Times of Trouble (4 page)

I remembered I
thought Sophie was the most beautiful person ever. And she used to
be my friend, before all the yelling and crying. She had huge green
eyes, and long black eyelashes. Her hair was such a dark brown she
told people it was black, just like dad’s. I remember she used to
spend hours and hours in her room dressing up, putting on mum’s old
clothes and swanning around in high heeled shoes. She always had
The Beatles blaring from her stereo. Sometimes she would let me
come in, if I promised to help her put makeup on.

But everything
changed between us after dad left. We never spent any time
together, because I was scared of her. When I was practising the
piano, she would turn her stereo up even louder to drown me out.
And she would tell me I was just a frumpy nerd, with a piano as my
only friend. She wasn’t far wrong.

She promised to call
when she got to London, but she never did. Mum and I had one
postcard from her, a couple of months after she left. It was a
photo of London Bridge, and it read: ‘Hi Mum and Ellen, I’ve got an
audition for a play in the West End. Told you I was going to be a
star! I’ll send all my loving to you xx’.

I remembered mum
saying at the time: ‘Pity she doesn’t write home
everyday’.

I didn’t understand
then how sad mum was that she never heard from Sophie. I always
assumed Sophie had become some sort of West End stage star, not big
enough that we ever heard of her, but well known and loved, so she
didn’t need a family anymore. We were all the way back in Adelaide,
and she was living a real life in London.

As time went by, I
asked about her less and less, because I could tell mum didn’t want
to talk about it. She didn’t want to admit her eldest daughter had
left us, just like dad. Eventually we never spoke of Sophie at all.
Sometimes I wondered where she was, and what she was doing. But
most of the time this day dreaming was jealousy and resentment. She
was off living her exciting London life, and she never even
wondered what was going on with us. I guess I tried to make up for
it by being really good at the piano.

But now she was back
in our lives. I felt a mixture of worry and anger. Especially
because I suddenly understood where all the money had gone. It was
spent trying to find her! And that spending meant we almost lost
our house, the one she was so desperate to leave as soon as she
could. And now I’d gone and sold my piano; as she put it, my only
friend.

Mum was so lost in
her own thoughts she wasn’t listening to me anymore. Maybe she was
remembering Sophie, like I was.

‘
Mum, hello, is she
still in London?’

Mum shook her head.
She looked scared to speak, as she could see the anger rising in
me.

‘
No, she was in
London for a long time. Liam managed to work out that she flew to
Sydney recently.’

Unbelievable. She had
come back to Australia, and was only a two hour plane trip from
home, yet she didn’t feel it necessary to get in contact with us?
What had we done to deserve this?

‘
So you’re telling me
you’ve paid this private investigator $80,000 to find Sophie, and
he hasn’t managed to do that yet?’

I felt very hostile.
Sophie was still missing, and this Liam person had $80,000, which
is a shit load of money to be given for three months’ work, even
with expenses. Who the hell was this person?

‘
I can see you are
hurt, Ellen. You are hurt I didn’t tell you about this when it
happened, and you have always felt hurt that Sophie disappeared
from our lives. But there are lots of things you don’t know, and
Liam is doing a good job.’ Who was she trying to convince? ‘When we
get home I’ll show you all the correspondence I’ve had with him
since I gave him the job. Then you’ll know as much as I do. He
keeps me regularly updated via email.’

‘
Mum, I want to meet
with this guy. Or at the very least speak to him. I think it’s time
I got a lot more involved in this...situation.’

The look on mum’s
face gave away her amazement that I was offering to help. It
reminded me how weak she must have thought I was; what a hopeless
invalid she had for a daughter. But this was no time to feel sorry
for myself. If ever there was a time in my life to get it together,
it was now.

We had hardly gone
far by this time, but after what I had discovered, I just wanted to
turn around and go back to the car. Mum powered forward though,
determined to finish the walk. Thankfully she didn’t try to ease my
anxiety with chat about the weather, nor did she mention Sophie
again. I knew I shouldn’t blame mum for her part in all this.
Sophie was her daughter too, just as much as I was. And mum made
plenty of sacrifices for me.

When we got home, she
went to the computer, and opened an email account I had never seen
before. I thought of her sitting there as she often did in the
evenings, waiting for me to turn the TV on, or play the piano, and
checking for any news of Sophie. I always thought she was playing
computer solitaire. She must have been terrified when she thought
something had happened to Sophie. No wonder she just handed over
whatever money she could get.

Mum left me to it
with the emails, just as she had done with the loan statements. I
felt like she was starting to relax a bit; maybe she was relieved
she didn’t have to keep lying to me. And with the mortgage sorted
for the time being, she could concentrate on this not so secret
search for my sister.

Before I read the
emails, I had a couple of other things to do. I checked how
Picasso’s auction was going. It finished in an hour, and the bids
were up to $5,800. Hopefully there would be a bidding war right at
the end, and we could get over $6,000.

Next I called all of
my eight students. I forced myself to do it straight away, or I’d
put it off forever. The parents of the children didn’t seem too
fussed when I said I wouldn’t start the term for another month. And
the two adults were also, slightly worryingly, quite happy to put
off their lessons. I felt guilt and relief as I hung up from my
final call, acknowledging I was quite glad to take a longer break
from my very new career. This was also not a good sign. But I had
other things to worry about now, and with this chore over, I was
ready to find out exactly what this clever little Liam had
discovered.

