Escape from Shadow Island Read Online Free Page B

an “incident” in Santo Domingo and his mother was going to have to stay there for a few days to sort it out. She had asked him if he had any relatives nearby who he could stay with, but Max didn’t have any extendedfamily. His mother and father were both only children. There were no uncles or aunts or cousins, and his grandparents were all dead. The Cassidy family consisted of just three people—Max, his mum, and his dad.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Max asked. “What’s this ‘incident’ you mentioned?”
    â€œIt’s complicated,” the policewoman said vaguely. “We’re still not sure exactly what’s happened.”
    â€œBut my mum and dad are okay, aren’t they?”
    She didn’t reply. She asked him about his friends instead. Was there someone whose family could look after him for the weekend? Max suggested his best mate, Andy Sewell, and went there for a couple of days. He was distraught, sick with worry. What had happened in Santo Domingo? Why hadn’t his mum and dad come home? He tried to phone them, tried to contact them, but couldn’t get through and no one would tell him anything.
    Then, on Monday afternoon, Consuela turned up at school, having flown back from Santo Domingo alone, and took Max home.
    Consuela Navarra had been Alexander Cassidy’s assistant since Max was a baby. Max regarded her as part of the family, as the aunt he didn’t have. She worked with his father, but she was more than just hisassistant. She came for meals with Max and his parents, babysat when Helen and Alexander went out together, helped at Max’s birthday parties, and bought him presents. There was a real affection between Max and her, and Consuela wasn’t afraid to show it.
    The moment they were alone, she put her arms around him and hugged him tight. When she pulled away, Max saw tears glistening in her eyes.
    â€œWhat is it?” he asked. “It’s Mum and Dad, isn’t it? What’s happened to them?”
    Consuela told him everything. About his father disappearing, about his jacket and wallet being found on the beach, a blood-stained knife dropped nearby. At first, that’s all it was—a mysterious disappearance. It was only several days later, after blood and fingerprint tests had been carried out and the locals questioned, that Max received the shocking news from Santo Domingo. His mother had been arrested and charged with her husband’s murder. Three months later, she was convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison.
    With Helen locked away, Consuela had moved in to look after Max—to do the cooking and shopping as well as assisting him in his new stage act. The family court, with Helen’s full approval, had made Consuela Max’s legal guardian until his mother was released.
    The months and years since then had been an extended nightmare for Max. He hoped daily that it would end—that his father would suddenly reappear, or evidence would be found to prove conclusively that his mother was innocent—but it didn’t. It kept going, a torment that Max had learned to live with.
    One thing he knew for sure from the very start: His mother did not kill his father. Such a thing was impossible, unthinkable. That knowledge, that certainty of his mother’s innocence, was a comfort to him. At the beginning, he’d also felt sure that his father wasn’t really dead. And although there hadn’t been any sightings of Alexander or any other indications that he was still alive, his body had never been found, and Max hadn’t given up hope. He had a powerful gut feeling that his father was out there somewhere, he didn’t know where, and that one day he would find him.
    Now this Luis Lopez-Vega had appeared out of nowhere, telling Max that his father was alive. Could Max believe him? After seeing his taxi driving away from the theater, Max wanted to hail another cab and go straight