He’d fast-tracked to the worst possible scenario, and I wasn’t far behind him. He disappeared off at a run towards the information desk on the lower level, while I ran as fast as my heels would allow to the last toilets, at the far end of the centre.
As I ran, I glanced left and right into every shop, but there was no young girl with long dark hair looking lost and confused in their doorways. I wove speedily past a group of children, all a little older than Holly, who’d just emerged from a branch of Waterstones. They were all clutching copies ofWitchery,a book that you didn’t need to work in publishing to know was going to be aSunday Timesbestseller. The pre-publication hype had been everywhere.
I ran on. But there was something in my head that kept buzzing like a wasp at a picnic. There was a stitch in my side, but that wasn’t what brought me to a halt. Far in the distance, I spotted a security guard reacting visibly to a message he’d just received on his walkie-talkie. Nick had clearly raised the alert, but I was no longer sure it was necessary.
I stopped stock-still in the middle of the concourse and closed my eyes, conjuring up the memory of the photograph on Nick’s desk at The Willows. His daughter had been wearing a T-shirt with a very familiar raven logo on it. A logo I’d just seen ten seconds ago in the window of the bookshop and again on the front of the books in the children’s hands. I ran back to the bookshop, pausing briefly to glance at the cauldron in the window, which was belching out some very realistic-looking smoke. Beside it was a collection of witches’ hats, a spell book and some broomsticks. At the bottom of the window was a poster inviting you to visit their extensive in-store display in the children’s section.
It was exactly where I would have wandered off to at her age, and it was no surprise to find Holly sitting enthralled in front of a mock forest, complete with swooping owls and a campfire for the junior witches and wizards to sit beside.
‘Holly,’ I said, dropping to my knees beside her.
She looked up from the pages of the copy ofWitcherythat she’d taken from the stack on the table.
‘Oh hello. It’s you. Daddy’s friend.’
It was quite a stretch. But that was irrelevant. I nodded.
‘Sweetheart, your daddy’s been looking everywhere for you.’
Her eyes widened in surprise that quickly turned to fear.
‘But I told him I was going to find the bookshop.’
‘Did you?’
She nodded emphatically. ‘I told him, but he was busy on the phone so he couldn’t come with me.’
I nodded, aware that somewhere in the shopping centre Nick was still frantically going out of his mind. ‘I don’t think he could have heard you properly, sweetie. He thought you were lost.’
There was no mistaking the look of disbelief on her face. ‘Why would I be lost? I’m not a baby. I’m eight now, you know.’
‘Absolutely,’ I said, getting to my feet and holding out my hand, this time not expecting a handshake.
‘Is Daddy going to be mad at me?’ Holly whispered worriedly as she placed her hand in mine. I squeezed her fingers reassuringly.
‘No. He’s just going to be happy to have you back.’
She scrambled to her feet, all spindly arms and legs, and with obvious reluctance put the book back on top of the pile on the table.
‘Take that with you,’ I said, already reaching into my purse for another twenty-pound note, which I passed to an assistant at the till as we left the shop. ‘Now, let’s go and find your dad, shall we?’
*
‘I’ve changed my mind.’
I set down the long sundae spoon and carefully ran my tongue over my lips to catch any stray chocolate sauce before looking up. I glanced across the table at Holly, who clearly had no such worries; she was wearing at least half of her gelato over her lower face.
I’m not quite sure how Nick’s suggestion of ice cream to ‘calm us all down’ had ended up including me. I tried to excuse myself several times, but Holly was holding on to my hand with a surprisingly strong grip for someone so small. There was still a lingering look of concern in her eyes that she might yet be in trouble with her dad. Perhaps she’d misread the gruffness in his voice when he’d dropped to his knees and folded her into a hug that went on and on.
‘Youhaveto come too, Lexi,’ Holly had pleaded. ‘Please.’
I’d glanced up at her father, running through a list of objections in my head, but they’d all evaporated when I’d seen the tension still visible on his face. A scare like the one he’d just lived through took a while before it set you free.
‘Well, the ice cream at that Italian place did look good,’ I admitted. Which was how I found myself back at my lunch venue, eating a dessert that could easily have fed three people.
Nick had given the menu only a brief glance before ordering just a coffee – something that, with hindsight, I really wished I’d done too. There was no sophisticated way of eating this much frozen confectionery, and I was never going to be able to finish it all. So, when Nick announced that he’d changed his mind, I immediately looked around for the waiter.
‘If you don’t mind sharing, we could just ask for a second spoon.’
