by Graham West
“Voices? Are they in your head?” Bailey looked perplexed.
Cody nodded.
“Wow! That’s weird!”
There it was again. That word.
“I came here last night,” he said.
Bailey frowned. “What? In the dark?”
“Yep. I used a torch.”
“No shit! You’re so brave!”
Cody grinned. No one had ever said that to him before. Emboldened by the compliment, he went on. “There was a man here. In the cottage.”
“OMG! Weren’t you scared? I’d shit myself!”
“Well, I didn’t,” he replied proudly. “I’m not scared of dead people.”
Bailey stopped. The smile disappeared, replaced by a look of disdain. “You can see dead people?”
Cody nodded.
“You’re crazy. There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
“Yes, there is! And I don’t care what you think.”
“Is he here now?”
“Who?”
“The man, you fucking retard!”
Cody winced. You got in all kinds of trouble for using horrible words like retard in school. Teachers would rather you said things like fuck and shit than call someone that name, so no one did. Except Bailey. Maybe her school was different, but he was starting to think that maybe she was a bit too strange, and in a really bad kind of way.
“I dunno. Why don’t you go in and have a look?”
“No way! I’m not going in that place.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts.”
“I don’t!”
“Then there’s nothing to be scared of, is there?”
Bailey did that huffing thing again. “God, you’re such a prick.” She pushed open the cottage door.
Cody waited, watching her disappear inside. He hoped Jacob was there, sitting in the corner. Maybe Bailey would be able to see him and then everything would be okay. She’d believe in ghosts and they would be proper friends. Provided she stopped calling him a retard.
But then he heard a scream, and seconds later, Bailey burst out through the door and ran several yards before tripping on the brambles and falling flat on her face.
Cody knew he should have gone and helped her, but she was getting on his nerves. Besides, he was more interested in what she’d seen in the cottage—or maybe who she’d seen. He tiptoed through the door. It was best to be careful.
The room was exactly as he’d left it the previous night, apart from the candle, which no longer burned. But then he saw the thing that had sent Bailey running for her life.
Even Cody, who considered himself to be super brave, winced. There, gnawing away at what looked like some kind of nut, was the biggest rat he’d ever seen. Most of his classmates would have done exactly what Bailey did, but he was better than that. He was a man. So he didn’t run. He waited a few moments, counting to ten before backing up slowly, trying not to make a sound that might alert the cat-sized rodent.
He turned when he reached the door, relieved to see daylight. “It was only a rat,” he called, expecting to see Bailey appear from behind a tree and start calling him all kinds of names. But there was no reply.
“Baileyyyyyyy!” he shouted.
Cody checked every tree surrounding the cottage, expecting her to jump out at any moment. She wasn’t brave enough to wander far away, not on her own.
“Baileyyyyyyy!” he called again, but there was still no sound. The whole place was eerily silent.
Cody’s heart thumped a little harder. He wanted to go home. He wanted to see his mum and dad. He wished he hadn’t been so stupid, showing off to his girlfriend, who hadn’t been impressed anyway. Now he was going to have to explain why Bailey wasn’t with him.
Cody retraced his tracks through the undergrowth until he reached the cycle track, hoping he’d find Bailey’s bike had gone. Maybe she was braver than he’d thought and had found her own way without him. But the two bikes were still there, just as they had left them. Bailey was still in the woods.
***
Jenny returned to the lodge with a heavy heart, wondering how an intelligent and caring man like Blakely could do such a heartless thing. She had occasionally gone back to the diaries, reading random sections at a time, but it had so often ended in tears. If it hadn’t been for Sarah Bell and her father, Amelia’s existence would have been unbearable. Only a month ago, she had lent the diaries to Sebastian Tint, suggesting that he take care of them for a while.
Jenny found a note on the dining table. It was from her father.
Hi Jen. We’ve gone for a drink by the outdoor pool. Come and join us!
