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In the end, I have to take everything out and, as the last few items land on the table, my mouth drops open in shock.
‘Rob,’ I say, gripping his arm. I shake the empty bag at him. ‘The present, it’sgone.’
He takes the bag from me and peers inside, though unnecessarily as it’s easy to feel from its weight that there’s nothing in it.
‘Are you sure you put it in there? Check your handbag.’
I wave my clutch at him. ‘It’s not in here, it’s too small. That’s why I brought the tote.’
Belle is talking to her grandma and hasn’t noticed my panic.
Rob rummages through the stuff on the table and on my lap, even looking inside my flat shoes.
‘Someone must have taken it,’ I say.
‘Unlikely. Maybe it fell out. Let’s go and check around.’
‘Good idea,’ I reply, and lead Rob over to where Amber had left the bag. But it’s not there – on the floor or the table. We search around other areas, including the table that’s laden with gifts from the guests in case someone found it and put it there, but there’s no sign of it. Trying not to cause a fuss, we go back to grill Amber again.
‘Sorry, Mum, I don’t know,’ she says, she and her friends all looking up at us. ‘The bag was with me most of the time. I just forgot to bring it when I came to sit over here. Sorry.’
‘Are you sure you actually put the gift in there, love?’ Rob asks as we go and sit down with his parents again. Belle looks up expectantly as we come back.
‘Yes,’ I hiss. ‘I checked about ten times before I left.’
‘Maybe it fell out in the car?’
A wave of hope washes through me. ‘I’ll go and see,’ I say, pulling the keys from his jacket pocket and heading outside.
I walk quickly across the car park, my feet crunching in the gravel. It’s pitch-dark as I beep the central locking, spotting the flashing lights as Rob’s Volvo unlocks a few rows further back.
I head over to it, my ears still ringing from the loud music inside. As I draw up, I see the glow of a cigarette tip in the darkness – nothing else, just a flaring orange dot.
Then, as I put my hand out to open the Volvo passenger door, I see the shadow of a figure standing the other side of the car, beside the hedge with open fields beyond.
‘Who’s there?’
Another flare of orange at the tip of the cigarette, and then I catch the tang of smoke as it blows my way.
‘Hello?’ I open the car door so the light comes on, but all it does is make it harder to see anything in the darkness. I peer inside and it only takes me a moment to realise the gift is not in the car.
Then I hear footsteps crunching in the gravel, getting closer. Finally, a shadowy figure appears the other side of the Volvo, an elbow coming up and resting on the roof.
His face catches in the car’s interior light as he puts one hand to his mouth, taking a long, slow drag of his cigarette. He blows smoke over me.
‘Hello…Hannah,’ Jack says slowly, his eyes boring into mine.
CHAPTER TEN
MOLLY – THEN
Molly crept across the bare boards of the small landing at the top of the house. She had a towel wrapped around her. She’d found it on the back of the door in the bathroom and it smelt of mould. She pinned her arms to her sides, trying to keep it around her body as her hair hung in dripping wet strands around her shoulders. She shivered as she peered down the staircase. No carpet on it, just splintered wooden boards winding up the centre of the house. It seemed to go on forever – a never-ending drop through the many floors below.
She thought about all the feet that would have trodden the steps.
Well, shesupposedit was a house, but wasn’t too sure yet. Apart from the numerous doors she’d seen on the way up, the only parts of the building she’d been in so far were the attic rooms. She hadn’t really taken notice of the outside when Darren had brought her here – announcing that the Cloisters was her new home – and he’d ordered her not to go into any of the other rooms on her way up to the top floor. They’d arrived on his motorbike with her clutching onto him for dear life; the ride had taken her breath away and she still hadn’t quite got it back.
The ride summed up how she felt right now – terror and excitement.
