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‘W-what?’ Ellie whispered, her hands gripping the landline phone until her knuckles were almost white.

Laura instantly knew that it was bad news, but she had no idea just how bad it would be. Lurking by the kitchen table, she pretended to be absorbed in pouring the second glass of juice, but instinctively she knew that Kerry’s mother was too preoccupied to even notice that she was eavesdropping.

‘Yes, she’s here. How did it happen?’ Ellie groaned.

By now, Laura was listening intently and, after a brief interval, Kerry’s mother spoke again, her voice quivering with pain.

‘Oh my God. Is there any hope?’

Clearly the answer from the other end was negative, because Ellie burst into tears, sinking to the floor, having forgotten that Laura was still in the kitchen.

‘What is it? What’s happened?’ Laura cried, running to Ellie and throwing her arms around her. She’d never seen anyone in such a distressed state before.

At first, Ellie seemed oblivious to Laura’s presence – it was as though a mantle of pain had suddenly surrounded her, cutting her off from everything else. Then, realising that Laura was there, she crushed the young girl to her chest, her eyes brimming with tears.

‘Oh, Laura, I can’t believe it!’ she sobbed, cradling the confused girl in her arms. ‘It’s bad news, and we’ll all have to be brave.’

Laura looked confused. ‘Bad news?’

It seemed an eternity before Ellie spoke, and her voice shook as she whispered the words. ‘Yes, I’m afraid so, love. There’s been an accident …’

In trying to soften the blow, Ellie was actually making it worse for Laura.

‘Tell me, please!’ Laura screamed.

‘Your mother’s car crashed, and she, your father and brother –’

‘Are they okay? Are they in hospital?’ Laura realised that in her anxiety, she was digging her nails into Ellie’s hand, but Ellie didn’t seem to notice.

Ellie dissolved into heart-rending sobs again. ‘No, love, I’m afraid they’re all – oh my God, how can I tell you?’

‘Please!’ Laura screamed, terrified now, clutching at Ellie’s arm.

Not even feeling the pain of Laura’s grip. Ellie turned her tear-stained face towards the child. ‘I-I’m afraid they’re all dead. I’m so sorry, Laura!’

Her words momentarily winded Laura, and initially the young girl was unable to speak. Then she broke free of Ellie’s embrace and ran screaming out of the house. If she didn’t listen, it wouldn’t be true. It couldn’t be true! Everyone she loved couldn’t possibly be dead! It was all a dreadful mistake. Everything would be fine when Mum, Dad and Pete walked back in Greygates’s front door. She was going straight back to the house, and she felt sure they’d all be waiting for her there …

As Laura ran into the garden screaming loudly, her eyes blinded with tears, Kerry rushed from the outhouse and looked at her in astonishment. ‘What the –?’

Laura stopped, her eyes red and streaming. ‘I didn’t go for my school uniform, and now they’re all dead!’ she wailed.

‘What? Who’s dead?’ Kerry’s face was white.

Laura gulped. She was so emotional she could hardly speak, but Kerry grabbed her arm and shook her angrily. ‘For God’s sake, tell me who’s dead!’ she screamed.

‘They’re all dead!’ Laura whispered at last. ‘Mum, Dad, Pete – they’ve all been killed!’

‘Oh, God, no!’ Kerry croaked, now crying too. ‘All your family? I don’t believe it! Even your father? Why would he be in your mother’s car?’

‘Because I was late!’ Laura screamed. ‘It’s all my fault!’

She was devastated. Her heart was thumping and her head was spinning. This couldn’t be happening. Soon she’d wake up and find it was all a bad dream. Maybe the message had been meant for some other family, not hers …

‘I should have died too,’ she whispered, fresh tears streaming down her face. She was riddled with guilt that her brother had travelled alone with her parents, simply because she’d gone to check on the injured blackbird. If she hadn’t delayed them, they’d have left earlier and might have avoided the cause of the crash.

She desperately wished she’d been in the car with her family, since she couldn’t envisage a life without them.

Suddenly, Kerry began running towards her own house, desperate for confirmation from her mother. Distraught, Laura wasn’t sure whether to turn back to be with her friend but, more than anything, she wanted to be back in her own house with her family around her.

So she ran down the Treetops’s driveway and out the gate, and began running along the road towards her own home. Pete would be alive when she got there – she had to believe it – and she’d fill in that stupid trap and just hug her brother tightly …

Blinded by tears, Laura ran along the side of the road, hardly aware of the traffic, except when a car tooted its horn when she veered too far off the pathway. She didn’t actually care if she was killed because it would ease the pain in her heart, which was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.

Behind her, in the distance, she could hear Ellie calling her, but she ignored her entreaties and ran on. She had to get back to Greygates, because her family would be waiting for her. It was all a lie – they couldn’t possibly be dead …

At last, she staggered up the Greygates driveway, running past the house and down into the woodland beyond. Any minute now, she’d see Pete’s mischievous face peeping out from behind one of the trees. And if she filled in the trap she’d laid for him, everything would be all right …

Scraping around in the dirt, her tears mingled with sweat and mucus, Laura tore at the twigs and leaves with her bare hands. Crazed with grief, she began dragging the clay that she had dug out earlier from its hiding place behind the tree, packing it back into the hole she’d finished only hours earlier. Her nails broke and caked with dirt as she tried desperately to fill the void.

Strong arms suddenly grabbed her and, as she tried to free herself and continue digging, