She opened the curtain and felt her heart ache for the teenage girl sitting in bed – her eyes wide, skin pale, she looked terrified. Macy was sitting next to her holding her hand.
‘Hi, Tori, I’m Detective Morgan Brookes.’
Tori scrunched her eyes up, and her head tilted to the side slightly. Morgan realised it was the scrubs she was wearing. ‘Oh, I got wet and had to change. Macy very kindly lent me some dry clothes.’
Macy stood up. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
Tori didn’t let go of her hand. ‘No, please stay.’
Macy looked at Morgan, who nodded. ‘It’s okay, you can stay, if you’re okay with this, Macy?’
Macy nodded. ‘I’m fine.’
Morgan knew that she was, she was made of tough stuff and no matter how much her mum tried to dissuade her from joining the police, Macy would do it and Morgan felt very proud of her for that.
‘Well, Tori. Macy and I go back quite some time, and nobody understands what you are going through more than she does.’
Tori nodded. ‘You were kidnapped; I know about that. I remember reading all about it when it happened; you were eleven, the same age as I was then. My dad had a fit and wouldn’t let me play outside for months.’
Macy nodded. ‘It was horrible, I had gone to the shop when it was dark, and I wasn’t supposed to leave the house. My mum was at work, and I fell over on the way home. All I’d wanted was a bar of chocolate because I was hungry. I never even got to eat the stupid bar of chocolate before I was dragged away by—’ Macy stopped speaking; the pain in her eyes made Morgan realise how difficult it was for her.
Morgan smiled at Macy, trying to convey how she was so proud of her, then turned to Tori. ‘Yes, she went through a very traumatic experience, but she’s doing great now. It won’t feel like things will ever be okay ever again for you at this moment, but Macy is proof that in time to come you’ll be okay. Can you tell me what happened out there? Did your parents know where you were?’
Morgan perched on the side of her bed, she had no notebook, pen or her electronic device that she hated using to take notes on, as she wanted to just listen to what Tori had to say and then they would deal with the paperwork later.
Tori shook her head. ‘No, Scarlett said she was sleeping at mine, and I said I was at hers, but we were both at Dawson’s. His parents don’t mind and pretty much leave us all to do what we want. Someone attacked my friends, they came out of nowhere and hurt them. I ran away because I was scared and I didn’t wantthem to know what—’ Tori stopped and began to sob so hard that Morgan didn’t have the heart to press her any further. But what didn’t she want whoever was chasing her to know? That comment would stay inside of her mind until Tori could answer it.
NINE
Sandra was way behind this week. She had the tiny, converted toilet block that was now a one-bedroom Airbnb at the bottom of her list to go clean, but there were no bookings until next month, so she had skipped it every day this week. It wasn’t as if it would take her long to clean. Although she was supposed to have checked the last renters had left the day they were due to check out. She hadn’t got around to it because her mum had fallen and broken her hip, so she’d had to rush up to the hospital with her. Then in between hospital visits, picking kids up from school and working her day job cleaning at the police station, everything had slipped.
The CID office was empty which meant she could hoover without disturbing anyone. She hated being in there when the coppers were working. Even though they were lovely and always chatted to her, she didn’t want to be a bother to them, as they were always so busy. As she ran the hoover around, she did her utmost best not to glance up at the whiteboard on the wall. It always had the scariest, saddest pictures of murder victims Blu-tacked to it, and sometimes they gave her nightmares. She had no idea how the detectives could go home and sleep at night after seeing the stuff they did. It was even scarier to think that oneof them had been a serial killer. How did that work? How had he got into the job in the first place? She knew which desk had been his – it was the one that had been cleared of everything and had nothing but a computer sitting on it now. A shudder ran down her spine; he’d seemed so nice. Always said hello to her, had even offered her a coffee once when he was brewing up. Thankfully she’d said no, preferring to be in and out of there as quickly as possible.
