She and Cora managed to jump in making the little boat wobble alarmingly. Reg followed suit, taking up the oars.
None of them spoke as they neared the shingle beach of Gisford Ness.
Reg hauled himself out of the boat and pulled it onto the stones before helping her and Cora.
He put his finger to his lips. Alex could just about make him out by the light of the shadowy moon.
Reg led them up the beach, their feet crunching on the shingle. They clambered up the high dunes. Surely someone, if there was anyone around, would hear them coming? Maybe no one was checking the fences tonight. It could just be, as Jamie had told her, that all they wanted was to keep the place safe from people who might damage the delicate ecosystem. This clandestine trip could all be for nothing.
A tall fence, topped with barbed wire, loomed out of the dark. They crept along its perimeter, until they were in the shadow of the decommissioned lighthouse.
To one side of the lighthouse and outside the fence were three tumbledown sheds. Reg led them into one. It smelled musty and of decay. The concrete floor was pitted in places, and loose bricks and what looked like old sacks were lying around and about. Alex heard a scurrying noise and tried not to think about how many rats there might be hiding in the dark corners.
‘See, at the back,’ he whispered, ‘where the bricks are loose, or have fallen away completely, there’s a hole in the fence. You can get through there. Easy. There are no floodlights at this end.’
‘You’ll wait for us?’ Alex whispered back, as Cora moved towards the back of the shed.
‘Aye. I’ll wait here. Don’t be long mind.’
Alex felt in her pocket for her phone and was glad to feel its reassuring presence. She hoped she wouldn’t have to use the light, there was no way she wanted to attract attention to them both.
Cora beckoned to her. ‘We can go through here, look. It’s been cut with wire cutters.’ She grinned at Alex. ‘Reminds me of turning up at Boney’s place.’ She pushed with her shoulder and shimmied through sideways.
Alex looked back at Reg. There was an odd, thoughtful look on his face. ‘You will wait for us, won’t you, Reg?’
He nodded. ‘You take care.’
‘Where now?’ whispered Cora, once they were standing inside the fence.
Alex stood and listened. Had all this been too easy? She could hear nothing but the sound of the sea pulling on the shingle behind her and the wind now whipping through the air. In front of her and about fifty metres away was the shape of a building that looked solid enough. They should make their way there and think about their next move. With a sinking heart Alex realized she hadn’t actually thought this through; she had done her usual thing of stampeding forward without a plan. Why hadn’t she taken more time to consider what they were doing? She shouldn’t have dragged Cora along. Too late now.
‘We’ll head for that building and take stock. Come on. Quickly and quietly.’ She almost laughed at her own words. So difficult to be quiet on these stones.
They crept towards the building, sticking to a well-trodden path.
As they reached it, Cora grabbed her arm. ‘Did you hear that?’
Alex shook her head. She had been concentrating so hard on getting to safety, she hadn’t been aware of anything else but the building that was to be their sanctuary. She wanted to look at the map of Gisford Ness she had brought with her, make her way to the concrete bunkers. She had a feeling about those.
‘I thought I heard a noise, like a cough or something.’
They stood for a couple of minutes, listening hard. Nothing.
They reached the building. It certainly was solid. Dark.
The door was unlocked.
She pushed it open.
The lights came on.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
DAY SIX: LATE
It was as if he had never left.
Except this time, he would never leave.
He was back on his cold, hard bed in the underground building, his wrists and ankles chained to convenient posts that had been hammered into the ground. His whole body ached, only marginally relieved by the drugs that had been shot into his system by a grinning goon.
How could he have been so stupid?
It had all started to go wrong when he was standing on the quay, looking across the river to Gisford Ness …
‘I thought if I waited here long enough you would turn up. Like a bad, bad penny.’ The whisper was behind him, in his ear. There was a sharp prick through his clothes below his armpit. A knife, he guessed.
Rick froze. He’d been careless, so focused on getting to Gisford that he had forgotten to keep in the shadows.
