Paparazzi Princess (15 page)

‘We have to start somewhere,’ he interrupted. ‘Have the police let on who the boy might be?’

I shook my head. ‘They weren’t giving anything away. She might know him but he might also be a stalker or, worst case scenario, someone she met on the Internet who’s lured her away.’

‘Well, we have to hope it’s not that,’ said Tom. ‘I bet he’s her boyfriend. That’s what I reckon after what you’ve told us so far. She probably just wants some time alone with him.’

‘You think? But where would they go?’

Tom shrugged. ‘Depends on who he is and whether his parents live in London.’

‘I guess the police will have all that covered.’

‘So let’s think,’ he said and looked deeply into my eyes. ‘Where would
you
go if you had some time with someone you really fancied and it was your first opportunity to hang out with them?’

I felt myself blush.
He
has
read the facebook update
, I thought.

Behind us, I noticed Eddie, the homeless man in his usual pitch in the doorway. I nodded at him and he looked away. He was there most days now. No matter how many times he was moved on, he always came back. Suddenly I had an idea and went over to him.

‘Hey, Eddie, you didn’t happen to notice a Japanese girl leaving the apartment block over there this morning, did you? Maybe with a boy?’

‘I see lots,’ he said. ‘Many boys, many girls, many people.’

I pointed over at Porchester Park. ‘A girl who lives over there. You saw her with me one morning. A Japanese girl. Very striking. Mad clothes.’

Eddie nodded. ‘I did see her. Very early. She got into a taxi.’

‘With a boy?’

He nodded.

‘You didn’t happen to hear where they were going, did you?’

Eddie stayed silent. Tom fished around for some coins and handed him a pound. Eddie looked at it then back up. I looked in my purse and added another.

‘It’s all we’ve got, Eddie, apart from loose change and we might need that if we’re going to look for her. She’s gone missing. Please. Her parents are out of their mind with worry.’

Eddie took the second coin. ‘St Pancras,’ he said. ‘I heard the boy say St Pancras. They’ll be halfway across Europe by now.’

‘Halfway across Europe?’ I asked.

Tom nodded. ‘Eurostar,’ he said. ‘The Eurostar goes from there.’

I had a sudden flash. Riko’s perfect holiday. ‘Does it go to Paris?’

‘Yup,’ said Tom. ‘Why?’

‘I bet that’s where she’s going. Come on.’

I took his hand and pulled him towards the tube station.

‘Why would she go there?’ Tom asked as we skidded along the pavement. The snow was already beginning to turn to slush. I filled him in on my conversation with Riko and her perfect day being in Paris with a boy she liked. ‘. . . See? That has to be it.’

Tom stopped. ‘Don’t you think we ought to tell the police? It’s a valuable clue.’

‘I guess,’ I said. ‘I don’t have a number for them but I’ll call Dad.’

Tom glanced at his watch. ‘Jess, it’s almost three o’clock. Surely she’ll have gone by now.’

I felt a sinking feeling hit my stomach. He was probably right but I couldn’t give up and just sit and wait for news. I had to at least go and look. ‘Please Tom. I have to try.’

Tom nodded. ‘Sure. Let’s go.’

I dialled Dad’s mobile but it went to voicemail. ‘Dad, it’s Jess. We think Riko might have gone to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Paris. She told me that would be her perfect day out. You’d better let the police know. I . . . I’m going to the station now.’

‘Got your Oyster card?’ asked Tom as he got his out. ‘Or do we need to get a ticket?’

I pulled out my card and waved it at him. ‘If the police get there, she might freak and run. Can you imagine? I think our best chance is to get there, find her, and persuade her to come back. Less trouble all around.’

Tom looked doubtful but didn’t argue. He got out his iPhone and started pressing the keys.

‘What are you looking for?’ I asked.

‘Train times to Paris.’ He glanced up a few minutes later. ‘Bummer. They go almost
every
half hour.’

‘Half hour? Oh
no
.’

‘Either they’ve been planning this and booked a particular journey or they’re chancing it but they’ll have been lucky to just walk onto a train. I think it gets booked up months ahead.’

‘Maybe they didn’t know that,’ I said. ‘I didn’t and Riko’s not exactly familiar with public transport. We’ve nothing to lose, have we? Let’s still go, if only because someone there might have seen her. She does stand out with her unique style.’

We flew down into the tube, through the turnstiles and onto the escalator. A man was blocking the way on the left-hand-side.