She flopped back on the couch and closed her eyes. Sleep would be better than a drink right now. Maybe just half an hour, a quick nap. It was only minutes before she felt herself drifting blissfully; but then she felt a hand on her shoulder and opened her eyes to find Kayla looking down at her.
“Oh, hi. It’s you. I thought you’d gone for a drink,” she said drowsily.
Kayla grinned. “I came back for you.”
“I’m okay. Go back. I’ll join you later.”
Kayla slid beside her on the couch, a familiar look of tenderness in her eyes.
Jenny groaned. “Please, Kayla, don’t do this.”
Kayla’s smile was one of false innocence. “Do what?”
“You know what! It’s dangerous.”
Jenny recalled that moment, six weeks after the baby was born. Jake had been working away for the weekend, and that Friday night, Kayla had slipped under the sheets and lay beside her, breathing softly in the silence of the room. “Do you like me?” she’d asked suddenly.
“Of course I like you.”
“I mean, really like me?”
Jenny’s pulse had quickened. She’d always tried not to think about her feelings too much, and managed to keep them under control, yet deep down she knew that beneath a sibling bond, something still festered. And that was the word. Festered. It was like a cancer that threatened to destroy them both, wreck their relationship and tear her marriage and the whole family apart. Yet, in that moment, Jenny would have risked everything to have Kayla in her arms.
There had been moments since. Moments like this.
“You could just hold me,” Kayla said. “They’re all at the bar—they won’t see—and anyway, there’s nothing wrong with two sisters giving each other a hug.”
Jenny shook her head. They had hugged many times, but it had rarely been in private.
“But you do like me,” Kayla goaded. “I can see it in your eyes.”
Jenny wasn’t in the mood for games. “Okay, I admit it,” she snapped. “I don’t trust myself! Are you happy now?”
A spark of triumph flashed in Kayla’s eyes. “At last, the girl comes clean! She’s finally admitting she’s bisexual!”
Jenny hated herself. The defences she’d erected since that first encounter had suddenly crumbled. “It’s only you. I’ve never wanted anyone else. Just you.”
“So…what? You’re telling me you’re straight, because if you were, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Jenny leapt to her feet, rage and passion erupting. Why was Kayla doing this? Why now? “Whatever I am, I’m not a cheat. It’s never going to happen. This stops now, and if you ever try coming on to me again, I’m going to tell Dad, and I’m going to tell Jake!”
Kayla stood and smiled. “Who do you think Jake will hate most? Me or you?”
Jenny stepped back and took a single swipe, her open palm meeting Kayla’s face with a sickening crack. Then she turned and ran from the lodge, looking through tear-filled eyes for somewhere to hide. Danni was right. They were a dysfunctional family—a family that could fall like a pack of cards. She’d left Kayla dazed, holding a hand to her slap-reddened lips. Lips that Jenny could still see in her mind. Lips that, in that moment, she had so desperately wanted to kiss.
Chapter Fifteen
Kevin Taylor sat naked on the edge of the bed, wondering if
it had been worth a six-pack of beer and twenty smokes. Sex with Velma was okay, but she still hadn’t got the hang of acting interested. Giving her arse a good hard slap sometimes perked things up a bit, but generally speaking, she’d a lot to learn. That was probably why the boys had challenged him to give her an orgasm; so far, he’d not even come close.
“Are you sure you’re in the right game?” He snorted, pulling on a pair of blue joggers.
She gave him a withering look. “You think I want to do this?”
Kevin Taylor shrugged. “No, cos you’re crap at it.”
“I need the money.” She grunted. “So screwing you for free isn’t my idea of fun!”
Taylor threw her a cigarette. “If you tried a little harder, you’d have gotten yourself a joint.”
“You haven’t got me a drink?”
Taylor laughed. He kind of liked her Romanian accent. She was sexier than the Kirkland girls with their tarty skirts, orange skin and eyebrows that looked like two caterpillars crawling across their foreheads.
“You’ll have to ask one of the guys,” he said, pulling on a sweat top that needed a good wash.
