Now You See Her
Adam Nicholls
Paul J. Teague
Copyright © 2019 by Adam Nicholls
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
[email protected]
Contents
Now You See Her
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Epilogue
Afterword
About Adam Nicholls
About Paul J. Teague
For Charlotte.
Always.
Now You See Her
Chapter One
Monday - Day 1
Reece turned the key in the ignition for the third time, fearing that it would finally flood the engine. There was no auto-choke option for her—it was a miracle that the four wheels stayed on. The engine turned with the bad attitude of a churlish teenager reluctant to get out of bed in the morning. If it could, it would have groaned Leave me alone.
‘Start, goddammit,’ she shouted, pounding her hands on the steering wheel. She was late, and the school principal had already had words with her about cutting it close at school pickup.
‘We simply can’t leave children unattended at the school gates, Mrs… Ms… Miss Norman,’ she’d faltered. ‘The teachers make themselves available as supervisors, but last week you were ten minutes late. That’s simply unacceptable.’
Reece knew it was unacceptable, but try telling that to her dick of a boss at the local gas station. He wouldn’t let her finish her shift until the guy who was due to take over turned up to relieve her. She stood there looking at the digital counter on the register, counting down the minutes before she became an unfit parent. If she walked, she’d lose the job, and she simply couldn’t afford to do that. Welfare had already caught her scent and she could hear the barking of their hungry dogs far off in the distance.
Reece tried the key one more time. She’d done it before, and she’d do it again if she had to. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d run from the gas station to the school gates and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last. Up to now, the school principal hadn’t bothered to ask her why she was late. She assumed it was because she was Reece Norman and… well, a woman like her would be late, wouldn’t she? Having three kids by three different fathers—what more did the school principal expect?
Reece placed her hand on the key once again and held it there, hardly daring to turn it. She loved her three kids. It was their fathers that she didn’t like so much. She’d do anything for her children. It was just a shame that the men who’d helped her bring them into the world didn’t feel the same way. There was not a lot she could do about that, other than carry on doing what she was doing. And that meant taking any shift she could get her hands on at Curly’s gas station and bringing up her kids as best she could. It was a job that paid, and it didn’t matter that she couldn’t read.
The engine turned on begrudgingly. Reece had almost given up all hope when something sparked somewhere and kicked the engine into life. The running motor was the only positive thing that had happened to her that day. That’s as good as it got for Reece Norman. The entire car shook and rattled and a blast of dense, black fumes shot out of the exhaust as she moved the gearshift out of the park position to start the journey to the school.
The school run was a finely-timed cross between The Hunger Games and an elite sport. It was a fight to the death to grab a parking place somewhere in the vicinity of the school gate. The stay-at-home moms with cleaners and gardeners were always first in line, fragrant and calm, ready to greet their little darlings with gifts of candy and promises of after-school treats. Next in line were the walkers, the moms and pops lucky enough to be able to walk there and back. Then there were the working parents, those who had to balance a working life with bringing up a family, no small feat and a constant challenge and pressure.
Finally, there was Reece, who barely earned enough to keep the show on the road, with no stake in life great enough to control any of the mayhem around her. When she did finally arrive at the school gate, she was forced to drive around the block until she could find some space big enough to be able to abandon her car for the five minutes required to pick up the kids.
That’s how it all played out on the day Poppy disappeared. For Reece Norman, what was one more day when the car was acting up, her boss was using controlling behavior, she had to cook for four on a budget of just over four dollars until she got paid, and all she wanted to do was go to bed and cry for the rest of the day?
The car shuddered as the automatic transmission engaged and took a small lurch forward. Even that was a small victory. Sometimes it missed the gear—another problem Reece was thrusting to the back of her mind. Something else to deal with later.
By the time she reached the school, some of the moms were leaving. Shallow Falls Elementary even boasted pickup dads, ripped guys in shirts that were opened two buttons down, holding the hands of their kids and chatting about their school day like it was the most natural thing on earth. It was, of course, but the men in Reece’s life hadn’t quite managed to get the hang of the twenty-first century. It was a mystery to them, as bemusing as building a piece of IKEA furniture and as challenging as seeking a profound moment in an episode of The Kardashians. Reece envied their lives, seemingly so simple and carefree. What she’d do for just one day of that.
