Chapter 6
The thought horrified me. What was going on and why was all this happening to me?
I put my drink down and got up. I decided that I needed to find out things. Looking out of the window, I saw that the coast was clear. I wasn’t expecting Claire back for some time, so now was the chance to search the place for clues. I wasn’t stupid, in fact I suppose I was quite bright for a girl of my age.
I went upstairs and into Claire’s room. I wanted to look around but I had to be careful as I didn’t want anything to be out of place when she came back.
The first thing I did was to go over to the bedside table. I opened the drawer and had a look inside.
There were a lot of papers in there, bills for electricity and stuff like that.
There was a torn out page of a newspaper under the bills. I pulled it out and looked at it.
At the top it said that it was The Miami Herald. What drew my attention was a small article on the bottom right of the page.
British Man and daughter killed in a car accident.
David Howard (36) and his Daughter Emily (12) were killed late last night when their car had a blow-out on Dolphin Expressway. Their car turned over several times and then blew up. We understand that Emily was over from England, staying with her father, who had divorced from his wife some time ago. Mrs Howard has been informed and The Herald Understands that she is flying in to Miami on Tuesday. No other cars were involved in this tragic accident.
So, that explained it. Her ex-husband and daughter died in a car crash, how horrible! Why didn’t she tell me? Perhaps it was too painful to talk about it. I felt very sorry for Claire…but I had to think of myself so, putting the newspaper on the bed, I carried on looking for something…anything that might help me.
Then I saw a phone bill. I thought that Claire had said that there were no phones in the house. Did she say that? I was so confused, I couldn’t remember.
I got on my hands and knees and I couldn’t see any socket; then I looked behind the bedside table and there it was in between the table and wall, a phone socket!
I gasped at that and then I used my head. If there was a socket, perhaps there was a phone hidden somewhere!
Claire’s bed had a drawer in the base; I assumed that it would be for spare pillows and things. Pulling it open, I saw that there was a blanket and pillow in there. I lifted them up, being careful not to disturb anything too much, and my hand touched something hard, smooth and plastic. It was a phone!
I pulled the phone out of its hiding place, moved the bedside table to the side and plugged it in the socket. My hands were shaking so much, I had difficulty in pushing the plug in, but eventually it clicked home.
I took a deep breath, and picked up the handset…nothing, it was dead. I felt like crying, the phone didn’t work! I feverishly unplugged it and ran downstairs. After searching about in the kitchen, I found another socket behind a pile of cookery books. Once again I plugged it in and held the handset to my ear…it was dead!
I lost it then and started to cry. I didn’t know what to do! It was getting quite dark outside and I was getting frightened. I rubbed my eyes and then sniffed a bit; then told myself that I was acting like a little kid!
I took a deep breath and started to think again. I still hadn’t searched Claire’s room properly. I grabbed a coke from the fridge took a deep gulp of the cold liquid and then went upstairs again.
I put the can on the dressing table and started looking through the drawers. Nothing much in the top one; just undies and things. The next one down didn’t reveal anything more than some slips, bras and stuff like that. The bottom drawer was full of nightdresses and PJ’s. I was just about to shut the drawer when my eye caught something small, black and shiny tucked in a corner. I pulled it out, knowing what it was as I touched its familiar shape, it was my mobile phone!
Looking at it I knew then that Claire had been lying to me. I flipped it open and saw that it still had small amount of charge left. I went to my address book and phoned Georgie for some reason. The phone made a bleeping noise and when I looked, I saw that there was no signal!
I rushed downstairs and out of the door. Looking at the signal bar, there still was no signal. Behind the cottage was a path that led uphill. It was quite gloomy, but the moon was out and though there were clouds about, the moon shone brightly so I could just about see up the path. It was a well used path as it was part of the one that led down to the beach, so I didn’t have any problems with brambles on my bare legs.
