Safe at Home

by Lauren North

  ‘Well, that man there is called Dean and he had too much to drink. I’m sure you’ve seen your mum and dad have a few too many beers now and again.’

  Harrie’s head bobs up and down.

  ‘Dean came to see Kat,’ Jack continues. ‘And he tried to kiss Kat, which he shouldn’t have done. I happened to be popping in to borrow something and I saw. I stopped Dean from hurting Kat. I lost my temper more than I should have done, I’ll admit that, but now I’m going to get Dean home to his wife. I’m sure he’ll have a sore head in the morning and feel pretty stupid. But that’s all there is to it.’

  Harrie stares between the two men and feels an uncertainty churn in her stomach. Five minutes ago, the man on the floor was dead and the one who grabbed Harrie was a murderer. But now the man isn’t dead and Jack was only trying to protect Kat from him.

  ‘Shouldn’t you call the police?’ Harrie asks.

  ‘What Dean did is very wrong, but he’s been punished and now the best thing to do is to move on.’

  Harrie glances at Kat and she smiles tightly. ‘Jack’s right, Harrie. We should all just go to bed and forget about it.’

  ‘What about me?’ Harrie asks. ‘Can I go home now?’ Harrie’s heart isn’t beating as fast as it was but there’s a horrible sick feeling in her tummy and she’s still shaking.

  ‘Of course you can,’ Jack says. ‘It sounds to me like you’ve had a lucky escape with your mum being stuck in traffic tonight. I’m sure you’d be in a lot of trouble if she found out you’d left the house at night without permission. Am I right?’

  Harrie nods again.

  ‘That’s what I thought. But I don’t see why she needs to know about this though, do you?’

  Harrie stares at Jack and then Kat. ‘You won’t tell my mum?’

  ‘No,’ Jack says.

  Kat shakes her head. ‘Promise.’

  ‘It’ll be our secret,’ Jack continues. ‘We won’t tell your mum that you’ve left the house when you shouldn’t have and sneaked into someone else’s home without them knowing, and in return you won’t mention anything about this to her or anyone else, will you?’

  Harrie bites down on her lip and stares at the man on the floor. ‘No.’

  Jack’s face breaks into a smile. It’s the same closed-mouthed smug smile that Tyler uses. He steps towards the back door and fishes out the key. A moment later it’s open. Cold air blasts the kitchen. ‘What are you waiting for? Go on.’

  Harrie stands, her legs wobbling beneath her. She takes a hesitant step, half expecting Jack to change his mind, but he’s smiling, one hand on the open door, the other waving her through. She’s one step away from leaving, one step from escape, when Jack’s hand comes down, his grasp landing hard on her shoulder. Pain shoots through her body and she tries to wriggle free but his fingers are pressing into her skin so tight.

  He leans down, his mouth close to her face, his breath hot in her ear as he whispers, low and fast. ‘I know everything that goes on in this village. You tell anyone about this and I promise you I will know, and then I’ll kill your mum and your sisters, and I’ll make you watch and then I’ll kill you. Understand?’

  A sob shakes her body but her head bobs up and down until his grip loosens and she’s free.

  Outside, the chill of the night hits her face. She moves away and leans against the wall, gasping for breath. She should run home now before anything else can happen, but her head is spinning so fast.

  She draws in a breath and pushes herself away from the wall. The light from the kitchen is spilling on to the paving stones and Harrie can see the back door is ajar. Jack’s voice carries through the gap.

  ‘What are we going to do about Harrie?’ Kat asks.

  ‘I don’t think she’ll be telling anyone in a hurry. I’ll keep an eye on her. Who did you say her parents were?’

  ‘Anna and Rob.’

  ‘Keep an eye on Anna. See if you can find a way to bring her into the fold. Now come on, let’s sort this mess out and get Dean out of here. Where’s his phone?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’

  Harrie swallows hard and closes her eyes. Jack’s words fly around in her head. You tell anyone about this and I promise you I will know, and then I’ll kill your mum and your sisters.

  And she believes him. The man half-dead on the floor is proof of what Jack can do. She can’t tell anyone about this. Not Elise, not her mum, no one.

