The Border: Part One (9 page)

“You need to protect the children,” Audrey told him. “I’m serious, Jack. They’ll hear bits and pieces about what’s happening, and they’ll fill in the gaps for themselves. You need to sit them down and talk to them properly. They’re old enough.”

He shook his head. “The kids are barely aware of it. They’re too young to understand.”

“You don’t think this horrible murder will be the talk of the schoolyard?” she asked. “Please, Jack, I know it’s an uncomfortable matter, but you don’t need to go into all the gruesome details. Just let them know they’re safe.”

“Sure,” he replied, turning to look out across the sun-soaked courtyard, and at the town square a little further away. He watched for a moment as people criss-crossed the square, going about their daily business. “Everyone’s safe in Bowley.”

VIII

“And Daddy says we can go to the park and ride the roller-coaster,” Lucy continued breathlessly as she took more decorations from the shoebox and carried them over to the Christmas tree. “Can we, Mummy? Can we, please?”

“Well…” Beth wrapped some tinsel around the tree, threading it between the branches. “That sounds good, sweetheart, but I think they have age restrictions on those things. You have to -”

“It’ll be fine,” Bob said, watching from the doorway. He was already in his suit, ready to go to work again. At least, that was where he
said
he was going. “Don’t put a downer on it, Beth. Kids love the funfair.”

“Yeah,” she replied, struggling to keep from wrapping the next strand of tinsel around her husband’s neck and pulling tight, “but there
are
age restrictions. It’s based on height and things like that. Have you checked the website?”

“You check it while I’m out,” he told her.

“So I can deliver the bad news and seem like the mean one?” she replied, glaring at him.

“Just chill, babe,” he said, heading over to her and trying to give her a goodnight kiss, only for her to duck out of the way and start arranging some more tinsel. “Seriously, what’s got into you?” he asked.

“We’re decorating the Christmas tree,” she pointed out. “We’re busy. Or do you think this kind of thing just magically happens without any human involvement? Like everything else in this family.”

“Huh.” He stared at her for a moment. “You’ve definitely seemed a little off lately.”

She smiled flatly, but said nothing.

“Have I done anything to -”

“Shouldn’t you get going?” she asked him curtly. “I’m sure you’re required to get there before things can really get going. I imagine Tom and Candy will be pleased to see you.”

“Tom and Candy?” He frowned. “Well, I guess…”

Making his way around the tree, he tried again to kiss her, and again she stepped neatly out of the way.

“Beth -”

“Daddy!” Lucy called out, running to him with some baubles in her hands. “Can you put these up near the top for me?”

“Of course,” he replied, taking the baubles and hooking them onto a few branches. “I wish I could stay home this evening, guys, and help with all of this. I always love when we do stuff as a family, but duty calls. Seriously, Lanegan would have me over the coals if I called in sick.” He waited for Beth to reply, but after a moment he realized she was deliberately and carefully avoiding eye contact, preferring to focus on adding more decorations to the tree. “Okay,” he said finally, leaning closer to try one more time to kiss her, before thinking better of it and heading to the door. “See you guys tomorrow!”

“See you tomorrow,” Beth replied through gritted teeth.

“Daddy! Daddy!” Lucy ran after him, out into the hallway.

As she listened to Bob and Lucy talking at the front door, Beth tried to focus on the tree and block out everything else. She knew that in a couple of weeks’ time, the entire family would be filling the house, including Ben, and everyone would have to pretend to be excruciatingly friendly. There was a part of her that wanted to get Bob out of the house before then, to cut things off cleanly, but she still didn’t know how she was going to make her move. As she grabbed the stepladder and dragged it over to the tree, she heard the front door closing and realized that he was off, probably to meet up with the little bimbo from his office for another night of fun.

“Mummy!” Lucy shouted, running back through and grabbing the angel from the shoebox. “Can you put her on top of the tree?”

“It’s a little early,” she replied.

“Please, Mummy!”

