Looking for Lucy Jo (11 page)

‘Get them out, get them ou
t
no
w
! There’s something wrong, look…’ Eleanor yelled from the side of the pool.

Both Declan and Patrick dived in, reaching the girls at the same time.

As they pushed themselves off of the bottom of the pool, Emma finally released Lana’s hands.

Both girls were unconscious.

‘Oh, God. Oh, God. I knew we should have stopped this insanity,’ Patrick gasped as he dragged Lana to the side of the pool.

‘Patrick! Patrick! Patrick… Stop,’ Eleanor demanded.

As he leaned over his two daughters, he turned his head, sobbing. ‘I can’t lose them too, Eleanor.’

‘And you won’t. They’re going to be absolutely fine. Just step away and watch.’

‘I can’t, Eleanor, I can’t.’

‘Mr. Morgan, please,’ Diarmuid said, as he gently tried to pull the older man away. ‘They’re going to be absolutely fine. Back to normal in no time. Please would you give me some space?’

Defeated, Patrick stood up and stepped backwards. ‘You’d better know what you’re doing.’

‘Patrick, mate. Are you forgetting who we are?’ Declan smiled warmly.

Holding his hands up in defeat, Patrick nodded and let them get on with it, watching as Diarmuid put a hand on each of his girls’ chests, where a bright light began to erupt from his fingers. Within moments, the girls both opened their eyes at the same time. Lana coughed and spluttered for a moment until she realised her head was resting on Barber’s knees. She looked up at him and smiled.

Emma grinned at Diarmuid as she was slowly pulled up to her feet. ‘Are you okay, sis?’

Lana nodded. ‘A bit tired.’

‘You scared me half to death,’ said Patrick as he stepped towards them both and pulled them to him.

‘Sorry, Dad. But we had to do it. We had to do something.’

‘I know, girls. I know. But that doesn’t make this any easier.’

‘Did you discover anything?’ asked Eleanor.

Both girls looked at each other with a grin. They nodded, trying hard not to cry.

‘We saw her, Dad. We saw Lucy Jo. They’re taking really good care of her. She’s fine. She’s eating her favourite cake and stuff,’ Lana laughed.

‘Where is she?’

‘Well, we saw her on the oil rig, but they said they were going to the most south westerly point of Portugal.’

‘Sagres, they’re going to Sagres,’ Arabella interrupted, before rushing inside to pick up her mobile phone to start making calls.

‘You did good, girls. You did real good,’ Declan said. ‘I told you not to worry, Patrick. You need to trust me, mate.’

‘I know, I know,’ Patrick said, relieved that his girls were fine as he finally let them go. Lana rushed back into Barber’s arms and Emma did the same with Diarmuid.

‘Thanks for helping to bring us back,’ she whispered.

He didn’t say a word, but kissed her very gently on the lips and squeezed her tight.

‘I’m freezing,’ Lana announced.

‘Oh, we’ve got towels and hot tea for you here,’ Cassie said, rushing towards them with two enormous beach towels. Penny followed her, carrying two cups of tea—one green for Emma and one strong black for Lana.

‘Oooh, you girls are angels.’ Emma smiled.

‘Yep, you could say that,’ Penny laughed.

‘Actually, you’re quite right,’ Cassie smirked. ‘Well, children of angels, anyway.’

oOo

‘They just seemed so normal, you know?’ Emma said quietly.

‘What exactly do you mean by normal, Emma?’ Eleanor asked the girl as they sat indoors, in front of a raging log fire, half an hour later.

‘They were like a regular couple. In fact, they seemed kinda nice,’ replied Emma.

‘I actually felt like I liked them. They were concerned for Lucy Jo’s welfare and the woman wanted to bake cakes for her and stuff. I dunno, it’s just weird,’ said Lana.

‘Were you able to ascertain who this woman is?’ asked Eleanor.

They both nodded. ‘She said she was Drake’s sister. And because they talked about him being a ‘bad ass’, we think they must be referring to the Drake we all know and hate,’ Lana answered.

‘Yes, I think so. Let me go and make some calls and see if we can find out more about her,’ said Eleanor as she stood up.

