Missing Me (17 page)

My mouth fell open. ‘Of course it was
him
. I got his name from Annie. Allan Faraday. You saw the report she had. It was easy to find him – he even
looks
like you. He
admitted it straight away too. You know, he didn’t have to show any interest in me at all, but he
did
.’ I stopped, feeling my emotions whirling up again. It wasn’t just the
memory of how Allan had used me. I was also upset by Lauren’s attitude. How could she have so little faith in my ability to look after myself?

‘It was still really dangerous to go off on your own without telling me,’ Lauren snapped.

‘Well, you don’t tell me everything – you didn’t tell me about being pregnant.’

‘That’s different. I already explained . . . I didn’t want you to have to carry such a big secret around . . . Anyway, that’s irrelevant. I just need you to see what a
big risk you took going to see a strange man without any back-up.’

‘Stop calling him a “strange man”,’ I said. ‘He’s our birth father.
Yours
as well as mine. Jeez, Lauren, you travelled halfway across the world to find
Annie and Sam when you were my age.’

‘Don’t exaggerate.’ Lauren glared at me. ‘It wasn’t halfway round the world.’

I stared back, feeling mutinous. Lauren wasn’t giving me a chance to explain
anything
. She was all angry and overprotective. And I’d had enough of people worrying about me to
last a lifetime already.

‘You’re behaving just like Annie.’ The words shot out of me.

Hurt radiated from Lauren’s eyes. ‘That’s not fair, I just care about you.’

We sat in silence for a moment. I felt bad. I knew I’d been mean saying that. And yet something held me back from apologising. I’d been so sure that Lauren would listen to me and she
wasn’t hearing me properly at all.

‘So what was he like, this Allan Faraday?’ Lauren asked.

‘I told you, he was nice.’ I hesitated, not wanting to explain how Allan had tricked me into coming to Baxter’s party so that I’d meet and befriend Esme. ‘He
exaggerated his job a bit . . . but I think that was just because he was trying to impress me.’

‘So he’s a bit of a loser, then?’ Lauren said.

I looked away. Why was she being so nasty?

‘Did you tell him about me?’ she asked.

‘A little,’ I said.

‘Did you tell him I was having a baby?’

‘Er, no . . .’ I admitted. I thought about Baxter’s threatening text message again and how desperate I’d been just a few minutes ago to tell Lauren all about it. This
conversation was
so
not going as I planned.

‘Do you care, Mo?’ Lauren asked.

I looked up at her. ‘What d’you mean?’ I said. ‘Care about what?’

‘Do you care about me being pregnant?’ Lauren’s lips set in a thin, unhappy line. ‘It’s just I noticed you haven’t mentioned it. Not once since you found
out.’

I looked down at the kitchen table. A stain from a coffee mug stood out, dark against the wood. I traced my finger round the stain’s outline.

‘I told you I’m pleased you’re having a baby,’ I said quietly.

‘Right.’ Lauren sat back in her chair. She clearly didn’t believe me. ‘So are you going to see Allan Faraday again?’ A note of sarcasm crept into her voice as she
said his name.

No
, I thought.
Because he used me and got me into a really dangerous situation that I don’t know how to get out of. But I’m not telling you that. Not now.

‘I don’t know,’ I said.

We sat in silence for a few more minutes. I didn’t know how to fill in the huge hole that had opened up between us. After another few minutes, Lauren started saying how she was thinking
about taking a bath soon so I took the hint and left. As I walked back to the tube station, I was too depressed even to cry. There had never been a distance between me and Lauren before.

And, after everything else that had happened, I had never felt so alone in my life.

Several days passed. I spoke to no-one. Well, I had a quick chat with Rosa before she went on holiday, giving her the briefest outline of what I’d been up to (though
playing down the danger I’d been in) and, obviously, Annie was always starting conversations with me – but I didn’t speak to Lauren again and Wolf didn’t attempt to get in
touch, either. Esme sent me a couple more texts, but when I didn’t reply, she stopped. Allan also tried to call me. He left several messages in fact, but I deleted them all without even
listening to them. Why should I make any effort with him? I’d wanted to make him like me, and he’d just let me down.

People always let you down. Allan had. Lauren had. I was sure Wolf would, if I gave him half a chance.

Better not to care about anyone in the first place.

At least then I wouldn’t get hurt.

I got another threatening text a few days after the first.

This still isn’t over. Say nothing to anyone.

