by M K Farrar
But something else niggled at her, something that wasn’t quite right.
She turned around, trying to figure out what it was, and, as she did so, caught a glimpse of the street outside. Reese stopped. Her mother’s car was parked on the road. Reese must have walked right past it on her way in. Had she been in the car? Was she sitting in there for some reason? Maybe she just got back from somewhere?
Reese went to the window and peered out. It didn’t look as though there was anyone in the car, but she might be lying down.
She went through the rest of the house, making sure her mother wasn’t lying on her bed, or perhaps sick and locked in the bathroom, but there was no sign of her. Reese didn’t like the strange, slightly sick sensation in her stomach. Something felt really off, like when she’d had a fight with someone, or when she read something horrible on the internet, or knew she needed to do something she was going to dread. She was being stupid. Her mum had only gone out and forgotten her phone. Nothing bad had happened. She’d be back within the next hour, maybe with Tyler, with him probably moaning ’cause she hadn’t brought the car, and then things would be normal again.
Reese distracted herself by grabbing a drink and a snack from the fridge and then scrolling through her phone for a while. She did forget about her mother’s strange disappearance for a bit, too, getting caught up in some relationship drama—other people’s not hers—because one of the boys had decided to stop ‘talking’ to one of her friends and was going to start talking to another girl instead.
The front door clicked open, and Reese jumped to her feet. “Mum?”
Her brother’s voice came back to her. “No, it’s me.”
“Isn’t Mum with you?”
“Why would she be?”
“I thought she might have come to pick you up.”
He frowned at her. “Duh, her car is parked outside.”
“I know. I thought maybe she’d walked to meet you.”
He wrinkled his nose, looking at her like he thought she was stupid, which he probably did. “Why would she do that?”
Reese wasn’t going to get into an argument with him about why their mother might go to pick him up from school. “The point is, I don’t know where she is, and she hasn’t got her phone with her.”
“So? She might have just gone to the shops or something.”
“But why hasn’t taken her phone?”
They could always get hold of her, no matter what. That was why Reese was worrying so much. She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been able to have her mother on hand.
“I think I’m going to call Dad.”
She picked up her phone again, but Tyler rolled his eyes. “Seriously, he’s at work. He’s busy. He’s not going to want you phoning him ’cause Mum’s gone to the shops and forgot her phone. Get real, Reese.”
She chewed her lower lip, considering what he’d said. Dad was busy—too busy to even come home to them during the week now. She would feel stupid if she bothered him and interrupted a meeting or something, only for their mum to walk through the door.
Dad will come back home again if Mum is missing.
The idea felt strange inside her, like she knew she wasn’t supposed to think such things but couldn’t help prodding and poking it, finding out how it felt. Would their dad have to come back then? Would he have to give up his job and then they wouldn’t have to move? Guilt washed over her. Was she really thinking that something happening to her mum was worth staying in Bristol? What kind of person was she?
“Okay, fine. We’ll wait a bit and see if she shows up.”
“I’m sure she will. She’s probably bumped into someone and gone to have a cup of tea or something.”
Tyler headed to the fridge and opened it, sticking his head in to look for food. His nonchalance was making her think that perhaps she was overreacting, but then Tyler didn’t seem to get bothered by much at all. As long as he got fed, got enough sleep, and played football, Tyler was content. Reese wished she could live life as simply. She felt like she overthought everything, from the way she said ‘hello’ to someone she saw in the street, to if she’d posted the right photo to Instagram. She was constantly worried about what people thought of her.
Now those worries seemed stupid. She had a very real concern. This had been a culmination of how she’d been feeling all week, that sense that something wasn’t quite right. The disturbed nights had left her tired and irritable, and now her mum was missing, it felt like she’d almost been waiting for something like this to happen.
Tyler grabbed his snack and took it up to his bedroom, leaving Reese alone downstairs. She took her phone into the living room and put the TV on, trying to distract herself. Her mum would be home any minute now, probably complaining she’d forgotten her phone. Reese didn’t really watch what was on TV, scrolling through her phone instead. She didn’t even properly focus on that, a part of her constantly listening out for the front door opening.
The time approached six p.m., and her mother still wasn’t home. They normally had dinner by six-thirty, and that nothing was being prepared and they’d had no message to say to help themselves alarmed her even more.
Reese went upstairs and opened her brother’s bedroom door.
“Hey,” he protested, “ever heard of knocking?”
She ignored him. “Mum’s still not home, and it’s almost dinnertime. I’m really worried now. I’m going to call Dad.”
He sat up on his bed. “So, there’s no dinner?”
“Oi, dickhead, focus on the important part. Mum’s still not home. Something must have happened.”
“Do you think we can order pizza then?”
Reese rolled her eyes. “God, you can be such a twat sometimes.”
“You’re the twat.”
She scowled and shut the door on him. She didn’t have the energy to get into a fight with her stupid little brother right now.
