Paradise End

by Elizabeth Laird

  The raindrops had been coming thicker and faster, and now the first flash of lightning zipped across the sky. Tia and I dashed across the last few metres of the terrace towards the drawing-room windows, but in the lightning’s sudden dazzling brightness I caught sight of Frost, and let Tia go on alone.

  Frost was standing quite still on the edge of the terrace, alone, not seeming to notice the rain, looking down to where his sister was chasing Otto across the grass below.

  18

  The party changed. Before, the people who hadn’t been dancing in the marquee had been spread out in the grounds, lingering in the rose garden or talking and laughing on the terrace, but they’d crowded into the house now. They were filling the drawing room, spilling out into the hall and even into the dining room beyond.

  Dixie seemed to have given up pursuing Otto. She was standing on the stairs, a glass in her hand. She was waving at a second band, a jazz quartet, who had been playing all evening on the gallery.

  ‘Turn up the sound!’ I think I heard her shout. ‘Dim the lights!’

  Someone did, and the music pounded out. The table had been cleared away, and the hall had become a dance floor. People were moving in and out from the open rooms dancing more and more wildly.

  It should have been great, like being in a fantastic club or something, but I’d started to feel uneasy. Tia had disappeared again and there was no sign of the boys. I looked for them, but couldn’t see anyone I knew. The faces of the people looked strange in the dimmed light, no longer happy and partyish, but desperate and strained.

  Where’s Tia? I thought, anxiety crisping me up inside. Is she all right?

  Then I heard the smash of breaking china and looked back into the drawing room. Through the open door, I saw that one of the pair of huge old Chinese vases on the mantelpiece had disappeared. A woman near to where it had been was shrieking in a voice full of panic, ‘There are snakes on the other one too!’ I saw a trembling hand covered with rings pick the second vase up and drop it. There was another smash as it broke on the floor.

  She must be having a fit or something, I thought. I wish I could find Tia. What’s the matter with me? I’m getting freaked out here.

  Just then a tray loaded with glasses of wine seemed to appear out of nowhere, and I snatched one off it. But before I could drink, a hand grabbed my wrist, holding it painfully hard, and half the wine tipped out down the front of my lovely dress.

  ‘What the hell, Carly. You were drinking champagne before. You’ve had enough.’

  It was Sam.

  My anxiety flipped into a flash of fury. I wrenched my arm away.

  ‘Get stuffed, Sam. Leave me alone.’

  ‘Carly, I’m telling you. Watch out. You need to stay on top of things, OK?’

  ‘I told you,’ I snarled at him. ‘Get lost.’

  Usually, Sam sparks back at me when I rip up at him, but this time he didn’t. He just stood there looking at me, his forehead ruckled up with worry.

  ‘I mean it,’ he said. ‘Be careful.’

  ‘What are you on about?’

  His serious look had calmed me right down.

  ‘There’s all sorts going on here. Heavy stuff. God knows what. You shouldn’t be here, Carly. I think you ought to go home. It’s gone half-eleven. Mum and Dad’ll be going spare by now.’

  All my life, I’ve refused to let Sam boss me around, but for once I wanted to cave in. He looked strong and steady, standing there, a proper big brother, and I was beginning to feel out of my depth.

  But I shook my head.

  ‘Can’t. I can’t just go and leave Tia.’

  ‘Where is she?’

  ‘That’s the trouble. I don’t know. I lost her when we came indoors. I’m worried about her.’

  We’d been shouting to make ourselves heard above the music, but it stopped suddenly. I could hear the rumble of thunder and the noise of torrential rain pounding on the ground outside.

  ‘I can’t go home anyway,’ I said. ‘Not till the rain stops.’

  ‘Phone Mum then,’ said Sam. ‘Tell her you’re OK.’

  He was right. I knew it. My heart was sinking faster than a pebble in a pond.

  ‘I had to come, Sam,’ I said, trying not to sound pleading. ‘Tia really needs me. I’ve got to find her.’

  He actually nodded.

  ‘Yeah. I can see that. I’ll back you up with Mum. Look, I’ve got to go.’

