He was face to face with Philip. Rosie’s ex. Or was he no longer the ex? Was that why he was here?
Fighting every instinct to slug the guy, Nick stuck out his hand. ‘Nick Masters.’
Philip returned the handshake. On reflection, Philip didn’t look like the victor here, he looked exhausted and simply said, free of all bravado, ‘You’re Rosie’s friend, Charlie’s specialist.’ Friend, doctor. That about covered what he was to Rosie, all right.
Nick motioned to the police car. ‘Is everything okay?’
‘You’d better talk to Rosie, not me.’ Philip held the door wider, letting Nick enter before leading him through to the back of the house. Rosie was sitting white-faced on the family-room couch, two police officers sitting in chairs opposite her. At the sight, Nick’s insides clenched and he went cold all over. Self-indulgent, uncharitable thoughts about Philip slid away in a moment. This didn’t look good.
‘Rosie, what’s happened?’
She stood up the moment she saw it was him and crossed the room, placing her hands on his chest and standing close as she looked into his eyes, her gaze stricken. It was automatic to wrap her in his arms, hold her close.
‘The twins have gone. You haven’t heard from them, have you, Nick?’ Her voice caught on a sob.
He shook his head and the police officers stood, obviously figuring Nick didn’t have any information. The female officer handed Rosie a piece of paper and said, ‘We’ll keep you informed. Here’s my mobile number. Ring me direct if they come home.’
Philip showed the officers out, leaving Nick and Rosie alone.
He relaxed his hold on her, moving back slightly so he could study her face, which he saw now was ashen and tearstained. ‘How long have they been missing?’
‘I’m not sure. Philip arrived about five o’clock, the twins were eating dinner. He wanted to talk to me and the twins were keen to go and get ready for bed.’ Nick heard the front door close, heard Philip’s footsteps coming down the hall. Rosie had her arms folded across her chest, almost wrapping them around herself, her face tear-streaked, her eyes red from crying. ‘I went up and kissed them later, about sixish. They said they didn’t want stories, they wanted to just read in their own beds. I knew they were very tired, so I didn’t think anything of it.’
As Philip came back into the room Rosie moved away from Nick, back to her seat on the couch. Nick wanted to sit beside her, to offer comfort, but he still wasn’t sure what Philip was doing there. He sat in one of the chairs vacated by the police officers instead. Philip sat in the other, both of them facing Rosie. Nick fought off the feeling that the two men were in some sort of competition, both vying for Rosie’s affections. This wasn’t the moment to be thinking those thoughts.
Rosie continued. ‘It was another half an hour before I went up to check on them again and they were gone. They’ve taken their backpacks.’ He knew instinctively from the way her throat was working that she was fighting to stem her tears. ‘I think they’ve taken food.’
‘You didn’t hear them come downstairs?’
‘No, we were in the lounge at the front of the house.’
The more private area of the house, he knew that. What had they been discussing that had needed privacy? He bit his tongue, holding back the question. ‘So they’ve been missing for anywhere up to an hour and a half. And you’ve got no idea where they might have gone.’
She shook her head. ‘I’ve been trying to ring you to see if you’d heard from them, I know it’s unlikely but the police said try everyone, so we have been.’ Again she glanced at Philip, who nodded. ‘Your office was closed, your private office line was engaged and your mobile was going to message bank.’
He cursed and pulled his phone from his pocket. He’d switched it off again after talking to his mum and he hadn’t checked for any other messages, hadn’t thought of anything but getting back to Rosie. ‘Your parents haven’t seen them?’ A futile question. Of course she would have checked.
‘Dad’s out driving, looking for them, school friends are doing the same and Mum is at home, waiting, like we are…’ she nodded at Philip ‘…in case…’ She stopped herself and said instead, ‘For them to come home.’
