by Lisa Stone
As Emily stepped onto the pavement, she automatically glanced back at her house. It looked welcoming even on a dismal night, with all their lights on. The Burmans only ever seemed to have the light on in the room they were in and even then it was gloomy because of the opaque film covering the window. She continued down their path and the light from the street lamp disappeared behind the trees. Emily pressed the bell on the entry system. She would remind Alisha to delete her visit from the CCTV footage before Amit returned, although she doubted she’d forget.
Emily had expected Alisha to be waiting at the door as she usually was when she and Robbie visited, even more so now as she knew Emily had left Robbie unattended. She thought she’d be ready to take the milk and say a quick thank you. Perhaps Eva had needed something at the last minute, for Alisha always answered her calls immediately as a priority. But as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she now saw the door had been left very slightly ajar. Alisha had done that once before when she knew she and Robbie were on their way and Eva had needed something.
Pushing open the door, Emily stepped into the hall. ‘Alisha, it’s me!’ she called. The house was quiet. Alisha must be upstairs with Eva, but then her small voice came from the kitchen.
‘I’m in here.’
Odd that she hadn’t come out, Emily thought and opened the door to the kitchen. The light was no brighter in here, only a small glow from underneath the wall cabinets. Alisha was standing on the far side of the kitchen, leaning against the work surface and facing her.
‘Hi,’ Emily said. But something wasn’t right. There was a haunted look about her and fear in her eyes. She seemed to be thinner and her shoulders were stooped. ‘Are you all right?’ Emily asked concerned, going over to her. ‘Are you ill?’
She didn’t make it across the kitchen. She was aware of a small movement behind and then someone grabbed her. At the same time she felt a sharp pain as a needle plunged into her arm. She cried out, tried to fight him off, the carton of milk thrown to the floor. But the room was already tilting, swimming out of focus, then she was falling, down, down, a metallic taste in her mouth. A rushing noise filled her ears and the last sound she heard before she lost consciousness was Alisha screaming.
Robbie, Robbie in his cot. He was alone. She needed to get to him fast but couldn’t see him in the dark. She’d left him alone! Panic set in. She needed to find him. She should never have left him. What had she been thinking? This was a nightmare surely? She would never have left him. Where was he? She had to get to him.
Her eyes flickered but wouldn’t open. Find Robbie, find him now, was her overriding thought. She tried to walk but nothing happened; it was like wading through mud. Then her eyes slowly opened and stayed open. It wasn’t a nightmare. This was real. She was on her side on a cold hard floor and unable to move. She could make out a small light under some cabinets. Kitchen cabinets. She was in a kitchen, a familiar kitchen, but it wasn’t hers. It was Alisha’s.
Robbie! She screamed, but no sound came out. Her lips were stuck together. As she looked down at her body, she saw her wrists and ankles were bound together with tape. What had happened to her?
She struggled for all she was worth, managed to flip herself over onto her back. She stared in horror as Amit Burman came towards her, smiling venomously.
‘So you’re awake,’ he said. ‘Exactly ten minutes. The dose was perfect, but then that’s my job, isn’t it?’
Her eyes widened in terror. She pulled against the tape, tried to speak and free herself, but it was impossible. What was she doing here? What did he want with her? Robbie was alone. She needed to get to him.
‘It’s no use thrashing around and squealing,’ he said. ‘When you have calmed down, I will explain why you’re here. Then I will untie your hands so you can write a letter.’
She shook her head, struggled even harder and tried to cry out. He folded his arms loosely across his chest and waited, as though he had all the time in the world.
She pulled against the ties, tried to kick him, but he stepped out of the way and the tape held her legs fast.
He unfolded his arms. ‘Suit yourself,’ he said. ‘I’ll come back in an hour or so when you’ve calmed down. There’s no hurry.’
She tried to shout out for him to stop, frantically shook her head, her eyes pleading with him to stay. She needed him to untie her so she could go to Robbie.
