my temple. “She’s in Australia with her boyfriend. This is another Bailey McKenna.”
A range of emotions passed over Mr McKenna’s face and I quickly identified one of them as pity. I had been given that look enough times in the hospital when I couldn’t do something for myself. People couldn’t stop that look from forming in their eyes when they felt pity for a person, no matter how much they tried to contain it.
“Ye shouldn’t be here, kid,” he answered me. “Ye should be at home, Elliot will worry if he knows you’re out here all alone. Ye know how much he worries over ye. Come on, let’s go and give him a visit at the station. I spoke to him earlier, he should be there if there hasn’t been a call.”
He was talking to me like I was a crazy person, and it was making me panic.
“Tell me she’s in Australia.”
Mrs McKenna came to her ex-husband’s side, and I watched as she slid her fingers between his and gripped his hand so tightly that her knuckles turned white. I looked from their hands to their faces, and my gut twisted.
“Please,” I pleaded, my voice cracking. “Please tell me that she’s in Australia.”
Mr McKenna shook his head. “I can’t do that, honey.”
With shaking hands, I dug my phone from my bag and dialled Bailey’s old number. It went straight to voicemail, and logically I knew it was because it was a dead number. Elliot had said she didn’t use the number any more, but I was in a panic and needed to speak to her.
“Hey,” Bailey’s voice chirped. “This is Bailey, I’m busy right now, obviously . . . or maybe I’m just starin’ at me phone and waitin’ for ye to hang up so I can text ye and see what ye want. Hint hint.”
When I heard the beep, I began talking.
“Bailey, it’s Noah. I want you to ring me as soon as you get this message, okay? I really need to speak to you, baby. I love you. Ring me straight away. I’m not joking, Bails. Call me. Please, please, please, call me.”
Mrs McKenna was crying so hard that a few people had stopped to stare. I couldn’t move, I could only look between the pair of them. My mind refused to let me process what they were saying, so the only thing I could do was fight their words with my own.
I stumbled back and managed to catch myself with my crutch before I took a tumble on to my backside. My breathing was irregular, and loud to my own ears.
“Where is she?” I screamed over the pain in my head. “Where the fuck is she?”
“West Norwood Cemetery,” Mrs McKenna blurted out on a choked sob. “Row twenty-three, ninth plot from the left in the lawn cemetery.”
I felt like all the blood had drained from my face.
“Liar!” I snapped. “You’re . . . you’re lying!”
Both of Elliot’s parents shook their heads, and I suddenly felt helpless as pure panic flooded me. The old man’s words echoed in my head. He’d said the brother was a firefighter who was on duty and had pulled a woman from the car that had crashed, but before he could save his sister the car had been engulfed in flames and she’d died. Who was that woman he saved?
You, a voice whispered in my head. It was you.
“This is wrong!” I screamed. “This . . . this . . . this wasn’t the accident I was in. It wasn’t.”
“It was, honey.” Mrs McKenna was trembling. “You and our Bailey . . . ye were both in that same accident. Elliot saved you, Noah. Bailey . . . she was beyond help. He made up the Australia story because he was terrified the news might kill ye.”
I felt like I was being shaken from the inside. I wanted to run, to get as far away from the flowers, the McKennas and this conversation as possible. I spotted a car driving down the road that made my heart jump.
“Taxi!” I shouted, and waved it down. “Taxi!”
The car pulled up right next to me, and I clumsily climbed inside, pulling my crutches with me. Mr McKenna was trying to keep me from closing the door as I was talking to the driver, telling him where I wanted to go.
“West Norwood Cemetery,” I demanded. “As fast as you can.”