Chapter Three

April 2006

WHENEVER TABITHA SEES her cat basket, she runs for her life. That’s because she knows she’s going to the V-E-T. But this morning Tabitha knew there was something going on that was even worse than the V-E-T. Today we’re moving to live with Ravi and Lalita, and I guess that if Tabitha could speak, she’d say she felt as miserable as I did.

The house was empty from top to bottom; the removal van had gone. There wasn’t much for them to take. Mum had sold or given away most of our furniture. Now all that was left was to get Tabitha safely into her basket and then we’d be gone too.

‘Come on, Tabby.’ Mum was down on her hands and knees, peering under the window seat. Tabitha was right at the back, her thick amber-coloured fur all fluffed out in protest. ‘Pretty kitty. Good girl.’

I’ll never sit on this window seat again, I thought. I’ll never sleep in my bedroom again or sunbathe in the garden or slide down the banisters from top to bottom.

‘Dani, can you get the basket ready?’ Mum stretched out a cautious hand towards Tabitha, who immediately pounced. ‘Ouch!’

‘She doesn’t want to go,’ I said, adding under my breath, but not that softly, ‘And neither do I.’

Mum sighed. ‘This isn’t helping, Dani.’

There was the sound of a key in the lock, then the front door opening. Tabitha streaked out from under the window seat, a lightning flash of stripy fur, and headed down the hall towards freedom.

‘Nan, stop her!’ I yelled.

Nan closed the front door smartly, just before Tabitha reached it, and scooped her up. Between the two of us, we got Tabitha, wriggling and grumbling, into the basket.

Nan glanced from my sulky face to Mum cradling her scratched hand to Tabitha glaring haughtily through the bars of the basket. ‘Looks like I turned up just in time,’ she remarked. ‘Ready to go?’

Mum nodded. ‘You’d better give me your key,’ she told Nan, ‘and I’ll leave it in the kitchen with the others.’

I swallowed and swallowed again as Mum went off to the kitchen. My eyes kept filling with tears and it was taking a lot of effort to keep them from falling.

‘Chin up, Dani,’ Nan said, slipping her arm round me. ‘We’ll still see each other all the time. Things won’t be so different.’

‘I know,’ I gulped. ‘I keep telling myself it’s not like I’m going off to a whole different country, is it? Not like you had to do, I mean.’

Nan smiled. ‘You’ve started my diary?’

‘It’s really interesting,’ I said eagerly. ‘But it’s taking me ages to work it all out.’ Luckily I’d discovered that Nan had used quite a lot of English words and sentences mixed up with the Punjabi, even though sometimes she hadn’t spelled them quite right. I was writing it out in English as I went along, so that I didn’t forget what I’d already translated. But I was having to guess at bits of it. Now I looked speculatively at Nan. ‘I don’t suppose …?’

‘You suppose right,’ she said with a chuckle. ‘I’m not translating it for you.’

‘Oh, well.’ I shrugged. ‘It’ll give me something to do while I’m ignoring Lalita.’

‘Danjit.’

‘All right.’ I held up my hands. ‘Sorry.’

‘Time to go.’ Mum came back from the kitchen, avoiding my eye, I noticed. She picked up the bag with Tabitha’s toys and food dishes packed in it, and we all trooped up the hall towards the front door. I didn’t look back because I thought I might start bawling, but the thud behind us as the door swung shut for the very last time made my throat ache.

‘I must get back to the surgery.’ Nan kissed Mum and then gave me a long hug. ‘I’ll be round to see you as soon as you’ve settled in.’

‘That could be years,’ I whispered in her ear.

Nan shook her head, but didn’t say anything. I put Tabitha on the back seat of the car, wondering how she was going to get along with Ravi and Lalita’s dog, a big, shambling, shaggy hound called Charlie. I climbed in beside Mum and we drove off, Nan waving until we turned the corner.

‘I’m sorry, Dani, believe me,’ Mum said, her eyes fixed firmly on the road. ‘I know you didn’t want to leave.’

