Lone Girl (The Wolfling Saga) (6 page)

I cleared my throat nervously. “Uh, no.”

The officer peered at me over his sunglasses. “Your tires are completely bald,” he said. “With these frosty mornings of late you can’t be too careful.
It’s an accident waiting to happen.”

“
Oh. OH! Right!” I said, perking up at once. “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to get new ones. Money is a bit tight.”

My heart thundered in my chest
as I gave a nervous laugh. I hoped to god the policeman didn’t recognize Tom.

The officer looked up and down the road, seemingly contemplating something. His silence made me anxious.

“Look … usually I’d write you up for driving on bald tyres, but you seem like an okay kid.”

“Oh. Thanks,” I said, rather taken aback.

“So I’m going to let this one slide. Just promise me you’ll get new tyres as soon as you can, okay?”

“I promise,” I lied. “Thank you
so
much Officer … uh-”

“Sean
McDonald,” he said, pulling his hat off and revealing a shock of red hair.

“Thank you Officer
McDonald,” I said.

“No problem. Drive safe, okay?”
He patted the side of the car. “And give your Dad a go at driving for a while. You look tired.”

The reference to Tom a
s my father annoyed me slightly. He would have been fourteen when he fathered me! Surely he didn’t look
that
much older than me.

Regardless, I smiled and nodded. “Will do! Thank you!”

I watched Officer
McDonald in the rear view mirror as he walked back to his vehicle and hopped inside, picking up dust and stones as it pulled out onto the road and passed us by. Tom and I sat, shell-shocked, as the dust swirled around our vehicle. Finally, the police car vanished over a crested hill.

“Jesus Christ,” I exhaled a shaky breath. “That was too close for comfort.”

Tom, who was now awake and staring in the direction of the police-car, nodded feebly.

“I thought for sure we were goners.”

“We?” said Tom. “You mean
me
.”

“We’re a team,” I reminded him. “I’m not going to let them take you from me again.”

“What would you have done? Engaged poor Officer McDonald in a high speed car chase?”

“I’ve played my fair
share of video games,” I said. “I could lose him if I wanted to.”

“Right,” Tom scoffed and rested his head back on the headrest. “I most certainly do
not
want to be in a speeding vehicle while you are driving it.”

“Hey,” I said, feigning offence. “I’m a perfectly good driver!” I turned the key in the ignition and the car spluttered to life.

“Mmh-hmm,” Tom closed his eyes, smiling.

I crunched into first gear and tried to pull onto the road. The car lurched forwards and stalled. I hadn’t given it enough throttle.

Tom chuckled and I shot him a mock-glare.

“Not a word,” I scolded him, restarting the engine.

“I didn’t say anything,” he said, now grinning.

Once we were successfully back on the road I asked
Tom if he was hungry.

“
Starving,” he replied. My own stomach was growling painfully.

“
I think I saw a sign for McDonalds a mile back,” I said.

“You only feel like McDonald’s because of that policeman
’s surname,” said Tom.

“So? He was nice.”

“And now you want a burger?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Yeah. Don’t you want one?”

Tom paused. “Yes, but-”

“We’ll go through the drive-through
.”

Tom
began to rummage through the glove compartment for loose change.

I was correct in recalling the McDonalds sign; twenty minutes later both Tom and I were eating Big Mac’s which we’d manage to afford by scraping together a heap of coins that had been rolling around on the floor.

“This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever tasted in my entire life,” said Tom, clutching the burger as though it was the first proper meal he’d had in days, which, I reminded myself, it probably was.

I stuffed a handful of
french-fries into my mouth, steering with my knees.

“You’re making me nervous,” said Tom, watching me out of the corner of his eye.

“Hey, if you keep telling me how to drive, I’ll turn this car around, mister.”

He laughed. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Wednesday – 26 days to go

Battery: 80%

My phone was slowly dying
. I needed to stop turning it on to check my messages, but curiosity got the better of me.

What would happen once the phone ran out of battery? Tom and I would be alone together.
Really
alone.

My biggest concern was how quickly
he would get sick of me. The more I thought about it, the faster I realized that we’d never spent so much time in each other’s company. What if he got bored with me? Or annoyed with my antics? How long before he realized that I was terrible company? Would we argue now that we were alone?

