The Girl Who Came Back

by Susan Lewis

  “That’s just where you’re wrong,” Joe was insisting as he went to unload the car. “The main reason for coming here is to spend time with you, and the only way you’re off the hook on that is if you can convince me you’re just not up for spending time with us.”

  Enjoying the way Ethan was encouraging her to say yes, Jules said, “We’ll see how things go, because as it turns out, you’re not going to be my only visitors over the next few days.”

  They were all immediately interested.

  Feeling her heart bubbling over, Jules announced, “Kian’s coming,” and she almost wanted to laugh at how girlishly excited that made her feel. To Joe she added, “That’s my good news, by the way.”

  “It sure is good news,” he responded warmly. “I was wondering if we might put Ireland on our tour, but if he’s coming here…You are going to just love this guy,” he informed Ethan. “I know I’ve told you about him, but meeting him in person…”

  Deciding now wasn’t the time to remind Joe that Kian was no longer the man he used to be, Jules put an arm round Stephie’s shoulders as they led the way inside. “Ethan’s pretty cute,” she commented in a whisper.

  “Get out of here,” Stephie muttered in mock astonishment.

  Jules laughed.

  “I’ll go sort the coffee,” Stephie told her, “if you want to show the guys where they’re sleeping.”

  A few minutes later, after leaving Joe and Ethan to freshen up, Jules returned to the kitchen to find Stephie standing over the coffee while checking her mobile.

  “Great, we’ve got tickets for Sunday’s concert on the beach,” she declared, putting the phone down. “So when’s Kian coming? I’m sure we can get a ticket for him too, if he’s interested. Does this mean he’s feeling better?”

  “That’s what he said,” Jules replied, starting to unpack the cookies Marco had sent up from the pub to welcome the boys. “He’s going to let me know when he’s booked his flight, but I imagine he’ll be here by the weekend.”

  “Is Aileen coming too?”

  “He didn’t mention it, so I’m guessing not.”

  Stephie nodded thoughtfully. “And did he say anything about her?” she wanted to know, leaving no doubt with her tone who she was referring to.

  Swallowing drily, Jules said, “Not much. How about Joe? Has he mentioned her at all?”

  Stephie glanced at the stairs and went to close the door. “He didn’t want me to tell you, but he’s threatening to go and see her,” she confided.

  Jules’s eyes widened with alarm.

  “He says,” Stephie continued, “that someone needs to persuade her to—I quote—‘get the hell out of here,’ and if she doesn’t want to go willingly, he’ll show her exactly why it would be a mistake to stay.”

  Jules frowned. “What does he mean by that?”

  Stephie shrugged. “But he’s right, she can’t stay around here. Kesterly’s your home, yours and Kian’s, and it’s not as if she doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Coming back here was like sticking two fingers up to you two, and no way should she be allowed to get away with that. What happened to the table, by the way?”

  Jules glanced at the deep gouge she’d made while working the knife free. “Oh, nothing,” she said dismissively. “Shall we have coffee outside? It’s warm enough now the sun’s out again.”

  —

  Over the next twenty-four hours Jules watched the youngsters coming and going, enjoying their wit and energy and envying their ability to talk so freely about Daisy. Sometimes it felt as though Daisy might be about to walk in the door, or even chirp in with an anecdote of her own. It hurt terribly, and yet it was uplifting too. They never seemed to notice how little she contributed to the conversations, or if they did, they presumably took her silence for encouragement, even approval of their stories. They were right to do so, for she loved hearing about the funny or amazing or even sad things they remembered. Most of these were incidents she hadn’t known about at the time, but it was easy to picture Daisy at the heart of them. Ethan was a great listener, she discovered. He showed no signs of impatience, or boredom, or even discomfort; if anything, he seemed as taken with the memories as he was with their first excursion to Hope Cove and the Mermaid.

  Jules didn’t go with them. Instead she went to visit her mother, and told her all about her visitors and waiting for Kian to call, and how she was doing her best not to think about Amelia.

