The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,72

wandered off, locked the door and taken the keys with her, leaving Sadie trapped inside?

Sadie wondered for a moment if she was the one who’d gone off to fairyland. Surely her grandma wouldn’t do that. But if she had where would she have gone? She couldn’t have got far, wherever it was.

Sadie checked around again one last time. And then she checked the front door. And the back door that was always locked and that, stupidly she realised now, she’d never bothered asking for keys for. Gammy had the only set for that door and she’d left all her keys at home that morning, which meant the only way to get out was to get some keys from Gammy somehow. Which meant finding out where she’d gone.

Pulling her phone from her pocket, she was forced to ignore the new text from Luke. Instead, she dialled Ewan’s number. It went straight to voicemail. So she tried Kat and gave a thankful sigh as her sister-in-law answered.

‘Hey—’

‘Kat… I know this is going to sound a bit desperate but is Gammy there?’

‘April? No, but—’

Sadie hadn’t imagined for a moment that her grandma could have got to the dive school offices that quick but she hadn’t known what else to say. The fact was she’d lost Gammy – or rather, Gammy had lost her – and there was no way to dress that up as anything except what it was.

‘What’s wrong?’ Kat asked.

‘Gammy’s gone off somewhere and locked me in.’

‘You’re at the waffle house?’

‘Yes. Is Ewan there?’

‘No, he’s on a lesson. But we don’t have keys for the waffle house anyway so we can’t let you out.’

‘I know, but if you could find Gammy that’s probably a bigger priority at the moment anyway. She just took off without a word, and she doesn’t even have her bag or coat with her. I just can’t imagine where she’s gone but she can’t have got that far because it was only a few minutes ago.’

‘I can go and look for you. What are you going to do about getting out?’

‘I suppose I’ll have to sit tight until you find her. Unless someone can go home to get Gammy’s set. She left them there this morning, which is why there’s only one set here. I can only guess that she must have picked these up today thinking they were hers, but I still don’t understand why she just left knowing I was still in here cleaning up. I mean, she’d never leave me to clean up alone and she certainly wouldn’t go without telling me.’

‘She wouldn’t go without her bag either – she even takes that to the toilet.’

Sadie gave a tight smile. On any other day Kat’s statement would have made her laugh, but not today.

‘What about your parents?’ Kat asked. ‘Could they come down to you with the keys?’

‘I think they’ll be out on the boat. Dad said he thought they’d have a pretty full day. I’ll try them, but if they are then there won’t be much hope of getting hold of them.’

‘I’ll go and look for your gran now,’ Kat said. ‘Try not to worry; I’ll call you as soon as I find her. Like you said, she can’t have got that far in a few minutes.’

‘Thanks, Kat.’

Sadie ended the call and put her phone on the counter. She looked around the still messy dining room. There wasn’t much she could do, but at least, she supposed, if she was captive here, she might as well make herself useful rather than stand around worrying. But first, she ought to reply to Luke’s text.

Don’t eat too much dinner – I thought we could drive out of town to eat somewhere new.

* * *

Sounds good. X

After setting the ringtone to its loudest setting so she’d be sure to hear it if Kat called, she set about cleaning up. It would take longer than usual, and would probably mean she’d miss out on that nap she’d promised herself, but hopefully it wouldn’t delay her too much. She was worried to death about Gammy, but she still couldn’t help but look forward to her date with Luke, though she had to admit that this turn of events did put a damper on things a little. For now, she had to hold on to the hope that things would be resolved quickly.

A few moments later her phone started to ring. Sadie dropped the mop and raced to answer it.

‘Sadie…’ Her mum sounded tense on the line. ‘What’s this