Times of Trouble

by Victoria Rollison

  ‘Do you think it’s worth staying here, and waiting for her to come back?’ he asked.

  ‘No, like I said, she won’t come back. If she was scared enough to run, she won’t give these people another chance to find her.’

  Liam nodded. ‘Where’s her stuff? This place is pretty sparse.’

  I pointed at the sports bag, and he rifled through it, commenting on Charlie’s pills, the train timetable and the small amount of clothes. After a few minutes, he admitted nothing in the flat was of any use. I said I’d take the bag in the hope I would be able to return Sophie’s things to her. Having seen Sophie, getting so close, but not having a chance to speak to her made me even more determined to find her.

  I wondered how she was coping with Charlie. Seeing his tiny clothes folded in her bag had made him real for me. It couldn’t have been easy looking after him, whilst trying to keep herself safe, and running at a knock on the door.

  I never felt very maternal myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t want babies. Some day I probably would like one, but I have never got clucky about other people’s children. Sophie was the opposite when she was a teenager. She loved children so much she used to baby-sit whenever she could, even if it was for a measly few dollars. The children she looked after adored her. She would come home with handmade presents, finger paintings covered in love hearts, jewellery made out of pasta. And she always told mum she wanted to bring the children home with her too. Mum would laugh and say it wasn’t as easy when you had them full time. Maybe Sophie was learning this now. I just hoped we hadn’t flushed Sophie and Charlie from a safe, comfortable hiding spot, to somewhere the murderers would find them.

  We drove back to Newtown, barely speaking to each other, each lost in our own hostile thoughts about how badly the day had turned out. Liam mentioned he would like to spend tomorrow in the streets around where Sophie had been living, hoping to find someone who she spoke to, or even someone who she might have run to. I thought it sounded like a long shot, and didn’t commit to coming along. I wanted to get home, and have a good look at the notebook. Maybe that would give me some idea of what my next move could be.

  I hoped my mood showed Liam how disappointed I was, but he didn’t seem at all worried about how I felt. He was too preoccupied with working out where Sophie might have gone. I wanted to know this too, but I still worried that finding Sophie wasn’t going to solve everything. Even if she was in the car with us right now, these people would still be after her. I hadn’t wanted to say this to Liam on the way from the hospital. He had said that once we found Sophie, we could go to the police. But somewhere between the Harbour Bridge and getting back to Newtown, I decided I had to speak to the police, with or without Sophie. It was time to discuss this situation with someone who might be able to help. And if Liam didn’t want to do this, I would do it without him.

  Chapter 19

  When we got back to Newtown, despite the intense disappointment I was feeling, I was absolutely starving.

  ‘Should we stop somewhere and get something to eat?’ I suggested as we drove down King St. ‘There seems to be plenty of different options. We could do Indian, Chinese, Italian or a pub meal. I could do with a beer.’

  Liam looked relieved that I had broken the ice, and he pulled the car over as soon as he saw a spot. He hesitated before he opened the door, and turning to me he said: ‘Sorry about before. I really stuffed up, not waiting for you. I was just so keen to see if she was there. I really thought we’d made it, you know. I never expected her to run.’ He looked really ashamed.

  ‘I know you didn’t mean to. We just need to discuss things more. We’re meant to be working together.’

  As I said this, I felt the notebook shift in my pocket and guilt spread through my chest. I would tell him about it if there was something useful in it. No point raising his hopes unnecessarily.

  Our car was sitting in front of a pub advertising bistro prices on a blackboard at the door. They were surprisingly cheap.

  ‘What about six dollar steaks?’ Liam pointed at the specials.

  ‘Sounds good to me, I’ll get them. Do you want a beer?’

  I noticed Liam was quite happy for me to pay for dinner. He didn’t even offer to buy the beers. If he was living off his parents’ loan, it must have made our failure today even harder to take.

  As we drank our beer, waiting for our meals to arrive, I tried to start another conversation about the people hunting Sophie.

