Текст книги "The Lake House"

Автор книги: Helen Phifer

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‘Who’s down there? Answer me now. What have you done with my son?’

Anger taking over her fear, she began to walk down the steps into the cellar, determined to find out what was going on in her own house. She reached the bottom and picked up the nearest thing to her, which was a rusted lantern. Armed with that she stepped into the cellar.

‘Joseph, it’s me, Mummy. Where are you, darling? Tell me and I’ll come and get you, I promise.’

Movement from one corner of the cellar made her whip around to see something the size of a tall man crouched on all fours scurry back into the darkness. Eleanor stared in horror, realising that whatever it was couldn’t be human because she saw one sharp claw reach out of the shadows and drag itself along the floor in front of her eyes.

She stood her ground, determined that she wouldn’t be scared away by something that was quite clearly a freak of nature. Unable to speak, she waited for it to move again, and after a painfully long time it did. It began to move forward. She lifted the lantern but realised that it was no match for the razor-sharp claws the thing had instead of fingers. As its body moved into the light she saw the red glow in its eyes and remembered the last time she had seen something so horrific. It moved again, this time much faster, and she screamed and threw the lantern at it. There was a squeal and a clatter of claws as whatever it was came rushing towards her. Without thinking she turned and ran as fast as she could up the cellar steps. Stumbling on the last one she felt a whoosh as one of those claws grabbed for her foot, and then she was outside.

She slammed the door shut using her whole weight. She pushed the bolt across with hands that were shaking, and then she ran to the kitchen and pulled a chair along. Ramming the back of it under the doorknob, she began to cry and knew that whatever it was had taken her little boy and he wasn’t coming back.

Tomorrow she would send for the rat catchers, a hunter, anyone who had a rifle and could shoot whatever it was dead. Petrified, she waited by the door for someone to come down and make the cellar safe. When she had first seen that thing in the freak show it had somehow held her fascinated, as horrified as she was to look at it. The fire had pushed all thoughts of the creature from her mind, but now here it was, alive and in her cellar, and now her baby boy was missing. The pain in her chest took her breath away. She was terrified of whatever it was and wanted to run away upstairs to tell James…no, to demand that James explain how the thing had come to be in their house. But she couldn’t go back upstairs in case whatever it was escaped, because she knew if it did it would kill them all.

Chapter Thirteen

They said goodbye and climbed back into the van. Annie began the drive back to the station. As soon as they were out of sight, Cathy let out a huge sigh of relief.

‘What the hell do you make of that? I totally got sucked into it. I was actually terrified the Creature from the Black Lagoon was going to come out of the cellar and eat us all like some fairy tale monster.’

‘I know you did; we all did.’

Sam and Tracy nodded in agreement; for once they were unusually quiet.

‘I think that Miss Martha Beckett has a monster in her cellar that eats people.’

Cathy looked at Annie, who wasn’t smiling, and she began to laugh, really laugh.

‘Piss off, Annie. You’d believe anything. There’s no such thing as monsters in cellars, unless you count sick bastards like Henry Smith. People are the real monsters and you should know all about that.’

Annie decided not to say anything else. She’d already said it out loud. If her boss didn’t believe her that was up to her, but she wasn’t going back in that cellar unless they had armed officers with them who could kill moving targets with precision. Occasionally you heard of strange things happening. Who were they to say that they weren’t? The problem was: what could she do about it? Miss Beckett had lived in that house all her life with the knowledge that there was something bad down there. She needed to do some research on the house and the area. Go back and see if there were many missing person reports from around that area. She didn’t know of any herself except for Seamus, but she’d only been working here two years. She turned to look at the two women in the back.

‘What did you make of it all?’

It was Sam who answered. ‘I don’t know, but I’ve never been so frightened in my life. It was so scary down there I kept thinking that I don’t get paid enough for this and that you two were all right because you have your spray and batons. What were we supposed to do if something had grabbed you two “use harsh language”?’

Cathy started laughing again and had to wipe away a tear from the corner of her eye. ‘Give me strength. What are you lot like? We just got caught up in the moment, you know, the atmosphere, and the old dear was quite convincing. There’s no more a monster down there than there is Brad Pitt waiting in my bed for me at home.’

All four of them laughed and before long Annie pulled up in front of the police station, parking the van next to Cathy’s battered old Clio.

‘Watch my car; you know it’s my pride and joy.’

This set the other three off laughing even harder and Annie spluttered, ‘Now who’s delusional?’

