by Hannah Pearl
‘He could have walked. He didn’t have anywhere else he needed to be.’
‘I’ll call all the local cab firms when we get back here. There can’t be many in the area. If one of them picked him up and took him to another hotel, at least we might have the next place to look. As things stand, we’re risking falling further behind him again.’
The amusement arcade was no less depressing for being open and lit up. If a cleaning crew had been through since it had closed for the day, there was no evidence of it. The paths that twisted and wound between fruit machines, two penny slots and arcade games felt tacky under foot. A young man stood feeding coins into a machine which seemed to swallow his donations as fast as he could make them. His jeans were so baggy that not only was the waistband of his pants visible, but so was half of his bottom. Clearly he needed to buy some with new elastic. If he had any money left at the end of his session.
The rest of the arcade was deserted, though the flashing lights and beckoning noises of the games gave an eerie impression of a space that was haunted, the alarms and strobes flashing to entertain participants who were no longer present. I searched to find a member of staff without success. I was about to accidentally on purpose knock into a machine to see if I could set the alarm off to get someone’s attention, when Eli yelled my name.
I raced over to find him pointing excitedly at a screen. ‘I know you’re chuffed to find Sonic the Hedgehog in an arcade, but please remember that we’re here to find Ben.’
‘I did,’ Eli said, jabbing his finger at the display. ‘Look’. He didn’t step back, so I was forced to squeeze against him. The display read that we needed to add more credit if we wanted to play, but Eli made no move to drop coins into the slot so I stood next to him and waited until the screen changed again. ‘There, see.’
And then I did. The top five scores were all attributed to somebody called Ben. Eli took me by the hand and led me to the next machine. This one not only had Ben as the top three scores, but it also gave the dates that the scores had been saved. The day after we had argued. Taking a quick run around the arcade, I checked all the other scores that I could see. Ben’s name was on the majority of them. Whatever he’d been up to on his trip he’d clearly had time to spare, but I still needed to find him, apologise and bring him home.
The man in the baggy jeans wandered off and no one entered to take his place so eventually we gave up waiting to find anyone else to speak to. Presumably the place came into its own later in the day, but right now it was deserted.
Back at the cottage, I copied the list of mini cab firms onto my pad and began calling. The job would probably have been next to impossible in London. For a start there would have been an endless list of firms to ring, but also most of them would have doubtless been unwilling to track down individual passengers or drivers, especially as Ben was an adult who had left of his own free will. They wouldn’t understand why Eli and I were so worried. Here though, my starting point of forty numbers was quickly whittled down. Five of the firms were listed twice, several more were so far away I didn’t think they would travel this far for a five-minute journey.
It seemed that many of the businesses listed were in fact single driver operations. ‘Probably farmers making a bit of spare cash by fitting in some driving for elderly neighbours and teenage drinkers on the weekends,’ Eli suggested, setting a cup of tea next to my elbow and glancing at my notes.
As I crossed the last number off my list with no success to show for it, Eli stepped behind me and began to massage my shoulders. It was hard to unwind, knowing that Ben was still missing, but the sensation of Eli’s strong fingers touching me was hard to resist. I moaned, and he paused for a moment, before resuming his motion, this time in a more gentle and sensual action. He swept the hair from the back of my neck and kissed me.
When I moaned again, he gently lifted me from the chair and turned me to face him. He lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me until my knees buckled. I sat back onto the table, knocking my cup flying and spilling tea all over the floor. The sound of the china smashing made me jump, and Eli pulled back for a moment to check that I was okay. He leant in to kiss me again but I placed my hand on his chest.
‘Just let me clean up or I won’t be able to concentrate. I think living with my brother has rubbed off on me more than I realised.’ I was half way to the sink to find the dustpan and brush before the blood returned sufficiently to my brain to allow the synapses to make a connection that I should have spotted two days and two hundred miles ago.
‘The washing up,’ I said.
