The Patchwork House (9 page)

Derek shrugged. “Okay, well why don’t you go out and see if the car starts?”

“I’d rather be all ready to go in case it only has enough juice to start the once.”

“Oh Jesus, fine. Let me get the laptop and then we can all go together. Deal?”

“Okay then,” I agreed, picking up the spare lamp again. “Let’s go.”

“You don’t need to come with me. Really, it’s fine. Just start packing stuff we’ll need. Bring food too, I’m getting hungry.”

I thought Chloe would protest Derek going upstairs alone, but I think she was just relieved we were finally leaving. A weight seemed to have lifted from her. She gave Derek a kiss and a smile before he switched on his torch and left the room, the door staying open behind him. We listened as his footsteps ascended the stairs.

“Right,” I said, making the others jump. “Chloe, pack as much food as you can. Beth, bring the charger with the phones still plugged in. I’ll bring the two supply bags—they shouldn’t be too heavy without the tripod and stuff.

The scream, when it came, made us all freeze in place. We stared at each other in shock.

“Derek,” Chloe screeched.

The three of us barrelled out into the hallway. I barely remembered to grab the lamp as we went. Beth clicked on her torch but Chloe had nothing. She was already running for the stairs despite the darkness. Beth hurried after her, doing her best to keep the steps lit so that Chloe wouldn’t trip.

The scream came again, but it wasn’t from above. I paused with my foot on the first step.

“Guys,” I called.

“Chloe wait up,” I heard Beth call upstairs on the landing. “Jim’s trying to tell us something. Chloe!”

Clearly she couldn’t make Chloe stop. I tried calling up again.

“Hey Chloe,” I yelled, loud as I could. “Derek’s down here.”

Another scream, definitely from the kitchen. It wasn’t loud this time, but it was clearly in pain. It was also clearly coming from Derek.

I couldn’t wait any longer.

“Beth, if you can hear me, I’m in the kitchen!”

But there was no response. I had to help Derek. I ran the length of the hall, my swinging lamp causing shadows to lurch at me as I passed by. I stepped down into the kitchen and looked about me. The room was empty but for the detritus we had left from our abandoned meal. There were no more screams, the room was utterly silent.

“Derek?” I called, not as loudly as I’d intended. “Derek, are you there?”

No response. Maybe he really was upstairs. Maybe there were pipes or ducts that relayed sound from other parts of the house. Perhaps all I’d heard was an echo of Derek calling from upstairs.

If I went upstairs now, I could be abandoning him. Maybe he was in the conservatory, or even in the ballroom. Perhaps he was in the upstairs apartment and the sound had carried into the kitchen via the narrow stairway. I shone the light in that direction. The door was closed but perhaps some sound filtered through. But how would Derek gain access to the apartment? There was no way in from upstairs.

I listened for another few seconds and then I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to check on Beth. I retreated from the kitchen, back into the hallway, and hurried to the foot of the stairs. As I came around the bottom bannister and started my ascent, I was aware of someone coming down from above.

I jumped, my heart in my mouth, and raised the lamp.

It was Derek, torch in hand.

“What the fuck, man?” he said, confused at the look on my face. “Something wrong?”

“Derek, where were you?”

“I was in the library. I’ve got the laptop, see?” He shined his torch at the computer tucked under his other arm.

My head was starting to spin. What the hell was going on?

“Where’s Beth and Chloe?”

Derek just stared at me. “With you in the drawing room, no?”

“Oh God, oh God no.”

I charged past Derek, taking the steps two at a time. When I reached the landing, the upstairs was quiet.

Derek came running up behind me. He was no longer carrying the laptop so he must have left it at the bottom of the stairs.

“Where are they, Jim? Where did Chloe go?”

“She came up here, looking for you. We heard you screaming, so she just ran up here. Beth followed her with a torch.”

“I wasn’t screaming. I was just disconnecting the laptop. I didn’t see or hear anything. Wait a minute, if Beth followed Chloe with a torch, are you telling me that Chloe didn’t have one?” Derek sounded mad as hell.

“Yeah she just ran out without thinking. We heard you scream and she was off. I tried to stop her…”

“I didn’t hear a fucking thing!”

We’d reached the library now. It was so quiet up here, apart from us arguing.

“Beth?” I called. “Chloe? Where are you?”

Icy tendrils clutched at my chest. I couldn’t have lost both of them, it just wasn’t possible. It was a big house, but it wasn’t
that
big.

“We need to check every room. Maybe they stumbled in the dark and hit their heads.”

“Both of them?” Derek sounded incredulous. “Chloe!” he called. “Answer me, damn you.”

Inside the library everything was as it had been. The camera still stood on the tripod in the corner, and opposite was the bookshelf that had moved earlier that evening. The dustcovers were still on the centre table and the chairs around it.

We left the library.

“Split up,” Derek commanded. “I’ll go search the bedrooms and the games room. You go back past the stairs and check those rooms.

“I don’t want to lose you too.”

“You won’t, we’ll keep calling out, okay?”

“Okay.”

“One thing I want to know before we part, Jim.”

“What?”

“Why did I meet you coming up the stairs? Why didn’t you follow the girls immediately?”

“I heard you screaming too, but it was coming from the kitchen. I tried to call them back down but they couldn’t hear me. I had to go see if you were all right.”

“And was I in the kitchen, Jim?”

I hung my head, feeling like a chastised eight-year-old. “No.”

“When we’ve found them, Jim, you and I are going to have words.”

It was almost a relief when we parted ways.

