‘I don’t understand,’ Harriet says as Malcolm collects his tools together. ‘Why did you do that?’
‘In case he has to go,’ says Malcolm.
‘Go where?’
‘Go. In case he has to go. I’m going to put a bucket beneath the seat.’
Enlightenment dawns on Harriet’s face.
Daisy watches as Malcolm goes to the body. He bends forward and pulls Cody into a sitting position, then puts his hands under his armpits and drags him across to the chair. Once there, Malcolm gasps and groans as he hefts the unconscious form onto it. The man’s head and limbs loll around like he’s Pinocchio.
Malcolm removes Cody’s shoes. He pauses, a puzzled expression on his face. He rolls down Cody’s sock, slides it off his foot.
‘Ohmygosh,’ says Poppy.
Daisy sees it too. The pink scarred flesh where the two smallest toes should be.
Malcolm removes the other sock. Two missing toes here as well.
Daisy sees how Malcolm looks to his wife for an explanation and receives only a shake of the head. How does such a thing happen? How does anyone lose the same two toes on each foot?
Malcolm replaces the socks, then looks again in his toolbox. He brings out a collection of nylon ties, then spends the next few minutes binding Cody’s ankles to the chair legs and his wrists to the wooden arms.
He looks across at Harriet. ‘Have you got some cotton wool in that first aid kit?’
Harriet doesn’t question him this time. She opens up the box, finds some, and passes it across.
Malcolm rips away some of the cotton wool, forms it into balls and begins stuffing it into his prisoner’s mouth. Daisy feels sick at the idea of all that moisture-sucking material filling her own mouth. She is certain it would make her throw up.
Harriet seems to have the same thought. ‘Malcolm, he might choke.’
‘He’ll be all right,’ says Malcolm, but he halts anyway. He takes a roll of wide silver duct tape, snips off a section, and fastens it across Cody’s mouth.
Finally, Malcolm steps back and admires his handiwork.
‘There. He’s not going anywhere.’
Daisy doesn’t like the sound of this. It implies he could be staying here for some time. She exchanges glances with Poppy, whose expression suggests she is contemplating the same thing.
Malcolm starts packing up his tools. When he is done, he takes a last look at Cody’s slumped form before pulling the curtain around him.
He stands in front of the three girls, his face grim and hard. ‘I’m only going to tell you this once. You stay away from that man. He is a very, very bad man. He is evil. You saw his feet, right? They are a sign. When you make a deal with the Devil, he takes some of your body parts in payment. Somehow this man found out about you, and he wants you for himself, but he won’t look after you like we do. He wants to keep you in his prison. He wants to hurt you and make you do horrible things. He might even kill you if he gets a chance. So you mustn’t go near him. You mustn’t try to speak to him. Do you understand me?’
Daisy and Poppy nod in unison. Ellie just stares.
As Malcolm moves towards the door, the heads of all three girls turn towards the curtained section of the room. Daisy knows they are all thinking about what lies behind that thin veil of material.
Harriet picks up her things and trails after Malcolm. Before she disappears, she takes a long look at the girls. Daisy thinks she sees pity in her eyes.
But then she leaves too, locking her daughters in with the Devil’s companion, as though offering them up in sacrifice.
50
Once he has put his tools away, Malcolm finds Harriet waiting for him at the kitchen table. He thinks she looks smaller than usual. Small and uncertain and fragile. He goes to her.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asks.
She takes a while to find her words. ‘I don’t like this, Malcolm. I don’t like the thought of that policeman in our house. What if there are others? They could be on their way now. What if they find him, and see what we’ve done? How will we protect the girls then?’
He takes her hand. ‘Hush now. It’ll be all right. We need to talk to this Cody bloke, don’t we? We need to find out exactly why he came here. That’s why we can’t . . . you know . . . get rid of him. Not just yet. Let’s find out what he knows first.’
‘But how long will that take? Are you really going to keep him shut in there with the girls?’
