The Girl Who Came Back (20 page)

Jules was on her feet. ‘I just need to check on Mum.’

‘I’ll get someone up from the bar to stay with her while we’re gone,’ Kian said, and picking up his keys he made for the stairs.

After finding her mother dozing in front of the TV, Jules ran down to the bar, passing Romana, a sweet Polish girl who helped in the pub, on her way up to sit with Marsha.

It took her a while to get through the garden tables with so many people around that she knew, but eventually she found Kian in the car park with two of his cousins, Finn and Liam.

‘We’re going to tag along,’ Finn told her, ‘just in case we have to go searching the pubs in the village. It’ll be easier if there are more of us.’

Jules didn’t argue, or allow herself to engage with how anxious she was feeling, she simply climbed into the Range Rover and waited for Kian to start the engine.

Throughout the twenty-minute drive they scanned every inch of the roadside for any signs of a breakdown, or a hitch-hiker, or anything at all that might speak of Daisy, but the densely clustered wilderness beyond the lay-bys and ditches offered no more than shadowy glimpses of this impenetrable stretch of moor. They checked every passing car in case someone was giving Daisy a lift back to town; they even pulled over to examine an old trainer that Kian spotted in a pothole.

By the time they arrived at Crofton Park Jules was clutching her phone so hard her hands ached. While the rational side of her continued to insist there was a perfectly logical explanation for why Daisy wasn’t in touch, there was another side that couldn’t see anything logical about this at all.

Jumping out of the car as they came to a stop at the gates she went to ring the entryphone, trying to peer through the tiny cracks in the metal-studded wood to see into the grounds beyond. It wasn’t possible to make out any more than a sliver of roughly tarmacked driveway.

As Kian joined her she rang the bell again. ‘Someone has to be home,’ she muttered impatiently. ‘There are staff. Do they live in?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ he replied, signalling to Finn and Liam to come and give him a leg-up. Using their hands as a foothold he hoisted himself to the top of the gates and looked around. ‘Daisy!’ he shouted. ‘Daisy, are you in there?’

The only answer was the sweetly melodic sound of birds singing and the hum of distant traffic.

‘Can you see anyone?’ Finn asked.

Kian shook his head.

‘What about Amelia’s car?’ Jules wanted to know.

Again he shook his head. ‘I can’t see anything past the trees apart from the roof of the house.’

As he came down again Jules jabbed a finger to the bell and held it there.

‘They must have gone off to find the mother,’ Kian stated.

‘Or they’re in the village somewhere,’ Finn suggested. ‘Liam and I’ll go check it out.’

Jules’s heart leapt as her mobile rang, and thudded with hope when she saw it was Stephie again. ‘Have you heard from her?’ she gasped.
Please, please say that you have. Please. Please
.

‘No, nothing,’ Stephie replied. ‘Have you?’

‘No. We’re at Amelia’s now, but there’s no sign of them. Kian, call Anton Quentin again and ask if he knows where Amelia’s mother is.’

As Kian made the call, Jules said to Stephie, ‘I take it Dean didn’t have the number?’

‘I’m still waiting to hear from him. I guess his parents have got him on some religious love-in. You know, I reckon her phone’s run out of battery.’

‘It’s possible,’ Jules replied, clutching at the straw like a fading lifeline. ‘I should go. I’ll call as soon as we’ve found her.’

As she rang off Kian said, ‘I still can’t get through to Quentin, so I left another message,’ and clicking on the line again he said, abruptly, ‘Danny. What’s up?’ His eyes went to Jules. ‘No idea, mate, that’s what we’re trying to find out. Yeah, we’re up at Crofton Park now. Finn and Liam have just gone to check the village … OK, thanks. Let me know if you … Right, good.’ As he rang off he clicked on to take another call. ‘Ma? Are you OK?’

‘What’s going on?’ Jules heard Aileen shout down the line. ‘Where’s our Daisy?’

‘I’m not sure, Ma,’ he replied, looking paler than Jules could bear, ‘we’re trying to find her. I guess you didn’t hear from her?’

‘Not since this morning. I thought she’d broken off with that Quentin girl.’

‘She came to help her with a … situation. It’ll all be sorted out, so don’t you worry. There’s another call coming in now and it might be her.’ As he checked the ID he shook his head at Jules and said, ‘Hey, Terry. How are you doing?’

