by Anne Bone
Shona ran out of the room and went to the door and tried the handle, it was well and truly locked. ‘Let’s have a look around, come on.’ They both left the kitchen and went back along the corridor to the other rooms in the house. They felt the door handle of his room and it was locked. Mary showed her room to the girl, and they stood for a moment so that Shona could admire the improved facilities and goods that Mary had. Mary then hurried her along, ‘I don’t think we should hang around long, I don’t know how long he will be gone, sometimes he is away for ages, and other times he is just away for a short time.’
They went to the back of the house, where another room was but that door was locked as well. ‘That’s his photo studio,’ Mary told her, ‘he has a camera and proper lights and everything.’
‘What sorts of photos does he take in there then?’ enquired Shona, bending down to try and peer though the keyhole.
‘Some of me dressed in some of the pretty dresses he gives me. It’s okay, just a bit boring because he takes ages.’
‘I dinna like the sound of that,’ cried Shona, ‘it sounds right dodgy to me.’
‘Honestly, it was okay, he never asked me to do anything other than pose for him. Sometimes I had to stand and other times I sat or lay on the couch in there. I sometimes had to wear things in my hair, and he only ever touches my hair.’ She stopped and looked at the other girl, ‘Does he touch your hair, like… does he brush it and that?’
‘He tried, but I told him to get off me so he hasn’t done it since, but he has touched it. I caught him the other day as I walked past him, he reached out and ran his hand down the back of me head. But come, on let’s go back into the kitchen and have a search around, see if we can find any keys.’
The girls went back and looked in various drawers and cupboards but their search did not reveal any keys that would fit either the outside door or his bedroom door. They sat down at the kitchen table, but thought better of looking to see where he hid the chocolate biscuits he gave them every night for their supper. They were both aware that they needed to keep this meeting secret from him, and if they took a biscuit he might realise, for all they knew, maybe he counted them.
They did get a chance to find out a bit more about each other though. Shona told Mary how she had been going to see her friend Marjorie, who had not been to school, when he had taken her. ‘Marjorie’s me friend you see, she lives in a big house, and dis’na have any brothers or sisters, lucky her. Her mum’s a bit snobby but Marjorie’s nice. Do you have any brothers and sisters?’ she asked.
‘No, it’s just me and me mam,’ Mary told her, ‘we lived in a flat in Aberdeen, and it was really nice.’ Her eyes filled with tears for a moment, but she sniffed and brushed them away.
‘Doesn’t your da live with you as well then?’ Shona asked.
‘Na, I don’t have a dad,’ whispered Mary. She hated it when someone asked about her dad. She never knew what to say as to why she didn’t have a dad.
‘Oh well, not everyone’s da lives in the same house,’ Shona commiserated, taking what she had been told in her stride, ‘at least you didn’t have to share a room. I have to share with Kerry and Josie, and they are such a pain.’
Mary stopped and listened, ‘I think I can hear a car coming, quick, go back in. I think he’s coming back, we mustn’t get caught.’
Shona jumped off the chair and rushed through the double doors of her room, leaving Mary to lock each of the doors behind her, and then she pulled the bookcase until it slid back into its place and heard the latch catch. She very quickly carried the chair back and pushed it under the table, and then rushed back to her room closing the door carefully just as she heard the sound of him in the big room.
Wow, that was close, a minute later and he would have seen me fleeing along the corridor. We must be more careful. I really liked talking to Shona, she’s nice, and says some really funny things. I hope it’s not long before he goes out again. At least I’ve got a friend now, someone like me that I can talk to.
Three days later, Mary was through eating her breakfast when she noticed that he was sorting through stuff in one of the high kitchen cupboards, although he was quite tall even he had to stand on a small stool to reach into it. She watched him carefully as he took out a box and placed it on the worktop where he then proceeded to rummage around in it for a minute, obviously looking for something. As he took items out of the box and discarded them on the worktop, Mary was quick to notice that amongst the items were a set of keys. She wondered what they would fit, and it was the one cupboard that Shona and she hadn’t looked in the other day. Whatever he was looking for he didn’t seem to have found it, and she watched as he piled all the items back into the box and returned them to cupboard.
