House of Secrets

by Lynda Stacey

  ‘Here, fetch the stick!’ she shouted as once again she picked up the stick and threw it into the trees. Buddy ran off, ignored the stick and kept on running. ‘Hey, Buddy. Come here.’

  She looked at the tree line; the police had asked her not to go in the woods. She looked back at the house to see if she could indicate to someone where she was going but all Madeleine could make out was Poppy running off towards the ha-ha and Jess running after her.

  ‘Buddy, get here now. Buddy, Buddy, come back!’ She tried to shout, hoping that the sternness of her voice would bring him running with his stick in his mouth and tail between his legs. She couldn’t hear him, which was strange and she walked into the tree line, checking the floor for holes as she began to wonder if the earth had opened up and swallowed him whole.

  ‘Buddy, where the hell are you? Buddy, come here, boy.’

  Again she looked over her shoulder. The house was now beyond the skeletal trees. She inched deeper and deeper into the woods. Her heart began beating loudly in her chest as worry took over her mind.

  Buddy always came back. He never ran off. So where had he gone?

  Spotting him between the trees, she breathed a sigh of relief. ‘There you are, boy, come here.’ He sat, looked at her, tail wagging. But he didn’t move.

  ‘Buddy, for God’s sake. Come here.’

  Something wasn’t right and Madeleine slowed her steps until she stood perfectly still. Buddy still sat in the distance, which disturbed her. She’d never known him to sit for so long, not in the same position, not when he didn’t have to. She listened and waited before turning to the house in the hope that Nomsa or the police would now have realised that she’d disappeared. But no one looked in her direction. No one appeared to have noticed she’d left the path and it occurred to her that she hadn’t told anyone where she was going.

  A twig snapped underfoot, but she hadn’t moved. She knew someone else was in the woods with her, but who?

  ‘Bandit, is that you?’

  Silence.

  Again, she looked at the house. She knew someone was there. She’d heard the footstep and they hadn’t replied when she’d shouted out. Every instinct she had within her body told her to run, but Buddy wailed and yapped.

  She couldn’t leave him.

  She began to walk slowly in his direction. A tether could clearly be seen and Madeleine looked over her shoulder. Someone must be there, someone must have tethered him and it must have been someone he’d have known and run to.

  Kneeling down, she began to untie the rope as quickly as she could while she constantly looked around her. Buddy bounced up and down, making a fuss. But his eyes were firmly placed looking over her shoulder making Madeleine tense up with fear.

  Then darkness over took her mind.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Bandit leaned against the inglenook in the grand hall, picked up the long cast iron poker and stoked the remnants of the fire, which had almost gone out. Picking up a large log, he threw it into the flames along with five or six small pieces of kindling to give it a chance of relighting. He waited for the crackling to begin and for the flames to dance and spark, before picking up the coal scuttle and surrounding the log with small pieces of fuel.

  The news that the hall would have new owners upset him more than he cared to admit. It had been the only place he’d ever settled, felt at home and had finally stopped running from the past. Of course the gatehouse would always be his, but the thought that things might change and that he might not come here for breakfast, sit around the table in the kitchen and see Nomsa, Jack or Bernie again tore through him.

  He looked around it now: the great hall, where pictures lined the walls, ornaments stood around the windowsills and dark wood sideboards and tables were all decorated with pieces of arts and crafts. Madeleine had always wondered why there had been no family pictures, but the diary had said it all. Bandit looked up at the mantle; it was where there should have been pictures of his father, of Emily’s son. But there were none and never had been. His father had been outcast and the family had had too many secrets which they’d felt should be hidden.

  ‘Why haven’t I paid you more attention?’ he asked himself. His hand delicately stroked the deep blue chesterfield settee as he desperately tried to imprint the image of the room into his mind. He looked carefully at every piece of furniture, every inch of carpet and every ornament, knowing that each and every one held secrets to his father’s heritage, to a life he should have had and hadn’t been allowed.

