Shopaholic to the Rescue (28 page)

Every time I look at Rebecca’s staring face, I feel a little internal
Eek!
I’d almost started to think this “Rebecca” didn’t exist—but here she is. Finally I’m going to find out what this is all about. And it’s about bloody time too. Honestly, not knowing stuff is totally exhausting. How do detectives do it? How do they stay sane? I keep wondering
What if…
and
Could it be…
and
But surely…
until my brain feels like it might explode.

“We’re here!” Luke interrupts my thoughts, and I look eagerly out of the RV. The hotel is set way back from the road, with palm trees lining the driveway. It’s only a few stories high and is constructed out of some sort of red stone, so it blends perfectly into the landscape.

“I’ll park the RV,” says Luke. “You go and check in. Find your anti-namesake.” He raises his eyebrows at me, and I grin back. I think he’s quite interested to meet this Rebecca too.

It takes a bit of time at the front desk to organize all the rooms, and in the end Suze takes over. Danny spies a poster for the “Restorative Spa Package” and instantly decides he’s going to do that, because apparently his muscles and nerves have been “shot” by all this traveling. (Obviously it’s the traveling, not the staying-up-all-night-in-Las-Vegas and drinking-bourbon-laced-iced-teas-at-the-fair, which is to blame.) Meanwhile, I’ve found a whole leaflet about Rebecca Miades. I withdraw to the corner of the lobby, curl up in a big wooden chair, and start reading it avidly.

We at the High View Resort are proud to have Rebecca Miades as our resident spiritual counselor and psychic reader. Rebecca began her psychic studies while a student in India and has trained at the Alara Institute of Mysticism. She is delighted now to be practicing in the spiritual power center of Sedona, where beneath the famed red rocks swirl age-old vortexes, energies, and mystic forces that strengthen and empower the soul.

Wow. I didn’t realize Sedona had age-old vortexes. Let alone mystic forces. I glance around the hotel lobby, half-hoping to see evidence of a mystic force, but all I can see is an old lady tapping at her iPad. Maybe you have to go outside.

Rebecca can offer sacred-vortex tours, intuitive counseling, healing, aura reading, celestial art, angel communication…

Angel communication? I blink at the leaflet. As in…
angels
? I’ve never even heard of that. Or celestial art, which I suppose might be drawings of stars. A wind-chimey-type sound draws my attention, and I see a young man with longish hair coming through a beaded curtain. A badge on his shirt reads S
ETH
C
ONNOLLY,
C
USTOMER
W
ELFARE
. He smiles at me in an open, friendly way and notices the leaflet I’m holding.

“Are you interested in our New Age Center?” he asks pleasantly. “Would you like me to direct you there?”

“Um, maybe,” I say. “I’m just reading about Rebecca Miades.”

“Oh, Rebecca.” His face creases into a smile. “She’s, like, my favorite person in the world.”

“Really?” I wasn’t expecting that. “Er…why? What’s she like?”

“She’s so sweet and
good,
you know what I mean? And her work is amazing,” he adds earnestly. “She really helps the guests find spiritual enlightenment. She’s a qualified angel-therapy practitioner, if you were interested in that? Or, she can do card readings, aura readings….”

“Perhaps. She looks really attractive,” I add, trying to prod him into further revelations. “That hair!”

“Oh, her hair is her glory.” He nods. “She colors it every year. Blue…red…green…We told her she should change her name to Rainbow!” He gives a boyish laugh.

“So, could I see her, do you think?” I try to sound casual. “Make an appointment or something?”

“Sure!” he says. “She’s based at the New Age Center. She’s been away, but she might be back by now. If you go that way, one of the spirit mentors will be able to help you. Through there”—he points at the bead curtain—“all the way through the seating area, and you’ll find the New Age Center in back.”

“OK. Well, maybe I’ll stroll along. Thanks.”

As Seth walks off, I glance furtively around the lobby. Mum, Minnie, and Janice are looking at a display of dream catchers. Suze is still talking to the woman at the front desk. Danny is following a lady in a white uniform toward the Spa Center.

I think I might pop along and see this Rebecca for myself. Just quietly. Just me. As I stand up, I feel a spasm of nerves and firmly tell myself off. There’s no need to be nervous. This is only some woman from Dad’s past. No big deal.

