Times of Trouble (20 page)

‘
We’re looking for
Paediatrics. We have to see Dr Cheng,’ I blurted out.

We must have looked
so panicked she assumed we were visiting our sick child. She looked
at us with the sort of pity that nurses must use every day, and
directed us down the corridor, to another lift area, and up to
level four. A sign above two large swing doors pointed us in the
direction of Paediatrics, and we finally got to a nursing station,
with a nurse sitting behind it.

Liam hurried forward.
‘Is Dr Cheng here? We urgently need to see him. It’s about our…
nephew…Charlie. He was referred here on Saturday… Can you tell us
if he is still here?’

I realised there were
going to be the same privacy issues as at the medical centre, but
Liam hadn’t considered this.

‘
Dr Cheng isn’t
working at the moment,’ the nurse explained. ‘But I can tell you if
a patient is still here. What was the name?’

Liam didn’t hesitate.
‘Charlie Patterson’.

The nurse obediently
checked her records.

‘
Here he is. He
wasn't admitted…’

Shit. Dead end. Liam
didn’t hide his frustration, covering his face with his hands in an
effort not to scream. The nurse looked at us, puzzled as to why we
were visiting a patient who had never stayed in the hospital. I
jumped in before she could ask any questions.

‘
We’re really worried
about Charlie. He’s my nephew, and my sister is a bit unstable. We
want to make sure he’s ok. Are they due back for a check up at
all?’

I was doing my best
to act flustered and afraid, hoping the nurse would take pity on
us. She was still looking at the screen.

‘
He should be fine,
he’s having a home visit every two days for the next week to make
sure the croup is clearing up…’

‘
Home visit?’ Liam
chipped in.

He turned to me and
said: ‘Do you think she’s living at Shane’s, or at her place in Dee
Why?’

I quickly caught on
to what he was doing. I shook my head and then looked at the
nurse.

‘
We don’t know
whether she’s gone back to her boyfriend. He beats her up, but she
never stays away for long…’

The nurse looked like
she didn’t want to get involved. Before I could think of anything
else to say, Liam lent over the desk, and pulled the computer
screen around to face us. The nurse yelped, and tried to grab it
back, but Liam needed more time to read the page. I grabbed the
woman by the wrist, and tried to twist her away from the computer.
She struggled, and opened her mouth to shout, but I let go before
she had time to say anything. Liam had the information he needed,
and he bolted from the desk. I chased after him, not looking back
to see if anyone was following. The lift doors were opening for
someone else as we rounded the corner, and threw ourselves
in.

‘
5/89 Beach Parade,
Dee Why… it was on the notes… you’ve got to help me remember, I
don’t have a pen…’ He only had to tell me once; the address was now
imprinted on my brain.

‘
It’s not the fake
address It must be where she is… if the nurse is booked to visit
she must still be there…’ I puffed, doing my best to keep up with
him as he sprinted towards the car park.

The journey down the
car park levels was far too fast and, at times, quite scary. But I
wasn’t going to complain, as long as Liam could control the car,
and didn’t get pulled over for speeding. We were on our way back to
Dee Why, and I couldn’t think of a reason why Sophie wouldn’t be
there.

‘
I can’t believe
she’s living in a flat. How on earth did she manage that?’ I
asked.

‘
There’s no reason
why she couldn’t get a flat. Not all leases are organised by real
estate agents. Some people rent out their flats themselves, and
aren’t as concerned about references and ID and things, as long as
they get their rent.’

That was
true.

‘
Thank goodness
Charlie is ok. I’m sure the nurse visits are just a precaution. I
was worried there might be something seriously wrong with
him.’

Liam didn’t respond,
but he looked at me with surprise, as if Charlie’s health hadn’t
even occurred to him. His focus was on Sophie. Every metre of road
we covered was a layer of stress peeling off him. He was sure we
were going to find her, and I was starting to be sure as well. I
almost picked up my phone to call mum, but hesitated long enough to
decide against it, knowing there was no point getting her hopes up
until we had Sophie with us.

Again I opened the
street directory, and explained that the apartment was a few blocks
behind where we had just been at the medical centre. I guessed
Sophie would take Charlie to the closest doctor, but I also noticed
that there were thousands of people who would count the Dee Why
medical centre as their closest doctor. Having an address was more
than helpful; it was completely essential. We left the main road,
and were soon at the start of Beach Parade.

’
57….63….slow down,’
I instructed. ‘That’s the one, apartment five.’

Before I could
suggest our next move, Liam had jumped from the car, having barely
taken the keys out of the ignition. I had to struggle for a moment
to undo my seatbelt, so by the time I ran through the entry gate,
Liam was well ahead of me. He was bounding up the outside stairs,
clearing three steps at a time. Halfway up the stairs, I could hear
him knocking excitedly on the door. But nothing happened. He
knocked again. As I joined him on the landing, a sound in the
apartment made us both jump. A door slamming. A back door. Shit!
Liam pushed me aside, and almost fell down the stairs in his rush.
When I reached him at ground level, he was looking desperately for
a way to get to the back of the building. But the block of flats
was quite old, and was attached to other buildings on both sides.
The only way to get behind it was to run all the way along the
street, turn left, and then look for the back lane.

‘
There must be a back
entrance!’ I yelled, as I started to run.

Liam quickly caught
up. As we made the left turn, we saw a car pull out of the lane
ahead of us, and speed off down the road. Dust and sand billowed
behind it, but I saw enough of the back of the driver’s head to
know what had happened. Sophie’s car was parked out the back, and
she’d made a quick escape. I stopped running, feeling my legs ache,
and my chest burn. Liam ran straight on, somehow believing he could
catch the car. But it was long gone, and eventually he stopped, and
turned around, trudging back towards me looking
devastated.

