by Lucy Wild
“You never know.”
“Listen, I have to go away for a while. I wondered if you wouldn’t mind…?”
“Watering your plants? Of course not. What kind of landlady would I be if I let your beloved peace lily die?”
“Thank you, Miss Wilson.”
“Any idea when you’ll be back, Jake?”
“Shouldn’t be too long,” I replied, turning to head back to the stairs.
“Famous last words,” she called after me, her door slamming and the bolts scraping loudly back into place as I descended the stairs to start my search for Isabel Fleming.
SIX
ISABEL
I’m not sure how I ended up in Gentle Falls. I didn’t really have a plan when I left the house. All I did was get in the car and start driving. I didn’t want to go too far, not until I worked out what I was going to do.
I’d been to Gentle Falls a few times with the girls, slumming it in cabins in the woods next to the town or hanging out on the campsite. It wasn’t really a town, more of a big village and I can’t even remember how we ended up there the first time we went. I do remember a lot of bottles of wine on the kitchen counter, illicit alcohol given our ages at the time. The rest of that first holiday was a haze that will probably never turn back into a proper memory. Still, it must have been good or we wouldn’t have gone back so many times.
There was only one year when I didn’t go with them. I’d just turned seventeen and I had decided to go and see Ben, only I didn’t go. I told them I was going, I made every plan to go but then I just didn’t. I stayed at home and pretended I’d gone, pretended I’d had an amazing time when in fact I hadn’t dared go see him in case he rejected me.
I had the train ticket ready but when it came to leaving the house, a tiny little voice in my head asked me what I’d do if he’d forgotten me, or worse, what would I do if he didn’t still love me? It had been years, after all. I couldn’t bear the thought of it and in the end I decided the agony of not knowing was more my style.
I couldn’t recreate the holidays I’d had with the girls this time but I could toast the memory of the past. I sat in Red or White, a wine bar that had seen far better days, draining one glass after another of the most expensive Merlot they had, playing with my phone whilst ignoring the sixty-two texts from my father. Sixty-three.
The latest one just said, ‘COME HOME NOW.’
No chance. If he thought I was going to play happy families with the son of a gangster, he had another thing coming. I thought about replying, telling him that, but I decided against it, better to keep quiet until he’d calmed down.
The more I drank, the less I cared about him anyway. I looked around at the others in the bar. There were a couple of people around my age in there, maybe a little older. Over in the corner, a man in a black suit kept staring at me. I ignored him. He was far too old for me. The guys sliding up to the bar were more my type, even if they were in tracksuits. They had muscles from too many hours at the gym, full of bravado as they nudged each other and glanced in my direction.
I turned away from them, let them come to me. That meant I was facing the guy on his own and he was still staring at me. I glanced back at the men, the bravest of them was already on his way over. I gave him the tiniest of smiles though with the amount of wine I’d drunk, it was hard to control my grin.
“Good evening,” he said, his voice slurred. “Want to come and join us?”
“I’m all right, thanks,” I replied, leaning on my elbow, spinning my empty glass slowly with my free hand.
He took the hint. “Can I get you another drink?”
“Why not?”
Within ten minutes I was in the middle of the three of them, the drinks continuing to pour. I felt like Queen of Gentle Falls, not even caring when a hand slid down my back, I was too far gone by then to realise the danger. We talked about something but I’ve no idea what. I can’t remember.
What I do remember is what happened when they began to move me towards the door. One moment I was in the middle of the three of them and the next I was stood alone. I heard a deep voice booming out, “Time for you gentlemen to leave.”
“Who are you, her Dad?” one of my suitors replied.
“Close enough. Off you go.”
“We’re not going anywhere, Pops, why don’t you-?” The voice was cut off as I caught a blur of movement. The door swung open and he was gone. I still had no idea what was happening. The other two men looked at the owner of the voice and I turned too, wanting to see who the hell it was that was ruining my evening.
It was the guy who’d been staring at me. He had hold of the two men, one in each crumpled fist. He was shoving them towards the exit, ignoring their protests as I watched in disbelief.
“What’s going on?” I tried to say but what came out was little more than a drunken mumble. I took a step back from the brute as he turned from the door, towering over me. I managed to screw up my backwards step, stumbling into a table. I tried to catch myself on it but my balance went and I was on the floor a second later.
“Oops,” I said, giggling to myself.
“Come on,” he replied. “Let’s get you some water.”
He put his hands under my arms and pulled me upright, leading me back to my stool and not letting go of me until he was sure I wasn’t going to slip back down to the ground. He sat next to me and I got my first proper look at him as he stared back at me in disgust.
He was much older than me, probably by ten or maybe even twenty years. Handsome too, though there were flecks of grey in the corners of his dark brown hair, a couple of wrinkles on his forehead. I was caught by his eyes when I saw them close up, the darkness of them took me by surprise, as if he’d seen a lot of things in his time, most of them bad. His jaw was firm, his mouth unsmiling as he turned to the barman and ordered two mineral waters. He scared me.
“Drink this,” he said, pushing a glass across to me. “You need it.”
