The Girl Who Lived Twice

by Tina Clough

  Callum felt that he had a stake in the drama, having been there the evening Josh searched Mia’s files. He told the others how they had sat outside waiting to see who would emerge and had seen Josh’s car drive past. He was avid for more detail. “That night, you said you knew of something else he’d done in a previous job. Was that a similar thing?”

  Mia knew she had to be careful - she was reluctant to tell direct lies, but she had to explain her early suspicion of Josh. “I found out about the other thing from a friend who worked in the same place as Josh. It was just coincidence that I ever heard of it. They kept it very quiet. It was a nasty incident, but Josh sailed on without a backward glance, as if he was Teflon-coated. An innocent person ended up covered in mud instead. And there wasn’t the slightest doubt that he’d done it – there was nobody else who could have.”

  Alice looked thoughtful. “Wonder what he actually did? It’s funny he got hired here, wouldn’t someone have found out what he’d been up to?”

  “If he didn’t give the boss at that place as a reference when he applied for the job here they probably wouldn’t have asked any questions. And sometimes firms don’t want to admit someone took them for a ride, so they pretend it never happened.”

  Tex added: “I heard of someone who was found out doing something really bad recently. She struck a deal with the employer – she resigned quietly and they paid her a sum of money. They both signed some sort of document saying that neither side would tell how much they paid her to quit or why. It was my sister who told me the story, and she said that it was because the company didn’t want anyone to know that an employee had been able to diddle their systems.”

  “So they’re prepared to let a dishonest person go on to another unsuspecting employer, and then they pay her off as well, just to keep their reputation? What a joke!” Callum was outraged. “It makes a mockery of references, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes, but I think a lot of bosses ring the previous employer and have a quiet chat when they’re thinking of employing someone. That way the last boss could give you a hint without putting it on paper.”

  Alice had the last word. “Well, let’s all remember this when we’re the bosses who hire and fire. Always ring and have a quiet chat.”

  On that note they parted. As Alice and Mia went downstairs together Mia thought of something. “Why didn’t Mandy come with Tex? I thought she usually joined him and Callum for coffee? I always seem to see them as a group.”

  “Tex and Mandy are finished. Not that it was ever official in any way, but lots of people knew they were having an affair. I knew because Mandy told me a long time ago, when I’d seen them together in her car one night. She told me at the end of last week that she’s not going to waste her time on something that’ll never lead to a real relationship. But if you ask me I think he finished it and now she’s just trying to make it seem she hasn’t been ditched. Tex isn’t going to make any comment, so she can say whatever she likes.”

  Had her revelations in the bar a couple of weeks ago hit a nerve with Tex? She remembered the look on his face when she told them of having found out that Greg had been having an affair with Barb and the effect it had had on her.

  Just before lunchtime Alice called to say that the mechanic was in reception. Mia picked up her keys, grabbed her mobile and went out to the foyer. It was a young mechanic she had not met before. “My name’s Sam. I’ll bring the car back about five, if that’s all right?”

  They went out on the street and Mia steered him to the left, tucking her mobile into her trouser pocket, removing the car key off her key ring as they walked. “Yes, that’s fine. The car is just down the block a bit on a parking meter.”

  She walked to the outside of the car and unlocked the driver’s door to get her sunglasses out and realised that she had forgotten to go out and feed the meter during the morning and was pleased to see no parking ticket. As she turned to give Sam the key a large white van pulled up very close alongside her car. Sam made a grab for her arm and for a moment she thought he was worried that the van would knock into her, but then the side door of the van slid open and she was pushed and pulled into the back of the van by Sam and the man inside. She landed on her knees on the metal floor and was shoved further in by Sam who came in after her. They were moving away even as the door was closing. Mia struggled to make Sam let go of her. “What are you doing? Let me go! You can’t do this!”

  The other man grabbed her hair, tilted her face up and slapped her hard across the side of her face. “Shut up!”

  The windows in the back were painted over and the light was dim. Beside her was a large metal cage, pushed hard against the back doors. They went round a corner at speed and Mia fell sideways while the two men barely managed to keep on their feet and the older one swore viciously. A voice from the front seat said, “Sorry Fish!”

  Mia’s mind was a whirl of confusion and fear. The man called Fish dragged her to her feet and pushed her towards the cage. Sam opened a door in the front of the cage and Fish put his hands on her shoulders and made her crouch, then pushed her violently inside and closed the door. The van swerved and she lost her balance and fell helplessly further into the cage. She landed hard on her left hip. Grunting in pain she rolled onto her back and as she did she realised that her mobile was in her right trouser pocket. Oh no, and it’s on. God, I hope it doesn’t ring. She glanced at the men; they were both leaning forward over the front seat and talking to the driver. She reached slowly into her pocket, gently fingered the face of the phone and pressed the off button, blessing the fact that she had long ago disabled the beep it used to make when it was turned on or off.

  The man called Fish looked at her over his shoulder. “Just shut up and keep still in there if you don’t want another slap to remind you!”

