Out of Sight Out of Mind (Choc Lit)

by Wareham, Evonne

  ‘Alec paid for it.’ Jay’s voice grated.

  There was a small huddle of people beside the building, dealing with the broken body. A shadowy figure came to the edge of the group, looking in their direction. Jay raised a hand in acknowledgement. The figure turned away again. Muffled orders were shouted. A dark-painted van crawled on to the site and stopped. The ambulance driver and his mate moved out of the huddle to greet it.

  Jay stroked Madison’s hair. ‘Don’t think about it,’ he implored softly.

  Madison reached up, found his hand and squeezed. ‘So many deaths.’

  ‘But this is where it stops.’ Jay pressed her hand in return. ‘We can end it here.’

  ‘Can we?’

  ‘If we do what we agreed.’

  ‘I …’ She felt so tired. She knew reaction was setting in. She tried to fight it. Tried not to feel again the raw fear as the black tide washed towards Jay’s mind, not to see Vic’s burned face and staring eyes. ‘What … what did we do in there? How did the energy feed back like that?’

  ‘Alec was calling on some sort of electrical power. Vic was feeding it to him, through the computer. It had to be. The guy’s work was incredible. Those machines were almost organic. But he met something stronger.’

  Madison looked up, too drained to understand. ‘You,’ Jay prompted gently.

  ‘Oh.’ She let the word out long, like a sigh.

  ‘You never let me see what was really inside you. You never let anyone, did you?’

  Madison shook her head. ‘Two weeks before he died, my dad finally talked to me, about the mind reading.’ Her mouth twisted at the memory. ‘He told me to be careful who I trusted. He made me promise never to show everything. Not to a colleague, employer, lover – no one. Then afterwards he refused to speak about it again. The mind power, it came from him. But he never acknowledged it. I think maybe that’s why my parents were killed. That it was something he had done, or that he knew. I think my dad guessed what might be coming, but he couldn’t stop it.’ She made a weary gesture that bent Jay’s heart. ‘I can see now that my father was afraid of what was in him. Perhaps he had reason to be, I don’t know, but he loved me and he wanted me to be safe. When I went to live with my aunt, she was different. She didn’t hide what she was. She helped me come to terms with what I could do. I resisted it, for a long time, but it was too strong in the end. But she agreed with her brother, that I shouldn’t let people know everything, to keep myself safe. In there just now … I couldn’t do that any more. You needed me. I had to let go.’

  ‘You trusted me.’ Jay’s voice was very soft. He touched her cheek.

  ‘You did the same for me. You stepped aside and let me through.’ She gulped some of the tea. ‘I don’t think that I want to do it again. I know now what I’m capable of. It’s too difficult to control,’ she said bleakly. Then she looked up. ‘I love you, you know. I couldn’t keep that a secret, either.’

  ‘Yes—’ He didn’t get to finish the sentence. Madison saw him tense as a figure loomed through the darkness towards them. ‘Now we have to get ourselves out of this. Game face,’ he whispered as he swivelled round to meet the newcomer.

  Craig’s body armour bulked out his silhouette, but he’d taken off his hood. He looked them both over, and then nodded, as if satisfied.

  ‘Which of you is going to run?’ he asked conversationally.

  ‘I am.’

  ‘How did you know?’ Madison’s heart jolted as her voice collided with Jay’s.

  Craig gave her a slow smile. ‘I reckon if I can figure it out, you sure as hell could. The two of you together? Even without what happened in there?’ He jerked his head back to the factory building. ‘My people are going to want to harness that – whatever it was.’ He raked an enquiring look from Jay to Madison. When neither spoke, he shrugged and looked off, studying the river. ‘At the very least, they’ll want to stop it falling into anyone else’s hands. They’re not so happy right now about the way that machine got busted. Going to want to hold on to the source material. Plus, there’s going to be a shitload of questions.’