Eli stared at me as if I were crazy. ‘I’m giving you my best moves and you’re thinking about the washing up?’
Chapter Eighteen
‘I’m such an idiot,’ I said, turning from Eli and beginning to pace as much as I could in the tiny kitchen.
‘Are you still talking about the cup, or is this about me?’ Eli asked, leaning against the counter-top.
‘When Ben first left, we thought that he had been home because some of his clothes were gone but the washing up was still there. If Ben had seen it he wouldn’t have left without doing it. And the passport, it was on the floor by the bin but not in the bin. He wouldn’t have left it like that.’
Anyone else might have scoffed in the face of such scant evidence, but Eli knew Ben well enough to immediately realise the import of what I’d realised. He dug his mobile phone from his coat pocket and swiped the screen to wake it up. He lifted it to his ear, speaking to me as he waited for the call to connect. ‘When we find Ben, and we will, you and I have some unfinished business.’
I gulped, and was trying to process how I felt about Eli, when he began to speak again. It took a second before I realised that he wasn’t talking to me. ‘Ben!’ I shouted, reaching for his phone. Eli pressed another button and set it to speakerphone, before holding it in the middle between us.
‘How are you doing, mate? We’ve been worried about you,’ Eli said. It was more polite than the ‘where the hell are you?’ that I’d bitten back.
‘I’m fine, just needed to get away for a bit.’ My brother’s voice sounded quite cheerful. It was a stark contrast to how worried I’d been and I felt my temper rise at his tone.
‘You’d only just got back from holiday!’ I pointed out. Eli shot me a look. ‘I’m sorry Eli and I were arguing the other day. We didn’t mean to scare you away.’
‘I don’t like fighting,’ Ben said, ‘but this trip is for me, I need it.’ The relief I felt was palpable. Eli must have felt the same as he held his arm out and I ducked under it for a cuddle.
‘Where did you go?’ Eli asked him.
‘Away,’ Ben said, as if that were all the detail anyone might need. I stared at the phone, imagining that if my brother were in front of me right now I might hug him first then wring his neck for being so vague. Finally, Ben began to speak again. ‘I was upset that you were shouting at each other. You two are my best friends. I hate that you don’t get on.’ I began to blush, aware of just how well Eli and I had been getting on recently.
‘We’ve been … talking … a lot since you left,’ Eli told him then winked at me. Ben couldn’t detect the undercurrent of humour in Eli’s voice, nor the amount that he’d left unsaid, and responded as if Eli had been giving him the full story.
‘I’m pleased to hear it. Anyway, I had a good time when we were away but it got me thinking. Eli, I know you don’t believe in forever love, unlike my sister who only needs to snog a guy and she starts fantasising about their wedding.’ I blushed so red I had to turn away before Eli noticed. Ben continued, unaware that he was telling Eli more about my feelings for him than I was ready for him to know. ‘I know you’re very different but when you argue it feels like I’m being torn in two. I didn’t know what to do so I left.’
‘Where are you, bud?’
‘Wales,’ Ben announced with a flourish that would have amazed me, if I hadn’t already known that he’d been here.
‘Care to n
arrow it down a little?’ I asked. ‘That’s only a whole country.’
Ben again missed my sarcasm. ‘I went to our uncle’s cottage, the one that Dad used to bring us to. It had a log fire, and the views from the garden were amazing. But it turns out that in the last ten years, they haven’t added any wi-fi, not even the slow crap type that civilians use.’ I could sense him juddering down the phone at the thought of slow connection speeds. ‘I tried, I really did, but it was even worse than the broadband I could get in Cyprus, so I phoned around the hotels until I found one that offered fibre and booked in there instead.’
‘How have you been getting around?’ I asked, thinking that my brainwave about the taxis should have led to more results.
‘What are you talking about?’ Ben asked. ‘I just get in the car.’
‘You don’t drive,’ I pointed out.
‘No, but …’ The call was interrupted by a high-pitched scream.
