The Roommates

by Rachel Sargeant

  “Marlon won’t get within a mile of the campus after this. How likely is your father to replace him?” Phoenix says quietly.

  Imo’s on alert to stand between them if Tegan explodes, but the angry colour in her face subsides. She stares past Phoenix as if getting something clear in her mind. Suddenly she strides off in the direction they came.

  “Are you coming then?” she calls over her shoulder. “Fuck knows how to change a tyre.”

  ***

  Phoenix has the wheel jacked up and tyre swapped before Imo’s finished scrolling her phone for news of Marlon’s arrest. But it’s almost one o’clock before they reach Victoria Lane. Tegan’s credit card trick gets them into the foyer but isn’t needed on Jane’s front door. It’s unlocked.

  Imo’s heart thunders in her chest. In their flat, her thoughts of solving the Leo mystery were brave, but in this evil place, her legs are jelly. The line of coat pegs is empty except for a child’s pink summer jacket, and the shoes have disappeared. Phoenix pushes open the bathroom door. No toothbrushes. Imo moves through the lounge, while Tegan goes into the bedroom. The tub of crayons is no longer on the child’s desk, but the cellar door is still propped open. The scent of air freshener is even stronger.

  Tegan comes out of the bedroom. “As expected, she’s done a bunk. Wardrobe’s empty and the cuddly toys have gone.”

  Imo lets out a sigh of relief. But her breath catches in her throat. The gaping chasm of the open cellar is in her sightline. She’s been down there once, but it still brings her nightmare to mind. Sophia trapped, needing her help.

  “What if she’s abandoned someone else down there?” she whispers.

  “One way to find out.” Phoenix steps forward.

  In reverse order of their last descent, Phoenix goes first, Imo follows, then Tegan. Imo wishes Riku was here. He’s rallied round Amber as much as they have. When they reach the bottom step, the stench is as bad as before. How could Jane have thought a few squirts of air freshener upstairs would hide her crime?

  Cold fear creeps through Imo, even worse than last time. Now she knows what might lie ahead. Tegan and Phoenix must feel the same and they huddle close, their torches sweeping the room. No phone lights this time; they’re all equipped with the proper torches their mothers made them bring to university.

  They scour both rooms twice, slowly, up and down, so as not to miss even a pocket of darkness. Camp bed, rancid blanket, bucket of piss. Toxic soup, water bottles. But no mounds of human life, or death. No second mattress. No Sophia. No Leo.

  Chapter 66

  Imogen

  When Imo and the others return, Amber is sitting up in Imo’s bed. Some of her normal colour has returned and she’s talking to Riku. Her feet stick out of the duvet to keep her wound exposed. She sees them and tries to get out of bed, but her legs won’t take her weight. She sits on the side. “Well?” she breathes. “Leo?”

  Imo doesn’t want to be the one to tell her and glances at Phoenix and Tegan. Tegan shrugs and Phoenix gives a tight, expectant smile.

  Imo takes a breath; it’s down to her. “Jane wasn’t there.”

  Amber frowns, not understanding. Imo realizes she doesn’t even know the new name of her captor.

  “Cheryl, I mean.”

  Amber looks crestfallen.

  “There’s no sign that a second person was held there,” Phoenix says and takes Riku’s place at Amber’s shoulder as she starts to cry. “Could you have got it wrong about Leo? Lack of food can play with a person’s mind.”

  “She isn’t being held, not like that. She doesn’t know.” Amber puts her head in her hands. “I’ll never see her again. I should have thought it through.”

  Imo’s mind races, knocked off one course and onto a new one. She. Leo is female. There’s a connection somewhere. A memory. Another student? Think, think.

  Lauren? Of course, she’s the answer. Could it be? That’s not possible, is it?

  Amber begins to cry. But they seem like tears of resignation. While Amber thought there was a chance of them finding Leo, she’d been anxious and demanding. Now she seems to have given up.

  “I’ll make some hot chocolate.” Tegan squeezes Amber’s arm gently. Even though Tegan must have had more sleep than Imo, dark circles are visible under her make-up. She gives a commiserating smile as she leaves the room.

  Make-up. Imo’s mind is on fire. Covering freckles.

