Nine Letters Long (18 page)

‘It's so different this time. I can't communicate with Caz like I did with Athena. Drawing just came so naturally with her. Every time I drew a clue, it was like she controlled the pencil, not me, and …' Evie stops. ‘Hang on. I did do a sketch one morning when I was talking to Alex on the phone. Shit, I probably threw it out but I remember thinking at the time that it was a weird thing to draw and it made me feel kind of odd too. Why don't I take more notice when I feel like that? I never learn!'

‘What was the picture of?'

‘Cubes. A row of cubes, then they turned into cages and I remember I couldn't stop thinking about those really sad circus bears.'

‘Cages?' Poppy shakes her head. ‘Trapped!'

‘Hmm.' Seb's shaking his head.

‘Look, she even says “trapped” in here.' Poppy is flicking through the book. ‘Something has to make sense in here.'

‘This is hopeless,' Evie says. ‘Hopeless.'

‘Hang on!' Seb raises one hand while the other runs along the messages, word by word. ‘I think … I'm not sure but I may have something.'

‘What?' Eve and Poppy say in unison.

Seb turns to them, his voice fast in its whisper. ‘These messages are all nine words. Look.'

They count together. ‘One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight … nine.'

‘So it
is an anagram,' he nods. ‘But I've been looking at it
the wrong way. Maybe it's just one word. One word, nine letters long.'

‘And that's the message?' Evie asks.

‘It has to be,' Seb answers. ‘It just has to be.'

 

The week crawls by. Evie almost counts the minutes while the apprehension jiggles in the pit of her stomach. Some of the time she feels they are no closer to finding what they needed to know and yet at other times she feels they are almost there. But time is running out. Evie senses the urgency around her. Sometimes she hears it like a clock ticking above her head – tick, tock, tick, tock.

One thing has to be done – she has to see Paris. She has to make her speak. Yet what will she say? How will she do it? Maybe she's left it too long. Maybe she should've seen her earlier.

These are the thoughts that occupy Evie's mind. She can think of nothing else.

 

Thursday evening finally arrives and Evie paces the house like a caged tiger. Poppy is at Roxy's place tonight preparing their Ancient History presentation. Poppy will be asking Dana all the questions they've agreed on. Evie hopes she'll bring back some answers.

‘Have you got ants in your pants?' her father asks. ‘Sit down. You're giving me motion sickness.'

‘Oh? Oh, sorry.' She sits next to him on the couch.

‘Stop tapping your foot, Evie!'

‘Oh? Sorry.'

Nick sighs and shakes his head.

‘Have you got the phone, Dad?'

He passes her the hand-held. Evie presses the on button, checking for a dial tone. Just in case.

‘Out!' Nick says to her. ‘Go and pace somewhere else. You're driving me crazy.'

Evie sits on the front doorstep. A mild November breeze carries the smell of the nearby barbeques. Another year almost over.

The phone rings. Evie jumps to her feet.

‘Hello?'

‘It's me.' Poppy sounds breathless.

‘I was getting worried.'

‘Sorry. I stayed for dinner and Dad picked me up so I couldn't use my mobile. Then the stupid lifts weren't
working so I had to run up four flights of stairs to get to the phone,' Poppy puffs. ‘Hang on, just let me get my breath.'

Evie walks up and down the drive, waiting for Poppy to recover. ‘So?'

‘So. Mission accomplished.'

‘And?'

‘According to Dana, Caz was the “big v”.'

‘A virgin? Are you sure?'

‘Dana said she was a real prude.'

‘It doesn't make sense.'

‘Well, Dana said she was really shy. She didn't even like talking about sex. Wouldn't even let her girlfriends see her boobs and stuff. Would never get changed in front of them.'

‘Really?' A thought has been turning in Evie's head. ‘Because … I didn't say anything at first 'cause I didn't think it was important, but you know that time Seb and I saw her in the cafe, I spewed.'

