Finder - Chapter 7

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=3 height=90 BGCOLOR="#3399FF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="7" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I><B>Liz Berry Books</B></I></FONT><B>   </B></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=160 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="08bd4c00dkelyh.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Liz Berry Books"><U><I><B>Home</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" Meet Liz "><U><I><B>Meet Liz</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Books"><U><I><B>Books</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id98.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Third Book/Creativity"><U><I><B>Third Book</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Messages"><U><I><B>Messages</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bookstore"><U><I><B>Bookstore</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Liz"><U><I><B>Contact Liz</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><I><B>Links</B></I></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Finder </B></div> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0033" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>Chapter 7</B></FONT></div> <div> It was past one o'clock when Alex got back to the flat. She hardly got through the door before Cass pounced on her.</div> <div> 'Where on earth have you been? We've been so worried. The police came.'</div> <div> '<I>The police?</I>'</div> <div> 'Your mother's house has been broken into. A neighbour saw a boy climbing over the side gate and running away down the road...And there were some men there, too, who went after him...' She took a breath, and did a perfect double-take. 'What on earth have you got on?'</div> <div> Alex groaned and laughed, and walked past her into the kitchen.</div> <div> Matt Harding was sitting at the kitchen table, his jacket on the chair back, wolfing down one of Cass's giant fry-ups.</div> <div> He grinned at her and waved his hand, his mouth full. Leo opposite looked up casually and froze, his fork suspended in mid-air, his eyes travelling all over her, coming to rest on her legs, long, slender and shapely in the dark tights and high heels, and the micro mini-skirt.</div> <div> Alex threw her Daisy Modes shopper into the corner irritably, tugged the skirt lower and sat down hastily in the vacant chair. She kicked off the high heels, flexing her toes.</div> <div> 'I thought you'd gone for good,' Cass said, reproachfully. 'You didn't say you were going out, you just disappeared. What d'you want for lunch?'</div> <div> 'I'm okay, thanks. I just spent an hour in McDonalds in Walthamstow.'</div> <div> Cass' lips tightened. '<I>Eating?</I>'</div> <div> Alex looked away. 'Didn't expect to see you here, Matt.'</div> <div> 'Didn't expect to be here. You told me to contact you if there was more news about the crash. Well, there is. Someone's trying to do me in.'</div> <div> Alex started to laugh. 'Join the Club.'</div> <div> He stared back. 'I'm not joking. It may sound like television trash, Alex, but it's God's truth. Somebody tried to kill me yesterday, and I don't mind telling you I've got the wind up. It must be something to do with that crash, and what I saw. There's no other explanation. If they're after me, they'll likely be after you and Leo too, because you know what I know.'</div> <div> 'Not quite,' said Leo. 'You're the only one who actually saw what happened. Get rid of you and they're safe. No witness.'</div> <div> 'Have you told the police?' Alex asked.</div> <div> 'What do you think? They took it all down. But they'll probably write off the whole investigation. They think I'm a paranoid nutcase.'</div> <div> 'What happened to you?'</div> <div> 'After I left you in the cafe, I went back to my van in the hospital car park. The garage had put in a new windscreen all right, but I'm not the sort of bloke who takes chances so I gave that van a real going over. The master cylinder had been deliberately damaged. If I'd got that van on the motorway I'd have been back in the hospital in half an hour max. In the mortuary.'</div> <div> 'You're certain?'</div> <div> 'Positive. The brake fluid...'</div> <div> 'All right,' Alex said hastily. Once men got on to car talk you couldn't get anything else out of them. 'I meant you're sure it wasn't something that could have happened in the crash?'</div> <div> 'My van wasn't in collision. Only the windscreen got smashed with a bit of flying debris. Somebody must have got at the van while I was in the cafe with you.'</div> <div> 'But how would they know you saw the man jumping out of the lorry?' said Cass.</div> <div> Matt shrugged. 