Maddie waits until her mom’s in the kitchen before she phones her brother.
‘Noah! Call for you,’ she hears someone bellow. There’s a rush of footsteps and then her brother’s on the line. It’s just before he goes in to supper, and Maddie hears the hurry in his voice.
‘What is it, Mads?’ She knows he’s looking at his watch.
‘I’m sorry, Noe, I wouldn’t have called, but it’s important.’
And then she tells him what she’s discovered, words tumbling out. ‘Frail care visiting hours, Noah. Every day from 2.30 to 4 p.m.’
‘Hold on, Mads, let me get this down. What did you say the place was called?’
She repeats herself, keeping her voice low. ‘Silver Oaks. She’s in frail care. Her name’s Mrs Felix, Noah. And the visiting hours—’
‘14:30 to 16:00,’ Noah interrupts. ‘This could be it, Mads. You’re brilliant. And you even got the phone number?’
‘Yes.’ She reads it back to him.
‘I’m going to talk to Juliet about this. She’s really good at making plans.’
‘There’s one thing.’ Maddie’s worried.
‘What is it?’
‘What if Dad sees a call from Silver Oaks? He’ll know someone answered his phone. I can’t tell him I did.’
‘No,’ says Noah quickly. ‘You can’t do that, Maddie.’
‘His phone rang a lot after I spoke to the lady at Silver Oaks,’ Maddie says. ‘It didn’t stop, all afternoon, until he got back.’
‘Well, that’s something,’ says Noah. ‘Unless he scrolls down quite far you mean?’
‘Yes,’ says Maddie. ‘And also, I checked, he’s answered all his calls from the Silver Oaks number, so hopefully he won’t look too closely at the dates. He’s so busy at the moment.’
‘Good work, Maddie,’ says Noah. His voice is filled with admiration and Maddie glows.
‘Do you think we’ll get to seeing her, Noah?’
‘I don’t know,’ her brother says. ‘I don’t know. But at least we know she exists.’
‘And her daughter – Dad’s sister – don’t forget,’ Maddie says. ‘This will help, won’t it?’
His voice is quick. ‘It’s a real breakthrough, Mads. Look, I have to go. I’ll talk to Juliet and then we can decide what to do next. See you tomorrow afternoon.’