Behind Closed Doors (29 page)

‘It’s not like him to go off without saying anything,’ Alayna mumbled worriedly.

It hadn’t been like Penny either, at first, or Sophie, as far as Andee could tell.

There’s no comparison
, she told herself forcefully.
Luke’s a boy, a young man, who’s in a funk, not a depression, and he knows how to take care of himself
.

Connecting to his number, she spoke fiercely to his voicemail. ‘Luke, you are to ring me the instant you get this. You know very well the kind of case I’m working on at the moment, so you’ll understand why it’s important to me that you make contact. I need to know you’re all right.’

Seeing how alarmed her mother and Alayna looked after this outburst, she tried lightening her tone as she said, ‘He needs to learn that it’s not OK to disappear without saying anything. It’s inconsiderate, and causes people to worry when they might have better things to do.’

‘That’ll be Dad,’ Alayna cried, starting down the hall as someone knocked at the front door.

Maureen was still staring at Andee.

‘I’m sure he’s fine,’ Andee said, wishing she believed it. ‘He’s probably trying to punish me, or his father . . . Actually, I don’t know what he’s trying to do . . .’ She felt sick with fear, unable to think past it.

Luke, her precious boy, her baby!

She hadn’t been paying attention.

‘What’s going on?’ Martin demanded as he and Carol came into the kitchen. ‘How can you not have spoken to him since Friday?’

Thanks, Alayna
. ‘I assumed someone else had,’ Andee shot back. ‘He’s seventeen, for God’s sake . . .’

‘I know how old he is, and I also know he’s not in a great frame of mind.’ He was dialling Luke’s number. ‘Son, I need to hear from you. Pull it together now and get in touch.’

‘Dad, I’m scared,’ Alayna wailed. ‘You don’t think something’s happened to him, do you?’

Seeing clifftops, jagged rocks, lonely figures on empty skylines, Andee dropped her head in her hands. ‘No, of course it hasn’t,’ she cried. She had to control her imagination. ‘He’s probably with a friend we don’t know and his phone’s run out of battery.’

‘Still, he should find a way to get in touch to let us know where he is,’ Carol declared, her papery-soft complexion seeming starkly white in contrast to her inky-black hair.

‘Have you checked in his room?’ Martin demanded.

‘Of course,’ Andee replied, realising that actually no one had.

Instantly on the case, Alayna flew up the stairs. ‘He’s not here,’ she shouted from the landing. ‘Oh Mum, what are we going to do?’ she cried, running back down again.

‘Sit down,’ Carol told Maureen, whose colour had completely vanished. ‘It’s going to be all right. We’ll find him.’

Acutely aware of what this was doing to her mother, Andee said tersely, ‘I’m so angry with him. He knows better than to do this to us.’
He wouldn’t do it purposely. He wasn’t insensitive that way
. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked Martin, as he headed for the back door.

‘I’ll be just a moment,’ he told her.

As she watched him run down the garden, seeming oblivious to the sudden downpour of rain, she was aware of Alayna coming to stand with her.

‘Why’s he going into the shed?’ Alayna wanted to know. ‘Luke won’t be in there.’

Bewildered, angry, terrified, but thankful Martin was there, Andee simply watched, praying that he was going to come back with something helpful.

‘He’s taken his camping gear,’ Martin announced, stamping his feet on the mat as he returned.

More alarmed by that than comforted, Andee cried, ‘That still doesn’t tell us where he is.’

‘But it gives me a fairly good idea,’ Martin informed her. ‘You guys go ahead and eat. I’ll call when I’ve found him.’

Go ahead and eat! Was he crazy?
‘I’m coming with you,’ Andee declared, reaching for her bag.

‘No, you stay put. He’ll be on Exmoor. I think I probably know where, and if I’m right we have this pact, no girls allowed.’

Andee started to protest, ran after him down the hall, but he was driving off before she could reach the car, leaving her panicked and furious and wishing she knew how the hell she was going to cope with the others.

They were looking to her for reassurance, waiting for her to tell them that Luke would be exactly where Martin expected him to be, that he hadn’t got lost on the moor, or somehow fallen into a ravine and was even now lying unconscious, unable to let anyone know where he was.

Please God don’t let history be repeating itself. He’s a good boy and we love him so much. My mother and I will never survive it.

