“So she killed Olivia,” Elly said. “To save her?”
“Olivia disappeared,” Silas said. “Then everything went quiet for a while. It was a couple of years later that my suspicions were aroused again. Alice came home with two dolls that she’d asked a seamstress friend to make for her. They had their eyes closed, as if they were sleeping, and they wore long blue dresses. These weren’t ordinary dolls, they were life-size.” He looked at Mitch. “You’ve seen them, lad.”
“I remember,” Mitch said.
“She kept them locked away in their own room but, every now and then, she visited them and held them in her arms while she cried. I realised that one of the dates she always did that without fail was the anniversary of the disappearance of the Hatton sisters. And those dolls looked like those poor girls. It was bloody creepy.”
He shrugged. “It didn’t prove anything of course but it got me thinking again. I started wondering where she’d dumped the bodies of those two girls. Eventually, I thought about the quarry. Alice had access to it and there are tunnels there that go deep into the ground. So, one night I decided to investigate. I drove out there and began searching the tunnels by torchlight.”
Silas gazed at the floor, as if he were seeing the past being played out there. “What happened next changed my entire life. Alice had followed me. She wasn’t stupid; she knew why I was there. Before I knew what had happened, she swung a steel scaffolding pole at my back. And then, when I went down to the ground, she continued hitting me with it.”
“It said in the papers that you wouldn’t tell anyone why you were at the quarry,” Elly said. “Why didn’t you go to the police? You had evidence now. You’d been attacked.”
“Do you know what state I was in? I could barely move my body at all, not just my legs. I was sure in my mind that Alice was a murderer but there was no way I was going to report her. She could have killed me easily. I didn’t want to die, Miss Cooper.”
“So you stayed quiet,” she said, “and another girl died.”
He sighed. “What happened to Josie was my fault. She and I built up a relationship while I was in hospital. I tried to hide it from Alice but she figured it out. And then I heard on the news about Josie’s body being found at Blackden Edge. Alice wasn’t just taking revenge on the woman she thought had slighted her, she was also sending me a message, telling me that if I stepped out of line, the result was going to be my death or the death of someone I cared for.”
“Tell me what happened to Sarah,” Mitch said.
“I don’t know,” Silas said. “Ten years had passed since Josie’s murder and life had quieted down. Then Sarah went. It ripped your family apart, of course. You and your mother left and your father took it very badly.”
“Was he abusing Sarah?” Mitch asked, dreading the answer.
“I think so.”
“So you’re saying that Alice is some kind of ‘angel of mercy’ killer,” Elly said. “She sees girls who are being abused and takes their lives to end their suffering.”
Silas nodded. “She isn’t sane.”
“But you’ve lived with her for all these years and never even hinted of your suspicions to the police,” Mitch said.
Silas hung his head. “Ever since I’ve been in this chair, she’s controlled me. I know what she’s capable of and there’s nothing I can do to stop her.”
“And now Jack is killing women,” Elly said. “If he’s hurt my sister in any way, I won’t just hold him responsible, but you and your wife as well. You think Alice is scary? You can’t even imagine what I’ll do to you if…if Jen…”
Mitch put a comforting arm around her shoulder. “Where’s Alice now?” he asked Silas.
“I don’t know. When she heard that Jack had been arrested, she left. I have no idea where she’s gone.”
“This isn’t helping us find Jen,” Elly said. Realisation suddenly dawned on her face. “Jack knows who Jen is because he saw her on the news with me, after we’d found Lindsey. Because of us, Lindsey was removed from the flower grave. I bet he’s put Jen in there to make up for the loss.” She turned to Mitch and a panicked look crossed her face. “Come on, we have to go. We’ll call the police on the way. Maybe they can get there before us.”
She ran to the Jeep and Mitch followed.
33
Final Grave
As I drive north from Blackmoor House, I resist the urge to put my foot down to arrive at my destination quicker. I can’t risk attracting the attention of the police.
Jack has ruined everything by meddling with things he knows nothing about. What game is he playing? He knows nothing about my girls or their flower graves. What does he know of suffering? Nothing, the boy has been spoiled his entire life.
But whatever he knows or doesn’t know, his arrest is going to cause an investigation into the family. I can’t trust Silas not to talk and I can’t trust Jack at all. The boy is a fool and the police will have no trouble getting everything he knows out of him and into a statement.
I have to face facts; it’s all over. My work will end now. That saddens me because it means many girls will be left to struggle and never know the release I could have given them.
I know I should be proud of what I’ve achieved--I have liberated many girls from suffering over the years--but I feel like a failure because I could have done more. But isn’t that the lament of every person who has worked for the good of humanity, that they could have done more?
I turn off the main road and onto a narrow secondary road that winds through the woods. Not much farther now.
Ten minutes later, I arrive at a place I’ve visited before. The last time I came here, I marked it by tying a red ribbon to the branch of a tree. It flutters in the breeze. The last time I came here, I also brought a shovel but there’s no need for that now. No more digging.