He paused and turned. ‘So you are ready to cooperate?’ Emily nodded furiously. ‘Excellent. I knew you’d see sense in the end. But all that fuss. I thought you modern women were made of stronger stuff.’ He grinned fiendishly.
Grabbing her roughly by the arm, he pulled her into a sitting position, dragged over a dining chair and sat in front of her.
‘I’m going to tell you a story,’ he said, his green eye gleaming. ‘It may take a while, so you need to be patient, but at the end you will know why you are here. While I’m talking you will keep very still and quiet so I don’t lose my concentration. I don’t like a lot of noise or movement. Do you understand?’
She stared at him in terror.
‘Do you understand?’ he demanded, raising his hand and making her flinch.
She nodded.
‘Good. That’s better. If I ask you a question, I expect an answer. Do you understand?’
She nodded again.
‘OK. I shall begin. In a village many miles from here, there lived a husband and wife who were very poor. They only had one son and they invested everything in him. All their money, hopes and ambitions. He would do well, make them proud and bring them prosperity. They hadn’t been to school themselves and were illiterate and uneducated, but they made sure their son wanted for nothing and went to school. They planned from when he was a child that he would go to university and they told him this most days. They forced him to study every evening after school while his friends played outside. At weekends, he had to help his father sell fruit and vegetables from the roadside. It was their livelihood and Amit resented having to do this as much as he resented being made to study.
‘If he complained, his parents beat him and said he was ungrateful. They had made their minds up that he was going to be a doctor, the best, a top surgeon or consultant, who would make them proud. However, Amit had no interest in medicine, but he couldn’t object. Sons and daughters did what their parents told them; there was no room for argument. With regular beatings and being forced to study, he just about got the exams he needed to go to university, and a wealthy uncle paid for him to study in England. His parents were proud, but indebted to the uncle.’ Amit took a breath and licked his lips.
Emily watched him carefully. Once he’d told his story surely he would let her go?
‘Even at medical school, Amit had no desire to become a doctor and didn’t do well. But there was no way he could leave; he was indebted to his uncle as much as his parents were, and they would all have to answer to him – a very influential man – if he failed. Amit only scraped passes in the exams and his internship was no better. His tutor wrote in his report that he showed little interest in hands-on medicine and making people better and that if he wanted to pursue a career in medicine then he should consider pharmaceuticals, or become an anaesthetist. His parents were bitterly disappointed in their son.
‘“An anaesthetist! Putting people to sleep!” his father scoffed. “What sort of job is that? You have wasted your uncle’s money.” They didn’t tell the people in the village, but his uncle had to know. After much discussion between the families, it was decided that Amit would remain in England and marry one of his uncle’s daughters – Alisha.’
Amit paused and licked his lips again. Emily kept very still, hardly daring to breathe.
‘Unfortunately this new wife was a modern woman, with ideas of her own and a job. To begin with, she wouldn’t do as she was told, which made Amit very angry. He had to teach her. She soon learnt. When she was pregnant, he insisted she gave up her job to take care of the house and him. They had a baby boy and Ami
t’s parents were delighted. He was partly forgiven for being a failure as a doctor. They announced it to their village and, for the first time, Amit seemed to have done something right.’ He paused, his gaze drifting away. A small smile flickered across his lips but quickly vanished.
‘The boy fell ill and tests showed he had a rare genetic condition, inherited from his mother. It was incurable and he would gradually deteriorate until he died. Amit’s parents were angry that the uncle had not told them, but they couldn’t do anything as they were still indebted to him for sending Amit to medical school. Neither did they tell anyone in the village as it would bring shame on them. Some still thought that disabilities were the work of the devil, some still do. Alisha fell pregnant again and hopes were raised that it would be a healthy boy, but when it was born it was a girl and it was obvious she had the faulty gene too. It had begun its work in the womb, causing gross abnormalities.’ He grimaced, clearly repulsed, and Emily hated him even more.
