I saw a woman walking around them in a big loop, like they were going to attack her in broad daylight or something. They seemed okay to me – just a bunch of youths like you’d find on any street corner in a city, town or village.
I had just arrived back in my hotel room when my mobile rang and I saw it was Ma. Feeling bad because I hadn’t replied to her messages, I picked up my phone.
‘Hello?’
There was a long pause, which was probably the sketchy connection from Switzerland.
‘CeCe?’
‘Yes. Hi, Ma.’
‘Chérie! How are you?’
‘Good. Well, okay anyway.’
‘Star tells me you are in Australia.’
‘Yes, I am.’
‘You left Thailand?’
‘Yup.’
There was another pause, which was definitely made by Ma. I could virtually hear her brain whirring as she decided whether or not to ask me about Ace.
‘And you are well?’ she said eventually.
‘I always am, Ma,’ I said, wondering when she’d cut to the chase.
‘Chérie, you know I am here for you if you ever need me.’
‘I know. Thanks.’
‘How long will you be in Australia?’
‘I’m not sure, to be honest.’
‘Well, I am just glad to hear your voice.’
‘And me,’ I said.
‘So, I will say goodbye.’
‘Ma . . As she obviously didn’t want to bring it up, I knew I had to.
‘Yes, chérie?’
‘Do you think Pa would have been cross about that photograph?’
‘No. I am sure you did nothing wrong.’
‘I didn’t. I really didn’t know about Ace and what he’d done. Has anyone contacted you? I mean, like the newspapers?’
‘No, but I will say nothing, even if they do.’
‘I know you won’t. Thanks, Ma. Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight, chérie.’
I ended the call, thinking how much I loved that woman. Even if my trip to Australia ended with me finding out who my biological mother had been, I couldn’t imagine anyone being more kind, understanding and supportive than Ma. She had loved us girls with all her heart – which was more than my birth mother had obviously done, because unless Pa had grabbed me out of her arms, she had given me away. There was probably an explanation; maybe she’d been sick, or poor, and thought I was going to a better life with Pa Salt.
But . . . shouldn’t the bond between mother and child be stronger than any of that?
I sat back down on the bed, wondering whether I even wanted to continue on this bizarre journey to actually find the people who had given me away. Like, maybe they didn’t want me back. Yet Maia, Ally and Star all seemed to have found new and happier lives because they’d followed their trails . . .
My mobile rang again and I saw it was Chrissie. As I answered, I wondered how she always seemed to be there just when I was feeling low.
‘Hi, CeCe? Did you go to the museum today?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Find out anything?’
‘Quite a bit, but I’m not sure what it’s got to do with me yet.’
‘Like to meet up later? I spoke to my grandma and she’d really like to meet you.’
‘Sure.’
‘So how about I swing past your hotel at three, and take you off to see her?’
‘That sounds good, Chrissie, as long as it’s no bother.’
‘No bother at all. Bye, CeCe.’
I was just tucking my mobile into my shorts pocket when it rang again and I saw it was Star.
‘Hi.’ Star sounded a bit breathless. ‘You okay?’
‘Yup. Fine. You?’
‘Yes, good. Listen, Cee, I thought I should warn you that I had a phone call today. From a newspaper.’
‘What?’
‘I’m not sure how they got my number, but they asked me if I knew where you were. I said I didn’t, of course.’
‘Jesus,’ I muttered, suddenly feeling as hunted as Ace had. ‘I really don’t know anything, Sia.’
‘I believe you, darling Cee, of course I do. I just wanted you to know that they have your full name. Do you know how?’
‘I bet it’s that Jay bloke on Railay – the one who fancied you, remember? He’s an ex-journalist and I reckon it was him who sold the photo to the papers. He’s mates with Jack at the Railay Beach Hotel and they have all our details – phone numbers, addresses and stuff – from when we checked in. And it was Jack’s girlfriend who told me Jay had recognised Ace. She’s the receptionist there. Jay probably bribed her to have a look through her paperwork.’
I heard a sudden chuckle from the other end of the line. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘Nothing. I mean, there has to be a funny side to all this, doesn’t there? Only you could end up on the front page of every newspaper with the most wanted man in the banking world and not even know who he was!’
I heard her giggle again, and suddenly she sounded like the old Star. ‘Yeah, I bet Electra’s really jealous,’ I chuckled.
‘I’m sure she is. She’s probably on the phone to her PR people right now. It’s hard to get one front page, let alone all of them. Oh Cee . . .’
Star continued to laugh and in the end I joined her, because the whole situation was so crazy and ridiculous; I ended up clutching my sides while I had an attack of the ‘terrics’, as we used to call it in our shared baby language.
Eventually, we both calmed down and I drew in some deep breaths before I could speak again.
‘I really liked him,’ I wailed. ‘He was a genuinely nice guy.’
‘I could see from the picture that you did. It was in your eyes. You looked really happy. I love your hair, by the way, and that top you were wearing.’
‘Thanks, but none of it matters now because he hates me. He thinks I was the one who told the media where he was, because the photo was on my camera roll. The security guard had it developed for me and I even gave Ace a set as a leaving present. Like I was rubbing his nose in it or something.’
‘Oh, that’s terrible, Cee. You must be devastated.’
‘Yeah, I am, but what can I do?’
‘Tell him it wasn’t you?’
‘He’d never believe me. Really, Sia, he wasn’t at all like the papers describe him.’
‘Do you think he did it?’
‘Maybe, but something doesn’t add up.’
‘Well, if it makes you feel any better, Mouse says he’s convinced that Ace is just a fall guy. Someone else at the bank must have known what was going on.’
‘Right,’ I said, not knowing whether to be happy or sad that her boyfriend ‘Mouse’ was on my side, given he’d played a big part in the trouble between me and Star in the first place.
‘Look, if there’s anything we can do this end to help, please call.’
Her use of the word ‘we’ grated on me further. ‘Thanks. I will.’
‘Keep safe, darling Cee. I love you.’
‘I love you too. Bye.’
I ended the call and having felt so much better when the two of us had been laughing like the old days, I now felt depressed by the fact that one word had reminded me how much had changed. Star had her Mouse, whose arms held her tightly every night. She had ended her journey into the past and begun her future, while I was nowhere near doing either.
*
At three o’clock on the dot, Chrissie arrived in reception. Despite the heat, she was wearing a pair of faded jeans and a tight-fitting T-shirt, with a red bandana holding her curls back from her face.