The Hornbeam Tree (54 page)

‘Oh my God, that was like, just so brilliant,’ she gasped to Allison, as they went back to the table. Then remembering she was still waiting for Brad, she started to feel all weird and irritable and began stamping her feet as she said, ‘Where is he? He said he would be here. Do you think I should ring him?’

Allison was looking past her. ‘If you turn round now,’ she murmured, ‘he’s just walking in the door.’

Molly’s heart stood still. ‘Oh my God, oh my
God
,’ she muttered, keeping her back turned. ‘Is he like really, drop dead? No, I know he is … Oh God, I can’t bear it. What shall I say?’

Allison looked at her, but she wasn’t exactly smiling. ‘Up to you,’ she responded.

Steeling herself Molly turned round, trying to look cool and laid back as she rested her weight on one leg, and picked up a glass. Immediately she saw him she virtually swooned. He was so tall and blond and unbelievably good-looking. ‘Oh my God,’ she gasped. ‘He is a god. I can’t believe he’s been texting and calling me … I mean, he is just like so … He could get anyone. Do you think he knows where I am?’

‘He hasn’t looked over here yet,’ Allison answered.

‘I should go and say hello, shouldn’t I? Give me a drink first,’ and grabbing Allison’s she downed it in one go. ‘Is he looking this way?’ she asked, breathlessly.

Allison shook her head. ‘He’s talking to someone.’

‘OK. I’m going over there. Wish me luck,’ and wobbling slightly as she turned round, she was about to start towards him when, to her confusion, he slipped an arm round a tall, blonde girl who was next to him, and was like so drop dead she had to be a model or an actress or something.

Molly couldn’t make herself think. She was dreaming. She wasn’t here at all, she was at home in her bed, but then she thought of her mum and everything turned really horrible, because she didn’t want to be there.

The blonde was whispering in Brad’s ear and he
was
laughing. His eyes came briefly to Molly’s, but he didn’t seem to see her as he turned back to the blonde, said something, then pressed a kiss to her lips.

Molly’s head was spinning. He’d said he was looking forward to seeing her, that she should wear something special …

He was coming towards her now, his arm still round the blonde. She watched him, then suddenly she was walking right up to him and saying hello.

Seeming startled, he glanced at the girl with him, then politely said, ‘Hello.’

Molly turned to the blonde. ‘Who are you?’ she demanded.

The blonde blinked in surprise. ‘I’m Jenny,’ she said. ‘Who are you?’

‘Actually, I’m Brad’s girlfriend.’

Brad couldn’t have looked more astonished. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I don’t think we’ve met …’

Molly’s head was going round and round. She was aware of someone sniggering and laughing behind her. She turned to see Cecily and Donna … Allison was with them, Toby was turning away … Their faces started to swim …

‘You fell for it!’ Cecily shrieked. ‘You really fell for it.’

‘What exactly’s going on?’ Brad wanted to know.

Molly turned back, and felt herself swaying as huge racking sobs started to shudder their way up from inside her.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

She started to answer, but all that came out was a cascade of vomit which went all over him and the blonde and her and she just couldn’t stop …

‘Jesus Christ!’ Brad cried, stepping back.

‘Oh my God!’ someone shouted.

‘Oh puhleeze.’

‘Someone get her out of here.’

The words, the room, the shame, the misery were spinning and spinning and everything was crowding in on her. She could hardly breathe, she was retching and sobbing so hard. Everyone was staring at her. She had to get out of here. She had to go somewhere a long, long way away and never come back.

Stumbling blindly from the room she dashed along the back hall, up the stairs and into Allison’s room. As she started packing her bag her stomach heaved again and she raced into the bathroom. It just seemed to go on and on. Her throat was on fire, her stomach ached, and her body was so cold she couldn’t stop shaking.

When she was able to stand she staggered back into the bedroom, continued stuffing her things in her bag, then grabbing her coat she ran down the back stairs and out into the night. She wasn’t really thinking about which way to go home, she just wanted to get there. Tearing into the field she began running across the grass, but her heels kept sinking in the mud, so she had to take them off and put on her trainers. She was still sobbing and trembling, and feeling so horrified by what had happened she wanted to scream and scream and never see anyone again in the whole of her life. Why had Allison and Cecily and Donna done that to her? It was so mean. They’d made her look really stupid, in front of Brad, and everyone … But he’d been texting and calling her … They must have got
someone
else to do it, so they’d been laughing at her all the time, making a fool of her … She hated them so much now. She wanted to do something to really hurt them.