Picking my way along the path, I kept looking at the phone but the signal was just as bad. After about ten minutes, I was at the top, breathless and looking down. I could see my cottage with the lights on and the front door still open. Over to the left was a few other cottages also with lights on including Flic’s one.
It was a bit windy so I had to keep brushing the hair out of my eyes. I flipped open my phone and saw that there was one bar. I had a signal! I pressed the recall button and waited for Georgie to answer.
‘The mobile you have phoned may be switched off, please try later.’
‘OH NO!’
What to do and who to phone. Perhaps if I phone home someone would be there. So I rang my home number and the phoned bleeped twice. I looked at the screen and saw with horror that the battery had gone flat!
I sobbed and put my hand to my face. Everything was going wrong. My shoulders shook as I cried my eyes out. I never remember crying this much since my mum died. After a few minutes of just standing there, crying and shivering in my thin vest top and brief skirt, I decided to go back to the cottage; I had nowhere else to go.
I don’t remember how I got down the hill without falling flat on my face. Clouds had come up and that was now hiding the moon, so it was quite dark. My mind wasn’t on the way I was going; it was trying to understand what was happening to me and what I could do about it.
Somehow, I found myself back at the cottage. I went upstairs and put my mobile back where I found it, also the landline phone and then I made sure that the place looked undisturbed.
I went back into the kitchen and sat down.
I was trying to think about things. I kept asking myself questions that I didn’t know the answers to. I was only twelve, I shouldn’t have to have things like this happen to me. Had Claire kidnapped me, was Dad a criminal, why had Claire lied to me, was it to protect me or something else? She did work for Dad and she had seemed genuinely fond of me, but why lie to me? Was she keeping me safe or was she the criminal and not my Dad?
My thoughts of my Dad made me wonder where he was and I ached to be able to hug him…
There was a knock on the door! I jumped at the sound and then silently went over to the window, pulling the nets open slightly, I could see a lady standing there and next to her was Flic!
I wiped my eyes; I didn’t want anyone to see that I had been crying and opened the door.
‘Hi, Melissa.’ said Flic excitedly, ‘this is my Mum.’
‘H…hello.’ I said.
‘Hello dear, said Flic’s mum, ‘can we come in for a minute?’
I stood aside and they both came in. I shut the door behind them.
‘I’m sorry to disturb you dear, but Claire rang me and asked me to come over. Something has cropped up regarding work…your Father or something; anyway, she said you would understand. She asked if we could look after you tonight as she has been called away. So could you get some night clothes and something to wear for tomorrow and then you can come back with us. Is that okay?’
‘Yes, Melissa, it will be great, like a sleepover or something!’
‘Shh Flic. I think Melissa is a bit upset, are you all right?’
‘Y…yes.’
‘Hmm, I think we need to have a chat, but first go and get your stuff and we’ll be off.’
I went upstairs and Flic followed, talking away and me not really taking in what she was saying. I grabbed a small case and put some PJ’s, underwear, capri’s and a top for
the next day in it. I then picked up my toilet bag from the bathroom, put it in the case and then shut it.
‘Are you all right Melissa, you are very quiet?’ said Flic, full of concern.
‘Yes, I’m fine, just a bit of a headache.’
‘Ooh, I get those, they’re the pits. Mum will give you a pill or something when we get home.’
We went downstairs and Flic’s mum made sure that everything was switched off before ushering us out of the door and into her car.
The drive was only a few minutes and in that time, I decided that I would keep quiet about my secret. I was in agony over what I should do and I had decided that if there was any chance that my Dad was in danger, I would do all I could not to give the game away. I was hoping that I might learn a bit more about Claire from Flic and her mum and they might give me a clue as to what was going on! Despite what I had seen, I was undecided about Claire. Surely, if she was up to no good, she wouldn’t have asked Flic’s mum to look after me? I was getting a real headache now and all I wanted to do was lie down somewhere.
We arrived at Flic’s house and I wondered as I walked in carrying my case, what was going to happen next and would I slip up and say something I shouldn’t!