‘Anything?’
The heat in my cheeks getting worse, I shook my head and opened my eyes, though I was careful not to meet Nick’s gaze and watched his mouth instead. I tugged my hand out of his and moved so that my back was against the door, needing more space between us.
‘Could you not watch me, please? You’re making me nervous.’
‘Oh, sorry.’ Nick’s mouth formed a sheepish smile. ‘I’ll just sit here and stare out the window.’ He twisted his body around and when I risked a peek he was indeed staring out the window.
I wriggled until I was comfortable and then closed my eyes again, determined not to think about Nick. Instead I focused on Angel as I had last seen her, long golden hair flowing free, white nightgown billowing in the wind and fear in her eyes.
A shiver swept over me as the image in my head crystallized. I could see Angel, strapped on a bed, electrodes attached to her temples. Long cords connected her to a large machine that sat beside the bed. A needle flitted across a ream of paper that fed through the machine, and as I watched the spikes on it grew higher and higher.
Angel moved her head and looked right at me as a woman in a long white coat appeared and pressed a syringe against her arm. A light flared in my head, blinding me, and I cried out, rubbing at my closed eyes.
‘Andie. What is it? What did you see?’
Eyes watering, I blinked and tried to focus on Nick’s face, the nimbus from the light blocking out his features. He cupped my cheeks with both hands. ‘Talk to me, Andie. Are you okay?’
I blinked again and again, eyes still smarting, relieved that my vision was slowly returning to normal. I attempted a smile when I could finally see Nick’s face, wanting to let him know I was okay. He’d gone pale, eyes locked onto mine.
‘I’m okay,’ I finally managed to say.
Nick let out a sigh, and leaned forward so that his forehead rested against mine. ‘Don’t ever scare me like that again. I thought you weren’t going to come back.’
‘Come back? I was in the car the whole time.’ I pulled back and searched his eyes, surprised to see that Nick’s hands were shaking when he let go of my face.
‘Your body may have been, but the rest of you was somewhere else.’ He shook his head and then ran a hand through his hair. He sank back into his seat, shoulders slumped. ‘You just collapsed, went totally limp. I was shaking you, calling your name, but you didn’t respond. Scared the hell out of me.’
‘Oh.’
‘You saw her, didn’t you? Did she tell you where she’s buried?’
‘I don’t think she is buried.’
‘You don’t believe your aunt, do you, that there were no remains?’
I took a deep breath, sure Nick would think I was crazy and I’d lose my only ally.
‘I don’t think she’s dead.’ I told him what I had seen. Closing my eyes to picture the room I had seen Angel in so I could describe it better.
‘It was some kind of hospital, I’m sure of it. The bed she was strapped to had those sides you can put up and down.’ Just like the one Daniel had been in when he’d had his appendix out two years ago.
After I told him about the woman in the white coat who’d given Angel an injection, I waited for Nick to tell me I was crazy.
‘Why would they lie about her being dead if she’s been in a hospital all this time?’ Then Nick shrugged. ‘Though I suppose it’s not much different from them hiding her existence from you for fifteen years.’
‘You believe me, that Angel is still alive?’ I held my breath.
Nick gave her a crooked smile. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’
‘Because it all sounds so crazy. I’m seeing my supposedly dead twin sister, talking to her. You’ve known me for less than a day, and I’ve dragged you to cemeteries all over town to try to find where she’s buried and now I tell you I don’t think she’s dead and you’re fine with that. How?’
Nick shrugged again, a lock of hair falling over one eye. He brushed it away. ‘I met you months ago, remember, and Dan talks about you all the time so it’s not like you’re a stranger. Besides, I told you before that I’ve seen documentaries and TV shows that deal with twins, and no one really knows what the human mind is capable of. If you say that Angel’s alive, then that’s good enough for me.’
His crooked smile reappeared. ‘And I have to say, with your aunt in the mix, anything is possible. She is one scary lady.’
I couldn’t argue with that. ‘That still doesn’t tell us where Angel is, and I have no idea where we go from here.’
