Olivia's Curtain Call

by Lyn Gardner

  Tyler finished his last trip and came to stand in front of Abbie. He smiled tenderly down at her. Abbie had no doubt now that he was completely insane. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself.

  “I’m so sorry about this, Abbie,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been necessary, either, if you hadn’t come poking your nose in where it wasn’t wanted. Another few hours and I would have been gone. True, your dad would have lost all his money, but at least he’d have had you to comfort him. This way, he’s going to be left a sad, penniless old man.”

  “Tyler,” said Abbie desperately. “Let me go. Please, Tyler. Please.”

  “Sorry, Abbie. It’s just not possible. I’m afraid you’re going up with the evidence.”

  Abbie began screaming, and he gagged her with a scarf. He smiled again. “Think of it this way – you just get to play Joan of Arc a little earlier than expected.”

  Tyler lit a match and dropped it into a pile of paper. He watched it flare up, and then put Abbie’s dressing gown on top. It quickly caught and began to burn steadily.

  “Goodbye, Abbie,” said Tyler pleasantly, then he walked to the door and opened it. He stepped through, and Abbie heard the key turn in the lock. For a second she sat in shock and then she started desperately trying to work the gag from her mouth and loosen the ties on her hands.

  Chapter Thirty

  The hospital taxi was speeding towards the address Kasha had given the driver. Olivia and her friends had explained to the grown-ups about Kasha and Abbie, and how worried Kasha was about her disappearance. His desperate face, and Olivia’s grave one, had made everyone realise that they needed to act quickly.

  Alicia had wanted to take Eel back to the hospital first, but Eel had insisted that she was perfectly fine. Fran had agreed with her, and said that they ought to find Abbie as soon as possible if she didn’t have her insulin pen with her.

  “Do you think we should call the police?” asked Jack.

  Fran shook her head. “Not yet. I don’t think they’d do much anyway. She’s seventeen, after all. They would probably say we should wait and see. Of course, the insulin issue does complicate things, but I think we should follow Kasha’s hunch first.”

  “What if she’s not there?” said Kasha.

  “We’ll look somewhere else,” said Olivia, and she took his hand. “I promise you we won’t stop looking until we find her.”

  The taxi turned a corner and came to a stop outside the office building. Kasha raced out of the taxi and up the metal staircase to the door of the office. Olivia followed, with Alicia moving more slowly behind her. Olivia sniffed the night air. She thought she could smell burning.

  Kasha was banging on the door. “Abbie! Abbie! Are you there? Abbie, open up!” He turned back. “It’s no good. I don’t think she’s in there.”

  “Try again,” said Olivia. “I’m going to walk round the building,” and she turned and started down the stairs. As she did so she saw a glow of red in the window of the building next door. For a moment she thought it was a light in the building, but then she realised what it was: it was a reflection of flames burning inside the office.

  “Fire!” she cried. “Someone call 999!”

  Jack was out of the taxi and on his phone immediately. He talked quickly into it.

  Everybody else clambered out of the taxi and stared up at the building in horror while Olivia and Jack ran round the back, trying to find a way up into the office. There was a fire escape at the back, but the door was padlocked.

  Back up the steps at the front, Olivia put her ear to the door. “Abbie!” she shouted. “Abbie, are you there?”

  Inside, Abbie had just managed to release her gag. “Help!” she screamed. “Somebody help me!”

  Olivia and Jack looked at each other. They had to get inside and quickly. Tom ran up the steps behind them. He pointed to the building alongside. “If we could get on to the roof over there and climb down to that window, we might be able to get across to the office that way.”

  “Good thinking,” said Jack. “I take it you’ve a wire with you?” Tom nodded. Jack eyed the roof. It wouldn’t be easy and it would be dangerous too. But they couldn’t wait. Smoke was beginning to come out of the roof of the Cardew office.

  “Come on,” he said. “I’m going to need both your help.” They raced over to the other building and up the outside staircase. Jack slipped a stone from the plant pot outside the front door into his pocket and then climbed up the drainpipe and on to the edge of the sloping roof. He looked down at the others.