'Plenty of people around listening when I told the police at the hospital.'</div> <div> 'In the cafe. The man at the next table,' Leo said slowly, 'Came in just after us. He could have heard us talking.'</div> <div> 'He went out before us,' said Alex. 'Didn't finish his pizza.'</div> <div> 'What happened then, Matt? How did you get back?'</div> <div> 'Yeah, well it took hours to get it fixed. You should have heard what Mrs.Whatsit said about not having her cooker connected when I phoned her on the mobile.'</div> <div> 'You could have come with us,' said Alex.</div> <div> 'You'd gone. That was bad enough, but when I eventually made it back to my place in Leyton - and I can tell you I really sweated buckets on the way in case they'd done something else to the van that I hadn't found - they were waiting for me.'</div> <div> There was a stunned silence.</div> <div> 'I had to park in the side road, and as I was walking away, this car with three men in it came alongside me. I didn't think anything of it until it drove up on the pavement and did it's best to grind me into the garden wall.'</div> <div> They stared at him horrified.</div> <div> Leo said, 'How did you get out of that?'</div> <div> He grinned, pleased with himself. 'Jumped for the top of the wall, hung on like a monkey and swung myself up and over. Didn't do my arm any good, but it's surprising what you can do when you have to. I haven't done anything like that since I was at school.'</div> <div> 'What happened then?' Cass said.</div> <div> 'They roared off, and I decided to spend the night on my Auntie's sofa, in case they came back. She lives round the corner.'</div> <div> They all laughed at his smug satisfaction.</div> <div> 'Trouble is, they know where I live now. Must have followed me all the way home.'</div> <div> 'You'll have to stay here until it's all sorted out,' said Cass.</div> <div> 'Tell me,' said Alex, 'The men in the car - two whites and a black? An older man, small moustache, paunchy, thin on top, like a shyster lawyer in an old gangster movie? A black man, twenties, very tall, six two or three, wearing trainers, and another big white man, twenties, massive barrel chest, big belly, shaved head, long fat face, with some sort of tattoo on his arm, football thug type?'</div> <div> They all stared at her.</div> <div> Matt said, 'I didn't have time to take an inventory, but there was definitely three of them. Two whites and a black. And I think one had a moustache. He was staring out the window at me, grinning as though he was enjoying it.'</div> <div> Alex told them what had happened to her in Acacia Drive and on the underground.</div> <div> Leo leaned back and stretched lazily, his arms over his head, watching her intently. 'Isn't it time you came clean and told us what this is all about, Alex?'</div> <div> She looked at him with dislike. 'I don't suppose you'll accept this, but I haven't the faintest idea. I can't believe this has all happened. It's a nightmare. But believe me, I'm going to find out.'</div> <div> 'You must know something, even if you don't know you know it. Your mother and stepfather are at the centre of it.'</div> <div> 'You think I haven't worked that out? You think I don't want to know who murdered my mother and why they're trying to get rid of Matt and me, too, maybe.' To her fury, tears choked her throat. She swallowed. 'It's not my fault. I don't know a thing. I haven't even seen my mother for over a year. I told you - I ran away. I've been hiding out ever since.'</div> <div> 'Why did you go back to the house today?'</div> <div> Alex hesitated. For a moment she wondered if she could avoid the answer. She looked around the circle of wary and suspicious faces.</div> <div> 'Look, Alex, we're not trying to pry into your business. We're your friends, and you're going to need friends. You and Matt are in danger. Those men aren't playing games. <I>You have something they're willing to kill for.</I>'</div> <div> She stared at him for a moment, and then sighed.</div> <div> 'Oh, all right. I went to get this.' She fished the old red bag out of the Daisy Modes shopper, and tossed it on the table. Cass cleared away the plates to make room. 'Another of Bev's handbags. Her special bag where she kept things - car insurance, that kind of thing. When I was little we were always moving, one bedsit to another, and we lugged that bag around with us everywhere. She told me to get it just before...' She swallowed. 'She kept going on about her bag. I thought she meant the bag they found in the wreck. It had a big wad of notes in it. But there were some papers too. Two letters. One addressed to me. The other to <I>The Sun</I>. But really she was talking about <I>this</I> bag. She told me to get it. She said it was important.'