My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson Read Free Book Online Page A

there.
    “What are you doing?” Muriel shrieked.
    I ignored her. My arms were filled with brightly colored clothes. I went to my holdall, wrenched back the zip and shoved everything inside.
    “You can’t do this!” Muriel screamed at me as I opened the wardrobe doors.
    “Clearly I can do this,” I said, as I reached for a couple of coats and some shoes, “because I
am
doing it.”
    “I’ll call the police,” she threatened.
    My head whipped round to glare at her. “Be my guest. I’d love to hear you explain why Tegan hasn’t been washed in days, why she’s sat in front of rotting food and how she got the marks on her hand. Actually, hang on, I’ll call the police myself.” I chucked Tegan’s clothes in the general direction of my holdall, reached into my coat pocket and pulled out my mobile. “What’s the number again? Oh yes.” I punched keys on the phone. “Do you want to press ‘call’ or shall I?”
    “Take her, we’ll be glad to see the back of her,” Muriel spat before turning on her heels and storming out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
    When the door shut behind her I waited a second to see if she was going to lock it, meaning I
would
have to call the police to get us out of there, but no, she just shut the door. I turned back to Tegan. Her face, with its tearstained cheeks, ski-slope nose and pouty lips, was turned up to me. Her royal blue eyes, ringed with red, stared at me as though she thought I was insane.
    I went to her, bobbed down beside her. I didn’t get too close for fear of scaring her again. “Do you have a favorite toy?” I asked her.
    She nodded suspiciously.
    “OK, go get it and anything else that you love and bring it to me.”
    Her eyes widened in alarm.
    “We’re going away,” I explained. “You’re going to come and stay with Auntie Kamryn.”
    Tegan, although clearly tempted by the idea of getting out of there, was nobody’s fool and continued to regard me suspiciously. We didn’t have time for this. For all I knew Muriel was calling her husband. He could be on the way back. This was his house, his home ground so he’d have the advantage. And I couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t become violent.
    “Come on, Tiga, get your stuff and we can go see your mummy tomorrow.”
    “Mummy?” Her pale face brightened. “Mummy?”
    “Yes, Mummy.”
    Her chair didn’t make a sound on the deep-pile carpet as she pushed it back and stood up. She went to her bed, got down on the floor and from under it she pulled a multicolored rucksack. She held the rucksack out to me. I grinned at her and she smiled back at me. This kid and I were singing from the same songbook at last.
    Time passed. I don’t know how much but by the end of its passing, I was standing on the corner of a street in a town I didn’t know very well, a child in my arms and half a dozen bags—including my holdall, her rucksack and four carrier bags—at my feet. I didn’t have a clue where I—no, we—were going. I didn’t have any cab numbers, didn’t know where the nearest bus stop was.
    “Do you know what today is?” I asked Tegan.
    She looked into my eyes, as though nothing I said would surprise her, then she shook her head.
    “It’s my birthday.” It was too. Although this morning seemed a million years ago, it was still my birthday.
    She nodded and managed a small, confused smile. “Happy birthday,” she whispered, then rested her tired head on my shoulder.
    “Thanks,” I replied.
    It’s also the day I’m going to be arrested for kidnapping
.

chapter 6
    L ight, the color of twice-used bathwater, strained through the gaps in the beige curtains, trying to brighten my hotel room.
    The coffee I held in my hands had cooled to a freezing black sludge, my body was stiff from sitting in the same position for hours and my eyes ached as I stared at the world that was coming alive outside. I could hear the birds tuning up for their dawn chorus, buses chugging along noisily, cars