Текст книги "The Lake House"
Автор книги: Helen Phifer
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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 20 страниц)
Jake yawned and Kav stood up.
‘Thanks, Jake. I’d best get going. There’s a lot to think about. I want to get some sleep and have a clear head for the morning. What time did the super say the briefing was going to be?’
Cathy answered, ‘The dick said eight. Can you give me a lift home, Kav? Come inside and check my house is all secure and make sure there’s no scary men hiding under my bed?’
They laughed, but all of them knew there was a real possibility of this happening if it did turn out to be Henry Smith. Kav, ever the gentleman, agreed, and Jake walked them to the car outside. All three of them scanned the street but there were no strange cars parked or any weird men hanging around.
Cathy got into the passenger seat of Kav’s car and he rolled his eyes at Jake. Jake had heard rumours that, years ago, before she’d married the chief super, Cathy and Kav had had an affair, but he’d been married at the time and she’d wanted to settle down. But they did make a pretty good couple. Maybe once this was sorted out he could do a little bit of matchmaking. He’d always said she needed a good shag to sort her out. He went back inside to Annie and Will, who were both curled up on the sofa.
‘I bet you a tenner Kav spends the night with Cathy and they come to work together in the morning.’
‘Rubbish. They’re always arguing.’
‘That might be, Annie, but there’s something about being scared and living dangerously that makes a quick shag all the better.’
Will laughed. ‘Are you all right if we crash here tonight? I don’t want to put you and Alex out but it’s a long way back to Hawkshead, and I’m knackered.’
‘Of course you can. I’d rather you both stayed here. At least I know where you are – just no noisy shagging. I don’t want you waking the baby up.’
Annie stood up and slapped his arm. ‘You are so crude at times. As if. I wouldn’t dream of doing that in your house. I’m so tired I just want to get into bed and sleep for a week.’
‘Yes, well, that won’t be happening either. Do you have any idea how many times a night babies cry and need their nappy changing or a bottle of milk?’
‘No, but I’m sure we’ll find out. Goodnight, Jake. Say goodnight to Alex for us, and thank you.’
They headed off upstairs to the guest room, which might as well have had a sign on the door that said ‘Annie’s Room’. She spent almost as much time here as she did her own home. They both undressed and crawled into bed where Annie snuggled up to Will, and even though she never thought she’d go to sleep, she drifted off in seconds, closely followed by Will.
***
Kav parked outside Cathy’s house, which looked like every other bungalow on the street. You would never have guessed the police circus that had been outside the front less than two hours ago. He got out of the car and walked across to the front door, waiting for her to find her keys. She finally found them and opened the door; before she walked in she pushed her arm through the open gap and felt along the wall until she reached the switch, flicking it and bathing the hall in light.
Kav never said a word. He had seen a different side to her tonight. One that wasn’t as tough as old work boots. They’d been friends for years, even lovers for a while a long time ago, but it hadn’t worked out. He’d refused to walk out on his wife even though he didn’t particularly love her, and Cathy had moved on and married, then divorced, the man who was now the super. Kav walked in with her close behind, shutting the front door. He then continued to check each room in turn, saving her bedroom for last. It was painted grey and white with a huge Marilyn Monroe print above the bed, and he nodded.
‘Excellent taste. I like your bedroom. It’s classy yet understated.’
She giggled. ‘What are you now, an interior designer? I’m glad you approve. I’ll sleep better tonight.’
He grinned and bent down to look under the bed and she squealed.
‘Ooh I say, don’t you go finding my private toy box.’
Kav dropped the sheet and stood up, his face burning, and she laughed even harder.
‘You’re so gullible. You always were. That was one of the things I loved about you back in the day. I would like to think, if I did have a vibrator, that I’d hide it a bit better than that.’
He started to chuckle. ‘So are you going to offer me a coffee for being such a gentleman and making sure there are no scary men hiding under your bed?’
‘Of course, but I can do better than coffee if you want something stronger?’
‘No, coffee will be fine. I don’t drink a lot these days. It messes with my…’
Cathy laughed. ‘Stop right there. I don’t want to know.’
He followed her into the kitchen and sat on one of her bar stools.
‘Do you ever wonder how come you and me both ended up divorced and on our own? I do. Not that I wasn’t glad to get rid of my wife. It was a bit of a relief, to be honest, but it does get lonely. Did you miss me at all after we split up?’