  A cold shiver runs through Harrie’s body. Her legs are aching from where she’s squatting beside the back door. She’s tired and thirsty and wants to go home.

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ There’s a wobble to Kat’s voice. ‘It feels—’

  ‘Stop it. You know this is what needs to be done. You know better than anyone what this idiot tried to do. A few days, a week max, and everything will be back to normal. Dean just needs to remember which side his bread is buttered.’

  ‘You’re right, I’m sorry.’

  A second later Harrie feels a presence by the back door, inches from where she’s hiding. Every muscle in her body tenses and she closes her eyes, waiting to be seen again, to be grabbed. But then the door closes and Harrie is alone in the darkness.

  She waits a few seconds before hurrying to the gate. She opens it quietly, staying in the shadows as she steps on to the driveway. There’s a silver car parked on the drive and another blue car on the street. She must have missed them when she ran up to the house.

  The front door opens and she hears Jack’s voice. ‘Make sure you clean properly.’ He appears on the drive with Dean propped against him like they’re about to do a three-legged race. Dean’s head is drooped forward but he’s walking. ‘Use bleach. I’ll come back for Dean’s car and park it in my garage later.’

  The silver car pulls away and a moment later the front door closes.

  Harrie darts across the road and cuts down the alley. Her hands are shaking. She’s running on aching legs back to her home at last. It feels darker than when she ran to Kat’s house, but the darkness doesn’t scare her any more.

  Her mum’s car isn’t outside the house when Harrie approaches it. Harrie doesn’t know if she’s relieved or not.

  Her hand is on the gate into her garden when she sees the headlights of a car on the main road through the village. It’s Jack’s car. He’s come to threaten Harrie again or, worse, hurt her. Harrie stands frozen, unable to breathe, as she watches Jack pull over by the gate to the horse field. He unlocks the long silver gate before going to the passenger door and helping Dean out.

  Harrie knows the field. It’s the one her dad took them camping in last summer. The only thing in there is an old stable at the back.

  She watches Jack hoist Dean out of the car and with a final glance down the road, he leads Dean into the field. But why? He told Harrie he was taking Dean home.

  Go inside, a voice tells her. Forget it happened. But she can’t. Before she can question what she’s doing, she’s racing across the road and into the horse field.

  Away from the streetlights, the pitch black of the night is absolute. Harrie can’t even see her hand in front of her face, but she can see torchlight halfway across the field, bouncing up and down with each step and moving in the direction of the stable.

  Harrie follows, her shoes sinking into thick clumpy mud. The light disappears inside the stable just as she stumbles on the uneven ground. She finds the entrance and keeps moving, hiding at the side.

  Her heart is racing so fast it’s making her stomach gurgle and she feels sick. Her legs give way from under her and she sinks to the ground and waits. The light returns a few minutes later and Harrie covers her mouth, silencing the scream fighting to get out as Jack walks back across the field.

  When she’s sure Jack is gone, Harrie pulls herself up and digs out her torch, banging it against the palm of her hand, almost laughing with relief when a dim flickering light appears. She swallows a final time and walks into the stable.

  There’s nothing to see at first. It’s
just empty horse stalls and a dusty floor and clutter. Then Harrie’s gaze finds the cage.

  CHAPTER 56

  Anna

  The night is completely still as I race through the village.

  Please be OK. Please be OK. I chant the words as I run, flat out, as fast as my legs can carry me.

  The clouds have drifted away, leaving a perfect crescent moon in the sky and stars stretching out into the darkness like a spilt glitter pot. The temperature has dropped. My breath puffs out in a trail of smoke and I shiver inside my coat. It’ll be even colder by the river.

  I need to call the police. I should’ve done it as soon as Elise told me everything. But I thought Harrie would be with Kat. I thought she’d be safe. The face of Jack Briggs flashes in my mind. Will the police even help me if Jack is involved?

  The air burns in my lungs and my boots rub against my heels but I don’t stop until I reach the river. There are fewer streetlights on this stretch of the village and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I reach into my pocket for my phone and open the torch app, increasing the brightness to max.

  The white beam of light illuminates the squelching grass of the riverbank by my feet and I lift it up and walk towards the bridge. Fear is shuddering through my body and I fight back a sob.

