Strangers at the Cove Page 6

  “What?” Stacey looked up. “What are you doing, Lexie? You’ll break the bed.”

  Lexie twisted one of the bars in the bedhead. “Come on – move,” she grunted, wrenching it violently, up and down and sideways. “I must be able to get this out, it’s already loose.” With that she gave another hard tug and the bar came away in her hand, catapulting her onto the floor. “Yes!” she said, punching the air with her fist in triumph.

  “Lexie, what are you doing?”

  “I’m going to see if I can lever the boards off the window.”

  It took some time before she found a suitable spot to force the bar in behind a board. Using all her strength she pulled on the bar. Nothing happened. Pulling and grunting, she put her foot on the wall to add strength to her leverage. Suddenly there was a creak and the board moved slightly.

  A lifetime of exertion seemed to pass before she could actually force the lower part of the board away from the window. She peered out and found clever Stacey was right, they were in one of the attic rooms of Reiby House. The window was on the southern side of the house. What luck! From here Lexie could see not only the road but way beyond: the sea in the distance, her driveway with its pretty little poplars and, best of all, the rooftop of her own house. What a great view! No wonder it was so dim inside. Not only did the board keep most of the light out but the weather was threatening and heavily overcast.

  She tried the window and although it was stiff, she managed to push it open enough to allow her to climb out onto a small flat area immediately beyond without too much difficulty. What she didn’t know was the safety of the roof. The knowledge she could get out made a huge difference. Lexie climbed back inside, carefully closed everything up again, and pulled the board back against the window so it looked fixed to the frame.

  “Okay, Stacey, we’ll have to think of a plan,” she said conspiratorially. “It’s too dangerous to take you out on the roof with me, and anyway, I don’t know what the roof is like, it may be rotten and we could both fall through. I could try whistling for Bud but I’m not sure the sound would carry. Now that we know we can open the window it might be safest to wait here today and when they light the lamp for us tonight we can put it in the window and hope someone sees it.” She turned to Stacey. “What do you think?”

  “But I want to go home now,” he whined.

  “Yes, I know, so do I, but we have to be careful. If we wait until tonight they’ll think we’re asleep and we’ll have lots of time to have the window open without worrying if they’ll be coming in or not.”

  Just then they heard footsteps approaching. Lexie grabbed the iron bar and rushed to sit against the bedhead, hiding the bar beneath the blanket.

  Lunch was water and biscuits again and the day dragged on. Finding ways to keep Stacey entertained convinced Lexie she would never want to be a primary school teacher! Dinnertime came at last – she was getting excited about her plan. Eventually the big man brought them the lantern, refilled and lit. Stacey had been almost impossible, spending most of the day whinging and whining and she was exhausted from trying to keep him occupied.

  She tucked him up on the bed with one of her favourite bedtime stories as told by her father, the story of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. “Just like you, Stacey,” she said, giving him an affectionate hug. Finally he settled and slept.

  Dimming the light she went to the window, forcing the board aside. All was quiet outside. No other lights shone from the house, unlike hers that could be seen in the distance, with all lights burning.

  As she turned the lamp up high and carried it to the window, she prayed her parents would see it. She sat, resting her arms beside the lamp on the windowsill, gazing out, willing someone to see her light.

  Lexie woke with a start, stiff from sleeping in such an awkward position. There were noises in the distance. Lots of lights, car lights, were heading their way. She looked at her watch, five a.m. It was starting to drizzle.

  Very quietly she brought the lamp back into the room and extinguished it, pushed the board back across the window and, with a small smile and an immense sense of relief, slid onto the bed beside Stacey.

  It was such a long wait for someone to open the door that she wondered if they had driven straight past the house. Eventually the key turned in the lock, waking Stacey who groaned and cuddled into her.

  “It’s alright,” she assured him.

  It was a different man this time, not as tall as her father, well built with short, fair, curly hair. When he saw them his face broke into a wonderful smile.