She went back downstairs and grabbed her phone. Then she scrolled until she reached her dad’s number and hit ‘call’. Her stomach cramped with nerves. Was she nervous calling her dad, or just nervous about what the result would be? If he said everything was fine, and that she didn’t need to worry, would she be calmed by his reassurances or annoyed that no one was taking this seriously? But if he got worried as well, she’d have to face that something had actually happened.
“Hello, sweetheart. It’s not like you to call me.”
Another stab of guilt. Was she a bad daughter? But she felt better just hearing his voice, like she was handing her concerns over to someone responsible.
“Yeah, sorry, Dad. I am calling for a reason.”
“Is everything all right?”
“Not really. Mum wasn’t here when I got back from school, and she’s left her phone here so I can’t get hold of her.”
“Oh.” He paused for a moment. “Did she mention that she had to go anywhere?”
“No, not that I can remember.”
“Check the calendar in the kitchen. She might have written an appointment on it.”
Reese went into the kitchen and checked. “No, there’s nothing on it.”
“Hmm. That doesn’t mean she didn’t have one, though.”
“But, Dad, the car is still parked outside. Where would she have gone and not taken the car?” She suddenly thought of something else. “And the front door wasn’t locked when I got home. She wouldn’t have gone out and not locked the front door.”
“Maybe she left it open for you? She might have thought you’d forgotten your key.”
“Why would she have thought that?”
Irritation filled his tone. “I don’t know, Reese, I’m thinking out loud, okay? You’ve only just thrown this at me, and I’m running through every possibility.”
“Sorry,” she said, her voice small. A lump constricted her throat, and hot tears burned her eyes. She hadn’t expected her dad to get angry with her. It wasn’t as though this was her fault.
He must have sensed h
er reaction. “No, I’m sorry, love. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. Look, I’m supposed to be having a business dinner tonight, and I need to be there in,” he paused, and she assumed he was checking his watch, “forty-five minutes. Give your mum another couple of hours, and if she’s still not home by the time I’ve finished my meal, I’ll drive back up to Bristol, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Are you both hungry? I assume your brother is home?”
“Yes, he is.”
“I’ll order you both pizza. Don’t worry, you won’t go hungry.”
She gave a sigh. “That’s not what I’m worried about, Dad. I’m worried about Mum.”
“I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. I’ll have my phone on me in case you need to get hold of me, and if she shows up, send me a text.”
“I will.”
“Bye, love.”
“Bye,” she said and ended the call.
She sniffed and wiped her eyes and wished her dad had said he was dropping everything and coming up to Bristol right away. Sometimes it did feel as though he put his job before everything else. They were having to sell the house and move to a whole different city, and leave their school and friends behind, all because he’d started a new job, and now Mum was missing, and he was going off to a work dinner instead of rushing home to look after his kids. Okay, she knew she was fifteen now and more than old enough to take care of herself and Tyler for a few hours, but that was hardly the point. Something had happened, and he knew she was upset, but he still chose to go out to dinner.
She kept going to pick up the phone to call her mum and then having to remind herself that her mum’s phone was still sitting on the coffee table where she’d found it.
The doorbell rang, and she hurried to answer it, a stupid little part of her hoping it would be Mum, and the other part fearful it would be the police standing on the doorstep, their stern but sympathetic faces making it obvious they had bad news to impart, but instead it was the bloke from Domino’s. The poor guy had probably never had anyone so disappointed to receive their pizza order before. She almost felt bad for him.
She thanked him and carried the pizza into the lounge. No one was here to tell them to eat at the dining room table, so they could eat on their laps in front of the TV instead. Their dad had obviously been feeling guilty, as he’d got them all the sides as well as a meat-laden pizza.
“Tyler,” she called up the stairs. “Food.”
Her brother raced down and saw the pizza and chicken wings and cookies. “Ah, nice one. Mum should go missing more often.”
Reese slapped him across the back of the head.
“Hey,” he protested, “what was that for?”
“Don’t say stuff like that. Mum could be lying in a hospital bed or worse for all we know.”
He stared at her, and then his lower lip wobbled. He suddenly looked younger than he was—like he had when he was eight or nine. “You don’t think that, do you?”
She let out a sigh, wondering if she’d been too harsh on him. “I don’t know what to think. Come on, let’s put on a film and eat our pizza. Dad’s going to come home if Mum hasn’t shown up in a couple of hours.”
That seemed to placate him. “Okay.”
Reese sat down to eat her pizza and prayed her mum would be okay.
Chapter Thirty-Three
A couple of hours had passed, and there was still no sign of their mother. Their film had finished, and they’d eaten all the pizza, so now Reese and Tyler sat in silence, scrolling through their phones. Reese’s worry was a twisted knot of anxiety in her stomach. She had no doubt that something terrible had happened.
Reese got back on her phone and called her dad. To her frustration, it went straight through to answerphone. She left a message. “Dad, she’s still not home. I hope you’re on your way back now.”
“Maybe he’s driving,” Tyler suggested.
“He has a phone attachment in his car. It’s not like he couldn’t answer it.”