  He disappeared into the crowd as the music started up again. I fought my way through to the stairs, ran up a few, and looked down over everyone’s heads, but I couldn’t see Tia, or the boys for that matter.

  Phone Mum, I told myself. You’ve got to do it. Get it over with.

  I’d only ever phoned from Paradise End using Tia’s mobile, but I remembered the desk in the library. There’d been a phone on it, I was sure. And the library would probably be quieter. Somehow, I couldn’t imagine people raving away in there.

  I shoved my way through to the back of the hall again, and opened the library door.

  I was right. It was quiet in here, almost empty, in fact, but not quite. Tia and Otto were there.

  I’d never seen Tia being angry before, but I could tell she was furious now. Her cheeks were bright pink. Her arms were straight and stiff and her fists were clenched. In a controlled, tight voice she was saying, ‘You’ve lived off my mother for months and months. You’ve taken everything she’s given you. She did this whole party for you. How could you have said those awful things?’

  Otto ran his fingers through his hair. He was trying to look cool and charming. I couldn’t imagine how I’d ever thought he was gorgeous. His face was slimed over with the most disgusting insincerity.

  ‘Look, Tia, you’re a sweet kid,’ he said, ‘but you’ve got to – well, face facts. People do say things. I said things. I’m sorry you overheard. I didn’t know you were listening. I didn’t mean to be nasty about your mother. It’s time for me to move on, that’s all.’

  If I’d been Tia I’d have clawed his face. I could see, though, that her contempt was much more effective than rage. Otto was looking uncomfortable. His eyes were sliding sideways as if he was trying to work out how to get past Tia and the big desk and out through the library door.

  ‘Next time you decide to use somebody, and then just dump them –’ Tia began, but she never finished, because the door burst open and Dixie came into the room.

  ‘Otto, darling!’ Her voice was thick. I’d gone over to stand beside Tia, but she didn’t notice us. She stumbled across towards Otto and tried to put her arms round him.

  ‘I’ve just heard! Isn’t it brilliant? Such a wonderful part for you. Max is too divine. Hollywood, here we come!’

  Otto unwrapped her arms from round his neck and stepped away from her.

  ‘Look, you kids, can’t you leave us for a bit?’ he said, shooting us a sideways glance.

  ‘Oh, are you here, Tia, darling?’ Dixie waved unsteadily at Tia. ‘Isn’t it wonderful? Back into the big time.’

  Otto’s eyes narrowed.

  ‘Max hasn’t – has Max offered you . . . Who told you about my part?’

  ‘Lally, of course. I haven’t seen Max yet. He must be hunting for me everywhere.’

  ‘Mimi,’ Tia began, ‘listen, it’s not going to be . . .’

  But Otto was suddenly between us, taking us each by an arm and thrusting us towards the library door.

  ‘Out,’ he said. ‘Now.’

  The door slammed behind us.

  ‘I knew it, I knew what he was like,’ Tia said. ‘The snake.’

  I was hopping up and down.

  ‘Snake? He’s a rat! A skunk! A dirty piece of lowlife!’

  ‘Shh.’ Tia put a hand on my arm. She bent her head against the door, trying to hear what was going on inside, but the noise of the band and the laughter and shrieks of the guests in the hall drowned out everything else.

  We stood there for a while, not knowing what to do. Then I saw Sam on the far side
of the hall, balancing a tray on one hand above his head.

  ‘Mum! I never called her!’ I mouthed to Tia in a panic. ‘Where’s your mobile?’

  She pointed to the stairs with her chin.

  ‘Up there. Come on.’

  We were about to start pushing our way through the crowd when the library door burst open. Otto was trying to push Dixie back, but she was clinging to his arm. Then he lost his temper completely.

  ‘Get lost, you old drunk. I can’t stand all this any longer,’ he shouted.

  He freed himself at last, and sent Dixie spinning against the door frame. One or two people standing near us had heard, and they turned shocked faces to Otto, clearing the way in front of him as he lunged through the crowd towards the front door.

  Things happened quickly after that, horribly fast, but I can see it all still, quite clearly in my mind. Dixie recovered her balance and tried to follow him, shrieking, ‘Otto! Come back! Don’t leave me!’