‘Yes, I did miss you, but be thankful you weren’t married to “I can’t keep it in my pants if they are blonde and under thirty”. The only thing I miss about him is having someone to cut the hedge and put the bins out. Even the sex wasn’t that good.’
She passed him a cup of coffee and leant over to pour the milk in; Kav grabbed hold of her and pulled her close. Cathy paused for a minute then pulled him even closer as he kissed her. When she pulled away she smiled.
‘Forget about the coffee. Come and warm my bed up for me. It’s been a long time, too long.’
She took hold of his hand and led him back to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her just in case Georgia came home for anything. Seeing her mother having sex and finding a severed head in one night might just be too much for her.
Chapter Seventeen
Will and Jake were already in the blue room waiting for the briefing to begin. Will had left Annie with Alex. She was giving Alice a bottle. The sight of them both curled up on Jake’s sofa had melted his heart. Even Jake had commented when they got into the car that she was a natural, which was a polite hint from him that they should stop messing about and have kids – another reason why he hated Henry Smith. He was ruining Will’s chance of having a happy family. There was no way he could bring a baby into this world with a sadistic killer waiting in the background to steal everything away from him.
There was no sign of Kav or Cathy yet and Jake rolled his eyes at Will, who shook his head. The task force were there lined up against the back wall, and so were the chief super and the detective chief inspector, along with Stu and the rest of Will’s team. No one had noticed that Jake shouldn’t be there, so he kept quiet. It was funny watching the super’s face getting redder and redder. He kept looking at his watch, no doubt thinking that Cathy was being late on purpose just to piss him off. There was the sound of footsteps as someone ran down the four steps that led to the room and in walked Kav with Cathy behind him. Jake whispered in Will’s ear. ‘You owe me a tenner. As if they haven’t been shagging all night. She’s actually smiling.’
Will grinned. The super eyed them suspiciously, then he eyed Kav and Cathy as they took seats at opposite sides of the table. He coughed into his hand.
‘Right. Morning, everyone. I’m glad you could make it.’ He stared at Cathy when he said this; she yawned loudly and looked at her watch but he turned away from her, his face a shade of crimson that you would normally associate with someone about to burst a blood vessel.
‘As you know, we have a problem, a major problem. There are two women who have been killed and correct me if I’m wrong, DS Ashworth, we don’t have a bloody clue who is doing it. Any evidence, suspects, motives?’
‘Not really, sir. We all know that the number one suspect is Henry Smith, who walked out of his secure hospital three months ago, but there is nothing concrete to suggest that it could be him. It’s a completely different MO from his last killings. There is a small chance it could be someone trying to emulate Smith’s killings but taking it one step further.’
‘You mean a copycat? Jesus Christ, why would you want to do that?’
‘I can’t say. Maybe because Smith got his fifteen minutes of fame, someone else wants theirs.’
‘So what have we got, exactly? I want it from top to bottom.’
Will stood up and Cathy winked at him. He walked over to the front of the room where the whiteboard was and began to tell them everything he knew. He had never been a violent person, but now that Annie was under threat, he had realised quite calmly that he was willing to do anything to keep her safe.
An hour later and they were no wiser than before they’d begun, except that they had agreed to search the houses and outbuildings near the barn where the bodies had been discovered. Photographs of Henry and Megan, taken from the hospital CCTV cameras on the day they escaped, had been handed round to everyone. The whole area was to be canvassed and all residents spoken to. Will had offered to coordinate it and told Jake to go back home and tell Annie what was happening. They were both on shift at Windermere at two, so they were going to make a start on the camp and caravan sites up there. Will had tried to persuade her to phone in sick but she’d told him no way. She wanted to find Henry as much as anyone else and she couldn’t do that from home. After the briefing Cathy had pulled Will to one side.
‘I’ve spoken to the sergeants in my spot; they are all aware that Annie and Jake are to be teamed up and not separated at any cost. I’m pretty sure she couldn’t get a better bodyguard than Jake and we both know he’d never let Smith anywhere near her. We need people on the ground up there in case he’s staying in that area. Personally I think he’ll be somewhere between the two, but then again he could be anywhere. It’s anyone’s guess.’
