The cemetery was every bit as spooky as she suspected it would be. She had walked among the rows of stones and read the names a hundred times. It had always been by the light of day. By night they took on an eerie shadow and her imagination started to play tricks on her. For the briefest moment, she feared that the dead might rise from their graves and haunt her. Would she have deserved anything less?
Casey moved slowly and peered around each towering stone. Even if she had wanted to remain undetected, she suspected that the crunching and squelching of her shoes against the snow had probably highlighted her presence. By the time she reached the edge of the woods, it was no longer the dead that she feared. She would soon have to admit her part in Shannon’s wicked plan and that filled her with more fear than a thousand ghosts.
In the far-right corner of the cemetery, at the edge of the woods, stood Casey’s favourite monument. It was a towering angel that stood with open wings upon a marble base. The base listed the names of eighteen orphans who had died in a terrible fire in 1979. She had often sat on the step at the foot of the base and read the names aloud. She found it humbled her; made her grateful when she felt aggrieved. Her parents often told her how lucky she was and in those moments, she accepted how true that was. Her parents, and Carla, would do anything for her. If she had ever doubted that before, she didn’t now.
She walked around the winged angel and suddenly heard the roar of a car engine. Somebody was arriving. The car flooded the cemetery with light, forcing Casey to seek sanctuary behind her winged angel. As the car raced along the cemetery path it kicked up a geyser of broken ice. The driver pulled to a halt where the path met the entrance to the woods. Casey pulled her phone from her pocket and continued to watch.
As Dan Wilson stepped out of his car, Casey gargled her fear back into her throat. Her mouth felt dry and the temple of her forehead began to tighten. She was beginning to panic. Her hands were shaking so violently that she couldn’t even navigate through the screens properly. She wondered, as she flicked her finger across the screen, if Dan already knew the awful truth. Would he know her part in it? Knowing that she would have to face Dan and Joanne every day, if she managed to evade prison, would be almost worse.
Casey searched through her contact list. Her fingers were numbing in the cold and she still couldn’t stop shaking so she hit the last known caller. It was Carla. They had been video-phoning each other the day before. She watched as the phone sparked to life. She could see a blurry profile picture that was enlarged for the purpose of contact details. Then, a second later, Carla’s face appeared.
“Casey?”
Casey quickly threw her finger to her lips to quieten Carla. As she looked up, she saw Dan Wilson turn and stare in her direction. She covered her hand over the phone to hide the light. Her breathing quickened. For a second, as she watched his eyes glower through the dark, she thought he might have seen her. He hadn’t. He continued to walk until he disappeared into the trees.
“Carla, I think I’ve made a terrible mistake. Can you come and get me?” Her voice was quivering and she could almost feel her teeth rattle in her mouth. Her eyes continued to follow Dan as he disappeared into the enclosure. She returned to the video screen where her sister was frowning.
“Of course, where are you?”
Casey lifted her chin and stared around herself. She felt so ridiculous now. Why had she agreed to this? Finally, when Carla’s face beamed up at her, she felt she had no other choice. She held the phone up so that it lit her face a little better. “I’m at the cemetery. I’m hiding behind the angel. Dan Wilson is here.”
“What the hell is he doing there? Did you tell him?” Carla sounded angry, although it was more obvious in her voice than it was in her face, which kept freezing up due to the poor reception.
Casey was disturbed by a sudden movement behind her. Her eyes widened, and she held the phone up. Her own transmission box on the screen was too little for her to see anything clearly. She saw Carla cock her head as if she were trying to see around her. Casey slowly turned around. As she did, she let out a sharp gasp and dropped the phone. A cold hand reached down and touched her. As their eyes met, Casey knew there was no turning back now.
THIRTY-FOUR
Dan stared back at her and could only feel contempt. How could she imagine that there would ever have been anything between them? She had abducted his son. He didn’t know if there was a worse thing she could do to him. Inside the flame of rage burned hotter than the darkest corner of hell. Outside he kept a stony composure because it was all he could do not to snap her scrawny neck. “Okay, you’ve got my attention.”
Shannon teetered on the first bar of the bridge fence and rocked back and forth. She had brought him out here to tell him the truth. Not just about Archie but about her feelings for him and about Samantha and the jealousy that he incurred in her. Even when he was with his wife, Shannon boiled over with envy because she wanted what Joanne had. It would never occur to her that Dan might not want the same.
Dan waited for her to speak. Even if she didn’t give him a full explanation, he wanted her to say something. Her silence unnerved him. He couldn’t decide if her cavalier attitude could be attributed to her having no remorse or simply having no concept of what she had done. Her silence and the persistent rocking back and forth like a child, made him want to throw her over the edge. It was the least she deserved.
“You know why I did it, Danny.”
He felt repulsed by the casual use of his name. Yet, he was sure she wouldn’t notice that he found her repugnant. If she had noticed the blood on his face from when his wife had scratched him or the bloody nose he’d been given by her father, she didn’t mention it or show the slightest concern. “Shannon. You do not have a clue. My wife is a queen standing next to you. You think that dolling yourself up and revealing too much of yourself makes me want you. It doesn’t. You couldn’t lick her boots. What makes you think you have anything to offer me that I’d want?”
