Leighton Jones Mysteries Box Set

by N. M. Brown

  Eventually, she realised that she was being dumb. The stranger was likely miles away. She concluded that the odds were in her favour.

  She took one last glance through the gap in the wooden slats which served as a wall for the upper level of the structure. Seeing no sign of the stranger, Tina slid her empty beer bottle into her belt, then quickly pushed the old conveyor belt off the platform until it hung in the air like a hung snake skin. Tina leaned out from the platform and grabbed the material with both hands. Gripping tightly, she swung her body out to meet the belt. The move reminded Tina of something she did in her gym class. Moving silently, hand under hand, down to the ground, Tina made slow progress. She then carefully peeked out of the barn and, seeing no sign of life, ran into the long grass.

  The relief Tina felt was unbelievable. Crouching in the long grass, her urine hissed on the parched mud and, by the time she was buttoning back up her shorts, had already been absorbed. Tina took a moment to survey her environment. Glancing around at the surrounding landscape, the area seemed flatter and wider than it had seemed the previous evening. Behind the building she had taken refuge in, Tina could see the large hill she had descended the previous evening. The ground in front of the buildings was covered in trees, and stretched off to meet the distant horizon. Tina narrowed her eyes and peered through the trunks, hoping to find some distant house or some indication of life, but she saw nothing but dry land.

  In the process of moving she decided it would be a good idea to fill up her bottle with water before thinking about what to do next. However, as she turned back to face the buildings, she froze.

  She was already half standing when she found herself looking directly at the stranger’s back.

  ‘Tina!’ he bellowed toward the buildings. ‘You in there, honey?’

  He was standing a few feet outside of her temporary home, staring directly at it. Tina almost fainted at the sight of him, but somehow the horror seemed to keep her fully conscious out of fear. Instead of collapsing, she sank slowly back into the long grass, but never once moved her eyes off the stranger. He looked older than she initially had thought. But was still wearing the same grubby clothes, except he had added a baseball cap with some letter logo on it. In one hand he held some twisted piece of metal attached to a piece of rope that was coiled over his shoulder. The rope looked old and colourless, as if he had found it in one of the other buildings. Tina thought that he looked like he was going looking for the world’s biggest fish.

  She kept perfectly still, crouched in the dust and watched him as he moved around the outside of the building, peering up at it. The fact that he was no longer calling out to her suggested to Tina that he was confident that he had found her hiding place.

  ‘Tina!’ he called again. ‘I just need to talk to you, about getting you back home.’

  Tina’s eyes remained fixed on him, but when the stranger stepped into the shadow of the building she pushed herself carefully on to her hands and knees. This position allowed her to watch in horror as the stranger stood inside the structure. After gazing around at the walls and roof he took a couple of steps over to the pit, and tilted his head downwards. Tina figured he must be checking to see if she had fallen down there. When he was done, the stranger turned his attention to the upper floor. He dropped the rope from his shoulder on to the ground. After crouching down beside it, he began to tie several knots along the length of the rope. Once he was done, the stranger stood up again. Gripping the metal hook in one hand, he began swinging the rope around like some sort of rodeo cowboy. After whirling it in the air for a moment, the stranger would regularly throw it up on to the platform above his head. At first Tina thought he was trying to use it as grapple like in the Batman movies that her next-door neighbour watched endlessly. But at the start, the stranger seemed to be making no attempt to climb anything. He just kept swinging it up on to the upper floor then he would pull on the rope again. Tina figured that the anchor must not have fastened to anything because it came clattering back down. The stranger cursed as he did this and had to jump out of the way a couple of times. On one occasion he stepped back and after standing on his tiptoes, he jumped up in the air as if trying to get a better view of what was up there. He then picked the hook up again and swung it up onto the first floor. This time when he pulled in the rope it didn’t move. The stranger wiped his sweating forehead with the back of his hand, then wiped both hands on the legs of his jeans. He then reached up, gripped the rope with both hands and began to climb it.

  Tina considered using that moment, whilst the stranger was on the upper platform, to stand up and run like a mouse when the cat is looking away. But then she remembered how easily she had been able to see through the gaps in the wooden slats. That meant if she stood up and moved anywhere, the stranger would be able to see her. Then he would surely jump off the platform and come after her.

  So, she cowered in the dust and waited, hoping that she would not be visible from inside the structure.

  After a long time, the stranger emerged from the barn. Tina thought he couldn’t have been up on the platform all that time, so perhaps he had climbed down into the pit to see if she was hiding among the machinery. As he stepped into the sunlight, Tina could see that the stranger’s face was shining with sweat and his T-shirt looked like it was sticking to him.

  Tina held her breath, terrified that he would come looking for her in the grass, but thankfully he didn’t. Instead he walked tentatively into the shadowy entrance of the office building.

  Tina heard the sound of more clattering coming from inside that building. He was inside for a long time, and Tina began to worry that he was planning on staying there. However, after half an hour he emerged again from the dark doorway. His face and clothes were streaked with sweat and dust. He peered around the landscape for a few minutes then glanced at his watch. It was then that he walked around the side of the barn a couple of times and then finally began climbing back up the slope of the large hill.