‘What choice do we have? He can’t go in our bedroom, and there’s no space in the study. Besides, all my research is in there, and I can’t risk him seeing that. The girls’ bedroom is the only room that’s secure and soundproofed. If he gets out of that chair, there’s nowhere for him to go, he can’t attract attention and he’s got a 24-hour guard. The girls will soon let us know if he tries anything.’
‘They’ll be frightened. You told them he’s evil.’
‘I had to. They need to be frightened of him. They need to stay away from him. He’ll poison their minds. He’ll make them hate us. You don’t want that, do you?’
Harriet looks horrified. ‘No. No, I don’t want that. But it’s so cramped in there now. It used to be just Daisy, but now there are four people. I know it’s a big room, but it’s getting ridiculous.’
‘It’s temporary. Cody will only be there for a short while. And in the longer term I’ll convert the study so that one of the girls can move in there. Stop worrying.’
He allows her time to calm down a little, and then he says, ‘Can I ask you a question now?’
She sniffs, nods.
‘What exactly did Cody say to you when he arrived?’
‘I told you. He said he’d lost his – what do you call it? – his warrant card. He said he must have left it here.’
‘And you hadn’t seen anything like that lying about?’
‘No. I would have remembered.’
‘But he wouldn’t take no for an answer?’
‘No. He was adamant. He said you must have put it somewhere when you brought it into the house.’
Malcolm frowns as he tries to cast his mind back to that first visit. He remembers having it in his hand when he rushed into the living room, but that’s about it. He has no recollection of handing it back, and yet he must have done. Either that or he left it in plain view for Cody to pick up again.
He digs into his pocket, pulls out the ID wallet.
‘This was in his fleece. That means he was lying to us. Why would he lie? Why would he need to make something up to come back to the house?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘He didn’t give you any clue? Didn’t ask any questions that sounded a bit suspicious to you?’
‘No. All he talked about was the warrant card. He said that he’d wait for you to get back so he could ask you about it.’
‘That was his idea? You didn’t suggest it?’
‘No. I wanted you back. I was desperate for you to come home and get rid of him, but I didn’t ask him to wait.’
Malcolm tries to make all this fit together in his head. What was Cody up to? Why weren’t Harriet’s answers good enough for him?
‘All right, so what happened next?’
‘I . . . I went to make some tea.’
‘You left him alone?’
‘Only for a few seconds. Then he followed me into the kitchen.’
A surge of annoyance hits Malcolm, but he doesn’t give voice to it. Leaving Cody in the living room was a big mistake.
But what could Cody have found there anyway? If he really was there for only a couple of seconds, as Harriet claims, what harm could that have possibly done?
‘And then what?’
‘He said he wanted to use the toilet.’
‘What, just like that? Totally out of the blue?’
‘Yes. One minute he was standing there talking to me while I made tea, and the next minute he was desperate for the loo.’
‘And you let him go up the
re?’
‘What else could I do? How could I say no? Wouldn’t that have looked really odd?’ She casts her gaze down. ‘I thought he would just use the loo, and that would be that. I heard him go in there. I heard his feet on the bathroom floor.’ She lifts her eyes to Malcolm again. ‘But I knew I still had to take precautions, Malcolm. I picked up the rolling pin, and I went and stood at the bottom of the stairs, listening. I heard him quietly open the door and sneak out. And then I heard him go into the girls’ bedroom, so I went up there. I did the right thing, didn’t I, Malcolm? I did what you would have done?’
She is desperate for his support, so he gives it. ‘Yes, Harriet. You did a good job.’
He thinks again about the events as Harriet has described them. There has to be something missing. Why the implausibly sudden excuse of a full bladder? Had Cody always intended to use this as a way of getting upstairs, or did the urge to do so come to him when he was already here in the house?
He says, ‘I’m going to ask you something now, Harriet, and I want the truth.’
Her eyelids flutter. ‘Of course, Malcolm.’
‘You did flick the switch for Quiet Time, didn’t you?’
