A Game Most Foul, page 7
This time the call went straight to voicemail.
Okay, so maybe her cell phone ran out of juice. It wasn’t unlikely, but I was starting to get increasingly nervous now. Where could Ashley have ended up?
As if the universe was somehow mirroring my quickly darkening mood, I felt a few raindrops land in my hair. I looked up at the sky and groaned when I saw the gray clouds rolling in, quickly followed by several more raindrops. By the look of it, I’d have maybe another minute at best before a downpour was likely to begin.
It had taken awhile to fine-tune, but at this point, it was instinct to quickly slip my hearing aids off and tuck them safely away in their case. Six-thousand-dollar pieces of assistive technology and rain so did not mix. Luckily, I got my bag zipped up before the rain really started.
I was drenched in the short amount of time it had taken me to figure out my next move, which was to go find the closest coffee shop to hunker down in and wait out the rain. I ended up only one street over from the Narnia door, which should’ve been easy enough for Ashley to find if she’d gotten a bit turned around.
Once inside, I pulled out my phone again and sent another text to Ashley, letting her know where I’d gone to take cover from the rain. Judging from the time, we had a little over a half hour before we needed to be back on the bus to return to Ashford. That was still plenty of time for the rain to stop, and maybe Ashley had just found another shop to wait it out in.
I stepped in line to buy a drink and used my debit card this time so I wouldn’t have the added worry of trying to make the correct change. Once I had my coffee in hand, I found a seat at the bar along the shop’s front window and checked my cell phone again. Still nothing.
I blew out a sigh, drumming my fingers on the bar. We still technically had time before we were due back at the bus, but—something about this felt off. It wasn’t as if I thought Ashley couldn’t take care of herself (obviously she could) but we were still in a foreign city. A nice, foreign city, but with the rain, it probably wouldn’t have been a stretch to say that she took a wrong turn somewhere if she had been in a hurry to stay dry.
I took a few sips of coffee and decided to send a message directly to Percy instead of the group chat Suruthi had made.
Got caught in the rain and somehow ended up separated from Ashley at the Narnia door. Is she with you?
Percy’s response was almost instantaneous: No, she’s not. Where are you?
I sent him a pin of my location, and he immediately replied with a short: Stay there. Suruthi and I are coming to you.
As if I have anywhere else to go, I thought.
I tried calling Ashley again, fingers crossed that she would answer this time. The wave of disappointment that came when the call went straight to voicemail again was crushing.
So the battery on her cell phone had definitely died then.
I sent another message to Ashley anyway— are you okay? —and swallowed down more coffee as I waited.
My mom had always been fond of the saying a watched pot never boils, but that’s all I could do; keep my eyes on my cell phone, waiting for any text or call that might come through from Ashley. We were now about fifteen minutes out from needing to be back at the bus for Ashford. It also didn’t seem like the rain had slowed down.
I went for another sip of coffee and nearly jumped out of my skin at the hand on my shoulder. Suruthi stood beside me with her palms up, looking very apologetic. Percy was close behind her, and they both looked about as bedraggled from the rain as I was.
I wasn’t sure how I didn’t notice it at first, that I wasn’t hearing anything that was coming out of Suruthi’s mouth, and then belatedly I realized it was because I hadn’t put my hearing aids back in after coming in from the rain.
Percy seemed to catch on before Suruthi did that I was missing whole chunks of the conversation—probably by the glazed look of confusion in my eyes. He put a hand on Suruthi’s shoulder, and while still looking at me, said very clearly, “Slow down for a minute.”
Suruthi stopped talking at once, looking back and forth between Percy and me, and then she frowned in confusion.
“Just give Jules a minute,” was Percy’s reply to whatever Suruthi had said that I’d missed.
There was nothing else for it. I was going to have to put my hearing aids back in and there would be no way of hiding it.
I held up one finger, signaling that I needed a minute, and unzipped my bag to carefully extract my hearing aids from their case. I kept my attention focused on my cup of coffee as I put my hearing aids in and waited until I heard the cheery little tune that signaled they were turned on to look over at Percy and Suruthi again.
Percy had a small grin in place when our eyes met, and it occurred to me then with the look of understanding on his face that he must’ve known from the beginning. He’d known all along that I wore hearing aids, and he hadn’t said anything about it.
Then I began to wonder why it would’ve bothered me so much in the first place if Percy—or anyone else, really—knew that I wore hearing aids.
“Jules?” I heard Suruthi this time around when she said my name. She’d noticed the hearing aids too, obviously, and she also hadn’t said anything. “You okay?”
“Yes! Sorry,” I said quickly. “Sorry. I’m fine. Just spaced out for a second.”
“Well, what happened then?” Suruthi asked, taking the seat next to me. “Percy only said that we needed to find you. Where’s Ashley?”
“That’s exactly it,” I said. “I don’t know where Ashley is.”
I spent the next few minutes giving Percy and Suruthi an exact replay of my and Ashley’s trek to the Narnia door.
“And she didn’t say anything about where she was going?” Percy asked when I’d finished.