I grab the three syringes from the passenger seat and open the door. Leaving the car by the side of the road, I make my way into the shadowy woods. The car will be found sooner or later but by then, it will be too late for the police to act against me.
I refuse to be punished for helping those poor girls.
I reach the clearing where the grave waits. This is a nice spot. Pink foxgloves grow in the shade of the trees and daisies carpet the ground like a constellation of white stars.
The grave sits in the centre of this abundance of bright flora. This will be a good place to rest. My work is done.
I remove the lid of the packing crate in the hole and lower myself down into the crate itself. Lying back, I can see the twisted patterns of the branches above the grave and the infinite sky beyond. I can’t see the wildflowers now but I know they’re there and that’s enough.
I position the needle of the first syringe over my forearm and then quickly press it through the skin. There’s a sharp sensation for a second but hen I press the plunger and feel a slight sting as the drugs enter my veins.
Even though I have three syringes, I can’t trust that their contents will kill me. So, before I use the second and third syringes, I will make sure the job is done properly. The razor blade brought from home seems to shine bright silver as I unwrap it. This will get the job done. The razor will ensure that I experience the same relief from suffering as I gave my girls. I gave it to them as a gift and now I must accept that gift myself.
Morgan spotted the white Honda abandoned by the side of the road and parked the Range Rover behind it. She’d seen Alice Walker get out of the vehicle and enter the woods but she had no idea what was going on.
She radioed in her location and told Control that she was pursuing a suspect into the woods north of Blackmoor House but didn’t require backup. Then she entered the woods, stepping beneath a piece of red ribbon that fluttered in the breeze.
The first thing she did when the stepped into the shadows was stop and listen. Alice couldn’t be too far ahead and there was no way she could move silently through the undergrowth that covered the ground.
But the woods were
deathly silent.
Morgan moved forward, trying to be as quiet as she could. Low ferns swished against her trousers and their wide leaves hid twigs that snapped as she stepped on them.
She could see that Alice had passed this way. Some of the ferns ahead were broken, their branches dangling down like dead arms.
When Morgan stepped into a clearing, the first thing she was an oblong hole in the ground. When she moved closer, she saw Alice inside it, lying inside a wooden crate. The wood near her wrist was stained red and three syringes were lying in the growing pool if blood.
“Shit!” Morgan jumped down into the hole and slid her belt out of her trousers. Luckily, Alice had only slit one wrist and not both of them. Maybe whatever drug had been in the syringes had stopped her completing her task.
Morgan removed her jacket and wadded it into makeshift bandage, which she wrapped around Alice’s wrist before looping the belt around it to apply pressure.
She fumbled her radio out of her pocket and called Control. “This is DS Morgan. I’m in the woods north of Blackmoor House and I need an ambulance now!”
34
Exhumation
When the Jeep screeched to a halt at the gap in the hedge that led to the Nine Ladies stone circle, Elly was alarmed that there were no police vehicles already there. She’d called them as soon as she and Mitch had left Blackmoor House. So where the hell were they?
She jumped out of the Jeep and scrambled through the hedge. As soon as her trainers hit the trail that led through the moor to the trees, she ran. She had no reason to believe that Jen was still alive but she had every reason to hope. Because without hope, she might as well go and curl up in a corner and sob her heart out.
She had to believe that Jack had been in a hurry when he brought Jen here. He still had to go back and move her SUV off the road. So maybe he’d simply tied Jen to a tree or drugged her and left her in the woods. Then he’d been arrested and was unable to come back here and finish his plans regarding Jen.
Until she knew otherwise, that was the hope she was going to cling to.
She looked over her shoulder and saw Mitch running after her, a shovel in his hand.
“No,” she told herself, “we won’t need the shovel. We won’t need the shovel because Jen isn’t buried in Lindsey’s old grave. She’s alive and well and above ground.”
She heard sirens in the distance. About bloody time.
When she reached the trees, she began to shout Jen’s name. There was no answer other than the sound of rainwater dripping from the branches onto the ground.
Elly got to the stone circle and spun around, calling her sister’s name, her eyes scanning the undergrowth. Still no answer. Maybe she was wrong and Jen wasn’t here at all.
She arrived breathlessly in the glade and her heart sank when she saw that the grave had been filled in again and the dead daisies had been scattered over it.
“No,” she cried out. “No!”
Her fingers sank into the wet earth and she began clawing at it, scooping handfuls of mud away and throwing them aside. “Jen,” she said hopelessly. “Please.”
Mitch arrived and dug the blade of the shovel into the wet earth. He began tossing clumps of soil away, then thrusting the shovel back into the ground.
Elly refused to believe that her sister was here, dead and buried in the ground beneath her clawing hands. The thought was too much to bear. What would she do without her sister? What would Jen’s kids do without their mum?
“She’s not here,” she told herself over and over. “Jen isn’t here.”
Mitch was bathed in sweat, working like a machine to move the earth out of the grave as quickly as possible.
“Why are we hurrying?” Elly asked. “If Jen is buried here, she’s already dead. This is hopeless.”
