Should Have Known Better

by A J McDine

  ‘You can’t!’ Ben cried.

  ‘Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, you little shit. I know you’ve been pestering Chloe to go out with you and I know you’ve been spying on her. I know about the Snapchat photo. I’ve more than enough evidence to go to the police and get you arrested for stalking so cut the crap and TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!’

  Ben wrapped his arms around his head and he rocked on his heels, back and forth. Ignoring him, Kate ran up the stairs to the bedroom with the bay window at the front of the house and flung open the door. Expecting to find herself in a teenage boy’s room, with posters on the walls and dirty clothes on the floor, she was perplexed to find herself in an immaculate, tasteful and unashamedly masculine room that could only have been Adam’s.

  Her gaze took in the cool grey walls, the dark wood fitted wardrobes and huge double bed with a dark grey bedspread. An antique chaise longue fitted perfectly in the window, and the room’s deep pile carpet was the colour of clotted cream. Otherwise, it was empty.

  ‘Which one’s your room?’ she demanded, as Ben appeared at her shoulder.

  A slight incline of his head told Kate it was at the back of the house. Ben stumbled after her as she marched along the hallway. She stopped by a closed door. ‘This one?’

  He nodded silently. Kate pushed the door open with the tips of her fingers.

  In stark contrast to Adam’s impeccably neat room, this one looked as if a particularly thorough gang of burglars had recently ransacked it. The bed was unmade, and clothes and textbooks littered the floor. Empty crisp and biscuit packets, crushed cans of Pepsi and dirty plates surrounded a gaming chair. A female urban warrior with a camouflage bandana and Marilyn Monroe curves was busy loading an assault rifle on a huge flatscreen TV. There was a fuggy tinge to the air that hinted at sweaty socks and rotting food. Kate itched to throw the window open. Instead, she called her daughter’s name and listened. But there was no answering tap on a closed closet door, no muffled cry for help from under the bed.

  ‘See? I told you she wasn’t here.’

  ‘What have you done with her?’

  ‘Nothing. I’ve said it enough times, haven’t I?’ he said sulkily.

  ‘I know she bunked off school to meet a boy. It was you, wasn’t it? And please don’t insult my intelligence by denying it.’

  ‘Not a boy.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Chloe wasn’t meeting a boy.’

  Kate’s eyes bored into his. ‘Then who was she meeting?’

  ‘I can’t tell you.’ The petulant scowl faded and, head hanging, he walked to the window and stared out at the garden. ‘I’m sorry,’ he mumbled. ‘I just can’t.’

  Kate sank onto the end of the bed and considered her next move. Her bad cop routine had got her precisely nowhere. She needed to tone it down a bit. She cleared her throat. ‘I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have accused you. But I’m so worried about her, Ben. I need to know she’s OK.’

  He gave an almost imperceptible nod of the head. Kate pressed on. ‘I know she’s not here. But I think you know where she might be.’

  Silence.

  ‘I also know you care about her and wouldn’t want her to come to any harm. We’re both looking out for her. We’re on the same side.’

  He turned to her with anguished eyes. ‘But he’ll kill me.’

  ‘Who will? Please, Ben, you have to tell me where she is. I’ll make sure you don’t get into any trouble, I promise.’ She placed a hand on her heart for emphasis. ‘Is it one of your friends from school who saw the Snapchat photo?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘Then who, Ben? Who?’

  ‘She’s with Dad.’

  ‘Adam?’ Kate said incredulously. ‘Why would Chloe be with Adam?’

  ‘Because… because she thinks she’s meeting Professor Steel.’

  The vice-like grip squeezing Kate’s chest eased a little. Professor Steel, head of the law school at Kingsgate University. Of course. Adam knew her. They’d studied for their degrees at the same time. He’d offered to put in a good word for Chloe a while back, hadn’t he? Perhaps she’d decided she needed a helping hand after all. But why hadn’t she told Kate? She wouldn’t have minded Chloe skipping school for something so important. Why the big secret?

  While the thoughts were racing around Kate’s head, something about Ben’s choice of words made her look at him sharply. ‘What do you mean she thinks she’s meeting her?’