She’d got almost to their lane when she remembered what her mum had told her earlier.

‘No, no, no,’ she shouted. She couldn’t go back there, she just couldn’t. She didn’t want it to be happening, so she wasn’t going to let it. She’d find somewhere else to go. She wanted Tom to come back, because he’d make everything all right. He’d smash everyone up who’d been mean to her, and make them look even stupider than she had. Why had he gone away like that? Why did everyone always go away?

She turned round and started running back towards the woods. She couldn’t see anything, it was too dark and her eyes were too clogged with tears and mascara. She didn’t care though. She was never going home again, nor was she ever going to speak to anyone in the whole of her life. She was just going to find a computer somewhere and go on the suicide web site to find out how to kill herself. Yes, that was what she’d do. She’d kill herself, then they’d all be sorry, and feel terrible, and wish they could make it up to her, but it would be too bloody late then, and it would serve them all right …

Katie had waited up all night, torn between going to find Molly and giving her time to calm down. She’d barely slept, had paced and pleaded with Molly to call, or to respond to her texts, but so far there was no word. At eight o’clock on Sunday morning she tried calling the house, but a machine picked up. By
nine
thirty there was still no response to her message. Exhausted and unable to cope alone any more, she dialled Michelle’s number, confessed what had happened and asked her to come.

Michelle didn’t waste any time. It was just after midday as she and Laurie ran into the cottage to find Katie looking even worse than Michelle had feared.

‘Any news?’ Michelle asked, pulling her straight into her arms.

Katie shook her head. ‘I keep trying her mobile, but it’s either turned off, or the battery’s run out.’

‘Have you called the house?’

‘Several times, but no-one’s answering. It was a student party – much too old for Molly, but you remember what they were like … Drugs, sex …’ Fear glittered in her eyes.

‘We should go round there,’ Laurie said to Michelle.

‘Of course,’ Michelle responded.

‘I’m coming too,’ Katie said.

‘Katie, you can barely stand,’ Michelle protested.

‘She’s my daughter. I can’t just sit here!’

‘You can and you will. Now listen to me …
Listen
,’ she insisted, as Katie started objecting again. ‘We’ll find her, and we’ll bring her home. So stop getting yourself all worked up and just remember, nothing’s happened that can’t be fixed.’

Katie attempted a wry sort of smile and clinging to the hope that they’d find Molly at Allison’s, she said, ‘Let’s hope she’s not too hung-over, or you could be bearing the scars of this mission for some time to come.’

Treating it to more of a laugh than it deserved,
Michelle
kissed her, then followed Laurie out of the door.

An hour later they left the Fortescue-Bonds’ house, feeling considerably more concerned than before they went in, for having spoken to everyone who was in a state to be spoken to, it was clear Molly wasn’t there.

‘There’s something they’re not telling us,’ Michelle said as they walked to the car. ‘Something about this Brad. OK, she was sick on him, and that’s when she ran out, but where is he now? I’d like to hear what he has to say about it all.’

Looking through the notes she’d taken, Laurie said, ‘I’ve got his number, let’s give him a call.’

After five rings she was diverted to voicemail. ‘Hello, if I’ve reached Brad Jenkins,’ she said, ‘I’d be very grateful if you could call me back. My name is Laurie Forbes, and I’m trying to find Molly Kiernan. Her mother is extremely worried, and if she doesn’t turn up in an hour – it’s twenty past one now – we will be notifying the police, so any help you can give us will be much appreciated.’ After repeating her number twice, she rang off. ‘Hopefully, if she is with him, the mention of the police will make her get in touch,’ she said.

‘If we don’t hear from her,’ Michelle said, ‘we really will have to contact the police.’

‘I’m sure it won’t come to that,’ Laurie responded. ‘She has to be somewhere, and nine times out of ten in these situations, they turn out to be with friends.’

‘I just hope Katie’s going to take some comfort in that,’ Michelle murmured, ‘because right now, it’s about all we have to offer.’

