Secrets (21 page)

‘She's been in the attic since
Saturday
?' said Nan.

‘It's OK. She's been eating well and I've given her lots of things to do and I've kept her company as much as possible. I spent the whole night with her to stop her being lonely.'

‘You slept in our attic?' said Mum. ‘You
can't
have. I looked in on you when I went to bed – didn't I? Didn't
Dad?
Or Wanda? What is Wanda
playing
at? She's supposed to look after you!'

We gave Wanda a terrible fright when we came barging in through the front door, Mum and Nan and me. She stared at the three of us.

‘Oh my lord, what's happened? Is it Richard? Is he sick?' She started shaking.

Mum was so caught up with the whole Treasure thing she didn't seem to find Wanda's concern for Dad at all odd.

‘It's India who's sick. Sick in the head. Did you know about this new friend of hers?'

‘Oh yes. I thought it was great that she's made a nice friend,' said Wanda. ‘Tiffany?'

‘Treasure! And you let her play on the
Latimer
Estate?'

‘Look, save your argy-bargy for later. Where's
Treasure
?' said Nan.

She started running up the stairs. I ran after her, Mum and Wanda following. Nan got to the attic steps long before us on her strong dancer's legs. She bounded up the ladder and pushed at the trapdoor.

‘Treasure? Treasure, are you up there?'

I heard Treasure gasp. ‘Nan! Oh Nan!'

When I got up the steps myself Nan was kneeling on the floor with her arms tight round Treasure. Treasure was hugging Nan hard, her face screwed up, sobbing.

‘You don't ever cry, Treasure,' I whispered.

She didn't hear me. It was as if Treasure and Nan were in their own little glass dome, sealed off from the
rest
of us, gold glitter and silver stars whirling all around them.

I had tears in my own eyes.

Mum hauled herself up into the attic too, walking around in a daze, as if she'd arrived on a different planet. She looked at the drawings on the wall, Treasure's bed and tray and bin. She looked at Treasure herself. Then her eyes suddenly focused.

‘You're wearing Moya Upton!'

Wanda came halfway through the trapdoor, standing on the steps so that her head poked out into the attic, comically swivelling round and round.

‘Come along, Treasure. Time to go home,' said Nan.

‘But she can't go home with you!' I said. ‘Then she'll have to go back to her mum's and Terry will be there. That's why I hid her. She's got to stay in hiding, don't you
understand
?'

‘India! Don't you dare use that tone to Mrs Mitchell,' said Mum.

Nan didn't turn a hair at my tone.

‘She can't stay here for ever, pet. You meant it all for the best, I know, but you weren't thinking straight. You got carried away. You can't keep someone hidden indefinitely.'

‘Anne Frank stayed hidden.'

‘You and that wretched Anne Frank,' said Mum. ‘For God's sake, India, grow up.'

‘I don't want to grow up,' I cried. ‘What's so great about grown ups? Look at you! You all cheat and lie and pretend.'

‘That's enough, India,' said Mum. ‘There's no need to become hysterical. I can scarcely believe all this. You
can't
have kept Treasure up here for days. We would have noticed.'

‘You don't notice anything. You just care about your stupid Moya Upton designs. You don't care one little bit about me. You don't care about Dad either. You haven't got a clue about what's been going on!' I shouted, pacing up and down.

‘Will you stop this embarrassing display, India,' said Mum. ‘And watch those floorboards. I don't think they'll stand up to you galumphing around like an elephant.'

‘That's right! You always have to belittle me, don't you? You do it to everyone – even Dad. No wonder he wants Wanda more than you! She's having his baby – that's something else you haven't noticed.'

Wanda gasped. Mum looked at her. Her lips tightened. But she stayed totally in control.

‘You're being ridiculous now, India. Go downstairs. We'll
all
go downstairs and calm down and have a cup of tea. Wanda, can you organize a pot, please, and some juice for the girls.'

Wanda bobbed back down the ladder. Mum followed her, head held high.

‘Wow! You really told her!' Treasure whispered, wiping her eyes.

‘It's because we're all so het up. Your mum will understand,' said Nan, giving me a pat.

‘She won't,' I said, starting to cry. I wished I hadn't
said
it. I didn't know what poor Wanda would do now. Or Dad.

‘Hey,
I'm
the cry-baby,' Treasure said. ‘Don't cry, India, you'll set me off again.'

‘I can't bear it that it's all over. I'll never see you again!'

Treasure left Nan and came and put her arms round me, looking straight into my eyes.

‘Of course we'll see each other. We're best friends for ever and ever.'

I hugged her. ‘But you'll still have to go back to your Mum and Terry.'

‘No, she won't,' said Nan determinedly. ‘You wait and see. Trust me, India.'

That was just it. I knew you couldn't trust grown ups, not even kind, truthful ones like Nan.

We went downstairs to the living room and sat down to a bizarre little tea party spread out on the red lacquer table. Mum sat in her cream armchair, asking questions about milk and sugar, rearranging the assorted biscuits on the big black glass plate into a geometric pattern. Wanda hovered in the doorway looking terrified, her hands clasped protectively over her stomach.

Nan and Treasure sat on the sofa together. Nan kept reaching out and touching Treasure as if she was making sure she was real. Treasure sat very upright, her scar showing through her fringe, her eyes blinking hard behind her glasses. She bit into a biscuit and sprayed crumbs down her T-shirt. She caught Mum's eye.

‘I'm sorry,' said Treasure, brushing at the crumbs. ‘It's your T-shirt.'

‘We'll wash all the clothes and send them straight back,' said Nan.

‘No, no, please! You keep them, Treasure. They look wonderful on you,' said Mum. She kept staring at Treasure, her head on one side. Then she sighed. ‘I suppose I'd better call the police now.'

