The Invisible Girl, page 1
Contents
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five
chapter six
chapter seven
chapter eight
chapter nine
chapter ten
chapter eleven
chapter twelve
chapter thirteen
chapter fourteen
chapter fifteen
chapter sixteen
chapter seventeen
chapter eighteen
chapter nineteen
chapter twenty
chapter twenty-one
chapter twenty-two
chapter twenty-three
chapter twenty-four
chapter twenty-five
chapter twenty-six
chapter twenty-seven
epilogue
chapter one
Chairs pulled into a tight circle, the children were taking turns at wearing sticky-backed labels on their foreheads. Each label had an emotion written on it, which the other children were acting out for the label-wearer to guess. The game’s official name was ‘Emotional Connection’, a therapeutic game developed to help children recognize and express emotions. Amongst ourselves we called it the ‘Silly Game’, because it caused so much hilarity.
Carly was taking her turn, and her word was ‘angry’. A curly haired seven-year-old with Down’s syndrome, Carly danced around the circle so energetically that her label kept fluttering to the floor. This didn’t matter much because Carly couldn’t read, so she just picked it up and stuck it back on. The continual shrieks of ‘You dropped it again!’ added considerably to the overall chaos of six children trying to outdo each other’s mimes of ‘angry’.
When the door opened, I assumed it was someone from one of the offices, coming to ask us to be quieter. I hoped I could couch my apology in a gentle explanation that this was the last time we were scheduled to be here, and next week we’d be in the church hall.
Instead of opening properly, however, the door came ajar an inch or two, paused, then clicked shut again. The children didn’t notice and carried on with the game. Perhaps it wasn’t anyone after all. The weather was windy and the building draughty. Perhaps the door had not been closed properly and was momentarily sucked off the latch by the wind before being pushed shut. I watched it a moment longer, but when nothing happened I turned my attention back to the children.
A few moments later, the door cracked open again. This time I saw an eye peering through. As soon as I looked, however, the door once again clicked shut. Time to investigate. The game paused briefly when the children saw me stand up, but I gestured for them to continue playing. I went to see what was going on. ‘Hello?’ I said, pushing the door fully open.
A girl stood in the dimly lit hallway. She looked to be in her early teens, a gangly, oval-faced girl with long, rumpled hair the colour of cardboard. She was dressed in a nondescript school uniform – white shirt, black cardigan, black trousers – but no tie, so I had no idea which school she attended.
‘Are you Torey?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Mrs Thomas said you would help me.’
Surprised, I raised my eyebrows. I hadn’t talked to Meleri in weeks and my charity had not informed me that I’d be working with anyone new. The session I was running that day was the only work I was currently doing for Social Services. Known as an ‘enrichment group’, it was for special needs children of eight and under, who came from disadvantaged backgrounds. We met for an hour each week to work on social skills. I knew nothing about a teenage girl.
‘What’s your name?’ I asked.
‘Eloise.’
‘Eloise what?’
She paused and gave a very slight shrug, as if she had to think about it, then replied, ‘Eloise Jones.’
The momentary halt made me think she was reluctant to give her surname, so perhaps this was false. Even if it weren’t, I wouldn’t be much the wiser. Almost a third of the people in our part of Wales were surnamed Jones.
‘There seems to have been a mix-up, because I don’t have you on my schedule,’ I said.
‘Mrs Thomas told me you could help me,’ she replied.
I glanced at my watch. ‘This group doesn’t end until 4.30. I’m not free before then.’
Her expression was hard to read. There was a vacancy to it that made me feel as if I was asking confusing questions.
‘I have to go back in the room now,’ I said, not needing to imagine the chaos taking place because I could hear it. I opened the door wide to let the kids know I was right there.
‘Can I wait?’ Eloise asked.
‘It’ll be at least twenty minutes.’
‘That’s okay.’
