by Susan Lewis
Jenna glared at her menacingly. “I’ll never forget you said that,” she seethed. “Now get out of my sight and don’t show me your face again until you’re ready to apologize.”
“That’s never going to happen,” Paige threw over her shoulder. “I’ve got nothing to apologize for, and you’re going to seriously regret all the horrible things you’ve said to me. You just wait and see.”
Ignoring her, Jenna turned on the others. “I want you ready to get in the car by the time I come down again. That means teeth and hair brushed, shoelaces tied, bags packed, and Wills, your glasses in their case ready for the repairer.” Leaving their worried faces staring after her, she ran upstairs, slamming the bedroom door behind her.
Since she had no time for anything else, she simply splashed cold water on her face, scrunched up her hair, and dragged a sweater over her jeans.
Minutes later she was on the landing. “Paige, I don’t want you to leave this house before I get back,” she called out. “If you do, there’s going to be serious trouble.”
—
Paige was sitting on the edge of her bed, her face as white as the blossom floating past her window, her hand shaking from clutching her phone so hard.
I’m definitely ready, she’d just messaged to Julie. I need directions. Please send as soon as you get this and will meet you there.
By the time Jenna returned from a nightmare of a school run, trying to calm the little ones down and assure them she was fine, there was no sign of Paige. Though she wasn’t surprised, she was angry and worried, and half ready to start banging her head against the wall again. It had been a dreadful start to the day, one of the worst, but she had to get a grip. She couldn’t allow herself to lose it like that again, or God only knew what kind of mess they were going to end up in.
I’m sorry about earlier, she texted to Paige. I know I expect too much of you. Please call or text when you get this and I’ll come and get you.
If she was at school, it would have to wait until later. Please God, let her be at school.
She spent the next hour clearing up the kitchen, bundling clothes into the wash, scrubbing felt-pen drawings off windows, and trying to find cases for DVDs. Every few minutes she checked her phone, but there was nothing from Paige, and as time passed her guilt and worry escalated sharply. She tried ringing, over and over, but kept going to voicemail. “Paige, please call me,” she said the first time. “Darling, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said the next time, “please let’s talk.” In the third message she said, “Paige, this isn’t fair. You know how much you mean to me, and you know I’ll be thinking the worst, so please either text or call so we can sort things out.”
By lunchtime there was still no word, so she rang the school.
A terrible fear came over her when she was told that Paige wasn’t there.
“I don’t mean to pry,” Mrs. Haynes, the form tutor, said, “but I’ve heard there are difficulties at home. If we can help in any way—”
“I need to find her,” Jenna broke in shrilly. “We had a row this morning. Is Charlotte Griffiths there? She’ll know where she is.”
“I’ll track her down and make sure she calls you.”
Only as she rang off did it dawn on Jenna that she hadn’t seen Charlotte in a while. Those two were never out of each other’s pockets, were constantly texting or FaceTiming if they weren’t actually together, so what had happened to make them fall out? If they had fallen out…
Though she guessed Charlotte’s mother, Lucy, would be at work, she tried calling anyway and was about to leave a message when her line signaled an incoming call. “Hello?” she said, quickly switching over.
“Hi, it’s Charlotte. Mrs. Haynes told me to call you.”
Jenna’s heart was thudding. “Do you know where Paige is?” she asked, trying to sound calm.
“No, I haven’t seen her,” Charlotte replied.
Oh God no. “Since when?”
“I don’t know. A couple of weeks, I guess. She hasn’t been coming to school. I thought she was…you know, sick or something.”
“No, she’s not. Do you have any idea where she might be going?”
“No, sorry. She doesn’t speak to me anymore.”
“Why? What happened?”
“We kind of had this bust-up. She thought I was…She accused me of telling people stuff about her.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“Just stuff.”
“Charlotte, please. I’m very worried. We had a row this morning and I think I’ve really upset her. I need to find out where she is.”
“I’m sorry, but I honestly don’t know.”
“Does she have any other friends who might know?”
Charlotte fell silent.
“Are you still there?” Jenna urged.
“Yes, I’m here, I’m just trying to think…I mean, there’s this friend she has online…I don’t know her name, or not her real name, anyway. She says it’s Julie, but to be honest, I don’t even know if it’s a girl.”
Jenna tried desperately not to overreact. “Do you think she could be with this friend now?”
Charlotte sounded wary. “I suppose it’s possible, but this Julie person never wanted anyone to know who she was.”
Reading everything terrible into that, Jenna said, “Is there a chance anyone else might know who this Julie is?”
“I shouldn’t think so. As far as I know, Paige is the only one she chats with.”
“You mean online?”
“Yeah. They private-message on Facebook and some other sites as well, I think. I don’t really know, because I was never invited to join in.”
Jenna’s mind was racing. “Will you ask around, try to find out if anyone knows who this Julie might be?”
“I’ve already done that and no one does. I did it so I could show Paige she was trusting the wrong person.”
“Why did you think that?”
“Because this Julie would never say who she was. In my book, if you’re a real friend you don’t have to hide who you are.”
