I went out onto the landing. Dad was still in my room. I could hear his paintbrush scratching against the wall.
I went downstairs. Mum was doing some ironing in the conservatory. She looked up and her eyes had dark rings circling them.
“You okay, Matthew?”
I stopped at the doorway.
“Mum. Have you spoken to Penny lately?”
“Penny? No, not today. I know all this Teddy business has been really distressing for Gordon. She said his blood pressure has rocketed up what with all the searches. He’s got to be careful because of his heart, so they’re going to try and go away for a bit.”
Mum put the iron down.
“What’s the matter, Matthew? You’ve gone white.”
“When? When are they going?”
Mum shrugged.
“I don’t know. She hasn’t said. Soon, I think. She said they’re hoping to be away for a few weeks at least.”
She walked to the sink to fill the iron with more water. I went to the front door and took some slow, deep breaths. If I thought about it too much I wouldn’t go, so I had to be quick before the anxiety took hold of me. I bent down and put my shoes on, my head pounding.
“I just need to go out for a bit. I’ll be back soon,” I said to Mum and I shut the door behind me before she could ask any questions.
Looking across at number one, I took the Wallpaper Lion’s eye out of my pocket and tucked it into my palm for safety. For my safety. Trying not to hold my breath, I crossed the road toward Penny and Gordon’s.
The television was on, blaring loudly, and I could see the screen flickering behind the curtains.
I checked their car, looking for any signs of Teddy. The seats were immaculately clean. A green air freshener in the shape of a palm tree dangled from the rearview mirror, and there was a local road map in the compartment of the passenger door. In front of the gear stick there was a tub of mints and a blue cloth that Gordon probably used to wipe the windshield. I checked the backseat. Nothing was out of place apart from a box of tissues lying on the floor. I walked around to the passenger side so that I could see the storage pocket on the driver’s door. The plastic handle of something poked out of the top, probably an ice scraper, and an old newspaper. Something bright orange caught my eye underneath the passenger’s seat. I couldn’t quite see what it was, so I moved around to the hood and leaned across the windshield, cupping my hands around my eyes.
Beneath the passenger seat was a small, orange bulldozer. The plastic bulldozer that Penny had picked up from the pile of toys in Mr. Charles’s garden.
Pushing myself upright from the car, I heard a brief double click.
“Oh no!”
The headlights began to flash on and off and the horn beeped repeatedly. I’d set off the car alarm. I froze for a moment, then ran toward the pavement just as the door of number one opened.
“Matthew? Is that you? What are you doing?”
Penny fumbled with her car keys, then pressed the fob, and the alarm stopped.
“Sorry, I-I just … I accidentally knocked the car and …”
I turned as if to go.
“But what did you want? You didn’t come over here just to set off our car alarm, surely?”
I took a couple of steps toward her, taking a second to study her appearance. She pulled the front door behind her a little and folded her arms, guarding the entrance, just like I do when I don’t want anyone in my room. Her hair was pinned back neatly in the usual style. Her clothes, a pale pink blouse and a sky blue skirt, were as smart as always. She looked calm, and there was no sign of stress or strain on her face—apart from the annoyance at having me standing on her driveway.
“Well, what is it? What do you want, Matthew?”
“I, erm. Mum said you’re going away.”
She blinked at me.
“And I wondered if you needed anything done while you’re gone. Watering your plants? Drawing your curtains? Delivering your catalogs? That kind of thing.”
I felt myself flushing. I wouldn’t believe me either.
Half of Gordon’s face appeared at the door, and the one eye that I could see widened when he saw me.
“What’s going on?” he whispered.
She practically pushed him back inside, and I could hear her muffled words behind the door.
“It’s fine, Gordon. Matthew was just leaving.”
She reappeared, patting the front of her hair.
“Thank you, Matthew. That’s very kind of you to offer, but there’s no need. Everything is in order.” And with that she stepped inside and closed the door.
When I got back home I went straight to the kitchen and found Detective Bradley’s business card stuck to our fridge beneath a magnet in the shape of a deck chair. I could hear Mum upstairs running a bath. Dad was putting his decorating things back into the shed.
I stared at the policeman’s number and then at the phone, which was lying on its side, thinking about what I could say to him.
Penny and Gordon have got him because she took a toy bulldozer?
I haven’t seen them together since he went missing?
Gordon is looking a bit stressed?
They’re planning a long vacation?
It was like Old Nina all over again. I had no solid proof.
And anyway, the phone’s earpiece was a tiny square of mesh that looked dirty and infected. The phone looked like something that could easily kill you. So I left it where it was.
I’d lost the Wallpaper Lion’s eye.
Somehow, while I’d been investigating at Penny and Gordon’s house, I’d dropped it, probably when I’d set the car alarm off. I’d looked out the window for any sign of it, but it was hard to see anything in the fading light. I’d lost him completely.
I had a fitful night’s sleep on my mattress, on the floor in the office. I dreamed that someone was standing behind me, tapping me on my back. I turned around to see who it was, but they’d disappeared. When I woke up it was dark and a spring from my mattress was digging into my left shoulder. I lay there for a while, feeling the sharp point press onto the edge of my bone, and then I rolled over onto my other side. I stared at the space beneath the computer table. My clock, which I’d put next to the computer screen, read 4:55 a.m. Any minute now the birds would start singing and daylight would arrive.
Hopefully I’d be back in my room today and I could put my things exactly how I like them. Without the Wallpaper Lion, of course. I really needed to find that eye.
I heard a gate click shut outside. Someone was up early. Maybe Sue had an early shift at the supermarket. Surely not this early though?
I closed my eyes and tried to think where the eye could possibly be. I’d have to check the driveway when it was daylight and along the pavement and curb and around the front door step.
I could hear crying. A child was crying outside.
I opened my eyes and looked again at the clock. 4:56 a.m. I lifted my head off the pillow and listened.
Silence.
I must have imagined it. I lay back down, pushing the sheet off me. It was much hotter in the office than in my room, and being five inches from the carpet didn’t help—the air was suffocating down there.
I closed my eyes, but there it was again. A child was crying. I sat up and listened and this time it carried on.
I scrambled out of bed, opened the curtains, and looked down on Mr. Charles’s yard.
“Oh … my … God …”
Standing on the path by the roses and rubbing his face with his hand was Teddy. He sobbed quietly into the corner of his arm, and then he wiped his face and looked up at me and stopped.
“Fishy.”
I stared back at him. Was I dreaming?
“Fishy!”
His chubby little arm pointed up at my window. He was wearing a white pull-up diaper, a T-shirt decorated with a cartoon ice-cream cone, and no shoes. Reaching his hand up, he wriggled his fingers like he was trying to encourage a small pet.
“Fishy come?”
I ran out onto the landing.