Chapter 22
CHAPTER 22
CALEB
N othing.
Where the hell is she?
I’ve been hoping April would turn up at the office, but nothing. The staff are on standby to call me should she appear. By four o’clock, I begin to realise she’s disappeared, and thoughts of New York spring to mind.
I call Don and Betty. They’re pretty shaken up but assured me their insurance will cover the damage. When I ask about April, they told me they haven’t seen or heard from her.
Where are you, little dancer?
Her phone continues to go to voicemail. She’s either switched it off, or… I think of the smouldering building and wonder if it’s a melted pile of plastic and metal.
I reopen the file Elijah sent me earlier and extract Samuel’s address.
I tried his phone earlier and it kept going to voicemail. If he’s not answering his phone because April is with him, that’s fine, but I need to know she’s safe.
I ping Mason, telling him to meet me at the car.
I pass him the address before settling back into the seat. I try to concentrate on the influx of emails I have received, but I’m struggling to stay focused.
Damn you, woman, where are you?
We arrive outside the Edwardian Terrace. I walk up the steps and press the buzzer Elijah told me belongs to Samuel and his partner, Daniel Bishop.
“Hello?”
I recognise Samuel’s voice from the few times we’ve spoken.
“Samuel, it’s Caleb Frazer. Is April with you?”
My words come out in a rush. There’s silence, and before I know it, Samuel is opening the door in front of me. He’s wearing low-slung tracksuit pants and a t-shirt that looks like he’s just tumbled out of bed.
“Why are you looking for April?” he asks, smoothing down his hair and t-shirt, as if just realising how he’s answered the door.
I frown, and he shrugs.
“Sunny Down burned down last night,”
The colour drains from his face, and he puts out a hand to steady himself. “April?”
“She’s okay. She got out, but she’s missing. No one seems to know where she is. I take it she’s not here?”
Damn, I thought this was where she would have come. Samuel is, after all, her closest friend. Even Betty confirmed that.
“Come in,” Samuel says, stepping to one side. “I’ve been asleep this afternoon. We had an all-night rehearsal for the show I’m in. I didn’t get back until around nine this morning.”
He moves past me and takes the stairs two at a time. It’s clear he wants to find his friend as much as I do.
He pushes the apartment door open, holding it for me so I can enter .
The apartment is small and neat. A living room faces the front of the building, and an open-plan kitchen is on one side. Large sash windows look out onto the tree-lined street, allowing copious amounts of light into the room. The developer in me appreciates how tastefully it’s been decorated.
Samuel disappears into the room at the back, reappearing with his phone.
“Damn, nothing.” He presses the phone to his ear and huffs when I assume it goes straight to voicemail. He does something else and then sinks down onto the sofa, staring at his phone with a look of horror.
“GPS last has her phone at Sunny Down. She clearly left it,” he says, talking more to himself than to me. “Where are you, baby girl? Why didn’t you come here?”
The front door opens behind me, and another man walks in.
“Samuel,” he calls before spotting us.
He stares over at me, his expression hard. “Samuel?”
“Dan. Meet Caleb Frazer. He’s here looking for April. She’s missing,”
His voice catches. Something flickers across Dan’s face before he masks it.
“Caleb Frazer? As in Frazer Development?” He steps forward and holds out a hand, which I shake.
“I’m looking for April Wilson,” I say.
“What’s she done now?” he asks, turning to Samuel, the contempt in his voice making my jaw clench.
Samuel looks up, and I wonder what he sees in this man. One who has so little affection for the one person he adores.
“Her dance studio burned down overnight.” Samuel’s voice catches.
“That was hers? I heard it on the news. I’m sure she’s fine,” he says, turning away but placing a hand on Samuel’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. His lack of eye contact. I see a flash of guilt cross his features. I’m good at reading people, and Dan clearly knows more than he’s letting on.
“You haven’t heard from her?” Samuel probes as if sensing his partner’s distance.
“She called this morning.” I’m surprised by his honesty. “It was before you got home. I was getting ready for work.”
“Called?”
“Maybe not called. She turned up…” He rubs a hand down his face, guilt written all over his features.
“Why didn’t you let her in?”
Dan raises his eyebrow at Samuel, and I watch as he schools his features, his nostrils flaring and his eyes cold.
“What the hell, Dan? Why the fuck didn’t you let her in?” he asks again, and I’m amazed to see the older man squirm.
“How was I to know her building burned down?” he says, holding out his hands.
