Free Gone Missing by Jean Ure Page A

telly,” I said, “he’ll recognise us, for sure!”
    Honey looked alarmed. “We’re going to be on television?”
    â€œOur pictures will be. And he’ll go straight to the police!”
    â€œI could always ask him not to.”
    â€œHow can you ask him not to? You won’t be seeing him again!” I bustled her into the lift. “We’re not supposed to be talking to anybody.” Honey was so dejected that to cheer her up I told her about Darcy saying it was OK for us to be there.
    â€œShe’s cool about it. No problem!”
    I also told her about Darcy’s sister having gone off and left Darcy in charge of the baby. Honey at once wanted to know how old the baby was, and whether it was a girl or a boy, and what it was called. I said I hadn’t asked, and she looked at me, unbelieving.
    â€œYou didn’t ask ?”
    â€œYou can ask her yourself,” I said. “I’m not interested in people’s babies. She wants to see it,” I said, as Darcy let us in.
    â€œThe baby? She can have it if she wants!” Darcy gave another of her cackles. “I’ll sell it to you…how much you offering?”
    â€œYou can’t sell babies ,” said Honey.
    â€œWanna bet? It’s in there.” She pointed at a door. “For God’s sake, don’t wake it up! It’s been bawling all evening, I’ve just managed to get it to sleep.”
    â€œPoor little thing! Babies don’t cry for no reason,” said Honey. “What’s its name?”
    â€œFlower.”
    I said, “Flour?”
    â€œYeah, tell me about it.” Darcy rolled her eyes.
    â€œIt’s beautiful,” said Honey.
    I didn’t know whether she meant the name or the baby. It looked like a pretty dead ordinary sort of babyto me, but then I am not what you would call an expert.
    â€œNow she’s here,” said Darcy, nodding at Honey, “you and me could go out, yeah?”
    I said, “Out where?” “Anywhere! I’ve got some mates live just ten minutes away. Go and see them, if you like.”
    â€œWhat, and leave Honey?”
    â€œWhy not? She didn’t seem to mind being left with Fatso.”
    â€œI dunno.” I looked at Honey, doubtfully. “Would that be OK?”
    Honey swallowed. I could tell she wasn’t happy.
    â€œOh, for heaven’s sake!” Darcy was an even more impatient kind of person than I was; she had what Mum calls a short fuse. I always used to try and keep on the good side of her. “Just forget about it! We’ll leave the baby here, and we’ll all go.”
    â€œLeave the baby?” squeaked Honey.
    â€œYeah, it’s OK, we’ll only be out a couple of hours. I left it last night, nothing happened to it.”
    â€œYou can’t leave the baby!”
    â€œI just told you: I did. It’s not gonna go anywhere!”
    Honey munched on her lip.
    â€œLook, it’s all right,” I said. “Me and Honey’ll stay here and babysit, while you go out and see your friends. We’re pretty tired anyway, aren’t we?”
    Honey nodded, eagerly.
    â€œOK.” Darcy shrugged. “If that’s what you want.”
    It wasn’t, especially; I’d quite like to have gone out and met people. But even I could see that it wasn’t right to leave a small baby, and I couldn’t leave Honey. Not on our first night.
    â€œI’ll shoot, then,” said Darcy. “Help yourselves to food and stuff. I’ll see you later.”
    She flapped a hand, and was gone. Me and Honey were on our own…

six
    It was kind of a weird evening. We started off by looking in the fridge, but there wasn’t anything much there, just a hunk of mouldering cheese and a festering mess of something we couldn’t identify in a plastic pot, so we ended up opening a can of ravioli we found in the cupboard, and did some bits of toast. I watched