  Freckles and auburn hair on Jane Brown’s Facebook profile. Freckles and auburn hair playing round her legs at the Freshers’ Fair. Imo’s thoughts leap to the photo of Amber and Jade at the theme park on Mrs Murphy’s mantelpiece. Celtic looks. Where Jade had dark hair, Amber’s was auburn.

  “Who is Leo?” She poses the question she’s put to Amber many times since her rescue and every time she hasn’t replied. This time Imo asks, already knowing the answer.

  Amber looks up. “I can’t say.”

  “Why not? You said yourself you won’t see her again. Why hide it?” If she’s right, Imo will have Lauren to thank.

  Amber wails – high-pitched and long – as if she’s deflating, like the life is rushing out of her.

  “Imo,” Phoenix warns. “She’s too fragile.”

  Riku, perching on the desk, clears his throat and gives Imo a reproving glance. She hesitates, but she’s sure she’s right.

  “Leo?” she prompts. “Tell us. It won’t make it worse. It might even help.”

  The little bit of colour Amber’s gained since her rescue fades and her eyes fill with tears.

  “Say it, Amber,” Imo whispers. “No more secrets, okay?”

  Amber nods, taking a breath. “Leonie.” Her voice cracks. “My baby.”

  There is a stunned silence. Nobody moves, as Amber begins to cry.

  Imo is the first to respond and steps forward. Sits beside Amber and takes her sobbing weight in her arms. She lets her cry for several moments before pressing on. “Why did Jade lie? She convinced me you made up a story about being pregnant.”

  Amber quivers against Imo’s shoulder. “Jade would never lie. It wasn’t her fault, or my mum’s. Cheryl made me.”

  Phoenix fetches a roll of loo paper, hands it to Imo and sits on the end of the bed.

  Imo tears off a few sheets for Amber. “Tell us what happened.”

  “I was fourteen and off the rails with grief for my dad. It’s not fair to say I got in with a bad crowd; Danno was a lost soul like me. His stepfather used to beat him, and we kind of found each other.” She pauses and there’s a flicker of a smile. “We used to hang out at the bridge. It was our safe place away from all the crap. Apart from him and Verity, who was off her head most of the time, my only normal friend was our next-door neighbour.” New tears trickle down her cheeks.

  “Cheryl?” Imo says, dabbing Amber’s eyes with a sheet of the tissue.

  “I used to tell her everything: how much I missed Dad, how hard I was finding it at home; about Danno. When I got pregnant, I knew she’d understand. She was a lot older than me. I thought she’d help me get an abortion, but she had another idea. I was so stupid, but somehow it made sense at the time. She said she’d pretend to be pregnant and we’d pass the baby off as hers.” Her voice falters. “She was kind, thinking what was best for me. She told me how much she longed for a child of her own and how hard she’d work to be the best ever mum. Told me how difficult it was to get an abortion without my mum finding out, how disappointed my family would be. I remember her talking about the nightmare of adoption, all the paperwork and the hassle. And she knew how much I wanted it all to go away. The perfect solution, my family need never know.

  “But my mother saw how much weight I’d gained and realized. Cheryl was amazing with her, said she sympathized with finding out her fourteen-year-old was pregnant and suggested, as she was expecting a baby too, we go to our appointments together. Mum, who was still grieving for Dad, didn’t need to get involved.”

  “Where … how did you give birth on your own?” Phoenix asks.


  “We told Mum and Jade the baby was due in late January and Cheryl offered to take me away for New Year. Mum couldn’t have been happier to see the back of me for a while. Leonie was born on her real due date in a cottage in Derbyshire. It was snowing outside. I couldn’t have made it to a hospital even if Cheryl allowed it. She said we’d manage by ourselves. It hurt like hell – my belly still cramps when I think of Leo – but it was an easy birth.” She lets out a laugh. “Nature likes fourteen-year-old mothers.”

  Tegan comes back with a tray of hot chocolates. She puts them on Imo’s desk to cool and props herself on the edge of the desk next to Riku. They fill her in on Amber’s revelation.

  “But are you sure it’s that child?” she asks. “Couldn’t Cheryl have had her own in the meantime? They seem close.”