‘You spewed.'

‘Yeah. It just came up from nowhere.'

‘And you think it had something to do with Caz being pregnant?' Poppy asks. ‘That's kind of a long shot, Evie.'

‘How come I spewed, then? It came over me so quickly. Just out of nowhere …'

‘It was probably the sight of Dana,' Poppy chuckles. ‘Look, Evie, you were probably just freaked out at seeing her. Remember, she doesn't know anything about what you're going through.'

‘You're right,' answers Evie, yet the thought still sits in her head.

‘Anyway, it was lucky I got the info out of her when I did 'cause guess who dropped over?'

‘Who?'

‘Zac.'

‘You're kidding.'

‘Nope,' Poppy says. ‘He and Dana disappeared for ages. God knows what they were doing. Zac acts all different in front of Dana, you know.'

‘Different how?'

‘Different nice. He's all sweet and softly spoken around her.'

‘Weird.'

‘Yeah. Come to think of it, it was a pretty weird night.'

‘But you got the info, love.'

‘I got the info.' Poppy chuckles. ‘I should be on
CSI
.'

‘Well, it blows my theory on Caz being pregnant.'

‘Sorry. I guess we're back to step one?'

‘Back to me having to see Paris this weekend.'

Evie hangs up the phone in the kitchen then goes and says goodnight to her father. Robin's still not back from university.

‘See you in the morning, Dad.'

‘You okay?' he asks her. ‘Bit distracted?'

‘Yeah.'

‘I'd really like you to see Victoria.'

‘I will, Dad.'

‘When?'

‘Soon,' Evie grunts. ‘Anyway, haven't you and Mum been speaking to her on the phone almost every second night?'

‘It puts our minds at ease,' Nick replies. ‘Well, maybe not at ease, but it helps.'

‘Sorry,' Evie shakes her head. ‘I didn't mean it like that. You guys have been really good. Really good.'

‘So you'll see Victoria this weekend? For us?'

‘I'll try, Dad. I promise.'

In bed, Evie smooths out the sheet then lays her diary to Athena on her lap.

‘November 16th,' she writes.

There's a knock on her bedroom door. ‘Evie?' It's her dad.

‘Yeah?' She slips the diary under her knees. ‘I'm awake.'

He opens the door and holds the phone out to her. A little smile is curling on his lips. ‘It's Seb.'

She waits for him to close the door then takes a deep breath. ‘Hi.'

‘Sorry if it's late.'

‘Doesn't matter,' Evie tells him, ‘I was just … doing some work.'

‘Me too,' he answers. ‘At least I was trying but I kept going back to the messages and –'

‘Poppy rang. Guess what! Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.' Evie screws up her face. ‘You first.'

‘No, you first.'

There's a second of silence.

‘Caz couldn't have been pregnant. I'm kind of surprised. She was a …' The skin on Evie's cheeks starts to burn. ‘She was a virgin. Definitely. According to Dana.'

‘Well, she'd know.'

‘What were you going to say?'

‘I have been staring and staring at these words and I missed it every single time,' he tells her.

‘Missed what?'

‘All the words in all the messages start with the same
letter. The same nine letters.'

‘Oh my god!' Evie squeals. ‘You're a genius.'

‘I still have to figure out the word. But at least I have the letters now.' Slowly Seb recites the nine letters. ‘S, P, N, H, C, T, I and two As. Nine letters. That's how long the anagram is. It's the only thing that makes sense.'

‘That's brilliant, Seb.'

For the next forty minutes, Seb and Evie shuffle the letters around, trying to form a word. They come up with nothing.

‘I'll get it, Evie. I promise I will.'

‘I know you will, Seb.' There's a silence. Evie waits for Seb to fill it but he doesn't. ‘Well, we've got to be getting closer. And now we know Caz wasn't pregnant, thanks to Poppy. She'll make a good detective one day. She got the info just in time.'

