Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery (24 page)

Raf needed a whole load more than money could buy. He needed a whole load more than sex in a hotel room.

I wanted to ask Raf about what Olivia had said. Why had she thought he'd died? But he seemed so vulnerable, so easy to hurt. It seemed a crass and silly thing to say. I couldn't do it.

‘Raf—' I said. But then my phone rang. And I didn't really want to finish my sentence so I answered it.

‘Lia,' said my dad, ‘you need to come home. It's Natasha. She's disappeared.'

Chapter 25

Money affects every situation, but you never know exactly how.

‘Has she run away before?' asked the policeman, sitting in our lounge.

‘What makes you think she's run away now?' said my mum. ‘Oh my God. I can't believe this. She's been abducted. My Natasha's been stolen. Oh God, she's been murdered. Why isn't she on the news? What are you playing at?'

‘Calm down, we don't know that for sure, Sarah,' said my dad. They were sitting side by side on the sofa, clutching each other's hands. My mum had mascara smudged all over her face. My dad's face looked green and old.

‘Natasha would never run away,' said Mum. ‘She's quiet, Natasha. She's nothing like Lia. She's timid. She's not a risk-taker. She's very considerate as well.
She'd worry about our feelings.'

‘Any boyfriends?' asked the policeman.

‘Certainly not,' said Dad. ‘She's very young for fourteen.'

I was texting and texting, phoning and phoning. Where was Natasha? Where was she?

Come on, come on, answer.

I pushed the buttons as hard as I could, as if by applying as much pressure as possible I could force Natasha to pick up.

‘She's been seeing a lot of her friends, staying overnight,' said my mum. ‘It's been chaotic here since Lia's win. It was just . . . this evening I suddenly realised I didn't know where she was. She hadn't rung me. And I called round the friends I knew – and a few others too – and no one knew where she was. And that's not like Natasha. You must admit, Lia, that's not like Natasha.'

‘No one's seen her since her singing lesson this morning,' said Dad. ‘I was expecting her to pop into the shop, but she didn't.'

‘Oh Ben,' wailed my mum, dissolving into tears again. ‘Where is she? Why didn't we realise? We're terrible parents. It's all my fault.'

I'd been back for an hour – had a quick shower,
stuffed my clothes in a bag, left a note for Olivia at reception, and jumped in a cab with Raf. I'd dropped him off in the Broadway. We hadn't said much in the cab – I was too busy talking to mum on my mobile and ringing round any of Natasha's friends whose numbers I had, which wasn't that many because she never had many friends to start with, and I didn't clutter up my phone with their numbers.

Raf kissed me before he got out of the cab. ‘If there's anything I can do, Lia, please just call,' he said. ‘Really. Anything.'

‘I will, thanks,' I said, and hunched over my phone again. I saw him walking off down the Broadway, saw the look on his face – so happy. Because of me.

I couldn't worry about him. I had enough to think about.

Natasha had come home from school as normal. Mum and Dad were going out to the cinema, had asked her if she wanted to come. She didn't. She'd gone out in the morning to her singing lesson.

‘She was very quiet,' said Mum, ‘but then, Nat's always quite quiet.'

And that was all they'd heard from her. She wasn't answering her phone. They'd called me and then the police.

‘She's probably just met up with some friends and gone out with them and forgotten to charge her phone,' I said, although Natasha treated her phone as though it were a newborn baby and had never left it uncharged or out of credit. My attempts to reassure just backfired, though.

Mum wailed, ‘Oh no . . . she couldn't even call for help. . .'

The policeman was looking through the list Mum had made of Natasha's friends. He asked me to take a look.

‘You're at the same school, aren't you?' he said. ‘Have you seen her hanging around with anyone in particular? Talking to any boys?'

I had a look. Mum's list was over-optimistically long. Everyone from Natasha's primary school class, even though she'd never really gelled with any of them. All the girls from her current class, ditto. Some of the boys.

I underlined the names of the girls who'd come shopping with us. Sophie, Molly and Keira.

‘These are the ones she's been hanging around with,' I said. ‘I don't like them much myself. We went shopping and I bought them stuff and they hardly said thank you.'

My mum spluttered through her tears. I passed her a tissue.

‘God, Lia, I never thought I'd hear you say something like that,' she said.

‘Huh . . . I'm being helpful, all right?' I said. ‘I don't like these girls. They're users.'

‘I've seen Natasha talking to a boy,' said my dad, suddenly. ‘Young Raf. Came in for a job interview the other day. Chatting away to Natasha, he was, one day in the shop. Getting on like a house on fire.'