  The desperation in her voice made more heads turn. She didn’t notice. She reached the front door. Tia had tried to catch hold of her arm, but Dixie was outside already, running in the rain, down the red carpet with its little border of trees.

  There came a roar as Otto started his car, then we saw the rear lights glow red as it swung out through the gates of Paradise End and disappeared down the hill.

  Dixie faltered and swayed in the driveway for a moment, then she plunged towards her own scarlet sports car.

  ‘No, Mimi! No! You can’t!’ shouted Tia, running out towards her.

  A kind of paralysis, a creeping horror, held me back. The band in the gallery were still playing, their cheerful rhythm pounding on, but no one was dancing now. People were crowding out through the front door to stand under the canopy, or pushing to a window to get a better view.

  For a moment, the scarlet sports car didn’t move. The lights from the flaming torches, still fizzing in spite of the torrential rain, glittered on its polished sides. I could see Dixie fumbling behind the steering wheel, and Tia trying to wrench open the door by the driving seat.

  ‘Mimi, you can’t! Come back!’ she was shouting.

  But the engine roared into life. The car leaped forwards, lurching violently, making straight for one of the pillars of the gates, then swerved at the last minute and shot through them. People were shaking their heads and muttering anxiously, but no one spoke loudly, and the music hadn’t started again.

  I found my feet at last, and raced out to meet Tia, who was running back towards the house. The rain had darkened her long blonde hair, which was hanging now in rat’s tails over her shoulders, and her dress was nearly wet through. I dragged her into the shelter of the canopy.

  ‘Frost! We’ve got to find Frost!’ she said. ‘Someone’s got to go after her!’

  ‘Mr Hollins,’ I said.

  Her face brightened.

  ‘Hollins, yes. He’ll know what to do.’

  She darted out again into the streaming rain, towards the garages. I took a deep breath, ready to follow her.

  ‘What’s going on?’ said someone behind me.

  I turned and saw Sam.

  ‘Dixie. She—’

  ‘I know. I saw. Where’s Tia?’

  ‘Trying to find Mr Hollins. She wants him to go after her.’

  He nodded. ‘Good.’

  For the first time in my life, I saw that Sam looked like Dad, steady and solid. I nearly wanted to fling my arms round him.

  ‘Sam, I still haven’t been able to phone Mum,’ I said.

  He tapped the mobile he kept strapped to his belt.

  ‘I have. Good thing too. She was going nuts. She was just about to get Dad to pull in the entire British police force.’

  My heart sank right down into my toes.

  ‘Is she totally, totally furious?’

  ‘Dunno. Yeah, at first. I told her you had to be here for Tia. Said you’d be staying the night. She calmed down.’

  ‘You calmed Mum down?’ I was awestruck. For once in my life, I didn’t know what to say.

  Suddenly, Tia was back.

  ‘Was he there?’ I said.

  ‘No.’ She was pale and shivering, wet from head to toe. ‘What’ll I do? What am I going to do?’

  ‘I’ll find him,’ said Sam. ‘Don’t worry. Go inside and get warm.’

  He pushed Tia gently back in through the front door and ran outside again.

  Up on the gallery, the band was still playing, but only a few couples were dancing, circling around dreamily, their energy gone. I could tell that the party was more or less over. People were fetching coats and wraps, looking round uncertainly for someone to say goodbye to, ducking their heads as they prepared to dash out to their cars through the rain.

  Tia was trembling so violently that I could almost hear her teeth chattering.

  ‘You ought to change. You need to get dry,’ I said, more roughly than I’d intended. I took her arm and tried to pull her towards the stairs.

  ‘No!’ She pulled away from me. ‘I’ve got to find Frost!’ Her anxiety was starting to claw at me too. I kept imagining Dixie, who’d hardly been able to stand upright, behind the wheel of a fast sports car. It would be swerving violently all over the road, turning corners too fast, skidding on the wet surface.

  ‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘We’ve got to find Frost.’ The nearest open door was the drawing room’s. It was a mess, as if a tidal wave had washed over it, the chairs pushed around, red gashes of wine staining the sofas, half-empty plates of food littering the tables, the fragments of the Chinese vases lying in the grate.

