Eye Spy (11 page)

Inside the Portakabin it was warm and dry, but I was trembling. Even if Sergei wasn't the head of an international dog-napping gang, he was still twice my size and looking even meaner than the Pitbull in a bad mood.

He pushed me into a chair and bent down to put his face on a level with mine. “So. The little snooper,” he said. “Why you interested in my office, eh? You and that girl. What I got that you want?” His thick accent was hard to understand, but I could sense how angry he was.

“Look,” I said, desperate to calm him down. “We weren't trying to break in. You've got it all wrong.”

He glared at me. “If stuff go missing from here, I get the blame. I lose my job. My wife and my little Tati go hungry, and is all your fault!”

As I stared at him, I noticed the logo on his sweatshirt: ‘ASHTON SECURITY'. He was a nightwatchman! Just my luck to run into the one nightwatchman in the whole of Holcombe Bay who had a grudge against me. What if he called the police and they discovered that I'd already been caught trespassing once that day? I'd be in deep, deep trouble.

That was when I really panicked. I started gabbling on about how we'd been looking for a missing dog and had heard noises from inside the Portakabin. I was so scared, I didn't really know what I was saying, but it didn't take long to realise I'd made another mistake. The minute he heard the word ‘dog', Sergei went bananas. He grabbed the collar of my jacket and yanked me towards him, pushing his face into mine as he roared, “Dog? What you know about dog?” I couldn't answer, because by this time he was strangling me with my own collar, and anyway, I had no idea at all what he was talking about. If he wasn't a dog-napper, why was he so angry?

Suddenly there was a muffled bleep from somewhere under all his layers of clothing, and he loosened his grip on me just enough to dig in his pocket and find his mobile. “'Hallo?” he grunted. “Yes, sir… Yes, all is quiet… No, no problems. Goodnight, sir.”

Things were getting weirder and weirder. He'd had the chance to shop me and he hadn't. Why? He switched off the mobile and had just stuck it back in his pocket when there was a loud knock on the door. Sergei cursed. “You stay there!” he said as he went to open the door. He needn't have bothered. By that time I was so terrified, I felt as if my arms and legs were fused to the chair. A blast of icy air hit me as he opened the door, and I heard him say, “What now?”

Then a voice I recognised only too well shouted above the roar of the wind, “Sergei, you ain't seen a young boy hanging round here, have you?”

“Come in, quick!” Sergei said, and a moment later the door banged shut again. I looked round and Kath caught sight of me. “Alex! What are you doing here? I been looking all over for you.”

Sergei stared at Kath. “You know him?”

“'Course I know him. He's a friend of mine. He's come to collect Kiki, take her off my hands.”

He frowned at her for a moment, then he gave a little shrug and turned to me. “Right. You keep quiet about dog, and I don't report you to police. OK?”

“OK,” I said, though I hadn't the faintest idea what he meant. Then, bit by bit, things started to fall into place. Sergei was the friend who Kath left Kiki with. Kiki must have been in the Portakabin with Rockerfeller on Saturday when, for the second time in a week, we'd just missed her. Sergei was afraid his boss would kick up if he discovered he had been keeping dogs in the Portakabin, and that was why he wanted me to keep my mouth shut.

“Go now! Both of you.” He waved us towards the door.

Kath turned back as we were about to go out of the door. “Thanks, Sergei,” she said. “I owe you.” Sergei nodded. I got the impression he couldn't wait to get rid of us.

Outside in the wind and the rain, Kath propelled me in the direction of the pier. “Kiki and Rocky are in the old observatory!” she yelled. “With my friends. If they arrest us again, at least we'll have a warm, dry cell to sleep in!”

I wasn't really listening; there was only one thing I wanted to know. “Where's Donna?” I shouted back.

“She's there too. Been there all afternoon. Come on!”

I heaved a great sigh of relief that Donna was safe. At last I could relax. As we made our way towards the end of the pier, we had to fight to keep upright as the wind tried to blow us back the way we'd come, and we kept slipping and sliding on the wet planks underfoot. We were only halfway there when a girl appeared out of the rainy darkness ahead. I recognised her as one of the dossers I'd seen getting into the police car two days before. She had big, scared eyes in a chalk-white face, and her hand trembled as she tried to keep the hood of her anorak from blowing off her head.