Raf? Natasha?
Chatting?
What the
hell?

‘Well, then,' said the policeman. ‘Maybe she's with him. Do you have an address or phone number?'

I bit my lip. Of course, I could have told them where he'd spent the last few hours. But I didn't want to explain how I knew that. Anything to do with Raf needed to be kept as classified information until I'd had a chance to get my head around everything that had happened that night, which could take years.

Plus I wasn't as certain as Mum that Natasha had actually been kidnapped. Quite possibly, my baby sister was trying to grab a bit of the attention which had all been going my way. I sensed, though, that this was not an opinion that would go down well.

‘He works at the internet café in the evenings,' said
my dad. ‘Maybe he's there now. It's open late, isn't it? Maybe he'll know something.'

‘It's 3.30 am,' said my mum. ‘He's starting work for you next week every day at 5 am. What kind of a life does this poor boy have? Nothing but work, work, work. He won't be there now.'

I was really impressed at Mum's caring attitude towards Raf. She'd possibly be delighted if she knew how I was distracting him from his miserable life of constant low-paid toil. I was virtually a social worker.

‘It's Saturday night,' said my dad. ‘Maybe he does the Saturday night shift. He told me they get a lot of business then. I'm sure he'll be there. He's not working for me until Monday morning. And anyway, I've got his address. He wrote it down for me when I offered him the job. Here it is, five Melbourne Avenue.'

‘What's a boy from Melbourne Avenue doing getting a job at a bakery?' said the policeman. ‘It's millionaires' row, down there.'

‘What did the singing teacher say?' I asked, to change the subject.

‘Natasha was just the same as ever. Sang like an angel,' said Mum. ‘She told her she should try for the
Britain's Got Talent
auditions. Natasha must've been over the moon.'

I opened my mouth to tell them about Marcus, and then closed it again. This wasn't the time.

The policeman put down his radio. ‘We'll send someone over to talk to the boy in the café,' he said. ‘Just see if he's there. He might know something. She might even be there. Don't you worry. Fourteen is a funny age. Sometimes the parents don't realise their kids are growing up.'

‘You know Raf, don't you, Lia?' said Dad. ‘What do you think? Has Natasha ever mentioned him?'

‘Absolutely not,' I said.

‘What else can you think of?' asked the policeman. ‘Anyone with grudges against Natasha? Or the family? I know your daughter won the lottery recently, any problems arising?'

‘Someone's kidnapped her, they're holding her to ransom,' said my mum, tears pouring down her face. ‘Lia, we'll have to pay. Lia, you don't mind, do you? Poor Natasha . . . what if they hurt her? What if they mutilate her?'

I rushed to hug her. I couldn't bear to see her so upset.

‘I'll pay anything,' I said. ‘We'll get her back. Truly, Mum, it'll be all right. I know it will.'

‘Donna's the only one with a grudge against us,'
said my dad slowly. ‘And even Donna. I mean, the woman's demented, but she'd never hurt a child.'

‘Who's Donna?' said the policeman.

Dad began to explain. And then the phone rang – the landline – making us all jump.

‘Natasha!' said mum, but I grabbed it first.

‘Hello?' I said, ‘Nat?'

At first all I could hear was a scratchy noise, as though the telephone had been dropped. And then a muffled distant voice.

‘If you want to see your sister again, it'll cost you. Get ready to pay up, bitch.'

Chapter 26

Some people will hate you, just because you have more than they do. Try not to take it personally.

It all got a lot more serious after that. A detective inspector turned up and questioned me about the phone call. He told us that they'd try and trace where it'd come from.

The policemen went and searched our bedroom, and pulled out Natasha's pathetic pink diary. They asked Mum and me to read it – see if anything jumped out at us. Dad was in the front room, talking to the detective inspector. Mum and I sat at the kitchen table, crying over pages and pages of Natasha's rounded, careful handwriting.

Lia's won £8 MILLION on the LOTTERY!!!!!!!!!!!! It's the best thing that ever happened to our family!!!!!!!!

Lia says I can have singing lessons! OMG! This is the happiest day of my life!!!!!!!!! My sister is amazing!!!!!

Sleepover at Sophie's!!!!! So excited!!!!!

Mum and dad look so much happier. I think the shop will be safe now. I'm going to help dad out a bit more. Got to do my bit!!!!!

Marie says I sang really well today!!! Maybe she'll think I'm good enough for the Britain's Got Talent auditions! I've looked them up, they start next month.