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6.
NO ONE AT THEhotel reception had seen Nana.
Granada might be reputed to be one of the safest cities in the country, but that didn’t mean anything. It was getting dark, it had been a long day, and Nana was old and not the most stable on her feet. Gabi had a vision of her lying in the gutter down a dark and narrow, cobbled side street because she’d fallen over and passed out from the pain of a broken hip. Gabi shook off the image and another one replaced it. This time, Nana stared at the name plate of a road attached to the wall of a house, frowning, and trembling, and trying to steady her cane. Gabi felt her confusion and anxiety, and more disturbing visions of Nana’s fate haunted her. Nana might think she knew the place like the back of her hand, but that was now an arthritic one that had probably changed as much as the city had in the last sixty years.
“Can you call the hospital and check to see if she’s there?” Gabi said to the man behind the desk. He smiled but made no move to pick up the phone, despite her pointing repeatedly at it.
“Please try not to worry, Miss Sánchez. I’m sure she will be safe.”
You don’t know that. Arsehole.Her blood was close to boiling point, and she wanted to throttle the fucker. “Can you tell me the number? Please.” Nana wouldn’t forgive her if she forgot her manners. She couldn’t wait. “I’ll call the hospital.” There was no way her Spanish was going to hold up to trying to explain the situation but right now, that was the least of her problems.
“Please, Miss Sánchez, we can help you. Please, take a seat.”
I don’t want a fucking seat. I want Nana.The ticking bomb inside her was about to explode, and this little fucker was going to get the full blast of it if he didn’t pull his finger out. “I have to find Nana, now.” She squeezed the words out before she choked on them. The air was being sucked from her chest faster than a burst balloon, and the pressure inside her head was increasing at the same speed. Where would she start looking? She could be searching all night and their paths still might not cross. The man smiled at her again, and she wanted to slap the charm from his face. She rammed her clenched hands into her pockets and bit her tongue. She hadn’t realised how much she hated this feeling.Calm down. Calm down.Trying to breathe and calm her thoughts was impossible, like swimming against a tsunami.
“Maybe she took a stroll somewhere,” he said.
“She’s a seventy-five-year-old woman who walks with a cane.”
“I understand, Miss Sánchez.”
No, you clearly fucking don’t do you, or you’d have phoned the hospital already. He started to do something on the computer, probably checking Gabi wasn’t lying about Nana’s age, or maybe checking that Nana existed and Gabi wasn’t some fruit loop. Gabi launched herself towards the counter. She stopped short of thumping her fists on the surface and screaming at him or worse still, reaching across the counter and shaking him into action. “Please.” Her voice sounded weak.
He picked up the phone and made several calls.
Nana hadn’t been taken to hospital, although this fact didn’t lessen the tension in Gabi’s head or reduce her irritation with the man relaying the information. He broadened his smile, and her tension rose another level.
“I’m sure Mrs Sánchez will be back very soon.”
Not if she’s lying in a dark alley and no one has seen her, she wouldn’t.Fucker.“Can you call the police, please?”
He raised his eyebrows and cleared his throat. “You said it has been two hours since you last saw her?”
“That’s not the point.”
He wiggled the red tie at his neck. “She will not be considered missing.”
The great emphasis he had placed on the word missing didn’t escape Gabi. That he was technically accurate grated even more. “I’m going to see if I can find her,” Gabi said through gritted teeth. She forced a tight-lipped smile and turned her back to him. She took a deep breath to alleviate her heart palpitations, and another, and stood still until the dizziness had abated. She didn’t need this stress. She needed a quiet night and a long sleep. She needed the comfort of…comfort of what?
“May I suggest you start at the river,” the man said.
Fuck.She hadn’t thought that Nana might have drowned. She turned back and glared at him, and the smile slowly slipped from his lips.
“It is the place many of our guests go for an evening stroll.”
As she walked, she had to admit he was trying to be helpful, but she wasn’t overreacting. She knew how vulnerable Nana was even if Nana didn’t show it. Gabi shouldn’t have left her to walk back to the hotel on her own. If something happened to Nana, she would have to face her dad, and she would feel eternally guilty. And pissed off that he’d been right about her being incapable of helping anyone but herself.
She started jogging, searching among what looked like the whole population of Granada for Nana’s silver-white head of hair. After two hundred yards, her lungs were burning. She stopped, took a couple of deep breaths, and reverted to walking, scanning in every direction until she reached the river. The water looked deep, and the current was strong. Everything blurred in front of her eyes. Which way should she go?
She walked for ten minutes before she sat on the wall of a small plaza that overlooked the river, held her head in her hands, and allowed the tears to fall silently. She didn’t want anyone to stop and ask if she was okay, because she’d break down completely. She needed to be strong for Nana. She rubbed her eyes and lifted her head.
“Are you all right, Gabriela? What happened?”
“Nana.” She jumped up and wrapped her arms around Nana and held her tightly. The tears flowed, but they were out of joy and relief. “I was so scared.”
“Cariño, about what?”
Gabi let her go and stared at her. “About you. Where did you go to? You were supposed to be at the hotel and when I got back, I thought something horrible had happened.”
