by Lynda Stacey
Jess stood up and nodded, just as Lily burst into the room and fell onto the kitchen floor in fits of giggles.
‘Hey there, sister, what you doing down there?’ Jess walked towards her and Lily jumped up and ran to give her a hug. Her hair was in bunches, making her look even younger than she had before.
‘Well, I was upstairs with Daddy and Nomsa, and we were playing Scrabble and I was drinking lemonade, when they both went real quiet. They do that a lot and then our daddy said to me …’ She jumped up onto the kitchen bench, put her hands on her hips and began to emphasise the Caribbean twang to mimic his voice. ‘… Lily, my girl, you run down them stairs and ask our Jess for a looooong wait, and while you’re gone, I’m gonna give this fine woman a kiss.’ She smacked her lips together and continued to giggle. ‘I think they’re snogging.’ Her hand went over her mouth and both she and Jess laughed together. ‘Do you think she’ll be our new mummy?’
Jess took a step back and glanced at Madeleine who stood in the corner of the room with the phone to her ear. ‘Well … oh … err, I don’t know …’ She hadn’t really thought of Nomsa becoming her step-mum. She smiled and it occurred to her that she quite liked the idea. It was early days, but Lily was right in her observation, Nomsa and her father were getting closer. ‘So did they say how long you’ve got to stay down here?’ Jess asked Lily, who now sat on the bench with her hands under her chin.
‘Till you give me the long wait …’ Her reply was innocent, she had no idea what her father had told her to do, but all of them began to giggle.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jack was in the cellar taking a look at the heating system with the light from his torch when a noise in the kitchen above stopped him in his tracks and he headed back up the stairs, stopping two from the door.
‘I’ve told you before,’ a man shouted as he stamped through the empty house, ‘it’s not my job to grab the kid, it’s yours. You’re her mother. Now you need to get your backside up to that bloody Hall and get the girl, just like we agreed.’
Jack held his breath. He didn’t like the sound of the voices that came from within his house. He stood still, watching through a crack in the door, waiting and listening.
‘They can’t stop you from taking her, Annie. She is your fucking daughter, for God’s sake.’ The man moved through the empty rooms, his steps echoing, the floorboards creaking, and a thudding noise came from the window as he pushed it open, whilst taking long, deep drags of nicotine from his cigarette.
A woman, presumably Annie, stumbled into the room behind him. ‘Shut the bloody window, Griff. It’s the middle of winter, for Christ’s sake.’
Annie’s heel dropped down between a gap in the wooden floorboards and as she stepped forward, her shoe was left behind. ‘Damn shoes, why can’t prostitutes wear sneakers? I’m sure the damned punters wouldn’t give a shit,’ she growled, and grabbed the shoe. She pulled as hard as she could and finally fell backwards, landing heavily as it freed itself from the boards. ‘It’s a wonder I’m not covered in fucking bruises.’ She rubbed her leg, looked down at the shoe, which was now minus a heel, replaced it on her foot and pulled herself up. ‘Another pair of bloody shoes I’ll have to replace. They’re sick of seeing me in that damned charity shop.’
‘Bugger the charity shop, Annie, and if you haven’t noticed, you’re not only covered in fucking bruises but also scabs and bloody puncture wounds where you keep injecting,’ Griff yelled as he turned from the window, flicked the ash from his cigarette on to the floor and walked to the wall, where he tapped at the light switch. ‘Damn it, no bloody electric? Try in there.’ He paused, and waited. ‘Annie, I said try the damned switch.’
‘All right. Don’t shout, I heard you.’ She stomped across the room. ‘This place has probably been empty for years so if it doesn’t work in there, what the hell makes you think it’ll work in here?’ She flicked the switch with no effect and continued to stand in the darkness. ‘Besides if you put the bloody lights on, it’ll be like sending out a beacon and you might as well just shout out that we’re here to kidnap the girl.’ She walked over to where Griff stood. ‘Give us a drag, I could murder a fag.’ She took the cigarette from his mouth, placed it between her lips and closed her eyes as she inhaled.
