‘Skylar called and the police are with her. The front door was open. It looks like he let himself out.’
‘Really?’ It seemed so very out of character for the Lucas Olive knew. Even with everything that had happened, this didn’t seem like the kind of thing he would do. ‘And Skylar doesn’t know why?’
‘Not a clue. She only noticed because there was a breeze.’
Tony and Olive were now following the others, who were very sensibly crossing the road and forming a huddle over on the green. ‘Where are we going to look?’ Esme joined them.
‘You know him best, Olive. Where would he head?’
Lucas wasn’t a runaway. He wasn’t the kind of boy who would just get the idea to up and leave in his head. It must be something to do with the recent upset with Pete.
Pete.
Was there any chance he was involved? Olive’s heart rate, which was already going as fast as if she’d turned a treadmill switch to max, went a little faster still. ‘We need to try and rule out the possibility he’s been kidnapped by Pete. We need some people to go to Bottoms Up and ask there first.’
‘Right, we’ll get members of the Gin Shack crew to head up teams of five to ten people and we’ll be responsible for keeping in touch with each other and communicating what’s going on,’ Esme said.
If it had been a more buoyant occasion, Olive would have high-fived her for the girl power Esme was displaying. But, like Olive, she was surely filled with the knowledge that this was every parent’s worst nightmare and that they needed to do everything they could to ensure a happy outcome.
‘Mark, get together five people and go to Bottoms Up. Locate Pete and check Lucas isn’t anywhere inside that building.’ Esme was clear and precise in her instructions, like life had prepared her for this moment. A cool, level-headed mum in action. ‘Where else could he have gone?’
Between them they brainstormed where Lucas might have gone.
‘If he’s gone out by himself, it’s likely he’ll have gone to the beach, so we best check the route from Skylar’s house to here.’
‘We need to check the beach huts. He’s most likely to have gone there.’
‘And we best check all along the beach. A young lad like him might not think about the dangers of the sea while it’s dark.’
As each place was recognised as an area they should check, Esme assigned people to go out and do the honours.
‘What about the Sunken Gardens?’ Tony suggested.
‘And all along the clifftop?’ Olive added.
‘Olive, would you be happy to check the gardens? Take five people with you.’
‘Randy and Veronica. Could one of you head east and one west along with five volunteers each and check all along the clifftop? Right, I’m going to remain here and coordinate the efforts. I’ll let everyone know if I hear anything.’
As that was said a police car streaked along the Esplanade, stopping near to them. Whatever kind of search the police might want, Olive was pretty certain Esme had it covered.
Leading her group of volunteers over to the Sunken Gardens was possibly the most depressing thing Olive had ever done. She’d had a massive traumatic event happen in her past when she’d lost her husband and daughter, but this was a different feeling altogether. It was that dread of this all being futile. She’d seen searches like it before in the past on the news, where police officers swept huge areas looking for clues. Where minutes and hours and days passed and the chances of good news became slimmer and slimmer.
Olive really wished that wouldn’t turn out to be the case today. That at any moment she’d get some kind of notification that Lucas was okay. That she’d be able to return to be with her son and his girlfriend and the little boy she might dare to class as her grandson. But as they went through the entrance of the gardens, there was no noise from her phone. Really there was eerily little noise from anywhere other than the sound of people moving with purpose.
The Sunken Gardens didn’t involve lots of walking around like most of the others had been tasked with. Olive had a feeling Esme had considered that when she’d allocated her this area. What it did involve was lots of nooks and crannies. The garden was set out on two circular levels before it flattened out into a courtyard-style garden in the shape of a cross. There were places to sit on all three levels and each bench was almost hidden by bushes and plants. There was also, underneath one of the entrances, a concrete storage-type area. It wasn’t particularly used, but it was open and, if she ever found herself without a roof, it was the kind of place she’d come to hide.
The only problem was it wasn’t the best place to be searching late at night when there wasn’t much light illuminating the area. Fortunately, one of the gents with her had a torchlight he always carried for his walk back from the bar. Apparently his wife had got fed up with him falling more than once on his way home and always blaming the uneven pavements.
Because there was only one torchlight, rather than splitting up like they should have, they systematically worked round the circle as a team checking there wasn’t a boy to be found.
Occasionally, Olive said his name out loud in the hope he’d hear. And soon everyone else joined in, taking it in turns to say those two syllables. They echoed across the bay like a chant, the sound coming from every quarter where people were searching.
Somehow it was worse than any distress call Olive had ever heard, because rather than the screams of a single person, it echoed and echoed, embracing the worries of every person there.
When they’d finished their search of the garden, they headed back onto the clifftop to go and see what they were able to do next.
Somehow, everything was worse when they got back to that level. It was no longer just Esme instructing troops. There were more police cars, more people, and even a helicopter circling above, skimming along the shoreline, checking the water.
‘Where’s Skylar?’ Olive asked Esme when they reached her.
Clearly Esme had been outranked by all the new arrivals and there was a policeman on his walkie-talkie now in charge of the coordination role.
