by Amy Cross
“Don't you want to go?”
She shook her head.
“I thought most teenagers would love a trip to the sun,” Jo pointed out. “Bora Bora, wasn't it? Sounds luxurious.”
“I didn't come here just so I could be whisked away to the other side of the world.”
“So why did you come?”
She waited for an answer, but now Rachel seemed a lot more cautious, as if she was worried about saying the wrong thing.
“I know you don't like all these questions,” Jo continued, heading over to another of the large rocks and taking a seat, “but you've got to understand that people are curious. If you're really Rachel Stone, then it's perfectly natural to ask where you've been for the past fifteen years.”
“I told you. I was living with some other homeless people under a bridge in London.”
“Not for fifteen years. Not since you were a baby.”
At this, Rachel hesitated.
“Who took you?” Jo asked.
“It's complicated.”
“It doesn't have to be. Are you worried about getting someone into trouble? Is that it? Do you care about the person who kidnapped you?”
Rachel paused again, before shaking her head.
“Is that person still alive?”
“I don't want to talk about that.”
“But you know who it is, don't you?”
“What type of cancer do you have?”
“You're changing the subject, Rachel.”
“I know.”
Jo took a deep breath. “Let's just say it's pretty much everywhere by this point.”
“That must mean you're dying, right?”
“It means that I don't have a lot of time to waste, so would you mind if we -”
“Are you in pain?”
“Rachel -”
“Just tell me that,” the girl continued, her voice suddenly filled with a fresh sense of eagerness. “I won't ask any more questions about you, if you just tell me whether or not you're in pain. Like, constant pain or intermittent pain. Whatever. Please, I just want to know.”
Jo paused, not really wanting to answer but figuring that maybe Rachel would keep her word.
“Yeah,” she said finally. “There's pain.”
“Is that what the pills are for?”
“I thought you weren't going to ask any more questions?”
“How do you deal with it? Seriously, I really want to know.”
“One day I won't be able to fight it anymore,” Jo said cautiously. “I know that. One day it'll knock me down and I won't be able to get up again. But I'm not going to let it win until I have absolutely no choice. And when I'm too weak to even press the button for my own pain meds, at least I'll be able to look back on moments when I kept pushing.” She paused, feeling a flutter an anxiety in her chest as she realized she'd just said more in a few sentences than she'd said in the previous five years. Something about Rachel had made her open up. “But we're not here to talk about me,” she pointed out, “and you're deflecting again.”
“Sorry.” Rachel paused, eyeing Jo with a hint of curiosity. “I meant what I said last night. I'm sorry I brought your illness up at dinner. That was wrong of me, I crossed a line.”
“It's fine. Now can you -”
“They have so many secrets,” she continued, with grit in her voice now. “That family, the Stones. You might think they're a bit weird, you might think they're a bunch of stiff, reserved weirdos, but you have no idea. These past few weeks, I've been sneaking a look at their papers. I've been going through everything, and they've been too stunned to really hide it all from me. If you knew what they've been doing, and what happened to them, your eyes would pop out of your goddamn skull.”
“So why don't you tell me?”
Rachel turned and looked toward the forest, and once again she seemed nervous, almost paranoid.
“Is this why you came back?” Jo asked. “To reveal all their secrets?”
“They're not good people,” she replied, turning back to her.
“In what way?”
“It's complicated.”
“So you keep saying.”
“Herbert Stone's the one who had me kidnapped.”
Jo opened her mouth to reply, before hesitating.
“That's right,” Rachel continued. “Shocker, huh? He hired some guy to steal me away from my mother when I was just a baby. It took a few tries, too. I guess the guy must've screwed up the first few times, because by all accounts Diana Stone certainly wasn't the most attentive woman in the world, but eventually the plan worked and I was whisked away.” She paused again. “His name was Malcolm Trelawney. Mac, to his friends. He was the guy Herbert paid to take me away, but it wasn't supposed to be forever. It was only supposed to be for long enough to drive Diana into the loony bin.”
“Your father wanted to get your mother committed?”
“He had a plan. It was complex and detailed, and it probably would have worked if he'd been able to go through with it all. He wanted to get her out of the way, so he could...”
Her voice trailed off for a moment.
“So he could what?” Jo asked.
“He'd fallen in love with someone else. Someone he knew he couldn't have, but he wanted her anyway.”
“So is -”
“Margaret.”
Again, Jo opened her mouth to reply, only to hold back as she realized the implications of what Rachel had just said.
“They're not brother and sister by blood, remember?” Rachel continued. A faint smile flickered across her face, only to be quickly replaced by an expression of disgust. “It's still icky, though. Margaret was adopted into the family as a baby, so they grew up together, they were raised as siblings. If you ask me, what they've been up to is sick and wrong, but I don't know, maybe that's part of the appeal. Maybe they like the danger. Whatever. They've been at it like rabbits since they were... Well, let's just say it's not a recent development.”
“So Herbert wanted Diana out of the way, because he wanted to be with his sister?”