All four of them climbed out and began to walk into the station, not noticing the amount of bluebottles that seemed to be landing on the boot of Cathy’s car. They went inside. Tracy went to put the kettle on and the others went into their respective offices. Just as Annie sat down Cathy shouted down the hall, ‘Will you stick a log on for our missing man and then fill out the report?’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘Good. Put down everything that we’ve just done except for the bit where we ran out of the cellar screaming like a bunch of girls. You’ve my permission to leave that bit out.’

Annie smiled as she began to log on to her computer to input the details on the system. The next step would be to do a leaflet drop in the area just in case there was anyone they hadn’t spoken to. It was going to be a long day. The door slammed. Annie smelt Jake before he actually entered the room and she let out a sigh of relief. She always felt so much safer when he was around. He walked in, chatting on his phone and getting quite animated.

‘Yes, I don’t care. No, I didn’t say that, did I? You’ll have to come to my house because Alice goes to bed at seven and I don’t want to get her out of her routine. Right, okay, yes, that will be fine. See you then.’

He sat on the corner of Annie’s desk and patted her head as if she was a pet dog. She shrugged his hand off.

‘I’ve got good news and bad news from your other half. Which do you want first?’

‘Is he okay? The bad news…why? What’s happened?’

‘He’s fine, probably a bit smellier than usual, but you should be used to that by now. Will is convinced that those two bodies Stu discovered earlier are the work of your friend Henry. He said that he’s convinced Henry has dumped the head for us to find. Which means it could be anywhere. As from now you are no longer allowed to be without your special bodyguard, who if you ask me deserves a shiny new Mercedes as danger pay.’

Annie had been doing her best to try and talk herself out of the fear that Henry was stalking her again, but if Will thought it was Henry then there was a good chance it was. Which meant that he was watching her and possibly Will, but definitely her. She shivered, and then groaned. ‘Why me? What did I ever do to that man to make him hate me so much?’

‘Let me think about that one. Well, for a start you didn’t lie down and die like he expected you to, did you? Nope, instead you had to pick a fight with him, stab him and almost burn him to death, so that could be the reason why he’s a bit obsessed and pissed off with you. How am I doing?’

She punched him in the thigh.

‘Ouch, see? Danger money. Seriously, Annie, I think Will is freaking out, although I do agree with him that you can’t be left on your own. Kav has suggested we meet at my house tonight, to see if we can come up with a plan of action, so to speak. None of us is willing to wait around and let him sneak up on us a second time.’

Jake lowered his voice and leant towards her ear.

‘Seriously, this time I’m going to catch him. I promise you, before he so much as gets a chance to hurt you I’ll take him out.’

Annie nodded, unable to speak; her stomach was churning so much she actually thought she might be sick.

‘What have you got to do now?’

‘Missing persons report and that’s it.’

‘Good. Because I’m finished in ten minutes and whether the boss woman likes it or not you’re coming home at the same time as me. Alex was going to drive up with Alice and we were going to go for an ice cream, but I’ve told him to stay at home and make sure everywhere is secure. I know Henry isn’t interested in me. He probably doesn’t know who I am, but I sure as hell know who he is and I’m going to be ready for him.’

Jake stood up to go and discuss what he’d just told Annie with Cathy. She heard her swear loudly and then her door was slammed shut. Annie tried to block it out while she typed up the report on the computer, but she could feel his hot breath in her face as he straddled her, whispering into her ear how he was going to kill her. Tracy walked in with a cup of coffee and almost made her jump out of the chair and spray her with CS gas.

‘Jesus, you gave me a bloody heart attack.’

‘Sorry, that kettle’s on its last legs. It takes for ever to boil.’

Annie thanked her and turned back to finish typing the details in about where they had searched and what other actions had been taken. Her hands were shaking so much it took her five times longer than usual. She could feel both Tracy and Sam watching her, wondering what was going on, but she didn’t want to tell them until she knew for sure. Why drag them into her nightmare? They both stood up to go outside and have a wander round the town for the last hour of their shift.

Jake came back in and grinned at her. ‘She’s not so bad is she, our old boss woman? I think she’s having kittens in there after what I just told her.’

‘What did she say?’

‘That I was to get you home, and she didn’t want to see you until the bastard is back behind bars. She also said she’s coming round to mine later on. She wants to help, but more than that she wants to kick Kav in the balls for passing you on to her. In her words, “No wonder he couldn’t wait to get shut of her. I’m about to have a bloody heart attack.” She’s not impressed by the sounds of it.’

