by Crin Claxton
Tony was sure hours had passed. She had been examined and then returned to her cell. The police had told her she would have to wait until Somers had been seen by a consultant at the hospital. Dan Solomon had said they were entitled to do that if they wanted to. He thought there was no point in pushing them.
Tony had tried sleeping, but the concrete bed was the most uncomfortable piece of furniture she had ever lain on, and that included the ground when camping. She thought a bed of nails would be more comfortable. The tiled cell walls were bare except for the odd stain that Tony didn’t want to get too close to. She was sitting on a blue plastic mat stuck on top of the bed area. There was a toilet near the bed. Tony hadn’t fancied using it, as someone could look into the cell through the small hatch on the cell door at any time.
The air in front of the wall to the left of the cell door began to flicker. From past experience, Tony knew a ghost was coming through. A few seconds later, the distorted air turned into a thin black woman. Tony recognized her from Jade’s headshot.
Felicia screwed her eyes up and looked disparagingly around the cell.
“Oh no. You’re not going to be any use to me at all. This is too sordid a scene, man. I need someone clean. Someone upright.”
Tony didn’t say anything. Things were bad enough. She wasn’t going to make excuses to a ghost she hadn’t even properly met.
Felicia took a few slow steps over to the bed. She ran her eyes over the toilet area and turned up her nose. “You a player? A pimp?” She looked at Tony doubtfully. “A ho?”
Deirdre fizzed up in exactly the same place Felicia had materialized. Tony wondered if there were such things as portals for ghosts.
“She’s more of a ho, ho, ho,” Deirdre said. “But none of us are laughing right now, are we, Tony?”
Tony shook her head.
“Take me to somebody else,” Felicia commanded. “She can’t help me from in here. And she can’t help her friend, either.”
“What friend?” Tony asked.
“Jade. At one time she was your best friend, so Deirdre tells me.” Felicia sounded angry. Tony remembered Jade saying the woman was angry, but it seemed like she was angry at Tony, not just angry in general.
“What do you mean?”
“Now, Tony…” Deirdre took a step toward the bed.
“She’s in trouble. I got it wrong. Boy, did I get it wrong.”
Tony stood up. She kept half an eye on the cell door. It wouldn’t help her at all if the police caught her talking to herself. They had the power to section her. “Wrong about what?”
“I didn’t want to talk to you because you’re white. I don’t trust white people. Nothing personal. It’s just I haven’t had good experiences, if you know what I mean.” She looked from Tony to Deirdre. “Well, why would you, you’re both white. But anyway, I should have come to you. You’re not Suni’s type at all.”
Tony frowned and turned to Deirdre. “Translate?”
“Get to the point, Felicia,” Deirdre said sharply. She looked anxious.
“Suni wouldn’t have fancied you, and then Jade wouldn’t be in danger. Just saying.”
“Jade’s in danger? How?”
“Suni’s taken her somewhere. Jade’s all drugged up. I think Suni did that. Can’t be sure. It was hard to get through. Takes a lot of energy, doesn’t it?” she said to Deirdre.
Deirdre nodded. “Sure does. You’re new at this. There’s training courses you can go on. I can hook you up with a good instructor.”
“Deirdre! Surely you can talk about that later. Felicia, why is Jade in danger?”
“Suni’s on a trip. I couldn’t see that, when we were together. She gets off on controlling people. I’m damn sure now that she drove me to suicide.”
Tony stared at Felicia. “What do you mean?”
“She messed with my head till I believed I was worthless. People whispered in my ear. I thought I was hearing voices, but it must have been Suni. I bet she drugged me up, like that poor, crazy, confused child.”
“What child? Do you mean Jade?” Tony asked.
Felicia nodded.
Tony felt sick. Oh God, Maya was right. Only she had thought Jade was going mad. It looked like Suni had been trying to drive Jade crazy. Tony walked quickly to the cell door. “I need to get out of here.”
“Calm down, Tony.” Deirdre walked to her side.
