Текст книги "Wrong Time Wrong Place (Quick Reads 2013)"
Автор книги: Simon Kernick
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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 5 страниц)
3
‘LET’S GET THE poor thing some clothes, she’s freezing,’ said Ash as she unlocked the door to the lodge and stepped inside. ‘Come on, sit down.’ She led the girl over to the sofa.
The girl sat down, grabbed a cushion and hugged it. She looked terrified.
Ash gave her a reassuring smile. ‘It’s OK. You’re safe now. Do you have a name?’ she said slowly. ‘What is your name?’
The girl just shook her head and looked away.
‘She can have some of my clothes,’ said Tracy. ‘I packed a load of things.’
‘Trace, are you sure?’ whined Guy.
‘Course I am. Jesus, Guy. Look at her shivering. Have some heart.’
Tracy ran upstairs to her suitcase while Guy stared after her. Ash was pleased to see the look of shock on his face. The man could be a real idiot at times. She wondered what her husband had ever seen in him.
‘We’ve got a problem,’ said Nick from the corner of the room where he was holding the landline phone to his ear.
Ash felt her chest tighten. ‘What is it?’
‘The bloody phone’s out of order.’
‘We’ll have to drive her to the nearest hospital.’
‘Jesus,’ sighed Guy. ‘That’s all we need.’
‘Look, I don’t want to have to do it either, Guy,’ said Ash, turning on him, ‘but we haven’t got any bloody choice.’
‘What is it?’ said Tracy, coming back down the stairs with a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a garish pink hoodie. She handed them to Ash, who’d clearly been chosen as their main contact with the girl.
‘The landline isn’t working either,’ Guy told her.
‘You two don’t have to worry,’ said Nick. ‘Ash and I will take her. There’s booze in the fridge. You just stay here until we get back. We’ll try not to be too long.’
Guy nodded. He and Tracy both looked relieved, having been let off the hook.
Ash handed the girl the clothes. ‘Put these on. We’re going to take you to the doctor now.’ She spoke slowly and carefully, as if this would somehow help the girl understand her.
The girl nodded silently and put on the clothes.
‘All right, let’s go,’ said Nick, grabbing the keys to their Land Rover.
Gently, Ash lifted the girl to her feet and together they followed Nick out of the front door.
It was nearly dark and the wind was picking up, sweeping through the trees that surrounded the lodge on every side. When they’d arrived that morning in the sunshine, Ash had thought it was a perfect location, far from the city crowds. But now that this mysterious girl had arrived out of the blue, naked and bruised, it had suddenly taken on a more menacing air. Something had happened to her out in these woods, something terrible, and Ash was suddenly glad that they were leaving.
She got in the back with the girl, putting a protective arm round her shoulders, while Nick started the engine and pulled away in a crunch of gravel.
Almost immediately the car seemed uncontrollable. Nick turned the steering wheel, trying to right it, but the car seemed to have a mind of its own. It bumped up and down as if it was being shaken. Nick brought the car to a stop and pulled up the handbrake.
‘What is it?’ Ash asked him.
Nick didn’t answer. Instead he got out, took a quick look round the car, then pulled open the back door. His expression was grim. ‘Let’s get back in the house. Now.’
He grabbed Ash by the arm. In normal circumstances, she’d have yelled at him to let go of her. Ash didn’t like being manhandled by anyone. But these weren’t normal circumstances. Nick looked scared, and that scared Ash, because usually he was the calmest person she knew. It was why he was such a damn good lawyer.
‘What’s going on?’ she said, pulling the girl out with her.
‘Someone’s slashed the tyres,’ he hissed, leading the two of them back to the lodge, his fingers shaking as he unlocked the front door.
Ash risked a look over her shoulder, and immediately saw the gaping tears in each of the nearside tyres. The girl looked too, and let out a frightened, animal-like whimper.
Guy and Tracy had already sat down on the sofa with the TV on. They both jumped up like guilty teenagers caught groping each other when the others came back in.