  “Daddy?” Stacey tentatively whispered. He was off the bed in a flash, rushing towards the stranger. “Daddy. Oh Daddy!” an excited Stacey cried, throwing himself into the man’s outstretched arms.

  Lexie stood, smoothing her crumpled clothes, feeling awkward. “You must be Lexie,” the man said kindly, carrying Stacey and walking towards her, offering his free hand. “I’m Jason Collins.”

  Her hand was lost in his and before she could answer, his arm was around her shoulders, drawing her to him. She was surprised at her reaction, as tears welled in her eyes.

  Pulling herself together, she drew away from him, smiling. “It’s very nice to meet you, particularly right now! I’m not sure how Stacey and I would’ve spent another day together in this room!” She gave a nervous laugh, and tussled Stacey’s hair.

  “Look, Daddy, Lexie found my pet rock.”

  “What a beauty!” he said, setting Stacey down.

  “Can we go home now?” he asked hopefully.

  Lexie could hear sounds in the distance and was bursting to ask questions but understandably, Jason’s interest was with Stacey.

  “Yes,” taking Stacey’s hand. “Come along Lexie, unless you’d like to stay?” he asked with a chuckle.

  “No thanks!” She grinned, following them out the door.

  EIGHT

  The Reunion

  The room was abuzz, everyone was talking at once, with the result no-one could hear what the others were saying. What a homecoming. Lexie felt warmed by the affection. The house, decorated by Clare, was full of bright balloons, inside and out. Her Mum had made a cake – actually two – baking being her escape activity when stressed. Unable to sleep since they went missing, she’d spent much time in the kitchen. When Lexie’s light had been spotted during the early hours of the morning, she had been delighted to have something positive to do.

  Her father kept coming up and putting his arm around her, much to her amusement, Clare kept asking questions and Tom stood watching silently from a distance. She glanced across at him, their eyes met and she gave him a tentative smile. He was unusually quiet.

  Finally Lexie could not stand it any longer and stood on a chair, waving her arms in the air. “Quiet, quiet!” she said, laughing. “I have heaps of questions and Stacey and I are starving hungry, aren’t we Stacey?” she said as he struggled to climb up beside her.

  “Yes, starving,” he agreed, precariously balanced on the edge of the chair.

  “Right,” said her father. “We’ll all have breakfast and answer your questions.” He turned to Tom. “You’ll join us won’t you, Tom?”

  “No, thanks, Mr. Holman,” he answered awkwardly. “I’ve got things I need to do.” Glancing again in Lexie’s direction, relief written on his face, he gave her an imperceptible nod and left the room. For some reason, his look made her feel awkward.

  While the others helped to prepare breakfast Lexie had a warm, soothing shower, and fresh clothes felt wonderful against her skin. As she brushed her hair Clare watched, her legs propped up on the bed. “Ahh, this is great, I feel so clean, it was really dusty and smelly in that room. Did you know Stacey had been up there before, you know, to the attic? If he hadn’t I probably wouldn’t have been so desperate to see out the window. I was convinced we’d been taken miles away. We couldn’t hear any sounds at all and because the window was boarded over it was hard to tell whether it was day or night.”

  As keen as she was
to hear everything, when they finally sat down to a good traditional country breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages and tomatoes, heaps of toast and lots of tea, it was some time before Lexie stopped eating to ask questions. “What do you think, Stacey? Better than biscuits and water!”

  She looked around the chattering table. How quiet Clare had been since their return. Lexie had watched with amusement as Stacey fought off his sister’s hugs and kisses when he walked in the door but had noticed how she almost totally ignored her father. Now, she toyed with her food, looking unhappy, small and alone. Jason kept glancing in her direction, but Clare would not acknowledge him. So it was no surprise to Lexie when she said, “I’m feeling very tired.” Looking at Lexie’s mother she asked, “Would you please excuse me if I go to bed?”