‘Yeah?'

‘Zac turned up at Roxy's.'

Seb says nothing.

Evie keeps talking. ‘She said it ended up being a weird night. Zac and Dana disappeared. Poppy said it was … Seb? Are you there?'

‘Mmm.'

‘Oh, I thought –'

‘No, I'm here.'

Evie feels embarrassed. Maybe she's been talking too much. Maybe Seb's tired and wants to go to bed. She thinks about asking him what he meant about Zac earlier today but decides against it. She fakes a yawn. ‘I better go. Thanks, Seb. Thanks for everything.'

‘Hey, that's cool. I'm a bit, um –'

‘Huh?'

‘Oh, nothing.'

‘What? Tell me.'

‘Nothing. 'Night, Evie. See you tomorrow.'

Evie lies down, balancing the phone on her knees. What was he going to say, she wonders? Again, the butterflies flitter in her tummy.

 

Evie see-saws between consciousness and sleep. Her mind is ready to dive in to the sweet rest it craves but their whispering voices keep her senses teetering on the edge.

It sounds as if they're outside her room but they can't be. She hasn't heard them come up the stairs.

‘She was distracted tonight.'

‘Do you think she's okay, Nick?'

‘She seems to be handling it but that could be just for our benefit.'

‘I wish we could help.'

‘We can't. I know that for sure. We just have to be here for her.'

‘For when she finally falls apart?'

‘Maybe.'

Gradually her mind surrenders to the blackness of sleep.

Now the footsteps up the stairs.

Deliberate, heavy. He knows she's in there – waiting. The timber floor moans and squeals. Only three steps to go till he's at the door. She feels his hands, icy cold, as he peels the
sheet off her body. He lifts up her shirt and runs his thumb across the scratch marks on her chest. His face looms towards her as he says her name over and over in an accent that's thick and deep.

She opens her eyes but doesn't see his face. Instead it's Athena, bending over her, gently smoothing the hair from her ear. She leans in closer, her lips just open. ‘It's played simply.' Her voice tickles the hairs on Evie's neck. ‘Always the anagram contains his name.'

Evie sits up, holding the side of her head. The words still sing in her ear like a mosquito at night. ‘Always the anagram contains his name.' She repeats it again and again. ‘It's played simply. Always the anagram contains his name, contains his name.'

 

Exhausted, Evie stares out the window of the bus as Poppy and Seb discuss every possibility for a word containing all nine letters.

‘P I T A N S C H A.'

‘I got spinach.'

‘That's seven letters, Poppy.'

‘Well, what've you come up with, Einstein?'

They don't know about Evie's dream or what happened last night. It still sits uneasily on her skin. His voice, his thick accent as he calls her name, curls the hairs on her arms and turns the flesh on her neck to goose pimples. She's not ready to talk about it. Not yet. So she lets them continue with the guessing.

‘Just say the word's in Romanian?'

‘Well, we're stuffed then, aren't we?'

‘It's impossible, Seb.' Poppy passes the pen back. ‘We'll never get it. Evie, have you … God, you're pasty, girl. Maybe you've got that bug Alex had last week.'

‘Was she sick?' asks Seb.

‘Sick in the head.'

Seb turns to Evie. ‘You feel all right?'

Poppy's still talking. ‘Alex so wanted you there on Saturday night, Seb, to take care of Roxy.'

‘Huh?' he grunts, putting the pen in his top pocket.

‘I think Alex is scared Zac may run off with Roxy. Why are you looking at me like that?' Poppy frowns at Seb. ‘Is that a totally –'

‘Let's just say you couldn't be more off the mark.' Seb folds his arms. ‘If I were you, I'd tell Alex to ditch him before he really stuffs her around.'

‘Is that a joke?' Poppy scoffs. ‘Alex'd ditch Evie and me for suggesting it. I told you she'd trade in her best girlfriends for Zac. And that's a definite!'