No Longer Safe (9 page)

Alice seems to have a man in tow!

I heard a car engine chugging outside my bedroom
window, just after I got into bed and wondered who on earth it was. I peeped
out and a guy was coming to the door, looking dapper and sophisticated. Then
they both went out together. Very chummy. I didn’t see this one coming!

When Alice first came along at Uni, she reminded me of
the girls at boarding school. Immature, gullible and eager to please.

My days at St Cecilia’s were a great training ground
for my future. It was so easy to get girls like that to do what I wanted. They
were all lost causes desperate for someone to look up to, someone to protect
them. Being pretty and smart helped, of course, but I learnt how to turn on the
sweetness and light to get my own way.

I get better and better at it! Why not? You have to
use whatever you can to get on in this world – if my dad taught me anything, it
was that.

Jodie used to be so naff at hiding how she felt about
Alice at Leeds; she seems less nasty with her now. I remember I had to keep
telling her, back then, that she mustn’t make it obvious that we were using
her, but Jodie couldn’t bear her.

Alice wasn’t that bad. She was terribly appreciative
and sincere. Only problem with her being so clingy was that I could never be
sure she wasn’t lurking around the next corner waiting for me. Dicey or what?!
Didn’t want to give her any ammunition that could have caused havoc. A girl
needs to have secrets, after all. Just like now.

I must hold my nerve for the next step.

Stuart pulled up behind Karen’s car – the others
were back – and walked me right to the door.

‘Thank you,’ I said, turning to him.

‘You were quiet on the drive home,’ he said. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine. Just tired,’ I said, refusing to allow the memory
to suck me under. I had to remember that what happened in September was merely
a blip in my mission towards becoming a more self-assured and impressive woman.
I’d done a lot of work to shake off that old skin and I wouldn’t let an
incident like that drag me down. ‘I really enjoyed the drink,’ I added, giving
him my best smile.

‘Me, too – you’re very good company.’ He took in the whole
of my face like he was appraising a portrait. ‘I hope they’ve got something
exciting lined up for you, tomorrow.’

Karen, Mark and Jodie were all in the kitchen
drinking coffee when I went down the following morning. Karen was joking with
Mark; she sounded in high spirits, so I dared to ask the obvious question.

‘Is Melanie alright?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’m just going to change her, then I’ll
bring her down. Come up if you want.’

I nodded and followed her upstairs.

Once we were out of earshot of the others, I asked the
question that had been bugging me. ‘Everything in the linen cupboard belongs to
the cottage, does it?’ I’d gone for as innocent a tone as I could manage.

She thought for a moment. Karen tended to keep her room
dark, so I waited in the doorway as she snapped the poppers of Melanie’s fleecy
all-in-one over the fresh nappy and picked her up, wrapping her in a blanket.

‘I brought extra towels for Mel, but most of the stuff is
Mrs Ellington’s,’ she said.

‘You haven’t got anything else of yours in there? Like
luggage, or anything?’

‘No – why?’ she eyed me quizzically, straightening up.

A sound alerted me. Jodie was standing in the doorway. ‘I’m
not interrupting am I?’

Karen shook her head.

‘Only I wanted to try holding her again,’ said Jodie.

‘Wanna cuddle from Jodie?’ Karen asked Melanie in a
sing-song voice, rubbing her nose against the child’s. Melanie stuck her arm
out and Karen passed her over.

‘She looks just like you,’ said Jodie, stroking the girl’s
cheek. It was hard to see how she could make that assessment, given that the
pink hat had slipped down over Melanie’s eyes and the blanket was pulled up
almost to her nose.

‘Everyone always says that,’ Mark chipped in from the
landing. ‘It’s bullshit.’

‘Mark!’ snapped Jodie. ‘Don’t be so rude.’

‘Well, it’s true. All babies look the same.’ He came into
the room and shrugged at Karen. ‘Sorry – no offense.’

Melanie called out a word that sounded like ‘dada’ and we
all laughed.

‘Dada ain’t here, Babe,’ said Mark cuttingly, holding out
his finger so Melanie could squeeze it. Jodie told him to shut up. ‘By the way,
someone’s at the door, for Alice,’ he added. I eased past them and went
downstairs.

Stuart was standing in the hall. He was holding a bunch of
roses.

