Desperate Measures (14 page)

‘Bet you can’t do handstands . . .’ he called.

‘Bet I can!’ retorted Daniel with a grin, charging into the water. They spent ages larking and splashing about.

I kept an eye on the woods, aware that someone might hear us or arrive at any second. Was this how it was going to be, I wondered. Always watching our backs to avoid being discovered? Running from place to place? Living hand to mouth? Lying? Stealing? Hiding? What sort of future was that? The idea of living in our cave for as long as we wanted now seemed totally ridiculous. A little kid’s fantasy, I thought flatly.

Daniel showed me how to do handstands. They’re easy-peasy chocolate squeezy. You just dive under the water, plonk your hands on the squelchy weeds at the bottom and kick your legs up at the same time. But don’t swallow any water. It tastes of mud. We practised for ages. Vicky just sat on the grass with her arms hugging her knees, looking round behind her at the woods or down at her feet.

‘Vicky watch me!’

I did my best handstand so far. She said it was really good but she wasn’t even looking.

‘You didn’t see it!’

‘I did . . . It was great.’ Her voice sounded funny and she still didn’t look up.

‘Come in with us!’ Jamie called but she just shook her
head. She looked very small scrunched up like that.

Daniel stopped and stared over at her. It was his go but he waded out and went and sat down next to her on the grass. I don’t think she saw him because she still didn’t look up. He put his arm round her. She didn’t push him away, she just leaned on him and looked sad. I suppose she really wanted to do handstands like us. It’s not very nice when you can’t do things and everyone else can.

Jamie and I carried on for a bit. Jamie wanted to do cartwheels but they’re really hard so we did back-flips instead. They’re handstands but you go over and swoosh up through the water in a circle. We did thirty-seven each.

When we came out of the water Daniel and Vicky were still sitting together talking.

‘Don’t be upset Vicky. I can show you how to do handstands tomorrow – I’ll hold your legs up for you.’

‘Thanks Re,’ she said with a small smile.

Daniel grinned at her and then do you know, she went all red and toothy just like she used to with Manky Matt.

Jamie didn’t say anything. He was staring out over the lake. Suddenly he turned to us.

‘Look!’ he said, pointing at the road across the water.

Vicky went white and Daniel jumped up like he had ants in his pants. I don’t know what they were making such a fuss about. It was just two police cars driving along.

‘They’re coming round this side!’ shouted Daniel.

‘What are we going to do?’

‘They might not be after us . . . It might just be a coincidence . . .’ But no one was listening to me and a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach told me that something was wrong. I remembered the odd expression of the woman in the shop – after I’d gone she must have noticed stuff had been taken, put two and two together and realised who I was.

Daniel had taken Re’s hand and had already started running.

‘Back to the cave,’ he yelled. ‘It’s your only chance!’

Jamie was hot on their heels. Quickly, I collected up our things and ran full pelt after them.

We reached the cave, panting and breathless. Re was crying, not sure what was going on. I took her inside and
tried to calm her down while Jamie and Daniel worked furiously to remove any traces that betrayed our presence.

We heard voices.

‘Jamie!’ I hissed.

‘Get inside!’ called Daniel urgently to Jamie, then pulled brambles and wild roses over the mouth of the cave. ‘And don’t make a sound!’

‘I want Baby Emma!’

I peered out through the tangle of stems and leaves. Perched on a bush, Baby Emma and her wardrobe of clothes were sprawled in full view of anyone who passed.

The voices were getting louder.

‘They’re coming!’

‘They’ll be here any second!’

‘But I want Baby Emma!’ wailed Re, her sobs becoming louder and more uncontrollable.

Jamie looked at me. He was thinking exactly what I was thinking. Springing into action, he pushed his way out of the cave, grabbed the doll and the clothes and sprinted back inside. Pulling the brambles back into place, he threw himself down on to the floor next to us and we huddled together hardly daring to breathe.

‘Hey, you there!’ a man’s voice called. ‘Stay where you are please.’

We heard them scramble down the slope. There must have been three or four of them. One of them slipped and swore noisily. The first man asked Daniel his name and address and if he’d seen any new kids around. Daniel kept his cool. He was amazing.

‘There’s always people round here. Holidaymakers and stuff.’