‘Thank you, Cathy, I really do owe you one.’
‘No, you don’t. I needed a little excitement in my life. I just didn’t realise it.’
He walked off back to his office and Cathy made her way to the sergeant’s office to see Kav, who was in the middle of lecturing one of the new recruits. He looked at her and grinned; she saluted and then went to find her car. Last night had been the most excitement she’d had in years. She could get used to it.
1 January 1931
James approached the men who were waiting for him in the hall with trepidation. He was desperate to find this creature but terrified at the same time.
‘Can I just take this moment to thank you from the bottom of my heart? I suppose I should explain to you why I asked for guns. My wife heard a noise in the cellar last night and went to investigate hoping to find our son. What she saw was a large creature that she thinks may have been responsible for taking Joseph. I have no reason to disbelieve her. She does not have cause to lie. Eleanor doesn’t have an overactive imagination. If she says she saw something in the cellar, then she did, and now I want to go and find whatever it is and shoot it dead. Because if it took my son and scared my wife then it doesn’t deserve to live.’
Davey was shifting from foot to foot, looking scared and uncomfortable. Mitchell nodded his head in agreement with what James had said and the policeman looked so far out of his depth James wanted to tell him that they didn’t require his assistance. Nevertheless, if they did find a creature, he wanted him to be a witness to it and its destruction. James began to unbolt the padlocks and the atmosphere was so fraught with tension, if anyone had said boo it was possible Mitchell would have shot them.
James thought it only fair that he go first, so he did. The light was never bright enough to cast out all the shadows and he stood on the bottom step with the three men behind him while they listened for any noise. There was none, and James shone the lantern he was holding around. The cellar seemed empty, desolate. He strode towards the iron drain, which was the only way anything could get in or out, and waved the lantern over it. The hole looked empty but the grating wasn’t down properly. It had been moved. He turned to Davey.
‘We didn’t put this back yesterday, did we?’
‘No, sir, after you went upstairs I dragged it back over as best I could, just in case.’
‘Just in case what?’
Davey squirmed. He had tried not to think about it for fear of bringing it back to life to haunt his dreams. Then he thought of poor little Joe and scolded himself.
‘In case the thing I saw down there yesterday came back up. I told you I thought there was something down there when I first looked – only it moved so fast I thought it was just a rat. Then when I was in the tunnels I heard something and it scared me so much I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.’
‘What did you hear, Davey?’
‘It sounded like sharp claws, clattering up the tunnel towards me. It gave me a fair old fright.’
‘I knew you had seen something yesterday. You were scared when we pulled you out. Why didn’t you say something? My wife could have been hurt.’
‘I was too terrified, sir. I didn’t think you’d believe me and then I thought that if you did you would send me back down there. I’m so sorry for being a coward.’
James stopped himself from saying anything else. He would probably have done the same. None of this was Davey’s fault. It was all his and he would pay for this every second of every day until he died. He lifted a hand and squeezed his shoulder.
‘It’s all right. I’d probably have done the same thing if it had been me.’
Davey let out a sigh of relief and Mitchell stepped forward.
‘Well, I’m not scared. It’s probably some mutant rat. You should see the size of the ones we get on the farm sometimes. I’ll go down there with the gun and, if I see it, I’m shooting it on first sight. Is that okay with everyone?’
The others nodded, except for the policeman, who hadn’t really spoken up until now. ‘I don’t know if you should be firing a shotgun in a narrow tunnel, Mitchell. What if it hits the wall and ricochets? It would kill you outright.’
‘I’m not going to shoot the wall, now am I, officer? That would be a pretty stupid thing to do and a waste of good ammunition. I’m a trained gun man, been shooting rats since I was seven years old when my dad taught me.’
James stepped forward and nodded at Davey to grab hold of the cover. Both men bent down and pulled it over, leaving a gap big enough for Mitchell to climb down, but not taking it off completely in case they had to drag it back in a hurry. Mitchell jumped down into the hole and James passed him the lantern and the gun. Mitchell nodded at him, then bent down to shine the lamp around the tunnel to see if there were any rat droppings or signs of any other animals. It was clear. He had barely managed to fit into the tight space and had to shuffle around to get his rifle in position in case he needed to fire it.
‘It’s all clear up to now. I’m going in.’
