Missing Me (20 page)

‘Madison?’ He sounded really worried.

‘Hi,’ I said.

‘Listen,’ Jam went on. ‘I’ve been thinking about what you said, ever since you called. And I’m . . . I’m starting to get worried.’

‘Are you?’ My heart skipped a beat.

‘I can’t get hold of Lauren. It’s been hours since we last spoke. She said she was going swimming, but there’s no way she’d be this long. I’ve told the hotel
she’s pregnant and asked them to page her and she hasn’t answered and she still isn’t in her room and then, about ten minutes ago, I got this weird text from her saying
darling
can’t wait to see you later . . .
It just doesn’t feel right and—’

‘Was she wearing her blue pregnancy top this morning?’ I interrupted. ‘And that vintage cross you gave her?’

‘Er, yes, I think so,’ Jam said. ‘How did you know? Why—?’

‘I think I found a bit of the top,’ I said. ‘I think she’s here, at Appleton Cross.’

‘
Where?
’

I explained how I’d worked out the clue Lauren had left, then tracked down Baxter’s former house with Wolf’s help.

I glanced over at Wolf as I spoke. He was still bent over the electronic keypad, trying out code numbers.

‘Are you sure you can trust Wolf?’ Jam said anxiously. ‘Mo, I don’t like you being there. You could get hurt.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ I said. ‘I mean, we don’t know for sure Lauren’s here, but this scrap from her top makes it likely, doesn’t it?’

‘Oh, man.’ Jam’s voice cracked. ‘I can’t believe someone’s taken her.’

‘Hey,’ I said, trying to sound reassuring. ‘You know Lauren. If there’s anyone who can take care of herself . . .’

Jam blew out his breath. ‘I’m leaving work now,’ he said. ‘Tell me exactly where you are. I’ll pick up the car and meet you.’

I could almost feel the weight lift from my shoulders. Thank goodness for Jam. He had always been such a rock. And now he was coming here. He would take the lead and take care of me and Lauren.
Just like he always had. I gave him the address. Jam repeated it back to me.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’m on my way. Promise me you’ll be careful around this Wolf guy. And above everything, promise me you’ll wait – away from the house
– until I get there. I’ll bring bolt cutters from home – something to break the chain on the door of this hut you’ve found.’

I gazed over at Wolf, still hard at work on the keypad. There had to be millions of potential combinations. It was unthinkable that we’d crack the code and open the door. Jam was right to
suggest we left. If we couldn’t get into the hut, we should back off, wait for Jam nearby.

‘I promise,’ I said.

Jam rang off. I pocketed my phone and walked back to Wolf. The sun went behind a cloud. I checked the time. Nearly 5.30 pm. Jeez, it was hours since I had come downstairs at home intending to
make a sandwich. I’d been hungry then, but food had gone out of my head after I received Baxter’s call. I should be starving by now, but my stomach was tied in tight knots. I
didn’t feel hungry at all.

A metallic click made me look up. Wolf was staring at the padlock – now open – in his palm. He glanced at me, a grin spreading across his face.

‘You did it,’ I said.

‘I used Esme’s twin brothers’ birth date,’ Wolf said. ‘1212, 12th of December. It’s cute because there are two of them and the number 12 twice, though
it’s strange there was no 3 in the mix. That number
definitely
looked more worn than the others.’

‘Never mind.’ I grinned. ‘The point is you opened the door.’ I took the padlock from his hands and ran the chain through the metal. It made a soft clinking sound as it
released. Jam’s warning repeated in my head.

I gulped. Should I still keep my promise? It was one thing to do so when we hadn’t been able to get the door open. But now . . .

‘What do you want to do?’ Wolf said uncertainly.

I
had
to know if Lauren was here. We’d seen no sign of anyone in the grounds, and the fact the hut door was locked from the outside suggested that whoever was inside was a prisoner.
Jam would surely understand the urgency . . .

‘I have to find Lauren,’ I said. ‘I have to rescue her, if she’s here.’

‘Right.’ Wolf gritted his teeth. ‘Let’s go.’

I turned the handle and gave the iron door a push. With a menacing creak, it opened.

I put my finger to my lips, to signal we shouldn’t speak any further. After all, we didn’t know who else might be in here. I crept past the door. The interior of
the hut was bare concrete: dimly lit and cool. That was odd. Why would anyone line a garden shed with thick concrete walls? It was empty too. All I could see ahead of me was a flight of stone
stairs, leading underground.

