Seeker (11 page)

She closed the book and stood up. As soon as she was on her feet one of her cats jumped into her seat and curled itself into a ball.

“Make sure you keep it warm for me,” she said, smiling. The cat, this one a ginger tom she called Garth after the most famous ginger cat in cartoon history, ignored her completely, snuggling his head beneath his paws. Lilly wasn't surprised; Garth was very much a cat of his own mind.

She walked over to the bay window, her slim shadow flickering on the rear wall of her living room by the flames burning around the logs in the fireplace. The storm had kicked up some time ago, but nonetheless the top window was open a crack, letting in the fresh sea air, clearing the humidity out of the house quite nicely.

That what she liked about living along the seafront at Chalkwell, she got the best of all weathers. When the sun was out and the day was truly clear she had the best view from her bedroom of the Thames Estuary as it branched out past the Isle of Sheppey towards the North Sea, and opposite her house, miles away, Kent. Equally when the storm was out, she got the wonderful view of the waves ripping up at high tide. It was a win/win for her, being a lover of all seasons.

From the bay window of the living room, though, the only view she got was of her back garden. The wind was whipping up, casting the small tree at the far end of the garden from side to side, rustling the bushes that lined the…

Lilly blinked, certain she could see a shape leaning tightly against one of the wet bushes, as if trying to seek some kind of cover from the storm. Never being a woman scared of the unknown, Lilly went to the kitchen and switched on the garden floodlights. The shape was a person, seemingly naked, who pushed themselves even closer to the bush, now seeking cover from the light as well as the rain.

Well
, she thought,
can't have that in my garden
.

She grabbed a pair of wellies from the outhouse and emerged into the garden.

“Excuse me,” she said, her voice raised against the wind. “Who are you?”

The person looked up and for a second Lilly was sure she saw a pair of red eyes looking at her, but decided it must have been a trick of the light.
And
, she considered ruefully,
how many times has that excuse been used in tales of horror to hide the sheer stupidity of people
?

The person continued to look at her, drawing her in.

“Well?” she asked again, not willing to go any nearer.

“I…” The person stood up, and revealed itself to be a man. Completely naked.

In the light she could see that he was quite thin, his musculature evident but not in a way that looked silly on such a slim form, and for a second she felt her eyes lower to his genitals, which, she assumed, were reacting badly to the cold weather.
Not that that matters
, she added to herself with a slight smile.

He wasn't especially tall, could be no more than 5” 10, with dark hair and thin eyebrows. His eyes were narrow, and definitely had a strange redness to them.

He stepped closer to her, but she felt no sense of threat and so held her ground, allowing the naked man to come nearer.

“I…don't know,” he said, stumbling over the words like he'd never used them before. “Who am I?”

07.

They were on their way to the Greasy Spoon, and Jake had convinced Mike to stop off en route at Will's. Jake got out of Mike's little white van, and poked his head back in. “Give me five minutes.”

“No problem, pal,” Mike said.

Before entering Will's house Jake looked around the still damp street, checking for Will's car, and almost panicked when he couldn't see it. Then he remembered it had been taken in for repairs on Wednesday, and Will was only due to pick it up today. It was still early and if Will had got back really late last night then he was probably still asleep and hadn't even stepped out of the house yet, let alone gone to pick the car up.

Think good thoughts, Jakey-boy. Worked for Peter Pan
.

Unfortunately he was no Peter Pan and flying was not on the agenda today, as he noticed within seconds of stepping inside the house. He checked upstairs just in case, but it only confirmed his initial assessment. Everything was exactly as he'd left it the previous night.

Just as he was about to head back out of the house, he thought to check the answering machine, on the off chance that somehow Will had lost his mobile and had called his house phone to get in touch with Jake. Will was good with numbers, but thanks to the ease of speed-dial and clicking on a person's name, mobiles had a habit of making people lazy when it came to remembering phone numbers. The one number even Will was sure to remember was his home.

There was one message, but not from Will. It was Steve asking Will to call him as soon as he got up to discuss the Kurt situation, seeing as the investigation would be concluded in the next couple of days. It seemed Steve had made the same assumption that Jake had made; that Will had got home really late and was thus so tired he just went straight to bed with the intention of letting people know he was okay the next morning.

But no. No coming home for Willem.

Hoping Mike wouldn't mind waiting a little bit longer, Jake called the High Street Ken store, having all the numbers for the shops on his own phone. You never knew which coffee shop Will would be at on any given day, and so it made sense to keep all the shop numbers just in case. He waited a moment while a young guy called Ryan put him through to Steve.

“Hey, Jake, how's it going? Not seen you about for a while.”

Jake had no time for small talk, but still…“Been busy, guy, you know. Is Will about?”

“Nope, not heard from him since he left for Southend. He should be in touch soon, though.”