She nodded. “Mac explained the whole plan when he was on his deathbed. He said Diana was always kinda flaky, always struggling with life, so Herbert figured he could poke her a little and drive her out of her mind. Nice guy, huh? According to Mac, he thought he could drive Diana to suicide. Apparently she'd made several half-hearted attempts over the years, and Herbert thought that losing me might be enough to finish her off. Except it wasn't, because Diana never seriously meant to kill herself.”
“Why couldn't he just leave his wife?”
“He was worried she'd put two and two together, and that she'd realize he and Margaret were in love. He was outright terrified that people would find out. I mean, can you imagine the scandal?”
“So when the plan didn't work,” Jo continued, “your father just decided to let this Mac guy keep you?”
“Not quite. I don't know what he would have done if he'd had the chance, but things didn't work out that way for poor old Herbert. That's the part that took me a while to figure out, but...”
She looked around again, before suddenly getting to her feet.
“Not here.”
“What's wrong?” Jo asked.
“I don't like it here,” she continued, seeming agitated now as she continued to look around. “It's not safe.”
“Do you think you were followed from the -”
“It's just not safe!” Rachel hissed, taking a step back. “I swear I didn't know how crazy these people were, not when I arrived. I mean, I knew there was stuff wrong with them, but I had no idea of the scale. I didn't know it was going to be so dangerous!”
“If you genuinely think someone might hurt you,” Jo replied, standing and following as Rachel made her way across the clearing, “you can get help. You can go to the police and -”
“The police aren't going to help me.”
“But if -”
“The police are not an option!” Rachel shouted as she reached the ed
ge of the clearing and looked toward the forest. After a moment she set off again, slipping between the trees with Jo following just a few paces behind. “The police would be too slow,” she continued. “I've been here too long already, this was supposed to be over by now, but this goddamn family is like a cesspit. Don't be fooled into feeling sorry for any of them. Diana's weak, she never lifts a finger to actually help anyone. Margaret's happy for other people to do all the dirty work. And as for Herbert...”
“But they love you,” Jo pointed out. “You're their daughter and -”
“Herbert's a monster!” she said breathlessly, stumbling slightly as she hurried up a steep incline and then continued to lead Jo through the forest. “I can't explain it all to you now. It's not safe. I think maybe Herbert's staring to get suspicious, and I'm not sure how much longer I can hold him off. The man might not be the world's greatest intellect, but if he and the others think their biggest secret is going to get out, there's no knowing how far they'll go.”
“So tell me this secret!”
“I can't!”
“There's no-one else out here!”
“You don't know that!” Rachel hissed, quickening her pace. “They might be able to hear us!”
“How? Do you think they've got microphones hanging from the trees?”
“Maybe. Or maybe someone's following us. Or maybe they've bugged me somehow, or maybe -”
Suddenly she stopped and turned to Jo, who almost bumped straight into her.
“How do I know I can trust you?” Rachel asked.
“I'm a private -”
“You were hired by Bradley Botham, weren't you? Margaret's pathetic little lap dog. He runs around after her, hoping that one day she'll limply fall into his arms. I don't know if he never noticed that she's banging Herbert, or if he's just blinded by love, but either way he's not exactly a reliable witness. And he either knows more than he's letting on about that family, or he's the dumbest human being who ever walked the planet.”
“I'm on your side,” Jo replied. “I'm just trying to get to the truth.”
“Even if it's utterly disgusting?”
“I'll help you,” Jo continued, reaching out and placing a hand on the girl's arm. “First, though, I need to know everything. I can't help if you're hiding things from me.”
“He'll kill me.”
“You mean your father?”
“He's not -”
She caught herself just in time, although there was now more fear than ever in her eyes.
“He's not what?” Jo asked. “Not really your father? I need to know the truth about you. Are you really Rachel Stone, or is this whole mess even more complicated than it seems?”
Rachel hesitated for a moment, before pulling away and resuming her march through the forest. “You're asking all the wrong questions,” she spat back at Jo. “I shouldn't have come here today. I shouldn't be talking to anyone, I should just scrap this whole thing and go back to London. At least in London I didn't have to deal with a bunch of perverts and maniacs and killers.”
Reaching the edge of a deserted road that ran through the heart of the forest, she took a couple more steps before turning back to watch as Jo struggled up the hill.
“I don't think I can do this anymore, Miss Mason,” she announced, as a tear ran down her cheek. “I thought I was up to this task. Hell, it was my idea. But I'm out. I'm done.”
“What do you mean?” Jo asked, a little breathless now as she reached the side of the road.
“I mean I'm out of here,” Rachel continued. “I'm not going back to that house, not ever. I'm not going to see those people again. I'm going to walk away and go back to London, and they'll never hear from me, and this will all be over. And hopefully, eventually, I'll be able to forget I ever met any of them.”
“You can't be serious.”
“Deadly.”
“After everything that's happened so far?”
“It's not worth the drama.”
