Michelle Vernal Box Set

by Michelle Vernal

  Rebecca realised that it wasn’t David and her disappointment at the man he had turned out to be or even Jennifer’s starring role in that realisation that had sprung to mind. It was Ciaran. He was the one she had turned to when the chips were down, and he hadn’t let her down. What the hell was she going to do now?

  Follow her dream and lose him or follow him and lose her dream?

  Jennifer ploughed on, “I’m sorry, Becs. I know I have let you down but don’t let mine or David’s actions affect your decision to stay.” She trembled. “I tell you what, I wanted to boot his lying backside all the way back out to sea when I saw him with you today. I’d have given anything for you not to have gotten hurt again. And I’m so sorry that I am not the shining example of getting your life right that you thought I was.”

  “No, that you’re not!” Rebecca laughed, much to Jennifer’s surprise. “But do you know what?”

  “What?”

  “I think I like you better this way—flawed. You’re human.” Rebecca leaned across and took her sister’s hand, and then squeezed it tightly before adding, “You’re right about David, though. I looked at him today while he was in full-blown action hero mode, and I realised he was a teeny bit full of himself.”

  “Just a teeny bit?” Jennifer raised an eyebrow. “The man thinks he’s New Zealand’s answer to Daniel Craig, for goodness’ sake!”

  When their raucous giggling at David’s expense finally ebbed away, Rebecca owned up. “I wasn’t thinking of him before either.”

  “No?” Jennifer felt a sinking sensation she knew what was coming.

  “I was thinking about Ciaran and that old Clash song—‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go...’” She stopped mid-sentence, hearing the front door slam shut, followed closely by the harassed clip-clop of high-heeled boots coming down the hall. The door burst open to reveal a wild-eyed Melissa.

  “It’s Jack,” she gasped. “He’s missing.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  REBECCA SAT ON THE couch, her mouth opening and closing like a bewildered goldfish while Jennifer leapt out of her seat, spluttering, “What do you mean, missing?”

  Melissa’s back came into contact with the wall as she nervously shuffled backwards, wary of Jennifer in mad-mother mode, even if it was perfectly understandable. “Jack never showed up in class this morning. Apparently Mr Reynolds, his teacher—”

  Jennifer took a menacing step forward. “Yes, I know who he is, thank you very much, Melissa.”

  “Of course, sorry. Well, he assumed he was off sick. Apparently as Jack hadn’t told him you were home, he figured that Rebecca either didn’t realise it was school policy to phone in and let them know or that she’d forgotten too. He’s beside himself now.”

  As if that helped. Jennifer couldn’t give a toss if Mr Reynolds was beside himself or not; the stupid little man should have phoned to clarify Jack’s whereabouts. Hang on, though. She wrung her hands together as a thought occurred to her. Swinging round, she eyed her sister accusingly. “But you dropped him at the gate and saw him into class, right?”

  Rebecca squirmed in her seat. “I, um, I dropped him at the gate, but, oh, Jen, I’m so sorry. Just this one time I didn’t stay and watch him go in. We were running late.”

  Jennifer’s tone was acidic. “Let me finish that for you, shall I? You didn’t want to be late for your hot date. Yeah, I’ve got the picture. Thanks a lot, Rebecca.” She turned away in disgust, but Melissa was having none of it.

  “Hey, go easy. That’s hardly fair and taking it out on Rebecca isn’t going to help find Jack, is it?”

  Jennifer felt her anger slowly dissipate. What she said made sense and it wasn’t Rebecca’s fault Jack had opted out of school. If it was anybody’s fault, it was hers. Getting angry was her way of coping with being frightened.

  “You’re right.” She glanced over her shoulder to where her sister sat shivering on the couch. “It’s not your fault, Becs. I’m sorry, okay?”

  Rebecca nodded dully. It didn’t matter that Jennifer had forgiven her for not waiting; she’d never forgive herself if Jack didn’t turn up.

  A cold chill swept up Jennifer’s spine as, swinging round to face Melissa, she suddenly realised that Jack wasn’t the only one missing. “Where the hell’s Hannah?”