I ignored that too. To be honest, the second text bothered me a lot less than the first had done. After all, nothing had happened to me yet even though Declan Baxter clearly knew who I was and
could easily find out from the telephone directory where I lived.

I spent my time thinking about Wolf. He crept into my head in a really annoying way when I wasn’t focused on anything else. I also threw my energies into the Art GCSE coursework I’d
only pretended to be interested in before. At least Annie was pleased I was working hard.

It was the Thursday of the first week in August, just over a fortnight since I’d tracked down Allan Faraday. I’d been working hard on an essay on the influence of Christian values on
art in the Victorian period. I was hungry and tired and came down to the kitchen to make a sandwich.

I wasn’t expecting Annie to be there, but she was, chatting on the phone to someone.

‘So she talked to Jam before she went?’ she was saying.

My ears pricked up. It sounded like she was speaking about Lauren.

A minute later, Annie came off the phone. She walked towards me.

‘That was Lydia,’ she said. ‘Apparently Lauren’s taken herself off to a hotel in the country for a few days. She spoke to Jam and asked him to pass on the
message.’

‘Oh,’ I said. I wasn’t sure why Annie looked so worried. After all, Lauren tended to avoid talking to Annie for the same reasons I did. Annie knew that, even if she
didn’t like it much. ‘So?’

‘Well, it just seems a bit strange to me,’ Annie mused. ‘I mean, she’s heavily pregnant and the hospital where she’s having the baby is here and her family is here
and—’

‘Do Jam or Lydia think it’s odd?’ I asked.

Annie shook her head. ‘Jam was adamant there was nothing wrong. Lauren just wanted a day or two by herself in the countryside. She’s gone to a hotel just an hour and a half outside
London. Jam’s going to join her when he finishes work tomorrow night.’

‘There you are, then,’ I said. ‘I’m sure Lauren’s fine.’

‘I suppose, I just don’t like her being all alone.’ Annie wandered away.

I headed to the fridge, intent on making my sandwich. As I opened the door, my phone rang.

Absent-mindedly I took the mobile out of my pocket – caller details withheld. Immediately on my guard, I put the phone to my ear.

‘
Madison?’ The whisper was so low it was impossible to make out any accent or even whether the speaker was male or female.

‘Yes?’ I froze. Instinct told me the caller was Baxter.

‘You were told to say nothing,’ the menacing whisper went on. ‘Now I have your sister. Soon she will pay. An eye for an eye.’

The line went dead. I stood, stock-still, the phone still held against my ear . . . the fridge door still open in front of me.

An eye for an eye.
That was from the Old Testament. I’d just been writing about it. It meant revenge. Baxter must think I’d talked to someone about Natalia and the
Miriam
Project
– and he was taking the most terrible revenge possible.

An eye for an eye.
I’d rescued Natalia – and now Baxter was going to hurt Lauren to pay me back.

I raced out of the kitchen. I had no idea why Baxter thought I’d told anyone what he’d done to Natalia and the other girls – or how he even knew I had a
sister. Esme might have mentioned it, of course, I distinctly remembered telling her about Lauren that day I went round to her house and there were loads of news stories on the internet about me
and both my older sisters from years ago. I shivered. It didn’t matter. Lauren was in some sort of danger and I had to help.

Annie was drifting about upstairs. I could hear her humming to herself as she wandered from the airing cupboard to her bedroom. For a moment all I wanted to do was to go up there and confess
everything. However, long experience of my mother had taught me that turning to her for support generally made whatever situation I was in worse. Annie’s response to most problems was to
panic. I needed to talk to someone who would believe me . . . who would stay calm . . . and who would know what to do.

Jam. As soon as I thought about calling him, I felt relieved. Jam would be as worried about Lauren as I was. Once I had explained everything, he would act . . . he would take responsibility.

I ran into the living room so Annie wouldn’t overhear the call. With fumbling fingers, I found Jam’s number on my mobile. He took a few rings to answer and when he spoke, his voice
had that slightly self-conscious air that almost certainly meant he was at work.

‘Jam, listen,’ I said. ‘I think something’s happened to Lauren. There’s a man called Declan Baxter. He knows I found out about an illegal operation he was running
and he’s taken her. He’s planning on hurting her . . . doing something to her as revenge.’

There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line. Jam sucked in his breath. I could hear the murmur of voices in the background.

