“I haven’t. I swear.”
She studied his face. “I believe you.”
She watched Tom trudge down the cobbled path to the cottage. She knew what she’d seen. Knew that Graham was hiding something.
And she was determined to find out what that was.
The first thing she needed to do was track Graham’s movements. She found Sarah in Luke’s bungalow, getting ready for the day. Unsure how to approach the subject, Chris cleared her throat to announce herself.
“Oh! Chris. I was just about to head out with Anna.”
“I’m worried about Tom. He doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of sleep lately.”
Sarah chuckled. “He’s always busy with Bob or Oreo.”
“Whenever I ask him, he dismisses me. I worry about him.” Chris shook her head. “I don’t suppose I could take a peek at your planner? Just to make sure he’s not taken on too much.”
Sarah straightened, eyebrows furrowing slightly. “He has plenty of free time. I make sure that we all do.”
Chris forced a smile. “I’m sure you’ve arranged it that way, but it would make me feel better if I could double-check. Please?”
Sarah held her gaze for a moment before reaching for the notebook and handing it to her. “See for yourself.”
Chris thumbed through it. “I’m sorry. You’re right. He has plenty of free time.”
“I often see him hanging out with Bob, and he’s also been tinkering with Luke’s old PC. I think he just likes to keep busy.”
Chris nodded automatically, searching for the real reason she’d asked to look at the schedule. There he was. Graham would be updating the inventory tomorrow evening before being on patrol together with Rose.
The house would be empty.
That would give her at least a few hours to compare Graham’s inventory to what was actually inside their house.
Perhaps Anna was right. Perhaps she had been seeing things.
But there was only one way to be certain.
“Thank you,” Chris said. “I suppose you’re right. He’s been through so much. It’s probably easier to keep busy than to sleep.”
“I know Anna finds it hard to sleep as well,” Sarah said.
“Right. I’d better go and have a look at that patch Bob has prepared for my herb garden.” She gave Sarah a curt nod before heading to the garden behind the cottage, waving at Rose as she walked past the lookout platform.
Sue was busy watering and weeding the vegetables. Wisps of smoke rose over the firepit nearby where Luke had placed a platter of raw meat on one of the camping chairs.
“I’m impressed with your garden,” Chris said. “I’d have no clue where to even start.”
Sue’s eyes lit up at the compliment. “Oh, it’s nothing. It started out as a small summer project a few years ago. I grew some tomatoes and potatoes. We’ve been working hard over the summer to extend it and grow a lot more.”
Chris approached the patch Bob had prepared for her. He’d even put down fresh soil. She put on her thick gardening gloves when movement caught her attention. Graham was walking up to the oak tree. He looked even more intimidating in broad daylight, and Chris shrank back.
He stepped onto the ladder and handed Rose a bottle of water. Chris watched as they talked for a moment.
“He’s sweet,” Sue said, chuckling. “But I don’t think he trusts Rose to look after herself.”
Chris could see why people liked him. Trusted him. He was a hard worker, wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and doted on his wife.
Tomorrow evening, she’d find out if she was mistaken.
She didn’t think she was.
15
It was an unusually warm day for late September, but the sweat stains blooming on Anna’s shirt had nothing to do with the sun.
She was sitting in the shade, watching Luke building a wooden shelter for the sheep next to his bungalow. They’d considered fencing them in further but after much deliberation decided to let them roam freely.
Anna tapped her foot against the camping chair. The thudding echoed the staccato rhythm of her thoughts.
Chris. Graham. Luke. Her mind was a cacophony of endless noise.
Bob and the others had only just come back, a victorious grin on their faces as they’d showed off their findings. Three sheep, two hens, a cockerel and some seedlings.
Luke had been up since dawn to prepare the shelter. Anna yawned.
“You should have seen Oreo.” Tom walked up to her, rubbing his red-rimmed eyes. “He ran frantic circles around the sheep. His tongue was hanging so low, I thought he might step on it.” He grinned. “The sheep wouldn’t budge.”
