Missing Me (27 page)

‘A newborn baby should
not
be out in this wind,’ Baxter snapped. ‘Tiny infants can’t control their body temperature very well. You’re putting her at
risk.’

‘
You
put her at risk by taking her away from her mother.’

Baxter growled with impatience. Down below us, far to our right, the boat was drawing closer to the jetty.

‘Give me the baby,’ Baxter repeated. ‘Give her up and I’ll let you go.’

I shook my head. No way did Baxter have any intention of letting me go.

‘You’re going to kill me,’ I said. ‘
And
the others. That’s what the boat is for. You’re going to take us out to sea and kill us and dump the bodies in
the water.’

Baxter said nothing, but he took a step towards me. I took a step back. I glanced over my shoulder. I was really near the edge now. One more step and I’d be over the cliff.

‘I’m not letting you take her,’ I said.

Baxter raised his arm. I caught the faint metallic glint of the gun in his hand. My legs trembled.

‘I’m not giving you a choice,’ Baxter said.

I took a small step backwards. The earth at my feet crumbled, giving way under my heels. My head spun at the thought of the dark, cold water below.

Baxter was going to shoot me. He was going to take the car seat, realise the baby wasn’t inside, and put all his efforts into finding her.

I had no proper idea how much time had passed since I’d left her with Wolf, but it was certainly no more than a minute or so. Not nearly enough time for Wolf to get Ellie to Jam and Lauren
and make sure they were all safely away from here.

‘Madison,
now
.’ Baxter cocked his gun. ‘Put the car seat down.’

I gulped. A light spray rose up from the water below, salty and damp against my face. And I knew what I had to do.

Baxter pointed the gun straight at me. ‘I’m going to count to three.’

I looked down at the curling crests of the waves. Blood thundered in my ears, louder than the sea. If there were rocks down there, the waves would be whiter, wouldn’t they? Unless the
rocks were lurking just underneath the water.

‘One,’ Baxter spat.

My whole body tensed. If I didn’t risk the rocks and the sea, I would die up here anyway. And Baxter would discover immediately that Ellie wasn’t with me.

‘Two.’

I steadied myself, trying to psych myself up for what I had to do. A memory flashed into my mind’s eye from when I was eight and Jam and Lauren had saved me from drowning.

They weren’t here to save me now.

‘Three.’

I was out of time. It was jump or die.

I turned and, still gripping hold of the car seat, I hurled myself off the cliff top.

For a few seconds, time seemed to slow down. I was aware of the cold air slicing at my face and arms as I fell, of the salt sea smell, of the sound of Baxter’s roar above
me and of the slap of the sea against the rock face below.

The car seat I’d been holding on to so tightly was ripped out of my hand by the wind. I opened my mouth to scream. And then the icy water hit me. The shock of it took my breath away. All
my senses seemed to dissolve into the feel of the sea on my skin – so cold it burned. I sank like a stone, the water rushing over my head. I couldn’t breathe. Panicking, I flailed in
the darkness. My hand hit something hard. A rock. It stung, but I wasn’t connected to the pain. I was fighting, fighting the water, fighting the fear that consumed me, clawing, desperate to
find air. I had no idea which way was up. Currents pulled at my arms and legs. In my mind I was a little girl again, struggling to keep my head above the water, losing all feeling in my body,
hearing the terror in Lauren’s voice. Knowing I was drowning . . . that I was going to die . . .

My head burst through the waves. I sucked in the salty air, gasping for breath. My eyes strained into the darkness. I could just make out the rock face in front of me – sheer and high and
dark. The jetty lights twinkled an impossible distance away. I could see the boat moored there too, the boat Baxter had brought to take us and kill us in. I pulled desperately at the water, trying
to head towards the beach between the jetty and the cliff, but the current was too powerful. Panic spiralled up inside me. Why did it have to be the sea? It was the monster that had always lurked
in my dreams. While other kids feared the shadows under their bed, I would close my eyes and hear the creaking of a boat, the suffocating water closing over my head. Not being able to breathe. My
worst nightmare.

