Eye Spy (12 page)

I grabbed Dad's arm. “Please, Dad,” I begged. “For Donna's sake!”

Slowly Dad nodded. “All right,” he said. “I'll bring the robot round to Holtech first thing tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Dad,” I said. “But now you've both got to come and tell Donna what you've agreed so we can stop her jumping!”

I started to run along the pier. Dad, Nan and Miss Wren were close behind me, with Diane and Lionel bringing up the rear. By the time we reached the observatory, Diane was panting hard and leaning heavily on Lionel, and we had to wait for them to catch us up.

Kath and her friends were still standing in a group staring at Donna. Kath was the first to notice us. “'Ere's the family now!” she cried. “Out of the way, you lot!”

The crowd parted to let us through. Donna was where I'd left her, sitting on the ledge, staring out to sea. “Donna!” I shouted, hurrying towards her. “They're here, both of them. Now, are you coming down?”

“They've got to shake hands first,” she shouted back. “Remember?”

I turned to look at Dad. He'd heard what she said. So had Diane. She came forward slowly, on her own, clutching her side as if she had a stitch. When she'd got her breath back, she turned to Dad.

“Let's put the past behind us, Ian,” she said. “I promise to give your ideas every consideration.” She held out her hand, and slowly Dad shook it, never taking his eyes off her face. The crowd let out a ragged cheer. Then Dad let go of Diane's hand and dashed towards the platform. He reached Donna just as she climbed down, and as he threw his arms round her and hugged her tightly, the crowd cheered again, and some of them clapped as if they were watching the final act of a play. I had a big grin on my face, and even Kiki sensed something was up, and started yapping excitedly.

Suddenly I heard a cry from behind me. I turned round to see Diane doubled up, clutching Lionel as if she was about to collapse. “It's the baby!” she gasped. “The baby's coming. Please, Lionel, just get me to the hospital!”

Nan let us stay off school the next day. She even phoned in sick herself. I couldn't believe it. Normally we'd have to have a raging temperature at the very least before she'd even consider letting us stay at home. But nothing was normal in our family anymore, and all sorts of things had changed forever. For one thing, we now had a baby half-sister called Sophie. We knew about Sophie because there were pictures of Diane and her baby all over the local paper, and Lionel gave an interview to Holcombe FM and burbled on for so long about the joys of being a father that the presenter had to cut him off.

“The fuss everybody's making of them, you'd think they'd discovered a new planet,” Nan said, switching off the radio abruptly. It was late morning, and we were all sitting in the kitchen, nervously waiting for Dad to come back from his meeting with the development manager at Holtech. None of us wanted to think about how Dad might react if they weren't impressed with Hamish. We'd had enough emotional turmoil over the last few days to last a lifetime.

The previous night, after Lucy had driven us home, Nan had fussed over Donna, running her a hot bath and then tucking her up in bed as if she were still a little girl. Then Dad had a long talk with her in private. Neither of them ever said exactly what went on in that room, but I'm guessing that he apologised to Donna, just as he had to me earlier in the day, and that Donna apologised to him for calling him a loser and for causing so much trouble. Whatever happened up there, when Dad came downstairs, he didn't look as drawn and grey as he had before.

Donna slept late in the morning, and when she eventually came downstairs, she didn't say much to anyone. I couldn't remember when I'd last seen her so subdued. Although I complain all the time about her stroppiness and her sarcasm, just then I longed for her to make a withering remark about something I'd done, so I could see the old Donna back in action. I needed to know that she'd never again frighten me the way she had yesterday by doing something desperate and dangerous and totally unexpected, but I couldn't think how to raise the subject.

Kiki sniffed forlornly at Donna's fingers. She didn't have any right to look so miserable; she'd already polished off all Nan's leftovers plus the tin of luxury dog food we'd brought her. Maybe she was missing Rockerfeller.

Nan was getting fed up with her too. “Why don't you two take that wee dog back to its owner?” she suggested. “It's no good sitting moping round here; it won't bring Ian back any sooner.”

It seemed like a good idea. “Come on, Donna,” I said. “Let's go and claim our reward!”

She nodded, and we put on our coats and set off up the long road to Castleview with Kiki trotting along beside us. The storm had blown itself out during the night, and although we saw lots of damaged fences and fallen branches, the rain and wind had stopped. There was even a hint of blue sky among the grey clouds.