‘Happy birthday!’ he said, handing them over. ‘Just a little
something – I know it’s early, but I wanted to catch you before you went off
somewhere.’ Once more there was a moment between us; the air expanding then
shrinking back again.

The others had appeared at the top of the stairs.

‘Thank you,’ I exclaimed, burying my face in the petals. I
gave him a brief, self-conscious hug. ‘What a lovely thought. Come and join
us.’

I took Stuart’s wax jacket and hung it in the hall, pressing
his gloves into his pockets. One by one we all trooped into the kitchen. Karen
put Melanie in the highchair.

‘Who’s Stuart?’ grunted Mark rudely, as he opened the back
door, a roll-up between his fingers. He glanced over at us, then shut the door behind
him without waiting for a reply.

‘Indeed – and flowers already?’ said Jodie coyly, looking
Stuart up and down. ‘Alice must have made quite an impression on you.’ I took a
breath that swelled to fill the room.

Stuart looked as relaxed as ever. He winked at her, ‘You’re
right there.’

‘We met when I was out for my walk,’ I said pulling out a
chair for him. ‘He was the one who rescued me yesterday when my ankle got
stuck.’

Karen emerged from the scullery with a huge cake smothered
in glossy chocolate and flaming candles. The message on the icing read
Happy Birthday, Alice
. I sucked in a gasp.

‘I know it’s not even elevenses,’ she said, ‘but, as we’re
all here…’ She put the cake down in the centre of the table and led the others
in a rendition of the birthday song. Mark came back in, covered in specks of
snow, shivering, looking like he was afraid he might be missing something.

‘I’m Jodie and that’s Mark.’ Jodie nodded towards Mark as he
shuffled his weight from one foot to the other.

‘Happy birthday,’ said Jodie, reaching over and giving me an
air-kiss.

‘And there’s this,’ said Karen, handing over an envelope. I
pulled out a silver-edged card.

‘A one-day spa experience in Mayfair…wow, thank you,’ I
stuttered, folding my arms around her.

Karen introduced herself to Stuart. She lifted Melanie out
of her highchair and held out her hand so Stuart could take it. ‘This is my
daughter, Melanie.’

‘Alice told me,’ he said with sympathy. ‘I hope everything
is going well.’

I blew out the candles to a raucous cheer. ‘I hope no one
has had breakfast,’ I said as I cut the cake. ‘You didn’t make this yourself
did you, Karen?’ I handed round thick sumptuous slices.

She looked bashful. ‘I did, actually – the day before we
arrived. I’m sorry the icing’s a bit wonky – it got bashed about a bit in the
car.’

‘It’s perfect,’ I whispered, a tremble creeping into my
voice. No one had ever made a cake for me like this before. When I was little,
Mum used to buy a plain Victoria sponge and pin a silver plastic cake-topper
with
Happy Birthday
on to it, but the
ritual stopped suddenly when I was sixteen. No one had ever gone as far as
icing a cake with my name on it.

Not only that, it was delicious. How come she was amazing at
everything
? I watched Karen as she
dipped her little finger into the chocolate coating and let Melanie have a
taste. She was going to be a brilliant mother – so thoughtful and competent.

‘Did you hear the news?’ said Stuart eventually, licking his
lips.

‘We haven’t had the radio on today,’ I replied. ‘What’s
happened?’

‘Perhaps I shouldn’t say – I don’t want to spoil your
special day.’

‘You can’t do that,’ said Mark. ‘Half say it, then bottle
out.’

‘Don’t mind Mark,’ said Karen. ‘He’s a bit forward.’ Deep
down I admired his upfront approach – it was refreshing when the timing was
right.

 Stuart wiped his fingers on the napkin. ‘I probably
should tell you, actually. It’s a local thing – a little boy has been abducted.
From near here, just over the other side of the Loch.’

‘Really?’ said Karen. ‘When?’

‘Yesterday – early evening, apparently. The police are
making house-to-house enquiries. You need to expect them – I’m sure they’ll
cover all the holiday cottages.’

‘How awful…’ I said.

Karen had her hand over her mouth, looking like the world
had just come to an end.

‘How did you find out about the boy?’ I asked.

‘The village store,’ said Stuart. ‘The police were there
this morning.’