He’d come here intending to fight for Rosie but he hadn’t expected to find Philip here. He couldn’t help his blood running cold when Rosie spoke of herself and Philip as ‘we’. Why was he here? Had she rung him to be her support? Where had he come from? He couldn’t have got here so quickly from Canberra. But those questions would have to wait. Everything would have to wait until Lucy and Charlie were found. That was now the only issue.
‘You’ve got no idea why they ran off?’
Rosie looked embarrassed, glancing at Philip before shaking her head. ‘No, not really.’
Something was going on and it involved Philip. He waited for her to explain further but there was only silence.
‘What would you like me to do?’ He was already standing. He knew he couldn’t stay and the only thing he could think about doing was searching for the twins. But part of him was hoping she’d ask him to stay. And tell Philip to go. ‘What can I do?’
Rosie didn’t quite meet his eye and she looked awkward as she said, ‘Drive and look for them?’
He didn’t trust himself to say much, just shoved his hands deep in his pockets, nodded and said, ‘I’ll see myself out. Let me know—’
She didn’t let him finish, seeming anxious not to hear his words. ‘I will.’
Despite burning with the feeling he’d just been dismissed, his overriding concern was for the twins. ‘We’ll find them, Rosie, they’ll be okay.’
Rosie’s bottom lip wobbled and a tear balanced on her lower lash. It took all his strength to leave her there, to leave her with Philip, but the only thing that mattered now was finding the twins. And finding them safe.
Four hours later, Nick was still driving the streets of Bondi. He’d gone home twice, briefly, just to check, just in case, but neither time had there been any sign of the children. It was late, nearly midnight. The streets of Bondi were no place for eight-year-olds at that time of night. The thought of the twins being out amongst the crowds of drunken party-goers made him feel sick with fear. Where were they? His mobile had remained ominously silent on the car seat next to him.
He’d stay out all night if he had to. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if they didn’t find Lucy and Charlie tonight. Even thinking about what Philip might be doing at Rosie’s was preferable but he didn’t want to think about that either. He cruised around, peering down alleyways, automatically looking in whichever direction there was movement, but he saw nothing other than dishevelled adults.
Just after midnight, his mobile rang, the screen showing it was a private call.
He pulled over and snatched it up. ‘Yes?’
‘It’s Rosie.’
‘Where are you? Your number didn’t come up. Do you know something?’
‘No, I’m at home. I’m just using Philip’s phone.’ The jealousy in his gut tensed his stomach muscles into figures of eight. ‘I want to leave my house phone and mobile free. You haven’t seen anything?’
‘No.’ He hated thinking how she must be feeling right now. He felt sicker than he ever had before. How much worse must she feel? It was close to unbearable, not being able to do anything, other than this futile driving. ‘I’ll ring you when I find them.’
‘I know but I had to check. I have to do something.’
In the background he heard Philip talking to her and knew she’d put her hand over the receiver to answer him. Jealousy clasped cold fingers around his heart and made him ask, ‘Have you told the police everything?’
‘What do you mean?’
He’d offended her. Tough luck. The question had to be asked. ‘I’m not asking you to explain to me, but have you explained everything to the police? Told them everything that happened in the lead-up to the twins running away?’ He couldn’t bring himself to ask directly about why P
hilip was there, what they’d been discussing. He knew he’d find out later and until then he’d hope it was an explanation he’d be able to handle.
‘I’ve told them everything I can remotely recall, no matter how unimportant I think it is. I’m not hiding anything from them.’ Maybe not from the police but he knew he didn’t yet have the whole story. He swallowed the words, repeating his mantra from tonight: now isn’t the time.
‘I’d better go, I want to keep looking.’
‘Thank you, Nick, for helping, despite everything,’ she said as she ended the call.
‘Despite everything.’ He damn well wished he knew exactly what she’d meant by that, just how many insults it covered. He pulled into another fast-food drive-through, bought his third tasteless cup of coffee for the night and downed the lukewarm liquid in a few gulps. He was close to home, he’d swing by once more.
Just in case.