  To Imo’s surprise, it’s Phoenix who answers, not Amber. She inhales and shakes her head. “I saw Jane Brown’s medical history. I was ashamed for intruding and didn’t read it all. I saw she’d had fertility treatment but didn’t realize it hadn’t been successful.”

  Tegan’s eyes narrow. “And you didn’t tell us?”

  Imo glares too, but her anger is gone as swiftly as it arrived. If they’d suspected that Cheryl was childless, would they have got on to Amber’s abduction sooner? Probably the reverse. They might have dismissed the mother from the Freshers’ Fair as the wrong Jane Brown and looked elsewhere for Cheryl. Before she can say anything, their attention switches to Amber as she continues speaking. Her voice is quiet, just above a murmur, as if she’s recounting the story to herself.

  “I fell in love.” A fat tear rolls down her face. “The moment I saw her little bud nose, her downy head, her tiny feet.” She wipes her eyes. “But Cheryl said I wasn’t thinking straight. It was the hormones talking. I couldn’t raise a child given my instability. And she knew all about that; I’d told her the stuff I got up to at the bridge. She said I should go home and tell my family I’d made the whole thing up. She’d bring the baby home as her own in a few weeks. I’d get the best of both worlds: I’d be the teenage auntie next door who could see the baby every day, but Cheryl would get the hassle of sleepless nights and nappies.”

  Tegan passes a mug to Amber. She takes a sip of the chocolate and hands it back. “So I went home and told my mum I’d lied about being pregnant. Our relationship died that day. The only thing that stopped me running away was knowing Cheryl would be back soon with Leonie. But when she came home, she didn’t want me near. I had to pester her to let me visit or hold my baby. And the whole time Jade and my mum were devastated I’d faked a pregnancy.”

  She takes a breath. The top of her bony chest is visible at the gaping neck of the borrowed nightshirt. Imo sees the rapid rise and fall.

  “Then one day I went round.” She swallows. “Walked next door and noticed her car was gone. Deep down, at that moment, I just knew that I would never see Leonie again. I ran into the garden, climbed over the fence and banged on the windows. Screamed. But inside the place was empty. Deserted. Cheryl was gone. Cleared out when Leonie was two months old. I had a breakdown. Mum did her best, but I think after everything I’d done, she thought I might be faking again. I know Jade did.”

  Imo remembers Jade’s kindness to the waitress who dropped a glass and decides that was the real Jade. How it must have killed her to sever all bonds of sympathy and trust for her sister. Their shattered relationship is another repercussion of Cheryl’s crimes.

  “I had no one – not even the bridge crowd. I’d had to tell Danno his baby was born dead. Told him it was a boy, because I couldn’t say a girl, couldn’t say Leonie. I crushed the last bit of hope out of Danno’s empty, nothing life. I hurt him more than his stepfather’s punches ever did.” She grips her arm and her knuckles turn white. “I tried to end it once because of what I said. If Verity hadn’t stopped me, I’d have thrown myself off the bridge.” She hunches over and rubs her face as if trying to blot out the memory.

  “It took me two years to pull myself together and return to school. I was as back to normal as I was ever likely to be when I came here. And then I saw her, handing out parenting leaflets at the Freshers’ Fair. And I saw Leonie.” She gasps for breath.

  “We saw her too,” Imo says quietly. “She’s beautiful.”

  “That’s why you froze when we were in that aisle,” Phoenix says. “I couldn’t work out what you’d seen. No wonder you bolted.”

  “I thought I’d faint if I stayed there. Or that Leonie would fade away like a mirage. I must have walked round the outside of the Great Hall ten times, trying to work out what to do. Then Cheryl came out. I watched her put Leonie into another mum’s car and wave goodbye. I should have gone after Leonie, but I was so angry that I followed Cheryl home to confront her.”

  “How did you follow her if you were on foot?” Tegan asks.

  “I flagged down a taxi that was dropping students off. I paid Hamid, the driver, extra not to tell anyone where he took me.”

  Imo rubs her forehead. All this time Hamid knew where Amber went and said nothing, not even when he dropped them in Victoria Lane yesterday. Should she admire his discretion, or wish she’d offered him more money? Could he have been bought twice? They’d never know.