  Bandit planned to bring his father home for one final Christmas here at the hall, but wasn’t sure how much he remembered of his past. His memories of the tunnels were vague, but he was quite aware that he’d been down them and had mentioned them many times in the past few months. Bandit had sat and listened more intently as his father had described the lanterns that used to be lit at each end, the ones that still stood in the tunnel now. While at the same time, he’d spoken of the nursery, the noise of the bell tower and the happy times he’d spent in front of the log fires.

  Bandit wanted his father to see it all, just one last time, but didn’t know how he would feel when nothing looked the same, when he realised that the lady, as he’d called her, was no longer there and whether he’d ask to see the tunnel which was now partially blocked and dangerous.

  ‘Hey there, Buddy boy. What you doing in the house?’ He bent down to fuss Buddy who’d just ran into the great hall, jumped up on the leather chesterfield settee and barked before jumping down again and running back and forth towards the door.

  Bandit caught hold of his collar and noticed the strands of nylon rope that were tied to it. This was not a rope he recognised. He normally ordered the rope and tools for the hall and this was not one that he had previously used. So why had Buddy been tethered with it now?

  ‘Jack, has Madeleine started tying Buddy up?’

  Jack laughed. ‘Seriously? Why would she? If anything he hasn’t been in his run for days, takes himself in and out as he pleases and takes himself to the woods for walks. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was sleeping in Poppy’s bed every night.’

  ‘Then why would he have this around his neck?’ He held up the strands of rope for Jack to see.

  Both stared, both shrugged their shoulders and both fussed Buddy who ran back and forth, barking for attention.

  ‘Where’s Maddie?’ Bandit asked.

  ‘Haven’t seen her for an hour or two,’ Jack replied as he collected the empty glasses that stood on the table, turned and walked back to the dining room.

  Bandit took the stairs, two steps at a time. He needed to locate Madeleine, and for some reason he knew he needed to find her fast.

  ‘Jess, Jess, where’s Maddie?’ he shouted as he burst into the bedroom where Jess knelt by the bath and Poppy jumped up from beneath the bubbles, arms above her head in the hope that Bandit would swing her out of the water and into a cuddle.

  ‘I noticed her running shoes have gone. I thought she’d gone out with you.’ Jess’s face paled as both she and Bandit stared towards the window. ‘Where is she Bandit? Jesus Christ, where did she go?’

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Madeleine felt pain.

  Every single inch of her hurt, yet she wasn’t sure which part hurt the most. Her arms were stretched above her head. Her wrists were bound and her toes were barely touching the floor making pain shoot through her shoulders as they took the weight of her whole body.

  She opened her eyes, just a slit at first. She knew she was in danger. She’d have been a fool not to have worked that out quickly, and she assessed, gauged, and calculated her situation.

  She was indoors. The room she was in was dark, yet dim lighting came through a crack in a door. It was another room maybe, or the door could even lead to the outside. She could tell that the room she was in was built of wood, the smell unmistakable. She could only just make out the shadows of old wooden beams which seemed to hold up the roof and it felt as though there were no car
pet underfoot, just rough planed floorboards.

  From the light coming from the door she could just make out the silhouette of a chair. It stood in the far corner, near a window. In it sat a shadowy figure.

  ‘So, you’re finally awake.’ His unmistakable Irish tone echoed through the room. ‘I wondered how long it would take. Some people take longer than others. Your sister, she slept for hours in the boot of my car.’

  ‘Why … why am I here? What did you do to me, you freak?’

  ‘Now, now, Maddie, darlin’. That’s no way to speak to me, now is it?’ His voice grated through the air and she felt nauseous as he spoke.

  ‘You’re nothing to me, Liam.’

  ‘Of course I am. We love each other, Maddie. Don’t we, darlin’?’

  ‘Liam, I’ve told you before, you lost the right to call me that the moment I caught you shagging that piece of skirt in our hallway. Now let me go.’ She held her breath as he walked around the edge of the darkened room, studying her from a distance. ‘They searched your house, Liam. They found the bodies, the room with the noticeboards.’ She paused and tried to focus on his face, which he purposely kept turned to one side. ‘Why, Liam? Why did you do it and why Jess, why were you going to hurt Jess?’