‘Someone’s coming.’ Charlie grabbed Lucy by the hand and tugged her away from the window and deeper into the shed. He flicked off his torch. They were plunged into almost total darkness, the streetlights scarcely penetrating the tiny louvred window.
In the blackness, two little hands found each other and held tight. Two little hearts pounded in unison and the silence was broken only by shallow breaths coming hard and fast.
Charlie knew now he only liked adventure stories in books. In reality, it had stopped being exciting hours ago. Now he was simply scared.
Nick was sure there had been a flash of light in his back garden. He locked his car and crept down the driveway, hugging close to the side of the house to avoid setting off the sensor light.
At the rear corner of the house he stood without moving, aiming to blend into the shape of the building. He let his eyes adjust to the darkness then scanned the garden. Shapes so familiar in the daylight took longer to identify now, but he knew something wasn’t right.
His gaze moved slowly over the shed and on to the few old fruit trees in the rear corner, before shifting back to the shed. Something was wrong there, but what? He scanned the shed once, twice, and then he saw what it was. At the base of the shed window was a large piece of firewood standing on end like a seat. Or a stool. That hadn’t been there before tonight. His eyes automatically checked the window. The pieces of glass from the louvre window had been removed. Had someone climbed into the locked shed? Was that someone still in there? Could it be the twins?
He stayed where he was, pressed against the house as he weighed up his next move. A sneeze broke the silence, then he heard a child’s voice saying, ‘Be quiet.’
Bingo. That was Charlie. He’d know that husky little voice anywhere; after the battle to get Charlie to talk in the first place, he wasn’t likely to forget it. The relief he felt on finding them was enormous.
He covered the grass that lay between him and the shed in five long strides. ‘Lucy, Charlie, don’t be scared, it’s Nick. Everything is okay.’ From inside, there was a single sharp sob and then silence. Nick continued to talk as he pulled out his keys and fiddled with the padlock on the shed door, a difficult task in the near darkness. Finally, the lock fell open and the door scraped on the cement footing as he pulled it outwards.
He’d expected to have to extract them from their hiding place but as the door opened a warm little body hurtled forward through the dark. His immediate thought was they were running again and he readied himself to grab them, but the child simply ran forward and fell into his arms. Little arms wrapped tight around his neck and the single sob became a torrent, his neck awash with tears. Lucy. A very frightened Lucy.
He held her tight, squatting on the ground with her, rocking her to and fro like a much smaller child while he muttered soothing sounds. All the while he listened and watched for Charlie, his mind consumed with fear over what had happened to make them run away. And, worse, what might have happened to them since then.
It seemed like for ever but eventually a little white face appeared in the doorway and Charlie crept forward. Nick reached out for him too and, just like Lucy, Charlie fell forward into his arms. A single choked sound escaped Charlie’s lips and then the release came—Charlie’s little body heaving as he sobbed. He was shaking so violently Nick had trouble holding on to him. Eventually his sobs subsided and he found his voice but his near hysterical babble froze Nick with its terror.
‘Don’t let her leave us, don’t leave us, Rosie. We’ll be good. Make her stay, make them come back. Mummy. Daddy. Rosie. Mummy. Daddy.’ His words were punctuated with big gulps of air. ‘Mummy, Mummy, Mummy.’
What the hell had happened?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE call had come through well after midnight.
‘I have them, I’m bringing them home, they’re okay.’ She didn’t recall what Nick had said other than that. She didn’t know how she’d filled the minutes until he’d pulled up outside and she’d run to the car to gather her babies into her arms.
The moment after Nick had rung, once she’d known the children were fine, she’d convinced Philip to go to the hotel he stayed at on work trips and not crash on the couch. She’d have asked him to go before, but there had been no point in him driving around looking for the twins. He didn’t know the area, and she’d have gone crazy with no company. But if the children had come home and seen him, who knew what would have happened next?
