House of Christmas Secrets

by Lynda Stacey

  Annie heard a noise and momentarily closed her eyes. ‘Listen to me.’ Her voice was now stern. ‘You have no choice. Now get up and onto that ledge and when you land on the ground, Lily, you need to run. Run as fast as you can towards the houses, the ones that are right across the field and you don’t stop until you get there. Do you hear me?’

  Lily nodded her head and a sob left her throat. ‘But … but it’s dark. I don’t want to go.’ She looked terrified, but Annie knew that this was the right thing to do.

  ‘Honey. Bad men are coming. They’re on their way here right now and I really don’t want you to meet them.’ She didn’t know what else to say, but knew she had to get the child to run. ‘Honey, if the bad men see you, they’ll hurt you.’ Tears began to drip down Annie’s face. ‘Now, go to those houses, look for a house where there are toys, a slide or a swing. Bang on that door, baby, bang on it hard and get that mummy to help you. She’ll phone your daddy for you. Okay?’

  Lily looked confused. ‘But how do you know she’ll be nice?’

  Tears continued to fall unashamedly down Annie’s face. She didn’t have time for the explanations, she knew Griff could walk in at any moment, but she knew that this was the last contact she’d ever get with her daughter. ‘Because she’s a mummy, baby girl. And all mummies should be nice, shouldn’t they? You have to trust me, Lily. I promise, she’ll help you.’ Annie pushed Lily towards the window. ‘Now, climb up.’ She stood on the side of the bath and hoisted Lily onto the windowsill. ‘Lily, whatever happens, run, and, baby girl, please, don’t look back.’

  Annie watched Lily’s contorted face as she began to sob. She was terrified of climbing out of the window, being dropped to the ground and running through the fields alone. But Annie had no idea what else to do. ‘Please, Lily, you have to go, here, grab hold.’ Annie had tied a knot in the towel and she watched as Lily grabbed at the knot. ‘It’s not too far down, just like jumping off of a swing … there you go. Are you on the ground?’

  Annie saw Lily’s saucer eyes as she nodded and she could see Lily staring back at her, not knowing which way to turn. Annie closed her eyes, she could hear Griff’s voice outside. ‘Cruel to be kind,’ she whispered to herself as she waved her hand at Lily. ‘Go, go now,’ she growled and then climbed down from her position on the bath. She knew that this would be her last night on earth and that she’d never see her daughter again. She just hoped that her final act of kindness would find her just a small place in her daughter’s heart, and in years to come she might realise exactly what she’d just done for her.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The keys began to turn in the motel door. Griff’s voice bellowed outside and the door opened. Griff’s frame filled the whole doorway like a volcano rising up out of the doormat. He turned on the main light, looked at Annie, around her and then glanced at the bathroom door.

  ‘What’s she doing? Where is she?’ he said with menace.

  ‘She’s in the bath. Like you said,’ Annie answered, scratching at her arms and playing for time to give Lily a chance to get away unseen.

  ‘Come on, Griff. Where’s the brat? I’m not sitting out there all night.’ Bella strutted into the room and spun around as though searching for something, but, in doing so, Annie caught sight of the white bloodstained lint dressing that covered the left side of her face.

  ‘Bella …’ she said. Annie pointed to Bella’s cheek. ‘Why … I mean, what the hell are you doing here? Why the hell would you work with him … after he did that?’

  ‘Oh bejesus, Annie. You’re fucking stupid some days.’ She turned, looked at Griff with hate in her eyes, and smirked. ‘I have to work with him, don’t I? I owe him money, thanks to you.’ She shook her head. ‘So, I’m here to take the kid. Where is she?’ She spoke carefully, and held her face in a certain position as she said the words. ‘I haven’t got all day. Is she here, or not?’ A confused look crossed her already distorted face.

  Griff looked at the bathroom door, stepped forward and pushed it with his foot. ‘Get out here, you little brat.’ The door swung open, the bathroom empty.

  Annie could feel herself shaking. She knew he’d erupt and every millimetre of her body trembled, making her reverse until her back was pressed hard against the wall. ‘Griff, you … you’ve got to realise. I … I—’

  ‘Where the fuck is she, Annie?’ Griff’s rage was palpable.

  ‘She’s gone,’ Annie whispered. ‘You’ll never find her, not now.’ Annie needed to get away, needed to get to the door, but to do that she had to get past Griff.

