The Forgotten Child

by D. E. White

  ‘Come again?’

  ‘The money you say Jay took from you. Have you got it back yet?’ Dev said. ‘Because I was wondering if you were so popular because you’ve promised funding that you don’t actually have yet.’

  A flash of panic crossed Niko’s face. ‘Jayden’s gonna pay for this when I find him …’ He caught himself. ‘Bailey’s dead, isn’t he? I heard he got strung up.’

  ‘Don’t change the subject. What if me and Holly were thinking of coming back properly, and what if we had funding of our own? That would be complicated, wouldn’t it?’ Dev said, smiling at his cousin.

  ‘What? You wouldn’t though … It’s all fucked up at the moment. I wanna work, but I need to buy in. You know what? Gareth said nobody’s seen Jayden and it’s only a rumour that he’s back. Roman and Alexi had a lot of enemies, but their deaths have been pegged to Jayden, somehow.’ Niko was edgy, cracking his knuckles in a way that made Holly want to scream.

  ‘All I care about is getting Milo back. If you see or hear anything, then just call me or Dev. The Seaview is my place too, you know, and they are all out looking for my boy. When we find out what happened and who took him, I’m betting the police won’t get to them before the people off the estate.’ Holly fixed him with a gimlet eye, staring him down.

  ‘You’ve got those women coppers on the case, I know.’ Niko relaxed a little and lit another spliff from the butt of the old one. He moved over to the windowsill, stroking a hand over his plants. ‘I got plans now I’m out. I’ve had eight years to think about what to do, and I’ve got the contacts to make the business bigger than it ever was. Screw the Nicholls, if the money doesn’t come in, I’ve got contacts with really hot girls and we won’t be staying round here. I’m moving too. The old man doesn’t know yet but this place isn’t right for me now. If you’re serious about coming back into the business, you could go in with us. Weather’s better in Spain too.’ He was grinning now, relaxed and friendly as the mellow drug took hold.

  Holly nodded, not caring a shit about Niko’s life. ‘Yeah, well, if you hear anything …’

  Her voice shook a bit and Dev slid a hand over hers. Niko watched them, eyes narrowing against the thin blue stream of cigarette smoke.

  ‘Niko?’ Mason was yelling from the main house, shattering the moment.

  ‘I got nothing to tell you,’ Niko said flatly. ‘But if I do hear, I’ll call Dev. And, Dev, you let me know if you decide to come home. I mean it.’

  Holly walked quickly through the filthy stench of the house, and out into the freezing but clean air. ‘That was pointless. He still as thick as ever, and a bloody liar, saying one thing and then contradicting himself in the next sentence.’

  ‘Niko’s desperate so it was worth a shot. He hasn’t got Milo though because you haven’t had a ransom demand. The only reason Niko would take him would be to get money. I’m surprised he didn’t think of it, actually. It would be totally his style.’

  ‘Cathryn says he’s soft on kids,’ Holly told him disbelievingly.

  ‘Yeah right.’ Devril dropped her home but seemed anxious to get going. ‘I can come back later if you like? I’ve just got some things to do.’

  ‘Like another story on Milo?’

  He met her eyes. ‘Yes. But you knew that. I’m not doing anything I didn’t say I would. This is where it’s good to do what I do. We need the general public still looking, still caring about him and I can make them do that.’

  When he put it like that she couldn’t argue, and she was too exhausted to try and think, so she agreed he would come over later, and made her way into the empty house. There was a note from Lydia, who had obviously let herself in with her own key, propped against a mug on the kitchen table, saying workmen had been round and promised to come back tomorrow to fix the windows.

  Holly sighed, crumpling the note and hurling at across the kitchen. Who cared? Who fucking cared about any of it? The whole house could burn down and none of it mattered without Milo.

  She made herself a cup of tea, and almost in a dream began to collect things. There was a dresser shelf at the far end of the kitchen, opposite the table. She took all the crockery off the shelves, and began to replace it with Milo’s things. Framed photographs, his collection of dragons, a few of his books, his old blankie from when he was a baby. More photographs – she stuck them on the wall around the shelves with Blu-Tack. In the centre she put a candle and a potted plant.