With a musical clatter of beads, I push my way through the curtain. I’m standing in a large, airy area furnished with sofas and chairs, in which a few people are sitting, reading newspapers and magazines. There are palms in pots, a huge skylight, and a sign reading N
EW
A
GE
C
ENTER
,
and I’m about to head in that direction when a pair of shoes suddenly catches my attention. They’re sticking out from a large wicker armchair—a pair of scuffed suede men’s loafers. I know those shoes—I
know
them. There’s an elbow on the arm of the chair too. A very, very familiar elbow, just a little more tanned than usual.

“Dad?” My voice rockets out of me before I can stop it.
“Dad?”

The tanned elbow instantly jerks off the arm of the chair. The shoes move. The chair is pushed back with a scrape on the terra-cotta tiled floor. And the next moment I’m staring at Dad. Right here. In the flesh. My missing dad.

“Dad?”
I almost yell again.

“Becky! Darling!” He seems as shell-shocked as I am. “What— How on earth— Who told you I was here?”

“No one! We’ve been looking for you! We’ve been tracking you! We’ve been— Do you realize—” My whirling thoughts won’t quite make it into words. “Dad, do you realize—”

Dad closes his eyes as though in disbelief. “Becky, I
told
you not to, I
told
you to go home—”

“We were worried about you, don’t you understand?” I yell. “We were
worried
!”

All sorts of emotions are pushing their way through me, like hot lava through a volcano. I’m not sure if I feel relieved or happy or furious or I want to scream. Tears are on my face, I suddenly realize, but I have no idea how they got here. “You just went off,” I say, breathing fast. “You
left
us.”

“Oh, Becky.” He holds out his arms. “Love. Come here.”

“No.” I shake my head furiously. “You can’t just…Do you know what a state Mum’s been in? Mum!” I scream. “Muuuuuum!”

A moment later there’s an almighty clatter of beads as Mum, Janice, and Minnie all pile through the curtain.

“GRAHAM?”

I have literally never heard anything so shrill as Mum’s voice. It’s like a train whistle. We all flinch, and I can hear more chairs scraping as people turn to watch.

As she approaches Dad, her eyes are sparking with fury and her nostrils are flared.

“Where have you
BEEN
?”

“Jane,” says Dad, looking alarmed. “Now, Jane, I told you I had a little errand—”

“Little errand? I thought you were
DEAD
!” She collapses into racking sobs, and Dad throws his arms around her.

“Jane,” he croons. “Jane, my love. Jane, don’t worry.”

“How can I not worry?” Mum’s head jerks back like a cobra’s. “How can I not worry? I’m your
WIFE
!” She swings her arm and slaps Dad across the cheek.

Oh my God. I’ve never seen Mum hit Dad before. I feel quite shocked. Thankfully, Minnie is playing with the beaded curtain, so I don’t think she saw anything.

“Um, Minnie,” I say hastily. “Grandpa and Grana need to…er…talk.”

“Don’t you ever, ever disappear again.” Now Mum is clinging to Dad, tears running down her face. “I thought I was a widow!”

“She did,” confirms Janice. “She was looking up her insurance policies.”

“A
widow
?” Dad gives a shout of incredulous laughter.

“Don’t you laugh at me, Graham Bloomwood!” Mum looks like she might wallop Dad again.
“DON’T YOU DARE!”

“Come on, sweetheart.” I grab Minnie’s hand and push through the beaded curtain, my heart still thumping. A moment later, Janice joins me and we look at each other in disbelief.

“What’s up?” says Suze, turning from the front desk. “What’s your mum yelling about? She’s not on about the correct pronunciation of ‘scone’ again, is she?”

Mum once took Suze and me out to tea at a posh hotel and had an altercation with a member of staff about how to say “scone,” and Suze has never forgotten it.

“No,” I say, feeling almost hysterical. “She’s not. Suze, you will not
believe
this….”

—

It takes two large Arizona Breezes to calm me down. (Gin, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice—
delicious
.) So God knows how many drinks Mum will need. Dad’s here. We’ve found him. After all our searching, all our angst…he was just calmly sitting in an armchair, reading the paper. I mean…
what
?

I can barely sit still. All I want to do is go back into that seating area and quiz Dad relentlessly, till I understand everything: every single tiny little thing. But Suze won’t let me.

“Your mum and dad need space,” she keeps saying. “Let them alone. Give them time. Be patient.”