‘But what’s going on in Sagres? When are we going?’ Lana pouted.

‘We’ve got some Watchers down there at the moment, but so far, we’ve got nothing. It might be possible that Sagres was just a stopover. Which would be strange, considering it’s like the end of the world down there,’ Eleanor said.

‘Huh?’ blurted Lana.

‘She means that it’s the most south westerly point of the Algarve. There’s nothing else in between us and America. Not really,’ Arabella answered.

Gulping loudly, Lana closed her eyes and shook her head. ‘Please don’t tell me that they’re going to take her to America. We’d never find her.’

‘No, at least not from there. They’d need an airport for that, or an aerodrome of some sort. I think the nearest to there is Lagos. No, if they were planning on going to America, they would probably have gone by now,’ Arabella replied..

‘No they wouldn’t, Arabella,’ Emma stated, ‘they need Almerinda’s sister, first.’

‘Yes, that’s true, that’s true. Perhaps they were just using Sagres as a base, because it’s so far out? Perhaps they figured it would be a good hiding place—temporarily, anyway.’

‘Yes, I agree, Bella. I just hope they haven’t already left,’ Eleanor said, putting her hand to her chest and taking a deep breath.

‘Are you alright?’ Arabella asked.

‘Yes, yes, I’ll be fine. It’s just the change.’

‘Ah, yes, I see. Is there anything I can do to help?’

‘No, don’t worry. It’ll pass momentarily. Just give me a moment.’ The old Eleanor returned to a seated position and leaned back on the sofa, carefully lifting her legs up until she was lying down. A deep guttural sound erupted from her lips as her body began the process of becoming young again. Her hair began to change colour from silvery white to a beautiful shade of blonde and her deep wrinkles puffed out until they were non-existent. Moments later, a beautiful young woman sat in the same place.

‘Ooh, that’s better.’ She grinned, jumping up. ‘Just going to change out of these old clothes,’ she said, disappearing into another room. She returned ten minutes later wearing skinny jeans, a black turtle neck and knee high boots… and a huge grin. ‘Right, where were we? Oh yes, Drake’s sister. Right, I’m going downstairs to make some phone calls and go online to do some research. Girls, I think you should rest for a while. No doubt we’ll need you to go out again later, so you need to get your strength back.’

Nodding, the girls curled up on the thick blanket on the floor, yawning. They lay staring into the flames until they both drifted off to sleep.

oOo

‘There were two sisters, apparently. Sadly, one was murdered when she was five years old. A twin, I understand,’ Eleanor told everyone as they sat having something to eat at different spots around the open plan room. ‘The surviving twin, Kimberly, would be twenty-three now. Is this her, girls?’ she asked, turning the tablet around so they could see the image on screen of the young woman with long red hair.

‘Yes! But she has really short hair now, and it’s jet black,’ Lana smiled.

‘Kimberly’s parents died a few years ago. Her father had a car accident and her mother a heart attack, just days later. Tragic, really. But from what I can understand, the parents weren’t supernaturals. Which begs the question, how has Drake become a Skull? Oh, wait… Oh I see,’ Eleanor said, reading from the screen. ‘He was adopted after Kimberly’s sister passed away. That explains it, then. Kimberly must have started hanging out with the bad crowd with Drake. Such a shame because, according to much of this, she had such promise. Straight A student until she was about fifteen years old, and then she just spiralled out of control. That must have been when she met Drake’s friends. So you said this young man she was with is Sthenelaus’ son?’

‘We think so,’ Emma said, between mouthfuls of pasta and pesto. ‘But not… what was he called? Fred? Steve?’

‘Stan!’ Lana exclaimed with her mouth full.

‘Yes, that’s it. Not Stan. They talked about Stan, he’s the younger brother. The guy on the oil rig was older than Stan. They said something about being glad his dad had asked them to do this and not Stan. If Stan had done it, he might have hurt Lucy Jo,’ Emma added.

‘Okay, so Sthenelaus has two sons. Did you get his name?’ asked Eleanor.

‘Sorry, no,’ Emma replied.

‘Don’t worry, we can try to find out.’

