Dodging oncoming cars, racing through red lights, I sped through the traffic. Hang in there, Teigan, I thought. We’re coming for you. At this rate we were still forty minutes away.
“Why is she in Mundesley?” I glanced over to Rhys, who was sitting in the passenger seat tapping his fingers on his leg anxiously. He was probably worrying about whether I would hand him over to the police.
“She got an old caravan there — it’s proper in the sticks so there’s never anyone about. It’s where she was living when this all first started, when she first came back from Australia.”
I swallowed back the tears as I imagined Teigan, starving and cold, locked away in the middle of nowhere. No. I shook my head. Picturing things like that wasn’t going to help. I decided to use the time in a more productive way.
“Rhys, can you please talk me through how this happened? How did you and Steph even meet?”
“Uh,” his cheeks flushed red. “Well, she tracked me down on Facebook. She must have known who I was, ‘cause of it all being on the news when Timmy died.” I winced at the mention of Timmy’s name.
“She kinda flirted with me at first.” He pulled a face suggesting that he was now embarrassed to admit that fact. “Then, like, we started meeting up, mainly at this caravan so no one would see, and she talked about how she knew what had happened, that I deserved some justice and stuff.”
“When was this?” I hit the brakes to avoid a deer in the road.
“Um, a few months ago. Five or six, maybe?”
So she had been back in the country all that time, hiding out in her Mundesley caravan, plotting her revenge. My fingers tightened around the steering wheel, dark thoughts entering my mind about leaving Steph in that cupboard forever to rot.
“So, what exactly was her plan?”
Rhys scratched the back of head and grimaced. “Uh, so we planned it so that I could ‘bump’ into Teigan one day and, uh …”
“Seduce her,” I said through gritted teeth, reminding myself that Rhys was helping me now.
He blushed. “Yeah, kinda. I managed to get in with her and this chick, Krystal, and her boyfriend from their sixth form. Then that Krystal girl moved, which was perfect, ‘cause by then, Teigan was used to hanging out.” He paused, his voice cracking with shame. “She trusted me.”
“You brought her that bracelet, didn’t you? With a heart?” I clicked the indicator and pulled away, turning left at the lights.
“Yeah, well, Steph bought it. I gave it to her.”
I nodded. “So, that morning? The day she disappeared?”
“Yeah, that was when it all went a bit weird. Like, the only reason I agreed to it was ‘cause I thought I was just going to scare you for a few days, you know. Plus, Steph said she’d pay me, and I really needed the money.” Rhys grimaced as he admitted his selfish reasoning. “I was meant to take Teigan away for a long weekend — we’d said it was our little secret.” He hung his head down and pulled at the drawstring on the waist of his joggers. “I just wanted you to feel what I felt back when … you know.”
Part of me wanted to shout at him for being such an irresponsible idiot, but the other part knew that he was just a vulnerable young man who’d had his greatest trauma manipulated. I inhaled through my nose and let it release. “I get it. It’s okay.”
“But it all went off the plan. Steph had been following Teig again, and apparently she heard her talking on the phone to a friend on her walk to school, saying you two had a big fight, and you’d gone nuts at her or something …” Rhys’ voice trailed off, embarrassed to be airing my parenting failures.
I kept staring dead ahead, thankful for the excuse not to make eye contact with him. “Yes, we had an argument that morning. Things got a bit out of hand.” We fell into an uncomfortable silence for a moment. I had taken him from an abusive mother. And here I was, losing it with my own child. Eventually, I prompted him to continue. “So, she heard Teigan on the phone?”
“Yeah, so she called me and said we had to jump on the opportunity. I guess she figured it would look really bad if Teigan were to disappear after that, so she went for that instead of the weekend plan, which was annoying. I was kinda looking forward to hanging out with Teig for the weekend. She’s pretty cool.” He smiled a half smile, before clocking my disapproval. He coughed, trying to disguise it. “Uh, so basically she told me to meet Teigan asap, before she got to school, and to bring her back to my place. I pretended I was just out for a walk and happened to bump into her. She was really pleased to see me ‘cause she was so upset.”
My heart physically hurt, picturing Teigan distressed and falling into the trap set up for her by her own aunt.
“I got her back to my place and, then, that’s where it all went a bit crazy. Steph made me put something in Teig’s tea to knock her out for a while, so that she wouldn’t see Steph.” He held his hands up to me, waving them about by way of apology. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have, but she promised me it wasn’t going to hurt her. So once she was out, we got her in Steph’s car and off to the caravan.” He winced at his own words.
“What did you drug her with?”
“Ketamine. It don’t taste or smell or nothing, so she drank it up with her tea no problem. She was unconscious within two minutes. Steph wanted me to use that specifically, as it causes amnesia or something. When Teigan woke up in the caravan, she had no idea how she got there.”
I chewed on the inside of my lip to hold back the tears as I pictured Teigan’s lifeless body being carried into the caravan and her waking up hours later, alone and terrified.
“I swear that was my part done,” he said. “She said it was just going to be a few days, to teach you a lesson. Then she got all carried away with the idea of pinning it on you and saying that meant that Teigan had to be gone for good. But I couldn’t do anything because it was me who helped abduct her in the first place. Like, I’d go to prison just the same as she would. It got out of control. I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t bring myself to say anything more, so I just gave a curt nod and stared ahead at the road. I couldn’t get mad at him now that he was doing the right thing. I just had to hope it hadn’t come too late.
I cursed as we hit yet more traffic.
“Come ON,” I yelled as I banged the steering wheel.
“It’s okay,” Rhys said, uncharacteristically soothingly. “She’ll be okay.”
My eyes welled with tears instantly.
I hoped he was right.