The cry of anger and horror from the living room alerted Nancy's attention to the fact their plan had been rumbled, and, thinking quickly, she dropped the phone back into it's cradle, praying that Luca had had the sense to do as she had instructed him before leaving the safety of the car, and alerted the police to the situation. She was still not convinced that Sadie knew what she was doing, and, with memories of her money-crazed uncle in her mind, she knew only too well what a kidnapper was capable of.
"We don't know if this woman has a gun." She muttered. "So what do I do now? Get out of here and hope Sadie and Luca got the baby away from this place already? Or try and see if I can help somehow?"
She hesitated for a moment, then, hearing a loud infant squall from the garden, she made up her mind. Pushing open the lounge door, she hurried through the house to the back garden, where Sadie was frantically trying to pass Michael to the waiting Luca. She had just about managed to do so when an enraged Kelly bore down on her, grabbing her away from the fence and safety, and pushing her to the ground. Anger gave a certain glint of insanity to the woman's eyes, and despite herself, Sadie felt a tinge of fear. She had seen that look before, in the drug-maddened gaze of her ex-boyfriend, and she knew what it meant. Inwardly, her courage began to waver.
"What do you think you're doing!" Kelly's rage was complete, and she tightened her grip around Sadie's collar. "Who are you? Why are you trying to take my son away from me!"
"Luca, get Mike away from here!" Sadie shrieked, aware that the Diablo frontman was hesitating, as if trying to decide whether to jump into the fray himself. "Get him away!"
"Who are you?" Kelly seemed oblivious to anything but the fact this stranger had been trying to take the young boy away from her care. "Who sent you? Who?"
"Get off me!" Sadie struggled, her resolve hardening as she remembered exactly why she was there. As she had told herself before she had knocked on the door, this was more than simply a robbery for drug money. This was about a young boy and reuniting him with his rightful mother.
"Give me back my son!" Kelly roared. "Give him back, or I'll kill you!"
"He's not your son!"
Nancy's voice came from the doorway and, startled, Kelly swung around, sending Nancy a poisonous glare that, had looks been able to kill, would have easily laid the young composer out. "He's Michael Gabor, and you're just some nutcase who thought it'd be fun to kidnap him! That's all! He belongs with his real mother, and that's where we're taking him!"
"How dare you? He was stolen from me!" Kelly's attention was distracted and Sadie struggled free, wriggling back against the fence as she tried to regain some composure.
"Kelly, you're mistaken." She said softly. "You found the wrong baby. This boy belongs to a friend of ours - Emily Gabor. I'm sorry you lost your son, but Michael isn't Carl."
"What do you mean? Of course he's Carl! Of course he's my Carl!" Now Kelly was getting confused and, casting a sidelong glance over the rickety five foot fence, Nancy was relieved to see that Luca and Michael were no longer in view. "Lies, that's all this is! They always lied to me! They lied when they took him away!"
"Carl?" Nancy stared at Sadie in bewilderment. "Who's Carl?"
"Carl is Kelly's real son." Sadie maintained her soft, soothing tone of voice, only too aware that one wrong move would snap the woman out of her confusion and back into her unremitting rage. "Carl Arca. Isn't that right, Kelly?"
"Carl Arca?" Nancy's eyes could not get any bigger. "Blade? Blade is her son?"
"That's right, Nancy." Sadie nodded. "Kelly is Michael's grandmother."
"I...I don't understand..." Kelly sank to the ground, all anger gone as she tried to comprehend Sadie's words. "I...my Carl..."
"Blade was raised by foster parents." Nancy remembered. "In some foster home someplace. Emily told me that. He never knew his real parents, but he was taken from them when he was small, because they used drugs - or so he thought."
"Kelly, Carl is gone." Sadie scrambled to her feet, casting Nancy a look which meant 'Get out of here.' "I'm sorry, but he's gone now. It's been a long time since you lost him, hasn't it? He's grown up and had a family of his own now. He's not your little boy any more. I understand why you thought Michael was your son, because he looks very much like you. But you have to understand...Michael is Carl's little boy. Not yours."
"Carl's...little boy? But...but he was a baby..."
Kelly shook her head in frustration. "No! You're saying all this to confuse me! You're like them...them who took him away before! Lies and more lies! I won't lose him again!"
"Sadie, look out!" Nancy shrieked, as Kelly reached for the nearest thing - a potted patio plant - and launched it at Sadie's head. The English girl moved just in time, turning to gaze in horror at the mess of ceramic and soil that now littered the patio. Kelly was advancing on her once more, the unbalanced glint back in her eyes, and in an instant, Nancy made up her mind. Launching herself across the garden, she knocked the woman off balance, grabbing Sadie by the wrist and pulling her towards the french doors.
"We're getting out of here and we're doing it together." She muttered, as Sadie turned to look back. "No, leave her! I don't care whether she's Blade's mother or not! She's dangerous and I don't want to stick around here to get either of us hurt. Luca's taken off with Mike, like you told him, and if the guy's got any sense he's called the police, so we should hear sirens soon. But, no sense in taking uneccesary risks. Come on!"
"I'm coming." Sadie sighed, allowing herself to be dragged back into the house. Nancy wrestled with the bolt on the front door, aware that Kelly could be on them at any moment.
"It won't budge!" She exclaimed. "What now?"
"Well..." Sadie bit her lip, then, "If anyone asks, Nancy, you didn't see me do this. Don't ever ask me how I learnt to do it...we need to get out of here."
"What are you going to do?" Nancy stared at her companion in confusion. "It's not an ordinary lock - you can't just stick a hairgrip in it and force it free!"
"Well, let's just say that I'm an improviser." Sadie offered a rueful smile. "Remember, you didn't see me do this."
She put her hands to the lock, carefully forcing the bolt free, then pulling open the door.
"Come on!" She exclaimed, meeting Nancy's wide eyed stare with an embarrassed one of her own. "We have to find Luca and Mike and get out of here!"
"You are full of surprises, you know that?" Nancy observed, as they ran helter skelter across the front garden and down towards Luca's waiting car as the street became filled with the sound of police sirens. "What the heck was that? You a locksmith in your spare time or something?"
"Better you don't ask. It was something Neal taught me." Sadie said vaguely. "Leave it at that, all right? The important thing is that we got Mike back...right? Let's not worry about unimportant stuff. We have a boy to reunite with his mother!"