Into The Lake: A gripping psychological thriller

by LK Chapman

  ‘I’m looking forward to it,’ she told him, and he smiled with satisfaction before making his way down the corridor. Once he was out of sight Natalie sagged against the wall, her legs weak.

  53

  The days until the weekend passed excruciatingly – the time moving simultaneously fast and slow as she dreaded having to go to Toby’s house, yet equally couldn’t wait for the whole thing to be over. Once she’d found out whatever it was Toby was hiding, she could use it to make everything stop. She could tell Josh he was definitely innocent, she could move back into his flat, and Toby would get whatever justice he deserved. Cold dread seeped through her at the thought of what she might discover, and the thought of what she might have to do to discover it, because Toby wouldn’t be put off from claiming his prize much longer. But she had to use that to her advantage. It was pretty obvious that Toby had no genuine feelings or respect for her. Having slept with her once or twice, he would likely lose interest in her entirely, but while he was chasing her she had a unique opportunity to get what she needed, and she had to make the most of it. But if Toby had actually killed Mikayla, and he discovered her snooping around in the house …

  ‘I’m so sick of people’s attitude here sometimes,’ Toby said as he thundered into the office. ‘Little details. I tell everyone constantly. It might seem like nothing to them, but a little dust and grime here and there can completely change how our guests see us!’

  ‘Toby–’

  ‘No, don’t try to tell me everyone makes mistakes. It’s laziness, pure and simple.’

  Natalie got up and touched his arm. ‘It’s great how passionate you are about this place,’ she said, ‘but we do have some really good people here. Not everyone has a bad attitude.’

  ‘Yes, you’re right,’ he said, but then his face clouded again. ‘If I catch that new girl Becky on her phone again when she’s supposed to be working–’ He left his threat hanging. Has he tried it on with her too? She could easily believe it. Pursuing her and Becky simultaneously would just be an extra thrill for him.

  ‘So, did Josh turn himself in, do you know?’ Toby asked her, surprising her out of her thoughts. She had messaged Gareth to ask the same thing, and to her relief it seemed that he had decided against it.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘Whatever you said to him must have worked.’

  ‘I don’t know why he was so obsessed with that girl anyway,’ Toby said. ‘I know you’re not supposed to say stuff like this about the dead, but Mikayla wasn’t really anything all that special. I swear he was only interested in her because she was going out with me. That’s just the kind of thing he would do – making everything all about him.’

  Natalie twitched with anger, but she forced herself not to show it. ‘Well, we’ve all seen what sort of person he is from what he did to me,’ she said. She leant forward towards Toby as he sat down at his desk. She had to focus. He’d brought up that weekend without her needing to prompt him. Perhaps if she could keep him talking, she’d find out something useful. ‘He must have been very jealous of you and Mikayla,’ she said.

  ‘He was. But he never said anything much about it. He was always just behind a screen in his own little world. Apart from when he was with Gareth, and God knows what the two of them used to talk about.’

  ‘He wouldn’t have acted on it, though. His jealousy.’

  Toby shrugged. ‘Only a weirdo like Josh would start winding himself up about something that happened so long ago and is already resolved. Why can’t he just trust what the police concluded? And how he can think he did something and then forgot? It makes no sense to me at all.’

  ‘Could you ever imagine it,’ Natalie asked. ‘Being that jealous? Because it can happen, can’t it, feelings getting out of hand like that?’

  Toby gave her an odd look. ‘Nat–’

  ‘I didn’t mean–’ She laughed uncomfortably. God, she was bad at this. What a stupidly suspicious thing to ask him. ‘I had an ex once who was a pretty jealous type,’ she lied quickly. ‘I vowed to myself I’d never end up with a creep like that again, but after this stuff with Josh, I worry sometimes.’

  ‘You’re asking me if I’m a creep like Josh and your other ex?’ Toby asked. Luckily, he’d found the question more amusing than offensive.