  ‘Do you think these people who are after Sophie had something to do with prostitution? Or maybe drugs?’ I asked.

  ‘Why would it be about drugs?' he asked.

  'I read the article on your pin up board....'

  'Cocaine. Yeah, I forgot about that. I have no idea. Like I said, I think it’s best if we find Sophie, and then see what she knows… otherwise we’re just guessing. It’s a waste of time’.

  Liam didn’t look at all interested in this topic.

  ‘But when we do find her, she’s going to need help to get away from them. So if we could have some idea of who we’re dealing with…’

  ‘Can you just drop it?’ Liam snapped. ‘I don’t feel like speculating about this all evening. We just need to keep looking for Sophie.’

  What was his problem? The lucky break we had today, the information that got us this far, had come from my Facebook idea. Did he now want me to just fall in line, and do what I was told? I was tired of being bossed around.

  ‘Why do you get so prickly? I’m just trying to talk things through, come up with some ideas maybe. I don’t want to fight with you.’

  ‘I know. I’m just really over this at the moment. Missing her today has really pissed me off,’ he explained, not sounding any less prickly than before.

  ‘I’m pissed off too. But we just have to keep going. What other choice have we got?’ I asked, hoping Liam wasn’t looking for a reason to give up.

  ‘Of course we have to keep going. And we will find her. I promise you we’ll find her Ellen. We’ve got so close now, there’s no way we’re giving up.’

  By the time our steaks arrived, Liam was more friendly, the tension and resentment mostly wiped out by cold beers and the thought of a good meal. When Liam was in a good mood, he seemed like the sort of guy who could talk to anyone; even a total stranger wouldn’t make him nervous. But no matter how hard I tried, I always seemed to have to search for something interesting to say. To make things worse, it also wasn’t often that I hung out with someone as good looking as Liam. I couldn’t help but take in how many girls were checking him out across the room. Liam, like Sophie, didn’t notice the attention he got. His mind was, as usual, completely occupied by our search for her.

  ‘So were you and Sophie close when you were young?’ he asked, staring me straight in my eyes as he always did when asking a personal question.

  I thought about explaining what had happened to my relationship with Sophie, but wanted to avoid talking about the fight I feared had caused her to move to London. Maybe she would have gone anyway, but we might have stayed in touch if she hadn’t lost faith in me… maybe?

  ‘Yeah, we were good friends. Until dad left, anyway. I mean, we were four years apart, but she was very protective of me. She was always the popular one. I pretty much hung out with my piano teachers, my piano and my parents. Sad as it is to admit.’

  ‘So your mum and dad divorced when you were young?’

  ‘Not exactly divorced… he would have had to speak to my mum to arrange that. He left, and we never saw him again. It was a pretty tough time. Mum was devastated, and she never really got over it. Sophie was shattered too, and she took it out on me and mum.’

  ‘Oh.’ He poked at his food for a few seconds and then resumed his attentive stare.

  ‘So you never had time for boyfriends, with all the practising and stuff? You must have had at least some sort of affair …’

  There was no way I was going to admit how limited my relationship history really was.

  ‘Sur
e, there were some men, nothing special though,’ I lied, talking quickly to get it over with. ‘What about you? Do you have a girlfriend?’ I asked, successfully avoiding eye contact.

  ‘I haven’t exactly had time over the last few months…’

  I felt stupid. Of course he hadn’t. He saved me by continuing to explain.

  ‘Before I left my law firm, I did have a serious girlfriend. I thought she was the one. But it all got pretty screwed up. I wasn’t really meant to be having a relationship with her, and we didn’t survive the controversy.’

  ‘Was she your colleague?’

  ‘Something like that. How good is this steak! Only six dollars too!’

  Nice change of subject.

  With a full stomach, I started to feel weary, and suggested we go home. We were only a couple of streets away so Liam drove slowly, searching for a park near the house. Just when we almost there, he suddenly looked really agitated, and sped around the corner, taking us past parks that were quite close to where we wanted to go.