Davey crossed himself and James felt his heart begin to race. What if he had just sent an innocent man to his death? But there was no proof that his son was dead. He was jumping to conclusions. They waited for what seemed like hours and the policeman began to get fidgety. James hoped that nothing had happened to Mitchell but there had been no shots fired or any shouting. Finally they heard him scrabbling back down the tunnel. It wasn’t wide enough for him to turn around in so he had to crawl backwards, which was not an easy task in a tunnel that size. His feet appeared at the mouth of the tunnel and then he pushed himself back. With a face that was covered in black marks, he looked up at them.
‘Nothing down there as far as I can see. There is a narrow tunnel that leads off from the main one but I don’t even think that it’s big enough to get a small child down. There is a bad smell coming from that tunnel, though. Smells like there might be a blockage or a dead animal down there.’
James flinched and the policeman finally spoke.
‘Sorry to be so crude, sir, but may I just say that your son hasn’t been missing long enough for him to…for his body to…to begin to… Well if some harm had come to him down there it would take more than fifteen or so hours for it to smell really bad is what I’m trying to say.’
James felt deflated. He knew that he was only trying to help, but a picture of his son’s cold, dead body flashed before his eyes and he wanted to collapse on the floor and never get back up.
‘I understand, officer, and thank you. Mitchell, are you sure there was no sign of Joe – no clothes or shoes?’
‘No, sir, as far as I can tell your son hasn’t been in that tunnel and whatever it was that Mrs Beckett saw last night wasn’t down there either.’
James bent down to drag the cover over, and this time it was the police officer who helped him to do it. They went back upstairs and James went into the kitchen, closing the door behind him.
‘I’m sorry, Eleanor. Mitchell has been the full length of the tunnel and there is nothing there.’
She didn’t need to know about the dead animal. She would have nightmares imagining it was their son down there on his own in the dark. Christ, he was going to have nightmares thinking about it. He wished he knew what to do, but he didn’t. Their fate was in the hands of God now and he had a feeling that even God had nothing to do with what had happened to Joe.
Buried deep in the tunnels it sat on its nest of bones. It hadn’t survived this long without knowing when to show itself and when to hide. The people had come close but they couldn’t slither or crawl like it could, or see in the dark. It sat and played with the small, black, lace-up shoe until it was bored, slicing it in half with its razor-sharp claws then throwing it to one side like a child discards a toy when it’s finished playing with it. It didn’t know how many more humans would come looking, but it didn’t matter because soon it would be time to go to sleep for a very long time.
They could look all they wanted but you had to want to see something in order to find it, and you also needed to believe that things existed in this world that were beyond all human comprehension. The world was full of legends and tales of monsters that lived in the dark. The truth was that sometimes these monsters and humans collided and sometimes the humans lived to tell the tale.
When it had awoken in the dark and taken cover in the drains it had been so very hungry. The animals had satisfied it at first but it soon became aware of the much bigger things, which it had learnt were the humans who lived upstairs in the light. They were much harder to trap and kill but they were much tastier and more filling. It would watch the humans on their boats from the blackened shores of the lake when it was dark, too dark to see it crouched down under a bush or tree watching them. It would get a whiff of their scent and its mouth would fill with water at the thought of something so tasty to nibble on. On a few occasions it had watched lone sailors on the lake topple off their boats, and had swum out to drag them back to its nest. It was easier to drown them in the water than try and get their semi-conscious bodies through the narrow tunnels, but they would fight.
It was a rare thing for them to come without a fight. It didn’t care about them. They meant nothing and it didn’t have a conscience, because to exist you must eat, and if eating animals or humans was the only thing to keep it alive then so be it. There were no feelings of empathy or sympathy, just an ache in a belly that had been empty for too long and needed filling until it could eat no more, then it would sleep for a very long time.
Chapter Eighteen
The journey to work had been pretty standard for Jake, who insisted on driving Annie’s car. She had been too tired to argue with him. Even though she’d slept all night she still felt like she could go back to bed for another few hours. He parked outside the station and then made her wait in the car while he got out and had a look around. All she could see from her window was a lot of walkers and tourists. There was no shifty-looking man bundled up under layers of clothes waiting on the corner.