‘Everything all right?’ asked Guy, looking past them to the girl.
‘We’ve got a situation,’ Nick told them, locking the door behind him and pulling the curtains as he explained what had happened.
‘You mean, all four of the tyres have been slashed?’ demanded Guy.
Nick nodded. ‘All four of them. So it’s deliberate.’
‘But who’d do that?’ asked Tracy, her voice rising several tones.
‘I have no idea, but whoever it is clearly has a problem with us.’
Guy looked angry and put-out, like a spoilt child. ‘Why? We haven’t done anything to them. It must be something to do with her.’ He pointed at the girl, who shrank away from his accusing stare. ‘Whoever’s after her knows she’s with us. I say we let her go. It’s her they want. We don’t even have a clue who the hell it is who’s after her. We don’t even have a clue who she is.’ He took a step towards the girl. ‘Go on,’ he shouted, ‘get the hell out of here! Now!’
‘Leave it!’ shouted Nick, blocking Guy’s way. ‘It’s not her fault.’
‘It’s not our fault either,’ said Tracy. ‘I’m really sorry but I’m with Guy. She’s not our problem. She should go.’
Ash felt her anger rising. ‘You want to send a young girl out into the darkness alone, Tracy? Is that what you’re saying?’
‘We don’t know what she’s done. She might have really hurt someone, and they’re looking for revenge. Otherwise why are they so keen to stop her leaving?’
‘Bullshit. Look at her. The poor thing wouldn’t say boo to a goose.’
‘Then why’s someone trying so hard to get her?’ demanded Guy, trying to step past Nick. ‘Come on, let’s ask her. I bet she speaks English better than the rest of us.’
Nick put a hand on his friend’s chest. ‘Let’s just calm down.’
But Guy had the bit between his teeth now and he tried to shove Nick out of the way, at the same time pointing an accusing finger at the girl. ‘Come on, start bloody talking.’
Nick, though, was a lot bigger and stronger than his friend and he easily held him back. He tried again to take the heat out of the situation with more calm words.
Ash looked at the girl. ‘Don’t worry,’ she told her, giving her a reassuring smile, but it was already too late for that. The poor thing looked terrified. Like a rabbit caught in a car’s headlights.
Then, without warning, she ran for the front door, unlocking it in one swift movement and dashing out into the night.
Instinctively, Ash chased after her, not thinking about the dangers that might lurk outside. The girl was quick, but so was Ash. She also had the advantage of wearing shoes on the gravel. She thrust out a hand and grabbed the girl by the hood of Tracy’s top. ‘Come on, it’s all right,’ she said, pulling the girl into a tight bearhug, trying desperately to make herself understood. ‘No one’s going to hurt you.’
She heard Nick coming up behind her. ‘Ash, get back inside. Now.’
‘I’m coming. I’m coming.’
Ash loosened her grip on the girl, which turned out to be a mistake. The girl immediately wriggled away from her, shoved Ash backwards and set off again at a run.
Ash went to follow but Nick grabbed her by the arm for the second time that night. ‘Let her go,’ he snapped.
Ash watched as the girl reached the end of the driveway, her battered feet crunching on the gravel, before being swallowed up by the woods. A part of Ash – the brave part – wanted to run after her and drag her back to where she’d be safe and warm. Another part kept her rooted to the spot. Jesus, the poor thing had to be terrified of something.
‘We can’t just leave her,’ she told her husband. Even so, she didn’t resist as Nick led her back inside.
Tara tore through the trees, telling herself that she wouldn’t stop until she reached a town. She had no idea how far away one could be, or indeed where she even was. She assumed she must still be in England, but it was an England that was totally strange to her, a hilly wilderness where danger lurked at every turn. She’d thought the hikers would help her, and it had seemed like they were going to. The pretty dark-haired woman had been kind to her, but one of the other men had shouted and screamed. When she saw the slashed tyres on the car, she knew that her captor had somehow followed her to their house.
