The bartender comes over to their table with another bottle of wine, replacing the one in the cooler on the wooden table, but Tor isn’t keeping track. She feels fuzzy and drunk and happy. It’s so lovely to be out in a pub, where there’s happy chatter coming from the other tables. The sky has darkened and the string of pub lights twinkle between the trees. Maddy and Claire clink glasses with her and Tor feels a rush of affection for her friends. Maddy looks amazing in a blue jacket and a lovely necklace and she hardly recognised Claire when she first came in earlier. She’s wearing flattering jeans and a floaty top that shows off her impressive cleavage. She looks sexy and at least ten years younger than when Tor first met her. Lotte’s hair style really suits her and Claire has blow-dried it especially for tonight. She certainly turned a few heads when she came in earlier. When Tor asked her what her secret was, Claire replied that Helga had been right and all she’d needed was a good shag, and they all fell about laughing. She’s been regaling them with stories of how she and Pim first met. Tor can’t remember her being so animated and fun.
They’ve just poured more wine, when Maddy and Claire’s phones ping at the same time. This will probably be Dominica telling them she’s on her way, Tor thinks. It’s a shame she missed the first bottle.
Tor realises that her phone is vibrating too. She picks it up and reads the message from Dominica and her smile fades.
‘Oh God,’ she says, reading her message.
Maddy is reading it too, already getting up. She knocks over her wine. ‘Oh … oh …’
‘She’s got Jamie. Oh … oh!’ Claire says, putting her hand over her mouth. She stares up at Maddy who lets out a little yelp. The atmosphere around them changes, the other people in the pub turning to their table.
‘Keep calm,’ Tor says, seeing her about to lose it.
‘Oh my God, oh my God,’ Maddy cries. She’s shaking.
‘Listen, we’ve got to act quickly,’ Tor says.
Claire looks as if she’s sobered up very quickly. ‘I’ll call the coastguard.’
‘I’ll call the police,’ Maddy says. ‘And a cab … I need a cab … a cab …’ Her voice has risen hysterically.
‘I’m going now,’ Tor says. ‘Right now. I’ll see you there.’
Tor has Lotte’s bike with her and even before Maddy has got through to the police, she’s already hotfooting it to the pier. She’s hoping Maddy will be ahead of her, but she’s the first to arrive at the entrance to the pier, with its boarded up food vendors and big black gates.
Where the hell is the security when you need it? Tor thinks, getting off her bike and rattling the gates. The pier is closed and there’s no one around.
‘Hello? Anyone?’ she shouts through the gaps, but the pier is dark. ‘Shit.’
She looks for a way onto the pier, but here, from the front, there’s no way. She goes past the telephone box, quickly locking up her bike to the balustrade and racing down the steps. The pier looks huge, rising out of the sea on a lattice of black metal. The Palace Pier lights are off, only a few security lights eerily lighting up the dome and the silhouettes of the rides at the end. She runs down the rest of the steps to beach level.
She’s going to have to climb up. She clambers onto the nearest hut, then on all fours, across the roof of the next building. She’s going to have to stretch it, but she crosses the gap and her fingers find the edge of the pier. Thank God her fingers are working today and she’s not in the middle of a flare-up.
‘Don’t look down,’ she tells herself, dangling precariously in mid-air for a moment.
Then she’s on the pier and swinging over the railing. She’s sweating and panting as her feet touch down on the wooden boards. She waves up at the CCTV cameras. Hopefully someone is watching. Hopefully someone can help.
She checks the WhatsApp again. Is Dominica still talking to Jamie? She messages to say she’s here. Dominica texts back straight away: ‘He’s at the end, I think.’
Tor sprints along the gang plank. It always makes her feel queasy, looking down the gaps between the boards to the sea below. It’s eerily quiet, the white doughnut stalls ghostly in the dark. The bellies of the gulls are white against the sky. A yellow moon throws a runway of light across the dark sea below. She runs past the lurid front of the ghost house, past the roller coaster and the waltzers, but there’s no sign of Jamie. She stands by the end ride – the giant yellow arm towering above her. Where is he?
‘Jamie?’ she calls out, but there’s hardly any wind. Her voice sounds loud and flat and she knows it hasn’t carried. Only the cries of the gulls come back.
She runs the other way, past the trampolines and the log flume, her eyes scanning the gaps. She’s panting now and she’s frightened.
Please God, let her find him.
She sets off past the coin kiosk and the Dolphin Derby – and then something catches her eye. Over by the carousel, there’s a telescope and she can see the shadow of a figure next to it. There’s a person sitting on the top of the railings, facing out to sea.
She approaches cautiously. She can see that it’s a man. He’s holding a phone to his ear beneath the hood of his cotton zip top. It’s him. It must be him.
‘Jamie?’
He turns as Tor approaches. He has straggly long hair, his face not fully stubbly. His eyes look hollowed out. He looks vaguely familiar.
She’s behind him now and his hips are so thin, he looks like a shadow, like he could just slip away and float like speck of soot.
She stops, scared he’ll fall. ‘Jamie,’ she repeats.
‘How do you know my name?’
‘Just come back over and I’ll explain,’ Tor says, calmly, although her heart is pounding. She holds out a hand to him, to come back to safety on the other side of the railings.
She can tell that she’s confused him. He looks at the phone and then at Tor, as if he can’t connect the two. And why would he?
‘Please, just come back this side. And we can talk,’ Tor says, but now, up close, she can see the terror in his face. He looks like Maddy, she thinks, seeing the resemblance and she just wants to grab him and hug him and keep him safe until she gets here. She wants him to know how much they’ve longed to find him and she smiles, still holding out her hand, but he shakes his head. He drops his phone, which falls by Tor’s feet.
‘It’s OK. It’s OK, I’ve got it.’ Tor bends down to retrieve the cheap phone, but at that moment, her attention is caught by Maddy who now arrives, running breathlessly up the gangplank with a security guard behind her.
‘Jamie!’ she screams. ‘Jamie!’
‘Mum?’
Tor sees Jamie register Maddy for a split second. He reaches out, but he loses his balance on the railing and, suddenly, he’s gone.
‘No!’ Maddy howls.
She runs over to Tor, who springs up and leans over the balustrade. Way below there’s a splash. Tor leans right over the edge, her eyes scanning the water in the dark, waiting for Jamie to come up.
‘Oh God,’ she says. ‘Oh God, no …’
Tor turns to Maddy, but she’s already scrambling up onto the balustrade.
‘Hold this,’ she says, shrugging off her jacket.
‘Maddy, wait,’ Tor urges, trying to restrain her, but Maddy brushes her off.
‘What are you doing?’ It’s the security guard, with a flashlight, running towards them.
‘I can’t lose him again,’ Maddy says. ‘I can’t, Tor.’
‘No!’ Tor cries, but it all happens in a split second.
Maddy has taken flight.