  “You don’t even know who she is, do you?” she murmured, smoothing her mother’s hair and feeling nothing but thankful that she didn’t.

  “Nurse,” Marsha mumbled.

  “Shall I let you into a secret?” Jules whispered.

  Marsha’s eyes drifted about in their sockets.

  “You won’t tell anyone, will you? No, of course you won’t. I threatened the Quentin girl with a knife the other night, and I’m sorry now that I didn’t use it. I would have if I’d thought I could get away with it. That makes me as bad as her, doesn’t it? I don’t care, because I really do wish she was dead. If it would bring Daisy back, I wouldn’t think twice; nor would Kian, or anyone else. It’s like she’s taking up Daisy’s place in the world, or dancing on Daisy’s grave, and that shouldn’t be allowed.”

  After leaving the care home she’d gone to meet Stephie, Joe, and Ethan at a gallery in town where one of Andee’s friends was holding an exhibition for local photographers. Though Jules spent some time chatting with Andee and took pleasure in reintroducing her to Joe, she didn’t mention anything about Amelia and was glad that Andee didn’t bring her up either.

  In fact, no one had spoken about the girl since Stephie had warned Jules that Joe was intending to persuade her to “get the hell out” of the area. She wondered if they were visiting Amelia’s Facebook page. She was, so she knew that the party was still on for next Saturday night, and that everyone was still invited. She just hoped that Joe and Stephie didn’t know anything about it, because nothing good could possibly come of it if they decided to go.

  —

  “Any word from Kian?” Joe asked as he and Jules watched the sea spray breaking like glittering crystals over the rocks below.

  “Not yet,” Jules replied. “I thought there would have been by now. I hope it doesn’t mean he’s changed his mind about coming.” Though her heart twisted with the dread of it, she knew she had to prepare herself for the worst, hard as that would be.

  Clearly genuinely concerned, Joe said, “Do you think he will?”

  Her eyes wandered out to the far horizon, where ships were passing like ghosts in the shimmering summer haze. “I’m not sure,” she said honestly. “It could be he thought he was ready, but when the time came to leave he found himself unable to face it.”

  “Have you tried calling him?”

  “Not yet. I don’t want to pressure him, but I will if I don’t hear soon.” She turned to him and smiled. He met her eyes and smiled too as she stroked the tumbling hair from his face. How proud she felt of him, as though he were her very own son.

  “Thanks for coming,” she said softly. “I know it can’t be easy for you being here, but it’s meant a lot to me, seeing you.”

  “It’s meant a lot to me too,” he assured her.

  She had no trouble believing him. She could feel their bond as though it were physically wrapping itself around them.

  “I still think about her all the time,” he confessed. “I don’t mean in an obsessive, needy sort of way—I think I’m past that now—but I don’t ever want to forget how special she was.”

  Though she loved him for still caring so deeply, she said, “You’re young, with your whole life ahead of you, and she’d be the first to tell you to live it.”

  “I know, and I promise I intend to, but it felt kind of important to come here. I thought it might give me some sort of closure.” He paused as he considered whether that had been the right thing to say. “What I’m getting,” he said, “is a sense of something that feels…” He shrugged as he struggled
for words. “For as long as I can remember you’ve been like family, so it feels kind of right to remember her with you, because you loved her as much as I did, and still miss her every day the way I do.”

  Feeling for his confusion, Jules said, “Maybe that’s the closure you need. To reconnect with us, and feel close to her by being here, so that when the time comes to leave you’ll feel ready to say a proper goodbye.”

  Though he considered this, it wasn’t long before he was shaking his head. “I don’t think I’ll ever feel ready for that.”

  Certain he would in time, Jules said, “What about other girls? Have you met anyone since…?”