Nan leant forward. ‘I don't think you need to get involved. They'll ask all sorts of awkward questions. They might well think you or your husband had something to do with it. Like you said, you could be done for harbouring.'

‘That's ludicrous,' said Mum.

‘Is it?' said Nan. ‘Most people would find it hard to believe you could have a strange child living in your house for four days and not have a clue she was there.'

Mum flinched.

‘It would be better for your India if she could be kept right out of it too,' said Nan.

‘No, it wouldn't! I want to talk to the police. I don't mind a bit if
I'm
done for harbouring.'

I saw it all: my impassioned speech straight to camera as I was led away by the police; my interviews with social workers and psychiatrists; my stay in a secure young offenders unit; my secret smuggled letters to Treasure. Then there'd be our joyful reunion, cameras flashing as we embraced outside the unit; my story serialized in the newspapers; my
Secret Attic
book piled high in Waterstone's and Smith's. I'd be a
best-selling
author before I'd even reached adolescence!

‘Be quiet, India. You've said more than enough today,' said Mum. She looked at Nan. ‘I would certainly appreciate it enormously if India
could
be kept out of it – but obviously the police will question Treasure.'

‘I'll just say I hid by myself,' said Treasure. She looked straight at my Mum. ‘I won't say a word about India if you promise something, Mrs Upton.'

Mum looked amused. ‘Promise what? That you can have some more Moya Upton clothes?'

Treasure looked at Mum pityingly. ‘No! I want you to promise that India and I can still see each other and stay friends.'

‘Of course you can,' said Mum. But how can I trust her?

Treasure and Nan said goodbye and went off to the Latimer Estate. Mum offered to drive them but Nan said they needed a little walk to talk things over.

Mum and Wanda and I were left alone together.

‘I don't know what I'm going to do with you, India,' Mum said weakly. ‘I don't think I can talk about it now. I need time to think. Wanda, will you drive India back to school, please?'

Wanda leapt to her feet, eager to postpone an inevitable confrontation.

‘Come along, India,' she said. Then she glanced out of the living-room window and stood transfixed. She
pointed
mutely with one long fingernail. A police car had drawn up outside.

‘Oh no,' said Mum. ‘How did they find out?'

But they weren't here because of Treasure. Dad got out of the back of the police car. One of the police officers was holding his arm. Wanda gasped. Mum sighed heavily.

‘Dear God, what is it now?'

Dad led the police officers into the house. He was very red in the face, not looking at anyone, staring down at the black carpet.

‘What's happened, Dad?' I whispered.

Mum stood up, folding her arms. She looked at the police.

‘Have you
arrested
my husband?'

‘No, madam, not at this present moment in time. Mr Upton is simply helping us with our enquiries. Now, sir, if we could go to your study perhaps you can show us where all the relevant papers are?'

The accountants had discovered a large amount of money had gone missing from Major Products. It looked as if Dad was going to be charged with embezzlement.

Nineteen

Treasure

NAN AND I
walked back to Latimer together, hand in hand. No-one paid us any attention as we walked down Parkfield's leafy avenues. I'd had my photo all over the newspapers and on the telly but it simply didn't register. Cars whizzed past us on the main road. A police car even stopped for us at the zebra crossing. Nan and I nodded and smiled. No-one gave us a second look.

Maybe it was the Moya Upton clothes. They made me look so different.

‘Are Mum and Terry still at your place, Nan?' I asked.

‘They're gone. This paper's done a deal – a fifty-thousand-pound exclusive – so they're hidden away
in
some hotel, with Kyle and Bethany and Gary. God, that baby grizzles so. He might be my grandchild but I can't take to him at all.'

‘He's my brother but I don't like him either,' I said.

I held on tight to Nan's hand as if I was a little kid.

‘He takes after his dad,' she said. She gave my hand a squeeze. ‘You're not going back to them, Treasure. I don't give a damn what anyone says. I don't care about all these silly social workers who keep telling me grandparents rarely get custody. Blow them – and blow your mum's solicitors too. If they see my Pete as the problem then he'll simply have to live somewhere else when he comes out the nick.'

I stood stock still, staring up at Nan. Her blue eyes blazed at me. Her ponytail band had fallen out and her blond hair was blowing in the wind, lifting up around her head like a wild halo.

‘But you love Pete, Nan,' I whispered.

‘I know I do. But I love you too, Treasure. As much as any of my own kids – maybe even more, though don't you dare tell anyone that. It's been agony, wondering if you were all right. I should have told them at the hospital how you got that cut. I should have gone straight down the Social then. I shouldn't have packed you off on Saturday, though I just wanted to keep you out of any rows with Terry. I've been such a fool but I'm going to fight for you now, darling. I let that pig dribble on about his little Treasure, hamming it up for the cameras. I knew the time to have
my
say was when you came back safe and sound. I'll tell all
those
journalists and telly people what he's really like.'

I tugged on Nan's hand.

‘
I'll
tell them, Nan.'

Everything went crazy the moment we set foot on the Latimer Estate. People knew me there. They started shouting when they spotted us. Little kids came running. Even old ladies hobbled up and circled us, acting awestruck, like I'd come back from the dead. We had a huge troop following us when we got to Elm block.

There was a television van parked beside the skateboard ramp, and several reporters and photographers were drinking tea together. The police were still there too, in overalls and rubber gloves, sifting through every stinking sack of rubbish in the dustbin recess.

Nan and I stood there, still hand in hand. We watched them all. One of the reporters was eyeing up Nan – and then he looked at me. His head jerked. He glanced at the busy police and then came sprinting towards us.