‘Madison,’ Wolf whispered. ‘Wait a sec.’

I turned round. He was still at the door. He gestured at me to hold it open while he fetched a large stone from outside. He brought the stone back and placed it carefully between the door and
its frame. ‘We don’t want this shutting and automatically locking us in,’ he whispered.

I nodded to show my approval. Thank goodness he was here. I was so intent on finding Lauren I hadn’t even thought about wedging the door open.

Wolf closed the door so that it rested against the stone. Inside the hut it was dark apart from the slim shaft of light that led from the door towards the stairs. I tiptoed over. There were
seven or eight steep stone steps down. I couldn’t make out any details of the room below. No lights. No sounds. Just gloom and shadows.

It was cold. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. If Lauren was here, then she must be unconscious, or tied up or . . . My guts twisted into a sickening knot as it struck me she might be dead,
that this hut might simply be a place where Baxter had stored her body. He wanted revenge on me for taking away Natalia and her baby. What better payback than for him to permanently take away my
sister and
her
unborn child? Was Baxter capable of murder? Natalia had thought so . . . she’d been convinced he had killed her friend Lana.

Trying to push these thoughts out of my head, I crept down the stairs. The stone was cold under the thin soles of my shoes and the steps themselves very steep. One. Two. Three. I paused on the
bottom step. My eyes were adjusting to the gloom. I could just make out a row of shelves on the wall ahead, stocked with cardboard boxes. The room bent round to the right. What was there?

I took the final step, onto the concrete floor, and peered around the wall.

‘AAAGGGH!!’ A huge roar. A dark shadow loomed towards me.

I shrank away, arms outstretched, as Wolf leaped in front of me. He pushed the dark shadow away with a thud. It was solid. Not a shadow after all but a plank of wood.

The figure holding it stumbled back.

‘Madison?’ It was Lauren. A split second later, she flicked a wall switch and light flooded the room.

Lauren stood in front of me, a wooden slat from a packing crate still raised in her hand, her mouth open with shock.

‘Oh, Mo.’ Lauren’s lips trembled. She dropped the wooden slat and pulled me into a hug. I squeezed her fiercely, feeling the swell of her belly between us. Lauren drew back.
‘I thought you were the guard coming back. What the hell are you doing here?’ She turned to Wolf. ‘And who’s this?’

‘This is Wolf,’ I said. Relief filled me – along with a new urgency. We had to get Lauren out of here before anyone came back. ‘We followed the clue you left . . . the
cross and the apple . . . We came to get you out. Come on.’

‘They were clues for
Jam
,’ Lauren said, looking appalled. ‘Clues for him to call the
police
to help—’

‘But you talked to Jam earlier,’ I said. ‘He wasn’t
going
to the police.’

‘No, but he would have once he got back from work and realised I wasn’t answering my phone anymore.’ Lauren stopped, her face screwed up in pain. She bent over, gasping.

‘What is it?’ I said. ‘Are you OK?’ I looked around for somewhere to sit her down.

The underground concrete room we were in was about three metres by ten metres in size. The floor and walls were plain and bare and contained nothing except a mattress at one end, some shelves
stacked with boxes at the other. I started to lead Lauren over to the mattress, but Wolf put his hand on my arm to stop me.

‘We should go,’ Wolf said firmly. ‘Lauren, it’s nice to meet you and I’m sorry you’re in pain, but if you can walk at all, we should get out of
here.’

He was right. ‘Lauren?’ I said.

Lauren nodded, her face still drawn. ‘It’s just all the worry, I think,’ she said as I led her carefully to the stairs. ‘I’ve been having terrible shooting pains in
my lower back for the past two hours.’ She gave me a wry smile. ‘Don’t look so panicky, Mo. The baby isn’t due for weeks.’

‘Who kidnapped you this morning?’ I asked.

‘A guy with dark, cropped hair and a leather jacket. Late twenties,’ Lauren said.

I nodded. That sounded like the same guy Baxter had sent after us when we rescued Natalia from the Burnside Road flat.

‘He came to the flat, pretended to be delivering a package for Jam. Soon as I opened the door a crack, he barged in . . . forced me to call Jam and say I was going to some hotel then took
my mobile.’ Lauren paused, wincing as she stepped slowly onto the bottom stair. ‘What I don’t understand is
why
. The Leather Jacket guy wouldn’t explain it at
all.’