She continued to eat her breakfast silently surveying him, and realised that he seemed to be planning to go out today. She noticed these things now. He would be sorting out things one of which was that he was making sandwiches, and this usually meant that he was going out for a long day. She didn’t comment that there were twice as many sandwiches than would be normal just for her, but of course she knew differently, some would be for Shona.
After she had finished eating, he turned to her and informed her, ‘Now Heather, once you have finished drinking up your milk, I want you to go and freshen up in the bathroom and then go back to your room. I will bring some food in for you, and you can continue to read the book I gave you, and when you are finished I would like you to write a story about what you have read. Tomorrow we will go over the story in your lesson. Do you understand?’ he peered at her waiting for a response.
‘Yes, of course, Uncle Don. I will easily read my book, but are we not having any lessons today?’ she asked, making sure that she had a serious face on and really wanted the lesson, so that she wouldn’t raise any suspicions.
‘Not today, my dear,’ he replied, ‘but you will now go and do as I say, and remember you must stay quiet in your room at all time.’ He smiled that confident smile that Mary had come to be apprehensive of; it was kind of a sickly and non-genuine one.
She did as she was bid, washing her face, cleaning her teeth and then used the toilet. She returned to her room and sat down on the stool by the small table. She looked up at the sky to see how it held dark clouds, and she guessed that they were threatening a storm. She picked up the book and started to read it, waiting for him to come into the room which he did a couple of minutes later. He was carrying a small plate with two cheese sandwiches on it and beside it were two chocolate biscuits. He placed them on the table with a glass of juice then stood over her and reminded her, ‘Now you know the rules, be a good girl.’
She nodded and then quietly waited.
I keep very still and listen. I heard the key turn, and I thought, oh no, he has remembered to lock it; I don’t want to try it yet. So I go and sit on my bed to listen. I can hear the bookcase being slid back as he moves into my old room. He must be putting the sandwiches in Shona’s room. He cannot realise that I can hear him, and maybe he just thinks I don’t know that my old room is being used for another girl that he has brought here.
I wait a while longer, hearing the bookcase close again. Then I hear him go into his room. He is not long in the room before I hear him again, he locks the door, I can hear that. I can’t risk trying the door until I can hear him drive off, until I can no longer hear the car, and still I wait, just in case he forgets something and comes back.
Once I am sure he has gone, I creep over and turn the handle. The door opens, hurrah! He can’t have locked it after all. I make my way out of my room, and pull back the blinds to check there is no sign of the car on the track, and then I get the chair, climb up and release the latch. The bookcase slides open and I am opening the doors, and there she is Shona, my friend.
‘There you are,’ she says, she is waiting for me and rushes towards me to hug me. ‘It’s been ages since we last met. I thought he was never going to go out again. Did he forget to lock your door again?’
‘Aye, he did, thank goodness. I thought I had heard him lock it, but he obviously didn’t. I think that he just believes that I will stay in my room, or perhaps there is something wrong with the lock. But whatever, so here were are again.’ Mary was excited, ‘And guess what? When he leaves sandwiches in the room for us that usually means he will be gone for longer. But still we need to watch.’
The girls went through the house, checking the doors again, and apart from the one to her room, they were all locked. They returned to the kitchen and both pulled the blinds apart to look outside, it looked like it was beginning to snow. ‘Wow, if it snows, how magic would it be to go outside and play,’ said Shona.
‘He will not let us do that though, will he? He told me once when I asked why I couldn’t go out that there was a real danger out there, and that I had to stay in to be safe. That me mam had requested that he kept me inside at all times. Now, after speaking to you, I think he has been telling me a host of lies, all of it lies.’ The anger in her voice alerted Shona, who went over and hugged her new friend.
‘Right you are, so come on we have to try and find a way out of here. There must be a way to get out. What about if we broke a window and then ran off to find someone?’ she pondered.