I clawed at the water again. My hands were numb with cold. I forced my head above the waves. I had to swim to the beach. But I wasn’t strong enough. The current was more powerful. As I
pulled at the water, trying to head for the shore, the tide sucked me out again. The sea all around was dark and vast. I shrivelled inside myself, suddenly aware of how tiny I was, how helpless
against this force of nature. Waves crashed inside my head. Always before there had been Lauren. Strong and fearless, her voice had given me hope. And Jam . . . Jam had saved us both.

But now I was totally alone. The current was too strong: it was pulling me away from them, from Annie, from my whole life.

From Wolf.

As I thought his name, I heard his voice.

‘Madison!’ Was I imagining it? I turned my head, spitting seawater from my lips, shivering with cold and fear. Where was the sound coming from?

There.
He was running towards me from the jetty, along the rocky beach. The jetty lights were just bright enough to show his outline, dark against the stones on the beach. How far away
was the shore? Ten metres at least.

Wolf reached the bottom of the high cliff from which I’d jumped. He stopped running and waved his arms. ‘Madison!’

I tried to raise my arm out of the water, but I was too weak.

‘Madison! Swim!’ His yell was faint over the waves.

I wanted to shout back that I could barely move. That I’d never been a strong swimmer. That the sea was beating me. But no sound came from my mouth. I tried to do what he said. I pulled
with my arms and kicked with my legs. Wolf was still on the beach, as close to me as he could get. He called my name again.

I fought to get nearer. But every pull of my arms seemed to take me back out to sea. It was hopeless. I looked towards Wolf again, hoping the sight of him would help, that I would find I was
closer to shore than I thought, but Wolf was no longer there. I looked all along the beach. He had vanished.

Where had he gone? Crushing misery threatened to overwhelm me. Had I imagined him? Or had he gone to get help? It didn’t matter. Without his voice urging me on, I wasn’t going to
make it to the shore.

Except I
had
to. For him. For Lauren. For Annie. For my beautiful new baby niece. I kicked and pulled. I wouldn’t give up. My movements grew slower. Weaker. I was exhausted. I lost
all sense of time and place. The water was rising, covering most of my face. I swallowed a gulp of brine. Spat it out. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t have the energy. My limbs felt like they
were made of cotton wool.

Something grabbed my arm. A hand. Strong and warm, I felt the power behind it. Wolf was in the water beside me.

‘Come
on
!’ he yelled over the wind. ‘
Swim!
’

He was here. Hope surged inside me. I kicked with my legs, trying to force myself on. Wolf pulled me after him, strong in the water. One stroke. Two.

‘Put your feet down,’ he ordered.

I did as he said. To my amazement, my feet touched the rocky seabed straight away. I stood. The water was only up to my chest. Wolf pushed me forwards, holding me round the waist with one hand,
clawing through the waves with the other. The rocky beach he had called to me from was in sight. Closer and closer.

The water was up to my waist, then my thighs. A second later, Wolf stood too. He held me tight, propelling me on. The water was only at my knees. My legs were shaking. I couldn’t walk.
Wolf drew me even closer.

‘Nearly there,’ he gasped.

We reached the beach. Over the rocks. I staggered on, leaning against him. We stumbled across the slippery rock to the shingle beyond. The wind dropped slightly as we reached the shore. I sank
to my knees, unable to stand any longer. Wolf fell beside me. We held each other.

And then Wolf drew back. He pushed my wet hair off my face. I was shivering uncontrollably. He stood, ran across the beach. A moment later, he was back, his jacket in his hands. It was dry.

‘Put this on,’ he said, draping the jacket over my shoulders.

I sank into it, grateful for its warmth. ‘Thank you,’ I breathed.

‘You were almost here,’ Wolf said, fastening the jacket round me at the front. ‘You’d almost made it. I just came in to help you with the final bit.’ His teeth were
chattering.

‘Where’s the baby?’ I said.

‘Safe,’ he said. ‘With Lauren and Jam.’

I glanced over at the jetty. Men were charging over the wooden boards. I peered more closely. I could see at least five of them. Surely there had only been two before.

‘Did those men come off the boat?’ I said, tensing again. ‘Shouldn’t we hide?’

Wolf followed my gaze. Under the jetty lights I could just make out the word ‘police’ on the men’s dark jackets. One of the policemen handcuffed Leather Jacket. He marched him
off the jetty and out of sight, up towards the house.

Relief flooded through me.

‘N . . . no need to hide,’ Wolf said, his voice all jerky from the cold. ‘That’s the police.’

