Hiding in Plain Sight

by Susan Lewis

  ‘What about your mother?’ Graeme said, batting a fly from the food. ‘She’s the only one I can think of who might have told Penny where to find you.’

  Andee was already shaking her head. ‘If my mother had heard from her she’d have called me straight away.’ Her frown deepened as she said, ‘Should I tell her about this?’

  He reached for his wine glass as he thought. ‘If she doesn’t already know, then perhaps not yet,’ he cautioned. ‘Let’s see if your sister approaches you again.’

  Relieved that he didn’t seem to doubt her, although she kept doubting herself, Andee checked her mobile. She had no idea if Penny knew her number, but she was ready to believe she might.

  No messages of any sort.

  To Graeme she said, ‘Over the years I’ve imagined seeing her again in so many ways. The police bringing her to us; her turning up on the doorstep one night; randomly running into her on the street; seeing her on TV. I guess I’ve thought most of all about how we’d cope if her body was found. I never envisaged anything like what’s just happened.’ She shook her head in bewilderment. ‘I keep asking myself why be so … mysterious about it? It’s like she wants to tease, or even unnerve me. If that’s true, she’s succeeding.’

  At the sound of a car passing along the shady lane beyond the villa’s high stone walls, Graeme turned his head.

  Andee listened, tense, half expecting the car to stop at the gates, but it didn’t.

  ‘Do you think we should contact the police?’ he suggested carefully.

  Her eyes went to his. ‘I guess you mean the English police.’

  ‘If she’s no longer missing …’

  ‘But what can we tell them? A random sighting in a foreign country of a woman who might, or might not be her.’

  They both looked at his mobile as it rang.

  Seeing it was Nadia, their demanding client, Andee said, ‘You should take it. I’ll clear these things away.’

  As he clicked on and wandered through the olive trees towards the pool, Andee could hear him assuring, agreeing, advising while she continued to sit where she was, soft splashes of sunlight falling through the overhead vine to dapple her bronzing skin. The heady scents of honeysuckle and jasmine floated on the warm breeze, lending a potent sense of unreality to the strangeness she felt inside. She had no way of assessing or comparing it to anything, no idea how to articulate it, or even how to escape it. It was as though the world had carried on turning, leaving her at a standstill in the midst of a vortex that could so easily sweep her up again, though when or how, she had no way of knowing.

  She tried casting her mind back to the time Penny had vanished, already knowing that the intervening years had blurred and buried the memories so deeply that their reality was all but impossible to reach. Of course they’d been different people back then, children, she sixteen, Penny fourteen. She recalled Penny as moody, insular, and erratic, but she could picture her laughing too, her funny fresh face with its freckles and rosy complexion, and her riotous giggle that had been so infectious. As a younger child she’d been mischievous and daring, they’d had fun, but Penny had frequently been sad or angry, spiteful even, and they’d fought often, the way sisters did. Andee had had no idea until the letter arrived that Penny had felt unwanted by her family, and worthless to the point that no life at all was better than a life with them.

  But apparently she hadn’t chosen no life at all.

  Andee looked at her mobile again, and felt the need to talk to her mother, or one of her children, or even Martin, her ex, who hadn’t known Penny, but had come into Andee’s life soon after the disappearance. Her eyes drifted to where Graeme was seated on a lounger next to the pool. He was still talking to Nadia, the shock of the day no longer at the front of his mind. Andee didn’t feel offended by that, only slightly cut off, as though this issue, this dilemma, this craziness, had her trapped in a place she could neither define nor escape.

  Remember me?

  The question echoed in her mind, softly spoken with a smile, and a kind of knowing that had seemed, she thought now, almost malicious. Maybe she was making that up. The eyes were the same blue-green as Andee’s, their shape more oval than almond. Her face had barely altered, only aged, with prominent cheekbones and a determined jaw that might have appeared masculine were it not for the rosebud mouth and girlishly upturned nose. Her hair had been razored around the neck, like a boy’s, with a thick blonde sweep on top that fell neatly over one eye. It wasn’t the colour she’d been born with, but the change hadn’t disguised her at all. The sighting had lasted for no more than a few seconds, yet Andee could still see her as clearly as if she were in front of her now.