“Yeah,” Jake said, his voice barely a mumble, “hope so.” It was as Jake had feared. He hoped that, perhaps, Will had already called Steve to check up on things. Bad enough that Will hadn't bothered contacting those closest to him, but Jake would have expected him to keep abreast of work issues. The coffee shops were his life. “I'm actually calling from his place now. He hasn't come home.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. “Oh. When did you last hear from him?”

“Friday night. He was heading to a night club with this Charlie guy.”

“Yeah, Will told me about him.” Jake bit his tongue. Right now, though, he wasn't out to cast blame, he merely wanted to find out why Will hadn't returned, then he'd do the blaming. “Guess he's having a good time, then,” Steve continued. “No drama. When he does get in touch tell him I'll keep an eye on things for him, but remind him he needs to be here by Thursday, 'cos then we've got to sort out the shit with Kurt.”

“Right.” Jake didn't even say goodbye, annoyed by Steve's lack of concern, and put the phone down.

He didn't really know Steve that well, but from Will he got the impression that Steve was a bit of a wild one. Maybe for him dropping everything and staying away for a few days without warning was perfectly normal, but for Will…? Not so much.

He rubbed his hand over his head, feeling the stubble. Work was the last thing on his mind, but he knew he had to at least show up. But he had no intention of sticking around for long. He had a few people to see today. People who needed to be made aware of Will's absence.

* * *

“What I tell you? One day he be trouble.”

The look Mrs. Adomako gave her husband wasn't hard to read, and Jake took a little pleasure in the affront written on his face as a result. It wasn't often that Will's mother got the upper hand with Eon Adomako, but once in a while that old Chiswick fire came out and the Guyana man knew better than to push it. So he just sat back in the chair, and returned to his paper.

Jake was sure Eon was glued to the chair, since whenever he visited the old man was always sitting there, either watching the TV (which explained a lot about Lawrencia, Jake considered) or reading his newspapers, a pile of which were sitting on the little metal table by the side of his chair.

At least Mrs. Adomako wasn't rooted to one spot; already she'd been pottering about her kitchen preparing Jake a snack and some tea, glad to see him again. It wasn't often that Jake came to see her, but when he was a kid he spent so much time in this house she almost became something of a surrogate mother, and, of course, after his own mom died in the winter of '89 she essentially became his foster mother. A few years later, once his dad opted to return to America, he practically moved into the house, even taking over Will's room for a while once Will moved on when he started college. It was something of a sore point between him and Will that he had a better relationship with Mrs. Adomako than Will.

“How's the tea?” she asked, settling back into the sofa, now that she had silenced her husband.

“It's good, thanks,” Jake replied, glad that Eon was no longer involved in the conversation. They'd never really got on, mostly because of his relationship to Will. So far he'd told Mrs. Adomako everything about the current situation regarding her son, although he neglected to mention the internet romance angle since he doubted she would understand, he still wasn't entirely sure he did himself, and so had just played it as if Will was going to meet some internet “friend,” which was somehow easier for her to understand. They'd tried getting her into the joys of net usage in the past, but with little success. The World Wide Web was pretty much an alien world to her still.

She agreed it was unusual for her son to disappear like this; he'd never been in trouble before, even as a kid he was always well behaved. “What can we do?”

“Well,” Jake said, placing his teacup on the coaster that had been placed on the arm of the sofa, “I think we need to go to the police and report him as a missing person.”

“Isn't that a bit drastic?”

Jake shrugged his shoulders. “Probably, and I'm no doubt overreacting here, but dare we risk it? Anything could have happened, and if something bad has happened then it's best the police have a head start in their investigation.”

Jake watched her as she took it in, and he could see she was more worried than she liked to admit. He didn't blame her, but he needed her support in this. “This is definitely out of character, especially considering the stuff he's got going on at work,” he added, just to make sure she got the point.

Mrs. Adomako sat forward, decision made. “Okay, when do you want to go?”

At this Eon put his newspaper down roughly. “We not going to no police station.”

Jake turned on him. “I wasn't asking you to go,” he snapped. “This is about Will, and you've made it clear many times over that he has nothing to do with you.”

Eon went to stand up, but Mrs. Adomako told him to sit back down. Once he was, she added; “Jake's right, this is about Will, and I will not stand by if something bad has happened. I stood by when Lawrencia took off, and look what happened there.” She turned away, and sniffed back a sob. That she still blamed herself was obvious.

Jake smiled softly, warmed by this. When Will came home Jake would take great pleasure in telling him about this, both the way his mother had put Eon down, and more importantly the way she had stood her ground to help Will.

“Thanks,” he said, “first I'm going to talk to Mr. Townsend. If both of Will's parents are there, showing a united front, the police will have to listen.” At least Jake hoped they would. He wasn't up with the latest police procedures, but he suspected a capable adult not returning home would probably not register too high on their risk assessment. Nonetheless he had to try something.

* * *

Amy had agreed to meet Jake at Centre Point, since she was already in the West End meeting clients. Jake was happy to do so, as it took him out of Chiswick and away from the areas that reminded him so much of Willem. He had already arranged to meet Mr. Townsend in a few hours, so a break for lunch suited him just fine.

