‘But I knew how clever he was. I knew he’d get to her in the end. So I started planning ways to kill him. It seemed like the only way. Does that shock you?’
Evi thought she was way beyond being shocked. ‘I think it’s very understandable that you should be so angry,’ she said.
‘I thought about smothering him in his sleep, putting something in his food, pushing him down the stairs, tricking him to come up to the Tor with me and shoving him off. But then, one day, I realized. I didn’t have to kill him to stop him getting what he wanted.’
‘You didn’t?’
‘No. I could kill her instead.’
Tom was being tugged downwards, his back jarring painfully on the stone steps.
‘What the fuck are you doin’?’ said a voice he knew. Two large hands grasped his waist and pulled him down more steps. ‘Back off, let us get down,’ the same voice instructed. Tom heard several pairs of footsteps retreating behind them and then he was in the church gallery once more.
‘Joe’s on the roof,’ he managed. ‘In the other bell tower, the one that everyone thinks is empty, but it’s not. He’s in there and he’s freezing and we have to get him down now.’
The four boys stared back at him, as if they’d captured an alien that had suddenly started giving them orders.
‘Your brother?’ Jake Knowles was the first to speak. ‘The one we’ve been looking for all day?’
‘On the roof?’ repeated Jake’s older brother, whose name Tom couldn’t remember.
Tom looked back at the four faces and felt like his heart had stopped beating. ‘You did it,’ he said. ‘You put him there.’
The older boy’s face twisted. ‘What the fuck do you think we are?’ he said. ‘Fuckin’ psychos?’
‘He’s actually up there?’ said Billy Aspin. ‘Alive?’
Tom nodded. ‘He’s tied up,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t get him out. I need to get my dad. What are you doing here? If you didn’t put him there, why are you here?’
‘We followed you in,’ said Jake. ‘We saw you and that Renshaw cretin running through the graveyard and we followed. Got fuckin’ lost in that cellar. Where’d she go?’
‘We have to get help. There’s a police …’ said Tom, realizing he had no idea what had happened to Ebba.
‘Come on,’ interrupted the eldest Knowles boy. ‘Let’s see what he’s on about.’
Evi felt like she was burning up. Funny, she’d heard patients talk about feeling terror many times. None of them had ever told her how hot it was. Or how it seemed to throw your brain into slow motion. Jenny? Jenny was the one who’d been after Millie the whole time. No, that couldn’t be right. She’d misunderstood something. She was overtired.
‘And the really ironic thing was, Tobias did love her.’ Jenny was clutching Evi again, making it impossible for her to move. Her face was flushed, her eyes unnaturally bright. Evi had to get up somehow. Then what? Upstairs, to Millie’s room, or outside to the phone?
‘He was absolutely devastated,’ Jenny went on. ‘I made him watch, you see. I knew he was going to the church – he was churchwarden for years – and I followed him there with Lucy in my arms. I climbed up to the gallery and then I shouted for him.’
Sweat was trickling down between Evi’s shoulder blades. The police weren’t coming. Jenny hadn’t called them. And why did she have to be so close?
‘I’ll never forget it,’ she was saying. ‘He came out of the vestry and I was dangling her from her ankles, the way he used to do to me, and she was screaming and screaming and I could see him shouting at me, yelling at me to stop. He started running forward and I let her go, just like that.’
The smell of the woman was almost worse than the heat: alcohol and perspiration and exotic flowers. Evi knew it was going to make her retch if she didn’t move. Hands down, push hard, ignore the pain; she had strong arms, it would work.
‘It took so long for her to fall,’ Jenny went on. ‘I had so much time to think, to realize it was always meant to be this way, that I would destroy him in the end, because of what he did to me.’
Do it now. Evi rose up, was caught and dragged back down.
‘He almost made it.’ Jenny was whispering into her face now. ‘Almost caught her. But she slammed down hard on those flagstones and the blood, the blood just went everywhere, it was like I’d dropped a bubble of it. I thought some of it was going to reach me up in the gallery.’
Evi swallowed hard and fought the temptation to hold her breath. She had to keep breathing. If she held her breath, she’d faint.