  “Yes, of course, my dear, you must be exhausted. I’ll come and help you.” Lexie looked at her father and raised her eyebrows as Jason talked quietly to his son. A rather rueful smile and a slight shrug of the shoulders was her father’s reply.

  “Will you excuse me, too?” Jason asked. “I’ll run Stacey’s bath and be right back.”

  When they left the room Lexie looked at her father, worried.

  He came over and sat beside her. “Clare obviously feels her father should have been back long ago. From what your mother tells me, she can’t forgive him for not being here when her mother died, even though it would seem their marriage was not a happy one and hadn’t been happy for some time. Apparently father and daughter were not very close before, and this has just made things worse. I’m sure she’ll come around in time.”

  When Jason returned they moved out onto the back verandah, a perfect place to curl up with a book or discuss the day’s events. Cane chairs with well-worn, rather shabby cushions in varying faded colours were scattered about and Stacey’s single bed stood in the far corner beside a well-stocked bookcase. There was a wooden table often used for casual meals with a stack of magazines on it, and muddy boots lined a portion of the wall. Drizabones and Akubras hung off pegs near the back door.

  Drizzle had become rain and how nice it was to hear the steady drum on the corrugated iron roof. In the distance the sea was slate grey and looked wonderful, Lexie thought. Once her mother joined them they gradually filled in the gaps.

  “What did you do when Bud came home without me?” was Lexie’s first question.

  “Well, actually it was Tom who saw Bud trotting along the road and he brought him in. Clare called me from here when she saw Tom approaching with the horse. As you can imagine, it sent us into a bit of a flap.” She smiled at Lexie. “Your father decided we should contact the number Jason gave us, before we went out looking for you.”

  Her father picked up the story. “Jason gave me his office number in Sydney should it be necessary to contact him. When I rang I was told they were unable to locate one of their men and had evidence that suggested he could have been dealing with the smugglers. We were told to remain calm and not do anything until someone from the department arrived. That was pretty difficult to do.” He looked fondly at his daughter.

  “They called me immediately in London.” Jason continued, his voice reflecting the worry he must have felt. “I was able to get on a flight straight away, which had me back in Sydney late Saturday and the office organised a connecting flight to get me here. If this had happened any earlier I don’t know what I would have done but as it was, we were in the final stages of wrapping things up there, having arrested five people. Two others were arrested at the same time in the States and our guys here were ready to swoop down on another three in Sydney. Drew, my overseas liaison, suggested I should get myself over here as quickly as possible and I didn’t need to be told twice. She’s a very competent person and I’m sure everything will be wound up without any hitches.”

  “What have you been doing? Can I ask now?” Lexie looked enquiringly at her father.

  “Yes, of course.” Jason nodded. “I don’t know how much your father has already told you. I’m an investigator with the Customs Department in Sydney and we’ve been watching a bird smuggling racket for some time. An international gang has been moving native birds out of Australia; not only is this illegal, it’s terribly cruel. These birds fetch extremely high prices overseas but most of them die in transit in the most appalling conditions. The team has followed leads relating to this gang across America to England – I’m sure Clare will have told you that I travel a lot. Unfortunately, that’s part of the job. Once a lead appears I have to be able to follow it immediately.”

  “So when did you actually get here?” Lexie asked.

  “Jason arrived a few hours ago, around the time we noticed your light in the attic window,” her mother replied. “The other men arrived yesterday.” She turned to Lexie’s father. “I still think they were a bit laid-back about it all. Imagine if something terrible had happened to the children. They seemed to think they had all the time in the world.”

  “The guys knew these men, they weren’t about to make life worse for themselves. They were only using the children to get me back here and out of the way of the others overseas. It all came too late for them though.” A note of satisfaction crept into Jason’s voice. “Smithers and his accomplice were not the brains of the organisation, as you can see.” He smiled and shrugged.

  “Who are they?” Lexie wanted to know.

  “They were the men holding you both.”

