The Hornbeam Tree (56 page)

Michelle nodded. ‘Yes, of course. I’ve just sent a message back to Tom. Has there been anything from Nick and Max yet?’

Laurie shook her head.

For several seconds they merely looked at one another, each knowing what the other was thinking, neither willing to voice it. In the end, Michelle shook her head and turned away.

‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ she said. ‘There can’t be a connection.’

‘No, of course not,’ Laurie agreed.

‘It’s just not the way they operate, snatching innocent kids to force parents and relatives to meet their demands.’

‘Particularly not when the press is bound to get involved,’ Laurie added, ‘and as we already are, they know very well that it would take one phone call from me, connecting the warrant for Tom’s arrest to Molly’s disappearance, for all hell to break loose.’

‘Precisely, so it’s all just a horrible coincidence. I know it in my heart, I feel it in my bones.’ She looked at Laurie.

‘I’m not arguing,’ Laurie assured her.

‘So how do I get that across to Katie, when I can sense the suspicion taking root in her mind, and when right now she’s in no state to see anything through to a rational conclusion?’

‘The only answer to that,’ Laurie said, ‘is that we have to find Molly.’

*

‘Under no circumstances is anyone to go anywhere near that house until the child’s been found,’ Deborah Gough was saying into the phone. ‘The last thing we need is to be mixed up in that.’

‘There could be ways to use it to our advantage,’ Allbringer suggested.

‘I’m not even going there,’ she snapped. ‘The blowback, if it came out, would finish us all.’

Refraining from pointing out they were on the verge of it anyway, Allbringer said, ‘What do you want to do about the two journalists we’re holding? Questions are already being asked.’

‘I’ll get back to you on that,’ Gough replied, making a rare admission that she wasn’t actually calling the shots here. She turned aside to stare blankly out of her seventh-floor window. ‘Damn!’ she muttered furiously, ‘this is slipping out of our control. Have Chambers or Russell made any personal contact with editors that we know about?’

‘Nothing I’m aware of yet.’

‘All right, I’m going to get authorization to launch our own initiative. One way or another Chambers has to be stopped, and if we have to do it through the media, so be it.’

The lack of response from the other end reminded her of Allbringer’s views on the strategy to destroy Chambers’s reputation in preparation for an arrest. She wasn’t interested in hearing them again now, so before he could get started she said, ‘Keep me up to date on that missing child. As soon as they’ve found her we can start leaning on Michelle Rowe.’

*

Molly couldn’t stop shivering. She wasn’t cold or anything, she was just scared and unhappy and she didn’t want to be here any more. Rusty had promised to smuggle her into his house tonight, while his mum and dad went to their folk group, so she could go on the suicide web site and find out how to do it. She had to make sure she got it right, because she didn’t want it to hurt or anything, or make a mess of anyone’s house – even though this one was a mess anyway. It was about three doors down from Rusty. His mum was keeping an eye on it while the owners were on holiday in Spain. It had a really scruffy garden and rooms that smelled of cigarette smoke and something else that was horrible, she just didn’t know what it was.

Earlier, from behind the yellowy nets, she’d watched the police going up the street towards the old railway bridge. They’d been up there for ages, then they’d gone over to Rusty’s house, where his mum had let them in. Molly had been so on edge through all that, even though Rusty had sworn he wouldn’t tell anyone where she was. He’d just say that she’d called him on Saturday night, then hadn’t bothered to turn up. That way, if they checked his mobile phone he was covered.

He was a really good friend the way he was helping her. He’d even crept out a couple of times during the nights to make sure she was all right and not afraid. She was afraid, but she didn’t tell him. What was the point? There was nothing he could do. He kept saying that she ought to go home, that her mum would be worried, but he didn’t understand. Her mum wouldn’t be there much
longer
, and then no-one would want her, so she might just as well die too. She’d still be with her mum then, and that was the only person she wanted to be with, because she was the only person who loved her. No-one else did. She didn’t even have any friends any more, or a boyfriend. She didn’t count Rusty because he was just Rusty, and after those horrible things she’d said about Michelle … Anyway, she didn’t want Michelle. She just wanted her mum …

As tears welled up in her eyes, she got stiffly up from the bed and went to look in the mirror. She’d cried all her make-up off even before she’d got here, but she’d washed her face since anyway. She didn’t really know why, because she was so ugly and rank who cared if her face was clean? She hated her face because it belonged to her, so she punched it. Then she punched it again, because it was what her nasty face deserved. It wasn’t a good person’s face, it belonged to a disgusting, horrible, wicked person, so it was no wonder everyone hated her. She expected her mum did now, after what she’d done, so why not just keep punching herself until she made herself bleed and bleed and all her teeth fell out?