  “Slippery,” he said grimly, “but not impossible.” He began to edge up over the roof. He reached the top and started to make his way down the other side. There was a moment when he slipped and everyone held their breath, but he moved slowly and carefully with complete and utter concentration. He dropped down on the window sill, took the stone out of his pocket and smashed the window. Then he reached inside, opened the catch and swung down into the building.

  Within seconds he had opened the front door to let Olivia and Tom in. They ran to the window that faced the office and looked around for a suitable place to secure the tightrope. Then Jack threw the wire across to Abbie’s building and it hooked itself over the edge of the balustrade. Jack pulled it to test it was taut and safe.

  “OK, I’m going over,” he said.

  “Take care, Dad,” whispered Olivia.

  Jack climbed up on to the wire, tested it with his foot and walked nimbly across. He got to the other side, used the stone to smash the office window, opened it and clambered in. For a moment he could see nothing. The fire was still mainly at one end of the room but there was lots of smoke. He peered into the gloom and could just make out Abbie tied to the chair. Her head was flopped on to her chest and he fervently hoped she was just unconscious, and still alive.

  He knew the front door was locked so he tried the door at the back, but it wouldn’t budge either. He dragged Abbie and the chair closer to the window where there was less smoke and breathed in the fresh air with relief.

  “I need you two to come across,” he said urgently, “and see if you can find some scissors or something sharp.”

  Olivia picked up a pair of scissors from the desk under the window. Then she stepped on to the wire with Tom following behind her. Down below, Aeysha and the others had their hands over their mouths and Alicia averted her eyes. Fran had dialled 999 again, asking where the fire engine was and suggesting they bring an ambulance too.

  It felt like minutes, but only a second or two had passed by the time Tom and Olivia made it to the other side. Jack was coughing and spluttering from the smoke and Abbie was drifting in and out of consciousness.

  Jack took the scissors from Olivia and cut Abbie free from the chair. He left her hands and feet bound.

  “Right,” he said. “We’re going to have to take her across the wire.”

  Olivia and Tom stared at him. They were going to attempt the impossible. Abbie was light as a feather, but nonetheless she was going to feel like a dead weight. If she woke up when they were halfway across the wire and started struggling it could spell catastrophe for all of them.

  Jack saw their faces. “I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t think we could do it,” he said. “Or that we had a choice. We’re a trio. We can do this.”

  Olivia and Tom nodded, and on cue the flames roared and began to spread towards them. They couldn’t stay where they were any longer and there was still no sign of the fire engine. Very calmly and carefully they prepared themselves, and then they pulled Abbie up to join them on the window sill. It was awkward because there was so little room. They hoisted Abbie on to their shoulders and then Jack counted to three and they stepped out on to the wire. Down below, the others watched in horrified silence as the three figures walked across the wire. From where they were standing it looked as if they were walking on thin air.

  Tom came first, holding Abbie high up over his shoulders, Jack was supporting her middle and Olivia was carrying her feet. The
y walked in single file, entirely focused on nothing but the next step. With the smoke billowing out of the window behind them, they looked strange, ancient and almost as if they were not of this world at all.

  It was almost one o’clock in the morning and Eel’s hospital room was still full of people, although Kasha remained at Abbie’s bedside on the floor below. She had inhaled a lot of smoke but she was going to be fine, although the doctors said that it might have been another story if she hadn’t been rescued when she had. She’d been able to whisper enough of what had happened to alert the police, and Tyler had been picked up at Heathrow trying to buy a ticket out of the country.

  “Right,” said Jack. “I think it’s time everyone went home. Aeysha, Katie, Georgie and Tom, I’m going to call a taxi and take you all home.” They groaned but they were all exhausted too. He shepherded them out towards the lift.

