The Shadow Man

by Helen Fields

  ‘He already knows what Fergus is capable of. I think we need to focus on keeping each other safe. There are three of us now, and that’ll make it much harder …’

  ‘A kid, a woman who’s never been in a fight in her life, and a man who can’t walk. That’s just fucking great,’ Meggy said.

  ‘Meggy!’ Elspeth cried, stung by the honesty.

  ‘She’s right,’ Xavier said. ‘He had a knife on him when he took me. If he feels threatened, we won’t be able to defend ourselves against him.’

  ‘We’ll barricade the door. You said yourself the police will be looking for you now. It’s just a matter of time until they track him down. All we have to do is wait it out.’ Elspeth stood up, wringing her hands in spite of the attempted injection of conviction in her voice.

  ‘He controls this whole place, right? He can turn off the heating, the electricity, even the water. We’ll have no food. Nothing. We’ll all be dead within a week, and that’s if he doesn’t decide to smoke us out or take the door off its hinges and finish us even faster,’ Xavier said. ‘We need to create an escape route, not block them up.’

  ‘He’s going to kill us all anyway,’ Meggy said. ‘There are bones under the floor. And …’ she pressed a hand against her stomach, ‘… and a body. I mean, there’s not much, you know, left on it, but it’s not just bones.’

  ‘A body?’ Xavier looked at Elspeth.

  ‘Tell him about the clothes,’ Meggy persisted.

  Elspeth sighed. ‘The body – the woman – is wearing the same dress he left for me when he brought me here. This pink thing.’ She tugged at what she was wearing, her mouth a grimace of distaste that had nothing to do with the cut of the cloth. ‘We don’t know whose bones they are. They might not be anything to do with him. They could even just be members of his family who he didn’t want cremated …’ Elspeth said.

  ‘Who keeps members of their family turning to dust under their floorboards, dressed in these same clothes as people they kidnapped?’ Meggy shouted. ‘Why do you say such stupid things? I don’t want to pretend any more. He cut off your finger, and he’s going to kill us. Say it!’

  ‘He cut off your finger? Jesus …’ Xavier said faintly.

  ‘Please, stop,’ Elspeth said.

  ‘No. I won’t stop. Say it, Elspeth. He’s going to kill us, and you need to say it!’

  ‘I don’t need to say it!’ She waved the bandaged stump of her finger in the air. ‘This hurts like hell. I can barely think about anything else. Except this …’ she pointed at the bloodied, crusted bandage with her other hand, ‘… is the least of our problems right now. How dare you think I need reminding of just how much shit we’re in!’

  Elspeth pushed past her and stormed into her bedroom, slamming the door as she went. Meggy stared at Xavier, who was studying the illustrations of windows and the bookcase on the walls.

  ‘Sometimes he forgets us for a day,’ Meggy said. ‘He doesn’t turn on the lights or bring food. Then he comes and it’s like he didn’t even realise the time had gone. He asks weird questions. One time he kept asking if we could see him. I reckon he had other people up here and forgot them. I bet they died waiting for him to bring food, so he shoved their bodies under the floorboards and just got himself new people instead.’

  ‘How did he cut Elspeth’s finger off, Meggy?’

  She shook her head. ‘I don’t want to talk about it, but he keeps a knife in his pocket. He’ll use it if we make him angry.’

  ‘I won’t let anything bad happen to you,’ Xavier said. ‘But I need you to be kinder to Elspeth. She’s been here weeks, and it must feel like a year.’

  Meggy reddened and looked at the closed bedroom door, just visible across the corridor.

  ‘I hate it when she plays along with him,’ she muttered. ‘Calling me his daughter, and agreeing that she’s his wife. He made her marry him. Got her a dress and everything. She even has to wear a ring he got her.’

  Xavier breathed out heavily and shook his head. ‘But when you got here, she was here to help you figure out what was going on. If the two of you hadn’t been here when I arrived, then I’d be going crazy right now. She was alone when he brought her here. No one to talk to. Just Fergus and some batshit fake wedding. Can you imagine how she must have felt?’

  Meggy took a seat next to Xavier.