Chapter Twenty-Three

BY FOUR O’CLOCK
the fear of what might have happened to Molly was taking on so many terrifying dimensions that Katie could hardly bear to look at anyone in case she saw the same appalling thoughts reflected in their eyes too. There had been no call back from this Brad yet, though based on what she’d been told, it didn’t seem likely they were together anyway. In fact, she almost wished they were, for there was more comfort in an abscondment with an eighteen-year-old boy than there was in Molly taking off alone while in such a disturbed and vulnerable state.

For the past two hours Michelle, Laurie and Judy had been contacting as many of Molly’s schoolfriends as Judy and Katie could come up with, while Dave and a couple of other neighbours went out driving around Chippenham and the local villages to see if they could spot her. So far there had been no sign, nor had anyone from school either seen or been in touch with her by phone.

Now they were sitting in silence, Judy’s words from the final call still seeming to hang in the air – a ghostly reminder that there was no-one left to ring. Gradually the same words were coming to each of them, yet no-one wanted to be the first to speak them, because no-one wanted to take that dreaded next step.

It was Michelle who finally plucked up the courage. ‘I don’t think we have any choice,’ she said, ‘we have to contact the police.’

Katie turned away, for the very idea of involving the police embraced every one of her worst nightmares to a point where she couldn’t actually tell Michelle to do it. So she merely sat, mute and rigid, as Laurie, rather than call 999, looked up the local number, dialled it, then passed the phone to Michelle.

The next half an hour seemed to pass in a blur as two bobbies arrived, one male, one female, oozing friendliness, efficiency and calm. Katie wanted to scream at them to go away, because they shouldn’t be here. They were giving it an air of reality, and it shouldn’t be happening … It couldn’t … Please God, it just couldn’t!

Michelle did most of the talking, backed up by Laurie and Judy, while Katie sat and listened and ached for her daughter in ways she’d never known she could ache. The voices around her seemed distant, and strange, a persistent burble of noise that was happening beyond her awareness, yet was permeating it too, for she kept hearing them mention Molly, and wished they would stop. It was all an intrusion, a horrible misunderstanding. Molly wasn’t missing. She’d just stayed out longer
than
she should have, which she’d done lots of times in the past, but she’d be home any minute. Katie could already see her, dawdling down the lane, texting someone on her mobile, hungry, moody, and – she could just hear her saying it: like, seriously embarrassed that her mother had gone and called the police.

‘I’m sure there’s absolutely no cause to worry,’ the WPC was saying, looking at Katie.

Katie blinked as the words clattered like stones into the fog of her thoughts.

‘We have so many cases of teenagers taking off like this, you just wouldn’t believe, and they almost always turn out to be with friends, or other family members. It sounds as though that’s what we’re going to find here, based on what your sister’s just told us. But is there anything else you’d like to add? Has anything unusual happened lately to make you suspicious or concerned in any way?’

Katie wasn’t sure if she responded, but a moment later the WPC was talking again.

‘I’m thinking of things such as anonymous phone calls, strangers hanging around, odd behaviour … Have you yourself been involved in something that has changed your own circumstances, such as a man, or a hobby, something that might have distracted you?’

Katie looked at Michelle. ‘Didn’t you tell her about me?’ she said.

‘Yes, I did,’ Michelle said gently. ‘She’s talking about over and above that.’

Katie still looked bothered.

‘They’re just questions,’ Michelle assured her. ‘They don’t necessarily mean anything, but they
could
prompt something in you that will help them to direct the search.’

The WPC assumed an even warmer tone as she said, ‘Apart from this boy Brad, is there anyone else you think Molly could be with? Someone she might just have mentioned in passing?’

Katie shook her head.

‘What about clubs or groups? I’m afraid computers have brought several more of those into the frame than we might like over recent years … Do you know if she’s signed up for anything recently?’

Again Katie looked at Michelle. ‘I don’t know,’ she answered. ‘The police have her computer already.’

The WPC’s eyebrows rose. ‘We have? Why is that?’ she asked.

Katie’s heart was starting to thump as two totally disparate situations seemed to embark upon a bizarre and horrifying struggle to connect. ‘I don’t know,’ she said, her head starting to spin with the craziness of it. ‘I can’t … It’s got nothing to do with Molly … They took it last week.’