‘Don’t be stupid. It’s not kidnapping, not when she’s your own kid, is it?’ Griff grabbed the cigarette back and kicked at the walls. ‘Now just go and get Lily and let me sell her to the highest fucking bidder. Your debt’ll be just about paid and then I won’t have to go and kill either of you, will I?’
His tone was menacing, aggressive and Jack was sure he was capable of doing what he’d threatened. His mind began to race and his heart pounded as he took in a deep breath. What could he do? He couldn’t, no he wouldn’t allow him to go after Lily and he knew he had to do something, he just wasn’t sure what. He began looking around and down the cellar steps in the hope he’d find something he could use as a weapon.
‘What do you mean just about? If I give you the kid, we’re done. Is that clear?’ Annie leaned against the wall, pulled the stilettos back off of her feet and shook them free of gravel. ‘Griff, is that clear? I want free of you. I want to know that I’ll never be owing you any more bloody money. Not ever.’
‘Oh, you’ll be free of me all right, you dirty old slut.’ His hand shot out, making Annie duck. ‘You’re a good for nothing dirty addict, do you know that? You stink, you need a bath and I’d do better with you out of the house anyhow. Men only come for the other girls, you never get picked, not unless there’s no one else left to shag or they’re old, fat or bloody stupid.’ He spat at the floor and looked her up and down, ‘Look at you, what makes you think a bloke’d even want you?’
‘Fuck off, Griff. I had a bath on Sunday.’ She stroked her hair down flat, and pushed it behind her ears. ‘And I’m not an addict. I can do without it. I … I just like it, that’s all.’ She stamped across the room and towards the cellar door making Jack hold his breath.
‘Annie, you talk bollocks. In an hour or two, you’ll be on your damn knees and you know it.’ Griff paced back and forth. ‘But by then I won’t give a toss. By then, I’ll have the kid. Won’t I?’
‘You will if I give her to you.’ The woman looked defiant, and Jack guessed that any drugs that were still in her system were making her brave. ‘You’re not treating me how you do the others, Griff. I want assurance, I want to know that the damn flick knife will be staying in your fucking pocket, where it belongs.’
‘Ah, so you finally thought about poor Bella, did you? Finally realised what a fucking mess I made of her face, did you? Well, I’m telling you now, Annie, you do what you’re told or you’ll come up against more than my blade, you got that?’
Annie moved as far away from Griff as she could.
Griff laughed. ‘Well, if you don’t give me the girl, you’re as good as dead, anyhow. You got that?’ He pulled his van keys out of his pocket and moved across the room towards where Annie stood, his nose almost touching hers. ‘Now, what are we doing hiding out here anyhow? We need to go into town and find a charity shop to get you some decent clothes to wear and make you look respectable, then we can get down to the hotel and get Lily and get out.’
Jack felt his stomach turn. Griff was twice his size and according to the woman he had a knife, making Jack wonder what he could possibly do. He had to think and fast. The couple were about to leave, about to make an attempt to kidnap Lily and, right now, he was the only one who could stop that from happening. She was so sweet, so funny and so terribly innocent. He’d heard their plans and there was no way he could allow them to go near her. He needed to warn the Hall and get them to call the police. He felt in his pocket for his mobile, but the phone was not there. He went over his movements. He’d been clearing the rubbish, cleaning up the dust and then he remembered the moment he’d taken it out of his pocket. He’d been standing in the kitchen thinking of calling Jess, but had changed his mind and had thrown the mobile o
n the kitchen worktop while he’d worked. What now? Confront the pair or wait till they had gone? They had spoken about going to a charity shop so he knew he had time before they’d get to the Hall. In seconds, Jack weighed up his best course of action and decided that inaction was by far his best bet, especially seeing as Griff had a knife.
At that moment he heard the kitchen door bang shut and looked back through the gap in the door to see that the pair had gone. Jack started up the last two steps that would take him to the kitchen.
Chapter Twenty-Six
‘Not a chance, Maddie. I don’t care what excuse he might come up with.’ Jess looked at her watch. ‘And what’s more it’s almost four o’clock, we’ll be going in soon.’ She shuffled in her chair, moved her hair back from her face and sipped at the glass of water. ‘How much of this do I have to drink?’
