Don't Look Behind You: A dark, twisting crime thriller that will grip you to the last page (Detective Eden Berrisford crime thriller series Book 2)

by Mel Sherratt

  Eden’s phone signalled an incoming message just as she was parking up in the compound. She reached in her pocket, nearly dropping it in shock when she saw who it was from.

  Danny.

  I have to see you.

  ‘It’s Joe,’ she fibbed to Amy. ‘I’ll come in to you after I’ve rung him.’

  Once Amy was out of the car, Eden’s hand shook as she stared at the message again. After all this time, he wanted to see her? She typed out her reply.

  Why now?

  Her finger hovered over the send button. There was so much that had been unsaid, so many questions unanswered that had left her unable to move on. Anyone in their right mind would want to know why their partner had run and where to, instead of facing the consequences of their actions – why they hadn’t manned up. Wouldn’t they? Danny had left her to take the rap for what he’d done. And he’d left her to explain to Casey why he had gone.

  Did she want to meet him? She had to do it. She pressed send.

  She was about to get out of the car when her phone beeped again. Goosebumps erupted all over her body as she saw he had replied immediately.

  She picked it up, her finger once more hovering over the open button. What the hell was opening this text message going to do?

  She couldn’t open it.

  She couldn’t not open it.

  Her finger pressed on the screen.

  I need to speak to you.

  Eden stared at the message, angry tears forming in her eyes. One dripped down her cheek and she wiped it away quickly.

  What about?

  Can we meet?

  Eden went cold. What would it be like to see him after two years? She might finally get some answers about why he’d left – and somehow that was just as terrifying as never knowing.

  Another message came in.

  Can I ring you?

  No.

  She’d sent it before she had thought about it. She couldn’t speak to him over the phone.

  Does that mean you don’t want to meet?

  A pause as a patrol car pulled up beside her. She waited as an officer got out of it. He didn’t notice her in the car and walked off. She looked down at her phone again.

  It means I don’t want to talk to you on the phone.

  Can we meet then? Tomorrow night maybe?

  Working.

  She’d lied, but he wouldn’t know that. She wanted the meeting to be on her terms. Somewhere in public – somewhere she could walk away and blend in with a crowd if she panicked at the last minute. Somewhere she could say what she wanted and then leave if necessary. She quickly typed back a message.

  Meet me at Starbucks on Stockleigh High Street. 8.30 a.m. Tomorrow morning. You can make that?

  Yes. See you then.

  Two police constables came out of the building, laughing and joking. Eden put away her phone and glanced at herself in the rear-view mirror. A ghoulish face stared back at her. She reached in her bag, slicked a layer of lipstick over her lips and pinched her cheeks a few times to improve her complexion.

  She’d have the whole station asking if she was all right if she went in without doing that.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  ‘How have you been since seeing Vic on Monday?’ Carla asked Tanya during their one-to-one session. ‘Has he left you alone?’

  Tanya sighed loudly. ‘Yes, apart from he’s been hassling me on my phone. I’ve been switching it off, but you can’t always do that, can you? I mean, what’s the point in having a phone if you can’t use it?’

  ‘I might have a spare one you could use,’ Carla said, remembering several pay-as-you-go phones she’d bought for herself throughout the years. ‘It won’t be a smartphone, but if you can get a SIM card, it might give you a bit of peace.’

  Tanya shook her head. ‘Thanks for the offer, but if I did that and he couldn’t get hold of me, he would do his nut when he bumped into me again.’ She raised her hands to mimic inverted commas when she said the word ‘bumped’.

  ‘But I thought the whole idea of moving here was to get away from him?’ Carla’s tone was sharper than she had expected. ‘I mean, you do want to be here?’

  ‘No, I don’t want to be here,’ snapped Tanya, her ponytail swishing around in her fingers. ‘I want to go home, but I don’t have a place to call home, unless he’s there.’

  Carla stayed quiet for a moment, hoping to gain control of the meeting. She was supposed to be there to listen and give advice, not to preach.

  ‘I miss my kids,’ Tanya said all of a sudden.

  ‘Did you ever think of getting in touch with them?’ she asked. ‘I mean, now they’re older?’

  ‘It wouldn’t be right. They’re settled into their own lives now.’ Tanya’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I can only remember Lee when he was a baby, before he was taken from me. He had a white teddy bear with a blue collar with his name embroidered on it. He took that with him, and I wish I’d kept it.’

  Carla knocked her notepad to the floor as she pictured that teddy bear. Ryan had bought Chloe one with a pink collar. They had been all the rage at the time.

  She composed herself and picked up the notepad. ‘So you haven’t seen any of your children since they were adopted?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Would you like to? I could help to set it up for you.’

  Tanya stood up. ‘What’s wrong with you people? I don’t want to see any of my kids again. Do you think I want them to know how their mum and dad turned out? How their mother gets beaten by their father and is afraid of her own shadow? That they both take drugs to get off their faces because life is too hard for them? That they’ve both been in and out of prison? What kind of an example is that?’

  ‘People change,’ said Carla, trying not to react to her outburst. ‘I think you’d be surprised how much they might want to see you.’