‘Well, what I want doesn’t seem to make any difference,’ I replied moodily. I’m not like that really. I think I’m quite a happy person most of the time. But at the moment I’m queen of the sulks. I feel like I’ve got a big black cloud sitting above my head and it’s raining down on me all the time.

‘Dani, please trust me,’ Mum said, very seriously. ‘I know you think I’m pleasing myself by marrying Ravi, but it really isn’t that simple. I want us all to be happy, and I think this will be the best way, in the end.’

‘Tell that to Lalita,’ I muttered. Then I turned my head away, making it very clear I did not want to talk. Mum was happy that we were moving in with Ravi; I wasn’t, and I didn’t see how we could ever get over that. Neither of us had changed our minds yet. It simply wasn’t going to happen.

Ravi’s house was in a much more expensive part of town. It had a paved driveway in front of it with room for three or four cars. Not like our terraced house, where everyone fought for parking spaces in the narrow street and Mum muttered under her breath, trying not to swear as she shoe-horned our battered old Golf into a tiny gap. We’d had windowboxes and a back yard. Ravi and Lalita had a landscaped front garden filled with shrubs and flowers.

The front door opened before Mum had even turned the engine off.

‘Welcome to your new home!’ Ravi called. He ran down the steps as we climbed out of the car, and hugged Mum tightly. I shuffled backwards out of reach. Don’t hug me, don’t hug me, don’t hug me.

‘Hello, Dani.’

For a crazy minute I thought Ravi was going to shake hands with me. But in the end he simply nodded. I tried not to look at his face, which was all eager and excited and hopeful. To be honest, I felt a tiny bit sorry for him. Didn’t he realize this was never going to work?

I lifted Tabitha out of the car and followed Mum and Ravi up the steps. I’d been to the house before, and I knew it was big and light and airy and beautiful, with large rooms and modern furniture, a plasma TV and lots of hi-tech gadgets. But it wasn’t home. As the front door closed behind me, I felt like a prisoner when the cell door clanks shut and locks them in.

Lalita was sprawled on a squashy cream sofa in the living room, watching MTV. She didn’t move or even look up when Ravi ushered us in; not by one flicker of an eyebrow did she acknowledge our presence.

‘Lalita.’ Her dad’s voice held a warning.

Yawning, Lalita flicked the remote control at the TV and turned it off. Then she stood up and nodded at us. ‘Hello,’ she said coldly. Then she turned to her dad. ‘Can I go out now?’

Ravi shook his head.

‘But you said I could go after they got here,’ Lalita grumbled, her face like thunder.

‘Lalita, I want you to stay home and welcome Meeta and Danjit properly,’ Ravi said, keeping his temper but only just, I thought.

Eyebrows raised, I looked expectantly at Lalita. I didn’t want her to welcome me, I just wanted to annoy her. She gave me a glare full of poison.

‘Well, it must be nice for you to move into a great big house like this and leave your poky little one behind,’ she said in a honeyed voice. ‘Welcome to our home.’

‘Not good enough,’ I shot back. ‘Try again.’

‘Danjit!’ Mum snapped, at the same moment as Ravi muttered, ‘Lalita!’

There was a clicking noise behind me and I turned to see Charlie trotting along the wooden floor from the kitchen. He sniffed the air a few times and then homed in on Tabitha in her basket.

‘Woof! Woof! Woof!’

There was a blur of shaggy fur as Charlie charged at me, barking loudly. Inside the basket Tabitha arched her back, hissing and spitting and wailing dramatically. I lifted her out of reach as Charlie began to jump up at my legs.

‘Get away, you stupid dog!’ I snapped.

‘Lalita, put Charlie outside,’ Ravi ordered, grabbing the dog’s collar.

Lalita was laughing and wasn’t even bothering to hide it. She pulled Charlie, still barking, over to the patio doors and pushed him outside. He slumped on the flagstones, nose pressed against the glass, looking hard done by.

‘You can let her out now, Dani,’ Ravi said.

Quickly I unbuckled the basket straps. Tabitha sat sulking for a minute, refusing to move. Then curiosity got the better of her. She stepped out of the basket, sniffing her way along the living-room floor.