‘Yes. It’s the first thing I did. I went straight into the living room and did it, even before the policeman came in.’
‘Okay, good. And the girls? They stayed absolutely quiet?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you sure about that? They didn’t make even a slight noise?’
Another flicker of her eyelids as she hesitates. ‘No. Not a peep out of them. I’m certain.’
Malcolm studies her face, waits for the cracks to show.
And then he thinks, What does it matter? What’s done is done. Catching Harriet in a lie, punishing the kids – what good will that do?
‘All right, Harriet,’ he says calmly. ‘Let’s leave it there. I’ll talk to Cody in the morning. We’ll clear up this mess. Don’t you worry about it.’
Harriet gives him a smile, but it is weak and unconvincing, as though she is still troubled.
‘Malcolm?’
‘Yes, my darling?’
‘What if . . . what if he’s not there in the morning? I mean, what if he dies? What if I’ve hurt him really badly, or he chokes on his own vomit? What then?’
‘Well, then, he’ll have brought it on himself. We didn’t invite him here, did we? He came poking his nose in where it wasn’t wanted, and so he’ll have to suffer the consequences.’
‘And you won’t blame me?’
He rubs the back of her hand. ‘We’re family, Harriet. Family comes first. Anyone who tries to break us up will get exactly what’s coming to them.’
51
Daisy and the other girls don’t move for a long time. They sit together on the bed, all facing in the same direction, staring at the birds and flowers on the curtain, the bright pattern belying what it screens from them.
‘I’m scared,’ says Poppy.
Daisy looks at her, sees her shining, wet cheeks and the way she is wringing her hands.
‘He can’t hurt us. They put him to sleep.’
‘But what about when he wakes up?’
‘You saw. They tied him up. He can’t get out of that chair.’
‘But what if he does? They said he came to take us away so that he can put us in a prison and do horrible things to us.’
‘He can’t do that. If he tries to escape we’ll hear him, and we can buzz for Malcolm to come back up and sort him out.’
‘But what if he gets out while we’re asleep? He might kill us or eat us.’
Daisy forces out a laugh intended to reassure. ‘He’s not going to do that. Stop worrying, Poppy.’ She looks across to Ellie at the foot of the bed. ‘You’re not scared, are you, Ellie?’
Ellie gives no indication that she has heard. She continues to stare at the curtain in silence.
Daisy can’t figure her out. Ellie is eating properly now, but still she won’t speak, won’t let anyone know what is running around in her head.
‘What if I need the toilet?’ Poppy asks.
‘It’s still here. It’s just in a different place.’
‘But . . . people will see what I’m doing. I can’t go if people are watching.’
‘The man can’t see you through the curtain. And Ellie and me can turn the other way.’
‘I still don’t like it. I want a proper toilet. I want one like the one in my house.’
Daisy feels a stab of irritation. ‘Yes, we’d all like that, wouldn’t we? Sometimes we can’t have what we want.’ She immediately regrets the sharpness of her tongue. ‘I’m sorry, Poppy. I didn’t mean to snap at you. Come on, let’s get ready for bed.’
‘I won’t be able to sleep. Not with him there.’
‘We have to. Just . . . just pretend he’s not there.’
Poppy’s voice rises in frustration. ‘I can’t. Who is he, anyway? How did he find us?’
Good questions. Questions to which Daisy has no answers.
Cody. The man’s name is Cody. That’s all she knows about him.
Oh, and one other thing.
His voice. It sounded . . . kindly. It sounded like the type of voice she has wanted to hear for a long time. A voice suffused with concern and compassion. The voice of a prince come to rescue the princesses trapped in the castle with the wicked old trolls.
But then her memories of kindly voices have faded over time. They have been gradually eroded by the artificial benevolence put on display by Malcolm and Harriet, who have repeatedly drummed into her warnings about the terrible dangers, the predators that lie outside the shield they so generously provide.
