by Kim Nash
‘Yeah, but I’m your mum and that’s my job!’ she laughed as he rolled his eyes at her, but he gave her a great big smile so she knew she was forgiven already.
As she wasn’t working that day, she decided to throw a joint of beef in the slow cooker and go and blow away the cobwebs by taking Becks for a walk. It would give her some time to think, which, after the past week, she sorely needed. She drove to the forest and walked and walked. Becks was in his element but she couldn’t help but remember the lovely walks she’d had here with Vinnie, holding hands and getting to know each other and she realised how much she missed him.
Before she knew it, it was lunchtime and they’d been walking for over three hours, but it had been good for her to be in the countryside and have some space to think. She wondered whether she’d dreamt everything that had happened last night. Whether she really had stood up to Mark once and for all.
Whether she’d dreamt it or not, she felt stronger than she’d felt for as long as she could remember and she had hope in her heart. Hope and positivity that her future was going to be rosy and that everything was going to be OK. Normally she felt a constant worry that Archie was never going to grow up a well-adjusted child, and that felt like such a responsibility on her shoulders, but today she felt like even that was sorted. She felt calm and peaceful. She also felt loved. She wasn’t sure what the situation was with Vinnie and while that made her feel sad, she knew it was something that she’d get over. It wouldn’t destroy her.
She’d been at low points in her life; when she lost her mum she knew that a huge part of her heart had been broken and that although it would never heal, she would eventually move forward and get used to the fact that, much as she wanted her to be, her mum wasn’t around and she just had to suck that up and get on with her life. Another really low point was when she and Mark split up, but again, she knew at the time that she would get over it eventually, and she had. She’d got used to a new life without a partner and it wasn’t so bad. Love came from lots of different sources, and she had love in abundance from her friends and her family. Maybe she didn’t need that romantic love to make her complete. She just needed to be comfortable in her own skin, so that she could be happy with her life. It was better to be happy and alone, than be in a relationship and be lonely. And it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
The aroma of the beef cooking hit her as soon as she walked through the front door and made her feel hungry for the first time that day. She peeled some potatoes so that they could have hot buttery mash and got some veg ready to boil in the evening.
After making herself a ham and cucumber sandwich, she sat with her feet up and her iPad on her lap, thinking that whatever will be will be. She had a feeling that however much she stressed about things, it wasn’t going to change the situation. She flicked through her Facebook updates and friends’ posts and before she knew it, she was looking at Vinnie’s profile pic. He wasn’t one for using social media, even though he had profiles set up. She gazed into his eyes and hoped in her heart that they could at least be friends, if nothing else. She wasn’t going to let Mark destroy the last few months totally.
Whiling away her afternoon on the internet meant that it was soon time to pick up Archie from school. While she was waiting in the playground and chatting to some of the other parents, Archie’s class came out and his teacher looked at her a bit strangely. When all the class had been dispersed to their parents, there was still no sign of her son. She went over to his teacher and asked where Archie was.
‘Have you forgotten that he was at the dentist?’ she asked. ‘His dad picked him up at two o’clock.’
Grace’s heart sank to her boots. ‘No – his dad never takes him to the dentist. His dad doesn’t even know where his dentist is. And his dad is always at work.’ She felt unease deep down in her stomach and knew that Mark had collected Archie to wind her up. He was taking revenge on her for humiliating him in the way that he knew would hit her hardest.
She’d left her phone at home so ran all the way back on trembling legs and grabbed it from the hall table. She purposely never took her phone to school, so that she and Archie could concentrate on chatting about his day while they walked home. These were their few special moments of the day. She rang Mark’s number but it rang out and then went to voicemail. She left a message asking him to call her straight away. She rang Mark’s school and asked to be put through to him, only to be told by the receptionist that he’d phoned in sick that morning. Despite her deep breaths, she was now starting to panic.
There was one other person that she needed by her side to help her right now. Vinnie’s phone also went to voicemail. She left a message blurting out what had happened in short sharp phrases. ‘Archie’s gone. Rang Mark. No answer. I don’t know where they are. I’m scared. Think I might need the police!’
Having said the words made it sound so real, and she started to fall apart. She really didn’t know what to do. Her breathing became erratic and panic was really starting to set in. When the phone rang, she grabbed it, seeing Vinnie’s name flash up on the display.
‘I’m on my way back from Hull, I came back early and I’m nearly home. I can be there in less than fifteen minutes,’ he replied. ‘Stay by the phone in case he rings. Don’t ring the police yet, they won’t be far away. He’s just trying to frighten you. I’m coming, Grace!’
Two minutes later, the house phone rang and she snatched it up. ‘Mark?’
‘No, darling, it’s me,’ said Ruth. ‘Vinnie just rang and told me to keep you on the landline till he got there.’
‘Oh, Ruth,’ Grace said as she fell to her knees, breaking down in floods of tears. ‘He’s just taken him to get back at me. I can’t believe he could do this to me.’
Ruth tried to keep her as calm as possible and got her to think about all the places that they could have gone.