Outside, Charlie spotted this interloper and began throwing himself at the glass, barking. Lalita had left the patio door slightly ajar, but it wasn’t wide enough for Charlie to get through. Well, not until he pushed his wet black nose into the gap, forced the door open wider, squeezed through and hurtled into the room.

‘Tabitha, come here!’ I cried in alarm.

‘Charlie!’ Lalita squealed with laughter. ‘You are a naughty boy!’

Tabitha spun round as Charlie, tongue lolling, bounded towards her. She drew herself up to her full, furry height, lifted her paw and smacked him hard round the nose.

Charlie whimpered, falling back on his shaggy haunches in surprise. And I grinned. That had wiped the smile off Lalita’s face! Meanwhile Tabitha sprang elegantly up onto the arm of the sofa, and began kneading her claws into the soft cream leather.

‘Well, we can see who’s going to be the boss around here,’ I said airily.

The look on Lalita’s face was priceless.

‘Let’s start unpacking, Dani.’ Mum scooped Tabitha up under one arm and grabbed me with the other. Then she swept us both out of the room and up the wide wooden staircase. Ravi stayed behind and I caught the first few words of Lalita getting a good telling-off. I smirked.

‘You can take that smile off your face, Danjit Kaur,’ Mum said coolly as we reached the top of the stairs. ‘You’re no better than Lalita.’

‘I am so better than her,’ I muttered with all the maturity of a five-year-old. ‘Anyway, she started it.’

‘This is your room.’ Mum flung open a door, held Tabitha out to me and then marched off down the landing. I knew I’d annoyed her. Well, what did she expect?

My new bedroom was about twice as big as the one back home. Ravi had offered to buy new furniture for me, but I wasn’t having that, was I? So I’d told Mum I wanted to keep my old stuff. Now the battered wooden bed and the wobbly desk and the rickety bookcases looked as small and insignificant and out of place as I felt myself.

But what surprised me most was the walls. They were painted a soft, pale lilac, my most favourite colour in the whole world. I put Tabitha on the window ledge and looked around the room. So much beautiful colour, so much space, so much light. If it was anywhere except Ravi and Lalita’s house, it would be perfect …

Footsteps were coming up the stairs and I tensed. I didn’t have time to close the door. Quickly I opened one of the suitcases and began unpacking my clothes, hoping whoever it was would walk on by.

It was Ravi, and he stopped in the doorway. I forced myself to look up.

‘I hope you like the bedroom, Dani.’ He sounded anxious. ‘Your mum told me what your favourite colour was, so I bought the paint and decorated it for you …’

I felt – oh, I don’t know. Surprised, ashamed and a bit guilty. ‘Thank you,’ I said.

Ravi nodded. He waited hopefully to see if I was going to say anything else, but I honestly couldn’t think of anything more, so he wandered off after my mum.

Why did he have to be so nice? I thought glumly. If Ravi was an evil stepfather, like a character in a fairy story, it would be so easy to hate him. I was determined not to like him too much, but it was really difficult. I just felt that in a funny sort of way, I was betraying my dad. Even though I’d been kind of relieved when he and Mum decided to split, because they argued all the time.

I sighed. ‘Why is life so complicated?’ I muttered under my breath.

‘First sign of madness.’

Lalita was leaning against the doorframe.

‘What did you say?’ I snapped, annoyed that she’d made me jump.

‘Talking to yourself.’ Lalita stared at me with naked dislike. ‘It’s the first sign of madness.’

‘You’d drive anybody up the wall,’ I said, turning back to the pile of clothes on my bed.

‘At least I wouldn’t go where I’m not wanted,’ Lalita retorted.

‘Oh, do tell me what I should have done instead,’ I came back immediately. ‘Stayed in the old house on my own? We’re kids, remember? We don’t have a say in all this.’

Before Lalita could reply (and believe me, she was going to), there was a burst of the latest hip indie band single from her jeans pocket. She pulled out her phone and stared at the caller display. Then, as she turned away, a smile lit up her face, so big and wide she glowed like a Christmas tree.

