Outside

Chapter Forty One

Luc and I stand shivering on the Rowbothams’ terrace. They’ve tactfully left us alone while we contemplate just how bad our imminent family reunion will be. We hear the helicopters before we see them. And now there’s no escaping the serious trouble we’re in.

‘Jesus Christ, Luc!’ Eddie shouts in his deep baritone, as he descends from one of the helicopters. They’ve set down in the litter-strewn field where the Autumn Fair was held only hours ago. He looks like an angry giant as he strides across the grass towards us. We walk hesitantly to meet him.

‘What the bloody hell have you two idiots been playing at?’ He hooks Luc’s head in his arm and pulls him towards his body in a bone-crushing embrace. Then he draws me to his chest with his other arm. ‘You’re a pair of bloody nightmares. Don’t you ever, ever put us through anything like that ever again.’

I catch sight of Uncle Tom behind him and he steps forward, sweeps me up in his arms and kisses the top of my head.

‘What’ve you done, Riley?’ He tips up my head and looks at me with disappointment in his eyes.

I look down and flush with shame.

‘Your poor mother is hysterical and your Pa is angry like you wouldn’t believe. We’ve been worried sick about the two of you. I honestly thought you were more sensible than this. It was a thoughtless, cruel thing to do.’

‘I’m really sorry, Uncle Tom. I was so angry about Skye and I didn’t think anyone would miss me that much.’

‘Now I know you don’t believe that. Sounds a bit like self-pity to me. Come on, let’s take you to your Ma, she’s dying to see you.’

Eddie has finished bear-hugging Luc and has reverted to angry-mode.

‘Right, Luc, I want you in that copter now. Your mother needs to see you pronto. Richard!’ he calls to one of his guards. ‘You and Marco drive my wife’s AV back to Bournemouth. Jerry, take Luc in the copter and hover back over the AV – make sure they don’t run into any trouble.’ He turns to look at me. ‘Riley, you’re coming with me to your grandparents’ house. Your mother’s having a nervous breakdown over you.’

‘Dad, I can’t go back without Riley, we’re…’

‘I don’t even want to hear it, Luc. Now get in that copter and I’ll see you later, at home. Tom, can you get Riley settled in the other one? I’ve just got to see the Mayor and thank him for dealing with these two. Let’s hope Bonnie and Clyde here, haven’t completely ballsed-up my meeting next month. I’ll be fifteen minutes or so.’

I realise I’m not even going to get the chance to kiss Luc goodbye. I look at him and we smile a promise that I hug to myself. And then he’s taken off and away into the summer night sky.

On the short flight, I contemplate my situation. I started this trip with the clear intention of avenging Skye’s murder, but I haven’t even made a dent into locating Chambers. My reasons for leaving the Perimeter now sound feeble, even to my ears, so I know my parents won’t be at all impressed with my explanations. I’ve had the adventure of my life, but the conclusion is missing and out there in the English countryside Ron Chambers has escaped justice and is probably laughing at his good fortune.

Despite the deafening whirr of blades and judder of the engine, I fell asleep on Uncle Tom’s shoulder and now he’s gently shaking me awake.

‘Riley, darling, wake up. We’re here.’

I open my eyes, disorientated. When the helicopter door opens, I feel the cold north wind hit me like a slap in the face. It feels as though it’s turned from an Indian summer to an early winter, missing out autumn altogether, and I start shivering. Eddie places a blanket around my shoulders and leads me along a narrow lane bordered with hedgerows and tall trees. It opens up onto a small cul-de-sac with a turning circle in front of five medium-sized detached houses.

My grandparents live in the Uley Perimeter, established by Pa and Eddie at around the same time ours was built. There’s nothing strange in the fact I’ve never visited them here before. Even helicopter travel holds its dangers and, as I said before, Pa has never been happy to let Skye or me travel outside the perimeter fence.

Our grandparents usually visit us once a year, when they use either Pa’s or Eddie Donovan’s chopper for the journey. If not for the copters, they wouldn’t be able to visit at all, because road-safety has a whole new meaning these days, as I can now testify.

I stand in front of Grandma and Grandpa’s house; an ordinary-looking Cotswold stone building with a sloping roof and a small chimney. Its wide front lawn runs straight on to the pavement with no fence or hedge to screen it from the road or the other properties. They are all there in the doorway, waiting. My uncles, Oliver and David, my grandparents and Ma, who now runs across the grass towards me.

She squeezes me so tightly and kisses me all over my face and hair, white-faced and crying.

‘I thought I’d lost you too,’ she weeps. ‘I couldn’t have borne it. I love you so much, my darling, darling girl. My baby.’ Then I’m completely enveloped, as my uncles and grandparents come to greet me.

‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,’ I sob.

‘Hush, you’re safe now, that’s all that matters,’ Grandpa soothes.

Eddie Donovan stands to one side of us, tactfully waiting until the initial emotion of our reunion has simmered down.

‘I’ll be heading back now, Eleanor. You take care.’

‘Eddie, thank you for bringing my baby back safe.’ Ma kisses his cheek and they hug briefly.

We wave goodbye to him as the copter spins upwards and away.

Uncle Tom, Ma and I follow everybody else into the brightly lit house. Ma looks meaningfully at her brother and he stares back at her with an unreadable expression. Then Ma leads me through to the cramped sitting room where I get the biggest shock of my life. For there, sitting on the edge of a faded terracotta sofa, in my grandparents’ house, sits a person I have never met, but whose face is tangled up in my brain like a tumour. He looks up at me with a nervous smile.

It is Ron Chambers.

‘You,’ is all I can whisper.

‘I think it’s about time you found out the truth,’ says Ma quietly, looking at my stunned expression.