Maddie turned and smiled. ‘You need to drink all of it.’ She pointed to the jug, just as a heavily pregnant woman walked into the room, sat down, crossed her legs and then thought better of it and uncrossed them.
‘You here for a scan, my darling?’ she asked as she dug around in her handbag, pulled out a tissue and noisily blew her nose.
Jess nodded politely. ‘Ten weeks, how about you?’
‘Ha ha, really, wow, you’re barely pregnant.’ She laughed at her own words. ‘I’m thirty-six weeks, love, about to pop. Is it your first?’ The woman was huge.
Jess answered, ‘Yes, my first.’
The woman nodded. ‘You wait till you’ve got six of the little buggers, like me. Then you’ll know about it.’ She laughed, picked up a magazine and began flicking through the pages. ‘See this magazine?’ She looked up at Jess. ‘No way I’d get time to look at this at home, always one of them wanting my damned attention. Can’t even go to the bloody toilet on my own.’ She turned back to the magazine and continued to read.
Madeleine moved closer to her sister and whispered, ‘Now, if that doesn’t put you off having six of them, I don’t know what will.’ She pursed her lips and both sisters tried not to giggle.
Then Jess’s expression turned serious again. ‘Maddie, Jack promised. He said he’d be here.’ She allowed the toe of her boot to graze the edge of the table that was littered with newspapers, magazines and empty Styrofoam coffee cups. ‘He said he’d be here today. What kind of a father will he be if he can’t even do that?’ She knew she was being unfair. Jack would be an amazing father. She looked over her shoulder in the hope that she’d see him, running in through the main door, bunches of flowers in his arms and that cheeky half smile that normally crossed his face when he’d done something wrong.
‘Jess, you said it yourself, Jack doesn’t do this,’ Maddie replied. ‘He never just disappears and, what’s more, even if you two have had a spat, he always turns up.’ Her hand rested on Jess’s knee. ‘Come on, sis, we haven’t seen him, his mother hasn’t seen him, his friends haven’t seen him … don’t you think it’s all a bit odd?’ She stood up and hovered over where Jess sat. ‘Honey, most people would wait, but with our history, someone disappearing concerns me. Don’t you think we should report him as missing, go look for him or something?’
Jess stared at the sanitised flooring of the waiting room, looked up at the signage and once again read the word, ‘Ultrasound’ that was etched into the glass partition. She watched as a doctor entered the room, shouted a name and the heavily pregnant woman stood up and left.
She glanced down at the newspapers and began to read the headlines. A man was missing, another had been attacked with a hammer and a woman had been given a record insurance pay out when her husband had been killed doing his job. One headline after the other spun around in her mind, ‘attacked, killed, missing … attacked, killed, missing.’
‘Oh my God, Maddie, you really think he could be missing?’ Her breathing suddenly became short and sharp. She leaned forward to grab hold of the edge of her chair. ‘What if …’ Jess turned and grabbed Madeleine’s hand. ‘… what if he’s been hurt? What if he crashed his car, you hear of it don’t you, buried in the undergrowth for days on end, while he dies because no one found him.’
‘Jess, you need to drink.’ She felt the glass being pushed back into her hand.
‘Maddie, we have to start looking for him, don’t we?’
Madeleine nodded. ‘It really is unlike him, I’ve never known him to be late for anything, and I know it’s not been long, but we both know that Jack would never willingly miss this scan and seeing his baby for the first time. I do think we have to consider that something must have happened to make him late. But you can put the car crash idea out of your mind. If he’d crashed his car, the police would have come to you, to the Hall, it’s where Jack is registered as living.’ She gave Jess’s leg a reassuring pat. ‘After the scan, I’ll phone around again. I’ll make sure he hasn’t turned up at his mother’s and then, let’s say he hasn’t turned up by …’ She paused and thought. ‘… say six o’clock tonight, that’d be three hours after we’d expected him, that’s when we’ll phone the police. That will have given him loads of time to get in touch, wouldn’t it?’
Jess nodded. ‘But they’ll think we’re nuts. He could have just gone to the shops and lost track of time. Do you think we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves?’ She smiled and tried to convince herself that all this was true. ‘Besides, would they respond that quickly?’