‘Hello?’

That was all I heard before she half ran down the landing and shut her bedroom door behind her. But it was enough to tell me, from her soft and delighted tone, that there was someone special on the other end of the line.

Ooh, a mystery! I love mysteries. Who could it be? I frowned, mulling over the possibilities, remembering the tone of her voice. Maybe Lalita had a boyfriend? If she did, I bet her dad didn’t know. Or her gran. Very interesting …

I swung my empty suitcase off the mattress and knelt down to push it under the bed. Of course, it isn’t any of my business. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know.

‘Oh! Help!’

I shrieked with fear, scuttled backwards away from the bed on my backside and leaped up onto the top of my desk. In the dim light under the bed I’d spotted an enormous spider, the biggest I’d ever seen, with long, wobbly, hairy legs!

‘Mum!’ I yelled, shivering and shaking.

She didn’t come. I suppose her bedroom was too far away for her to hear. Great. She’d already started to let me down.

Alerted by my screams, Tabitha had jumped down from the window ledge and begun sniffing around the bed with interest. Now she flattened herself like a furry mophead and squeezed underneath, tail waving.

‘Tabitha, be careful!’ I wailed. She loved chasing spiders, but if she flushed this one out into the middle of the room, I’d have to leap out of the window. I couldn’t see any other escape.

Tabitha was backing out from under the bed again. She had something in her mouth. Eeek! She was carrying the spider by one of its legs!

‘Tabitha, drop it!’ I moaned, trying not to look. ‘Tabitha!’

Tabitha was sitting on the floor, staring up at me, a puzzled look on her face. There in front of her lay a very big, very realistic rubbery spider.

‘It’s not real!’ I gasped with relief, clinging to the edge of the desk for support as I climbed down.

Tabitha gave me a withering look. Well, of course it’s not real, you dummy!

I poked cautiously at the spider with a pen, just to be on the safe side. It was very odd. Surely the room would have been empty when the removal men brought my stuff in? Maybe someone had sneaked in and left the spider there after they’d gone. Someone who knew I was petrified of them. Hmm. Who could that be? I wonder.

Ravi and Mum had decided that we’d have a special meal together that evening; our first meal as a family, they said. Me, I think it takes a bit more than us all sitting round a table and ordering in takeaway pizza to be a family. But I suppose we had to start somewhere. Lalita was in a worse mood than when we arrived though. She hadn’t been allowed to leave the house all day and she was obviously burning with resentment. There was a small argument about the pizza toppings but nothing too awful. Lalita wanted pineapple, onion and extra cheese – which just happens to be my favourite too. But, just for the fun of it, I said I wanted tuna, olives and peppers. Mum was onto me straight away though, so I gave in.

‘Well.’ Ravi looked around at us as we sat at the table, the pizzas in front of us. He and Mum were getting stuck into the red wine a bit heavily, I noticed. Not that I blamed them. ‘Here we all are.’

‘Go to the top of the class, Dad,’ Lalita muttered.

Ravi gave her a look. ‘Now no one ever said this would be easy,’ he began.

‘Oh, please, not a speech,’ I said under my breath. This time it was Mum’s turn to give me the look.

‘But it’s up to us to make it work,’ Ravi went on doggedly. ‘And I know we can do this.’

‘Huh!’ said Lalita and I together.

‘Well, that’s probably the first thing you two have agreed on all day,’ Ravi said, his face breaking into a smile. ‘So that’s a start.’

Mum laughed, and I had to force myself to keep my face perfectly straight. Lalita was still scowling and fidgeting with the cutlery. She knocked her knife off the table and stretched down to pick it up.

‘Aaaargh!’

It really was like something out of a movie. Lalita’s head was under the table; we heard her scream at the top of her lungs; she tried to jump up from her chair, banged her head and got tangled up in the tablecloth. As she finally struggled to her feet, she leaped up, taking the tablecloth with her. The pizzas, the plates, the cutlery all crashed to the floor in a tangled heap.

‘Lalita!’ Ravi jumped to his feet too, as did Mum and I. ‘What the hell’s going on?’