  Her sister was alive.

  It was almost impossible to make herself believe it. She had no idea where Penny was, or even who she was now. She felt a desperate need to do something, but what? In the end, she had to accept that all she could do was wait and wonder if Penny was planning to show herself again.

  Andee’s mother rang just after eight that evening, while Andee and Graeme were in the kitchen listening to jazz on the radio and trying to focus on the plans for Nadia’s villa.

  As soon as she saw it was her mother, Andee’s sixth sense kicked in with alarm and caution. She knew what the call was going to be about, but she kept her tone cheerful just in case she was wrong. ‘Hi, how are you?’ she asked.

  With no preamble her mother said, ‘I hope you’re sitting down, because I’ve just had a call from … from someone who sounded just like you. She said … she said she was Penny. Can you believe that? I don’t know whether to believe it. I thought it was you, but I know you’d never play such a horrible trick.’

  Feeling for how shaken her mother clearly was, Andee held the phone so Graeme could hear and asked what else Penny had said.

  ‘You’re not sounding shocked,’ Maureen accused, and Andee could almost see the uncertainty, perhaps even fear, clouding her mother’s gentle blue eyes.

  ‘I’ll explain in a minute,’ Andee told her. ‘Just tell me what else she said.’

  ‘She wants to see me. Oh dear God, do you think it’s really her?’

  Instead of answering, Andee said, ‘Did she say where or when she wants to see you?’

  ‘She’s going to call again in the next few days to set up a time to come to the house.’

  Surprised by that, Andee said, ‘Does she know where you live?’ Her parents had moved from Chiswick – Penny’s childhood home – to Kesterly-on-Sea almost twenty-five years ago.

  ‘I didn’t ask. It all happened so fast. I could hardly believe I was having the conversation … Andee, I feel … I don’t know how I feel, but you’re not helping, because I’m sure you’re holding something back from me.’

  There was no point in lying. ‘I saw her today, in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue,’ Andee told her. ‘Not to speak to, there wasn’t time, she drove off as soon she was sure I’d recognised her.’

  Maureen was silent, and Andee wished with all her heart that she could be with her mother now. She might be unflappable most of the time, able to deal with most things life threw at her, but this was too much for her to handle alone. ‘What’s happening?’ Maureen asked shakily. ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘I don’t either,’ Andee responded. ‘All I can tell you is that she pulled up in front of me, asked if I remembered her, and as soon as she was certain I did she drove off.’

  ‘But … I don’t … Why would she do that?’

  Having no answer, Andee asked instead, ‘Did she call your mobile or the house phone?’

  ‘The house phone, and yes I rang 1471, but the caller’s number had been withheld.’

  Andee looked at the note Graeme had passed her and asked her mother the question. ‘Have you told anyone else about the call?’

  ‘No. I rang you straight away. If you’re sure it’s her … I mean … Do you think I should contact the police?’

  Andee’s eyes returned to Graeme’s as she said, ‘Probably, but we
won’t do it yet. We don’t know anything for certain, so let’s see what happens.’ She grimaced regretfully at Graeme as she added, ‘I’m coming back.’

  ‘It’s OK,’ he mouthed.

  Maureen was saying, ‘I must admit, I’ll feel happier if you’re here when she comes. If she comes. Do you think she will? Are we even having this conversation?’

  ‘It’ll be OK,’ Andee tried to reassure her. ‘If you’re feeling nervous you should go and stay with Carol until I get there.’ Carol was Maureen’s closest friend and Andee’s ‘ex’ mother-in-law.

  ‘Carol and the family are in Spain,’ Maureen reminded her.

  And Graeme’s sisters Rowzee and Pamela, also good friends of Maureen’s, were driving a camper van around Europe with Pamela’s boyfriend, Bill, attempting to keep them on the road and out of trouble. ‘Blake and Jenny must be around?’ Andee queried, referring to Graeme’s business partner and his wife, who had recently become Maureen’s neighbours.