  ‘Where are you going? You’ve missed the house.’

  Liam was scrambling out of the car. ‘Wait here. Lock the doors. I’ll be back in five minutes.’

  His tone scared me. He sounded determined, but his voice was shaky, as if he was frightened by something. I did as I was told. Sitting in the dark, I twisted in my seat, trying to work out what Liam had seen. But the street was mostly in shadow, and I could only make out dark shapes under the glow of the street lights. I watched the car clock ticking away, each second stretching out into minutes. After he had been gone four minutes, I started to wonder if he was playing a trick. Was he about to call me from the house, and ask me what I was doing sitting in the car?

  As I heard the door unlock, my hands instinctively flew to cover my face, but then I saw it was Liam. He opened the back door and threw something in with a thud. I thought I recognised my bag - but what was he doing with that? Then he quietly opened his door, and slipped back into the driver’s seat, puffing from the effort of carrying the luggage. He pulled away from the curb, barely looking at the road, and giving too much attention to the rear view mirror.

  It dawned on me what was going on, just before Liam opened his mouth to explain.

  ‘Did you see the car parked outside the house?’ he asked.

  ‘Was there someone there you recognised?’ I suddenly felt jumpy, desperate to get out of this place. So much for being brave like Sophie.

  ‘When we drove past, I'm sure it was the same car I saw behind us earlier. The guy in the front seat looked like he was asleep, and the driver was reading a newspaper. They looked like they were staking out the house.’ He exhaled, the stress in his voice seeming to catch in his throat.

  I felt terrified. The danger was suddenly real.

  ‘How could they have found us?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said.

  He turned left far to fast, exiting the side street, but immediately landing in the middle of a traffic jam on King St. If he had been able to turn right, we could have got out of the Newtown gridlock quicker, but I could understand why he hadn't waited for a gap in the traffic. He was as petrified as I was.

  ‘Are they following us?’ I asked, instantly wishing I hadn’t, as Liam looked for so long in the rear view mirror that we almost swerved into oncoming traffic.

  ‘They will be. I tried to look calm going into the house, but they must have seen the luggage when I left. Hopefully it took them a little while to work out what we were doing.’

  ‘What are we doing?’

  ‘Running!’ he almost screamed.

  Liam's driving was more than usually erratic, especially considering we were only driving at the pace of the slow moving traffic jam. Our car was inches away from nudging the bumper of the car in front. And every few seconds, Liam swerved to the right as if to pass. But the oncoming traffic didn't leave space for overtaking. The cars parked along the left hand side of the road cut off any chance of overtaking there. So we were stuck. I felt like a caged animal.

  'Can you see them behind us?’ he asked. ‘It was a blue Magna.'

  I turned round in my seat, wondering what a Magna looked like. But then I remembered, when I saw the model three cars behind us. We were separated from it by a ute and a little hatchback. They were definitely behind us. This was not Liam being paranoid.

  'They're not far behind Liam. I can see them. They're going to catch up!' I shrieked.

  'How can they? We can't go any faster, so they can't either!' he snapped.

  'We need to turn off! What if they get out and try to catch up on foot?' I reached into the back, slapping the lock down hard. Liam did the same on his side. We were still moving slowly forward, but had only travelled about 150m since we entered the main road.

  'There's no way they'll get out of the car.'

  'Maybe we should get out? And make a run for it?'

  'Where on earth would we go?' As Liam said this, he had to slam on the breaks to avoid colliding with the car in front, which had just stopped for a red light at a pedestrian crossing. I spun round in my seat, staring at the Magna, waiting for them to make a move towards us. I felt like I was in a nightmare. A car chase where we couldn't accelerate away, and no chance to turn out of the slow moving procession. The car made me feel claustrophobic, but Liam was right. It wasn't a good idea to get out now. They would just get out of their car too, and then what would I do?

  'Grab your bag out of the back. Get mine too' Liam barked.