By the time Rusty came home from school she was downstairs, watching from behind the nets. He went straight past the little caravan parked next to his house and disappeared round the back. He didn’t come out again. He couldn’t, because his mum was there, so he’d have to wait until it got dark and his mum went out. He couldn’t ring either, because the battery had run out on her mobile, and anyway, it was too much of a risk. So
she
just stayed where she was, waiting for Rusty to come and telling herself not to think about anything any more, because if she did, she’d just have to start hitting herself again.

It was now Tuesday morning. Michelle was in the kitchen speaking on the phone to Laurie as Katie came down the stairs and stopped right next to her. Seeing her expression, Michelle immediately ended the call.

Before she could speak Katie said, ‘You have to tell them.’

An uneasy beat in Michelle’s heart belied her frown of confusion.

‘You know what I’m talking about,’ Katie said, her voice dangerously low, ‘you’ve got to tell them where Tom is, because I can’t go through another day of this.’

‘But Katie, it’s got nothing to do with Tom …’

‘It has
everything
to do with him, and you know it!’ Katie raged. ‘They’ve got her somewhere, they’re holding her to make him come forward, now you’ve got to tell them where he is, or so help me God, I will.’

Michelle put a hand to her head, trying to think how to handle this. ‘Look, if Tom thought for one minute that they had her,’ she said, ‘he’d have done something about it the instant he knew she was missing.’

‘No he wouldn’t. The story always comes first for someone like him.’

‘Katie, you don’t mean that …’

‘Stop stalling, Michelle, and make the call.’

As she handed her the receiver Michelle took it
and
put it back again. ‘Look, you know what Molly went through on Saturday night,’ she said, ‘what she’s been going through for months …’

‘I don’t need you to remind me of my own responsibility in this,’ Katie seethed, ‘but you have one too, Michelle, so pick up that phone now and tell him he has to give himself up.’

‘Even if I did, he won’t do it,’ Michelle responded, ‘because he knows as well as I do – as well as
you
do – that they don’t have her. Katie, this isn’t the way they operate.’

‘How can you say that?’ Katie demanded. ‘You of all people know what they’re capable of, so you surely can’t be standing there telling me that a fourteen-year-old girl means anything to them. They couldn’t give a damn about her, or me, because little people like us don’t count. Collateral damage, that’s what we are …’

‘Katie, you’re not being rational. I understand how you’re feeling, but …’

‘Don’t you dare say that!’ Katie yelled, slamming an empty cup against the wall. ‘You haven’t got the first idea how I’m feeling, because you have it in you to give your child up. As a mother I could never do that. Molly means everything to me.
Everything
. And I want her back, God damn you.’

Michelle’s face was ashen as she said, ‘We’ll find her.’

But Katie wasn’t listening. Rage and grief were pouring out of her with an unstoppable might, tearing words from her that she barely knew she was saying. ‘You make me sick,
sick
!’ she yelled. ‘I hate looking at you. I hate listening to you. You
know
they’ve got her, but all you care about is Tom, and the child you’re carrying, and the future you’re going to have together …’

‘Katie …’

‘You didn’t tell me about that baby, did you? No, you kept it to yourself, because you didn’t have the guts to tell me you’ve cheated me again. You said you were here for Molly …’

‘I am!’ Michelle shouted.

‘
I want her back!
I want her in my house, and I want you and your baby to go. I’ll find someone else for Molly, someone who’ll care about her and not let her be used the way you are now.’

