“I know, I know.”
The next morning, the four of them were up bright and early for their flight. Anais had packed a much bigger bag this time, as they didn’t know when they would be coming back. Four suitcases and four lots of hand luggage filled August’s Land Rover, along with the carefully wrapped paintings of Aethelu’s. It was a jolly lot that made the journey to the airport. Aethelu’s excitement of taking some of her paintings to a gallery in Florence was rivalled by Alex’s eagerness to fly to Italy. James was in the best mood of all. He was adamant that he’d find Sabine at home. Anais hoped he was right. Chances were he was in for a fall, but she didn’t want to dampen his spirit.
Once at the airport, August had to come in and help them with all of the luggage. They loaded two sets of luggage on one airport trolley and the rest on another one. A third trolley, being pushed by Aethelu was filled with her paintings, carefully protected in bubble wrap. She argued with the check in desk assistant over the luggage restrictions, but was finally let through after agreeing to pay a fortune in excess luggage charges.
“Don’t worry,” said James winking at her. “You’ll make it back and much more when you sell your paintings.”
All in all, Anais was glad to be through security. Whilst the others were ordering breakfast, Anais went back to the duty-free shop. She stood next to the cameras and looked around, scanning the hundreds of faces that were making their way through the airport. She didn’t expect to see Sabine, but every time she caught a glimpse of a young dark-haired woman out of the corner of her eye, her heart skipped a beat. Bringing to mind the photo of Sabine she compared it to the scene in front of her. She could see the exact position that the photo had been taken. Judging by the position of Sabine, it looked like she was probably heading into a newspaper shop that had been just out of frame. There was nothing strange about that. Plenty of people bought a magazine or book to read on the plane. She was just about to head back to the others when she noticed something. The gate numbers in this area started at nine and worked their way up. Where were gates one to eight? Something began to niggle at her. She left the duty-free shop and headed to a different part of the airport lounge. Gates one to eight were quite a walk away and were served by their own duty-free shop and newsagent. It didn’t really matter, but she guessed that Sabine must have flown out from a gate higher than nine. She scanned the arrivals and departures board looking for the next Rome flight. They had been lucky enough to get on the first flight direct to Florence and she found her flight pretty quickly. The Rome flight was much further down the list as it left at just after one pm. It was the same flight number and time that they assumed Sabine had got the week before. It didn’t yet have a gate number showing. Looking around, she quickly spotted an information desk.
“How may I help you?” The young man behind the desk was dressed smartly in his airport uniform. Brochures of local attractions and phone numbers for local taxi firms and hotels were neatly lined up along the desk.
“I was just wondering about the Rome flight,” began Anais, “It doesn’t show a gate yet.”
“You are here early for the Rome flight. It’s not due to leave until this afternoon. They don’t show the gate number until they are ready to board.”
“Do they have the same gate number every time?”
“No, it depends on the size of the plane and which gate is free. The Rome flight could be called at any one of the gates.”
“Can you tell me what the gate number was for the Rome flight, a week ago last Wednesday? It was the 6th.”
“I could access that information, but it won’t help you. It doesn’t follow that it will have the same gate today. I wouldn’t worry, though, they give you plenty of time to get to your gate once the flight is announced,” he said, misunderstanding why she was asking.
“Please.”
He gave her an irritated look but quickly masked it with a smile.
“Of course. The 6th, you said?” He turned his attention to the computer and tapped away for a few seconds. “Ok, here it is. Flight ITA187. It left on time from gate 7.”
Anais smiled at the desk clerk and thanked him. If the Rome flight left from this side of the airport, why was Sabine in the other side? She could have bought a newspaper or magazine from this side. Of course, she could have just been wandering around the airport to kill time. She hoped that was it. The alternative was that Sabine never got on that Rome flight at all. She slowly made her way back to the others, wondering if she should say anything. She found them tucking into breakfasts at one of the myriad restaurants. James was laughing over something. She didn’t have the heart to mention it. It was too late to change their flight now. Besides, where would they change it to? They had no other leads. Anais decided it would be better to wait and have a quiet word with Alex later.
“Hey,” said Aethelu. “You’ve been ages. I ordered you a breakfast. You’d better sit down and eat it before it goes cold.”
She sat down and ate a cooked breakfast that wasn’t anywhere near as nice as Winnie’s and pondered this new information. She was so deep in thought that she had to be prodded by Aethelu to tell her that the Florence flight had been announced.
Chapter Twenty Three
Alex had had the forethought to hire a car for them in Florence. James drove, as he knew the area well. Anais knew she shouldn’t feel so happy, but the countryside looked beautiful in the midday sun. Rolling verdant hills passed them by, as they drove through the picturesque scenery.
