by Dan Clark
“Well?” Jeanette asks, anticipation in her voice.
Father Joseph shrugs off his coat and places it on the back of the chair. He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Jeanette. Nobody has seen her. I’ve asked everywhere. Maybe she did go out for a walk to clear her head. Give her time. I’m sure she’ll turn up. She probably just needs some time on her own.”
“This is our fault… You know that, don’t you?” Jeanette snaps.
Father Joseph looks down at his shiny shoes with the one-inch heel, but says nothing.
“I’m calling the police now. I’ve waited long enough. I’m not prepared to wait any longer.” Jeanette reaches for her mobile from the table and begins to dial. Father Joseph steps closer and takes it from her.
“Excuse me—” she begins.
“Wait… Just wait, will you, Jeanette?” He sighs, holding out her mobile. “You know what this is going to do.”
“They don’t need to know everything. But they have to know Carolyn is missing. I know she hasn’t gone for a walk. I know my daughter, and I know she’d be back by now! This is our mistake, and my daughter shouldn’t have to pay for it.”
***
Father Joseph remains silent. His head hurts. He’s thinking, I could really do with some of that vodka now. This whole thing has been nothing but trouble.
He rubs at his temples as the different scenarios rush through his mind. Finally, he decides what action to take.
“Why don’t we sit down and have a cup of tea?” he says. Not the most thought-out plan. But I have to buy myself time. I have to get back over to the old B&B and finish what I started. I have to get enough alcohol and sleeping tablets into Carolyn’s system before I can throw her from that top window.
“I’ve had enough tea! I want to find my daughter, now!” Jeanette snaps.
Father Joseph can see, from the look in Jeanette’s eyes, that she’s not going to let it go.
Father Joseph really doesn’t want to hurt Jeanette. She’s been a good friend, not just to him, but to the church and to the people of Llanbedr. She’s a good woman, and he, along with the rest of the town, respects her. He also enjoys her company.
But he enjoys his freedom more.
“Okay… okay… Listen. I might have an idea where Carolyn could be.” He picks his coat back up from the chair and slips it on. “Come on. Let’s go and check,” he says, leading Jeanette out of his home for the last time.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Hey, hey. Wake up,” a man’s voice calls as he lightly slaps Carolyn across the cheeks in a bid to wake her.
Carolyn slurs and moans, and tells him that she isn’t ready to get out of bed.
The man wipes the sticky hair from Carolyn’s eyes, placing it behind her ears before shaking her shoulders.
Finally she wakes and stares up at him with pink bloodshot eyes.
“Hey… Why has Father Joseph got you here?” he asks. She recognises the voice. It’s one she’s heard before somewhere.
The afternoon sun shines through the cracks and makes it difficult for Carolyn to focus on the figure standing in front of her. She blinks and studies him.
“Buckles...? Mark Buckles?”
“Yeah. What the fuck is going on here?” The candle shop owner stands up and looks around the room. He pulls a face as he spots the bottle of vodka on the floor. He runs a hand down his face which is now showing two-day-old stubble. His slicked-back hair is uncombed and messy, and his clothes look as if they haven’t been changed for several days.
“So that’s why he bought it, then,” he mutters to himself.
“What… What did you say?” Carolyn asks, trying to open her eyes wide. She forces her eyes to stay open, and tries to shake off the groggy, sickly feeling brought on by having been force-fed straight vodka and sleeping pills.
“I saw Father Joseph in town, buying that vodka,” Buckles says. He looks around the room and continues. “He seemed a little shaken up, and different from his usual self. He got in his car and took off before I had the chance to speak to him. I followed him, and I tried to catch him before he got home and drank himself silly. He’s been sober for a few years now.”
Carolyn thinks Mark Buckles seems disorientated, agitated even.
He looks back to her. “I didn’t want him to throw those years away. Then I saw him park here and come inside. I parked further down the road and waited for him to come back. What’s going on here?”
Carolyn burps. She feels like throwing up, but she manages to keep her focus on the figure in front of her. “He killed Elwyn Roberts. He’s drugging me, and I think he’s going to kill me… to… to stop me searching for the missing boys!”
