Page 51 of One Cry Too Loud
“And who would that make me?” Holly asked. “I am a strong, competent, impressive woman. I’m not running away from this, not again, not anymore.” She looked down. “Hell, maybe there are pieces of my relationship with my parents that I need to take responsibility for too. Maybe there will be some healing in this, but whatever happens, I’m done letting this dark cloud hang over me, and I refuse to let it affect my daughter. If they know where Cindy is, by God, they are going to tell me.” She pointed at herself. “Me! Because I gave birth to that girl, because I deserve to know, and because I’ll demand it.”
“Wow,” I replied. “These guys aren’t going to know what hit them.”
“We seldom ever did when it came to Holiday,” a voice sounded from behind us. Turning, I saw an old woman with a bag of groceries in each hand. She had a long jacket on and a scarf around her neck. Though her face was wrinkled, I could see the resemblance. This woman was most definitely Holly’s mother. “She was always something of a wild card.”
“Mother,” Holly said. “I’ve-”
“Come unexpectedly during tea time. I can see that,” the woman cut her off. “And with company, no less. Two people I don’t know, and one I do.” Her lips pursed. “Hello, Joseph. I’d say it’s nice to see you, but we both know that wouldn’t be true.”
“Hello Caroline,” Joe said. “We-”
“Is someone going to help me with these groceries, or am I condemned to continue to believe that chivalry died with the rotary phone?” She asked, cutting Joe off.
“I-I’ll help you ma’am,” I said. Marching over to her, I took the grocery bags from her hands. It was filled with carrots, tomatoes, and a couple of boxes of fruit snacks. “My name is Jack Harrington. I’m-”
“A hostage,” she finished. “Or you used to be. I saw all about you in the Gazette last year. I think Daniel Day Lewis is set to play you in a movie version of your life.”
“I haven’t heard that,” I said as she started walking toward the house.
“You should be so lucky. He’s a fine actor and an Englishman to boot. He’ll have to get your roughneck accent perfected, but I have faith in him.” She laughed a little. “I am surprised to see you here. You’d think that, after all your troubles, you’d stay away from dicey situations.”
“No offense, but you are not good at letting someone finish a sentence, are you, ma’am?” I asked.
“Why bother when everyone is so often wrong?” She mused. “Might as well cut the social fat, so to speak.”
“I tend to like social fat. It often reveals things we don’t mean for it to,” I said. “Like your choice of words for example. What on earth would make you think that I would believe accompanying a friend to visit her parents would be a dicey situation?”
“Oh, come now.” She threw her hand. “Am I supposed to pretend I don’t know why you’re here?” She looked over at Holly. “You’ve come for your daughter, right Holiday? You’ve come for Cindy?”
Holly’s eyes went wide. “What? How did you-”
“All these years,” Caroline cut her off. “All those good grades and awards and accomplishments, and you’re still behind the curve. It really is disappointing.” She shrugged and turned back around, heading toward the house again. “Come inside, then. I’ll whip up some tea cakes and introduce you to your daughter.”
CHAPTER 34
My eyes went wide as I watched the small woman head up the brick steps and open the door with the rounded top. As I stood there with grocery bags in my hands, I wondered if I had misheard something. Could it really be that simple? Could, after everything we’d been through, we actually just find Cindy at Holly’s parents’ house? Was it as easy as just walking through the doorway?
The woman turned. “Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to come inside?” She huffed. “Honestly Holiday, I know you’ve been in America for awhile, but I thought you’d at least remember your manners. It’s terribly rude to refuse an invitation from a prospective host, but it’s even ruder to ignore one.”
“You actually have my daughter?” Holly asked. Her voice was shaking, but her feet were already moving. Even without hearing her mother’s answer, she was already following her. That may have been because of what the woman said next.
“Have you ever known me to be a liar, Holiday?” She shook her head. “Perish the thought. Now, you and your friends come inside. I promised tea cakes, and you know better than to think I’d ever back out on a promise.”
“Call the police,” I said. It might have looked like I was saying that to myself, but in truth, I was giving a direction to Tag. The boy might have been all the way back in the jet, but I had the earpiece that had proven so handy back in the vault.
He didn’t answer. Maybe he was as shocked as I was and was trying to wrap his head around it. I followed Holly without missing a beat. I wasn’t sure whether or not her mother was telling the truth (though the fruit snacks in her bag were a good sign that a child was here), but I was following Holly either way. If this woman had kidnapped Cindy and was responsible for everything that we’d been through somehow, then that made her dangerous. Family or not, I wasn’t about to let Holly face danger alone.
That was a popular sentiment as Kat and Joe followed me as well, stepping up onto the patio and disappearing behind the door. When Joe shut it closed behind us, I repeated my order, albeit a little more quietly.
“Call the police,” I muttered.
The house we found ourselves in was like something out of a catalogue that was trying to invoke a Jane Austen novel. This place looked, at once, aged and newly refurbished. With understated floral prints on the walls and doilies on the tables, this place seemed more like a building trying desperately to be a home than an actual home itself.
There was still no answer from Tag.
“Tag, call the police,” I said a little louder.
“That’s not going to work,” Caroline said, shaking her head. “And, if you don’t mind, would you go ahead and set the bags down? There’s ice cream in there and I need to get it into the nipper.”