‘So, keep very still and walk when I tell you to walk, and jump when I tell you to jump. What we’re going to do is walk towards that boat over there, get in nicely and I’ll take you back to the island and we can put you to work. Again. If that’s what they want.’
Gary. Fucking Gary.
‘And if I don’t?’ he asked through clenched teeth.
‘If you don’t,’ Gary pushed the knife in a little more and Rick felt it pierce his skin and a drop of blood run down his side, ‘I will push the blade just below your armpit here.’ The point of the knife was sharp. Rick tried not to flinch. ‘And if I twist it I will sever your arterial system. Might even put a neat hole in your heart. Instant and efficient death with minimum blood loss. You would be on the floor and I would be away on the boat before anyone realized you were dead. Understand?’ His voice was low and menacing, but with an undercurrent of pleasure.
Rick nodded.
He had been inching his right hand up towards his neck while Gary was talking. He took hold of his gold chain with two fingers and pulled it, as surreptitiously and as hard as he could.
It snapped.
‘Good. You’re not the only one to have been in the army. And after you, I would go after that sister of yours. Cora, isn’t it? Although her death wouldn’t be quite so quick. Now, let’s move.’
Nausea rose in Rick’s throat. He was dizzy and hot. His arm throbbed. He was getting an infection, he thought. At this rate he wouldn’t last over there, on the island. Even if they did decide to put him to work, and then they would work him until he dropped dead. He had seen that happen, he remembered now. He remembered everything now, when it was too late.
He had failed.
He’d wanted to do right by Cora, to expose what was going on over there, on the island, the nastiness, the disregard for human life and dignity, where money meant more than anything. Where human trafficking and drug manufacture took precedence over everything. It had all been for Cora. She needed – what was that Americanism? – closure, and he wanted to give it to her. But now he was here, on the quay, about to get into a boat to an uncertain future. No, it wasn’t uncertain, he knew exactly what would happen to him.
He would never return home.
He pretended to stumble. Gary caught hold of him and hauled him upright, but not before Rick had managed to drop his chain onto the concrete, praying Gary wouldn’t see. It was a long shot, maybe no shot at all, but he had to try something. He could only hope his sister might find it and realize where he’d gone.
A chance in a million.
The small motorboat was tied up alongside a wooden jetty and rocked from side to side as the two men clambered on board. Rick had half-thought he might be able to rush Gary when they were on the boat, because he would have to steer it as well as make sure he didn’t jump overboard or attack him. What he hadn’t bargained for was for the second man – what was his name? Pete, that was it – for Pete to be on board. Grinning. Waiting for him.
‘You’re so predictable,’ Pete said as he started the motor and cast off. ‘We knew you’d be back here. Couldn’t keep away, could you? What were you hoping to do? Storm the island single-handedly or something?’
He shook his head. He didn’t know himself what his plan was. He just knew he had to somehow get his camera out of its
hiding place and make sure the evidence on it reached the police. And not the bent ones. Because he’d promised Cora he would get evidence against the Riders. Somehow.
The weak sun was low in the sky, but Rick felt the rush of fresh air on his face and across his scalp as they crossed the river. The last fresh air he would feel for a while, he thought.
His whole body ached.
Perhaps he would die of blood poisoning before they could do anything with him …
He shivered as he looked around the miserably cold bunker. None of the other beds were occupied – they must all still be at work. It was still night-time.
He had to think of Cora. He knew he had to try for her sake. But he had escaped the island once, escaped the thugs twice, did he have it in him to do it all over again?
That wasn’t the point. The point was he had to do it all over again otherwise everything he’d done over these last months, all he’d done to try and make some meaning of his life, would be for nothing.