It was the first time I'd been alone with Donna since we'd fallen out after leaving Holtech. She'd been really angry with me then, but now I was starting to feel angry with her. I'd been terrified for her yesterday, and I never wanted to live through another night like that again. I thought she owed me a really big apology.

As if she knew what I'd been thinking, she said suddenly, “I didn't mean all those things I said to you yesterday. I wasn't thinking straight. I was too upset.” She looked sideways at me, appealing for forgiveness. I nodded, because I didn't trust myself to speak. After a moment she went on.

“I really needed to talk to someone, but it had to be someone who wasn't involved, who wouldn't try and tell me what to do. And the only person I could think of who fitted the bill was Kath, so I went looking for her in the mall. She saw I'd been crying, and she said, ‘Come along with me, ducks, and meet my friends'. So I did.

“By then it was raining hard and really windy, so we went to the observatory. One of her friends had managed to break the padlock the police had put on the door, and we lit a fire in the grate. After a while some of Kath's friends turned up too. Did you notice that girl with the big eyes? She grew up in a children's home. She says Kath has been like a mum to her since she became homeless.

“I told Kath the whole story. I felt better once I'd got it off my chest. Then she told me about her own life. D'you know, she had two children of her own? They died when they were babies. They were twins, too. It was so sad, I cried all over again.”

“Is that why she became a bag lady? Because her children died?”

Donna shrugged. “I didn't like to ask. Then she said, ‘Well, that's enough about me, ducks. What we going to do about you?'” Donna mimicked Kath's throaty mumble effortlessly. “And that's when we came up with The Plan.”

“The Plan?”

“Yeah. To bring Dad and Diane together. To force them to speak to each other, even if it was only about Hamish. It was Kath who suggested it. She's not crazy at all. She's really quite smart.”

“Kath suggested you should threaten to jump off the pier?”

“I never said that was what I was going to do. You just assumed that was what I meant…”

As I struggled to remember what had happened on the pier, I realised she was right. It was the girl with big eyes who'd said ‘I'm afraid she'll jump'.

I couldn't stop myself asking the next question. It had been bugging me all morning. “Donna, you wouldn't really have…?”

“Don't be daft! I'm not stupid!”

That was when I finally flipped. All the fear and anger I'd been holding in for the last two days suddenly welled up and I lost control. Before I could stop myself I'd pushed Donna against the fence to our right and pinned her there with one arm either side of her body. “Don't you call me daft!” I shouted. “And don't you ever,
ever
scare me like that again, or I'll never forgive you!”

I pulled away from Donna and leant back against the fence myself. My chest was heaving, and I realised I was crying. As I brushed away the tears with the sleeve of my jacket, I was dimly aware of Donna staring at me, her face white and scared.

After a moment she said in a small voice, “I'm sorry. I won't do anything like that again, promise.”

“OK,” I muttered. I was as surprised as she was at what I'd just done. She's always been the one who gets angry and upset, not me. Maybe now she'd realise that I had feelings too, even if I did hide them most of the time.

After a while we started to walk up the hill again. Kiki was forging ahead, running as fast as her fat little legs would carry her. She sensed she was nearly home. When we reached the block of flats where Mademoiselle Boudet lived, I pressed the intercom and said, “It's Alex and Donna Macintyre.” The door opened immediately, and we went up in the lift.

The front door of Mademoiselle Boudet's flat was open, and Kiki was in there like a shot looking for her mistress. We heard a cry of “
Chérie
!” and a burst of excited yapping. As we walked into the sitting room, Mademoiselle Boudet was standing there with Kiki in her arms. “You found her!” she murmured huskily. “Where was she?”

I did some quick thinking. It wouldn't be fair to get Kath into trouble when she'd helped us so much yesterday. “Er… she wasn't stolen, she just followed another dog home. The dog's owner didn't know who she belonged to, so she kept her.”

“You have made my day
, mes enfants
.” She beamed at us. “It is such a great happiness to have my precious Kiki back! And now you must have your reward.” She glided over to the bureau and took out a leather purse. Then she counted out a hundred pounds in ten-pound notes. “With my eternal gratitude!” she said, handing over the money.

“Er, thanks very much.” I was trying to look as if I earned a hundred pounds every day of the week, but I don't think I fooled her. “I'm glad we could help,” I added. “We have to go now. Come on, Donna.”

