The House In the Woods

by Marguerite O'Callaghan

  Evening comes, and the moon appears, full this time. Kate pretends to be sound asleep, as she had before, and can’t believe it when she first hears Melvin, then Christine, pop their heads round the door to check on her, then go to bed. She thought that surely one of them would come back in to check she was secured to the bed, but thirty or forty minutes pass, then an hour, and soon Kate realises she has another chance to get out of here. Once she has opened the lock again with the piece of metal from the lampshade, she steps out on to the landing and makes her way for the stairs. She places a foot on the first step, and quietly and skilfully moves to the second, third, fourth. She uses the bannister to take as much weight off her feet as possible, and it seems to work; she has descended almost silently. When she reaches the bottom of the, she stops suddenly, convinced that she’s heard something. She remembers the bedroom door that she’s left open. If either Melvin or Christine even get up to go to the bathroom, they will know what she’s done. Adrenaline courses its way through Kate’s body. It’s cold down here, and she only has bed socks, leggings, and a couple of jumpers to keep her warm. It’s not enough. She concentrates on her breathing, and that keeps her relatively calm. She thinks to herself that she has nothing to lose at this stage, and steps on to the carpeted hallway. Kate has only been downstairs once when they moved her up from the basement, but she recognises it. The front door is down the hall to Kate’s left, and through the door in front of her is the living room. It’s right under her bedroom. To the right is what looks like a laundry or storage room, and then another door that leads to the kitchen and another to a reception room. Kate takes a few steps towards the front door. She can smell the cold, fresh, country air. Just a few feet away is freedom, and the outside world. She longs for it so much, and wants to open the door and run all the way to London, back to her family. But, she stays calm and collected, and knows that if she puts a foot wrong, everything could come crashing down. Next to her, about halfway down the hallway is a small table with an old-fashioned green telephone on it. Kate moves closer. If she could make a call to the police, everything would change. They might be able to trace the call, and find her here. She peers down at the phone and can see that there is some sort of homemade lock around it, like a bicycle lock wrapped around the receiver and under the base of the phone, making it impossible to use. At first, Kate assumes that Melvin probably has the key on the chain around his neck, but then she starts to look around the hall for other places it could be. She peers into a plant pot to find it’s empty, and then spots a small wooden book shelf at head height, with what looks like an ashtray on top of it. Kate take a closer look. There’s something inside. Suddenly, there’s a noise from upstairs and she hears footsteps making their way across the ceiling. Kate takes a sharp intake of breath; he’s going to kill her. Before she can think what to do next, she looks down and sees a small silver key sitting in the ashtray. It looks like the right size for the phone lock. But, it’s too late to do anything about it now. Footsteps descend the stairs.

  Christine had decided not to wake Melvin when she saw that Kate’s door was open. He would kill her if Kate had escaped and blame Christine for not tying her up properly. Kate has dropped to the floor, and pretended that she fainted. Christine shakes her, and in a hushed voice tries to wake her.

  ‘Get up, for the love of God, or he will kill us both! Do you hear me?’

  Kate can’t believe her plan is working. Christine seems to genuinely think she’s ill, and just fainted as she wandered around the house. She stirs at Christine’s touch, and mumbles something about not feeling well, and wanting her mother. Christine helps her to her feet, asking if the baby is okay, and Kate tells her that she didn’t fall but had to lay down as she was so tired and the baby is fine. Somehow the pair make it to Kate’s room without waking Melvin, and Kate climbs into bed, immediately closing her eyes and pretending to be asleep. But Christine switches the lamp on, ties Kate’s hands to the long chain, and sits on the bed, shaking her again, gently this time.

  ‘What happened tonight? How did you get out of this room?’

  Kate looks at her sleepily and smiles.

  ‘I wanted my mum, and the door was open. You must have forgotten to lock it. I just wanted to get some water and se-see Mum.’

  Christine tries to remember if she locked the door. If she had forgotten and that was how Kate got downstairs, Melvin would probably kill her. She needs to fix this.

  ‘Kate, we can’t tell him.’

  Kate nods sleepily.

  ‘If he finds out, we’re both in serious trouble. Do NOT tell him. Understand?’

  Kate opens her eyes, and reaches out for her hand. Christine almost flinches at the sensation. She’s not used to anyone touching her.

  ‘I promise, Christine. It was a mistake. No way am I going to say anything. I don’t either of us to get into trouble.’

  Satisfied, Christine switches the light out, and leaves the room. She struggles to lock the door behind her, and Kate winces, scared that she’ll realise what Kate did after all. But eventually, it locks somehow.

  Kate lies awake staring at the ceiling. Tonight has brought her one step closer to escaping; all she needs to do now, is find a window of opportunity when she’s untied, even in the daytime, and she can go downstairs, unlock the phone with the key, and make that call.