“But if -”
“I'll tell you,” she added, sniffing back more tears and wiping her face. “Fine. I don't owe anything to anyone anymore, and it might be for the best if it all just comes tumbling out. I'll tell you all of it, I'll tell you Herbert and Diana Stone's nasty secret, the really nasty secret that makes all their other secrets seem like child's play, and then I'm off.”
Jo paused, not quite knowing how to respond as she struggled to get her breath back.
“Are you really Rachel Stone?” she asked finally.
She waited, and now she could see the indecision in the girl's features.
“I need to know,” she added. “Are you Rachel Stone?”
“I'm so sorry.”
“Tell me! Are you the real Rachel Stone?”
“I -”
Suddenly a shot rang out, and Rachel turned before letting out a gasp and collapsing. Racing toward her, Jo dropped to her knees, but a moment later she heard the roar of an engine nearby. Looking along the empty road, she spotted a black-clad figure turning a motorcycle around, and she briefly spotted a gun as the driver began to speed away.
“Rachel?” she stammered, looking back down at the girl. She waited for a reply, before grabbing her shoulder and gently rolling her over, only to gasp and pull back as she saw that a bullet had struck the side of the girl's head and blasted out the other side, splattering the tarmac with blood and bone. More blood was already running from the wound, along with a river of cranial fluid that carried fragments of bone out onto the road.
Rachel's lips were slightly parted, frozen at the start of a sentence she'd never get to finish. Her dead, glassy eyes stared up at the gray sky.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Today
“Help!” Jo yelled, stumbling out into the road and waving at the approaching car. “Stop!”
The vehicle screeched to a halt, and the startled driver lowered his window just as Jo raced around and dropped to her knees.
“I need your phone!” she stammered, reaching into the car with bloodied hands. “Hurry!”
“What's wrong?” the driver replied. “What -”
“Give me your phone!” she screamed. “Now!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
15 years ago
Children screamed as they ran across the hot sand, almost burning their feet before splashing into the warm water. Now their screams turned to laughter as they began swimming, much to the annoyance of two girls nearby who were trying to play with an inflatable ball. Back on the shore, sunburned parents shouted at their children, telling them to be careful, before returning their attention to their books.
A little way back from the water's edge, clothes hung on a line outside a block of flats.
***
“They're maniacs, the lot of them. Herbert, Diana, Margaret... They're utter maniacs. They're lunatics! The worst part is, it's the kind of lunacy that's contagious. If I go back, I'll catch it again.”
“But they're family, Jack. They're your family. You can't ignore that.”
As the fan whirred high above him, Jack Stone stood by the window and read the message from Margaret one more time. His sister had emailed him out of the blue, imploring him to return from his travels and go to the house in Landsley. She'd told him all about the abduction of Rachel, and all about Diana's breakdown and subsequent forced stay at a psychiatric hospital, and she'd begged him to return to England so he could support the family at such a trying time. Ordinarily Jack would never have even entertained the possibility, but now – as he took a drag on his cigarette and turned to look out at the glittering blue Malta sea – he began to think that maybe it was time to go home.
At the same time, the glittering water of Mellieha Bay seemed to be calling him. He wanted to spend his day at the beach with Natalie, and then to walk up the steep hill into the little town and get something to eat at one of the local restaurants. The lampuki fishing season had only just started, marking the start of his favorite time of year. He wanted to sit with N
atalie outside a little restaurant and watch the old yellow buses struggle up through the town. He wanted to watch lizards scurrying across the walls in search of shade. More than anything, he wanted to relax and never have to think of Landsley or his family again.
“Jack? Tell me what you're thinking.”
Turning, he saw his girlfriend Natalie on the bed. She had a thin white sheet covering her lower half, but her top was bare and even the three fans in the room weren't enough to keep sweat from running down her flesh. Her large, bare breasts still bore faint scratches from the previous night's vigorous love-making session. Clothes lay strewn across the floor.
“The Stones are your family,” she continued. “Babe, we always talked about this. Running around the beaches of Europe is fine for a while, but some day you have to go back and face your brother and sister.”
“Why?”
“You can't ignore your family.”
“Why?”
“Because they're an important part of your life.”
“Why?”
“Because you need a family!”
“Why?”
She sighed. “Everyone needs a connection to the world.”
“Why?”
“Because -”
“And don't say it's because they're my family,” he added. “We don't even share the same blood. Herbert's the only one who has Stone blood. Margaret and I are adopted, remember?”
“Does that change anything?”
“It does for the lawyers. Our illustrious father specified in his will that Herbert was the only one deemed pure enough to take over the family business. Margaret and I are second-class family members. Besides, I don't see you running off to spend time with your family.”
She paused. “That's different.”
“Why?”
“Your father was an ass,” she replied, “but that doesn't give you an excuse to be an ass too. Herbert and Diana must be going out of their minds with worry. How can you just stand there, debating whether to go back, when your own niece is missing?”
“She's not my niece by blood, she's just -”
“Don't say that, Jack,” she replied, sitting up straight. “The man I love would never abandon his family in their hour of need. Book a plane ticket, go back to Landsley, and support your brother.”