We made a quick exit, but Mademoiselle Boudet was so preoccupied with Kiki that she barely noticed us leave.

As we stood in the lift and pressed the ‘down' button, I remembered the first time we visited Mademoiselle Boudet, and how, as we left, we'd watched her greet her next visitor. He'd been carrying a bunch of flowers, and she'd called him ‘
Cheri'.
And suddenly I saw the answer to something that had been puzzling me for a long time.

As we walked out of the block of flats, I said to Donna, “D'you remember that man who was visiting Mademoiselle Boudet last time we were here?”

“Vaguely. Why?”

“It was Lionel Caulfield. I knew I'd seen him somewhere before!”

Donna stopped dead and stared at me. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

She looked smug. “I
told
you he was somebody's husband! You know, I feel almost sorry for Diane. She may be a brilliant businesswoman, but she's hopeless at choosing men.”

We grinned at each other. That was when I knew the old Donna was back again.

When we got home, Miss Wren's old Fiat was parked outside the house. As we opened the front door, we heard a rush of excited voices coming from the kitchen. One of them was Dad's.

“He's back!” Donna shrieked, pushing past me into the kitchen. “What happened?”

Dad, who had a big smile on his face, was standing with his arm around Miss Wren. “It's official!” he said, beaming happily at us. “Holtech have agreed to manufacture Hamish, and I've got a contract to prove it.” He waved a piece of paper at us. “And a cheque.” He held up another piece of paper.

“Wow!” I said, as I looked at the figures. It was for an unimaginably large sum.

Then we showed them our own money. “Well done, you two!” Nan said. “I think this calls for a celebration. I'm going to make us a real feast tonight. Lucy, you'll join us, won't you?”

“Thank you, Mrs Mac. I'd be delighted.”

That evening was like Christmas all over again. We had roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with all the trimmings, followed by a huge cream trifle, and Dad dug out a couple of bottles of blackberry wine he'd made ages ago when he was trying to design a fermentation accelerator. (The accelerator didn't work, but everyone agreed the wine was a success.) Miss Wren got quite giggly, and Dad was in a better mood than he'd been in for months, laughing and joking, and discussing his next project – a robot that could think for itself.

As we sat around the table, too full of food to feel like moving, Dad was trying to explain the complexities of artificial intelligence. “I hope I can count on you to help me with the programming,” he said to Miss Wren. “This is going to be much more complicated than anything I've done before.”

“Of course, Ian. I'd love to,” she said. It looked like we were going to be seeing a lot more of Miss Wren in future. I remembered all the rumours about Mr Owen and Miss Lovelace, and I prayed the other kids at school didn't find out she was going out with Dad, or we'd never live it down.

************

So now life's chugging along very comfortably for us all. Dad's got money in the bank at last and a regular salary from Holtech as a consultant. He's started on his AI project, but it's all top secret at the moment. Nobody's allowed into his workshop, except Miss Wren of course. She comes round quite often after school and at weekends, and although we call her Miss Wren at school, at home she's just Lucy. She's good for Dad. He's tidied up his appearance, and he's started to pay more attention to what's going on around him.

Donna still spends time with Kath and her friends sometimes. She treats her like a sort of foster mother. When we heard the council was going to turn a derelict church into a hostel for homeless people, Donna was as thrilled as Kath and her friends. “Me and Rocky, we're both getting on,” Kath said to us when she heard the news. “We need a proper home for our twilight years, don't we?” Rocky thumped his tail in agreement.

So far, apart from Kath, the only person outside the family who knows what happened on the pier on the night of the storm is Emerald. I was really worried when Donna said she'd told her, but she swore on her mother's grave not to tell a soul, and so far she seems to have kept her promise. The next time I saw Emerald, she asked me if I'd changed my mind about fortune-telling. Even though everything she'd predicted had come true, I didn't want to admit that she was right. “It might just be coincidence,” I said. “You can't prove it wasn't.”

She gave me a knowing smile. “And you can't prove it was, can you?” Then she added, “I've moved on from fortune-telling. Now Nan is teaching me how to read people's minds. Soon I'll be able to tell what you're thinking.”

I must have looked alarmed, because she laughed and said, “Don't worry. Only kidding. But be careful what you say in front of Hamish. If your Dad's half as clever as you say he is, Hamish'll be able to read your thoughts one day, and then you won't be able to keep anything secret!”

I hope she's wrong.