by Anita Waller
‘He’s not here, Grace. We just needed to know if you recognised the caravan. We can go home now. I’m sure you want to be back with Mummy and Daddy as soon as possible.’
They had asked Lauren and Pilot to stay away from Polzeath and let them do their job. Pilot had reluctantly agreed. Lauren had no desire to see where the monster had kept her daughter locked away from the world.
Karen took her to the car and got into the back seat with her.
‘Shall we talk about it, Grace?’
‘Talk about what?’ The look on Grace’s face was mutinous.
‘Talk about how you’re feeling now. I’m sorry we had to do this but we had no one else who could do it.’
‘Well, I’ve done it. Yes, it was the place he kept me, yes, he did used to hit me a lot when I was naughty and he took me from here in the dark one night to another place, the place I ran away from. I can’t tell you anything else,’ she sobbed.
Karen put an arm around her shoulders and once more, was struck by how frail she was. ‘Okay, that’s enough. There’ll be no more questions, honey.’
Grace was silent all the way to Hillside and was met by Lauren as she got out of the car. One look at her daughter’s tear-stained face told her mother all she needed to know and she gathered Grace to her. Karen made a move to follow them into the house and Lauren stared at her.
‘Go to hell,’ she said and closed the door.
Chapter 17
He hadn’t thought Angel would remember the caravan.
She was only just turned three when they had left it, so how the hell could she tell them about that? He had thought he was safe there. So now, he was wondering what other stuff they’d managed to get out of her. And where could he go? He couldn’t go too far, he needed to be close. He was sixty-nine with maybe not so many years left and he had to finish his project.
So, the list: He was going to need to rejig it a bit.
He reckoned Ken and Brenda, like him, hadn’t got much time left anyway, so he would move them to the bottom. If he’d time, he would finish them off.
Number one would be David Farmer. He was part of it. He should have died when John did. Amy killed John. She as good as said she had but she’d no reason to kill David. He had. He just didn’t like the bastard, always sticking up for the whole bloody family.
Number two would be Pat. Just because he’d always felt she had been a bit strange on the wedding day, as if she hadn’t quite approved. And Amy had always listened to her, taken her advice. Amy had been his, not Pat’s.
Number three was going to be Freda. She knew. He was sure she knew. She never really trusted him and she knew somebody was coming back for Amy. She was a wily old bird, so she would be the third to go.
These people had made his life a fucking misery. And now they’d got Angel.
He needed somewhere to live. He couldn’t stay in a tent for too much longer, it would be too cold. He would sort out another identity; perhaps get a different caravan a bit further afield where they wouldn’t think to look. Everything had gone wrong.
It was all Angel’s fault. She shouldn’t have left him!
Oh – number four. Lauren. But he’d leave her alive.
He hadn’t thought Angel would remember the caravan...
Freda had felt a big sadness at the departure of Dawn and Josh. She had grown particularly fond of John’s son and their late night chats had kept her entertained despite the repeated worries about security and the whereabouts of Treverick.
They had had to return to St.Louis but had promised to be back by the beginning of December. Lauren had felt it important that they have a big family affair for Grace’s very first Christmas.
The shipment of John’s desk had been organised and completed and Dawn’s smile had lit up the room on the day it had been packaged and despatched.
With their departure, Freda had felt it was time for her to return home.
‘No,’ Pat had said.
‘No,’ from David.
‘Yes,’ Freda had responded.
‘You can’t,’ David had come back in. ‘It’s not safe and you know it. Don’t give us the added worry, please Freda.’
‘But I miss my independence,’ she had moaned. ‘Please let me go home.’
Pat had shaken her head. ‘Honestly, we can’t. Wasn’t Stonebrook a big enough warning? And as for what he’s done to Grace...’
David had interrupted. ‘Look, let’s have a bit of compromise here. Why can’t we do for you what Lauren and Pilot have done for Brenda and Ken? We can make one side of this place just for you; give you your own suite of rooms. You can have your independence but still have the protection of being here under Mark’s security. I promise that when this thing with Treverick is resolved, you can go back home and be as independent as you like but for now, I need you here. Please don’t argue, Freda. Not this time.’
Freda had looked at David’s face - no longer the young eighteen-year-old man she had first known - and she had seen the seriousness there … and the fear.
The wait for her answer had stretched. She had nodded.
‘Okay. You’re right, of course you are. I’m just a silly old woman who thinks she can fight off a younger man and win. I can’t. I’ll stay here as long as necessary. And thank you.’
Pat had been pleased. She had grown to love Freda over the years, the bluntness, the wisdom, everything about her. ‘Come on,’ she’d said, ‘let’s go sort your residence out.’
It was a warm August day when Freda headed down the road towards Hillside pausing momentarily to speak to a cow with its head hanging over the hedge. It seemed most of her life had been dominated by Treverick and now that she was reaching the end of it, it was making her so damned angry. Pissed off. Murderous.
