The Paradise Trees (31 page)

She was looking at him now, and yes, oh yes, there it was, there was recognition on her face, apprehension too, she was afraid, she was ready.

Alicia

Alicia turned and looked back the way they had come. The streetlights of Lower Banford were glowing in a faded kind of way below the night sky, she could make out the nearest
lamp at the end of the lane where her father’s house was. She would sell it, she knew. No matter what happened tonight she could never live in that house again, knowing the anguish she had
endured here. That had started when she was a very young child, and the past few days had merely been an extension of the horror. Multiplied a million times because now she wasn’t the one in
danger, it was her daughter. And if Jenny was dead she would lose her chance of happiness with Frank. She would never think of him or of this place without feeling the grief and the dread.

The events of the day suddenly caught up with her, and Alicia sank to the ground on her knees. The policewoman crouched beside her, and gripped her arm.

‘Look, Mrs Bryson. Alicia. There’s a stump over here. You can sit on that.’

Alicia allowed herself to be led over to the tree stump. It was a relief to sit down, her legs were aching, but the moment she did sit her knees started to tremble and the shivering started
again. It was the most horrible thing she had ever lived through, this waiting, not having any constructive role to play herself.

And still there was nothing. It was so cold, oh God how cold she was.

A rustling sound came from several yards further up the path, and Alicia leapt to her feet and strained to see who was coming.

‘Mrs Bryson!’ It was a deep male whisper, and she stumbled towards it, recognising it as the youngest policeman’s, the one who had been there when her father went missing too.
Her heart went into double time. Frank and the senior men were still up there, so that must mean Doug was up there too. With Jenny.

‘He’s there. With Jenny. We can’t tell yet if she’s hurt or not. Keep very quiet and follow me.’

Alicia pushed him back the way he had come and followed close on his heels. She still had no idea what had happened to Jen, but within minutes she’d be with her daughter, and she would
know the worst.

‘No talking,’ murmured the young policeman, gripping her arm. ‘He has no idea we’re here.’

Alicia saw that Frank and the other men were in pairs, crouching behind sturdy trees around the clearing, and she followed the policeman to a tree of their own. Cautiously, she peered out from
behind the tree and found herself looking at Doug from the side. He was about twenty yards away, bent almost double and arranging some kind of cloth over a light coloured bundle on the ground.

Alicia’s head swam as she stared, blinking back tears of impatience and frustration and straining to see if the bundle was moving because that must be Jenny. But oh no, no, the bundle
wasn’t moving and it wasn’t making a sound either. It was only the policeman’s hand gripping her arm that prevented her from running to her daughter herself. Doug stood up,
dusting his hands and looking satisfied. Alicia winced. It was Doug, but the man’s whole posture was different, the set of his head looked awkward and he had a satisfied, sinister grin across
his face. She had never seen him look like that.

‘Helen’s waiting for you in Paradise,’ said Doug conversationally. ‘When you get there you’ll see her. She’s just as lovely as you are, little Helen. And Big
Helen will join you very soon. It’ll all be perfect, you’ll see. And now it’s time for you to go.’ He produced a length of cord from his pocket and started to wind it round
his hands.

The Superintendent stepped forward and Alicia saw with a stomach-lurching shock that there was a gun in the policeman’s hand. ‘Police!’ he yelled. ‘Hands over your
head!’

Doug started wildly, glared round at them and then made a leap for the bundle on the ground. With appalling suddenness a single shot rang out, and birds in the trees screamed skywards.
Alicia’s ears rang and Doug crumpled over the small figure at his feet. The Inspector moved forward.

‘Wait there, Doc,’ he shouted, but Frank was right behind him, in front of the other policemen. Alicia forced her legs into action and ran across the clearing to Jenny while Frank
helped the Superintendent and Chief Inspector Wilson pull Doug away. Alicia put trembling hands on Jenny’s face and felt warmth. Jenny’s eyes were half open and she was breathing, she
was
breathing. Alicia’s heart felt as if it would burst. Jen was alive. They could help her now. Frank was kneeling beside her too.

‘She’s alive,’ he said to the others, then bent over the child again. ‘Jenny? Jenny darling, it’s Frank, sweetie, we’ve got you safe, everything’s going
to be alright. Mummy’s right here too.’