  “Only two men after all,” she said. “One of them was the man who came to our house.”

  “Yes, I heard. Smithers. Hmmm.” He frowned and shook his head. “We only recently discovered he’d been working for both sides. It became increasingly obvious the smugglers were being tipped off from inside but it was hard to pinpoint the informant.”

  “Wow.” Lexie shook her head. “I hadn’t seen the other man before. You know, he never spoke to us? I suppose he was kind but it was weird that he never said a word. You’d think they would’ve taken us away somewhere rather than staying in the area – not that I’m complaining, of course!”

  There was a pause in the conversation. “Lexie,” Jason said earnestly, looking down at his hands. “The sort of existence I’ve been leading put a great strain on my relationship with Clare’s mother, as you may already know. At the time of the accident, as much as I wanted to be here with my children, it was simply impossible.” He looked at her. “I hope you understand.”

  “Me?” Lexie was taken aback.

  “Yes. From what I see, you and Clare have become close since she’s been here, and I need an ally to win my daughter back.”

  He looked over at her father. “Peter, I’ve decided to resign. It’s taken us years to crack this particular smuggling ring and now it’s done it seems a good time for me to consider other things. I’ve missed my veterinary work and, with a little study to bring me up to date, I’d like to return to practice. My family needs me and besides,” he said with a grin, “I’m getting too old for all this globetrotting.”

  “Will you take Clare and Stacey back to Sydney with you?” Lexie asked.

  “I don’t know.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and turned to her mother. “How is Clare’s recovery coming along, Vicki?”

  “She’s doing very well. Having her here with me makes it so easy. The exercises get done regularly and if my day’s busy I can still spend time with her after dinner or before breakfast. She’s a very good patient, you know,” she finished quietly.

  “Well, to be honest with you, I was thinking of moving back here. The house needs a bit of work, but that’s okay, the study will take a bit of time. Getting away from the city and starting afresh with the children is my main concern. I haven’t been a particularly good father to this point and I’m looking forward to rectifying this. Before I can do that though, I have some loose ends to sort out at work. I’ve been liaising with an English customs officer, Drew Honeyman, as I mentioned. She’s due in Sydney on Monday – tomorrow. Peter, would it be asking too much of you and Vicki to have
the children stay a little longer, until I have things sorted out at work?” He asked it hesitantly, standing. “I’m sure you’ll want to discuss it. Excuse me, I’ll go and see what Stacey is up to.”

  Lexie’s parents looked at each other. “Go on, Dad, they’re both happy here and where else would they go? I’ll be returning to school soon, so it’ll only be like having one more in the family.”

  “Yes, one more little one who doesn’t do what he’s told! What do you think, Vick? Would it be too much?”

  “I must say I feel sorry for them. If I can help by having them stay, I’m happy to do so, just as long as this whole business of Jason’s is finished with. I don’t want to have to go through another couple of days like the few we’ve just experienced!”

  “I’m sure that’s all behind us now. I’ll have a word with him.”

  The following morning there were tears from Stacey and a cool farewell from Clare as Jason prepared to collect Great Aunt Clarissa from hospital and return to Sydney. There had been much improvement in their Great Aunt’s condition and it was considered safe for her to travel and resume her life the way it had been before this “whole, horrible affair”, as she put it, had happened. After his initial outburst at not being able to leave with his father, Stacey had accepted the situation and he and Clare were delighted to be left in the care of the Holmans until their father could return.

  The days flew, Clare’s condition continued to improve and it didn’t seem all that long before they were back at the airport for another farewell. Lexie was returning to school and her father was flying with her to spend his few days in Sydney.

  Heavens, thought Lexie as she settled in her seat. Where did the holidays go?

  Looking out the window, she could just make them out in the distance as the plane taxied down the runway – Mum, Tom, Clare and Stacey. She wondered how long it would take Jason to finalise his business. Would Clare and Stacey still be at Holman’s Cove when she returned at the end of term?