by Bali Rai
‘Billy? What the hell . . .?’ He looked as though he hadn’t slept for days and his eyes were red. I soon cheered him up though.
‘Mr Sykes . . . I know where she is. I know where Ellie is!’
I told him what we’d found out – without mentioning Sally – and he said, ‘Thank God!’ and then ran inside again, coming back within a minute, wearing his shoes and holding a huge spanner. We rejoined Nanny in our back yard. When my mum came out and saw the look on Ellie’s dad’s face she suddenly realized that I was right. We had to go there – now!
Mr Sykes told her to call the police. To tell them that he was going to get his daughter and if the police didn’t like it they could stuff it. Nanny grinned.
I followed Nanny and Mr Sykes out of the house and down the alley to the empty house at the end, picking up a spade that Nanny had left by the alley door.
seventeen:
thursday, 00.15 a.m.
THE OLD EMPTY house sat in total darkness. In the distance I could hear the sound of police sirens wailing and I wondered if they were heading in our direction. I was excited and scared at the same time, hoping that the kidnapper really wasn’t in the house with Ellie. Ellie’s dad smashed the glass in the window by the door, the window I had already partially broken, then reached inside to try and open the door but it wouldn’t budge and he cut himself on a shard of glass. I asked him if he was OK but he ignored me and started to kick the door instead. The door creaked and groaned and little bits of wood splintered off it and flew up into the darkness. I told Nanny to help him kick it down and Nanny obliged, booting the frame. But it still didn’t open.
I thought about climbing in through the broken window but there were still shards of glass sticking out of the frame and I didn’t want to cut myself even worse than Mr Sykes had.
‘Billy, give me that spade,’ said Ellie’s dad. ‘I’ll try to weaken the door frame.’
I handed it to him and he tried to force it between the door and the jamb, splintering more wood as he did so. The door creaked and groaned some more, then it began to give. Nanny started to kick at it again as Ellie’s dad pushed his body weight through the spade handle. Behind me, an animal of some sort scurried into the night and I turned to see what it was. In the distance, towards the street end of the alley, I thought I could make out a figure – a man. I told Nanny that someone was out there but he didn’t stop kicking the door, which was finally beginning to yield.
I ran down the alley towards the man, suddenly scared that I didn’t have any kind of weapon with me. I needn’t have been. The figure saw me coming and turned and ran. As I got to the street he had turned into our road and I followed him, reaching the front of my mum’s house just in time to hear the squeal of tyres from a metallic green Saab that was speeding away. I tried to get a look at the driver – or his two passengers – but I couldn’t make out faces, only shapes. I didn’t get time to read the numberplate either. I turned, intending to make my way back down the alleyway, then I realized that I could try the front of the house. It looked like whoever had kidnapped Ellie had just driven off in the opposite direction anyway. I started to run, hearing the wail of sirens get closer and closer . . .
I was sitting on a chair with my blindfold off, talking to the girl who had been left to look after me. She had told me that her name was Claire and I was talking to her about what she did and who she did it for. She wasn’t really telling me anything at all. I think she was a bit shy, but mostly she was really scared. She wouldn’t tell me who had kidnapped me. All she’d said was that she had sorted it all out and that she would be in really big trouble. She was shaking as she spoke. I just wanted to get out of that place and even though she had told me that she’d let someone know where I was, I didn’t really believe her because she could just as easily have untied me and let me go herself. I told her so and she said that I was stupid. I mean, how nice is that? And to think that I had felt sorry for her.
Then she started crying and said that she was dead. ‘He’s gonna kill me when he finds me,’ she said, between sobs.
I asked her who she was talking about but she didn’t tell me. All she kept on saying was that we didn’t understand, any of us, and that she wished she had just done what he’d said and not gone and told her friend Sally all about what was happening and where I was being held. She told me that she was the stupid one and that she was going to have to move to another city because she would get into real trouble here.
‘He can’t be that terrible, this man,’ I said, realizing straight away that it was a stupid thing to say.
‘He had you kidnapped, didn’t he? He don’t care. You don’t understand.’