‘You called them?’ I asked.

‘Not me.’ Wolf shook his head. ‘I just gave the baby to Lauren then came to find you.’

We stood up and made our way to the jetty. The wind still whistled around us and the sea still roared, but I was warmer now, inside Wolf’s jacket and with his arm round me.

‘What happened to Baxter?’ I asked.

‘I saw him running to the house as I was coming down here,’ Wolf said. ‘How did you end up in the water? Did he push you over the cliff?’

‘Not exactly.’ I told Wolf what had happened. As I finished, we reached the jetty. I could hear Lauren before I saw her.

‘She’s my
sister
,’ she was shrieking. ‘If she wasn’t with Baxter, she
must
be here.’

‘Lauren!’ I tried to call out, but all that came out was a soft croak. Wolf helped me up, onto the jetty. My legs still felt weak and I was suddenly aware of a throbbing pain in my
hand, where it had banged against the rock under the water. I caught sight of Lauren further along the jetty, just past a couple of uniformed officers. She was gesticulating wildly as she spoke,
though the wind was carrying her actual words away from me. I stumbled across the jetty towards her. She saw me and broke into a hobbling run, clutching her belly.

We reached each other. Lauren threw her arms round me. ‘Oh,’ she wept. ‘Mo, I thought you were dead.’

We hugged. Lauren was holding me so tightly I could hardly breathe.

‘I couldn’t bear to lose you,’ she whispered. ‘You know that, Mo. Don’t you? You know how much I love you? You’re as precious to me as Jam and
Ellie.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘I love you too.’

Despite the chill of the night air pressing my wet clothes against my skin, a warmth spread through me. A memory of how jealous I’d once felt about the baby flashed through my head.
I’d been so wrong about that. Ellie’s arrival didn’t push me out of the picture at all. If anything, Jam and Lauren and I were closer than ever.

One of the police officers ran over to us. He gently prised me away from Lauren.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked me.

I nodded. ‘Where’s the baby?’

‘She’s fine. She’s up by the house with Jam.’ Lauren looked down at my hand. ‘Oh, you’re hurt, Mo.’

I held it up. Even in the dim jetty lights it was clearly red and swollen.

‘We have ambulances on their way for Lauren here and the baby,’ the office explained. ‘I’ll take you up to the house. As soon as the paramedics arrive, we’ll have
them check you out and get you warmed up.’

I looked around for Wolf. He was hanging back, watching us and shivering with cold.

‘Wolf too,’ I said. ‘He came into the water to help get me out. I wouldn’t have made it without him.’

Lauren reached out and touched his arm. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

The police officer helped us up the hill to the house. As we walked, I learned that Declan Baxter had been arrested as he tried to leave the premises, and so had the men on the jetty and in the
boat.

‘Who called you?’ I asked.

‘The call came through a 999 alert,’ the police officer said. ‘An Allan Faraday. How do you know him?’

I met Lauren’s gaze. She squeezed my arm.

‘He’s our birth father,’ she said. ‘Our dad.’

The next hour or two passed in a blur. Two ambulances arrived and Lauren, baby Ellie and I travelled in one of them to a nearby hospital. We were all examined and pronounced
remarkably healthy considering the ordeal we’d just been through. My hand was badly bruised, but no bones were broken. After my X-ray, I was taken into a separate cubicle where a nurse
bandaged me up. Moments later, Annie arrived. She wept as we hugged.

‘I’m fine,’ I said, pulling away and squeezing her arm. ‘Seriously.’

Annie nodded, her hands fluttering to her chest. To my surprise, the gesture no longer annoyed me. I was just glad to see her.

‘But what happened?’ she kept saying.

I explained everything, then we wandered along the ward to Lauren’s cubicle. She was lying on the bed, Ellie nestling against her chest. Jam sat on one side of her bed, Lauren’s
adoptive mum and dad stood on the other. As Annie and I walked in, everyone started talking and crying – and then cooing over the baby. I picked her up properly. It was a bit scary at first,
holding her in my arms with everyone watching. But after a few minutes, it felt totally natural.

After an hour or so, Allan Faraday turned up. He hung back, until I rushed over and hugged him and drew him into the room. It was weird seeing him shaking hands with Annie and weirder still
watching as he and Lauren introduced themselves to each other.