Times of Trouble (6 page)

It was becoming clear
I was wrong about Liam not working on the case. And I had to
concede his perseverance did pay off in the end. One of the
cameramen was very chatty, and suggested that if Sophie was
interested in acting, she might have hung out with a lot of other
aspiring actors in a café in Soho called Backstage. When Liam
showed her photo there, most people didn’t remember anyone from
that long ago. But finally the girl behind the counter suggested he
speak to the previous owner, an old Greek guy, who sold the café
four years ago, but worked there during 2002.

Apparently he was
quite difficult to track down. But when Liam eventually found him,
he recognised the photo of Sophie at once. Not because she came
into the café a lot, but because she worked for him for six months.
She started off hanging out there, trying to find out when
auditions were on, and to meet other actors. When a job at the café
came up, she took it. The old Greek said she didn’t turn up to work
one day, and he never saw her again. But he heard rumours about
what she was up to. Apparently this information was enough to help
Liam narrow down where Sophie might be. He told mum she was
probably living somewhere in Lambeth – which was where the internet
café was.

I had to admit Liam
had done quite well to get that far, but wasn't it was mostly just
luck? Ask enough people, and eventually someone would be of some
use, even after all this time. And this particular email puzzled
me. It started with a complete gush of enthusiasm, but by the end,
the details were so thin, it didn’t even explain what Liam found
out. Just that he would keep looking in this area, back where he
started. Why fill mum in on every single piece of information he
used to get to the café owner, and then not explain what the
information was that he got out of him?

I quickly read on to
the next email, to find out what this man had told Liam. But
surprisingly, although he said the man was correct, he didn’t say
anything else. What were these ‘rumours’ and where did they lead
him? I expected to see an email from mum asking for more
information, but strangely there wasn’t one. She just wrote back
that she was glad he was getting somewhere, and to keep up the good
work. And even more strangely, there wasn’t another email from Liam
for a whole week, even after mum sent a couple checking he was
still on track. I needed to keep reminding myself that mum still
trusted Liam, and I hadn’t finished reading everything yet. But I
found his next email even more mysterious than the one
before.

Liam told mum that,
by knocking on doors, he had managed to find someone else who’d
employed Sophie. This woman didn’t trust Liam to start with,
wanting him to explain why he was looking for Sophie. He said it
was as if she knew Sophie’s whereabouts was valuable information.
She said she could help him, but only if he paid for the
information. And not at a cheap price. £5,000! I was stunned.
That’s about $10,000! And to make things worse, Liam chose this
moment to ask for payment for himself, which amounted to over
$15,000 including expenses. This was so much further out of control
than I ever thought it could be. Mum obviously didn’t hesitate to
do what Liam asked, taking out the extra $30,000 on the mortgage.
What a complete sham! How did mum know this woman even existed? How
did she know Liam wasn’t keeping the money for himself?

Since Liam still
hadn’t found Sophie, I already knew if this woman did exist,
whatever she told Liam hadn’t led him to her. When Liam worked this
out for himself, his emails became even more uninformative. There
were two possibilities that could account for this, neither of
which filled me with any hope for Sophie. The first was that he
hadn’t actually found out anything, hadn’t even been trying, and
had taken the $10,000 extra for himself, so he could have a
relaxing holiday in the UK. The second was that he was working hard
to do whatever it took to find Sophie, but was incompetent, and
didn’t know nearly as much as he was suggesting.

There were only a
handful of emails still to read, which worried me even more, as
these were spread out over the last two months. What the hell was
he doing all this time that made it impossible for him to keep mum
updated? He hadn’t even confirmed what sort of trouble Sophie might
be in, or suggested any reason why she sent the email.

Chapter 6

Much to my dismay,
the remaining emails were just as uninformative. And not long after
he handed over a huge chunk of cash to some unknown woman, he
wanted more! He obviously realised he wasn’t revealing enough, so
he made up some dodgy excuse like he couldn’t say too much in case
it put mum in danger. What sort of danger could he put mum in? He
said he used the information from his paid informant to locate
another person, who also wanted money for information. This person
claimed to know exactly where Sophie was living, having helped her
get to Sydney. But Liam hadn’t found Sophie in Sydney yet, so how
much use was this information? And the worst part; he gave this
person £15,000!

Unbelievable. I was
now more sure than ever that Liam was conning mum. Was he just
keeping all this money for himself? Whenever I felt frustrated, I
usually bashed something out on Picasso, playing as fast and as
furiously as I could. But it was too late at night to do that. And
anyway, I would have to get used to living without that
escape.

Like clockwork, mum
did as Liam asked and sent the extra money, which was then handed
over to this ‘mystery person’. I cross checked with the mortgage
payments, and could see mum had increased the mortgage by $30,000
at this time. Once mum had written back with news of the money
transfer, Liam sent an email saying he was flying back to
Australia, straight to Sydney. If Sophie was where he had been told
she was, why hadn’t he be able to give mum a phone number? Or even
a postal address, so she could write a letter? Mum hadn’t asked for
either of these things when she replied, just saying she was
pleased Liam was now so close. I guess she thought she had been
patient for so long, it was worth waiting a couple more days to
hear that Sophie was safe. But I felt no surprise whatsoever when I
read the final email Liam had sent, exactly two weeks ago,
explaining that Sophie wasn’t at the address he’d been given. I
felt so out of my depth. I just couldn’t understand what Liam was
thinking. How could he take all of mum's money, and still pretend
he was working on the case?

Before I went to bed,
I checked on the result of Picasso’s auction. I had raised $6,200.
It seemed like nothing compared to the $80,000 already spent. No
doubt a bill would come from Liam soon, asking for thousands more
dollars for his fee. I felt so sorry for mum; did she suspect he
was cheating her? I can't imagine she would have sent all that
money if she had? She never even asked for proof these people who
demanded money existed, or proof they knew Sophie. Mum’s worry was
clouding her judgement, but it wasn’t clouding mine. After tossing
and turning for hours, fantasising about taking revenge on Liam, I
finally fell asleep.

