I tried to take a proper breath. Dilan knew Bee. He had a message from her. He’d seen her. It didn’t make sense. None of it made sense. Mum popped her head round again.
“Come on, Lizzie, don’t leave Dilan sitting in here on his own.”
“I’m just going to the loo, Mum. I’ll be down in a sec.”
I raced upstairs and locked myself in the bathroom. The message was short and to the point. I recognized her writing from her book of poems. It was small and neat and urgent.
Lizzie, I’ve read your diary, it was a brilliant idea to swap the cases. My dad’s not staying at my Uncle Ron’s. I don’t actually know where he is but I’m trying to get hold of Aidan to see if he knows anything. Bailey’s helping me. Write back that you’re okay and that you don’t believe your dad. My dad could never hurt anyone. I swear to you, Lizzie, it wasn’t him. He didn’t kill Luke. We need to find out the truth. See what you can find out from your parents. I keep wishing we were back at the Globo Rojo, or sitting up on our rock. Miss you loads...
Bee xxxxxx
I still didn’t get it. How did she know Dilan? And how did she get him to bring the note round? And why was her dad hiding away somewhere if he was innocent? I had so many questions but there wasn’t time. I crept out of the bathroom and into my room, grabbing a pen off my desk.
I’m fine, I scribbled on the other side of the note. Maybe we could meet at Dilan’s house to talk later this week? If you’ve heard from Aidan by then we could go and see him together. I think Luke and Aidan were friends. I’ve found something. I’ll tell you when I see you, miss you too, Lizzie xxx
I stuffed it in the envelope and ran back downstairs.
“Oh, there you are,” said Mum as I came into the kitchen. She was slicing up a lemon sponge cake. “We were beginning to wonder what happened to you. I was just telling Dilan about the holiday and the mix up with the suitcases. Someone from the airport was supposed to be calling me this morning, but I haven’t heard a word!” She was nervous, I could tell. She was probably worried that Dilan had heard Dad shouting at me.
“I don’t want any cake, thanks, but Dad said could he have a cup of tea?”
“Are you sure? I thought he said he didn’t want to be disturbed.”
“I know, but he called to me just now when I was in the loo.”
I was desperate for her to leave the kitchen so I could talk to Dilan properly. She switched the kettle on, glancing up nervously, as if Dad was watching her.
“My brother made us all tea the other day,” said Dilan suddenly, “but he forgot to boil the kettle. It was so funny.”
Mum smiled, relaxing a bit. “He was probably just trying to be helpful. I think Lizzie did that once, didn’t you?”
I nodded, my eyes fixed on the kettle. It seemed to be taking an age to boil. How could it take so long? It was like torture waiting for the switch to click off.
“Listen, I’ve written a note back to Bee,” I said to Dilan, the second Mum shuffled out of the kitchen with a cup of tea for Dad. “But I need to see her. I know this sounds crazy, but is there any way I could meet her round at yours?”
“But why aren’t you allowed to see her? Why can’t she come here?”
“I can’t tell you,” I said. “It’s too complicated. You probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. But please, Dilan. Can I tell my mum that you’ve asked me round or something?”
He stared at me for a moment, frowning. “But she’s outside my house right this minute,” he said. “Why don’t you just walk down there with me now?”
“I can’t, I’ve got maths, and anyway my dad wouldn’t let me. But he always goes to his office on a Wednesday morning for a meeting. He never misses it.” I could hear Mum on the stairs.
“Maths?” said Dilan. “In the holidays? Don’t you get a break or anything?”
I felt like shaking him. He was asking too many questions. “Look, I don’t get a break. It’s not like normal school. Please, Dilan. I’m begging you.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll say you’re invited for lunch on Wednesday. But only if you promise to tell me what’s going on when you come round. Deal?”
“Deal,” I said. I would’ve said anything at that point. “Here’s the note.”
“Dad didn’t want tea,” said Mum, coming into the kitchen.