Jules’s phone was ringing now. It was Ruthie, followed by Bridget, followed by Trish and Steve … Word was spreading like wildfire; everyone wanted to know if it was true that Daisy was missing and to be told what they could do to help.

Though Jules knew they all meant well, she wished to God they’d stop calling, because their concern was pushing her right to the brink of all-out panic.

Mummy! Mummy! Help me, please
… The screams tore silently through the night, seeming as real to her as the terrible fear in her heart.

Shaking her head to try and stop the voices, she listened as Kian barked into his phone. ‘Finn? What news? Did you find her?’ As he listened to the reply his eyes remained bleak and Jules wanted to scream in frustration. ‘No sign of her so far in the village,’ he told Jules. ‘Let’s take a drive round to see if there’s a back way in.’

After following a track that hugged the perimeter wall they eventually came to another set of gates as impenetrable as those at the front, though smaller. Once again Jules tried the bell, but couldn’t even tell if it was working since there was no confirming buzzer, nor did it elicit a response.

Suddenly she said to Kian, ‘I think we should call the police.’

Pushing a hand through his hair he said, shakily, ‘She’s almost eighteen, and Amelia’s twenty-one. No one’s going to take anything seriously until they’ve been gone for at least forty-eight hours.’

‘But if we tell them she’s supposed to be getting a flight tomorrow …’

‘That might do it,’ he conceded. ‘And if we could tell them where the mother is …’

‘Well we can’t,’ Jules broke in furiously, ‘and that’s what’s really bothering me. I think the girl was lying again, and if I’m right then why did she want to see Daisy, and where the hell are they now?’

By the time they returned to the pub the estuary was basking in the kind of molten-gold sunset that made everything and everyone seem vaguely surreal. Jules could only wish she was in a dream as she and Kian found most of their friends and family waiting for the good news they didn’t have.

‘It’s not that late,’ someone said as they passed, ‘I’ll lay money she’s back here any minute.’

‘It’s not like her to make her parents worry,’ Jules heard someone else commenting. ‘She’s always such a considerate girl.’

‘Has anyone spoken to her boyfriend?’

‘He’s in the States. He probably doesn’t even know.’

‘Is it true Amelia’s mother upped and left her when she was a child?’

‘Poor thing.’

‘Daisy’s always been such a good friend to her.’

‘Daisy’s good to everyone. She’s like her parents in that respect. Can never do enough for you.’

‘Did anyone ask around the village to see if they knew where Amelia’s mother was these days?’

‘We did, me and Liam,’ Finn answered, ‘but we couldn’t find anyone.’

As Aileen took Jules’s icy hands, she said firmly, ‘Let’s go upstairs where it’s a bit quieter.’

Turning to Kian, Jules said, ‘How much longer did the police say we should wait?’

White-faced and tense, he said, ‘A couple more hours. If she isn’t back, or we haven’t heard from her by then, I’ll call someone higher up to see if I can get some action.’

As her head went down and he pulled her into his arms she longed for everyone else to leave. She didn’t want them all here for this reason; they were making everything feel so much more serious and foreboding.

‘Stephie’s just arrived,’ Kian whispered into her hair.

Jules turned round and seeing Stephie surrounded by most of the Performing Arts Society, she had a hard job holding back tears.

‘We weren’t sure if there was anything we could do,’ Stephie said, embracing Jules, ‘so we thought we’d come over and find out.’

‘Thanks, but I don’t think there’s anything for the moment,’ Jules replied. ‘It’s a bit of a waiting game, I’m afraid. Any word from Dean?’

‘Still nothing. I’m sure she’s all right,’ Stephie insisted, though Jules could see how worried she was.

‘Of course,’ Jules smiled. ‘Maybe they’ve seen Amelia’s mother, and things are going so well that Daisy doesn’t like to interrupt …’ Turning to Kian she said, ‘We should check the hospital in case there’s been an accident.’

‘I did that half an hour ago,’ Danny told them, swaggering in from outside, ‘nothing then, but it’s always worth checking again.’

Kian made the call and received the same response that Danny had.

‘Mary-Jane’s got her car,’ Stephie announced, ‘so we could drive up to Amelia’s again to see if they’re back yet.’

Realising they were desperate to do something, Jules waved them on and took the drink Misty was pushing into her hand. She watched Kian try to take the top off a pint and realised he was finding it as difficult to swallow as she knew she would if she tried. She hated seeing him like that, felt angry with him for it. She needed him to be his usual self, laughing, joking and so confident that Daisy would be back any minute that he could down his drink in one go, put the glass on the bar and order another.