  Even though, at that point, the stranger had his back to her, Tina didn’t dare move from her hiding place. She watched as the figure on the hillside grew smaller and smaller, as if he’d taken the shrinking potion from Alice in Wonderland. Even when he vanished over the distant edge of the crest of the hill, Tina remained in the same place.

  Eventually, when she felt happy that the stranger was far enough away, Tina darted out of the grass and ran to the water faucet. After switching it on, she lapped at it like a dog, before filling up her glass bottle.

  She then tucked the glass bottle into the waistband of her shorts, turned and ran as fast as she could away from the buildings and the looming hill behind her.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The stranger trudged sullenly back through the hot landscape in the vague direction of his car. Although he was empty-handed, his journey had not been entirely fruitless. He knew the kid had been there – the water in the basin beneath the faucet confirmed that she had been there at least once and he felt in his bones that she was still there too. The area of scrubland in front of the buildings stretched for miles north-west. It was flat unforgiving terrain, peppered with cacti, dried bushes and occasional trees. If the girl had headed off that way, she would most likely be dead already. The journey on foot would be difficult enough for an adult with supplies to make; it would be impossible for a kid.

  The buildings had all been empty, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t offered shelter to the girl. He cursed himself for not being more patient. When he discovered the place he should have remained hidden and waited until dark. Then he could have come across her as she slept. But he had gone and drawn attention to himself, and hadn’t found her.

  If she was still in the area and was hiding, then that meant she had been smart enough to hide. That was a development that made his task trickier, but he enjoyed the challenge.

  When he had been in the dusty old office, the stranger had found an old print on the wall that showed an older ranch with the same hill above it.
Beneath it were the words Pembleton Farm. He made a note of it, knowing he could use this to find a map of the place – identify any potential hiding places. Then he would draw up a plan before returning to lure the girl out. He figured it shouldn’t be too difficult. If she had been out there for a couple of days with nothing to eat or drink then food and maybe some soda might be enough to tempt her into the open.

  He decided that he would go back the following morning, set a trap and catch her like a young rabbit in a snare.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  After walking for more than two hours, wearing only one worn-out shoe, Tina Blanchette was really struggling to stay upright. Her journey away from the barn had taken her through the veil of trees and onto a flat and relatively featureless plane. Behind her, the hill and buildings had gradually shrunk as she pushed steadily forward. However, the area in front of her seemed to stretch into infinity. Limping onwards, Tina was near to collapsing from exhaustion. The impact on her body of the earlier day’s journey was much greater than she thought. Her muscles ached from the miles she had covered, and the friction from the strap of her one remaining sandal had caused a painful blister to form on the back of her foot, but she was reluctant to give the shoe up because the ground was covered in so many sharp stones.

  The scorching heat of the oppressive sun was so strong that it felt like a physical weight pressing down on her shoulders. Eventually, this painful burden slowed her lumbering pace to a stop.

  She wiped the sticky sweat from her eyes, then lifted the old beer bottle to her cracked lips. As it tilted in the air, the brown glass bottle was flooded with light, and, for a moment, Tina looked like a tiny angel blowing on a celestial trumpet. But the final drops of water were warm and not sufficient to hydrate the girl’s burning throat. She swallowed them but the sensation felt dry and painful.

  Tina swayed to one side like a small drunk, then let the bottle slip from her sweaty grasp. Made brittle by the elements, it landed on a rock and detonated into glittering fragments of splintered glass.

  Glancing down absently at the ragged remains of her bottle lying in the dusty ground, Tina wanted to cry, but had neither the energy nor the water for tears.

  Instead, she drifted sideways and slumped listlessly beneath a gnarled old tree whose trunk was thick enough to offer some shade from the midday heat. The tree wasn’t particularly large but it still had some leaves on it. Leaning back, Tina wondered absently if she would ever be able to get up from this place again. Without water, food or energy it seemed likely that this could be her final resting place. She slowly closed her eyes and pictured her mom at home, smiling at her. Tina smiled back, then reached out a small hand to touch her mom’s face.

  It was then that Tina Blanchette opened her eyes and made a simple discovery.

  Lying back against the rough bark, she looked up to see swollen oranges on the end of several of the tree’s branches. Blinking in disbelief, she got to her feet. Even then, the fruit remained above her. Panting and moving erratically, Tina clambered up the twisted old trunk until she reached the height of the lowest branches. She then lay on her belly and edged out along the thickest branch. When she reached the end, Tina reached out and pressed her small fingers into one of three oranges. Even as she made initial contact with the fruit, she could smell the sweet aroma from the waxy skin. Gripping the branch with her legs, she twisted three of the globes until they fell to the ground. Even though her stomach was cramping with hunger and thirst, Tina had enough self-control to reach for another laden branch and picked four more oranges, before she clambered back down from the tree.