  While they were waiting for it to arrive, Jack said goodnight to Fran. “I’m sorry,” he said ruefully. “It didn’t turn out to be much of a date.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” said Fran. “I think it was perhaps the most exciting one I’ve ever been on.” She smiled at him. “It just means that our next date has a lot to live up to.”

  Jack’s heart soared.

  “Mind you, I now understand why the Marvell family end up in hospital so often,” Fran added. She looked at him from under her eyelashes. “But I guess I’m just going to have to get used to that.”

  Alicia had gone to get some coffee, leaving Olivia and Eel alone together.

  “I’m pooped,” said Eel.

  “Me too,” said Olivia.

  “Not surprised,” said Eel. “After all, you’ve done quite a lot today: fallen in love, died and rescued somebody from a raging inferno. You were fantastic, Livy.”

  “In which bit of the day?” enquired Olivia.

  “In the play and on the wire,” said Eel.

  Olivia smiled at her, and then said, “I’ve been meaning to ask you, Eel. How much do you remember of what I told you when you were in a coma?”

  “Ooh, everything, I think,” said Eel.

  Olivia blushed furiously.

  “It’s all right, sis,” said Eel, grinning. “All your secrets are safe with me.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Olivia looked around the kitchen table at her friends, and a strange feeling of happiness mixed with sadness washed over her. Today was the last day of the Swan school term and Aeysha was leaving. Of course, they would all be together again for the first night of Romeo and Juliet and the after-show party, and they would meet up again many times in the future, but this was the last occasion that they would all be together as Swans.

  Since Romeo and Juliet had been in preview, she’d been back at school. It had meant long days, but she didn’t want to miss a moment, particularly of Aeysha’s last day. Alicia had arranged for them all to have takeaway pizza and salad in the flat after the final bell of term had sounded, provided Olivia promised that she would have a nap afterwards. Olivia felt too keyed up to even think about sleeping.

  There had already been some tears as they gave Aeysha her goodbye presents, but also lots of laughter too. Aeysha was so certain that she was doing the right thing that it was hard for any of the others to feel upset.

  As Aeysha had told them all, “I want you to feel glad for me, not sad. As Miss Swan said, I’m writing my own life.”

  “Me too,” said Eel, who was sitting next to Aeysha, her crutches leaning up against her chair.

  “What’s happening with you and Matilda?” asked Katie.

  “They said that providing I can prove I’m up to it, I can do it next year,” said Eel. Then she added, “I knew they would. And I will prove I’m up to it. No question.”

  “Big head,” said Olivia, affectionately flicking an olive from her pizza at her sister.

  “Oi,” said Eel. “You have to treat me carefully. My head’s very delicate. It almost broke.”

  “And you two start the movie next week?”

  asked Tom, turning to Georgia and Katie.

  They nodded. “Six weeks’ filming,” said Georgia excitedly, “and then we’re both going on a week’s holiday with Aeysha in Cornwall before school starts again.”

  “Provided of course that Georgia and I don’t hate the sight of each other by then,” said Katie.

  “We won’t,” said Georgia confidently.

  “Don’t be so sure,” laughed Olivia. “There are plenty of times in my life when I’ve wished I could divorce Eel.”

  Eel knew that her sister was joking and gave her a mock glare. Olivia felt a rush of love for her.

  “Actually,” said Georgia, turning to Tom, “we wondered if you might like to come too. There’s room. We’re camping, so one more makes no difference.”

  “That’s really nice of you, Georgie, but I’m busy.” He looked at Olivia.

  She nodded. “Go on, tell them; Jack said we could.”

  “Are you doing something together?” asked Aeysha excitedly.

  “We’re going to be rehearsing our high-wire act,” said Tom delightedly. “A big New York circus producer somehow got hold of one of the DVDs that Jack had been sending out. Booked us on the spot for a run at Christmas in a show in the heart of the city.”

  “So you’ll be rehearsing the high-wire by day and performing in Romeo and Juliet by night,” said Aeysha to Olivia.

