‘We’ll meet again…’ Vera Lynn promised. All around Carly couples danced. Around her, through her. She didn’t know if they were the ghosts or if she was. The handsome men in their high-waisted trousers and frock coats, pinned medals glinting as they spun around women in pencil skirts and hats, beautiful in their matching uniforms and matching smiles.
Happy. Everyone was happy.
‘Carly.’ Someone was calling her and she wondered whether it was the boy ladling punch with the cropped blond hair and the brilliant blue eyes. He couldn’t have been much older than her. Perhaps he wanted to dance with her. She felt a hand slip inside hers but the boy hadn’t moved. Carly was confused.
‘Wake up.’
But Carly didn’t want to wake up. She wanted to stay here where everyone was hopeful.
She wanted to feel hopeful.
Carly felt tears slide onto her cheeks. She wondered why she was crying.
If ghosts could even cry.
‘Is she dead?’ she heard.
She wanted to tell the boy she wasn’t dead, she was here and whole and she wanted to dance with him, but tears dripped again and Carly knew it wasn’t the boy who was whispering. It wasn’t her own tears she could feel.
‘I’m okay,’ Carly reassured her sisters but as she tried to sit up, feelings returned hard and fast. Pain in her head, her foot. The tang of blood in her mouth. She wanted to spit it out but didn’t want it to land on Leah or Marie so she swallowed it down. Felt it travelling down her throat, swishing around her empty stomach. She retched.
After taking a couple of deep breaths, she asked, ‘Are either of you hurt?’
‘I think I’ve twisted my ankle,’ Leah said.
Marie began to cry. ‘This isn’t a game, is it?’
‘If it is, we’re going to win.’ Fuelled by the courage Carly had witnessed in the ballroom, she forced herself to sit and then to kneel. The soldiers had faced far worse than she had. Where would the country be today if they had given up? ‘We’re getting out of here.’ Acid rose in her throat as waves of pain battered her skull each time she moved. ‘We need to look for a way out. We don’t have much time.’
‘But I can’t see…’
‘You can feel, with your hands. There must be a handle. Something.’ Carly remembered Mr Webster telling the class the decontamination chamber had been built when there was a real threat of gas attacks. He had told them about the chutes where any clothing that might be contaminated would be stuffed but he hadn’t said what would happen after it had toppled into this small space they now found themselves in. There had to be a way to empty it surely, or did they just burn it? Drop a match through the hatch. Carly looked up fearfully as though she might see fire, her panic raging.
‘Carly! I’ve found something.’ Marie was excited, she was always so desperate to please.
‘Good girl,’ Carly said, shuffling around on her knees, arms splayed out before her until she found her sister.
‘Here, on the ground.’
Carly tightened her fingers around a metal ring and pulled as hard as she could. It didn’t move. A chink of light caught her eye. She looked up. Someone had cracked open the hatch.
‘No,’ she moaned as she rattled the handle again.
‘Three blind mice, three blind mice,’ Moustache sang softly. Slowly. She couldn’t hear Doc and she knew he’d be trying to find another way to reach them.
Despite the freezing temperature, she was boiling. She wiped her face with her sleeve.
‘Grab hold of me and pull as hard as you can.’ Carly grasped the ring, tighter now, with both hands, her sisters’ arms wrapped around her waist.
They pulled and pulled until pain seared in Carly’s shoulder joints. She felt her body might tear in two as the combined weight of the twins dragged her backwards.
Carly clenched her fingers harder. She wouldn’t let go.
Suddenly the trapdoor swung open, sending the sisters tumbling like dominoes.
Sobbing, Carly felt around until she found one of the girls and without hesitation she dragged her over to the hole and shoved her down into the blackness. Whatever was down there couldn’t be any worse than being trapped in this tiny space with Moustache still singing above them. It made Carly’s stomach contract to realize that he was relishing the chase. Wanting it almost.
‘See how they run. See how they run.’
‘Carly, I…’
‘Move,’ she snapped, cutting off Leah’s protests that it was too dark, she was too scared. She propelled her into the unknown, after Marie, then she scrambled after them both.
The tunnel was low. Damp. The stench was cloying. Their progress was slow at first. Carly felt around with her hands as they moved, terrified there’d be more to the tunnel than they knew. Different routes. The danger they might spend eternity lost in an underground maze was terrifying and something she didn’t want to be responsible for. Something else she didn’t want to be responsible for. Intermittently there were larger openings shooting off the main strip, which didn’t seem to lead anywhere, almost as though they were passing places but Carly didn’t understand why.
‘I think this is the right way. If we keep going straight, we have to come out somewhere, eventually.’ She crossed her fingers as she spoke. ‘As fast as you can.’
Carly could hear Leah softly crying, the shuffle of the twins as they crawled, and something else.
Rats?
It seemed to take forever, palms pressed into dampness, knees sinking, but in reality it couldn’t have been more than five minutes before the tunnel grew wider, and then she saw it.
Pale light.
The moon. Carly nodded her head furiously, affirming to herself that yes, they were nearly outside.
A sharp blow to the nose, sprang tears to Carly’s eyes.
