Free Afraid by Mandasue Heller

big hug.
    Me too.
    An alert suddenly popped up on the laptop’s screen, warning Skye that there were just a few minutes of battery life left. Aware that she couldn’t risk going back down into the house to find the charger, because somebody might come in and catch her, she quickly typed: Laptop about to die, so got to go. Don’t know when I’ll get another chance to talk to you, but thanks for caring, I won’t forget it xxxx
    Wait ! QTPye wrote back. Have you got a mobile ?
    Only my mum’s , Skye replied. But she’s got no credit so I can’t ring anyone .
    Me neither, but we can text, suggested QTPye. Send me the number!
    Panicking, because she didn’t know the number off by heart, Skye snatched up her mum’s phone and quickly found it. The screen went black at the exact time she pressed ‘send’ after typing the number, so she laid the laptop on the beam beside her and stared at the phone, praying that her message had got through in time. But when half an hour had passed with no text from QTPye she guessed that she’d been too late and, feeling very sorry for herself, curled into a ball and cried herself to sleep.

6
    Jeff Benson was agitated. There was some kind of construction work going on outside the window behind his bed, and this was the second day running that the crew had started at the ungodly hour of eight a.m.
    They had been at it for two hours now, and Jeff had a banging headache from the racket that they were making with their hammers and drills. It didn’t help that he’d been kept awake half the night by the old man in the bed to his right coughing and spluttering. Although he had felt a bit guilty for fantasising about smothering the old bastard with his pillow when he’d woken this morning, to find the guy’s bed had been stripped and had been told by a nurse that the man had passed away in the early hours, and that the noises he’d been making were probably what they called the death rattle.
    Still, at least the old man was free now, unlike Jeff, who was going completely stir-crazy. Four days was too long for a man to be lying around on his back like this, so he’d been gutted when the doctor had done his rounds a short time earlier and said that he wanted him to stay for a couple more days at least.
    Already pissed off, Jeff’s hackles rose when two police officers walked onto the ward and headed straight for his bed. Convinced that they had come to have another crack at getting him to admit that Andrea had stabbed him, he scowled up at them.
    ‘I’ve already told your mates everything I’ve got to say, so don’t bother asking me the same questions again. My wife is innocent. I was jumped in the alley. End of.’
    ‘We’re not here about that,’ one of the officers told him. ‘This is about your daughter.’
    ‘What about her?’ Jeff snapped. ‘If she’s told you it was her mum who stabbed me, she wasn’t even home when it happened, so I suggest you check the facts before you start—’
    ‘She’s missing,’ the officer interrupted. ‘She failed to arrive back at the children’s home after school yesterday afternoon, and we’re trying to establish where she might have gone. Has she tried to contact you?’
    ‘No.’ Jeff sat up and frowned at the man. ‘But what’s this about a children’s home? The social worker said she’d be going to foster-parents – in a proper house, like.’
    ‘That’s not really our concern,’ said the copper. ‘We’re just trying to locate Skye, so is there anywhere you can think of where she might have gone?’
    ‘Not really.’ Jeff shook his head, and ran a hand through his hair.
    ‘The head at her old school gave us the name of one girl she’s friendly with,’ the officer told him. ‘A Hayley Simms?’
    ‘That rings a bell.’ Jeff frowned thoughtfully. ‘I think Skye might have brought her round to ours once,’ he said, thinking it best not to add that it had only been the once because Andrea had banned the kid from