‘I’ve never had any pleasure from sex, Evi, not once – how could I?’ Jenny was saying. ‘This orgasm business people get so worked up about, I have no idea what they’re talking about. But that day, seeing all that blood and watching him start to scream, I can’t tell you the pleasure I felt. I almost fainted away, right there and then, it was so intense. And the sound of the thud when she hit the tiles, like a ripe fruit bursting open, I could hear that over and over again in my head, and all the time the blood was spreading out from around her. I could see it oozing out in waves, while her heart struggled to keep going.’
Evi knew she couldn’t scream. No one but Millie would hear her.
The two men were running down the moor, their torch beams aimed at the white ground below their feet. Through the beech wood, past the abandoned water mill, over the stream. Once Gareth had seemed himself again, a sense of panic had swept through Harry. They had to get back. It was all he could think of – getting back.
It had been forty minutes or more since they’d left the house. The police should have joined them by now. There were police cars on the roads into Heptonclough, they weren’t more than five minutes from the Fletchers’ house. If Evi had phoned them when he and Gareth had set out, they would have arrived by now. They hadn’t, which meant she hadn’t phoned. Something else had happened. It was worse now, worse than just Joe, the mayhem that Gillian had unleashed. They had to get back.
His mobile was in the pocket of his jeans. He could stop, call the police himself, phone the house. But to do that he’d have to stop running.
They’d reached a stile. Harry climbed up, jumped down and set off again, hearing Gareth doing the same thing behind him. They were in the harvest field, just above the town. Another hundred yards and they’d be passing the site of the All Souls’ Day bonfire. They reached the fence and Harry vaulted over. Past Gillian’s old cottage, the cobbles slippery with snow, buildings rising up on either side now. Gareth was breathing heavily by his side. They came to the end of the lane, had just turned into the main road when the church bell began to ring.
‘He dragged me away, of course,’ said Jenny. ‘Back to the house. We both changed our clothes and then we started the search for her. He wouldn’t go back to the church, though, he couldn’t face her again. I had to do that.’
Think now, stay calm. The police weren’t coming, but Harry and Gareth would be back. They’d have made it to the cottage by now, found whatever they had to find, they’d be making their way home. Evi just had to stay calm. Stop this woman from doing any more harm. She had to keep her away from Millie. If only it weren’t so hot.
‘And then,’ said Evi, forcing herself to relax back on the stair, to breathe deeply. ‘Was it over then? When you’d punished him? Did you find …’ Jesus, what the hell was she supposed to say? ‘Did you find peace?’ she tried.
Jenny nodded. ‘For a while, yes,’ she said. ‘It was as though I’d taken back control over my life, can you understand that?’
‘Of course,’ said Evi, telling herself to speak slowly, the way she always did with an overexcited patient. ‘Control is very important,’ she said. ‘We all need that.’
‘I missed her desperately, of course. I still do. I never really got over it.’
‘No,’ said Evi, fighting a temptation to look at her watch, and an even stronger one to throw back her head and howl. ‘I don’t think parents ever get over the loss of a child.
’
‘But I felt as though a chapter was closed, that I could move on again.’ Jenny’s eyes narrowed. She looked down at her watch, but the gesture was too quick for Evi to see the time. ‘It’s getting on,’ she said. ‘Come on, I’ll help you up the stairs.’ She stood and bent down, taking hold of Evi under the arms. Evi braced herself, but the other woman was strong. She was hoisted up and then Jenny’s arm was around her waist.
‘Come on,’ said Jenny. ‘I’m sure I heard her crying just now.’
‘Millie’s fine,’ said Evi. ‘But Jenny, this is really important.’
Jenny paused but kept a tight hold around Evi’s waist. ‘What?’ she said, and her voice had hardened. She was losing patience.
‘It’s just … the other girls,’ said Evi. ‘Megan, Hayley. Why did they have to die?’
Jenny tilted her head to one side. ‘After Lucy died, I was the one in charge,’ she said, after a moment. ‘Whenever Tobias stepped out of line, if he started paying inappropriate attention to young girls, I could stop him. Come on now, one more step, and another.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Evi. ‘I find stairs so difficult. Can we rest for a second? So he started to abuse Megan? Even after what happened to Lucy?’