Anna’s gaze drifted to Oreo. The Border Collie was dozing next to Luke, his head resting on his front paws. “That explains why he doesn’t care that Sue’s preparing breakfast.” She chuckled. “You should get some sleep, too.”
“Bob asked us to stay up.”
She raised an eyebrow and turned around. “Oh?”
Sue and Chris stood among the growing broccoli. Sue was talking and gesturing towards the ground. Chris was listening intently and nodding along. Anna couldn’t make out what Sue was saying, but it looked as if she was explaining how to expand the vegetable garden further to plant the seedlings.
Tom followed Anna’s gaze, and a look of concern flitted across his face as he spotted his mother.
Apprehension rose in Anna’s chest. She’d been waiting for Tom to come back. She had to know who Maggie was. “Tom?”
The cockerel crowed and Anna smiled at the familiar sound.
“Hm?”
Uncertain how to begin the conversation, Anna wet her lips, then looked up at the oak tree where her sister was on watch as though Sarah could somehow be of help. Sarah only shrugged in reply.
“I wanted to talk to you about—”
Bob’s booming voice interrupted her. “May I have everyone’s attention, please?”
Oreo started at the noise, jumped up and barked.
Luke laughed. “Bless him. He was fast asleep.”
“At least one of us is getting some sleep,” Rachel muttered as she walked past Luke.
If Bob heard her comment, he gave no sign. He turned to Sarah instead. “Can you hear me?”
Sarah nodded.
Anna chewed her lip as everyone surrounded Bob. Her heart was pounding—had Bob heard about Chris’ accusation? Had Sarah told him about what Chris had done? She’d told her sister to wait until she’d had a chance to talk to Tom.
Everything seemed to be unravelling.
“What’s this about?” Graham asked.
“I’m sorry for keeping those of you up who worked through the night.” He gave Rachel a pointed look, then continued, “We were approached by a small family last night. They’re living in a tent in the woodland near the fields where I found the sheep. Henry came to investigate Oreo’s barking and introduced himself and his wife.”
“A small family?” Sue asked. “Define small?”
“They have two girls. One is eight and the other ten.”
“That’s a lot of extra mouths to feed.” Graham folded his arms over his chest. “And you’re sure they’re alone?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you see their tent? Are you sure they aren’t a part of another settlement waiting to follow them here and raid us?”
“I saw their tent. They don’t have much. They’d killed one of the sheep, but most of the meat had spoilt. Henry didn’t know how to preserve it.”
Graham scoffed. “That’s not our problem.”
“You can’t mean that. The girls are so little.” Rose looked up at him. “Those poor things.”
Chris had fixed Graham with a hard stare, her eyes dark pools of hatred. The lines around her mouth deepened whenever Graham spoke. It reminded Anna of the way the woman had watched her, and it made her just as uncomfortable as she’d been in her old flat.
“Isn’t it time we used the houses across the r
oad? They’ve been empty for months. We do have plenty of room,” Sue said.
Bob nodded. “Agreed.”
Luke wiped the sweat from his brow. “I’d hate to know that two hungry little girls are out there, and we could have helped.”
Graham bristled. “One of these days, you’ll regret not having listened to me.”
“They’re children, Graham,” Rachel said. “We can’t let them spend the winter months in a tent in the woods.”
“I get where Graham’s coming from.” Sarah knelt at the edge of the platform so she didn’t have to shout. “But I can’t bear the thought either…”
Bob turned to Anna. “And you?”
Anna blinked. She’d been so focused on Chris that she’d missed giving Bob’s question any proper thought. “I agree…we need to help those girls.”
Next to her, Tom had stiffened. He, too, had been watching his mother.
“I’m sorry, Graham. Looks like you’re outvoted,” Bob said. “I told Henry I’d be back tomorrow morning with our answer, but first I need some sleep.”
“What did you want to talk to me about?” Tom sat down on his bed and yawned.