  ‘Yes they are,’ Maureen confirmed, ‘but I don’t want to bother them. I’ll be fine. I mean, I can’t imagine she intends us any harm, can you?’

  ‘No, of course not. Why would you say that?’

  Maureen hesitated. ‘I don’t know,’ she murmured. ‘I suppose it’s the way … I keep thinking …’

  ‘Thinking of what?’ Andee pressed.

  ‘Nothing. I guess I’m just … all shaken up. Finding it hard to get my head round things.’

  Feeling the need to be with her, Andee said, ‘I’ll book myself on a flight into Bristol tomorrow. Can you meet me at the airport?’

  ‘Of course. Just let me know what time to be there.’

  After ringing off Andee turned into Graeme’s embrace and rested her head on his shoulder. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, ‘but if my sister has come back …’

  ‘There’s nothing to be sorry about,’ he assured her. ‘You should be with your mother, and I can manage here – at least in a business sense.’

  Andee pulled back to look at him, and felt the pleasure of being with him trying to insist that she stay. ‘We were having such a good time,’ she murmured.

  With the dryness she loved he said, ‘I’m taking it we will again.’

  She looked at him, feeling a reassuring sense of closeness surrounding them. Though they’d known one another for several years, it was only in the last few months that their relationship had developed into the intimate and easy connection that made it so pleasurable for them to spend time together. During the past week, since arriving in Provence, they’d begun to explore the idea of her moving into his elegant town house in Kesterly-on-Sea when they returned home. It was something they both wanted, and neither of them saw any reason why it wouldn’t work, given how much time she was already spending there.

  Andee began to wonder if this sudden surprise from Penny might have an effect on that. Though she couldn’t immediately see how, she realised Graeme could be asking himself the same question. Whatever was going through his mind, she knew he was concerned on her behalf about this sudden shock life had thrown her. He was a man of genuine compassion and sensitivity, combined with easy humour and the kind of generosity that made her heart swell with admiration when she saw his kindness towards those needing help. He could be fierce too, and very determined, especially in business, and he made a convincing show of tolerating no nonsense from his two much older sisters, who completely adored him, or from his sons. In their twenties, and independent as they liked to consider themselves, they rarely did anything without seeking their father’s approval first.

  Smiling, she reached for the wine and refilled their glasses. ‘If this is really happening,’ she said, ‘then it’s going to turn the world upside down. How can it not? Someone walks back into your life after almost three decades … And not just someone …’ She sighed as she tried to gather some sense from the confusion. ‘I wonder what she’s like now. I mean what sort of person she is, and where she’s been all this time.’

  ‘You’ll soon be able to ask her.’

  Andee’s eyes narrowed as she pictured the woman she’d seen earlier. ‘She didn’t look like someone who’d been taken from her family against her will; shut away, imprisoned, enslaved for years on end,’ she said. ‘That’s what usually happens when someone, especially at the age she was back then, disappears without trace. They’re taken and held captive, and only a few manage to escape alive.’

  ‘Well she’s alive, we know that much.’

  Andee nodded. ‘And presumably on her way to the UK, if she’s planning to see my mother in the next few days.’

  Chapter Two

  By the time Maureen collected Andee from the airport the following afternoon she’d lived through the shock and strangely suppressed elation of hearing from her younger daughter for a second time.

  ‘Apparently her name’s Michelle now,’ she informed Andee as they drove out to the A38. ‘Michelle Cross. I feel I should know the name, but I can’t think from where.’

  It rang a vague bell for Andee too. She turned to her mother, not quite knowing what to say.

  Maureen’s eyes stayed on the road ahead. She looked as she always did, calm, composed, a supremely elegant woman who wore her seventy plus years as though they were a mere sixty. Her expression was hard to read, but Andee knew that behind the bright, watchful eyes and gently lined complexion her mother was in turmoil. How could she not be, considering the enormity of what was – or could be – happening?

  ‘What else did she say?’ Andee asked.