I didn’t have a good reason to refuse her. We were just playing a game. Nothing private was taking place, so I said, ‘Yes, that’s fine,’ and went back into the room to rejoin the children.
Eloise followed me in.
‘Who’s she?’ one of the boys asked.
‘Yes, who are you?’ another one called across the room.
‘This is a guest. Her name is Eloise. How do we greet a guest, Dylan? Do we shout “Who are you?” or do we say . . . ?’
‘I know! I know! I know! Miss, I know!’ This was eight-year-old Sallie, pushing her way out of the circle to run up to us. ‘How do you do?’ she said to Eloise. ‘Hello, how is the weather?’ Sallie’s social graces might have carried slightly more weight if she hadn’t had the word ‘Disgust’ plastered to her forehead.
There was a line of chairs along the side wall and I’d assumed Eloise would choose one of these until I’d finished with the group, but she came with me over to our circle and sat down with us.
The children were fascinated. Most of them were too shy to speak to her, but they danced back and forth, unwilling to return to the Silly Game. Dylan, who was seven, a sturdy boy with the physique of a miniature rugby player, had no such hesitancy. ‘Who are you? Why are you here?’
I said, ‘This is Eloise. She’s visiting for today.’
‘But why?’
This was hard to answer, given I didn’t know myself. ‘She’s visiting, Dylan. That’s enough information.’
‘Where do you come from?’ he asked her.
‘Dylan, please sit down,’ I said.
‘Are you Welsh?’ he asked.
‘Dylan . . .’
‘T’ siarad Cymraeg?’
‘Dylan . . .’
‘I just want to know, is she going to be in this group? Are you going to be in this group? Because you’re too big to be in this group. And we’ve got enough girls already.’
‘Stedd i lawr.’ I rose from my chair to ensure he did. He backed away and took his seat but continued to eye Eloise suspiciously.
Realizing that we weren’t going to recapture the focus needed for the game, I decided to finish off with a story. I chose Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea for its engaging plot regarding a young girl who suddenly discovers a gentlemanly tiger at her door, and for the underlying emotions it provokes – in particular, excitement and anxiety. Who wouldn’t be excited at the thought of hosting a real, live tiger in their house? Who wouldn’t feel anxious about it?
I read the story and when I finished, I said, ‘He was a very hungry tiger, wasn’t he? What was the first thing he ate?’
‘People,’ Carly said. ‘Tigers eat people.’
‘But this tiger in the story didn’t eat anyone, did he? What did he eat?’
‘Tigers eat people,’ Carly insisted.
‘They bought him tiger food,’ Owen said.
‘At the end, they decided they would buy a tin of tiger food in case he visited again,’ I replied. ‘But they didn’t give him any tiger food when he came to tea. What did they give him?’
Dylan huffed. ‘There isn’t such a thing as tiger food. You couldn’t go to the shops and buy a tin of tiger food.’
‘What did they give him?’ I asked again.
‘Everything!’ Sallie replied. ‘Everything they had for tea. And he drank everything too. All their tea and their orange juice and even all their water.’
‘Thank you,’ I said, relieved someone had been listening.
‘I don’t think it’s possible to drink all the water in the tap,’ Eloise said.
Surprised, I looked over.
Eloise continued, ‘The tap is connected to the water mains. To drink the tap dry, he’d have to drink a whole reservoir of water. That isn’t very realistic.’
The children were as taken aback as I was that Eloise had joined the conversation. They, I think, more because it had never occurred to them exactly how much water was in the tap in their kitchen. Me, because I hadn’t expected her participation, to say nothing of the fact that this was a fictional story about a tiger sitting down at the table to share tea with a little girl and her mum, so not exactly a wildlife documentary.
‘And he didn’t even ask once to go to the toilet,’ Sallie piped up.
When the children were finally away, I returned to Eloise, who had remained in her chair in the circle. I took an adjacent chair. ‘So, tell me, how can I help you?’
