I stifled a laugh, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment at how openly I had wanted her son, and now his father knew, too.
“So what are we going to do?”
Aiden asked, changing the subject.
“Hey, why can’t you two just transport to wherever Chelsea is?”
I asked.
“It’s actually teleport,”
Anna corrected.
“And I wish we could
but unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. You see, we can only teleport ourselves to places, not people. We have to know the exact place that we want to go to, hence why Aiden has to call us to tell us where he wants us to meet him.”
“Oh,”
I said. I knew it had been too good to be true, but I’d still hoped.
“So what can we do?”
“First, we have to find out who told the police they saw Ben, and then we may be able to find out something that might help us find Chelsea,”
Dave said matter-of-factly.
“And how do we do that?”
I asked, hoping there was an easy solution to finding this person.
“The only way we can find out who this person is, is by listening to everyone’s thoughts,”
Aiden said.
“That could take forever,”
I said.
“Unfortunately, it’s the only way,”
Aiden said.
Something clicked inside my brain. Call it intuition if you like, but for some reason I suspected that my mother was more than just occupied by her usual busy workload. I was sure that she was avoiding me. Maybe she knew who this person was. If so, that probably meant that I knew the person who had told the police they had seen Chelsea with Ben the night she disappeared. Why else would she be avoiding me?
“Not a bad theory,”
Dave agreed.
“Why are you all so quiet?” Ben asked, looking between the four of us with a confused look on his face.
“You hungry?” Aiden asked, avoiding his question.
“We can go out and see if I overhear anything.”
“What have you got?”
“Let’s go out for dinner instead,” I quickly suggested. I didn’t like our chances of actually finding anything out tonight about who’d told the police about Ben. But at least we would be out there trying.
“Come on, let’s go,” Aiden said, pulling me to my feet.
Chapter 10
Even though it was Thursday night, Baxter’s was packed with the usual crowd. So far, Aiden hadn’t picked up anything that might help us figure things out.
News about Chelsea’s disappearance had started circulating, but everything was just speculation. In a way, I was glad that I couldn’t hear what they were actually thinking, because my intuition was telling me that news of Ben was out.
Nobody was pointing any fingers, and there were no obvious stares. But the hushed whispers were starting to get to me. If Ben wasn’t completely oblivious to what was going on around him, I would have snapped.
Just before we were about to head home, the café fell silent. All eyes turned to the enormous LCD TV sitting on the back wall. An announcement of breaking news had cut through whatever program had been on beforehand. The news anchor was saying that a second teenage girl was missing. Photos of Chelsea and another girl I had never seen before were plastered on the screen. He then went on to say that the police hadn’t confirmed that the two disappearances were linked, but they were warning everyone to make sure all their windows and doors were locked, and to only venture out if absolutely necessary. The police also confirmed that they already had a lead on the case, and would continue to update the public as more information came to light.
I looked around the room as the TV went back to playing the top thirty music countdown. Everyone’s eyes were no longer glued to the screen; they were focused on the three of us—Ben in particular.
Ben opened his mouth as if he was about to defend himself, but Aiden cut him off. “Let’s just get out of here,” he said, placing a hand on Ben’s shoulder.
We left Baxter’s with all eyes still locked on Ben.
None of us talked on the way back to the car. I was too caught up in the fact that Chelsea had been confirmed missing. Ben was probably freaking out, and Aiden had to deal with all of Ben’s thought, as well as mine and his own.
Aiden squeezed my hand.
“Don’t worry about me. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I won’t be okay ’til we find her.”
“We will find her.”
I knew Aiden was right. Somehow, I knew that we would find Chelsea. But I wasn’t sure she would still be alive when we finally found her.
Aiden put an arm around my shoulder and drew me into his side.
“Well, then, we just have to make sure we find her in time.”
He kissed the top of my head.
***
We dropped Ben off at his car then drove back to mine, hoping that my mum would be there. I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw her car parked in the driveway. She was probably ducking in to grab something before heading out again, otherwise she would have parked in the garage.
I knew we wouldn’t have long to get anything out of her, but we had to try.
As we made our way to the front door, Mum came rushing out with her shoes in one hand, her laptop in the other, and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder. Talk about sudden departures.
“You’re seriously leaving again?” It was as if she’d heard Aiden’s car pull up and grabbed her things without actually having time to put her shoes on or her laptop in the bag, all in a mad dash to get out of the house without seeing me.
“Sorry. The boss wants me back ASAP.” She stopped quickly to give me a kiss on the cheek before rushing to her car.
“Mum,” I called, but she ignored me. “Just stop for a minute!”
She threw her things in the backseat of her car. I was sick of her avoiding me. I needed to know what she knew.
Mum stopped what she was doing and let out a heavy sigh. She looked at me without saying a word. Her face was so full of pain that I almost felt guilty for speaking to her like that. Maybe she knew something I wasn’t ready to hear. I hoped not.
“Look, I know you’re busy, but I really need to know if you know anything about Chelsea.”
She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it.
“Please, Mum,” I begged.
She thought about it for a minute before conceding. “The police aren’t one hundred percent sure that the two disappearances are connected. But if they are, then they are worried that the kidnapper may be a serial killer…”
I gasped in horror, thinking that a body had been found.
“Not that anyone’s body has been found,” she continued.
I let out a sigh of relief. I don’t know what I would have done if she had told me that they had found Chelsea’s body.