  “Whoa.” Melissa held up a calming hand. “She’s fine. She’s with Betty. Sorry, I should have told you that straight off. When I realised Jack had gone AWOL, I drove around everywhere I could think of that he might have gone.” She shrugged. “Obviously I couldn’t find him, so we came straight back here. I thought it would be best if Hannah stayed with Betty while we go out looking.”

  Jennifer was already stuffing her feet back into her trainers. “Come on then, let’s get moving.”

  “Okay, but before we go, though, is there any chance he could have come back here and sneaked inside without you knowing, Jen?” Rebecca leaned down and zipped her boots up before getting to her feet.

  Jen tucked her hair behind her ears, giving the appearance of a worried pixie. “Well, no, I wouldn’t have thought so.”

  “And, of course, I checked with Betty and the warrior princesses.” As Melissa’s mouth formed the words warrior princesses, she gave an unconscious shudder.

  “Still, it wouldn’t hurt to double-check, would it? You two take upstairs, I’ll do down...”

  Jennifer was already taking the stairs two at a time, Melissa flying up behind her.

  Two minutes later, the three of them were congregated back in the lounge, having found no sign of Jack. “Right then, let’s go.” Jennifer snatched the car keys off of Melissa and marched off down the hall. Melissa scurried after her and snatched the keys back.

  “I’m the calmest one here; besides, my mum would kill me if the Alfa got pranged, so I’ll drive. Alright?”

  “Whatever, let’s just get a move on.”

  “Do you think you should call Mark and tell him what’s going on?” Rebecca asked while slamming the front door shut behind her.

  “If we haven’t found him in another hour, I’ll ring him on his cell phone. Jack will have turned up by then,” Jennifer answered with a lot more confidence than she felt. “No point in worrying him over nothing, is there?”

  Rebecca didn’t think Mark would see his son having been missing since nine o’clock that morning as “nothing,” but they’d wasted precious time as it was without arguing the point. One more hour—then she’d ring Mark herself if it came to it.

  “You went to David’s?” Rebecca asked, climbing into the back seat as Melissa got behind the wheel, and Jennifer scrambled in next to her.

  “That was the first place I went, but there was no one home. Do you think it would be worth swinging by there again?”

  “Ben’s at his grandparents in Christchurch but at least if we find David, he can call him and see if Jack said anything to him about running away,” Rebecca postulated.

  “You don’t think he would have gone there, do you?” Jennifer said, tugging at her seatbelt.

  “Ben’s grandparents? I doubt it. How would he get there?”

  “I don’t know—bus? He’s caught the bus into town with me before as a school holiday treat.” Jennifer buckled herself in and then froze. “Becs, you don’t think he’d hitchhike, do you?”

  “No! No way, Jen. Don’t even go there. He wouldn’t know how, for heaven’s sake. He’s only seven years old; look, he won’t have gone far. We’ll find him, okay?”

  “Okay,” Jennifer repeated in a small voice. Melissa turned the key and listened to the engine start up. Betty’s reassuring figure suddenly appeared, backlit by the classroom on the cooking school steps. She waved and mouthed what they all assumed was, “Don’t worry, you’ll find him.” As the car swept down the drive and out onto the main road, Jennifer peered into the darkened back seat.

  “Um, Rebecca?”

  “Yeah?”

  “There’s something else I haven’t told you.”

  Oh, what more co
uld there possibly be? She’d never felt so physically and emotionally drained, and she just didn’t know if she was able to handle more.

  “Do you remember how I said Jack saw me kissing another man?”

  Uh yeah, like she could forget that little snippet of information. To Melissa’s credit, she masterfully swerved and narrowly missed a tree as Jennifer announced this.

  “Jeez, eyes on the road, alright!” Rebecca gasped, clutching hold of the passenger seat in front of her.

  “Sorry—blame your sister.”

  “It does get worse.”

  “It sure does,” Rebecca mumbled before urging her sister on. “Come on then, spit it out, whatever it is.”