‘I am not sure and I think that we wouldn’t manage to get through the window anyway, the panes are too small. Plus we don’t know where we are and what about if he comes back and finds us.’ Then she remembered the bunch of keys. ‘This morning when I was eating my breakfast, he got a box down from the top cupboard,’ she pointed to the high cupboard above the cupboard where the mugs were kept. ‘We could see whether there was one that fitted the door, and then we could get out and have a mooch around.’
‘Aye, let’s do that.’ Shona was off moving the chair over to the worktop and she stood on it, but she couldn’t reach. She looked around her and then climbed up on top of the worktop. This allowed her to reach up on her tiptoes to open the cupboard and she was just able to peer inside it. She felt around and pulled out a small wooden box. Is this the one?’ she asked.
‘Yes, that’s it.’ She handed it down to Mary, who took it from her and carried it to the table, where she opened it and found what she was looking for, a bunch of keys. Shona got down from the chair and grabbed the keys from her, ‘Come on let’s try these in the door.’ They did so, and a brass sturdy key fitted and with some force they managed to turn it. They both shouted out with glee, but when they tried to open the door they realised it wouldn’t shift. ‘He must have another lock on the outside,’ said Shona, her voice quavering with disappointment.
They turned the key back again so that the door was locked. Mary took the keys from her friend and looking at them she said, ‘I wonder if there’s one to his bedroom, you never know, maybe his bedroom window won’t be locked.’
They ran through the corridor until they were standing outside his room. They tried two keys before the third turned. They both drew breaths as they turned the handle and the door was opened to reveal a large room, with a big bed in the middle. There were a couple of arm chairs as well as the two alcoves either side of the fireplace which had built-in floor to ceiling cupboards. On the other side of the room in front of the window sat a dressing table with a large mirror. They ran to the window which was also covered by a blind which they pulled back, but the window was small like the others, and locked. They knew the keys that they had on the bunch wouldn’t fit any for this window, they were all too big.
It was then that Shona, screeched, ‘Oh gee whiz,’ she said, ‘look!’ Mary turned to look at what she was pointing at, and her eyes widened as there, taking up the whole of the wall on the opposite side of the room, were photos, hundreds of photos and most of them were of her. They went over to the wall and stood looking at the many poses, and then Shona noticed that there were also some of her, sleeping. ‘The rotten bastard,’ she said, ‘he’s been taking photos of me when I was asleep, that’s not on.’
Mary was mesmerised as she looked at them. There were ones of her dressed in the many different pretty dresses, some were of her lying on the couch in the studio, others were of her standing, and some of when he had asked her to dance for him. There were also some of her sleeping and, strangely, there were ones just of the back of her head, where her long fair hair was swept down her back. ‘What on earth does he want with all these photos on his wall?’ She voiced the question, knowing that Shona would hardly likely know the answer.
They then turned to look at the table beside his bed, and there was a framed photograph. Mary picked it up to look at it. It was of a young girl, she was smiling at the camera and her face was framed with long blonde hair. ‘I wonder who this is.’
It was then that Shona spotted something and gave a whoop. ‘Look! He’s got a telephone,’ she said as she rushed over to the other side of the bed, and there on a small table, sat a black telephone.
‘Oh! I had forgotten that I had heard that ring, it hardly ever rings, but who shall we call? I wonder if I can remember our telephone number in Aberdeen, it’s been a long time, but I think it is 43231, do you think I should try it?’ Shona nodded, and urged her to try.
She picked up the phone and dialled the numbers on the old Bakelite phone, but as she did all she could hear was a long droning tone. ‘Perhaps it’s the wrong number,’ she said. ‘Who else can we phone, has your mum got a phone in your house?’
Shona shook her head, ‘Na, we dinna have a phone in our house, and I canna remember my auntie’s number.’
The girls pondered for a moment, until Mary said, ‘Shall we call the police?’
‘Do you know their number?’ queried Shona.
‘Aye, its 999,’ said Mary. She carefully dialled the treble nine telephone number and almost immediately it was answered by a lady who asked, ‘Which emergency service do you require?’
