Author: Sophie McKenzie
Category: Thriller
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/sophie-mckenzie/page,19,57523-missing_me.html
‘Hurry!’ I pushed them on. I could feel both of them urging their bodies to move faster. It was working. We sped up.
We reached the gate. Jam squeezed through, pulling Lauren after him. I glanced over my shoulder. There was no sign of Wolf – or of the men chasing him through the woods.
‘Come on, Mo,’ Lauren urged.
I followed her through the gate. Jam had already turned left. He put his arm round Lauren’s waist and hurried her along the country lane. He held one hand outstretched in front of him, as if wary of bumping into obstacles. His vision was obviously still really bad.
The light was fading fast from the sky. It seemed like days instead of hours that Wolf and I had walked down here. Jam’s car was parked just before the end of the lane. He fumbled for his car key and opened the door as we approached.
‘Can you drive?’ Lauren asked anxiously.
Jam made a face ‘Everything’s still really blurry.’
My heart thudded. Jam had to be able to drive. Lauren wasn’t up to it so how else were we going to get out of here? Jam opened the door to the back seat and helped Lauren inside. She lay back with a groan. I’d never seen her face so pale and drawn. Then Jam turned to me.
‘Mo, we need to get away then call the police about the baby. And get Lauren to hospital.’
‘Sure. Of course.’ I looked around. Where was Wolf? There was neither sight nor sound of him through the trees. Was he doing what he’d said, and leading Baxter’s men away from us? Or was this all, somehow, part of a bigger trap?
‘So you’ll have to drive,’ Jam said.
‘What?’ I said, turning back to him. ‘But I . . . I can’t, I don’t know how.’
Jam shrugged. He handed me the keys. ‘I can’t see further than a couple of metres in front of me, and that’s all blurry. And Lauren’s in no state to do anything. Just get us away from here. I’ll help.’
Jam fumbled for the driver seat door. He held it open for me, then ran round to the other side. He got into the front passenger seat. I took the driver’s place.
Up ahead, Leather Jacket appeared. He was running out of the trees with another of Baxter’s men. No sign of Wolf. Was he OK?
‘Oh, Jeez, it’s two of Baxter’s men,’ I said.
‘Go!’ Jam urged. ‘Put the key in the ignition and turn.’
‘What about Wolf?’
‘The police will find him. Go!’
With shaking fingers, I took the key Jam had given me and inserted it into the slot just under the steering wheel. I gave it a sharp turn. The engine revved.
Jam moved the stick between us. ‘Is that in “D”?’ he asked. ‘It’s an automatic so you don’t have to worry about gears.’
‘D’ for Drive. ‘Yes.’
‘OK, now press down on the accelerator. That’s the pedal on the right.’
I grabbed the steering wheel and pushed the pedal at my feet. With a roar, the car leaped into action. We were off.
33
The Attic
It was weird as well as terrifying. Of course I’d seen people driving all my life, but actually to be sitting in the driver’s seat of Jam’s car and making it move was totally surreal. My feet pressed the pedals. My hands gripped the wheel. My eyes peered into the early evening light. Thank goodness there was no traffic.
‘D’you need the lights on?’ Jam said beside me.
‘No . . . er, not yet.’ I was holding the wheel so tightly my knuckles were white.
‘What can you see?’ Jam asked. ‘Are there any people? Any houses?’
‘Not so far.’ We were still on the small country road Wolf and I had walked up earlier.
Where was Wolf? Had he escaped from Baxter’s men? Was he really in league with his father? Everything he’d said to convince me he was innocent made sense. But could I really trust him?
‘Could you manage a bit faster, Mo?’ Jam asked.
I pressed down on the accelerator. The car leaped forwards.
‘Whoa!’ Lauren let out a groan from the back seat.
‘Steady,’ Jam said.
‘Sorry,’ I muttered. I tried again, pressing more slowly this time. The car sped up. Faster and faster. The junction at the end of the road was zooming towards us. We were going too fast.
‘How do I stop?’ I yelled.
‘Brake!’ Jam shouted. ‘Pedal on the left.’
I slammed my foot onto the floor of the car, pressing down on the pedal for all I was worth. The car skidded to a stop. Lauren gasped.