‘Amit’s parents said he should get rid of his wife so he could marry again and have healthy children. If she died, their debt to the uncle would be wiped out. They didn’t understand that it wasn’t that easy to kill someone in this country. But then Amit came up with an ingenious plan. He notified the authorities that he was taking his wife and children to live abroad and bought a house in another area where no one knew them or that they had a deformed child. He made the house very secure so people couldn’t see in, installed CCTV and told his wife not to talk to anyone or the child would be taken away by the social services. He gave them the tablets they needed so no one else was involved.
‘By chance, he read an article about a teenage boy who was going to die but was having his body preserved so he could be brought back to life later when a cure had been found. This gave Amit an idea and he started researching cryonics and visited ELECT, an organization that preserves people after death. He planned to have himself and Alisha frozen, and then once a cure was found they would be brought back to life, and finally his parents would be proud of him for this ground-breaking achievement. But Alisha didn’t want to be preserved and ELECT insisted on seeing the person to gain their signature. Amit was very disappointed, but he didn’t give up. He was used to disappointment. He struck upon an even better idea that would allow his plan to go ahead and make an even bigger name for himself. He, Amit, would carry out the work ELECT would not!
‘Suddenly, for the first time in his life, he had a real interest in medicine and began researching and experimenting.’ Amit laughed ghoulishly. ‘Night after night, all weekend, he worked in his very own laboratory adapted from an outbuilding at the bottom of his garden, but you know that. I won’t bore you with the technical details, but it took a while for him to perfect the process. Thankfully, cats and dogs are plentiful.
‘Oh yes, and before I forget, thank you for donating Tibs. You will understand why I couldn’t tell you where she’d gone, but console yourself the cat’s suffering was to advance medical science, just as yours will be.’ He paused. ‘In a minute, when you have calmed down again, I will explain your role and then remove the tape from your wrists so you can write a letter to Ben telling him why you have left him for good.’
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Emily fought against the tape binding her arms and legs and tried to cry out, but it was hopeless. The tape stuck fast. Amit was insane. All her suspicions about him were correct. He was a cruel, evil bastard who beat his wife and murdered defenceless animals for the sake of some hideous experiment. And now he was going to experiment on her. Robbie was in his cot alone at home and she was tied up and at the mercy of this madman.
Where was Alisha? Why hadn’t she come to her rescue? She had been here at the start. She’d seen her. With a stab of horror, Emily realized Alisha must be working with him. She had lured Emily here on the pretence of needing milk for Eva. She must have been lying all along. What were the two of them planning to do with her? Amit had said that, like the animals, he would experiment on her, but how?
She thrashed around trying to free herself, as he watched coldly from a short distance away.
Try to calm down, she told herself. This isn’t going to help. Calm down as he’s told you to, and when he unties your hands look for an opportunity to overpower him and escape.
He began to walk away.
‘No!’ she cried, but only a groan escaped her lips from behind the tape. ‘No. Wait.’
He stopped, slowly turned, looked at her, detached and calculating. ‘Yes? Did you want something?’
She wanted to lash out and strike him dead, but she told herself to stay calm, and nodded.
‘Yes? What is it you want?’ he asked, feigning ignorance.
She raised her bound hands, offering them up to him.
‘You want me to release you?’
She nodded.
‘But that’s not possible until I can be sure you won’t try anything silly.’
She forced herself to maintain eye contact and not react. He was playing with her, toying with her like a cat with a mouse, and enjoying it. She looked into his cold manic gaze, thought of Robbie and tried to convey that she would do as he said.
He took a step towards her and frowned, puzzled, pretending he hadn’t understood her.
She held up her hands to show him, begging.
‘You want to cooperate and do as I say?’ he asked nonchalantly.
She nodded again.
‘But how can I trust you? Women lie and can be very deceitful. For example, I know someone not too far from here who has been sneaking into my house while I’ve been at work. That person helped my wife to erase her visits from the CCTV. Know who I mean?’