“Really? I was sure I heard him call.”
Dilan stood up, slipping the envelope into his pocket.
“Are you off already, Dilan? You’ve only just got here.”
“He just came round to invite me over for lunch,” I said. “The day after tomorrow at twelve, right, Dilan?”
“Oh, how lovely,” said Mum. “Thank you very much.”
“That’s okay,” said Dilan. “And thanks for the drink.”
I walked him to the door.
“I’ll never forget this, Dilan, seriously. And the lunch is just a cover, right? You don’t really have to cook for me or anything.”
“I wasn’t going to,” he said, looking uncomfortable. “See you on Wednesday.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I watched Dilan as he walked back from Lizzie’s house. His hands were in his pockets, his shoulders hunched up around his ears. I couldn’t believe it when he handed me the envelope – I just couldn’t believe the plan had worked. I felt like dancing in the street.
“What happened? Was her dad there? Is she okay? What did she say?” I was so desperate for news I wanted to shake the answers out of him.
“It was pretty bad actually,” said Dilan, leaning against the wall outside his house. “Her dad was there, they were arguing just before I rang on the doorbell. I could hear them through the door.”
“What were they saying? Was it about my dad?”
“I don’t know, he was just shouting at her to get up to her room, but then when she answered the door to me, they all acted like nothing was wrong. Why would they be arguing about your dad? Is that why you’re not allowed to see each other?”
I glanced at Bailey; I wasn’t sure how much to say.
“It’s a big mess,” said Bailey. “Stuff that happened years ago.”
Dilan nodded as if he understood. “Well anyway, she wants to meet you here on Wednesday, at twelve o’clock.”
“Really? This Wednesday? That’s amazing!” I was still clutching hold of the note. I folded it in half and slipped it into my bag.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” said Dilan. He looked a bit disappointed but I didn’t want to read it in front of him or Bailey, just in case there was something bad in it.
“I’ll open it at home, but I’ll definitely come on Wednesday. Are you sure you don’t mind?” He was so nice. No wonder Lizzie liked him so much.
“No, it’s fine,” he said, shrugging. “It’s the holidays so there’s nothing going on anyway.” He turned to go back into his house. “See you then.”
“Thanks again,” I said.
“Yeah, cheers,” said Bailey. “See you around.”
I waited until I was back at home and on my own before I read Lizzie’s note. I held my breath as I pulled it out of the envelope, praying she’d say she didn’t believe her dad, but she hadn’t even mentioned it. It was really short, just a couple of lines – something about Aidan and Luke being friends. I hadn’t even thought of Aidan until Bailey mentioned him yesterday, but it seemed so obvious now. Luke and Aidan had probably been friends for years before Lizzie and I were even born.
It was so weird to think of our families knowing each other when Lizzie and I were babies. Our mums must’ve been really close to go on holiday together, but I still didn’t know how they’d met in the first place. Lizzie’s road was seriously posh compared with ours – they obviously had loads more money than us – but maybe they’d met through work or something like that?
Mum was in a much better mood when she came home from work. She’s in charge of the X-ray department at our local hospital and she loves it. It’s very chaotic and she’s always run off
her feet, but she says she’d much rather be busy than sitting around all day with nothing to do. Sometimes I think she’d like to be in charge of the whole hospital!
“Nan’s out shopping,” I said, pouring her a cup of tea. “She said not to cook anything for dinner; she’ll do it when she gets back.”
Mum kicked her shoes off and sank down onto the couch. “God, that’s a relief.” She leaned over to rub her feet. “It was crazy today. It’s always like that when I’ve been away. It takes me at least two weeks to get the office back the way I like it. Dr. Mason said the whole place would go to pot if it wasn’t for me.”
“Is that where you met Lizzie’s mum?” I asked, sitting down next to her. “At the hospital?”
Mum shook her head, frowning. “I told you all about that, on the way back from Spain.”
“No, you just said you were really close, you didn’t say where you actually met.”