“Fine.” Taking the angel, she looked at it for a moment. Blonde and with a big smile on its face, the damn thing momentarily reminded her of Candy from Bob’s office.

“Can we give her a name?” Lucy asked.

“Sure,” Beth muttered, climbing the stepladder so she could reach the top of the tree. “What do you want to call her?”

“Candy!”

Freezing for a moment, Beth looked down at her daughter.

“That’s one of Daddy’s friend’s names, isn’t it?” the little girl asked. “I heard him talking to someone named Candy on the phone earlier!”

“You did, huh?” she replied, feeling a sense of pure anger starting to rise up through her body until it seemed as if it was going to burst out through the top of her head. “Well, that’s lovely, isn’t it? I’m so glad Daddy has
friends
.” Climbing the steps, she raised the angel, ready to place her on top of the tree. “What exactly did you hear Daddy saying?”

“Just that he’d see her later.”

“So he was making plans?”

“Can we get fake snow this year?”

“Where was Daddy when you overheard him?”

“In the bathroom.”

“And was he talking kind of quietly?”

“A little bit.”

“Huh,” she replied, forcing herself to stay calm.

“Are you going to do it?”

“What?” It took a moment before she remembered the angel she was holding. “Right. Yeah, sure.”

“She’s beautiful,” Lucy said with a smile. “I think Candy’s the prettiest angel ever. I love her!”

“Yep,” Beth muttered. “She’s a stunner alright.” With that, she rammed the angel into place with such force that the top of the tree burst straight through the top of the model’s head, skewering her completely.

Slowly, Beth turned to look down at Lucy and saw the horrified look on her daughter’s face.

***

“I can’t tell you anything, Jack!” Jane said for the tenth, maybe twentieth time, as they sat eating dinner. “Can you stop asking? Especially in…” She lowered her voice. “Especially in front of the kids!”

“Come on,” Stuart replied, waiting eagerly for more juicy details, “just tell us
something
! Is it true that her eyes had been cut out and -”

“No!” Jane said firmly.

“What about her tongue? I heard he ate it and -”

“No!” Jane said again, before turning to her husband. “Do you see how this is already turning into some kind of big frenzy? I can’t talk about it, so let’s just shut the conversation down, yeah?”

“Are you kids finished?” Jack asked, turning to them.

“I want to know more about the dead woman,” Stuart replied. “Everyone was talking about her at school today, and there are all these gross rumors. Mum, don’t you think you have a duty to inform the public and tell them the truth, including all the gory details, so that the gossip doesn’t spiral out of control? There might be a maniac out there, and we need to know how to avoid him!”

“Nice try,” she replied. “If you’ve finished eating, you may be excused. Go do your homework.”

“But Mum -”

“Homework,” she said firmly, pointing toward the front room. “Now!”

Sighing, Stuart took his plate and set it on the counter, before making his way through.

“You too,” Jane told Oliver.

“I don’t have any homework,” he replied.

“Then go and bug your brother.” Sighing, she swirled some more pasta onto her fork and waited while Oliver left the room.

“Okay,” Jack said a moment later, “they’re gone.
Now
you can fill me in on a the details.”

She shook her head.

“Jane!”

She turned and scowled at him.

“There’s something to be said,” he continued, “for an open and honest police force that actually informs the public about what’s going on. Stu’s right, you’re going to be feeding the rumor mill if you don’t set the facts out. It’s already started with the kids, next it’ll be the whole town.”

“And this has nothing to do with you wanting more salacious detail to fill the pages of the paper tomorrow? You’re not eying the stat-counter on the website and wondering if you could get even
more
hits?”

“Not at all. I’m asking as your husband, not as the
Morning Herald
‘s editor. We’re both public servants, in a way.”

She rolled her eyes.

“We have a duty to the community,” he continued.

“I can’t tell you anything that hasn’t already been announced,” she replied. “Jack, please, I have to let Alex control the flow of information.”

“Is there going to be a second autopsy?”

Ignoring him, she continued eating.

“Did you get into her email, social media and phone records yet?”

No reply.