Stuart and I went for a short walk after the breakfast celebrations.
The news of the abduction had somewhat flattened the birthday mood, but he’d
been right to tell us.

‘Do you know what happened exactly?’

‘There’s a group of cottages over the other side of Loch
Tierney in a hamlet called Ockley.’ He pointed across the trees. ‘See the
chimney smoke just through there?’

I was forced to stand close to him to follow the line of his
arm and didn’t want to move away. I spotted a tiny waft of grey smoke blending
into the skyline. ‘There’s a farmer, Harry Minter, who lives at Cleve Cottage
with his family. He was out securing the barns at sundown and his wife was
preparing the evening meal. Someone must have got in through the back door and
snatched the child. No one saw a thing.’

‘His poor mother must be beside herself,’ I said.

‘The child actually lives next door; the kids have always
been in and out of each other’s houses and there’s never been a problem before.
The woman was just babysitting.’

‘Mrs Minter must feel terrible that someone else’s child
went missing on her watch.’

He sank his hands into his pockets.

‘We should go back, really,’ I said. ‘Be ready when the
police turn up.’

I tripped over a rock disguised by the snow and Stuart
offered me his arm. I refused to let go all the way back and he didn’t find a
reason to pull away. I felt torn. He seemed such a gentle and kind man and yet
his life was established at the opposite end of the country from mine. If
something
did
happen between us – and
that was a big if – we’d only have to say goodbye in a week or so’s time and
I’d be left with heartache.

A whirlwind romance had been the last thing on my mind when
I came here, yet the idea of being close to Stuart thrilled me. Was this merely
holiday chivalry or did our meeting mean more to him? I didn’t know if he was
genuinely attracted to me, but there was something about him that made me want
to make the most of every moment I spent with him.

Karen was playing with Melanie in the sitting room
when we got back. Melanie was dressed in cute pink dungarees, putting coloured
bricks into a plastic bucket and then tipping them out onto the floor. She
chuckled behind the clumsy oxygen mask as the bricks clustered on the carpet
and my heart quivered. Karen looked like she was in seventh heaven, but it
wasn’t long before the child was grizzling. Stuart and I crept out as Karen
tried to placate her.

The sounds of doors and cupboards slamming shut came from
Jodie and Mark’s room. Then Mark came down for a cigarette. He gave us a
passing grunt as he came through. After that, he buttered several slices of
white bread and smothered them with jam, before disappearing upstairs with
them. He hadn’t said a word.

The unsettled atmosphere he left behind him triggered a
memory that I’d completely forgotten from our first year at Uni. I’d gone to
the communal bathroom one evening before bed. The lock didn’t slide across on
my cubicle, but I’d used the loo anyway and was just about to leave when I
heard Karen’s voice.

‘Have you ever had the feeling when you meet someone and
just know you loath them right from the start?’ she said. She must have thought
the place was empty. I stayed still, not making a sound.

‘Yeah, it’s a psychological thing, I’ve read stuff about it
– it happens because you’re too similar to the other person.’ Karen was talking
to Natalie, one of her ‘inner circle’. ‘You kind of become instant rivals,
because you’re “twins”’, she added.

‘Is that so?’ Karen didn’t sound convinced. ‘I’ve never ever
felt like this with anyone before now,’ she went on. ‘There’s a guy in our
kitchen and as soon as he walks in, he makes my skin crawl. He doesn’t even
have to do anything or open his mouth – it’s just his entire being.’

‘Mark Leverton, you mean?’

‘Ssh – yes – how did you know?’

‘I’ve seen the way you glare at him.’

‘I know, I must stop being so obvious,’ she giggled. ‘Don’t
say anything, will you? He literally makes me feel sick. He’s the bolshy,
silent type – but weak as hell underneath.’

I’d forgotten all about this little revelation, mainly
because Karen always appeared to be civil to Mark. She must have felt
differently about him now, otherwise it was considerably two-faced to invite
him here.

But what if Karen still felt like that? Was she playing out
this big chummy act for a reason?

Karen called out from the sitting room and I put the memory
out of my mind. I popped my head around the door.

‘You couldn’t get her dummy from upstairs, could you? It’s
on the dressing table – I forgot to bring it down.’

‘Yes, of course.’

