The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,73
about April going missing?’
‘Mum, how did you… never mind. Where are you?’
‘About five miles off the coast but as soon as we’ve docked we’re going to cancel the last trip of the day.’
‘No, Mum, you can’t do that.’
‘We’ve got to look for your grandmother!’
‘Kat’s looking for her now.’
‘I know, she said so, but she can’t do it alone.’
‘Has she told you that Gammy has only been missing for about ten minutes now?’
‘A lot can happen in ten minutes to a confused old lady,’ Henny said sternly, and Sadie’s blood froze. She’d been worried, but she hadn’t even considered that something truly catastrophic might happen.
‘But…’
‘What are you doing now?’
‘Well, I’m cleaning the dining room.’
‘You’re cleaning the dining room at a time like this?’
‘I didn’t see what else I could do – I’m stuck here.’
‘You didn’t think to call the police?’
‘Well, no…’
‘I’m going to hang up now and call them because you—’
Sadie didn’t get to hear the end of her mum’s sentence because there was a rap on the window. She looked to see Declan standing outside with April.
‘Mum!’ she cried. ‘Mum, Gammy’s back! I’ll call you later!’
Cutting short the call, Sadie ran to the door.
‘It’s locked!’ she shouted. ‘Gammy… do you have the keys?’
April looked confused and shook her head. ‘How on earth have you managed to lock yourself in and lose the keys?’
Sadie held in a scream of frustration. She shot a look at Declan that silently pleaded for help. She couldn’t say it in front of April, but she hoped he’d understand because he at least knew that something hadn’t been right at the waffle house since it had reopened.
He turned to Sadie’s grandma. ‘April, maybe you want to check your pockets for those keys?’
‘I’ve told you I haven’t got any… Oh…’ She held them up. ‘How strange,’ she added with a shaky laugh.
‘Could you open up?’ Sadie called through the glass.
‘Why don’t you have your keys?’ April asked as she unlocked the door and shoved it open.
‘They are my keys,’ Sadie said.
‘No, they’re mine,’ April replied serenely.
Sadie let out a long sigh. Without a care in the world, April wandered through to the kitchen, tutting as she stopped to pick up the dirty dishes from the still uncleared tables.
‘Thank you,’ Sadie said, turning to Declan.
‘Want to tell me what’s going on?’
‘Have you got a week or two?’
‘You could summarise?’
Sadie smiled. ‘I could, but even that might take more time than we have. I’d better just call Kat first.’
Declan nodded and went to take a seat while Sadie phoned Kat to tell her that April had turned up and all was well. The only problem was that Kat had already sent Ewan a message to call when his lesson was done and he’d soon know about what had happened. When he did, and when the whole family got together, serious questions would have to be asked now about the wisdom of Sadie and April running the waffle house together when April clearly wasn’t up to it. Once she’d ended the call she went back to Declan.
‘It’s lucky you found her. Where was she?’
‘On the promenade. She was outside the ice-cream parlour asking when it had opened and why nobody had told her about it. I could tell straight away that something wasn’t right when she said she needed to get back here to tell Kenneth about it. I thought you might be closed but I thought I’d better come with her just in case.’
‘But the ice-cream parlour…’ Sadie began.
‘I know,’ Declan said. ‘It’s been there at least five years.’
‘And to be fair, she never got upset about it when it first opened up because she always said there was plenty of trade to go around and the waffle house had their loyal regulars.’
‘She’s not well, is she?’
‘I don’t think she is,’ Sadie said, taking a seat next to Declan with a heavy sigh. ‘I’ve been in denial this whole time but it’s been staring me in the face. I didn’t think she would do anything dangerous, though, but now I think that she might. I know my parents will think so and they won’t want to take that risk.’
‘Where does that leave you and the waffle house?’
Sadie shrugged. ‘I don’t honestly know.’
Declan leaned forward and took her hand. ‘You love this old place, don’t you?’
‘There are a lot of memories here for me.’ She smiled up at him. ‘For all of us.’
‘That’s true,’ he said slowly. ‘But the memories are going nowhere, even if the waffle house does.’