Paparazzi Princess (14 page)

‘Argument with Pia?’

I shook my head. My attempts to act normal weren’t succeeding though because another wave of anxiety flooded through me. I felt I was going to burst if I didn’t confide in someone. ‘Oh, Aunt Maddie, I’ve done something
really
terrible.’

‘It can’t be that bad.’

‘It
is.
Can I . . . can I trust you with the most
enormous
secret?’

Aunt Maddie came and put her arm around me. ‘Of course you can, Jess. Now what is it?’

‘Did Dad tell you about Riko going missing?’

She nodded. ‘Poor Mr and Mrs Mori. They must be out of their minds with worry.’

‘It’s
my
fault.’

‘Your fault? How could that be? Jess . . . Did you help her get away?’

‘No. Nothing like that.
Worse
.’

‘Worse?’

I nodded. ‘Did you see that article about teens at Porchester Park?’

Aunt Maddie nodded. ‘Your dad showed it to me.’

‘I’m the reason Riko ran away. It was . . . it was
me
who blabbed to the press.
I’m
the . . . the anonymous source.’

Aunt Maddie’s face registered shock. ‘You? Oh, Jess,
no
—’

‘
Yes
,’ I sobbed. ‘And you don’t have to tell me how incredibly stupid it was. I know. I’ve been cursing myself all morning. Riko must have seen the article in the paper and run away and all because of me and my big mouth and . . . and . . . Dad will kill me if he ever finds out and he might lose his job and we’ll have nowhere to live and Alisha will hate me and something might happen to Riko and you probably hate me too now and think I’m pathetic and so will Gran when she finds out and this is the worst day of my whole life apart from when Mum died and her funeral and I wish she was here but she’d probably hate me too and she’d be right because I totally hate myself.’ I burst into tears.

Aunt Maddie let me cry for a few minutes then she made me a cup of sweet tea. I couldn’t drink it. I couldn’t swallow so Aunt Maddie sat next to me again and took my hand.

‘Do you hate me?’ I asked.

Aunt Maddie laughed softly. ‘Oh no, Jess. I could never do that. And I’m glad you told me.’

‘Well, if
you
don’t hate me, I hate myself.’

‘No. You mustn’t do that. Part of growing up is learning about trust and who to open your heart to. Sadly some people who claim to be your friends aren’t what they seem. It’s one of life’s harsh lessons, I’m afraid.’

‘You can say that again.’

Aunt Maddie took a deep breath. ‘You have to tell your dad, Jess. You
have
to. And the police. Any clue you have might help find her.’

‘I can’t. I’m scared. It won’t make any difference. Riko is still gone. I haven’t a clue where she might be.’

‘I know this must be frightening for you but you have to be brave. You made a mistake. Own up to it. That’s part of growing up too. How you respond to situations is what makes you the person you are – and I know you to be a brave girl. There’s no harm in making mistakes. Everyone makes them. The harm is in lying there cursing yourself and thinking you’re a failure. Successful people make a mistake, own up to it then get up and say, I was wrong, how can I make it right? How can I make things better?’

I didn’t like what I was hearing. Not one bit. I wanted to hide away and pretend none of it had happened. I didn’t want to tell Dad or the police, but I knew that Aunt Maddie was right. I nodded. ‘OK. Let’s do it,’ I said.

Aunt Maddie squeezed my hand then she called Dad on his mobile. He appeared at the house five minutes later, by which time I could hardly breathe.

‘What’s this all about?’ asked Dad.

Aunt Maddie glanced at me. ‘Jess has something she needs to say.’

Dad turned to look at me.

‘I . . . I . . . Please don’t be mad at me or at least,
be
mad at me, but I’m sorry, I truly am.’

Dad looked puzzled. ‘What’s this all about?’ he repeated. ‘Sorry for what?’

I took a deep breath. It was hard to even look at Dad but I made myself. ‘It was me, Dad. I spoke to the press.’

Dad’s face registered horror. ‘
You
, Jess? When?’

‘Last week. I . . .’