  But he had already worked that out and quickly moved towards her, making Annie drop to the floor, her arms lifted above her head. She screamed as Griff grabbed her hair with one hand, as the other swiped out and caught her in the face. ‘What the hell have you gone and done, Annie?’ he shouted. He then began tearing around the room, searching. ‘Where the hell is she? I want to know, now!’

  ‘Get away from me, Griff. I’ve called for help,’ she lied. ‘The police, they’ll be here any minute.’ She began crawling on her hands and knees like a puppy towards the door.

  ‘The buyers are on their way to the meeting point. They’ll go fucking mental. We’ll all pay for this.’ He spoke directly to Bella, his finger wagging in the air. ‘You need to head them off, give me some time to find the kid.’

  Bella began to laugh. ‘Oh, no. Don’t you get me all mixed up in this, Griff. I was just the bloody delivery girl, the one who picks her up here and hands her over at the meeting point, all so that you get to keep your hands all nice and clean.’ She nodded her head and put her hands on her hips. ‘I was doing you a bloody favour, a way of paying back the debts. Debts I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for her.’ She jangled her car keys and took a step back, and then used her foot to slam the door behind her. ‘And, Annie, don’t be fucking stupid all your bloody life, you’re not going anywhere.’

  ‘Bella, you … you have to listen to me.’ Annie was still on her knees, her hands held out in prayer. ‘He’s going to kill me. I heard him on the telephone and as soon as he can, he’ll kill you too.’

  ‘Annie, you took my money. Maybe I should save Griff the bother and kill you myself.’ She smirked with half of a right handed smile, while the left side looked fixed or frozen with pain.

  ‘But, it wasn’t me. I didn’t take your money. You have to believe me.’ The lies spilled out of her mouth naturally, and she looked Bella in the eye and allowed them to continue. ‘I … I saw one of the others, coming out of your room that day. I … I—’

  Bella leaned over with long unwashed hair, her eyes millimetres from Annie’s. ‘Don’t fucking lie to me, Annie. I know what you are. You’re a good for nothing dirty addict. An addict who would sell her own child. What kind of a mother does that? What kind of fucking monster are you?’

  ‘But she isn’t here … I … I couldn’t go through with it. I didn’t sell her. I let her go, didn’t I?’ Annie scrambled, on her hands and knees, to a position beneath a teak table. She used the chairs to barricade herself in and for just a few moments she wondered if she’d be safe. But in one swift movement the whole table lifted up and Griff threw it to the other side of the room, Bella standing close behind him.

  ‘Give that here,’ Bella screamed as she grabbed Griff’s flick knife from his back pocket and pointed it at Annie. ‘You, you owe me, bitch, and you … you owe your daughter a fucking apology.’ The blade swung in front of her face. ‘Poor fucking kid having you for a mother. I can’t think of anything worse.’ Annie could see the fury in Bella’s eyes, and knew she was about to strike.

  ‘Go on, Bella, give it to her. After all, we’re all fucked now the kid’s gone, aren’t we?’ Griff bellowed and Annie could see him shuffling from foot to foot. ‘Bitch took your money, didn’t she? And you … you ended up with that disgusting scar ’cause of her … didn’t you?’ His fingers pressed against Bella’s face, tore the dressing from her and revealed a bright red, ugly, puckered scar.
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  ‘Get the hell off of me, you bastard,’ Bella suddenly screamed and her whole body spun at once. The flick knife flashed through the air, slicing Griff clean across the throat. Blood sprayed the room and Griff grabbed at his wound as he began to make an odd spluttering sound, before falling backwards and collapsing to the floor.

  Bella laughed, long and piercing. ‘You damned asshole. See what it’s like to be slashed. It’s not fucking nice, is it?’ She nodded, hovered over his body and stared into his eyes as the last breath left his body. Then she went down on her knees, and began rocking like a child, while stroking his blood-covered face. ‘There, there, Griff, does it hurt?’

  Annie moved to her side. ‘Bella, come away from him. Please, please, come away, he doesn’t deserve your pity, not now.’ Her arm went around Bella’s shoulders. ‘You did the right thing, Bella. He had it coming, didn’t he? I’ll … I’ll stand up for you, you know, in court. I’ll speak to the police, I promise.’ She pulled Bella into a hug. ‘Oh, Bella. He’s gone. It’s over, we’re free. We’re finally free of him.’