‘Come on,’ Aileen whispered, ‘we ought to go check on your mother.’

They found Romana watching the TV alone.

‘She wanted to go to her room,’ Romana explained, ‘so I helped her there and she was fast asleep when I looked in a few minutes ago.’

After thanking the girl, Jules went with Aileen to Marsha’s room, and felt an awful weight come over her to see her slumped so awkwardly in an armchair, her knees gaping and yoghurt stains down her front. She looked so pathetic and undignified, so not the woman she used to be.

‘She needs putting to bed,’ Aileen said gently. ‘I’ll see to it, don’t you worry.’

Though she’d normally have insisted on doing it herself, or at least helping, Jules left Aileen to it and wandered along the hall into Daisy’s room. Though it was no longer the child’s underwater emporium it used to be, there were still a number of mermaids around, along with giant daisies in tall glass vases, posters on the sea-foam walls from various Performing Arts productions, and cleverly assembled montages of photographs of Daisy with Joe, or Kian, or her grannies. There were dozens more with her friends, and even more from across the years with her mother. The shot that had pride of place on a special table, along with various gifts from Joe and Ruby’s shoe, was one of her and Jules laughing fit to burst during one long hot summer at the lake.

Stepping over the open suitcase on the floor, she went to sit on the bed and taking out her phone she called Daisy’s number again. ‘Hey, sweetheart,’ she said hoarsely into the voicemail, ‘I know you’re probably trying to get hold of me and can’t for some reason, but don’t stop trying, OK? I’m keeping my phone with me, so’s Dad, and we can always come and get you.’ She sat quietly for a moment, not wanting to ring off, but not sure what else to say. ‘I hope you haven’t run into any difficulties with Amelia’s mother, presuming that’s where you’ve gone … She always seemed such a sweet lady the couple of times I saw her. Anyway, call me as soon as you can and let’s get you home. I can see from your suitcase that you’ve hardly made a start on your packing …’

As her voice trailed off she ended the call and buried her face in her hands. She hadn’t heard any imagined screams in a while and couldn’t be sure whether that was good or bad. Maybe it simply meant that her mind had gone into shutdown, except it hadn’t because she was still being tormented by the most terrible fears.

Hearing a message drop into Daisy’s mailbox, Jules went to sit at the laptop. Since Daisy had never been secretive, it was easy to see that her most recent emails and social-media messages were from Joe, wondering where she was and why he hadn’t heard from her all day.

Stop freaking me out, Daisy Daze, tell me you’re def still coming tomorrow.

OK, reckon you’re having some kind of techno breakdown over there, so just to let you know I’ll be at O’Hare to collect you tomorrow as arranged. Tickets to California booked for next Tuesday. Great news, my cousin Wendy and her husband can put us up in SF, and one of Dad’s ex-patients has the heart (ha ha, OK not funny) to give us his summer house for a week in Monterey. How lucky are we? Still trying to get tickets for Buena Vista Social Club at the Hollywood Bowl. Should be amazing if we can get them. Going to send you all this by text now in the hope your phone’s still working. LYM Jx

LYM
– love you madly.

Jules only knew that because Daisy had told her.

Wondering if she should message Joe to let him know there might be a delay in Daisy’s arrival, she checked to see if he was online right now. He didn’t seem to be, but she started to type anyway.

Hi Joe, it’s Jules here. I’m afraid Daisy’s gone off on some mad mission with Amelia to find Amelia’s mother and she hasn’t come back yet. Actually, we’re getting a bit worried in case they’ve broken down somewhere and can’t find a signal to call for help …

Looking at the words she saw how pathetic they were, even delusional, because even if there wasn’t a signal a passer-by would surely have stopped by now to offer assistance, or a lift …

Oh God, if they’d got into a stranger’s car …

Feeling her head starting to spin, she turned away from the computer and looked around the room again. Spotting Ruby’s shoe she took it from its special place and held it close to her heart.

‘Where is she, Ruby?’ she whispered desperately. ‘Please give me a clue if you can, or just let me know that she’s all right.’

Looking up as the door opened, she froze at the expression on Kian’s face. ‘What is it?’ she gasped, getting to her feet. ‘What’s happened?’