Her face twisted. She no longer pouted at him. She no longer batted her eyelashes flirtatiously. For a moment, her face was a true reveal of her inner self. Then she softened again. “You weren’t saying that last week,” she teased and stepped down from the bridge fence. “Last week you couldn’t get enough.”
Dan almost laughed. Had she read that line somewhere? Had her mother taught her it? Everybody knew that Laura Gilfeather was the biggest lush on Golf Road. It was why he despised his wife’s friendship with her. “Last week, you were a sack of potatoes. You really think that’s the best a man could get? You’ve got a lot to learn. Shannon, you’re nothing to me. I don’t think they can call it fucking when it was so bloody dull and lifeless. I’d have had more fun in this cemetery.” He nudged his head angrily and then leaned towards her. “As far as everybody else is concerned I’m a happily married man. After this, they’ll see you for the psychotic, stupid little bitch you are. If this is your ploy to blackmail me, it’s not very interesting.”
“Don’t call me stupid,” she snapped, as tears appeared on her cheeks. “I’m not stupid.” She turned away from him so that she could conceal the childish heartbreak on her face.
He leaned down and ran his hand through the snow until he wrapped it around something cold and hard.
When Shannon looked back at him, she’d wiped away the tears and wore grim determination in her expression. “This is Samantha’s fault. Everything was fine until she showed up. Are you fucking her as well?”
He didn’t answer.
“I knew it. How many years do you get in jail for molesting teenage girls?”
His eyes tightened.
“By the time my parents are finished with you, a missing baby will be the least of your problems.”
Dan moved to follow her.
She spun round quickly and held her hand up. “Don’t. You had your chance. What time will your wife be home from the hospital?”
Dan couldn’t believe that a person could be that wicked. She looked g
leeful as she taunted him. She was about to destroy his life and she looked like she would enjoy it. He’d always mused about how much like her mother she was. Now he realised she wasn’t like her mother at all. Laura was a lot of things, but heartless and manipulative wasn’t one of them. He rather suspected she was her father’s daughter. As she moved to the edge of the bridge, he followed her.
Shannon was about to protest again when she saw his arm rise. Something glinted in the dim light of the rising moon. By the time she realised what it was, it was too late for her to run. As she opened her mouth to scream, he brought down a black rock on her skull and smashed it in repeatedly until she fell to the ground.
THIRTY-FIVE
What had she done? Carla felt the pull in her stomach as she tried to reason with herself. Her conscience and her protective streak had clashed and she knew she had to do the right thing. So, she’d made the call. In the end, it all came pouring out and she hadn’t had the filter to blame Shannon for everything. She hoped that Casey would forgive her. She hoped her parents would.
Rosie Miller walked in the door at just after five. She had been oblivious to everything that had gone on but as soon as she saw Carla’s expression, the colour drained from her cheeks. “What’s going on? You look awful.”
Carla resisted the urge to cry. She’d have to explain everything first and then she’d have to justify why she’d made the call to the police.
Rosie listened intently. At first, she didn’t realise what had taken place. Then she descended into anger. “I’ll wring that Shannon’s neck,” she spat angrily. Then she listened some more and tears began to well.
“How could you Carla? Casey could be arrested.” Rosie was wailing now.
“Mum, I was trying to do the right thing. Isn’t that what you and dad have always encouraged us to do. I can’t let this hang over Casey for the rest of her life.” She leaned over the table and brushed Rosie’s hand.
Rosie snatched it away. “That wasn’t your call to make, Carla. You should have waited until your dad and I got home.”
Carla stared in defeat. She had let them down once again. This time she didn’t know if she could twist her way out of their glaring disappointment. “Mum. The Gilfeathers are trying to squirm their way out of it. If we don’t do something, they will find a way to pin it on Casey. We can explain to the police that she’s not like that. She’s a good, clever girl who was misled.”
Rosie looked up, anger flashing across her eyes. “Don’t be so stupid. Are you listening to yourself? We had to fight just to keep you out of jail for graffitiing on the school walls. Do you remember? Miss Perfect. There’s no way the police will understand. They won’t care that we think she’s a good girl. Carla, how could you?” Rosie began to wail again.
Carla didn’t know if she had ever seen her mother this angry before. If she had, it had long since disappeared from her memory.
They were interrupted by Carla’s mobile phone. She snatched it up and saw that Casey was video-calling her.
“Casey?”
The video was a little dark, but she could see her sister push her finger to her mouth. Carla didn’t speak then. She wanted to know where Casey was but she sensed that the girl was in more trouble. Her gut was still knotted from the call she’d made and the confrontation with her mother.
The phone went dark for a second as if Casey had covered it with her hand or held it to her chest. When she became visible again, she looked frantic. Her eyes were moving wildly. Through the broken transmission, Carla heard her plead for her to come and get her.
“Of course, where are you?” Carla stared up at her mother and then back at the screen.
Casey became more visible as she held the phone a little higher. “I’m at the cemetery. I’m hiding behind the angel. Dan Wilson is here.”