  ‘Harrie?’ I shout her name.

  The bridge is a narrow wooden walkway that leads into the open countryside. I can’t see the river below but I can hear it. The noise is monstrous. A beast that could leap up and swallow the bridge, swallow me in a heartbeat.

  ‘Harrie?’ I call her name again but the sound is lost, stolen by the wind and the current racing below me.

  Why would Harrie come here?

  I picture Harrie on the bridge, her feet slipping on the wood, falling, tumbling into the river, her scream lost to the noise of the water. I see her body swept away as easily as a twig snapped from a tree. The image causes a nausea, a raw unwavering fear, to rise up inside me and I swallow hard and push the thought away.

  The wind drops suddenly and I hear something. A whimper, a footstep. I lift the torch up and peer into the middle of the bridge. There’s a shadow, a figure huddled against the railing. I hold up the light of my phone and cry out as I see Harrie.

  ‘Harrie.’ I rush towards her, my feet skidding on the wood.

  The Halloween costume is gone and she’s shivering in a pair of black leggings and a black jumper. Her face is deathly white and puffy from crying. I reach a hand to her and she leaps at me, sobbing in my arms.

  ‘It’s OK. You’re safe now. I’m here. I’m here.’

  ‘I’m not safe, Mum.’ Her voice is a whisper and barely audible over the noise of the water. ‘I have to run away. I can’t stay here.’

  ‘You’re not going anywhere. I know it was Elise who threw the toilet roll and Ben filmed it. I know you were at Kat’s house that night to get Ben’s phone.’

  ‘You do?’

  I nod.

  ‘I was trying to help Elise. She really wants to go to that school. I’m sorry I snuck out. I was trying to help her.’

  ‘I know, baby. It’s OK. Let’s go home and get you warm and then you can tell me everything and we’ll fix it together. I’m on your side, Harrie, and I will fix this.’

  She shakes her head. ‘I can’t go home. He’ll find me there.’

  ‘Who?’ I ask. ‘Jack?’

  She nods, the movement furtive, panicked. ‘When I … when I went to get Ben’s phone, he was there and he was fighting with Dean. I thought Jack had killed him.’ Tears stream down her face and I unzip my coat and wrap it around her body. ‘Then Jack said that Dean had tried to hurt Kat and he was helping. I knew he was a policeman so I thought he was good and Dean was bad. But then Jack said he’d kill you and Elise and Molly if I told anyone what I’d seen. They sent me home and I saw Jack take Dean to the stable.’

  ‘Which stable?’

  ‘The one in the field opposite our road. I waited until Jack had left and then I … I went inside the stable. He’d put him in a cage, Mum.’

  An icy chill spreads through me, like I’m plunging into the river. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Like a dog kennel that had a big padlock on it. I couldn’t open the cage. And …’ She gasps another sob. ‘I couldn’t call the police or speak to anyone because Jack is the police. He said he knows everything that goes on in the village and he’d kill us if I told anyone. But he … doesn’t know that I saw him at the stable. I couldn’t just leave Dean there and so I took him food and water every day and talked to him.’

  ‘Oh Harrie.’ The words, the comfort I want to offer, lodge in my throat. I think back to the day Jack came to the house. I told the girls they could trust Jack. This is all on me.

  I can’t comprehend what Harrie has been through, the burden she has carried. Dean has been locked in a cage this whole time.

  ‘Then Jack must have found out that I had Dean’s phone and he drove by one day to threaten me, but he got me and Elise mixed up because I was wearing her coat that night. He tried to grab her. He said if I didn’t give the phone back he’d make sure I got in loads of trouble and it would only be the start. And then he came to the house and you were acting like he was this really great guy, and he said he’s got eyes everywhere and we weren’t safe.’

  Tears race down my cheeks. Hurt and anger vie for space in my body. ‘Harrie—’

  ‘Then I … I went to the stable yesterday, but Dean wouldn’t wake up. I think he was dead, Mummy. I couldn’t save him. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’ Big heaving sobs shudder through Harrie’s body and my heart breaks for her. ‘It’s my fault Dean was locked in there. I took his phone and Jack wanted it.’