  One quick look told us that Frost wasn’t there. Tia had already moved on towards the library. I followed her, and looking in through the door, I saw Frost, sitting at his desk, quite still, his back straight and his arms crossed on his chest.

  ‘Frost! I can’t find Hollins! He’s got to go after her!’ burst out Tia.

  He turned his head stiffly towards her.

  ‘He’s gone. I sent him almost at once.’

  Tia’s knees buckled. She sank down on to one of the leather sofas.

  ‘Oh, thank goodness. He’ll know what to do. He’s sure to stop her. She’ll be OK, won’t she, Frost?’

  It was almost as if he had seen her for the first time.

  ‘Yes, of course. Tia, look at you! You’re wet through. Go and change. I’ll let you know as soon as she comes back.’

  Tia smiled. I could feel her relief. A weight was rolling off me too.

  Out in the hall, the music had stopped and the band were packing away their things. The last few guests were standing about talking, or looking out through the windows as if they were waiting for the rain to stop. They moved aside as we walked through, and I saw pitying looks on some of the women’s faces. Tia didn’t notice them. She was shivering again, but only with cold this time.

  She followed me upstairs. Usually, whenever I’d walked up the wide, shallow staircase in Paradise End, I’d stopped and looked down over the banisters, lingering over the beauty of it all. I didn’t want to this time. It was as if the enchantment that had held me had been broken.

  I made Tia strip off her wet things and have a warm shower. I was restless while she was in the bathroom, moving round the room, going constantly to the window, watching the last of the cars drive away, and waiting for – I didn’t know what. For something to happen, I suppose.

  I was talking to Tia through the bathroom door, asking her if she was all right, when headlights from outside lit up the room in a garish glow. I ran back to the window. A big black car was coming up the drive. It stopped. The dazzling lights went out. Mr Hollins stepped out of it, and hurried into the house.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  Why’s he alone? I thought. Why isn’t Dixie with him?’

  I was about to run out to the gallery and look down into the hall below, when I saw something else outside, the last thing I’d expected. Mum was hurrying up the drive under her bent, black umbrella, her old
raincoat wrapped round her.

  I suppose I knew then, at that moment, that something terrible had happened.

  ‘Tia!’ I shouted through the bathroom door. ‘I’ll be right back. I’m just going downstairs for a moment.’

  Then I raced out of the room, half tumbled down the stairs, and stopped dead, face to face with Mum.

  I forgot how angry she must be with me.

  ‘Something’s happened, Mum, hasn’t it? Is it Dixie? Did she crash her car? Is she hurt?’

  Mum put her arm round my shoulders and squeezed them.

  ‘Where’s Tia, Carly?’

  ‘Upstairs. In the shower. She got wet. I made her change.’

  ‘Take me up to her.’

  I still feel guilty when I remember how I felt at that moment. I ought to have been filled with pity and dread for Tia, but all I felt was an awful kind of excitement. I was right in the middle of a great drama, a matter of life and death, and I know, if I’m honest, that in a horrible way I was enjoying it.

  We reached Tia’s bedroom door and went in. She was standing at the window, wrapped in a fluffy white bathrobe. And a blue light from the police car that had just pulled up outside was flickering on and off, on and off.

  ‘She crashed her car, didn’t she?’ she said, in a high, little voice. ‘Is she hurt?’

  Mum went up and tried to put her arms round her.

  ‘Just tell me, please, Mrs McQuarrie,’ said Tia. ‘Is my mother dead?’

  I hardly saw Mum’s tiny nod, but Tia did.

  ‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘It’s not true. I don’t believe it. She was here just now. It’s not true.’

  ‘It was the wet road,’ Mum said in a trembly voice. ‘It was at that sharp bend, just before the junction into Torminster. Her car must have skidded on the corner. It crashed into the big old oak tree there. Mr Hollins came almost at once, and dialled nine, nine, nine.’ She swallowed. ‘It was too late, Tia. There was nothing anyone could do.’

  She stopped. Tia had started making awful little moaning noises in her throat. My stupid excitement had drained away and my heart was turning over. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t think of anything to say.