‘Ben? Ben?’ I shouted, grabbing the mobile and pulling it towards me, but it was no good. The call had ended. I handed it to Eli. ‘Call him back, quick!’ But Ben didn’t pick up.
‘Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness,’ I cried, trying to pace again but not getting far without having to step around Eli or the table.
‘Calm down,’ Eli said. ‘Ben said he was fine. In fact, it sounds like he’s been having a nice break.’
‘Did you not hear the scream?’ I asked, my voice dripping with incredulity.
‘I did hear it,’ Eli said, pulling a chair out from the table and dropping into it. He covered his face with his hands. ‘I just thought that if I could convince you that he was okay, maybe it would be true. That was not a good scream.’
‘So now we’re back where we started,’ I said. ‘We know Ben is here somewhere, but now he won’t answer his phone, and he screamed. Now can we call the police?’
Eli shook his head. ‘He admitted that he came here voluntarily. We’ve only got one scream to go on and they won’t know him as well as we do to know he doesn’t get worked up easily. Besides, I’ve covered for him at work but I need to have him back by the end of the week. He needs to show his face in the office before Christmas or they’re going to notice, then they’re going to investigate and if he’s disappeared in mysterious circumstances they’re going to rescind his security clearance. Bye Bye job.’ Eli didn’t need to tell me how bad that would be. Ben loved his job and he was amazing at it. Not to mention how much safer the country was for his efforts. ‘He mentioned a hotel. Let’s ring round, see if any of them have him registered.’
But half an hour later I was close to screaming myself with the frustration. ‘How is this even possible? He’s getting around in a car that he can’t drive, staying in a hotel that he’s not registered at.’
‘Let’s try again,’ Eli said. ‘Give me the list of cab firms, there must have been one on there who didn’t pick up, that’ll be who he’s using. Or maybe the hotels are just saying no because they won’t give out guest details, even if he is booked in.’
This time it was me shooting Eli a look. ‘People talk to me. You said it yourself. If he was booked in a hotel in his own name, they’d have told me. They understood that I was worried.’ I offered to make Eli a cuppa, thinking that I ought to make up for the one that I’d broken, even though I didn’t actually feel like drinking it. There was something about the familiar action though of setting out the mug and tea bag that was soothing in and of itself, and once again, my brain finally put together evidence that should have been obvious. Refilling the kettle, I returned it to the counter and plugged it in, noticing the cables as I did.
‘Ben’s tattoo, it wasn’t just wires. It was wires that fit together.’
‘It was a male and female jack, I know, he told me.’
‘And he’d been working out,’ I said. ‘I could see when he took his top off. He’s not muscular like you yet, but he also wasn’t the skinny runt that he had been.’
Eli finally caught up with me. ‘The waitress yesterday said that there was a girl there giving her filthy looks. I assumed she was mistaken, but what happens if she wasn’t?’
I grabbed my handbag. ‘Get your keys,’ I told him. ‘We’re going to the pub.’
Chapter Nineteen
The pub wasn’t as deserted as the amusement arcade, though even here the slot machines were flashing despite having no one to attract. There was an old fashioned shoot ‘em up arcade game next to the door of the gents. Out of curiosity, I checked the screen. Ben held the top score.
The waitress that we needed to speak to didn’t start her shift until the evening, but the manager recognised us from our previous trip, and when I explained that I still hadn’t found my brother, he offered to ring her so that we could talk.
‘There’s not much to report,’ she said, when we got her on the line. ‘She wasn’t especially tall or short. In fact she looked pretty boring to me. Though your brother was obviously taken by her. When he wasn’t shooting zombies or fixing my mobile.’
‘What did she look like? What was she wearing?’ I asked.
‘Mousey hair, like yours,’ the girl said, and I resisted the urge to hang up on her. ‘And I can’t remember her clothes. Honestly, I don’t think there was anything eye-catching about her at all.’
I covered the mouthpiece with my hand. ‘This is pointless, we’re never going to find her,’ I moaned to Eli. He took the phone from me and set it on speaker so that he could join in the call.