  It was a shrine to her boy and she stood fiercely in front of it, trying to channel her love towards him. All those stories about mind-reading and psychics might be bollocks but she tried to send him something, eyes screwed up tight.

  When she opened her eyes, she realised her phone was ringing and she ran back out to the hallway, grabbing it from her bag.

  ‘Hallo?’

  It was Karen. ‘Holly?’

  ‘Have you found him?’ Maybe it had worked …

  ‘No. Mason Balinta has just complained about you and Devril Mancini harassing Niko.’

  ‘We weren’t harassing him, we were having a chat. I have to do something, not just sit at home and wait for Milo’s body to turn up!’ Holly shouted, pacing the hallway.

  ‘Holly! Calm down. You’re doing really well. Everything we ask you to do, you do it and believe me, we aren’t sitting still down here.’

  ‘I know that. Sorry.’

  ‘Don’t give up, Holly. If you get anything else then just call me. Or call me anyway, if you need to talk.’

  ‘You had another missing child case, didn’t you? In Romford.’ She couldn’t help prying. It distracted her from her pain.

  Silence for a while, then she answered, ‘Yes, I did. We did everything we could on that case.’

  ‘I’m not saying you didn’t, I’m just saying that we’ve got two boys missing here and nothing’s happening! Oh fuck it, I don’t know anything anymore.’ Holly ended the call and chucked her phone on the table.

  Energy spent, she collapsed back onto the sofa, the chipboard windows mocking her, the room cold and dank. After a while she went back and sat at the kitchen table, facing the photos of her boy. It was warmer in there. She drank in his smiling face, forcing herself to focus only on him.

  The builders came round as promised and the windows were repaired. Her car had been towed away earlier, and the insurance company were supposed to be dealing with the claim. Jesus, they hadn’t even finished processing the last one.

  She considered ringing her aunt, but after the revelation that she’d actually been in contact with Jayden there was a definite frosty atmosphere between them. It was almost as if she felt Lydia had betrayed her. Which was stupid. Her emotions were just all over the place.

  As darkness closed in Holly checked the windows and doors again and again, making sure her phone was charged, half wishing Dev hadn’t gone home. She paced the house, leaving all the lights on, and finally fell into an exhausted slumber on the sofa, clutching Milo’s cricket bat and one of his soft toys.

  ***

  As the light leaked through the sullen clouds, and morning approached Holly was awake and trying to scrub away her exhaustion in the shower. Two phone calls to Donnie just reached his answer phone. What was he up to? She needed to talk about this Nicholls thing. Dev had said before he left that maybe they could play it so all the families thought they were getting what they wanted, on the outside chance Milo was being held by the Nicholls. It would be a bloody miracle and if they made a mistake they’d go the same way as Bailey, but she’d do anything to get Milo back. Endangering her own life seemed trivial in comparison to any pain or suffering he might be going through.

  Cath appeared with Anna and Angel just after eleven. The roar of commuter traffic on the road outside had settled to a buzz, and the feeble spring sunshine was making puddles glisten. As usual her friend had two bulging shopping bags hanging from one arm.

  Holly shoved two twenties in her purse when she wasn’t looking. Cath couldn’t afford to shop for someone else
, but she would never accept the money if she tried to give it to her outright.

  The girls settled down to play with Milo’s Lego, scattering a box of raisins across the carpet.

  Cath sighed, kneeling to pick up the raisins. ‘I saw Noah in town with Ruby today. They were at Costa, all snuggled up in a booth. Very cosy. Anyway Ruby texted me to say she thinks Noah’s been accepted by the fire service. But it’s in the next county so he’s talking about them both moving. Oh, and Beano’s left. He’s gone back to Tesco’s. He says they pay better.’

  Holly let the gossip flow over her, grateful for the distraction. ‘I’m not surprised, Beano’s still got his ex-wife on his case, hasn’t he?’

  ‘Speaking of exes … Niko phoned last night. He wants to see Kian and he said he’s got some money coming through so he’s going to start paying child support.’

  ‘Fuck.’

  ‘That’s what I said, and he said yes please.’

  Holly made a childish vomiting sound, her fingers in her mouth, and Angel immediately copied her, beaming.

