Only a Mother by Elisabeth Carpenter

Author:Elisabeth Carpenter
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2018-12-26T14:00:00+00:00

18

Jenna was a lot feistier than Lucy. She didn’t really want to come out with me that day.

‘Tell her we’re only popping to the shop,’ I said to her.

‘But she’s thirteen,’ she said. ‘I can’t leave her on her own.’

‘Thirteen’s fine. Kids walk home from school from eleven years old. Listen … she won’t know we’ve gone – we could sneak out. We’ll only be a few minutes.’

‘But what’s the point of going out if it’s only for a few minutes?’

Jenna was a loose end. She was the one who could get me into trouble. I wanted to know if she’d keep quiet for me.

We drove to somewhere different than I went with Lucy. They still hadn’t found her. I should’ve pointed them in the wrong direction, but then I’d look like a grass, wouldn’t I?

I’d put vodka in a SodaStream bottle and she’d been drinking it on the way there.

‘Don’t worry, Jen,’ I said. ‘It’s six o’clock now. Your mum and dad will be home.’

‘What? What time is it? Have I been asleep?’

‘No, no.’

She sat up straight in the car.

‘The police came round the other day,’ she said. ‘They asked about you.’

‘I’m sure they didn’t, Jen.’

‘They know a lot about you.’

‘But you didn’t say anything, did you? Because I know a lot about you, too, Jen. About how you betrayed your friend. And you wouldn’t want that to get out, would you?’

She shook her head, but there was something in her eyes. Back then I thought it was guilt, but looking back, it was probably fear.

‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ she said. ‘Did you take Lucy somewhere? Have you hurt her?’

‘Don’t be silly,’ I said. ‘As if I’d do a thing like that. I loved – I mean I love her.’

I almost slipped up – Lucy was only missing then.

‘But what about me?’ said Jenna, relaxing into the seat. ‘I thought you loved me.’

It was the stuff in the vodka I gave her that made her less resistant. It didn’t take as long as with Lucy.

I knew that she knew, as soon as I saw her face.

Once she got in the car, she wasn’t coming out alive.

I made sure she was totally clean.

And now, I’ve done it again.

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