Lori and Max

by Catherine O’Flynn

  She finds a light switch and turns it on. She sees now why the room was dark. The window is completely boarded up.

  She suddenly remembers her dad looking through the coats the previous day. She reaches in her jacket pocket for her snake charm. It’s gone.

  Chapter Fifteen

  ‘Aren’t you going to finish your Coco Pops?’ asks Nan. Rain’s forecast for later in the day so Nan’s fully prepared by wearing a yellow sou’wester fisherman’s rainhood. In the kitchen.

  I stare into the chocolatey milk. ‘Hmm?’

  ‘Your Coco Pops. You’ve hardly touched them.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But you didn’t eat your tea last night either. I bought potato smiley faces especially. I thought they’d cheer you up.’

  I hadn’t felt like eating. A plate of potato heads grinning up at me hadn’t really helped.

  ‘Look, I know you’re sad about Max getting the blame. But not eating isn’t going to help the situation.’

  ‘She didn’t do it, Nan. She’s been framed.’

  ‘I know, love. We’ve been through this and, for what it’s worth, I don’t think she did it either.’

  ‘That evidence was planted.’

  ‘Well, it’s possible.’

  ‘It’s certain! No one at school knows how smart Max is. If she was going to steal money, she’d do it right. Her tracks would be totally covered. She’s not an idiot. She wouldn’t keep the key in her desk!’

  ‘No, I know that, but if you don’t hurry up and eat your breakfast, you’re going to be late for school.’

  I look at the spoon.

  ‘Look, Lori, this is not like you – moping about. I thought you were a detective! I thought you wanted a crime to solve! Does Miss Marple starve herself when she’s baffled?’

  I think about it. ‘No. She probably has an iced bun.’

  ‘Exactly. Or a slice of fruit cake.’

  ‘Or possibly a crumpet.’

  ‘Of course she does! She feeds her brain. You need food to function properly. Now, listen to me, you’re going to finish that bowl of Coco Pops in the next three minutes, then you’re going to have a nice piece of hot, buttered toast to make up for missing tea last night and then you’re going to go to school with that enormous brain of yours firing away on all cylinders and you are going to get to the bottom of this missing money nonsense! Are we agreed?’

  Nan’s right. What’s the point of all my detective training and preparation if all I ever do with it is locate lost glasses and hats? Here I am, finally, with a proper case to solve: missing money, dodgy evidence, a friend wrongfully accused! I need to get to work.

  As soon as I arrive at school I can sense it: something’s not right. When I get to the classroom, Miss Casey looks pale and worried. She’s waiting with the police officers. Detective Superintendent Alison Burrows gets up to speak to the class and tells us all that Max has gone missing.

  Afterwards she leads me to an interview room that they’ve set up in the sick bay. I’ve never been in the same room as an actual real detective before. Alison Burrows is probably a brilliant investigator and normally the idea of being asked for help with an enquiry would be amazing, but it doesn’t feel amazing today.

  ‘Now, Lori, Miss Casey tells me you were probably Max’s closest friend in the class. Is that right?’

  I nod.

  ‘When did you last speak to Max?’

  ‘The day before yesterday, when she got suspended. I was going to call round for her tonight after school.’

  ‘I see. Now, we know Max has enough money to get some distance away from New Heath. Have you any idea where she might have gone? Did she ever speak about somewhere special?’

  I shake my head. ‘Max hasn’t got that money.’

  ‘Well, the evidence seems to suggest she has.’

  ‘No. There is no evidence. Someone planted the key in her desk. I told Miss Casey that. They searched all of us the day the money went missing. None of us had it. How could she have it now?’

  ‘Well, we’re not certain of the details yet.’

  ‘You’re not certain, because it’s not true. Max hasn’t got the money and she wouldn’t run away.’

  ‘I know she’s your friend, Lori, and I know it’s upsetting, but we all need to keep an open mind.’

  I find myself standing up. ‘My mind is totally open. If Max is missing, then something really bad has happened to her and you need to start investigating that and stop saying she stole some money and she’s run away from home when it’s obviously not true!’ I’ve never shouted at an adult before in my life.

  Detective Superintendent Alison Burrows says nothing. She looks at me for a long time and then stands up slowly and opens the door. ‘Thank you, Lori. That will be all for now.’

  Chapter Sixteen

  Max can’t tell how long she’s been in the room. Maybe an hour, maybe two. There’s a bed on the floor, a little child-size table with two chairs – and that’s it for furniture. There is a door that leads through to a very small loo and shower room. The en-suite door is locked from the outside, too.

  Max has been in scary situations before. One time, when she was little, some men came looking for her dad. Her mum was in the middle of reading a bedtime story when the hammering started on the front door. Max got scared and her mum held her tightly. She said, ‘It’s OK, Maxie, they can’t get in.’ But they kept banging and banging and shouting. So then she said, ‘Maxie, we’re going to play a game. We’re going to go and hide and be as quiet as mice.’ She carried Max into the cupboard and shut the door. Max remembers the sound of her mum’s heartbeat crushed up against her ear in the darkness. Afterwards, when the men had finally left, her mum told her how good she’d been. ‘It’s not easy when you’re scared. Makes you want to scream and cry, but now you know what you’ve got to do with fear, you’ve got to swallow it. Gulp it down, so it can’t escape out your mouth.’