“Try my wine first.”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“I’ll drink your water if you drink my wine.”
“Fine,” he sighed, taking a sip. “Happy now?”
“Very,” I replied with a smile. “Who are you?”
“A friend.”
SEVEN
ISABEL
A friend, he’d said. What the hell did that mean? Friends weren’t so threatening, so menacing, so scary.
I looked at him and then he turned into two people, then four. I blinked and two of them vanished. With a groan I closed my eyes again, opening them a few seconds later to find him holding my water. “Here,” he said, holding the glass towards my lips. “Drink this.”
I did as he said, opening my mouth just enough to feel the icy cold water run down the back of my throat. It didn’t take the nausea away but it took the edge off it and when I looked at him again, there was only one of him looking back at me.
“You should be more careful,” he said, giving me another sip before putting the glass down on the bar. “On your own with guys like that around, you could get yourself in trouble.”
I shrugged. “I can handle myself.”
“I bet you can.”
We lapsed into silence. He sipped his drink, his eyes fixed on mine. I felt uncomfortable with him staring at me like that, as if I was an experiment he was observing, an experiment that repulsed him.
“What?” I snapped at last. “What’s wrong with me?”
“You need an answer?”
“You look disgusted with me, think women shouldn’t be allowed to drink, is that it? Got a daughter my age, blah, blah, blah.”
“I don’t have children.”
“Come to kill me then? Serial killer on the lookout for your next victim?”
“What would you do if I said yes?”
“Get you to buy me another drink first.”
“Then what?”
“Then I’d call my father to come and get me and have you arrested.”
A fl
icker of a smile crossed his lips. “Go on then.”
“Go on what?”
“Call your father.”
“I will, don’t think I won’t.”
“Go on, then.”
“I’m going to call him right now.”
“I’m waiting.”
I dug my phone out and held it so he couldn’t see the screen, wanting to call his bluff, scare him off from whatever he had planned. He didn’t know I couldn’t ring my father. I tapped the screen and then held the phone to my ear. “It’s ringing.”
He reached over and grabbed it before I knew what was happening. “No it isn’t,” he said, putting it on the bar between us. “Why don’t you want to ring him?”
I sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“Care if I take a guess?”
“What are you, a psychic?”
“Nope. I’m just good at noticing things.”
“Like what.”
“Like the fact that you’re underdressed for the weather.”
“So?”
“So that means you’re not great at planning. You’ve only just arrived here, I know that too.”
“Have you been stalking me?”
“You’re in the worst bar in the town. No one from round here would choose this place.” He twisted to face the barman. “No offence.”
“It’s a shithole,” the barman replied with a shrug.
“You don’t know me,” I snapped, getting annoyed with how cocky he was.
“I know you’ve run away from home and you don’t want to go back. That’s why you faked the phone call. I know you left in a hurry and that’s why you’re sat here without a decent coat. I know you’re worried and you’re trying to drown out that worry by getting drunk. I know you’re not very sensible or else you wouldn’t have needed rescuing from those scumbags.”
“I didn’t need rescuing!”
“I suppose you would have been happy to be fucked by the three of them at once, that your kind of thing, is it?”
“I’m not that type of girl. We were just having fun, that’s all.”
“I think you’ve a different idea of fun to men like that.”
“Is that what it is? You want sex? I’m not looking for sex, you dirty old man.”
“Why are you here, then?”
I scowled at him, he was the most irritating man I’d ever met. “For your information I am on my way to see the love of my life.”
He paused for the briefest of seconds, long enough to prove I’d thrown him. There was something Mr Prediction hadn’t predicted. “You are?” He raised his eyebrows, as if he thought I was lying.
“I am.”
“So you’re in love?”
“I am.”
“But you’re still happy to be picked up by three guys at once?”
“Fuck you.”
I lunged at him, trying to push him off his stool. My hand bounced back off him and I lost my balance, slipping from the stool and thumping down to the floor.
“Smooth,” he said, leaning down to offer me a hand.
“I can get myself up,” I replied, batting his hand away.
“Course you can,” he said, taking my hand and gripping it tightly. “You don’t need any help at all.”
“Well,” I replied, feeling him pull me to my feet, seemingly with no effort at all on his part. “I don’t.”
The water he’d given me had been overpowered by the wine inside me. I swooned slightly against the bar, the walls beginning to spin as I felt nausea washing over me. “I think I’m going to be sick,” I muttered, staggering for the bathroom. “Excuse me.”
I made it into the ladies, landing on my knees in the nearest cubicle. I sat there feeling at my absolute worst, looking down into the bowl and wondering just how much wine I’d had. It wasn’t enough to make me feel like this, was it? Had those guys put something in my drink? Had he? Had he put a pill in my water? Would I have noticed?
It would explain why I felt like death, my insides churning as I sat there, heat crawling across my skin, my nerves shot. I closed my eyes, my head slumping downwards. I didn’t want to pass out. He was still out there and I didn’t trust him. But a second later, it happened anyway.