‘Damn.’ My confidence was evaporating, fast.
‘It’s OK, you’re doing fine.’ Jam said. ‘Just press the accelerator again, but more carefully.’
I pushed down my foot and the car lurched forwards. I eased up and we slowed slightly.
‘I think I can hear something behind us,’ Lauren said. ‘Is that a car?’
‘Check the mirror, Mo,’ Jam said. ‘It’s above your head.’
I looked up. I could just make out the reflection of the black estate car from the wood in the rear-view mirror. It was moving fast towards us. I pressed harder on the accelerator. The other car grew smaller, then larger again, as it sped up.
‘It’s chasing us!’ I said, panic rising inside me.
‘Faster!’ Jam ordered.
I forced the accelerator down towards the ground. The car picked up speed. My heart was racing. Jam’s hands were flat against the dashboard. It suddenly struck me that none of us were wearing seat belts and I thought of Annie. She would totally flip out if she could see us.
‘Check the mirror,’ Jam yelled.
I glanced up. The black estate car was gaining on us. I went faster. So did the other car. The hedgerows outside were speeding past. The junction at the village green was coming up at an alarming rate. At least there were shops there . . . the newsagent’s Wolf and I had visited earlier . . . we could stop and . . .
I reached the village green and glanced out of the window. No. The newsagent’s was dark, locked up for the night. I sped straight on at the crossroads. Now the road was wider. The other car was in the lane beside us.
‘God, they’re right here,’ Lauren shrieked.
I could sense Leather Jacket in the driver’s seat of the black estate car, but I didn’t look directly over. My eyes were on the road ahead. I had to stop the other car going past us. With a furious roar, it zoomed ahead. A split second later, it spun around, blocking our way.
‘Aaagh!’ I screamed, slamming my foot on the brake. We stopped, just centimetres from the other car.
‘Put it in “R”,’ Jam shouted.
But even as I reached for the stick, the door beside me opened. Large hands grabbed my shoulders and hauled me out, into the cold air. A cloth bag was rammed over my head. Plastic ties were bound tightly round my wrists. I screamed. Jam and Lauren yelled. It was all happening so fast. Then a voice hissed in my ear: ‘Be quiet.’ I felt the press of cold metal against my neck. Was that a gun?
I shut up. So did the others. A second later, I was bundled into the back seat of Leather Jacket’s car. I could feel Lauren next to me, shaking. I leaned against her.
‘Mo?’ she whispered.
‘I’m here,’ I said.
‘Oh, God.’ She was crying. ‘What are they going to do with us? What’s happened to Ellie?’
‘We’ll find her,’ Jam said from Lauren’s other side.
The car engine started up. ‘Be quiet,’ ordered a voice from the front, as we moved off. It was Leather Jacket.
My heart sank. We were captured, again.
I lost track of how long we drove for. Both Jam and Lauren demanded to know where we were being taken and what Baxter had done with baby Ellie. But every time one of us spoke, Leather Jacket told us to shut up. So the journey passed mostly in silence. At last the car slowed and turned. The wheels crunched over gravel for a while then came to a stop. The door beside me opened and rough hands pulled me out into the cold air. I shivered, breathing in the sharp tang of salt.
Were we by the sea? I felt the familiar rise of panic I always experience by the ocean. Memories of nearly drowning when I was younger crowded into my head – that terrible sensation of not being able to breathe, imagining the water filling my lungs, dragging me down.
I forced these thoughts away and tried to work out which part of the coast we could possibly be on. My knowledge of geography wasn’t very good – I knew Appleton Cross had been north-east of London, but I had no idea what direction we had driven in after that. It was dark outside now, but I had the sense of dim lights to my left. Were they coming from a building?
‘Jam?’ I said. ‘Lauren?’
‘We’re here, Mo.’ Jam’s voice sounded close.
‘Where’s my baby?’ Lauren’s voice cracked as she spoke. ‘Please just tell us she’s all right.’
I had a sudden flashback to the way Ellie had slithered into my arms, how perfect she had been.
‘Enough talking,’ Leather Jacket’s voice barked over our heads.
I felt the press of gun metal against my arm.
