S. J. Bolton

by Blood Harvest

  ‘What happened yesterday?’ asked Alice.

  Evi could feel Harry’s eyes on her. ‘Gillian is seriously infatuated with Harry,’ she said. ‘And yesterday—’

  ‘She saw me kissing Evi,’ interrupted Harry.

  Alice looked at her husband, then back at Evi. ‘But what’s that got to do with—’ she began.

  ‘Harry and I don’t have children,’ said Evi, forcing herself to look Alice in the eye. ‘But Gillian knows we’re fond of yours. I’m really sorry, but I think taking Joe is about punishing us.’

  ‘She and I had words earlier today,’ said Harry. ‘I really wasn’t in the mood to be patient, I’m afraid. She didn’t take it well. Oh shit.’ He dropped his head into his hands.

  ‘If Dr Oliver is right, Gillian took Joe from somewhere miles away from here so that we wouldn’t connect it with what happened to the girls,’ said Rushton. ‘Joe knows Gillian. If she’d told him she’d been sent by his mother, there’s a good chance he’d believe her.’ He looked at his watch again. ‘Where is Jove?’ he muttered. At that moment, his mobile phone rang. He excused himself and left the room.

  Silence fell in the kitchen as everyone strained to catch any part of Rushton’s conversation. They didn’t have long to wait. After less than three minutes, they could hear his footsteps coming back along the hall. The door opened. His sallow skin seemed to have grown paler.

  ‘Not the best news,’ he said, without entering the room. ‘Jove and his lads found what they thought was a crime scene in Gillian’s flat. Blood everywhere. Turns out she made an attempt on her own life this evening.’

  Evi half stood up and didn’t have the strength to make it further. She sank back down again. At her side, Harry had gone very still.

  Rushton shook his head, as though trying to wake himself up. ‘Her mother found her and called an ambulance,’ he said. ‘She’s in Burnley General now. Slashed both wrists. In a bad way, by all accounts.’

  Evi’s hand was covering her mouth. ‘Oh my God,’ she whispered.

  ‘Is she going to live?’ said Alice. ‘If she dies …’

  ‘Take it easy,’ said Rushton. ‘I’m going over now. They haven’t been able to talk to her yet, but I’ll see what pressure I can bring to bear on the doctor in charge. And Jove hasn’t been idle. He’s talking to her mother about any connections she and Gillian have in Blackburn – old friends, relatives, places they used to live.’

  ‘I need to come with you,’ said Evi, forcing herself to her feet.

  ‘Evi, I don’t—’ Harry began.

  ‘I’m her doctor.’

  ‘No disrespect, Dr Oliver, but I doubt you’re top of the list of people she wants to see right now,’ said Rushton, zipping up his coat. ‘If we think a bit of persuasion is needed, we might call upon the vicar. Excuse me now, folks.’

  Rushton was leaving. He was wrong, Gillian was her responsibility, she had to go to the hospital. Evi stood up and set off across the kitchen as the front door slammed behind him. She’d made it halfway along the hallway before Harry caught her.

  ‘You’re not going anywhere,’ he said.

  She shrugged his hand off her arm. ‘This is all my fault,’ she said in a low voice, not wanting to wake the children, not wanting Alice and Gareth to hear how seriously she’d messed up. ‘I’m responsible for her welfare and I betrayed her.’

  ‘You did nothing of the kind.’ Harry, it seemed, wasn’t capable of speaking quietly. ‘Since we met, you’ve gone out of your way to do the right thing. I’m the one who wouldn’t leave you alone, and if anyone’s to blame it’s me. I’m going to the hospital.’

  ‘Neither of you are going anywhere.’ As Harry turned from her, Evi could see Gareth in the kitchen doorway. ‘And I’ve heard quite enough self-indulgent crap for one night,’ he continued. ‘Now get back in here, both of you, and help us work out where she put Joe.’

  Tom stood in the dark living room, listening to the sounds in the hallway, hoping that someone would open the door and see him and Ebba but not quite able to bring himself to call out. Then the front door slammed shut. He could hear Harry and Evi arguing in the hall and then his dad saying something. Then the adults all went back into the kitchen.

  ‘I have to get my dad,’ Tom said.