  He shifted his stance, watching the Thames flow by. Jay was silent, clearly waiting. Madison could barely breathe. When Craig moved, her lungs were screaming. He was holding out a set of keys to Jay. ‘My jeep is parked down there in the road. Dump it as soon as you can. I guess you two have made some sort of arrangement?’

  Jay looked down at Madison. ‘We have.’

  She got unsteadily to her feet, shrugging off the blanket. ‘Arrangements can change.’

  ‘No.’ Jay took the keys. ‘We agreed.’ He closed his hand over them. ‘Thanks, Craig. We owe you.’

  ‘Just get yourself out of here, safe.’

  ‘Helping us will get you into trouble,’ Madison objected.

  Craig gave a characteristic shrug. ‘I can hack it. This is the last thing that I can do for Neil. That’s why he bought the cottage,’ he said unexpectedly. ‘It was meant to be a starting point, for dropping off the map. After the honeymoon, when you came back from Portofino, he was going to try to persuade you to disappear. He wanted to make a new start, somewhere he wouldn’t always have to be looking over your shoulder for the bad guys. And the not-so-bad guys.’ A twisted grin curled his mouth as he scanned the activity around the warehouse. ‘It didn’t work out for Neil. You’ve done this before, Creed.’ He looked back to address Jay. ‘You can make this work.’

  ‘I hope so.’

  Jay pulled Madison into his arms, resting his head against her hair. ‘I love you. Don’t forget that. Be strong.’ He could feel the wetness of tears on her face. He held her away from him, brushing the moisture off her cheeks with his thumbs. She sniffed, shaking her head. Unable to speak.

  ‘I love you,’ he repeated as he bent to claim her mouth.

  The kiss told him everything. It was sweet and soft and rippled with pain.

  And over far too soon.

  ‘There’s going to be a lot of fallout from this.’ He glanced up at Craig. ‘You’ll be looking out for her?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Craig was still studying the activity around the building. More cars had drawn up. Raised voices and slamming doors. ‘I don’t want to hurry you, but the cops have just arrived, to take over. My people will be pulling out of here pretty soon. Someone is going to be coming this way before that happens, to scoop the two of you up. If you’re leaving, it ought to be now.’

  Jay hugged Madison, hard, then disengaged himself from her arms ‘Take care.’ Madison’s throat was too choked to reply. She pulled him to her for one last, tight embrace.

  A man had detached himself from the group around the building and was moving towards them. Craig strode forward to intercept him. Behind the two dark figures, Jay let Madison go.

  She watched as he stepped silently away from the ambulance and walked between two parked cars. And out of her sight.

  She couldn’t stop the tears running down her face. She didn’t try. They just kept coming. Beyond her control.

  Chapter Forty

  ‘You okay, sweet pea?’ Jonathan put his hand on Madison’s shoulder.

  ‘Oh – yes.’ She jerked her eyes away from the calendar, hanging over her desk. ‘What time is the staff meeting?’

  ‘Half an hour. You want to get a coffee first?’

  ‘You go on. I’ll follow you. I promise,’ she said.

  Jonathan looked her over critically. ‘How are you doing, really?’

  ‘Not too badly.’

  Not now that the intense questioning was over and she had been allowed back to the lab, to resume normal life – although all her movements were undoubtedly being monitored. She’d even looked at Jonathan sometimes and wondered; which was mean and disloyal. She’d told him most of the story and his support had been as generous as his astonishment. She was just fe
eling overstretched and tearful. Not herself.

  She smiled to reassure Jonathan, pleased when the concern faded a little from his eyes. ‘I have something to finish up in here. I’ll see you in five minutes.’

  When the door closed behind her colleague, Madison went back to the calendar and the tiny red dot in the centre of the 0 of the tenth of June. Now it was the twenty seventh of July, which might mean nothing. Stress could play havoc with a woman’s hormones. She and Jay had always been careful, except—

  The memory of the kitchen on the first day at the cottage came flooding back. Jay boosting her on to the unit beside the sink, his laughter against her throat, his skin, smooth under her fingers, her breasts crushed against him. The scent and the taste and the feel of him. It had been fast, spontaneous, loving. Her stomach contracted with longing.