  ‘I think … I think he did other bad things to her,’ she said quietly.

  Xavier reached out and put one hand over the top of Meggy’s. ‘There are three of us now. Perhaps we can stop him from doing that to her again if we all work together.’

  ‘Your cheekbone’s swelling up,’ Meggy said. ‘You should put the cloth on it.’ She didn’t pull her hand away from beneath his.

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ Xavier said. ‘How did you find the body under the floorboards?’

  ‘We were trying to escape,’ Elspeth said, reappearing.

  Meggy ran to her and threw her arms around her. ‘I’m sorry I was a bitch. My step-mum’s a bitch. I told myself I’d never be like her, and I was, and I know you’re only trying to protect me, but I got so cross and I—’

  ‘Shh,’ Elspeth soothed, stroking her hair and kissing the top of her head. ‘It’s okay. You didn’t upset me. I was cross with myself. Don’t cry, Meggy.’ She continued to hold her.

  ‘Look, if he’s taken that many people, that many victims, then the police are bound to be on to him. He must have slipped up by now. There’ll be a trail of some sort. No one can kill that often and get away with it.’

  ‘They’re all at different stages of …’ Elspeth shrugged. ‘It looks to me as if they were taken at different times. Some of the bones are dusty and literally snapping in half, then there’s the body that can’t be all that old. What if he’s taken these people over years? Various ages, genders, from different places.’

  ‘So there’s no pattern. Nothing to link the disappearances.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Elspeth sighed.

  ‘Can you show me everything you found?’ Xavier asked.

  Elspeth nodded. ‘All the bones we’ve found are scattered under the floorboards in here. We haven’t checked any of the other rooms. This was the only place where we managed to take the carpet up. After that we were too scared of him coming back and figuring out what we’d done, so we put the boards back and replaced the carpet. There’s some damage. One of the floorboards is badly broken, so we shifted the sofa over the top of it.’

  ‘You’ve been really brave,’ Xavier said. ‘Do you believe he’s gone for the night?’

  Meggy looked up at Elspeth, who thought about it then nodded.

  ‘How long would it take for you to open up the floor again?’ he asked.

  ‘Not long. The carpet’s already loose. We just need to move the furniture again. Half an hour, no more, but it won’t help us. They’re definitely human. We could tell by the skulls. There’s no way of telling how old they are though.’

  ‘It’s not the bones I want to see,’ he said. ‘You nearly got through to the floor below. I understand why you stopped, but it’s the closest you’ve come to finding a way out. It seems like a waste to give up on it now.’

  ‘He owns the whole house,’ Elspeth said. ‘To start with, I was on the ground floor then he moved me up here. I saw the kitchen, other bedrooms below. If we start banging around again, he’ll hear us, and then whatever he did to the poor people who’re already buried in here …’ She let the sentence hang.

  ‘Whatever he did to them, he could do to us anyway, at any time. He’s not rational. You can’t reason with him. What I saw him do tonight …’ He looked at Meggy and broke off. ‘And your finger. How is it?’

  ‘Infected, I think. I did my best cleaning it with hot water, but it’s oozing and starting to itch.’

  ‘We need to get you to a doctor,’ he said. ‘You’re right that his bedroom might be below, but if we don’t investigate, we’ll never know if we missed an opportunity to get out.’

  Elspeth sat in the armch
air and pulled Meggy onto her lap.

  ‘It’s too quiet now. Wherever he is in the house, he’ll hear. If we’re going to do this, it needs to be in the daytime when we’ve some hope of traffic noises or pedestrians or even just birds singing.’

  ‘All right,’ Xavier said. ‘We’ll get some sleep. He took my mobile but not my watch. It’s midnight now. I say we start at eight a.m. I’m not sure exactly where we are, but I was in his car, and we didn’t drive for more than twenty minutes. We can’t be far outside the city, so if there’s going to be traffic or any other noise, that’s our best bet.’

  ‘Fine,’ Elspeth said.

  Meggy kissed her cheek and laid a tired head on Elspeth’s shoulder.

  ‘Maybe, by some miracle, we’ll have been found by then anyway.’ Elspeth attempted a smile.