She hadn’t seen Henry since the trial and wondered how badly scarred his face was now. Knowing the British justice system, they had probably forked out for him to have some plastic surgery so he didn’t feel out of place when he looked in the mirror. In her mind he would always look like Vincent Price when he played the crazy man in House of Wax. In fact, come to think of it, he looked like him before she had set his head on fire. It was just a shame he hadn’t bled or burnt to death in the house. If he had then they wouldn’t all be living in fear and those two women who were now going to be remembered for ever as the severed heads would still be alive. Life was truly shit at times. Jake opened her door and she jumped.
‘Steady on, I don’t look that scary, do I?’
‘No, of course you don’t. I was just thinking about Henry Smith.’
‘Well, try not to because that’s what he wants. It’s a control thing. He wants us to be afraid of our own shadows. He will be getting his rocks off on that big time.’
‘I know, but it’s pretty hard, Jake. I love my life now. It’s never been so perfect and I don’t want anything to happen to change it.’
‘I know you do. I love your life now. It’s much less stressful – well, it was until this latest round of murders.’
They walked around to the side door of the station and Jake pressed the code into the keypad. As they shut the door behind them another door banged further down the corridor and they both jumped.
Annie held his arm. ‘Don’t worry, that’s just our resident ghost letting me know he’s around. He always bangs the door when I come in or go out.’
Jake looked down at her, shaking his head. ‘Completely normal, then. What resident ghost and why have you never told me about it?’
‘Because he’s shy and I think he just likes to be here. He doesn’t bother anyone or mean any harm. We sort of have an understanding. I talk to him and he bangs the doors.’
Amazed, Jake led the way through the corridors, checking each office until they reached the locker room where they both began to get dressed into their body armour. They fastened the heavy belts with batons and handcuffs attached, then clipped on their radios and the CS gas. Jake, who was taser trained, took one from the special cabinet and put in a fresh cartridge. He turned to her and grinned. ‘If I get the chance I’m going to taser him until the bastard is that charged up with electricity you could plug some fairy lights up his arse and they’d glow.’
Annie laughed so hard she couldn’t catch her breath. ‘Now that I would like to see.’
‘What do you want to do first? Begin checking the caravan parks? We could take the photos we have of them and go ask the site managers if they recognise them. If anyone does then we scarper and come back here. Let Will know and sort it out, then all go in undercover except for you and Will. You both have to hang back; he knows what you look like.’
‘I suppose so. I’ll print off a map and a copy of all the sites but Cathy’s right. There are hundreds of them. We’ll start at one end and work our way towards the middle. I think we should begin at the parks before you reach Bowness from Newby Bridge. If he’s killing in Barrow and dumping heads here I don’t think he’ll be stopping near Troutbeck or Ambleside.’
‘Good idea. You’re not just a pretty face, my friend. That’s very good common sense even if neither of us do have a clue.’
Annie went into the office to begin looking for two clipboards. She felt sick but had to do something. She didn’t want to put any of her friends in jeopardy but there really was no choice. She wanted to find Henry and this Megan more than anything, to put an end to it all. Annie felt a chill spread over her. She saw movement from the corner of her eye and was pleasantly surprised to see both Alice and Sophie glowing in the corner. Alice was the first ghost she had ever seen and she had helped Annie to overcome Henry when she was fighting for her life in the cellar of Abbeywood Mansion. Alice had fought her very own serial killer back in 1886 after she had discovered that her husband was none other than Jack the Ripper. He had tried to kill her in the very same cellar that Henry Smith had discovered and was using as a place to kill his victims over a hundred years later. ‘Hello, what are you both doing here?’
Alice smiled but it was Sophie who stepped forward. ‘Annie, he’s looking for you.’
Annie felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. She already knew this but to hear it from Sophie made it very, very real.
‘I knew he was, but thank you for coming to tell me. Do you know where he is?’
Sophie shook her head. This time it was Alice who spoke. ‘Not yet but we are looking for him and if we find him Sophie will let you know. She finds it much easier than me to come and go. Annie, I’m scared for you. He will not stop until he’s done what he set out to do, until you’re dead. And the girl is going to help him although he doesn’t want her to touch you. He wants you all to himself.’
‘He does? What should I do?’
‘Find him before he finds you. He is in one of those caravans but they all look the same. All I know is this one is brown and it is next to a huge, green hedgerow, with a hole in the middle of it. Sophie and I will keep trying to find him but he’s very hard to fix on to. It’s as if he knows and is blocking us both.’