  42

  Dale Adams sits in the interview room at Hendon police station. He’s obviously not a very well man and rocks back and forth continuously. His arms are unbelievably thin; in fact, his whole body looks like it’s being eaten away from the inside out, and there are sores and cuts on his hands and face. The effects of sleeping rough for years are devastating, and his skin is damaged from the cold, malnourishment, and lack of sleep. McCarthy shows Dale a photograph of Kate Stone and asks if he knows her. Dale tells him that he knows that she is missing and as he has already told them, he knows her mother, Margaret. McCarthy shows him a photograph of Barbara Stone and Dale tells them that’s the woman he knows as Margaret. He goes on to explain that he left the CFP church over twenty years ago, and fled to England with Margaret and her sister, Cassie. The girls had special privileges in the church and he was assigned as a temporary bodyguard to them at one stage. His wife had died, and he was seriously contemplating leaving the church anyway, because his life had been threatened by a couple of the elders, but he had two sons at a different branch in a different State and had no way of getting them out safely. When Margaret and Cassie were only sixteen and thirteen, they had stolen around ten thousand dollars from a safe in the compound, and convinced Dale to leave with them and fly to Europe. Dale had a passport from before they entered the church that he could get renewed, and the girls had managed to keep theirs, too. But, they needed an adult to travel with them as they were both under eighteen. He had said no at first, but when they ran one night and Dale couldn’t stop them, he decided to join them in their plan, after all; fearing that if he returned without them he would undoubtedly be killed. Dale goes on to explain what happened after they arrived in England. The girls had simply left him at the airport with a few hundred pounds, and told him to be careful. He had been entirely lost on the streets of London, and ended up becoming a drug addict. He had also been homeless for the past four or five years, apart from the occasional stay in a hostel or state-funded rehabilitation unit, like the one he was staying in at the moment.

  ‘And how did you come to see Mrs Stone, and recognise her?’ McCarthy asks.

  ‘I only knew her daughter was missing when I saw the family photograph in one of the free newspapers. It said they lived in Hampstead, and that was only around the corner. It was purely by chance I saw her one day when I was walking down the street there, and I couldn’t believe it. I called out to her, but she ignored me; didn’t want to know. I walked up the road and saw her car outside a big fancy house, but when I asked her daughter, Lydia if she lived there, she didn’t know anything about it or who Margaret was. I knew they were going to change th
eir names and all that, but I didn’t think she would ignore me.’

  The interview goes on for over three hours, and eventually they see that Dale is exhausted, and decide to let him go.

  ‘Your help has been incredible Mr Adams. You are doing a really good thing here, and we won’t forget it, okay? I’m so sorry for what happened to you.’

  ‘If you find them, those bastards that killed my wife and have my sons, my two boys, help me to get them back, will you?’

  McCarthy nods solemnly. He knows he can’t promise this man anything. His sons could be anywhere.

  ‘We will let you know if we find anything, Mr Adams. You have my word. You can reach me any time on the same number you called today. Please, stay in touch.’

  Before Dale leaves, McCarthy asks one of the office assistants to give him some meal vouchers for the cafe down the road, and a basic mobile phone with twenty pounds credit on it. That way, they have more of a chance of reaching him if and when they need to. Dale looks thrilled at the prospect of having a new phone, and thanks them profusely. McCarthy feels a pang of guilt, and wishes he could do more, but at least they can maybe get some answers about his sons.

  McCarthy walks down the hall to his office, and picks up the phone. He needs to get an update from Lana in New York.

  43

  In Florida, Jane answers the phone on the second ring. It’s Brian on the other end. Barbara has already texted her to say that that Brian, Lydia, and the police know everything about the CFP, their parents’ deaths, the stolen money, name changes, everything.

  ‘Brian, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. She swore me to secrecy, and I didn’t know what else to do.’

  Brian’s voice is soft. He’s just grateful that Barbara is talking now, and he’s happier than he thought he would be to hear Jane’s voice.

  ‘She’s your big sister. I get it. The important thing is that we can move forward now, you know?’

  ‘Do they think they can find him; Melvin? Do they believe Kate is alive?’

  Brian pauses for a moment. It’s difficult to discuss the possible death of his daughter. But, this has given him real hope, and the fact that they believe Kate might be part of the prophecy might keep her safe; the same way Barbara was given certain privileges at the ranch because they wanted her to conceive a child.

  ‘They’ve got images of him, apparently, and hopefully they will get those circulating. The police are back on this, and giving it their all. They really are. Hopefully they can track him down, and if there’s trouble finding him, maybe they can use the media to get the public involved.’