Chapter 4

Someone had betrayed
them. Sydney was now as dangerous as London. It was three months
since Danny was killed. Three months, a flight to Sydney, and 12
hotel rooms. Then, two days ago, Sophie glimpsed a man who kept a
short distance behind her as she shopped for groceries. He looked
like a tall, skinny, scabby faced teenager, with outdated sun
glasses, and an oversized suit. His hunched stride and huge feet
made him look like a weasel or a rat, maybe a mixture of the two.
He wasn’t doing a great job of staying hidden; at one point she
slowed down so much that he overtook her, and then stopped to tie
his shoelace to let her pass again. She was into a shop and out the
back door before he even had time to stand up. She had almost
laughed to herself that they sent such an amateur to watch her
movements. But what did she know? Maybe he was armed, and
over-confident. She was glad to have lost him, in case his orders
weren’t just to watch. Maybe he was the one who killed Danny. Her
stomach wrenched at the thought.

So now it was time to
run further away. Katie would go first; no point exposing both of
them at once. Last night was the first they had spent together in
Sydney for weeks. They had chosen a hostel close to Central
station, from where they would make their escape. Katie had been
scared, but resolute, when she left moments ago. Charlie was
strapped to her front, gently clawing at her chest, enjoying the
rhythm of her steps.

But as Sophie watched
her friend cross busy George St from the hostel window, she could
see almost immediately, with a lurch of fear, that Katie and her
son were being followed. It was the sunglasses she spotted again
today. And the hurried walk, standing out in the crowd of wandering
shoppers. As Sophie picked up her phone to warn Katie, she could
see that in a few seconds she would be out of view. Even from this
distance, the bulge in the front of the baby sling was noticeable.
Anyone else might expect it to be a bottle or an extra nappy. But
rolled into this pouch was $2,000 in cash, the key to Katie's new
life, and a mobile phone with a new number that only Sophie knew.
She saw Katie's hand reach into the front of Charlie's sling as her
phone started to vibrate. She answered it after two
rings.

'What is it Sophie?'
She sounded as panicked as Sophie felt. A phone call hadn't been
part of their plan, so Katie could tell something wasn't
right.

'Don't look around,
but the ratty sunglasses guy is following you.' Sophie left the
window as she spoke, and headed out of the hostel.

'Shit! How the hell
did he find us this time?'

'Just keep going,
Katie. I'll be right behind you.'

'Are you sure I just
shouldn't turn back? We can get a room somewhere else and maybe...
maybe he'll lose us, and I can get to the station
tomorrow.'

'No. You're on your
way now. He can't know where you’re going. Just walk a bit faster
and don't look back.'

'Where are you
Sophie? I'm shitting myself.'

'Just keep moving.
You're not far away now. You don't want to be late. The train only
leaves twice a day.'

Sophie started
jogging to catch up with the man. As she spotted him weaving around
a group of slow moving tourists, she realised he wasn't alone.
There was another man with him, who looked more confident, and
stronger. He kept pointing ahead of them, making sure they could
both still see their prey. They seemed to be purposely keeping a
short distance between themselves and Katie. But they weren't
backing off.

'I can see the
tunnel. As soon as I get down there, I'm going to run. I'll call
you back from the station. Don't follow me Sophie. I don't want
them to find you too.'

Katie rang off, and
Sophie felt a rush of relief. Katie was going to make it onto the
train, and they'd never find her. Sophie had discovered, on a map
in the hostel, the pedestrian tunnel under George St that led
straight into the station. The men wouldn't know about it,
hopefully. Katie would literally disappear under Railway Square,
and would be far away before they worked out where she had gone.
She was proud they had plotted Katie's escape so easily. Their old
lives kept them immune from the stresses of waiting in line for a
bus that didn’t arrive, or having to spend money getting from one
place to another; Danny had always ensured they were driven
everywhere. Now they had to fend for themselves.

Sophie knew it was
probably best to hide now herself; to run to the flat she had
rented outside of the city. But she couldn't bring herself to stop
following. She wanted Katie and Charlie to get on that train, and
it felt wrong to walk away before she knew they were safe. As she
came to a busy cross road, a row of traffic blocked her way, and
she lost site of the two men. She was only 50 meters from the
tunnel herself now, and no longer felt invisible. As she darted
towards the entrance and down the escalator, the mobile phone she
was still clutching started to ring.

'Are you on the
train?'

'No, I've got my
ticket, but the train isn't ready to board yet. I'm on the
platform. Is there any sign of them?'

'No, I lost them. I'm
in the tunnel. You're going to be OK, Katie. Give Charlie a hug for
me. I'll see you in a few weeks. Text me when you‘re on your
way.’

'Ok. Thanks Sophie.
You look after your...'

Katie stopped talking
mid word, and the sudden silence made Sophie's heart
stop.

'What is it?' she
asked.

'They're on the
platform. Shit. They've seen me. I'm going to leave
Charlie...'

Sophie could hear
Katie's panicked breathing into the phone; she must have been
running. She started sprinting herself along the tiled tunnel,
towards the train station. As she reached the entrance, her eyes
scanned the timetable, desperately searching for Katie's platform.
Platform four. She bolted in the direction of platform four, and
when she got there, all she could see was a small group of people
sitting on a bench, waiting for the train’s doors to open. Where
was Katie? Where were the men?

A flash of movement
caught her eye at the end of the platform. Katie was dashing out of
the public toilet. She no longer had Charlie strapped to her front,
and the look of terror on her face made Sophie freeze. The two men
barrelled through the door after her, chasing at full speed. As
they both caught up to her, they each grabbed one of her arms, and
she started thrashing her legs around like a crazed animal. Within
an instant, her feet were off the ground, and with a synchronized
toss, both men let go and she was sailing through the air. The men
kept moving and Sophie lost site of Katie for a second, her eyes
searching for a crumpled body on the platform. But then a loud wind
cracked and rumbled, and a train swept through the station on the
opposite side of the platform from Katie's stationery train.
Sophie's hand snapped to her mouth as she heard the blare of the
train’s horn, mixed with the screams of two women. Katie was under
that train.