‘I have to get back to my foster home in Moelfre.’
Perplexed by the request, I said, ‘That’s a long way from here.’ Given that I did nothing even faintly related to transporting children to different places, I asked, ‘Can you explain a bit about this, please?’
Eloise looked a way and gave a frustrated little huff, the kind teenagers give when adults are being dim. She huffed again, looked back. ‘There’s been, like, this big misunderstanding. Over the ring. I didn’t take it. For real, I didn’t, but Olivia got angry, so I got moved from the Powells’ to this other place and I hate it. Because it was all a big mistake. Olivia texted me and said she was sorry. See, this boy Sam gave it to me. The ring, I mean. But it belongs to Olivia, and he took it, but she understands now that I didn’t take it. So I need to get it back to her or I’ll be in such big trouble.’
I was absolutely lost. I knew nothing about this drama nor any of the characters in it. ‘Let’s back up a minute. You say Mrs Thomas told you I could help you?’
Eloise nodded. ‘She said you write books. And you help people.’
‘Did she explain how I can help?’
Another frustrated huff, less patient this time. ‘I don’t know. Mrs Thomas just said. I told her I needed to get the ring back to Olivia, and Mrs Thomas said you could help me because you write books. So, please. That’s why I came here. Please?’
I could make no sense of any of this. A completely random girl shows up and wants me to aid her in getting back to her old foster home so that she can return a piece of jewellery? It was like some weird Social Services version of The Lord of the Rings.
‘Where do you go to school?’ I asked.
‘This has nothing to do with school,’ Eloise replied.
I regarded her.
When she realized I wasn’t going further with the conversation until she’d answered, she said, ‘Ysgol Dafydd Morgan,’ with an irritated sigh. I recognized it as a secondary school in a coastal town more than ten miles away.
‘You wouldn’t be able to get over here so quickly from Dafydd Morgan.’
Eloise bulged her eyes to indicate how irritating I was being. ‘I took the bus.’
‘But you skived?’ I replied.
She shook her head. ‘No.’
‘You had permission to leave early?’ I asked sceptically.
Her voice became piteous. ‘Come on. Please?’
I paused a moment to think, and silence slid in around us.
Eloise was staring at her lap when I raised my head, giving me a moment to study her. She was a plain girl. Her features were flat, her eyes a nondescript bluish-grey, her mouth small and thin-lipped. Long, wavy brown hair, which should have been tied back for school, hung over her shoulders. I could imagine her as one of those kids who slipped out of school unnoticed, one of those kids living around the edges of life because they barely stood out from the background.
‘May I see the ring?’ I asked, mostly to verify that there actually was one.
Eloise had a small black handbag on a shoulder strap and she pulled it onto her lap and opened it. An initial root through it didn’t turn up the ring, which immediately made me suspicious that she hadn’t been telling me the whole story.
Eloise seemed to sense my disbelief, because she became visibly distressed when she couldn’t find it. Opening the bag wider, she began to search again.
‘Hold on,’ I said, ‘where did you get all that?’ Among the things in the bag I could see several packages of paracetamol.
Not replying, she quickly stuffed the boxes down into the depths, pulling items over them.
‘No, hold on. Let me see those, please,’ I said, and reached out. Eloise resisted, pulling the bag around her body.
‘Give me your handbag, please.’
‘It’s mine.’
‘Yes, I know, but give it to me, please.’
A long moment passed between us, Eloise with the handbag gripped to her chest. We locked eyes.
‘Give it here, please,’ I said again.
Finally a sigh and she let go.
I took the handbag into my lap and opened it. One, two, three, four, five boxes of paracetamol, sixteen tablets in each of them. Sales of these tablets were restricted to a total purchase of thirty-two tablets specifically to reduce the chances of a person dying in a case of overdose. Acquiring five boxes meant careful planning, and this spoke to me of one thing only: suicide.
‘What’s this about?’ I asked.
‘It’s just headache medicine.’