  ‘Harrie, Harriet, this is not your fault. None of this is your fault.’ I pull out my phone and tap the screen.

  ‘Who are you calling?’ Harrie’s question is laced with panic.

  ‘The police,’ I say.

  ‘No,’ she cries out, slapping the phone out of my hand. It hits the wooden bridge slats before bouncing into the darkness. ‘Jack will come. He’ll kill us.’

  I shake my head and hold her tighter. ‘Jack is only one man, Harrie. He’s not the whole police. Let’s get you home. I’ll call them then.’

  ‘Do you think Dean was dead?’ she asks, pulling back and wiping her hands across her face.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Can we … can we go and check?’

  ‘I’ll go. I need you to be safe. I’ll take you home first. June is there with Molly and Elise. You can tell her as much as you like but ask her to call the police.’ My voice shakes and I move us to our feet.

  As we stand up, I zip my coat around Harrie’s body just like when she was too little to do the zip herself.

  I turn away, but before I can take a single step I feel the gap between us, sense the distance that shouldn’t be there, and when I spin back, Harrie has moved further to the middle of the bridge and is clinging to the railing.

  ‘I can’t go back,’ she cries. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t. I can’t.’ Her eyes drop from mine to the river gushing below us. The noise seems to rise up then, a crashing roar of water, a rapids that freezes my heart. Sprinkles of water splash my jeans.

  ‘Harrie, walk towards me.’

  ‘I can’t,’ she says again, her eyes still focused on the river.

  I take a step but she jumps back. Her foot slips on the slick wood and she skids, one leg flying out towards the river. But she’s got the railing tight in her grip and rights herself. ‘I can’t.’

  ‘Harrie, look at me.’

  ‘I have to run away. I need to keep you and Elise and Molly safe.’ She’s shouting now, her eyes wild like an animal caught in a trap. I swallow, fighting back my own fear. I have to concentrate. I have to be strong for Harrie.

  ‘I need you with me,’ I say.

  ‘You’ve got Elise and Molly.’

  Tears form in my eyes. ‘I need you too, Harriet. You’re my daughter and I
love you. There is nothing I love more in this world than my children and right now I need you more than ever because …’ Memories of that Monday in my kitchen with Dean flash into my thoughts. His kindness, the warmth of his arms around me when I told him what I’d just found out.

  ‘I’m pregnant,’ I say, shouting the words to be heard over the river. ‘I’m pregnant and I need you, Harrie. I can’t do this without you. You’re everything to me. We’re a family and we’re going to stick together, no matter what. If you …’ I look down to the water and can’t bring myself to finish the sentence. ‘If you go, we follow … We stick together. You, me, Elise, Molly and Dad.’

  Harrie’s shoulders slump, her grip loosens on the railing. She moves towards me and then we’re wrapped tight in each other’s arms. I walk us away from the bridge.

  Only when there is pavement beneath our feet do I glance back at the dark icy river, my stomach flipping and tumbling at what could’ve been.

  What if Gina hadn’t texted me?

  What if I’d not made it in time?

  CHAPTER 57

  Anna

  We start to run, hand in hand. My heart pounds with fear and rage. So much rage. It’s burning through my veins. Rage at Jack and Kat. My best friend. The person I trusted more than anyone else. A mother too. How could she do this to Harrie, to me?

  ‘Mum,’ Harrie says as we reach the house. ‘Promise you’ll be careful.’ She shrugs off my coat and hands it back to me.

  It’s such a motherly thing to say that in spite of everything, I smile. ‘I promise. Now go inside, tell June everything and ask her to call the police.’

  I open the front door for Harrie and make sure she’s in before turning on my heel and hurrying towards the horse field. I’m at the end of the road when I see a figure running towards me from the opposite direction.

  Fear coils itself around me, that vulnerable ‘woman on her own’ fear plus something else. I’ve no idea what I’m walking into. If Jack can beat a man half to death and keep him locked in a cage for over a week, if he can torment an eleven-year-old, what will he do to me? I stop dead. My feet refuse to move and the desire to run back to the house and wait for the police is fierce.