EIGHT
JAKE
I woke up the next morning to find her gone from the bedroom. That was unexpected. Everything else had gone how I’d expected. I’d dragged her out of the toilet with the help of the barman, finding her unconscious in there. “Drugs?” he asked, looking at her slumped form on the floor.
“Too much drink too young,” I replied, checking she was still alive. She was. That made life easier. I hefted her over my shoulder, carrying her caveman style out onto the street, leaving the barman with a warning to keep his mouth shut. The twenty I’d given him would help with that. I didn’t need the local police investigating, it would just complicate things.
The three men I’d thrown out were visible in the distance, arguing with the doorman of another bar. I swore silently. My car was down that way and I wouldn’t be able to get her past without them noticing. Looking around, I thought what to do. Across the street from the bar was a hotel, not a good hotel, but perfect for my needs. The man behind the counter barely lifted his head from the racing pages when I entered. “Forty a night,” he said, his hand outstretched. “In advance.”
I set Isabel down on her feet. She groaned, slumping against me. “My daughter,” I said to the guy’s quizzical look.
“Right,” he replied. “Course she is.”
“You’re my daughter, aren’t you?” I asked Isabel, lifting her chin up with my finger.
“Grrruuhhh,” she managed, a gurgling sound in the back of her throat leading to a line of drool forming on her bottom lip. She really was a delightful girl. “Daddy?”
“That’s right,” I said. “Daddy’s here.”
As soon as I let go of her chin, her head fell forwards, pressing against me. I paid the man behind the counter, ignoring his leer as he did his best to look down her top.
“Room seventeen,” he said. “Same age as her,” he added with a wink.
“I’m nineteen actually,” she mumbled before falling silent again.
I turned away from him, lifting Isabel by the waist and half carrying, half dragging her up the stairs. I got her into the room a minute later, pushing the door open whilst holding her tightly, doing my best to keep her upright. Once inside, I picked her up, ignoring her snoring as I laid her down on the bed.
I thought about undressing her but then thought better of it. If she woke up with me stripping her clothes off, she’d probably scream the place down. Not only that but if I got her naked, I doubted I’d be able to control the urges that were building up inside me. The sight of her in the bar had been enough to spark my lust. She looked so innocent, so perfectly timid. She’d do exactly what I told her in bed. Just how I liked them.
I settled for removing her shoes, easier said than done as her knotting skills were a nightmare to untangle. When I finally got them off, her snoring had settled into a rhythm, an ear splitting rhythm.
I tucked the blankets around her, leaving her to sleep it off for a while. By the time she woke up, the street should be empty and I could take her home, get this job over with and get back to what I was good at. It had been no fun wandering the town looking for her. In my line of work, I was usually given an address and knew exactly where I was going. I’d been in half the bars and restaurants in the place before finding her in the middle of a bottle of wine. She’d had the look of someone who had every intention of getting as pissed as possible.
The vultures watching her could see her vulnerability as well as I could. It had radiated off her and I couldn’t believe she was so naive as to let them ply her with more drink. I hadn’t planned to be so visible, I’d planned to grab her when she left the bar but when they’d gone for her, something snapped in me and I felt, well, almost protective of her. I looked at her snoring form and wondered why. Seeing her there
, I didn’t feel protective anymore, I felt like I might grab and her and fuck her before she even knew what was happening.
I dragged the only chair in the room over to the corner. From there I could see the door, the window and the bed. No one would get in or out without me knowing about it. I sat there, the lights low, looking at her as she slept. I hope you’re worth all this trouble, I thought to myself, resisting the lust filled thoughts in my head.
I only planned to sit. I must have been more tired than I realised. Either that or the stifling heat of the room had snuck up on me. Or those dirtbags had put something in her wine. Whatever it was, I fell asleep without realising it was happening and I didn’t wake up until the next morning.
To find her gone was a shock. I was a light sleeper, I’d needed to be for a long time. The slightest sound was usually enough to wake me. If she’d climbed out of bed, I should have heard it. But I hadn’t. I hadn’t heard her go but gone she had. I was alone in there. I got to my feet and took a step forwards, falling to the floor with a heavy thud. What the hell?
I looked down at my feet and couldn’t help but laugh. Not only had she been so quiet that she’d slipped from the room without me noticing, she’d had time to stop and tie my shoelaces together. They were knotted in the same way her boots had been and it took far too long to get them undone. She was better at planning than I thought.
Once I’d sorted my shoes out, I headed downstairs. “Did you see a woman go past?” I asked the man behind the counter. He didn’t look as if he’d moved from last night. Maybe he never did.
“Lost your ‘daughter’ have you?” he asked with a sneer, his hands marking the punctuation around the word ‘daughter’ in the air.
I leant across the counter and grabbed his shirt. “Have you seen her?”
His face lost its colour as he nodded. “She just left, not five minutes ago.”
“Thanks,” I said, letting him go and turning for the door. “We were never here.”
I ran outside and looked up and down the street. There she was, climbing onto a double decker bus. I thought about getting my car but the bus might be gone by then. I ran after it just as its engine turned over. I joined the back of the queue. There were two people in front of me and glancing past them, I saw her head up the stairs to the top deck.