Authors: Rachel Abbott
Maggie switched the television off and collapsed onto a chair. She didn’t think her legs would hold her. Why in God’s name had a photo of this woman been sent to Duncan’s phone? She was
dead
. The woman had been
killed
. For a moment she felt relieved that if this was a photo of Duncan’s lover, she was no longer a threat, then dismissed the thought with a degree of self-disgust. If she had been Duncan’s lover, maybe the woman’s husband had killed her. He might even have been the man who called earlier?
She thought about the call for a minute. How did it all tie together? She hated the thought that somebody she didn’t know could phone her any time. Did that mean he knew her address too?
Maggie couldn’t control her thoughts or even keep pace with them. Fragments of ideas intruded and escaped before she could catch them. Had the woman already been dead in the photo that Duncan received? She thought again about the words Josh had used – about Maud’s eyes – and she knew without a doubt that the woman had already been killed when the picture was taken.
She now had a genuine reason to call the police about her husband’s disappearance. But if she told them about the photograph, Duncan would become the number-one suspect in a
murder. Was she ready to expose her husband to the inevitable manhunt without knowing more?
Not yet.
What’s going on, Dunc
?
Call me, call me, call me
. She repeated the thought over and over in her head, hoping that some sort of telepathy would get the message through to him.
She didn’t think she could move. She didn’t want to move. But she had no choice and so made her way unsteadily into the kitchen. She was going to sit the children down with their tea and then hunt online for every single piece of information she could find about this dead woman.
When the children were settled at the table, Maggie took her laptop over to the kitchen counter, away from Josh’s eyes. She had to distance herself from the smell of food too. As it hit the back of her throat she thought she was going to retch.
There were a few articles saying a body had been found, but they were all sketchy. The woman hadn’t been named, but it was understood she had been killed some time the evening before. Maggie closed the screen with unnecessary force and pushed the computer away.
‘Mummy,’ Lily shouted even though Maggie was only a few feet away, ‘can I have some milk, please?’
‘Of course. Do you want some, Josh?’ Even to her own ears her voice sounded brittle, and she was speaking too quickly. She had to quell the rising panic.
What was Duncan involved in? Why did that man want to speak to him? Who was the woman?
‘Yes, please.’
On autopilot Maggie walked over to the fridge and opened the door.
Damn it
. There was no milk. She usually did an online order on a Wednesday night and Duncan picked up the groceries on his way to get the children on a Thursday. But of course none of that had happened.
‘Right, kids, grab your coats. We’re going to walk up to the shop for a few bits and pieces. Come on. It will do us good to get a bit of fresh air.’
Suddenly getting out of the house seemed like the best idea she had had all day. The walls were crowding in on her and the cold air might clear her mind. She quickly helped Lily into her coat and her wellies, and grabbed a thick poncho and a scarf for herself.
The snow had nearly gone now; just slush remained on the streets, white in their quiet cul-de-sac, dirty dark grey on the main roads. Josh kicked it with the toes of his wellies,
clearly less than pleased to be out. Maggie knew she should be trying to talk to the children, but what energy she had left seemed to be used up by the simple process of putting one foot in front of the other.
When they reached the shop, she bent down to the children and forced herself to speak normally. ‘Go and have a look at the sweets. Don’t touch, but decide if there is something you’d like. Josh, keep an eye on Lily for me please.’
Josh gave her a look that said ‘what’s going on?’ and Maggie did her best to give him a reassuring smile.
She picked up some milk and headed to the newspapers. Copies of the
Manchester Evening News
were piled up as if they had only just arrived, and eagerly she pulled one towards her. The front page was full of news of a fire in Chadderton, and Maggie quickly flicked to the next page. Nothing.
‘Are you looking for something, love?’ the man behind the counter asked. Maggie looked up, a guilty expression on her face. Her frantic search had creased the paper badly.
‘I’m so sorry, but I am going to buy this,’ she said hurriedly. ‘There was something on the TV earlier – on the news – and I wondered if it was in the paper.’