Somebody had got to him. Somebody had told him. That was the only explanation. Why else would he be there at the cemetery? “What the hell is he doing there? Did you tell him?” Carla moved her phone around because she kept losing sight of Casey. Then, when it became visible again, Carla saw somebody move behind her sister. It wasn’t clear who it was at first, but as Casey turned and gasped, Carla caught sight of the face just before her sister’s phone fell to the ground.
“Mum, we’ve got to go. Casey could be in trouble.”
Rosie quickly rose from her chair. “Where’s your father? We need to get him.”
Carla darted towards the door. “There’s no time. You get dad and meet me there.”
Her mother called after her. “Why, what’s going on? What did you see?”
Carla paused at the front door. “Samantha Bradley. I saw her behind Casey as she dropped her phone. If I were her, I wouldn’t be there to make small talk.”
THIRTY-SIX
Samantha Bradley looked horrific. The skin had broken around her lips, the circles around her eyes were mottled and puffy whilst the rest of her skin had turned a tinge of grey. She looked dead. Yet there was no mistaking that she was very much alive because she had touched Casey with her cold shivering hands. A night out in these cold temperatures didn’t do much for the complexion.
Casey had pulled Samantha behind the base of the statue and hushed her. She’d pointed towards Dan Wilson’s car and explained that he had gone into the Bluebell Woods. Casey wondered what he was doing here, but she was more concerned right now by Samantha’s appearance. What had they done?
“I’m so sorry Samantha. What Shannon did to you. It’s unforgivable. I hope you know that I didn’t know anything about what she was planning. She told me she had taken something valuable and hidden it in the woods and that you would have to find it to pass her little test. I wouldn’t have made you go through all of this just to hang out with us. As if anybody would ever want to be our friend that badly.” Her eyes dipped and she groaned at how ugly the whole situation had become.
Samantha acknowledged Casey’s remorse with a gentle rub of her arm. She didn’t appear to care much about that right now. Her chest continued to heave and it looked like she might collapse any minute. She was able to speak but her voice was raspy and her breath seemed in short supply. “I’ve been out in the woods all night. I thought I was going to get the blame for taking Archie.” A shabby tartan blanket hung loosely from her shoulders.
“You must be freezing,” Casey leaned over and pulled the tartan blanket around her and rubbed her arms.
Samantha’s voice quivered. “I am. I managed to find a shack that I could sleep in last night. When I woke up this morning I was disorientated. I couldn’t find my way back right away. The more I walked around, the more lost I became.” She paused. “You know, as soon as I saw Archie, I knew what she’d done. Everybody thinks I took him, don’t they?”
Casey nodded her head. She understood all too well how manipulative Shannon was. She had encountered it more times than she could count. This had been the final time. She continued to rub at Samantha’s skin. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell them what happened. They’ll have to believe us. She can’t stand up to everybody.”
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Samantha paused to catch her breath. She wrapped her own arms around her chest as if to emphasise her plight.
There was something else bothering Casey. She had wondered about it since the minute she had learned that Samantha was still missing. “Why didn’t you just run home and tell someone?”
Samantha looked at her with as much anger as she could muster. “You know Shannon never does things by halves. You remember I told you about that creep that my sister had seen hanging around our house?”
Casey nodded.
“He lives in the house that Shannon hid Archie in. I think she knew all along that he was the man following me. Anyway, when I saw him, I got so frightened. I ran into the woods. I thought he was going to kill me if he caught me. I had to get away. The only way for me to stop him from following me was to pretend I had fallen into the river. I got the idea when I caught my raincoat on a spike over at the brid
ge. I knew it was bright enough to divert his attention to it. I threw it into the river and then I hid underneath the bridge.”
Casey eyed her awkwardly.
“What? It got him off my case. He took the bait and went home again.” Samantha blew into the air and her breath drifted around both their faces.
“You left the baby there. If you thought he was dangerous, he could have done something to Archie.” Casey spoke accusingly, although she instantly regretted it.
Samantha eyed her angrily. Her expression said it all. She had the audacity to question Samantha’s motives after what they’d done. “If it wasn’t for you two, I wouldn’t have had to make that decision.”
Casey was about to make her apologies when they heard the scream.
“What was that?” Samantha following Casey towards the opening. She held tight to the tartan blanket and gasped for more air.
Casey climbed onto a mound of dirt and searched for the person who had screamed. “Who was it? I can’t see anybody.” She moved forward, her eyes following the river. It was then that she saw someone standing on the bridge. She grabbed Samantha and pointed. “Look!”
As they moved through a row of tree’s, careful to avoid detection, the image of a body came into view. It only took Casey a second to realise who it was. She moved slowly round and whispered to Samantha. “Have you still got your phone?”
Samantha looked at her in wild panic. “Yes, but I think it might be nearly out of battery.”
“Take mine. Call the police. Tell them where we are and that I think Dan has killed Shannon.” She pushed Samantha back into the trees as she fished her phone from her pocket. She saw Samantha’s hesitation. “I promise nobody will be looking for you. You need to tell somebody where we are.” She managed to quash her outer panic even though inside her guts would raging up a storm. She watched as Samantha stepped away and walked quickly back towards the cemetery.
The Dead Of Winter Page 10