up in her arms. Chantelle kicked and struggled until she was put down, saying, ‘I can do it. I can do it.’
‘Upstairs, young lady,’ ordered Chloe.
Amazingly the youngster did as she was told. The cat had appeared again and got its fur pulled by Chantelle on her way past. Chloe followed, calling up to Alex as she went beneath the open trapdoor, ‘I’ll be a while yet.’
She bathed the little girl, found a nightdress and put her into it, and then told her to get into bed while she let the bathwater go. Chantelle obediently trooped off to one of the rooms and was sitting up in bed sucking her thumb when Chloe joined her.
‘Story!’ said Chantelle, taking her thumb out for a second. ‘Big Red Boots!’
When Chloe simply stood there and looked helplessly around, Chantelle got out of bed, found the book she wanted and handed it to her. Chloe sat on the side of her bed and read the battered, dog-eared pages. It was a tale of an elf who had been given big red boots for his birthday. Even before Chloe had finished the story, Chantelle was asleep, her golden curls decorating the pillow.
Chloe went downstairs again and found the boy watching television. She still did not know his name.
‘You’re next,’ she said.
‘I don’t have to go up yet.’
‘You’ll go when I tell you to.’
‘Bossy boots.’
Still, she left him there for a while and studied the programme herself. It was a quiz show. Chloe didn’t recognise it, but then she never watched quiz shows. They just bored her.
‘What’s this called?’ she asked.
‘You know.’
‘No I don’t, or I wouldn’t ask.’
He was lying on the floor, his head propped up on his elbows. He turned to look at her. ‘It’s called You Know. That’s what it’s called. You daft, or what?’
‘Don’t be cheeky.’
‘Bugger off.’
‘And don’t swear. I’ll – I’ll tell Dad.’
‘Don’t care.’
Chloe knew this was going nowhere. She had a younger brother who could be just like this one at times. She tried to focus on why she was down here, in this house. What she had to do was find out where the house was located. It was no good asking this boy. He would look at her as if she was stupid. Instead, she got up and went to look in the drawers of a bureau that stood in the corner. If she could find a letter, she could study the address.
‘Those’re her drawers, they are,’ said the boy, without taking his eyes from the screen. ‘You’ll get it if she catches you.’
Chloe paid him no attention, but continued to root around in the bureau, without success. She went off and had a look in the kitchen, knowing that people often open their mail at the breakfast table. There were no letters there either. Finally she had an idea. She went back to the boy and said, ‘Have you seen that letter I got the other day?’
‘Never took no letter.’
‘I didn’t say you’d taken it. I only asked if you’d seen it.’
‘That one I give you from Jimmy Caghill?’
‘Yes. That one.’
‘You stuck it under your mattress. You daft, or what?’
Chloe dashed upstairs and found the room which obviously belonged to Sarah, then after a long search, found the letter. She was disappointed. It had no envelope. When she opened it she read: ‘Sarah. I reckon your really something. You want to go to the pictures sometime? I could meet you tomorrow if you wanted. James (Caghill).’ There was no address at the top and Chloe thought James Caghill was a dud. As if she would sell her pride so cheaply as to ever go out with someone who didn’t know how to use apostrophes and wrote your instead of you’re.
When she left her room the boy was coming up the stairs.
He seemed very reasonable now. ‘I’m goin’ to bed. You have locked the door, haven’t you, Sarah?’
‘Doesn’t it lock on the latch?’
‘You’re s’posed to deadlock it too.’
After making sure the boy really had gone to bed she went downstairs quickly and found the key in the lock.
Chloe deadlocked the front door and when she went around to the back door found it had been securely bolted.
Then she began a serious search of the house. After an hour it was obvious that there were no letters in the house. There were no bills or bank statements either. This house was quite devoid of printed paper. There was nothing on the phone to say where they were. She did