“You stink.” She waved her hand in front of her nose.
“Yeah, well, this whole place stinks, so I fit right in, don’t I?”
Velma smiled. “I guess. They aren’t the cleanest of guys,” she said ruefully. “Not the nicest, either.”
Taylor shrugged. “They’re Romanian. What do you expect?”
“Hey, that’s racist! I’m Romanian. That doesn’t make me a bad person.”
“No, but the cops would say being a prostitute does.”
“I do it to feed my kids. In Romania, it’s different than here. Where I lived, if you don’t get yourself a good education, then there’s nothing for you. Just crime. That’s why there were so many gangs, so much trouble.”
Velma swung her legs out of the bed and walked naked over to the window overlooking an acre of wasteland. “I have two little boys, but their father got himself shot. I couldn’t get work, so I had to come here while my parents take care of them. They told me I was going to earn a lot of money as a dancer. Maybe even get to the big theatres in London. But this is where I ended up.”
It wasn’t just Velma’s accent Taylor liked. He’d kind of warmed to her as well, although he’d never admit it. He also guessed that she was right about the three guys who’d given him a roof over his head. Stefan would have screwed him over as soon as look at him, but picking a fight with them would’ve been pretty dumb; Taylor had seen the knives and the guns they carried. It was better to keep them onside, and besides, he needed a favour. They boasted they could provide anyone with a fake ID within a couple of days, so a free day pass to Mosswood Adventure Park wouldn’t be a problem. According to the satellite pictures, there were a few acres of serious woodland in there. It would be an ideal place to hook up with Pascoe.
***
Dennis Blakely groaned. He didn’t need this. A lost child! Not just lost somewhere on the park, where they usually turned up after an hour; the kid had managed to get lost in the woodland, and people would be asking why he hadn’t made the fence higher. Mosswood stretched back for nearly a mile: acres of overgrowth that the council had hoped to make into something suitable for public access but soon pulled out when they realised how much it was going to cost.
He had dealt with the Nelsons tactfully, resisting the urge to ask them why they had left their kid unsupervised with a thirteen-year-old girl, although maybe that was unfair. Thirteen-year-olds were usually pretty savvy these days, and their seven-year-old had come home safe. It was the teenager who’d got herself lost.
Several families remembered her from the play area. Not many young girls pulled their pants down, and her face, amongst other things, was still fresh in their minds.
“They’ll find her,” Penny assured him. “It’s not exactly the kind of woods that bears go into, not even for a—”
“Yeah, okay, but it’s massive. It’s going to take us a few years to get the whole place fit for kids. God only knows how many trees will have to come down.” Blakely pulled on a high-vis jacket. “I won’t get a signal once I’m in there, so don’t start panicking if I don’t answer.”
Penny nodded. “Who’s with you?”
“Two rangers and Rob Adams. I think one of the lads is going along too. Could you check that the girl’s mother is okay? Maybe give her a free meal voucher when she’s up to eating.”
Blakely set off hoping that Penny was right. Bailey wasn’t going to wander out of the woods into the hands of a stranger and, as far as he was aware, there was nothing bigger than a squirrel living in Mosswood. Kids got lost all the time and usually turned up wondering what all the fuss was about. The little boy had told them Bailey had run away when she saw a huge rat in the cottage. Blakely didn’t even know there was a cottage in the woods, but those kids had managed to find it. If the girl had fallen, she’d have got up again and probably continued running, but in what direction? What if she’d broken a leg or knocked herself unconscious?
Mr. Nelson met him outside their lodge. “Cody says he’ll go with you. He knows where the cottage is.”
Blakely nodded, glancing down at the boy, who looked as if he’d been crying. “You gonna help me, buster?” he asked, patting the kid’s head.
Cody nodded, whimpering, “She ran away. I don’t know why. I was a real good guide!”
“Well, you can be my guide now, and I promise I won’t run away, okay?”
