She puts her hands over her face. I have a moment of panic. If she has a spell now, it won’t be because of her blood pressure medication. It’ll be all on me.
But then she drops her hands, clasps them together. ‘So Harris was supposed to call you today.’
‘Yes.’ I check the time again. ‘Only it’s late, and I’m getting nervous.’
‘And there is nothing you can do but wait?’
‘No, there’s nothing –’
I stop. There’s not nothing. There’s something. I know the house on Amblin Court, I know Reggie and Steph…Well, not exactly, but enough. I could go down there. Even just to see if Harris’s car is outside. Even just to peer in the windows. I know where to go, and I can stay out of sight if I have to.
Sitting here and waiting again, like the other day…I don’t think I could bear it. I have to act.
I stand up. ‘Actually, you’re right. There’s something I can do. But Nani, I’d have to leave you here in the house. I can’t take you with me. You’d be alone until Beena comes back.’
‘That is my concern, not yours,’ Nani says brusquely. ‘I am perfectly capable of –’
‘Nani, I mean it. I can’t leave if I’m worried you’re going to go off wandering the streets, or falling down in a faint again.’
‘I am feeling all right.’ She looks contrite. ‘I will lie in bed and read, and wait for Beena. I promise.’
‘Okay.’ I’m not completely reassured but it’s something. ‘You tuck up in bed, and I’ll get ready.’
As I change out of my cut-offs and into a pair of jeans, my brain snarls over all the things that could go wrong with this plan. What if Harris isn’t home? Where do I search then? What if Reggie and Steph aren’t at the house? Or worse: what if Snowie, or Marcus Anderson, are there? But I don’t need to make myself visible, if it’s not necessary. I can be sneaky…
I don’t think about it. I just grab everything I might need – phone, keys, money – and stuff my pockets, then snatch up a jacket. I race back through the house, take the landline phone from the kitchen into Nani’s room.
She’s in bed, like she promised. ‘Have you had any news?’
I shake my head. ‘No news. Look, take the phone. If you’re feeling ill, call Hansa at the hospital straightaway – straightaway, okay? Don’t make me worry.’
‘I will call if I need to.’
‘Great. And…nobody knows about this except for Harris and me and Dad. Keeping it secret is really important, for Harris’s safety. So if I’m not back, and people are asking, maybe you could make up a good excuse for me?’
‘Certainly.’ She beams. She seems happy to have something to do. ‘I can be your accomplice.’
I almost smile. ‘An accomplice is somebody who helps the bad guys, Nani. How about we say you’re my deputy, okay?’
‘Yes, a deputy. I will be a wonderful deputy.’ She stops me with a hand on my arm. ‘But Amita, if you are not home by tonight, I cannot make excuses. I will call your father.’
I don’t want to say Harris and I might need a call like that. She might worry. ‘That would be a good thing to do, Nani,’ I say instead.
She pulls my head down and gives me a smacking kiss on the cheek. ‘Go. May God help you find your Ouyen boy.’
‘Thank you.’ I kiss her in return, try to store the memory of her wrinkled cheek, her powdery honeysuckle smell. ‘Hopefully, I’ll see you soon.’
*
It’s not until I’m swinging my car into Amblin Court that I realise I’m nearly out of fuel. I tap the gauge, swearing, and check the clock on the dashboard. It’s three thirty-seven. Too late to turn around now.
The street is quiet. Sun escapes the swirl of cloud overhead and dashes itself on the windscreen. But I can see the Pitbull parked on the verge opposite the house. I cruise past once, turn around and pull up a little way further down.
Okay, Harris’s car is here. What does that mean? If he’s at the house, why hasn’t he messaged? Maybe he’s gone somewhere on foot: to the footy ground with Reggie. But he can’t have been at the footy groundall day. Could he be sick? But if he’s so sick he can’t contact me, I want to know about it.
There aren’t any other vehicles. The motorbike that was here the day I arrived to resuscitate Reggie – didn’t Harris mention that Steph rode a bike? – isn’t around now. Oh god, where could hebe?
This is bullshit. I can’t sit here in the car doing nothing, not now I’m so close. Harris is gone and there are answers in that house, if I’ve got the courage to find them.