“What?” Buckles asks, visibly shocked. “How do you know this?”
Carolyn can smell that he hasn’t washed for days. She wonders what might have happened. A death in the family? Debt troubles? But whatever it is, she doesn’t have time to worry about his troubles right now. She needs to concentrate on her own immediate problems.
“He admitted it,” Carolyn says. “Now untie me. I need to go and tell my mother and call the police.”
Mark looks towards the huge hole in the wall. Carolyn sees the worry in his face and fights at the rope, twisting to loosen it. The alcohol in her system has now been overtaken by the adrenaline rushing through her veins.
“Quick, before he gets back!” she begs.
Mark stands quietly, then examines the rope. He steps back in front of her, shaking his head.
“The knots are too tight. I’d need a knife,” he whispers, then walks behind the broken door and backs up against the wall, out of sight.
“Why do you think she’ll be here?” Carolyn can hear Jeanette asking, as her mother makes her way up the stairs.
“MUM… MUM, RUN!” Carolyn shouts as the two enter the room. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her!” she screams.
“Oh… my God. What have you done?” Jeanette says, holding a shaking hand up to her mouth.
“Jeanette, listen to me,” Father Joseph begins, stepping in front of her.
“Why is she tied up?” Jeanette asks with fear in her voice. She turns back to Carolyn. “Are you ok?”
“No, no I’m not. He killed Elwyn Roberts. He’s admitted it. Run, please. Just go!” Carolyn shouts.
Father Joseph steps to the side of Jeanette.
“I know,” Jeanette says. “But it was an accident. He… we… had both been out drinking, and—”
“We?” Carolyn says, her eyes wide. “You know? What do you mean, you know? Elwyn is still missing! His family…” Carolyn stops. Her mind is jittery with Jeanette’s confession. She stares at her mother, hoping this is nothing more than a hallucination brought on by the drugs and alcohol. Though Carolyn knows it isn’t a hallucination. She’s known all along, just as she knew the boy in the well wasn’t her imagination.
“His family is still wondering what happened to him…” Carolyn tails off again. She’s speechless.
Father Joseph steps forward, the heels of his shoes clinking on the floorboards. “I wasn’t going to mention your mother’s part in all this. That’s why I said it was me alone.”
Carolyn doesn’t look at him. Her eyes are still fixed on her mother’s.
Jeanette is now standing in front of Carolyn. “We never went to the police. We tried taking him to the hospital, but when we got there, he… He was already dead on the back seat… I… well, we both decided there was no point in Father Joseph losing his status…”
Jeanette’s words, for a moment, are lost on Carolyn. She feels her stomach drop.
“… and our respect in town, over an accident. People wouldn’t be able to forgive us,” Jeanette finishes, her voice now broken.
Father Joseph stands to Jeanette’s left, frowning.
Carolyn can’t believe what she’s heard. The woman she trusts more than anyone in the world has been keeping this horrific secret, all to protect a man’s status. She feels sick again, and this time it�
�s not from the cocktail of vodka and sleeping pills mixing in her system.
“But Mum, you’ve broken the law. You both have. Elwyn Roberts… he… he deserves to have a proper burial. His family… they deserve closure,” Carolyn says, fighting back the vomit. Her eyes dart from her mother to Father Joseph.
“He did have a proper burial, Carolyn,” Jeanette says. “Father Joseph took him somewhere and said a prayer for him. I gave him one of my candles. One of the good ones to light in my honour. I couldn’t bring myself to be there.”
Carolyn watches her mother begin to cry. You expect sympathy?
“I know you can’t understand,” Jeanette continues. “I don’t blame you. I just wish—”
“So Father Joseph didn’t tell you, then?” Carolyn interrupts.
“What are you going on about?” Jeanette asks. “Tell me what?”
Father Joseph straightens.
“He didn’t bury him, Mum. He kept him in the freezer in his back room like a joint of meat. For eight years.” Carolyn watches the expression on her mother’s face change. “Then, when his freezer broke down, he dumped him down the well, the well right behind your home, the well where I swore to you that I’d seen a body, and you thought I was going crazy.”