  Max has got pretty good at swallowing fear since then. Once you’ve learnt the trick you can face down all kinds of troubles. She does it now as she hears a door slam downstairs. A few moments later Julie enters the room and locks the door behind her. She’s smiling, like nothing at all has happened, and carrying a plastic bag.

  ‘Got you some pop and crisps. Didn’t know what flavour you liked, so I got a multipack.’

  ‘Where’s my dad? I want to go.’

  ‘Why don’t you sit down, have some crisps and we’ll have a chat.’

  ‘I don’t want any crisps! I want to go. You said twenty minutes. You locked me in.’

  Julie’s smile fades. ‘Well, I think that’s just rude. Bit spoilt, in fact. I got you a multipack. So, you know, if you want answers to your questions, it would actually be a really good idea for you to sit down and listen. And try being a bit more grateful. This could turn out to be a nice holiday for you if you cooperate instead of acting up.’

  Max thinks that the woman might be mad. Max hasn’t been on many holidays in her life, but she’s pretty sure they don’t involve getting locked in boarded-up bedrooms. The woman starts fussing with the bags of crisps, laying them out on the table like they’re about to have a party.

  ‘Your dad’s in a bit of trouble, do you know that?’

  ‘My dad’s always in trouble.’

  ‘He owes lots of money to lots of people. Do you understand?’

  It’s as if the woman thinks Max is four years old.

  ‘Course I understand.’

  ‘He’s sold the telly again, hasn’t he? And the laptop. He’s even sold his phone, but he still hasn’t got enough money, so what do you think he should do?’

  ‘I don’t care. I don’t want to talk about my dad. I don’t want to eat crisps. I want to go home. If you don’t let me out right now, I’m going to start screaming and look at my mouth: it’s massive. I’ve got a really loud voice.’

  ‘Go ahead and scream if you want. No one will hear you. But if you want to see your mum again, it’d be better if you
played nice.’

  This silences Max. She sits on the bed.

  ‘That’s better. Now, you haven’t answered my question. What do you think your poor old dad should do?’

  Max shrugs. ‘Run away, I suppose. That’s what we always do.’

  ‘But he can’t run for ever and anyway … maybe there’s no need.’

  ‘You said he was in trouble.’

  ‘I did, but there’s a way out of it. He’s got something more valuable than the rest of all his other stuff put together.’

  Max racks her brains trying to think of anything else they might have that’s worth money. The only jewellery her mum has left is fake. ‘What are you talking about?’

  The woman smiles a horrible smile. ‘I’m looking right at it.’

  Max shoots up off the bed, but the woman is there with her hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back down again.

  ‘Now, Maxie, nothing to get scared about. The fact is you’re a kid and people care about kids. They don’t like them going missing. Everyone worries about a missing kiddie. It’s just natural. They’ll be looking for you soon.’

  ‘Who are you? Have you ever even met my dad?’

  ‘Oh yeah, I’ve met him lots of times. Let’s just say I’m a friend of a friend. He talks too much, your dad. Did you know that? Especially about you. Always going on about you, he is. Maybe if he chatted less and concentrated more, he’d do better at cards, but there you go. I started thinking a while back that it was a shame he didn’t see what an asset you are. That’s when I hatched my plan.’

  ‘A plan to kidnap me?’

  ‘Hey! Less of that.’ Julie seems offended. ‘This isn’t a kidnapping. This is a fake kidnapping.’

  ‘You locked me in. How’s that fake?’

  ‘Look, this is a win-win situation. What happens when a kid goes missing?’

  Max shrugs.

  ‘Fine, I’ll tell you. Some rich do-gooder steps in and offers a reward, that’s what happens. They always offer a decent wad of cash to anyone who helps find the kid. And guess who’s going to be the one to get this reward?’

  Max splutters. ‘Not you?’

  ‘Yes, me. Course me. I’m going to find you, aren’t I? Julie’s going to be the hero for finding Max.’

  ‘But you’re the one who took me.’

  ‘Oh no, nobody took you, love. You ran away from home. If the police think you’ve been kidnapped, there’ll be too much heat, they’ll be all over every inch of ground within twenty miles of New Heath. If they think you ran away – well, they’ll still look for you, course they will, they’ll still offer a reward, but it’s a little less risky for me.’

  ‘I would never run away from home.’

  ‘Well, that was a bit of a problem for me. I wondered how I was going to make that look realistic. I mean your dad’s always saying how close you are to your mum. Then last night came the break I needed. Your dad mentioned when he was playing cards how you’d been suspended for stealing all that money. Tut tut. Naughty Maxie.’

  ‘I didn’t take that money. Somebody set me up!’

  ‘That’s what your dad said: “As if my Max would ever steal a thing.” Problem is, Max, that everyone else thinks that you would and that you did. Right now, everyone thinks you’ve run off somewhere with £300. And I’m going to be the one who finds you.’

