‘Shit’ McCarthy announces suddenly, and rings the doorbell two more times.
He’s getting impatient. They’re going to have to speak to neighbours if no-one answers soon.
He leans down, pushes the letter box open, and shouts into it, announcing that he’s looking for Matthew Hayman.
Another few minutes pass, and McCarthy is about to give up and make a new plan, when suddenly, the door opens.
52
In a dark basement, Kate Stone struggles to breathe through the tight gag in her mouth.
She’s afraid to cry because her hands are tied, and she can’t wipe the tears and snot away.
The skin on her face is peeling and dry, and her eye sockets are so black it looks like she’s been badly beaten.
Kate hasn’t drunk anything for nearly fourteen hours, or eaten for nearly eighteen hours. She’s been wearing the same pink flannel night-dress since the day she woke up in this place, and it’s definitely not enough to keep her warm.
She has no idea how she got here. The last thing she can remember is being at Haven, drinking, and having a good time.
Like so many other nights she’d spent at the club, she had wanted to disappear that evening, and to be as anonymous as possible.
Kate had gone over it so many times in her head, asking herself how she got so drunk that she had no memory of what happened.
Now, she was pretty sure he was going to kill her.
The question was, when?
53
Lydia waves goodbye to Lauren, goes back inside, and lets it all sink in.
There’s so much happening right now, that she’s finding it hard to keep up, and starting to feel strangely dissociated from reality.
She hardly slept last night, either, and decides to rest on the sofa til her mum gets home.
Five minutes later, she’s sound asleep, with Molly at her feet.
Lydia dreams that she’s looking for Kate in a big old house, with only the light of her phone to guide her.
She’s terrified, and can hear her sister’s voice in the distance calling for help.
One moment, the sound seems to be coming from upstairs, but as soon as she runs up a couple of flights, it starts to come from below her again.
She’s running as fast as she can, and straining to hear. But, Kate’s voice turns to a pained scream. It sounds like she’s in agony, and Lydia knows if she doesn’t find her soon, something terrible is going to happen.
She walks along an endless, dimly lit corridor with a large crucifix hanging on one side, and suddenly, Kate’s voice is much, much closer.
Lydia sees a narrow wooden staircase leading down to a basement, and immediately knows that’s where her sister is.
She hears her calling out: ‘Please Lydia, please!’, and Lydia hurries towards the basement entrance, and pushes the door open.
Kate is inside. She’s tied up, naked, not moving.
Her head hangs down, hair covers her face, and fresh blood trickles down her chin on to her chest.
It’s too late. She’s already dead.
Lydia wakes to the sound of Molly barking in her face.
Shaking, she walks into the kitchen, and puts the kettle on, reaching into her pocket for the anti-anxiety pills Dr Hendry prescribed. She takes one, then another.
She knows she has got to find a way to control herself.
Then, Lydia has a thought, and rushes back into the living room to find her phone.
She dials a number and waits impatiently for the person on the other end to pick up. After a few rings, an automated greeting sends her to voicemail.
‘It’s me. It’s Lydia Stone. I need to see you. I’m sorry for the short notice but, I’m desperate.’
54
Inside Beryl Hayman’s house, McCarthy and Davies question her about her son, Matthew.
They can see that she’s obviously suffering with some sort of mental health issue, or perhaps dementia.
She struggles to answer their questions and sometimes speaks randomly about religion, a television show, or the country’s education system.
As soon as they came in, McCarthy had searched the house, and saw no sign of anyone else staying here.
There was no basement or garden shed, either. Nowhere that Kate could be hidden.
They ask Beryl when she last saw Matthew, and at first, she says he was here earlier that day, then, she seems to suddenly remember he didn’t turn up at all, and her eyes fill with tears.
She points to the bag on the floor by the fridge.
The photograph of Kate is the first thing McCarthy sees when he unzips it.
‘Where did you get this, Beryl? Who owns this bag? Is it Matthew’s?’
She smiles widely when she hears his name, nods, and tells McCarthy that her son likes to leave his gym bag in the kitchen, ever since he was a little boy.
McCarthy points at Kate’s image, and again, asks Beryl who it is.
She hangs her head and shakes it slowly from side to side.
‘I told him to be careful, to make sure these girlfriends of his are old enough, but he never listened to me.’
Davies can’t help but ask about the other girls and how young they were.
Beryl states in a matter of fact tone that they were all very lovely girls, but too young.
‘One was fourteen, would you believe! I told him that he would get into trouble and they would bring more hassle into his life than joy, but he liked them young. He’s young himself at heart you see. He never grew up, really.’
McCarthy sits back down at the kitchen table next to Beryl, holds her hand, and smiles gently.
