Ring Around Rosie (18 page)

Then she was screaming again, “There was
nothing I could do to save her! They never stop…stop… cutting her!”

Rosie dropped the knife on the floor and
grabbed Jelena around the arms and held onto her as she writhed and thrashed,
screaming Tihana’s name over and over. Rosie hugged Jelena tighter than she’d
ever hugged anyone before, as if she could suffocate the pain from her body.

Then suddenly Jelena slowed and stopped as
if her batteries had run out. They both sank to the floor, and there they
stayed, Rosie rocking her gently, until Jelena fell asleep in her arms.

Ted stood watching through the window of
the carriage behind Martha and Griff’s. What kind of a name was Griff anyway?
Ted scoffed to himself. They weren’t chatting now and didn’t look like they’d
spoken since they left the park. Martha was looking nervous, an emotion Ted
hadn’t yet seen from her. He ached to know what Griff had said to make her this
way.

Griff looked different too. He seemed to
have lost his childlike nervousness, his awkward shifty eyes and cowering
disposition. He seemed to stand taller and more assuredly. He made Ted’s skin
crawl; there was something almost evil about this man but he couldn’t put his
finger on what made him seem that way. Maybe it was just that Ted knew he’d
been partly responsible for Rosie’s kidnapping and had done who knew what to
his little sister. There were thoughts wrapping themselves around Ted’s mind
that made him want to jump on Griff and beat him to a pulp, but he couldn’t
risk this one chance they had of getting Rosie back. He had to trust Martha, so
he bit his lip and tried to think of his little sister and how he would see her
very soon.

Because he hadn’t known where they were
headed, Ted had had to get a ticket to the end of the line for the tube and
both train journeys; it had cost him a fortune and most of it was wasted as
they only went a few stops each time. This journey was no exception as they
pulled into Streatham Hill station and Ted saw Griff usher Martha off the
train. Ted followed at a distance and behind a large man devouring a bumper bag
of Wotsits. It made Ted realise how hungry he was and he held his stomach as it
growled at him in protest.

Griff’s long legs strode up the hill
forcing Martha to trot comically at his side to keep up. Ted was surprised that
Martha hadn’t looked back, surely she would have guessed that he’d follow;
although his reputation for leaving girls to fend for themselves against
traffickers may have preceded him.

The big man eating crisps veered away to
cross the road and Ted suddenly found himself completely exposed. He stopped
and started in confusion, and then shot behind a phone box to wait until Martha
and Griff had gone further up the road. He hoped no one was watching him
because he thought he must look ridiculous darting about like a long-legged
detective from a really old cartoon.

As they reached the brow of the hill, Griff
steered Martha to the pedestrian crossing. Ted held his position until they
were safely on the other side before waiting for the next green light and
crossing himself.

He’d watched them turn right down Church
Road, but when he got there, there was no sign of them. Ted began to run, fear
gripping his chest; he couldn’t have lost her, surely. He looked left, over the
road at the council estate with its high rise flats huddled together like women
gossiping on a street corner: nothing. He looked right at a bit of grassy
scrubland, which then became a wall with houses behind. He kept running, his
heart pounding. What if he’d lost her? Then he’d officially be the worst person
on the planet, and the most stupid. What idiot could lose two girls to
traffickers in the space of a few weeks?

There was a turning off to the right; he
stopped to look down it, but no sign. He didn’t know whether to keep running
the way he was going or to take the road off. He hesitated, terrified of making
the wrong choice. Then his phone rang.

“Ted mate, it’s me,” came Dillon’s nervous
voice on the end.

“I can’t talk now, I’m having a nightmare,”
snapped Ted, shutting his phone.

From his voice it sounded like Dillon was
ringing to grovel, but Ted wasn’t ready to forgive him for being a deserter,
and he was angered even more by the thought that if Dillon had been with him,
as he should be, they could have split up and looked in both directions and he
wouldn’t be standing uselessly on this corner wasting precious time with his
indecisiveness. Ted held his aching head in his hands; the lack of sleep was
beginning to take its toll on his nerves and he could feel himself falling
apart from the inside out.

His phone rang again and he cursed at the
interruption.

“Dillon, I really don’t have time to talk
right now,” he snarled.

“It’s dad. Is everything ok? You sound
upset.”

Ted slumped down on the edge of the
pavement; the sound of his dad’s voice broke through his hard, angry wall and
released a flood of sadness that threatened to break the surface of his eyes.

“Sorry dad, I’m fine, just tired. What’s
up?”

“Good news for a change; the police caught
two men that were possibly involved in Rosie’s kidnap, probably the ones you
saw racing away in that car. And there was a kid with them too, a girl. The
police apparently had an anonymous tip-off giving up their number plate and car
make. They were apprehended a few miles from the flat.”

“Really?” replied Ted. “They said anything
yet?”

His dad paused. “Not much. And the girl is
so traumatised she hasn’t been very helpful. But the police are confident
they’ll get something out of someone soon. And the girl did confirm that Rosie
had been with her up until a couple of days ago… Look, don’t be disheartened.
You and Martha are doing great. Is she there with you?”

Afraid not dad, I’m a useless bastard and
have let her be taken by one of the traffickers because, despite it happening
once before with my own sister, I appear to be incapable of recognising when
not to let a girl go off with strange men!
Ted felt like saying.  

“No, she’s gone home for the night,” he
lied instead. Again.

“Oh well, I’ll have to catch up with her
tomorrow then,” his dad said, sounding so much more cheerful than in their last
few conversations. “I’ll let you know if the cops call again with any news. You
get some sleep ok? You must be knackered.”

