Chapter 19

I text Georgie on the way home to let her know I'm coming. It's after 7 before I can get there, but she responds with a thumbs up which I am inclined to read as a terse reply though it could just as easily mean she was in the middle of something. I brace for what I know is a deserved shellacking. My phone rings so I pick up immediately, thinking it's Georgie. It's actually Daniel, giving me the latest update on Wickham. He's keeping a low profile and staying away from his usual contacts. He's landed on his feet as usual, snagging a job at a tech start up in New York, running their social media and it looks like he's testing the market for a southern hemisphere operation for them. He's always been good at marketing and was a natural for anything in the digital sphere. Everything checks out and Daniel wants to reduce the surveillance on him.

"I don't know, Dan. I've got a feeling about this, something else is going on. Is there any way we can monitor his activity online, do we have that kind of capability?"

"I've already set up dummy accounts that follow his public and private profiles, although I guess I could start watching any accounts he might have with the new start up. Let me get on to it, but boss, I think we're wasting time and money here. He looks clean."

"He's always looked clean, Dan. That's the magic that is Wickham. He's up to something. And he's too close for me to be comfortable. I haven't spent the last three years cleaning everything up for us to be caught with our pants down, getting dragged into the muck because of him again. And he's not getting anywhere near Georgie."

I hang up as I pull onto the verge parking in front of our house. One of the quirks of this house is the lack of a driveway, garage or even a carport. It doesn't bother me, but Georgie gets super annoyed on the few occasions when it rains at exactly the wrong moment in winter. It doesn't rain very often, even in winter, but when it does, you don't want to get caught in it. I am thinking of the last time she flew into a rage because it bucketed down just as we were getting to the car and I had raced back into the house while she had misheard me and ran to the car, which did not open. She had to run back and get changed and was late for school. I am chuckling at the memory as I reach the front door when it flies open, and I am almost knocked over by Elizabeth. She staggers to a halt, and I automatically catch her in my arms. She almost doesn't notice as she speaks urgently into her phone.

"Jane, tell me everything you know that I haven't heard already." She sinks into me while she speaks and I tighten my hold, keeping her upright and in my embrace. My sister is watching from behind the door, her face fixed on Elizabeth, fingers gripping the door, white with tension. "When did we last see her.. last night? - yesterday morning?! Did she go to school? There are clothes missing?! Has anyone tried Find My Family…" Her knees buckle and I move to support her as she begins to collapse from what she is hearing. My body is flooded with adrenalin, wanting to know what has happened, wanting to be given a direction, and instruction, anything to do. "I'm coming, Jane. You need to call the police, find out what we have to do to track down where she's headed. Why was she at that train station—" She is frantic but starts to nod at whatever Jane is telling her and before I know it she has hung up, pushed away from me, shouting, "No!" as she runs to her car, parked in front of another house further down the street. I would have run to her, but Georgie took hold of me. One look at her stern features and I knew she was telling me I had no right to do so. I watched Elizabeth drive away and the look she gave me was hollow and shattered. It felt like a final goodbye, as though she knew she would never see me again.

"What happened?" I ask Georgie as I follow her into the house, "what the hell is going on?" Georgie takes her time to respond, looking for and retrieving her phone before she returns to my side at the kitchen bench.

"She said she'd keep me posted. Lydia has disappeared. Lizzy told me she's been secretive and unusually distant from the whole family, even Kitty, for the last few weeks. She refused to listen to Elizabeth or explain where her information had come from and had begun to pull away from her school friends also. Lizzy was just telling me that she thought she was coming out of it because she's been more normal and friendly to everyone the past few days, and then yesterday, she made plans to go straight from school to a friend's house to study. She had called later to say she was invited for dinner and would probably sleep over so they could keep working on the project as it was due today. She even made plans to go shopping with Kitty on Saturday. So, Lizzy was, like, really happy. But then she got that call. It sounds like she didn't come home right? Or maybe that she was never at her friend's house?" Georgie shakes her head. "I don't know why she thought such terrible things about me, about us, but I still don't want anything bad to happen to her!"

This kind of mayhem had George Wickham's fingerprints all over it. I called Daniel and gave him everything we had. He was sceptical that there was any connection, but he said he would get started on it. He needed Lydia's mobile or contact details, it would make things easier if we could get them to him, but as neither Georgie nor I had them we would have to ask Elizabeth and hope she would give them to us. Georgie sent her a text asking for her number, without offering any reason, and we heard nothing back. Dan said to get them to him as soon as we could, but he would get started on whatever he could until then.