I could hear mum in
the kitchen when I woke up, busying herself making breakfast. My
distraction device was Picasso; hers was household
chores.

‘
Mum, I finished
reading all the emails last night. I’m really worried about Liam, I
think he might...’

Mum spun around to
face me, with a look of disappointment and anger that I wasn’t
expecting. I also wasn’t expecting a raised voice.

‘
You always look for
the worst in people. Can’t you see how hard he’s been
working?’

It wasn’t like mum to
attack me like this, and it left me feeling even more worried about
her state of mind. The last thing I wanted was an argument, so I
ignored her comment and forged ahead, keeping my voice
even.

‘
I know you must be
worried about Sophie, but he’s taken so much money, and still
hasn’t found her.’

‘
That doesn’t mean he
won’t.’

‘
Haven’t you even
considered he might be a con man?’

‘
A con man? Whatever
gave you that idea?’

Mum slumped down on
the kitchen chair, exhausted by this small amount of
confrontation.

‘
It’s a lot of money
mum, and nothing in the emails proves he has done any of the things
he says he has.’

‘
He wouldn’t lie that
Sophie is alive. He just couldn’t.’

I avoided arguing
with mum over this one. I didn’t want to admit to myself, or her,
that Sophie was scared for a reason, and whatever it was, it could
have caught up with her since she sent the email.

‘
I was thinking I
might email Liam, and see what he’s up to. Then at least I might
get a better idea about what he has found.’

‘
Ok, but I don’t want
you accusing him of anything. He’s been looking for your sister for
months. He’s given up his whole life. If you can’t appreciate that,
please don’t make him feel that I can’t either.’

Mum was right in a
way. There was no point in approaching Liam with anger. My best
strategy was to be charming and polite, grateful even. Once I
worked out exactly who I was dealing with, I could start to uncover
who the real Liam Kingsley was.

I logged onto mum's
email, and I sent a short note to Liam explaining who I was, that I
was now aware of the situation, and I would like to know what was
going on. I sent him my mobile phone number, and asked him to ring
me. Much to my surprise, my phone rang within minutes of me sending
the email.

‘
Hello, Ellen
speaking.’ Charming and polite, easy peasy.

‘
Hi Ellen, this is
Liam Kingsley.’

With even the few
words he had spoken, it was obvious he was trying to be charming
and polite too. Or maybe he wasn’t trying, maybe this was what he
really was.

‘
As I said in my
email, I have recently become involved in what is going on with you
and my mum, I mean, that you have been looking for Sophie.’ I
started pacing the room, trying to keep a confident air so I
sounded completely in control.

‘
Yes, the case is
ongoing. It has been much more difficult than I thought it would
be.’

I felt like saying he
probably had no idea how difficult it was going to be, since by his
own admission he was ‘keen but green’. But I was still trying to
keep my hostility hidden, so I bit my tongue.

‘
So, can you tell me
any more about what has been going on? I’ve seen all the emails you
sent.’

There was silence on
the other end of the line, long enough to raise my suspicion that
his mind was searching for something to make himself sound like he
had been genuinely looking for my sister, when he had actually been
sitting on the beach in Sydney.

‘
It would be fair to
say there have been a lot of things going on that I have, for
particular reasons, been leaving out of the email updates to your
mother.’

That was obvious. I
thought for a moment he was going to confess. He wasn’t easy to
rattle was he? He kept going, speaking with such hesitation that I
wondered if he was nervous about talking to me.

‘
The situation has
become far more complicated and dangerous than I anticipated. I
don’t want to speak about it all on the phone, but it is probably
quite good timing you have got involved at this point.’

Here we go, try to
flatter me to take the attention off his crimes. ‘Oh, why is
that?’

‘
As I said, I don’t
want to say much over the phone, but it so happens I have to come
home to Adelaide on Saturday – that’s tomorrow. Maybe we should
meet up in person. I would have come before, but your mum said no
contact except by email.’

‘
I would be more than
happy to meet up with you. I have lots of questions to
ask.’

‘
No doubt you do.
I’ve got your address. Should I drop round at about 12:30? I fly in
at 12:00, so I could come straight from the airport.’

‘
I’ll be here.
Waiting for my piano to be picked up.’ Oops, the hostility slipped
out after all. Of course I would be home. When wasn't I
home?

‘
Piano?’

‘
Don’t worry about
it. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

‘
Yes, I look forward
to it.’

Was that relief I
heard in his voice? Did he want to tell me what was going on? I
hoped so. I was amazed he was suggesting we meet up. I assumed he
would never have agreed if I asked him straight out. Maybe he just
made up that he needed to be in Adelaide, so he could make sure his
income was safe?

Mum was happy to hear
Liam would be visiting in person the next day, but she also
admitted she was a bit worried that he would ask for his account to
be paid. I told her not to worry about it for now, but couldn’t
help feeling anxious myself. She hadn’t paid him for so long that
his wages now added up to thousands of dollars. The money I got
from Picasso was to be used to pay the mortgage, not be given to
Liam. He had been paid more than enough already.

I had the rest of the
day to kill. I needed to busy myself with something, and not dwell
on my anger at Liam, my worry and annoyance at Sophie, and the
imminent departure of Picasso. Mum obviously didn’t want to discuss
the search for Sophie; it was so like her to avoid talking about
problems. And while it was understandable, what with how stressed
she must have been, it also made me feel really lonely, knowing all
this information and not having anyone to dissect it with. I wished
Liam was arriving sooner.