  ‘Don’t even think about it. My children aren’t precious to me. I gave up rights to be their mother a long time ago. They’re better off not knowing. Children should be sacred, don’t you think?’

  Carla looked up to see Tanya staring at her purposely. ‘I. . . I guess they should,’ she said.

  ‘Well then, they’ll be better off without me and Vic butting into their lives.’

  Tanya turned on her heel and left Carla mulling over her words. Tanya was hurting, but so was she. If Tanya hadn’t brought up the memory of the teddy bear, she might have handled the situation a bit better. She still had that teddy bear, locked away in the safe-deposit box with all her other mementoes. Despite Ryan insisting it was to be buried with Chloe, it had been the one time she had continued to say no.

  Carla cursed herself inwardly for being sharp. Tanya wasn’t to know what memories her story would evoke. She’d have to learn from this meeting to keep her feelings to herself as much as she could in the future. Especially where Tanya and her children were concerned.

  Chapter Thirty

  Eden took a shower as soon as she got home from work that night, letting the hot water wash away her tears. Despite her work, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Danny since they had shared that text conversation. Because she’d thought they were okay until he’d upped and left, and that’s what stung the most.

  She realised soon after why he had gone, which made it a little more bearable, but it still didn’t mean she could hate him. Time should be a healer, but it felt like no more than a second had passed when someone contacted you again, turned your world around and made your heart beat faster.

  Things cooling with Joe had been her fault. But now, with this happening, she realised she did care for him, though not in the same sense she cared for Danny. Even though he had abandoned her and Casey, she had to see Danny to discuss what he wanted to talk about.

  Maybe he wanted to come home. Was that even a possibility now? Could they turn the clock back two years and start again? Was she even willing to do that, or was seeing him all she needed? Getting him to explain why he’d left could be enough to heal her
wounds and make her realise that she’d be better off without him. Or maybe she was still smarting from Joe suggesting they take a break. They’d both known it would be more permanent than that.

  But, regardless of whether or not things worked out with Joe, he deserved to be treated better than she was capable of. Then again, if she saw Danny and he categorically didn’t want to come back, then maybe she would be able to settle down with Joe. Maybe they should give it a try.

  There was so much that could go right – and wrong – in the morning, depending on whether certain questions were answered to her approval. There was a lot she needed to hear – and a lot she needed to say.

  Mostly she wondered how she would react when she saw Danny again. From the very first night they’d met at a Soul Night in Stafford in their late teens, he’d taken her breath away. She had been on the dance floor when he’d danced past her. She’d always been a bit of a tomboy – her sister Laura would vouch for that – and yet she’d gone to pieces when he spoke to her. At first he’d been dancing around her, and then with her, and then he’d asked her if she wanted to stop for a drink.

  When she’d found out he lived in Stockleigh too, she had to stop herself from beaming. He was right up her street. They’d married three years later and then Casey had come along.

  She groaned loudly. Danny had never bothered with the fact that she’d gone into the police force. His work as a garage mechanic was a manual job, but he’d enjoyed it, and it had brought in great money when he’d become known as the best in the area to do a full car respray. It was only when he lost his job that things began to unravel for him. Had she realised that before he left, Eden might have been able to help rather than have him take advantage of her position.

  But whatever he wanted to tell her, the main thing she needed to know was why he had left – and why he hadn’t contacted her, or Casey, for so long.

  She went downstairs and sat in the living room. A few minutes later, Casey came in.

  ‘What’s up, Mum?’ She flopped down beside her. ‘You look sad.’

  ‘Oh, I’m fine really.’ Eden put an arm around her and drew her near. She smiled when Casey cuddled up to her, the warmth of her daughter soothing her. ‘I’ve just had a bad day at the office. Nasty stuff, you know.’

  Daphne came sidling in and jumped up on to Casey’s lap. They both stroked the cat at the same time, her purrs becoming so loud that they smiled at each other.

  ‘How’s everything with you?’ Eden asked her.

  ‘Okay. What are you watching?’

  ‘Nothing in particular. Why?’

  ‘Do you fancy watching a girlie movie with me?’

  Eden nodded. ‘Sure. There’s some ice cream in the freezer. I won’t tell if you won’t.’

  ‘You’re supposed to set a good example, not encourage me!’ Casey was trying to sound convincing but Eden noticed she was already up on her feet.

  ‘How about Dirty Dancing?’ she asked.

  ‘Really? Again?’ Casey shook her head. ‘How about Bridesmaids?’

  Eden nodded, trying to muster up enough enthusiasm. ‘That’s great.’

  No matter what she watched tonight, nothing would take her mind off meeting Danny the next morning.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Carla sat on the settee, legs up, a mug of coffee at her side. There was nothing she wanted to watch on the television so she was reading a book. Thomas was curled up in her lap. Peace at last.

  After the day she’d had at The Willows, she was grateful to be able to come home and switch off. It seemed an age since she had been the woman in Tanya’s position, yet Vic turning up at the refuge earlier in the week had upset her just as much. Some of the women had been scared too. So for the next few evenings, if there were any police available to drive past sporadically, they would be up and down Harold Street keeping an eye out.

