by Cathy Cole
The enjoyment didn’t last. As DC Williams drove her up to the front door, Eve realized her whole house was swarming with police. Two cars and a van were parked by the garage. Police officers were moving up and down the front steps with their arms full of papers, boxes, folders and files.
“What is this?” Eve demanded, catching a passing police officer by the arm. “Put them back!”
“We have a warrant, miss. Just doing my job,” he said, brushing past her with an armful of brown cardboard boxes.
All Eve could do was stand and watch as her father’s belongings were ferried into the waiting vehicles.
“You’ll be more comfortable inside, Miss Somerstown,” said DC Williams.
Eve walked silently up the steps to the open front door. Chloe was standing by the door, chewing the side of her thumb and looking miserable.
“Where’s Mummy?” Eve said.
“In her bedroom phoning all her important friends. Trying to make someone help us. Like that’s going to happen. Mummy and Daddy’s pals aren’t into scandal and failure.”
Eve had never been particularly close to Chloe, even though they were only eighteen months apart in age. There had been too much competition for their father’s attention to allow much room for her younger sister in her life. She felt a rush of anger at the callousness of Chloe’s words.
“Daddy’s not a failure,” she said fiercely. “This is all a mistake.”
“Don’t you start,” said Chloe, unimpressed. “Mummy’s said that so many times this morning I feel like it’s tattooed on my eardrums.”
“Don’t say it again,” Eve repeated, jabbing her sister in the chest for emphasis.
“Fine, whatever,” said Chloe with a shrug.
Eve took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Losing her temper wouldn’t help her father now. “Are they searching everything?” she asked.
“They’re just focusing on Daddy’s study,” said Chloe, following Eve through the wide hallway. “Where have you been anyway? I thought you were in your room.”
“Out,” said Eve shortly. “I needed some air.” It wasn’t worth saying anything else to Chloe. Daddy had trusted her with finding the laptop, and keeping it a secret. It was a job for her and her alone.
She made her way down the hall towards her father’s study. At least, what was left of it. The desk was bare, the filing cabinets open and empty. Two officers were carrying her father’s desktop computer down the corridor towards her. Eve felt a kind of physical pain as they brushed past her. It felt like watching someone burgling her house.
“Behind on a lot of bills, wasn’t he?” she heard someone say in the study.
Peeking around the door, Eve saw three officers sorting through the contents of her father’s in-tray.
“Shouldn’t have spent so much money that wasn’t his in the first place, should he?’ replied someone else. Laughter followed.
Anger surged through Eve, hot and pointless. There was nothing she could do to stop this. Nothing at all.
Focus on your instructions, she thought, pulling herself back from the tears that continually threatened to overwhelm her. The safe. The laptop.
Where could the secret compartment be? She realized with dismay that there was no way she could look for it now, not with police officers milling around the house like ants. She peeped back at the room again with a surge of alarm, scanning the walls and floor for some sign that the police were looking for more than the obvious. Apart from the desk and the files, everything else was untouched. By not looking for the secret compartment herself, it felt already as if she had let her father down. She prayed the police wouldn’t find it before she had a chance of looking.
There’ll be plenty of time when they’ve gone, she consoled herself. It looked as if they were almost finished anyway.
Her mother’s scream of rage tore through the air. Eve froze. Chloe, standing stock still in the hallway, froze as well.
“You can’t do that!” their mother was shouting, as clear as a bell. “We don’t have a mortgage, I’m telling you. My husband owns this house outright. He’s owned it for years! You… This is our home, my husband has… You can’t foreclose on something that doesn’t even exist, you stupid man… Hello? Hello?”
Fear was creeping up on Eve, snaking cold hands around her throat. Foreclosures happened to people when they went bankrupt.
Daddy’s rich, she thought in bewilderment. He can’t be bankrupt.
A female police officer appeared at the foot of the stairs as Eve tried to run upstairs to her mother to find out what was going on.
“Sorry, miss, you and your family are going to have to leave the house now,” she said.
“Leave?” Eve exchanged shocked glances with Chloe. This couldn’t be happening. “You can’t make us leave our house.”
“I’m afraid it’s not your house any more, miss,” said the officer. Her face was expressionless. “It belongs to the bank.”
“They can collect a few personal belongings under supervision, Sanchez,” said an officer coming through the front door. “You supervise the older girl, I’ll get another WPC to see to the other one. There’s an officer with Mrs Somerstown already.”
In a daze, Eve allowed herself to be escorted up to her bedroom. She pulled out a suitcase from the cupboard, and then had the utterly humiliating experience of having a police officer watching her as she sorted through her underwear drawer, trying to find matching pants and bras to pack. She still held the key tightly in one hand.
“Just essentials and a few personal items.” The officer checked her watch. “You have five minutes.”
Eve grabbed at clothes haphazardly, snatching up a few tubes and pots of make-up, pulling trousers from their colour-coordinated hangers in her wardrobe. Blue went with everything, right? And white. And grey.
“I’d hardly call hair straighteners essential, miss,” said the officer.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” said Eve in a trembling voice, putting the hair straighteners back in the drawer and grabbing a handful of jewellery instead. The officer stopped her.