Cody grinned sheepishly. He’d obviously been ticked off by his parents for trespassing in the first place, then coming back without the girl—well, that had made it a whole lot worse.
Mr. Nelson looked agitated.
“These things happen,” Blakely told him. “Don’t blame the boy.”
Nelson nodded. “Thanks. I’m really sorry about all this.”
Blakely smiled. The kid had just gone looking for a holiday adventure, but maybe he’d have a word in his ear after they’d found the girl.
Cody set off ahead at a pace and they soon arrived at the sign:
NO ACCESS BEYOND THIS POINT
The boy looked up, as if he were waiting for permission. Blakely thought it might be a good time to issue a gentle ticking off, but he had other questions on his mind. “So you found a cottage, then?”
Cody clambered down from the fence, landing in the undergrowth with a thud. He turned to watch Blakely do the same before answering. “Yep. That’s why I came here. I wanted to show Bailey. There was an innocence about the little boy, which had probably got him out of a whole shed-load of trouble in the past.
“But how did you know it was here?” Blakeley asked.
“I came here last night, in the dark. A man told me to meet him. He helped me find it.”
Blakely froze, stopping dead in his tracks. “A man? What man?”
But Cody didn’t answer. He’d been distracted by a fallen branch, which he picked up and waved in the air.
Blakely instinctively reached out, grabbing the boy’s shoulder. “I said, what man?”
The boy frowned, pulling away. “He met me inside the cottage.”
“Who did?”
“His name’s Jacob. Jacob Root.”
Blakely’s legs buckled, and he grasped an overhanging branch to steady himself. “How? How did you see him?”
Cody looked up. “Are you okay, mister?”
“Yes, yes, I’m okay. Just…tell me about the man.”
Cody shrugged. “Sure. He was a gardener here, a long time ago.”
Blakely had heard enough. “Listen, son, whoever you saw, it wasn’t Jacob Root.”
“Why?”
“Because Mr. Root died over a hundred years ago.”
Cody looked up. “I know that! I’m not stupid.”
Blakely stared at the boy, wondering if there was any way he could have known about Amelia’s father and the cottage. Was there a rational explanation?
“Lis
ten, Cody.” He looked earnestly into the boy’s eyes. “This really isn’t funny. If there is a man hanging around this forest, we need to know. He might have Bailey right now, and some men are very bad. You know that, don’t you?”
Cody nodded. “Yes, but he can’t hurt anyone. I’m the only one who can see him, cos I’ve got special eyes.”
Blakely felt an ache in his chest as his stomach threatened to dispense with the cooked chicken and rice he’d eaten earlier.
“I see lots of people who have died,” Cody continued, tapping the ground with his stick. “It doesn’t bother me. They’re my friends.”
“And what did Mr. Root want?” Blakely asked, his whole body trembling at the memory of those dreams.
“I don’t know. He didn’t have time to tell me. But I only see people who are upset or angry about something.” Cody looked up again. “Are you sure you’re okay, mister? You look real sick.”
Blakely stumbled forward, reaching out for another branch to steady himself. “Yes. I just feel a bit faint.”
“Do you want me to look for Bailey on my own?”
“No! I’ll come with you. Give me a minute.”
Just then, his radio contact sounded. It was one of the park rangers. “Hey, it’s Frank here. Where are you? Over.”
“I’m with the boy. We’re on our way in. Over.”
Cody looked up with wonderment in his eyes. “Hey, that’s so cool! Can I have a go?”
The radio crackled. “Let me know if you find her. Over.”
“Yep. Will do. Obviously! Over.”
Blakely clung to the branch, wondering if it was safe to let go. He’d have to continue, venturing further into Mosswood, whatever awaited him. But inside, he wanted to turn and run—to run and not stop until he was out of the park and well away from Tabwell. The place that had been his dream for so long was quickly turning into a nightmare.
Chapter Sixteen
Jenny tried to sound upbeat, but Jake examined her eyes closely and could clearly see she’d been crying.
“I told you that bleeding doll thing would set you off.”