Chapter 27 Wednesday 19 June 2024 Sally
Sally
Something is rocking: gently at first, then harder. It’s Sally herself; she is rocking back and forth, and she’s not the one making it happen. Is she on a boat? No, she’s at West Acres Boarding Kennels in Norfolk. This is wrong, then.
She opens her eyes, blinks, then screams. There’s a man standing in the doorway, arms folded.
Longish hair—nearly shoulder-length. He’s wearing a creased, grubby white T-shirt, red-and-black-checked pajama bottoms, and a black necklace that looks like a very skinny car tire.
The hall light is on outside the room. The person shaking Sally is Corinne, in a long navy silk nightshirt, her normally sleek blond hair falling over her eyes.
She tries to speak, but Sally can’t hear her over the noise Champ is making. He leaped out of his Donut bed and started to bark, presumably when intruders burst into their room.
“Who’s the man?” Sally asks Corinne.
“My son, Niall. Can you shut Champ up? The quieter we are, the better.”
“What the fuck’s going on?” says Mark. “Why’s there a bloke in here?”
Ree and Tobes are fast asleep still. Corinne nods in their direction and says to Mark, “Wake them up. We need to go. Now.”
“What? What time is it? I’m not going anywhere in the middle of the night. I’m sick of—”
“Fine, stay,” Corinne tells him. “Sally, you and Champ need to come now. I’ll explain on the way.”
In the end, they all go, Mark too, though he complains all the way. Ree and Tobes are groggy, as if anesthetized, but they all arrive, with their possessions, at Corinne’s Range Rover quicker than they’d have believed possible.
Corinne hugs her son, who hasn’t uttered a word, then gets into the car and drives away. Sally sees tear streaks on Niall Sullivan’s face, illuminated by moonlight, as they do a swing turn and head out of West Acres’ courtyard.
Sally looks at the clock on the dashboard: 3:45. Bloody hell. Adrenaline races around her body. “Tell me,” she says.
“I’m so, so sorry.” Corinne sounds more sad than scared, and Sally can’t work out if that’s good or bad. “Believe me, if there’d been a choice—”
“I’m not happy, Corinne,” Mark tells her. “I’m in a car in my pajamas when I should be asleep in my bed, in my house, with my car outside—”
“Shut up, Dad,” says Ree. “Corinne, what’s happened? Where are we going?”
“Jill is what’s happened. My darling daughter-in-law.” The sarcasm is unmistakable. “Niall woke me up half an hour ago to tell me she’d betrayed him—and, by extension, all of us. She’s been blabbing on Facebook to her friends, told them Champ Lambert was at West Acres right now.”
“Oh my God,” Sally whispers. It didn’t occur to her to worry about Jill. Jill has a dog of her own whom she loves: Yoyo.
“Niall wants nothing to do with her after this,” Corinne says. “That’s their happy marriage over.”
“Oh, come on,” says Mark. “I doubt it.”
“Having qualms is one thing, but telling people? That’s unforgivable.
Niall made it very clear how important it was to keep it to herself.
She’s got five-hundred-odd friends on Facebook.
Suddenly they all know where Champ is. Was,” Corinne corrects herself.
“Soon we’ll be safe again. Don’t worry, Sal.
Damn! I can’t believe a son of mine was dumb enough to marry that trash. ”
Mark makes a noise: a dissatisfied grunt.
“This is a massive overreaction,” he says.
“Even assuming one of Jill’s Facebook friends is awake at this time and alerts the police, it’s not like they’re going to be leaping into their cars, all blues and twos, and rushing over here, is it?
This isn’t an international manhunt, or even a national dog-hunt.
It’s not a hunt at all. No one’s looking for us, as far as we know.
I’m not convinced anyone official is even aware Champ isn’t at home. ”
“Not the point,” Sally tells him. “Our security’s been compromised. Leaving as soon as we could was our only option.” Something is niggling at the back of her mind, but she can’t put her finger on what it is.
“By now Niall will have booked us rooms at the Langley Hotel in Iver, Buckinghamshire,” Corinne says.
“It’s a wonderful five-star hotel, and there’s a whole separate building where dogs are allowed in all the bedrooms. It’s right on the edge of a massive park, too—perfect for Champ walking. Great spa, too.”
“What a stroke of luck,” Mark mutters sarcastically. “I’m sure Champ’s dying to have his nails done. How’s your plan B coming along, Corinne?”
“Really well, thanks,” she replies brightly. “Someone’s coming to talk to us about it tomorrow morning.”
“At the hotel?” Sally asks.
“Yup.”
“Who? How do they know we’ll be there?”
“You should try and get some sleep while I drive,” says Corinne. “I’ll explain everything first thing tomorrow.”
“Everything’s going to be fine,” Ree says decisively.
“Mum, you know how I told you Tess Gavey was a massive bully at her last school, before she made the mistake of trying to bully me? Like, she drove three girls to leave, she bullied them so hard? They literally made their families leave town to get away from her?”
“Vaguely,” says Sally. Mainly, she remembers the clench of pain in her chest when she heard how unpleasantly Tess had been treating Ree.
