Chapter 12

CLAIRE ARDEN

The voices of the other trapped Passengers offered Claire a tiny shred of comfort that it wasn’t just her being held against her will. But when the sound from her stereo was switched off as quickly as it had begun, her solitude returned. Anxiety tasted like acid repeating on her so she swallowed hard to hold it back rather than risk having it consume her.

Ben will know what to do, she thought, Ben always knows what to do.

She stopped in her tracks – she had momentarily forgotten that she couldn’t call him.

Claire ran through her options. She couldn’t contact the police or her girlfriends for help – that would require too much explaining. It left only one person. Andy. He’s the only one.

She hadn’t seen her estranged brother in person for three Christmases but they had stayed in touch through vague, sporadic voice notes. However, she couldn’t be sure where he was staying since the parole board had granted him an early release. She could only hope that he wasn’t living too far away. If he answered his phone and she told him the whole truth about what had happened earlier that morning, she was sure he wouldn’t judge her. But knowing him as well as only family could, she had no doubt that he

would expect to be financially compensated in return for his assistance and his silence.

‘Roxanne,’ she said aloud, the name Ben had christened the car’s operating system. He named it after an ex-girlfriend whom Claire had met once and taken an instant dislike to. Ben had thought it funny. ‘I need you to telephone Andy …’ but she didn’t get the opportunity to say anything else.

‘Communication system offline,’ Roxanne replied. Claire made several attempts to repeat the command but with no success.

The realisation hit her hard – there was no way out of that car. She was completely alone. As if to remind her of his presence, she felt her baby kicking inside her again. Claire corrected herself: she wasn’t on her own, she was with her son. And for his sake, she had to survive this ordeal. She would need to protect him like she had never protected anyone else before, even Ben. She could not give up on him.

When her baby wriggled and kicked again, Claire hoped the stress of what was happening that morning was not hurting him. All she could do was put into practice the breathing techniques she had learned in her Lamaze classes. She recalled how both her and Ben had giggled their way through the lessons and how the colour had drained from his face when he was forced to watch a childbirth video. Now, she began with a deep, slow cleansing breath before continuing with gentle, shallow ones. After a few moments, it appeared to work and her baby settled again.

‘We are going to be okay,’ she whispered to him, her hands gently massaging the football-sized shape of her stomach. ‘Just stay calm and we’ll find a way out of this. We have managed to get this far, we’re not giving up now.’

Claire gave a furtive glance towards the rear of the car and the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. ‘Mummy’s going to do whatever it takes, no matter what.’