What he had done to that little girl ... an image of Grace's pretty little face flashed into her mind and she ached for her whenever she saw those beautiful blue eyes cloud over. They were all learning to recognise when Grace went into memory mode and became withdrawn from everyone, but all credit to Lauren, Freda thought, she was handling the situation with considerable skill.
Grace was proving to be a very bright child and a quick learner. She had arrived at Hillside far too near the end of term for the Farmers to consider sending her to school so they had hired a tutor for her.
Lauren wouldn't have allowed her to go anywhere anyway; while Treverick was still on the loose, she was taking no chances. They just had to hope that he would be in custody by the time September came around because in September both Olivia and Lauren would be due to go to school.
The tutor was a young woman, Jessica Cantrell. They had interviewed four people for the position and Jess had proved utterly capable and clearly cared about her young charge. Once she had accepted the job, they had filled her in on all the details surrounding Grace's return.
Freda saw Jess and Grace walking towards her and she waved. They were followed closely by one of Mark Carter's security men.
'Where are you two escaping to?'
'We're taking Sam for a walk,' Jess grinned. The man in the suit grinned and said nothing. His eyes never stopped moving as he watched everything around him.
Grace smiled. She liked Aunt Freda.
'We're going down to the stream to draw. We've done lots of sums and letters and spelling this morning so Jess said we could go for a walk in the sunshine.'
Sam intervened.
'Sorry, ma'am, I need to know exactly what you propose doing so I can tell your chap.'
Freda had forgotten all about the poor fellow who had been given the job of staying close to her whenever she went out; she knew she led him a merry dance at times. She looked round and waved at him standing some ten yards behind their little group.
'Sorry. I'm going to draw at the stream and then I'm going to Hillside.'
Sam spoke into his radio and then relayed information to Freda. 'You're to inform him when you wish to return home, ma'am, and he will either walk up to Hillside to accomp
any you on the walk home or he will bring a car to get you. Either way he wants reassurance that you won't do what you did last week and walk home on your own.'
Duly chastised, Freda said, 'Tell him I promise to ring.'
The three of them, with Sam following closely behind them, headed across the field and dropped down the sloping bank to the small stream.
Jess laid out the picnic blanket and handed out pencils and paper.
‘Okay, I want you to think about what we were talking about yesterday, Grace, about the different seasons, and I want you to draw a tree. Any of these around here,’ she said and waved her arm expansively. ‘Then when you’ve drawn it, we’re going to draw it three more times and we will see how different it looks in different seasons.’
Both Grace and Freda began to draw, giggling their way through the lesson. When Jess had first met Grace, the little girl hadn’t smiled much, let alone giggled. Jess thought it a wonderful sound. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam move and her head swung around to see what he was looking at. She could see nothing and yet felt a chill run down her spine. He had noticed something. He then spoke into the radio on his shoulder and the returning crackle told her there had been a response. Within a minute, a car was at the edge of the field, followed closely by a police car.
Neither Grace nor Freda had noticed until Jess stood.
‘Jess?’ Freda spoke softly.
‘I don’t know...’ She moved towards Grace and knelt down by her side. ‘Grace, get behind me and don’t move.’ They watched a man in a suit and two police officers begin to walk towards the hedgerow that separated the field from the road. Sam moved closer to them.
‘Okay, ladies, here’s what we’re going to do. We are going to stay very still and quiet and let the others deal with this. I thought I saw movement, a figure. It may all be perfectly innocent but we don’t take chances. And if we have to move, you leave everything here and follow my instructions to the letter.’
They waited patiently for something approaching thirty minutes; Grace didn’t say one word during that time. The police officers and the suited man approached them from the far corner of the field and shook their heads as they reached Sam.
‘Nothing now. If it was anyone, they’re long gone. I suggest you all go home but please get into the cars. We’ll get you safely inside Hillside and then we’ll come back here for another look around once you’re all out of any dangerous situations. Thank you, ladies.’
They gathered everything together and set off back towards the road. The drive to Hillside was uneventful although a little quiet. Freda breathed a sigh of relief when they arrived home, followed by an overwhelming feeling of anger towards Treverick. He was still ruling their lives after all these years.
He smiled. He was learning the level of security surrounding all of them. They would need a greater show than that to stop him. His Angel looked well, very well.
Chapter 18
Grace felt frightened. She had tried not to show it when they were waiting in the field but she knew there was something very wrong. They thought ‘Daddy’ was in the area.
She ran through the front door before anyone could stop her and moved swiftly through the house looking for Lauren.
Lauren was feeding Noah and looked up in surprise. She hadn’t expected them back quite so soon.
‘What’s wrong, sweetheart?’
Jess reached the door and answered for her.
‘There’s been an issue. Dealt with and there proved to be no danger but it’s shaken Grace a little.’
‘Issue?’ She looked at her daughter and pulled her close. ‘Okay, Grace. We can deal with anything. And you’re safe. Nobody can get to you. Olivia is in her room, do you want to go play with her for a bit?’
Grace looked uncertain but Jess led her away down the landing to her younger sister’s room. She then returned to Lauren and filled her in on the day’s activities.