‘
It was her. I saw
her hair. Short, peroxide blonde,’ I said.

‘
FUCK!!!!!’ he
screamed into the air, his face turned upwards as if cursing some
higher force. I was too disappointed to react. It was the first
time I had seen Sophie in over seven years, and I didn’t even see
her face. Just the back of her head, disappearing into the
night.

‘
She won’t be back.
She thinks someone dangerous has found her,’ I said. ‘We should
have talked about this more. She must have seen you through the spy
hole in the door. Of course she would be terrified of
strangers.’

Liam turned and
glared at me. ‘How the fuck was I to know she was going to
run?’

‘
You should have let
me go first. She wouldn’t have run if she’d seen me.’

He didn’t respond,
but ran back towards the car. Before I could get there, he jumped
in, and drove towards me, winding his window down. ‘I’m going after
her,’ he shouted. ‘You stay here, and see if you can get into the
flat. She might have left some stuff behind that could help us find
her. I’ll come back for you.’

He drove off before I
could argue. The sudden realisation that I might have just seen my
sister for the last time filled me with a fierce dread. How would I
explain this to mum? Hot angry tears ran down my cheeks, and I
balled my hands into fists, looking around for something to shove
or throw. How could we have stuffed this up so badly? It was our
one chance, and now she was gone. The needle was back in the
haystack.

Liam had turned his
anger into action. I didn’t like his chances of catching up to her,
but he might as well try. I wiped my face on my sleeve, trying to
pull myself together. Maybe Liam was right, and her flat would have
a clue to where she had gone. I didn’t like my chances of breaking
in through the front door; it had been solid, with two locks. I
trudged around the corner. A bit further along the street was the
small pot-holed lane that Sophie had driven out from. It had other
residents’ cars parked in small garages, and white lined parking
spaces. Sophie’s building was close to the end of the lane, and I
could see back stairs similar to the front ones. If Liam had just
waited for a second longer, we could have worked out there was a
back entrance, and made sure we had it covered before going to the
front door.

I walked up the
stairs to the third level, expecting to be confronted by a locked
back door. I had heard the door slam from all the way outside the
flat. It would probably be as solid as the front. But as I got
closer, it looked as if the door wasn’t flush against the door
frame. I pushed on it, and it swung open.

My first thought when
I went into the flat was that no one could possibly be living
there. Unlike when I walked into Liam’s borrowed house, and saw
remnants of his mess all over every surface, this flat was
pristine. At first glance, it looked completely devoid of personal
possessions. But then I noticed a baby bottle drying on the kitchen
sink, and a magazine lying open on the kitchen counter. The fridge
also had some evidence of life, with milk, baby food and yoghurt
sitting on the top shelf. It occurred to me that Sophie hadn’t been
here for long, and hadn’t felt able to turn it into a home, not
knowing whether she would have to leave suddenly, and never come
back. She couldn’t have had time to pack anything when Liam knocked
on the door. She would have just grabbed Charlie, and
run.

I went into the
bedroom. The bed was made and there was nothing hanging in the
cupboards. Did Sophie still wear dresses? Or had she changed that
look to suit her undercover life? As I stepped past the cupboard, I
saw a sports bag lying next to the bed, full of clothes. There was
a baby-sized singlet, and some jeans on top. Sophie lived so
carefully, she didn’t even unpack her bag. But Liam had frightened
her so much she hadn't time to grab it from the bedroom. Now she
was running without her things, so we’d made it even harder for
her.

I emptied the bag
onto the bed, interested to see what possessions Sophie had carried
with her. There were a couple of outfits for her and for Charlie,
as well as some toiletries, and pills in a small makeup bag. The
pills were prescribed for Charlie, obviously to treat the croup the
nurse had mentioned. At the bottom of the bag, there was a tattered
City Rail train timetable. I opened it to see if it told me
anything, but it was just rows and rows of timetable information.
This must have been the timetable Katie used to plan her doomed
trip to Central Station. The empty bag still had some weight to it,
and I realised there was a side pocket that had something in it.
The zip was hidden on the inside lining, and as I opened it, a
small notebook fell out. I went to open it, and see what it was
when my phone rang. It was Liam.

‘
I couldn’t see her.
There’s a lot of places she could have gone. I’m coming back. Did
you get into the flat?’

I felt suddenly
protective of Sophie’s little flat. It didn’t exactly tell me much
about her: if anything I was surprised she had it in her to be so
tidy. But that just showed how much pressure she was under. She
couldn’t relax for long enough to make this flat feel anything but
sterile and unloved.

‘
Yeah, she left the
back door open. I’m just having a look. She’s left her clothes, but
there isn’t much else of interest. It doesn’t look as if she’s been
here very long.’

‘
I’ll meet you there.
I’m just around the corner.’

I put the notebook in
my pocket, not ready to share it with Liam yet. I was pissed off he
had avoided discussing what went wrong, and I just wanted to get
home and have this day over with. I waited, feeling depressed,
until Liam walked through the back door.

‘
Do you think it’s
worth staying here, and waiting for her to come back?’ he
asked.

‘
No, like I said, she
won’t come back. If she was scared enough to run, she won’t give
these people another chance to find her.’

Liam nodded. ‘Where’s
her stuff? This place is pretty sparse.’

I pointed at the
sports bag, and he rifled through it, commenting on Charlie’s
pills, the train timetable and the small amount of clothes. After a
few minutes, he admitted nothing in the flat was of any use. I said
I’d take the bag in the hope I would be able to return Sophie’s
things to her. Having seen Sophie, getting so close, but not having
a chance to speak to her made me even more determined to find
her.

I wondered how she
was coping with Charlie. Seeing his tiny clothes folded in her bag
had made him real for me. It couldn’t have been easy looking after
him, whilst trying to keep herself safe, and running at a knock on
the door.