Chapter 73
‘We have to call the police,’ Sabri said, not for the first time. Cheryl agreed but kept quiet. Nobody cared what she thought.
The seven of them were gathered again, this time at Tara’s house, a mile or so outside Wadebridge.
The three men stood in a huddle by the window.
They’d been talking together in low voices, glancing nervously at Holly, Cheryl and Sabri on the sofas.
If Cheryl hadn’t known better, she’d have said they were afraid of the women, especially of Holly.
Who seemed to be falling apart in front of them.
The young woman sat with her forearms on her knees as though nursing a stomach-ache. She kept her eyes fixed on the rug and Cheryl was glad of it. The poor girl no longer looked, well, normal.
‘I agree.’ Tara arrived from the kitchen area and knelt to place a tray of mugs on the low table. ‘We can’t deal with this. Not by ourselves.’
‘You don’t get a vote,’ Holly snapped. ‘None of you do. He’s my child and I say we’re doing exactly what they tell us to.’ She looked up, briefly. ‘I will kill anyone here who puts Charlie at risk.’
‘How did they manage it?’ Craig asked from his position near the window. ‘You didn’t leave him alone, did you?’
Holly’s head shot up. ‘Of course I didn’t fucking leave him alone, you absolute—’
In an instant, Tug was across the room, kneeling in front of Holly, and had taken hold of both her hands.
‘Hold it together, love,’ he told her. ‘Charlie can’t afford for you to lose it.
Now, some people here don’t know the full story yet.
And you might have missed something earlier.
So, why don’t you tell us all exactly what happened? ’
Holly took a deep breath. ‘He was with a sitter,’ she said.
‘One I’ve used many times before, totally reliable.
Just before ten o’clock, a woman knocked on my door claiming to be a friend of mine.
She said I’d be very late back, and that I’d asked her to stay with Charlie so that Mrs Morrison – my sitter – could go home to her husband. ’
Sabri asked, ‘And she just went? Without confirming it with you?’
‘She tried to call me,’ Holly replied. ‘I had several missed calls. But I always put my phone in my bag when I’m driving, so I’m not tempted to look at it.’
Sabri didn’t look impressed. ‘Even so.’
‘Did she give you a description of the woman?’ Tug was still kneeling in front of Holly.
‘About forty, fair-haired, attractive.’
‘Like the woman who came to the tent.’ Craig said what they were all thinking. ‘She must have driven straight from Bodmin to Exeter. You probably weren’t long behind her, Holly.’
Holly’s phone started to ring; she pulled away from Tug to reach it.
‘It’s the same number,’ she announced. ‘It’s them.’
Everyone seemed to take a deep breath as they drew closer. Sabri shuffled over on the sofa so that she could see Holly’s phone; Robin and Craig came to stand directly behind Cheryl and Holly; Tara knelt beside Tug. Eyes fixed on the screen, they waited for the call to be connected.
The phone made rhythmic pinging sounds and then the face of a young boy appeared. He had pale skin and dark hair, and he looked a lot like Holly. There was sea and sky behind him. His face lit up at the sight of his mother.
‘Hi, Mum, are you coming today?’
‘Charlie? Oh my God, Charlie. Are you OK?’
The boy’s smile faded. ‘Yeah. I’m on Logan’s island. I came in a helicopter last night. They said you’re coming to get me.’
‘I am. I am, sweetheart. Can I talk to Logan? Let me talk to him, please.’
The small boy looked uncertain. ‘I have to give you a message.’
‘What? What message?’
‘The boat will bring you and the others any day you want. Who are the others, Mum?’
Holly gulped in air and swallowed hard before she could reply. ‘The other people with the tokens, sweetheart. He wants us all to come to his island.’
‘You’ll come, won’t you, Mum? Today? It’s really cool. There’s a dog called—’
A hand appeared, taking the phone away from the child, and Cheryl saw the same woman who’d interrupted them in the tent the previous evening. The one who worked for Logan Quick.
‘Hello, Holly,’ she said. ‘It looks like you’ve got everyone together. Good, that will save time.’
Holly said, ‘Where are you?’
The woman’s hair blew across her face as she replied. ‘On St Helen’s. Charlie will have a wonderful time here. We have boats.’
‘If you hurt him …’
The woman looked affronted. ‘Mr Quick has children of his own. He wouldn’t dream of hurting yours.’
Tug said, ‘What do you want?’
‘The invitation to visit remains open. We’d love to welcome all seven of you to the island any day this coming week. After your meeting with Mr Quick, Charlie will be free to travel home with you.’
‘I’m coming today,’ Holly said. ‘I’ll get a flight out. And I’m not leaving without my son.’
St Helen’s, if that’s where the woman and little Charlie were, was windy. The woman’s next few words were indistinct.
‘Say that again!’ Holly snapped.
The woman brushed hair out of her eyes. ‘I said, the invitation is for all of you. And travelling by air is not acceptable. Nor by the commercial ferries. I’ll leave you to talk it through. Let me know what day suits and I’ll arrange for the boat to be waiting.’
She was gone.