‘Mrs Hayman, it is very important that we speak to your son today. Do you know where he is? Can you tell us, please?’
Beryl has a long think.
Almost twenty seconds later, she nods and tells them that he has been living ‘a spiritual life’.
He told her that he’s changing his ways, and turning over a new leaf, repenting for his mistakes, and he is determined to make her proud.
‘He’s working at the library, the big glass-fronted one in town, and he’s writing a book about God, I believe. Yes. That’s it.’
Beryl seems happy that memory has served her this time, and smiles sweetly at the men.
McCarthy asks about other family members in the area, and she tells him about her sister, Doris who lives in Great Yarmouth, and her daughter Maeve in Australia.
At McCarthy’s request, she gives them Doris’s phone number and address, and also her own number.
They take a few minutes to ensure all of the details are correct, before McCarthy makes a move to leave.
He asks Beryl to contact him if she hears anything from her son, or remembers anything at all about where he might be, and he also tells her that they need to take the gym bag with them.
Reluctantly, she hands it over.
McCarthy and Davies start walking towards the centre of town and catch a taxi on Hall Road to take them to the library.
Beryl watches through the net curtains in the living room. Her bony arms are folded tightly under her chest, and she looks disturbed at what has just happened.
She hesitates momentarily, mutters something to herself, then picks up the phone.
When he answers, she tells her son that the police are looking for him.
55
Lydia has been at Ida’s house for an hour.
She desperately needed to tell her about the hallucinations she was having about Kate, and how she knew she was alive and trying to send her a message.
Ida told her she had seen Kate too, and in her visions, she was tied up in a dark room, with a large crucifix on the wall.
Ida felt sure Kate was in some sort of basement and Lydia had started to sob when she heard that.
The vision was almost identical to the dream she had just had.
Lydia also told Ida about what she saw in the mirror
last night at Haven, and that when she went home after the club, she had seen the outline of someone in her room.
Ida reassured Lydia that what she was going through was okay, and she wasn’t going insane.
Ida believed that when people go through traumatic experiences, and are scared, confused, or lacking in sleep, they’re more open to messages from loved ones, to visions and inexplicable things happening to them.
This wasn’t a coincidence. Kate was trying to make contact, and to guide them to the truth of what happened to her.
With hesitation, Lydia had asked Ida if she believed her sister was alive, or if it was too late?
‘I hope we aren’t too late, my love. I really do. I’ll do everything to help you, if you let me.’
With that, Lydia had allowed Ida to sit and meditate with her.
And now, an hour later, they’re still trying to tap into Kate’s energy to see if the message might be stronger and clearer if they tune into it, together.
But, nothing happens, and eventually Lydia gives up.
She’s not used to this at all, and feels like Kate only contacts her when she’s not expecting it. The things that she’s heard or seen were mostly at home, or asleep, or under the influence of alcohol.
Frustrated and confused, Lydia tells Ida that she has to get home to talk to her parents about the club last night, and the new information they’d heard from Lauren.
She takes out a fifty-pound note, but Ida refuses to take it.
‘Pay me the next time, okay? This wasn’t a proper session, anyway. I see it as helping a friend.’
Lydia smiles in appreciation, grabs her bag, and makes her way to the front door.
Ida calls for her to wait a second.
‘One thing I wanted to ask you, love. The name ‘Margaret’, does it mean anything at all to you? It’s come up for me in relation to your sister.’
Lydia says she doesn’t know anyone called Margaret. The name means nothing to her.
Ida shakes her head and watches as Lydia makes her way down the hill.
It’s obvious that she’s a very troubled girl, and Ida wishes there was more she could do to help.
She had been hoping Lydia would have reacted differently to the name ‘Margaret’, because something in her gut says that there is a woman by that name who knows Kate, and has something to do with all of this.
56
At Norwich library, McCarthy and Davies quickly locate a manager to ask about Hayman.
Frank is a slightly hunched, grey-haired man in his fifties, who nods upon hearing Matthew Hayman’s name, and asks the detectives if their visit is about Matthew’s sick mother.
When they shake their heads, Frank goes on to explain that Matthew has been off sick for a while, and only covered two or three shifts in the past few weeks.
Apparently, he’s slipped a disc in his back and it’s taking a long time to heal.
McCarthy and Davies realise the significance of this information at the same time, and exchange a knowing look with one another.
If Hayman had anything to do with Kate Stone’s disappearance, it makes sense that he wouldn’t have been coming to work as normal.
McCarthy explains that they need to get in touch with Matthew immediately, and they need Frank’s cooperation. They ask him to provide any addresses, telephone numbers, or any other information on record about him, as well as any shift dates he worked over the past month.
Frank tells them that Matthew usually works four days a week, and has been employed at the library for about four months.