‘We’re looking for three runaway children, two girls aged fourteen and a boy of ten. One of the girls was in the village shop this morning. Here’re their photos.’

There was a silence.

‘Yeah . . . I saw her. She dropped some money so I gave it back to her.’

‘Sergeant, take the others and have a quick scout round . . .’

I could feel the panic rising.

‘She didn’t hang about though. She ran off towards Blakewell’s Farm.’ I could hear the urgency in Daniel’s voice as the policeman came nearer the cave.

‘Blakewell’s Farm, you say?’ He was right outside the cave. No more than two metres separated us. Through the bundle of scrub I could see his dark trousers and shiny black police boots splattered with specks of dirt and leaves. I had my arms round Re and didn’t dare to breathe. I glanced over at Jamie. The whites of his eyes were wide and staring. He wasn’t even daring to blink.

‘Yeah . . . I’ll show you where I saw her go if you want.’

‘OK, come on then, let’s take a look.’ He called to his colleagues. ‘Hey – this kid saw one of the girls.’

I breathed a sigh of relief. They were going.

‘Oh and another thing,’ the policeman said. ‘Their dad might show up. He’s absconded from prison . . . probably looking for them.’

My heart missed a beat. I glanced over at Jamie. Shocked and dazed as if someone had just hit him, he
slowly turned and stared at me.

‘It’s all right,’ the policeman continued, ‘he’s not dangerous, but we’d like him back behind bars.’

The voices died away but still none of us dared to move. Jamie was now staring down at the ground. After about five minutes, I slowly leant forward to peep out. I felt my arm sharply pulled back as Jamie swung me round.

‘You told us Dad was abroad, delivering stuff to refugees!’

He glared at me, his face buckling into anger and fury.

‘I didn’t want you knowing . . .’

‘You didn’t want us knowing where our own dad was?’

‘Why’s Dad in prison? What’s he done?’ asked Re.

‘That stuff he used to deliver for Mr McCready on the quiet. It was all stolen.’

‘Was he a burglar?’ asked Re.

‘Course not. He was only trying to keep us all going!’ shouted Jamie. ‘He wouldn’t have done anything wrong if he didn’t have to! He’s our dad!’

Reddening, I remembered what happened in the shop.

‘Jamie, I’m so sorry.’

‘We could have gone to see him in prison if we’d known! I hate you, Vicky Davies! You’re so bossy . . . and you always think you’re right!’

Jamie leapt up and barged past me out of the cave.

‘Jamie . . . no! Where are you going?’

‘Anywhere away from you!’

‘Jamie, come back! You can’t just run off like this!’

‘Watch me!’ he hissed, jumping over the stream and disappearing into the woods.

‘I want Jamie.’

He’d been gone for ages. We sat on the cave floor. I had the tin with Peter in on my lap. I wanted to go outside to get him some fresh grass but Vicky wouldn’t let me go anywhere.

‘We’ve got to stay here, Re,’ she said.

‘I want Jamie.’

‘He’ll come back soon . . .’

‘When?’

She didn’t say anything. Her eyes were red and puffy.

‘When Vicky?’

‘I don’t know . . . When he’s hungry. He always comes home when he’s hungry. You know that.’

‘Let’s go and look for him.’

‘We can’t.’

‘Why?’

‘Because there’re police everywhere.’

‘But we could ask one of them to help us. Mrs Edwards says if I get lost I have to ask a police lady or a policeman or . . . um . . . just an ordinary lady on her own . . . or a lady with children . . . or two ladies together . . . or if I can’t find any ladies on their own or with children or with another lady then I have to ask a lady and a man but —’

‘Rhianna shut up . . . please . . .’

‘Nuckets to you.’

I turned my back on her. She hated that. I looked down at Peter. I touched his fur. He didn’t move. I took him out of the tin and held him in my hands. His fur felt soft but his body was stiff.

‘Wake up.’

I poked him again really gently. He still didn’t move. I showed him the penguin but he wasn’t interested. Vicky came over. She tried to put her arm round me but I pushed it off.

‘He’s just asleep,’ I told her.

‘He was really ill Re . . . Too ill to live. He’s dead now.’

‘He’s not. He’s asleep. You don’t know anything. Jamie was right. You think you know stuff but you don’t. He’s just asleep because he’s tired.’

Vicky made a big sighing noise then went and stood by the mouth of the cave.