“Didn’t you hear the news today?” Mitch said. “Lindsey Grofield was drugged and then buried alive. She suffocated in the grave. Jack would have heard that too. Wouldn’t he do the same thing?”
“Oh, my God, Jen,” she said, clawing at the earth with every ounce of strength she had left in her body.
Mitch’s shovel hit something solid. He used the blade to clear away the dirt, revealing a flat wooden surface. “Looks like a packing crate,” he said. “Stand back.”
Elly moved a few feet away while Mitch brought the shovel down on the crate. The wood splintered. Mitch struck it again and there was a cracking sound. “She’s in there,” he said. “I can see her.”
“Jen,” Elly said, crawling forwards to the grave, “can you hear me?” Through the hole in the crate, she could see Jen’s jeans but nothing else.
Mitch removed more earth, exposing the crate’s lid. Elly heard people approaching them through the woods and looked over to see half a dozen police officers making their way through the trees.
“Help us,” she shouted to them.
The officers rushed over.
Mitch dug the edge of the shovel into the top of the crate and used leverage to pop the lid. The officers lifted it out of the way. Elly heard one of them radioing for an ambulance.
Jen lay in the crate, her eyes closed, hands folded on her chest. Elly was sure her sister was dead. Mitch leaned into the crate and grabbed Jen’s wrist. After a moment, he said, “There’s a pulse.”
Elly felt as if her heart would burst. She reached down and took hold of Jen’s legs while Mitch and a police officer lifted her by her shoulders. They laid her on the grass and someone shouted, “Get a stretcher and a blanket!”
Jen’s eyes fluttered open for a moment.
“Jen, it’s me,” she said. “It’s your sister, Elly.”
Jen’s eyes closed again.
“It’s going to be okay,” Elly said. She wasn’t sure if she was talking to herself or to her sister. Probably both. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
35
Face Everything and Recover
Elly sat staring at the early evening sky through the window of the hospital room. The rain had stopped and the clouds were painted bright orange by the low sun.
“Sorry if I’m boring you,” Jen said from the bed.
Elly looked back at her sister and smiled. “You’re not boring me. I was just thinking how easy it would have been for this to have all turned out differently.”
“Well, it didn’t,” Jen said. “Thank goodness for your man’s prowess with a shovel.”
“He isn’t my man,” Elly said. “After Paul, I don’t think I’ll ever have another man again. They’re too much trouble. Maybe I’ll become a nun and go live in a convent on an isolated island.”
“And leave all this excitement behind? That isn’t the Elly I know.”
“The Elly you know is beat. She’s got wet feet and has broken all of her fingernails trying to dig her sister out of a grave.”
“It could be worse. You could be stuck in this bed.”
“True.” Elly looked around the room. “I hate hospitals. As soon as Trevor and the kids arrive, I’m out of here. Sorry, sis, but there’s a hot bath and an early night with my name on it. Ah, speak of the devil.”
The door opened and Trevor entered the room, his arms laden with bags of clothes and toiletries that Jen had asked him to bring. Wendy and William ran into the room and threw themselves on the bed, both of them shouting, “Mummy!” at the top of their lungs.
“Hi, Trevor,” Elly said. “I was just leaving.”
He nodded at her and dumped the bags on the chair next to the bed.
“Don’t forget to come visit when you get home,” Jen reminded her. “Bring your man, if you like.”
“I told you, he isn’t my man.” Elly left the room and took the elevator down to the ground floor. Mitch was waiting outside the cafeteria.
“How is she?” he asked.
“She’s doing well. I reckon she’ll be out of here by tomorrow morning.”
“That’s great. Battle called. “They have Alice in custody. Apparently, she tried to kill herself. DS Morgan
saved her life.”
“Alice will probably be declared insane and end up in a secure mental hospital,” Elly said.
“Maybe. Battle said the girls we know about aren’t the only victims. Alice has been picking up runaways and homeless girls too. She used the women’s centre where she worked to find her victims and also picked them up off the street.” Sorrow tinged his voice as he said, “She refuses to give the locations of the graves.”
“Oh, Mitch, I’m sorry.”
He shrugged, trying to put on a brave face. “I might not know where Sarah is but at least now I know what happened to her.”
“Is that enough?”
“What choice do I have? It’s going to have to be.”
“Did Battle say what’s going to happen to Silas?”
“He’ll probably end up in jail for a while. They’ve arrested him for perverting the course of justice.”
They reached the exit. “Fancy a drink?” she asked.
“Sure. There’s a pub just down the road.”
Elly shook her head. “I mean in Derbyshire. I’ve still got a book to write and I still need to do some research for the early chapters. Let’s have a pint at The Mermaid.”
“Okay,” Mitch said, nodding. “Let’s do that.”
36
Confession
One week later
HM Prison Sudbury
Mitch entered the visitors’ room and looked for Silas among the prisoners seated at the tables. When he spotted his uncle, he walked over and sat down opposite him. He wasn’t sure why Silas had requested that Mitch visit him. He’d have thought he’d be the last person Silas would have wanted to see.
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