Holly dropped the phone with a clunk, got up, pushed Tug aside and walked to the window. She leaned against it, her head in her hands. The others gave her a moment, looking at each other, making faces, as though trying to communicate without words.
Cheryl was glad, in that moment, that she’d no children of her own. She’d never seen such raw, unbearable pain.
Then, ‘I still think we should call the police,’ Sabri said. ‘If it was me, and one of my kids, I would.’
‘You wouldn’t,’ Holly replied, in a low, dangerous voice. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’
‘We have to go,’ Tara said. ‘We’ve no choice. This is a child. Call her back, Holly. Tell her we’ll come today. She said Falmouth, didn’t she? Last night, I’m sure she mentioned Falmouth. We can be there in a couple of hours.’
Today? Cross the sea in a boat? Cheryl felt a churning in the lower part of her stomach that usually meant she needed the loo.
Not here, she prayed silently. Not in Tara’s house.
The token would come out and then she’d have to fish for it in someone else’s toilet.
Her own bathroom was one thing, when she had plenty of time to clean up after herself, but here?
‘Hold on, ladies, we need to think about this.’ Tug got to his feet and held out a hand to help Tara up. ‘I’ve a few questions.’
‘Me too,’ Robin said. ‘That woman went straight from the tent last night to Holly’s house. How did she know we’d turn down Quick’s invitation? Did someone call her on the way home?’
He looked around the group. One by one, heads shook.
‘She knows far more than she should,’ Robin insisted. ‘She knew where and when we were meeting, she knew the chances were we’d refuse to go to the Scilly Isles. Someone is keeping her informed.’
‘And why are we not allowed to fly out?’ Tug asked. ‘Why is she insisting we take Quick’s boat?’
‘That’s a very good point,’ Sabri agreed.
‘You’re keeping a few secrets yourself, Robin,’ Craig said. ‘I’m still not sure who last night’s gang were. Are they anything to do with Logan Quick? Because, if not, how did they know where to find us?’
‘We could get on board Quick’s boat and find that lot are the crew,’ Tara said.
‘The gang from last night are enforcers,’ Robin said.
‘They work for one of the debt collection agencies I have dealings with. I don’t believe they have any connection to Logan Quick, except for the fact that they quite fancy the tokens and his money.
As to how they found us – following me, probably. ’
‘Tell us again how you got those bruises, mate,’ Tug said.
Robin sighed. ‘Nothing to do with Quick. Or the West Country’s answer to the Kray twins.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Give it a rest, Tug,’ Tara said, but her voice was gentle. ‘We can’t turn on each other.’
‘Oh, I’m with Tug. I’m far from sure I can trust everybody here,’ Craig said.
‘I was beaten up by a jealous boyfriend.’ Robin raised his voice.
‘He’s a twat, but I probably deserved it.
The woman in question was in my house when the Kray brothers came round on Friday night.
They held a hot iron to her face, and I still didn’t give up the token.
That’s the kind of guy I am. Now you know everything. ’
‘Does she know?’ Tara asked, after the several seconds of silence that Robin’s announcement seemed to call for.
‘No, she still thinks I’m a decent person.’
‘Is she OK?’ Sabri asked.
‘Far as I know. I don’t plan to see her again.’
Something about Robin’s posture, about the way he’d deliberately stepped away from the rest of them, told Cheryl he wasn’t going to be pushed any further on the subject.
‘Shit,’ said Craig. ‘Holly, I apologise for what I said last night. Tara’s right. We shouldn’t be fighting among ourselves. But we can’t go on like this either.’
‘Got any suggestions?’ Tug looked exhausted.
Craig said, ‘Let’s talk about going to St Helen’s. About how we can get there, and how soon we can do it.’
‘Tug and I checked out flights while we were waiting for you all to arrive,’ Tara said. ‘Cheapest we can find is just short of two hundred pounds. It will be over that with taxes and baggage allowance.’
‘Not possible,’ Sabri said. ‘I’m sorry, Holly, but I can’t find that.’
‘Me neither,’ Cheryl said. ‘I could ask Mum but—’
‘I’ll pay,’ Holly said. ‘I’ll pay for everyone’s flight.’
‘Travelling by air is not acceptable,’ Craig reminded them. ‘You all heard her. Nor are the commercial ferries. It’s Quick’s boat or nothing.’
‘What’s that all about?’ Robin said.
‘I’d say it’s about keeping our trip undocumented,’ Craig replied. ‘If we go by air or commercial ferry, there’ll be a record. On a private boat there won’t be.’
‘So, when we don’t come back, no one will be able to prove we ever made it to St Helen’s?’ Tug said.
‘To hell with that,’ Sabri said. ‘I’m not getting on Logan Quick’s boat. I’ve got children too. Three of them.’
Holly looked ready to pounce. ‘Yeah, well, he might grab one of yours next. Then we’ll see how fussy you are about the mode of transport.’
‘Guys!’ Craig held up a hand to get their attention. ‘If we’re all decided that we’ll go, but we don’t trust Logan Quick to get us there safely, I might know of another way.’
Everyone turned to him.
Craig said, ‘What if we go on someone else’s boat?’