  ‘That’s what Dad told Chloe so she’d agree to go with him.’

  ‘And they’re not?’

  Ben’s face sagged. ‘I don’t think so, no.’

  Kate shook her head. It didn’t make sense. Why would Adam lie to Chloe? Ben was the one who was infatuated with her. He was the one they couldn’t trust.

  ‘What makes you say that?’ she said.

  He gave one of his trademark shrugs. ‘He’s done it before.’

  ‘Done what before?’

  He pulled at the neck of his teeshirt. ‘Become fixated on someone. A girl.’

  Kate reeled. This couldn’t be true. Not Adam. ‘Ben?’ she said softly. ‘What girl?’

  He turned back to the window. ‘My friend Lucy. She used to live next door.’ He jerked a thumb towards the far wall of the bedroom. ‘She was always around ours, and he became, well, he became obsessed with her.’

  ‘How old was she?’

  ‘Fifteen. He’s not a paedo. He just has a thing for teenage girls.’

  There was a ringing in Kate’s ears. She shook her head, chasing the noise away. Ben must be lying because Adam wasn’t some degenerate pervert. He was a normal guy. They’d been on two dates, if you could call them that. She’d know if anything was off-kilter. She wasn’t stupid. She’d be able to tell.

  ‘You don’t believe me do you?’ he said.

  ‘I… I don’t know what to believe.’

  Ben crossed the room to a built-in cupboard next to the chimney breast. Rummaging through the contents, he grunted with satisfaction as he pulled out a shoebox from under a pile of scruffy trainers and football boots. He sat on the bed next to Kate with the box balanced on his lap. ‘There’s something you should probably see,’ he said, lifting off the lid to reveal a stack of old birthday cards and two framed photos. ‘That’s my mum,’ he said, passing Kate the top one. ‘With me, when I was a baby.’

  A petite blonde woman with a tousled blonde bob and a dewy complexion was smiling hesitantly at the camera. On her lap, a black-haired baby wearing a blue romper suit slept soundly. His tiny fingers curled round her right index finger.

  ‘Daisy,’ Kate said.

  Ben nodded. ‘She fucked off about two months after this was taken.’

  ‘She looks so young.’

  ‘She was nineteen when she had me.’

  The same age Kate had been when she’d had Chloe, she thought with a pang. But there was no way she’d have ever walked out on her baby. The thought of her daughter dragged Kate back to the present.

  ‘Why are you showing me this? What’s it got to do with Chloe?’

  ‘It’s this one I wanted to show you,’ Ben said, handing Kate the second frame.

  She stared, blinked, then stared again. Ben and a slim girl in a vest top and frayed denim shorts were sitting on a bench in a park eating ice creams. Kate’s grip on the frame tightened as she took in the girl’s ash-blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and heart-shaped face.

  She tried to speak, but the words caught in her throat.

  ‘This is Lucy,’ Ben said, prising the picture out of Kate’s hands. ‘My dad has a type, you see. Young, blonde and pretty. You can see the resemblance, can’t you?’

  Kate nodded, finally forcing the words out.

  ‘She looks like Chloe.’

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  CHLOE

  Chloe stared at Adam in disbelief.

  ‘But I’m… I’m young enough to be your daughter.’

  ‘Age is a number, my love. You’re old enough to ma
rry, aren’t you? I almost forgot. I’ve bought you a little something.’

  Adam crossed the room and picked up a white designer bag with La Perla written in silver capital letters on the side. Chloe watched from the corner of her eye as he pulled out a package wrapped in tissue paper. He kneeled in front of her and pulled the paper open. Two scraps of powder-pink silk slithered onto the floor. He picked one up and held it by its delicate straps. It was, Chloe realised with horror, a camisole top and matching French knickers.

  ‘It’s Italian silk with ivory frastaglio. Do you know what that is?’ he asked.

  Chloe neither knew nor cared. All she could think about was having to undress in front of him. The thought made her faint with fear.