  Jane speaks through tears of joy and relief. She has also been living a lie about the past, and her family have no idea what’s going on. Now that Barbara has spoken, she’s decided to find the courage to tell her ex-husband and kids what happened when she was younger. Before they hang up, Brian says he wants to ask her one question:

  ‘Why did you leave and go back to the States?’

  Jane hesitates. She hasn’t planned what to say. She never thought she would be in this position.

  ‘I’ll be honest with you, honey. I left England again because I thought, well, I figured I might actually be safer the further away from Barbara I was. I was scared they’d come after her again, but they had no interest in me. I was nothing to them, and either were my parents.’

  Brian nods to himself.

  ‘That actually makes a lot of sense, Jane. Thanks for telling me. I guess you had your own life to live, and your own healing to do.’

  Brian hangs up the phone, and turns to see Lydia behind him, leaning against the doorway. He jumps when he sees her, and she bursts out laughing. But the smile soon vanishes from her face when her father tells her the bad news; Aunt Jane is coming over in a couple days and she’s bringing cousin Jenny with her.

  44

  Lana Nowicki sits in a coffee shop with a laptop in front of her. She’s on the phone to McCarthy, and running through all of the files she has on Melvin Todd and the CPF. Some of the information is confidential, and he would ordinarily need special authorisation to access it, but she can go through it with him on the phone. She tells him about the statistics she gathered in the 90s concerning missing people and reports made to police about families suddenly disappearing to join the church, and cutting off all ties with the outside world. The church targeted families, not individuals, that way it was less likely that anyone would report the strange behaviour to the police. Whole families up and moving to a cult might raise a few eyebrows, but if they had recruited individuals, there would have been more of a danger that people would cause trouble for them.

  ‘It wasn’t too dissimilar to what we saw at Jonestown or even some of the cults in India. You had a leader, Joseph Todd, and his disciples, the ‘elders’, all men of course. They sat right at the top of the food chain. At the CFP, these guys were all rapists, and they were definitely responsible for the deaths of multiple people as far as I’m concerned. But, with no witnesses or anyone to identify the remains, we had to drop the case and let them go. Their power was in numbers.’

  As Lana is speaking, McCarthy has a disturbing thought; if there was power in numbers, then perhaps there still is. If Melvin Todd is responsible for Kate Stone’s disappearance, then he wasn’t working alone. He’s interrupted by a call that has just come through from another contact in the US. Detective Maclaren signals to him from outside his office that it’s important, and he tells Lana he’ll have to call her back. He follows DCI Maclaren to her desk in the main office, and she hands him the receiver. He says hello, and listens intently to the young male American voice on the other end.

  ‘Hi there. Detective McCarthy, we ran that ID you wanted us to, and matched it with the photograph you sent too, sir. We believe that this man – Melvin Todd – travelled from Dallas, Texas to London, England two years ago. We believe he’s still somewhere in Europe. The flight was one way, and he hasn’t used his passport to travel, since.’

  McCarthy can hardly believe it.

  ‘Did he travel alone?’

  ‘No sir, he travelled with his spouse, name of Christine Mary Todd.’

  45

  Lydia opens the fridge and hums to herself as she pulls out a packet of sliced cheese and a small tub of roasted tomatoes.

  ‘Is this hummus still edible?’ she shouts back towards Jared’s bedroom.

  She’s only wearing underwear and one of Jared’s shirts, and she starts to shiver as she rummages through the cupboards looking for more food.

  ‘This is depressing! We should have ordered takeaway. I’m so hungry!’

  She shuffles back to the room with a tray piled with boxes, packets, and jars. Jared smiles at her, and shakes his head from side to side as he pulls back the covers and fixes the pillows so she can get in next to him. Lydia giggles as she starts to put relish and cheese on tiny oatcakes, stopping occasionally to grab a few cashew nuts, and shove them into her mouth. She has been here since early evening and hasn’t eaten since noon. She’s ravenous.

  ‘Oh my God, sex makes me hungry.’

  Jared watches Lydia closely, and when she becomes too self-conscious under his gaze, he turns away for a moment to check his phone.

  ‘Shit. I’ve got three missed calls from the office. Stay here.’

  Jared is on his feet and walking across the room as he waits for someone to pick up at the office. He grabs a robe from the back of the door on the way out and gives Lydia a wink. She sighs to herself as she puts the tray of food down on the floor beside the bed and listens to the sound of his gentle, calm voice drifting towards her from down the hall. Tonight had been the first time they’d had sex, and Lydia was really happy that they had got to know one another and fall in love before they were intimate like that. The relationship was still forbidden because Jared was not allowed to form a relationship with anyone involved with any of the cases he was working on. It wasn’t illegal to date Lydia, but it could put his career in jeopardy, and they still had to
tread carefully. Lydia hoped that as soon as Kate was home, they could pretend to meet at a party, or at the gym, and tell their friends and family the good news. They were in love and wanted a future together. That was clear now, more than ever. Ten minutes later Jared comes back into the room and his face looks serious.