“Well, that knowledge is all over social media now. And I mean…all over. Tess is losing support by the minute.”
“You mean among your schoolmates?” Sally asks.
“Well…in general,” says Corinne ambiguously.
“Yeah, just generally.” Ree laughs.
“And…what’s Tess saying? Has she said any more since the last thing you told me, about a neighbor’s dog biting her?” asks Sally.
There’s a pause. Why does it feel as if everyone in the car knows something Sally doesn’t?
Corinne says, “Tess is saying all kinds of untrue, horrible things because she’s the same old despicable Tess Gavey she’s always been. It doesn’t matter, though. It’s all grist to our mill. Let people see her being vile.”
Sally is aware that she should ask more questions, but she’s exhausted and soon falls asleep. When she wakes up, there’s a large waterfall next to her and a huge white Palladian-style mansion ahead that looks like a royal palace. “Wow,” she breathes.
“Don’t get too excited,” says Corinne. “You’re not staying in the main hotel.
You’re in the building over there, also very nice.
” She opens the car door and points. “The Brew House. That’s the bit of the hotel that takes dogs.
I’ve booked you all in under false names—you’re a branch of the Sullivan family for now, okay? ”
The other Lamberts all look at Mark, waiting for him to protest. He gives a small nod.
“So, you’re super unlikely to be asked Champ’s name, but if you are? I’d maybe use his middle name, Cuthbert. How do you feel about that, Sal?”
“Fine,” Sally says. It’s temporary, and Cuthbert is legitimately part of Champ’s name.
Her phone pings. Vicky again. Another romantic crisis, no doubt.
Sally becomes even more determined not to look, not until at least tomorrow, maybe longer.
Just this once, she will allow her own preoccupations to be all she cares about.
She’s been at everyone else’s beck and call for fifty-three years, answering every message sent by her mum, dad (while alive), and sister within seconds, even when at work, even when woken from a deep sleep. That has to change.
“You all head over to the Brew House and I’ll meet you there in a second,” says Corinne.
“I’ll just nip over and check us all in.
There’s no need for them to clap eyes on a family of four with a dog, is there?
I was even thinking… Well, it might not be necessary if my plan B works as well as I think it’s going to, but if not, it’s worth thinking about making some alterations to how you all look. ”
“Ooh, yeah!” says Ree. “You mean like, dyeing our hair?”
“Or ballying up?” Tobes yawns.
“What’s that?” Corinne asks him.
“Balaclavas. You know, like… ‘Opp block bally on me.’” He chants, doing a funny gesture with his arms and hands. Sally assumes he’s mimicking someone famous she’s never heard of.
“Ideally not balaclavas, no.” Corinne smiles. “That’d draw attention. But cutting and shaving hair, dyeing hair.”
“Absolutely not,” says Mark.
“We can discuss it tomorrow.” Ree sounds like a proper grown-up.
Corinne heads for the main building. As the Lamberts make their way from the big waterfall to the Clockhouse, Champ suddenly stops. Sally tries to chivvy him in the right direction, but he’s fixed to the spot, staring at the ground.
“It’s a frog,” says Ree. “Champy’s spotted a frog. Aww, sweet little froggy.”
“There are loads,” says Toby. “Greetings, froggy brethren!”
“Maybe they’ve come from the waterfall or the park,” says Ree. “Don’t let Champ eat them, Mum.”
“I think he’s trying to communicate with this one,” Sally says. “Look at him. He’s… Honestly, I think he’s trying to have a meaningful interaction. Good boy, Champles. Is it a froggy? A new froggy friend?”
“Sal,” Mark says in a flat voice,“I’d quite like to get a bit of kip. I’m knackered, after the interrupted night and the long drive.”
“Well, you can’t. Not till Corinne comes back with our room keys. Mark, relax. I know it’s not ideal that we’re awake at God knows what time, but can you try for once, just this one time, to just…surrender and be in the moment?”
“I’m in it whether I like it or not,” Mark huffs. “I don’t get a choice, do I?”
Much later, trying to fall asleep in her and Mark’s hotel bed with Champ snoring loudly between them, Sally remembers what it was that snagged in her mind, the thing Corinne said in the car that didn’t quite sound right.
She’d said that Jill, her daughter-in-law, had told all her Facebook friends “Champ Lambert is at West Acres right now.” But none of Norfolk-based Jill’s friends would know who Champ Lambert was.
Yet Corinne had said it as if he were a well-known public figure.
And another strange thing too: Why had Ree left it to Corinne to answer Sally’s question about what Tess had been saying online?
There had been that ominous pause, almost as if Ree was waiting for Corinne to take over, when surely she herself was far better placed to comment on Tess’s Instagram output.
What if…
No. That makes no sense. There’s no way Ree and Corinne are colluding to keep something from her. Why would they? Sally must have imagined it. All the same, she’ll ask Ree in the morning, just in case. When it comes to Champ’s safety, she needs to know absolutely everything.
Finally, Sally falls asleep and dreams of Champ escaping from the police by becoming a tiny frog that lives in a waterfall.