That was when she’d made the decision to run, not wanting to involve these people in what had happened to her. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t their problem. So now, once again, Tara was on her own.
A three-quarter moon shone down, bathing the forest in eerie light. She didn’t want light. She wanted darkness. Darkness would hide her. She looked round as she ran. The forest seemed empty, so she started to slow as the trees and bushes grew thicker, feeling the first sense of relief.
She glanced over her shoulder, saw no one following her, and turned back.
And ran straight into the knife.
Tara gasped as the blade was buried up to the hilt in her stomach, slicing through her flesh like it was slicing through a ripe orange. All her strength seemed to disappear in an instant.
Her attacker loomed up in front of her, an unmoving wall of black. She gazed into his cold, dark eyes as he withdrew the blade and drove it upwards into her heart, his gloved hand gripping her throat and holding her in place while she died.
4
FOR A GOOD minute, none of them spoke. Nick had locked the door and had the key in his hand. In the background, the TV was still blaring out some reality show rubbish, with lots of shouting and laughter.
Finally, Tracy broke the silence. ‘Look, I didn’t mean for her to go like that. But you know … I don’t know what to do about this. I’m not used to this kind of drama.’
‘None of us are, Tracy,’ said Nick. ‘I’m just a bloody lawyer, like Guy. The point is, we’ve got to deal with it.’
‘For all we know she could have been the one who slashed the tyres,’ said Guy.
‘Don’t be bloody daft,’ snapped Ash, who was rapidly losing patience. ‘Why on earth would she do that?’
‘I don’t know. But then I don’t know why any of this is bloody happening.’
Which, thought Ash, was a fair point. What had started out as a relaxing, if potentially dull, weekend trip had turned into a nightmare. Just like that.
Ash had been mugged once, a couple of years ago. Coming home to their flat late at night, she’d got out of the taxi and was walking towards the front door when a man had appeared from behind the gate post and punched her full in the face. There’d been no pain. Just total and utter shock. She’d stumbled backwards, putting a hand to her bleeding nose, and the man had simply pulled her handbag from her shoulder and run off up the street.
The whole thing had lasted a matter of seconds, but Ash would never forget that feeling of shock as the urban violence she’d read so much about, but had never actually seen, finally came crashing into her cosy world. She had that shocked, partly dazed feeling now. She felt she could understand a bit better Guy and Tracy’s own reaction to the events that were happening around them.
‘Maybe now she’s gone, whoever slashed the tyres will leave us alone,’ sighed Tracy, and any understanding Ash had felt for her disappeared.
‘Jesus, don’t you have any feelings for that poor girl?’
Nick put up a hand. ‘Ash, leave it.’
‘How can I? That girl was probably raped and now she’s alone in the woods, and these two seem happy about it.’
‘No one’s happy about it,’ shouted Guy. ‘But what do you want us to do? The phones are dead. The car’s buggered. And the girl has just run off, and in Tracy’s clothes too.’
Ash sighed, knowing this argument was getting them nowhere. ‘It would just be nice to hear some compassion, that’s all.’
‘All right guys, enough,’ said Nick firmly, fixing them each in turn with his lawyer’s gaze. ‘Here’s the plan of action. We make sure the place is secure, and then wait here the night. That means locking all the windows and doors so there’s no way we get any uninvited guests. Then as soon as it’s light, we walk down to the main road, or somewhere we can get reception, and call for help. We’ll also report what happened to the girl. It’ll probably mean the end of the trip, but I think we’re all happy to accept that.’
Everyone nodded.
‘We’ve got food, we’ve got booze, so let’s just sit tight.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ said Guy, beginning to calm down. ‘I need a leak. While I’m up there, I’ll lock the windows.’
‘Thanks, Guy,’ said Nick, patting his friend’s shoulder as he walked by. Guy avoided looking at him. It was clear to Ash that what friendship there was between them had just taken a very big hit, and at least part of that was her fault. She smiled at her husband to show she supported what he’d done. He gave her a nod in return before turning away, saying, ‘I’ll check the back door’s locked.’
