The House In the Woods

by Marguerite O'Callaghan

  The next few photos are of Joseph Todd, Melvin’s father, and then a group shot of what Lana believes are the elders in the church, including both of the Todd men. McCarthy stares at the screen closely, as Jared flicks between images. His mind furiously pieces together the bits of this strange jigsaw puzzle. A missing girl who may have been kidnapped by a cult leader because of a prophecy involving the girl’s mother. Could it really be possible? The human race never ceased to amaze McCarthy. Some people are deluded and dangerous. He nods at Jared, and thanks him for the great work; he will make a plan and get back to him. McCarthy asks him to speak to Melanie Latter's family in the meantime, on the off-chance that they are in any way connected to the Stones. They need to know if Melanie and Kate are connected in any way at all. Jared is happy to help, and has actually briefly spoken with the Latters before.

  ‘I’ll let you know as soon as I speak to them.’

  He leaves the office, and sends a quick text to Lydia:

  ‘Spoke to McCarthy. They are taking this seriously. Call me when you can x’

  There is every chance that photographs of Melvin Todd could be in circulation very soon if McCarthy and the team have reason to believe he may know where Kate Stone is. Then, Jared has a thought: they need Barbara Stone to see a photograph of Melvin. That could be a way to break her; show her the guy who might have her daughter. Surely, it’s worth a shot? Then she might talk? He walks back to McCarthy’s office, and suggests that the photograph could be used with the Stone family to see if they recognise him or to trigger Barbara to talk. McCarthy is already on it.

  ‘Absolutely Jared. Thanks again’

  A slightly embarrassed Jared walks down the hall. He is desperate to tell Lydia what’s going on, but he can’t be seen to share evidence with anyone. He just has to trust that McCarthy knows what he’s doing.

  40

  Barbara is finding it difficult to keep any food down. It feels like she has been in this hospital for an eternity and she’s not getting any better. She longs to be at home, in her own bed with her family around her. But that seems like a distant memory; almost like it never even happened and she never really had a family. She also has an intense longing to get out of here, and out of this life. The medication they put her on makes her feel heavy and numb; like they’ve filled her veins with a slow-moving, thick liquid, instead of blood, and her brain doesn’t work properly any more. She can feel a certain amount of emotion, but just before it’s fully realised, it drifts away, and is replaced by numbness and confusion again. She thinks about Kate, and can feel herself becoming sad, but she can’t quite feel the sadness. Everything is dulled down, and she is starting to feel like a robot. The nurses just tell her to rest, and the doctors stare at her like she is some sort of broken-down vehicle. She feels powerless, useless, lost.

  Lydia is shaking as she walks down the corridor towards her mother’s room. Her dad tries to put his arm around her in support, but she pushes him away. This is hard for her; she’s terrified about what her mum might tell them, but also scared that she might still deny everything. Right now, Lydia doesn’t want to have anything to do with her, unless she starts telling the truth. They stop outside the room, and the nurse tells them that she has had a few bad nights and the doctors don’t think the new medications are working very well. Brian asks the nurse to give them a moment alone and agrees to speak to her afterwards. He walks into the room and immediately reaches out to touch his wife’s face. When she opens her eyes and sees him, he explains that Lydia has come to see her, too. Barbara smiles and opens her arms to her daughter. Lydia walks to her and leans down for a hug, but pulls away quickly. Immediately, Barbara can see something is wrong, and pushes herself up in bed so she can see them both properly.

  ‘What’s happened? Why are you both looking like that?’

  She looks from her daughter to her husband, asking again what’s happened, and she tries to hold it together for as long as she can. She must find out what’s going on. Then, Lydia clears her throat, and looks her mother in the eye.

  ‘Mum, who is Melvin Todd?’

  Barbara opens her dry mouth in an audible gasp. She lets her head fall back on to the pillows, and her eyes close in horror. She doesn’t have the strength or foresight to hide her reaction. His name makes her heart sink, and her skin feel cold. It feels like death just thinking about him. Brian and Lydia glance at one another, then sit on either side of Barbara. Brian reaches out and puts his hand on his wife’s hand. Seeing her in so much pain suddenly becomes unbearable to him.

  ‘My darling, it’s okay. You can tell us now, alright?’

  As he gets the words out, Brian’s voice breaks into a sob, and he has to put a hand to his mouth to stop. Lydia has never seen him like this, and is momentarily distracted. She leans across, and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder and tells him it’s okay.

  ‘Mum, the police know about Melvin Todd and the cult. The secret’s out, Mum. There’s another man called Dale Adams... I assume you know who we mean? Well, he’s talking now, too. You’re the only one who is keeping this secret.’

  Barbara wasn’t expecting this. All of a sudden, the fear and panic at the mention of Melvin’s name is replaced with something else; a fire, and movement of some kind that stirs in her chest. If they know already, then maybe she has no choice but to talk, she thinks. Maybe her worst fear; the thing she thought must be impossible; that they would come after her after all these years and hurt her family, maybe it had happened. And Dale Adams must have finally found out where she lived. She knew they couldn’t trust him to keep quiet. He hadn’t even changed his name. He could have been the one to lead them to Kate! Brian sees the panic on his wife’s face.