He nodded to Alicia, but her throat had closed and no sound came from her mouth when she tried to speak. She put her head close to Jenny’s instead, smelling the heavy perfume and feeling
oily slickness on the child’s skin.

Frank put a hand on Jenny’s brow. ‘Temp’s okay,’ he said, and motioned to one of the policemen to bring a torch over. Alicia blinked as a sudden ring of light swayed over
them, and saw Frank dash tears from his eyes before bending over Jenny again, shining the light into her face.

Jenny’s breathing was ragged and Alicia saw that in spite of the torchlight, the child’s pupils were dilated. She must have been drugged, good, she might not have realised the full
horror of what had happened to her. Alicia forced herself to speak.

‘Jenny? Does anything hurt, darling?’

Jenny was staring at her, trying to focus. Frank took out his stethoscope and Alicia loosened the covering from Jen’s thin chest, her gut cramping when she saw that the oil was all over
the child’s body.

‘Heartbeat’s strong and steady,’ said Frank reassuringly, brushing back the strands of greasy hair that were sticking to Jenny’s forehead, half-covering one eye. Alicia
found a tissue in her jeans and started to wipe Jenny’s oily face. The child frowned up at them, and Alicia saw she was trying to assemble something to say.

‘Jen? Where does it hurt, lovey?’

Jenny’s voice was a drunken whisper, ‘M - m - my head feels - fu - funny,’ she said, and tears rushed into Alicia’s eyes again.

‘I think you’ve had medicine to make you sleep, you know, like Grandpa gets,’ said Frank, putting his stethoscope back into his pocket. ‘Don’t worry, Jen,
you’ll feel better very soon.’ He turned to the Superintendent who was bending over Doug Patton.

‘Unconscious but alive,’ he said, in answer to Frank’s look. ‘The bullet’s in his shoulder. Don’t worry about him, the police doc will be here any minute. Is
Jenny going to be alright?’

‘Yes, she’s going to be just fine.’ Frank had uncovered Jenny completely and was checking for broken bones. Alicia leaned towards him and gazed at her daughter’s oily
body in the light of the torch. There was no blood, thank God, no blood.

‘All in one piece. I want to take her back down now,’ said Frank. He was smiling at Jenny but Alicia could hear the strain in his voice. It was only now that they had Jenny back that
Alicia could allow herself to acknowledge just how terrible the past twelve hours had been.

She knew that Frank’s ‘just fine’ and ‘all in one piece’ had been for Jenny’s ears too. They wouldn’t know until later how badly she’d been
hurt.

‘There’ll be an ambulance waiting in the lane,’ said the Superintendent, moving aside as the police doctor arrived. ‘Young Joe over there’ll go with you. I’ll
wait for our doc to finish here and give a hand with this one.’ He jerked his head at Doug.

Frank rolled Jenny up in the blanket again and lifted her. ‘I’ll carry you, Jen, and Mummy’s right beside us,’ he said, and Jenny reached for Alicia’s hand and then
wriggled until her head was tucked into Frank’s shoulder. Alicia took a deep breath. Jenny’s eyes were fixed on her face, and she kissed the oily wrist.

‘It’ll all be okay in the end, lovey, you’ll see,’ she said. Please God she hoped it would be.

The policeman called Joe went in front with the torch, lighting the way, and Frank walked slowly and carefully behind him.

Alicia almost crept along beside them, as if she was afraid Jenny would disappear again if she moved too quickly. She put her free hand round Frank’s shoulder and walked down through the
woods with Frank and Jen encircled in her arms, and really she didn’t care where she was as long as they were both there with her.

Alicia

Two paramedics were running up the garden with a stretcher.

‘We’re okay, she’s quite comfortable like this, let’s get her into the ambulance and have a proper look,’ said Frank, striding towards the vehicle parked in the
lane.

Alicia stumbled along beside him, still clutching Jenny’s hand and Frank’s shoulder. Thinking about what Frank might find when he examined Jenny made her feel as if she would throw
up any minute. How quickly things change. Jenny was here, she had her daughter back alive, and already that wasn’t enough. What had her child been forced to endure today? And how horrific it
was that ever since they’d arrived in Lower Banford, Alicia had been wondering and worrying about the abuse her father had inflicted on her, and now the same hurt might have been happening to
her daughter. Here and today. At Doug’s flat.

Frank stepped nimbly up into the back of the ambulance and laid Jenny on the trolley there. The paramedics followed, and Alicia remained standing on the step because there was no room for her in
the back too.