The weather had kicked into high gear again, but not one to be fooled and caught out by any sudden storm like the previous night, Jake kept his jeans on this time, with his jumper tied about his waist so that his arms at least gained a little benefit from the sun. He also carried his light jacket, since his usual heavy-duty coat was just too much to lug around London on the off chance of bad weather.

No sooner had he got off the 88 than he got a message from Amy saying how she fancied some McDonald's for a change. This worked well for Jake since he rather fancied a Big Mac himself, and so he popped into the restaurant at the top end of Oxford Street just before the Tottenham Court Road junction.

They now sat on the wall edging the water fountains, adjacent to the Centre Point Tower, which stood like claws reaching to the sky. As was the norm it was a case of hit or miss as to whether the fountain would be on, but they were lucky to have chosen a day when the fountains were deactivated, which saved them, as well as passers-by, the inconvenience of being randomly sprayed by misty water.

They were not the only people availing themselves of the non-active fountains, and so were sitting a lot closer to each than was comfortable given the heat of the sun blaring down on them. But they both decided to forebear in light of enjoying each other's company.

Amy was dressed in her usual smart skirted suit, although she had taken the blazer off so she was now in shirtsleeves, which contrasted sharply with Jake's own “whatever he could find” mismatch of clothes.

She popped the lid of her cappuccino and sipped the hot liquid. “Ergh, McD's don't really make the best coffee, do they?” she said, with a grimace.

“A common consensus there. This is why I'll stick with one of their vanilla thick shakes.” To prove his point, Jake sucked at the straw around which he'd spoken, and let out a satisfied ahh.

“Hmm, but vanilla? It's so…”

“Vanilla?”

“Boring.”

“Yet still lovely.”

They both laughed, and Jake had to admit it felt good. Laughs were not plentiful in the last few days for him. Amy watched him, and reached out and placed a hand on his leg.

“How'd things go with Will's mother?”

“Well. She's onboard, so now it's just a case of getting Mr. Townsend to agree.”

“Potential problem?”

“Not so much, no. There's no issue between Will and his dad really, but Mr. Townsend went a bit odd after the divorce, turned to God, all the usual shit.”

“Nothing wrong with a belief in something bigger.”

“Agreed, but there's a difference between turning to religion and becoming obsessed by it.” Jake shrugged. “Whatever, it's his thing and it did him well, I guess. Maybe my own dad would have dealt with my mom's death better if he'd found some religion. Don't know.”

Amy nodded, her eyes searching. “You'll have to tell me about this sometime, we can compare childhood trauma stories,” she added with a wink.

Jake smiled softly, still amazed at how easily she calmed him. Even when talking about deeply painful stuff, just looking into her eyes made everything seem okay. Not for the first time he thought she'd missed her calling. Counselling would have suited her so well.

“Deal. Speaking of childhood trauma, I had this wild idea and not too sure how you'll feel about it, since you clearly didn't think much of Lawrencia…”

“Girl's got problems,” Amy said, nodding.

“Tell me about it. But problems you'll possibly relate to? Having gone through something similar…well, vicariously through your mother?”

“I suppose we did at that.” Amy pondered this, clearly not over impressed by the idea.

“With your ability to soothe and relate, you're so qualified. Don't do it for Ren, if that's sticking in your craw, but for Curtis. Shiites coming on, and the kid is caught up in it.”

Amy stared daggers at him, but folded. “Oh, okay, for Curtis's sake. But like I told you last night, coming out of an abusive relationship is not easy, and don't think for a second the intervention of someone who's basically a stranger will do the job.”

Jake put his milkshake on the wall beside him and took her hands in his. “But it means a lot to me that you'll try. It'll be a weight off my mind while I try and sort this crap with Will out.”

Amy leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead. “You're a rogue at times, Jacob, but you're also very generous of heart.”

Jake grinned, and put a finger to his lips. “Shh, don't tell anyone, I have a rep to maintain.”

Amy laughed. “Your secret is safe with me. Promise.”

Although he didn't want to say anything, Jake was sure he could easily fall in love with this woman, if he wasn't already.

“I'm glad you came out and spoke to me that night, you know?”

Amy didn't answer, she simply smiled, and Jake knew without a doubt that he was falling big time.

* * *

“Jacob, it's been a while, sir, please come in.”

Mr. Townsend ushered Jake into his little flat, glancing along the balcony left and right before closing the door.

Jake remained standing in the hallway, feeling like an intruder. He had only visited the flat a couple of times over the years, never really feeling comfortable with the spiritually minded for some reason, and each time Will had been with him. When it came to visiting what used to be the old Townsend family home, now the Adomako home, Jake felt perfectly at ease and happy to wander freely, regardless of the steely gaze of Eon. But here, in this flat, he was little more than a visitor and despite the path Mr. Townsend had taken in his life Jake still respected him far too much to just assume he had the run of the flat.