“He might have been in a rush, and he forgot to put it in the holder.”
Reese thought her brother was giving their dad too much credit. Their dad was so caught up in work, it was like he had blinkers on and nothing else mattered. She knew his job was important, but was it really more important than the rest of their family? As far as she’d been concerned, they’d been getting on just fine before he’d applied for the new job, and simply because he had ambitions, they all had to change their whole lives. Their mum said it would mean they’d have more money around and could go on all-inclusive holidays and buy nice clothes and live in a better area, but Reese didn’t care about all that stuff if it meant she wasn’t going to be able to hang out with her friends. She told herself that she’d move back up to Bristol as soon as she was old enough to, but that felt like ages away, and in the meantime, she’d have to start over.
Her phone rang, and she snatched it up, hoping her mum would be on the end of the line. Instead, she saw ‘Dad’ on the screen.
“Hi,” she said as she answered. “Did you listen to my message? Mum’s still not back.”
“Yes, love, I heard. My meeting ran over, but I’m leaving now, okay?”
She let out a breath of frustration. “So, you’re still going to be at least an hour and a half?”
“Yes, around then. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Try not to worry.”
The call ended, and Reese tightened her fingers around the phone, resisting the urge to throw it across the room. Breaking it wasn’t going to help anyone, and it would only make it harder for their parents to get in touch with her.
She glanced over at Tyler who sat on the sofa with his knees pulled into his chest. She couldn’t remember a time when the two of them had sat in a room together. Normally, they’d both vanish off to their own bedrooms, but she got the sense now that neither of them wanted to be alone.
“Maybe I should start calling around the hospitals,” she said, thinking that was the sort of thing she’d seen people doing on TV shows. “She could have been in an accident.”
Tyler chewed at his lower lip. “You don’t think she might have...done something? Do you?”
“Done something?” It took a moment to understand what he meant. “You mean kill herself?”
He shrugged awkwardly. “I don’t know. Well, yes, that is what I mean.”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
“How do you know? She’s been really stressed out and unhappy lately. You must have noticed. She got all weird about those stupid boxes, remember?”
“Yeah, she’s stressed, but she’s not suicidal.”
“Maybe we should have done more to help her around the house with Dad gone.”
To Reese’s horror, tears shimmered in her brother’s eyes. “Jesus, Tyler, she’s not killed herself because we didn’t bring our dishes down to the kitchen.”
He sniffled. “But it’s everything else, too. Moving house and Dad being away. Maybe it all got too much for her.”
“Shut up,” she snapped. “She has not killed—”
From somewhere upstairs came a muffled thud.
They both fell quiet and lifted their gazes to the ceiling.
“Did you hear that?” Tyler asked.
“Duh, yeah, I think the neighbours would have heard that.”
“What was it? You don’t think...?”
He shook his head. “We checked upstairs. She wasn’t up there.”
Reese frowned. Could she have been hiding? Maybe in one of the wardrobes or under a bed? “I think we need to look again.”
“Together?” he checked.
“I’m not going up there on my own.”
Tyler nodded, and they both got to their feet and left the room. Reese led the way, and they climbed the stairs to the first floor.
“Mum?” Reese called. “Are you up here?”
This was crazy. There was no way her mum would have been hiding upstairs for hours. She would have known how w
orried they’d be, and why would she do it in the first place? She wasn’t a toddler in a game of hide and seek.
But Reese had heard something, hadn’t she? They both had. If it hadn’t been their mum, who—or what—was it?
Reese glanced to the ceiling and spotted the loft hatch. She thought to where the stack of boxes had been before—right underneath it. Had someone knocked them down when they’d tried to climb up? Her breath caught in her chest, her heart thundering. This was insane. Maybe she should call the police? But if she was wrong, they’d think she was a crazy person. Mentally, she battled with herself. Mum was missing, so she could report that. They were technically two minors who’d been left alone. She could lead with that with the police and then mention the loft.
“What are you thinking?” Tyler asked.
“That we should call the police now.”
“Dad’ll be here soon. Let’s just wait for him.”
“What if she’s up there?” She raised her eyes towards the loft hatch.
He screwed up his nose. “Why would she be up there?”
“Because we don’t know where she is, and I think that noise came from in there, and do you remember when all the boxes fell down during the night? They were right under the loft, remember?”
“You’re saying Mum knocked them down trying to climb into the loft?”
“No, dummy. I’m saying someone else knocked them down climbing into the loft and now maybe they’d taken Mum up there with them.”
His eyebrows shot up his forehead. “You can’t be serious. There’s probably just a pigeon got stuck up there or something.”
Immediately, she felt like an idiot. Talk about jumping to conclusions. Of course that was all it was—some bird got stuck up there, or maybe even a bat. She’d been watching too many horror films. Her cheeks heated at the thought of her calling the police and telling them someone had taken their mother into the attic and them doing a search and finding a bird.
She wished her dad would hurry up so someone else could take over from the decisions. She didn’t like having to be the responsible one when she had no idea what she was supposed to do.
