Mr Flint’s eyes rounded. ‘Seriously?’ he said. ‘Do you have proof?’
‘Yes, there’s a girl—’ Wolf started.
I laid my hand on his arm to stop him revealing Natalia’s name. ‘One of the girls Baxter has been using is in the café opposite. She’ll talk to you, but I think you’ll have to keep her name out of it. She’s scared Baxter will come after her if he thinks she’s gone behind his back.’
Mr Flint frowned. ‘Sounds like she should be going to the police.’
‘That’s what I think too,’ Wolf said.
‘She’s too scared to do that,’ I insisted.
There was a pause.
‘She’s in the café opposite?’ Mr Flint said.
‘Waiting for us,’ I said with a nod.
‘Come on, then,’ he said. ‘Let’s go and speak to her.’
We headed downstairs. As we crossed the road opposite the café, Wolf and Mr Flint strode on ahead. I hung back, worrying what Natalia would think. I’d promised her Allan with his offers of help and money. And now I was bringing her Mr Flint who clearly was more interested in Natalia’s story than her actual situation.
I followed the others into the café. It wasn’t big – a scattering of tables on either side of a small glass counter selling cakes and sandwiches and coffee.
There was no sign of Natalia.
Wolf looked around. ‘She’s gone,’ he said.
I rushed over to the man behind the counter.
‘Where’s the girl who was here?’ I asked.
‘What girl?’ the man said. He narrowed his eyes.
Beside me, Mr Flint shuffled impatiently.
What was going on?
‘The girl I was here with just a few minutes ago,’ Wolf said, his voice rising as he spoke. ‘She was pregnant.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ the man said.
He turned away. I met Wolf’s eyes. He looked as terrified and confused as I felt. What was happening? Why was this man lying to us?
And where was Natalia?
19
Allan’s Secret
The café fell silent. Mr Flint frowned.
‘OK,’ he said slowly. ‘So your entire story is based on a far-fetched claim about a successful businessman . . . and you have absolutely nothing to back it up with whatsoever?’
I looked down at the tiled floor of the café. The customers at the nearest table and all the waiting staff were staring at us.
Mr Flint sighed. ‘I’ll admit there are a lot of rumours about Declan Baxter, but nothing has ever been proved. And I’ve never heard he’s involved in trafficking girls . . . or baby farms or whatever.’
I blushed, unable to meet his gaze. He was basically saying I was lying – or exaggerating. It didn’t really matter. He didn’t believe me.
Wolf reached for my hand. I let him squeeze my fingers, but the gesture made me feel no better. I’d done everything wrong . . . taken off the tracker so Baxter knew straight away Natalia had gone . . . left her with Wolf instead of bringing her into the newspaper office. And now, if Baxter’s men had kidnapped her, anything might happen to her. And I was the one who’d persuaded her to run away in the first place. It was my fault.
‘Someone’s bribing that guy to lie to us,’ Wolf insisted, pointing to the man behind the counter.
‘Right,’ Mr Flint said sarcastically. ‘So tell me, Madison, how do you even know Declan Baxter?’
‘I don’t,’ I stammered. ‘But I know his daughter. I’ve been to his house . . . that’s where I found out about Natalia . . . about Miriam 21.’
‘Oh for goodness’ sake.’ Mr Flint took out his wallet and removed a business card. He shoved it into my hand. It contained his name, mobile and email details. ‘Call me if you have a real lead, OK?’ he said. ‘And tell Allan Faraday not to send a kid next time. In fact, tell Allan Faraday to stay the hell away from me.’
He marched out of the café. Wolf gave a low growl.
‘That wasn’t fair,’ he said. ‘He should have believed you.’
‘Why?’ I said, my emotions whirling inside my head. ‘I kept telling him things that turned out not to be true. Or at least looked like they weren’t true.’
Wolf strode over to the man who was still lurking behind the food counter. ‘You lied just now,’ he said angrily. ‘I was here with a girl before, a pregnant girl.’
The man shook his head, but he didn’t meet Wolf’s eyes. ‘Get out!’ he muttered.