  “Well, he never saw it was David, thank goodness, but I think—”

  “WHAT!!!” screeched Melissa, pulling the car violently over onto the grassy verge.

  “It’s a long and sordid story, Melissa; one that I don’t want to get into right now. Rebecca will give you the rundown once we find Jack.”

  Melissa swivelled her head to face Rebecca. “Promise.”

  “Promise. Now shut up and drive.”

  As Melissa pulled out and drove off at a more sedate speed, Rebecca leaned forward and placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “How do you know he never saw David?”

  “It was late, and Mark was away on business.”

  Rebecca groaned. “Please don’t tell me you did it in your marital bed—MELISSA, KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE BLOODY ROAD!”

  “Sorry,” Melissa muttered, ears burning as she clutched hold of the steering wheel. Multi-tasking had never been one of her strong points.

  Jennifer’s voice rang out indignantly, “Of course I didn’t. I do have some morals, you know.”

  “Well, that’s a relief. So what happened?”

  “Like I said, it was late. David showed up at the house, knowing Mark was away. Only I wouldn’t let him in. I took a couple of glasses of wine out, and we sat on the back porch talking instead. When he stood up to go, he kissed me goodnight.”

  “Peck or pash?” Melissa interrupted.

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes, it does if I am expected to assess the seriousness of the situation.”

  Jennifer pressed her palm against her forehead. Rebecca could only imagine the thoughts running through it. “Pash, if you must know. When I went inside, Jack was standing in the kitchen half-asleep. He asked me who I was kissing. But it’s not that so much.” Realising what that had sounded like, Jennifer quickly added, “Not that that’s not bad enough or anything. All Jack could have possibly seen was the back of David’s head, though. In his state, he wouldn’t have put two and two together. I told him he was dreaming and sent him up to bed.”

  “Did he believe you?” Melissa and Rebecca chimed.

  Jennifer shrugged. “It sounds awful, but I was so caught up with myself that I managed to convince myself he did. The thing is I don’t know how long he’d been standing there, and I am praying he didn’t overhear the conversation I had been having with David prior to the kiss.”

  It did not bode well. Rebecca felt her skin prickle with the cold and wished she’d taken the time to throw a coat on as she was bounced around in the back seat. “We were talking about what it was like for me, you know, after Jack was born.”

  Oh, this was bad—very, very bad.

  A white letterbox signalled that they had reached David’s place. The car lights sluiced down the driveway and over a darkened house. “Doesn’t look too promising, does it?” Melissa said as Jennifer opened her door.

  “Be right back.”

  The two girls watched Jennifer run up the front steps and bang on the door. When no one answered after the fourth or fifth knock, Jennifer trotted back and jumped into her seat.

  “Guess we gotta go into town,” Rebecca deducted. “David told me he was going for a drink when we got off the boat.” Rebecca couldn’t help adding, “Probably singing karaoke with Giovanni and Monica. Keep your ears open for Split Enz’s ‘Shark Attack,’ girls.”

  When they kicked the double doors of the pub open in a way that would have given Drew, Cameron, and Lucy a run for their money, they found the joint teeming. Locals and tourists alike, caught up in Friday night fever, rubbed shoulders and shouted over the jukebox. As the three women elbowed their way into the room, heads swivelled. Conversations swung from the week that had been to who, or what, the stunning brunette, gorgeous blonde, and cute honey-blonde could be searching for.

  It was Melissa who spotted him. Gesturing towards an alcove by the bar, she announced, “He’s over there!” She stalked over, with Jennifer and Rebecca following in her wake. David didn’t see them approach the lean-to; he was too busy holding court over what could pass for a meeting of Backpacker’s Anonymous. David had a five o’clock shadow prickling at his chin. His sleekly muscled dark-brown forearms peeked out from the rolled-up sleeves of his Kathmandu polo fleece, and he could have passed for a strapping Italian on an adventure holiday.

  Giovanni and Monica were perched on bar stools to his left, supping from southern manhandles of Speight’s beer. Obviously going for the authentic Kiwi experience, Rebecca thought cynically as their wholesome features split into matching grins.

