Fourteen Days(68)

But for that he knew he had to make a stand—so he asked, “Babe, can I have my laptop back?”

She turned to him, grinning. “Well, I’m not really sure you’re ready for it yet,” she said, playfully. “But seeing as there’s only two days left, I suppose it’s all right.”

Smiling eagerly, he lifted her legs off his lap and got up from the couch. “Thanks, babe. Where’d you hide it? Please tell me it’s in the house.”

She nodded, teasingly, delaying revealing its whereabouts. “I bet you’ve already searched the house for it, haven’t you?”

“Of course I have. But it’s nowhere. I’ve looked.”

“You can’t have looked that hard then.”

“Come on, tell me where it is.”

She hesitated, clearly wanting to savor his desperation. “It’s in my clothes drawer.”

Grimacing in disbelief, he took a step back. “Are you serious?”

Nodding, she said, “Yep. Under my jeans.”

He sighed loudly. “I can’t believe it. I looked everywhere.”

“Well, you can’t have looked everywhere, otherwise you would have found it, wouldn’t you?”

Shaking his head in amazement, he left the living room, leaving Nicky smirking on the couch.

After pulling out the laptop and modem from Nicky’s drawer, Richard set it back up in the office. A sudden feeling of control filled his entire body when the Internet powered up. He was no longer a stranger to the rest of the world. His world of computers and communication had returned. Two weeks had seemed like a lifetime to him.

Using a search engine, he entered the names ‘Peter Young’ and ‘Sophie’, followed by the words ‘Bristol, still born and suicide’.

Nothing came up.

Frustrated, he tried again, using various different combinations.

Still nothing came up, prompting him to doubt whether his experience was real at all.

It was real, he reassured himself. And so he tried again.

Unsuccessful, he decided to focus on the farmhouse. He entered ‘St. Clears’, followed by ‘Young’. A list of farms popped up on the screen. Scrolling down, he saw that there was in fact one farm owned by an S. Young. He couldn’t quite believe it. But was it simply an amazing coincidence? Or was it the real thing? Had Christina Long given him all the information he needed to find her baby? He shook his head in astonishment.

Sitting back on his chair, he stared at the phone number attached to the farmhouse. Maybe I should call just to see who answers, he thought. But what if Peter answers? What then? He sighed loudly. I’ll just hang up. No, I can’t do that—what if it rattles him and he makes a run for it? No, he won’t—it’s been nearly a year. He’s probably calmed down by now.

Nervously, he picked up the phone from the computer desk. Sighing again, he entered the phone number. His heart raced as his finger hovered over the green ‘call’ button. He could feel a bead of sweat run down the side of his face. What’s wrong with me? he thought. It’s only a phone call.

“Are you going to be long on the phone?” Nicky asked from the doorway, causing him to drop the phone in fright.

“Bloody hell, Nic,” he yelled. “You scared the life out of me.”

Sniggering, she reached down and picked the phone up from the floor. “You’re such a wimp, Rich.”

“What do you want?” he said, abruptly.

“Don’t be like that. I only asked you a question.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap—I just had a fright, that’s all.” He took the phone from her. “Can you give me five minutes? I won’t be long.”

She nodded and then left, clearly a little disgruntled.

Shoving the door shut with his foot, he unwillingly pushed the ‘call’ button and held it to his ear. The wait for the call to go through was excruciating. But then, to his relief, the phone gave off a dead-tone, indicating that the phone number had been disconnected. “Thank God for that,” he said under his breath. He then opened the door and called out to Nicky, “You can use the phone now, I’m finished!”

“Thanks!” she shouted up from downstairs.

Back to the drawing board, he thought as he ran a hand through his hair.

Pulling out a pen from a drawer, he proceeded to jot down the address of the farmhouse on a Post-it note. He slipped the note into his pocket and left the office.