‘Come on.’ I took Wolf’s hand to lead him out of the café. A large van zoomed past as we stood on the pavement. I suddenly felt self-conscious we were holding hands and let Wolf’s fingers slide away from my grasp.
‘D’you think Baxter’s men got to Natalia?’ I asked.
‘I guess so,’ Wolf said.
We walked towards the main road. The traffic was heavy and shoppers crowded the pavement. I felt terrible. Anything could be happening to Natalia. And I had no idea where to go for help.
‘Should we call the police now?’ Wolf asked uncertainly.
‘I don’t know,’ I said.
As we reached the corner, footsteps sounded behind us. A girl with straggly hair tied back in an elastic band rushed up. ‘I’m from the café,’ she panted.
I stared at her. I hadn’t noticed her before.
‘I remember you.’ Wolf raised his eyebrows. ‘What—?’
‘He was lying to you. The girl you were with, she gave my boss money to say she’d never been there.’
‘Money?’ I said. ‘Natalia didn’t have any money.’
The girl shrugged. ‘She had a leather wallet. She gave him fifty quid out of it.’
Wolf gasped. He reached inside his pocket.
‘My wallet,’ he said. ‘It’s gone.’
‘Natalia stole it?’ I said, disbelieving.
‘I gotta get back.’ The straggly-haired girl flew away along the pavement.
Wolf shook his head. ‘She wasn’t taken. She left of her own free will and she took my wallet.’
‘Why?’ I said. ‘I don’t get this. Why would she run off? What did she say when you left the café?’
‘Nothing, but she looked kind of agitated,’ Wolf said. ‘I just thought she was anxious about keeping the baby safe from Baxter . . .’
‘She must have decided talking to a journalist was too risky,’ I said. ‘She mentioned not wanting to give her real name before. Maybe she thought she’d be forced to reveal who she was . . . that if her name appeared, Baxter would know she’d grassed on him and take revenge . . .’
‘You mean she didn’t trust us,’ Wolf said, heavily.
I nodded. Once again, I felt a total failure.
My phone rang. Allan calling.
I hesitated. Wolf peered over my shoulder.
‘Talk to him,’ he said. ‘He owes you some answers.’
I wasn’t sure. I mean, of course Wolf was right, but I didn’t know if I could face Allan right now.
‘Go on,’ Wolf urged.
I took a deep breath. ‘Allan?’ I said into the mobile.
‘Madison, I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier.’ Allan’s voice was smooth and gentle. It sounded fake. Why hadn’t I heard that phoney note before? He was a con man. And I was really stupid to have trusted him. Anger filled me.
‘You said you were a proper journalist,’ I snapped. ‘You said you worked at that newspaper, but they told me you just do a bit of blogging and PR stuff – that you’ve never actually worked there in your life.’
Allan sucked in his breath. ‘You went there?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I went to find you. We had Natalia . . . the girl from the Miriam Project. Miriam 21. She’s pregnant. Baxter was keeping her locked up so he could take her baby.’
‘What?’ Allan said. ‘Say that again.’
‘Why should I tell you anything?’ I said. A sob rose in my throat as anger gave way to misery. Allan had lied to me.
‘Listen, Madis
on.’ Allan’s voice was low and intense. ‘I exaggerated my job because you turned up wanting me to be something special and I didn’t want to let you down.
‘You’re saying lying to me was my fault?’
‘No, of course not. I’m saying that I wasn’t trying to trick you. The truth is that . . . that I wasn’t getting anywhere with Matthew or any of the other editors and—’
‘And you used me.’ My mind was in overdrive now, piecing it all together. No wonder Allan had been so warm and friendly. ‘You didn’t want to get to know me at all. You only invited me to that party at Baxter’s house so that I’d meet Esme . . . as a way of getting back into the house later as her friend.’
‘That’s not true,’ Allan insisted. ‘I was invited to the party because of my PR work. Baxter has no idea I’m investigating him. As I’m sure Matthew Flint has told you, I haven’t really broken through as a reporter so Baxter doesn’t know me and I was in the perfect position to get close to him without him suspecting anything.’ He paused, a note of shame creeping into his voice. ‘I admit I hoped you might make friends with one of his children, but everything else that happened was spur of the moment . . .’