‘Oh, you think so? I’m nearly done now. Please take me home. I want to get changed.’

‘Well, I would, but I haven’t got the car. You’re driving, remember?’

She nodded, typed the last sentence and then logged off her computer. She stood up to go and take her body armour off and grab her handbag. Jake followed her into the changing rooms.

‘I think we should take it all home.’

‘What?’

‘Body armour, CS gas, radio, baton, everything – just in case we need it. It’s no good up here. Cathy isn’t going to complain, is she? I’m sure she’ll turn a blind eye.’

Annie didn’t argue with him. It seemed like a good idea. At least it was some protection should they need it. Between them they carried armfuls of equipment out to her car. She clicked the boot, walked around and screamed at the swarm of bluebottles that were buzzing around the cars. Jake wafted them away with his hands. Annie opened her boot and they threw everything inside before any flies could get in. Then they ran to open the doors and get inside as fast as they could.

‘Urgh, did you see those flies? That was gross. Where do you think they’ve come from? I’ve never seen them swarm around like that before.’

‘Disgusting. Don’t open your windows until we get away from here. The drains are probably blocked or something.’

Annie nodded and reversed her car, neither of them really noticing that the boot of Cathy’s car was crawling with the flies and that they were all fighting to get inside. They drove to Annie’s house in silence, both of them wondering exactly what they were up against. As she pulled up outside she looked around. Henry couldn’t know that she lived up here now. That would be impossible. But he knew where her brother and his family lived because she’d been house-sitting for them when he began to stalk her.

Her heart started racing and she took out her phone and rang Ben. He didn’t pick up so she left him a voicemail to ring her back as soon as he could. Henry didn’t know Ben or his wife, Liz, and their daughter, Matilda, and he had no reason to go after any of them, so she hoped they would be safe, but it wouldn’t hurt to let them know. Jake got out of the car and looked around. He nodded at her and she got out.

Annie knew that even if Henry Smith, the monster who haunted most of her nightmares, had jumped out on Jake that she wouldn’t drive off and leave him. She would die trying to fight him because she would never live with herself if she did leave. She wanted Henry out of her life more than anyone else did. They went into her house together and she grabbed some clean clothes for both her and Will, stuffing them into a travel bag along with some toiletries. It might end up that they stayed with Jake and Alex, which would make sense – safety in numbers and all that – but she wouldn’t want to put Alex or Alice in danger.

What a complete mess this was. She reset the burglar alarm and made sure the CCTV cameras were working. When Will had insisted on installing a state-of-the-art security system she had laughed and told him he was going way over the top. Now she was thankful for it, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Will had known all along there was a chance that Henry would come back to finish what he started. They left and locked the house up, getting back in Annie’s car. Jake whistled under his breath. ‘I never thought I’d see the day that you would live somewhere so gorgeous. Look at you driving a brand-new Mercedes and even being able to work your own burglar alarm. How times have changed, Ms Graham.’

‘Mrs Ashworth.’

‘Nope, you’ll always be plain old Annie Graham to me.’

‘Good. I wouldn’t want to be anyone else. Do you think I’ve changed though, Jake? I don’t mean because Will is loaded, as you would so eloquently put it, but am I the same person who walked into the police station five years ago and got the biggest crush on you anyone has ever had?’

She was driving along the narrow lanes that would take them onto the main road at Newby Bridge and he looked at her for a few minutes.

‘Yes, you’ve changed, but for the better. You’re no longer the timid person who never talked about her home life or her obsession with chunky Kit Kats. But you’ve been through so much. Any normal woman would have cracked up and been admitted to a mental hospital, but not you. You’ve survived and come through the other side even stronger. Although you’ve got a fair few scars to prove it as well. Do you think you’ve changed?’

‘Yes, I do. I’ve truly never felt so loved and special. Will makes me feel like I can be me; I never have to pretend to be anyone else with him. With Mike it was always as if I had to put on an act. I couldn’t be myself because if I was I ended up getting a good slap. I know that Will would never hit me and I think because of his love I feel a lot more confident. Is that how you feel about Alex? I’ve never really thought about it before?’

‘I suppose it is, but Alex has a lot going for him. He’s pretty gorgeous, as you well know, you harlot. Plus he’s not as wealthy as Will, but he is relatively well off, so we never argue about money. And now we have Alice it’s like everything is just perfect and I don’t want it to end. I will do anything to protect you and my family. So if it comes to it and there’s no choice, then I’m serious about hunting down that freak Smith and putting him back behind bars. Is that okay with you?’