‘Not if it only happened today. Probably be in tomorrow’s.’
‘The article was about a woman found murdered in Manchester. Did you hear about that?’
The man shrugged. ‘Yeah, but I expect the police are being tight-lipped. Means they don’t know anything.’
She knew it had been an outside chance. ‘I’ll take the paper and the milk, please, and the children want some chocolate.’
She turned to Lily who was pointing at some chocolate buttons. Josh didn’t look very interested.
They made their way home slowly, Maggie having to resort to carrying a tired and unusually whingey Lily for the last five minutes. It was still cold outside, and Maggie was disappointed that there had been nothing more to be learned from the paper. As she turned the corner into their road, she felt a rush of hope that Duncan’s white van would be sitting lined up in front of the garage.
It wasn’t.
She bundled the children back into the warm house and went through to the kitchen, where she hastily made them bowls of bananas and warm custard to finish their meal.
‘Why isn’t Daddy here to make our tea?’ Lily asked.
‘He’s working, sweetheart,’ Maggie said, drawing another look from Josh. What was she supposed to say?
Maggie still couldn’t face the thought of food, but sat with the children while they finished theirs. Normally full of chatter, they were both quiet and withdrawn. Shifting her laptop, Maggie placed it on top of the discarded copy of the
Manchester Evening News
, and glanced at the paper’s masthead. Only the corner was visible. She inched the laptop a bit higher up the paper and a bit further to the right so that everything except the top left corner was hidden.
That’s it
, she thought, feeling a faint leap of hope in her chest swiftly followed by the inevitable crushing dose of common sense. It would probably tell her nothing.
‘Back in a sec,’ she said to the children, who barely raised their eyes to hers as she pushed her chair back. She went to the shelf where she had placed the scrap of newspaper from Duncan’s cupboard. She stared at it for a moment, certain she was right, and took it to the table to compare with the exposed section of the front cover of that evening’s edition. The piece of paper she had found in the cupboard dated 16
th
November 2003 was from the
Manchester Evening News
.
But how could that be? Duncan had never been to Manchester until they moved there seven weeks ago.
Convinced she was making far more of this than was absolutely necessary – after all, the newspaper could have come from anywhere – she put the scrap away, opened the laptop and found Google. She knew she was clutching at straws, but maybe there was something significant in the news on 16
th
November 2003. She typed Manchester Evening News archive and got a hit immediately. But it was no use. There was nothing more recent than 1903.
She stared at the screen, drumming her fingers as she considered what else she could do. But her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the telephone.
Lily leapt off her chair.
‘Lily, come back to the table please,’ Maggie said automatically. ‘You know you don’t just leave like that. I’ll answer it.’
Hoping beyond anything she would have believed possible that this would be Duncan she lifted the phone to her ear but said nothing.
‘Hello, Maggie.’ It was the voice from earlier in the day – the voice that made her shiver. This time she noticed that it was a voice with no obvious accent, and it wasn’t the voice of either a very young or a very old man. She took the phone through to the hall and closed the door.
‘What do you want? Where’s my husband?’ She fought to keep the tremor out of her voice. She didn’t want this bastard to know how much he was scaring her.
‘I hadn’t realised he was such a coward. He’s running out of time, and you need to tell him.’
‘What are you
talking
about? How do you know Duncan?’ She was shouting and saw the kitchen door start to open. Josh must have heard her.
‘Have you seen the news this evening, Maggie?’
She stayed silent. She didn’t need to ask which story he was referring to. His voice was slow and measured, almost refined.
‘Your husband knows what he has to do. He has one more chance. Tell him, if he calls. It’s his last chance.’
The line went dead.
20
Maggie kept her back to Josh for a moment or two longer, breathing deeply to steady herself before she faced her son. She couldn’t let him see the fear in her eyes.
How was she going to keep them safe when she didn’t even know what the threat was? Had she double-locked the front door when they came in? Worse still, they had all been out to the shop with only the Yale lock securing the door. She knew that a Yale wasn’t enough to deter any burglar worth his salt. What if somebody had broken in? Somebody looking for Duncan – or maybe looking for her?