I looked
at Tom who was fast asleep next to me, snoring gently. I smiled.

It had been three days since I’d left home
and we hadn’t covered much distance. Gas was a large factor. We didn’t have much money, so I was forced to sell things like my earrings and rings. I had even sold the bracelet my mother had given me when I was twelve years old.

Tom had been very upset about it; he
didn’t want me to sell it. I didn’t mind. The metal was worthless to me. It was Tom that mattered.

We
didn’t get much for the jewellery – barely two-hundred dollars.  Never the less, we were desperate for the cash. Most of it went on fuel and food.

To pass the time I scrolled through the influx of messages on my phone. Tom still wasn’t aware that I had it. He thought I’d
got rid of it a few days ago, but I kept the phone close just in case of an emergency.

There were some texts from Sadie, whose ‘text-talk’ made her messages near unintelligible. Even Estelle had sent some.

OMG R U SRS? I NEW IT WAS
U – Sadie

Rose, please tell me it isn’t true xx – Estelle

UR PIC IS ON THE NEWS. I TRIED 2 CALL U. Y U NOT ANSWERING ME? – Sadie

I told you to be careful with that teacher - Estelle

DUDE U SHUD SEE THE COMMENTS ON UR FACEBOOK WALL. EVERY1 THINKS UVE BEEN KIDNAPPED. –Sadie

Please tell me you went by choice. I can’t stand what the news is saying. - Estelle

Estelle seemed genuinely worried about me – Sadie appeared amused more than anything.

Check your Facebook wall
, one of her messages said. What could possibly be there? No one at school had liked me so it was highly unlikely I’d receive support from school ‘peers’.

I turned my phone over in my hands a few times. I had wireless internet access as part of my phone-plan, but Tom had told me to disable the Wi-Fi. H
e had said they would be able to track us from the data usage. I thought he was just being paranoid.

Surely two minutes online wouldn’t hurt.

Chewing the inside of my lip, I stared at the little symbol that signified the wireless internet.

I clicked it.

Opening up the Facebook application I saw that I had a huge amount of messages and notifications. Checking the notifications I found that most were tagged photos of me with descriptions such as:

MISSING. PLEASE HELP.

Or:

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL?

The amount of ‘shares’ and ‘likes’ was staggering. Thousands upon thousands of people had shared this image of me – which was a school photo that had been taken earlier in the year.

I felt sick to my stomach. 

Moving to my inbox messages, most were from strangers saying things like “Our thoughts are with you” or “You’re in our prayers”. However, there was one message that caught my eye.

It was from a stranger by the name of Anya Kelly and the first line read ‘
I know Thomas Stone’
.

Glancing at Tom to make sure he was still asleep, I opened the message from Anya Kelly and read the wall of text she had sent me.

To: Rose Goldman

From: Anya Kelly

Subject: I know Thomas Stone

Rose,

I saw your story on the news and I was deeply shocked by what I heard. If it’s true then I feel I must tell you this. I’m sorry, this may come as a bit of a shock and I don’t mean to upset you. I’m sure you’re a lovely girl who has got caught up in this whole terrible ordeal.

You don’t know me
and have no reason to believe what I am saying. I also have no reason to lie to you.

One thing you must understand about
Thomas Stone is that he is dangerous. You may think you know him, but I can assure you that he has secrets – and you do not want to know what they are.

He might love you – for
now. He might even believe it himself. But things will change – sooner than you think.

How do I know this? Tom and I were engaged a few years ago
. He may not have told you, but things were quite serious. We were only a few weeks away from our wedding when everything fell to pieces.

He changed. He became withdrawn, secretive
and moody. And then he left me. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did the same thing to you. Tom is an excellent sweet-talker and an expert at reverse psychology. Please remember that.

Regards,

Anya

I stared at the message from Tom’s ex-fiancé, my heart pounding rapidly against my ribcage. Suddenly, I felt sick and dizzy. Bile rose in my throat, the acidic taste lingering in my mouth. Tears stung my eyes and burned through my nose. Stuffing the phone in my bag, I fumbled for the latch on the car door and swung it open. I fell to the grass on my knees and dry heaved.