‘Of course it is, Jake, but I would never expect you to put your life on the line for me. And if it comes to the point where there’s even the slightest chance he knows where you live then we move you, Alex and Alice to a safe place until it’s all over. One way or the other.’

Annie didn’t say it but she would rather die than put her friends’ lives at risk. She felt her eyes fill with tears because she knew that it could come to that if they didn’t find him first. She wouldn’t expect Will, Jake or Kav to put themselves on the line for her. Henry wanted her, not them and, if she had to, she would go with him, to make sure they were safe. She’d fought him once and she hoped that she would have the strength to do it again if she had to.

Jake was staring out of the window, but his eyes were filled with as many tears as hers, because he knew her so well that he was thinking exactly the same thing, and he didn’t want to lose her.

Chapter Fourteen

Jake ushered Annie into his house where a pale-faced Alex was pacing up and down with the baby, rocking her to sleep. Jake kissed him on the cheek and then held his hands out and let Alex pass her over. He kissed her tenderly on her forehead and took over rocking and singing to her, and Annie felt her heart melt. She had never seen a sweeter sight and she was tempted to turn around and walk straight back out of this house and drive away. She couldn’t put her friends at risk. They meant far too much to her. Alex grabbed her elbow and led her into the kitchen.

‘No, you don’t. I saw that look on your face and you’re here because we want you to be. If there is the slightest chance that bastard knows where we live then we’re leaving. All of us. I already have my car packed up with everything that me, Jake and Alice might need.’

‘I’m sorry, Alex, I can’t.’

She let out a sob and he walked around the breakfast bar to where she was sitting and wrapped his arm around her, passing her some kitchen roll.

‘You can’t what? This isn’t the Annie I know, the feisty, I’m-going-to-kick-your-arse girl. Don’t let him get to you; it’s what he wants. He wants you to feel like you can’t possibly fight him a second time. Well, I’m telling you now, I think it’s him who is scared of you. Last time you hurt him and he ended up in hospital fighting for his life. You turned the tables on him so don’t you underestimate yourself.’

‘I’m not, but it’s just that last time I was lucky, very lucky. I might not be this time around. I’ve got too much to lose now and he will know this.’

She blew her nose on the kitchen roll and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

‘I’m not scared for me; I’m scared for Will and all of you. I don’t want any of you risking your life for me.’

There was a loud knock at the door and Alex rushed to open it. Peering through the spy hole, he was glad to see Will standing on the other side. He opened the door and pointed to the kitchen, then he locked the door behind him. Will went into the kitchen where he ran to Annie and pulled her close. Alex left them to it and went to help Jake put Alice to bed and give them some space.

***

It was dark by the time Cathy left the station; she could hear the buzzing of flies but couldn’t actually see them. She got into the clapped-out car she had bought for her daughter, Georgia, to learn to drive in. Her own was at the garage so she’d resorted to using this to come to work in. Considering how old it was it was a surprisingly nice drive. The radio only played The Bay, which was the local radio station, but that didn’t matter. Tonight was eighties night so the drive back to Barrow went pretty fast. A couple of times when she went round a steep bend there had been a thudding noise from the boot, which sounded as if there was something rolling around in there – like a football.

She hadn’t noticed it that morning, but she’d been late and the roads had been much busier than they were now. Before long she was pulling up outside her house in Hawcoat, which her mother used to call Cornflake Hill, because she said that the people who lived in that area couldn’t afford to eat anything else, the houses were so expensive.

Her divorce had finally come through and the prick had agreed she could keep their marital home, which had pleased her spoilt brat of a daughter no end. She’d hated living in Bowness with a passion and was glad to be back home with all her friends. Which meant that she didn’t spend as much time moaning to Cathy about how crap her life was, meaning that Cathy actually got some peace and quiet. Probably too much peace, because all she did now was fire up the laptop, open a bottle of wine and settle down to watch Netflix. Cathy forgot all about the noise in the boot and went inside her house, glad to be home. Before she could get a quick shower her daughter appeared with two of her friends.

‘Mum, can we have a lift to the pictures, please?’

Cathy sighed and turned around to walk back out.

‘And is it okay if I sleep at Ellie’s house?’