‘Excuse me,’ said Tom. The man gave him a filthy look and stayed put.

‘Er, excuse me, sir, but the left-hand-side of the escalator is for people in a rush. The right-hand-side is for people who wish to stand still,’ Tom said politely.

The man moved aside but looked very disgruntled.

‘Thank you,’ I said as we hurried past.

At the bottom of the escalator a group of Italian tourists were gathered, blocking the way of anyone trying to get off. I almost tripped over Tom but luckily one of them saw us and moved the others out of the way just in time. We hurtled on to the right platform where the display said that there was a train in five minutes.

‘Phew,’ I said. ‘It’s straight through to King’s Cross, then St Pancras is just over the road.’

At that moment, the notice board showed a change in information.
CORRECTION. CORRECTION
, it flashed in big yellow letters. Then a message came up that the next train would be in fifteen minutes.

‘
Fifteen
minutes. Oh
no!
’ I gasped.

‘We just have to chill, Jess. We’ll get there and hopefully your dad will have got your message by now and Mission Rescue Riko will be sorted,’ said Tom.

I glanced around. ‘I guess. Still it’s not like in the movies is it? If we were in a movie, we’d be in and out of fast cars—’

‘Then a helicopter—’

‘And a speedboat that turns into a submarine then a plane.’

‘And finally we’d parachute down onto the platform at St Pancras.’

Tom did a karate move then pointed back at himself. ‘Agent 007. Licensed to thrill.’

I watched the tube platform fill up with irate travellers who seemed as unhappy about the delay as we were. ‘Instead we’re stuck in the underground with hundreds of others,’ I said. ‘Maybe they’re all on secret rescue missions too.’

Finally the train arrived and we got on. We stood in the aisle so others could sit down. As the tube rattled off, there was a lurch and I lost my footing and fell into Tom. He steadied me then put his arm around me. ‘Agent Hall,’ he said. ‘You really must stop drinking when on an assignment.’

‘Sorry, Agent Robertson,’ I said. ‘I will join AA and deal with my problem as soon as our mission is completed. Hic!’

We spent the rest of the journey with his arm around me to steady me and instead of feeling in a rush, I now felt that I’d like the journey to go on forever but all too soon, we were at King’s Cross. We got off and raced up to ground level, taking the final steps two at a time. We darted across the street, dodging taxis and cars and into St Pancras station. It was heaving with people, all seemingly in a hurry, pulling cases, looking for platforms, watching departures. Even the cafés looked crowded, with travellers at every table and in queues at the counters.

‘Ohmigod, this is worse than Harrods!’ I exclaimed. ‘We’ll never find her. It’s hopeless.’ Riko had disappeared early morning and it was now well into rush hour and the station was swarming with travellers rushing to get home. ‘It’s too late.’

‘Hey, Hall. Where’s your fighting spirit? It’s not over yet,’ said Tom. ‘If this
was
a movie, we wouldn’t be giving up, would we?’

I shook my head but inside, I felt desperate. I knew that it wasn’t a movie. This was real. Someone had gone missing and I’d had a part to play in that.

‘Let’s go to the Eurostar departure area,’ said Tom. ‘In the meantime, call your dad and check he got the message.’

I got my phone out and started to call Dad when it bleeped that the battery was low. ‘Nooooooooo. My phone! It’s dead. I . . . I meant to recharge it, but . . .’

Tom handed me his. ‘Use mine.’

‘I don’t know how to use one of those,’ I said. I felt stupid. He’d think I was so uncool. I’d make a crap secret agent.

‘Give me the number and I’ll call,’ he said as he took it back.

‘07856 . . . no. 08956 . . . Oh NO! I can’t remember his number. I never use it. It’s on automatic dial on my phone. I . . .’

I felt even more stupid than ever now. Tom laughed and pretended to talk into his phone. ‘Agent Q. Agent Hall hasn’t recharged her phone. Recommend you send her to rehab in Botswana for a few years to recharge her brain.’

‘Dad might be trying to get hold of me after the message I left earlier,’ I said. ‘Oh God, my life is over. He’ll kill me when he finds he can’t get through to me. He’s always on at me to leave my phone on and keep it recharged.’

‘Chill, Agent Hall. It happens to everyone.’

