by Shaun Hutson
Locked.
In frustration, she banged again, harder this time. Only silence.
Hailey murmured something angrily and headed back up the path to the side of the house.
The gate had swung shut.
She wrenched it open.
The figure before her seemed to appear from nowhere.
68
HAILEY BARELY MANAGED to suppress a scream.
She took a step back, colliding with the gate.
The woman standing there looked in her late fifties: pudgy-faced and dressed in a blue cardigan and brown slacks. She seemed as surprised as Hailey by this sudden confrontation, and she too stepped back.
‘Sorry,’ Hailey said breathlessly. ‘You scared me.’
The woman eyed her appraisingly for a moment, then managed a smile.
‘I didn’t mean to,’ she said and Hailey heard a slight Northern lilt in her accent. ‘Only I saw you arrive and I was coming over to tell you that Mr Walker’s out. I wasn’t being nosy, you understand, but we’ve had a few burglaries in the area, so we all keep an eye out. We’ve got this neighbourhood-watch thing – very good idea. I thought I remembered seeing you here with Adam once before. That’s why I came over. I didn’t want to leave you hanging around. I don’t think Adam would be too happy if he came back and found his girlfriend standing out on the doorstep, would he?’
‘No,’ said Hailey softly. ‘He probably wouldn’t.’
His girlfriend? What the hell had he been saying?
‘I suppose you were trying to surprise him,’ the woman said.
Hailey nodded.
‘We live next door,’ the woman added, motioning towards the house on the left.
She paused a moment longer, then turned to leave.
‘How well do you know, Mr Walker – Adam?’ Hailey said, as if anxious that the woman should remain.
‘Well, he keeps himself to himself mostly. People do around here, don’t they? My husband’s always laughing at me for saying that. You know, that Northerners are more friendly than Southerners.’ She grinned. ‘We’ve lived here for more than forty years. We’ve seen lots of people come and go. We moved down here in 1949 – no, I tell a lie, 1950.’
‘Do you know Adam’s family?’ said Hailey, interrupting her musings.
‘Well, like I said, everyone minds their own business around here, but we used to speak to his father quite regularly. A very nice man. It’s a terrible shame he’s ill.’
‘What about his mother?’
The neighbour looked away from Hailey and crossed her arms.
‘I don’t agree with what she did,’ said the woman indignantly. ‘Running around with another man. And the worst thing is, she made no attempt to hide it. I mean, you don’t do things like that when you’re married, do you?’
No, you don’t, do you?
Hailey shook her head slowly.
‘And married to a vicar as well,’ the woman continued. ‘It’s a disgrace. I felt for Adam, poor little chap. I think he was only six or seven at the time. It’s always the kiddies who suffer when marriages break up, isn’t it?’
Hailey nodded almost imperceptibly.
‘Mind you, his father did a good job of bringing him up alone. It’s not easy for a man on his own, is it? Especially not a man in his position. But he can be proud of what he’s done. Adam is a lovely lad, but then you don’t need me to tell you.’
She laughed warmly.
‘Did you see much of the brother and sister before they left home?’
The woman looked vague. ‘Whose?’ she asked.
‘Adam’s. He’s got a brother and a sister, he told me.’
‘Well, if he has he’s done a good job of keeping that quiet.’ The woman smiled.
‘The sister apparently had a small child, a boy. Adam said the boy was killed in an accident about a year ago. You must have seen them about.’
‘I think you’ve got your wires crossed somewhere, love. Adam never had a brother or a sister. He’s an only child.’
69
SHE COULDN’T SLEEP.
Despite the fact that Hailey could barely keep her eyes open, the merciful oblivion of sleep still eluded her.
She sat up, exhaling deeply. Thoughts whirled around inside her head like some kind of emotional twister.
Walker was an only child.
Hailey ran a hand through her hair.
There had been no terrible hit-and-run accident involving his nephew, because he didn’t have one.
What the hell was going on?
‘You OK?’
She looked across to see that Rob was lying on his side looking at her.
‘Yeah,’ she lied, ‘I’m fine.’
He raised one eyebrow.
‘All right,’ Hailey confessed, ‘I’m not.’
‘Do you want to talk about it? Is it me?’
She almost laughed.
‘For the first time in ages, no,’ she said, and now Rob smiled too.
He reached across and held her hand.
Tell him the truth.
She swallowed hard.
But what is the truth?
‘It’s work,’ she told him, lying back on her pillow and gazing straight ahead. ‘As the gig gets closer, everyone’s more tense. The organization is a bloody nightmare. Trying to make sure everyone’s got what they want. Making sure no one’s toes are stepped on. Dealing with so many fucking egos.’
‘It’s what you wanted.’
‘I know, and I don’t regret going back, but things are starting to get a bit frayed around the edges at the moment, that’s all. The gig’s in two weeks. I just wish it was all over.’
‘And?’
She looked at him. ‘And what?’ she wanted to know.
‘What else is bothering you?’
‘Nothing. Really, Rob. I’d tell you if there was.’
Liar.