Dad began to pace up and down and rub his head. ‘Oh Christ . . .’

‘I never thought she’d write about it. I mean, I never thought she’d want to write about
teenagers
. I thought they were off-limits. I thought she was outside waiting for a scoop about an A-lister. A big celeb. A grown-up. She was kind to me. I thought she was all right. I know, I’m such an idiot. Now I know you were right about not talking to them. I’m so sorry. I won’t ever do it again.’

Dad stopped pacing and took a deep breath. ‘You’re telling me that the quotes came from you?
You’re
the anonymous source?’ It seemed like he couldn’t take it in.

I nodded. ‘Yes.
Yes
. Me. Are you mad with me? Stupid question. Of course you are.’

Dad sighed. He looked so worried. ‘Not mad, Jess. Disappointed. Very disappointed,’ he replied. Somehow, that felt even worse.

I began to apologise again but Dad didn’t appear to be listening and stared out of the window as I burbled on. Finally he turned to Aunt Maddie and I. ‘OK. Right. No-one needs to know who spoke to the press. None of this needs to go outside this room. Jess, I’m glad you told me so that I can stop the inquisition with my staff. It wasn’t fair to let other people come under suspicion when you knew all along that you were to blame and we’ll speak about that later. For now, though, I have to think straight about what’s best to do. Oh dear . . . But you owning up won’t change the situation and could do more damage than good for all of us because, quite honestly, my reputation will be in ruins, not to mention how the residents would view you.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ I blurted. ‘That’s why I didn’t tell you.’

‘She
is
sorry, Michael,’ said Aunt Maddie. ‘No-one could be angrier with her than she is with herself. I think she’s learnt her lesson.’

‘Never mind that. Riko is still missing and that’s what’s important. Being sorry doesn’t let you off the hook, Jess,’ said Dad in a cold voice. ‘However, I have the apartment block to think about and if it got out that my daughter,
my
daughter, was the leak, it would reflect very badly. For now though, we have to do what we can to remedy the situation. You have to tell me anything you know so I can pass it on to the police.’

I nodded. ‘I’ll do anything I can to help but I have no idea where Riko might have gone. We weren’t close.’

‘But you
did
spend some time with her. She must have said
something
. Any detail might help.’

I searched my mind for anything I might have overlooked. I replayed our conversations in my head. ‘I always felt there was
something
going on with her,’ I said.

‘Like what?’ asked Aunt Maddie with a glance at Dad. ‘Explain. How?’

‘Like . . . I felt she was using me and Pia. She kept saying she wanted to be friends but it never felt real, not like with Alisha. It was like she was using us to get out on her own for a short time – away from her dad and her minder. That’s all she wanted, a bit of freedom.

‘Oh! But there’s something else!’ I exclaimed as I remembered the nagging feeling I always had that Riko had a secret. ‘It might be nothing.’

‘What, Jess?’ Dad urged.

‘A boy. I thought I’d seen a boy hanging around. That why I went to talk to Bridget in the first place – to ask if she’d seen him too. He was there before Christmas and at first, I thought he was one of the paparazzi but he looked too young and not all pally with them like they are with each other. Then I thought he might be a tourist, you know, just having a nose. But the first time I went out with Riko to Harrods, she disappeared for a while when she went to the Ladies. Pia and I were well freaked.’

‘And was the boy there, then?’

‘I’m not sure. Riko reappeared but, before that, when I went looking for her, I thought I saw her with someone on the escalator but I couldn’t be sure. I couldn’t see him properly and I wasn’t even certain it was her actually
with
someone or if he was just standing next to her on the escalator. It was so crowded and I was well freaked out myself.’

‘Why didn’t you mention this when you came back? You knew Mr Mori had trusted you to stay with her,’ said Dad.

‘Well, that’s just it. I was mad with her for disappearing, so was Pia, but she begged us not to say anything about her going off and she turned up again so it seemed there was no harm done. She said her dad wouldn’t ever let her out again if he thought she’d lost us. I didn’t know whether to believe her but she hadn’t actually done anything wrong.’