And if she has learnt anything about monsters in that time, it is this: the clever ones are great deceivers. It’s like in Little Red Riding Hood. They sit there, patiently and quietly, pretending to be what they’re not.
And when the time is right, they unsheathe their razor-like claws, they bare their needle-sharp fangs and they gobble you all up.
*
She eventually coaxes the younger girls to follow her lead in preparing for bed, but their eyes hardly ever stray from that curtain. When they undress, they do so in a contorted manner, with their bodies turned away but their heads facing it. When they brush their teeth, they stand with their backs to the basin, watching and listening for the slightest movement.
Malcolm and Harriet put in their customary bedtime appearance. While Harriet tucks them in and kisses them on their foreheads and tells them how filled with love she is, Malcolm checks on the subject of her violence. Daisy finds herself craning her neck as the curtain is parted, but she sees only Cody’s left side. His head remains obscured.
When Malcolm reappears, he nods at Harriet with satisfaction and says, ‘He looks fine. Sleeping like a baby.’
He comes to stand at the side of the bed, his figure casting a shadow over Poppy occupying the mattress on the floor.
‘Remember what I said,’ he tells them. ‘No going anywhere near that man. He’s dangerous. He’s worse than any wild animal you can think of. Worse than a shark or a tiger.’
‘But,’ Harriet adds hastily, ‘he can’t hurt you if you stay away from him, so there’s no need to be too frightened.’
Malcolm grunts. ‘If you need us, you know what to do. Just press the buzzer and I’ll come. I’ll always protect you. You know that, don’t you?’
Daisy thinks about Malcolm’s protection. Thinks of the agony and the fear it has caused her. She still bears the welts of his care.
‘Yes,’ she says. ‘Thank you.’
‘Good girl,’ says Malcolm. ‘Lights off in fifteen minutes, okay?’
The couple say their goodnights, and then they disappear. The bolts are put into place.
The girls sit up in their beds, books open on their laps. But nobody reads. Nobody so much as glances at the pages. Only one sight demands their attention. They remain that way for the full fifteen minutes.
&n
bsp; Daisy takes away the books. Tidies them away on the bookcase. As she does so, she catches sight of the commode and realises none of them has used it tonight. They are all holding themselves in, put off by the lack of privacy and the vulnerability.
She switches off the light. Dives back to the bed before she can think too much about what the darkness holds.
She pulls the covers tight under her chin. She finds herself lifting her head from the pillow every few seconds to look in the direction of the room’s only adult occupant. She can see nothing, but her mind insists on filling in the blanks. It shows the curtain moving. A slight flutter at first, and then a slow, soundless drawing back on its rail. The man called Cody is free! He moves towards the bed, seeing where the girls cannot, blood dripping from his head, which is now uncannily misshapen like Malcolm’s. He comes closer and closer, gliding rather than walking, like a phantom. He reaches out. Torn, bloodied fingers stretch towards Daisy . . .
She jumps, yelps. The touch was real! It’s real!
‘It’s me,’ says Poppy. ‘Can I get into bed with you? I don’t like being down there by myself. It’s scary.’
Daisy can hardly refuse, even though it’s going to be a tight squeeze. She is just as scared herself. It will help to have the warmth of another human being next to her. Someone other than Ellie, who is still barely present.
‘Get in,’ she says.
Poppy climbs aboard and snuggles in. Her breath is sweet and comforting.
A minute later, she whispers in Daisy’s ear. ‘Why did you tell Harriet you love her?’
‘You dropped a book. You made a noise when it was Quiet Time. We were in trouble, but now Harriet isn’t going to tell Malcolm about it.’
‘You said you dropped the book.’
‘Yes.’
‘You lied to her.’
‘Yes.’
‘And you were lying when you said you loved her.’
‘Yes.’
‘Because you don’t really love her, do you?’
‘No.’
‘Is it all right to lie?’
‘Not always, but sometimes.’
‘Malcolm was lying when he said he would look after us, wasn’t he?’
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