I stroked Peter gently with just the tips of my fingers. When you’re not well you have to be looked after.

I left Re cradling the dead rabbit and crept out of the cave into the fresh air. I remembered those first few days after Mum died; Dad had shut himself away in his room but Re hadn’t been upset at all. I bit my lip as I realised she just hadn’t understood what it all meant.

There was no sign of Jamie. I wondered if the police had already found him. I pictured him sullen and cross, being driven back to the local police station, kicking the seat of the driver in front and trying to whack the policeman next to him. No wonder he was angry. He’d got a right to be. Jamie was only eight when Dad was sentenced and neither he nor Rhianna had really understood when Mrs Frankish told us all Dad was going away and we wouldn’t be able to visit. The prison was over a hundred miles away. Writing ‘no contact with dad’ on our records was her cop out.
Weaving a fairy tale about him delivering supplies for refugees was mine. I know I should have told them the truth but somehow it had just seemed so much easier to change the story. Too easy in fact. They’d always trusted me to explain things to them.

I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone finding out – especially Jamie and Re who both worshipped Dad. If Jamie had known, he would have immediately told his friend Sam who would have told his mum and then it would have been round the whole town in no time. Rosie would have heard and so would Matt and the evil Charlene Slackton. I’m sure Rosie would have been all right about it, although her parents sounded a bit posh – they ran some sort of furniture business – and probably wouldn’t approve of Rosie being friends with some prisoner’s daughter.

As for Charlene Slackton – I could just imagine her blabbing non-stop to everyone. And I mean everyone. That girl had a mouth on her the size of a small country and she wasn’t afraid to open it and dish the dirt. Knowing her, we would have become the unfortunate spawn of an evil serial murderer. Exaggeration was her speciality.

Daniel didn’t judge me when I told him where Dad was but Matt would have run a mile. Manky Matt. What on earth did I ever see in him?

But I wasn’t just trying to protect Jamie and Re and stop others finding out. They weren’t the only reasons I’d lied. It went deeper than that. Dad had left me on my own to look after Jamie and Rhianna. To be their mum and their dad. I was still angry with him for that.

I tried to push all thoughts of him out of my mind. It was his own fault after all. He’d got himself into the mess he was in. And I didn’t ask him to come after us. He didn’t have to. He’d been in what they call an open prison, where the security wasn’t high and the inmates sometimes went out to do supervised work. But absconding must be really serious. He’d be in deep trouble when they finally caught up with him. So why had he risked everything to find us?

Then the simple truth hit me. He’d come after us because he still loved us and he still cared what happened to us. I felt a lump like a ball of mud stick in my throat. So what did I care about? With a huge feeling of relief, I realised that what Rosie, Charlene Slackton and Manky Matt thought about me didn’t matter one little bit. What I cared about was Re, Jamie and yes, even though I was still angry with him, Dad too. And the only thing that mattered right then was finding Jamie safe and sound.

I went back into the cave. ‘Re, come on. Let’s go.’

She insisted on bringing the dead rabbit. She put it gently back in the tin next to her little penguin and covered them both with Jamie’s T- shirt so they wouldn’t be cold. We crept out of the cave, searched the woods for a bit and then followed the stream down to the lake. We were about to give up when I looked out on to the island and saw someone half hidden behind a tree. Re saw him too.

‘It’s Jamie! Look, Vicky! He’s on the island!’

Jamie must have heard us as he looked over. Rhianna waved but he didn’t wave back. He quickly turned away and disappeared behind a bush.

I ran down to the old up-turned dinghy wondering what to do next. In the distance we heard the sound of dirt bikes. I scanned the woods but couldn’t see them yet. But they were coming. Coming for us. Coming for revenge.

There was no way we could get back to the cave in time, besides which we couldn’t leave Jamie on his own. I looked down at the boat. There was only one thing we could do.

‘Quickly, Re. Help me!’

Together we turned the dinghy over and started to drag it down to the water’s edge.

‘Re climb in, hurry!’

I jumped in and sat on the wooden bench. I put the tin with Peter next to me. The roaring sound was getting louder. Vicky pushed the boat out and leapt in after me. Vicky took the oars and started to row across. She wasn’t very good at it and we went all zigzaggy. I looked down and saw there was water sloshing in the bottom of the boat.