Mary replied, ‘We need the police to help us, we’re locked in you see.’
‘Wait one moment, came the officious voice, I will connect you.’
A second later a strong male voice was at the end of the receiver, ‘Police, how can I help you?’
‘My friend and I are locked in, the man has gone out and we want to go home please,’ Mary said in as much of a grown up voice as she could muster.
‘Can you tell me your name?’ she heard the man say. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘my name is Mary and my friend’s name is Shona.’
‘Can you tell me where you are?’ he asked holding his breath, recognising that these were the names of two children who had gone missing in the area. He tried to keep calm, while signalling to his supervisor to pick up the listening piece that sat beside his phone.
‘We don’t know,’ said Mary, ‘we are in a house that is on a hill. There is a track that comes up to the house, but we don’t know where it comes from.’
‘Right,’ came the reply, ‘can you tell me the name of this man, who has locked you in,’ he asked, poised waiting for the reply.
‘It’s Uncle Don,’ she said.
‘So, is that the only name you know? Uncle Don,’ he clarified. Now can you tell me what the telephone number is that you are calling from?’
‘I don’t know, she said.’ She looked at the phone and said over the mouth bit to Shona, ‘He wants to know the telephone number.’ They both looked at the phone and then Shona pointed to a number printed in the middle of the dial. She read it out and Mary repeated it, ‘It says 5241, that’s what it says.’
‘Okay,’ he answered, ‘we got that now. Can you tell us anything else at all that will help us find you? Where is this Uncle Don now?’
‘He’s gone out, but we have to watch because he doesn’t know that I have found out about Shona, and he might be back any minute so we might have to go really quickly,’ she tells the officer.
‘So he has a car, does he? Can you tell me anything about the car? What colour or what type is it, do you know?’
‘It’s blue, and it’s not really a car, it’s more of a f
ront of a car but it has a funny sort of back to it… like a tent.’ She tried hard to describe his Land Rover, but it was hard as she had only caught site of it as it had trundled down the track the other day. She realised that it was some time since he had gone. She asked Shona to take a peep out of the window to see if there were any houses that they could tell the police about.
Shona went to the window and then shouted, ‘I think I can see him coming back up the track.’
Mary shouted down the phone, ‘He’s coming back, we got to go.’ She slammed down the receiver and both ran out of the room, locking the door behind them. Mary’s hand was shaking. ‘Come on, quick, get back into your room, and we haven’t time to put the keys back.’ Shona ran back to the room, while Mary locked the doors behind her. She pulled the bookcase back into its place, and then just as she was going to run back to her own room she noticed the box on the table. She pulled the chair across and grabbed the box and ran back to her room shutting the door behind her, just as she heard the kitchen door open.
I can hardly breathe, my hands are shaking and I am holding the keys and the box. I must hide them quickly. I open the box and stuff the keys into it, and then I look around to see where the best place to hide it would be. Under my bed, that’s where I will put it. I get down on my knees and push the box as far as I can so that it is hidden. I just hope he doesn’t go to look for whatever he was searching for this morning.
I stand up and try and get my heart to slow down. That was close. If Shona hadn’t looked out of the window when she did, he would have found us, and then what would have happened to us. I wonder what the police will do now. Will they look for us? But then they don’t know where we are. I will lie down on my bed, pretend I am sleeping.
As she lay on her bed and closed her eyes he came to the door. He went to unlock it and realised that for some reason it wasn’t locked. He fiddled a bit with the lock and realised that while he thought it was locked, there seemed to be a bit of a problem with the key and it hadn’t turned properly. I must fix that he thought. I know I have forgotten to lock it a couple of times, but not when I am away doing the week’s shopping. He had got back much earlier than planned today as he had decided that because Christmas less than a week away, the town shops would be too busy. So he had chanced it, and gone to the small supermarket in the next village. There wasn’t a huge amount of choice, but enough to get them through. To add to it, it had started to snow heavily so he didn’t want to get caught out, plus he couldn’t face the swell of mad shoppers, who were intent on filling up their cupboards as though they were about to face a siege.