  The girl’s whole body trembled. She shook her head and looked at the door, then back at him, then at the window. She took a step towards it.

  ‘He won’t hurt you,’ said Tom, although the truth was he couldn’t say for certain what his dad would do to someone who’d hurt Joe. She took another step towards the window. She was going, they’d never catch her, an entire team of police officers had been searching the town all day and they hadn’t found her. She’d go and his last chance to find Joe would disappear.

  Was it seeing her terror that was lessening his? Because although this was one of the strangest experiences of his life – and he’d had a few lately – Tom was discovering that he wasn’t quite as scared as he’d thought he would be. Pretty scared, admittedly, just not … Joe had never been scared of Ebba.

  ‘Wait,’ Tom heard himself say. ‘I won’t tell him.’ What was he talking about? That had been the plan, hadn’t it? Hold on to her and call for his dad.

  But Millie hadn’t been scared either. When Millie had seen Joe’s drawing of Ebba, her little face had lit up, as if she was looking at the picture of an old friend.

  ‘Tommy come,’ said Ebba, holding out her hand. She was moving towards the window, in a second she would be gone.

  He nodded his head. Was he insane? ‘OK,’ he said.

  Alice, Evi and Harry were back at the kitchen table. Only Gareth remained standing. He looked at Evi. ‘What’s your take on where she’d put him?’ he said.

  Evi shook her head. ‘Forensics really isn’t my thing,’ she said. ‘I’ve never done any criminal work.’

  ‘No, but you seem to know Gillian better than anyone else. Would she keep him here or somewhere else?’

  Evi gave herself a moment to think. ‘We shouldn’t rule this town out,’ she said at last. ‘This is where she feels at home. If she’s planning to take him to the church when all the fuss has died down, she’ll want to keep him somewhere she can get to him easily. If she wants to keep him alive, she’ll have to feed him. And she knows this moor better than anyone. I can’t tell you how many times she’s boasted to me about it. “I know all the best hiding places,” she says.’

  ‘That’s what I think,’ said Gareth. ‘She’s been here all day. I’ve seen her loads of times. And she doesn’t have a car. She can’t nip in and out of town quickly.’

  ‘What if she won’t tell them where he is?’ said Alice. ‘If she refuses, we might never find him. If he’s outdoors, he won’t last much longer in this weather. We have to get the police back here. We have to keep looking.’

  ‘But the whole moor has been crawling with dogs,’ said Harry. ‘They used thermal-imaging equipment. He can’t be on the moor.’

  ‘The moor is where Gillian feels at home,’ said Evi. ‘It’s the natural place she’d think of hiding him.’

  ‘If he is still here,’ said Harry, ‘he’s somewhere the dogs and the heat-seekers couldn’t find him.’

  Silence.

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Alice, after a few seconds.

  ‘Somewhere out of range,’ said Harry. ‘Of the dogs and the equipment.’

  ‘Water?’ said Gareth. ‘Tonsworth reservoir, that’s less than three miles away. There are buildings near it, where they keep the pumping equipment.’

  ‘We searched that,’ said Harry. ‘United Utilities opened it up for us. The dogs went in.’

  ‘Somewhere in the air?’ suggested Evi. ‘I don’t know – in a tree, a tree-house. The dogs wouldn’t find him.’

  ‘The helicopter would. A big source of heat like a child, even a child’s body – sorry, Alice – would have been picked up by the equipment.’

  ‘What about underground?’ said Alice. ‘Are there any mine
s on the moor? Or caves? You know, like in Derbyshire, where they have the Blue John mines.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Gareth. ‘Harry and I were looking at water-resource maps yesterday, I’m sure they’d have indicated any— Oh, Jesus.’

  ‘What?’ asked Evi. The two men were staring at each other. Then Gareth ran from the room.

  ‘What is it?’ said Alice. ‘What have you thought of?’

  ‘Give him a sec,’ said Harry.

  They waited, listening to the sound of Gareth fumbling with papers in the other room. Then he was back. He leaned across the table, spreading out a large black and white map. His hand hovered over it for a second.

  ‘There,’ he said, pointing with one finger. The two women leaned in. Harry stayed where he was. ‘The bore hole.’