  ‘Please, Barbara. Please help us, and the police to find Kate. Tell us what happened. You don’t need to hide anymore.’

  As he looks at her, Brian can feel the love he has for his wife and family flooding into the room. As they are looking into one another’s tear-filled eyes, he wants more than anything for her to be okay. He is going to fight for this family, but he needs her help. Lydia joins in:

  ‘Mum, we still love you. We still love you, but we need you now, Mum.’

  Barbara reaches out to hold Lydia’s hand, and nods to her daughter in response.

  ‘I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I did this to you.’

  Barbara starts to cry uncontrollably. The nurse comes over to see what’s the matter, and suggests she might need some rest.

  ‘No! This is my chance to make it right. Please, I need them here.’

  The nurse reluctantly leaves them to it, but watches from the doorway. Barbara blows her nose, and passes the box of tissues to Brian and Lydia. She takes a deep breath, and starts to tell them about her life at the ranch. Lydia and Brian try to be strong, but from the very beginning it‘s heart-breaking, and they both have to fight to keep the tears back. Barbara’s voice is weak, and they need to sit very close to hear what she’s saying. She tells them that when she was fifteen, and her sister, Jane was twelve, the family moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to San Diego, California. They wanted more sunshine, and thought they would be happier there. But, a few months after they moved, the family started to struggle; her father got sick, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, couldn’t work, and her mother didn’t make much money working in a local convenience store. The girls also struggled to fit in at school. California wasn’t turning out to be the dream they had all imagined. One day, Barbara’s mother came home and was excited about something. She had met a woman at the store who lived in a gated community that was a kind of private church called The Church of the Family of the Prophecy, or CFP for short. There were about twenty families in the community, they home-schooled their kids, and shared all of their money. She invited Barbara’s mother to visit them, and after meeting with a few of the people that ran the community, they wanted the family to consider joining them. Barbara doesn’t really remember much about the members of the community in California, but she r
emembers that when she and her sister went to their first meeting at the compound, one of the older men in the group took a special interest in her and wanted to take a photograph of her. She thought that was weird. He said that people could tell a lot by a photograph and that he had a feeling that if he showed it to the church leaders, he was pretty sure they would be invited to join. Barbara didn’t know it at the time, but the church was built on the prophecy of one man; Joseph Todd. The prophecy said that his son, Melvin, would father the next messiah and he would save the world and everyone in it from war, disease, and suffering. Joseph claimed to have had a series of visions, dreams, and actual conversations with God describing the mother of this baby. She would be young, a virgin of course, and have a very specific physical appearance: very long, dark, straight hair that was parted in the middle, large dark eyes, a slender figure, and an olive complexion. Joseph Todd had been speaking of this girl for over ten years and there were many sketches and paintings in circulation depicting her. When the elders from the California wing of the CFP laid eyes on Barbara, they believed she could be ‘The One’. The photograph was posted to church HQ in Texas immediately and although they were not aware of it at that time, Joseph Todd told them to do anything they could to get the family to Texas immediately. He had to meet this girl. At that point, Barbara’s parents were actually pretty desperate. They didn’t have health insurance and her father’s condition was deteriorating quickly. Within three weeks of meeting the church, they were given the keys to a beautiful house near the compound in San Diego, thousands of dollars to pay off their debts and buy new clothes, and Barbara’s mother even had some much-needed dental work done. She stopped working at the convenience store, and started working at the compound, instead.

  ‘No-one ever thought to ask where the money came from. We thought that we were just in the right place at the right time, and this was maybe the reason that we came to California in the first place. My mother was superstitious, and probably very gullible too. She always saw the best in people, and was blind to the fact that bad things happened.’

  Lydia and Brian are transfixed by the story. The nurse comes into the room with some tea and sandwiches, and Barbara continues to talk, taking sips of sugary tea from time to time. She tells them about the decision to move to Texas. It seemed to happen pretty much overnight. They were told they would have to move out of the house they were in after a few weeks, and that they were one of the lucky families who would be offered the opportunity to live on the Texas ranch. The other compound members seemed genuinely surprised and envious that this new family were invited to live in the main ranch; the one where Joseph Todd, their leader, resided. Of course, everyone in the Californian branch knew that Barbara was potentially part of the prophecy, and their excitement and encouragement made the move seem like the obvious answer. They had only been in California for five months when they packed their few belongings up and got on a plane to Dallas. They had two men travelled with them, sorting out everything from check-in, to snacks and rental cars. Even then, Barbara recognised that they were getting special treatment and she couldn’t help but feel excited about what the future would hold.

  The ranch itself was in the middle of nowhere, and Barbara remembers falling asleep in the van on the four-hour journey from the airport to their new life. When they arrived at the ranch, the vastness of the CFP community hit them. There seemed to be hundreds of people there, and much more security too. When they got out of the van, they were greeted by about twenty men who removed their hats and shook hands with them. They were shown to a wooden cabin with three bedrooms, a large open-plan living space, a patio, garden swing, and hammock. The fridge in the kitchen was filled with food and in the girls’ bedroom was a large dresser with flowers and chocolates on it. Barbara remembers Jane crying when she realised that there was a special gift for Barbara, but nothing for her. It was a silver dragonfly necklace. Joseph Todd and his son Melvin introduced themselves properly that evening, and Melvin told Barbara that the gift was from him.