Tony rounded on her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Deirdre looked apologetic. “Well, I didn’t exactly know. And it’s not my job.”
Tony was shocked. She was about to say something choice to Deirdre when the hatch flew open.
“Stand away from the door. Sit on the bed.” The arresting officer was the other side of the cell door.
Tony sat back down. The ghosts disappeared. The door swung open and the constable came into the cell.
“The report’s in on Somers, and there’s news on Rose Henderson. Come with me.”
*
Maya rang Tony’s cell phone again. It was still going straight to voice mail. Maya buckled up her seat belt and tucked her carry-on bag under the seat in front of her. She kept thinking of the shape under the blanket in Suni’s car. She had convinced herself that it was two drugged people. It was possible. Jade was petite, and Tony wasn’t exactly huge.
On the other hand, Suni could have been picking Jade up en route, and Tony could be somewhere else entirely. Maya didn’t know what to think. Maybe Tony was out of town and something had happened to her cell phone. She hoped Tony hadn’t gone away with that Beth woman. She’d always been into Tony.
Maya looked out the plane window to the runway. Drops of rain were collecting on the thick double glazing. What was wrong with her? She had no reason to think Tony was being unfaithful. The mind played tricks when a person didn’t know what was going on. She was filling in the blanks with her fears. Maya had left her number with Tony’s dad, and with all the hospitals. No one had called.
An air steward came down the aisle checking seat belts. Maya knew she’d have to switch her phone off soon. If Tony wasn’t in Suni’s car, Maya needed to let her know where she was going.
She quickly wrote a text: Honey, where are you? Call me as soon as you get this message. I love you, you’re funny and sweet, and I feel more for you than I have let myself feel for anyone. Jade and Suni have gone to Scotland, and I’m on my way there now. I have a hunch something is terribly wrong. If that’s not true I will walk in on a hot scene, and eventually they’ll forgive me. I need to talk to you. More than that, I need to see you. Call me as soon as you see this. Xxx
She tried to busy her mind with logistics. She would rent a car at Glasgow airport. The drive was around three hours. She didn’t really care if she made a fool of herself tearing after the couple. Suni had lied to her. Unless she had already booked the cabin and forgotten to cancel it. There was a chance Suni was going to the cabin just by herself. In which case, Maya would just back off and come home. She made a note to make sure she had lots of gas in the car. As soon as her phone could be switched back on she’d research a motel near the cabin, just in case.
As the plane began to taxi along the runway, Maya began to feel more than a little foolish. The state of Jade’s boat was strange, but really, was Maya allowing her imagination to completely carry her away? That lump in the back of Suni’s car could have been anything. Maybe it had looked people-shaped in Maya’s memory. She was aware of how the memory could play tricks. She’d studied the reliability of witness testimony as part of her psychology degree. Descriptions of perpetrators were notoriously unreliable, especially if taken some time after the event.
Oh well, Maya was on her way. If worst came to worst, she would just be out of pocket for the expensive plane ticket and the cost of the rental car. Oh, and the huge dent to her pride.
*
Ashton sat across the table from Tony, looking as rough as she felt.
“Luckily for you, Mr. Somers has been discharged from hospital a
nd Miss Henderson is stable. We’ve still got enough to charge you for assault. And that poor old lady isn’t out of the woods yet, so I suggest you get it all off your chest. What went wrong? Why did you hurt the old girl?”
Tony felt like she was in the film Groundhog Day.
“Somers must have beaten Rose up. But I’ve no idea why, or even what he was doing at her home.”
“He was her friend. Why shouldn’t he be there?” Ashton said.
She laughed. “No way was he her friend. You don’t know who she is, do you?”
Ashton glared at her. He didn’t say anything.
For the first time in hours, Tony felt a small spark of power. “Rose Henderson was Frankie White’s girlfriend. She founded the Justice for Frankie campaign. She hates Ron Somers. He was the man who killed Frankie.”
Ashton blinked. “That’s rubbish. They were friends,” he insisted.
Dan Solomon lent forward. “Why do you say that, Detective Ashton?”
