Page 101 of Kiss Me at Christmas
“Does he have any other friends? Outside of the famous five?”
“Not really. No one he would trust enough to ask for help.”
“Okay. Okay. So we’ve called all the taxi ranks in town and none of the drivers have picked anyone up matching his description…”
“They could have caught a bus or a train hours before we even knew they were missing,” said Harriet.
“But to go where? Where do desperate sixteen-year-olds go to escape?”
Harriet stood abruptly.
“I know where he is,” she said, wiping her nose again, even though she couldn’t feel it.
“Where?”
She laughed, borderline hysterically.
“He’s at the theater,” she said, throwing her arms in the air in exasperation at Billy Matlin.
James was looking at her with concern.
“The security guard searched all over, there was no sign of them.”
“That’s because they’re hiding in the flunking basement!”
Twenty minutes later, they stood outside the Winter Theater, waiting for Ken to unlock the door.
“Are you sure about this?” Ken asked, pushing the doors open. “I mean, how would they even have got in? All the doors are locked by nine p.m. And we’ve got a security guard doing the rounds.”
“I’m sure,” Harriet replied. “I can’t tell you exactly how he did it. But that kid can climb a drainpipe. He was coming here by himself long before he inducted the rest of the famous five into breaking in.”
They stood in the silent foyer. It had been a long time since she’d seen the place empty, not since she’d first followed Leo here. It had undergone quite the transformation. But even though it was shiny again, in the dark, its ghosts could be felt.
“Quiet. I don’t want to spook them,” Harriet whispered. “Torches only.”
The men nodded and followed Harriet through one of the side doors and down the long passages that snaked through the back of the theater. Past dressing rooms and storage cupboards until they came up behind the stage, to the hidden flight of stairs leading to the basement.
“You stay here, I’ll go down,” she whispered. James made to protest but she stopped him with a finger to her lips. “I’ll be fine. Wait here.”
She tiptoed as quietly as she could down the rickety stairs and pushed the door open at the bottom. It was deathly quiet and for a moment she wondered if perhaps she’d been mistaken. But then she saw them. A camping light gently illuminating two sleeping figures, curled up together in sleeping bags on a bed of old blankets on the dirt floor. Sandwich wrappers, a thermos with two plastic cups, and a copy of the secondPercy Jackson & the Olympiansbook lay on the floor beside them. She wept tears of silent relief, allowing herself to exhale for what felt like the first time in hours. She hadn’t been able to save Zoe, but she could make things right for Billy and Sid.
While James notified first Tess and Arthur and then all the other folks who had been out searching or simply sitting up in dressing gowns awaiting news, Harriet had gently woken the lost and found boys.
Billy had just ended an emotional call with Tess and Arthur when Grace arrived at the theater, dressed as usual as though she was ready to take some corgis for a trot around the Balmoral Castle grounds.
“What in god’s own name were you thinking?” she scolded.
There was an air of defeat about Billy that Harriet had never seen before. He’d admitted to her, down in the basement, that his sudden decision to run away had been driven by pure panic. He had no plan other than a determination not to be separated from Sid. It happened sometimes, in emergency situations; siblings got split up in the system. It had already happened to them once before, and he couldn’t risk it happening again.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” he said simply. The fight had gone out of his voice and the crack in Harriet’s heart broke a little wider.
Grace took him by the shoulders.
“Look at me,” she demanded. Dejectedly, he did as he was told. “If ever you don’t know what to do, you come to me,” she said. Her voice was soft yet firm. “If you’re worried, or sad or scared, you come to me, and I will move bloody heaven and earth to make things right. You and Sid are not alone. Do you understand?”
Billy’s eyes were tired and glistened with tears he refused to shed, but when he nodded, one dislodged itself and rolled down his cheek.
“Good,” she said. Then she turned to Harriet, James, and Ken. “They can stay with me for what’s left of tonight,” she said with authority. “And we’ll decide on next steps tomorrow when everyone’s had some rest. Billy? Sid? Is that okay with you?”