She won’t even let me creep past them to go and check out the famous Rebecca. Nor has she run in to demand news of Tarkie. So we’ve all come outside onto the front veranda of the hotel and are sitting on wicker chairs, swiveling round sharply whenever we hear a sound. I say “all,” but, actually, Luke has gone off to the business center to catch up on his emails. The rest of us are sitting here, though, feeling like life has been put on hold while we wait. It’s been half an hour, at least—

And then suddenly there they are, swooshing back through the beaded curtain. Mum looks like she’s run a marathon, while Dad seems startled to see the assembled group and flinches as everyone starts exclaiming, “Graham!” and “Where’ve you been?” and “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” he keeps saying. “Ah, yes. I’m fine, we’re all fine….Goodness! I had no idea….Well, here we are, anyway. Would anyone like a snack? Drink? Ah…shall we order something?” He seems pretty flustered. Which is also unlike Dad.

When we’re all seated with drinks and snacks and “light bites” menus, the chatter dies down. One by one, we turn again toward Dad.

“So, come on,” I say. “Why did you dash off? Why the big secret?”

“Why couldn’t you just
tell
us what was going on?” says Suze tremulously. “I got so worried….”

“Oh, my dear Suze.” Dad’s face creases in distress. “I know. I’m so sorry. I had no idea….” He hesitates. “I simply came across a huge injustice. And I had to right it.”

“But, Graham, why was it all so cloak and dagger?” says Janice, who is sitting beside Mum. “Poor Jane’s been beside herself, thinking all sorts!”

“I know.” Dad rubs his face. “I know that now. I suppose I was foolish enough to think that if I told you not to worry, then you wouldn’t. And the reason I didn’t tell you the whole story at first…” He gives another sigh. “Oh, I feel so ridiculous.”

“The Big Bonus,” I say, and Dad nods, without looking up.

“It’s a fine thing,” he says heavily, “to be caught out in a lie like that at my time of life.”

He looks really unhappy. I don’t know whether to feel sorry for him or angry.

“But Dad,
why
?” I can’t help my exasperation slipping out. “
Why
did you tell us you were earning consultancy money? You didn’t need to invent a Big Bonus. You could have told us it was money from Corey. It wouldn’t have mattered!”

“Darling, you don’t understand. Not long after you were born, I lost my job. No reason in particular: It was a time of general cutbacks. But your mother…” He hesitates. “She didn’t react very well.”

He says this with typical Dad understatement, but he probably means,
She threw the crockery at me.

“I was anxious!” says Mum defensively. “Anyone would be anxious! I had a little one; our income had plummeted….”

“I know,” says Dad soothingly. “It was a worrying time.”

“You coped very well, love,” says Janice, putting a supportive hand on Mum’s. “I remember that time. You did wonders with mince.”

“I was out of work for a few months. Things were tricky.” Dad takes up the story. “And then, out of the blue, I received a letter from Corey. Not just a letter, a check too. He’d been making an income for a while, but suddenly he was into serious money. He remembered our jokey deal and he’d actually honored it. He sent me five hundred pounds. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

“You have no idea what five hundred pounds was in those days,” chimes in Mum eagerly. “You could buy…a house!”

“Not a house,” corrects Dad. “Maybe a secondhand car.”

“That money saved our lives,” says Mum with typical drama. “It saved your life, Becky love! Who knows if you wouldn’t have starved to death?”

I can see Suze opening her mouth to protest something like,
Surely there was a welfare system,
and I shake my head. Mum’s in the moment. She won’t want to hear about welfare systems.

“But that’s when I made my huge mistake.” Dad is silent for a long moment, and we all wait, hardly even breathing. “It was vanity,” he says at last, “sheer vanity. I wanted your mother to be proud of me. Here we were, not long married, new parents, and I’d gone and lost my job. So…I lied. I invented a piece of work and told her I’d earned the money.” His face kind of crumples. “Stupid. So stupid.”

“I remember you running round to see me, Jane!” Janice’s face brightens. “I was hanging out my washing, remember? You came sprinting in, saying, ‘
Guess
what my clever husband’s done!’ I mean, we were all so relieved.” She looks around the group. “You don’t know what the strain had been like, what with Becky’s arrival and bills going up every day….” She leans across and pats Dad’s arm. “Graham, don’t blame yourself. Who wouldn’t tell a little fib in those circumstances?”