Ashton shuffled. He glanced at the arresting officer and then dropped his eyes to the table.
“Did Ron Somers tell you he was friends with Rose Henderson?” Dan Solomon asked.
Ashton’s eyes widened.
“If they weren’t friends, how did Ron Somers know Ms. Henderson’s address, I wonder?” Dan Solomon said.
Ashton looked decidedly shifty. Tony would have bet money Somers had somehow convinced Ashton to give out Rose’s address. From the look on his face, he had no idea of the Frankie White connection.
“I need to hear that sound file you say you’ve got,” Ashton said to Tony.
He stood, his face grim.
Dan Solomon smiled reassuringly as Tony followed Ashton out of the interview room.
*
Jade stared at the neat lines of pills on the rough wooden table in front of her and felt nothing. Her head ached dully. The room spun on its axis and then settled. The pills were supposed to provide some kind of answer, but Jade couldn’t remember what the question was.
She shifted on the chair. She didn’t know where she was. The walls were made of strips of pine. The floor was wooden. The ceiling was wooden. The cupboards in the kitchen beyond the archway were wooden. That was a lot of pine. Jade had never been fond of the orangey tone of antique pine. She guessed she was either in a cabin or a tree house. She could go and look. There were blinds drawn low over windows to her left. But it didn’t seem to matter.
Jade searched inside herself for a feeling. She was numb. All she knew was that everyone was gone.
She bent her head into her hands and wept.
It helped a little.
She wiped the tears from her face with cold fingers. A photo pushed to the edge of the table caught her eye. She picked it up. The photo was Tony, in Provincetown.
A spark flickered inside her. Jade recalled the holiday. It had been exciting and dangerous. They’d been chased across sand dunes by two thugs. Jade remembered the hard knot of rope in her mouth when she’d lain on the floor of the cabin on Maya’s uncle’s boat. She’d been there for hours with her arms and legs tied. She’d stared death in the face and never given up hope.
Jade reached down but couldn’t feel anything resembling hope.
Jade had no strength left. All she wanted was peace.
She slumped forward on the table and closed her eyes to sleep.
Nothing.
The room was quiet as a grave. Jade felt suspended in time, as if she was hovering on the edge of an important action.
She felt the overpowering need to make everything stop. To just stop.
Jade opened her eyes, and there were the pills: little white, shiny, round pills. They were laid out in groups of ten. Four neat lines, ten pills wide. Beside them was a plain glass tumbler, full of water.
Jade’s lips were dry. She reached for the glass. It felt cool and smooth in her hand. She took a sip.
The water slipped down.
The pills had their own particular beauty. Jade thought they must be sleeping pills.
She picked one up. A memory clicked into place. She’d held this pill between her thumb and forefinger before. Its satiny softness was familiar. She popped it into her mouth. The sweetness of its shiny coating dissolved on her tongue. Jade took a sip of water and swallowed them both down.
She knew what she had to do. She swept the rest of the first line of pills into the palm of her hand. She brought her hand toward her mouth.
Chapter Eleven
The cabin stood out from the pitch-black forest around it. After three hours of driving, Maya had squinted along a small, unlit track that led to the isolated cabin. She couldn’t even be truly sure that she was at the right cabin, but this was where the sat nav had led her.
She sat in the car outside the cabin and checked her phone again. There was still no word from Tony.
The cabin was quiet. It was the early hours of the morning. Maya had considered checking into a motel, but she would never have been able to sleep. If all was well, Jade would forgive her. Eventually.
The cabin was boarded with slats of dark pine and topped with a steeply sloping roof. A steel chimney pointed into the sky. Maya made out a small front porch. Windows overlooking the porch and the front glowed from within. Curtains were drawn across them. Around the corner from the porch was a pale yellow door.
Maya slammed the car door shut.
Steps and a ramp led from the path to the door. The sharp tang of wood smoke hung in the air. The cabin was surrounded by pine trees in all directions. They stood tall and immobile, bearing silent witness. A moon, shrunken to a sliver, reclined above the trees in a deep blue sky, pinpricked with stars. In the distance, Maya heard the gentle gurgle of running water. It was a beautiful spot.