‘Why have you stopped?’ she whispered crossly to Leah, trying to shove her forwards again.
‘Marie can see Doc’s boots. He’s out there.’
Carly felt angry. Helpless. Scared.
‘Back up,’ she hissed. She retreated, patting the walls, desperately trying to locate one of the pockets they could hide in. Her heart hammered in her chest. She knew if Doc crouched down and shone his torch in the tunnel it was all over.
At last found what she was looking for. She shuffled back even further, ushering the twins inside the cramped space, before she curled herself around them. A comma once more.
They waited.
From outside a shout.
‘I’ve found something! An opening.’
A light sweeping left to right in the tunnel. Carly screwed her eyes tightly closed.
Please don’t spot us. Please don’t spot us.
And then darkness.
Silence.
‘Has he gone?’ whispered Marie.
Carly wanted to scream, ‘I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers.’ She knew that was unfair, but still. She didn’t know what to do.
‘I think so but let’s wait a while.’
She pressed her fingertips over the walls, over the low ceiling. She found something smooth and hard, a large stone. They weren’t too far from the outside. Could they burrow out a different way? Potentially Doc and Moustache were waiting at the exit, ready to grab them when they emerged. If they could slip out somewhere else they’d have a chance to reach the road.
Was it silly to try to dig? Could she somehow cause the tunnel to collapse? But knowing that freedom was so tantalizingly close drove Carly to prise her nails under the stone and drag it out of the damp earth.
Suddenly they were all screaming as a deluge of insects poured down on them. Tiny, sharp feet scuttling over their skin. One fell in Carly’s open mouth. She gagged as she flicked it off her tongue. They were crawling over her scalp, tangled in her hair. Slipping down the neck of her shirt. She could feel them everywhere, but she couldn’t see them. She screamed again as something hard and solid rammed into her eye. The elbow of one of the twins who were flailing their arm
s. She slapped at her shoulders, pushing down on hard shells.
Beetles.
She tried to calm herself, tell herself she wasn’t scared of them but no matter how violently she smacked them away, they wouldn’t die. She could still feel the movement of their legs. Hear them scurrying manically under them, above them, on them.
They stank.
Her head was spinning, panic dulling her senses so she didn’t instantly notice that the space she was in was now bigger. Emptier. The twins had crawled back out into the tunnel. She could hear Leah screaming as she headed towards the exit.
‘No, wait.’ She knew the men could easily have heard their cries. Be waiting to grab them. But the girls didn’t slow and she had no choice but to follow them.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
George
Now
George slips out of the house while Leah and Archie are sleeping. His mouth is still sour with last night’s whisky.
As he climbs into his car he receives a text. Tash. He calls her via his hands-free system.
‘Are you okay?’
‘George.’ Her voice is thick with sobs. ‘I can’t do this any more. I can’t keep lying to Leah. She’s my best friend.’
She’s my wife, George thinks and he does nothing but lie.
‘It won’t be for much longer,’ he promises before he pulls into the car park of the greasy spoon to see the man as he’d arranged.
‘Here.’ George hands the man an envelope stuffed with notes and in return reluctantly takes the box. It feels as heavy as George’s heart as he hefts it into his car. The plan had felt so right, but now it feels so wrong. But he is committed.
There is no going back.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Carly
Then
Carly burst from the tunnel after her sisters, resigning herself to the fact that hands would grab her. Drag them back to the oppressive room that stank of blocked toilets and vomit.
But there was nothing.
She rose to her feet, all the while brushing her hands against her body. Shaking out her hair. She could still feel the beetles on her.
Thought she would always feel the beetles on her.
She usually loved the rain, felt it made everything smell clean, but now there was only the stench of insects in her nostrils. She shivered, her clothes soaked through.
‘What do we do?’ asked Leah.
Carly wanted to lie down on the floor and cry. She wanted to give up, but that wasn’t an option. She was the big sister but she felt so shaky, her legs like spaghetti.
She spun a slow 360, eyes searching the gloom, but it wasn’t until the cloud passed across the moon lifting the darkness that she saw the glint of the fence. It was close.
So close.
‘Listen.’ She crouched onto her haunches and gathered her sisters to her. ‘You’ve been so brave but I need you to be brave a little longer.’
Her sisters nodded. Their faces edged in silver light.
‘Over there is the fence. We’re going to run as fast but as quietly as we can. If the men come back – if one of us gets caught – we don’t stop. We don’t go back.’
‘But—’ Marie began.
‘No buts. If we’re separated it will only be until one of us reaches help and then all of this will be over.’ Carly felt guilt scrunch her insides. Marie was sick and Leah had hurt her ankle, but if she went at their pace, there was a danger they’d all get caught. At least this way there was a chance she’d make it and she’d fetch help more quickly. She was determined if she left them, it wouldn’t be for long. ‘We’ll soon be home.’
‘With Mummy and Daddy.’ Leah perked up.
‘Yes. And Bruno. Cross my heart.’ Carly curved both her little fingers and hooked them around the twins’ pinkies:
‘A pinkie promise can’t be broke
Or you’ll disappear in a puff of smoke
This is my vow to you,
I’ll keep my promise through and through.’