“Ashley didn’t say she was going anywhere,” I answered. “All she did say was that she wanted to try and video call with her grandma so she could show her the Narnia door.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure! I took my hearing aids out just before the rain started. I would’ve heard her if she’d said she was going somewhere else.”
Right?
Our conversation took an abrupt pause when my cell phone started to ring, blaring Metallica with the flashing LED lights and all.
“It’s Ashley, thank God,” I gasped when I saw her name on the screen, scrambling to answer the call. “Hey, Ashley! Where’d you end up? You okay?”
There was not a single sound to be heard in response.
“Ashley?” I repeated. “Hey, you there?”
More silence.
I checked the reception on my phone and saw three cheery green bars at the top right-hand corner of the screen.
“What’s going on?” Suruthi asked, leaning toward me. “Is she okay?”
I quickly tapped the speakerphone button and placed my cell phone on the bar between Suruthi and me, beckoning Percy over.
“Ashley, it’s me, Jules,” I said, raising my voice a notch. “Can you hear me?”
The silence I continued to be met with was causing an icy feeling of dread to encompass me whole.
“Ashley!” My voice cracked when I said her name. “Please, can you just tell me you’re okay?”
The line went dead.
“I’m sure the rain is just messing with the reception,” Percy announced, sounding far more confident than he looked. “Always happens with my mobile.”
“Mine as well,” Suruthi agreed quickly. “Must be that.”
When they both looked at me, I could only shrug. What else was I supposed to do?
“We’ll find Ashley,” Suruthi said, patting my hand. “She can’t have gone too far, can she?”
Chapter 9
A Missing Persons Report Should Be Filed as Soon as You Suspect Something Is Wrong
Two o’clock came and went without any sign of Ashley.
We were standing on the sidewalk outside the same church we’d been dropped off near this morning, huddled together against the brisk wind. Professor Watson stood off to the side, phone in hand, and I figured he was trying to call Ashley again.
I had my arms crossed tightly, fingernails digging into my palms, doing everything I could to keep the worry at bay. It was still afternoon, and there was still sunlight. It was a good thing Ashley would not be having to make her way back here in the dark.
“You two still haven’t heard from Ashley at all?” Percy suddenly asked me and Suruthi.
He’d been watching Professor Watson talking on his cell phone a few feet away but had turned back to look at us. The professor didn’t seem to be doing a stellar job of keeping the worry off his face either.
I shook my head while Suruthi said, “If we had, you’d be the first to know, Percy.”
But I did check my phone just in case I had gotten a message from Ashley and had just missed it. I hadn’t.
“Just to reiterate,” Professor Watson said when he approached our group a moment later. “No one has heard from Miss James except for Miss Montgomery?”
“That’s right, sir,” Suruthi answered for the group.
I’d already informed the professor of what went down in front of the Narnia door with Ashley, how she’d been there one second and gone the next, followed by that unnerving phone call where no one had actually spoken on the other line. I sincerely hoped he wasn’t about to ask me to repeat that story again in front of the rest of the group.
“Ring her again,” Professor Watson said to me. His voice was short, far from his normally polite tone. “Now, if you please.”
I quickly did as instructed, hitting the redial button. All eyes were on me as I waited, praying Ashley would pick up the phone. She didn’t.
“Straight to voicemail,” I said, not bothering to hide the tremor in my voice.
For one impossibly long moment, no one spoke.
I couldn’t have been the only one that felt like something was wrong here. Yes, we’d only met barely two weeks ago, but Ashley didn’t seem like the type to suddenly go wandering off on her own without explanation. Willem and Thierry had managed to make their way back to our meeting spot, so there had to be some reason why Ashley hadn’t.
“Right then,” Professor Watson said, nodding to himself. “I think it would be best if we were to—”
“Phone the police?” Percy cut in before I could ask the same thing.
I didn’t know the first thing about how the police operated in the UK, but they’d be able to help. At the very least, they had more means to throw together a search party than we did and could cover more ground, seeing as none of us had a car.
“Let’s not act too hastily, Mister Byers,” Professor Watson said, looking down at his phone. “I’m going to reach out to Joel, and in the meantime, I highly encourage you all to stay together while we get this sorted out. And please do not leave the area.”
I was not the only one who watched Professor Watson until he disappeared around the corner. When I finally looked back to the rest of the group, I was certain we were all sporting identical anxious looks.
“So,” Suruthi said. “Now what?”
“You heard the professor,” Thierry said, and for the first time, he didn’t look as if he knew exactly what he was doing. “We stick together.”
We ended up back at the same coffee shop as before while we waited for Professor Watson to return, hopefully with an update to share—or better yet, with Ashley herself. Percy and I pooled resources to buy us all tea this time and Thierry purchased the shop’s entire stock of chocolate biscotti.
With no idea of when Professor Watson would come back, we settled in for the long haul.
Dusk had fallen, biscotti and drinks long gone, by the time Professor Watson reappeared. I was thinking about finding something more substantial to eat than biscotti with dinner time so close when the professor came striding into the coffee shop, accompanied by two men who were obviously police officers—and no Ashley.