She bumped the tire as she hurriedly swung the vehicle off the road into a space that had become available, thanks to a very slow-driving retiree who was in the process of vacating it. Reece set the emergency brake and hesitated before turning off the engine. If she’d been able to leave work on time, she might have gotten closer to the school gate. Then the kids would have run up to her, so she wouldn’t have to risk turning it off.
She was too far from the gate for that, so she reluctantly turned the key and switched off the engine. If it didn’t start again, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to walk the kids all the way through the town, right to the far end where fields and woodland met concrete and brick, on the far boundary of Shallow Falls where their trailer was located.
Reece didn’t bother locking the car. If anybody tried to steal it, at
least they’d get it started for her. They’d be doing her a favor. She wasn’t even sure if she’d renewed the insurance; she just prayed that she never hit anything. A bill like that could break her. If she was insured, it would only pay the price of towing to the junkyard anyway. Nobody in their right mind would want to take that heap off her hands as a going concern.
She stepped onto the sidewalk and began to run as fast as she could through the stream of parents and children who’d managed to leave the school on time. Nobody acknowledged her or gave her a cheerful hello; she might as well have been invisible as she made her way to the gate.
Toni and Megan were waiting by the large concrete pillars which formed the grand entrance to the school, over which were carved the words Shallow Falls Elementary School. They were used to seeing their mom flying around one of the two corners available to her, always recognizable by her red face, her gaunt, tired look, and her threadbare jeans.
‘Hey, girls, where’s Poppy?’ she asked, kissing them both on the head, then kneeling to give them a hug. It was this feeling that made her do everything that she did. The sight of her kids at the end of the day, and the tight, loving hugs they gave her because they were pleased to see her, all made it worthwhile.
‘No sign of her yet,’ Toni replied, shrugging.
‘Maybe she’s still in class?’ Megan suggested.
Reece held back from scolding them, not wanting to spoil such a lovely welcome.
‘Girls, I’ve told you, we have to take more care of Poppy. You must try to look out for her. The world’s not as straightforward for her as it is for you.’
She was as gentle as she could be. She’d asked them before to look out for Poppy, to make sure she was waiting with them when she arrived.
‘We did go looking for her, Mom,’ Megan said, ‘but we couldn’t see her.’
‘Wait here a moment,’ Reece said. ‘I’m just going to check with the teacher on duty. What’s her name? Mrs. Willoughby, isn’t it?’
The girls nodded. She could see guilt in their eyes, knowing they’d let her down.
‘It’s okay, girls, she’ll be around somewhere,’ Reece reassured them.
Mrs. Willoughby was just turning to leave her post, having assessed that all children were accounted for and her teaching duties were done for the day.
‘Mrs. Willoughby… Mrs. Willoughby,’ Reece called. The teacher had her hand on the entrance door to the school. There was something about crossing the threshold to that place that gave Reece the shivers. Maybe it was the fact they’d failed to teach her to read there, dismissing her dyslexia as pure stubbornness and a general lack of intelligence and application. Those were the precise words used on the report card. Walking through those doors was like stepping through the fiery gates of Hell for Reece, and the judgment she received in there was equally harsh.
Mrs. Willoughby turned and looked her up and down, making every assumption that was needed before giving her dismissive response. Reece saw how she observed the faded, overwashed T-shirt, the threadbare jeans going through at the knees—not as some trendy fashion statement, but because they’d worn out the good, old-fashioned way—and the fatigued, unbranded sneakers whose soles were partly detached. The teacher took it all in in an instant and asked pompously: ‘How may I help you, Ms Norman? Don’t tell me you’ve lost Poppy again?’
In that moment Reece felt like the same six-year-old school child who’d tried to tell her teacher that she simply couldn’t make any sense of the words on the page, because they all looked jumbled.
‘She’s not with Megan and Toni, and I wondered if she was still in the classroom.’
‘Ms Norman, I believe Principal Murphy has already had a conversation with you about coming so late to pick up your children.’
‘Yes, but please, you know Poppy’s deafness means she sees the world differently to the other kids, sometimes it’s hard to…’
‘Ms Norman, you and Poppy both know the rules about end of school. She knows to wait in the playground until a parent or caregiver arrives. She’s not here now; she must have gone.’
‘Please, Mrs. Willoughby, please will you check in the school?’
The teacher paused for a moment and looked at Reece. They all knew Poppy had special needs. It didn’t make a lot of difference in the school day, not at her age. She was still happy to run around and play all day, and she and her little friends seemed to communicate just fine.