‘Why not go back to where it all started. Where did you live before you moved in with the scary lady?’
‘I have no idea. I was three.’
‘I bet Dan knows.’ Nick grabbed his phone off the dash and dialled Daniel’s number.
I could only hear Nick’s side of the conversation but the way he kept wincing and the sideways looks he kept shooting my way painted a vivid picture. Daniel was not happy that Nick was helping me and I hated to think that this could drive a wedge in their friendship. But if Nick was prepared to tough it out, then I was happy to let him.
‘Look, she just wants to say goodbye to Angel and if your aunt is telling the truth then your old house is the closest place there is to a grave. Cut her some slack and tell me where it is. I promise I’ll bring her home as soon as she’s had some time to accept what really happened to her sister.’
Nick held a finger to his lips when I stiffened. I subsided, not sure if I liked where his conversation was going, aware of what I would face if he did take me back to Bill and Joyce’s house.
Finally Nick hung up and gave me a smile. ‘No need to look so serious. I’ve got the address and I know where it is. We’re good to go.’
‘But you told him you would take me home after we go to the house.’
‘No, I said I’d take you home after we find out what really happened to Angel.’ His grin widened and I smiled along with him. Then my smile faded as he started the car and drove out onto the main road.
‘What if we don’t find anything? What if we never find out what happened to Angel?’
‘Then I guess you’re stuck with me,’ he said, pretending to leer.
I rolled my eyes, my black mood somewhat lifted by his antics. It lifted even more when he took one hand off the wheel and covered mine where it rested on my lap.
‘Hey, we’ll find her. You just have to stay positive.’
I nodded and his hand tightened on mine. He didn’t let go until we neared an intersection. He navigated through the give way sign, and a pang of disappointment hit me when he didn’t reach out and take my hand again once he turned the corner. When he was touching me I felt less alone and it was easier to be positive.
I forced my disappointment down. I couldn’t afford to get attached to Nick. No matter how keen he appeared to be to help me find Angel, how willing he was to believe that I had a connection with my twin, he was still a stranger. Today had taught me that I couldn’t rely on my own flesh and blood, Daniel siding with Bill and Joyce and hiding a monumental secret from me, making it impossible to believe that a stranger would prove to be more trustworthy than my own brother.
Ten minutes later Nick pulled up in front of a two-storey house with landscaped lawns out the front. The house was beautiful, modern, and from the look of it had only been built in the last few years.
‘I don’t remember anything about our old house, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t it.’
Nick reached over and took my hand. ‘Dan said your old place was torn down after the fire. This is the right address.’
I stared at the house as my hope of finding a clue to Angel’s whereabouts faded. I shouldn’t have been surprised, really. I’d seen for myself how bad the fire had been. But looking at the house now I realised I’d envisioned myself walking down the hall, standing in the room I had once shared with Angel, exorcising the memory that haunted my dreams and replacing it with a new reality. I covered my mouth with my fre
e hand, unable to stifle my sobs.
Nick let go of my other hand and I heard his door open and then close. Seconds later my door opened and Nick crouched in front of me. He unbuckled my seatbelt and then drew me out of the car, wrapping me in his arms as I cried into the front of his shirt.
‘Hey, it’s okay. It will be okay.’
I shook my head, clutching his shirt in my hands. ‘No it won’t,’ I said, my words muffled. ‘There’s nothing left. How am I supposed to find Angel with nothing to go on?’
‘I wouldn’t have brought you here if I thought it was going to be a dead end.’ Nick’s chest rumbled with his words. ‘There’s got to be someone in this street who lived here back then. We can knock on doors and ask if any of them remember anything from that night.’
I shifted so I could look up and see Nick’s face. ‘Fifteen years is a long time,’ I said, not wanting to get my hopes up again.
‘It’s worth a shot.’ He gave me a crooked smile. ‘Right?’
I managed a wobbly smile. ‘Right.’ I eased myself out of his arms and scanned the houses on the street. ‘I’ll do this side, you do the other.’