‘I have to go Ruth, Vinnie’s arrived.’ She flung the phone down and ran out to the car and he quickly swept her up in his arms, where she clung on for dear life. He stroked her hair and wiped the tears from her eyes as she wailed, ‘How can he do this to me? How could he do this to his son?’
‘Come on, babe, let’s go inside and you can make me a drink and we’ll think about our plan of action. Mark might be an arse, but he is Archie’s father and surely Archie will be safe with him. They can’t be too far away as they’ve not been gone long. We just need to find them.’ Her hands shook as she spooned coffee into a mug, spilling most of it on the work surface, and poured the hot water. She realised that Vinnie wanted to keep her busy to try to calm her down a little, but she was utterly distraught, although seeing Vinnie being so calm and supportive, she felt her heart swell with gratitude, and she couldn’t bear the gap between them any more.
‘Vinnie, I owe you an explanation about the event I went to with Mark.’
His face clouded over. ‘Not now, Grace. There’s a lot of stuff that we probably should have talked about and didn’t. But right now, we have something way more important to do.’
He suggested she get a piece of paper and write down a list of all the places she thought that Mark may have taken Archie. She couldn’t even write the words, her hands were shaking too much, so he took the pen and pad from her.
‘I know it’s hard, but it would really help if you could have a good think about it, honey,’ he said gently.
‘They don’t really have a place that they go. They don’t go anywhere in particular. Mark never takes him anywhere. I can’t even focus my mind. Think, Grace, think!’ She hit her forehead with the ball of her hand. ‘Can’t we just phone the police? They’ll find him, surely. They’ll know what to do.’
‘Involving the police might just wind him up more though, Grace, you need to be really sure. Once they’re on board, there’ll be no turning back. And you know he could lose his job because of this if they’re involved.’
‘OK, let’s just wait a bit longer. I’ll try his phone again.’ Once mo
re it rang out and went to messages. She left a message, trying to be as calm as possible. ‘Mark, please ring me. I know that Archie is with you and that you’d never harm him but I need to know where you are and why you’ve taken him. Please, call me.’ Her voice broke on the last three words.
She remembered then that a while ago Mark’s phone had broken, and he had borrowed Lorraine’s. She had put Lorraine’s number in her phone at the time, so as a last resort, she phoned it now. It had the international dial tone but went to answerphone. She left a message asking Lorraine to call her urgently.
Snatching up her car keys from the dish on the hall table, she said that she was going to drive round to Mark’s flat, but Vinnie told her firmly that she was driving nowhere in that state and grabbed his keys. After diverting the house phone to her mobile, they went round to Mark’s and rang every intercom on the door until someone let her into the block. Grace ran up the stairs, heart racing, and banged on Mark’s front door, Vinnie following close behind. Mrs Brown, the old lady from the flat over the landing, appeared when she heard the commotion.
‘You won’t find him in. He’s gone away for a few days, dear, he told me this morning. Why are you here?’ she said. ‘He said he was taking his son away on a little holiday. I did think it was a bit strange to be honest, as the children are still in school, aren’t they?’
‘Oh my God! No!’ Grace fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, her head pounding and a dizzy feeling overwhelming her.
‘My darling, whatever is the matter?’ Mrs Brown asked as she bent down to Grace and put her arm around her shoulders. Vinnie was starting to look anxious, although Grace could tell he was attempting to calm himself.
‘He’s taken my son out of school and they’ve disappeared,’ she exclaimed. ‘Did he mention where he was going at all?’
‘Let me think now. Yes. Yes he did! He said he was taking his son to his friend’s house in the Lakes. Do you know where that would be?’
‘Mrs Brown, thank you, thank you, thank you.’ She scrambled up from the floor and kissed the dear old lady on the cheek. ‘You’ve been a massive help. I owe you everything. Come on, Vinnie,’ she yelled behind her as she ran down the stairs two at a time. ‘I know where they are.’
Grace looked at her watch as they jumped in their car. It was three hours since she’d gone to pick up Archie from school and that had been an hour and a half after Mark had picked up Archie. They would have arrived in the Lake District if they’d driven straight there. She told Vinnie to just get on the M6 and drive north.
Grace’s phone rang and she saw an unknown mobile number flash up. Normally she wouldn’t answer unknown numbers, but she had a feeling deep down in the pit of her stomach that she needed to answer this one.
‘He– hello?’ she stuttered.
‘Good afternoon. Is this Grace Carnegie?’ a woman’s voice asked.
‘It is.’ Her heart was in her mouth.
‘This is police constable Sarah James here from Cumbria Police. Please don’t worry, but I have a young man here who says he’s your son. He’s quite distressed but had your number in his coat pocket and asked me to ring you. I’m going to pass you over to him.’
Her heart skipped a beat or two.
‘Mummy!’ Archie cried down the phone. ‘Mummy, is that you?’ She could tell that he was trying to be really brave, but could hear tears in his voice.
‘Hello, my darling, where are you?’ she asked him, trying to stay as calm as she possibly could.