Everything else? What did he mean? In an instant I remembered how I’d watched Allan speaking quietly to Baxter’s man, Hobbs, in the waistcoat and yellow tie. It was straight after then that Allan had gone to the loo, then come back and more or less suggested I used the toilets myself. I gasped.
‘You got Hobbs to tell you where Esme was, then moved the toilets sign from outside the actual bathroom to outside Esme’s Den. You meant me to go in there and, when I did, you locked me and the others inside.’
‘When I found out where Esme was – well, it was too great an opportunity to miss,’ Allan said quickly. ‘Honestly, I only meant to leave you in there for fifteen mintues or so. Just enough time to start making friends. I unlocked the door again before you came back.’
I froze, the High Street and Wolf’s anxious face a blur. Allan was admitting it. He had moved the sign and locked me in. That explained why Esme had said the bathroom was next door and how, later, the sign had vanished and the door to the Den had been found unlocked.
‘We were trapped with that tiger,’ I said. ‘We nearly died.’
‘I didn’t know about the tiger,’ Allan persisted. ‘And I do want to get to know you, Madison. None of that was a lie.’
My breath was coming in big rushes. I could barely take this in. Wolf tugged at my arm.
‘Madison, listen,’ Allan said, his voice urgent. ‘We can still make this work. From what you said it sounds as if Baxter is up to his eyes in something illegal. Pregnant girls, selling babies . . . and if you’ve got one of the girls he’s using, you’ve got proof about—’
‘Natalia’s gone,’ I interrupted. ‘She ran off while I was talking to Matthew Flint. We don’t know where she is.’
‘OK,’ Allan persisted. ‘We just need to find her . . . she can’t have got far. Then we can take her to Matthew Flint and explain everything.’
Wolf tugged at my arm again.
‘I think Natalia ran away because she was scared her name would come out if her story got into the press,’ I said. ‘She’s terrified Baxter will find her and take revenge. But you don’t care what happens to her, do you?’
‘Of course I do,’ Allan persisted. ‘I want to help Natalia. Going to the press will help her. She’ll get money for her story and they’ll make sure she talks to the right people at the police. Straight to the right people, so Baxter has no time to get to her.’
‘Even if we find her, she won’t want to talk to the police.’ I took a deep breath. ‘And you know what, Allan? I don’t want to talk to you.’ I switched off the call – and my phone.
I stared down at the pavement. It swam in front of my eyes. I felt all churned up. Natalia had run away and Allan had lied and nothing was working out like I’d thought it would.
Wolf pulled on my arm for a third time. ‘Madison?’ He sounded hoarse.
‘What?’ I blinked away my tears and focused on him at last.
His face was drawn and pale. ‘Look,’ he said.
I followed his pointing finger to the end of the road. A figure on a stretcher was being loaded into an ambulance. Despite being several hundred metres away and covered with a blanket, the huge pregnant bump that rose up from the stretcher gave her away.
‘Oh my God,’ I breathed. ‘It’s Natalia.’
‘Come on.’ Wolf grabbed my hand and, together, we ran towards the ambulance.
20
The Chase
Wolf clutched my hand. We ran so hard that I practically flew along the pavement. We still weren’t fast enough, reaching the end of the road just as the ambulance containing Natalia drove away.
‘Damn,’ Wolf panted.
We stopped running. I bent over, gasping for breath. Wolf turned to an elderly lady watching the ambulance nee-naw-ing away along the street.
‘What happened?’
‘A young girl . . . pregnant . . . she was unconscious, poor thing.’ The lady offered up a sympathetic sigh.
Wolf and I exchanged a look. Had Baxter’s men somehow found Natalia and knocked her out? No, there was no way they could have caught up with her so fast. Even if they had, surely they would have bundled her quietly into a car – not organised an ambulance.
‘Did you see her collapse?’ I asked. ‘Did something happen to her?’
The old woman shrugged. ‘I don’t know, love.’