“You’ll be searched for inappropriate items before you leave the house, miss,” she warned, “so don’t try and take anything valuable.”
The key! Eve was feeling increasingly desperate. With her back to the officer, she quickly unhooked the catch on a thin silver chain and slid the little key from her tightly clenched fist on to the chain. Then she put it round her neck. The key was small and pretty enough to look like a pendant, but she didn’t plan on being asked about it. She tucked it out of sight under her shirt.
As she turned back to face the officer, her eye fell on a faded photograph by the window. It showed Eve with her old friend Becca at her eighth birthday party, before Becca had left Heartside Bay. Their bright faces grinned out at the camera – Eve gap-toothed, Becca taller and two years older – heads together and arms around each other.
Suddenly it felt important to take Becca with her, as a memory of happier times – and better friends. She’d often wondered what had happened to make Becca’s family disappear so suddenly all those years ago. She’d probably never know. Slipping the photo into her case, she snapped the catches shut.
“Ready,” she said coolly.
Chloe and Mrs Somerstown were already packed and pacing downstairs in the hall. Eve’s mother was wearing an impractical assortment of white cashmere, silk and chiffon, her favourite hat clamped on her head.
“Chloe and I are going to Paris to stay with Grandma and Grandpa until all this unpleasantness blows over,” Eve’s mother informed Eve as she came down the stairs with her suitcase. “Are you coming?”
“You’re leaving?” said Eve in astonishment. “What about Daddy?”
“Spare us the lectures, Eve,” said Chloe. “Dad will be fine without us.”
Eve coul
dn’t believe her mother and sister would be so callous. “But … Daddy needs us!” she said. “I’m going to stay with Rhi so I can be here for him. Can’t you stay somewhere closer?”
“I can’t spend another minute in this nasty little town with its horrid rumours,” said her mother fretfully. “We can’t do a thing for Daddy, Eve. The lawyers are dealing with everything. Chloe and I are going and that’s the end of it. Oh, I almost forgot, I need my new Prada jumpsuit, you know the one I bought in Paris last month, Chloe…”
“Sorry madam, but you can’t go upstairs again,” said the police officer, placing a warning hand on Mrs Somerstown’s sleeve.
Eve’s mother shook the officer’s arm off as if it were a flea and started towards the stairs. “Don’t talk nonsense. There was a waiting list for that jumpsuit and I’m not leaving it behind.”
“And I have to fetch my Balenciaga shoes,” Chloe added. “We’ll only be a minute. Don’t try and stop us.”
There was an unseemly struggle on the stairs as several police officers tried to prevent Eve’s mother and sister from returning to their bedrooms, including the officer assigned to Eve. It would have been funny if the situation hadn’t been so utterly horrific.
Eve suddenly realized no one was watching her. She backed hurriedly down the corridor towards her father’s study. This was her chance to find the secret compartment, and the safe. How she would get the laptop out under so many watchful eyes was a problem she’d worry about after she’d found it.
Where could it be?
FOUR
Books still lined the walls of the study. The large Persian rug still lay on the floor, the crystal glasses lined up ready on the mahogany bar, the globe stood on the mahogany stand where it had been for as long as Eve could remember. Only the pictures on the walls showed signs of being tampered with, tipped in crazy directions on their picture hooks. The police had clearly been looking for a safe, but from the looks of things, they hadn’t found one. Eve knew she didn’t have much time. She had to act quickly.
She started by feeling her way along the walls, pressing the edges of the wooden panels in the hope that something might spring open. Secret compartments always seemed to be hidden behind panels in movies. She felt her way around the room, feeling a little stupid as she pressed and fiddled. Nothing was moving. It seemed that her dad’s study wasn’t a movie set.
“Don’t be absurd, it’s just one small item of clothing…”
“Madam, I cannot let you back up those stairs again…”
The scuffle out in the hall didn’t seem to be calming down. Eve could hear her mother’s ringing tones loud and clear as she argued with the police officer, and the light tread of her sister scampering up the stairs to find her precious shoes. It didn’t surprise Eve. Her mother and Chloe were both pretty persistent where clothes were concerned.
Eve realized with a lurch that she had stopped looking as she listened to the scuffle outside. She had to focus. It wouldn’t be long now before the police saw that she was missing and someone was sent to find her.
The walls yielded nothing but a splinter in her little finger. What about the floor?
Eve fell to her knees, pulling up the Persian rug. The floorboards were laid very close together under the rug, and there were no gaps to be seen. There was no sign of a trapdoor. No levers, or hinges. Sitting back on her heels, Eve pressed her hands to her eyes in an effort to picture her father in here. She had often come in here to keep him company by the fire as he worked into the night. Had she seen him standing anywhere in particular?
She got to her feet and dusted down her jeans. Then she started feeling along the books that remained on the shelves. She ran her fingers along the bumpy leather and tooled gold spines, pressing, pulling…
“What are you doing in here?”
Eve spun around, a book in her hand, the blood rushing to her face. It was the female officer who had watched her pack.