It had all seemed possible when Cora found him and he told her how he had seen Lewis Rider and a couple of his henchmen around Dragon’s Hall one day. That he’d kept out of sight, but had then seen Lewis’s men talking to some friends of his who had pitched their tent on wasteland near Dragon’s Hall. Behind a crumbling old wall so the tent couldn’t be seen by a casual observer. It wouldn’t take the plods long to find them, but until then, they were safe. Thing was, a couple of days later, the tent and his mates had gone. Never seen again. It happened a few more times, and that’s when he started to hear the rumours. That the people who were disappearing were not being moved on or leaving by choice. They were being taken and forced to work for a family. Rick immediately thought of having seen Lewis. Then more rumours: people were being offered ‘jobs’ and were taken to a mysterious island from which they never came back. Yet despite the rumours, people on the streets were accepting these ‘jobs’, hoping for a better life. Who wanted to sleep on cardboard, wrapped in newspaper and magazines, being spat on, pissed on, beaten up if a warm dry room and a job was on offer? Some, sure. But many wanted out if they could see a way out.
That was when he’d come up with his plan.
Why had he told Cora about seeing Lewis Rider? Why had he told her what he was going to do?
Because she was still hurting: twenty-four years later still nursing such a grievance in her heart that it consumed her. All Rick wanted for his sister was for her to meet someone and be happy. Have a family. Move away. Forget the Riders. Forget their parents – or, at least, forget the way in which their lives ended. But she couldn’t. Wasn’t able to move on. And he understood that – after all, the woman he saw in his dreams wasn’t his wife, but the young girl from the checkpoint in Afghanistan. He thought he would never be able to forget her and the exact moment of her death, so it stood to reason Cora couldn’t forget the day Lewis Rider shoved himself inside her body. And he thought it would help if he told her his plan.
He, too, hated the man.
He ran his tongue around his dry lips. God, he was thirsty.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
DAY SIX: LATE
Alex blinked, the sudden bright light searing itself onto her retinas, blinding her momentarily.
What was happening? Did opening the door trigger the lights? She hoped no one was watching from on the island, otherwise they would know someone had entered the building. She groped behind her for some sort of switch to turn the brightness off.
‘Welcome to Gisford Ness, Alex.’
She froze.
Lewis Rider with that phoney smile, his face and forehead plastic smooth.
On either side of him stood two men. She recognized one of them as the man from the solicitor’s CCTV. The other was wearing a red Puffa jacket and was holding a gun, pointed unwaveringly at her.
Where was Cora? She couldn’t see her, couldn’t sense her in the room. She had been behind Alex when she pushed open the door. Could she hope she had seen something, heard something and hadn’t followed her in? Alex prayed that it was so.
Okay. Let’s see what she could do.
‘Lewis,’ she said brightly. ‘How lovely to see you.’ She made herself appear shamefaced. ‘I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be here, but I was so interested in the island and its history that I had to come and see it for myself.’
‘In the dead of night?’
‘Well … it was the screams and the lights and the possibility of aliens that I wanted to explore. Only get them at night. And I wanted to take a few photographs.’
‘No camera?’
‘Phone. I always use my phone. Top of the range. Perfect photographs. Don’t need to carry excess equipment. Makes it easier.’
‘Really?’
Fuck it, she was gabbling.
‘Yes. I didn’t expect anyone to be here. I knew there was a fence around the island, but I found a hole and thought I would slip through. I’m sorry. I haven’t harmed anything. I was only interested, I thought it would make a good piece—’
‘For your paper?’
‘Yes. For The Post.’
‘Hmm.’
‘Do we really need the gun?’ She pointed at the man in the red jacket.
‘For the moment.’
She shrugged, as if it didn’t matter one way or the other. ‘Is it only you here?’
‘Oh yes.’ He chuckled. She didn’t like the sound of that chuckle. ‘Only Gary and Pete and me. Here at any rate. There are some others who want to meet you, however. Who did you expect?’
Who did she think would be here? Immediately the cold and haughty face of Marianne Rider came into her head. Ice-cool. Merciless. Keeping her family afloat any way she could. ‘Your mother?’ she ventured.