  ‘Girls, you stay here. There’s another box of Lego in the corner, look,’ Cathryn said. ‘Me and Holly are just going to sit in the kitchen with our tea.’ Keeping one eye on her kids, she turned to Milo’s wall. ‘Nice display by the way. Is it helping?’

  Holly shook her head. ‘Not really. I just feel like I need a way to keep him near me …’

  ‘Oh, babes, come here.’

  Holly hugged her back, feeling her bony ribs, burying her head in her coarse blonde mane. It was comforting for all of ten seconds, and then the pain came roaring back. Frantically sifting through her mind, she sought a distraction. ‘So Ruby is still seeing Noah then?’

  ‘Yeah she said call her if you want to, but she understands if not.’

  ‘I just can’t …’

  ‘Everyone at work sends their love and they’ve all been sharing on social media.’

  ‘It is nice to know everyone’s got my back but I’m so tired I can hardly get showered and dressed in the morning. Trying to act normally takes all my energy when what I really want to do is stand screaming in the street or just curl up into a ball and cry all day.’

  ‘The police haven’t called again, have they?’

  ‘No. After the TV appeal, they always get a load of cranks phoning in claiming to know where the missing kid is, or reporting their neighbours for something, so Karen said she’d only call if anything tangible came in.’

  ‘Holly, I need to tell you something.’ Cathryn put Anna back down and she scampered happily back to her sister, who was taking all the Lego out of the basket and chucking it across the floor. ‘Holly, did you ever wonder how Niko knew where to find Jayden?’

  ‘I don’t know. We’ve been over this, haven’t we?’ Holly was confused.

  ‘It was me.’

  ‘What?’

  Cathryn’s eyes were huge in her thin face. ‘I told Niko where to find them that night. I was taking Ronnie to his eye appointment at the hospital, it was pissing down with rain and I was struggling on the bloody bus to Panfield with the kids and the shopping … And then I saw him. I saw Jayden when I got off at the Heath Road stop. He was walking in a crowd just ahead.’

  ‘You saw him?’

  ‘Yeah. I called out to him. I wasn’t quite sure at first if it was him or not, but then he turned to cross the road and I was sure. I was kind of dithering. I didn’t want to be late for the eye appointment, but I mean, Christ, none of us had seen him for over a year. I followed him, in the rain with the pushchair. He never saw me but I saw him go to Holborn Court and run upstairs and along the balcony. A girl opened the door to number fifty-five and she had a baby in her arms. He kissed her and stroked the baby’s head and they went inside.’

  ‘Did you not go up and find out what was going on?’ Holly asked.

  ‘No. I could see he had hooked up with someone else, had another kid, and there was me dumped with the twins and no support. I was furious. I went to the clinic and I thought what I should do all the way home. It was obvious. I was seeing Niko, we had Kian, and Niko had been looking for Jayden ever since he pissed off. I rang him and went back to his place.’ She looked straight at Holly, flicking her hair back. ‘It was my fault. I told Niko where to find Jayden.’

  ‘Shit. Cathryn, you could never have known what would happen,’ Holly said. All this time her friend had carried the same guilt she had. It was a shock, but after the initial flash of horror, she just felt empty. Nothing mattered except Milo.

  ‘I thought he might get a beating. In fact, shit I knew he would. I never thought that they’d go for the girl though … But that’s why Niko lied about the tip-off, to protect me.’

  ‘Was that why you broke up?’

  She shrugged. ‘It’s hard to say, what with all the crap going on with Larissa’s murder.’

  Holly studied her friend’s face, watching her bite her lip and start playing with her bracelets. She’d always thought at the time it was weird that Niko and Cath got together, but their short relationship had been peppered with rows. Both of them short-tempered and used to getting their own way.

  ‘So anyway, now you know. Do you think I should tell the police? I’m scared, Holly. What if Jayden has found out it was me that grassed him up? If he arranged for Alexi and Roman to be killed, and maybe took Milo? What about the other kids?’

  Holly tried to drag her mind back to the subject in hand. She’d almost dismissed her brother as a potential abductor but Cath’s terror was tangible, and the room practically quivered with it. ‘I think you should tell Karen, and she can decide whether it might be important. She’s okay, and she won’t judge you.’