“What? Is that true, Father?” Jeanette asks, turning to face him with confusion on her face.
Father Joseph doesn’t respond. His face is red. He keeps his icy blue eyes fixed on Carolyn’s.
Jeanette steps behind Carolyn and tugs on the knot.
“Jeanette, don’t!” Father Joseph orders. “She’s caused enough trouble around here. People need me in this community, and they need you. If you untie her, that will be both of our lives ruined. It’ll be the end of us,” he adds, stepping closer.
Jeanette looks up to meet his eyes. “I don’t care any more, Father. Don’t you see? Carolyn shouldn’t have to pay for my mistake. She’s been through enough already. It’s time for us to come clean. I’ve struggled with that guilt for far too long, and so have you. All those sleepless nights. It’s time to confess and take responsibility.” Jeanette digs her fingers into the knot.
“Stop what you’re doing!” Father Joseph orders, this time louder and more demanding. Jeanette doesn’t even look up, but Carolyn can see his mounting anger.
He’s gone this far to keep his secret, Carolyn thinks. How much further will he go? “Carolyn’s mixed up in all of this… it’s not fair,” Jeanette says. She continues to fiddle with the rope.
Carolyn keeps her eyes on Father Joseph. Just loosen the rope, then we stand a chance at overpowering him. You, me and Mark Buckles, who is still standing behind the door.
“Well, I’m not ready to confess what I’ve done,” Father Joseph says. “The church needs me, Jeanette.” He steps closer and pulls her away from Carolyn.
“GET OFF ME!” Jeanette shouts, pulling to free her arm from his tight grip.
“You don’t understand. It isn’t just me that you’ll ruin,” Father Joseph begins, sweat forming on his brow. “It’s the whole community. People need me at that church, and I’m not prepared to throw it away all because your daughter couldn’t let things go and keep her nose out of other people’s business.”
Jeanette leaps at Father Joseph and brings her nails down across his face, leaving two long scratches.
Father Joseph shrieks in pain and his face turns a dark shade of purple. He grabs Jeanette by the shoulders and throws her to the side. She trips over her foot and hits the dusty ground with a thud. Her head hits the slab of concrete on the floor and the steel reinforcing bars pierce through her skull.
Carolyn watches helplessly as the horrific scene unfolds in front of her. She stares in shock as her mother’s blood trickles down the sharp steel spikes of the concrete and forms a growing puddle on the floor. She feels as if the whole world has stopped turning, for just a moment. She has completely forgotten about Simon and Ryan, the missing boys, the secret her mother has kept, and Mark Buckles – the only other witness to Jeanette’s murder and Father Joseph’s confession – still hiding behind the door. At this moment, all Carolyn can see and think of is the pool of her mother’s blood.
“I… my God, Carolyn… I… I didn’t mean that. It… it was an accident, you saw that, didn’t you? I never meant for that—” Father Joseph manages before falling silent and staring at the door, as the creak of a floorboard sounds.
Carolyn doesn’t notice. Her eyes are still glued to her dead mother.
“Who’s there?” Father Joseph shouts with fear in his voice. Mark Buckles stays quiet for a moment and then steps out from behind the door, holding his hands up. Father Joseph’s purple face drains of colour. He steps back almost fainting and searches the surrounding floor until he finds a plank of wood. He stoops to pick it up and begins swinging it out in front of him as Mark Buckles steps out further into the open.
“Father… take it easy, ok. Just take it easy,” Mark says, but Father Joseph continues to swing the plank of wood from side to side with a psychotic look across his face. He lifts the plank up high and brings it down. Mark raises his arm and takes the blow, crying out in pain, then lunges at Father Joseph and tackles him to the ground. The plank of wood is thrown across the room and lands on the counter, sending the beer bottles crashing to the ground.
Carolyn can hear the scuffle taking place to the side of her. She hears the blows landing and the groans coming from both men. But she’s unable to take her eyes away from her mother’s corpse. Carolyn’s body slumps back against the concrete, drained of its energy and its will to live. Her mother is dead because of her. If she had just forgotten about what she had seen in the well and accepted the assumption that it was her imagination (even if that wasn’t the right thing, or even the most moral thing to do), Barry wouldn’t have been attacked and Jeanette would still be alive.