Kath put her arm around the girl's shoulders. “What is it, luv?” she asked.

The girl shot a frightened glance at me. “You Donna's brother?” she shouted.

I could barely hear her above the noise of the wind. I nodded. “Is she OK?”

The girl shook her head. “Come quick. She's up on the platform by the telescope. I think she's going to jump.”

Terror overwhelmed me, and for a moment I couldn't move. This was what I'd feared all along, that Donna would do something desperate to pay Dad and Nan back for keeping us in the dark for so long. Then the girl shouted “Come on!” and started running towards the end of the pier. I plunged after her, leaving Kath to follow as fast as she could.

As we approached the observatory, I noticed a group of people huddled together to one side of it, staring at something I couldn't see. I yelled at them to get out of the way, and they moved aside as I elbowed my way through. Then I saw Donna. She was sitting on the platform next to the telescope. There was only a low railing between her and the raging sea below. She was staring into the darkness beyond the end of the pier. If she lost her balance, if the railing gave way…

A wave of fear gripped me, and for a moment I stopped breathing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Was she out of her mind? I wanted to call out to her, but I was scared that would startle her and make her lose her balance.

A man came and stood beside me. He had an old blanket round his shoulders and a woolly hat on his head, and he smelt of beer and cigarettes. “That your sister?” he said, jerking his head in Donna's direction.

I nodded. “What's she doing up there?” I asked him, and fear turned my voice into a croak.

“You tell me, pal. She was in a right state when she turned up here this afternoon, but Kath calmed her down and we thought she'd be OK. Then, next thing we knew, she was up there…”

“Let me speak to her,” I said. I moved slowly towards her until I was close enough for her to hear my voice over the sound of the wind and rain. Then I called her name. She turned her head towards me.

“Please come down from there, Donna! Everyone's out looking for you. You've got to come home!”

“Leave me alone. Don't come any nearer!” she shouted back.

I stepped back a few paces then, to show willing. “OK, OK. But why are you doing this, Donna? Is it because we had that argument earlier?” She shook her head. “Everything's such a mess! Dad, Holtech, Diane… She could help him, I know she could, but Dad's so pig-headed, he'll never speak to her. He'd rather go on being miserable, and we'll all go on being poor. I just can't stand it anymore.” She was crying now, and as she lifted her hand from the railing to wipe away the tears, my heart lurched. She could lose her balance – but she didn't. She put her hand back on the railing, and I breathed again.

What could I do? What could I say to get her down? I thought of Diane Fairchild sitting in her plush new office with her doting husband, awaiting the arrival of a perfect baby, and I saw exactly why both Donna and Dad hated her. Vivid images of our meeting with her (was it only this morning?) flashed in front of my eyes. And then I realised there
was
something I could do. In my pocket I still had Diane Fairchild's business card with her home telephone number. It had to be worth a try.

“Listen!” I yelled. “If I can get Dad to speak to Diane Fairchild about Hamish, will you come down from there?”

“You'll never do it. I won't believe it, until I see them both standing where you are now, talking to each other.”

“OK!” I shouted. “You're on! Just give me a little time to arrange it.”

I didn't want to leave her there. I was terrified that if I turned my back for an instant, when I looked again, she'd be gone – dead, lost forever underneath the churning waves… But if I was going to keep my promise, I was going to have to make a very tricky phone call, and I couldn't do that surrounded by a crowd of dossers and deafened by the roar of the storm.

I turned round to find Kath right behind me. Rocky was sniffing at her heels, and a tiny, golden-haired dog was tucked firmly under one arm. Some part of my brain registered that the dog must be Kiki, but just then I had far more urgent things to think about than lost dogs.

“I need a phone!” I shouted at her, hoping she could hear my voice above the noise of the wind.

She pointed towards the row of shops next to the arcade, and I saw that between the café and the gift shop there was one of those old red phone boxes from years ago. Kath leant closer. “It still works,” she mouthed at me. “Here…“ She thrust a hand in her jacket pocket and brought out a handful of coins. “Take them.”