How did a monster like that hide away from everyone? She turned around quickly, managing to whack her knee on the corner of a desk, and swore loudly, rubbing it.
Flicking the duster around the mountains of paperwork on the desks, she emptied the bins and sprayed some air freshener around to make the place smell a little sweeter. It always smelled of coffee in here, which, depending upon the mood she was in, either made her feel sick or crave a milky latte. Today she really wanted a latte and decided to grab one on the way to go sort out the old toilets down on Rydal Road, in case the woman who owned them decided to do a spot check, and then she’d be in trouble. Although she doubted that would happen as she lived in Spain, and her only contact with her was by email.
Latte in hand, she walked out of the café and headed down towards Rydal Road. The council had decided to sell the public toilets, much to all the local residents’ complaints. She didn’t understand it herself. Why sell off toilets to make a bit of cash? It wasn’t as if they had sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds. You would never tell from looking at it now that they had been the place where thousands of tourists had gone to relieve themselves. It was all wooden cladding and slate with bigwindows, and it was pretty with lots of potted shrubs and a pea gravel path. The blinds were still drawn which made her wonder if she had fucked up. What if the last guests hadn’t left and she’d let them stay here rent-free for almost a whole week? Fishing the key out of her jeans pocket she hurried up the little path to the front door and let herself in.
‘Hello, is anyone here?’
Sandra called out as she hovered in the doorway. She looked at the shoes on the floor and coats hanging on the hook, her stomach sinking. She’d never had to throw anyone out before. What was she supposed to do now?
‘Hey, I’m coming in, it’s the cleaner.’ Her voice fell flat as she walked into the tiny open-plan-living/kitchen area. There was a small table with a laptop, microphone and notebooks next to it. Her stomach was in knots, and the latte she’d been sipping tasted sour in the back of her throat. The cheeky buggers hadn’t left, they were still here and she was going to be in so much trouble for not coming to check the day they were supposed to have checked out. There was nobody here right now thankfully. The bedroom door was wide open, the bed covers were messed up and there were clothes strewn over it. Just to be sure she knocked on the shower room door before opening it. That was the same – dirty towels on the floor; the shower was dry, but the glass screen was dirty, covered in soap scum and fingerprints. Sandra felt as if she was going to pass out. What the hell did she do now? If she contacted the owner, she would be in deep shit.
She got her phone out and checked the app to see if there had been a last-minute booking, but if there had wouldn’t she be in trouble for leaving the place a mess? Whoever had rented it would have been in touch with Airbnb to complain about the state it was in, which meant those two women who had booked it for four days hadn’t left, that was the only explanation that made sense. This was all she needed on top of everything else.
She took out her phone to ring the support line, but she knew that, ultimately, she was going to have to call the cops, because if the guests weren’t here, but their stuff was, where the hell were they?
TEN
Morgan had stayed with Tori until her dad arrived, explaining the situation to him. The poor guy had struggled with what he was hearing. He told her had no idea they had gone out onto the fell last night in such awful weather because he’d have told her not to, and he’d had to swipe at his eyes several times. He kept looking from Morgan to his daughter, who was still in shock and not really reacting to anything she said. He’d hugged Tori and sat next to her, holding her hand, which Morgan took as a good sign. He wasn’t going to lose his shit with her just yet because the last thing the girl needed right now was someone yelling at her and making her feel even worse than she already did.
‘I don’t understand it, Tori, why would you go out there so late when it was such poor visibility without telling anyone. That was so dangerous, you’re not like this, you’re my good girl. Ever since your mum left you are all that I have and the thought of something terrible happening to you.’ Her dad still had tight hold of his daughter’s hand, but it began to tremble and he was on the verge of tears. Tori sobbed.
‘It was just a bit of fun, that’s all, Dad.’
‘A bit of fun that has left your two best friends’ parents living the kind of hell that is every parent’s worst nightmare. How will they ever get over this?’