  She crossed to the window, to look out. Jay had stood here, when she’d brought him to the lab on that first day. The ache, that was a permanent feature in her chest, intensified from dull throb to white heat. She dragged in a breath that was halfway to a sob, then shook it off, lifting her chin. She’d known how it would be, when they’d made their decision to part. There was no going back now. Especially not now.

  She turned back to the desk, leaning over to punch out a number on her phone.

  ‘Hello? Yes. I’d like to make an appointment with Dr Griffiths, please.’

  ‘You want an extended period of leave?’ The director was frowning. ‘Madison, in the circumstances—’ He stopped. ‘I’ll do what I can, of course, but your return here—’ He paused, clearly uncomfortable. ‘You know the security people remain unhappy about your part in … the incident with Dr Creed. I gave certain undertakings, because I felt that it was important that you should be somewhere you felt secure—’

  ‘And I appreciate that, very much,’ Madison interrupted the director quietly. ‘I know what you’ve arranged and I’m grateful. I do understand the position you’re in. It was made quite clear to me that I was on probation here.’

  Craig had done all he could to shield her when Jay’s absence was discovered. His rank and standing in the service, very much higher than she had ever imagined, had protected him from suspicion, but as predicted, his superiors had not been happy. Jay’s disappearance, apparently into thin air, and her reluctance to speculate on that, or to provide precise details of what had happened at the warehouse, to cause the death of two men and the destruction of an important piece of equipment, had not gone down well. Withdrawing into herself, she’d weathered the repeated interrogations, even the suggestions that Jay had run out on her, leaving her behind to face the music. She knew differently. They’d talked about it. Harder to hide together than alone, when the authorities would throw all they had into finding them. This way the focus was divided. Jay had wanted her to be the one to go. But she hadn’t been sure she could do it.

  It had been like tearing her heart out, but she’d made him promise. To stay, under the eye of the authorities, they would never be free. This way – she had to hope there was a chance.

  In the end, Jay had given in.

  That secret hope had helped her withstand the barrage of questions, about Jay, about the events at the warehouse, about her own skills. Disappointment at the loss of the machine and its creator had refocused her questioners on Madison’s own expertise. Finally, once they’d established that her individual talent was unchanged by collaboration with the notorious Dr Creed, and that she still identified only memory pictures, or feelings and emotions when in contact with regular subjects, Craig’s shadowy bosses had reluctantly agreed to draw a veil over the whole incident. The director had been a tower of strength in the complex tests they’d ordered. If he’d detected any increase in Madison’s power, he hadn’t drawn attention to it. There had been one arrest, after the police had dug up a swimming pool in a garden in Surrey and found the body of a young woman. Craig had hinted that the papers and computer records found in the ape-man’s safe had provided a welcome distraction to the investigators. There had been reports of several spectacular crashes on the stock market of companies connected to the Organisation.

  No charges had been made over the two deaths at the warehouse. But Madison knew she would have to live with the consequences of that night for the rest of her days – the sight of Vic, lying dead at his machine, and Alec plummeting into darkness. Those ghosts would always be with her.

  She bit her lip. The director was waiting, puzzlement and concern in his face.

  ‘Madison?’

  ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I was distracted. I understand the difficulty, but I’ll still have to have the leave.’ She smiled wryly. ‘I won’t be going away, or leaving the country,’ she reassured him.

  Her smile softened at the confusion and irritation in her boss’s face. ‘I think you’ll find that you can’t refuse me,’ she said gently. ‘This will be maternity leave.’

  Chapter Forty-One

  One year later

  Madison kissed the downy head resting against her chest, and smiled. Amanda Jayne gave a contented gurgle, reaching for Madison’s hand, curving tiny pink fingers over her mother’s thumb. Madison made approving noises and tickled a small stomach.

  ‘Uh-oh.’ Both their heads went up as they heard a noise in the hall. ‘Sounds like that’s the post. Letters for Mummy.’