  ‘You’re going to have to go, Lydia.’

  His voice is apologetic. Lydia was already planning on staying the night, and telling her dad she was with a friend, so her heart sinks a little at his words.

  ‘I’m going to be working all night, and might have to go into the station. They’re planning something. It’s to do with Kate, but I can’t go into the details.’

  Lydia leaps into action and jumps out of the bed.

  ‘You have to tell me. What is it? Have they found her? Oh my God!’

  Jared shakes his head. He can’t risk blowing this operation.

  ‘This is exactly why we aren’t supposed to date one another! I can’t tell you, baby, but just believe me that we are doing everything we can to find her, okay? We don’t know where she is but we are trying very hard to find out.’

  Jared is holding Lydia by the shoulders, and she nods in understanding. She can see that he’s doing his best, and suddenly feels guilty about coming here in the middle of all of this. What would her sister think? Jared can see the change in her, and pulls her close, telling her it’s all okay, and to call him when she gets home. As soon as she’s gone, he picks up the phone again, and tells them he’s coming in to help. They’re in the midst of setting up a media campaign to find Kate using photographs of Melvin and Christine Todd. Jared needs to be up to speed on everything, and if they need someone to go undercover, he needs to be ready.

  46

  Melvin has been spending a lot of time with Kate over the past few days. He seems scared that her fever will return, and has even created a medical kit with a blood pressure monitor, thermometer, and stethoscope to be kept next to her bed. He seems reluctant to leave the house too, and has asked Christine to watch her more closely. The couple are not really speaking to one another though, and Kate heard Melvin beating Christine again a couple of nights ago. It seems that his violence peaks when he’s stressed, and Kate is aware that any misbehaviour or stress-inducing activity from her might make Christine’s life more difficult. She hates being part of this twisted arrangement; stuck in between two people who wouldn’t know what respect, love, or kindness were if it hit them in the face. Especially Melvin. Kate can see that he is rotten to the core, and he repulses her more and more as each day goes by. She is still desperately waiting for a moment when she can go downstairs and make that call. Today is Sunday. Up to a few weeks ago, both Melvin and Christine left the house on a Sundays for mass, but lately he has wanted to go alone, for some reason. This could be the perfect opportunity for Kate to go downstairs; she would more than likely be untied, and then all she needed was for Christine to be in a different part of the house, like the kitchen, or even in the garden, and she could open the door using the lamp piece and go downstairs to the phone. So much could go wrong, but it was possible. Kate tries to remain positive and calm; focusing on executing the plan as well as she can. She hears Melvin leave, and pretty soon Christine comes upstairs and goes into the bathroom. Kate calls to her. Christine seems to be in a good mood for some reason, and happily agrees to take her to the bathroom. As she unties her hands, Kate asks if it’s okay to stay untied for a while to do a little bit of walking around the room because her back is sore. She doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it, and adds that she’s happy to wait until Melvin gets home if Christine is busy with housework. Christine doesn’t respond right away. Kate can see how incredibly indecisive she is, and thinks that it probably comes from years of living under the wrath of a monster like Melvin. The woman is terrified of making a mistake, and Kate telling her she has a sore back is probably making her worry if she doesn’t let her move around, she might get worse, and Melvin might blame Christine. But, she has to prepare the Sunday lunch, and he’s also told her to have the kitchen spotless by the time he gets back. Kate couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome, and her suggestion works perfectly. Christine walks her back to the room from the bathroom, and tells her she will be up to check on her in fifteen minutes, then locks the door behind her. Kate immediately moves to action. She takes a few deep breaths, then creeps to the door, listening for any evidence that Christine is nearby. All she can hear is the distant mooing of cows, and the birds chirping outside the window. She has already considered the window as a way to escape, but it would mean smashing it because it didn’t open, and had been sealed thoroughly. Plus, Kate couldn’t risk jumping from the first floor, even if she did manage to smash the glass and climb on to the ledge. She couldn’t risk hurting the baby. It’s a bright winter’s day, and she wishes she could just open the bedroom door, run downstairs, and into the garden. But, she has to stay calm, and not take any more risks than she needs to. She just has to make that call. Then, a thought occurs to her; if Christine catches her this time, what will she do? Will she stay silent, like before? Will there be a physical struggle? Is Kate capable of taking Christine on physically if she has to? Maybe, she should try to sneak up on her, and hit her over the head with something; that’s the kind of thing you would see in a movie. The thought makes Kate’s heart race, and her feet feel wobbly. Plus, if it backfires, she would be putting her life, and her baby’s life in further danger. She decides to stick to the plan of trying to get to the phone.