I looked away.
I
was the reason ‘why’. Baxter had arranged for Lauren to be kidnapped in order to punish
me
for supposedly betraying him. It might have been Wolf who
had actually talked, but I was responsible for Lauren being here.

‘I heard him talking to someone else on his phone,’ Lauren went on, not noticing my awkwardness. ‘That’s how I knew to leave the clue about Appleton Cross. I insisted I
had to go to the bathroom. I knew he’d check to see if I left any message with lipstick or whatever, but I’d been eating an apple anyway, so it was easy to leave it in the bath with my
cross. Then he put me in the back of a car and drove me here. But
why
?’

‘We can explain everything when we’re out.’ I squeezed Lauren’s arm as she climbed onto the next step. ‘Let’s just get out of here.’

I looked up. The hut above us was in total darkness. Where was the light from the door that Wolf had left wedged open? Anxiety clutched at my throat. Even allowing for the contrast with the
bright electric light in the basement, making everything up there seem darker, there should be
some
light. There had been a shaft of sunlight earlier . . .

Heart pounding, I said nothing as I helped Lauren up the last step. Then I raced towards the door. I could barely make it out in the gloom. I reached it . . . found the handle. But the door was
shut.

‘What’s happened?’ Wolf had run up past Lauren and was right beside me. ‘Why’s the door closed?’

‘The stone you left must have moved,’ I said. ‘Or . . . or else . . .’ A shiver threaded down my spine. ‘Or else someone has deliberately shut us in
here.’

I banged on the door. Wolf joined me. We pushed at the metal with all our strength, but the door didn’t budge.

‘What’s happening?’ Lauren asked. ‘Why can’t we get out?’

I turned to face her, desperation rising inside me. Lauren was standing at the top of the stairs, silhouetted against the bright light from downstairs. She was holding her belly – a
tender, protective gesture – anxiety etched on her face.

‘The door’s been closed on us,’ I said, trying to steady my voice. ‘When was the last time anyone else was here?’

‘I’ve only seen that one guy in the leather jacket,’ Lauren said. ‘He brought me here then left, but that was hours ago.’

‘There’s no way the rock I wedged the door with could have moved by itself,’ Wolf insisted.

‘Then who moved it?’ I said. ‘Why haven’t they come in to see who’s here?’

‘Maybe someone was following us?’ Wolf suggested. He turned and pushed at the door again. It was no good.

I shivered. It was terrifying to think we’d been watched.

‘So now we’re all trapped?’ Lauren’s voice had a flat finality.

‘I’ll call the police.’ Wolf took out his phone. ‘Now we know you’re definit—’ He stopped, staring down at his mobile. ‘There’s no
signal.’

I checked my phone. ‘Same here,’ I said. Panic whirled inside me. I tried to focus. ‘It’s OK, Jam knows we’re here. I described it exactly. He’s on his way
now, in the car.’

‘Jam’s coming? Oh, thank goodness.’ Lauren’s voice filled with relief. ‘Because there isn’t another way out – I’ve looked.’

The three of us went back down to the bunker basement. Wolf immediately explored the boxes on the shelves at the far end.

‘They’re mostly empty,’ Lauren said. ‘Though I couldn’t reach the ones on the top.’

Wolf was already clambering up the shelves. Lauren winced with pain, bending over, her hand on her side.

‘Are you OK?’ I said.

‘Apart from being thirty-seven and a half weeks pregnant and trapped in a basement?’ Lauren raised her eyebrows.

I stared at her anxiously. ‘Did the man who brought you leave you any food or drink?’

‘Yes.’ Lauren led me over to the far corner of the underground room. A small cupboard I hadn’t noticed before was bolted against the wall. Lauren opened it up, revealing a row
of small water bottles and a tray containing cellophane-wrapped sandwiches. I peered suspiciously at the sandwiches. Despite the fear still ploughing up my guts, I was starting to feel hungry. I
hadn’t eaten anything since a biscuit when I’d got up this morning.

‘I think they’re OK,’ Lauren said with a sigh. ‘I mean, I don’t think they’re poisoned or anything. If Leather Jacket wanted to kill me, I’d be dead
already.’

She spoke in a matter-of-fact way, but I could hear the fear behind the bravado.

I glanced over at Wolf. He was back on the ground, busy examining the contents of the boxes from the top shelves. As I watched, he headed to a small door in the corner. I hadn’t noticed it
before: it was partly hidden by the shelves.