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“You need help,” I said.
“Help, pfffff…..” Jade waved it away. “All I need is this place, a bit of sun… “
“It’s almost winter, Jade. It will be snowing soon, and I can tell this house has no heating. Or much of anything. It’s a ruin.”
“Daddy will fix it up,” she said in that same dreamy voice that I found so disconcerting.
Did Jade not remember that her father had died? Mac said their mother now lived in England, somewhere in the countryside with a baron or a duke or another kind of entitled schmuck. This was what Mac had told me; the family money was gone, and this house was all that was left of the past. But they needed to fix it up before they could sell it.
“Get dressed,” I said, as gently as I could. “We’ll wait for you downstairs.”
When I came into the drawing room, I saw that Nikki had made a fire in the fireplace.
“How did you manage that?”
“All those camping trips finally paid off,” she winked at me. “There were plenty of leaves and things around, I think a window broke somewhere, letting all kinds of stuff blow in. Plus, I’ve been burning some books. Didn’t think anyone would mind.”
She picked up a cover from the floor where pages had been ripped out.
She read out loud, “A comprehensive history of Early American History.”
“I think we’ve had enough of the past,” I said. Zoë was lying on an upholstered sofa, wrapped in blankets, snug and warm.
I sat down with Nikki in front of the fire.
“The police are on their way,” she said.
I nodded, feeling totally exhausted.
“Not exactly the weekend we had planned,” I said.
She smiled, “No, but all’s well that ends well. At least Zoë is safe. There is always next weekend.”
Soon afterwards, we heard the sirens of police and then the place was swarming with medics and cops and people with stern faces asking us questions and handing us mugs of steaming, hot coffee.
Zoë woke up, claiming to be ravenously hungry and fortunately, there was some food for her too. Jade was taken away in an ambulance and a policeman took my statement, saying Jade would be kept for observation.
“Sounds like this may be a case of alcohol psychosis,” he said, “But we’ll keep an eye on her.”
Mac arrived at the house soon afterwards.
He whistled when he saw the state of the place.
“Jesus. I didn’t know it was this bad.”
“Jade thought we could live here; me, her, and Zoë. She said it was lovely.”
“A lovely pile of crap more like.”
Mac looked down. “Listen, pal, I feel I owe you an apology. I should’ve told you about her drinking. I knew it was getting out of control. But I never thought she’d do anything like this. Grab Zoë? She loves the kid.”
He walked to the fire, stared into the flames.
“You’ve probably had it with the Moorcrofts.”
I joined him at the fire. “Not all of them, no. Some of them are very useful.”
I smiled at him. “I sold that app of ours last week to a Chinese company. I have no idea what they’re going to do with it, but I don’t care. They handed me a cheque with many zeroes on it. So, I’m taking a bit of a break, then I’m on to the next project. You with me?”