‘We’re going home.’ Carly’s voice was steadier this time. ‘Are you ready?’
‘Yes,’ they said, but their voices were small.
‘Run!’
Carly’s feet flew over the rough ground. She didn’t slow. Didn’t stop to check how far behind Marie and Leah were.
She threw herself at the fence. Twisted her fingers around the wire, shook it hard. It was too high to climb and besides the top was razor wire.
Quickly she moved on. Her eyes scanned for a gate but instead of the exit she’d tumble through, open and conspicuous, she found something better.
A hole.
She dropped to her knees and clawed through the undergrowth, the sharp edges of wire scraping against her back, until she was through and could stand once more. She took a precious second to seek out the twins. They hadn’t yet reached the perimeter, their arms around each other. Carly wasn’t sure who was holding who up. Carly waved until she was sure they had spotted her and then she turned and scrambled up the bank, slip-sliding backwards, driving herself forwards once more.
And there it was.
A road.
The road.
She nearly wept, but instead threw herself into a ditch and it was there she waited until Marie and Leah popped their heads over the bank like meerkats. The sisters were reunited once more. A team. Carly was glad. No matter how much they needed her, she knew she needed them too.
The road was barely a track, and Carly’s spirits dipped as she wondered how frequently it was used, but she told herself to stay positive. Even if they didn’t meet any traffic the road had to lead somewhere. Somewhere there would be a phone and a police station. Warm, dry clothes, and a sense of safety. Somewhere they could wait for their parents and that thought made her both nervous and excited. Although she’d told Marie they wouldn’t be angry there was a doubtful voice inside her head, wondering if they might blame her. If her stepdad would hate her for putting his daughters at risk, but that was silly. He’d never made her feel any different, any less. Their parents would be overjoyed to see them, all of them, she knew.
‘Keep low and follow me.’ Carly crawled along the verge, her hands slapping against wet grass, her knees slipping. ‘If Moustache and Doc appear, lie flat and keep still.’
She couldn’t hear them. Couldn’t hear anything except the rain beating against the tarmac and her own frantic heart. Her eyes searched the darkness for yellow beams of torchlight but there was nothing.
Had they got away? Carly dared herself to hope.
Progress was slow. Her back ached. Her head hurt. She stole a glance behind her at Leah’s face deathly pale in the glow of moonlight. Carly could see she was in pain but she hadn’t once complained about her ankle.
Eventually they came to a fork in the road.
Which way?
There wasn’t a tell-tale glow of lights from houses, or the blue flickering light from TV sets.
Left or right? Right or left?
There was so much at stake.
Before Carly could make up her mind she saw two spots of light in the distance.
‘No.’
She shook her head as though she could make them disappear but then she realized they were travelling too fast to be torchlights. They were headlights.
A car.
Lightning cracked.
Carly felt adrenaline course through her as she cast one last look around for the men, but they were nowhere to be seen. She staggered to her feet and stumbled into the middle of the road, waving her arms.
‘Help! Help!’
The rumble of thunder masked her thin cries. Leah and Marie joined Carly in the middle of the road, the air full of their desperate pleas.
‘Stop! Please!’
For a second the car seemed to accelerate before it stopped. Its hazard lights winked as it hugged the verge.
Carly shielded her eyes. She couldn’t see who was driving.
Both doors clicked open.
Were they
safe now?
Chapter Forty
Leah
Now
Today is my first thought as the sun glaring through the curtains prises open my eyes. My head is fuzzy. There’s a bitter taste in my mouth, almost as though I have a hangover. It’s not alcohol causing bitterness to rise in my throat though, but the memory that last night I had almost chased an innocent man to his death.
I’d been so sure it was him but it was my Fregoli again deceiving me. I am no longer sure what I think. I no longer trust myself. My only hope is that everyone else is right. It’s some crackpot sending the letters and everything else is just in my imagination.
The teddy bear is a coincidence.
The cross, though? That can’t be as easily explained.
I roll over, stretching my legs out in the empty space George should be.
By the end of today this will all be over.
Until then I am not going out. Archie and I will snuggle up on the sofa and watch Peter Pan. The Incredibles. The Jungle Book.
We’ll be safe, I tell myself. Safe.
It is then Archie lets out a piercing scream.
Chapter Forty-One
Carly
Then
Two women were in the car that had stopped. Now, the sisters clung to each other on the back seat while the women asked them for their names. Carly couldn’t answer. Leah and Marie wouldn’t. Strangers were once just people they didn’t yet know, now they were to be feared.
‘Taken’ is all Carly could say.
‘Taken? What have you taken?’ The women exchanged a glance.
‘Taken.’ Carly began to cry.
‘My God.’ One of the women leaned towards Carly and placed a hand on her knee. Carly flinched from her touch. ‘Are you the Sinclair Sisters?’
‘The girls that were abducted?’ the other woman said. ‘You’ve been headlines in every single newspaper and on all the TV channels. Not just in the UK but worldwide.’
The Stolen Sisters: from the bestselling author of The Date and The Sister comes one of the most thrilling, terrifying and shocking psychological thrillers of 2020 Page 19