  He stopped in his tracks and stared out of the window. Madeleine could make out the trees beyond. There was a swing seat that hung on the porch and she realised that her holding place was the wooden summer house, deep within the woods.

  ‘They betrayed me, all of them.’

  ‘Who did?’ Madeleine tried to move her wrists, tried to stop the pains that shot down each arm. She almost dreaded the words that he might speak, knowing that the boards held photographs of both her and of Jess. Did he feel that they had betrayed him too?

  ‘She betrayed me. She had that screaming baby. She didn’t have to have another one, especially one with needs. Mother loved her more than she loved me. How could she do that?’ He slammed his hand against the window, the pane shattering beneath his hand. ‘Arrrgghhhhh, now look what you made me do!’ He turned towards her, thrusting his hand in her face, leaving a crimson streak across her cheek.

  Madeleine screamed. But it was not his actions that terrified her.

  She saw his face. One side of which was destroyed by burns. Deep, red scars covered his cheek. He turned his face to look at her; his left eye was welded shut, and there was extensive damage to the whole side of his face and hairline, all unrecognisable as the Liam she’d known.

  ‘Do you see what you did to me, Maddie? You did this, Maddie. It’s your fault.’

  She shook her head. Tears sprang to her eyes and began to fall uncontrollably down her face. Jess had said he’d been burnt, but she’d had no idea how bad it had been. She knew she had to buy time, knew she had to keep him talking, after all he had nothing left to lose.

  Strangely, and for just a moment, she wanted to reach out and touch his face, heal his pain and take away the scars. For some reason she felt sad that his good looks had gone. But then she reminded herself of what he’d done. A man who had killed her beloved Michael, her mother, her father, Angelina and Bridget, not to mention his sister and parents. She shook her head from side to side. He’d almost killed Jess too and for that, she was glad he’d suffered unbearable pain.

  ‘You should have died in that fire, not my face. The fire exploded in my face. I was hurt and it took me forever to escape, yet you and the soldier man, you both got out, unharmed. Well, it’s your turn to burn, Maddie. You need to know how it feels.’

  The words were venomous, making Madeleine close her eyes out of fear. She no longer wanted to look at him, no longer wanted to take away his pain. All she could think of was escaping, getting out of this nightmare. She had to get him talking, had to get him to concentrate on something else.

  ‘Please, Liam, tell me about your sister. You’ve never told me about her. Why did you hate her so much?’

  ‘My sister, that little toad. She was blind, born without sight and relied on Mother for everything. She was a leech. She clung to Mother and followed her around, making it impossible for Mother to love me too. But I needed her, I needed her to be there for me, but she never was.’

  ‘That must have been awful for you, but I’m sure she loved you too, Liam. A child with blindness has to be difficult. I can’t imagine how I would feel if Poppy had been born that way.’

  Madeleine thought back to what the police had told her about the noticeboards. The victims had had their eyes blacked out, thick marker pen scribbled across them. All except for the sister, and no one had known why. But, of course, she’d been blind and couldn’t look at him at all. She couldn’t see the hate in his eyes, had no idea what danger she was in and probably didn’t even understand what he was doing when he killed her.

  Madeleine stared at the man she’d once thought she loved and wondered what kind of animal he really was. How could he hate a blind toddler so very much? How could he hurt her, murder her? Drown her in the pond and then kill his mother for having loved her? Had he killed the sister or the mother first? Or perhaps his father?

  ‘Stop looking at me. I’ve told you, I don’t want you to look at me.’

  ‘Liam, please.’

  ‘No, Maddie. It’s the rule. You can’t look at me.’

  ‘Then, please, tell me, why did you kill Michael? He did nothing wrong to you, and my father. Did you kill him too?’

  A loud, sickening laugh filled the room. ‘Because they had you and I didn’t. They had no right to have you. They had to be eliminated. Your father though, I couldn’t call that as one of my own, not really, a couple of little amphetamines in his drink and he flew like a bird.’