She nodded. Another night of peace and quiet. It also meant she could go to Jake’s house and not have to worry about leaving Georgia on her own while they discussed the possibility of Henry Smith being back on the scene. Her daughter had an overstuffed backpack with her that rattled. As long as it wasn’t her bottle of vanilla vodka she didn’t care, so she ignored it.

‘Stick that in the boot, Georgia, and take that bloody football out. It’s been rolling around all the way home driving me mad.’

‘I haven’t got a football. Did you leave a tin of baked beans in it when you went shopping last night?’

‘Possibly. Well, have a look and take it out, whatever it is, please.’

Georgia, who was chattering away to her friends, opened the boot that never locked because it needed fixing and waited for the light to flicker into life. When it did it took her a few seconds to register that the face staring back at her was dead. She pulled away and looked for her mother, wondering if this was some kind of joke and if it was a mask, but then a bluebottle crawled out of the woman’s open mouth and Georgia began to scream.

Cathy, who was gulping cola from the bottle in the kitchen, heard the noise and dropped the bottle onto the worktop where the fizzy brown liquid glugged all over. Her heart skipped a beat. She didn’t understand what her daughter was screaming at. She ran out of the front door to see Georgia standing at the boot of the car, her mouth open and the most awful sound coming from it. Thinking that she’d trapped her fingers or dropped the bottles of alcohol in her backpack she ran around to see what the commotion was.

Cathy looked down into the boot and felt the world begin to swim as bile rose up her throat. There was a woman’s head staring back at her. She pushed her daughter away, and her friends, and screamed at them to get inside the house and lock the doors. After pulling her phone from her pocket she dialled the control room and told them to get patrols to her house now. She looked once more at the head and wondered why the fuck it was in the boot of her daughter’s car, and who would have had the audacity to do such a thing?

The neighbours from either side came out to see if everything was okay and Cathy wasn’t been able to speak to them. For once in her life she was speechless and just shrugged and held her hand up for them not to come any closer. She had been relieved to see them, but she couldn’t have them seeing what was inside the car. She was going to have nightmares for the rest of her life. She couldn’t inflict that on two seventy-year-olds. She’d driven all the way back with it rolling around the inside of her car. Finally snapping herself out of it, she went to her front door and asked Georgia if she was okay. Her daughter was sniffing but had thankfully stopped screaming. Her face was white. Her two friends were sitting either side of her on the sofa.

‘I need you to stay in here, make sure the windows and doors are locked and shut all the curtains.’

‘Mum, how did that get into my car?’

‘I don’t know, sweetie, I really don’t. It’s been in there since I set off from the police station at Windermere so whoever did it is probably still up there, but I don’t want to take any chances.’

‘We locked up before it got dark, but I’ll check again.’

‘Good girl. I’m really sorry but I’m not going to be able to take you to the cinema now. You’re going to have to talk to the police officers who come. They won’t be long and you’ll have to give them a statement, and then I’ll get one of them to drive you to Ellie’s house and you can all stay there. Is that okay?’

All three girls nodded and the sirens in the distance got louder. Cathy had never felt so relieved to hear them and she turned around and walked to the edge of her drive to flag them down. Then Cathy phoned Will.

***

Will put the phone down and relayed what Cathy had told him to Jake, Kav – who’d just arrived – and Annie.

‘I’ve got to go. Please can you stay here with Annie, Jake?’

Kav stood up. ‘I’m coming with you, then we’ll come back if it’s not too late. We need to sort out what we’re going to do about this situation.’

Jake escorted them to the front door where he let them out and then locked it again. He went back into the kitchen.

‘All those bloody flies – now we know why. I can’t believe he would be so brazen as to dump a head in the boot of a police inspector’s car. I can’t sit here; I need to know what’s happening. Do you know where she lives?’

Annie nodded. ‘You’re right, we need to be there. I want to know what’s happening. It’s no good sitting here like a pair of wimps.’

Alex came downstairs and Jake pecked him on the cheek.

‘I’ll be back as soon as I can. There’s been an emergency. All hands on deck sort of thing.’

Alex frowned at him. ‘Please be careful. I’m not too happy that you’re both going wherever it is. Should I know where you’re going and why?’

They both replied ‘No’ in unison.

‘Lock the doors, Alex, and ring me if you need me. I’ll be back here before you know it.’

Alex sighed but shut and locked the front door behind them. He didn’t really want to know but now he was going to be worried sick until they came back. Alice started crying and he turned around and ran back upstairs, glad he had her to take his mind off wondering what the emergency was.