She leaned back, sighing heavily. “I met her when I was pregnant with you, Bee. We got chatting at the clinic one day while we were both waiting for a scan. It was during the school holidays so I had Aidan with me – he was pretty excited to see a picture of his new baby sister – and Suzie was there with Luke...” She closed her eyes, as if it was painful to remember.
“Are you okay?” I really wanted her to carry on talking but I was worried she might start hyperventilating again like she did on the plane.
“I’m fine, Bee, it’s just so sad when I think of how happy we were back then. Anyway we were at the clinic, chatting, and we realized that we both had a big gap between our first babies and our second. Aidan was eleven then and Luke had just turned twelve. It gave us lots to talk about. We were very different in lots of ways, but we just clicked, if you know what I mean.”
I knew exactly what she meant; it was just like me and Lizzie.
“We swapped numbers and then after you and Lizzie, or Elizabeth as she was called back then, were born, we began to hang out together. It was so easy. The two boys would play football in the garden, and we would sit drinking endless cups of coffee, nattering on about our beautiful new babies.”
“So she was your best friend?”
“Yes, I suppose she was,” said Mum. “Dad really liked her as well, although I think he always found Lizzie’s dad Michael quite difficult to take. He was much more dominant than Dad, throwing his weight about, dictating what we did when we went out, that sort of thing. I used to wonder how she put up with it, to be honest.”
I knew all about Lizzie’s dad throwing his weight around but I didn’t say anything. “How about Aidan and Luke – did they get on?”
“They did to start off with; they went to the same school and even though they were in different years, outside school they were inseparable. But during that last year, leading up to the accident, Luke changed a lot.”
“What do you mean?”
Mum frowned. “I don’t like to talk about it really, it feels disloyal to Suzie... It’s just that he seemed older suddenly, much older than Aidan. He’d started drinking and getting into all sorts of trouble. It was driving Suzie to despair. Things got worse and worse until finally, just before we were due to go to Spain, he was permanently excluded from school.”
“And what about him and Aidan? Did they stay friends?”
“They did, but it wasn’t good. Luke started to push Aidan around, put him down, make out he wasn’t old enough to be his friend. Aidan was still too young to understand why the friendship had changed. He was a year younger than Luke, don’t forget, and he worshipped him. He would’ve walked on hot coals if Luke had asked him to.”
So Mum and Suzie were best friends, and then Aidan and Luke, and now me and Lizzie. It was as if we were destined to be friends, destined to meet in Spain. I couldn’t wait to see her on Wednesday, but there was something about her note that had been bothering me – niggling away at the back of my mind – and every time I thought of it, a sour feeling like acid filled my stomach.
It was about my dad. I’d asked Lizzie to write back that she didn’t believe he was responsible for Luke’s death – but she hadn’t mentioned it. She hadn’t said anything about Dad at all, just that she’d found something, and that she wanted to visit Aidan with me. I turned back to Mum, wondering if she’d open up to me, tell me what really happened.
“Do you know anything about Luke’s accident?” I asked, scared of what she might say, but desperate to know at the same time. “Do you know what happened the night he died?”
Her cheeks flushed and she looked away, as if she was trying to decide what to say, but just at that moment Nan arrived back.
“Any chance of a hand with these bags?” she called out from the front door, and Mum jumped up from the couch to help her.
I’d just have to wait until I saw Lizzie – until she told me what she’d found. The acid burned its way round my body. What if it was something that linked my dad to Luke’s death? What if she’d found something that proved beyond doubt that he was guilty?
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
It was lessons as usual when Dad came down from the study. Converting fractions into decimals. I found it impossible to concentrate. I couldn’t believe Bee was down the road at Dilan’s and that I was going to see her on Wednesday. I kept going over what she’d said in her note, that her dad wasn’t staying at her Uncle Ron’s and that she didn’t know where he was. Why would he disappear like that if he had nothing to hide?