“What about Ben?” Aiden asked.
“The police still consider him a prime suspect, but I don’t believe he did it.” She opened the driver’s door. “That’s what I’m working on. I know he didn’t do it, and I’m trying to find the person who did take Chelsea.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks, Mum.”
“We will find her.” She hopped into her car and started the engine.
“Oh, just one more thing,” I said, knocking on her window.
“Yeah?” She rolled the window down.
“Do you know who told the police Ben was with Chelsea the night she disappeared?”
“Sorry, I don’t know.” She quickly looked away. She was lying, but I wasn’t about to call her on it. “I gotta go. I’ll call you when I can.” She reversed down the driveway.
“Did you find out anything?” I asked Aiden, wrapping my arms around his waist.
Mum beeped twice before driving off down the road.
He put one arm around me and ran the other through his hair. “Her thoughts were all over the place again. As soon as she started with one thought, she quickly changed to another. And the only thought that actually stayed with her was how worried she was about you.”
“Me?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah. But the really strange thing is how she kept praying that I wouldn’t leave you alone.”
I scrunched up my nose in confusion. Why would she be so worried about me being alone, yet running away from me every chance she had? “Well, one thing is for sure; that woman is not acting normal. She is definitely hiding something.”
“You got that right.”
We headed into the house.
Chapter 11
I never would have thought that I would be glad it was Friday, rather than the weekend, yet today I was. We needed to try to find the person who was lying to the police about Ben. I was sure that I knew the person we were looking for, otherwise why would my mother be so determined not to tell me anything about them?
Aiden and I arrived at school long before classes started. We wanted to be one of the first people there. We sat on a bench just inside the main entry gate, that way we were almost guaranteed to come in contact with everyone who attended All Saints High.
“Still nothing,”
Aiden informed me after twenty minutes of us sitting there.
“Everyone’s just speculating whether Ben is a serial killer, or if he has been framed. I hope for his sake he stays home from school today. Don’t turn around yet, but we are about to cop it.”
A couple of seconds later, a voice boomed from behind us. “You two need to go to the office right now.” I turned around to find Mr. Heithcliffe standing there with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.
“What for?” I asked, wondering what the hell we had done to put that smirk on his face.
“Oh, let’s see…” He tapped his finger against the side of his cheek as if deep in thought. “How about the fact that the both of you have not stayed at school past lunchtime for the last few days? Or, Ms. Sommers, how you may or may not be responsible for attacking Chrissy Jeffreys the other day?”
“Okay, okay,” I said. He seemed to be relishing in his chance to finally see me get into shit with the principal. Aiden and I got up from the bench and turned to head for the office, and that’s when I saw her. The moment I laid my eyes on her, I knew she was responsible.
She must have slipped past us at the gate when Mr. Heithcliffe was giving it to us. But I wasn’t about to let her get away. I took off without saying a word to Aiden.
“You bitch!” I grabbed Chrissy’s shoulder to yank her around to face me. The second my hand touched her body, I was no longer standing in front of the school.
I knew instantly that I was having another vision. I was at the cinemas with Megan, and it was almost midnight. The movie had just finished, and we were on our way to the loo, when I spotted Chelsea arguing with some guy who had his back to us. Chelsea turned to leave, and the guy grabbed her by the arm, turning just enough for me to be able to make out his face. It was Ben.
Next thing I knew, I was being ripped away from her mind, and I was once again back at school. Aiden had his arms wrapped around me. He must have been the one to yank me from her mind.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Chrissy snapped, rubbing her hand over her shoulder.
“I…” I couldn’t think of anything to say, not just because I couldn’t explain my reaction, but it was also the shock of seeing the damage I had done when I hit her. The area around her nose and under her eyes was blue and swollen.
Chrissy scoffed. “And you chose this over me,” she said to Aiden, pointing at me like I was some kind of freak.
I hadn’t noticed before, but there must have been at least half the school standing around watching, waiting eagerly for this to turn into a fight.
Aiden laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself. You were never in with a chance.” He leant down and kissed my forehead. She really couldn’t have chosen a worse time to compare herself to me, what with her smashed-up face and all.
I watched as Chrissy’s eyes started welling up with tears, and the crowd erupted into laughter. She quickly turned around and fled towards the toilet block.
“Everyone get to class. There’s nothing more to see here,” Mr. Heithcliffe yelled to the students still surrounding us.
Mr. Heithcliffe turned his attention back to Aiden and I. “If you keep going at this rate, you’ll both be expelled by the end of the day.” He seemed to be enjoying this all a little too much for my liking, and if I wasn’t too consumed by my own thoughts, I probably would have said something I might have regretted.
“Come on, let’s get this over with,” Aiden said, ignoring Mr. Heithcliffe’s comments. With one arm still strung over my shoulder, we headed towards the school office.
With all the new information coming to light, I wasn’t sure I could concentrate enough to wiggle myself out of this situation. We were probably going to end up with after-school detention for the next month.
Aiden pushed his hand against the door to the office. I looked up at him, wondering why he was stopping me from opening it.
His eyes were gleaming mischievously. “What do you say about adding another day to the list?”
For a second, I thought about doing the right thing. But what was the right thing to do? Was it right for me to stay at school, wasting time, when I could be out there looking for a clue that would help us find Chelsea? It didn’t take long for me to rationalise skipping another day of school. “Let’s go.”