  ‘No, of course I’m not. It’s just … I don’t know. You know what I mean, don’t you? It’s hard to really know people. And besides, don’t you feel bad about Jodie?’ The words were out of her mouth before she could help herself. She felt awful for Toby’s wife.

  ‘I don’t feel about Jodie how I feel about you,’ he said. ‘Me and Jodie have been together a long time. Stuff changes. But what she doesn’t know can’t hurt her.’

  54

  By the time the weekend rolled around, Natalie felt sick. Aside from the awful prospect of taking things further with Toby, how on earth was she going to find the old photos? What if she got into the house and they just weren’t there? What if she never even had an opportunity to search? What if Toby discovered her? The what ifs filled her mind, and she could barely concentrate at work. More than once she had to flee to the toilets to hide away and take some deep breaths.

  Saturday was busy at the hotel, as usual, and it was late before she could leave. She hadn’t seen much of Toby all day, apart from when they’d briefly crossed paths earlier in the afternoon and he’d checked she was still coming round, telling her how excited he was and giving her a little pat on the bum when he thought no one was watching. Natalie’s hands were shaking as she arrived at Toby’s house. How much more of this could she take?

  But when he opened the door, she was surprised to hear a child crying somewhere inside.

  ‘Nat,’ he said, ‘I tried to call you–’

  She took her phone from her pocket. ‘The battery’s dead,’ she said. She’d been so distracted she’d forgotten to charge it the night before.

  ‘Katy’s ill,’ Toby said. ‘She’s got a fever and Jodie thought it was better to come back home. Katy managed to get a little sleep in the car, but now she’s screaming–’

  ‘Toby?’ Jodie’s voice called from upstairs. ‘Who is it?’

  Natalie’s heart was pounding. If Katy was ill, most of the family would probably be at home for the next day or two at least. How on earth was she going to get a chance to snoop around the house?

  ‘Can I do anything to help?’ she asked, once Toby had called up to Jodie that the visitor was ‘nothing important’.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ he said. He reached out and stroked her cheek. ‘Another time, okay?’

  Natalie’s heart sank. How long would this go on for? She’d been in pieces all day worrying about this night, and now it wasn’t even going to happen! The horror was just delayed, and she couldn’t bear it. It had to be this weekend. She had to make it stop.

  Suddenly, her gaze fell on a row of little hooks on the wall by the door. House keys! Lots of them – they clearly had a couple of spare sets. If Toby turned round again, she could grab one without them even noticing it was missing.

  Toby leant in to kiss her, pulling her towards him. As quick as she could, she reached her hand around, trying as gently as possible to grab a set of keys. They jangled softly, but he was apparently too caught up in the moment to care. Jodie called him from upstairs, and he quickly pulled away from her, his face a little flushed. Natalie smiled at him, her pulse thundering so hard she felt faint. But she’d done it! She’d got the keys.

  ‘I hope Katy feels better soon,’ she told him, before turning and making her way back towards her car.

  Instead of leaving, she drove a little down the road and parked again. The lights were on upstairs in the house; there would be no chance of her getting in right now. She’d have to wait. But even then, the situation was hopeless. She couldn’t let herself into the house while the family were still inside, could she? Even if she was confident they were asleep, surely she couldn’t prowl around silently enough not to wake them. And with a fe
verish toddler in the house, no one was likely to be sleeping soundly that night.

  She sighed as she plugged her phone in to the car and waited for it to power up. This was a nightmare. But once her phone had finally woken up, the nightmare only deepened. A message from Gareth.

  Josh has turned himself in. I just hope they don’t take him seriously.

  A small cry escaped her. She hadn’t acted fast enough! She couldn’t let Josh put himself through this – she had to find something that would clear his name once and for all. She tried to take heart from Gareth’s words, but her mind teemed with awful possibilities. The police probably wouldn’t take Josh seriously if he walked in and confessed to a crime he couldn’t remember doing. But if he thought one of the nightmares he had about killing Mikayla was the truth and told them that version of events, who knew what could happen?