She did have a point. I was sitting there, thinking about who this girl Sally was and why telling her would have helped me to be rescued, when I heard what sounded like glass breaking from somewhere in the house. And then from somewhere else I heard a voice, his voice, shouting for Claire and swearing.
‘You effing slag! Claire! Wait till the boss finds out about this! You’re dead, you slag!’
I heard a door slam shut and then Claire started to pace about the room, mumbling to herself and rubbing her arms. ‘I’m dead . . . I’m dead,’ she kept on saying to herself. I tried to talk to her, to calm her down, but she suddenly turned and came over and glared at me, her eyes looking like they were on fire.
‘You bitch! It’s all your fault! You and your crew and now I’m gonna get killed ’cos of you, you slag!’
And then she hit me before running out of the room and down some stairs. I just sat there for about a minute, confused and scared and then I burst into tears. I screamed at her, over and over. ‘I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I WANT MY DAD . . . PLEASE, I WANT MY DAD!’
As I was crying I heard the sound of wood splintering and feet on a wooden floor coming from downstairs. I tried to stop crying and listen and I was sure I could hear my dad’s voice and someone else too and I started to cry some more, thinking that I was just imagining my dad’s voice. Then I heard someone coming up the stairs from the other side of the house, then more people, and from outside the sound of police sirens. Suddenly my dad’s voice rang out, for real, shouting for me and I called out myself and the footsteps got closer and closer and then I saw Billy come running through the door and then my dad and Nanny too. I burst into tears as Billy untied me, jumping into my dad’s arms, kissing him and hugging him and then I let go and turned to Billy and I hugged him too and then . . . and then . . . I kissed him. And after that all I could do was cry . . .
. . . The front door of the house opened as I approached it and a young girl, who I assumed was Claire, the one who Sally had told us about, came running out in hysterics. I tried to stop her but she scratched my face and ran off down the street. I let her go. I was only interested in finding Ellie. I ran into the house and took the stairs three at a time when I heard Ellie’s voice from upstairs.
She was in the room at the very back and I made my way towards her, slowly at first. The floor had boards missing and I didn’t want to fall through it. I wouldn’t be much use as a rescuer if I broke my neck falling through a dodgy floor. Behind me I heard Mr Sykes call out again and I looked over the banister, down the stairs and saw him at the bottom, Nanny right behind him.
‘Up here!’ I shouted.
Both of them ran up the stairs and followed me as I walked across the floor, stepping from joist to joist. The house was falling apart, with bare plaster and cracked walls and holes in the ceiling and floor. I felt so happy and so angry at the same time. I was going to see Ellie again! But I also wanted to kill whoever had kidnapped her and locked her up.
From outside I heard the sirens, on our street now, and then the sound of a copper’s voice, followed by another, followed by yet another. I ignored them and stepped onto some sound floorboards and then ran through the door to the room where Ellie was. She was tied to a chair in the middle of the floor and she was crying. I knelt to untie her hands and feet, and as I finished she spran
g up and jumped at her dad. My heart leapt. She was sobbing and hugging her dad and he was kissing her on the head and holding her tight. I turned to Nanny, who just stood by the door with a huge smile on his face, as if to say, ‘Job done.’ I winked at him and then turned to face Ellie, just as she threw her arms round me and started to cry even more. I hugged her tight and kissed her on the forehead.
‘It’s all right, Baby,’ I told her, in a whisper. ‘You’re gonna be fine. We’ve got you. We’ve got you.’
She looked at me and I felt like crying too, as I watched the tears flowing down her cheeks and then . . . and then she kissed me.
I looked away and then back at her. She gave me a funny look and then turned back to her dad as the coppers came through the door, like a speck of rain after a year of drought. The first one in was a uniform but he was followed by another, a blonde woman in a grey suit.
‘What’s going on here?’ she said, looking from Nanny to me to Mr Sykes to Ellie. ‘Looks like the private cavalry got here before us.’
eighteen:
thursday, 00.30 a.m.