‘We’re at a service station on the motorway. Dad picked me up from school saying I had to go to the dentist, but I knew that there was something wrong because you always take me there. When we got in the car, he said that we weren’t going to the dentist but that he was taking me away to the Lake District for the weekend. I knew that if I was meant to be going somewhere with Dad, that you would have known about it and would have told me.’
He was now crying hard but trying to talk between his sobs. ‘I told Dad that we had to speak to you. We kept seeing that you were trying to call but Daddy kept laughing and saying that it served you right. What did he mean, Mummy?’
‘Oh, darling, I’m so sorry that this happened. You’re my wonderful brave boy. Where is Dad now?’
‘I don’t know, Mummy, he went to the toilet ages ago. He sat me down with a McDonalds and told me to stay still till he came back but this nice police lady came over and asked me why I was alone. I started to cry and she asked me what had happened so I told her. I had your number in my pocket, you always told me to keep it somewhere safe in case of emergency. I think this was an emergency, wasn’t it, Mummy? Have I done the right thing? Will Dad be mad with me?’
‘It was absolutely the right thing to do darling, yes. You are a very clever boy. But please don’t worry any more, I’m on my way to you. I’ll be there as soon as I can. And I’m going to give you the biggest squeeze ever. Now, do everything that the nice police lady asks you to, OK? And remember that your Mummy loves you so very much and I’ll be there really, really soon. OK, sweetheart?’
‘Yes, Mummy, I love you too.’
Grace’s heart melted once more, now she knew that her son was safe and that within hours she could hold him in her arms again.
‘Can you pass me back to the nice police lady please, sweetie?’
The policewoman explained that she’d seen a young boy sitting on his own in his school uniform when she and her colleague were grabbing a coffee at Knutsford Services on the M6. They thought it was strange so just kept an eye on the situation. When they saw that he’d been there for quite a while and no one appeared to be with him, she spoke to Archie, who said that his dad had gone to the toilet a while ago, and that he’d been told not to move. Her colleague had then gone into the toilets and located Mark. He was locked in one of the cubicles, crying, and the police officer had had to climb over the top to open the door and get to him. Mark had admitted that he’d taken his son out of school without the consent of his mother and that he knew it was the wrong thing to do but didn’t know what to do next. He said he’d messed things up big time, but he’d thought he wanted to get back at his ex-wife. They had taken him and Archie to the offices in the service station and put them in separate rooms while they rang her.
Listening to the whole sorry story in the policewoman’s soft Northern tones calmed Grace’s fears a little, but she couldn’t feel totally relieved just yet. Not until she had her boy back in her arms once more. But at least she knew now that he would be safe till she got to him.
Vinnie put his foot down, driving far faster than he should while Grace explained what PC James had told her, until she was interrupted by the shrill ring of her phone. It was Lorraine.
‘Grace. What’s happened?’ Lorraine sounded bemused to be hearing from her partner’s ex-wife and Grace couldn’t blame her.
‘He’s taken Archie, Lorraine, why would he do that? Why would he do that to me?’
‘Oh, Grace, we had a huge row last night on the phone. He was in a foul mood when he called me. I’d had far too much to drink and so had he. I told him that I was sick of him and sick of playing second fiddle to his ex-wife. Sorry, Grace. I told him I wanted him gone. I tried to call him this morning but he hasn’t returned my calls. I think you’ve borne the brunt of it.’
‘Well, I think I’m probably the one who put him in the bad mood he was in, Lorraine. But right now, I know where they are so I’m going to fetch my son. Good luck with everything.’
‘You too, Grace. I’m sorry. I never meant for you to get hurt in all of that.’
‘Well perhaps you should have thought about that before you started shagging my husband behind my back.’
Grace ended the call. The only thing that mattered now was seeing Archie safe and sound.
* * *
Vinnie’s car screeched to a halt at the entrance doors to the service station just under an hour later, and Grace hardly waited for the wheels to come to a stop before she opened the door, j
umped out and ran in. There, sitting at a table near the door, was Archie with a policewoman. Her heart was pounding as she stopped, took a breath and slowly walked towards her son, trying not to panic him.
‘Mummy!’ he yelled when he saw her. ‘It’s my mum,’ he explained to the police officer, who smiled at Grace. Archie threw himself into Grace’s arms and burst into tears again. Grace did the same. They hugged each other like they never wanted to let go.
‘Miss Carnegie, we need a word with you in private when you’re ready. Take your time, though. I think this little man is very pleased to see you.’
Grace nodded and turned round to see Vinnie, who had now parked the car and was standing behind her.
‘Grace, why don’t I take Archie into the shop to get some sweets and by then I’m sure you’ll be right back. Archie, Mummy just needs to go and have a chat with your daddy and this nice lady.’
Archie smiled up at Vinnie and put his hand in his and Vinnie ruffled his hair. Grace’s heart soared with love for them both and then sank with sadness as she realised what she’d thrown away.
They walked past a room where, through a tinted window, Grace could see Mark sitting with his head in his hands. She took a deep breath and walked into the room. Seeing her, he stood up and walked over to her. He was just inches away from her and she wanted to throttle him but held herself back.
She stayed silent for a moment, not knowing what on earth to say to him, then all her emotions came rushing to the fore.