Jenna couldn’t think of a good reason for it either. “OK. Promise me you’ll call if you see her, or if you hear anything that might tell us where she is.”
“Promise.”
As she rang off her mother came in the door. “Paige is missing,” Jenna blurted out, and found herself close to panic simply on hearing the words.
Kay’s eyes were wide with alarm.
“I mean, not missing,” Jenna stumbled. “Yes, missing…I don’t know where she is. Apparently she hasn’t been going to school…Oh, Mum, I shouted at her this morning…I said things—”
“There’s no point going over that now,” Kay interrupted sharply. “If she’s gone off in a temper, she’ll cool down soon enough. What we need to know is why she hasn’t been going to school.”
“Because someone called Julie has got to her. Don’t ask me who this person is. Even Charlotte’s not sure, and if Charlotte doesn’t know…” Jenna put a hand to her head. “It’ll be some godawful pervert who’s befriended her, lured her out of school to do things with her—”
“Before you go any further with that,” Kay cut in, “she’s been coming home every night, and—”
“And acting very strangely. You must have noticed that she hardly speaks to us anymore. She’s not interested in anything we have to say, never wants to do anything with us. I keep putting it down to her age and to Jack leaving, but now that I know about this…” Jenna’s eyes were heavy with foreboding. “Mum, what am I going to do? I can’t just sit here. She’s out there somewhere, and I don’t know what she’s doing, who she’s with…I have to call the police.”
Kay didn’t disagree. “I have Euan’s number,” she said, taking out her mobile. “I’m sure he’ll come right away.”
Not at all sure the local bobby was going to be up to this, Jenna said, “Maybe we should ring 999. She’s only fifteen. She’s not at school…”
�
�If we do that, we’ll go through to some central switchboard and they’ll end up sending Euan anyway. Let me call him.”
“OK. I’ll go up and see what I can find on her computer.”
Minutes later she was staring at Paige’s laptop screen in helpless frustration. The machine was password-protected and none of her attempts so far had cracked it.
“Euan’s on his way,” her mother declared, coming to the door. “So’s Bena.”
“You rang Bena?”
“She rang me, and I told her what was happening.”
Remembering how dependable Bena could be in a crisis, Jenna nodded. “Do you have any idea what password Paige might use?”
“I’m sure my guesses would be the same as yours: the dog, the children, her school, you and Jack, me and Grandpa, favorite bands…”
Jenna looked around the walls and typed in every name she could spot, but none of those worked either. Going downstairs for her mobile, she rang Charlotte.
“It’s Jenna. Can you call me as soon as you’re free?” she said into the voicemail. “Or text me if you know the password to Paige’s computer.” Clicking off, she tried Paige again, but still no reply.
“She has to be somewhere,” she muttered as Kay came down the stairs. “Can you think of anywhere?”
Kay’s expression was intense as she thought, but neither of them could come up with anything that seemed to make sense.
“I’m going to search the garden,” Kay announced. “Sometimes, when I was young and felt things getting on top of me, I used to hide in the shed.”
Just after her mother had gone, the back door opened and Bena came in.
“Any news?” she asked, the sight of her worried face making Jenna feel even worse.
Jenna shook her head. “I can’t get into her computer. I thought that might tell us something.”
“Euan’s just pulled up.”
Hating the thought of the police being involved, though relieved he’d arrived so quickly, Jenna went to open the front door.
Euan was already getting out of his car; he was a large man with florid cheeks, sandy hair, and kindly blue eyes. “So what’s all this about young Paige doing a moonlight?” he asked as he came in, making it sound like a load of old nonsense. “She’s a sensible girl, so I can’t see she’ll have gone far. Just forgot to tell you, I expect.”
Appreciating his efforts to calm her, while not feeling calmed at all, Jenna said, “We’ve been having some problems….Jack’s left home….I’m not sure that has anything to do with where she is now, I’m…She’s…I found out yesterday that she hasn’t been to school for a fortnight, and now Charlotte…You know Charlotte?”
“Griffiths?”
She nodded. “She told me this morning that Paige has been communicating with someone online. Apparently this person calls herself Julie, but Charlotte’s not even sure if it’s a girl.”
Euan was looking more concerned now. “So when did you last see her?” he asked, taking out his notebook.
“This morning. We had words, and I said some things—we both did. She was still here when I left to take the younger ones to school, but by the time I got back she’d gone.”
He nodded thoughtfully as he noted this down. “Has she taken anything with her?”
Jenna went blank. “Uh, I…I didn’t check.”
“Then it’s worth having a scout round her room to see if anything’s missing.”
They looked up as Kay came in.
“She’s not out there,” Kay informed them.
Starting for the stairs, Jenna said, “Mum, can you check the cupboard in the hall to see if any backpacks have gone? She wouldn’t have been able to get into the attic for anything bigger.”
Moments later Euan followed her into Paige’s room.
“Her computer’s still here,” she said, “but I can’t get into it.”
“Nothing appears to be out of place,” he commented, surveying the room. “She’s quite tidy for a teenager. Can you check her wardrobe and drawers?”