‘Are you sure it’s not me?’ he enquired. ‘More of those thoughts about what happened with me and Sandy?’
‘I think about it from time to time. I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t. And it’s going to be a long time before I ever completely forgive you, Rob. But this time it isn’t you that’s bothering me.’
‘Thanks for that vote of confidence,’ he said, swinging himself out of bed.
She watched as he padded towards the bathroom, pausing by one of the windows, peering out.
‘What is it?’ she asked, seeing him cup his hands around his eyes, squinting into the gloom.
‘I’m not sure,’ he murmured.
Hailey also got out of bed, joining him at the window.
He snaked an arm around her waist.
‘I thought I saw something move,’ he whispered. ‘Down in the garden. Over by the bushes.’
At the bottom of their garden, a thick growth of wild blackberry and gorse bushes separated their property from the one adjacent. In the blackness of the night it was almost impossible to pick out shapes.
‘Probably a cat,’ Hailey said, hoping she was right.
‘Yeah, probably,’ Rob echoed.
He turned to kiss her on the cheek, then they both squinted through the gloom once more, watching for any signs of movement. At that moment, the security alarm went off.
70
HAILEY’S BREATH FROZE in her lungs as the deafening explosion of sound ripped through the night.
‘Shit,’ hissed Rob, his voice barely audible above the shrill two-tone alarm.
He ran to his side of the bed and pulled on a pair of jogging bottoms, then he slid his hand beneath the bed and pulled out the baseball bat he kept there.
Protection?
Hailey pulled on a long T-shirt, her hands shaking as she draped it over her head.
‘Mum.’
She heard Becky cry out from her room, and Hailey hurried off to be with her daughter.
Rob was already advancing across the landing, the bat held in one hand.
‘Rob, don’t go down there,’ Hailey called t
o him as he paused at the top of the stairs.
‘Just call the police,’ he shouted back, and she realized that these words were as much for the benefit of whoever else might be inside their house as for her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered reading something in a magazine advising that if you suspected burglars had broken in, you make as much noise as possible. Frighten them off.
Frighten them off? That was a fucking laugh.
Hailey’s heart was hammering madly against her ribs as she entered Becky’s room to find the little girl sitting up in bed, arms outstretched. Hailey swept her up and held her tightly.
‘It’s all right, babe,’ she said, wishing she believed that.
Becky clung tightly to her mother, the sound of the alarm still screaming in her ears.
‘Rob, be careful,’ Hailey called, watching as her husband still peered over the balustrade, trying to see into the gloom of the hallway below.
If he heard her, he didn’t acknowledge her. She watched as he descended the stairs quickly.
‘What’s happening, Mum?’ Becky blurted out.
Hailey held her more tightly. ‘It’s all right,’ she said again. ‘The alarm’s gone wrong. Dad’s going to fix it.’
She heard Rob reach the bottom of the stairs.
He looked at each of the closed doors facing him in turn, then reached for the alarm control-pad, jabbed in the numbers and silenced it.
The silence seemed worse than the constant ringing.
He could hear his own blood rushing in his ears.
Rob looked at the panel and noticed that one of the blood-red zone-lights was flashing.
Zone Four.
Wherever the fuck that was.
Each of the rooms bore a different zone number, but he couldn’t remember which was which.
Zone Four?
Kitchen? Sitting room? Dining room? Study?
He would have to check them all.
He moved to the sitting-room door first, rested his hand on the handle, then shoved it open, simultaneously slapping at the light switches.
The room was instantly illuminated.
Rob stepped inside. He hefted the bat before him.
If you’re in here, you fucker, I’ll beat your lousy fucking brains out.
The room was empty. Nothing looked disturbed.
He headed across the hall towards the study.
Again he pushed the door open. Again he snapped on the lights.
Again there was nothing.
Dining room or kitchen next?
If it was the kitchen, then the intruder would have had time either to escape the same way he’d entered, or to have armed himself with any number of implements.
Knife? Carving fork? Cleaver?
Rob held the bat with both hands as he approached the door, pausing a moment, trying to slow his breathing as much as anything.
He threw open the door and hit the light switch.
The fluorescents in the ceiling sputtered into life, for fleeting seconds their cold stroboscopic glare faltering.
Rob gripped the bat tightly and advanced into the room.
Empty, too.
That only left the dining room.
‘All right, you cunt,’ he said at the top of his voice, one hand on the door.
He shoved it open.
Slapped the lights on.
Nothing.
Rob swallowed hard and lowered the bat, then he wandered slowly back across the hall, past the open doors of rooms now bathed in light.
From upstairs he heard Hailey call his name.
‘It’s clear,’ he told her, wiping perspiration from his brow with a trembling hand. He was no hero – he would be the first to admit it.
‘The alarm must be faulty,’ Hailey heard him say.
Like it was the other day?
‘Who was Dad shouting at?’ Becky wanted to know.
‘Just the alarm,’ Hailey said, smiling. ‘You know how he gets sometimes. It’s OK now.’