Tracy sat down heavily on the sofa. ‘Jesus, what a day.’
‘Tell me about it,’ said Ash. She still couldn’t get the poor little blonde girl out of her mind. She was so young and so vulnerable. But Nick’s words made sense. Right now there was nothing else they could do to help her.
Ash went over to the front window and pulled back the curtain to check that the window was locked. As she did so she was unable to resist looking out into the night. The Land Rover sat sadly in the driveway, and once again Ash wondered who’d tampered with it, and why they’d gone to so much trouble to find the girl.
Something moved at the edge of the treeline. It looked like a person. Ash squinted, pushing her face against the glass, but the figure was gone.
‘Is everything all right out there?’ asked Tracy uncertainly.
Ash replaced the curtain, trying to decide whether or not to tell Tracy what she’d just seen. Or thought she’d seen anyway. She decided not to. Tracy had had enough scares for one day, and there was no point setting her off again. ‘It’s fine. Dark, that’s all.’
‘I’m glad we’re in here.’
‘So am I,’ said Ash, but her heart was beating faster, and she could feel the slow, cold fingers of fear beginning to creep up her spine. If someone was out there watching them, what were they planning on doing?
Tracy stood up. ‘I need a glass of wine. Do you want one?’
Ash was checking the lock on the other window. She saw nothing else outside, and walked back over. ‘Sounds good to me,’ she said as casually as possible.
‘Listen, I’m sorry, Ash. This whole thing’s been a bit of a shock, that’s all.’
Ash smiled, appreciating the other woman’s efforts to make up. ‘Yeah, I know. I’m sorry too.’
Tracy gave a small nod and disappeared into the kitchen, returning a minute later with two big glasses of white wine, followed by Nick, who was holding a bottle of Becks. ‘It’s all locked up at the back,’ he said, looking more relaxed. ‘We should be safe and sound now.’
‘Thank God for that,’ said Tracy, clicking glasses with Ash and taking a huge gulp of her wine.
Nick put an arm round Ash’s waist, pulling her close. ‘You’re OK, aren’t you, babe?’
She smiled. ‘Course I am. I’m tougher than you think.’
‘You’re tougher than all of us.’ He kissed her forehead, and in that moment she realised how much she loved him. Nine years together, and he was still the centre of her universe. That was some achievement.
‘What’s Guy doing?’ said Tracy, her glass already less than half full. She went over to the bottom of the stairs and looked up. ‘Guy, what the hell are you doing up there?’ she bellowed.
There was no answer.
‘Guy?’ she called again, louder this time. ‘What are you doing?’
But again her words were met only with silence.
5
SUDDENLY THE ROOM felt small, the air heavy.
Tracy’s face fell. ‘He’s not the sort to play practical jokes,’ she said fearfully. ‘Is he, Nick?’
Nick shook his head, joining her at the bottom of the staircase. ‘Guy, it’s Nick. If you’re up there, come down right now please.’ His voice was loud and confident, but Ash had been with him long enough to detect a faint hint of nerves in it.
Silence.
‘I’m scared,’ said Tracy. ‘I think something might have happened to him.’
Ash was scared too. Really scared. This whole thing felt unreal, like stepping into a nightmare. Except it wasn’t a nightmare. It was actually happening, right now. She turned to Nick. ‘I thought I saw someone outside. A few minutes ago.’
‘Why didn’t you say?’
‘I thought it might be my imagination.’
Tracy called up to her husband again, her voice sounding a bit hysterical for the first time. ‘What are we going to do?’ she asked the other two.
‘Stay here,’ said Nick, striding past them into the kitchen. He came back out a few moments later holding two large kitchen knives. He handed one to Ash. ‘We’re going to go up.’
Ash stared at the weapon in her hand. The thought of stabbing someone made her feel sick. ‘Are you sure we should be doing this?’