  ‘Your plan is stupid and you’re stupid if you think I’d ever go along with it.’

  ‘But you will, Maxie. Once I “find” you, you’re going to tell the police exactly what I tell you to say: you ran away, you spent your money, you were sleeping on the streets when I found you and saved you. That way, I get the reward money. I keep half for coming up with the idea, and here’s the best bit – you get half to give to your dad to pay off his debts and stop all those nasty men he owes from hurting him.

  ‘If you go telling tales to the police, I’ll tell them your dad was in on the plan, too, that he put me up to it, that he was the brains behind the whole thing. I don’t think they’ll like that.’ She smiles at Max. ‘Come on, admit it. It’s perfect, isn’t it? And can you see now how simple it is? I know you don’t want to get your dad in trouble, so just make sure that when the time comes you stick to the story. I reckon that mouth of yours is good at making up all kinds of stories. Until then, all you need to do is sit tight and eat your crisps.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I have heard of you, Mr Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal.”

  “Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards.”

  “He said that you could solve anything.”

  It’s the fifteenth time I’ve read the same three lines. I close the book and give up. It’s hard to get wrapped up in some long-ago, made-up mystery when you find yourself slap in the middle of a right-now, real-life mystery.

  One of the many bad things about Max going missing is that suddenly everyone in 6B reckons they’re a detective. And when I say detective I don’t mean Sylvie Clandestino or Sherlock Holmes, I don’t even mean Doctor Watson on one of his slow days, I mean the kind of detective who doesn’t really grasp the concept of evidence or clues, or even logic.

  Dexter Foyle is convinced that Max has run off with the circus. Lucas Spiers reckons she’s gone to Disneyland Paris or at least, he says, that’s what he’d do if he had the money. Nina Masters ‘has a feeling’ that she’s living on a narrowboat on the canal. Elijah Stephens thinks she may have been taken by aliens. Most people are sure she hasn’t gone to the Great Wall of China. They all think it’s exciting. ‘What’s she doing with all that money?’ they keep asking. Everyone in 6B thinks Max is a crazy, rule-breaking outlaw on the holiday of a lifetime. Everyone except me. I know the undercover Max and I know she wouldn’t run away and leave her mum behind.

  Nan thinks something’s wrong, too. When the six o’clock news finishes, she says, ‘Why didn’t Huw mention Max?’

  Nan’s on first-name terms with the newsreader, Huw Edwards. She’s secretly in love with him. (She hasn’t admitted this, but I’ve collected enough evidence in the form of comments regarding his ‘lovely accent’ and ‘twinkling eyes’.) But she’s not happy with him now.

  ‘They should be making more of a fuss! She’s eleven years old, for goodness sake. Why isn’t she on the news?’ Nan doesn’t wait for me to answer. ‘I’ll tell you what I reckon: they don’t think she’s the right sort to make a fuss about.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Look, love, I don’t know anything about Max’s mum, or her dad, but I know a hungry kid when I see one. I’ve never seen anyone eat so fast as when she had her tea here. Her clothes are too small for her and I’m afraid to say that they look like they need a good wash. I’m not standing in judgement and I certainly don’t blame Max, but a fact’s a fact: she’s not being looked after properly, anyone with eyes can see that.’

  I don’t know what to say. I promised Max to keep her secret. But Nan doesn’t need me to say anything anyway, she’s on a roll.

  ‘And now nothing about her on the news! It makes me cross, it does. It’s as if they’ve decided she’s not worth looking for. “Oh, she’s probably run away,” they say. “Probably trouble at home.” Well, what’s that got to do with anything? She’s a young girl out there on her own. It doesn’t matter if she’s run away.’

  ‘She hasn’t, Nan. I’m sure of it!’

  ‘Well, maybe she has and maybe she hasn’t but, either way, they should be making more of an effort! More of a fuss. She’s eleven! She needs to be found and she’s not going to be if no one knows she’s missing! Well, I’m not sitting back and doing nothing! Are you?’

  I shake my head. ‘But what can we do?’

  ‘Well, first thing in the morning, I’m going straight round to Ritzy.’

  ‘Nan! Buying a new hat’s not going to help.’

  ‘Buying a new hat always helps, love, but that’s not what I’m planning. They do T-sh
irt printing at Ritzy. I’m going to get a load of “Find Max” T-shirts printed up and hand them out at the school gates. Then I’m going to get on to my friend Marjorie, she can help us.’

  ‘Marjorie? Mad Marjorie? The one who rides the micro-scooter and wears wraparound sunglasses?’

  ‘She’s not mad, love.’

  ‘You always say she is.’

  ‘OK, she’s a little bit mad. But she’s just what I need here. If I’m going to set up a campaign, I need help. Marjorie went to all the Silver Surfer sessions for OAPs at the library, she knows all there is to know about … you know … Tweety…’

  ‘Twitter?’

  ‘Yes, Twitter and the rest of that cyber…’

  ‘Social media?’

  ‘Social media! That’s it! Social media … stuff. She can be in charge of all that. I’m on a mission, Lori. There’s not going to be a single person in this country who doesn’t know Max’s face when I’ve finished.’