Jenny’s hold on Evi relaxed a fraction. ‘Oh, I’m not sure it ever got that far,’ she said. ‘I could just see him looking at her, going out of his way to be nice to her mother. I wasn’t having it, not after losing Lucy. I wasn’t having him forgetting her and just taking a fancy to another one.’
‘So you killed Megan?’ asked Evi. ‘And Hayley? You tried to kill Millie too?’
Jenny looked at Evi as though she were simple. ‘I’d already killed my own child,’ she said. ‘Do you think it’s difficult, after that, to kill someone else’s?’
‘Then why Joe?’ asked Evi, when Jenny seemed about to turn away and head back up the stairs again. ‘Your grandfather wouldn’t be interested in him. Why did you take him? You did take him, didn’t you?’
‘Evi, he was starting to taunt me.’
‘Joe?’
‘My grandfather. You have no idea what an evil old devil he is. He kept cracking jokes about how the Fletchers had more security than the crown jewels, that Millie was never out of her mother’s sight, and he was coming here just about every day, sitting for that stupid portrait, and I knew he’d be playing with Millie, getting her to sit on his lap, stroking her legs, his fingers getting higher and higher, and forgetting all about Lucy. I couldn’t let that happen.’
‘But Joe? What has—’
‘I knew the only way Alice would take her eye off the ball was if one of her other kids went missing.’
Evi felt like she’d been slapped. ‘Joe was a decoy?’
Jenny shrugged. ‘Sweet lad,’ she said. ‘He came with me without arguing. I told him his sister had had an accident and his mum wanted me to take him to visit her in hospital. Couldn’t half fight though, once the penny dropped. I had to knock him out to get him—’
‘Where? Where is he?’
‘Somewhere they’ll never find him. They didn’t find Megan, they won’t find Joe. Evi, can you manage another step?’
Jake Knowles’ oldest brother stepped past Tom and started to climb the staircase again. ‘He’s tied up,’ insisted Tom. ‘You can’t get him out.’
The boy reached his hand into his jeans pocket and brought out a thin strip of metal about five inches long. His thumb twitched and a long, silver blade shot out. ‘No sweat,’ he said, as he disappeared into the tower. One by one the other three followed. Jake was the last. His foot on the bottom step, he turned back to Tom. ‘Come on,’ he said, before disappearing.
Tom followed, not sure if this were better or worse. Joe needed a grown-up, not these four idiots. Even if they managed to get him out, they’d be as likely to fall off the roof with him as bring him down. Ahead, Jake was climbing out on to the roof. Tom scrambled up the last few steps and peered out.
‘Dan’s almost there,’ said Jake. Tom looked across the roof. Jake’s brother, Dan, was just a few paces away from the north-eastern tower. The middle brother was just behind him. There was no sign of Ebba.
‘He’s here!’ shouted Dan, who had reached the opposite tower and was bending inside it. ‘I’ve got him.’ The second brother had arrived at the tower too now. Tom could see two denim-clad bottoms sticking up towards the night sky as both boys leaned inside. Then first one and then the other began to straighten up.
‘Will’s got him,’ said Jake. ‘He’s pulling him out, look.’
Jake’s other brother had both arms around Joe’s middle and was tugging him out of the tower. The patchwork quilt got left behind and Joe’s pale naked body gleamed like a shell in the moonlight as he and Will Knowles tumbled on to the roof. Then Dan Knowles bent and lifted Joe. Carrying the small boy in his arms like a baby, he began to walk back along the guttering towards Tom, Jake and Billy. As he neared, they could hear him shouting something that sounded like, ‘Well, mell, ding-dong bell, ring the ruddy bell, you wazzocks.’ Jake understood a second before Tom did and then both boys were tumbling down the staircase, fighting each other in their effort to be the first to unleash the bell rope and give the first tug.
Clang. The old bell shuddered in protest at being roused from sleep so late at night. Clang. Louder now, getting its confidence back. Clang. Tom half wanted to let go of the rope and put his hands over his ears, but he didn’t because tugging on that rope and ringing that bell felt so good. Clang. Get out here, everyone, get out and see Joe being carried across the rooftop. Joe, OK after all, Joe, coming home. He couldn’t wait to see his mum’s face.
*
‘Jenny, you can’t go in that room.’