‘A mouse!’ Lalita streaked across the room and hovered in the doorway. She was so scared, her hair was almost standing on end. ‘A mouse under the table!’

I tried not to smirk. I had a pretty good idea of what she’d seen. Kneeling, I crawled under the table and picked up the grey furry object by its long pink woolly tail.

‘It is a mouse,’ I said, dangling it in my fingers. ‘But it’s not real. It’s one of Tabitha’s toys.’

I so enjoyed watching Lalita turn from pale with fear to red with embarrassment.

‘It – it looks real,’ she stuttered.

‘Lots of these things do.’ I eyeballed her coolly. ‘Mice. Spiders. All very realistic.’

Lalita turned a bit pinker.

‘Spiders?’ Mum stared at me.

I nodded. ‘Lalita’s scared of mice, obviously, and I’m scared of spiders.’ I glanced at Lalita. ‘But then you know that, don’t you?’ Once, when we were all out in Ravi’s car, I’d spotted a spider on the rear window and gone crazy.

Lalita had obviously decided that attack was the best form of defence.

‘You put that mouse there to scare me!’ she snapped.

‘No, I didn’t,’ I said. ‘But I wish I had.’

Lalita glared at me. ‘I hate you!’ she shouted, and ran off. We heard her footsteps stomping up the stairs like a baby elephant.

‘Wait for it,’ I said.

Bang! Lalita’s bedroom door was predictably slammed shut.

Mum and Ravi were both looking accusingly at me. Ravi opened his mouth to say something, but I just caught Mum shake her head very slightly at him.

‘Danjit, did you put Tabitha’s mouse under the table?’ asked Mum quietly.

‘No, I didn’t!’ I said hotly. ‘Why don’t you ask her about the big fake spider I found in my bedroom this morning?’

Mum sighed.

‘No pizza for me, thanks,’ I went on, swallowing down a stupid burst of tears. ‘I don’t fancy it much now.’

And I walked out of the room, leaving Mum and Ravi to clear up the mess.

Alone in my bedroom, I did cry, just a bit. I wondered if, next door, on the other side of the wall, Lalita was crying too.

Haven’t written in my diary for two or three days. Things are bad. I can’t remember having so many rows with Mum in such a short space of time. She’s always telling me off, or Ravi’s telling Lalita off, or the two of them are telling us both off. It’s doing my head in.

This house felt so big when Mum and I moved in. Now it seems small and cramped and we’re all getting under one another’s feet. The only people who are getting on well are Mum and Ravi, and Tabitha and Charlie. That stupid dog follows Tabby around like a devoted slave. I think it’s hilarious because it annoys Lalita so much.

Sometimes, occasionally, I could just about imagine living here with Ravi and Mum, if Lalita wasn’t part of the picture … That sounds spoiled and selfish but I’m used to being the only kid in the house. I can’t get used to Lalita being around; it feels all wrong. I guess that maybe Lalita feels the same, although I haven’t talked to her about it. Talk to her, ha ha. We don’t talk. We just ignore.

‘Dani!’ Mum’s calling me from downstairs. I just heard the phone ring – wonder if it’s for me? ‘Your dad wants to speak to you.’

Just got back to my bedroom after talking to Dad. He wanted to know how things were going and how I was settling in, and he said he was looking forward to seeing me at half term as usual. I love my dad and we get on brilliantly, but I always have to decide exactly how much I can tell him about what’s going on in my life. He doesn’t really want to know about anything sad or difficult or tragic or hard to handle. Happy-go-lucky. That’s how my mum always describes my dad. I can’t depend on my dad like I can on my mum. Well, used to be able to depend on my mum …

Lalita’s mobile has just gone off again – I can hear it through the bedroom wall. That’s three times today. I bet it’s one of those secret calls that make her go all glowy and shiny with excitement. I’m the only one who’s noticed that whenever she gets one of these calls, she doesn’t let anyone listen to what she’s saying. But she’s quite happy to chatter away to her mates (yes, she has some; I was surprised too) Farzana and Vicky in front of us. I’m almost sure it’s a secret boyfriend, because whenever this person – whoever it is – rings Lalita, she almost always wants to go out on her own afterwards …

Yesterday exactly the same thing happened, and boy, oh boy, was there a big row. Ravi had been called into the office about something or other, even though he was still officially on holiday, and we were waiting for him to get back so that we could all go to Nan’s for tea. Then Lalita got one of those calls. She went out into the garden to talk, and I could see her, all laughing and breathless with excitement. When she flipped her phone shut and marched back into the house, I knew there was going to be trouble.