  His head went down as he shook it again. “No one that means anything,” he replied. After a while he added, “I guess that sounds arrogant, cruel even, but having something like this happen…It changes you, and not always in a good way. I still feel angry. I mean, I thought I’d managed to get over it, but when you told me the bitch was coming out…I just can’t get my head round the fact that she’s being allowed to go on with her life when she’d hardly even begun to pay for what she did. It’s not right. We didn’t receive justice for Daisy. We only found out how some people get what they deserve and others just don’t.”

  As the words resonated deeply within her, Jules turned her eyes back to the horizon. Wasn’t that the truth? Some people did get what they deserved, while others didn’t, and who, she wanted to know, got to make the decisions? Who was responsible for the diabolical selection of life’s winners and losers? And how did the losers carry on living with a winner flaunting her good fortune in their faces?

  —

  It was on Sunday afternoon, while Stephie, Joe, and Ethan were at a concert on the beach, that Jules received a call from Andee asking if she was all right.

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Jules assured her, curiously, worriedly—why was Andee asking out of the blue like this? Had something happened? “Is there any reason I shouldn’t be?” she enquired cautiously.

  Andee’s tone was casual. “No, not really. I was just wondering if you’d heard from Kian.”

  Surprised by the interest, Jules said, “As a matter of fact, I was hoping you’d be him.”

  “So he’s here, in Kesterly?”

  “No, not yet. Why?”

  After a pause Andee said, “Can you hold for a moment? Don’t go away, I’ll be right back.”

  As she waited Jules checked her mobile for messages just in case she’d missed a text from Kian, but she hadn’t. Trying not to think about how awful it was going to be if he’d decided to cancel, she got up from her computer and went to check on the lamb she was slow-roasting for dinner.

  “We’ll be back by seven at the latest,” Stephie had promised as she and the others had headed for the door.

  “Are you sure you won’t join us?” Ethan had pressed.

  “I’m sure,” Jules had responded as Joe came to hug her. “Are you OK?” she whispered. He’d seemed quite down since getting up this morning, or maybe distracted was a better word, and she had the feeling he’d rather not have been going to the concert either.

  “I’m cool,” he insisted. “Just kind of, you know…”

  Understanding that was the best she was going to get while the others were listening, she hugged him again and felt worried as she watched him go. Something was on his mind, that much was clear, and she couldn’t help wondering if he was trying to work himself up to telling her that it would soon be time for him to go. She was already dreading it, especially now that Stephie had accepted his and Ethan’s invitation to travel with them. The house was going to seem horribly empty and silent—unless Kian kept to his word and came.

  “Are you still there?” Andee asked, coming back on the line.

  “Still here,” Jules confirmed. “Is everything OK?”

  “I’m not sure. One of my old colleagues at the station contacted me just now to say that Amelia Quentin’s father has—” To someone else she said, “It’s OK, I’ll be right there, just give me a minute.” Coming back to Jules she continued, “Apparently Amelia was supposed to be throwing a party at Crofton Park last night, but it was called off at the last minute because no one could find her.”

  Startled, Jules said, “What do you mean, no one could find her?”

  “That’s what I was told, and now her father’s contacted the police demanding they mount a search.”

  Jules’s head was starting to spin. “When was she last seen?” she asked.

  “I believe it was sometime on Friday, but I don’t have the details. I only know that the father is insisting the police question you and Kian—”

  “What!” Jules broke in furiously. “How dare he? Kian’s not even in the country, and what the hell does he think I’ve done with his precious daughter?”

  “I’ve no idea.” Andee took a breath. “I’m sorry to ask, but I take it you haven’t seen her in the last forty-eight hours?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “What about Stephie and Joe? Do you know if they’ve had any contact?”

  Thinking instantly of Joe’s somber mood this morning, and how he’d told Stephie he was going to get Amelia to leave Kesterly, Jules quickly skipped over it as she said, “I shouldn’t think so. We tend to try to forget she exists.” Surely to God Joe hadn’t found a way of making the girl disappear? Even if he had, he couldn’t have done it alone, and the others hadn’t seemed anything but their normal selves earlier. “Am I to expect a visit from the police?” she demanded.