I knew the family would get no joy from the police, who would be happy to file a missing person's report but would probably not actively begin looking for her for another day or two. There would be no urgency, as there was no real evidence of foul play, coercion, or kidnap. She deliberately lied to her family and friends and disappeared. That situation usually resolves itself without police intervention so anything that looks like that gets shelved for a few days. If we wanted to find Lydia, we would have to do it privately.

As we're waiting, I remember that Elizabeth had to call Lydia from my phone for some reason a few weeks ago when her battery died. I begin searching my call log and hope it goes back far enough. There are several unknown numbers, so I call them back one by one until I hear Lydia's staccato voice "Hello… Fooled you! Leave a message!" I hang up and dial Dan immediately. He starts work again and I tell him to call me as soon as he hears anything.

Georgie has started foraging in the freezer for some food, but then slams the door shut and turns to glare at me. "And don't think I've forgotten your disappearing act. What kind of asshole move was that? Lizzy was the best thing that ever happened to you. You can thank your lucky stars that she didn't burn me out of her life like you tried to burn her! Wells, how could you believe she would ever, ever tell her sister or anyone what happened to me? And how could you freeze me out like that? It's just the two of us left, Wells. You promised me I'd never be on the outside. Did you think I couldn't handle the truth – even if Lizzy betrayed us – we have to be able to stick together when stuff like this happens. Even if it all comes out now. I just don't care anymore – I know there's hardly any proof, and that's why you didn't want to put me through the court case, but whatever happens, it's not worth losing Lizzy over. What were you thinking?"

I sink onto the kitchen floor, my back against the island bench as she rightfully takes her pound of flesh. "I wasn't thinking at all, G. It hurt so much, I couldn't think of anything except that Elizabeth was somehow the source. It was like I'd been expecting it, you know? That it was too good to be true and something like this was bound to happen. I asked her to marry me, G. Like an hour before. I was so happy and then it all turned to acid and burned everything up inside." Tears were falling down both of our faces as she leaned against me on the floor, no longer angry, but her pity just poured the molten lava of guilt down my already burning throat. I didn't think I deserved a respite, so I swallowed it all and let it burn me anew from the inside out. "She never answered my question, and I almost tried to take it back. The whole thing is a f-ing mess."

"Wells, she will forgive you. She already has. I'm sure of it. She was so kind to me. She came straight to me that night. Told me everything, she apologised to me and said she would try to get to the bottom of where Lydia heard the story from. She didn't talk about what you said, but when you took off, and blocked her calls and wouldn't tell me anything, I begged her to tell me what was going on. She told me what Lydia said, and how angry it made you, Wells. But she was sad. And understanding. She was disappointed you didn't give her a chance, that you believed she would do something like that, even inadvertently. She thought you might struggle to forgive her, but I think she hoped that in time, you would figure it out." Georgie has taken my hand in hers, squeezing it, as though I can feel anything other than burning shame.

"I don't know if I can do anything to get her back, but I will do everything in my power to get Lydia back to her. I don't know why, but I'm sure Wickham has something to do with this, so this is my problem to solve. I just hope we can get to her in time, and that she's willing to come home."

My phone starts buzzing against the kitchen bench above my head. I give the voice command to answer and put it on speaker. Daniel's voice erupts into the kitchen. "Wickham just got on a flight to Adelaide! He must have booked and paid for the flight last minute at the airport, because we didn't get the alert until he was in the air. I tracked Lydia's phone to somewhere in East Perth. Did you say she was at a train station? Is it possible she was at East Perth Station and got a ticket to Adelaide? I don't know how he might have gotten to her, but the coincidences are a little too thick on the ground now. If he is the source of her information, her whole story starts to make sense-" he breaks off, listening to a muffled voice in the background. "OK, Darcy, it seems Wickham's been using his new social media account to send private messages to someone unknown. The same account made some comments on a local paper – story was a few months ago – shit, it was the gossip column that had your photo with Elizabeth. Here, it's still accessible, I'll send you the link…"

By this time, Georgie and I are both on our feet. I snatch the phone and click the link. "Scroll down, a few comments – see there? GossipGrl08? She claims she knows who the girl in the photo is. Lots of comments follow, she never gives the name away, but one commenter is really insistent. Starts flirting with her almost, trying to get her to give it up. She reveals it's her sister, but then the comments stop. If Lydia uses the same username at other sites, he probably found her and kept chatting. Boss, we might be able to nail him properly this time. We need to get Special Crimes involved again – should I call our contact?"

I look at Georgie, knowing this may end up bringing to light her past misdemeanours, but she lifts her chin, eyes afire with determination and nods firmly. I give Dan the go ahead and Georgie adds, with only a slight tremor, "Do what you have to do, Dan, and thank you. Please get her home to her family and put him away for good." He hangs up, and all we can do is wait.