I turned round to find Kath right behind me. Rocky was sniffing at her heels, and a tiny, golden-haired dog was tucked firmly under one arm. Some part of my brain registered that the dog must be Kiki, but just then I had far more urgent things to think about than lost dogs.
“I need a phone!” I shouted at her, hoping she could hear my voice above the noise of the wind.
She pointed towards the row of shops next to the arcade, and I saw that between the café and the gift shop there was one of those old red phone boxes from years ago. Kath leant closer. “It still works,” she mouthed at me. “Here…“ She thrust a hand in her jacket pocket and brought out a handful of coins. “Take them.”
I thanked her and headed off for the phone box. The rain had slackened off a bit, and the wind, gusting towards the shore, was blowing me in the right direction. Once I was inside the box with the door shut, I dialled Diane’s number and prayed she’d be home.
The phone rang and rang. Just as I was wondering what on earth I would do if they were out, I heard a voice.
“Hello. Lionel Caulfield speaking.”
I put some coins into the slot with trembling fingers, then said, “Can I speak to Diane, please?”
“She’s only just got in from work and she’s very tired.”
“I need to speak to her urgently. It can’t wait!”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Alex Macintyre. I have to speak to her. It’s a matter of life and death!”
“Oh, really!” I could tell he was getting annoyed now, and I was terrified he’d hang up on me. Then I heard her voice in the background saying, “Who is it, Lionel?”
“It’s some kid called Alex. Shall I get rid of him?”
“Give me that!” I heard her say.
“Alex? This had better not be a time-waster.”
“It’s not, I swear. Listen, Donna’s in trouble. She’s at the end of the pier by the old observatory. She’s threatening to jump. She says she wants to see you.”
I’d definitely got her attention now. “Oh, my God! But she hates me. She made that very clear this morning. I’ll just make things worse. Let me phone the emergency services.”
She was trying to wriggle out of it, but I’d made a promise to Donna, and I had to keep it. I didn’t want to think about what she might do if Diane wouldn’t come. I had to persuade her, but how? Then it came to me.
“If you don’t come, I’ll tell the newspapers all about your secret past, and you won’t be flavour of the month anymore.”
I heard her quick intake of breath. “You little…” she began. Then she laughed.
“It’s not funny!” I shouted.
“No, it’s not, is it?” she said, and she wasn’t laughing anymore. “Very well, I’ll be there in ten minutes.” She hung up.
As I put the receiver back I realised that, despite the cold, I was sweating all over. I’d solved the first problem, but I still had to get Dad here. Where was he? Had he found my note? I was just about to dial our home number when, through the rain-spattered windows of the phone box, I saw Miss Wren’s battered old Fiat bouncing over the rough cobbles of the square. The car came to a halt. I scrambled out of the phone box and ran towards it, waving my arms furiously. I’d never in my life been so glad to see anyone.
I arrived, panting, by the car just as Dad got out, followed by Nan and Miss Wren. Dad looked dreadful: grey and drawn and sort of dazed. “Alex!” he called out. “Have you found Donna?”
I nodded. “But Dad, she’s very upset. She’s on that platform at the end of the pier by the old observatory, and she’s threatening to jump off.”
Dad put his head in his hands. “Oh, my God! This is all my fault. If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Nan grabbed Dad’s shoulder and gave it a shake. “Pull yourself together, son,” she said. “Donna needs you; you can’t break down now.”
Miss Wren looked hard at me. “You probably know her better than anyone, Alex. What will it take to persuade her to come down?”
I’d been wondering how to tell Dad about my promise to Donna. Now she’d given me the opening I needed. “There’s only one thing she wants,” I said, praying it wouldn’t provoke Dad into another rage. “She wants you to talk to Diane Fairchild about Hamish.”
Dad closed his eyes and made a little sound that was halfway between a groan and a sob. “Oh, that’s all, is it?” he said bitterly. As I stared at him, willing him to agree, the silver BMW appeared out of the gloom, looking as out of place as a spaceship at a funeral.