When Frank goes off to find an address and the shift record, McCarthy spots another employee sorting through a pile of books nearby, and asks her who Hayman’s friends are at work.
She tells him that Matthew barely speaks to anyone at all in the place, apart from a lovely woman called Carol who works in the children’s library who goes for lunch with him, sometimes.
McCarthy tells Davies to wait for Frank, and makes his way to the children’s library at the back of the main floor.
Carol is friendly and forthcoming when McCarthy explains the situation to her, and she tells him that she and Matthew sometimes go for a coffee together after work, but all she really knows about him is that he used to be a teacher, but he found it too stressful.
He told her that he loved fishing, but was basically a bit of a loner, and the only family he ever spoke about was his mother.
‘He’s very quiet and so smart. To be honest, I don’t know why he works here.’
Carol’s laugh is uneasy, and she tells McCarthy that she isn’t sure why Matthew hasn’t been at work recently. They aren’t really close enough to have one another’s phone numbers or anything.
McCarthy can see that Carol doesn’t have any useful information. He thanks her, and leaves his card in case she does remember anything.
‘Just one last thing, Carol. Do you know where Matthew was on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th of May by any chance?
She gets a bit flustered and tries to remember the day.
‘Please, think about that, and call me when you do remember? It’s very important. Friday 6th and Saturday 7th. Got it?’
Through the glass that separates the children’s library from the rest of the library, McCarthy can see Frank making his way back to Davies. He speeds up his pace to join them.
Outside, Davies buys two coffees from a nearby café while McCarthy calls Julia at the office.
Frank’s given them an address they send Hayman’s payslips to, and it’s not the one they’ve just been to on Lindley Street, either.
McCarthy asks Julia to take a look at the new address on a map, and he listens eagerly for a description.
Julia tells him it’s a large, detached cottage on about a quarter acre, with a big shed, two entrances, and plenty of tree coverage at the front and back.
She does a reverse search of the address, and confirms that it’s a rental property.
McCarthy looks at his watch and estimates it will take them about half an hour to get there.
He tells her to let local back-up know that he and Davies are headed there now.
57
Barbara is exhausted. She has spent the past six hours doing interviews, and meeting with people who want to help find Kate.
She also met three other mothers who are looking for their missing children.
Up to today, Barbara had no idea that this kind of thing happened so often in the UK.
As she drives, she notices for the first time, that it’s actually turning into a beautiful spring, and suddenly everyone seems to be in flip-flops and shorts.
If it wasn’t for the hell that the Stone family were living through, this is the kind of evening that she and the girls would light the BBQ, and surprise Brian when he got home from work.
They’d had so many happy evenings in their beautiful garden.
She just needs to turn left at the bottom of Pond Street, and will be home in two minutes.
She sees a few people at the pedestrian crossing and stops to let them pass.
There’s a well-dressed gay couple with an adorable puppy on a leash, and Barbara finds herself smiling in amusement as they try to coax the little dog across the road. It reminds Barbara of Molly when she was tiny. She’d been so scared of traffic and noise, and was always trying to jump into their arms during walks.
The couple wave in thanks at Barbara’s patience, and she smiles back, giving them a little wave, too.
Then, she sees a man who had been walking behind the couple. He stops and stares at her.
‘Margaret? Is that you Margaret? Oh my God!’
The man is pointing at her now, and his eyes are almost popping out of his head.
Barbara rolls up the windows and starts to drive, forcing him off the road. He shouts after the car, but she accelerates, and is out of sight in seconds.
She’s still shaking when she parks in the driveway shortly a
fterwards.
Lydia has seen her mum return, and she and Molly are at the front door to greet her.
Lydia feels like she hasn’t seen her mum in days, and so much has happened that she wants to talk to her about. She immediately notices that Barbara looks like she’s seen a ghost, and asks what’s wrong, but her mum just says that she found the morning’s interviews draining.
Once inside, the pair sit and catch up about the past couple of days’ events, and Lydia doesn’t hold back with the details about Mr Hayman.
She’s surprised her mother doesn’t seem more shocked. Then, she mentions that she went to Haven last night, and lied to them about meeting friends.
She tells her mother that she didn’t have any huge information to share, but did meet one person who remembered seeing Kate chat to a man in a white mask, and she had passed on all the information to McCarthy.
Barbara starts to pace around the kitchen, and suddenly looks anxious.
Lydia wonders if she’s angry with her for lying about where she went last night.
She also knows she has to tell her about Kate’s phone and the photos she found on there.
It’s only a matter of time before the police mention it, anyway, so she just blurts it out.
Barbara nods and says she understands.
Lydia is used to her mum being a very present and attentive woman, and it’s unnerving to see her pace and nod like this.
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