‘I have to go out,’ she said to Mum, without so much as a please or a thank you or an excuse me.

Mum looked very taken aback. ‘Lalita, we’re all going out as soon as your dad gets back—’

‘No.’ Lalita thrust her chin in the air aggressively. ‘I mean, I have to go out on my own. Right now.’

I glanced at Mum. I could see she was reluctantly gearing herself up for a fight.

‘I’m sorry, Lalita, but you can’t go,’ she said calmly. ‘You know we’re going to tea with Dani’s nan—’

‘She’s not my gran,’ Lalita cut in sulkily, ‘so why do I have to go?’

‘She’s got a point,’ I said, stirring it even though I knew I shouldn’t. I’d discovered that Lalita had a temper that could be nudged a few notches higher with a few well-chosen words. ‘It’ll be more fun without her.’

‘Dani, be quiet.’ Mum flicked me a warning look. ‘Lalita, you’re not going anywhere.’

Lalita looked like a toddler who’d had her ice cream pinched. ‘You can’t tell me what to do!’ she said, her voice rising in anger.

‘Oh, go on, say it,’ I said with a pretend yawn. ‘You’re not my mum.’

That had obviously been exactly what Lalita was going to say next. She threw me a bitter look and marched out of the room.

‘Things were fine before you moved in and took over!’ she shouted over her shoulder at Mum. ‘I hate living here now, and I hate both of you!’

Mum waited till Lalita had done the usual (run upstairs, slammed the bedroom door), then turned on me.

‘Why do you always have to wind her up?’

‘Me!’ I shrugged. ‘She’s the one who didn’t want to go to Nan’s.’

Mum gave me a keen and piercing look. ‘Don’t play the innocent, Dani. I’m on to you.’

How unfair is that? OK, so I admit it’s easy to wind Lalita up. But she’s so irritating. I do feel a bit guilty afterwards, but she’s not making any effort to be nice to me, so why should I be nice to her?

OK, back to today: I’m definitely sure Lalita’s just had another of those calls. A few minutes ago I heard her hanging out of her bedroom window, calling Ravi, who was in the garden below us with Mum and Charlie.

‘Dad, can I go out for a while?’

I knew it! It was one of those calls. Definitely a secret boyfriend! I’m going to find out who it is if it’s the last thing I do.

‘Where to, sweetheart?’ Ravi called back.

‘I need to take that red T-shirt back to New Look,’ Lalita explained innocently. ‘You know, the one that doesn’t fit me properly.’

New Look indeed! I raised my eyebrows. I knew what she was really up to.

‘Lalita, you know I don’t like you going into town on your own.’ I could tell from his voice that Ravi was frowning, even though I couldn’t see him.

‘I’ll phone Vicky and see if she wants to come,’ Lalita said dismissively. ‘But I need to go today or I won’t get my money back. Please, Dad.’

‘OK,’ Ravi agreed reluctantly, ‘but make sure you take your mobile and keep it switched on.’

I heard Lalita close her window. Then, shock horror, I could actually hear her singing next door. This boy must really be something if he can make her feel like this.

I thought briefly about following her, tailing her like a private detective. But I don’t know my way around here at all well. What if Lalita gave me the slip and I got lost?

No, I’ll wait for a better chance. Maybe the boy is someone at Coppergate Comprehensive. I’m starting there in a few days myself (although I’m trying not to think about that), so I’ll be able to check out the situation …

Anyway, enough about Lalita. She’s taking over my whole diary! I think I’ll read a bit more of Nan’s instead.

