J & P Book 5 - Never Let Me Go

Chapter Sixteen

Aimee was with her. She'd stayed with her the whole time. She'd sat and held her hand and listened to her cry and moan and make incoherent noises. And most of the while, she'd cried too. Jenny knew that none of this was Aimee's fault. She'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

They were in the back of a police car, parked a few houses down the street, a female police officer in the front with them. It had been judged to be inappropriate for them to be in the house, but Jenny didn't want to go anywhere until her daughter was located. The ambulance had gone on to the hospital; Paul was not in a good way. Jenny needed to be with him too but couldn't split herself in half, she'd done the next best thing and the police had contacted Lucia and Robbie.

There was nothing Aimee could say. Jenny didn't really understand what was going on in her own head, let alone what was going through everyone else's, but she felt sure that Aimee had done everything she could. Nobody could have stopped all of this from happening. It wasn't Aimee's fault, and she was going to have to let her know that in time.

There was a beep from the intercom, and the police officer got out of the car briefly.

"Oh, there's some news, I think," Aimee said, trying to reassure her sister.

Jenny felt numb. With everything that had happened in the last couple of hours, there were a number of possible outcomes about different things and she didn't feel equipped to speculate on what was happening.

She looked up and saw a figure running towards her house. "Oh no, look." She pointed to indicate to Aimee what she had seen; a panicked Patrick. "Is Andrew with him?"

Aimee looked around. "No, I can't see him. Unless he's in the car. They'll speak to him, Jenny. You're in no fit state to."

"What will they tell him?"

"Probably that there's been an incident, like I don't know, a burglary or something."

Jenny shivered. "Patrick won't give up, he'll make them tell him what's happened. I should speak to him..."

"No," Aimee maintained. "Stay here. What would you tell him? When the police lady comes back, we'll ask her to speak to him."

With that they saw Patrick standing almost right next to them, making a call on his mobile phone. He couldn't see inside the back of the car of course, as the windows were blacked out. Jenny gazed at her ex-husband, seeing the panic on his face.

"Does he think something's happened to me?"

Aimee took her by the hand again. "Jenny, something has, and you need time to come to terms with it. Patrick will be told what he needs to know. Oh..."

They both watched as Patrick sprinted back to his car. Jenny couldn't quite see but they heard an engine rev loudly, he seemed to have driven off at speed.

"Where's he going?" wondered Aimee out loud.

The police officer got back into the car.

"Have you found her?" Jenny begged.

"You'll be the first to know when we do," the police officer said. "That man who was here just now, he said he was family, is that right?"

Jenny put her head in her hands, her hopes crushed again. She sobbed some more.

"Yeah," she heard Aimee explain. "He's Jenny's ex-husband. She wanted to get out and speak to him, but I don't think she's in a fit state. Jenny's son is with him today, so he needs to know what's going on."