It purred to a stop a short way from where we were all standing. Lionel got out first and opened the door for Diane. She climbed out, and she and Dad stood there staring at each other, just a few metres apart.
Diane spoke first. “Hello, Ian,” she said.
Dad didn’t say anything; he just nodded his head slightly in response.
Lionel threw me a filthy look. I guessed Diane had told him during the car ride who Donna and I really were. “Can we get this over as quickly as possible, please?” he said. “It’s been a long day.”
Diane ignored him. “I believe you have something you want to show me?” she said to Dad. When he didn’t reply, she continued, “Look, Ian, I promise you’ll get a fair deal from Holtech. Nobody’s going to steal your ideas. If we can’t use them, we’ll tell you why. No-one else at Holtech need know we were once married, and you’ll be dealing with my development manager, not me. What do you say?”
I grabbed Dad’s arm. “Please, Dad,” I begged. “For Donna’s sake!”
Slowly Dad nodded. “All right,” he said. “I’ll bring the robot round to Holtech first thing tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I said. “But now you’ve both got to come and tell Donna what you’ve agreed so we can stop her jumping!”
I started to run along the pier. Dad, Nan and Miss Wren were close behind me, with Diane and Lionel bringing up the rear. By the time we reached the observatory, Diane was panting hard and leaning heavily on Lionel, and we had to wait for them to catch us up.
Kath and her friends were still standing in a group staring at Donna. Kath was the first to notice us. “’Ere’s the family now!” she cried. “Out of the way, you lot!”
The crowd parted to let us through. Donna was where I’d left her, sitting on the ledge, staring out to sea. “Donna!” I shouted, hurrying towards her. “They’re here, both of them. Now, are you coming down?”
“They’ve got to shake hands first,” she shouted back. “Remember?”
I turned to look at Dad. He’d heard what she said. So had Diane. She came forward slowly, on her own, clutching her side as if she had a stitch. When she’d got her breath back, she turned to Dad.
“Let’s put the past behind us, Ian,” she said. “I promise to give your ideas every consideration.” She held out her hand, and slowly Dad shook it, never taking his eyes off her face. The crowd let out a ragged cheer. Then Dad let go of Diane’s hand and dashed towards the platform. He reached Donna just as she climbed down, and as he threw his arms round her and hugged her tightly, the crowd cheered again, and some of them clapped as if they were watching the final act of a play. I had a big grin on my face, and even Kiki sensed something was up, and started yapping excitedly.
Suddenly I heard a cry from behind me. I turned round to see Diane doubled up, clutching Lionel as if she was about to collapse. “It’s the baby!” she gasped. “The baby’s coming. Please, Lionel, just get me to the hospital!”
Chapter Twenty Two: AFTERMATH
Nan let us stay off school the next day. She even phoned in sick herself. I couldn’t believe it. Normally we’d have to have a raging temperature at the very least before she’d even consider letting us stay at home. But nothing was normal in our family anymore, and all sorts of things had changed forever. For one thing, we now had a baby half-sister called Sophie. We knew about Sophie because there were pictures of Diane and her baby all over the local paper, and Lionel ga
ve an interview to Holcombe FM and burbled on for so long about the joys of being a father that the presenter had to cut him off.
“The fuss everybody’s making of them, you’d think they’d discovered a new planet,” Nan said, switching off the radio abruptly. It was late morning, and we were all sitting in the kitchen, nervously waiting for Dad to come back from his meeting with the development manager at Holtech. None of us wanted to think about how Dad might react if they weren’t impressed with Hamish. We’d had enough emotional turmoil over the last few days to last a lifetime.
The previous night, after Lucy had driven us home, Nan had fussed over Donna, running her a hot bath and then tucking her up in bed as if she were still a little girl. Then Dad had a long talk with her in private. Neither of them ever said exactly what went on in that room, but I’m guessing that he apologised to Donna, just as he had to me earlier in the day, and that Donna apologised to him for calling him a loser and for causing so much trouble. Whatever happened up there, when Dad came downstairs, he didn’t look as drawn and grey as he had before.