I looked around. The crowd which had gathered was fading away. There were no indications that any kind of struggle had taken place, but it was impossible to be certain what had really gone on.
‘D’you think Baxter got to her?’ I suggested. ‘Maybe he or one of his men ran her down in their car.’
‘How could they have known where she was?’ Wolf said. ‘We took off her tracker. Anyway, why would they risk being seen attacking her in such a public place?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said.
The elderly woman was wandering off along the pavement. I chased after her.
‘Do you know which hospital they took her to?’ I asked.
‘Probably Kensington General,’ she said. ‘It’s quite close. Is she a friend of yours?’
But I was already running back to Wolf.
‘Let’s try Kensington General,’ I said.
‘OK, but I don’t have any money anymore, so we can’t take a taxi,’ Wolf said.
‘Then we’ll walk. It can’t be that far.’
It took thirty minutes and several anxious checks of the GPS on Wolf’s phone to get us to the hospital. Along the way my imagination had been working overtime, wondering if Natalia was OK.
‘The more I think about it, the more Baxter trying to hurt Natalia doesn’t make sense.’ Wolf paced along beside me, frowning with concentration as he worked it through. ‘Even if he knew where she was and came after her, what Baxter wants most is her baby. He certainly wouldn’t want to risk a public showdown with people crowding round – and where Natalia might end up being taken to a hospital and telling the doctors all about his illegal surrogacy business.’
‘She wouldn’t tell. She’d be too scared.’ I thought of Natalia’s terrified face earlier and, again, felt a stab of guilt. I’d encouraged her to escape – and now she was unconscious and in as much danger as ever.
‘Maybe she wouldn’t say anything,’ Wolf mused. ‘But Baxter can’t know that for sure.’
We hurried on. I turned my phone back on. It rang almost immediately. Annie. I let her go to voicemail, then listened to the message. It was classic Annie – all breathless and nervy – asking in an irritatingly timid I don’t want to upset you voice when I would be home. ‘I’m just so worried about you, sweetie, we’ve hardly talked for days and you were gone when I woke up. Please give me a call . . .’ and so on. I sent a text – am fine, see you l8r Mx – then switched my phone off again.
Ten minutes later, Wolf
and I arrived at Kensington General Hospital. It was massive – completely bewildering – but at least the Accident & Emergency department was clearly marked. We followed the large red sign into the building and found ourselves in a huge waiting area. It was crowded, though plenty of seats were still available. There was no sign of Natalia on the chairs. My heart thumped.
‘What now?’ I said. ‘If she was brought in unconscious, she wouldn’t have been able to give her name. How are we going to find her?’
‘She’d give a false name, anyway,’ Wolf said. ‘She won’t want Baxter to trace her.’
‘Or us,’ I added.
For a moment I wondered if we were being stupid trying to track down Natalia. After all, if she didn’t want our help, why were we persisting in offering it? But in my heart I was certain she’d only run away from us because she was scared that she couldn’t trust the newspaper to conceal her name. And she’d probably been right. All that mattered now was trying to help her get away from Baxter.
Wolf pointed to the swing doors that led to the treatment area of the A&E ward. A male nurse in a smart blue uniform emerged. He looked around the waiting room and called a name.
‘Natalia could be through there, in one of the cubicles,’ Wolf said. ‘The doctors might be examining her.’
I nodded, watching as an elderly man, stooping over his cane, shuffled towards the male nurse. They vanished through the swing doors. I followed them and peered over the doors into the treatment area. Two rows of cubicles, divided from each other by long blue curtains, stretched away from me. The male nurse was helping the old man into one of the cubicles. I gulped. Time to start putting on an act. When I was younger – around the time I met Lauren – I thought it would be cool to be an actor, to spend the day pretending to be other people, getting right inside their heads. Of course, as I got older, I realised that performing meant having people look at you, which I hated.
However, right now, I needed to do some acting. ‘Wait here,’ I hissed at Wolf. Then I waved through the swing doors as if to the old man. ‘We’re coming, Granddad,’ I cooed and, without looking round to see if anyone in the waiting area was watching me, I headed through to the cubicles.