Half an hour later, and I haven’t been able to concentrate on Nan’s diary at all. Lalita’s up to something, I know she is. She’s been getting ready to go out for the last thirty minutes, and I can hear strange noises from her room. She’s moving about a lot, opening and shutting cupboards. Oh, and still singing. I just peeped out onto the landing and she was coming down from the loft, carrying a box of something or other down the ladder. I couldn’t see what.

I know I said I liked mysteries but I have absolutely no idea what’s going on and it’s killing me.

Wait a minute, she’s coming out of her room again! I’m going to have a look round the door …

Lalita’s just gone. When I saw her hurry out of her bedroom carrying a big sports bag, I tiptoed after her. There was something very secretive about her which aroused my suspicions. And what was in that bag?

When Lalita got to the bottom of the stairs, she did something quite peculiar. She opened the front door, slung the bag out onto the drive and then quickly shut the door again.

‘Dad, I’m going,’ she called. ‘See you later.’

I stood at the top of the stairs, peering over the banisters. I saw Lalita shoot out of the front door, so I ran to the window on the landing that looked out over the drive. I was just in time to see Lalita pick up the sports bag and march off down the road without a backward glance.

Well! What do you make of that?

It’s late, really late. I can’t sleep, though. Somehow this has turned into one of the worst days of my whole life. Everyone blames me for what happened. And there I was, thinking I was doing the right thing …

After Lalita had gone, I sat down on my bed again with Nan’s diary, Tabitha curled up fluffily beside me. I got so deep into Nan’s story, I didn’t realize for ages that time was ticking by. When, yawning and fuzzy-headed, I eventually glanced at the clock, I realized that nearly three hours had passed.

So where was Lalita? I wondered idly. It surely didn’t take three hours to exchange a top at New Look.

I hate living here now, and I hate both of you!

For some reason Lalita’s words from yesterday swam into my head. Then, in the next instant, I remembered the large, bulging bag she was carrying.

‘Oh no!’ I scrambled off the bed, dislodging Tabitha, who complained loudly. ‘She couldn’t have. She wouldn’t. Would she?’

Had Lalita run away?

My heart boomed in my chest as I paced up and down my bedroom. Lalita wasn’t stupid. Loud-mouthed, yes. Sulky, yes. Irritating, definitely. But not stupid. And running away would be a Class A stupid thing to do …

Dry-mouthed, I ran out of my bedroom and flung open Lalita’s door, ignoring the KEEP OUT OR ELSE sign she’d put up the day we moved in. It was much neater than mine, and it was easy to see straight away that she hadn’t left a note anywhere. Was that a good or a bad thing? I wondered.

I threw open her wardrobe doors and searched through the contents feverishly, but I didn’t know enough about Lalita’s clothes to recognize if she’d taken anything with her. And yet there must have been something in that big sports bag she didn’t want anyone to see …

I clattered downstairs, my head spinning, and came to a full stop in the hallway. Ravi was on the phone, Mum standing next to him. They both looked a bit worried.

‘Vicky’s family aren’t answering the phone,’ Ravi said, frowning as he replaced the receiver.

‘We’ll try again later,’ said Mum, patting his arm. Ravi nodded. He picked up his mobile and began to text.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked, forcing the words out through dry lips.

‘We’re a bit worried about Lalita,’ Mum said. ‘She’s been gone quite a long time, and Ravi can’t get through to her mobile.’

I chewed at my bottom lip. Should I say something or not?

‘I know I worry too much’ – Ravi was still texting furiously – ‘but I just need to check that she’s OK.’

That did it.

‘I think she’s run away!’ I burst out, feeling ridiculously tearful.

Mum and Ravi stared at me.

‘Dani, you can’t be serious.’ Ravi’s voice shook.

‘Well, she said yesterday that she hated living here now, with Mum and me,’ I said, looking to Mum for support. ‘And when she left, she took a big bag with her.’

‘She what?’ Mum gasped. Ravi couldn’t speak and his face had gone white.

‘She took a bag,’ I repeated. ‘I saw her leave with it.’

