The Lies We Told(76)

‘Christ!’ Tom shook off his mother’s hand. ‘What the fuck are we going to do, then? How are we going to find Luke?’

There was silence, and then Clara said, ‘She doesn’t know that I know who she really is, yet. She thinks I still believe she’s Emily.’

Tom looked at her. ‘That’s true.’

‘So if I arranged to meet her again, one of us could follow her, to see where she goes.’

Mac shook his head. ‘It’s too risky, she knows what we all look like, even me, she’d spot us a mile away.’

‘Then who?’ said Tom.

The following morning, Tom, Mac and Clara sat in a café in Greenwich, nervously looking at the door. ‘Do you think she’s going to come?’ asked Mac.

Clara nodded. ‘She wouldn’t let me down.’

A moment later, a tall, auburn-haired woman with a baby strapped to her chest walked through the door.

It took nearly half an hour to bring Zoe up to speed. When they’d finished, she looked at them, speechless with shock. ‘Holy fuck,’ she said at last, shaking her head. She looked at Clara. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this was going on?’

Clara took hold of her hand. ‘I’m sorry. But will you do it? I wouldn’t ask if we weren’t absolutely desperate. We just need you to follow her as far as you can.’

‘If there’s any sign of anything dodgy, if you feel like she’s spotted you, or you feel nervous in any way, turn straight around and come home,’ said Mac.

‘Only follow her as far as you feel comfortable,’ Tom added. ‘If she leads you somewhere isolated, don’t go any further.’

Zoe looked from one to the other of their tense faces, then down at a fast-asleep Oscar. Finally she looked up and, meeting Clara’s gaze, said, ‘Of course I’ll do it.’

Clara closed her eyes. ‘Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?’

Zoe gave a wry smile. ‘Are you kidding? A chance to leave Oscar with Adam and go and do something more exciting than puree carrots? Hell yeah.’

While Mac and Tom breathed a sigh of relief, Clara chewed her thumbnail unhappily. She felt a fresh surge of anger towards Rose and Oliver. This was their mess, their doing, yet they’d jumped at the chance to send a young woman they didn’t know, a young mother, into danger to help clear it up. ‘What if it goes wrong?’ she asked.

‘Like you said, Hannah doesn’t know me; she doesn’t know what I look like. I’ll keep way back. Listen, Clara, I’m going to do this, you’d do the same for me. I’m not stupid, if I start getting a bad vibe, I’ll back the fuck off. But let’s give it a try, yeah? Let me help you find Luke.’

‘And if she lives out of London? Miles away? What if it’s a wild goose chase?’ said Mac, worriedly.

‘As soon as it looks like she’s heading out of town, I’ll abort mission, OK?’ Zoe replied. ‘Seriously, guys, it’ll be fine.’

Later that day, as Clara sat with Tom and Mac, she sent the message to Hannah: Can we meet?

The reply came quickly: Of course. Do you have any news?

‘What shall I say?’ she asked the others.

Tom thought about it. ‘We need to give her a reason to meet us. We can’t afford for her to drop contact now.’

Clara gave it some thought, then typed, There’s been an interesting development that I want to talk over with you.’ And she pressed Send.

For the next hour or so they waited for a reply. ‘Maybe she’s on to us,’ Clara said nervously to Tom. ‘Your mum said that she somehow seems able to track their every move. What if she’s twigged that I know she’s not Emily?’ She sighed in frustration. ‘Where the fuck is she?’ she muttered.

Finally, another message came through: Tomorrow? Same bar as last time?

Sure, Clara wrote, feeling a rush of relief. I’ll see you there at six.

She put her phone down and looked at first Tom and then Mac. ‘Looks like we’re on.’





30


London, 2017

Clara felt as though a balloon was slowly expanding inside her chest. Whenever she checked her watch, time seemed to have stood still, though it seemed hours since last she’d looked. Rose and Oliver had driven down from Suffolk and the five of them were now sitting around Mac’s kitchen table, restlessly waiting for the moment when Clara would leave to meet Hannah. ‘We’re coming with you,’ Rose announced. ‘After Zoe follows her and finds out where Hannah lives, I mean. We’re going to come with you to confront her.’

Tom shook his head. ‘No, you and Dad should stay here.’

‘We’re coming,’ Oliver told him grimly. ‘It’s us she’s doing this for. We need to try and reason with her.’

‘And I need to know for certain if she knows where Emily is,’ Rose added. ‘I need to look Hannah in the eye and ask her what happened to my daughter.’

Clara felt the tightening in her chest intensify. She couldn’t stop thinking about Doug and Toby. If Hannah was capable of killing them, what else might she do? Was Luke even still alive? She checked her watch again: it was only quarter to four.

The minutes passed so tensely that despite her fear, Clara was almost relieved when it was finally time for her to leave. ‘Remember,’ Tom said as they all anxiously gathered around her in the hall, ‘if you think she’s on to you, just make your excuses and leave. We’ve got Zoe’s number, we’ll tell her to back off too.’