THE POLICE TOOK us to the Central Station to ask us questions about how we had found out where Ellie was. They asked me and Nanny the same questions over and over again. How did we know where she was? Who had told us? There was no way we’d drop Sally in it and Mr Sykes told them what we had told him – that we had been called by an anonymous girl who had tipped us off, having heard that we’d been asking questions in the neighbourhood. She hadn’t given us her name. We’d told him and all he knew was that his daughter was being held not a hundred metres away and what would they have done in the same situation?
The CID officer who questioned us was a woman called Lucy Elliot and she described what had happened as ‘a little bit irregular’. In the end though, despite her doubts about our tale, we were allowed to go home. After all, Ellie was safe. And what could Elliot say? That her colleagues were so useless that they hadn’t even bothered to check an empty house at the end of our street?
It was so wicked to see Ellie and her family all together again – even ‘Chris de Burgh’ – and Ellie was overcome with emotion. I don’t think she stopped crying from the minute we found her to when she finally went home and to bed.
Nanny and I left Ellie and her family in their kitchen and went home. I didn’t go straight to bed, even though it was so late. When Nanny and I got in, my mum was waiting up with a cup of tea for us. She gave me a kiss on the forehead, saying, ‘Well done!’, then asked us what had happened and what the police had said. I asked her where Sally had gone.
‘Home. To her son. She said to tell you thanks for not telling the police she was involved,’ said my mum.
‘How did she know that I wouldn’t?’ I asked, before sipping at my tea.
‘She trusted us, baby.’ My mum smiled.
‘Oh,’ I replied, through a yawn.
‘She said that she’d see you around sometime,’ continued my mum. ‘You certainly seem to have made an impression on her.’ My mum was being sly. Trying to be funny. Thought she could catch me out when my guard was down. Never.
‘Don’t even start, man. I was only talking to her.’
‘Anyway, Mr Private Detective, time you got to bed.’
‘I’m not a child, Mum,’ I replied, watching Nanny, who had remained very quiet since we had returned. ‘You all right, Nanny?’ I asked him.
‘Me cool, man. Just thinking ’bout things, y’know?’
‘Yeah.’ I looked at my mum again and saw how tired she looked. ‘I think you’re the one that needs to be in bed, Mum. You look really tired.’
My mum ruffled my hair and smiled. ‘I always look tired, Sleepy. I’m old and wrinkly.’
‘No you’re not. You’re quite fit for a dinosaur!’
Nanny burst out laughing.
‘You can’t talk to your mother like that, Sleepy,’ Mum said, through a grin. ‘Fit? What does that mean anyway?’
I began to speak but she cut me off.
‘And as for you, Mr Dreadlocks Detective – less of your cheek too, unless you want to spend the rest of the night on the sofa.’
Nanny stopped laughing and started to mumble something under his breath about how I always got him into shit with my mum. I thought about replying, but then I remembered the song that Sally had been singing. I asked my mum if she had the CD it was on.
‘UB40? Funny request from you. You’re always telling me that they’re old farts, Sleepy,’ she said, smiling.
‘No I’m not. I like them. I mean, how could I not like them? You’ve brought me up on their music. Man, it’s all you listen to. Reggaemylitis you’ve got, Mum.’
It was true, too. Because of my mum being such a big fan I knew a lot of their music but had never really paid attention to the song that Sally had sung. I did quite like them too, only it was hard to admit that to my mates, who mostly thought they were too old and only listened to the latest trendy stuff, whatever it happened to be. But then again, I didn’t know a single person who didn’t know the words to at least one of their songs.
My mum went into the living room and came back with a CD. ‘There you go, Sleepy.’
‘Geffrey Morgan?’ I said, more to myself than my mum, as I took the CD from her. I looked at the cover.
‘The full title is Geffrey Morgan Loves White Girls,’ she said, smiling.
I looked at her suspiciously. ‘That’s a mad name,’ I said.
‘Yeah and very apt for you too, don’t you think, kid?’
I smiled. She was trying again. Man, when was she gonna learn? ‘Oh stop it! Stop it! My sides are about to split. No more jokes, please!’