‘There are too many here for a headache.’
‘I get migraines.’
‘This is too much medicine, even for migraines.’
Despair touched her features. ‘It’s not what it looks like,’ she said.
‘This is too much medicine to have all at once.’
Her mouth pulled down. Her chin quivered.
‘Something’s gone very wrong, hasn’t it?’
She nodded.
‘Can you tell me about it?’
She shook her head.
‘I’m happy to help you, if I can, but I need to understand what’s going on.’
Eloise shook her head again.
‘What can I do to help?’ I asked.
‘Please just take me to Moelfre.’
‘I’m not able to do that. I’ll take you back to school, if you like. Or I’ll take you to Mrs Thomas’s office.’
‘No, I want to go home.’
‘I’m confused,’ I said. ‘Moelfre is well up the vale and you’re attending Ysgol Dafydd Morgan. That’s twenty miles in the other direction, so I’m thinking Moelfre isn’t home.’
‘Yes, it is. I need you to take me there.’
‘Let me phone Mrs Thomas and get the details. In the meantime, let’s leave these here.’ I took hold of the boxes of paracetamol.
‘Can’t you understand?’ Eloise wailed. ‘I need to get back to Olivia. I need to bring her the ring!’ She flapped her hands in a frantic spasm, almost as if she was going to hit herself, but she didn’t. Crossing her arms tightly across her chest, she clamped her hands on her shoulders and rocked forward.
I felt a twinge of alarm. I didn’t know anything about this girl at all, but I sensed self-harm in her behaviour and far more serious problems than simply getting a ring back to someone.
Touching her shoulder, I said, ‘I can see you really want to do that. But just for now, it’s important to me that you stay safe. I can tell something is wrong and you’re feeling very unhappy. So let me help you. Let me start by keeping hold of these for the moment. And let me talk to Mrs Thomas. Then I promise I will help you sort out the matter of your ring and Olivia. I promise.’
The tension eased a little. Eloise snuffled and covered her face with one hand. I handed her a couple of tissues. Two or three minutes passed while she recomposed herself. Finally she nodded. ‘Okay.’
‘Good. Good girl.’ Putting my arm around her shoulder, I gave her a little squeeze.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to get so upset.’
‘That’s all right.’
She nodded. ‘Can I use the toilet?’
‘Yes, of course.’
She rose from the chair and reached across me for her bag. I kept my hand on it. ‘No, leave all this here, please. The toilet is just down the hall to the right.’
Without further protest, Eloise left.
I put the boxes of paracetamol in my own handbag. Collecting together all the materials I’d brought for the enrichment group, I put them into my satchel and then tidied up the room.
For five minutes or so I didn’t think much about Eloise’s absence, but as the minutes continued to pass a sense of foreboding came over me. Taking her handbag along with my own things, I went out and closed and locked the door behind me.
There were separate toilets for men and women, but only one of each. Both doors were closed but neither appeared occupied. I knocked at the door to the women’s. When there was no answer, I pushed it open. Empty. I knocked at the door of the men’s and again pushed it open when there was no answer. Empty.
Horrified, I looked up and down the hallway. Nothing. Eloise was gone.
chapter two
Panic rose in my throat. Walking down the hall, I peered into offices as I went, even though it seemed highly unlikely she’d go into one of those rooms. The building was a modern single-storey structure that wasn’t very large, so it took me only a few minutes to reach the back entrance. I opened the door and looked out. Immediately behind the building was a drab concrete area and then a high chain-link fence, separating us from a derelict plot beyond. Closing the door, I went back through the building to the front and looked out there. No one could be seen anywhere. Absolutely no one.
Our building was on a narrow, dead-end street that ran alongside the river. There was nothing on the opposite side of the street except the river itself. A path popular with dog walkers was on that side, but the tide was in, so the river was wide and dark. No one walked that side of the road when the tide was in because the path was always muddy.