‘She’s at home with Richard. They won’t let her leave the house. They say it’s better she remains there in case he returns. And I guess, in case…’ Esme didn’t finish her sentence and it didn’t take the most active part of Olive’s imagination to work out what she was thinking.
No mother ever needed any trauma like that. Olive knew, having been in the worst possible circumstances herself. It was a lifetime ago, but that feeling never truly left. The one where she’d known there was absolutely nothing that could be done. That sense of helplessness. The way Skylar must be feeling right now, being made to stay at home. Thinking about it gave Olive a renewed energy. This wasn’t going to end like that.
‘What areas have been cleared? Where haven’t we checked?’ There had to be somewhere they hadn’t thought of.
‘Everywhere we suggested has been checked. Everyone from Bottoms Up has come out to join and they’ve extended the search further along the coastline in case he just kept walking.’
‘And he’s definitely not with Pete?’
‘No, Pete’s helping with the search now.’
‘Have all the side streets and back alleys been checked? He might have taken a different route than usual down to the beach.’ Westbrook was mostly a series of parallel roads leading down to the shore. It wouldn’t have taken much of a diversion for him to make his way down here to avoid the risk of being easily seen. ‘Or he might have headed to his school? Gone to somewhere familiar?’
Olive knew she was running out of ideas, but as he’d not been found, they had to check every eventuality.
‘I’ll suggest them to Greg, although they seem to be pretty much on top of everything.’ Esme was obviously on first-name terms with the officer.
‘Tell us what you need us to do,’ one of Olive’s band of volunteers said to Esme.
Soon they’d all been dispatched elsewhere.
‘Perhaps
you’d like to go and be with your son and daughter-in-law,’ Greg said to Olive.
‘Skylar’s very upset. I said you might be a good source of support for her.’
Olive wasn’t sure how Skylar had become her daughter-in-law, but in the grand scheme of things, if little white lies had been told so Richard was able to be by Skylar’s side, then so be it.
‘Are you sure there’s nothing more practical I can be doing?’ However much she wanted to be there for her son and friend, Olive didn’t see the point in more people than necessary being stuck with staying at home unable to help with the search. The reason they were upset was probably because they were going stir-crazy with being unable to go out.
‘We really are doing everything we can. And it’s important Skylar is getting the emotional support she needs at this time.’
Olive nodded. This Greg bloke was right. It wasn’t like Olive was able to run round Westbrook at a rate of knots, keeping up with everyone else here. It was clear to see from the numbers of people out on the clifftop and scouring the beaches that they were looking at every possibility.
It was just that none of them seemed to make sense. Lucas wasn’t silly enough to go for a dalliance in the sea in the middle of the night. Nor was he the type of kid to up and leave for no reason. He was the blond-haired cuteness from next door’s beach hut who liked bacon sandwiches, building sandcastles and finding treasures for his mum. He was as uncomplicated a soul as any child could ever expect to be. Skylar had been careful to try and keep the recent upset from him as much as possible, so could it really be down to that? Olive wished she was able to reverse time and stop Pete having those five minutes alone with his son. Because surely something had been said to upset him.
But perhaps the reality was closer to home. Perhaps Richard being in Skylar and Lucas’s lives wasn’t the peachy situation Olive saw it as. Perhaps having to share his mother with another man after having her to himself for most of his life was unsettling for him and bringing about a kind of jealousy.
As Olive started to head towards Skylar’s house, she wasn’t going as fast as she should be. It was a combination of things. It was fatigue from one of the most exhausting days she’d had in a long time and also a reluctance to give up just yet, because even though it wasn’t giving up, once she arrived at the house she would be showing her love and support in an entirely different manner.
With slowing down, it was also getting colder, or rather Olive was feeling it more with her adrenaline lessening. Nobody had come equipped for an extended night search of the surrounding area. She fondled her beach-hut key in her pocket and thought about how it would never be the same without Lucas playing next door. About how their little community as a whole would be so lost without him. He was Skylar’s son, but in a way he belonged to all of them. A mascot of sorts who they all loved and cared for.
The jagged edge of the key made her take a sharp breath. She was pretty sure it wasn’t possible. Someone would have noticed if he was down there, but there were five other beach huts that didn’t belong to Skylar. Had they all been checked as thoroughly as the one they owned?
It was the kind of assumption people would make. If he was looking for a place of safety, it would be at his own beach hut. But what if he had access to another hut? What about if he’d taken the spare key his mum always kept a hold of for Olive. Was there any possibility he’d realised they would look for him in Skylar’s hut, but that he might be safe if he was to seek refuge in another?
Olive could have made it easy for herself and given Richard a ring to ask if the key in question was still there. But she didn’t want to offer false hope where there might not be any. She might get down there and find her thoughts were just a desperate attempt at clutching at straws. Although straws were worth grabbing hold of if they might solve the mystery of where Lucas had disappeared to.
