‘No, thank you. I wish to talk to you about Cameron, about his papa.’
‘About Cameron?’
‘When I collect him, there was a police at theappartement.’
‘I’m sorry. You collected Cameron?’ Elsa was tired, and more than a little confused, but Celine was nodding. She looked tired herself, and very young and frightened.
‘Jack, he call me and he ask me to come to hisappartementand collect Cam.’
‘Jack called you?’
‘Oui, yes.’
‘And you brought Cam here?’ Elsa glanced at her watch. It was after nine.
‘Yes, but you see at theappartementthere was police officers. They take Jack away.’ Celine made a small grabbing motion with her hands.
Elsa and Nathan exchanged glances. This... seemed impossible. Celine had it wrong, surely. She’d misunderstood something.
‘Are you saying that Jack was arrested?’
‘Yes!’ Celine looked relieved, that she’d finally been understood. ‘And Cameron, he is very upset. He is crying. Perhaps you can come...?’
‘Of course. Yes, of course.’ Elsa stood. She followed Celine up the stairs, certain that it was all a big misunderstanding that would be quickly resolved. Jack was not the type to get into any kind of trouble. She wasn’t worried about that at all.
Chapter Twenty
Cam didn’t sleep at all on Sunday night. Not even for an hour. He had to borrow a T-shirt from Lola’s dad, and otherwise just sleep in his jocks. Elsa said he could sleep in Lola’s room if he liked, on the trundle bed that pulled out, but he’d shaken his head so she put him in the guest room instead. And the bed felt huge and cold and even though he didn’t get scared of the dark or anything like that, not since he was a little kid, being alone in that room made everything worse.
Cam tried not to cry. He figured that crying didn’t make anything better, and his dad would definitely just tell him to get some sleep, that everything would be fine in the morning. He tried to say that to himself, inside his own head, using his dad’s voice. It kind of worked, for a while. But what he couldn’t get out of his head was the way his dad had looked when the police were at the house. He’d looked scared. Freaked out. Confused, like he had no idea what to do next. Which was kind of good, because it meant that whatever the cops thought, they’d got it all wrong. But it was also bad.
So Cam didn’t sleep. He stared at the ceiling some of the time and he cried when he couldn’t help himself and he waited for the morning to come.
It started to get light outside. He heard movement in the corridor. Straight away, Cam got up and got dressed. His jumper was a bit dirty from the park, but it felt better, way better, just being in his own clothes. He pulled on his socks, but his runners weren’t there. Where had he left them? Probably the TV room. He moved silently along the dark corridor. There was just a little light creeping in from outside, enough to see by. He found his runners and put them on. That was better. He made his way downstairs. He found Lola’s mum alone in the kitchen. She was wearing workout gear and had her hair up in a ponytail. She was setting up the coffee machine when he came in, and didn’t see him.
‘Good morning,’ said Cam.
She jumped and swore a little under her breath. ‘Cam, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you.’
‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I was probably being too quiet.’
‘You couldn’t sleep?’
Cam shrugged.
‘Are you hungry?’
‘Kind of.’ He was really hungry, but what he wanted was to eat Nutella toast, sitting at the benchtop at home. He knew from experience that Nutella toast wasn’t usually an option at Lola’s house. Lola’s mum was into healthy stuff. There was always fruit and this weird seedy bread and sometimes eggs.
She looked at him. ‘I’ve got some chocolate croissants in the freezer. Maybe I should stick some in the oven and we can have a treat. What do you think?’
‘Yeah,’ said Cam. ‘I mean, yes please.’
She told him to sit at the table while she got things ready. Cam waited until she’d put the croissants in the oven.
‘Is my dad coming home today?’
She came to him and leaned on the benchtop, and took his right hand between hers. That felt weird and kind of uncomfortable, and he was glad when she let go.