  ‘It’s an antique Florentine embroidery technique made famous by La Perla.’ He fingered the fretwork. ‘It’s attached to the silk by hand, so it sits perfectly against the skin. See?’ He held the camisole against her cheek and stroked it up and down. Chloe slumped forwards and tried to swallow the lump at the back of her throat, but her mouth was too dry. She ran her tongue over her lips. Adam smiled.

  ‘I can see you’re getting turned on already,’ he said softly.

  ‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘You’ve got it all wrong. I’m not. I’m sorry if I led you on. I didn’t mean to, I really didn’t.’

  He dropped the camisole and grabbed a handful of her hair, forcing her head backwards. ‘You’d rather screw my pathetic excuse for a son, is that it?’

  ‘No!’ The word leapt out of Chloe’s mouth, followed by a rush of hot tears.

  ‘Then what do you want, you little prick-tease?’

  ‘Home,’ Chloe sobbed. ‘I want to go home.’

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  KATE

  Kate sat on Ben’s bed with her head in her hands.

  ‘You think she’s with him?’

  Ben nodded.

  ‘They arranged to meet outside her school at noon. I saw the text he sent her.’

  Kate’s heart lurched. ‘Where would he have taken her?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I can find out.’ Ben reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his phone.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Checking Find My Friends. I like to keep tabs on him.’ He tapped away at the screen, his lips pursed in concentration. He raised an eyebrow. ‘They’re at Kingsgate.’

  A tiny flicker of hope. Maybe Adam was introducing Chloe to Professor Steel after all. Ben might have the wrong end of the stick. How did she know she could trust him anyway? He could be lying, laying a false trail, taking the heat off himself.

  ‘But they’re not at the law school,’ Ben continued, thrusting the phone under Kate’s nose. ‘They’re on the other side of the campus. Look.’

  Kate stared at the map, trying to orientate herself. There was the main sports hall and theatre, the library and, not too far away, the students’ union.

  ‘Where’s the law school?’ Kate said, trying to remember.

  Ben zoomed in. ‘There.’

  ‘Where’s his phone showing?’

  He zoomed out again. ‘Over there.’

  ‘But that’s near the accommodation block Chloe liked. Springett Court, where your dad lived. You don’t think they could be there?’

  Ben switched off his phone and slipped it back into his pocket. ‘We’re not going to find out sitting here, are we?’

  Kate was in no mood for small talk, so was glad when Ben plugged in his headphones. According to the satnav, there was some slow-moving traffic on the M25, otherwise, the route was clear. They should be there by seven.

  As they sped along the motorway, Kate wondered if she should have phoned the police to report Chloe missing. She tried to picture how the conversation might go.

  ‘So when exactly was Chloe last seen?’

  ‘When she left school before lunch.’

  ‘You don’t think she might have bunked off?’

  How could Kate explain that she was worried the man she’d been dating had a predilection for teenage girls and had abducted Chloe? What were they going to do? Send a patrol car to Kingsgate on the off-chance? What if Adam and Chloe were sitting with Professor Steel right now, talking about Chloe’s future? She would look ridiculous. She only had Ben’s word for it, after all.

  She glanced at him. His eyes were closed, and his mouth had fallen open. Kate’s adrenalin levels had rocketed, yet he was able to nap. She clenched her jaw then shook his shoulder, pulling him from sleep.

  ‘What did he do to her?’ she said.

  Ben pulled his earbuds out and rubbed his eyes. ‘What?’ he said blearily.

  ‘Lucy, the girl next door. What did your dad do to her?’

  ‘I don’t want to get him into any trouble.’

  ‘If what you say is true, he’s already in a whole heap of trouble.’

  ‘Exactly! What will happen to me if he goes to prison? I don’t have anyone else.’

  If Adam had abducted Chloe, Kate would happily lock him up for life and throw away the key, but that wasn’t going to help her winkle information out of Ben. She had to keep him on side.

  ‘If we find them before he does anything to her, the police need never know. I won’t tell them. But I need you to tell me what he did to Lucy.’