</div> <div> Leo said, 'Do you know what the men were looking for in Acacia Drive?'</div> <div> 'Papers of some kind. They were looking in drawers.'</div> <div> 'What sort of papers?'</div> <div> Alex thought back. 'I don't know. I think the older man said something about official documents.'</div> <div> 'Then our mugger wasn't just after the money. Maybe they thought your Ma had the papers on her. Could be that was why they arranged the accident in the first place.'</div> <div> 'They didn't get what they wanted,' Leo said. 'They had to try Acacia Drive instead.'</div> <div> 'Why don't you look in the bag,' Cass said, 'It might explain things.'</div> <div> Reluctantly, Alex unzipped it. She wanted to be on her own, frightened of what the bag might contain. She flicked through the contents and then took everything out and put them one by one on the table. There was the rest of the money Alex had used to buy her disguise, two hundred pounds, two boxes with cheap jewellery, a packet of envelopes with a rubber band around them, a large envelope with 'car' written on it; another containing snapshots, and a longer envelope with an official-looking document inside. Alex unfolded it. It had a small crown and coat of arms at the top and an official seal at the bottom.</div> <div> '<I>Certified copy of an entry,' </I>she read aloud. She scanned the sheet, puzzled, until her own name <I>Alexandra Charlotte Brown, </I>and date of birth<I> Twenty-third of March,</I> seventeen years ago, caught her eye. <I>Registration District: Wandsworth, Sub-District: Wandsworth.</I></div> <div> Some sort of birth certificate? Her eye drifted down the page to the devastating lines at the bottom:</div> <div> <I>CERTIFIED to be a true copy of an entry in the Adopted Children Register.  Maintained at the GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE, Titchfield, Fareham, Hants. Given at the General Register Office under the seal of the said office on...</I></div> <div> 'Alex, what is it?' Leo said, sharply.</div> <div> She didn't answer. Couldn't. She read the whole document through again. She was finding difficulty in taking it in, although it was quite clear.</div> <div> Next to <I>Name and Surname, address and occupation of adopter or adopters,</I> was <I>Beverley Janice Brown, 12b Lawrence House, Princeton Green Road, London, SE25. Singer.</I></div> <div> It had been issued at Croydon County Court and signed by the Registrar. All legal and tidy. She went on staring at the words.</div> <div> Leo's voice penetrated, concerned and worried. 'Alex. Are you all right? What is it?'</div> <div> She looked up, her eyes blank, not seeing him. 'It's an adoption certificate. I was adopted. Bev wasn't my real mother.'</div> <bR> <div> <I><B>To be continued..</B></I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >..<IMG SRC="56e46460.gif" border=0 width="70" height="70" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>Copyright Liz Berry 2003.  All rights reserved.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder"><U><I><B>Finder </B></I></U></A><I><B> |  </B></I><A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Books"><U><I><B>Books </B></I></U></A><I><B> | </B></I><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Liz Berry Books"><U><I><B> Home</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <I><B>                                                  </B></I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >                                                     </FONT></div> <div>                         </div> </td> <td valign="top" width=125 BGCOLOR="#3399FF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder"><U><I><B>F</B></I></U></A><A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder"><U><I><B>inder</B></I></U></A><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0033" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder"><U><I><B> </B></I></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="5706d480.jpg" border=0 width="109" height="72" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder Chapter 1"><U><I><B>Chapter 1</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder Chapter 2"><U><I><B>Chapter 2</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder Chapter 3"><U><I><B>Chapter 3</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id105.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder Chapter 4"><U><I><B>Chapter 4</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id119.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder Chapter 5"><U><I><B>Chapter 5</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id120.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder Chapter 6"><U><I><B>Chapter 6</B></I></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>