‘I’m right here, Jen,’ she said thickly, reaching out and squeezing Jenny’s foot. ‘Frank’s going to check you over. Don’t worry, darling.’

Any second now Frank would be able to tell her what Doug had done. Shit, if she could have two minutes alone with Doug Patton, what wouldn’t she do to him. She could kill for her daughter,
she knew. Mother’s instinct, maybe. She had never felt such apprehension; it was more than torture. Her breath was coming in painful, shallow gasps.

Frank jumped down from the back of the ambulance and walked her a few steps away. Alicia pressed both hands to her chest, bracing herself for bad news.

‘Has she been... ’ She couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud. He shook his head.

‘I don’t think so but I can’t tell without a full examination,’ he said. ‘There’s no blood, but that might have been washed off. There are no obvious signs
that she’s been sexually assaulted but there’s bruising on her thighs, her back, her ankles and wrists – looks like he tied her up – and she’s definitely been drugged,
too. We’ll have to go to hospital, Alicia, she needs a full examination and a police doctor, but you’ll be able to stay with her the whole time. I don’t think she remembers much
of what happened, so don’t let her see you’re so upset, okay? It’s not time for her to start dealing with this yet. We’ll get her on her feet again, see what she remembers
and take it from there.’

Alicia sighed, feeling her breath shake. She could still hope.

Fixing a calm expression on her face, Alicia got into the back of the ambulance. She couldn’t reach Jenny’s hand from where she was sitting, she couldn’t touch her daughter.
Jenny had an oxygen mask over her face and her eyes were closed. ‘I’m right here, darling,’ said Alicia, but the child’s face remained oblivious.

‘She’s still pretty out of it,’ said the paramedic. ‘But she’s quite stable, don’t worry. Right, Pete, off we go.’

The ambulance sped off towards Merton and the general hospital there. Alicia fought back a sob. Nothing in her life until now had prepared her for this, speeding along in an ambulance, blue
light flashing and siren wailing as they drove through Saturday night revellers in Merton, and her child,
her child
lying there unconscious and helpless. It was almost more than she could
cope with. She gripped her seat with both hands, forcing herself to breathe slowly. She was getting good at that now.

At the hospital, Jenny was trolleyed swiftly into the A&E Unit. Alicia jogged alongside, never letting go of Jenny’s hand, relieved to see that the paediatrician who came to meet them
was a woman around the same age as herself. They took a few blood samples, and countless swabs from various parts of Jenny’s oily little body. Alicia didn’t watch exactly what they did;
Jenny had roused up again and needed constant reassurance. There was a policewoman in the room too, but she made no attempt to ask Jenny any questions. Hopefully that could wait until much later,
thought Alicia. After all, they’d caught Doug red-handed.

When the examination was finished she was allowed to help wash Jenny at last, and get rid of some of the oil. There wasn’t much they could do about the little girl’s hair,
though.

‘Let’s leave it until the morning when she’s properly awake,’ said the nurse. ‘Don’t worry, Mrs Bryson. I know you must want it all off right this minute, but
she’s almost asleep again. She can have a nice hot bath with plenty of shampoo first thing.’

Alicia wiped a wet hand over her face. ‘I just want her back home in her own bed,’ she said, hearing her voice shake.

‘I know. It’s been a dreadful ordeal for you. She’ll have to stay here until the drugs wear off, but you can probably take her home tomorrow,’ said the nurse, inserting
Jenny’s unresisting body into a hospital gown and covering her with a pink blanket. ‘She can go up to the ward now, and you’ll be able to stay with her, of course.’

She left the room with her trolley of utensils, and Frank put his head in the door. Alicia held out her arms. More than anything else now she needed reassurance, she needed someone to tell her
that the horror was over and they were all safe. They stood beside Jenny’s trolley, looking down at the sleeping child. Her Jenny, and yet not at all the Jenny who had woken up that morning
and looked forward to a beautiful, shining summer day.

‘She has to stay in,’ Alicia said, sniffing.

He handed her a tissue. ‘I spoke to the doctor,’ he said. ‘Jen wasn’t damaged physically, but unless she can tell us later, there’s no way to know exactly what he
did to her. However there are no injuries other than the bruises, the doctor thinks she may have fallen. And she was drugged, of course. We’ll see what she remembers in the
morning.’