“I … er … Daddy used to keep a few hundred pounds in his favourite book,” she stammered, making it up as she went along. “I … er … thought it might come in useful but I guess he took it already…”
The police officer looked sharply at her. “You were specifically instructed to take essentials and personal items only. Any cash belongs to your father’s creditors now.”
Eve slid the book back on to the shelf and wiped her sweating hands on her jeans. “You can’t blame me for trying,” she said, forcing a laugh. “I’m coming now.”
The officer watched her like a hawk as she left the study and picked up her suitcase from the bottom of the stairs where she’d left it. Outside she could hear her mother screeching. It sounded like she’d lost her battle over the jumpsuit.
Eve felt utterly wrung out as she left the house, suitcase in her hand.
You’ll be back, she reminded herself. You still have to find that compartment, don’t you?
But it wouldn’t be her home any more. That was too weird to think about right now. It was the only home she could remember.
She took her phone out of her pocket and checked the time. School was out, but only just. She pressed a button and held the receiver to her ear.
“Rhi? It’s me.”
Rhi sounded anxious on the other end. “Are you OK, Eve? We missed you today. We’re so worried about you. Is there anything I can do?”
Tears leaped into Eve’s eyes at the sympathy in Rhi’s voice. No one else had shown her any sympathy today.
“Rhi, could you do me a favour?” She could hear her voice breaking as she spoke. “We … we’re having to leave the house, the bank is taking it. Mummy and Chloe are running away to Paris…”
Chloe shot her a look before going back to her own phone.
“… but I don’t want to leave Daddy by himself. Can I please, please come and stay with you for a couple of days?”
“They’re taking your house?” Rhi sounded appalled. “That’s awful, Eve, I’m so sorry.”
“Daddy will get it back when this is all cleared up, I’m sure,” said Eve. She needed to cling to that hope, however forlorn.
“Of course he will,” Rhi soothed. “But in the meantime stay as long as you need. Where are you now? Do you want me to come and fetch you?”
Tears were in freefall down Eve’s cheeks. Even though Lila had betrayed her, at least she had other friends.
“That would be lovely,” she whispered into the phone. “I’m … I’m at home. I’ll wait for you here.”
Mrs Somerstown and Chloe had already got into one of the police cars. Mrs Somerstown didn’t take her sunglasses off but stared straight ahead through the car windscreen. Chloe pressed a hand to the car window in brief farewell as the car swung out of the drive.
“Where to, miss?” asked the female police officer.
Eve sat on the steps. “I need to wait for my friend. She’ll be here in ten minutes.” In sudden wild hope, she wondered if she might be left here unattended. She could go back inside the house again, search the study one more time.
The officer got into her squad car and turned the radio on. “I’ll wait with you miss,” she said. “Orders from the station that you aren’t to be left alone.”
“What do they think I’m going to do?” Eve asked, feeling a brief flash of defiance. “Burn the place down?”
At the expression on the officer’s face, Eve realized she probably shouldn’t have said that. Now they’d be watching her even more closely in case she turned out to be an arsonist. This day was getting better and better.
“I’m kidding,” she said, lifting her hands.
“Didn’t sound much like a joke to me, miss,” said the officer. Her eyes were still narrow with suspicion. “You’re not to return to the premises when you leave with your friends, do you understand? We’ll be watching you.”
Eve shrugged, suddenly feeling too tired to fight.<
br />
“I need your solemn word, miss,” insisted the officer.
“I promise I won’t come back, officer,” Eve said. “How’s that?”
The officer still looked suspicious, but didn’t say anything else.
Eve had no intention of keeping her word. If they wanted to play dirty by arresting her father for something he hadn’t done and taking her house away, then she would do the same to them. She would come back at the first opportunity and find that laptop. Her father was relying on her. She wouldn’t let him down.
I’ll prove his innocence, she thought. Whatever it takes.
FIVE
Eve could hardly get through Rhi’s front door for the boxes piled up in the hallway.
“Mind how you go,” said Rhi’s dad as they squeezed inside the house. He moved the boxes a little further into the hall so the front door could close properly. “It’s the Heartbeat Café snack order. I told them to deliver it here as I wasn’t going to be at the café until later.” He laughed. “I feel like we’re all about to have a massive party. The only thing missing is the guests.”
Eve put her suitcase at the bottom of the stairs. The shock of the day was starting to sink in now, and she was feeling light-headed and a little sick. But she knew it was important to show interest in other people. Her mother, for all her faults, had drilled that into her since she was a little girl.
“Are you enjoying managing the Heartbeat Café, Mr Wills?” she asked as Rhi disappeared into the kitchen. Rhi’s dad had taken over running their favourite café after the death of the owners’ son.
“I love it,” said Rhi’s dad at once. He patted the boxes proudly. “It’s a lot of work, admittedly, but I just love the atmosphere, the kids, the music… The Jamesons have a terrific little business there. I’m only glad to be able to help out at this difficult time.”
“Mum thinks the Jamesons are going to sell,” Rhi informed Eve, sinking her teeth into an apple she’d fetched from the kitchen. She tossed a second apple to Eve, who caught it gratefully. She hadn’t eaten a thing since breakfast, which probably accounted for the light-headedness.