  She was startled out of her thoughts some time later as the door to Toby’s house burst open. The whole family spilled out onto the street, Finn in pyjamas and a dressing-gown, while Jodie was in leggings and a long sweatshirt, a small bundle in her arms that must be Katy. They all got into their car and quickly drove away. Natalie frowned. Where were they off to? Then it struck her – they must be taking Katy to hospital. She vaguely remembered from when she and Josh had gone round for dinner that Jodie had said she couldn’t drive. The whole family must have gone as Jodie probably couldn’t bear to be parted from Katy if Toby took the little girl on his own.

  She picked up the house keys. The idea of going into the house was still nerve-wracking, but at least now it felt possible. She’d have the whole place to herself, with virtually no risk of being discovered.

  It was now or never.

  55

  Natalie sighed as she put yet another box of photos aside. She’d gone to the computer in the upstairs study first to look for evidence of Toby trolling her, but that had been fruitless, so she’d turned her attention to the photos. It had been easy enough to find where he stored them all – there were boxes and boxes inside a cupboard next to the desk. Unfortunately, Toby wasn’t as well organised at home as he was at the hotel and the collection wasn’t labelled, so going through them was slow and laborious. Eventually she came across a wallet of photos that looked to be from the right time period, and her breath caught in her throat as she flipped through the stack of images. But, no. Nothing from Chedford Lake.

  She put the photos carefully away again, and started on another set, and then another, until the sight of a familiar image nearly made her drop the whole pack. The photos he’d taken down from the hotel, and with them, all the other pictures from the lake! She flicked through them feverishly, trying to look for every detail in the images, the tiniest thing that seemed strange, any faces that didn’t seem to fit. She shuddered at a horrible image Toby had taken of Josh being sick, and quickly flicked that to the back of the pile. Toby really was a pig. But before she knew it, she was staring at that same photo again. She’d gone through the whole lot! And there was nothing – nothing at all that was related to Mikayla’s death. No strangers; the teenagers in the pictures were clearly all one group. Some of the photographs were really beautiful, showing the lake at sunset, but half of them were just embarrassing pictures of drunk kids.

  Maybe there were more. Or maybe Toby hid the incriminating ones somewhere else. The thought made her pause. If there was anything truly incriminating, why would he even keep it? If he had any sense, surely he’d just throw it away, no matter how proud he was of his photography.

  She sat back with a sigh. What on earth was she doing? This was never going to work. She’d broken into the house of a family with a sick child, started looking through their possessions, and for what? There wasn’t even anything here! Tears stung her eyes. She’d been such an idiot! How had she ever thought this would work? It was just sheer desperation.

  She opened another wallet full of photos, though she could barely see them through her tears, and forced herself to focus. More images swam before her eyes. These pictures weren’t even of Chedford Lake. But then an image made her pause. A run-down house – it looked virtually abandoned – except for the fact there was a woman standing in the doorway. She was angry, her arm outstretched as she pointed her finger at Toby accusingly. Her hair fell in a messy dark blonde tangle around her shoulders, and she was wearing a bright pink cardigan covered with blue flowers which stood out oddly – a flash of colour against the grim, creepy house. Behind her the hall was just visible, piled high with boxes and other junk.

  This was Gareth’s house! This was when Toby had found it and upset Gareth by taking photos. Natalie stared at the woman’s face. How difficult it must have been for both her and Gareth to live this way. And how cruel of Toby to laugh about it.

  She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she jumped out of her skin at the sound of the front door slamming shut. Feet thundered upstairs. She leapt to her feet, trying to kick the photos under the desk as she ran across to close the door and turn the light off. But the person was already upstairs, and from the sound of the heavy footsteps it had to be Toby. If she closed the door he would notice. All she could do now was try to hide, and Toby would hopefully assume the light had been left on by mistake when he had left the house earlier. She tucked herself away beside the storage cupboard where the photos were kept. It wasn’t a great hiding place, but she wouldn’t be visible from the hall. As long as Toby didn’t come inside the room and start looking around she would be safe.