She herself closed her eyes tightly as she heard doors downstairs being shut.
‘Did you check the downstairs bathroom?’ Hailey called.
She heard him open a door.
Then she heard his grunt of pain.
‘Rob,’ Hailey shouted.
Silence.
‘Rob!’ she yelled again, her eyes bulging wildly.
She got to her feet and moved towards the landing.
‘Mum.’
Becky was climbing out of bed, following her.
‘No, stay there, babe,’ Hailey said, her mouth dry, her voice cracking.
‘Rob,’ she shouted again, moving towards the doorway of Becky’s room.
She heard another groan of pain. Louder this time.
Then she heard footsteps on the stairs.
Uncontrollable panic seized Hailey, and for brief seconds she considered slamming Becky’s door and trying to haul the chest of drawers across to block the path of any intruder.
She daren’t even think about what had been done to Rob down there.
What had . . .?
Rob appeared halfway up the stairs, his face creased with pain, his eyes narrowed.
‘Stubbed my bloody toe on the bathroom door,’ he said.
Hailey wanted to laugh with relief. Wanted to shriek hysterically that it didn’t matter. So what if he’d stubbed his toe? At least he was all right. Their house hadn’t been broken into.
‘The alarm must be playing up,’ Rob said. ‘Or a spider crawled across one of the sensors, or something. That would set it off. They’re pretty sensitive those things.’ He was still holding the baseball bat. ‘I’ve reset it anyway.’
‘Can we go back to sleep now, Mum?’ Becky wanted to know.
‘Yes,’ Hailey said, stroking her daughter’s hair. ‘Yes, we can.’
71
SHE REPLACED THE mobile phone and sat staring at it for a moment.
Hailey rubbed her eyes. She’d felt tired all day. A combination of precious little sleep the night before and a steadily growing feeling of something akin to depression.
Time for a wallow in self-pity?
She felt as if she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders – a weight that was growing by the day. Hailey hadn’t felt this down since she’d first discovered Rob’s affair.
Rob’s affair?
Pressures of work?
Fear?
Was that the newest burden she carried?
Did fear feel like a crushing weight on your mind and soul?
She had received no phone calls from Adam Walker for more than a week now. But the knowledge that he was responsible for slashing the tyres of Rob’s car, for the dog excrement . . .
The knowledge that he’d broken into their house.
It was an assumption, nothing more. There was no proof that was Walker.
She started the car.
The trip to his house the previous day had done little to allay her
(fear. It seemed to be the most apt description)
concerns about the man.
Why had he lied to her about his family?
If the sister and brother were inventions, then how much more of what he’d told her was fantasy?
The abuse?
Thoughts whirled around inside her head as shedrove.
It should take less than fifteen minutes to reach Becky’s school. She had phoned Caroline Hacket earlier in the day and told her she’d do the run herself.
Caroline?
As long as she was involved with Walker, it kept him in the picture.
Kept him around.
Hailey exhaled wearily.
And now Rob’s phone call . . .
There were problems at work that he had to sort out immediately. One of their biggest customers hadn’t received a delivery he needed, blah, blah, blah.
He wouldn’t be home until late tonight.
When he’d told her this, for fleeting seconds she’d almost asked if that was the real reason h
e would be late.
A totally unwanted image of Rob with Sandy Bennett slipped into her mind, and she pushed it aside with difficulty.
But she hadn’t asked him that. She would keep her fears to herself this time.
So many things to think about.
She switched on a cassette, hoping the music would divert her attention from the thoughts and worries that closed around her so tightly.
When she finally pulled up outside the school, there were already several cars parked there. Some of the women she recognized, and she waved greetings to a number of them. Hailey slid out from behind the steering wheel, leant against the Astra and lit a cigarette, drawing deeply on it.
She heard the school bell sound, and looked across to the main entrance, awaiting the tide of excited children that would stream forth at any moment.
She took a couple more drags on the Silk Cut and then ground it out beneath her foot.
The Ford Scorpio cruised slowly past the main gates.
Hailey was sure she recognized this car, and she took a couple of steps forward.
She did recognize it.
She could see Adam Walker quite clearly behind the wheel.
The Scorpio headed for the end of the road and disappeared around a corner.
Hailey watched it go.
A moment later it returned.
Moving at that same deliberately slow speed. And now she could see that Walker was looking over towards the school.
What the hell was he doing here?
She hurried to the roadside, watching as the Scorpio vanished once again, this time into a side street.
Hailey crossed to the school gates, eyes fixed on the turning in the road that had swallowed up the Scorpio.
She heard voices around her as the first of the children began to flood out. But her attention was still fixed on the end of the road.
The Scorpio was heading back the way it had come.
Walker gazing over at the school.
He looked straight into her face, his expression blank.
But this time he speeded up.
He must have seen her. So why didn’t he stop?
‘Adam,’ she called after the car, oblivious to the bemused stares she was getting from the other mothers waiting to pick up their kids.
The Scorpio was gone.
72
ROB GIBSON FLICKED the windscreen wipers of the Audi on to double speed.