“I’m sorry that I’m keeping you from sleeping but this can’t wait.” Anna leaned against the wall near the window. She kept one eye on the footpath leading to the house.
“Who is Maggie?” she blurted out. She hadn’t been able to shake her unease since Chris’ reaction to the name.
Tom paled. “Maggie?”
“Yes. Your mum mentioned her the other day. She seemed…upset.”
Tom’s laptop lay on the bedside table. He’d taken off the keyboard, exposing the circuitry below. Without lifting his eyes, he reached for the screwdriver and turned it over in his hands. “She’s just someone we knew. No one important.”
“Are you sure?” Anna studied his face. He fiddled with his screwdriver. She waited for him to meet her eyes, but he wouldn’t. “I told the others it was okay for Chris to stay here, Tom. I didn’t tell them about Mike, about your dad, about pushing Sarah down the stairs. I didn’t tell them that she tied me to a chair. If something happens, it’ll be on me. I lied to them, Tom.”
He pursed his lips, didn’t look up.
“You’re giving her pills?”
Tom nodded.
“What happened?”
“She had a…breakdown.” He rubbed the nape of his neck, then looked up at her, eyes filled with tears. “She didn’t know who she was. She couldn’t remember…couldn’t remember what had happened. She kept muttering that she wasn’t a monster. It sounded like she was fighting with someone…it sounded like she was fighting with Maggie.”
“Please tell me about Maggie, Tom.”
“She was James’ aunt.”
“That’s your best friend, right? The one you wanted to find when you were staying with me in Harlow?”
“Yes. After we left your flat, we went to the farm. Then James’ cousin Adam got ill.”
Anna narrowed her eyes. “Is Adam Maggie’s son?”
“No, Adam was Charlotte’s son. That’s Tony’s sister. He’s…it doesn’t actually matter,” Tom said hastily as though he was afraid that he’d lose his courage if he lost his focus. “Adam had a bad fever, and Mum knew that it was appendicitis. She and Maggie went to find antibiotics at the pharmacy.”
Anna said nothing, waited for him to continue.
“They were gone all day. When it got dark…Mum came back alone.” His eyes glistened with tears. “Tony said Mum had killed Maggie, but Mum insisted she was innocent.”
“Did she tell you what happened?”
Tom wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “A man had robbed the pharmacy. Had killed the pharmacist. He was still there when they arrived, and my mum was worried he would hurt them too…”
“Did she kill him?”
Tom nodded.
“And Maggie?”
“Mum told me that Maggie was scared of her.” He coughed and wiped his nose with his sleeve, suddenly seeming a lot younger than he was. “Maggie told her she didn’t want anyone like Mum near her family. She told her to leave.”
“And your mum killed Maggie.” Anna swallowed, connecting the dots. “And then…”
“We left. They said I could stay, but I didn’t want to leave Mum by herself. She…it was like someone had switched off the lights. From one moment to the next, she couldn’t remember anything. Like her brain had snapped. We wandered around. I wanted to keep her away from people, and after a few days we found an empty log cabin. I kept Mum there while I went out to find food and water. I found a map at a petrol station and figured out that we were in Hatfield Forest.”
“And then?”
“She got worse. Talked in her sleep, saw things that weren’t there. Didn’t recognise me sometimes…I was scared, but a few days later I met a doctor. I helped him after his wife had a fall. He listened to what I told him about Mum, and he said he could help. He gave me these.” Tom fished out a box from his pocket that was already dented around the edges. “They’re a psych…” He frowned, turning the box.
“An antipsychotic?” Anna took the box from him and glanced down at the label.
“She got better. Slowly.”
Anna opened the box and noticed there weren’t many pills left. “Is she still taking them?”
“Yes.”
“But you’re still scared of her?”
“All those people she’s hurt…she knew what she was doing. She didn’t have to hurt them. She pretends she’s killing to survive, to protect me, but I’ve seen the look in her eyes. It’s not true.” He hesitated, held Anna’s stare. “She enjoys it. We were attacked after we left your flat. A man knocked her out with a cricket bat. I managed to distract the woman he was with, and when Mum woke up we overpowered them. She tied him up. He was defenceless, and we could have walked away.”