  Ben sighed. ‘Nothing, at first. Her family moved next door when I was eight, and she was nine. She went to my primary school, and we used to lift share. Her mum would look after me after school some nights till Dad was home from work. We were round each other’s houses all the time, you know? It was nice.’ Ben was fiddling with his headphones, twisting them round and round his fingers like a complicated game of cat’s cradle. ‘Everything changed when she went to secondary school. She was in the year above me. We still used to hang out a bit, but she had her own friends then.’

  He paused. ‘You have to understand, she was beautiful. And popular. She always had a string of boys mooning after her.’ He swallowed. ‘Including me. I was always badgering Dad to invite them around like we used to, but he was always so busy at work. Then we bumped into Lucy and her mum in Sainsbury’s one Saturday morning. Lucy had finished her GCSEs and looked amazing. Like some kind of model. Dad miraculously found the time to invite them over for a barbecue that afternoon. That’s when it happened.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘When they arrived he turned the charm on full blast,’ Ben said. ‘Like he does with you and Chloe,’ he added, looking sidelong at her. ‘Because he’s not like that with me. He’s a miserable bastard most of the time. Anyway, Lucy was flattered, I could tell. He cracked open one of his precious bottles of Dom Perignon, the pretentious wanker, and insisted she had a glass to celebrate the end of her exams. And he kept topping up her glass when her parents weren’t watching.’

  ‘He got her drunk?’

  ‘Just merry. Eventually, Lucy’s parents went home, but she stayed. The new Avengers film was out, and we were going to watch it together, her and me. Like old times. I went inside to download it and sort out snacks and stuff, and when I came back out, I couldn’t find her or Dad.’

  Kate gripped the steering wheel tighter.

  ‘After a bit, Dad appeared from the end of the garden, saying Lucy didn’t want to watch the film after all and had decided to go home. I was a bit pissed off because I’d got everything ready and she hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye. Dad was back in miserable bastard mode, ordering me to help him clear up. I was loading the dishwasher when I noticed a scratch on his neck, and I started wondering what had happened in the garden.’

  Kate’s stomach clenched. There were too many parallels between Ben’s story and the night of the party to doubt his account.

  ‘When Dad finally went up to bed, I went out and texted Lucy to check she was OK,’ he continued. ‘When I heard her phone ping I realised she was still outside. I found her hiding behind her old Wendy house, crying her eyes out.’

  ‘Did she tell you what had happened?’
<
br />   ‘Not at first.’ Ben had wound the lead of his headphones so tightly around his fingers that the tips had turned white. ‘But I prised it out of her eventually. It was a clear night, and he’d been pointing out the stars to her. Always keen to share his superior intellect, my father. Fucking prick,’ Ben added viciously. ‘She was cold, so he put his arm around her, and the next minute he’d ripped off her top and was forcing her down onto the grass.’

  ‘Oh, my God. Did he…?’

  ‘Rape her? No. He didn’t get a chance. She managed to wriggle away and ran home. But she didn’t want her parents to see her in a state, so she hid in the garden until they went to bed. That’s when I found her.’

  ‘Poor Lucy.’

  ‘She kept saying it was her fault. That she must have given him the wrong idea.’

  Kate let out a long breath and tried to ignore the rising panic inside her. Breathe. She realised Ben was still talking.

  ‘But grown men should know the difference between a flirty sixteen-year-old who’s had a drink too many and a proper come-on from a woman their age, shouldn't they?’

  She glanced at him. The fear in his eyes mirrored hers, but there was nothing she could say to make this better.

  ‘They should,’ she agreed.

  ‘Do you think Chloe is all right?’

  ‘I’ll try calling her again.’

  They listened in silence as the phone rang and rang. Voicemail eventually kicked in. Kate’s voice was strangled as she left yet another message. ‘Chloe, it’s Mum again. I know what’s happened and why you can’t call. You probably won’t even be able to listen to this message. But if you can, I want you to know that I know where you are and I’m coming to get you. Stay safe, sweetheart. I’ll be with you very soon.’

  Kate stamped her foot on the accelerator. Chloe was in danger. There was no time to lose.

  Chapter Fifty-Four