Donna slept late in the morning, and when she eventually came downstairs, she didn’t say much to anyone. I couldn’t remember when I’d last seen her so subdued. Although I complain all the time about her stroppiness and her sarcasm, just then I longed for her to make a withering remark about something I’d done, so I could see the old Donna back in action. I needed to know that she’d never again frighten me the way she had yesterday by doing something desperate and dangerous and totally unexpected, but I couldn’t think how to raise the subject.
Kiki sniffed forlornly at Donna’s fingers. She didn’t have any right to look so miserable; she’d already polished off all Nan’s leftovers plus the tin of luxury dog food we’d brought her. Maybe she was missing Rockerfeller.
Nan was getting fed up with her too. “Why don’t you two take that wee dog back to its owner?” she suggested. “It’s no good sitting moping round here; it won’t bring Ian back any sooner.”
It seemed like a good idea. “Come on, Donna,” I said. “Let’s go and claim our reward!”
She nodded, and we put on our coats and set off up the long road to Castleview with Kiki trotting along beside us. The storm had blown itself out during the night, and although we saw lots of damaged fences and fallen branches, the rain and wind had stopped. There was even a hint of blue sky among the grey clouds.
It was the first time I’d been alone with Donna since we’d fallen out after leaving Holtech. She’d been really angry with me then, but now I was starting to feel angry with her. I’d been terrified for her yesterday, and I never wanted to live through another night like that again. I thought she owed me a really big apology.
As if she knew what I’d been thinking, she said suddenly, “I didn’t mean all those things I said to you yesterday. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was too upset.” She looked sideways at me, appealing for forgiveness. I nodded, because I didn’t trust myself to speak. After a moment she went on.
“I really needed to talk to someone, but it had to be someone who wasn’t involved, who wouldn’t try and tell me what to do. And the only person I could think of who fitted the bill was Kath, so I went looking for her in the mall. She saw I’d been crying, and she said, ‘Come along with me, ducks, and meet my friends’. So I did.
“By then it was raining hard and really windy, so we went to the observatory. One of her friends had managed to break the padlock the police had put on the door, and we lit a fire in the grate. After a while some of Kath’s friends turned up too. Did you notice that girl with the big eyes? She grew up in a children’s home. She says Kath has been like a mum to her since she became homeless.
“I told Kath the whole story. I felt better once I’d got it off my chest. Then she told me about her own life. D’you know, she had two children of her own? They died when they were babies. They were twins, too. It was so sad, I cried all over again.”
“Is that why she became a bag lady? Because her children died?”
Donna shrugged. “I didn’t like to ask. Then she said, ‘Well, that’s enough about me, ducks. What we going to do about you?’” Donna mimicked Kath’s throaty mumble effortlessly. “And that’s when we came up with The Plan.”
“The Plan?”
“Yeah. To bring Dad and Diane together. To force them to speak to each other, even if it was only about Hamish. It was Kath who suggested it. She’s not crazy at all. She’s really quite smart.”
“Kath suggested you should threaten to jump off the pier?”
“I never said that was what I was going to do. You just assumed that was what I meant…”
As I struggled to remember what had happened on the pier, I realised she was right. It was the girl with big eyes who’d said ‘I’m afraid she’ll jump’.
I couldn’t stop myself asking the next question. It had been bugging me all morning. “Donna, you wouldn’t really have…?”
“Don’t be daft! I’m not stupid!”
That was when I finally flipped. All the fear and anger I’d been holding in for the last two days suddenly welled up and I lost control. Before I could stop myself I’d pushed Donna against the fence to our right and pinned her there with one arm either side of her body. “Don’t you call me daft!” I shouted. “And don’t you ever, ever scare me like that again, or I’ll never forgive you!”
I pulled away from Donna and leant back against the fence myself. My chest was heaving, and I realised I was crying. As I brushed away the tears with the sleeve of my jacket, I was dimly aware of Donna staring at me, her face white and scared.
After a moment she said in a small voice, “I’m sorry. I won’t do anything like that again, promise.”