‘So Freda is here?’
Jess nodded. ‘Such a rock, that lady. She never left Grace’s side while they were checking the perimeter of the field and held her hand very tight as we walked back to the car.’
‘We need Dunbar here.’
She picked up her mobile phone and spoke to Pilot who said he was on his way. Her next call was to Dunbar’s mobile phone but he confirmed he was already driving up their driveway.
She went downstairs to let him in and immediately felt comforted by the big man’s presence.
Pilot arrived a few minutes later accompanied by Pat and David; they all moved into the lounge feeling unsettled and nervous. Sam began the discussion by telling them that he had definitely seen a figure moving in a crouch behind the hedgerow. Whoever it was would not have been seen normally because the hedge had its summer greenery covering it but there was a gap. That was where he had seen him.
‘You’re sure it was a man?’ At least three voices raised the same query.
He nodded.
‘I am. Dark clothes and just looked like a man. Short hair. I know women can look like that but his movements were masculine. And his movements were furtive. It was that really, above everything else. He was moving bent over.’
‘We currently have half a dozen men going round that field with a fine tooth comb.’ Dunbar’s face was set. ‘And well done, young man. You did everything right. Stay close to the family, step up the awareness level and we’ll provide the foot soldiers.’
There was a tap at the window and Lauren waved.
‘It’s Mark,’ she said and went to open the door.
He walked into the room and greeted everyone by name.
‘I’ve come to review everything,’ he said.’ Do you need extra men, Pilot?’
Pilot shook his head.
‘I don’t think so but one thing I am going to insist on is that we stop with this fantasy that we can continue to live our lives as normal people and we won’t let Treverick win by acting like scared rabbits. We are scared rabbits. We know things about him; he is a master of disguise, he is evil, he wants Grace back and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants.’
He looked around at his family.
‘There will be no more trips away from the house, nobody will move without one of Mark’s associates being glued to their side and these instructions are gospel and not to be argued or talked about. Freda?’
Freda looked up, with a guilty expression.
‘Okay, I hear you. Anyway, I am at David’s for the foreseeable future. I’m sorry if I’m causing you stress, Pilot, I don’t mean to, it’s just so bloody annoying that after all these years we’re still fighting that monster.’
‘I’ll tell Jess.’ Lauren stood and moved out of the room, heading towards where she could hear Olivia giggling. Such a lovely sound; she hoped the day’s actions hadn’t put Grace back into the quiet state she had arrived in.
Dunbar left saying he would report back if anything had come to light in the field. Mark, Pilot and David went into the kitchen to discuss any changes needed to the protection detail.
Freda joined them, wanting to hear of any further changes. The protection at Moorgate was unobtrusive but welcome although she wasn’t sure it would be so welcome if it had to be increased. Pat and David felt they weren’t really targets while Freda wasn’t so sure. In Treverick’s eyes, David was on a par with John. Both of them had looked after Amy when they were at school together and Freda knew that, before she had married him, Amy had told Treverick about her childhood.
Lauren stood in the doorway of the bedroom and watched her two daughters sitting at the table with Jess. Although Jess had been employed solely to teach Grace, she had always included Olivia in any fun things. Today, both girls were reading and she was astonished to hear Olivia spelling out words correctly.
‘How long has she been doing that?’
Jess lifted her head and smiled.
‘Just a couple of days. She’s doing really well. But listen to this.’ She handed a Winnie the Pooh book to Grace and th
e little girl began to read aloud. Lauren listened in awe. This child had had no formal education at all and yet she was fluently reading the words in the strange Cornish accent she had picked up from Treverick.
Lauren’s heart sang. She was coming back to them. Her daughter was home.
The police team scoured the area where Treverick had been seen and found an empty box of tablets, prescribed for patients with sexually transmitted diseases and originating from America. It bore his fingerprints and they knew it had been deliberately placed on tree roots for them to find.
Dunbar now ordered immediate lockdown at both Hillside and Moorgate Manor.
Chapter 19
David drove slowly into Padstow; he very rarely went into the office now, his semi retirement had become almost full retirement but Pilot had asked for his help.
David’s father, Alistair, had started the business many years ago and it had always been successful; John Thornton, under Alistair Farmer initially and then handed to David to nurture had added to that success like no other of their stable of authors. His books were still widely read and sought after and they had recently acquired a new author who seemed to be heading along the same path as John. David had always enjoyed his role at the office and looked forward to the odd day or two when he was needed for management or board meetings. Other than that, Pilot had successfully continued the high standards of the Farmer Publishing House.
He parked his car in the small rear car park and, as instructed, waited for the accompanying car to reverse into the spot at the side of him. Alan Shimwell was his guard for the day and David opened his car door at the same time as Alan opened his.
He realised that wasn’t such a good idea when he saw Alan’s face. He grinned at the bodyguard and waved an apology.
‘Sorry,’ he called, ‘I forgot to wait.’
Alan shook his head at him. ‘You’re paying for our protection, Mr. Farmer. Use it properly, please.’