  “Why have you taken me? What are you going to do with me?” Her voice was trembling and her whole body felt disorganised in some way, though her mind was clear. Is this what real physical fear does to you? Destroys your coordination and makes you unable to control your voice? But even as the thought passed through her mind, she realised that the best thing might well be to let them think that she was incapacitated by fear. If she showed no signs of opposition or fight they would not expect her to try to escape.

  Sam sounded flustered and irritated. “No questions till we’re ready to have a talk. We’re going to have a chat about a few things and you’re going to help us, and then we’ll let you go - if you behave yourself. Now just shut up, no more talking!”

  He turned forwards again, bracing himself against the back of the front seat. Fish had climbed over to sit beside the driver. Mia’s mind was a flurry of thoughts; what were they going to do to her? Would she get a chance to attract the attention of someone who could help her, or even try to escape? She had no idea which direction they were headed and from her low angle on the floor she could only see the tops of buildings through the windscreen. The cage was not tall enough for her to stand and the metal bars on the floor of the cage were biting into her back. She was just about to sit up when she thought of the mobile again.

  Oh my god! If they search me they’ll find it. It’s the only useful thing I have. How can I conceal it? This top is close fitting so I can’t hide it in my bra. There’s only one place where I might be able to conceal it.

  She stayed on her back on the hard metal bars and without taking her eyes off the men she undid the front button of her trousers and started pulling the zip down very, very slowly. Sam swung round and for a scary moment she thought he had heard the zipper being pulled. He stared at her for a moment and she lay on her back with her knees pulled up and her hands folded on her stomach to hide the open zip. Then he turned his attention forwards again.

  Mia got the zip right down and moved her right hand over. Agonisingly slowly she eased the phone out of her pocket and pushed it down inside her panties. She rested after that achievement, trying to imagine what it would feel like and look like when she stood up. Where would th
e bulge be, and would the phone move and maybe slip, when she had to duck through the cage door and climb out of the van. Or maybe they would carry or manhandle her – if they did they might feel it.

  She had no options now; she pushed the phone further down, as far as it would go. Then she turned halfway on her side, still with her knees bent. She was facing the front of the van so she would see the men, but that meant they would see what she was doing if they turned round. Tense and trembling she lifted her left knee up slightly and created a small space between her legs and then slowly manoeuvred the phone down between her thighs, until it became a solid floor inside her knickers. She slowly withdrew her fingers and wriggled gently. For the moment her bikini panties held the phone in place and she hoped that it wouldn’t slide down her trouser leg when she stood up or moved around.

  It won’t be very comfortable to sit on, though. I must make sure I sit with a bit of a sideways tilt so I don’t beak it. I’ll say I hurt my hip when I fell into the cage, which is true.

  She rolled onto her back again and quietly got the zip and button done up.

  Having accomplished something constructive gave her confidence and a feeling of having gained a measure of control. I’ll make a break for it when we stop. These high heels are no good for running, I’ll have to get them off fast and then take off. If I sit up I might see something I recognise, I have no idea where we are.

  She was beginning to feel sick. She pushed herself up to sit against the side of the cage. “How much further is it? I feel really sick.”

  Sam turned round and looked at her with an expression of disgust. “Don’t you bloody dare spew in the van!”

  Mia stared at him, hoping she gave an impression of someone desperately nauseated. “I feel terrible – I can’t help it. I think I’m going to vomit.”

  The man called Fish turned his head slightly. “Shut up you silly bitch! No talking till we get there.” And in an aside to Sam he added, “And if she spews you’ll be the one hosing out the back of the van.”

  Sam turned away and Mia concentrated on combating her nausea and checking for landmarks. There were no buildings to be seen now, just the tops of big trucks and over-bridges – they were on the motorway. She caught sight of an overhead sign indicating that the off-ramp to Otahuhu was coming up in 2 kilometres. A minute later they drove up an off ramp and then did a steep turn to the right. She was now feeling so sick that she had to concentrate hard to stop herself from vomiting; she started counting backwards from one hundred by threes, an old trick from childhood. She no longer watched for landmarks and knew that she would not remember how many right or left turns they had made.

  CHAPTER 17

  The van stopped briefly, Fish got out and they moved forward again, bumped over a ridge and stopped. Sam opened the side door. They were inside a vast badly lit space with a huge expanse of concrete floor stretching away from the van. Sam opened the door to the cage and yanked her arm. “Come on! Time to get out.”

  Mia crawled through the cage door and put her weight on her right foot to stand up, but a stab of pain shot up her ankle. She cried out and sank back on all fours. She grabbed the bars of the cage and used her left leg to rise. Putting her right foot to the floor sent another jab of pain up her leg and she groaned. “Something’s happened to my ankle. I don’t know if I can walk.”

  Sam took hold of her right arm and helped her quite gently to get out of the van. Once they were standing on the concrete floor he reached over and pulled her trouser leg up slightly. They both looked down at her ankle, which was swollen and tinged with red. “Hey, guys!” said Sam to the other two. “Lucky break, eh? She’s not going to be running away, is she?” He grinned at his own wit and let go of her trouser leg.