He turns to me as if for support, but whatever he sees on my face has him turning away. I grit my teeth, letting Samuel deal with this.
Samuel is now on his feet. He’s half a head taller and looms over his partner.
“Did you even bother to ask why she was here so early in the morning?”
“No, I didn’t really care. I was getting ready for work.” The two men are now squaring off against one another. Dan looks shocked, so I’m not sure this has ever happened before.
“She’s my best friend,” Samuel hisses.
“No, she’s not. She drags you down.” Dan rests his hands on Samuel’s chest, but he shoves him off. “You could be so much more. She holds you back. You’ve left that part of your life behind. Risen above it.”
His tone is pacifying, but it’s clear Samuel is past being pacified .
Instead, he spins on his lover. “What? Being homeless? Being alone in the world? Or is it my dancing? That is who I am… what I do. April was there for me when I had nothing. She supported me, helped me get back on my feet.” He steps back from the man in his life. “I’m not changing Dan. You either accept me for who I am, or I leave. I’m fed up with your shit.” Samuel’s jaw flexes. “Do you know what? I’m going to leave before I say something I may regret. I’m going to go out and find the one person who accepts me for me. I spent too many years hiding who I am. I’m only with you because April helped me to accept myself. If not, I’d still be hiding at the back of that very dark and lonely closet. So when you throw dirt in her direction… oh, why do I bother?” He leaves us and slams into the bedroom, returning with a jacket.
“Samuel, stop. Look, I’m sorry—if I’d known,” Dan says, stepping forward, his hand reaching out but dropping when he sidesteps.
“No, Dan, you’re sorry you got caught. And before you say it. Even if you had known, I still think you’d have sent her away because I’m realising that’s who you are. And it’s not someone I like. However, now is not the time. I have to find April. She’s my number one priority.” Samuel throws a look in my direction. “Let’s find our girl.”
I walk past Dan without saying a word, not sure I can contain my anger. Who sends someone away without even checking they’re okay? It’s not like she lives in this part of town. To get here, she would have travelled at least two tubes.
“Samuel, please…”
“No.” Samuel holds the door open while I walk through the corridor before slamming it shut.
The door opens behind us as we make it to the top of the stairs .
“If she comes back, I’ll let her in. I’ll call you. I’m sorry. I love you.”
Samuel drops his gaze, some of the anger draining from his face. But he says nothing. Instead, he heads down the stairs.
We exit the building in silence. Mason holds the door for us both as we get into the car.
“Where have you looked?” Samuel asks.
“I’ve spoken to Betty and Don, but other than that, I’m at a loss.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” I ask, unsure what he’s asking.
“She wouldn’t have done it if that’s what you think. That business was her life, her new start. She worked hard to get the money together for it.” He stops, and I wonder what he is going to say, but I don’t push.
“I just want to know she’s safe,” I say, surprising both of us.
He nods and picks up his phone.
“Di.”
I can’t hear the other side of the conversation, but I can hear the panic tones.
“It’s okay, I’m out looking for her… yes, she got out. She was fine. Her phone, not so much… No, I was at work… she didn’t wait.”
He looks at me. “I’m with Caleb Frazer. We’re going to find her. I promise.”
He listens for a few moments more. “I’ll get her to call you as soon as we find her. Try not to worry… and Di, if she turns up at yours. Call me.”
Samuel disconnects the call and drops back against the seat. “Her foster mum,” he says. “The reason April is such a phenomenal dancer. April credits Di with turning her life around, giving her a purpose. ”
“Is she likely to be making her way there?” I ask.
“No. She got kicked out of the foster system at eighteen. Was told to stand on her own two feet. Di and Julian offered her a place to live, but April didn’t want to take advantage of their kind nature. Not once her funding dried up. When she first left, she had her scholarship to a conservatoire…” Samuel stops as if realising he’s shared too much. “Life isn’t always easy when you’re from the other side of the tracks. But April, she is one of the most amazing women.”
I nod, unsure of what else to say.
My phone rings. Pulling it out of my pocket.
“Elijah.”
“She’s at one of our sponsored Hostels. Her name has flagged up.”
“Flagged up?”
“After you called, I tagged it,” he says unapologetically.
“Thank you. I owe you one.”
Silence.
“I’m sending the address now.”
He ends the call, and once again, my phone pings.
I open the screen between Mason and me.
“Change of plan. We need to go to…” I tell him the address.
Samuel looks at me but says nothing as Mason drives us to our destination.