Nick nodded and we walked in silence to the beginning of the street.
‘Good luck,’ said Nick before he leaned in and brushed his lips across mine. Then he crossed the street and strode up to the front door of the first house.
I ran a finger over my lips amazed at the flutter the almost-kiss had created in my chest. I turned around and opened the gate of the first house on my side of the street. Twenty minutes later, a dull ache at the back of my head, I knocked on the door of a small cottage. Discouraged by a dozen failures to discover anything about Angel, I doubted any of the remaining three houses on my side would prove to be any different.
The front door was open behind a locked screen door so I knew someone was home though no one had come in response to my knock.
‘Hello. Is anyone there?’ I knocked again and repeated my call.
‘Coming. Just give me a minute.’ The faint voice came from deep inside the house. A moment later an old man appeared, leaning heavily on the walking frame in front of him.
He reached the door, fingers fumbling with the glasses that hung on a chain around his neck. He placed them on his nose and peered through the screen.
His eyes widened and he clutched his chest. ‘Angel.’
I sucked in a breath. ‘You’ve seen her?’ A quiver of excitement surged through me, setting my pulse racing as I leaned forward, hands on the screen. ‘Do you know where she is?’
The old man’s hand shook as he reached over and unlocked the door. ‘I think you had better come inside.’
‘I’ll just get my friend.’ I ran out onto the footpath and scanned the street for Nick. He was just coming out of the house directly opposite and I waved him over.
He bounded across the street. ‘You got something?’
‘He called me Angel.’ I pointed over my shoulder to where the old man stood in the doorway. ‘He’s seen her.
Nick took my hand, a wide smile on his face, and together we walked up the path and entered the old man’s house. Nerves singing, hoping that this was the break through we’d been looking for, I tried to stamp down my impatience as the old man turned his walking frame around and led us into his lounge room.
He stared at me, a frown on his face. ‘I’m Pete Simpson, and you look just like Angel. But you’re not her.’
‘I’m her sister, Andie, and this is Nick.’
‘Well, Andie and Nick, I think it’s time I sat down.’ He grimaced. ‘These old legs don’t like to do their job for long these days.’ He set his walker beside a large armchair and then lowered himself into it with a sigh.
‘Sit, sit.’ He said, waving his hand at me and Nick. ‘Having people standing when I’m sitting makes me uncomfortable, hurts my neck to keep looking up all the time.’
Nick, still holding my hand, tugged me over to the couch and pulled me down beside him. I perched on the edge of the seat, body tense, unable to relax when I was so close to finding my sister. He’d called me Angel, recognised me instantly so he must have seen her recently. Angel was alive and I was going to find her.
5
‘Do you know where Angel is?’ I held my breath as I waited for him to answer. My stomach plummeted when he shook his head.
‘But you have seen her,’ said Nick as he squeezed my hand.
‘Yes, I saw her. It was about six months ago, before my son had the screen door installed.’ He shook his head. ‘I like to leave the front door open, let some breeze in. I was in the kitchen, making myself some lunch, when I heard a noise in the lounge. I came in and saw that my lamp had been knocked over.’ He pointed at a lamp that sat on a small table at the end of the couch.
‘At first I thought it must have been the wind that knocked it down, but when I went over to straighten it I realised that someone was crouched behind the couch. Just about gave me a heart attack, thought I was about to be belted over the head and robbed, and then she stood up.’ He smiled at me. ‘You look just like her, like an angel, and when I saw her I thought my time had come.
His smile faded. ‘Then two men burst into my house, calling for Angel.’ He shook his head. ‘Poor thing, she was terrified. She tried to run, to get passed them, but they grabbed her by the arms and dragged her out of here. Her mouth was open, like she was screaming, but I never heard her make a sound. I tried to go after them, to see if I could help her, but by the time I got to the front door they had her in the back of a white van. They drove off with her and I never saw her again.’
My body sagged as I remembered how scared Angel had been in my visions. What were these people doing to her?