I checked each room in turn in the section of the upstairs above the hall, the living room and the drawing room. I called the girls’ names as I searched, and I could hear Derek doing the same thing. I was so mad at the fucker I could barely think straight. If he hadn’t gone upstairs alone to get the laptop, we would all still be together. And if I hadn’t wasted time trying to help him, I might have seen where they went. Now Beth was missing, presumably still somewhere in the house but unable to hear me. More to the point, it was likely that Derek was going to get lost too. And then what was I going to do? I couldn’t just drive away and leave them here. I didn’t think my nerves could take searching the house on my own, even though that’s pretty much what I was doing.

“Derek?” I called out along the corridor.

“I’m here. Found anything?”

“No, nothing,” I replied in the direction of his torchlight.

“Keep looking.”

Well
obviously
.

By now I’d run out of rooms to check. The corridor this side of the stairs was much shorter than the other side. But if neither girl was answering then it was pretty clear to me then that we weren’t about to find them.

And then Derek was calling me.

“Over here.”

I had already returned to the corridor, intent on joining Derek in his search. Now I broke into a run, heading towards the dim glow from his torch, illuminating an open door frame in the distance.

“Did you find them?” I called as I ran, but Derek didn’t reply.

I became paranoid, as I approached the lit doorway, that the light would go out or the door would slam as I reached it. Then Derek and whoever he’d found would be lost to me too. Instead I burst into the room to find Derek crouched over the prone-positioned body of Beth.

Relief and concern crashed over me. She was here but was she okay? I hurried over to Derek, my lamp sending shadows scurrying into the corners of the room. Beth was on the floor beside the bed. I knelt beside Derek and cradled her head in my lap.

“She’s fine, I think,” Derek said. “Just unconscious.”

“We need to wake her.”

“You can try, I didn’t have any luck.” Derek left me with her and moved to the doorway, shining his torch up and down the corridor. “I reckon she’s in one of these rooms but in the same state as Beth. We need to search again, every room, and we need to check in cupboards and behind beds. She’s probably knocked out too. She could be anywhere.”

I nodded to him. “Get started. I have to stay with Beth, okay?”

“But what about Chloe?” he said urgently. He was obviously losing his mind with worry. I could hardly blame him.

“Let me try to wake her up. If I can’t, I’ll carry her from room to room looking for Chloe if I have to.”

“Okay. I’ll start in the games room.”

“Yell if you find her.”

And he was gone. I pulled the dust sheet from the bed and grabbed the blanket underneath. I wrapped it around Beth, concerned she might be cold. Then I lifted her onto the bed and held her close to me. I had no idea what had happened to her or why she wasn’t stirring. Whatever it was I hoped it wasn’t permanent.

“Come on, Beth, wake up.
Please
. Don’t leave me here on my own.”

The door slammed. I jumped up. The door to this small room was closed now. I’d not felt a draft.

“Derek,” I called out. Had he locked me in here?

I went to the door and tried the handle. It opened with no resistance, which was almost more of a surprise than finding it locked.

I saw Derek’s torch light coming from the doorway to the games room. Moments later, he emerged.

“What was that bang?”

“The door slammed. I didn’t touch it.”

“Are you okay?”

I was surprised to hear his concern given how he’d been treating me all this time. It stood to reason though. Without me he would be the only one looking for Chloe.

“Jim?”

Beth was awake. The door slamming must have woken her. I rushed over.

“Derek, she’s awake,” I called as loudly as I could.

“What’s going on?” she asked, still groggy.

Derek appeared in the doorway.

“Beth?”

“Is that Derek?”

“Yeah, love. It’s Derek and me. Take it easy for a moment, get your head together.”

“Screw that,” Derek snapped, coming over to the bed. “Beth, listen to me. Chloe is missing. Do you remember what happened?”

Beth scrunched up her face in concentration.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I think I was following her. Derek was calling out for help. She was running along the corridor with no flashlight. I was sure she would run into something or trip. I tried using my flashlight to light her way. Where
is
my flashlight?”

She tried to rise but I stopped her, easing her back down again.

“What happened after that?” Derek said. I wanted to thump him, but at the same time I understood his urgency.

“She ran in here, I think. I followed her and…”

She trailed off. Her eyes went wide and she started whimpering.

“What, Beth? What did you see?”

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Oh my God. Poor Chloe. Poor Chloe.”

Derek was pacing up and down the small room now, going crazy with frustration.

“What the fuck did you see, Beth? Fucking hell, just tell me!”

I stood up and placed myself in between the two of us. “Calm down, Derek. If she could she’d be helping you.”

“Fuck,” Derek yelled. “Keep trying, okay? Keep asking her. Please, I’m begging you. How can I face the kids if she’s not with me when I go home? What am I going to tell them?”

“We’ll find her, I promise.” I wished I felt so sure. If Beth followed Chloe into this room, then where was she now?

“Okay, okay, keep calm,” Derek told himself, pacing again. “There’s only one room left to check.”

“Percy’s room?”

“Right.”

“Listen, Derek.” He was already in the doorway, eager to be off and looking, but he paused and turned back to me. “If Chloe was in here and something happened, she might not be on this floor any more. Maybe this thing took her somewhere else. She might be downstairs.”

Derek tugged at his hair in frustration. “All right, okay, why don’t you two look downstairs then, and I’ll go through the bedrooms again.”

“We should stick together—”

“There isn’t time! Please!”

“Okay, we’ll go down.”

And with that, Derek was gone. I turned back to Beth who was still clinging on to my shoulder.