  ‘Okay. You got her number? I’ll ring her when I get home.’

  And, Cath, when you get home, tell your brothers, and your dad. Just in case. So you’ve got people looking out for you on the estate.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Cathryn was nodding, gathering up her things, prising the kids away from the Lego. ‘This is fucking scary, isn’t it? I guess we just hope that if Jayden’s got his own kid back, he’s gone away again. No reason to hang around if he managed to kill Alexi and Roman, is there? But if he did have Milo, he might let him go now he’s got his own boy back.’

  ‘He might,’ Holly said, showing her out. If her brother wanted to torture her then this was the perfect way to do it. Where would he be, though? With a massive police search and media coverage, where the hell could he be keeping two kids?

  Dev called to say he’d filed his story, and to ask whether he should come round. Holly considered. ‘I dunno. It might be best if I track down Donnie on my own.’

  ‘He always liked me.’ Dev was amused.

  ‘Yeah, all right.’ She told him, then, about Cathryn’s little confession.

  ‘Fucking hell, I always wondered how he really knew. All that shit about the bit of paper through the door, which he then chucked away, was too weird to be true. Too convenient, but Cathryn, wow! I wouldn’t have thought she’d have the balls to do that …’

  ‘I can imagine how she felt when she saw Jayden all shacked up with this new girl and a kid too. And I can hardly judge, can I? I did the same thing. If you’d passed on that message from me Niko would have sent the boys round earlier.’

  ‘Yeah … I still think Niko went over as well. I know Roman and Alexi always said they were on their own going to collect the money, but for Niko it was personal, wasn’t it? Jayden had been our mate, and then he’d screwed the Balintas over.’

  ‘The police said there was no evidence he had been in the flat,’ Holly pointed out. ‘But yeah, weird. You’d think he would have got a kick out of finally finding him.’

  ‘I’ll be with you in fifteen minutes, and we can head over to the Seaview.’

  ‘Thanks, Dev.’

  After locking the front door, Holly was waiting in the road as Dev pulled up. The journalists had thinned out in the last couple of days, and now mostly phoned asking for interviews. She ignored a
ll of them.

  In silence they drove up the hill, and along the coast a way, before turning back along the main road that led towards the front entrance to the Seaview.

  ‘Anything else on Bailey?’ she asked. ‘Karen wouldn’t comment when I asked her.’

  ‘No. The police won’t tell me anything either. Typical Nicholls job, all signed and sealed,’ Dev said bitterly. ‘But DI Harper’s being dead quiet about the stuff we got from Bailey’s wife, so I’m hoping he might just be checking it out and preparing a case. Don’t forget he’s wanted the Nicholls for years. It’s personal.’

  ‘Yeah, very personal. It’s always good to keep things in the family,’ Holly agreed sarcastically. ‘Sorry, Dev, I haven’t got my head around him being Jay’s dad yet.’

  They stopped at a queue of traffic at the bridge. The scream of sirens made Dev squeeze his vehicle onto the pavement to allow a convoy of emergency vehicles to pass through. An ambulance was on the grass verge of the other side of the road and they could make out figures in fluorescent jackets on the opposite riverbank.

  Chapter 35

  ‘What’s going on?’ Holly’s voice rose in panic. Instinct told her it must be Milo. They must have found his body …

  But then she saw the car.

  The traffic was at a total standstill and she grabbed the door handle, even as Dev yelled at her to stay put. She ignored him and ran, gasping and panting in the cold air, dodging round vehicles until she reached the scene. It was Beth’s car. A red Golf was lying partially visible in the river, the grey water swirling around it. The rear window had a yellow Battersea Dogs Home sticker, and a row of silver stars.

  She had only seen the car a couple of times, most recently as it drove away from her house. At first, she was so passionately relieved it wasn’t anything to do with Milo, she hardly took it in. This road was full of hazardous bends and the area coming into this end of town was a traffic black spot.

  But then a kind of horror took over – Beth and the baby could be fatally injured. She had seemed so sorted and organised. So calm, that Holly had actually envied her. Envied her that she had her baby still with her and that she was escaping to make a new life. But maybe she hadn’t … Why was she still in Westbourne?