‘And this boy, have you seen him since?’ Dad asked.

I shook my head. ‘When we went to the cinema, Riko acted weird again, like she was looking for someone before we went in and then when we took our seats, she kept texting someone. I thought I saw the boy outside the cinema but after that, Riko was with me the whole time. I began to think I was being over-paranoid but just in case, I asked Bridget if she’d seen anyone hanging about outside here.’

‘And had she?’ asked Aunt Maddie.

‘She said she’d seen a boy a few times but not really taken much notice. People are always staring at Porchester Park. Do you think he might be a stalker?’

Dad stood up. ‘He could be anyone. He could be someone she knows or someone she’s met on the Internet. Some girls can be very gullible. I’m going to call the police right now and tell them what you’ve told me. Whoever he is, you’ve given a very valuable clue, Jess. I have to pass it on immediately. In the meantime, we have to pray that she’s not in any danger.’

Dad went to make his call and within ten minutes, he came back with a young police officer who’d been questioning staff who worked at the apartments. He held out a photograph to me. I glanced down at it.

‘You father says you’ve seen someone hanging about a few times,’ said the officer. ‘Do you recognise the boy in this photo?’

It was the boy I’d seen outside Porchester Park. I nodded. ‘That’s him,’ I said.

The officer took the photo back.

‘Do you know who he is?’ I asked.

‘I’m afraid I can’t divulge that information at this stage of the investigation. More to the point though, do
you
know who he is?

‘No.’

‘Is there anything else you can remember apart from what your father has already told us?’

‘No.’

The police officer stared at me. ‘Hmm.’

I felt a rising panic and once again, found it hard to breathe. I was sure he could see right into me, that he knew I was the one who had caused this whole sorry mess, but then he looked away and I felt the iron grip in my stomach relax a little.

‘Thank you, Jess. You’ve been very helpful. Thank you very much. Well done.’ He left, already talking into his mobile as he went.

Well done, he’d said. If only he knew the truth!

Everyone was round the table. Meg, Flo, Charlie, Henry and Tom, even Pia had raced back from her shopping trip.

‘What can we do to help?’ asked Tom.

After the police had gone, I’d sent out an alert to all my mates. I had a plan. The police were doing what they could. In the meantime, I’d decided to organise a search party of my own.

‘Henry. You and Pia take Harrods,’ I said.

‘Isn’t it getting a bit late now?’ asked Meg.

‘Never too late,’ I said. I had actually thought the same thing myself but I had to do
something.

Pia saluted me and grinned at Henry. ‘Yessir.’

‘Flo and Meg, you do Westfield. Riko said her idea of heaven would be to explore a mall without a minder and Westfield is the closest and biggest.’

‘But we don’t now what she looks like,’ said Flo. “Better I go with Charlie. He’d recognise her.’ She gave Charlie a coy look which was lost on him.

And it would give you a chance to spend time with my brother
, I thought.
Smart girl.
She’d obviously read the last facebook update and seen the message about sharing a mutual project with a boy.

‘Good plan,’ I said. ‘OK with you, Chaz?’

Charlie nodded. ‘Maybe I’d better take Meg too. Westfield is a big place. And Tom, probably best you go with Jess because she knows what she looks like.’ I had to stifle a giggle. It seemed everyone had been reading the facebook updates. I just hoped that Tom hadn’t wised up.

Tom smiled and gave me a look that made my toes curl. I felt conflicted. Part of me was still in deep shame about blabbing to Bridget but another part of me was doing cartwheels, thinking,
Wahey. Time alone with the love god
. People are complicated.
I’m
complicated. So many emotions and all in the space of sixty seconds!

*

‘So, where to?’ asked Tom when we got outside and the others had gone off on their various missions through the snow which had started to fall mid afternoon.

Back to your house for a snog session
, I thought. God, if my thoughts came out of my mouth, I’d be in deep trouble.
Focus, Jess.

‘Good question. She could be anywhere. Um—’