  ‘What’s a bore hole?’ asked Alice.

  ‘A deep hole in the ground,’ said Gareth. ‘Right down to the water table.’

  ‘You mean a well?’

  Her husband nodded. ‘That’s usually what bore holes are dug for.’

  ‘Hang on, mate,’ said Harry. ‘I can’t believe that place wasn’t searched. It’s less than half a mile out of town.’

  ‘But where is it, exactly?’ said Alice. ‘Is it that little stone hut just below Morrell Tor? The one the kids call Little Red Riding Hood’s house? But we’ve seen Gillian there.’

  ‘I’ve seen her there too,’ admitted Harry. ‘And if she’s been coming and going in the Renshaw house over the years she’d have had plenty of time to steal the key. But it must have been searched.’

  ‘There can’t be a bore hole in that hut,’ said Alice. ‘Sinclair told me that Jenny and Christiana played in it when they were children.’

  ‘Bore holes and old wells are usually covered over,’ said Gareth. ‘It’s bloody unsafe to do anything else. But she could have found a way to access it again.’

  ‘I’m sure it must have been searched,’ said Harry.

  ‘What’s the range of sniffer dogs?’ said Evi. ‘How deep down a pit would a small child have to be dangling to be out of reach?’

  Nobody answered her. Nobody knew. And judging by the looks on their faces, everyone had the same picture in their heads.

  ‘If he’s far enough underground, maybe the thermal-imaging equipment couldn’t spot him,’ she went on.

  ‘I need to get up there,’ said Gareth, making for the door.

  ‘I’m coming too.’ Alice was already on her feet, following him.

  Harry jumped up and caught her. ‘You should stay with Tom and Millie,’ he said. ‘I’ll go up. There’s rope in my car. And a harness. We can drive most of the way if we take Gareth’s truck.’ He stopped, a frown furrowing his forehead. ‘The door will be locked,’ he called to Gareth. ‘We’re going to need your tools.’

  They heard Gareth cross the hallway and open the front door. Harry turned to Evi. ‘Do you have Rushton’s numbers?’ he asked.

  She nodded.

  ‘Get on the phone to him. Tell him where we’ve gone and ask if he can send someone up. Don’t take no for an answer. We’ll need fire and rescue too.’ He turned, found his coat on the back of a chair and shrugged it on to his shoulders. Seconds later, he and Gareth had left the house.

  84

  TOM HAD FOUND HIS TRAINERS BY THE FRONT DOOR AND A yellow hooded sweatshirt behind one of the sofas in the living room. Even so, seconds after he climbed out of the window he was freezing. The stone of the window ledge felt like ice through his pyjamas. Snowflakes began to land on his head and face. He pulled the window almost closed again.

  Ebba had taken hold of his hand and was hurrying him across the dark garden. They reached the gap in the wall and she went through first. He followed and they were in the churchyard.

  Harry jumped into the truck, the climbing rope on his lap. Before the door was closed the truck was moving, its tyres making fresh tracks in the snow. Gareth swung out of the driveway and started to turn downhill towards Wite Lane.

  ‘Carry on up,’ said Harry. ‘Up the hill, out of town.’

  Gareth was still looking down the lane. ‘Alice and the kids go along Wite Lane to get up the moor,’ he said.

  ‘Aye, but that way’s steep. I don’t know how far you’ll be able to take the truck.’

  Gareth took a deep breath. ‘So what are you suggesting?’ he said.

  ‘Three-quarters of a mile outside town there’s a farm gate on your right,’ said Harry. ‘I think Mike Pickup uses it to get feedstuff to his animals. We can drive through and approach the cottage from above. The ground’s pretty solid, we should be able to get most of the way there.’

  Gareth pressed his foot on the accelerator and the truck moved forwards up the hill. They picked up speed and the flakes whirling in front of them grew larger as they left the town behind.

  ‘Slow down,’ said Harry. ‘Slower. There it is.’

  The truck stopped and Harry jumped down. He ran round the front of the vehicle as it went into reverse. A second later the truck’s headlights flooded the metal farm gate.

  Harry pushed the gate open and Gareth drove through. The hut was less than a mile away.