I left Stuart rinsing a couple of dishes and went into
Karen’s room without a second thought.

Except, I wasn’t the only one in there. Mark shot round as I
stepped inside. He put his finger to his lips straight away and made a hissing
noise.

‘What are you doing?’ I whispered. In the split second that
I’d seen him, he’d been leaning over Karen’s half-empty suitcase on the floor.
It was obvious to me that he was looking for something.

‘None of your business,’ he said. ‘Me and Karen have an
understanding. Don’t stick your nose in.’

I grabbed the dummy from the dressing table and backed out
without another word.

I was showing Stuart my camera when a police car
pulled up behind his Land Rover. We all gathered in the kitchen and two
officers, male and female, introduced themselves and told us more or less what
we already knew. They took down our names and asked if there were any others
staying with us. Stuart explained he was renting out the McGann Cottage up the
lane.

‘The child who has gone missing is Brody Holland,’ said Sergeant
Mallory. ‘He’s eight and a half months old and was being looked after by Mrs
Minter that afternoon. She definitely had all five children with her at five
o’clock.’ She tapped her pen against her notebook. ‘Mrs Minter has three young
kids of her own and was also looking after Brody and his sister, Danielle, who
is three and a half.’

‘Unreliable witnesses,’ said Mark unnecessarily, chewing the
end of a plastic baby spoon.

‘What happened?’ I asked.

‘Mrs Minter went into the utility room and when she came
back, the back door was open and Brody had gone.’ Sergeant Harris cleared his
throat. ‘We have to ask where you all were yesterday afternoon. Around five
o’clock…’

We all looked at each other. Jodie went first. ‘We were all
here – apart from Stuart.’

‘Karen came back from Glasgow with the baby, mid-afternoon,’
I said.

‘What time exactly?’ the sergeant asked.

‘About half-past three?’ I said.

Karen nodded. ‘Yeah, about then.’

‘I’ll second that,’ said Jodie.

‘We flopped in front of the fire for the rest of the
afternoon,’ I said.

‘Yeah – then I helped Alice chop veg,’ chipped in Jodie,
‘while Mark listened to music in the sitting room. Karen was in and out of the
kitchen, looking after Melanie.’

‘None of you went out before six?’ asked the sergeant.

‘No,’ we said in chorus.

‘Then we all had supper,’ I said, ‘at about seven-thirty.’

‘And Mark and I went to the pub about…what? Eight-thirty?’
said Jodie. She turned to Mark.

‘Yeah. We took Karen’s car. Back at around eleven.’ Both
officers were scribbling down the details.

‘I left here shortly after three and went back to my
cottage,’ said Stuart.

‘He came back at about 9.30pm and we went to the pub,’ I
said. ‘The Cart and Horses – got back about 11.30. Everyone was in by then.’

Sergeant Harris turned to Stuart. ‘Can anyone vouch for your
whereabouts after you left here at around three o’clock, Mr Wishart?’

His tongue darted around inside his mouth. ‘I don’t think
they can, no. I’m staying on my own at the cottage and I don’t know if anyone
saw me return.’

Mark stared at him, intrigued.

The female officer held up a coloured photograph of the
little boy. He had thick blond curls and was beaming, sitting in a highchair
wearing a Donald-Duck bib. ‘Does anyone recognise him?’ she said. ‘Did you see
him around here any time yesterday afternoon?’

We passed the picture round and shook our heads in turn.

‘Have any of you witnessed anything unusual in the last few
days? Anyone hanging around? Vehicles standing at the roadside?’

I was tempted to say I’d found ten thousand pounds in Mark’s
sports bag, but managed to hold my tongue. I couldn’t see how it was related.

Sergeant Harris pointed to the baby buggy in the hall. ‘Can
we see the child, please?’

‘Yes, of course,’ said Karen. As if on cue, the baby-monitor
let out a loud wail. ‘She’s not been well, I’m afraid,’ she said, her foot on
the first stair. ‘She’s a bit grouchy. You’d better come up. ’

‘And we’d like to take a look around the property, if no one
has any objections?’ announced Sergeant Harris as they followed Karen.

We all muttered our assent.

I overheard Sergeant Mallory asking Karen to undress the
child, so they could see her in full. The officers then tramped into each of
the rooms in turn – I could hear them opening cupboards and drawers. They
checked the cellar, then went outside to the byre along the track.