They had run away because of Philip. She wasn’t sure of the exact reasons but she knew it was about him. Him and her. She’d managed to hurt Lucy and Charlie. Again. But this time it had been enough to make them flee the home they loved into the city, alone, at night.
The irony was, she’d ended it with Nick thinking she had to, for the twins’ sake, then had managed to make things far, far worse thanks to her handling of the situation with Philip, a man she didn’t love. And when the twins were really at risk, it was Nick she knew she could count on. And she’d been right. The man she most trusted to find Charlie and Lucy was also the only one she’d wanted by her side through the long, heart-wrenching wait but she couldn’t have both. And now it was over, what did he think had been behind her decision to ask him to go while Philip stayed?
She supposed some hours had passed now, but she didn’t know what time it was, except that the night must almost be over.
Lucy had been almost limp with exhaustion but unable to sleep. Charlie had been wound up tight, and wouldn’t let her touch him. He’d only wanted Nick. Exhausted as she was, even she could see the irony in the situation. Her actions with Nick had started this whole train of events and now here was Charlie refusing her touch and wanting Nick.
In the end she’d had to call the GP to sedate the children. She hated to have it done but they’d been beside themselves with fear and relief, anger and exhaustion. She’d put them in her bed, tucked curled up with one another, and had sat with them until they were asleep.
She knew the police had been to interview Nick—the GP had told her they were downstairs when Nick let him in. She imagined the officers had gone now, but was almost beyond caring. The twins were home. They were safe. That was all that mattered.
It was all that mattered, but as she headed downstairs to lock up the house, she was consumed with hope Nick was still there. Wild hope, considering what he must be thinking, but with the twins home, she could no longer hold it together.
What she wanted was Nick.
She entered the kitchen and he stood up. He was here.
But was he here for her?
It had been difficult to piece together the children’s movements since they’d run away but it seemed they’d been lucky. They’d been sufficiently frightened by whatever they’d seen on the streets of Bondi to flee to Nick’s early on and nothing dangerous had befallen them.
Nick had carried Charlie, still clinging to him, upstairs. He’d changed the little boy and tucked him into Rosie’s bed, all without exchanging a word with Rosie.
He’d waited downstairs while their GP had arrived and sedated them.
He’d waited while Rosie had sat with them until they’d gone to sleep.
He’d waited while the police had come and gone, and patiently given his statement.
It was hard—damn it, it was almost impossible—but he could see the need for patience.
But now no more.
He was through with waiting.
She was heading downstairs and as her footfall sounded on the boards he stood up. She came into the kitchen, her bottom lip wobbling as it had earlier but this time the tears fell and she stepped forward into his arms. He hadn’t intended to reach for her. He’d wanted explanations, but the thought that she wanted him, that it was him who was still here, Philip nowhere to be seen, was enough.
For now.
But not for ever.
She was clinging to him, holding him tight, and he was returning the embrace, pressing her against his chest, stroking her hair from her face. She was shaking and every now and then her breath caught in her throat.
When she pulled away, she rubbed at her eyes and he realised she must be tired too because he was utterly exhausted.
‘I’ll head off, we both need some sleep.’ It was nonsense. He knew sleep wouldn’t come easily, for him at least.
‘Don’t.’ She grabbed his hand, swaying slightly on her feet. ‘Stay. I need to talk to you, before the twins wake up tomorrow.’ She looked at the kitchen clock, which showed it was past four in the morning and shook her head. ‘Today, I mean. Later today.’
‘You need to get to bed, you look ready to fall over. But if you want to talk, tell me why they ran away. The truth, Rosie.’ He fixed her with a look that challenged her to try any other sort of explanation. ‘I know something is going on with you and Philip and I know that’s why the children left. Charlie kept begging me to make you stay, promising he’d be good. He was near hysterical but that was clear enough. Where does he think you’re going? Why does he think you’d leave them behind?’
‘Philip asked me to move back to Canberra.’
Italian Doctor, Dream Proposal / Wanted: A Father for her Twins Page 33