Maya made her way carefully to the front steps. She realized she hadn’t given Tony the address. She was now almost certain she was about to make a monumental fool of herself. On the outside chance that her fears were justified, Maya needed someone else to know where she was.
She pulled out her phone and texted: Hey, gorgeous, I forgot to give you the address: Wildwood Cabin, Fort Augustus, PH32 7BN.
A rustle nearby reminded Maya she was in the middle of a forest. It was probably a wood mouse or something, but it was a good idea to go on into the cabin. God, she hoped it was the right place.
She walked quickly to the front door. There was no bell or knocker so she rapped on the wood with her fist.
It was so quiet she heard the footsteps within as someone came to the door.
It opened inward to reveal Suni.
Maya sighed with relief. She was at the right place then. She smiled.
Suni smiled back.
“Your phone, please,” she said.
Maya was confused. “Huh? I—”
Suni nodded toward Maya’s jacket pocket. “Give me your phone.”
There was a click behind her. The barrel of a gun pressed into her back. Maya stiffened. She started to turn.
“Stay where you are,” a voice said behind her. It sounded just like Suni.
“Well, you wanted to come in, didn’t you? Be my guest.” Suni swept her hand toward the interior of the cabin. She was being perfectly polite and charming.
Fear snaked through Maya as the gun pressed harder into her back.
“Get a move on. It’s bloody cold out here,” the voice behind her complained. A hand shoved her forward.
Maya was pushed into a sitting area with sofas and a table lamp. The door slammed and was bolted. Maya turned.
She stared at the woman laughing at her with the front door key in one hand and a pistol in the other. It was Suni.
Maya shook her head and looked back at the woman who had answered the door. The identical woman also laughed.
“Do you think she’s got it yet?” the woman with the gun said.
The woman who’d answered the door stepped forward. “We’ve met before. I’m Suni, Sunita.” She stretched out her hand. Maya didn’t take it.
&
nbsp; “And we’ve met before as well, my name’s Anita.” The woman with the gun crossed in front of Maya and stood next to Suni.
“You’re identical twins.” Maya bit her lip.
“Give the woman a cigar, only don’t because this is a non-smoking cabin. This little backwater doesn’t allow smoking in the privacy of your own rental home,” Anita said casually.
Maya stared at them both. She searched for a way of telling them apart.
“We were half expecting you, but you’ve come at a very annoying time,” Suni said.
Anita waved the pistol in the direction of an archway. “Get through there.”
Maya walked past the sofas into a small dining area.
Jade was sitting at a wooden dining table. As Maya walked toward her, she scooped up a handful of little white pills.
Maya didn’t give a damn if they shot her. She ran to Jade and knocked the pills out of her hand.
Jade blinked at Maya. She had dark shadows under her eyes. She’d lost weight. Her skin was drawn and pale. Her eyes were red, and her hair was wild. Jade normally wore her hair in short locks. It was all over the place.
Maya hugged her. Jade didn’t resist, but she didn’t hug Maya back.
“It’s Maya,” Maya said.
Jade looked at her. She was obviously confused. She yawned and rubbed her eyes.
“What are these, sleeping pills?” Maya asked the twins.
They nodded simultaneously. Anita was still pointing the gun at her.
“How many did you take?” Maya asked Jade.
Jade yawned again but didn’t answer. She looked about to fall asleep. Maya thought quickly. What emetics could she find in a forest? She knew that Polygala senega grew in forests in North America. Maybe it grew in Scotland too? She might be able to find something that would make Jade vomit. That’s if she could persuade or get past the twins.
Suni walked to the table and counted the pills. She swept them into a Ziploc bag, then she picked up the pills Maya had knocked to the floor. “One,” she said to Maya. She patted Jade’s head. “Just one little pill,” she said in a baby voice. “Never mind, honey. You’ll do better next time.”