‘And I’m going to be stopped by a cripple? I don’t think so.’ Jenny stretched up on tiptoe, looking over Evi’s shoulder. ‘Stone floors in the hall,’ she said. ‘Do you know what it sounds like, when a child’s skull breaks on stone? A bit like an eggshell cracking, only amplified a thousand times. You’ll hear it – maybe.’
‘Where is Joe?’ demanded Evi.
Jenny was walking backwards along the landing, her hand reaching out for the handle on Millie’s door.
‘Does Heather know where he is?’ asked Evi.
For the first time, Jenny looked uncertain. ‘No,’ she said.
‘Are you sure?’ said Evi. ‘Because I think she knows all about you. I think she’s been trying to warn people, in her own way. She’s been trying to make friends with Joe, Tom and Millie, to talk to Harry. She’s even been trying to tell Gillian what happened to her daughter.’
‘She’s a brainless idiot.’ The handle was turned, the door pushed two inches open.
‘She came for Tom tonight,’ said Evi. ‘Why would she do that, so late in the evening, unless she knew where you’d put Joe?’
Jenny thought for a moment, then she shrugged. ‘It makes no difference,’ she said. ‘He’ll be dead by now.’
Evi took a step forward. ‘You know what really pisses me off, Jenny?’ she said. ‘You’re a complete fake. You’re pretending you’re doing all this because Millie is your grandfather’s next victim. Well, bullshit. He’s probably barely been near her. He almost certainly didn’t touch Hayley either, or Megan. You said yourself he was never allowed near Lucy. You’re killing these girls because you like it.’
‘Shut up.’
‘I saw the look on your face when you told me about Lucy’s death. You enjoyed it.’
‘I don’t have to listen to this.’ Jenny was turning away.
She had to stop her, had to give her something to focus on other than Millie. ‘Your grandfather, everything that happened to you in the past, it’s just the excuse now. You’re doing it for fun.’
‘You have no idea.’ Jenny was in the bedroom, making her way across the carpet.
‘I’m a psychiatrist,’ called Evi. ‘I’ve been dealing with twisted bitches like you for years. Now get away from that cot.’
; Jenny was coming towards her. She was out of the room in moments; a second more and her hands were around Evi’s throat and the two were staggering backwards, past the stairs.
‘Ever wondered what it would be like to fly, Evi?’ Jenny hissed in her ear. ‘You’re about to find out. They’ll think you slipped with little Millie in your arms and fell down the stairs. Only old Tobias will know the truth.’
Evi’s windpipe was being crushed. The pathologist would know she’d been strangled. Small comfort. The banister was digging into her back, it hurt like hell but it was supporting her weight. She brought her good leg up and kneed the other woman hard in the crotch. Jenny grunted and her hold slackened, but she was a woman after all and it hadn’t done too much damage. Evi twisted round and tried to get a grip on the banister but found herself being lifted off her feet, forced over the top of it.
Before she could brace herself, her hips had gone over the edge and she was close to falling. She grabbed out, one hand caught hold of the banister but her legs were lifted high, she was being pushed and something was banging at her hand, stamping on it, and she had no choice but to let go.
It seemed to take a long time to reach the slate floor.
They’d stopped ringing the bell. The three boys climbed inside the tower. Did they still have Joe? Yes, there he was, wrapped up in the patchwork quilt again, his face pressed against Dan Knowles’s chest, still bound tight with thin, nylon rope, still shaking, still alive.
Dan Knowles, who seemed to have grown during his brief time on the roof, looking more like the young man he’d be in a year or so than a teenage bully, was at the bottom of the steps, climbing into the gallery. His brother Will followed, then Billy, just as the sound of a heavy door being opened echoed around the church.
‘Hello!’ shouted a loud Geordie voice.
‘He’s up here! We’ve got him!’ called back Dan Knowles.
‘Joe!’ yelled Tom’s dad.
‘Dad!’ screamed Tom.
‘Police! Everybody keep still!’
The two groups met on the balcony stairs, Gareth Fletcher and Dan Knowles almost colliding. The small, shivering parcel was passed from one to the other and Joe gave a quiet moan as his father’s arms closed around him. Higher on the steps, over his father’s head, Tom’s eyes met Harry’s. Then the vicar turned, pushed his way past the bewildered-looking police constable, and ran from the church.
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