Lewis Rider laughed. ‘No, my mother leaves the island to me. The lodges and yurts are more her field. That and attracting funding for our various charities. But you know all about those, don’t you, Alex Devlin? Our charities. You do understand we have to be seen to be above board. Eager to help. Socially responsible. That’s what makes it so perfect.’
‘What is so perfect?’ she asked, warily.
He gave her a quick smile. ‘Unfortunately I will probably show you.’ He shook his head and tutted. ‘It’s such a shame you didn’t take notice of the warnings I sent you.’
‘Warnings?’
‘Boney. Terrible name. Mind you, he’s not so nice. And those teeth. Jesus.’
‘You sent Boney round to my flat?’
‘I did. He was supposed to frighten you.’
‘It didn’t work.’
He looked at her consideringly. ‘Evidently not. Even the threats to your sister and your son didn’t work. You are obviously a hard person to scare. But don’t you care about them?’
‘Of course I care,’ she said, gritting her teeth so hard her jaw began to ache. What had she done? She had always known that Lewis Rider was not to be trusted, had his finger in some rather nasty pies. Surely he wouldn’t really hurt her family or her, would he?
‘And that poor girl from Fight for the Homeless, what was her name?’
‘Sadie,’ said Gary, leering.
Lewis clicked his fingers. ‘Correct. Sadie. That was a shame. But she was going to blab to you, wasn’t she? I thought if I stopped her then maybe you would go away, because, you see, you have become quite a problem to us.’
Alex wanted to throw up. The white van. It really did have a dent and blood on it, she had been right. Why couldn’t she have persuaded Sam Slater to look into it? Why hadn’t she told him where she was going?
She was beginning to realize she had made a big mistake.
She tried to look around surreptitiously. The room was bare. Concrete walls, concrete floor. Two windows either side. A set of open stairs in the corner. It didn’t smell of anything but damp and the sea.
‘Anyway,’ said Lewis Rider. ‘I’ve had enough of this.’ He nodded at Gary and Pete. They came forward and seized Alex by her arms.
‘I think yo
u’ll get your wish,’ said Lewis Rider. ‘You were so desperate to see what goes on here that I will show you some of the island.’
Alex tilted her chin. ‘Why show me?’
He smiled. ‘I’m proud with what we have achieved. And I can’t tell many people that. But since you won’t be leaving …’
She had to swallow hard to stop the bile rising in her throat. ‘I don’t know what you’re planning,’ in truth, she didn’t want to know what he was planning, it was bound not to be anything good, ‘but there is someone who knows I am here. Someone who brought me over.’ She tried to loosen the men’s grip, but to no avail. She had known it wouldn’t work, but she’d had to try.
‘You mean Reg?’ Lewis Rider didn’t only laugh, he guffawed. ‘Old Reg. Been working for me for years. Like Seth.’
‘Seth?’ Now she was confused. ‘He said your father had dismissed him. Jamie said he had been sacked for stealing.’
‘Yes. They did both say those things, didn’t they? No, Alex. Reg has gone straight back home. Back to his smelly little hut but five hundred pounds richer. He turned tail as soon as he’d shown you the handy hole in the fence. Funny you didn’t smell a rat. A convenient old man in the pub who conveniently told you about another old man. The second old man happy to take you across to an island in his fishing boat that most people wouldn’t visit if they were paid. Then hey presto, a cut in the wire and you’re in. No guards, no lights. No dogs. We do have dogs here, you know. I may introduce you to them at some point. They get very hungry this time of year. Mind you, the plan very nearly hit the rocks when you didn’t immediately take him up on his offer of a lift. What made you change your mind?’
Alex stared at him, refusing to say anything, although her heart had plummeted into her boots and she felt sick. Seth and Reg. Stooges. Why hadn’t she stopped and thought about it properly? Because she was so desperate to get her story, get an exclusive. She was so focused on getting across to the island that she didn’t stop to think that Seth and Reg were a little too convenient.
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