  Madeleine felt her heart break in two. He’d killed them both and in Liam’s words they’d been eliminated. They’d died because they loved her.

  ‘You self-centred, evil bastard. You don’t eliminate people because they love someone else. What kind of a man are you?’ her anger boiled over and she purposely stared at where he stood. She stared at his scars, knowing that the longer she looked at him, the more uncomfortable he became. ‘Did you do all of that just to get me into your bed? Did you? I fell for you, Liam. I actually loved you. How the hell did that happen?’

  She continued to stare as he began pacing the bare floorboards. She counted as he walked: ten steps in one direction and then ten steps in the other. ‘Look at me, Liam O’Grady. After all you’ve taken from me, the least you can do is look at me, you coward.’

  She kicked out at him, making herself scream with pain as the full weight of her body pulled heavily on her wrists, the coarse rope cut deep into her skin and deep red blood seeped into the blue nylon of the rope.

  ‘You never did remember me, Maddie, did you? I knew you hadn’t. I knew you couldn’t possibly have remembered me,’ he rambled on as he continued to pace up and down the floor.

  ‘Remember you? What the hell are you talking about, Liam?’ Madeleine looked puzzled, afraid. It was obvious from his words that they’d met before, but she had no idea of where and when. ‘Had … had we met before?’

  ‘Yes, Maddie. Yes. We met at school. But you didn’t like me back then, did you?’

  ‘Liam, I … I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ She continued to stare at him. Had they really met at school? She was still unable to remember him. ‘You … you must have changed. I really, really don’t remember.’

  He kicked at the wall, making the whole wooden structure of the summer house shudder. The beam above her head creaked and moved, allowing the rope to loosen, and her foot touched the floor, making it easier for her to stand. She waited for him to turn away and looked up to assess the rope. It was still secure, still held her tight, but at least now she had just a small margin of allowance. It was just enough to give her some hope of escape.

  ‘I watched you from a distance, Maddie. I watched for such a long time,’ he said. ‘I used to watch you every day. I’d wait till every other person had left the corridor and
watch as you went into your class, take your seat and take out your books. But each day you’d ignore me, pay me no attention and then finally, when I’d lost all hope, you smiled at me. Just once, you looked across and smiled. I was so happy. I felt sure you liked me and spent the rest of the summer waiting for you to speak to me, but you didn’t.’

  Realisation hit her as Madeleine remembered the boy who used to wait in the corridor. Everyone used to comment and wonder why. But now she knew. She remembered him, the dark rimmed glasses, the hair that looked far too long and a head that appeared much too big for his shoulders.

  ‘Ah, now you remember.’ He pushed her face to one side. ‘Don’t look at me.’

  ‘I do remember. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know, I didn’t know you were waiting for me to speak,’ she said as once again the rope twisted and tugged at her wrists. ‘We were so young, Liam. I never meant to hurt you. I didn’t even know who you were. You have to believe me.’

  ‘I DON’T HAVE TO BELIEVE ANYTHING!’ he screamed, stamping across the room and away from her towards the door. The door opened and light flooded the room. The smell of burning wood drifted in giving her the same uncomfortable feeling she’d had when she’d been trapped in the hall.

  ‘Liam, what’s the fire for? What are you doing?’

  He walked back into the room carrying a bucket of fluid, which he sprinkled around the room. ‘I’m preparing your death. I sentenced you to die by fire and die by fire you will. You see, once I decide how it will happen, then that’s how it must be. You really shouldn’t have escaped the first time, should you?’

  Madeleine screamed. A high-pitched scream left her lungs and failed to stop. She could smell the fluid as he came close. Watched as he took a ladle and used it to throw the liquid at the floor, the curtains and the old pieces of furniture that surrounded her.

  ‘Liam, please. You can’t do this. You love me, think of the times we had.’ She tried to think of things they used to do together, but couldn’t and it suddenly occurred to her that their time together hadn’t meant so very much at all. Their days had been an existence, a daily monotony of getting up, going to work and going to bed.