  Xavier couldn’t find the words to respond.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Fergus stood in the supermarket and stared at the front-page spread of the newspapers. Almost all of them featured a series of photographs. Angela, Elspeth, Meggy, Xavier, and the other man he’d dispatched who was getting in his way. The name was irrelevant.

  All of them together, with one final image of a woman. He looked closer. She was about his age. Pretty. Wearing a T-shirt, her hair long and loose over her shoulders. No jewellery. No makeup. Looking directly into the camera.

  So there had been a press conference. It didn’t matter. He could be tracked but neither stopped nor contained. He was free from the burden of the breakable mortal body. Pain was meaningless, and sooner or later his cells would turn to no more than biological soup and seep back into the earth. Fergus was unafraid.

  He walked on towards the fruit section, intending to buy apples and oranges for his family. Their bodies needed sustaining even if his did not. Selecting decent fruit from the largely bruised pile, he glanced back at aisle number 4. He couldn’t see the headlines, but he could still picture the woman’s face, cheekbones prominent in the black-and-white picture, her eyes large and sad. He wanted to go back and look again.

  That was what they wanted, of course. Instead, he wandered off to find rice and noodles. Clean carbohydrates that were long-life and simple to cook. Placing several packs in his basket, he wondered what her name was. Why not just circulate his description if they were trying to catch him? The woman had been saying something to the camera when her photo was taken. Fergus wanted to know what that was. He made it as far from the newspapers as the freezer section before turning back. Dropping his half-full basket, he grabbed a copy of The Scotsman and walked out into the car park.

  In a well-sheltered parking spot between a giant clothes recycling bin and a billboard advertising the latest must-have toy, Fergus pulled his mobile from the glovebox. He rarely touched it. It wasn’t as if he had anyone to call, but it was handy to keep charged for emergencies. Now, he typed in the words ‘Constance Woolwine’ and ‘Edinburgh’, keeping his eyes on her face in the paper as he waited for the results of his search.

  The video had been uploaded the night before by a local news outlet. Fergus leaned the driver’s seat back and got comfortable, volume on max, and pressed Play.

  She was sitting on a stool, one foot resting on the floor, the other leg bent to allow her heel to rest on the edge of a crossbar between the stool legs. Black jeans hugged limbs made for running, a copper-buckled leather belt cinched her waist, and her pale skin glowed in the harsh lights required for the cameras. She kept her hands folded loosely in her lap as she looked into camera and began to speak.

  ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘My name’s Constance Woolwine. Connie to my family.’ She gave a small smile.

  Fergus pulled the screen a little closer. She reminded him of someone.

  ‘I’m here because I want to get in touch with someone.’ Connie lifted her chin a little higher, shifted on the stool and leaned into the nearest lens. ‘I don’t know your name but I know a little bit about you. I’d like to know more, though. I think there are things we have in common.’

  ‘I doubt that,’ Fergus told her.

  ‘I know what happened to Angela was a mistake. I think that must have affected you very badly. I believe she was very special to you.’

  Air snagged in Fergus’ throat and he was back in Angela’s bedroom, lying on top of her, smelling her, touching her soft skin. It was a trick. He knew that. The American woman on his screen was working for the police. He was dead, not stupid.

  ‘I also think you’re keeping Elspeth safe. I’m certain you haven’t hurt her. She’s such a precious person to her family, and I believe the reason you took her is because she’s precious to you, too.’

  Fergus gave a small nod. He hadn’t done anything bad to Elspeth. The police knew he wasn’t some sick fuck randomly killing women. Not that it mattered what anyone thought of him now, but it was still good to hear. He liked Connie’s voice, her accent. Her vowels were soft, and her voice had a husky edge that made him think of country-and-western singers.

  ‘Is Meggy there with you, too? She’s a great kid. Everyone says so. Maybe she wasn’t fully appreciated by her own family.’ Connie paused and shrugged. ‘Not everyone is really cut out for parenting. But if Meggy’s with you, and if she’s with Elspeth, then I bet she’s being really loved.’

  ‘Of course she is,’ Fergus said.