  “Hey, Rebecca!” Monica called, banging down her glass. “You decided to join us after all. Good, maybe you can tell Dietmar here that it is true. I did see a great white in the water today.”

  David was staring wide-eyed at the three women, his handle halfway to his mouth and his handsome features turning a watery red mix of terror and embarrassment. It was Jennifer who kicked things off. “Have you seen Jack, David?” Not mincing her words, she stood Amazonian, hand on hip, expecting an equally straight-to-the-point reply. She didn’t get one.

  David, who’d been mentally preparing himself for a full-blown verbal assault, squirmed uncomfortably under her steely gaze before finally spluttering out, “Jack? No. Why?” His words sent a fine spray of beer froth flying down the table.

  “Because he’s missing, asshole. Or did you and your ego think that this was just my way of grabbing your attention? You kind of did that already by trying to seduce my sister.”

  Giovanni and Monica’s mouths were agape, revealing that they did indeed have good dental hygiene habits; neither of them had a single filling between them.

  David felt himself relax slightly; Jennifer had played her card, and the claws were well and truly out. At least now he knew where he stood. “I did not try to seduce Rebecca. We met up a few times and had a laugh, that’s all. She’ll tell you nothing happened between us, and even if it had, it’s none of your business. You had made it quite clear before you went to Australia that we were history.”

  “Oh, save it for someone who cares,” Jennifer snapped at him.

  Enough is enough, Rebecca thought angrily, stepping forward and holding her hand up to silence them both. “I am here, you know, and aren’t you kind of forgetting why it is we are here, Jennifer?” Turning to eyeball David, she said, “Jack has been missing since I dropped him off outside school this morning; he never showed up in his class.”

  Jennifer and David looked sufficiently shame-faced. “So he’s missing then?”

  “Yes,” Jennifer whispered as her anger gave way to fear once more. Feeling angry was the preferable emotion. She drew herself into her cardigan and refused to think of any other possibilities than finding Jack safe and sound.

  David snapped to, unwrapping himself from the bar stool and pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. “Ben’s staying with Maree at her parents in Christchurch. I’ll phone him.” His shoulders slumped slightly. “Maybe Jack said something to him about what he was planning.” Then, striding over to the exit, he pushed the heavy smoke stop door open, and Jennifer followed behind him. An awkward silence settled over the lean-to as its occupants pretended to find the contents of their beer glasses fascinating. Melissa and Rebecca shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, waiting for them to return.

&nb
sp; They did a moment later, but it was not with good news. “Ben had no idea Jack was going to take off. Apparently they had another squabble the day I took Ben to Christchurch,” David explained directly to Rebecca. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her big sister’s tough girl stance was in danger of shattering. So, taking charge, she told Melissa to take Jennifer back out to the car. “I’ll join you in a sec.”

  When they’d gone, David took Rebecca’s elbow and steered her away from the wagging ears over to the exit. “Look, I know I’m not your favourite person right now but the most important thing here is finding Jack, right?” She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “How about I phone around all his and Ben’s mates and any other places I can think of that he might have gone?”

  “That would be a big help.” She didn’t look up, preferring to study the stained blue carpet. “You’ve got my mobile if anything turns up?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  Turning on her heel to leave, she felt him catch her arm. She spun around and found herself pinned under the intensity of his grey-green gaze.

  “I’m sorry, Rebecca,” he stammered. “You’re such a lovely lady. It’s just that Jennifer...” His eyes clouded over, turning them the colour of an impending storm. “She kind of made me crazy, you know?”

  Rebecca stood transfixed for a brief moment, expecting to feel something, anything, but she realised there was nothing there. Drawing herself up, she returned his gaze steadily. “Don’t worry, David. I just hope you can get over Jennifer as quickly as I’ve gotten over you.”

  With that, she walked away, hearing his voice drift across the crowded pub as he called, “We’ll find him, Rebecca.” Crossing her fingers, she prayed he was right.

  The temperature felt like it had dropped two degrees in the short span of time she’d been inside the pub. Wrenching the idling car’s door open, she threw herself into the back seat.