  Tucking her daughter more securely on to her hip, Madison wandered out to pick them up. It was a fine day, so they would be going to the park later. Madison would tell Amanda Jayne all about the ducks on the pond and the boys playing football and the baby would keep dark blue eyes fixed on her, exactly as if she understood. Or she might just go to sleep.

  Madison scooped up the letters. A bill, a holiday brochure, a postcard from Los Angeles. She turned it over and read the message from Jonathan. Ashley was settling into his new job. Jonathan was perfecting his surfing technique and enjoying being a kept man during Ashley’s period of secondment and his sabbatical from the lab. The sun shone every day. When was she going to visit them and bring their goddaughter?

  ‘You want to go, poppet?’ She jiggled the baby on her hip. ‘In a big airplane? To see Uncle Jonathan and Uncle Ash?’

  Amanda Jane blew a bubble.

  Madison turned the last envelope over. Her heartbeat had kicked up a little at the sight of the padded bag. She unsealed the flap and tipped the contents out. It was there. After so long, the signal lay in the palm of her hand. It looked like an expensive piece of marketing, an extravagantly embossed invitation to visit the local car showroom to try out the latest models in stock. The key, attached to the card – unlock your future driving pleasure – was impressively realistic.

  Madison stared down at it, her heartbeat sounding in her ears. She could barely breathe. Elation, joy, heart-wrenching longing – and sudden panic. She grasped the corner of the hall table, fighting her emotions. Normal, everything has to be normal. In case someone is still listening. She’d spent a year living quietly, working methodically, dressing plainly – subdued and passive. Flying under the radar. Waiting for this moment.

  Madison leant against the table, eyes closed. The baby, gripped a little too tightly in her arm, began to whimper.

  ‘I’m sorry, poppet, was Mummy holding on too tight? Silly Mummy.’ She lifted the child to her shoulder and nuzzled her cheek, hand folded over the key. ‘It’s a lovely day – how would you like to go for a ride on a train?’

  She packed the bag with care, putting in the essentials, then stood back to examine it. Only the sort of thing a nervous new mother might put together for a day out with her baby. Her heart was still pounding. She forced herself to move slowly and carefully as she emptied the bag again, tucking in the large stuffed mouse, and below it, the tissue-wrapped wisps of scarlet silk. Smiling, she discarded a few of the larger items from the original pile, loaded the rest of the contents back in, and closed the z
ip. Then she fitted Amanda Jayne into her carrying sling and picked up the bag.

  Madison hesitated on the edge of the platform, stopping at the last minute to let the doors of the Tube train close, without getting on. Alone on the platform she looked up at the signs, whispered a soft reassurance to her daughter, and headed for the southbound line.

  She’d rehearsed it in small, unconnected bursts – the rapid succession of buses, taxis and tubes that would obscure her trail, the small but significant changes to their appearance in the mother-and-baby room of a large department store, the last stop at the coffee shop where the envelope containing their new identities, that had been waiting safely under the counter for weeks, was passed over, so casually, with a cup of espresso. Madison grimaced as she sat down to drink it. She hardly needed the caffeine. Her nerves were at jumping point, her chest tight with tension. It was a miracle that Amanda Jayne was dozing peacefully in her brand new baby sling. Her new blue baby sling.

  Madison looked down at her watch. Two hours and forty minutes since she left the flat. She was almost sure she hadn’t been followed, but there was one way to find out. Closing her eyes she sent a probe out into the crowded café, smiling when it turned up empty. Craig was an excellent planner and teacher and she couldn’t have done it without his help, especially in the matter of obtaining their new identities. He was a good man, with an enduring sense of responsibility to a dead friend and colleague. She was deeply grateful, and glad to be finally ending that responsibility. Very soon she would be off Craig’s hands. Then, in a few days, but from a different starting point, she would follow the route overseas that Jay had taken when he’d first disappeared, and had travelled again a year ago. A route to the other side of the world.