Madeleine sighed. ‘I don’t know, hun, normally with an adult, they’d wait until someone has been missing for at least a day, but with what’s happened in our past, they’d expect us to worry and I’d hope they’d respond quickly. After all, I’d only been missing a couple of hours last year, but if they hadn’t come when Bandit had rung them, Liam would have killed me. It was all down to their fast response that I’m still here.’ She squeezed Jess’s hand. ‘But, first and foremost, we need to get into this appointment, see that your baby is doing okay in there and then, we need to get back to the Hall.’ She looked at her watch. ‘We should be back by five, half past at the latest, which gives us time to look for Jack ourselves before we even think about the police.’ She began to rummage in her bag. ‘Here,’ she said as she passed an old white envelope and a pen to Jess, ‘start making a list. Let’s write down the names of his friends, his associates, of places he normally goes to on a daily, weekly or annual basis. Favourite pubs, gyms, or shops and, if you know it off the top of your head, his mobile number.’ Jess watched as she moved into action. ‘Actually forget that, I have his mobile number.’
Both sisters locked eyes in a determined stare. ‘He won’t be far, Jess. I promise you, we will find him.’
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jack drifted in and out of consciousness. Each time he became aware of his surroundings, he held his body as still as he could. The pain that travelled through his legs made him gulp for air and grit his teeth. He tried to move, but the more he tried, the more pain he felt. Shooting pains went through his ankle and up his leg. He swallowed hard, and began taking short measured breaths in an attempt to ease the pain.
He was trapped and had been since the moment he’d put his weight on the top step and the old rickety steps had collapsed beneath him, leaving him unconscious on the cellar floor amidst a pile of joists and balustrade. He moved his right foot to the left, but the sharpness of splintered wood felt as though it was about to penetrate his skin; then he moved to the right and the pressure became immense. He tried to concentrate on which part of his leg the pain was coming from the most, but couldn’t. Every part of him hurt. Every inch of his leg was agony from the knee to the toes. It felt cold and damp and he presumed that the moisture was either blood or water. But the cellar had been dry and if it was water, he couldn’t work out where it would have come from unless a pipe had burst as the staircase collapsed. He closed his eyes and tried to wiggle his toes, but they felt numb and detached as though they didn’t quite belong to him.
‘Oh, man, this is bad,’ he whispered to himself. He turned his head fro
m side to side, mentally checking his neck and spine as he tried to concentrate on the sound of his watch. The constant ticking kept him aware and conscious, although with the darkness that had now surrounded him he had no idea how much time had passed since he’d fallen.
A sudden thought passed through his mind. No one knew where he was. No one was coming to find him. Which meant that it was up to him. He had to save himself. He had no choice. He had to move, he had to get out of the cellar and he had to warn the others about what Annie and Griff were planning. But the more he tried to move, the more he began to panic. His arms lashed from side to side, he pulled at the lumps of wood in an attempt to free himself. ‘What if I can’t do it? What if I can’t get to the Hall in time?’ He felt bereft, he felt angry, but most of all, he felt alone. Would anyone look for him? Would anyone notice his car where he’d parked it beside the barn?
‘Nooooooooo!’ he screamed as he pulled at a piece of wood and dropped it. ‘Damn you.’ His frustration was building, and once again he grabbed at the wood without success. His body slumped in a heap and he felt the energy leave him. Was this how it ended? Would he be trapped here forever? He tried to run his hand down his leg, feeling for the wetness. Was it blood, was he about to bleed to death? Or would he simply die of starvation, in a place where no one would have ever thought he’d be? A hundred different images ran through his mind, each one worse than the last. But he couldn’t think about any of that now, he had to put all those images to one side and be strong. He had to help Lily.
‘Why? Why now?’ he screamed as he realised that nothing made sense, life didn’t make sense. He’d just realised what he really wanted in his life. He wanted Jess, he wanted their baby, he wanted Bastion and Lily to be family and more than anything else in the world, and with thanks to Emily, he’d wanted this house to be their home. So why did it feel as though it was all about to be snatched away?