  ‘She’d like to come on Thursday at three if it’s convenient for us.’

  ‘Us?’ Andee echoed. ‘Did you tell her I was going to be there?’

  ‘No. I decided she presumed you would be.’

  ‘Even though she knew I was in France?’

  Maureen speeded up to overtake a tractor. ‘I’ve no idea how to answer that,’ she said. ‘I only know I never imagined it happening like this.’ Andee didn’t miss the tremor in her voice, and noticed her hands tightening on the wheel. ‘The truth is, I’d stopped imagining it happening at all,’ Maureen admitted, wretchedly. ‘I thought, if we ever saw her again … I thought it would be a body.’

  Andee wondered how long ago they’d started thinking that way. But no matter how many years had passed, the Lawrences’ hope of Penny’s safe and happy return had never entirely gone away.

  Was the joy of that hope burning again now, and Andee was failing to feel it? Naturally she wanted to see her sister, more than anything, but whoever she was now, Penny, Michelle, she was going to be a stranger. Her adult years weren’t entwined with her family’s; they were all hers, untouched by the Lawrences. She had a story, a history completely separate from the world she’d been born into. It was possible she had her own family now. Two, three or more children as old, maybe even older than Andee’s. What about the father of her children, if they existed?

  Considering how long it had been there were likely to be many stories.

  Everyone’s lives were like that, going from one major event, to a smaller maybe happier time, only for disaster or triumph to strike again. The years were like chapters, some long, some short, with new characters and old drawn into the dramas, and each tale superseding the last.

  ‘I wonder if she knows that Daddy’s dead?’ Maureen said quietly.

  Andee had been thinking about her father throughout the journey here, wishing with all her heart that he was still with them, that the trauma of losing a daughter hadn’t sent him to an early grave. He’d always been their rock, the one they’d turned to in a time of crisis. There was nothing he couldn’t do or fix, nothing he didn’t understand, no one who wasn’t a little in awe of him. As a detective chief superintendent with the Metropolitan Police he’d commanded a great deal of respect, but at the same time he’d been known for his fairness and compassion. He had been seen as a pillar of the community, until his younger daughter had disappeared and the rock had eventually began to crumble under the weig
ht of helplessness and grief, until finally it had been eroded completely.

  How was Penny going to feel when she found out?

  Maybe she already knew.

  It wasn’t a good feeling to think of her sister watching them from the shadows, knowing what was happening to them yet never showing herself. It surely hadn’t been like that? More likely someone had told her – taunted her even – with details of what her family was doing, holidays she could never enjoy, a father she’d never see again, a new home she’d never get to know … Except she had known the Kesterly home, because it had belonged to their grandparents before their parents had taken it on. It had been where she and Andee had often spent their summer breaks when they were small.

  ‘Does she want us to call her Michelle?’ Andee ventured.

  ‘I’m not sure.’

  ‘Do you think you’ll be able to?’

  Maureen hesitated. ‘I guess it’ll depend … I mean, after all this time, if she feels like a stranger then perhaps calling her Michelle won’t be so hard.’

  Andee regarded her mother carefully. ‘You’re managing to sound very philosophical,’ she commented warily, ‘but I know you.’

  Maureen cast her a glance. ‘I’m not sure how else to be,’ she confessed. ‘If I’m truthful I keep thinking it’s going to turn out to be a hoax, or that I’ll wake up in a minute and discover it’s a dream. It can’t be her, surely.’

  It was how Andee felt, and yet here she was, back from France having already seen her sister, even if for a mere few seconds. It had been long enough for her to know.

  After a while, Maureen said, ‘Did Graeme mind you leaving?’

  ‘He understood that I needed to be here.’

  Maureen reached for her hand. ‘Thank you for coming. I don’t mind admitting I’d be finding it very difficult if I was on my own.’

  Feeling a surge of love for her mother, and a deep sense of protectiveness, Andee lifted their joined hands to her cheek. They’d always been close, and should anyone ask her to name her best friend she knew her answer would probably be Maureen.