  I did as I was told, awkwardly hauling the bags through the gap in the seats. I stuffed them both at my feet, and stared at Liam, waiting for another instruction. Liam said nothing, but he quickly undid his seatbelt, and then undid mine in one rapid flick. Had he changed his mind about getting out? I didn't have time to ask.

  The light turned to green in front of us, and Liam had only a moment to act. The first car at the traffic lights on the opposite side of the road was slow to take off. As the car in front of us moved forward, Liam yanked down hard on the steering wheel, slewing our car across the pedestrian crossing, effectively blocking the traffic in both directions. The car stalled as Liam took his foot off the clutch. It was a miracle no one hit us. They made up for it by hitting their horns instead.

  ‘Get out,’ Liam bellowed. ‘Quick! Taxi!’

  I pushed my door open, and almost tripped trying to drag the bags with me. Liam was much quicker, slipping around the front of the car, and grabbing his bag as he sprinted past me. He was pointing and yelling as he ran down the middle of the road, and I suddenly realised what he meant. The car in front was a taxi. It was moving away from us, but only at walking pace. Liam managed to hurl himself in, leaving the door open for me to throw myself, and my bag, across the back seat. I slammed the door shut, and Liam screamed at the bemused taxi driver to keep going.

  Liam’s car sat jamming both lanes of traffic on King St, with the Magna stuck behind it. Traffic was starting to bank up on the other side of the road as well. But our lane was now moving faster, free of the bottle neck. The beeping and yelling quickly faded as Liam directed the tax driver down the first side street we came to. We were free of the jam. And the Magna was no where to be seen. All I could do for a few moments was stare at Liam, dumbstruck at what he had done.

  ‘That was brilliant,’ I said eventually. ‘What will happen to the car?”

  ‘I guess someone will move it out of the way.’ He seemed overwhelmed.

  The taxi driver was peering at us curiously in the rear-view mirror. It must have looked like we robbed a bank.

  We didn’t seem to be going in any particular direction, other than away from King St. It was clear Liam was too flustered to give directions, so I tried to think where we could go. We needed somewhere to stay, but I couldn’t produce any coherent ideas. My mind was too clouded by a terror I had never felt before. What were those men going to do to us? And how did they find us?

  ‘We have to go to the police…’ I began, realising too late
Liam was on the edge of losing it altogether.

  ‘I already told you! There’s no way they will help us! We have nothing useful to tell them… and…’

  Before he could continue his rant, my mobile started ringing. We both looked at the phone like it was a bomb, ready to explode. The name flashed up on the screen. I had never been so relieved to see the word ‘mum’ in my life.

  ‘Mum,’ I answered, not trying to hide the panic in my voice.

  ‘What’s the matter Ellen? Did you find Sophie?’

  Her panic easily matched mine. I had forgotten to keep her updated on what had happened.

  ‘No… she… she wasn’t where we thought she might be. But Liam and I can’t go home. There were men there, and Liam thinks they might be… the same men as are after Sophie. Mum, I’m really scared.’

  ‘Oh my god, I told you not to go to Sydney! I knew it was a bad idea! Where are you?’

  Liam could hear mum’s frantic tone vibrating out of the phone. He looked even more worried, hearing the reaction from someone else.

  ‘We’re in a taxi. We don’t know where to go. I guess we’ll have to find a hotel.’

  I expected mum to complain, to say it wasn’t safe. But she was silent. I could almost hear her mind ticking over, trying desperately to come up with a way to keep me out of harms way.

  ‘Just keep driving Ellen. I’ll call you back in a second. I have to make a phone call.’

  She hung up before I could ask any questions, leaving me staring at the phone like it was a foreign object.

  ‘What did she say?’ Liam asked, desperate for some good news.

  ‘Nothing. She’s calling me back.’

  The taxi driver seemed too timid to ask where to go. So he just kept driving. Judging from the change in the landscape, I could tell we were already a long way from Newtown. I guessed we were heading west. Within a couple of minutes, my phone rang again.

  ‘Mum.’ I answered.