Finder - Chapter 2

<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 2</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> 'Alex?' Cass's face appeared around the door, her eyes wide with sympathy and worry. She eased her big body carefully through the narrow space and closed it behind her.  'I'm really sorry, Alex. About Leo. He shouldn't have come in here.'</div> <div> 'That's all right,' Alex said heavily. 'It's his flat after all. Don't worry about it.'</div> <div> 'You know he wouldn't...He's not like...' Cass' sentences tangled themselves hopelessly. 'He'll understand.'</div> <div> 'You've not talked to him about me?' Alex said, sharply.</div> <div> 'If you think I'm that kind of person then it won't matter if you do go anyway. I thought we were friends.'</div> <div> She pulled open the door. Alex got up quickly. 'I'm sorry, Cass. I didn't mean it. I know you wouldn't tell anyone. But you know it's not going to work out. I'm going to have to look for another room. Cass?'</div> <div> But she wouldn't answer, and Alex saw shocked, that tears were sliding down her plump cheek. 'You really care, don't you?'</div> <div> 'Of course I do,' Cass burst out. 'It's been wonderful having you here. Like having a family. Somebody to look after. I was so lonely before. No friends. Well, who'd want to make friends with a half-ton truck like me?</div> <div> Alex said patiently, 'Cass there's no need to hate yourself so much. Being fat isn't a crime.'</div> <div> 'Isn't it?' Cass said bitterly. 'You'd think so, the way some people go on. Listen I'll tell you what kind of terrific person Leo is. I told you our parents got killed in a sailing accident?'</div> <div> Alex nodded.  </div> <div> 'My grandmother took me in. You may have heard of her. Helen Quilter.'</div> <div> Alex was startled.  'Queen of the Agony Aunts.'</div> <div> 'Right. Famous for her advice column in the paper and her radio programme. T.V. panellist. Friend of the famous.  So-ooo charming. So-ooo understanding. So-ooo <I>loving</I>.</div> <div> 'Well, she loves Leo all right. Sucks up to him and boasts to all her friends. But me, I haven't got any talent. At first I was her pretty little fairy and she could show me off to her friends, but when I started to put on weight and got fatter and fatter she didn't want to know. She made me eat in the kitchen and stay in my room by myself whenever she had visitors, which was nearly all the time. She said I was too disgusting to meet people.</div> <div> Alex said, 'I'd have walked in on them in my worst clothes without combing my hair.'</div> <div> 'You would,' said Cass. 'That's exactly what you would have done. I can't do things like that. Besides, she's right.  I do look disgusting.</div> <div> 'Well, I tried to diet. I tried everything. It just didn't work. She made me go to the Clinic. I didn't want to. I knew they wouldn't be able to help. They said I'd have to have my jaws wired up. That's when Leo rescued me. He bought this place with some money he got from a film that is due to be released next year. I've seen the rushes. It's really terrific, Alex.'</div> <div> 'Never mind about that! Go on.'</div> <div> 'Well Leo asked me to look after the place for him while he was away and fix it up for him. Of course I knew he didn't need anyone really. He bought it just so I had a real home. And he's never once said anything about my weight or dieting or anything.'</div> <div> 'Well, he must need somewhere to live too.'</div> <div> 'He didn't need a place this size. And you know he's filming in India most of the time anyway.'</div> <div> Leo was appearing in an immensely popular television series called the Tiger of Jaipur. He played a young officer at the time of the British Raj, mad, brave, spying for the Maharajah, fighting the wild tribesmen of the Northwest Frontier, riding marvellous racehorses without his shirt, and having a series of steamy love affairs without any clothes at all, with the ladies of the regiment. Someone had called it an Eastern Dallas.</div> <div> 'Alex, he isn't at all like the part he plays in the series.  He's a bit shy, in fact.'</div> <div> 'Shy!'  Alex said, derisively.</div> <div> 'A lot of actors are! He's, well, <I>responsible</I>. And a very generous person. If it hadn't been for him I'd have taken an overdose of Helen's sleeping tablets. Honestly, Alex, Leo's really nice. If only you'd give him a chance and not...'  Her voice petered out. She could see from Alex's face that she wasn't getting through. 'You needn't even see him.'</div> <div> 'Needn't see who?' Leo was standing at the open door.  Alex turned away to look out of the window.  </div> <div> 'You,' said Cass. 'Now you're home Alex is going to leave.'</div> <div> He was surprised. 'There's no need for that. It's a big flat. There's plenty of room for all of us.'</div> <div> 'You don't understand,' said Cass, 'Alex doesn't like...well, she doesn't get on with men.'</div> <div> 'Well pardon me for existing.' His voice changed.  'You're a Les?'