‘Thank you, at least that’s more of a start than we had.’
Sophie ran over and wrapped her arms around Annie’s waist, hugging her tight. Annie felt as if an icy cold band was squeezing her stomach but she leant down and tried her best to hug Sophie back. Alice smiled at Annie then took hold of Sophie’s hand. Sophie grinned up at Annie, about to say something, but Alice frowned, shaking her head ever so slightly. They both disappeared into thin air. Annie had goosebumps; they had just confirmed her worst fears. Up to now she had been hoping they were all wrong about Henry Smith, that he was at the other end of the country hiding, but now it was a race to find him because he already had a good head start on her and he knew where she was.
Jake walked in and she jumped.
‘Will you stop doing that? You’re turning me into a nervous wreck. Who were you talking to? I heard voices.’
Annie decided not to say anything; she didn’t want to listen to him making fun of her all day. Her head was pounding and her was stomach churning.
‘Cathy just phoned me.’
Annie turned so he wouldn’t see the faint redness creeping up her neck. She hated to lie to him but sometimes it was easier and it was only a white lie. He didn’t need to know that she’d been talking to dead people again.
‘Did you ask her about Kav? I’m telling you now, you should have seen them both coming into the briefing late this morning. She was positively glowing; I haven’t seen her look so happy for a long time.’
‘Really, why did I not know this? You should have told me first thing. That’s sweet. I think they would make a great couple and it’s about time Kav had someone to take care of him. He’s a big softie underneath that gruff, scary exterior.’
‘I know. I did actually think that myself. Sorry, I guess scary motherfucker took over my priorities. Have you printed that list out?’
Annie shook her head and walked across to the wall where there was a map with red dots all over it. She unpinned it and took it across to the photocopier where she made two copies then handed one to Jake.
‘There you are.’
‘You are having a laugh. Are all these red dots camp sites and caravan parks?’
‘Yes.’
‘But there are almost more red dots than there is map.’
‘I know. I told you that before.’
‘I know you did but I thought you were exaggerating. Where on earth do we start?’
‘Well, we can rule out camp sites. We’re looking for a brown caravan that is next to a long green hedge with a hole in it.’
Jake stared at her, narrowing his eyes. ‘And you know this because?’
‘Because I do, that’s all. Look, if we start where I said, at least half of those are camp sites that won’t need checking. We just need to focus on the caravan sites. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.’
He shrugged. ‘Come on then, actions speak louder than words. Let’s get cracking. I’ll park outside the coffee shop and you run in and get us two coffees from your favourite manager.’
Jake dangled the keys in front of her face. Annie shook her head. She hated his driving and he knew it, but she wouldn’t be able to concentrate. Her head was spinning. The consequences of them not finding Henry first were too scary to contemplate.
‘Hang on, have you printed off pictures of the gruesome twosome?’
Annie nodded. She would never forget Henry but she didn’t know Megan except for the photo that had been circulated on an email when they’d first escaped. And there was no way she would still have that pink in her hair. It made her stand out too much. What was a young girl like her doing mixed up with Henry?
They went to the side door, which Jake opened and stepped through first, not letting her out until he’d looked around. He walked forward and she followed him, keeping close. They both climbed into the unmarked car and he locked them in. She didn’t say anything as he drove off but he kept glancing into the rear-view mirror and she knew he was making sure they weren’t being followed. It gave her the creeps. At least Henry didn’t know where she lived now. Are you sure about that, Annie? If he knows that you work up here, what’s to say he didn’t follow you home one night when you were tired and weren’t even thinking about him?
Jake stopped the car and she looked around. The street was busy outside the café. People were everywhere. She didn’t think that he would go for a quick kill in a public place. That wasn’t Henry Smith’s style. He much preferred an intimate setting, in a deserted place where he could spend some quality time with his victims. Jake was obviously thinking the same thing or he wouldn’t have expected her to go into the coffee shop. She got out of the car, keeping her head down. Jake wound the window down. ‘I’ll have the biggest piece of cake they have and don’t forget the sugar.’ She nodded then opened the door and sighed. The queue was huge. Luckily for her, Gustav’s sixth sense kicked in and he came rushing over to her.