‘I wonder where the poor mite is?’ asked Jodie, her fingers
toying with her bottom lip.

‘In this terribly cold weather…’ I added, looking out of the
window. The last of the day’s sun had lit an invisible touchpaper and begun to
scorch the sky. It would be dark in an hour. The child had already been missing
for around twenty-four hours.

Five minutes later, they came back inside and I overheard
the officers’ parting words; a warning to Karen to be particularly vigilant
with the baby.

‘No worries there,’ muttered Mark. ‘She’s all over the kid.’

After they’d gone, I remembered my feeling yesterday morning
that someone had been lurking in the woods. Except, there wasn’t anything to go
on. A possible figure, but I hadn’t seen if it was male or female. Perhaps it
had been Stuart, before he found me, but it could easily have been a black bin
liner blowing about in the wind.

Stuart slipped on his jacket as I began putting together the
evening meal. I invited him to stay, but he said he’d already taken lamb chops
out of the freezer for that evening.

‘I’ll give you a ring tomorrow, if that’s okay. The
reception isn’t great here. Do you have a landline?’

‘No...’ I hadn’t seen a phone anywhere and assumed there
wasn’t one, but decided to double check. ‘I’ll ask Karen.’

I swung my head around the door and opened my mouth to
speak.

‘No, ’fraid not,’ came her reply; she’d been listening to
our conversation.

‘That’s a shame.’ He wiped his feet on the mat as if he was
coming in rather than going out. ‘See you soon, then.’ He left with his
shoulders hunched, looking troubled.

‘Someone doesn’t have an alibi,’ said Mark, watching me from
the kitchen.

‘Oh, shut up,’ I said, scuttling back to the warmth of the
oven.

He echoed my words in a high-pitched whiney voice and
disappeared into the scullery. Within seconds, I heard the cork pop from yet
another of bottle of wine.

During the meal, Karen was uncharacteristically withdrawn
and left half of her food. My birthday seemed long forgotten by everyone.

It was Mark and Jodie’s turn to wash up, so I followed Karen
when she drifted into the sitting room. She paced up and down in front of the
fire, rubbing her arms.

‘Are you okay?’ I asked, patting the sofa seat beside me.
‘Is it the news about this awful abduction?’

‘Makes you think, doesn’t it?’ she said, perching on the
edge of the seat. ‘Especially when I’ve got a little tot of my own.’

She shuddered and I put my arm around her; her body was stiff
and full of corners. ‘I’m sorry your birthday has fallen rather flat,’ she
said.

‘It’s not your fault. You made the cake – and gave me the
lovely voucher – it’s far more than I ever expected.’

The others joined us and Karen handed over a pile of activity
leaflets she’d collected. ‘Didn’t know if you wanted to have a go at something
sporty,’ she said in a vacant tone.

Mark flicked through a few and held one up about the
Gleneagles Pursuits Centre. ‘Ah, man – they do snowboarding and rock-climbing
and all sorts...’

Jodie snatched the leaflet and skimmed through it. ‘It says
here, you need to have experience.’

‘Yeah, well, I
have
,
remember? When we went to Innsbruck. You went shopping and I went to the
beginners’ camp. How about it, Babe? Come on – let’s pack.’

‘Pack? What – now?’ Jodie turned to Karen and me. ‘Sorry
about this,’ she said, getting up to follow him. ‘He’s been itching to get out
and “do something”, as he puts it, since the moment we got here.’

Mark came back with a backpack slung over his shoulder.
Jodie was right. Mark did seem keen to grab hold of any excuse to leave the
cottage. He was grinning and breathless, as if someone had pressed a
‘supercharge’ button inside him. It was followed by the announcement that the
two of them were going to a pub they’d heard about called The Bull.

‘We’ll spend the night in Fort William,’ he said, ‘and
tomorrow, we’ll head off to have a go at snowboarding and stuff. Looks like
it’s about thirty miles away, so might be back tomorrow…might not.’ He tipped his
hand to demonstrate the uncertainty. ‘I’ll go down the lane to get a signal and
call a cab.’

‘No, it’s okay,’ said Karen, getting to her feet. ‘I’ll take
you both – to the pub at least – if you tell me where it is.’