared this might happen. The poor little fellow hadn't a clue what was going on. Neither did I, other than I knew we were being car-jacked at knife point.

As Matthew continued to yell, Lucy got back in next to him and tried to pacify him. 'Shh Matt, we've got to do what Annabel says. Don't cry, I'm here,' she said, kissing him.

Matt carried on yelling. Throughout all this the man was wielding the knife threateningly. It was now pointing into my chest. 'Come on, lidy, git a move on! Git in the bloody car and drive, or else! Shud up, brat!' he shouted back at Matt.

He heaved himself into the passenger seat, pointing the knife at my ribs. Hunched over the steering wheel I tried the starter. All it did was grind futilely and it took several attempts before it fired. As Matt was still crying, my nerves were in tatters. I grated the gears and, swearing under my breath, I put the car into reverse. Matt's cries had now tailed off into little whimpers.

'Bloody 'ell, lidy! What the bleedin'...'

'S..sorry, I...I'm not too familiar with this car,’ I stammered.

Another car had now driven up the ramp onto our level. I considered screaming out to them but they went way over to the other side. The knife was still pointing at me.

As I started reversing out of the parking spot, I realised the push chair was still standing beside the car.

'The pushchair!' I said.

'Leave it. Git going!'

As I straightened up the car, I tried to press the centre of the driving wheel where I expected the horn to be, but nothing sounded. Damn, it might just have alerted those other people. Even if the man ended up stabbing me, he might run off. Then at least the children would be all right. But if he's desperate enough he might slash or stab them too. I couldn't risk that. If only I could think straight. I was so scared for the children. I had to do what was safest for them.

As we drove back down and out of the car park, I was instructed to head out of town. Again I tried the horn but still it wouldn't sound. Outside, everyone was too pre-occupied to notice us despite my panic-stricken face.

I glanced at the children in my rear-view mirror. Both were staring straight ahead, wide-eyed and sobbing silently, Lucy's frightened little face pressed up close to Matthew. Suddenly Matt wailed. ‘Want Mummy, where's Mummy?’

'Shud up brat! She's driving.'

'No! Want my Mummy!'

I then explained that I was not their mother. 'Their mother's ill and I'm just looking after them today.'

'Well can't you shut the bloody kid up some 'ow?'

'Lucy, will you give Matt some of those Smarties,' I suggested, remembering they'd brought a couple of tubes with them. I was desperate now myself for him to stop howling.

We were almost out of town now and my main fear was that the man must definitely have a sexual motive, otherwise why hadn't he grabbed my bag when he had the chance and taken off? And if he only wanted the car, then why hadn't he simply taken the keys off me and driven away?

I was in a state of utter panic now, trying hard to think logically. I needed a plan of action, but what could I do? I tried to weigh up our options. The man's heavy breathing beside me plus the combination of his sweaty BO and my terror was beginning to make me feel quite nauseous.

Stay as calm as possible, I kept telling myself, because I knew my life and the two children's were at stake. I thought of Maria, and how she must have felt when she had been kidnapped in Milan. I thought of Vanessa, oblivious to all this lying at home in bed, and Rowley enjoying his rugger game. All this flashed through my mind in seconds.

Suddenly I remembered we needed petrol. I tapped the petrol gauge, drawing the man's attention to it. 'I want petrol, we'll run out soon,' I said, urgently.

'Shit,' he grunted under his breath. 'OK, pull in at the next garage. There's one up 'ere on the left. And I warn you don't do nuffink silly, you 'ear? Just git filled up, pay 'em and git off again, sharp.'

I wasn't too familiar with the road and where exactly we were. Suddenly we passed the park.

'Swings, Ann-bel! Look, swings!' yelled Matt, pointing as we went by.