‘So, to recap,’ Patrick said, almost wearing the carpet out, pacing up and down, ‘Lucy Jo was taken on Christmas Eve by this Sthenelaus character’s son, the older one…’

‘No, she must have initially be taken by Stan, because he was the one on Andilyse Island, remember? That Hummer jeep was sold by Stan? Remember, Lana?’ said Emma.

Lana squinted her eyes and nodded. ‘So he must’ve taken her.’

‘But that doesn’t add up. You said that in your vision, the person who took her was very gentle and caring. That doesn’t sound like Stan,’ asked Patrick.

‘That’s right,’ Emma said, chewing on the inside of her mouth. ‘He must’ve come to the island with his brother as well. It’s the only explanation.’

‘Yes, I agree,’ said Patrick. ‘So, both brothers came to the island and the eldest took Lucy Jo on Christmas Eve. They then took her by helicopter to the oil rig in the North Sea, where she was looked after by the eldest son and his girlfriend Kimberly?’ He looked over at Eleanor who nodded. ‘Then they somehow arrive in the Algarve and travel to…?’

‘Sagres,’ filled in Arabella.

‘In the meantime, they’re hunting Almerinda and her sisters so that they could utilise their – powers – to change Lucy Jo’s memories, in order to make my child think that she is the daughter of Sthenelaus?’ continued Patrick.

‘That about sums it up, I think, mate,’ said Declan, who was warming his hands in front of the fire.

‘Luckily for them, they didn’t find me,’ Almerinda smiled. ‘But they might be getting closer to finding my sister.’

‘How come your family is the only family that can change people’s memories forever?’ asked Ava, who was lolling on the sofa with her head on Liam’s shoulder.

Almerinda shrugged. ‘There were many others, but most chose to leave Europe in the Middle Ages.’

‘What? You’ve been alive since the Middle Ages?’ Rupert asked, astonished.

Laughing, Almerinda shook her head. ‘No, silly.’

‘Oh.’ He blushed.

‘I was born just a few years later.’ Almerinda’s eyes twinkled and she winked.

‘No way. Dude, that is awesome.’

‘What’s with all the Americanisms, Rupert?’ Lana laughed, throwing a cushion at him. He held up his hands to catch it but instead it stopped in mid-air.

‘What the…?’ he said, staring at it as it hovered in front of his face.

‘Rupert, your powers are improving.’ Eleanor clapped her hands together. ‘That’s wonderful.’

‘But h…h…ow?

‘You’ll probably find that all your powers evolve and get stronger. That’s what happens to most Watchers. You just need to try and control them. Like now, can you move the cushion?’

Rupert focussed on the cushion, but it plopped down on the floor in front of him.

‘Don’t worry, give it time,’ she said.

‘My powers still haven’t evolved… at all,’ sulked Imran.

‘What can you do, Imran?’ asked Almerinda.

‘I can manipulate time.’

Patrick’s head shot up. ‘You what?’

‘I can go back in time.’

‘But…but… that means we can go back and stop them from taking Lucy Jo in the first place?’ Patrick said, with his hands in the air.

‘I’m afraid it’s not that simple, Patrick,’ Eleanor replied sadly. ‘If the kidnap had happened anywhere near Imran, there’s a chance he would be able to do that. But, as it stands, his power is not strong enough to change time for someone he doesn’t really know. I wish it were different too, but alas, it’s not meant to be.’

Patrick’s hands dropped to his sides.

‘Don’t worry, Dad. We’re getting closer,’ reassured Emma.

‘I know, sweetheart, I know.’

‘Yes, that’s true. We currently have people searching the whole of the area around Sagres and we’re doing everything we can to track down Almerinda’s younger sister. In fact, Almerinda has indicated to me that she has reason to believe she might be living by the sea, near a place called Lagoa. We’ve got a group of people combing the area as we speak, while we have dinner,’ Eleanor explained.

‘Well, we’ve finished eating. I’d like to go and join the search?’ suggested Patrick.

‘Me too,’ said Lana and Emma together.

‘Okay, whoever wants to join the search should go and get ready. We’ll leave in ten minutes,’ said Declan, nodding at Arabella to make sure that it was okay.