‘These men, do you know who they were, where they came from?’ Nick asked.
‘I called the police, gave them the licence plate of the van and I got a call from them a week later. They said the young girl had escaped from a mental institution and that those men were orderlies, sent to find her and take her back.’ He shook his head again. ‘They told me not to worry, that she was being taken care off, but I’ve never been able to stop thinking about her. She was so frightened and they weren’t being gentle when they dragged her out of here.’
Anger stiffened my spine, the vision of Angel strapped to the bed fuelling my rage. ‘Did the police tell you what institution she was in?’
‘No, and believe me I asked. I wanted to go visit her, to see for myself if she was all right, but they said she wasn’t allowed visitors, that she was in isolation for her own good. I can’t see how being kept apart from other people could be good for anyone.’
I stood and started to pace. ‘We have to find her. We have to get her out of there.’
Nick stood and stilled my pacing by placing his hands on my shoulders, and then they moved to my neck, his thumbs stroking along either side of my jaw as he made me look at him. ‘We will. We’ll find her.’
‘You’re her sister. An identical twin from the looks of it. How come you don’t know where she is?’
‘I didn’t even know she existed before this morning, and then I was told that she died fifteen years ago. But I knew they lied. I knew she was alive, somewhere. I just didn’t know where.’ I moved away from Nick and knelt in front of the old man, clasping his hands in mine.
‘Thank you for caring, Mr Simpson, for trying to help her.’
‘You’ll bring her back to see me, won’t you?’
‘Of course I will.’ I let go of his hands and got to my feet.
I walked to the front door and let myself out of the house, with Nick right behind me. Once I reached the footpath I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and opened up a search engine.
‘There can’t be many mental institutions in town,’ I said to Nick as I scrolled through the possibilities.
Nick got out his phone. ‘I’ll check the phone book.’
Eyes on our phones, we walked back towards Nick’s car.
‘Looks lik
e the public hospital and all the private ones have Mental Health Units, but in the dream I had this morning Angel was in the middle of trees, and there was a large fence. I don’t think she’s in town.’
‘I found a place called The Wood’s Estate. It’s listed as a Mental Health and Rehabilitation Centre, specialising in caring for kids and teenagers. It’s just on the outskirts of town, on the highway leading to Brisbane,’ said Nick. ‘Could be worth a look.’
‘Andie.’
I looked up from my phone at Daniel’s shout. He stood beside Nick’s car, flanked by Bill and Joyce. I shoved my phone back into my pocket and marched up to them. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘We’re here to help you. You’re sick. You need to go to the hospital,’ said Daniel.
‘Where I need to go is The Wood’s Estate. Isn’t that right, Joyce?’
Joyce’s eyes widened. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Really.’ I gave her a smirk and then focused on Daniel. ‘Angel isn’t dead, she’s trapped in a mental institution, and I’m going to get her out. Are you coming?’
Daniel shook his head, concern in his eyes. ‘You’re sick, delusional. You need to come with us so we can get you back on your medication.’
‘I am not delusional, I’m telling the truth. Nick and I just spoke to an old man who saw Angel, in his house, six months ago. She’s alive, Daniel. Bill and Joyce have been lying to you, the same way they lied to me.’
‘No, no way. They wouldn’t lie about something like that.’
‘Of course they would.’ I pointed at Bill and Joyce. ‘Look at their faces. Look at them.’
Slowly, mouth downturned, Daniel turned around and looked at our aunt and uncle. ‘Mum, Dad, is it true? Is Angel alive?’
Bill shuffled his feet. ‘Don’t listen to her, son. She’s crazy. Seeing things.’ Despite the conviction in his voice, he wouldn’t meet Daniel’s eyes.
‘For goodness sake, Daniel, how could you ask us that? We’re your parents. We wouldn’t lie to you about something like this.’ Joyce’s nostrils flared, red blooming in her cheeks. ‘Andrea has always been jealous of our closeness. She’s trying to drive a wedge between us. That’s all this is.’
Angel Fire Page 4