Ted nodded, forgetting his dad couldn’t
see, and hung up the phone.

Ted looked around him again, defeated and
exhausted, but he couldn’t go home and leave Martha somewhere in one of these
houses alone. He had to stay and at least try to find her.

He stared down at the phone in his hand; maybe
he should call the police. They would be able to search all the houses around
here and find Martha quicker than he could on his own. But what would they say
when they found out that he’d, yet again, tried to handle things on his own and
lost another girl to the traffickers in the process? They’d probably lock him
up for hindering an investigation or something. No, this was on him, and he
would sort it, somehow.

Ted took himself back to the trees and
scrubland he’d passed earlier and made a nest within view of the street. He
would wait and watch for a while and see if anyone passed by that might give
him a clue as to where Martha might be. He crossed his arms close to his body
and sat huddled, eyes unblinking as he scrutinised each passer-by. Occasionally
one would spot him and immediately cross to the other side of the street
assuming he was waiting in ambush. And, yet again, Ted’s perspective of the
world and its workings shifted.

After a while his eyes started to flicker
and he strained to keep them from closing. The cold was reaching his bones and
he knew that soon he wouldn’t be able to keep warm. And worse still he could
hear his mum’s voice nagging him to go out in more than just a t-shirt. He
hated that she would probably delight in saying ‘I told you so’ if she could
see him shivering now.

But it was his well-deserved punishment for
losing Martha, and he took it as such. She had been nothing but amazing and now
she was probably no better off than Rosie. He should be more than shivering!
Ted could imagine the disappointment in Martha’s eyes when she realised she’d
walked into a trap and that Ted was nowhere to be seen. That he’d lost her so
easily, like he’d lost Rosie. And the thought of her disappointment made Ted
shake uncontrollably. She would never have done anything so stupid; she would
have risked more, considered the possibilities of losing them and done something
about it sooner. He hated the idea that she probably thought he was a bumbling
idiot, because it was slowly becoming apparent that he liked her, a lot; more
than someone in a situation like this probably should. But he couldn’t help it,
and if he ever found her he would tell her so.

Suddenly, through the blur of his lovesick
haze, Ted saw Griff. He was heading back towards the train station, and he was
alone. Ted immediately sprang to his feet, and before he knew it was standing
right in front of Griff, shouting and swearing at him. Griff immediately took
steps backwards and cowered behind his arm as if Ted was about to swing at him.
By now Ted was pretty sure this was all part of the act and that there was
nothing timid or fearful about him. Unfortunately, the people passing by in
their cars didn’t know that, and as the traffic slowed and people began
staring, Ted worried that if one of them called the police Griff may never
reveal where Rosie and Martha were. But as he stepped back away from Griff, he saw
his expression shift behind his elevated arm to one of satisfaction and
triumph.

As Ted and Griff stood facing each other in
a mental showdown, the cars gradually began to speed up again.

“What do you want?” spat Ted.

“I would have thought that was obvious by
now.”

“Humour me.”

“I want Rosie.”

“No way, you’re never having her again you
mother…”

“Easy! No need to be like that. I’m the
only one that has looked after her nicely. I never laid a finger on her,” Griff
said defensively. “I gave her chocolate and took her to the cafe, like she
asked. I even let her escape.” Griff looked down at his feet and scuffed them
on a broken bit of pavement. “Things were getting too hot, we had to appoint a
few casualties of war. And once you and that delicious Martha started sniffing
around it gave us the excuse we needed to move Rosie and blow the joint.

“I find things do usually work out for the
best in the end,” chuckled Griff. “Just when you think there’s no hope,
something or someone – in this case you – comes along to change it all and
suddenly you’re back on track and all is well.”

“You’re not having her,” Ted said again
through gritted teeth.

“Ok, then, I’ll have the other one,” said
Griff, studying his fingernails casually. “Don’t suppose it makes any odds to me
in the long run, they can both do the same thing when it comes down to it.”

“You’re not having either of them! Where
are they?” Ted’s voice began to rise.

“Come on Teddy, be fair now, you can’t have
them both. Did your mummy never teach you to share?”

Ted lunged for his throat but Griff deftly
leapt out of the way.

“Look Ted, you’re going to have to control
that temper of yours or we’re never going to be able to work together.”

“We will never even be in the same vicinity
of working together,” snarled Ted. “You’re not having either of them and
neither is anyone else. They are not a possession to be passed around, they are
people with lives and rights!”

“Blah, blah, yeah whatever Teddy. You
preach your self-righteous, sign-waving-in-the-air, chain-me-to-a-gatepost,
we-will-not-be-moved bollocks to all the people that
aren’t
listening
and I’ll get on with helping myself to your sister, or the other one, or maybe
both.”

Ted took another step forward and then
checked himself. This was not helping anyone; he had to calm down.

“What’s to stop me calling the police right
now?” said Ted, reaching for his phone.

“Well, nothing, except the knowledge that
I’ll
never
talk, and you’ll
never
see your sister again.”

Ted pulled his empty hand out of his pocket
and grimaced. “Well I guess we’ve reached a bit of a stalemate then ’cause I’m
not letting you out of my sight until you tell me where the girls are, and
you’re not willing to do that, so how do we resolve this?”

“Well,” said Griff slowly, rubbing his
chin. “It just so happens you may be able to help me with a little problem, and
if you help me successfully then I will tell you where your sister and Martha
are being kept.”

Ted eyed Griff, trying to figure out what
he was up to, but he couldn’t fathom his bizarre behaviour. Was he evil and
calculating or just plain mad? Either way, he had no choice but to go along
with his demands.

“I’m listening,” he sighed.