Emily Barr - The Sleeper

‘For cutting hair.’

He picked up a pair. ‘This one.’

I looked at him. He was a nice man. He wore a pair of blue work-style trousers with a crease ironed into the front, and a crisp white shirt, with flip-flops on his feet. His aura would be warm and gentle, maybe yellow and amber.

‘Could I use your mirror?’

‘Of course.’

He watched me cut my hair off, just above my shoulders, and then he laughed and held out a hand. I put the rope of two-tone locks into it, and he turned it over, staring at it in wonder, before lowering it carefully into his rubbish bin. Then he was behind me, taking the scissors, evening up my ragged bob as best he could.

He gave me a conspiratorial look that said ‘I’m not even going to ask’ more clearly than any words could have done, and I handed back the scissors even though I had paid for them. I watched the man wipe them carefully with a cloth and replace them on his display.

I found a room in a nearby guest house, one that I was sure would hold no appeal whatsoever for Leon Campion. Its rooms were huts built around a courtyard that was accessed through the kitchen. There were shared loos and showers, and the bedroom was entirely basic. There was a bed with an iron frame, a thin mattress covered with a pale blue sheet, a folded white top sheet, and absolutely nothing else beyond a padlock for the door. The bathrooms were across the courtyard. I could smell serious spices being fried, and could hear two conversations, one in Thai from the kitchen, the other in German from right outside my door.

I wondered, suddenly, if this could be the same guesthouse at which Lara had stayed, aeons ago, when she was with Rachel and Jake and Derek. The night before her life collapsed for the first time. Did Rachel spend the last free night of her life exactly here? I shivered at the thought.

Leon would never find me here. I sat on the bed, then stood up again. It was not yet time for me to relax. I needed to go out and find the right shop.

Two hours later I was sitting on a wobbly plastic chair outside my hut, fiddling with my new phone. It had baffled me – I had been too long out of the modern world to have a clue how to set up a Thai phone – but the guest house staff had gathered around and set it up for me. It was odd, I thought. For years I had hidden myself away from everything and everyone, terrified of social interaction and shunning it all. Now I was finding kindness at every turn; or rather, at every turn save the one that had taken me to Leon Campion.

I had called Alex, but had got through to his voicemail, where I had left him several messages. Now I was wondering whether to call Sam again and get Olivia’s number. She needed to know the truth about Leon; and in fact she would be a formidable person to have on my side. I would trust her instincts and advice implicitly.

Not only that, but the Wilberforce family needed to know that Lara was (or had been, until very recently) alive. And that she was in Asia. They needed to know the truth about the man they had picked as her godfather. That information needed disseminating as widely as possible, just in case.

I called Sam. There was no reply.

Then it was evening, and I decided not to go anywhere. I bought a vegetable curry and rice from the kitchen, and added a beer, and sat on my wobbly chair next to a wobbly table I’d pulled across the courtyard, since no one else seemed to be using it. It had got dark quickly, and the air was thick with heat and swarming with mosquitoes.

I ate everything in my bowl. Until I arrived in Bangkok, I’d had no idea how much I liked Thai food. I had vaguely remembered it from my London life as an option in the ‘where shall we go for dinner’ conversations Laurie and I used to have, but now I decided it was my favourite food in the world. The beer was cold. This was exactly what I needed.

I wished Alex would call me back. I tried Sam again, and after a difficult conversation he gave me Olivia’s number.

‘Look,’ he said, ‘I’m not your personal directory enquiries service. I don’t sit by the phone thumbing through my numbers wondering which of the people I despise you’re going to want to speak to next. You’re busy because of the diary I sent you, aren’t you? You could at least tell me.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I told him. ‘I really am. I owe you. I’ll tell you everything as soon as I’m back.’

He exhaled. ‘Oh, who gives a shit? It’s actually nice to get a call from someone who wants something I’ve got. No one else bloody bothers any more. No one knows what to say to me, and now all the excitement’s over, I’m kind of on my own.’

‘Oh Sam.’ I wondered whether to tell him what was happening, that he had been right about Leon Campion, and I had been wrong. ‘Look, I’ll come and see you, I really will.’

‘Sure.’

Olivia took on board everything I was saying instantly.

‘Oh my God ,’ she said. ‘Leon. The fucker. I cannot believe it. He’s doted on her all her life. She trusted him more than anyone. My parents trusted him. He’s in the inner circle. The absolute fucker. I’d kill him right now with my bare hands. The bastard. And you know, even as you were saying that, I realised I wasn’t surprised. Maybe I already knew it in a fucked-up way. Right. So you’re in Thailand, and you saw her? You’ve actually seen her?’

‘Oh, Olivia,’ I said. ‘Yes, I did. I saw her, but suddenly Leon was there. I saw her for less than a minute. Alex, from Cornwall. The police detective who was briefly involved in the investigation. He’s getting the police here on to them. I don’t want to talk to them. I don’t want to get caught up in red tape and statements. Leon’s gone, with her, and all I can do is head to Singapore and find a place called Food Street, which was our meeting place if things went wrong. I’ll be there late tomorrow night. My flight from Krabi’s at six. I’ll go straight there and wait, and I’ll leave messages, and if there’s a Food Street hotel I’ll stay in it.’

‘I can’t really believe you’re in a place called Crabby. It doesn’t sound pretty.’

‘It’s not pretty,’ I allowed, ‘but it’s good. I like it. I won’t see any of it apart from the courtyard of my guest house, but there was a woman who sold me a plane ticket and a man who helped me cut my hair and the hotel people set my phone up. So it’s good.’

‘Fair enough. So we have no idea where that absolute fucker has taken my sister?’

‘No, except that she’s travelling as me, so if his name and mine appear on any flight lists, that’ll be them.’

‘And if it’s just his name, it’ll mean we’ll never see her again. Even though it turns out she was alive all along, she might not be now.’

‘Yes.’

‘And the police here already know, so there’s no point in my going to them right now. I’m not going to tell the parents, either. Not until there’s something to report. I’ll tell you what I am doing, though – I’m going to see Sally, his wife.’

‘Oh God. Really? Be careful.’

‘ You be careful. You nearly died. You saw Lara.’

‘I thought it was Jake. When I realised there was someone behind me. Right up until I placed his voice, which must have been just before I blacked out.’

‘Jake?’

‘Her boyfriend from years ago. It’s a long story. I never imagined Leon. I mean, I helpfully showed up at his office and told him she’d flown to Bangkok on my passport. When I told him I thought it was Jake, he leapt on it, you know. He made me feel I was definitely right.’

‘Suited him perfectly. Well, keep me informed. Please, Iris, I beg you. Every step of the way. If I wasn’t so pregnant I’d be out there, at your side, in a fucking flash. But call me. Will you? Will you call me every day?’