Carolyn tells herself that she deserves to be left there, tied to a concrete slab to die from starvation as she watches her mother’s body decompose.
Father Joseph shouts and groans as Mark Buckles gets the upper hand and is now on top of him. Father Joseph’s hand is tapping the surrounding floor, searching for anything he can use as a weapon. He comes across the vodka and shifts his body to the side, carrying the weight of Mark on top of him. He grabs the bottle by the neck and swings it up to Mark’s temple, but the bottle doesn’t shatter. Mark falls off him holding a hand to his head. Father Joseph rolls over to his knees and brings the bottle down again, towards Mark’s face. But Mark manages to move out of the way, and this time the bottle hits the floor, shattering, leaving Father Joseph clutching a shard of glass two inches long. Mark grabs hold of Father Joseph’s wrist, clutching the shard. The two men wrestle for a moment before Mark headbutts Father Joseph. Blood runs from Father Joseph’s nose. Mark, still with a tight grip on Father Joseph’s wrist, brings the shard of glass up to the priest’s throat, digging the glass in deep, before rolling away from him and staggering to his feet.
Father Joseph stays on his knees. He’s making a horrific gagging noise. He holds a hand to the wound, but it’s no use; the glass is in deep with no way of pulling it out. His blood is spurting out, like a pierced hose pipe. Carolyn looks from her mother’s corpse to Father Joseph’s terrified expression, his fingers fighting to grip the glass in his neck. Then he falls on his front, next to Jeanette, and the gurgling noises stop.
***
Ten minutes pass before Carolyn and Mark Buckles speak. He’s spent that time catching his breath and feeling his head for any blood. Carolyn had wanted to ask him if he’ll check for a pulse on her mother, but there was no point in clutching onto this hope. She knows the truth. Jeanette is dead. Carolyn cries silently, closing her eyes, and Mark leaves her alone for a few minutes until she’s ready to say something.
“Are you ok?” he asks, calmly, although they both know the answer. Of course she isn’t ok. She’s just witnessed two people, one of them her mother, die in front of her. She nods anyway without speaking. A
sense of awkwardness about Mark Buckles sits in her stomach, and she isn’t sure if it is because he’s just killed a man, or whether it’s something else, though he doesn’t seem too upset about the fight with Father Joseph.
“Are you ok?” Carolyn asks with a croaky voice. She coughs to clear her throat.
It takes Mark a moment before he answers. He just stands there, watching Carolyn with a strange look in his eye. Why isn’t he shaken up? Why isn’t he in a state of sorrow or guilt or panic about what had just happened?
“So what was his plan with the vodka?” he asks, calmly, as if the last ten minutes hadn’t just happened – as if he hadn’t just killed a man, or witnessed the death of Jeanette.
Carolyn can’t understand why he wants to know now, and why he’s asking questions instead of cutting her free.
“Um… he wanted to get me drunk… then throw me from the top window, make it look as if I’d taken my own life.” Carolyn replies, studying his expression. She’s trying desperately to keep her eyes off her mother’s dead body, but she can’t. Her gaze keeps creeping over at Jeanette’s lifeless eyes and the pool of her mother’s blood around her own boots.
“Not a bad plan,” Mark says.
“Not a bad plan… Wha—” She stops herself. Something is wrong about this situation.
Mark stands in front of her, a small smile beginning at the corners of his mouth.
“Yeah… listen, we need to call the police,” Carolyn says, trying to keep her voice from sounding shaky.
“Yeah, I suppose we should call the police… But we’re not going to do that,” Mark snarls, still smirking.
“Why?” Carolyn asks. She already knows the answer.
“I should have just stayed quiet behind that door. Let him kill you for me. At first I actually thought he was going to. I even had my fingers crossed.” He laughs.
“What?” she asks, not knowing what else to say.
“You heard me. I didn’t want to kill him, a priest of all things. He seemed like a nice man. But, you see, you’ve cost me a lot of money, and it’ll only be a matter of time before they link those payments back to me.”