“OK,” I muttered. I was as surprised as she was at what I’d just done. She’s always been the one who gets angry and upset, not me. Maybe now she’d realise that I had feelings too, even if I did hide them most of the time.
After a while we started to walk up the hill again. Kiki was forging ahead, running as fast as her fat little legs would carry her. She sensed she was nearly home. When we reached the block of flats where Mademoiselle Boudet lived, I pressed the intercom and said, “It’s Alex and Donna Macintyre.” The door opened immediately, and we went up in the lift.
The front door of Mademoiselle Boudet’s flat was open, and Kiki was in there like a shot looking for her mistress. We heard a cry of “Chérie!” and a burst of excited yapping. As we walked into the sitting room, Mademoiselle Boudet was standing there with Kiki in her arms. “You found her!” she murmured huskily. “Where was she?”
I did some quick thinking. It wouldn’t be fair to get Kath into trouble when she’d helped us so much yesterday. “Er… she wasn’t stolen, she just followed another dog home. The dog’s owner didn’t know who she belonged to, so she kept her.”
“You have made my day, mes enfants.” She beamed at us. “It is such a great happiness to have my precious Kiki back! And now you must have your reward.” She glided over to the bureau and took out a leather purse. Then she counted out a hundred pounds in ten-pound notes. “With my eternal gratitude!” she said, handing over the money.
“Er, thanks very much.” I was trying to look as if I earned a hundred pounds every day of the week, but I don’t think I fooled her. “I’m glad we could help,” I added. “We have to go now. Come on, Donna.”
We made a quick exit, but Mademoiselle Boudet was so preoccupied with Kiki that she barely noticed us leave.
As we stood in the lift and pressed the ‘down’ button, I remembered the first time we visited Mademoiselle Boudet, and how, as we left, we’d watched her greet her next visitor. He’d been carrying a bunch of flowers, and she’d called him ‘Cheri’. And suddenly I saw the answer to something that had been puzzling me for a long time.
As we walked out of the block of flats, I said to Donna, “D’you remember that man who was visiting Mademoiselle Boudet last time we were here?”
“Vaguely. W
hy?”
“It was Lionel Caulfield. I knew I’d seen him somewhere before!”
Donna stopped dead and stared at me. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
She looked smug. “I told you he was somebody’s husband! You know, I feel almost sorry for Diane. She may be a brilliant businesswoman, but she’s hopeless at choosing men.”
We grinned at each other. That was when I knew the old Donna was back again.
When we got home, Miss Wren’s old Fiat was parked outside the house. As we opened the front door, we heard a rush of excited voices coming from the kitchen. One of them was Dad’s.
“He’s back!” Donna shrieked, pushing past me into the kitchen. “What happened?”
Dad, who had a big smile on his face, was standing with his arm around Miss Wren. “It’s official!” he said, beaming happily at us. “Holtech have agreed to manufacture Hamish, and I’ve got a contract to prove it.” He waved a piece of paper at us. “And a cheque.” He held up another piece of paper.
“Wow!” I said, as I looked at the figures. It was for an unimaginably large sum.
Then we showed them our own money. “Well done, you two!” Nan said. “I think this calls for a celebration. I’m going to make us a real feast tonight. Lucy, you’ll join us, won’t you?”
“Thank you, Mrs Mac. I’d be delighted.”
That evening was like Christmas all over again. We had roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with all the trimmings, followed by a huge cream trifle, and Dad dug out a couple of bottles of blackberry wine he’d made ages ago when he was trying to design a fermentation accelerator. (The accelerator didn’t work, but everyone agreed the wine was a success.) Miss Wren got quite giggly, and Dad was in a better mood than he’d been in for months, laughing and joking, and discussing his next project – a robot that could think for itself.
As we sat around the table, too full of food to feel like moving, Dad was trying to explain the complexities of artificial intelligence. “I hope I can count on you to help me with the programming,” he said to Miss Wren. “This is going to be much more complicated than anything I’ve done before.”
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