Martin had been gone for over an hour, and though Andee had tried his number several times he still wasn’t answering. He’d be on the moor by now and all she could see, almost feel in her bones, were the endless stretches of nowhere, a vast, uncompromising landscape filled with hidden hollows and streams, gushing rivers, rocks, thickets, marshes and some of the highest cliffs in the country on the coastal edge. The wind gusted that rugged terrain like packs of demons on the prowl, while lightning storms tore the sky apart. It would be possible for Luke to walk for miles and miles without seeing another living soul, to shout and scream from the bottom of a gully never to be heard.

Her eyes closed as she tried to hear him. Tried with all her motherly instincts to connect with where he was.

Starting as her phone rang, she quickly clicked on. ‘Have you got him?’ she asked breathlessly.

‘Yes, he’s here,’ Martin told her. ‘Cold, hungry, and ready to come home.’

Unravelling with relief, she cried, ‘Where are you?’

‘Just coming off the moor, about twenty minutes away. I’d have called sooner, but I couldn’t get a signal. Here, I’ll put him on.’

‘Hey Mum,’ Luke said sheepishly. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you worry.’

‘You must never
ever
go off without telling someone where you’re going,’ she responded fiercely. ‘If Dad hadn’t been around we’d never even have known where to look.’

‘I was OK, I promise. I just needed to chill for a while.’

‘On your own? In the middle of Exmoor? Luke, there have got to be safer places.’

‘I knew where I was. Dad and I have been there tons of times.’

‘Tell him,’ her mother said, ‘that there’s plenty of stroganoff. We’re keeping it warm for him.’

‘Thanks, Grandma,’ he called out, ‘I’m starving.’

Realising her mother was trembling with relief, Andee took her hand and squeezed it tight. Luke had no idea how lucky he was to have so many people who cared about him. He must learn to appreciate this, and realise that such a precious gift didn’t come without responsibilities.

By the time father and son walked in through the door, damp from their dash through the rain, and looking ridiculously pleased with themselves, Andee was ready to forgive anything as long as her son was safe in her arms.

‘You fool,’ she murmured, taking in his dirt-smeared face and malodorous clothes. ‘What on earth were you trying to prove? Didn’t it occur to you that we’d be trying to get hold of you?’

He gave an awkward shrug and glanced at his father.

‘He’s got something to tell you,’ Martin informed her, ‘but let him clean up and have a bite to eat first.’

As Luke left the room with Alayna hot on his heels, Andee’s eyes went to Martin.

‘He’s OK,’ Martin assured her. ‘He’s been having a rough time over losing his grandad, and he’s not very happy about Brigitte being here either.’

‘I told you,’ his mother said.

‘I know you did, but what was I to do? She was trying to be supportive, and the way you lot have closed ranks against her . . .’

Carol threw out her hands in protest. ‘What does she expect? We’re a bereaved family trying to come to terms with our loss, and none of us even knew she existed before she just decided to turn up.’

‘It was poor judgement, I admit,’ he responded, ‘but you don’t have to worry, she’s leaving tomorrow . . .’

‘Oh, well now I feel rotten,’ Carol exclaimed. ‘It’s not that we don’t want her here . . . Well, actually, we don’t. In case it’s escaped your notice we’re a very close family and the mother of your children is right at the heart of it. Have you given any thought at all to what this has been like for Andee?’

‘It’s OK, I’m fine,’ Andee assured her.

‘That’s not true,’ Maureen argued. ‘It came as a terrible blow when you found out she was here . . .’

‘Mum!’

‘No, it’s high time we cleared the air around here,’ her mother insisted. ‘You know very well that you two belong together.’

Martin’s head was in his hands.

‘I thought you’d got over all your nonsense by now,’ his mother said sharply. ‘It’s been long enough. If I were Andee I wouldn’t even . . .’

‘Stop!’ Andee cut in loudly. ‘I don’t mean to be rude, but this really isn’t any of your business.’

‘Mum!’ Alayna shouted from upstairs, ‘Luke wants you.’

Thankful for the timely interruption, Andee ignored Martin’s stare, treated their mothers to a warning look and ran upstairs to sort out her son.

‘He’s in his room,’ Alayna told her as she reached the landing. ‘Apparently he really laid into Dad about Brigitte and everything . . .’

‘Oh God, not him too,’ Andee groaned. ‘What’s going on with everyone? Please go downstairs and get your grandmothers off Dad’s back.’

‘But Mum . . .’