From that moment on, things happened fast. Mum began ringing round everyone Ravi and Lalita knew on her mobile, and Ravi called the police. Two officers came round half an hour later to start taking details.

I sat silently next to Mum in the living room, Tabitha on my knee. I kept imagining Lalita out on the streets with nowhere to go, lost, lonely and afraid. I didn’t like her, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

‘Yes, we’ve rung round everyone we know and she’s not there.’ Ravi looked drawn and strained. ‘She said she was going to ask a friend, Vicky Martin, to go to town with her, but there’s no one answering at the Martins’ house.’

‘And you say that Lalita definitely took a bag with her?’ The young policeman, who barely looked older than fifteen, stared questioningly at me.

I nodded. ‘Yes, she did. A big one, although I don’t know what was in it.’

‘Is there any reason why Lalita might have run away?’ asked the policewoman.

Ravi and Mum looked at each other. I wondered what they would say.

A key in the lock, the front door opening. We all sat there, frozen to our various spots, Ravi’s face luminous with hope.

The door banged shut and Lalita strolled into the room. Her eyebrows shot up when she saw me, Mum, Ravi and two police officers goggling at her in disbelief.

‘What’s going on?’ she asked, bending down to stroke Charlie, who’d bounded across the room to greet her. ‘Why are the police here?’ She didn’t have the bag with her, I noticed.

‘We—’ Ravi couldn’t speak immediately and had to clear his throat. He crossed the room and put his arm round Lalita. ‘We were worried about you. You’ve been gone so long.’

‘Oh, Dad.’ Lalita shrugged. ‘You know what I’m like when I’m shopping. I just lost track of time.’

‘We’ve been phoning you and we couldn’t get through,’ Ravi said shakily, keeping his arm around her.

‘The signal’s always bad in the shopping centre,’ Lalita said airily. ‘I got your texts though, and I did text you back.’

At that exact moment Ravi’s phone bleeped.

‘See?’ Lalita said, shrugging again. ‘The texts must have been delayed.’ The look on her face clearly said it all. What’s the problem?

‘And the bag you took with you?’ asked the policewoman curiously.

‘Bag?’ Lalita looked puzzled. ‘What bag?’

Everybody turned to stare at me. I suddenly felt very hot under the collar.

‘I saw you,’ I said. ‘You had a bag.’

‘No, I didn’t,’ Lalita said scornfully. She frowned and then, slowly, she smiled. I wanted to slap her smug face. ‘Oh, now I get it! You told Dad I’d run away!’

‘No, it wasn’t like that—’ I began.

‘Well, what was it like then?’ Lalita stared at me in a superior manner. ‘I didn’t take a bag with me, and why would you say that I did, unless you wanted to get me into trouble by pretending I’d run away?’

‘That’s not true!’ I yelled.

‘That’s enough, Dani,’ Mum said quietly.

Ravi was ushering the police officers out and apologizing for having wasted their time. I burned with embarrassment as they gave me a couple of stern looks when they left. Lalita was now perched on the arm of the sofa, swinging her legs jauntily to and fro, and I wanted to pull her hair, hard. I turned to Mum and felt sick to see the look on her face.

‘I’m disappointed in you, Dani,’ was all she said, but it cut me to the heart.

Ravi came back into the room and when I looked at him, I could see that he was only just about holding himself back from having a go at me.

I knew that if I stayed, I’d start crying. I jumped up, tipping Tabitha off my knees.

‘I don’t understand how I’m suddenly the bad guy!’ I shouted. ‘She did have a bag – I saw it! And I only told you I thought she’d run away because she took the bag, and because you both looked so worried!’

I could see at a glance that neither Mum nor Ravi believed one word. I could also see that Lalita was enjoying every minute.

I was grounded for the next few days and sent up to my room. That was six hours ago and I’m still awake. Everything keeps running through my head again and again. Every time I close my eyes I can see Lalita’s smug face …

But now I know for sure that there really is a mystery to be solved. I know that Lalita’s up to something and I’m not going to give up until I find out exactly what it is.