  “Yes,” said Olivia happily. “It couldn’t be more perfect, could it? I’ll be doing the two things I love most in the world.” What she didn’t add was that she’d be doing it with two of the people she loved most in the world.

  After lunch, the others already gone, Olivia walked with Aeysha down to the front door. Alicia was waiting for them. She put her gnarled hands on Aeysha’s shoulders.

  “Good luck, my dear,” she said. “We shall miss you very much, but you are doing the right thing.” She opened the door. “Off you go, Aeysha; step out into your future.”

  Aeysha hugged them both and walked slowly down the steps in the blazing sunshine. At the bottom, she turned and gazed up at the Swan as if trying to lodge every single detail of the building in her memory. Then she gave them a jaunty little wave and set off confidently down the street, a little skip in her step.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  It was the first night of Romeo and Juliet. A red carpet had been rolled out across the pavement in front of the theatre, roped off so that the celebrities and first-night guests could stroll up it and into the foyer. There was a crowd outside, some of them autograph hunters, and dozens of photographers too, who were happily snapping away as the great and the good in British theatre walked up the carpet and into the building. There were more theatrical dames and knights than at any West End first night for years, and many were saying that there hadn’t been a more glamorous press night in living memory. Romeo and Juliet had such a buzz about it that everyone wanted to be there on opening night. Even Cosima and Cosmo Wood and their famous actor dad, Jasper, had flown over especially from New York for the occasion and to support Olivia.

  Ella Campion, who owned Campion’s Palace of Varieties, and her faithful Arthur Tuttons walked slowly up the red carpet. Ella was a living theatrical legend. She waved her hand graciously at the photographers.

  Behind them came the Wood family, whose presence created a big stir, followed by a famous Hollywood actress and her film director husband. Then Theo, with Abbie on his arm, stepped on to the carpet and the photographers went crazy. Theo had just been confirmed as the next James Bond, and the story of Abbie and Kasha’s love affair and Tyler’s arrest had been emblazoned all across the papers. Rather than damaging Abbie’s currency it had raised it. The offers were flooding in. But she wasn’t going to rush into committing to anything. After she had made Joan of Arc, and Kasha had done his US tour, the two of them wanted to spend some time together and really test how they felt. They had all their lives ahead of them. She and Theo walked into the foyer. Abbie smiled at her dad and
Hamo, both in dinner jackets, standing in the corner talking to each other animatedly and in a very friendly fashion.

  Inside the theatre the audience was beginning to settle. One row was entirely taken up with all of Olivia’s class from the Swan. In the row in front of them sat Aeysha, Katie, Georgia and Tom. Then came Pablo, who had just come back from visiting his mother in Spain. Next to them were Ella and Arthur, and then Evie and Tati from Edinburgh, who had come down from Scotland with Jack’s brother, the screenwriter Michael Marvell, and his son, Alfie. Fran was talking to Alfie, telling him about her tap-dancing lessons, as Alfie calmly took an egg from behind her ear.

  Fran looked amazed. “Do you think you could teach me how to do that? My patients would love it,” she said. “They already like having a tap-dancing nurse. One who could do magic would be even better.”

  Alfie nodded.

  At the end of the row sat Alicia, Jack and then Eel, who needed an end seat because her leg was still in plaster. Jack could sense that Alicia was very nervous. She was unusually fidgety and she kept twisting her hands together. “Don’t worry, Alicia. She’s going to be wonderful,” he whispered. “As wonderful as she was in the preview.”

  “You can’t be certain,” said Alicia. “First-night nerves … the pressure … the critics…”

  “I can be certain,” said Jack softly, “because she’s my daughter, but most of all because she is Toni’s daughter.”

  Alicia smiled.

  Up in her dressing room, Olivia had her arms raised above her head as the dresser slipped the simple white embroidered shift she would wear for the first scene over her head. She would go barefoot initially. The beautiful aquamarine dress that she would wear during the party scene was still on its hanger, ready for later. Olivia slowly brushed her hair and looked at her pale, serious reflection in the glass.