</div> <div> Alex went over to the large cupboard and hauled her battered suitcase onto the bed. 'I should be so lucky.'</div> <div> Cass said, agonised, '<I>Please, </I>Alex...'</div> <div> 'I don't believe this,' said Leo, 'Are you quite crazy?'</div> <div> 'Look, it's <I>my</I> fault,' Cass said to Alex.  'I knew you were late and I asked Leo to wake you. I didn't <I>think</I>.'</div> <div> Alex didn't answer. She began folding clothes and packing them in the case. It didn't take long. Leo lounged against the door watching her.</div> <div> Cass retreated to the kitchen and barricaded herself behind her favourite defence. She cooked eggs, bacon, baked beans and fried bread - although she knew the only person likely to eat them would be herself. The coffee percolated loudly, toast popped and the radio thumped out its commercials and City and travel news. Everything nice and normal and <I>safe.</I> Comforts. When Alex and Leo came in, not speaking, she turned up the station to drown out what she didn't want to hear. </div> <div>  '<I>.... England and Wales.  In the London area...</I>'</div> <div> Alex reached down a mug and switched on the electric kettle, avoiding Leo's watching eyes. Couldn't he look somewhere else?</div> <div> 'There's some decent coffee percolating, if you want to wait,' he said.</div> <div> 'I told you, I don't drink it.'</div> <div> 'Herbal tea. Passion fruit or camomile. No milk. No sugar,' said Cass, and turned up the radio even louder to kill the tense silence.</div> <div> '.....<I>patchy fog, but will brighten up later in the day...</I>'</div> <div> She slammed the frying pan into the sink and banged down two plates on the table.</div> <div> Leo said, 'Where are you sitting, Alex?'</div> <div> 'They're for you and me,' said Cass, bitterly.</div> <div> <I>'The fog will begin to clear, but may come back later in the evening.  Temperature....</I>'</div> <div> Leo said, 'Don't you eat breakfast, Alex?'</div> <div> What was the matter with him? Why couldn't he leave her alone? Couldn't he see she didn't want to talk to him?</div> <div> 'Crispbread,' said Cass. 'One piece of crispbread.'</div> <div> 'Not this morning,' he pointed out.</div> <div> 'She's upset,' said Cass. 'Doesn't eat when she's upset.  Doesn't eat, full stop.'</div> <div> 'I'm still here,' said Alex angrily. 'Of course I eat. Why don't you two leave me alone?'</div> <div> <I>'The eight o'clock news</I>...'</div> <div> 'Look,' she said stiffly, 'I want to thank you both for letting me stay here rent-free. It's been a great help. I really appreciate it. Can I leave my things until I find a new place?  It won't be for...'</div> <div> 'Shut up!' shouted Cass, at full pitch. 'Shut up! I can't bear it!'</div> <div> There was a sudden, appalled silence, and into it the radio said, '<I>Freezing fog has covered much of the country all night. There have been a number of accidents reported, including a multiple pile-up on the M4, involving eighteen vehicles. Our reporter, James Cole, reports...</I>'</div> <div> They listened, not really hearing.</div> <div> 'You do know what you're doing to Cass?' Leo asked quietly. 'You're ripping away all the scar tissue she's been able to grow in the last few months. You must know what your being here has done for her. I thought you were supposed to be her friend.'</div> <div> 'I am her friend. I'll still be her friend when I'm not living here. I'm not going to the North Pole.'</div> <div> Reporter James Cole was saying with that offensive media mix of moralising and gloat, that only two people had died but others were severely injured and that the death toll could be as high as eight, eventually. With any luck, he meant, thought Alex. Anything for a good story.</div> <div> '<I>Wreckage is strewn along a quarter of a mile of motorway.  Poor visibility has been blamed, although a senior police officer said that people were driving too fast. A lorry driver, together with celebrity photographer, Jake Wallis, died in the crash. His wife Beverley, is reported to be among the thirty-two injured.  The telephone number for relatives and friends...</I>'</div> <div> Alex felt the floor lift and tilt under her. The mug  fell out of her hand and smashed on the tiles. She stared at it stupidly. She held on to a chair back, her knuckles turning slowly white, trying to remain upright.</div> <div> 'Alex?' Leo was on his feet, his hand under her arm. He hooked a chair behind her knees and she sat down abruptly.  A hand came firmly on the back of her head, forcing her head down between her knees.</div> <div> After a few moments, her head cleared and she twisted away from Leo's hand, and sat back, shakily.</div> <div> 'I'm not fainting.'</div> <div> 'Of course not.'</div> <div> 'I'm <I>not.</I> It's just...'</div> <div> Leo stood back and looked at her ironically, his hands on his hips. 'Just my lethal charm.'</div> <div> Alex straightened. Her skin was pale ash grey, and her green eyes, dull like pebbles.</div> <div> 'No breakfast.'</div> <div> 'It's not that, Leo,' said Cass, frightened. 