Fear surged through her. Alisha must have told him, but why was she working with Amit? What was in this for her?
She thought of Robbie and forced herself to nod.
‘So we agree on that point. Are you repentant?’
She nodded furiously.
‘I doubt it,’ he laughed, ‘but it doesn’t matter. I’ll release your hands so you can write the letter to Ben. I had considered writing it myself or typing it, but it will look more authentic coming from you.’ As he came towards her, he seemed to lose his footing and stumble, but righted himself before he hit the floor.
He crossed to a work surface and picked up a stainless-steel tray like the ones used in hospital operating theatres. Emily watched, terrified, as he carried it over and placed it on the floor just out of her reach. On the tray, laid out ready in a neat row like surgical instruments, were a pair of scissors, a pen, a notepad, a roll of parcel tape, her house keys and a hypodermic needle with a full syringe.
‘I’ll talk you through what I’m going to do so it’s clear in your mind. We don’t want any mistakes or accidents, do we?’
She looked at her house keys. Stay calm, she told herself, keep your nerve and find an opportunity to overpower him and grab the keys.
‘So, these are surgical scissors,’ he said, touching them. ‘The same ones I used on Tibs, although I have sharpened them since. They go blunt very quickly cutting through flesh.’
Don’t react, she told herself.
‘If all goes well,’ he continued, ‘I shall only use them on you today for cutting the tape around your wrists, but we’ll have to see. Next is the pen and paper for writing the note I will dictate.’ He moved his hand along the items. ‘Here is the parcel tape that hopefully I will only have to use for rebinding your wrists. It’s not very effective for closing big wounds. Next are your house keys, I’m sure you recognize them. I took them from your jacket pocket while you were unconscious. I shall be using those to let myself into your house. And, last but not least is the syringe containing some of the sedative I gave you before, only more of it. There is enough there to knock out a horse, and it will put you to sleep for a lot longer than ten minutes and make you feel very unwell when you wake. I will not hesitate to use it if you don’t do as I say. And remember Robbie is in the house and I have your k
eys.’ The green in his eye glowed darker still.
Emily swallowed the acrid taste of panic and forced herself to nod.
‘Good. He knelt beside the tray and, picking up the scissors, began cutting through the tape that bound her wrists. He ripped it off, making her flesh sting.
She rubbed her wrists, flexed her hands and glanced at the syringe. The sedative would work on him too if she could just get close enough to grab it and stab it into him.
He carefully returned the scissors to their place on the tray and passed her the writing pad and pen. ‘Write exactly what I say, nothing more or less. Understood?’
She nodded.
‘Dear Ben, I am very sorry, but I have left you for another man,’ he dictated slowly, allowing her time to write. ‘It’s not your fault. You have done nothing wrong. It’s me. I am not cut out for this life. I got bored and began an affair. I am sorry for the pain I have caused you. I know you will look after Robbie. Please don’t come looking for me. I don’t want to be found. Emily.’
He waited while she finished, then took the paper and checked it through.
It was ridiculous, Emily thought, with a surge of hope. Ben would never believe that. He knew how much she loved him and Robbie and that never in a million years would she leave them. And she never signed herself Emily to him, all her text messages ended Em – his pet name for her. But Amit didn’t know that. Ben would realize something was wrong and come looking for her. But how would he find her? He didn’t even know she visited Alisha.
She watched Amit carefully, looking for any chance to escape, as he finished checking the letter. Satisfied he folded it in half and half again, then tucked it into his pocket. He turned to the tray and picked up the roll of parcel tape and scissors. ‘Time to tape your hands again,’ he said.
Seizing the opportunity, Emily threw herself at him with all her force. The element of surprise unbalanced him. He fell onto his side, the tape and scissors flying from his grasp. She grabbed the syringe from the tray and brought it up to stab him, but not quickly enough. In a second, he had grabbed her arm and, forcing her fingers apart, took the syringe. She saw it plunge into her thigh, felt the needle’s sharp sting and immediately, the room darkened.