  Fish walked over and stood very close in front of her and spoke menacingly and very quietly. She could smell cigarettes on his breath. He had a Star of David tattooed under his right eye and looked like someone, who was used to getting his way – an aggressive bully.

  “Now you listen to me, lady. We’re going to sit down and have a chat. And then you’ll spend the night in the Black Plastic Hotel over there.” He gestured towards a huge cylindrical tank a few meters away.

  “A high class place – you get a bucket to pee in and a bottle of water and a floor to lie on. You stay there for the night and we come back in the morning and have another little chat. The sooner you tell us what we need to know, the sooner you can go home.”

  Mia nodded and made no comment. I’ll keep up the helpless image, mustn’t let them think I could create any problems. The weaker I seem the better are my chances of taking them by surprise. This building’s big enough to house a jumbo jet – a disused factory of some kind. And heaven knows what used to be in that tank – I’ve never seen anything so big, much bigger than regular water tanks. The tank had a round hatch door with a large metal handle shaped like a steering wheel- it reminded her of films about submarines.

  Sam helped her hobble towards a thick pipe, which ran on slightly raised supports across the floor from the plastic tank and made a right angle turn to disappear in the gloom of the building. He motioned to her to sit down where the pipe turned the corner. She used her ankle as an excuse to lower herself gingerly and sat well forward, leaning slightly to the left at an angle to avoid sitting directly on the phone. She hoped it looked natural and slid her backside to one side and made an obvious play of moving her right foot into a comfortable position. Sam and the driver stood on each side of her. Fish remained standing, very close right in front of her and forcing her to bend her head right back to look up at him.

  Ideas and options had been running through Mia’s head nearly constantly after the initial surprise of the attack. Now she added another touch to her new persona. “Oh no - I dropped my keys beside my car! What if someone steals it? It’s not even insured.” That must be the most idiotic statement anyone could make in a desperate situation, she thought. They’ll know for sure that I’m a total dill-brain now.

  Fish opened the interview without further ado. “We know you’re the girl who predicted that the Crocodile Hunter was going to be killed by that stingray. You also said that some famous church in Russia or somewhere was going to burn down – which it did. And now we’ve heard that you’re working with the cops. Apparently you’re going to help them make sure certain things don’t happen. Or maybe it is more in the line of identifying people involved in certain things?”

  He looked straight into her eyes and waited for a reaction. His stance was intimidating. Mia tried to avoid thinking of those big fists so close to her head and so quick to strike. Making her voice sound as if she thought they were mad she tried to talk the tension down.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about – it sounds crazy to me.” But to no avail. Fish glanced at Sam as if scoring a point. “Oh, yeah! We’d been told you’d say that. But we know what we know, so let’s cut the crap and be sensible. We have a big job on the go, very soon, and we need to know if you’ve warned the cops about it.”

  Mia had no idea what he was talking about. She could not recall any particularly noteworthy crime that had happened in the spring in That Time. She had to use part of the truth now to convince them that she was being frank with them and to make them believe her when she said she knew nothing about their ‘job’.

  “OK, you’re right. I’ve been able to predict some events, just a couple. And I’m trying to keep it quiet. I don’t want people to think I know every single thing that’s going to happen. I don’t even know how it works. I just get odd flashes of details, like pictures in my mind. Right now I only know one more thing that I think will happen and that’s my sister having a baby in April. And she doesn’t know she’s pregnant yet.”

  Fish never took his eyes off Mia’s face. “That’s better! At least you’ve admitted you can predict stuff but I think you probably know a whole lot more than you make out.”

  Sam broke in impatiently. “So have you told the cops about something
happening at the Casino?”

  The look on Fish’s face spoke volumes. He glared at Sam, obviously furious that he had interrupted and been careless with information and turned back to Mia. “Well, what’s the answer?”

  “I haven’t told the police anything! I happen to have a personal friend who’s in the police and I told him about the Crocodile Hunter thing and the church fire.” She was thinking quickly of how to pitch her response. “But that was only so he’d help me try to prevent those things happening. And it didn’t work out anyway. I haven’t had a single premonition about crimes – only disaster sort of things. Oh, and my sister’s baby.”

  “So why did you go through that whole business of having people witnessing your predictions at a police station? Don’t tell me the cops aren’t interested!”

  “We only did it at the police station because my friend works there and we arranged to meet there. It’s nothing to do with the police. All I was after was getting people to believe that those two events would happen. I thought the fire would happen first and if I had witnesses to that prediction I thought they’d believe me, when I said the Steve Irwin was going to be killed. And then we’d be able to stop that happening.”

  Fish was still pushing for more. “So why did Irwin die? Didn’t you tell him what you knew?”

  She decided to lie. He’d never believe that the parcel had been stolen in transit. “They didn’t believe me, even with the evidence of that church fire. They thought I was some kind of weirdo. And I’ve told everyone who was there when we recorded that prediction that I only know a couple of things.”

  “So this gift or whatever it’s called, that you have – does it only give you a bit of a peek at some things that are happening fairly soon? Is that what you’re saying?”