Stunning farmhouses dotted the land and it was one of these that they pulled into. The car bumped down an uneven driveway opening out to a wide yard with the odd chicken pecking about. The property itself was an old stone building with lots of character. Window boxes decorated the pretty little windows, but they were unkempt and overgrown. Anais had never met Sabine, but she suspected that had she been at home, the window boxes would have been tended. She kept her thoughts to herself, as they pulled up and James jumped out of the car. He ran to the front door and flung it wide open, rushing inside. Anais, Aethelu and Alex followed behind. Anais hung back. She already knew in her heart what they would find, and she prayed she was wrong. She let Aethelu and Alex enter the house in front of her. Standing by the weathered front door with green paint peeling and chipped in places, she could hear James running through the house calling out Sabine’s name. Eventually, he came back downstairs to the others with defeat in his eyes.
“She’s not here,” was all he said.
Anais moved forward and put her arm in his.
“Come on. There is still hope. At least we know she is alive. Let me make you a coffee.”
He led them to a large country kitchen and sat down at the wooden table in the middle. It was almost identical to the large oak table in the kitchen of The Manor although it was much smaller in size. Anais found a kettle and some coffee and set about making it. There was no milk, so they all had to take it black.
“Could she have been home?” asked Alex, “The door was unlocked when we got here.”
“You didn’t give me time to lock up when you kidnapped me,” said James.
“Oh, yeah,” said Alex sheepishly.
“She’s not been home,” added Anais.
“How do you know?” asked Alex.
She ran her finger over a worktop. It came off covered in dust, which she showed Alex as by way of an answer.
“I really thought she’d be here,” said James with his head in his hands. “Where is she?”
“Ok,” said Aethelu. “Assuming that she was travelling alone and was free a week ago, is there anywhere else she could be? Any friends in foreign countries, maybe a boyfriend.”
“There was no boyfriend.”
“Are you sure? Maybe she didn’t tell you, if she thought you wouldn’t approve.”
“We had a very open relationship. She told me everything. We had no secrets from each other. There was no boyfriend,” he added rather forcefully.
“Ok, no boyf
riend. How about someone else? Friend, acquaintance, pen pal?” she added hopefully.
“No one. We kept to ourselves just like you did. We knew we couldn’t get close to people. She had a few friends at the local church, but that’s it.”
“Ok,” said Alex joining back into the conversation. “That’s where we start.”
“Start what?”
“Start to look for Sabine. You didn’t think we were going to give up now, did you?”
James looked up. “You are staying? I thought…” he trailed off.
“You thought we were going to leave you here alone? Not a chance. We aren’t leaving until we find her. We know she’s alive and we are pretty sure she is free. That gives us every chance of finding her,” Aethelu said.
“Right,” agreed Alex.
Anais brought across four mugs of black coffee and placed them on the table.
“I have something to tell you all,” she said as she sat at the dusty table. She proceeded to tell them what she had suspected at the airport.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Alex.
“I hoped I was wrong.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Aethelu.
“If Anais is right about the airport departure gates, then at least we can narrow it down. If the information desk clerk could bring up the gate information, then I see no reason that I can’t hack in and find it. We can narrow down the flights that left that day and go through the airline records once again. Perhaps, if we all go through them, we might find something I missed. It’s going to take a while, though. I’ll get my laptop out of the car. James, do you have internet access here?”
“Yes. We have Wi-Fi. I’ll just go and find where I wrote down the password.
He shuffled out of the room.
“He seems really down. You should have told us about the airport gate earlier,” said Alex accusingly.
Aethelu came to her defence. “Anais wasn’t to know. Sabine could have been here. What difference would it have made anyhow?”
“At least he wouldn’t be so disappointed.”
“Of course he would be. Think about it. If Anais had told us at the airport, wouldn’t we still have come here first?”
“Yes. I suppose so.” Alex conceded.
“Look,” said Anais. “Arguing isn’t helping anyone. Alex, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It was wrong of me. It makes sense that we tell each other everything. I promise not to keep anything from you again.”
Just then James came back in clutching a piece of paper which he passed to Alex.
“Great. I’ll get started now.” Alex jumped up and went outside to retrieve his laptop from the car.
“I should make up some beds for everyone, please excuse me.” James left the girls and headed upstairs.
“What should we do now?” Aethelu asked.
“There’s no food in the house. I say the best thing we can do is go shopping. I remember you telling me once that you spoke four languages. Was one of them Italian by any chance?”
“Nope, sorry. I’m sure we’ll muddle through though. I can say Pizza and Pasta. What else do I need to know?”
Anais grinned. “Perhaps we can buy an Italian-English dictionary.”
They told Alex where they were going and headed out to the car. Aethelu got behind the wheel. “Ok, which way?”
The road at the end of the driveway looked the same in each direction.
“I don’t remember seeing any shops in the direction we came in. Try the other direction.
They hadn’t driven very far before it became obvious they were heading into the centre of Florence itself. The buildings got closer and closer together until they couldn’t get any further into the city. They found a parking space on a side street and walked into the bustling pedestrian zone. Anais fell in love immediately. She’d always dreamed about coming to Italy and Florence surpassed her expectations more than she could ever have imagined. Judging by Aethelu’s giddy excitement, she also felt the same way. Anais so wanted to spend the day sightseeing, walking the quaint streets with grey stone buildings, eating ice cream on the Ponte Vecchia, being a normal tourist, but she knew it would be unfair to James. She did, however, make a mental note to return to the beautiful city and see it properly once they had found Sabine.