‘Yes,’ he said firmly. ‘We don’t know who we’re dealing with here, so we’ve got to cover every angle. I’ll go up first. Ash, you follow behind me. Trace, I haven’t got a weapon you can use, so you stay here.’
Tracy shook her head. ‘No way. He’s my husband. I’m coming up too.’
‘Well, stay behind me. Both of you.’
Ash and Tracy exchanged looks as they started up the stairs behind Nick. Tracy looked just how Ash felt – terrified.
The upstairs landing was long and narrow with a door at either end, and two more doors running along the middle. All of them were closed. The main light was on but nothing moved.
The silence was immense. Ash could hear her husband’s steady breathing.
‘Guy,’ he said, ‘if this is a joke, I promise you, without a word of a lie, I will never, repeat never, speak to you again.’ He waited, hoping that his friend would jump out of his hiding place and provide them with the only explanation that could make sense.
But he didn’t. Nothing happened.
Nick lifted the knife and, as Ash and Tracy crowded on to the landing behind him, he slowly nudged open one of the doors. It was the bathroom. He switched on the light, but stayed outside. It was empty, and far too small for anyone to hide in. There wasn’t even a shower curtain.
Nick breathed an audible sigh of relief, and Ash noticed that the knife was shaking in his hand. She also noticed that she was gripping her own weapon so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
Moving along the landing, Nick nudged open the next door, which Ash knew was the spare bedroom. Again staying outside, he switched on the light.
‘He’s probably in our bedroom,’ said Tracy as they looked inside the empty room, with its untouched bed. ‘Maybe he’s just gone to sleep.’
‘Maybe,’ said Nick.
‘Maybe we’re just being stupid,’ continued Tracy with a laugh so false it hurt to hear it. Her voice was cracking. ‘We’re going to giggle about this in the morning.’
‘What’s that on the bed covers?’ Ash pointed to a couple of spots of red on the far side of the bed that stood out on the white duvet cover.
A faint gurgling sound came from somewhere in the room, out of sight. Almost a choke but not quite. A human sound.
No one moved. No one said a word. Because they all knew that it came from Guy.
The knife flew out from behind the door, like a snake striking, attached to a gloved hand. It buried itself in Nick’s gut.
Tracy screamed. Ash simply watched, caught in slow motion as her husband made a sound like a hiccup, his eyes widening.
The knife was suddenly withdrawn and a figure in black filled up the doorway. He drove the blade into Nick a second time, then shoved him backwards, like he was some kind of annoying shop dummy, sending him crashing over the banister and down the wooden steps.
For a long, terrible second Ash was frozen to the spot, just like she had been during the mugging. The shocking nature of what was happening was too much to take in. Her husband, the man she’d spent almost a third of her life with, her soulmate, her whole life for God’s sake, had just been murdered in front of her. He was gone. Just like that.
And she was next.
The killer was big and powerful-looking, with a black hood covering his features. And he was fast. Very fast. He swung round to face her, ready to deal her a blow with the bloodied knife.
It was at this point that Ash finally realised she had to move fast. In one movement she turned and ran, but careered straight into Tracy, who hadn’t yet got out of the way, and who was still screaming.
Ash stumbled, losing her balance, and fell forward, letting go of the knife in the process. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tracy, who was still on her feet, dash for the stairs. Then Ash was rolling round to face her husband’s killer, at the same time scrabbling about for the knife.
A drop of Nick’s blood fell from the killer’s knife blade, splashing her face with a disgusting warmth as he loomed over her. He grabbed Ash by one wrist and yanked her roughly to her feet.
Operating entirely on instinct, she threw a wild punch, catching him full in the face before he had a chance to drive the knife into her. Ash kept fit. She worked out three times a week and had recently started doing boxercise. She thanked God for all these things now because the punch was a good one. It knocked him into the banister and made him loosen his grip on Ash’s wrist.
Pulling free, she turned and ran, following Tracy.
But Tracy had stopped at the top of the stairs and was looking down them with an expression of pure terror. ‘There’s another one coming!’ she screamed. ‘He’s got in the front door!’
