Finding Maisie

Finding Maisie: Chapter 4

'Mum, I have to go. I'll ring you later before work, I promise.'

I hung up the phone and sprinted my way down my staircase, up another staircase and ran straight to Callum's room. He was still sleeping soundly, but my intent was to change that. I had to talk to him.

I ripped Callum's duvet off of him, exposing him to the air. Although, in this heatwave, I doubted Callum felt the air temperature change at all. However, the agitation of having his duvet removed from him had Callum begin to flutter his eyes open and wake up. Soon enough, Callum was sitting on his bed giving me a scowl from his early wake.

'I need to talk to your mother,' I blurted out.

'What, why?' He asked confused as he rubbed his eyes.

'It's about Maisie. The letter said that the abductor will take away their prized possessions. If Maisie was the prized possession then it must be your mum who the abductor was trying to get revenge on.'

A little fragment of sadness flashed through Callum's eyes before he masked it up and looked at me.

'Poppy, do you really think that, somewhere out there, someone is trying to take out revenge on my mother?' He asked, looking a little amused.

Truthfully, it was slightly ridiculous to think of Callums mother being capable of having anyone hate her. She had the friendliest of hearts in anyone I ever knew. Callum's mother would never cause an argument with anyone, never slept until she had resolved any disagreements between Callum and herself and always treated me as one of her own. It was hard to consider Callum's mother having an enemy out there, but it was a possibility that I had to investigate.

I sighed and sat on the edge of Callum's bed, 'I know it doesn't seem likely, but we need to explore every scenario. Once we know more about the abductor and perhaps why he's doing this then we know more about what he's capable of. We would be in a better position.'

Callum looked resigned and nodded. 'Okay, but you should probably leave now. She's always does her shopping on a Wednesday afternoon.'

'Aren't you coming with me?' I asked, my focus on Callum saying "you" should leave.

'Cant, I've got work, but I'll see what you find out later.'

I nodded as Callum left for his bathroom to prepare for his work. Climbing off the bed and walking to my own room, I got ready to go and question Callum's mother, knowing that it would be a little harder and more awkward without her son there.

After getting dressed I briskly walked to the front door, but not before bumping into Joshua first.

'Where are you off to?' He asked as he saw me by the front door.

'To Callum's mums house,' I said politely, careful as to not say why I was going. I knew that I had to be careful in whom I trusted whilst completing the treasure hunt, and I didn't know Joshua well enough yet to allow him to gain that trust.

'Right,' he said, with the majority of Joshua's attention on fiddling with his car keys, 'Because it's near the time when Maisie went missing, right?'

'Yeah... it's today actually,' I said slowly and with caution. 'But how did you know that?'

'Remember you talking about it the first night you got here,' he said casually.

'Oh, okay,' I replied as I continued walking to the door.

I hadn't quite figured out Joshua. In the past six days that I had lived here I hadn't much spoken to Joshua with him working most days, but whenever he did Joshua acted as if he would rather be doing anything else. He sat and yawned as I spoke and his eyes looked into the distance in a daydream, no evidence given that Joshua actually listened to anything I said. Then sometimes, like just now, he would come out with something that suggests he was taking notes after all. And, occasionally, he would mutter insightful comments about the treasure hunt which left me wondering about rethinking his character. Even if he had been paying attention to our conversations though, I was still cautious about telling him too much information. Despite his bored persona, Joshua seemed friendly enough, but I guessed only time would allow me to trust him.