  ‘I had no idea what was happening. I suppose I thought they liked me, thought I was beautiful. I don’t know. I just wanted to sleep, wake up the next day, and spend time with my family.’

  Barbara describes the next few weeks and months; the realisation that all of the other families on the ranch lived in camps or trailers. Some were dirty and looked ill. There also seemed to be a high number of mentally unwell people at the ranch, and although they all prayed together every day in the large barn-like church, there seemed to be a great amount of unrest amongst families. Barbara saw a knife fight a couple of weeks after they arrived, and was pretty sure that one of the men involved died afterwards. She was pulled away by her mother but she heard one of the men cry out in agony. She never saw him after that, and no-one ever spoke about him again.

  ‘It was strange. The people were very weird, but I was being treated so well, and we just went along with it.’

  But things changed for Barbara. One day, she was told that she was going to marry Melvin Todd. Nobody asked her, and she had barely had a conversation with the man. Plus, he was in his thirties, and only a few years younger than her own parents. Melvin told her about the prophecy, and the fact that they were going to have a baby together. It was all too much for Barbara. She was terrified. She begged her parents to leave, but they were too entrenched in life at the ranch. Plus, her father’s health meant that he was mostly bedridden. Then two months after they moved there, he died suddenly. The circumstances surrounding his death were suspicious; it happened while they were all at church listening to Joseph Todd preaching. A few of the men who usually sat up front were not at the service that day and Barbara thought it strange. She immediately thought they had something to do with his death, and she and her mother were ordered not to tell anyone about it outside of the ranch. Her mother was heart-broken after that, and seemed to just disappear from that day on. Then, Barbara was raped by two teenage boys one night a few days after that, and it changed everything. She ran home to tell her mother, and her mother told her not to tell anyone, because they would no longer see her as part of the prophecy. Nothing would protect them if they didn’t believe she was special. But, Barbara was suffering with shock and ended up telling a couple of the women she was friendly with. Melvin and Joseph found out and went crazy. The boys who raped her were beaten publicly and never seen again. Joseph believed that the prophecy was ruined, and now Barbara couldn’t be the mother of the messiah or marry Melvin. They moved her to a dorm house with about twenty other girls and she was separated from her sister and mother.

  ‘I’m not sure how much to tell you both. Basically, things got really bad, and I was forced to become part of lots of these... rituals. I was beaten and raped and I think I would have died if it wasn’t for Joseph changing his mind. Other girls died though, and I witnessed that.’

  Barbara closes her eyes for a moment as the memory of the little girl she was forced to push from the cliff comes into her mind. Lydia and Brian have been silent for the past fifteen minutes. They cannot believe what they’re hearing. How could she have gone through all of this and never told anyone? They continue to listen as Barbara explains how Joseph claimed to have had another vision where the mother of the messiah was tested and proved herself to be strong and good. He called the entire community together and announced that Barbara was still ‘The One’, and although she had been stained with the filth of sin and violence, her heart was so full of light, that it didn’t matter. Melvin went along with it too, and after just a few weeks of living in the dorm with the other girls who were being horrifically victimised and used, Barbara was allowed to go back to the house. But her mother and sister were instructed to stay in their dorms. From then on, she only saw them occasionally, and each time that she did, she could see them deteriorate more and more. Her mother was slowly becoming a zombie, and looked like she was drugged or drunk. Barbara begged Melvin and Joseph to let her mother and sister come home, but Joseph told her that God
didn’t want them to be together. She had to stay ‘pure’, and concentrate on her future role as wife and mother. At this point the community saw Melvin and Barbara as a married couple. They had a small ceremony at the house conducted by Joseph Todd, and Melvin moved in. After a few months, Barbara’s mother died. The community said that she had drank too much and fallen in the quarry, hitting her head. But Barbara didn’t believe it. She knew that they wanted to get rid of her.

  ‘I thought that Jane would be next, so I begged and begged that she be allowed to come and live with us. I convinced Melvin and his father that the reason I hadn’t fallen pregnant yet was because I was sick with worry about her. So, he agreed and Jane and I were reunited. That’s when we hatched our plan, and got Dale Adams to help us escape, we stole some money from the church, and flew to England.’

  Lydia can see that her mother is exhausted. Telling them all of this must have used the little bit of energy she had. She tells her to eat some of the cheese sandwich in front of her, and asks her dad if they should call McCarthy.

  41

  Kate has spent the day pretending to be ill. Every time she’s alone, she does everything she can to make her face as hot and red as possible. Christine confirms that she has a temperature, and as the day goes by, she and Melvin grow increasingly worried. Kate tells them she needs to walk around, needs air, can’t breathe. She does a great job at making them believe she really is suffering, and she watches as Melvin becomes more and more worried about the baby. He flicks through pregnancy books looking for answers, and agrees to untie Kate’s hands completely when she asks him to, without a second thought. She knows it’s a long shot to think they might leave her untied all night again, but she has to try.