  A wave of pure weariness swept through Evi as the vehicle’s rear lights disappeared up the moor. She wanted nothing more than to lie down, close her eyes, let others handle it from here. ‘Right,’ she said. ‘I need the phone.’

  ‘It’s right behind you,’ said Alice. ‘I’m going to check on Tom and Millie.’ Alice ran up the stairs as Evi turned to the phone. It wasn’t there. As Evi headed into the hallway, Alice emerged from Millie’s room and crossed the landing. Evi lifted her hand for attention but Alice didn’t look down.

  And then a strangled scream sounded from above. Evi stopped, her heart pounding but her brain refusing to take in the possibility that something else had happened. Something that really wasn’t good, judging by the face of the woman at the top of the stairs.

  Tom and Ebba were making their way through the white graveyard. Tommy, please come. Tom knew he’d be hearing his brother’s voice in his head for the rest of his life if he ignored it now.

  As they passed Lucy Pickup’s new grave, they seemed to be heading for the church, which was pointless, because the church had been thoroughly searched with dogs and everything, and even if it hadn’t been, they’d have no chance of getting in now. Tom had heard the grown-ups talking earlier. The front door and the door to the roof had been locked and bolted, and the three sets of keys to the vestry door were now with Harry and the police. Plus, a police constable was spending the night in the vestry – just in case.

  Either the snow was deadening sound or it was later than Tom had thought because the night was almost completely silent. He thought he heard a car engine starting up, and then the same car speeding away up the moor, but then silence fell again. They’d reached the mausoleum where all the dead Renshaws were put except Lucy, because Jenny, Lucy’s mother, hated it. The police had searched it today, had opened up all the stone coffins to make sure Joe wasn’t tucked away in any of them. They’d searched it and locked it again and Sinclair Renshaw had put a massive great padlock on the door, so why did Ebba have a key to it? They weren’t going to go inside it, were they? He couldn’t go in a tomb at night, not even for …

  Tommy, please come.

  Ebba had unlocked first the padlock and then the iron gate. It swung open and she stepped inside, as though she wandered into old tombs all the time. Tom stood in the entrance and then took a tentative step forward. They were only in the small, railed courtyard, it wasn’t as though Ebba could get inside the building itse—

  Ebba was opening the door that led inside the large stone box. She was beckoning to him, her face screwed up with impatience. She was serious, she really was taking him inside. But the church had been full of people all day. Joe could not be in the church. This was some sort of trap.

  Tommy, please come.

  Hold on, Joe, I’m coming.

  The truck wasn’t movi
ng. Gareth had been trying for five minutes to reverse it away from the small stream that had swallowed up its front wheel, and the two men couldn’t waste any more time. Harry had his climbing rope slung around his neck and a torch in his hand. Gareth had a box of tools in one hand and a sledgehammer in the other. The two men began striding over the snow.

  Time to kill. Had Ebba known what Gillian was up to, about the murders of the three little girls, about Gillian’s interest in Millie? Had she been trying to warn them?

  ‘Sorry, mate,’ gasped Harry as they reached the edge of the ruined mill buildings. ‘We should have tried your way.’

  Gareth didn’t turn his head. ‘Wouldn’t have made any difference,’ he said. ‘Driving across the moor’s close to impossible on a good day. The snow’s covering everything.’

  The two men hurried on through the mill ruins.

  If Ebba had been trying to warn them, had her torture of Gillian been a sort of punishment? Mummy, find me. Why would Ebba say that?

  Gareth was pointing to his left, where they could just about make out a small building. ‘Is that it?’ he said.

  ‘That’s it,’ said Harry. ‘Take it easy. There are all sorts of loose stones round here.’

  Gareth slowed his pace as they made their way across the remaining stretch of ground to the hut. Already, snow had settled on its roof, making it look even more like a cottage from a fairy tale.

  Gillian had broken into the Fletchers’ house on the night of the bonfire? Had tried to abduct Millie? The intruder had worn wellington boots. Had he ever seen Gillian wearing such things?

  They reached the door and Harry took a second to get his breath. They couldn’t just go charging in. If there were a bore hole in this hut it would be incredibly dangerous to be there at night. He wondered how long it would take the police to get here. They’d have to come on foot. He looked down hopefully. No lights could be seen making their way up towards them.