I thanked her and headed off for the phone box. The rain had slackened off a bit, and the wind, gusting towards the shore, was blowing me in the right direction. Once I was inside the box with the door shut, I dialled Diane's number and prayed she'd be home.

The phone rang and rang. Just as I was wondering what on earth I would do if they were out, I heard a voice.

“Hello. Lionel Caulfield speaking.”

I put some coins into the slot with trembling fingers, then said, “Can I speak to Diane, please?”

“She's only just got in from work and she's very tired.”

“I need to speak to her urgently. It can't wait!”

“Who is this?”

“It's Alex Macintyre. I have to speak to her. It's a matter of life and death!”

“Oh, really!” I could tell he was getting annoyed now, and I was terrified he'd hang up on me. Then I heard her voice in the background saying, “Who is it, Lionel?”

“It's some kid called Alex. Shall I get rid of him?”

“Give me that!” I heard her say.

“Alex? This had better not be a time-waster.”

“It's not, I swear. Listen, Donna's in trouble. She's at the end of the pier by the old observatory. She's threatening to jump. She says she wants to see you.”

I'd definitely got her attention now. “Oh, my God! But she hates me. She made that very clear this morning. I'll just make things worse. Let me phone the emergency services.”

She was trying to wriggle out of it, but I'd made a promise to Donna, and I had to keep it. I didn't want to think about what she might do if Diane wouldn't come. I had to persuade her, but how? Then it came to me.

“If you don't come, I'll tell the newspapers all about your secret past, and you won't be flavour of the month anymore.”

I heard her quick intake of breath. “You little…” she began. Then she laughed.

“It's not funny!” I shouted.

“No, it's not, is it?” she said, and she wasn't laughing anymore. “Very well, I'll be there in ten minutes.” She hung up.

As I put the receiver back I realised that, despite the cold, I was sweating all over. I'd solved the first problem, but I still had to get Dad here. Where was he? Had he found my note? I was just about to dial our home number when, through the rain-spattered windows of the phone box, I saw Miss Wren's battered old Fiat bouncing over the rough cobbles of the square. The car came to a halt. I scrambled out of the phone box and ran towards it, waving my arms furiously. I'd never in my life been so glad to see anyone.

I arrived, panting, by the car just as Dad got out, followed by Nan and Miss Wren. Dad looked dreadful: grey and drawn and sort of dazed. “Alex!” he called out. “Have you found Donna?”

I nodded. “But Dad, she's very upset. She's on that platform at the end of the pier by the old observatory, and she's threatening to jump off.”

Dad put his head in his hands. “Oh, my God! This is all my fault. If anything happens to her, I'll never forgive myself.”

Nan grabbed Dad's shoulder and gave it a shake. “Pull yourself together, son,” she said. “Donna needs you; you can't break down now.”

Miss Wren looked hard at me. “You probably know her better than anyone, Alex. What will it take to persuade her to come down?”

I'd been wondering how to tell Dad about my promise to Donna. Now she'd given me the opening I needed. “There's only one thing she wants,” I said, praying it wouldn't provoke Dad into another rage. “She wants you to talk to Diane Fairchild about Hamish.”

Dad closed his eyes and made a little sound that was halfway between a groan and a sob. “Oh, that's all, is it?” he said bitterly. As I stared at him, willing him to agree, the silver BMW appeared out of the gloom, looking as out of place as a spaceship at a funeral.

It purred to a stop a short way from where we were all standing. Lionel got out first and opened the door for Diane. She climbed out, and she and Dad stood there staring at each other, just a few metres apart.

Diane spoke first. “Hello, Ian,” she said.

Dad didn't say anything; he just nodded his head slightly in response.

Lionel threw me a filthy look. I guessed Diane had told him during the car ride who Donna and I really were. “Can we get this over as quickly as possible, please?” he said. “It's been a long day.”

Diane ignored him. “I believe you have something you want to show me?” she said to Dad. When he didn't reply, she continued, “Look, Ian, I promise you'll get a fair deal from Holtech. Nobody's going to steal your ideas. If we can't use them, we'll tell you why. No-one else at Holtech need know we were once married, and you'll be dealing with my development manager, not me. What do you say?”