Just at that moment, I spotted Riko in the distance. She was with the boy from the photo and they were looking in a shop window. They were chatting away like friends which was a huge relief. She wouldn’t have been that relaxed if she was being kidnapped. I pulled on Tom’s arm. ‘She’s there! I saw her. Going into that shoe shop now and she’s with him. Come on.’

We ran along the arcade and up to the shop, where we skidded to a halt and hid round the corner. I tiptoed out and peeked through the window and indeed, there she was, trying on shoes like she didn’t have a care in the world. Tom came up behind me but I pulled him back before she saw us. ‘I can’t believe she’s trying on shoes when the police are out looking for her!’

‘Why not?’ He glanced at his watch. ‘She doesn’t know they’re looking for her. Maybe they’ve got a ticket and are just killing time, like the rest of them.’ He indicated the station with all its shops and cafés. ‘And let’s face it, this is as good a place to hang out as anywhere.’

‘We have to let someone know that she’s here. What time’s the next train?’

Tom looked at the board. ‘Twenty minutes then another in fifty.’

I peeked around the corner and into the window again to check she was still there. Whoops! I looked straight into Riko’s eyes. I don’t know which of us looked more shocked. She turned around and said something to the boy with her, who turned and glared at me.

‘Damn. They’ve seen me,’ I said. ‘What do we do now?’

‘We confront her,’ said Tom and he pulled me out into the open but it was too late. We saw the back of Riko and the boy as they hurried out of the shop and off into the crowd.

‘First we have to let someone know,’ said Tom. ‘I’ll call Charlie. I should have thought of it before. I’m a crap agent too. God, it’s not as easy as it looks being James Bond. Charlie can call your dad and Pia and she can call her mum.’

We stopped for a moment while he made the calls and luckily, got through to both of them.

‘The cavalry are coming,’ he said when he’d finished. ‘They’re all on their way. Now, let’s try and find Riko before she gets on a train!’

‘No point. It will take the others forty minutes or so to get here. She’ll be long gone by then.’

‘Depends which train she’s on,’ said Tom. ‘And that’s if they’ve managed to get on one. Never give up until it’s over, Hall. In the meantime, let’s try and find her.’ He gave me a quick hug and pulled me in the direction Riko had gone.

The next fifteen minutes really was like something from a movie as we gave chase to Riko and the boy. We spotted her on an escalator going up. We hopped on, only to see her get on an escalator going down a few moments later. She even waved. She was clearly enjoying herself. We followed them in and out of shops but they always seemed to be one step ahead of us. At one point, they disappeared around a corner then reappeared on the other side of the arcade. Riko saw us and grinned like she was having the time of her life.

‘I will
kill
her. This is getting ridiculous. A waste of time,’ I panted after we’d been in and out of a newsagent’s, a book shop and a clothes store.

‘I don’t think so,’ said Tom. ‘At least we’ve established one thing and that is that the boy with her is definitely
not
a kidnapper or a stalker. She clearly knows him and is comfortable with him.’

‘Her boyfriend . . .’

Tom’s phone rang. He took the call as we raced on to the next shop where a glimpse of a pink coat alerted us to Riko’s presence. ‘Charlie says he’s just spoken to your dad and the police will be here any minute.’

‘Quick, Tom. I don’t think she’s seen us. She went into the chemist.’

We ran after her, past the cosmetics, round a corner then
WHAM
. Face to face with Riko and the boy.

‘Jess! Oh!’ She turned and started to run with the boy.

‘No! Riko. Don’t,’ I called after her. ‘Please stop.’

She stopped and turned back. Her whole body looked stiff with anger. ‘
What
do you want?
What
are you doing here?’

‘We’ve been trying to find
you
. Don’t you realise what you’ve done? Your parents are freaking out. They have the police looking for you.’

Riko looked around her. ‘
Police
? Shit. Ashton, what shall we do?’

The boy went pale. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say that he had no idea.

‘Are you going to Paris?’ I asked.

Riko shook her head. ‘Yes. No. All the trains are booked.’

Tom gave me a look as if to say, I told you so.

‘So you’re going home?’ I asked.

‘No way,’ she said. ‘We’re waiting for a cancellation.’

‘Riko, you don’t get it do you?’ I said. ‘Your parents are well worried about you. They haven’t a clue where you are or what’s happened.’

‘Chill. I was going to call my parents. I was only going to go for a couple of days. It would have been fine if
you
hadn’t interfered.’

‘What planet are you on, Riko?’ I asked. ‘You must have known they’d miss you.’