  For a brief, heart-stopping moment, she thought she had got away with it. The footsteps passed by the doorway, and on down the landing. But then they stopped. Natalie squeezed her eyes closed in fear, not that it helped. What was Toby doing? Had he stopped to look at the study? Was he wondering why the light was on?

  The room exploded with jangling sound, making her jump out of her skin. For a moment she couldn’t understand what it was. As realisation struck her, she fumbled her phone from her pocket. Toby’s name was on the screen. He’d stopped in the hall to call her. And there was no way he couldn’t have heard her phone ringing.

  56

  ‘Natalie?’ Toby said, once his eyes had fallen on her in her hiding place. His face was confused rather than angry. But why would he be angry yet? He had no idea what she’d been up to.

  ‘Toby, I–’ she rushed to speak, but she couldn’t finish her sentence. She’d been so confident no one would come back before she finished what she was doing that she hadn’t even tried to think of an excuse in case she was discovered! But what excuse could she possibly give, anyway? Her presence here made absolutely no sense. Instead of explaining herself, she wriggled out from beside the cupboard, straightening her clothes primly as if the whole situation was completely normal.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he said. ‘You look like you’ve been crying.’

  ‘I–’

  ‘How did you get in?’

  ‘The door wasn’t locked,’ she lied. ‘I don’t know why I came here. I didn’t know where else to go, I guess.’

  ‘Have you fallen out with your brother? I thought you were staying with him?’

  ‘How … how’s Katy?’ she asked. Her mind raced. She shouldn’t even know that the family had gone anywhere – she only knew that because she’d been keeping watch on the house, and she could hardly tell Toby that. ‘Where is everyone?’

  ‘We took Katy to hospital. They’ve checked her over, they’re just keeping an eye on her now, but it looks like she’ll be completely fine. Finn fell asleep on Jodie’s lap, and I just came to pick up a couple of things because I think we might still be there a little while.’

  ‘I’m … I’m glad she’s okay.’

  Toby’s expression hardened. ‘I don’t understand why you came here. Jodie and the kids are still around this weekend – what did you think you were doing?’

  As he waited for her to answer, his eyes fell on the photos she’d tried to kick under the desk.

  ‘Toby–’ she started, as understanding bloomed o
n his face. ‘I was just–’

  He went across and picked the photos up. ‘Is this … is this what I think it is?’

  Sheer panic overtook her. ‘Josh has turned himself in,’ she blurted. ‘I’m just so worried–’

  ‘But you and Josh are over,’ he said, unconcerned by her news.

  ‘I know,’ she said, still trying to play along. ‘But he’s obviously not thinking straight. Even though it’s over I don’t want him to suffer. I thought maybe I could find something to help. I saw that you all went out, I’d taken some keys from beside the door earlier and I let myself in. I’m sorry, Toby. I didn’t mean to deceive you, I was just trying to help Josh, but I knew you wouldn’t like it.’

  ‘There’s nothing here to find,’ he said.

  ‘But you said how you didn’t want the photos up in the hotel any more–’

  ‘I just don’t like thinking about it right now!’ he said. ‘Not when it’s all been brought up again. I just wanted to get some bloody peace and get rid of any reminders!’ He narrowed his eyes at her. He was standing in her way, so she couldn’t dart past him to the door. He knows. He knows I’m lying.

  ‘Did Josh ask you to do this?’ he said heavily.

  ‘No. I told you, it’s over–’

  ‘Is it?’ he said. ‘Because you are doing a lot for someone who has treated you so badly.’

  ‘Toby, just let me go home. This has all been an awful mistake.’

  He reached out a hand towards her. ‘Kiss me,’ he said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You heard me. We’ve got the place to ourselves right now, haven’t we?’

  ‘Because your daughter is in hospital!’

  He nodded slowly. ‘There’s always something, right? Not at work. Not right now, even when there’s no one here to see.’