The Piper's Call

Chapter 18

Because I love you all so incredibly much, I'm updating again. Without the horribly long wait this time. Thank you for all the votes and comments, they mean the world to me. I really hope you all enjoy it!

Chapter 18- Searching

Helen's P.O.V

For perhaps the fifth time in five minutes, I picked up my cell. Nothing. No texts. At all. Something was up, I hadn't had a word from "her" for hours, usually she bombarded my inbox  every few seconds. Somehow the silence was more disturbing. But I had much more important things on my mind. Nina was gone. 

"Anything from Nina?" Charlie flicked his gaze away from the road to me for a second. I shook my head no. I kept scanning the view outside the window, looking for a little girl in a grey trilby. She was only a little girl. Anything could have happened. That look in her eyes, she was hurt, she wasn't thinking. An emotional Nina was an unstable Nina. And an unstable Nina was capable of doing terrible things. She would be looking for Nina. She has been looking for her for a long time. Who knows what she would do if she found Nina? "She's only a little girl", I kept reminding myself.

I must have been looking pretty dejected because Charlie narrowed his eyes at me. "It'll be OK. This is Nina, right? Nina the brainbox. If she gets into any trouble she'll just do something smart and make some contemptuous comments afterwards."

I lifted my head to look up at him. He hadn't seen Nina. He hadn't seen the way she cried after that stupid bully got near her or the way she tensed up when she saw that newspaper clipping of that Reynolds girl. Or even worse, the way she looked as she headed out that door.

"It's my fault. I...I should have just given her that stupid diary," I said to no one in particular, least of all Charlie. His expression morphed into one of concern. 

"Nina's like that. When Paul die-" His voice cracked and he coughed in a vain attempt to cover it up. He took a few deep breaths before continuing in a shaky voice. "When Paul died, I didn't go back to his flat for days. I couldn't face it. When I did, I found her. She was just sitting on the window sill, looking out at the streets. She was still waiting for him to come home." His mouth formed a smile but it was obvious the thought brought him close to tears. "When the police found her, she wouldn't talk. She wouldn't eat. Losing him broke her. After that, she became obsessed with this idea of purpose, of proving her worth. Hence all this nonsense with the "method". I reckon it's why she took on this case. A puzzle, a challenge, that's all she wants. And you were her biggest little mystery."

I knitted my brows together in thought. Nina wasn't just a crime solver, she was a girl. She hid behind her method because if she couldn't deal with the real world consequences of her choices. She had been put in a box and disliked because of who she was. Just like me. No. I shook the thought away. Nina was nothing like me. She was honest, she mattered. I was just another lowlife.

"We have to keep searching. Where else would she go?" I cringed at the frankly desperate tone in my voice. Charlie simply rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn with the back of his hand. He glanced down at the car clock. "Helen, it's four in the morning. We've been driving around the whole town and the surrounding areas for hours on end. I say we turn back."

"We can't! She's still out there, alone. Anything could happen!" The desperation was clearly evident now. I knew she was on the look out for Nina. If she found her... "We can't, Charlie."

"Helen, relax. We both have work tomorrow. Go back home, Nina is likely to turn up there. She'll be back by the morning, wait and see." He made an effort to flash me a smile but he still had that hollow expression from earlier, when he was talking about Dad.