‘Just do as you’re told,’ and taking off along the landing she found Luke’s door open, with Luke himself slouched forlornly on the edge of the bed.

‘So what’s going on?’ she said, putting an arm round his shoulders as she sat down with him. ‘I know Dad . . .’

‘It’s not about Dad,’ he interrupted. ‘Well it is, but that’s like . . .’ He shrugged. ‘It’s about something that happened just after the end of term. I’ve been trying to find a way to tell you, but I thought . . . I was afraid if it all came out it would be bad for you, for me too, and there was nothing to it really . . . I mean, there was, but it wasn’t me who did it . . . I was there, for some of the time . . .’

‘Sweetheart,’ she came in gently, ‘you’re not making a lot of sense, so let me remind you that you can tell me anything and no matter what it is we’ll find a way to work it out.’

He nodded distractedly. ‘That’s what Dad said.’

‘You’ve told him?’

‘Yeah, I told him. I was going to tell him before, you know when everything first kicked off about Sophie, but then Brigitte turned up and it was all like, you know, weird and stuff, and . . .’

‘What does Sophie have to do with it?’ she asked carefully, already praying that he wasn’t going to admit that the local boys Sophie had written about included him. ‘Do you know her?’

He shook his head. ‘I mean, I know who she is, but I’m not like . . . Some of my mates met her and her friend on the beach . . .’ He turned to her in sudden panic. ‘You’re not going to make me give you their names, are you?’

‘Luke, I need to know what happened.’

He hung his head again. ‘There was this party, just after we broke up, in one of the caravans. I found out after that she’d invited us because she wanted to get off with Robin Howell. You know Robin, he’s in my class . . .’

‘Yes, I know Robin.’

‘Well apparently, Chelsey, that’s Robin’s girlfriend, was mean to Sophie at school, so Sophie wanted to get back at her by, you know, going with Robin.’

Filling with dismay, Andee said, ‘And did she go with Robin?’

He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I don’t think so. It was like she wanted to, but then she changed her mind . . .’

Andee’s eyes were stern. ‘Please tell me he didn’t force her.’

‘No! I mean, if he did I didn’t see him, but I swear I don’t think he did. No one did. All I know is that everyone was smoking dope and getting out of their minds . . .’

‘Were you smoking dope?’

Looking down, he nodded.

Her jaw tightened. ‘Go on,’ she said, deciding that would have to wait until later.

‘I just remember that Sophie was crying and her friend was shouting . . . Some of the guys seemed to think it was funny. That was when Jake and I got out of there. It was like crazy, but I don’t think anyone else stayed, because we saw them all about ten minutes later in the Leisure Park.’

‘Was Sophie with them?’

‘No. They were saying she was bad news and needed to grow up and stuff, and then it was like everyone forgot about her until . . . until it came on the news that she was missing.’

Andee stared at him hard as his body began convulsing with sobs. The only good part of this, if he was telling the truth, and he’d better be, was that there hadn’t been a rape. ‘Is it possible one of your friends might know where she is?’ she asked, torn between comforting him and throttling him.

With his head still in his hands, he said, ‘I don’t think so. Everyone’s scared out of their minds in case the police come knocking on their doors, but she didn’t go missing until at least three weeks after that party and I swear none of us saw her in that time. I don’t think any of us even really knew her name till then.’

Angered by the wretched arrogance of that, Andee was struggling to decide on the best way to go forward. Though she didn’t believe any of the boys
were
involved in Sophie’s disappearance, there was no getting away from the fact that they had to be questioned.

‘You’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you,’ she warned, ‘but I’m afraid I am going to need the names of everyone who was there that night.’

‘Mum, no!’ he cried. ‘Everyone will know it’s me who told you . . .’

‘Robin’s I already have,’ she continued.

‘Mum, you’re not listening. If they think I grassed . . .’

‘I’ll pass their names to someone else at the station so they can speak to your friends. Luke, listen, you said yourself that the party happened three weeks or more before Sophie went missing, so they should have nothing to worry about. No, hear me out. The police aren’t about ruining young men’s lives for the sake of it, so if there was no assault, and no one’s saying there was, not even Sophie’s friend . . .’

‘We were smoking dope, Mum. It’s against the law.’

‘I’m aware of that, but it’s not the main issue here. However, I will be taking it up with you again, you can be sure of that, and you can consider yourself grounded for the rest of the holidays.’