Anna didn’t need to ask if Chris had killed the man. The look in Tom’s eyes told her everything she needed to know. “Killing seems to be her solution to everything.”
“She promised she wouldn’t ever do anything like that again, but…”
“You don’t trust her.”
“Not after Maggie.” He sighed. “I feel like I have to watch her…constantly. I can’t relax, not as long as she’s…alive.”
“I’m sorry, Tom.”
“She’s my responsibility.”
“She isn’t, Tom. You’re her son. She’s responsible for you, not the other way around.”
“But what can I do?” A tear rolled down his cheek. “I don’t know what to do…sometimes I think I should have let her die in that log cabin, but…I don’t want her to die.”
“I know, Tom. I need to talk to Bob and the others about this. They need to know. This is bigger than I thought.”
“Please don’t kill her,” he whispered.
“You know Bob. He wouldn’t do that.”
“But you said it yourself…you said you wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.”
“I said that as a warning to her.” Anna gave him a small smile. “We’ll find a solution. Okay?”
“I can leave with her and go somewhere else…but it’ll be the same all over again. I just want to stay in one place without having to worry about what she’ll do next.”
“I know.” She turned around to leave the room, paused by the door and added, “Try and get some sleep. It’ll be all right.”
He nodded, eyes brightening in obvious relief.
Nausea washed over Anna at the sight. It wasn’t going to be all right, but she didn’t have the heart to tell Tom that.
Bob was already dealing with a lot—a new family would be joining soon—but she had to tell him the truth. Chris was weaker than she’d been in Harlow, but the woman was even more unstable now.
Had killed multiple times.
And those pills were going to run out soon.
She’d told Tom things would be all right, but she couldn’t think of a solution that didn
’t involve kicking them out.
And it was all her fault.
If she’d been truthful from the start, perhaps Bob and the others wouldn’t have allowed Chris to stay.
Before, Chris would have gone to prison or perhaps a psychiatric institution, but now…
If they sent her away, she could return with others to take their supplies.
If they locked her up, she was an extra mouth to feed.
If they allowed her to stay…
Anna groaned. She couldn’t put it off any longer and headed to Bob and Sue’s cottage, her stomach churning the whole way there.
She found him sitting on a camping chair carving something out of wood. His tongue poked through his lips as he concentrated on the task at hand. Glancing up, he grinned at her. “I’m making a bow for Tom.”
“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
“I tried. Gave up.”
“And now you’re making a bow instead?”
“There’s deer in the woods. We can smoke, cure or dehydrate the meat as well as cook it.”
Anna had to chuckle at his obvious enthusiasm. “Dehydrate?”
He set down the knife on his knees and scratched his dark stubble. “I found a book the other week with instructions on building a solar dehydrator. Luke said he’d help.”
“You sound excited.”
“I am.” He grinned. “You on the other hand sound like…you’re about to invite me to a funeral.”
“I need to talk to you.”
“That much is obvious.” He lifted the wood, closed one eye to inspect it.
“I didn’t…I didn’t tell you everything about Chris.”
“I’m aware of that. I’m not stupid, Anna. I’ve already told Sarah to make sure she’s never on her own.” He lowered the wood and turned his attention to her. “But I’m curious about the details. I’m listening.”
Anna told him everything.
She told him about Mike, about Lester, about Sarah, and about herself. Bob listened. His eyebrows shot up as she told him about her attempt to poison the woman, but he didn’t interrupt her. She told him everything Tom had said as well—about the strangers along the river, Maggie, and the pills.
When she fell silent, he looked at her for a long time. “Chris doesn’t sound like someone who irrationally attacks and kills people, but when she feels threatened…” He inhaled sharply and made a cutthroat gesture to illustrate his thoughts.
Darkness Ahead of Us | Book 3 | Darkness Lifting Page 15