He sighed. “Do you have anything to link it with other incidents?”

Again, Jane remained silent and focused on her food.

“So it’s not true that the wounds on Mel’s body match the wounds on Caitlin’s from all those years ago?”

Finally, she turned to him. “What?”

“There’s a rumor going around.”

“Spread by who?”

He shrugged. “I can’t comment on the source of the rumor.”

“Come on, Jack,” she replied, “you always said you’d never try to leverage our marriage to get stories for your paper. I’d really appreciate it if you’d stick to that agreement right now.”

“Okay,” he replied, “here’s a deal. I’ll just throw some ideas out, and if they’re wrong, you tell me, but if they’re right -”

“I’m full,” she said suddenly, leaving half her plate full as she got to her feet and headed to the door. “I should help the kids with their homework.”

“Jane -”

“It’s not a game,” she replied, stopping and turning to him. “None of it is. You said you wanted to pop back to the office after dinner, so… Just go do that, okay? You might as well set your final copy, because you won’t be getting any more info from me. Not unless it’s released officially through the office, so just stop trying, seriously. You won’t manage to wear me down, you’ll just piss me off.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but she was already gone, and a moment later he heard her talking to the children. Her tone had switched in an instant, and now she sounded happy and playful.

Spotting Jane’s bag on the counter, Jack reached over, figuring that he could take a quick look at her phone. At the last moment, however, he held back, telling himself that he couldn’t go that far. Not yet, anyway.

***

“No, Bob,” Tom Lanegan said, leaning back in his chair as he used the rubber-end of a pencil to clean out his ears. “Don’t worry about it. She won’t come again, and if she does, I’ll do the same as last time. It’s cool and -”

Hearing a beep on his phone, he checked the screen.

“Gotta go, Bob,” he continued. “Incoming.”

He tapped the screen, and immediately moved the phone away from his ear as he heard a burst of static.

“Jesus fucking Christ, man,” he said once the static was over, “you need to fix your communication system. I can’t make out a goddamn word you ever say.”

He waited, hearing nothing but another burst of static.

“I’m assuming this is about the new girl,” he continued. “I have no complaints. If there’s something you wanna talk about in more detail, you’ll have to go direct to Mr. Crutchlow.”

Sighing, he listened to another howling swarm of static from the phone. Although no words could be made out, the tone of the static seemed more intense this time, and a little urgent.

“You’re supposed to be running a professional set-up over there,” Tom continued. “Get this damn thing fixed, okay? And I haven’t heard a word you’ve said, so if it’s something important, text me or send an email.”

Muttering a few more expletives, he cut the call and set his phone down, only for a text message to arrive a moment later. Grabbing the phone again, he sighed as he saw that, sure enough, the message was from Simon. Opening it up, he found that it contained nothing but a seemingly random series of symbols, as if the original text had somehow become distorted.

“Bloody idiot,” he sighed, sliding the phone across his desk and then leaning back further so he could concentrate on cleaning his ears.

***

“The cameras haven’t worked in about six years,” Greg muttered, sitting on a stool at the bar next to Jack. “Turns out, half the cameras in this whole goddamn
town
are just empty boxes. We’ll be lucky if anything was caught at all.”

“So what did Alex say to you?” Jack asked, trying to sound casual even though he was meticulously digging for dirt. “Do you know where they’re focusing the investigation right now?”

“Did you talk to him?”

“Um… Kind of. A little. He seemed very busy, though, so I don’t think he managed to tell me everything he wanted to tell me. Jane’s the same, they’re running around like crazy.”

“Alex still thinks it’s someone who was just drifting through,” Greg replied, taking a sip of beer. “I don’t know about that, man. I can’t shake the feeling that…” He paused, before glancing at the window and seeing the darkness outside. “Do you ever feel like there’s something in this town? Something that’s kinda lurking out there, and most of us don’t see it, but it’s, like, waiting and…” Another pause. “Damn it, I don’t even know what I’m trying to say. Secrets, I guess. Shadows in the shadows.”