But she stopped herself from thinking that. With every step she took down towards the beach huts she didn’t dare hope she was right.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Not holding on to hope was the right thing to do because, as Olive reached the beach huts, decked out as gin grottos, there wasn’t a sign of life. Even the snowmen, elves and reindeers seemed sad about what was going on and, however much she wished it might be, there were no little boys hiding behind the Christmas decorations.
Skylar’s hut had been left open. In the grand scheme of things as they currently stood, securing the doors obviously hadn’t been a high priority. Maybe the police had advised it as, if he did come back, he’d be able to take safe harbour. Although the number of people walking along the beach and clifftop and local streets meant there was little chance of Lucas slipping in here unnoticed.
Olive ventured into her neighbouring hut, the one that seemed so eerie without Skylar and Lucas in there. She was so used to the beautiful woman and her boy, who’d both grown to be her friends. It wasn’t the same without the joss sticks burning and Skylar doing some creative little project and Lucas playing in the sands. And to think she was fortunate enough that her friend had also become family. It was such an unlikely thing to have happened when Olive thought back to the time Skylar and Richard had first met. It had been back when Richard had been so ready for Olive to give up her beach hut as well as her home. And all of Olive’s beach-hut friends had agreed to come and help her protest.
So when Richard had turned up early and caught Olive skinny-dipping, it had been Skylar that had come to her rescue. The silhouette of the pair of them had been such a contrast back then. Richard all starchy in his lawyer suit, complete with suitcase; Skylar with her long, dark hair flowing almost as much as her full skirt. They were opposites back then and perhaps that was why it was working out and Richard had softened so much more. He’d dropped the guard he’d held on to for so long. Anything happening to Lucas would be the biggest blow to them. To all of them.
Olive didn’t like to think of the many things that might have happened, but they were swimming round in her head all the same. It came to something when the thought of an injury like a broken ankle seemed like a good thing. Because there were so many things that were so much worse, they were unbearable to imagine.
Giving up on peering into Skylar’s hut when all she could see was ghosts, Olive moved on to why she’d come down here in the first place.
The door to Olive’s hut was locked. It was the first thing that chipped away at the hope she was trying to ignore. If Lucas had grabbed the key, Olive thought he would have left the door ajar.
Once the hut was open it was too dark to see, but as there was no movement it seemed unlikely.
In the drawer, Olive had the silly headlamp Randy had issued her with when they’d decorated the huts up as gin grottos. She could use that to have a proper look round all the huts. The gaps at the back and sides were big enough for a small boy to squeeze into, and in the dark there was a chance they might not have been searched thoroughly.
It was Olive grasping at straws again, especially when there was a helicopter scoping out the entire area. They would have spotted him if he was hidden behind one of the huts.
It happened in a second. With not paying attention, Olive had finally done it. She’d fallen.
Not in the graceful getting-away-with-it style she’d managed before. She went down with force and there was a crunch that was almost certainly something breaking.
And she should have been feeling pain, immediate and overwhelming. She should have been crying out and calling for help and hoping that, in among all the searching, her calls were heard.
But there was only one simple thing on her mind at that moment. It was the object she’d fallen over: Lucas.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Lying on the floor next to Olive was the body of the young boy they were all looking for. Never had relief flushed through her so quickly.
‘Lucas.’
His eyes didn’t open and Olive touched his skin. Thank God it was warm to the touch. And thank God she hadn’t c
rashed onto him. She didn’t mind if she’d broken a hip if he was okay.
She’d not reached the drawer to get the torch out so the hut was too dark to make much out, but then she remembered a little trick Veronica had taught her. It was lucky, but she was able to reach into her pocket and grab her phone out to use the light feature.
Lucas had every one of her towels out of the drawer and had made them into a pillow and blanket combination. He’d made himself a bed. It was such a massive relief because that meant he was sleeping. He was deliberately here camping out.
‘Lucas…’ Olive said it with more conviction now and rocked the boy to help wake him up. He had to be sleeping pretty deeply to be able to snooze through the commotion outside. She just hoped that was all it was and he hadn’t managed to get into her gin supplies as well. ‘Wake up, sweetheart.’
When Lucas did wake up, he did so with a start.
‘It’s Olive, darling. Everyone’s looking for you.’
‘I’m hiding.’
‘Why, sweetie? Why on earth would you think you needed to hide?’
‘So I don’t get into trouble.’
‘Why would you ever be in trouble? Whatever it is, it’s never worth running away from home for.’ If Olive had been able to move, she would have cradled him in her arms. Whatever had worried him enough to make him run, she wanted to reassure him nothing was ever as bad as all that. Everyone who loved and cared for him would always be there for him. He should never feel the need to run.
‘But I’ve upset everyone.’
‘You’ve never upset anyone. I’m sure whatever it is will be fine. If you want to tell me, we don’t have to tell anyone else.’ Olive figured it was better she at least find out what had unsettled Lucas to the point of running away. Then she would know if it was something to worry about.
‘You really won’t tell anyone?’ Lucas scooched over to her, meaning he was close enough for Olive to comfort him at least with a hand on his shoulder.
Christmas at the Gin Shack Page 22