  Bella hugged her back, and for a moment a strange peace came over the room.

  Annie closed her eyes as her hand stroked Bella’s hair and then she leaned back and looked into her tear-filled eyes. ‘Do you know what, Bella? For just a minute, I really thought you were coming for me, I sure did. But … but I should have known you’d go for him, especially after what he’d done …’ Suddenly she couldn’t draw breath. There was a sharpness that made her pull away and she fell backwards to slump against the bed as she felt the knife retract.

  Bella leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. ‘That, my dear Annie, was exactly what you deserved … that was for your little Lily and for the monster you’ve become.’

  Chapter Forty

  The only noise that could be heard was the clock that ticked away regardless. Jess, Madeleine and Nomsa all sat in silence. All stared at the carpet, holding hands and barely breathing, while Bandit and Bastion stood outside, waiting for the police.

  Madeleine glanced over at Poppy, who had been too frightened to go to her bed and now slept soundly curled up in a chair. Madeleine turned back to the CCTV and switched it back on. She’d watched it repeatedly and had initially sobbed relentlessly. But now she watched without emotion. It all happened right there in front of the camera. The white van pulled up, Annie climbed out and Lily stood looking shocked. The woman had held out her hand, but Lily had looked scared and reluctant to go with her. Annie had held onto the hood of Lily’s coat, while beckoning to Poppy. Madeleine had felt her blood boil as she watched her do it over and over, until Lily had shouted at Poppy and pointed to the Hall, which was when Poppy had dropped her doll and Annie had tried to grab at her too. But Lily had been fast, she’d grabbed the doll, pushed it into Poppy’s arms and then pushed her away, hard.

  ‘She saved my Poppy. She knew Annie was going to take her too, so she pushed her, shouted at her and acted mean to her, just to make Poppy run.’ A single tear fell down Madeleine’s face, just as the service lift pinged, opened, and Jack emerged, smiling.

  ‘Well, you think you’re on a promise and you wait and wait for your good woman to come up, but then you end up waiting so long that you begin to die of hunger.’ He looked between Jess, Nomsa and Madeleine whose faces resembled the gargoyles on the Hall’s roof. ‘What? What’s happened?’

  Jess stood up and walked over to Jack. ‘Jack, it’s … it’s Lily. Annie, she snatched her.’ The words were the most difficult she’d ever said, especially after what Jack had gone through to try and save the child. ‘It was raining, Nomsa fell, and we took our eyes off Lily for just a few seconds and she was gone.’ She tried to explain, but didn’t have the words. ‘The police are on their way.’

  A silence fell between them all until Nomsa spat out, ‘Well, as far as I’m concerned, Christmas is cancelled. I can’t bake cakes, or cook turkey, not while our little Lily is missing. No, I can’t.’ Nomsa sobbed continuously into her apron. ‘Oh, that word, missing, it sounds so wrong.’ She pulled a tissue from a box and waved it in the air. ‘’Cause she isn’t missing, is she? She was taken, taken away from all of us who love her and right before Christmas. Oh, lordy, lordy, what is the world coming to?’ Nomsa stood up and paced around the room. ‘It’s all my fault. If I’d just kissed Bastion back like he’d wanted and hadn’t fallen on my stupid ass, none of this would have happened.’

  Jack sighed and wheeled himself to Nomsa’s side. ‘Oh, Nomsa. None of this is your fault.’ He took her hand. ‘These people are evil. I heard them, I heard what they were planning and they were laughing about taking her.’ He paused, lifted his fingers and gently wiped away Nomsa’s tears. ‘Honey, they were determined, and if it hadn’t been today, it would have been tomorrow, or the next day. So you see, it wasn’t your fault at all, it was them, they are just nasty, depraved people.’ He nodded, while acknowledging his thoughts. ‘I really don’t think any of us could have stopped them.’

  The front door opened and Bastion walked in closely followed by Bandit, two policemen and a policewoman. Introductions were made. Nomsa stood up to make her usual mugs of tea and Jess perched on Jack’s knee. Bandit and Bastion took the policeman to view the CCTV footage.

  ‘What do we do?’ Jess asked the policewoman.

  ‘We just have to wait. With the registration plate on the CCTV, the vehicle’s details will be circulated, so if they’re out there on the road system, it’ll ping on the ANPR.’

  Jess sat forward. ‘And what if it doesn’t?’