Looking for a food shop ended up being a little like sightseeing anyway. There were a million restaurants and ice cream parlours, churches, museums and tourist shops, but they struggled to find a supermarket or a shop that sold everything they needed. Finally, after walking down dozens of side streets, they stumbled onto a market. Dozens of pretty little stalls selling everything from eggs to wonderful smelling cakes. Fruit and veg stalls with colourful baskets of apples stood next to stalls of freshly baked bread. All in all, they managed to get everything they needed for up to a week. Anais also remembered to buy some cleaning products. She’d not told Aethelu this yet, but they were going to clean up the farmhouse and wipe the dust from everything, a prospect that she knew Aethelu with her hatred of cleaning would not enjoy. The only thing they couldn’t find was an Italian/English dictionary, but as most of the stall holders spoke at least a little English, it was not needed.
Laden down with bags, the two girls attempted to find their way back to the hire car. They had become so muddled in finding the market in the first place that it didn’t take long before they were totally lost. It didn’t help that Aethelu kept stopping to look in every gallery window, of which there were many. Anais didn’t mind this so much on the way there, when their hands were empty, but now her hands were full of shopping, she was starting to get irritated. She was just about to say something when Aethelu spoke first.
“What was the name of the gallery that James had his work in?”
“I can’t remember. Something David I think. Why?”
Aethelu pointed to the sign over the shop they were just passing.
Galleria David
“Should we go in? Perhaps the owner will be able to help us. After all, he has spoken to Jago over the phone.” Aethelu was obviously dying to go into the gallery, but Anais’ hands were killing her with the weight of the shopping.
“Can we come back later? I think my arms will fall off if we don’t find the car and put this shopping down soon.”
Aethelu was visibly disappointed but acquiesced.
It took them a further fifteen minutes of walking down backstreets before they finally found where they had parked.
Back at the farmhouse they found Alex still seated at his laptop at the kitchen table, but now, it was plugged into a printer that was spewing ream upon ream of paper.
“Please tell me you’ve got food.” He looked up from what he was doing. “I’m starving!” As if to prove his point, his stomach rumbled.
“We’ll make dinner now, but you are going to have to move all this paper and the computer. What is it anyway?” Aethelu asked, whilst Anais started to unload the shopping into the cupboards.
“I’m printing out all the passenger names for all the flights on the day Sabine was at the airport. There’s rather a lot. I know Sabine Cutter isn’t listed on any of them, but as James has found her passport here, untouched, then we must assume that she is travelling under a fake name. What’s for dinner?” He changed the subject.
“Pasta,” answered Anais, “Aethelu, can you help him move all that stuff out of the kitchen, and I’ll cook dinner.”
She wasn’t the world’s greatest cook, and she knew her food would in no way rival Winnie’s or August’s, but she managed to make a respectable pasta dish using some pesto and fresh cream. She shouted that it was ready and served large portions onto four plates. Alex and Aethelu trooped in, followed by a miserable-looking James.
They sat, silently eating, nobody having anything to say. Alex was too busy wolfing his food down to talk and Anais didn’t want to upset James further by commenting on their lack of progress, so the dinner, although tasty turned out to be a very quiet affair.
It was
only when Alex had left to carry on his work and the others were clearing away the dishes that anyone spoke.
“We found your gallery today,” Aethelu mentioned to James who was washing the plates, whilst she dried them and put them away.
“Did you go inside? I imagine the owner doesn’t have anything nice to say to me. He’s perfectly lovely when you are buying or selling, but as soon as he realises he can’t make any money out of you, he drops his façade.”
“Actually, we didn’t. We had too much shopping. We were thinking of going back at another time to ask him if he remembers anything else about Jago.”
“Probably a futile exercise. I think he already told us all he knew, that day we called him. Still, you could probably persuade him to sell some of your paintings. They are, after all, much better than my little efforts.” He smiled warmly at Aethelu.
Anais had been excused from clean-up duty, as she had been the one to cook the meal. She sat at the table listening to the pair of them chat. Something James had said stirred something in her mind.
She thought back to the day James had called the gallery owner. They were missing something, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Then she remembered. The gallery owner had never met Jago. He’d said that Jago had sent the cash and requested more paintings. It had all been done over the phone. Andrew had promised to find the phone records for them but for some reason never had. Either that or he had and in all the drama had forgotten to pass the information on.
She pulled out her phone and dialled The Manor, being careful to use the correct code for England first. It was answered on the first ring.
“Johnny, I thought you’d never call back!” an impatient sounding Arcadia answered.
“Sorry, Arcadia. It’s Anais.”
“Oh, hello, darling.” She sounded disappointed. “I was expecting an important call. Sorry about that. Bloody movie stars! Never call on time. Anyway, tell me. Did you find her?”
“No. She’s not here. Alex is looking up a couple of leads, but it’s not looking too good.”
Infinite Spring Page 21