Bee’s dad was missing, but Aidan had written Sorry for everything on the back of the photo. Was he saying sorry for something that happened before the night of the accident? Or did he do something to cause the accident? I had to talk to him. I had to ask him why he was apologizing and how the orange-peel photo ended up in Luke’s bedside drawer. I was desperate to find out more about Luke and Aidan and their friendship before I saw Bee on Wednesday.
I looked across the table at Dad – he was setting me more sums. An hour ago he’d been yelling at me to get upstairs and I’d stood up to him for the first time in my life – and now he was sitting there, churning out work for me like a machine. He was an expert at turning fractions into decimals but he couldn’t even talk to his own daughter. There had to be some way to get through to him; some way to find out what really happened to Luke in Spain.
“Can I work on my poem instead of maths?” I said when he handed me the next sheet. “I’m finding it so difficult to concentrate at the moment.”
He glanced up, shaking his head slightly, almost as if he was surprised to see me sitting there. “Fractions first, Lizzie. We’ve got a timetable to stick to.”
“But can’t we change the timetable?” I said, feeling a tiny bit bolder. “Just for today? What was Luke’s favourite subject?” I went on quickly. “Was he good at maths? Or did he prefer science, or ICT?”
Dad sat back in his chair, looking at me properly for the first time in what felt like years.
“Luke was good at most subjects,” he said, “but he didn’t apply himself. It was all too easy for him.”
“He probably got bored,” I said. “I bet that’s why he got into trouble with those other boys at school.”
“Sending him to that school was the biggest mistake we ever made,” said Dad. He looked away, his face filled with pain. I felt bad suddenly. It was difficult for me to remember anything specific about Luke, but Dad probably had a million painful memories.
“Do you still miss him?” I said. “Is that why you’re so angry all the time?”
Dad turned back towards me. His eyes were glistening, as if the ice had started to melt. “I can’t talk about it, Lizzie,” he said. “He’s gone and there’s nothing we can do about it. That’s what your mother doesn’t understand, with her ceremonies and anniversaries. You were right when you said shouting and yelling won’t bring Luke back. Nothing will bring him back and that’s all there is to it.”
It was weird, but I felt closer to Dad in that moment than I had for years. I didn’t even feel scared, I
just felt sad.
“I miss him too,” I said quietly. “I know I was really young when he died, but I want to fill in the gaps in my memory. I want to know what he was good at and what he liked doing and what his favourite food was. I want to know everything.”
Dad didn’t say anything for ages. He slumped back in his chair, resting his head on one side as if it was too heavy to hold up straight.
“I’ll tell you one thing about him, Lizzie,” he said in the end. “He loved you. I’ve never seen a teenage boy so soppy over his little sister.”
Dad probably didn’t realize, but those few words meant everything to me. Luke loved me. He was soppy over me. He must’ve held me and cuddled me when I was a baby, maybe he even helped Mum to change my nappies and feed me. It didn’t solve the mystery of what happened to him in Spain, but it gave me the warmest feeling inside, like being wrapped in a soft blanket.
I was up and out of bed first thing on Wednesday morning – I couldn’t wait to see Bee and to find out if she’d spoken to Aidan. I raced downstairs for breakfast, but I realized something was wrong as soon as I saw Dad. He was sitting at the table in his dressing gown, reading the paper, and it was already eight. He never came down for breakfast in his dressing gown on Wednesdays. Never! He always showered before breakfast so we could start our lessons early and he could get away to the office for his meeting.
“What’s going on?” I said, from the doorway. “Why aren’t you dressed?”
He glanced up at me. “What do you mean, Lizzie? It’s only eight.”
“Yes, I know, but we always start lessons early on Wednesdays so you can get to the office.”
“I’m not going today,” he said, looking back down at the paper.
“But why not? Has your meeting been cancelled? You always go on Wednesdays. Always!”
He peered at me over the paper. “Why the sudden interest?” he said, frowning, his eyes cold again. “What difference does it make to you?”
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