Chapter 20
TWENTY
Victoria
Your kids are with me at the park across the road from the school. Camilla picked them and my kids up and left them all in the park. But everyone is safe.
My heart is instantly in my throat, my fingers trembling as I call Reese and shout, ‘What are you talking about?’ into the phone.
‘I don’t know how it happened but I got to school and my kids weren’t there.
The secretary had an email from me saying that my sister, Camilla, would fetch them.
I was going to call the police when a message came through on my phone telling me they were in the park and when I got here, Dylan and Cash were here too.
I don’t know what’s going on,’ Reese says, the words running into each other in her hurry to get them said.
‘Shit, shit, shit,’ I say. ‘I’m coming to get them. I’ll be there in ten minutes.’
‘Okay,’ she replies.
I grab my keys from the kitchen bench where I left them, jamming my feet into shoes.
I feel hungover despite the fact that I haven’t had any alcohol.
Sleeping during the day has always been bad for me, so even when the boys were small I tried to make sure my naps were short. But I’ve been asleep for hours.
Camilla has taken things too far now and we need to go to the police.
Every traffic light makes me feel sick; every slow driver makes me furious.
They’re with Reese, they’re fine, they’re with Reese, I keep reminding myself but I cannot get to the park quickly enough.
They could have been taken, just disappeared and I could never have seen them again.
Would she have done that? What kind of a person is this?
Who has she become? And how do we stop her?
When I get to the park, it is to see my twin sons sitting on a bench, happily eating ice cream, despite the cold wind and the dark clouds overhead.
‘Hello, boys,’ I say, covering their faces in kisses as they push me away. They have no idea what has just happened. Of the four children only Kayla may vaguely understand. She’s sitting at the top of the slide, also eating an ice cream.
‘Thank you,’ I say to Reese, grabbing her in a quick tight hug that she returns. ‘You must have been utterly terrified.’
‘I was… it was just…’ says Reese and she shakes her head as her eyes fill with tears.
‘Hey, it’s okay, they’re okay,’ I say, stroking her shoulder.
‘And now Kayla wants to know why I never mentioned another sister, Camilla, and I have to talk to the school, because obviously she’s not on the pick-up list but the email came from my email address.
And obviously there was an email from you as well telling them to let your kids go with my kids.
We might be in trouble here, Victoria. I think we have to go to the police. ’
‘Absolutely,’ I agree and I fill her in on the picture and the email that I am supposed to have sent to my competition, Eagle Advertising. The email that essentially got me to quit my job.
The situation has gotten out of control but at least Reese and I are speaking, at least we are in this together.
Camilla was in my house and then she somehow hacked the school email to make sure emails came from both Reese and me about picking up our kids.
This is complete madness and it cannot be allowed to go on.
‘We should go,’ I say, looking up at the sky but instead of leaving she walks over to a bench where she sits down. I can see her gaze darting between her kids who are happily oblivious as to what has happened, as are mine.
‘This is too much,’ says Reese. ‘How is she doing this and why? She was the one who messed up my life.’
‘I know,’ I reply, still keeping anything I may have done out of the conversation.
‘Is she like some kind of a hacker now?’ asks Reese.
‘I don’t know. I think if we could find her, we could talk to her but I googled her and nothing came up.’
‘I did too.’
‘Her stepfather is dead,’ I say.
‘Who else would know where she is? Her mother obviously, but how do we get in touch with her?’
‘Mum, when are we leaving?’ calls Kayla.
‘Ten more minutes,’ Reese replies as she opens her phone and types in Jean Upton, Camilla’s mother’s married name, but nothing comes up.
‘What about her sisters?’ says Reese. ‘I remember that she said she had grown closer to them, Sophie especially. The last time we saw her, she was glad to have Sophie in her life.’
‘Yes, yes,’ I say. ‘I remember that. She and Sophie were actually close. I remember thinking how odd that was after she had hated the idea of the adoption. The surname would be Upton too, I think.’ I use my phone, expecting nothing but immediately hitting on a Sophie Upton who is a florist.
‘Have you heard of her?’ I ask Reese, knowing she deals with a lot of florists, as I show her the website which is just a landing page with the name of the business, Artful Arrangements. It has pictures of a bunch of different floral arrangements and a mobile phone number. Reese shakes her head.
‘I mean it could be her, but there could be any number of people with that name.’
Neither of us ever met Camilla’s adopted sisters.
‘If it’s her, do you think she and Camilla are still close? And would she help us?’ asks Reese. ‘I mean would she know what happened and maybe refuse to talk to us?’
I consider this for a moment as a rumble of thunder rolls over the park and Dylan shouts, ‘Rain, rain, go away.’ We need to leave soon.
‘It’s worth a shot before we go to the police,’ I tell Reese. And she nods in agreement.
I dial the number, expecting a voicemail but a woman answers, ‘Artful Arrangements, Sophie speaking.’ I stand and walk away a little so that the kids can’t hear me, even though they are all still on the play equipment. Reese follows, indicating I should put the phone on speaker.
‘Yes, um, hi, hi. Sorry, I’m hoping you can help me.
Um, my name is Victoria and I was a good friend of your sister, Camilla.
I hope I have the right person, but I was trying to get in touch with her again because I’m having a party and I wanted to have all my old friends attend.
’ I blurt out the words; pretty sure she’s going to tell me that she has no idea who I’m talking about or that she hasn’t spoken to Camilla in years or that she will just assume this is a crank call and hang up.
Instead, there is silence. I look at Reese and she shrugs her shoulders. ‘Hello?’ I say.
‘You’re Victoria,’ says the woman.
‘Yes, yes, Camilla and I met when we were twenty, many, many years ago now,’ I say with a little laugh, as my heart races. We have the right person.
‘I know. I heard about you.’ Shit, still close then. She’s not going to want to help.
The wind blows up and I shiver, not because I’m cold, but because of the way she’s said those words, like she knows something, like she knows a lot of things.
‘Oh, I know we never got to meet but Camilla and I were good friends and then we just lost touch as people do and…’ I stop speaking, aware of the silence on the other end of the phone.
‘She’s dead,’ says Sophie bluntly, just dropping the words like they mean nothing.
‘She’s dead?’ I repeat because I have no idea what else to say. ‘Wh— When?’
‘Sixteen years ago,’ Sophie replies.
‘I’m…’ I start to say but I actually don’t have any words that make sense available to me.
‘She hated you, you know,’ says Sophie. ‘She hated you for everything you did. It’s your fault she killed herself. She booked herself into a shitty motel and took a whole bunch of pills. A cleaner found her. I’m sure this makes you very happy. So, well done, Victoria. Well done.’
And then she hangs up.