  “Not at this stage. It’s why I got a call asking me to be in touch, so it doesn’t seem official. She hasn’t been gone long enough for that, and I’m sure she’ll show up before the cavalry’s brought in. Listen, I’m sorry, I have to go; I’m in the middle of a family party. I’ll get back to you if I hear any more.”

  Fraught with all sorts of foreboding, Jules immediately connected to Stephie’s number.

  “Hey, Jules,” Stephie shouted over the music. “Did you change your mind and decide to come?”

  “No. I need to ask you something. Can you hear me?”

  “Just about. Is everything OK?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve just heard that Amelia’s disappeared.”

  There was a beat of shocked silence before Stephie exclaimed, “You mean like in disappeared?”

  “Apparently no one knows where she is.”

  “You’re kidding me! Did someone off her, do you think? If they did, let me shake their hand.”

  Flinching, though relieved that Stephie was taking it this way since it suggested she had nothing to hide, Jules said, “I’ve no idea what’s happened to her, but apparently her father is trying to persuade the police to talk to me and Kian.”

  “What! I don’t believe it. How do you know?”

  “Andee rang a few minutes ago. She asked if you guys might have seen Amelia recently. I said you hadn’t, but…Have you?”

  “No, at least not in person, but we’ve been checking out her Facebook page and all the stuff about her party. We even thought about going to try to screw it up for her, but we decided against it in the end.”

  “So you went to see a movie last night?” That was what they’d told her, and she’d had no reason to doubt them until Andee had called.

  “Fast and Furious 7. Listen, I’ll tell you what’s happened to the evil that calls itself Amelia: she’s run off somewhere with all her ex-con buddies, and with any luck she’ll never come back.”

  Hoping that was true, Jules said, “I should go. I’ll call again if there’s any more news, otherwise see you here around seven.”

  After ringing off she stood staring at the phone, trying to gather her scattered thoughts. The girl hadn’t really disappeared; she was hiding out somewhere, either to get her father’s attention or maybe Jules’s. So far she was succeeding, but what Jules couldn’t get out of her mind was what Kian had said at the end of his last call.

  It’s going to be all right. Everything will be taken care of, I prom
ise.

  Grabbing the phone, she pressed in Aileen’s number.

  “Hi, it’s me,” she said when her mother-in-law answered. “Is everything OK with you?”

  “I think so, pet. How about with you?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. Enjoying having the kids around. It livens things up a bit.”

  “Oh, I’m sure it does. They keep us all young, so they do. I told Kian they’d do him the power of good, and I’m hoping you’re ringing to tell me I’m right.”

  Feeling her throat turning dry, Jules said, “Isn’t he with you?”

  “With me? Heavens no. He left here yesterday morning. Could hardly wait to get on the plane. Don’t tell me he hasn’t been in touch with you yet?”

  Jules was trying to stay calm. “No, he hasn’t. So I’m guessing he’s with Danny.”

  “He said they had some business to sort out, so I’d say your guess is right. He should have let you know he was back.”

  “Yes, he should.” After assuring Aileen that she’d call again as soon as she’d found him, she wasted no time in calling Kian.

  “I’ve just spoken to your mother,” she told his voicemail, “so I know you’re back. Please call me as soon as you get this.”

  A moment later she was leaving a message for Danny. “Is Kian with you?” she demanded heatedly. “I’ve just spoken to Aileen, so I know he took a flight yesterday morning. What’s going on, Danny? Why have I just received a call from Andee Lawrence about Amelia Quentin? You need to call me back, and you need to do it now.”

  After ringing off she tried Finn, Bob Stafford, Danny’s mother, Bridget, Uncle Pete, Liam, Connor, and Ruthie, but no one admitted to knowing where Danny was, or to having seen or heard from Kian in the last twenty-four hours.

  “You sound worried,” Ruthie told her bluntly. “So what’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure,” Jules replied. “All I know is that Amelia Quentin’s father has reported her missing, and now I can’t find Danny or Kian.”