‘I’ll check inside,’ she said, softening at last. ‘I’ll be out in one moment. Can you and the girls walk around the block and make sure she’s not wandered off somewhere?’
Reece nodded and ran back to Megan and Toni. As she did so, she felt a churn in her stomach, not unlike the uncomfortable grinding of the car engine. Poppy hadn’t done this before. She was prone to wandering off in the playground, in a world of her own, but she knew the drill, and was sensible enough not to walk off down the street.
‘Megan, check the sidewalk on that side of the school. I’ll take the other side. Toni, check the playground, and make sure she’s not in the nature area or somewhere like that. When you’re done, come back to the entrance and wait for Mrs. Willoughby.’
Megan headed off as instructed, and Toni ran off into the playground. Reece walked around the opposite corner, anxious, a rising panic welling within her. Some parents were still standing chatting before they got into their cars. More desperate now, Reece ran up to them, interrupting, asking if they’d seen a little girl with a patchwork dress and hearing aids. Each time, they looked at her as if she were some druggie asking for money. They glared dismissively at her, shrugging their shoulders, anxious to get rid of her and continue their chattering.
It was another half-hour before the first call went into the police; half an hour to determine that Poppy Norman had gone missing. She wasn’t in the school building, she wasn’t hiding in the grounds, and she hadn’t wandered off along the sidewalk. She had just disappeared, and it seemed that nobody had seen anything. Reece Norman’s bad day had just gotten a whole lot worse.
Chapter Two
‘How are those calls going?’ Cory asked, taking the final sip of his cold coffee. He was half asleep, having just typed up an uninspiring news story about a plant pot that had been pushed off the wall at the town’s bus station, smashing the clay container and damaging the plants. It was the third time that month, and it was getting a bit wearing trying to find a new angle on an item whose presence on the front page had been hard enough to justify the first time around. But that’s how things were at The Shallow Falls Tribune these days.
‘All three dogs have been reunited with their owners,’ Bianca announced. ‘One of the owners even picked up a new cat, as well.’
She smiled at Cory with the youthful enthusiasm of a first-day intern. At least she spoke to him. The previous intern had barely uttered a full sentence to him all week. And his application letter had claimed that he coveted a career in the communications industry. Cory had chuckled at the irony.
He was grateful for the distraction that Bianca had created in the office. Before she’d arrived, Mitchell Kane, the paper’s owner and patriarch, had called them all into the main office to deliver the bad news.
It was straightforward and simple: the population of Shallow Falls had gotten web-savvy. Even the older population were permanently connected to their mobile devices these days. That meant a plummeting circulation for the local paper, as their readership turned in droves to the online world. And although the paper was available online, it simply couldn’t pay the bills. The writing was on the wall; Mitchell would have to stop the press and downscale the entire operation to run on a shoestring if something didn’t change soon.
It was a glum start to a quiet day. The distraction of having to meet and greet Bianca Williams was a welcome one, discouraging Cory from dwelling too much on how things might pan out if he were to lose his job. In the hierarchy of attractive salaries, local newspaper hack was somewhere between supervisor at the
local fast food outlet and clerk for a medium-sized builder’s store. It was still a respected job, but it didn’t pay very much, in spite of the training it required, along with the skill and legal knowledge to keep the publication out of the courts.
It was the only job Cory had ever wanted to do. Even though he could make no promises to Bianca of worldwide fame or industrywide respect, he could still guarantee her a challenging job which would take her to the heartbeat of the community and allow the sharing of essential news and information. It was satisfying, even if you occasionally had to deploy your considerable writing talent on a story about a vandalized plant pot in a dramatic style which wouldn’t be out of place if Godzilla had arrived in Shallow Falls and trampled it underfoot.
He’d warmed to Bianca immediately. She was eighteen or nineteen—old enough not to be a kid and sensible enough to be able to hold a conversation which did not, by default, include the words Fortnite, Love Island or whatevs. That seemed to Cory like a great start, bearing in mind the previous candidates from the local high school. Some of them had made him shudder.
Bianca seemed genuinely interested in how things worked around Shallow Falls. She understood how the town council operated, and even grasped how that all related to the wider influence of national government. She had a firm grip on the local issues in the town: threats to the few manufacturing plants that still remained, the pressures on farmers, the crumbling infrastructure, and the relentless march of progress. And, even better, she understood that reuniting lost dogs with their owners was as important to the people of Shallow Falls as the quality of their drinking water, the safety of their roads, and the price of parking in the town center.
Now You See Her Page 1