‘What are you talking about, Mo?’ His voice lowered. ‘Lauren’s fine. I talked to her less then half an hour ago.’

‘Oh.’ I remembered Annie telling me the same thing just a few minutes ago. ‘Lauren must have been
made
to say she was OK. But I had a call. It’s this man, Declan
Baxter, I—’

‘Listen to me, Mo,’ Jam said gently. ‘Lauren called me earlier and said she wanted to go away for a few days to Craven Manor. It’s a spa hotel an hour or so outside
London . . . got a big swimming pool apparently. I’m going to join her there tomorrow night.’

‘No, it’s a trick,’ I persisted.

‘Is this you talking, Mo?’ Jam asked. ‘Or is it your mother?’

I gasped. What was he saying? And then it struck me – Jam was implying I was being overanxious and hysterical, like Annie.

‘It’s not like that, Jam.’ Tears bubbled up behind my eyes. I desperately needed him to believe me. ‘I was investigating this man and—’

‘Who? Why would you do that? Is this something to do with your birth dad?’ Jam sounded even more sceptical than before. ‘Lauren told me you’d tracked him down.’

‘Never mind Allan,’ I said, feeling desperate. ‘This is about someone else: Declan Baxter. I found out that Baxter has been paying pregnant girls to give up their babies so
that other families can adopt them and—’

‘You mean a surrogacy operation?’ Jam interrupted.

‘Yes, but—’

‘Surrogacy isn’t illegal, Mo,’ Jam said. ‘This Declan Baxter probably isn’t doing anything wrong. D’you have proof of anything illegal?’

I hesitated. Natalia had made the same point: girls choosing to give up their babies wasn’t against the law.

‘Some of it
might
be legal,’ I conceded, ‘but if the girls change their minds and want to keep their babies, he won’t let them go. Natalia said that when one of
the pregnant girls tried to escape a few weeks ago, he caught her and Natalia never heard from her again . . .’

‘So why hasn’t this Natalia gone to the police now she’s free?’ Jam said.

‘She . . . she was too scared . . . and also Baxter paid her a lot of money, so she’s kind of part of the illegal side of it,’ I explained. Jeez, this was all coming out wrong.
‘Look, the point is that I helped Natalia to escape and now Baxter’s taken Lauren as revenge.’

‘Are you sure, Mo?’ Jam asked. ‘Was this call you received even definitely from Baxter?’

‘He didn’t say it was him,’ I admitted. Baxter hadn’t identified himself on the phone. I hesitated. ‘But he said “your sister will pay”.’

‘OK,’ Jam said wearily. ‘It sounds like a prank call, but if you’re worried, I’ll call Lauren again.’

‘OK.’ I rang off and waited.

Five minutes later, Jam called back. ‘I just spoke to Lauren,’ he said. ‘She’s fine . . . about to go swimming.’

I gulped. I was sure Lauren was being made to lie – probably to protect herself and us – but I couldn’t see how I was going to convince Jam.

‘Don’t you think it’s a bit odd, Lauren wanting to go to a hotel on her own?’ I said.

‘She’s pregnant, Mo.’ Jam sighed. ‘Believe me, this is nowhere near the oddest thing she’s done in the past few months. She’s got a bunch of weird ideas from
that Chelsey Barton pregnancy “bible” she’s always quoting.’ He paused. ‘Now stop worrying and when we’re back, I want you to come over. Lauren told me what
happened the other day – it’s crazy you two falling out.’

I agreed, my heart sinking, and we ended the call.

Now what did I do? Annie was still upstairs, humming to herself. I took my phone and dialled Lauren directly. The call went straight to voicemail. Still, if Jam was right, that wasn’t
surprising. According to him, Lauren had been about to go swimming. I left a message asking her to call me and redialled for Craven Manor. The receptionist confirmed that a Lauren Purditt had
indeed checked in though she wasn’t answering the phone in her room at this moment.

That proved nothing.
Anyone
could check in pretending to be Lauren. I paced across the living room. Clearly no-one was going to believe me without more evidence that she was actually
missing. I stopped walking. If Lauren had been kidnapped, the chances were high that she had been abducted from her home. Annie and I had a set of spare keys. I should go there right now –
see if I could find any signs of a struggle that might help prove Lauren had been taken against her will or any clues to where she might be now. I shouted up to Annie that I was popping out,
grabbed the spare keys from their hook in our kitchen cupboard, then raced over to Lauren and Jam’s flat.