She was certain she had left the other doors bolted. They hadn’t been unlocked since she had called the children in earlier. Without turning to look at her son, she moved quickly to the front door and twisted the double lock.
Maggie breathed out. She had to know. She had to be sure that they were alone in the house. What if the man had broken in while they were out? What if right now he was upstairs, phoning her from his mobile, waiting for her? She had to check – she couldn’t let the children go upstairs to bed if there was the slightest chance that somebody was up there, waiting.
‘Josh, I’m going to pop upstairs. Will you stay with Lily while she finishes her banana, darling? I’ll only be a minute.’
‘Why were you shouting?’
‘Oh… it was some silly salesman on the phone. Nothing to worry about.’
Her heart was pounding, but she managed a thin smile before she turned to face the bottom of the stairs. She took the first two steps, then there was a pop and the house was plunged into darkness.
‘
Shit!
’ she cried, her voice breaking. That was all they needed – a power cut. Her mind spinning, she couldn’t quash the thought that maybe it wasn’t a power cut at all. Maybe
somebody had switched off their electricity. And the fuse box was in the garage – the one part of the house that any burglar could get into with ease.
‘Mum?’ Josh was still in the hall. His voice echoed her fear. There was nothing more than a trace of light from distant street lamps coming through the stained-glass fanlight above the front door – just enough to see his shape.
‘It’s okay, baby,’ she said. ‘Are you all right in there, Lily?’ she shouted.
‘Yes, but it’s gone dark,’ came the response.
‘I know, darling. Stay where you are. I’m going to find the torch and come and get you. Don’t move, Lily.’
All Maggie could think was that there might be somebody in her house, in the kitchen with Lily or waiting behind a door.
Where the fuck was that torch?
She could see Josh moving. He was walking away from her. What was he doing?
‘Josh! Where are you going?’ He had gone into the study.
The door swung to behind him and seconds later she saw a flash of light.
There was somebody in there with him!
Somebody with a torch. She stumbled down the stairs, missing the bottom one in the dark, catching herself on the newel post. She recovered quickly and flung the study door open. A bright white light flashed into her eyes, and she couldn’t see a thing. Just as quickly it moved away.
‘Sorry, Mum. Didn’t mean to blind you.’
Josh was standing there with his iPad mini. ‘I thought this might help.’
Maggie leaned back against the door and took two deep breaths. ‘Let’s get Lily, and we can all search together.’ The idea of leaving Lily on her own while they looked for the torch was frightening her, and she put her arm round Josh’s shoulder. ‘You’re a star, Josh Taylor. Do you know that?’
Instead of shrugging her off as he might do normally, he pressed against her, and she knew how frightened he was. She opened the door to the hall, and heard a footstep. She squeezed Josh tighter and he spun the light round.
Lily.
‘Hey, Tiddles, you were supposed to stay at the table,’ Maggie said, her voice cracking at the edges.
‘I know, but then the moon came out and I could see the man. I was scared.’
Maggie’s body turned to ice.
‘Where was the man, Lily?’ she asked, trying to keep her tone level.
‘In the garden. I didn’t like him looking at me.’
Maggie realised that she was still holding the telephone.
‘Okay, don't be scared. I want you to stay close to me.’
The children nodded mutely.
‘I’m going to open the kitchen door so the man will see me and know I’m calling the police. That will make him go away.’
Lily started to cry noisily. Clutching his iPad in one hand, Josh reached out his other to Lily.
Maggie didn’t want to see the man in the garden. She didn’t want his face to bring her fear into focus. But she had to do it – he had to know that she was calling for help.
She pushed open the kitchen door with her shoulder and stood there, looking out into the garden. At first she saw nothing, but then the moon shot out like a bullet from behind a fast-moving cloud and illuminated the garden. She jumped.
There he was.
She peered out for a moment to be sure, then let the door slam shut and hurried back along the hall to the children.