  After retrieving part of the broken beer bottle to use as a crude knife, Tina sat beneath the tree and began to feast on the finest fruit she had ever tasted. The juice ran down her chin like liquid gold as she guzzled chunk after chunk.

  When she had finished, Tina climbed back among the branches and knocked down a further four oranges. She then lay back beneath the tree and closed her eyes. The combination of physical stress and emotional exhaustion was too much for the girl to cope with. For the first time in two days, her stomach felt relatively full, and she felt momentarily out of danger. It was only natural then that she fell asleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  It was early evening and Leighton was moving around his kitchen, fixing dinner while Annie completed colouring in the outline of a castle. Leighton tipped the steaming mound of spaghetti from the colander into the white bowl. He then added three squirts of ketchup to create a smiling face and placed six circular slices of cucumber around the edge of the bowl like curls of strange green hair.

  When the dish of food was placed on the table in front of Annie she giggled at the sight and slid her colouring book to one side. Leighton knew his creation wasn’t the most nutritious dinner in the world, but at least his daughter would finish it. In any case she would soon be staying with her grandmother who would undoubtedly feed her more fresh vegetables than Leighton would.

  After Annie was bathed and tucked up in bed, Leighton sat on a red and white spotted beanbag next to her bed. In the landing sat two carefully packed bags for her to take to her grandparent’s house. One mainly contained clothes; the other – packed by Annie – was almost entirely full of soft toys.

  As he completed the reading of Little Red Riding Hood, both Leighton and his daughter yawned. Leighton gently closed over the book and laid it on the small white bedside table. He then leaned over and kissed his daughter’s forehead. By the time Leighton had levered himself up from the beanbag, his daughter’s eyes were closed.

  ‘I’m gonna miss you,’ he whispered.

  When he had stepped carefully to the doorway, Leighton was about to switch off the lights, when Annie spoke to him from the distant edge of sleep.

  ‘Daddy…’

  ‘What is it, honey?’ Leighton remained in the doorway. Despite the fact that his daughter had spoken, her eyes remained closed. Leighton waited, knowing that she was already sliding down into those dark warm places.

  ‘There aren’t any real wolves around here, are there?’

  ‘No, honey,’ Leighton said, quietly, ‘not around here anyway.’

  Having closed his daughter’s bedroom door, Leighton walked through to the living area of his home and slumped down on the sofa. Yawning, he dragged a hand over his face, and gazed around the room. The place was messier than it had been one Sunday when he had given the entire house a proper clean, but life with an eight-year-old and long working hours meant he could never fully keep on top of things. Still, if he could get through a couple of chores each night, then Sundays would be a little easier – then they could fit in some time getting ice cream at the beach and playing at the Tyson Street Park. But Leighton knew if he didn’t force himself to get up, he would slide into sleep just as easily as Annie had done, only to wake up cold and painful a couple of hours later.

  He got a fright as his attention was drawn to a clicking noise that came from the opposite corner of the room. He realised that the Scooby-Doo video cassette, which had still been running while the TV was off, had reached the end and then began to rewind. Whilst it hummed and clicked, Leighton picked up the remote from the sofa and switched the TV back on. Keeping the volume low, Leighton selected a local news channel, hoping to find a weather report. Unfortunately, he found himself looking at a grinning sports commentator.

  He stood up and walked to the large window. In front of it, a drying rack was covered with Annie’s washed clothes. Leighton dragged himself back to his feet and wandered over to the laundry. While his daughter slept, Leighton began to take each item off the airer, folded them and piled them neatly. He lifted off a couple of kindergarten T-shirts. They were white with a rainbow print on the front and Annie’s name printed in puffy letters on the back. After folding them, Leighton turned back to the airer. Reaching out his hand, he picked up a pair of denim shorts. He began to fold them and then stopped. Staring down at the item of clothing, he frowned for a moment before g
ently placing them on the pile.

  It was then that he glanced across at the TV, where a photograph of a small girl sat above the right-hand shoulder of the news anchor. The girl had mousy brown hair and was smiling directly down the lense of the camera.

  Leighton walked, like a man in a trance, across the room towards the television. He crouched down and used the manual button to turn up the sound. He was eye level with the news anchor, listening intently.

  ‘…who has now been missing for more than forty-eight hours? Police are appealing to anyone who may have been in the area at the time, to come forward. In other news…’

  Leighton felt like he had been punched. Dragging a hand across his face, he stood up, then walked to where the telephone was hung on the wall just outside the kitchen.

  Leighton picked up the handset and punched in the station number. He then held the phone to his ear and waited.

  ‘Oceanside Police, how may I help you?’

  Leighton recognised the voice. ‘Lauren?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It’s Leighton Jones.’

  ‘Hey, Jonesy.’

  ‘Is Captain Levvy still around?’

  ‘She was, hang on I’ll check.’

  There were a few moments of dead air whilst Leighton waited. Ellen Levvy – one of the station’s five captains – was the head of Drug Enforcement and Missing Persons. Often the two areas were connected.

  There was a click at the other end.