‘Walk!’ he ordered.
I stumbled forwards, unable to see where I was going. I took three or four small steps, my feet scrunching up the gravel. Leather Jacket ordered us to stop.
‘Where are we?’ Jam demanded.
‘Shut up!’
Something sharp poked into my back. I inched forwards.
‘Go up a small step!’ Leather Jacket ordered.
I lifted my foot, feeling for the step.
‘Now walk straight ahead.’
I did as I was told. All of a sudden the wind dropped and the floor under my feet was soft. We were indoors.
I could hear a door shutting behind me, then I was prodded again. Up one flight of stairs. Then another.
‘Is our baby here?’ Jam demanded.
I could hear the smack of a hand across his head and the muffled yelp of pain he let out. I gulped.
‘Jam?’ Lauren asked anxiously.
‘I’m fine,’ he said.
We climbed up a third, narrower, flight of stairs. A rough hand pushed me along a corridor, then shoved me through another door. The bag was whipped off my head. I blinked in the electric light as Jam and Lauren stumbled in beside me. Lauren immediately sank to the floor, weeping.
We were in an attic room – a tatty carpet on the floor, paint peeling off the walls, a sloping ceiling that came right down to the ground at the eaves. I glanced over. Jam couldn’t stand fully upright even in the middle of the room. There was no furniture. No window. I took in all this in a split second.
‘Madison?’
I spun round. Declan Baxter was standing in the door. He looked much as he had at the party: tall and in a smart suit with his thick grey hair brushed carefully off his face. Back then he had barely noticed me. This time, however, I was getting his full attention.
His dark eyes pierced through me. Several beats passed before he spoke.
‘You’ve caused me a lot of trouble, Madison,’ he said slowly.
I glared back at him. Inside I was terrified, but I didn’t want him to see. I wondered if Wolf’s dad was nearby . . . if Wolf himself knew where we were . . .
Across the room, Jam clenched his fists. He put his arm round Lauren. She was wiping her eyes, struggling to her feet. So long as I had them with me I was strong. I met Baxter’s gaze.
‘What have you done with the baby?’ I demanded.
Baxter raised his eyebrows. ‘You heard me earlier – an eye for an eye. You took Natalia and her baby from me. So I’m taking your sister’s baby from you.’
Lauren let out a soft, low moan. For a second my resolution faltered. And then I knew what I had to do.
‘You can’t keep a baby from its mother,’ I said, keeping my sights fixed on Baxter’s mean eyes. I took a deep breath. ‘Let them go. Take me instead.’
34
Trapped
‘No!’ Lauren and Jam spoke together.
Baxter looked at me, a sardonic smile curling round his lips.
‘You are of no use to me, Madison. As I already told you, you’ve caused me a great deal of trouble.’
‘I’m just trying to protect my family,’ I insisted. I could feel Jam and Lauren behind me. For a second I felt the weirdness of what I was saying – always, all my life it seemed, it had been Jam and Lauren looking after me. And now, here I was, desperate to save them. ‘You can’t take their baby,’ I said. ‘It’s wrong. Just like it was wrong to take Natalia’s baby – and all those other girls’.’
Baxter shook his head. ‘I had a contract with those girls. They agreed. I was paying them money.’
From what Natalia had told me, I knew this was true. Then I thought about how Ellie hadn’t seemed real to me until she was in my arms, and how desperately I had loved her as soon as she was. It didn’t matter what people agreed before their child was born. It was just plain wrong to tear any baby away from its mother.
‘OK, so they agreed to give up their babies for money,’ I said. ‘Money they desperately needed. But they changed their minds – at least some of them did. Natalia definitely did. And there was another girl.’ I thought rapidly back to what Natalia had told me. ‘A girl called Lana. But you wouldn’t listen. You—’
‘Oh, do be quiet,’ Baxter interrupted. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, Madison. Those girls entered into a straightforward and legal contract with me. OK, so a little extra money exchanged hands under the table. That’s me looking after the girls, not exploiting them. Unlike you . . .’ He glared at me. ‘You came into my home under false pretences. You made my daughter think you wanted to be friends with her, when all along you were spying for that weasel, Allan Faraday.’