‘Is there anything else you can tell us that might help?’ he asked.
‘You the cute guy that was there the other night?’ she asked. ‘Come back on your own sometime and I’ll help you.’ I whacked Eli’s arm so hard he yelped. I heard the waitress laugh down the phone. ‘Yeah, the other lady was pretty jealous too when your brother helped me. He kept promising her that he hadn’t looked at any other girls when he’d been on holiday which seemed like a strange thing to say given that they were clearly here together, but she seemed pleased to hear it. I took them the bill, I could hear them saying something about a wedding they’d been at, but I wasn’t eavesdropping on purpose. I wouldn’t have remembered at all except I was waitressing at a wedding the week before myself.’
‘We need to ring round the hotels again now we know who he’s with,’ I told Eli after we hung up. He looked at me, confused. ‘Stop thinking about the waitress. You’re not coming back here alone.’ He grinned at me. ‘Ben must have been here with Erin,’ I explained.
‘How did you figure out that?’ Eli asked.
‘I don’t like to comment on other women, but seriously, is there anything about her that you could remember or describe easily? Plus she was there at the wedding. And Ben said that they work together. Where else is Ben going to meet women?’
‘There were some cute girls in the bar on holiday. No wonder he wouldn’t come and talk to them,’ Eli said. I stared at him. ‘Of course I was only talking to them to be friendly myself.’
I decided that it was probably better not to ask or even to think about it. When we got Ben safely home, I’d be able to concentrate on working out whether there was anything between Eli and I. I hoped that Ben wasn’t correct about Eli’s refusal to commit and my need to, but that was a whole train of thought that wasn’t going anywhere good, so I tried to push it out of my mind as I followed Eli back to his car.
He switched the engine on so that we could have some heating while we began to phone the hotels again, this time asking about reservations in Erin’s name. We struck gold on the second call. Eli signalled left, and we were off. The hotel wasn’t far, in fact we’d driven past it several times over the last few days to get to the pub, but it was set back from the road behind a huge gravel car park. There were only two cars in the enormous lot: a muddy jeep which looked more suitable for the hills and valleys of the surrounding countryside than the car park of a smart country hotel, and a small red Skoda with furry dice hanging from the rear-view mirror. ‘Country cars.’ Eli
smirked, as he pulled his Audi into a space far away from them, as if he were scared that having a car suited to the area around here was catching. I didn’t like to point out the thick layer of dust and mud on his usually pristine paint job.
Inside, there were brochures of wedding packages set up in a display, alongside a tower of dusty champagne flutes and a bouquet of imitation roses. The air reeked of boiled cabbage. If any of my customers had suggested having their nuptials here I’d have advised them to run a mile. The net curtains somehow managed to be both faded and discoloured which was a rare and unattractive combination.
Behind the desk, the receptionist stood to greet us. She was in her mid-fifties. Her bleached blonde hair was drawn back into a bun so tight that I bet no single strand would dare to escape. ‘How can I help you?’ she asked. The rictus smile on her face suggested that she neither wished nor cared to help us if she could help it.
‘I rang a few minutes ago,’ I explained. ‘My brother is staying here. I was hoping that you could tell us which room he’s in?’
Her starched smile fell away quickly, and without it her expression looked as severe as her hairstyle. ‘I’m afraid I can’t give away personal details,’ she said.
‘But when I rang, the man I spoke to said that he was checked in.’
‘You’ll have spoken to Bryn, our trainee receptionist. I’ll be speaking to him myself shortly after this.’ Her mouth puckered so tightly it resembled a cat’s behind. I wondered whether Bryn would still be her trainee by tomorrow.
‘Then please can you ring my brother’s room? Tell him I’m here and I’d like to see him.’
‘I’m afraid I can’t,’ she said, standing up and resting both her palms flat on her desk. ‘Is the manager in?’ I asked. ‘I want to talk to someone else.’