‘How can you say I don’t care about her, when I gave up everything to be here for her – ’

‘You gave up
nothing!
You’re pregnant, you’re marrying him …’

‘I didn’t know it was going to turn out that way …’

‘But it always does for you! Everything works out in your world. It’s only in mine that it all goes wrong …’

‘Stop it! Just stop. You can’t go on resenting me for things I have no control over …’

‘But you have control over what’s happening to Molly, and I want her back. Do this, Michelle, and I’ll know that she means as much to you as she does to me. It’s all I ask. I have to know you’ll put her first.’

Michelle’s eyes closed in despair. ‘Katie, you can’t ask me to prove it like this,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t make any sense, and if you were able to think straight you’d know it. She’s with a friend somewhere, or maybe she’s gone off to London …
I
don’t know, but I do know she’s not being held to force Tom out of hiding.’

‘But
how
do you know?’ Katie demanded. ‘How can you be so damned sure, when the timing is perfect, the leverage could hardly …’

‘Please, Katie …’

‘
No!
I’ve had enough, Michelle. Do you honestly think she’d have stayed out there on her own all this time, just because she had a spat with her friends?’

‘It was more than that …’

‘But not enough to make her stay away from me all this time. I’m her mother, for God’s sake, I’m the one she comes to when things go wrong, only this time, she can’t, because
they’ve got her and they won’t let her come back …’

‘Katie, stop! No!’ Michelle cried, as Katie began smashing every dish in sight. ‘This isn’t going to help …’

‘
Make that phone call!
’ Katie yelled, rounding on her. ‘Put someone else first for once!’

Michelle started to back off. ‘I’m not going to continue with this,’ she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘I know you’re hurting, I understand that you’re afraid, but I will not force Tom into doing something that …’

‘Because he comes first!’ Katie cried savagely. ‘It’s always him, or you, or someone else. Never us … Never me …’

‘That is just not true!’ Michelle yelled. ‘You’ve got these things fixed in your head and they’re based on nothing! You say the most horrible things to me, you’re cruel and spiteful the way you throw Robbie in my face, and now you’re trying to make
me
choose between Tom and Molly to prove something that shouldn’t even be in doubt. Well, I won’t do it. For once I’m not going to give in to you, and not because he comes first, but because it won’t give you what you want.’

Katie’s eyes were wild. ‘Get out!’ she screamed, slamming a bowl to the floor. ‘Just get out of my house. I don’t ever want to see you again.’

Knowing there was no point trying to reason with her now, Michelle grabbed her bag and turned to the door. ‘My phone will be on if you need …’

‘I don’t need you!’ Katie sobbed. ‘I don’t need anyone, except my daughter.’

Closing the door behind her, Michelle paused for a moment, hating leaving her like this, but understanding that if she stayed she was only going to inflame her further.

Minutes later, Laurie drew up outside to drive them to the school.

‘She knows in her heart that she’s not making any sense,’ Michelle said after recounting what had happened. ‘It’s fear that’s unhinging her, and even in the state she’s in she probably knows it. She just needed to release some of it, and it’s usually the nearest and dearest that gets it … Or so I’m told.’

Laurie threw her a glance, and realized, in spite of the dryness, that she was a lot more hurt by Katie’s attack than she was admitting. ‘Do you think she’ll make the call herself?’ she asked.

Michelle shook her head. ‘No. She just needed to shift the burden of guilt for a while, because she’s absolutely racked with it, so blaming someone else, whether it’s me, or Tom, or some invisible force in the United States was a way of easing some of the
pressure
. By now she’s probably already starting to calm down, and wishing to God she hadn’t said even half the things she did.’

However, at that very moment Katie was waiting to be connected to Stuart Fellowes’s office at the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.

It was just after four in the morning, Washington time, when the phone next to Deborah Gough’s bed woke her. Blearily checking the clock, she turned on the light and grabbed the receiver on the second ring before it could wake her husband.

‘We’ve just had word of Tom Chambers’s location,’ the voice at the other end told her. ‘He’s in France, the Burgundy region, holed up in a house belonging to a French reporter.’

Deborah Gough swung her legs off the bed and stood up. ‘OK,’ she said, thinking fast. ‘Is a team on its way?’