Later on, as I lay in bed listening to UB40, I thought about Sally and about the younger girl, Claire, who had run out of the house, wondering if either of them would get into trouble because they had helped us. I also wondered whether the Crew were going to get any more trouble over the money. After all, the man who had warned Jas had asked for it back – the second bag that we didn’t have. I decided that I would have to ask Ellie about it in the morning – see if her kidnapper had mentioned anything about it. If she was up to it, of course.
I wanted to ask her about the kiss too but I decided not to. After all, it was just an emotional reaction to being rescued. Wasn’t it? The song that Sally had been singing came on, ‘The Pillow’, and I shut my eyes and listened to the way the saxophone on it made the whole sound seem seedy and dirty; the way the vocalist sang from the point of view of a working girl. I thought about loads of stuff, random thoughts and not so random, and I didn’t fall asleep until dawn.
nineteen:
thursday afternoon
THE NEXT DAY the Crew gathered round at Ellie’s house. I got there before everyone else and brought Zeus with me, literally dragging him out of his basket and out of the door. He whinged and whined and dribbled until I got him into Ellie’s house and then his whole demeanour changed when he saw her. He wagged his stump of a tail, stopped dribbling and, when Ellie petted him and called him ‘stupid dog’, he finally looked happy again.
‘He’s missed you,’ I told her, smiling.
‘Bloody thing. I haven’t missed him,’ she replied.
I knew she was lying. I looked into her eyes and saw that she still looked sad. ‘Are you OK?’
‘No, not really. I wanted to go for a walk but I can’t. Not on my own.’
‘I’ll take you,’ I offered, not getting it.
‘Oh, you old man. It’s not about the actual going out for a walk. It’s the fact that I don’t want to go on my own.’
I said sorry and this time got called a ‘silly old man’ for my trouble. ‘Look, it’s bound to be hard for you at first but you’ll soon feel better,’ I said.
‘I know. The thing is – I’m still really scared and I don’t want to be.’ She started to cry.
‘Hey, hey. Ellie, you’re safe. We’re all here to protect you.’
‘I don’t want to be protected. I w
ant to feel normal – and I don’t at the moment. What if I stay like this? You see stories about . . .’
I put my arms around her and smiled. ‘You’ll be fine, Baby. You’re stronger than that. Come on, you’ve only just got home. In a few days you’ll be moaning at me about being bored and how much you need to get blue trainers to match your latest blue top and all that.’ I gave her a kiss on her forehead and she snuggled into my shoulder, still crying.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m being a silly little girl.’
I smiled at her again. ‘But, Ellie, you are a silly little girl.’
That made her smile a little bit. She looked into my eyes. ‘That’s twice you’ve saved me now,’ she said.
‘Well, this time I had your dad and Nanny with me,’ I said. ‘And I got a kiss for my trouble.’ Instantly, I wished I hadn’t said it.
‘Yeah, I’m sorry about that,’ replied Ellie, looking away.
‘Hey, it’s cool. You were glad to see me – I mean, all three of us.’
She looked at me again. Then she looked down. ‘Let’s forget about it. I feel silly for doing it.’
‘Yeah,’ I replied, wondering what the big deal was. ‘It’s forgotten, Baby.’
I’d just let her go when there was a knock on her bedroom door and Della walked in with Jas. Della screamed in delight when she saw Ellie and jumped on her, kissing her on the cheek over and over again.
‘We ain’t here for a show,’ Jas said, smiling and ruffling Ellie’s hair. ‘Hey, kid.’
‘You’re just jealous because you can’t do it,’ laughed Della, making Jas turn the colour of beetroot
‘Oh, get off me, you old woman!’ Ellie complained, as Della continued to fuss over her.
‘No way, sister. I’m going to be attached to you from now on. Like a rash, Baby!’
‘Oh, that’s sooo . . . nice,’ replied Ellie, turning up her nose.
‘I don’t know,’ I said, smiling. ‘Della would make such a pretty rash too.’