“Jules? Ow.”
I jumped at Percy’s yelp, oblivious to the fact that at some point I’d gotten his hand in a viselike grip, squeezing hard.
“Oh, sorry,” I said, quickly releasing his hand. “I didn’t mean to.”
The seriousness of the situation couldn’t have been more evident, watching Professor Watson join our group with the police in tow. Suruthi wasn’t even cracking a joke at the fact that I’d just been holding Percy’s hand.
“Did you find Ashley?” I asked at the same time Thierry stood up and demanded, “Well?”
I could tell by the expression on the professor’s face that he had no good news to share before he even opened his mouth to respond.
“Miss James has yet to be located.”
In the few brief seconds it took to process the professor’s announcement, I had somehow already decided that nothing about the rest of this trip to London and everything that had come with it was going to be the same.
“Jules?”
Someone was touching my elbow, and I looked over my shoulder to find Suruthi trying to urge me back down onto the small couch we’d been holed up on. When had I even stood up?
“C’mon, sit down,” Suruthi whispered, squeezing my arm. “It’s okay, Jules.”
It wasn’t though. Nothing about this was okay.
I sat down anyway, wrapping my arms around myself like that was somehow going to keep me from falling to pieces.
Ashley was missing. What part of this was my fault?
The two police officers Professor Watson had brought with him, who introduced themselves as Detective Constables Evans and Thomas, told us that they would need to speak with all of us individually and take down our contact information before we would be able to return to London.
“And we’re starting with you,” Evans said, fixing his gaze on me. As everyone else followed suit, my face started to burn. “The professor here says you were the last one to see the girl.”
Okay then. So, there was a very real chance I might puke right here, but I could handle being questioned by the police.
“Her name is Ashley, and yes, I was,” I said all in one breath.
Without another word, Evans gestured for me to follow him out of the coffee shop while his partner, Thomas, announced that he would be staying behind with Professor Watson and the rest of the group to start taking down contact information.
“Jules!”
I snuck a look back at Suruthi when she hissed my name as I got to my feet, and she leaned in close to whisper, “Remember, you do have the right to remain silent. The police here have their own version of Miranda rights, but—”
“Thank you for the advice, Suruthi,” I whispered back, cutting her off. “But you do know I’m not actually under arrest, right?”
“Still. Oh, and the police here aren’t allowed to lie to you like they can in America, so make sure you—”
“For heaven’s sake, Suruthi!” Percy said exasperatedly, giving Suruthi’s arm a gentle tug to get her to sit down again. “You can blather on about the criminal justice system when it’s your turn to be questioned by the police. Let Jules go.”
With those words of encouragement to aid me, I exited the coffee shop after Detective Constable Evans.
Chapter 10
In the Aftermath
Before my parents’ divorce and before my dad disappeared to some small town in Vermont to run a bed-and-breakfast with his new wife, we used to watch action movies all the time. They were all a little too intense and graphic for my six-year-old self, but it’d been a steadfast routine of ours. And in every movie I watched with my dad where there was a big explosion during some high-speed chase that had you thinking the hero might not make it out alive, there were always those few seconds in the aftermath when all you could hear was a piercing ringing.
The hero would stumble around, a hand to their head, waiting for the ringing to stop and for their hearing to return to normal before carrying on like nothing had ever happened.
The aftermath of Ashley’s disappearance was a lot like that—except I wasn’t a hero, and my hearing wasn’t going to return to normal. At some point the ringing stopped, but I knew it would only be a matter of time before it returned. I spent most of that Saturday and well into Sunday following our ill-fated trip to Oxford curled up in my favorite armchair down in the shop. I’d tried to work on my manuscript, but my heart wasn’t in it. I’d made it a few sentences in before I slammed my laptop shut and stuffed it under the armchair so I didn’t have to look at it anymore.
If my cell phone hadn’t been confiscated by the police, I would’ve been sending message after message to the group chat with Suruthi and Percy, because surely they had to be just as frantic as I was about what happened. Ashley was missing and yet here we were, sitting around over the weekend, twiddling our thumbs and waiting to be contacted by the police. Although this was still probably preferable to dodging all the phone calls and messages from my mom through Adele’s cell phone.
I couldn’t blame my mom for wanting me on the next plane home, but I had point-blank refused the first time she’d even mentioned it. I hadn’t worked tirelessly for the last several months to get into this seminar only to go home two weeks in. Before I could explain all that, Adele had taken the phone into the other room and spent the next half hour in conversation with my mom.
Whatever she’d said had worked and my mom had laid off—somewhat. Adele had finally turned her phone off for a short reprieve from my mom’s continued messaging. This was also partially the reason why I was hiding down in the shop after hours.
I slumped down in the armchair with another frustrated groan, scrubbing my face with my hands. I’d spent the last however long staring up at the ceiling, wondering when I’d wake up from what I wasn’t convinced was not a nightmare.
I hated feeling useless like this. I wasn’t a detective, and I didn’t know the first thing about solving a missing persons case, but there had to be something I could do, right?
