Page 56 of The Boathouse By the Loch

‘Complicated?’ suggested Patrick as he walked past them both and popped his head around the door to the lounge.

‘I thought I told you that you’re not welcome here,’ Faye glared at Patrick.

‘Faye,’ Jake touched her arm gently. ‘Tell me what I’ve done wrong. Everything seemed okay between us, chatting on the phone when I was away in Scotland.’

‘When you were away, I had time to think.’

Jake did not like the sound of that.

Faye looked at Jake for a long moment. Finally, she said, ‘Natty was just getting too attached to you, Jake. Look what she said to you the other day; she called you Daddy.’

Patrick, who had been scouting around the lounge, overheard Faye. He reappeared in the hall and stared at Jake. ‘She really called you her daddy?’

Faye turned to her father and said, ‘It’s none of your business.’

‘Since when is my granddaughter none of my business?’

‘Since you sided with Yousaf when I broke up with him, you moron.’

Everyone fell silent.

Jake and Patrick exchanged surprised glances. Even Faye looked shocked at her own outburst. It was obvious that she was completely stressed out, and Jake, her father, and the whole world were in the firing line until she got her daughter back safe.

‘Alright,’ said Patrick, holding up his hands in an effort to defuse the situation. ‘Suppose I go have a look upstairs.’ It wasn’t a question because he was already heading for the stairs.

‘I thought I told you to leave.’

‘Did you check to see if anything was missing?’ said Patrick. ‘Perhaps she took something with her this morning that she would not normally take to school. It might give us a lead.’

The look on Faye’s face said she hadn’t thought of that.

Patrick said, ‘Didn’t one of the police officers ask to see her room?’

‘I don’t know,’ Faye said in a small voice. ‘I wasn’t here. I left a friend here. I was out searching for my daughter.’

‘Well, I’m here now,’ said Patrick taking charge. ‘Let’s find her.’

All three of them scooted up the stairs. Patrick followed Faye along the landing into Natty’s bedroom. Faye set to work opening cupboards and drawers, rummaging through her daughter’s stuff.

Jake stood in the centre of the room, at a loss as to what he could do to help. If he had been searching through Natty’s stuff at his house, he would know if something was missing, but not in her bedroom at home.

‘Now, what have we here?’ Patrick was on his hands and knees, peering under the bed. ‘What do you suppose she was doing with this?’ He pulled out a map.

Jake and Faye came over as he spread it out on the bed.

‘It’s my old road map of Great Britain,’ said Faye. She must have been looking at it when she was on the phone to you.’

‘Yes’ said Jake thoughtfully. ‘When I spoke to Natty on the phone from Scotland, she asked me where I was on holiday, said she had a map. Now I come to think of it, she was asking a lot of really specific questions.’ Jake paused to look at the map realising she must have been looking at it in secret in her room while they were chatting, before Faye returned to take her phone back.

‘What sort of questions?’ asked Faye.

Patrick added, ‘Tell us as much as you can remember from that conversation.’

Jake nodded. He recalled she’d asked where he was, and he’d told her he was in the Cairngorms. But when she’d asked which town, he’d said it was so small, she might not find it on a map of Great Britain, which is what he had gleaned she was looking at when he’d heard the distinct sound of the rustling of paper. He’d asked her if she was looking at a map.

‘So, it turned out that itwasyour old map,’ said Jake, glancing at Faye, who clearly wasn’t happy with what he’d said.

Jake moved swiftly on. ‘Anyways, by the sound of it, she traced with her finger where she was in London all the way to the Cairngorms, which she told me she’d found on the map. She said it was a long way away.’

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