  ‘Elspeth had two children before,’ Connie said. ‘She was a loving wife and an amazing mother. Dedicated, kind, and loyal. I’m sure you’re finding the same. She and Meggy must be wonderful company.’

  ‘Being a father is hard,’ Fergus replied. ‘You’re right about Elspeth, though. She’s my angel.’

  ‘I guess I’m a bit worried about Xavier,’ Connie continued. ‘I don’t think that went according to plan. Not your fault. Are you tired? I get tired. Having people to care for is tiring, isn’t it?’ She put one elbow to her knee, cupping her chin with the palm of her hand.

  Fergus leaned in towards the screen.

  ‘The world takes its toll on us. Certainly it does me. So, Xavier’s okay, right? I don’t often talk about this, but I have a problem with my vision. Not my eyes, they’re okay. It’s the way my brain translates the signals from my eyes and turns them into pictures inside my head.’

  Fergus held the mobile with both hands and brought it close to his face. His breath frosted the glass, and he wiped it with his sleeve.

  ‘I should have said. Xavier has a muscle-wasting condition that requires regular medication. Because I know you care about the girls, I think you care about him, too, so I just wanted to let you know that he might need some extra help.’

  Fergus thought about that. He wasn’t sure how long he’d need Xavier. There was only one step left in creating his ideal life, but that might take a few days more. It really depended how vital the medication was. It seemed unlikely that anything would happen if someone missed a few days of tablets, but then he didn’t want to have to replace Xavier as he had Angela.

  ‘Sorry, I got distracted,’ Connie was saying. ‘About my eyesight. I’m an achromat, which means I only see in black and white. It’s a strange thing, because while I exist in the same world as everyone else, it looks very different from my perspective, and I feel …’ she gave a shrug, ‘I guess I feel cut off from everyone else a lot of the time. As if they’re all sharing some great secret I’m not allowed to know.’ Connie gave a vague smile. ‘I don’t think I’m explaining myself very well. I suppose a lot of the time I just feel invisible.’

  Fergus held his breath. He touched her face through his screen with his fingertips.

  ‘I wonder if you do, too. Sometimes people like us see the beauty in the world but it seems like we can’t really connect with it. I’m not here to judge you, and I’m not a police officer, by the way, in spite of how this looks. I’m a psychologist – although that’s a fancy title for someone who tries to figure out how other people think and feel. I’m reaching out to you, to say I get it. Not all of it – I haven’t walked a mile in your s
hoes.’

  ‘No one has,’ Fergus whispered.

  ‘Is that the right phrase?’ Connie continued. ‘Anyway, I hope that makes sense. I was hoping you’d let me know that Elspeth and Meggy are okay, and so that I can give you the information you need about how to get medication for Xavier. I can arrange it all and just leave it somewhere. But also so you know someone can see you. You’re not invisible, even if it feels like it. There’ll be a number on the screen when I’m finished. You’ll be put through to me. I won’t ask your name, number, where you are. Nothing.’

  Seeing the world in black and white. He paused the video stream and stared out of the window. The tarmac was grey, but even that was marked with yellow lines, and it sparkled with glass broken over the years, sending thousands of minute arcs of coloured light upwards. The recycling bins were green but mottled from weather and scratches, giving them a more interesting worn look that revealed layers of older paint in different colours. In comparison, the billboard above him was a riot of tones, each designed to grab a child’s attention and subject the parents to demands to be bought whatever crap was being advertised. How flat her world must be, Fergus thought. Like his. A black veil between each of them and everyone else. He touched the screen and Connie came back to life.

  ‘Or I’ll meet you. Name the place. I’ll guarantee to be alone. I know that seems unlikely and you’ll be thinking it’s a trap, but I wouldn’t do that. I’m staying at The Balmoral hotel.’

  There was an audible gasp from the background. He stopped the video, rewound a couple of seconds and played it again. The gaspers were out of sight, but the sound was loud, a mixture of men’s and women’s voices. She wasn’t supposed to have told him where she was staying. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face. There was no script, and if there was, she’d just gone off it spectacularly. He wished he could have been there. Connie Woolwine played by her own rules. Like him. Conventions didn’t apply to some people. Certainly not to either of them. He hit Play.