  Chapter Forty-One

  Lily inched down the alley, all the while looking up at the window. She stood for a moment and looked at the field. It was a long way to the houses beyond and she wasn’t sure if she should climb the fence, go across the field and do what her mummy had said, or wait and hope that someone would come, someone nice who might help her.

  She hesitated, but then heard a shout, a loud, angry shout, that came from beyond the window. The man was back and Lily was scared. She headed towards the fence and squashed her body between the rungs, and began making her way through the muddy field. She tried to head towards the houses, towards the tiny lights, but it was dark. The houses now looked a long way away and the only light she could see came from the cars that sped past on the motorway.

  She began to run but the mud squelched beneath her feet as the rain still poured and she stopped and took in a deep breath. ‘What do I do, Daddy?’ she whispered in the hope that he’d suddenly appear and hold her hand, make her feel brave and give her the advice that she needed, just as he always had. It was the first time in her whole life that she’d ever been totally alone and the first time she’d had to make a decision for herself, without an adult there to guide her. She crouched down beside the hedgerow. She was at the edge of the field, and for what seemed like forever, she just sat and sobbed. ‘Where are you, Daddy? Please come, please help me.’

  She looked up at the dark sky and tried to think what her father would say. The rain had now stopped, but the clouds still circled above her. Yet within them, she could see the Hall. She could see Jess and could hear her words.

  ‘Don’t cry, princess. Life is hard. But do you know what I do when I get sad? I do something really brave, something positive and I close my eyes and I think of all those who love me the most, does that make sense? You’re my sister and we all love you so much. You’re safe here, I promise. Everyone here will look after you, you do know that, don’t you?’

  Lily stood up. Jess had told her to be brave, she’d told her she’d be safe, but she wasn’t. And for a moment she tried to decide whether Jess had lied to her.

  She began marching towards the houses, but her boot stuck in the mud and she felt her foot come out of it; her new white sock suddenly became wet, covered in brown slushy ice-cold mud. She turned and looked back at the lights, to where the motel had been, now far in the distance. She stared at it for a few moments, wondering why her mother hadn’t come
with her. Why hadn’t she jumped out of the window too?

  Tears once again threatened to fill her eyes, but she didn’t want to cry. She was determined to be brave and even though she didn’t want to, she had to keep moving forward, knowing that she couldn’t go back. She pulled her boot from the mud, and slipped over and onto her side. Her new red coat was now dirty and she pulled a tissue from her pocket and began to try and wipe the mud from it. Again Jess came to mind. ‘She’ll be so annoyed that I got my coat dirty,’ Lily whispered to herself. But then she smiled as she remembered the day they’d been at the hospital, the day that Jess had bought her the coat, and had told her how lucky she was to be her sister. That had been the day Jess had put the two one pound coins in the envelope and had written her phone number on the back. It had been the day she’d said the words, ‘I’m going to write down my phone number and if ever you feel scared, afraid or if you just need me, you call. Okay?’

  Lily pulled the zip down, opened her pocket and pulled the envelope out. There it was, there was Jess’s phone number and with it was the money that she’d given her. Her mummy had told her to run, had told her to go to a house where a mummy would live and she’d said that all mummies were nice. But Lily didn’t agree. Not all mummies were. So she stepped onto the street, where she began looking for a phone box. If she could find one, she could phone Jess and then, then she could go home.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  The fire crackled in the hearth, the Christmas tree twinkled in the early morning light and Jess sat on the chesterfield settee and stared into the flames.

  She took in a deep breath. Her eyes were tired, but she couldn’t sleep. Not until Bandit and her father returned, not until they brought Lily home and all her family were once again safe under the Hall’s roof.

  ‘Hey, you okay?’ Madeleine asked as she walked into the grand hall, two mugs of tea in one hand, a bag in the other. ‘Nomsa sent more tea.’ They both laughed. It was the twentieth mug of tea that Nomsa had sent since they’d had the distraught phone call from Lily. ‘I don’t know where I am,’ she’d said. ‘I’m in a village, my coat is all dirty and my sock’s covered in mud.’ Her tiny voice had sobbed and stuttered between the words and Jess had felt her own heart break as she’d told Lily to put the phone down and call 999 and ask for the police. ‘When they get to you, give them my number. Be brave, Lily. We love you and we’re waiting for you to come home for Christmas.’