'It was the road crash. Didn't you <I>hear</I>? Her mother and father were in that pile up.' She put her arm around Alex's shoulders.  'Oh Alex, I'm so sorry.  It was them, wasn't it?'</div> <div> Alex pushed her away and got up. 'It's all right. I'm all right. I've got to go to find work.'</div> <div> Her legs felt as though they were bending under her and she couldn't think straight. She had left all that behind. It was nothing to do with her. <I>Nothing</I>.</div> <div> Leo put a glass into her hand. She drank some of the liquid without thinking and felt it explode in her stomach. Brandy.</div> <div> 'What was she doing on the M4?' Her head felt strange.  'She never goes out of London. She thinks the jungle starts at Watford. What would she be doing on the motorway at this time in the morning? She doesn't get up before nine o'clock.'</div> <div> 'Drink the brandy. You're babbling,' said Leo, 'I'll go phone that number to see which hospital they're in. Make some toast for her, Cass, and a strong cup of tea with sugar and we'll be off.'</div> <div> 'No, I don't...'</div> <div> 'Shut up and eat.  I'm not having you passing out again in the car. We don't know how long we'll be. I'll get you a warm sweater.'</div> <div> 'I'm not going,' said Alex, but Leo had already gone. She turned to Cass desperately. 'Cass, I'm not going. It's nothing to do with me. I don't want to go. I don't want to see them. I left it all behind.'</div> <div> Cass said, 'Toast, tea, sandwiches, and a flask of coffee.'  She looked compassionately at Alex as she began to butter slices of toast. 'You know you have to go, Alex. You may believe you've left it, but I think you're dragging it along with you every inch of the way.'</div> <div> Alex was still staring at her, trying to force down the toast and tea, when Leo came back into the room. He had put on his leather jacket and was carrying a bulky Aran sweater. He tossed it to her.</div> <div> 'Here, put this on. They've been taken to Swindon Infirmary.'</div> <div> '<I>Swindon!'</I></div> <div> 'Nearest Casualty. Put it on.'</div> <div> 'But I've got a coat.'</div> <div> 'You'll need that as well. It's freezing.'</div> <div> 'Leo, please listen. I've got to tell you. I'm not going.  Look, you don't understand. <I>I ran away. </I>Cleared out for good. I can't go. I went missing. I left it all. I left <I>them</I> behind. I haven't been back for nearly a year.'</div> <div> He came round the table, and held her shoulders, making her look at him. 'You're not thinking straight, girl. Alex, your mother is seriously injured. Seriously. Do you understand? It doesn't matter what happened in the past.  She'll need you. Your father is dead.'</div> <div> Alex looked back at him, her eyes stony. '<I>Stepfather</I>.  And I don't <I>care. </I>I hate them. Do you hear? I hate them both and I'm glad Jake Wallis is dead.'</div> <div> 'Have you any brothers or sisters?'</div> <div> Alex shook her head impatiently.</div> <div> 'Then you're next of kin. If you don't go with me, the police will track you down. That's your choice.'</div> <div> She stared at him and knew he was right. She would have to go. There was no choice really. She would have to face Bev again. Hadn't she always known it wasn't over? Bev would be out of her mind. She could never cope with illness. Cass was right too. She was already dragging around too many bad memories. She couldn't leave Bev on her own.</div> <div> 'Wait for me, I'll get my coat,' said Cass, bravely.  'I'll come with you.'</div> <div> 'No,' Alex said, sharply.</div> <div> 'I know I hardly ever go out, but this is different. Of course I'll come with you.'</div> <div> '<I>No</I>. If I've got to go, I'll go by myself.'</div> <div> Cass looked at Leo and saw him shake his head slightly.</div> <div> 'Well, if you're absolutely sure. If you don't want me...'</div> <div> Alex took a breath. 'It's not that, Cass. You say I have to see her. Well, okay. But that's it, see?  I don't want her in my life ever again. I don't want her knowing where I live. I don't want her talking to my friends. I'm not getting involved with them....her....again. I'll go - but I'm coming straight back. <I>Finished</I>.'</div> <div> Cass exchanged glances with Leo again, tears in her eyes.</div> <div> 'Let's go,' he said, briefly. </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder Chapter 3"><U><I><B>Chapter 3</B></I></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Copyright Liz Berry 2002. 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>                           </div> </td> <td valign="top" width=125 BGCOLOR="#3399FF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder"><U><I><B>Finder </B></I></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="4585b500.jpg" border=0 width="91" height="80" 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> <I><B>Chapter 2</B></I></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> <div> <A HREF="id125.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finder Chapter 7"><U><I><B>Chapter 7</B></I></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>