Jenna found herself shaking as she pushed aside underwear and socks, containers of costume jewelry, nail polishes and hair slides. “It’s hard remembering everything she has,” she said, “but nothing seems to be missing from the drawers.”
As she checked the wardrobe Euan went around the other bedrooms opening doors and cupboards to see if Paige had squirreled herself away there.
“She hasn’t taken her toothbrush or toothpaste,” Jenna announced, coming out of Paige’s bathroom. She felt almost weak with relief, as though she needed to sit down and take a few breaths, but she wouldn’t be able to until they were certain Paige was safe.
“So on the face of it,” Euan said, “we don’t have any reason to think she’s not planning to come home?”
Jenna shook her head. “Unless this Julie person is providing everything she needs.” Why had she just said that? She’d frightened herself again, just when she was starting to think it might be all right.
Euan was frowning pensively. “I’m going to call this in,” he decided. “It probably won’t be given a high priority, with it looking more like a truancy than anything else, but it won’t do any harm for her picture to be circulated so the beat officers can keep an eye out for her.”
“I’m worried about this Julie character,” Jenna persisted. “What if it’s a man, someone who’s been grooming her?”
“Jenna, it’s Charlotte for you,” Bena announced, bringing Jenna’s mobile into the room.
Grabbing it, Jenna said, “Charlotte, thanks for calling back. We need to get into Paige’s computer. Do you have any idea what the password might be?”
“I’m not sure….I mean, she might have changed it….”
“Please, just tell me what you think it is.”
“I don’t know that she’d want me to.”
“Charlotte, the police are here. If she’s been communicating with someone who won’t give their real identity…You have to understand how serious that could be.”
Still sounding reluctant, Charlotte said, “OK, you can try Oliver18.”
Having no idea of the relevance of that, or even caring, Jenna turned on the laptop and typed it in. The machine unlocked. “That’s it,” she cried, her voice heavy with relief. “Thank you, Charlotte. And her Facebook account? Would that be the same password?”
“You can try, but she kept changing it because of all the crap she was getting.”
“What sort of crap?”
“You’ll see if you can get on. She’s been using other sites as well, like AskFM and Pheed and Tumblr, though they’ll be mostly on her phone.”
“What kind of sites are they?”
“Social media, same as Facebook, but it’s easier to be anonymous on some of them.”
Jenna was trying to log in but couldn’t manage to open any of the accounts. She looked at Euan, not sure what to do.
Holding a hand out for the phone, he said, “Charlotte, it’s Euan Matthews here. Are you at school? If you are, I’m going to come by and see you. I’ll call Mr. Charles myself to let him know I’m on my way.”
Taking the phone back from him, Jenna clicked off as she said, “What are we going to do about the computer? Is there a way of getting into her accounts?”
Moving it around so he could see the screen himself, Euan checked the Internet search history and found all the websites Charlotte had mentioned and more. “The last time she used it was just after three this morning,” he said, “but I’m not technical enough to find out who she might have contacted or what kind of exchange there might have been.” Closing the laptop down and unplugging it, he went on, “I’ll have our tech guys take a look at it. Meantime, you need to sit tight here and let me know right away if you hear from her.”
—
Five hours or more had passed since Jenna had returned to the house and found Paige gone. There was still no word from her. Jenna was beside herself, hardly knowing what to do from one minute to the next. She’d l
eft more messages, sent her mother to search the beaches and coastal paths with Waffle, and asked Bena to drive around the countryside and villages trying to spot her. All reports back were negative, but she’d told them to keep going until just after three o’clock, when Euan rang to let her know that there had been some developments.
With her heart in her mouth she listened as he said, “First of all, a couple of CID officers are on their way to see you.”
Panic instantly flared. “Why? What’s happened?” she cried.
“Nothing’s actually happened,” he replied, “but my conversation with Charlotte has raised some concerns. It seems Paige has been the victim of some pretty unpleasant bullying at school.”
Jenna was suddenly struggling to think straight. This wasn’t what she’d expected to hear, and yet…“She tried to tell me,” she gasped, “but…I didn’t think…I didn’t realize…What have they been doing to her?”
“Mostly bombarding her with hate mail in an effort to make her feel small and disliked, sending lots of spiteful messages on Facebook, ridiculing her, doctoring explicit photographs to try and make it seem they’re of her. Apparently it’s turned more physical lately, punching, slapping, sticking her head down a toilet and making her drink urine…”
Jenna could hardly believe it. “Who’s been doing all this?” she demanded furiously.
“The culprits are being rounded up as we speak, but it isn’t the source of our biggest concern. Mr. Thomas, the technology master here, has taken a look at her computer, and the contact she’s been having with this Julie Morris is of a very grave nature.”
Jenna couldn’t breathe. She desperately wanted the world to stop so that none of this could go any further.
“In the last few days she’s been visiting suicide sites,” Euan told her gently.
Jenna sobbed a scream. “No! No! She would never do that. Please, you have to believe me….Oh my God, Paige. My baby. What are we going to do?”
“We’ve already raised the alarm,” he assured her. “This is high priority now, and we’ve alerted all local and national media outlets. Everything’s going to be done to find her, Jenna, I can promise you that.”