I could feel Jam and Lauren both staring at me, but I kept my eyes on Baxter. ‘Allan was investigating you,’ I said. ‘I was just helping him.’
‘Right.’ Baxter snorted. ‘You and Faraday were just investigating me – which justified stealing from me and lying to my daughter – but I’m somehow the bad guy? Don’t you understand? I’m not any kind of villain in this.’
‘Yes, you are,’ Jam said, his voice shaking with fury. ‘Whatever happened in the past, you still took our baby.’
Baxter turned his steely gaze on Jam. ‘I had a customer – a childless woman – lined up for Natalia’s baby. What d’you want me to tell her? That after months of waiting and hoping, there is no baby?’
‘It’s still not right to take ours,’ Jam insisted. Beside him, Lauren’s mouth trembled. Tears trickled down her face.
‘You don’t have a choice about it.’ Baxter spoke with an air of finality. ‘As I already told Madison, it’s “an eye for an eye”. She owes me. And don’t think there’s any way out of this – I’ve been one step ahead of you all the way.’
‘You mean the hidden mike?’ I said.
‘And the door to the hut.’ Baxter laughed – a dry, ironic chuckle. ‘You and that stupid boy didn’t think you’d actually worked out the code, did you? We were listening to everything the pair of you said. I opened the door remotely.’
I bit my lip, remembering Wolf trying out various Baxter family birthdates. Jeez, he’d pointed out the number 3 on the keypad had been more worn than the others, yet the number that apparently opened the door didn’t feature a 3. I should have seen the whole thing was a trap right then.
‘Anyway, I’m afraid I can’t let any of you go now,’ Baxter went on. ‘It was just supposed to be your sister and her baby. I was planning that Lauren would meet with an accident . . .’ Beside me, Jam clenched his fists. ‘But now you’ve dragged the baby’s father into it too, not to mention young Wolf.’
I stared at him. He was talking as if Wolf was part of the forces ranged against him. Did he really mean that? Or was everything he said about Wolf just a bluff? I couldn’t be sure; I just knew that I desperately wanted Wolf to be on our side.
‘Wolf will go to the police,’ I said defiantly.
Baxter shook his head.
‘My men will catch up with him long before he can do that.’
My heart leaped. If Baxter was telling the truth and Wolf was loyal to us, at least he hadn’t been captured yet. I focused on Baxter again. ‘There are other people who know what you’re doing,’ I said.
‘You mean Allan Faraday?’ Baxter raised his eyebrows contemptuously. ‘I don’t know how you came into contact with that man, but whatever he thinks he knows about me, he has no proof. That’s what you haven’t yet realised, Madison. I don’t leave a trail. And I always get what I want. You mentioned Lana earlier. She was Miriam 20. She tried to defy me too, but in the end she paid the ultimate price and I took her baby.’
I gasped. The ultimate price. Baxter meant that he had killed her. And now he was planning on killing us.
Baxter smiled nastily at the look of horror on my face. Then he turned and walked out, locking the door after him.
Lauren sank back to the floor. She put her head in her hands. ‘He’s really doing it . . . he’s really taking Ellie away,’ she breathed. She wasn’t crying, but her agonised whisper was worse than tears.
‘We’re not going to let that happen,’ Jam said, sitting down beside her. ‘We’re going to save ourselves so we can save her.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed. But as I looked around the bare attic room, I could see no way that we could prevent Baxter from selling Ellie to another family – or from killing the three of us whenever he chose. And from what he’d said about Lauren, I was sure he’d make our deaths look like an accident.
The next hour passed unbearably slowly. Lauren told Jam the whole story of Ellie’s birth – how she’d had pains all day, but hadn’t thought they were contractions until near the end, when the baby had come so suddenly.
‘Like she knew it was time – and wasn’t prepared to wait any longer,’ Lauren said. She turned to me. Jam followed her gaze. ‘Mo was amazing,’ she said, explaining how I’d sat with her, encouraging her, helping . . . ‘I honestly don’t think I could have done it without her.’
‘Thank you, Mo.’ Jam looked up at me, his eyes glistening. ‘I can’t tell you how much that means to me . . . that Lauren wasn’t totally alone . . .’