  “What happened next is only just coming back to me. I’ve had blackouts, but I remember it now. Cheryl must have seen us following her. She was waiting on her driveway when I got out. Smiling, friendly. Invited me in for coffee, said Daisy would be back later after a Wacky Warehouse party with a friend. Even though she’d given my baby a different name, I thought it was going to be all right. We sat at her breakfast bar while she told me about Daisy and showed me photos on her phone. It was the happiest I’d felt in years. I was going to see my baby again. We’d make a new start. I knew I couldn’t bound into Leonie’s life and claim her as my own, but I could see her. Be the jolly friend who takes her to feed the ducks in the park and lets her get a refill at the ice-cream factory.” She glances at Imo, a look of expectation in her eyes. Does she want Imo to say that could have worked? A renewed friendship with the woman who stole her baby?

  Imo can only respond with a wistful smile. “What happened next?”

  “After the coffee I started to feel woozy. Everything became a blur. I thought it must be the excitement. Euphoria at finding Leonie. Only later – when I was down there – did it dawn on me. Cheryl had drugged my drink. She asked if I’d like to see Daisy’s room and pointed to a door next to her kitchen. I was a bit wobbly on my feet, but she told me to go first. The last thing I remember is falling down a concrete staircase and blacking out.”

  “That explains your head injury,” Phoenix says. “Don’t touch,” she adds when Amber puts her fingers to her head.

  “So she kept you locked in that cellar since, when was it, the first Tuesday in Freshers’ Week?” Tegan shakes her head. “Raving psycho.”

  Amber asks what day it is and Imo says it’s Friday.

  “I was there more than a week?”

  Imo and Phoenix exchange a glance. An unspoken agreement passes between them and they don’t tell Amber she was there for sixteen days. Not yet.

  “But what did she hope to achieve?” Tegan paces the bedroom floor. “I’m guessing she brought you water and occasional bits of food to keep you alive, so what was her end game?”

  “I don’t think she had one,” Amber says. “She never said a word to me after I came round. She left water, crisps and soup, but wouldn’t answer my questions. When I got angry and tried to press her, she stayed away until I ached with thirst. When she came back she had one bottle of water and no food. I kept quiet after that so she’d feed me. I think the gaps between her visits grew longer.”

  “Psycho,” Tegan says again. She goes to the window and looks out, hugging her elbows.

  “You have to go to the police,” Riku says. He’s still leaning on Imo’s desk with his arms folded. Everyone looks at him; he’s been so quiet they’ve forgotten he’s there. “They can get your
baby back. DNA will prove it.”

  Amber shakes her head. “I’ve thought about that – I’ve had time to think of little else. There’d be a court case and Cheryl might lose custody, but it wouldn’t mean that they’d give Leonie to me, not with my track record. And I couldn’t expect my mother to look after another child after the grief I’ve caused her. If I go to the police, Leonie will end up in care. That would be worse than leaving her with the only mother she knows.”

  A gloomy silence descends. Even Imo can see a depressing logic in what she’s said.

  But Tegan wheels round. “You don’t believe that.” Her voice is hard. “A criminal for a parent. Is that what you want for her? I know about that, and believe me, it’s always bad.”

  Amber shrinks against Imo, sobbing. “What does it matter? I’ll never find her again.”

  Looking over Amber’s shoulder, Imo catches Tegan’s eye. She senses they’re thinking the same thing. She clears her throat. “Don’t get your hopes up, but we might know where she is.”

  Chapter 67

  Tegan

  The taxi to the station is not driven by Hamid. Luckily for him, as Tegan intends to kick out his headlights for keeping quiet. No one gets away with lying to Tegan Parry, and Amber could have died thanks to him.

  They board the first available intercity to Paddington. Amber is still shaking like an addict in withdrawal. It works in their favour when a middle-aged couple take one look at her and vacate a table for four. Tegan occupies the seat by the window and Imo leads Amber to the two seats opposite. A fat woman claims the fourth seat before Phoenix can get to it. She and Riku remain by the carriage doors.

  Tegan presses against the cold train window to disconnect her thigh from the outsized woman glued to her Kindle in the seat and a half beside her. Tegan texts Phoenix: Fifty Shades? Phoenix gives a lacklustre smile. Clearly too wired for humour. Opposite’s true for Tegan; a few wisecracks are her only way to stay out of the bricking-it zone.