  Carla was worried about the attacks across the city too. Even though it was all over the news, Eden had rung Lisa to say that there had been another one in a car park in Stockleigh city centre. This one had been stopped before it went too far, luckily, but Eden said the attacks might become more frequent so they were all on alert.

  She heard a noise and looked up to see out of the window that a car had arrived next door. A couple in their early twenties got out: she holding a bottle of wine, him laughing as he locked the car door. It was quiet again moments later.

  Carla had been lucky with Granger Street. It had a reputation for having a friendly neighbourhood feel to it. People would watch out for each other but not be on each other’s doorstep all the time. A sense of independence but always having someone there. So with that, and the emergency alarm system that Josie Mellor had put into the property for her and that sent an alert through to a control room if she had need to press it, she felt as safe as she could.

  She went to the window again and looked outside, both ways, up and down the street in the dark. There was no one around. It was just her mind playing tricks with her. She closed the curtains and settled down again.

  Despite going early to bed, just after midnight, Carla sat up, her senses on full alert. She’d been woken by something. It couldn’t have been Thomas, as she’d put him out before she’d come to bed. She listened but there was nothing.

  She stayed sitting upright. Memories from years ago flooded back, of waiting and hoping that Ryan wouldn’t come into the room and take his temper out on her – alcohol-fuelled attacks that filled the air with his putrid fumes before he would collapse next to her, spent, in a stupor. Often she had slept on the floor so as not to wake him up.

  She heard another noise. Her eyes were trained on the bedroom door. There was no one there, but there was someone outside, because it sounded as if the back door handle had just gone down.

  She heard it again. There was someone outside. She flicked the bedside lamp on – her pale face in the wardrobe mirror making her jump – hoping to scare away any opportune thief that was trying his luck.

  She grabbed the rounders bat that she kept by the side of her bed, although she wasn’t sure if she would have the courage to use it. Then again, she wasn’t the woman she had been all those years ago.

  Even though she knew she had checked them over before coming to bed, she needed to see if all the windows and doors were secure. If they were, then it didn’t matter who was outside as long as they couldn’t get in.

  She got up, took hold of the bat and crept downstairs. Shaky fingers checked the front door to find it still locked, and it hadn’t been tampered with. In the kitchen, she found the back door intact. She pulled the blind to one side at the window to check the handles were locked securely. A shadow made her jump. There was a figure dressed in a black jacket, a woollen hat covering their head and a black scarf around the bottom of their face. Eyes stared at her for a moment before the person ran away.

  Carla took a step backwards and screamed. The bat in her hand clattered to the floor, and she dropped down beneath the sink unit so that she couldn’t be seen. Covering her mouth, she tried not to hyperventilate. Tingles came up her fingers and she reached up to the cutlery drawer behind her.

  The first thing she grasped was a brown paper bag that she needed to breathe into, to stop her from having a full-blown panic attack. The second was a kitchen knife. If anyone came into the property right now, she would use it.

  Fifteen minutes later, there had been no more noise – no one forcing their way into the property to grab her hair and drag her outside. There was nothing. When she plucked up the courage to look again, there was no one there. For a split second, she wondered if she’d imagined it.

  The other part of her knew she hadn’t. There had been someone outside her window. She scrambled across the hallway. Praying that a figure wouldn’t walk past the front door, she ran upstairs.

  Tears tore down her cheeks as she threw herself on to the bed. Could it be the man who was attacking women? Was he looking to break in somewhere? Or could it have been Ryan? Had he fou
nd her? She’d have to move again. She didn’t want to keep running, but despite her bravery about staying where she was, she just couldn’t.

  Carla shivered. If it was Ryan, then he was playing with her. He was letting her know that not only had he found her, he was coming to get her for what she’d done.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Eden pushed open the door to Starbucks the next morning. Her heart thumped away inside her chest so loudly she thought everyone might turn round to see where the noise was coming from. She wiped sweaty palms on her trousers as she stepped inside the building.

  How could her emotions be playing tricks on her like this? She’d hardly slept a wink last night. She’d thought she would be fine seeing Danny again, but even now, upset after her recent fall out with Joe, she still wasn’t prepared for the rush of anxiety. Her stomach flipped over almost as if they were meeting for a first date.

  She was worried that she wouldn’t spot him, but as she looked past the queue waiting to be served, past the tables at the front of the shop and out to the back, she saw a hand go up. And there he was.

  It was as if she’d stepped back in time. Two years ago, they had regularly come here for coffee and Eden wondered if she should have thought of somewhere else to meet.

  Pushing her reservations to one side, she walked towards him, squeezing past a couple in their teens who were hell-bent on eating each other’s tonsils as they waited for their order.

  With every step closer, she noticed something different about him and it stung. He’d lost about a stone in weight, and his hair, although still styled like a young Paul Weller’s, was shorter. His skin was a little more aged, but bronzed as if he’d been away recently. He wore his green Harrington jacket, which made her heart melt, and she could see a black Doc Marten shoe at the side of the table. So some things on the outside were the same old Danny. On the inside, however. . .?