Ash didn’t even have time to look, let alone take in the fact that there were possibly two of these psychopaths rather than one, and that the other had come through a door that she knew was locked. She didn’t even look back towards her husband, because there was no time for that. Her survival instinct had kicked in. She sprinted the length of the landing, towards the door to the bedroom she and Nick should have been sharing that night, yelling at Tracy to come with her.
Ash hit the door at a run, flinging it open without even giving a thought to who might be behind it. She could hear Tracy right behind her and she hauled her in. As the dark figure of the killer moved towards them she slammed the door shut, noticing with huge relief that there was a key in the lock. Pressing her whole body against the door, she turned it with shaking hands. She could hear him outside, his breathing calm and steady, as he tried and failed to turn the handle.
A split second later the door shook on its hinges as he slammed into it from the other side. It was only a small lock and she knew it wasn’t going to hold for more than a few seconds.
They were trapped.
The door shook again, and this time she heard the sound of wood splitting.
Looking round desperately, Ash spotted the sash window. It was the only way out. Vaulting the bed, she dashed over and flicked the catch on the lower window, yanking it upwards as hard as she could. The drop to the patio below was a good fifteen feet, but they had no choice.
‘Come on!’ she screamed at Tracy, who was still staring at the door. ‘Move it!’
Tracy ran over, took one look through the window, and turned to Ash. She started to say something, but Ash wasn’t listening. As the door shook once again, almost giving way this time, she grabbed Tracy by the collar and pushed her into the gap. ‘Go! Go! Go!’ she screamed, clambering out after her.
Tracy jumped, letting out a long shriek, at just the moment when the door flew open and the killer came striding into the room. He made straight for Ash with the bloodied knife raised, like something out of one of those horror films that had always scared her as a teenager.
Ash threw her legs out of the window and slid through it, grabbing at the window ledge with both hands as she swung round, hoping to lessen the distance between herself and the ground before she jumped. But as she let go a gloved hand grabbed her wrist. Suddenly she was dangling helplessly in mid-air. The killer began to lift her back up with an almost unbelievable strength, while bringing his knife hand down in the direction of her throat.
Knowing she had just seconds left, Ash pulled and struggled with all her might, wriggling like a fish on the line, and the next second she was falling through the air.
Ash hit the tarmac feet first and a stinging pain shot up her legs. She rolled over and leaped to her feet. Tracy was already staggering towards the trees a few yards away. Ash caught her up and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her along as she tried to put as much distance between them and the house as possible.
‘I’m hurt,’ whined Tracy, slowing down. ‘I think I’ve broken my ankle.’
‘I don’t care!’ hissed Ash, staring her right in the eye as they fought their way into the forest. ‘Run on it. You’ve got no choice.’
For a long moment, Ash thought about leaving Tracy behind, knowing she’d be far quicker on her own. But she stopped herself, because she knew she’d never be able to live with the guilt if she bolted now.
She took a quick glance over her shoulder and thought she saw a figure moving just inside the trees. It spurred her into running even faster. This time Tracy kept up, although she was limping badly and her face was taut with pain. What was truly terrifying Ash was the fact that these men, whoever they were, hadn’t uttered a single word. They were going about their murderous work as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Ash had no idea why the four of them were being targeted. It had to be something to do with the girl, but she wasn’t even with them now, so why were they still coming? Whatever the reason, Ash had an awful feeling that they weren’t going to stop until she and Tracy were dead.
They were tearing through the branches now, ignoring the bushes and brambles that slashed at them, concentrating everything on escape. These were big woods. There would be plenty of places to hide. They could find somewhere, then wait for morning and raise the alarm.
Ash felt the first stirrings of hope. They were moving fast and there were no sounds of pursuit. Tracy was in pain, but adrenalin and fear were driving them both on, deeper and deeper into the forest.
Then her friend let out a terrible scream and Ash’s hope vanished.
