Page 35 of The Lucky Escape

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When we got back to the lodge there was a tiny smear of copper inside my swimsuit gusset. My period had arrived. Whatever stress my body had been holding on to, she was finally starting to let go.

‘Annie? Your phone is ringing!’

I froze from my place on the toilet, and then made an instinctive decision to pull up my bottoms and deal with my period once I’d handled the call. It could only have been somebody from home. I could hear Patrick’s footsteps approaching and so flushed the loo and shoved my hands under the tap as a gesture of hygiene.

‘Freddie!’ I said, after sliding the button across the screen to answer. ‘Hey you!’

I could immediately tell something wasn’t right. She was wearing her glasses and her face was blotchy and red, her voice wavering.

‘I can’t find Carol!’ she wailed. ‘I’m really, really sorry. I let her off the lead at the park and I was on my phone googling Hamelin Bay like you told me to and when I looked upI couldn’t see her, and she didn’t come back when I was shouting for her!’ She pulled a tissue apart in her hands, shredding it with worry. I walked with the phone to the breakfast bar and propped it up against a glass bottle of water.

‘Okay,’ I said, grappling to keep my voice neutral. I could cry when she hung up, if I needed to, but right now my sister needed me to be strong. ‘Froogle, that’s okay.’

She wiped at her eyes with her sleeve.

‘Mum said I shouldn’t tell you because I’ll spoil your holiday but we’ve been looking and looking and now I don’t know what to do and nobody will help me! They just say she’ll turn up!’

Patrick hovered off-camera, shirtless and in bare feet. Concern radiated from him. My heart raced and my skin prickled. The dog was gone?

‘That’s true though, Froogle.’ It was taking a lot to sound calmer than I was. ‘I know it’s scary, but if you’ve looked everywhere then maybe she’s at somebody’s house because they found her. She’s been chipped, so if she gets taken to a vet they’ll be able to read her information and get in touch with me, okay? This isn’t your fault.’

‘Yes it is!’ she said, and this time she really cried. Freddie was confident and clever, but she held herself to the same impossibly high standards that I did – those set by Mum. Seeing her so worked up was heartbreaking, and my own eyes stung with tears.

‘It’s not, Freddie.’

‘I’m really sorry!’

‘It could have happened to anyone. It could have happened when she was out with me, even.’

It was awful seeing her upset, and nothing I said seemedto console her. If anything, me being kind seemed to make it worse – at least if I yelled she could yell back.

Patrick motioned for permission to come and talk. I nodded helplessly.

‘Hey,’ he said, looping his arm onto the back of my chair so we could both fit in frame. ‘I’m Patrick. I’m your sister’s friend.’

Freddie waved sadly down the phone.

‘Listen. I can tell that you’re really upset. It must feel scary to be in charge of something for Annie and then feel like you’re letting her down. Is that right?’

Freddie dipped her head up and down. ‘Yeah,’ she agreed in a small voice. ‘And I’m scared for Carol.’

Patrick mirrored her body language. ‘A few years ago my dog got lost in the park as well,’ he offered.

Freddie eyed him suspiciously. ‘Are you just saying that to make me feel better?’ she asked.

‘No. I don’t think lying to you would be a very good first impression to make, would it?’

Freddie softened, shaking her head. ‘And what did you do?’

‘It was really unlike him. It had never happened before. He was a little white West Highland terrier called Maktub, and all I did was buy an ice cream from the truck parked nearby. It took me thirty seconds, if that. He’d always been really good at trotting off and then coming back. I even kept turning around to make sure he was there. But then suddenly he wasn’t. I didn’t even get to eat my ice cream because I was so worried. I looked for him everywhere, and asked everyone in the park if they’d seen him.’

Freddie’s eyes had grown wide and curious, but she’d stopped crying. ‘Did you find him?’

‘Not exactly.’

She took a breath, preparing herself to dislike what came next.

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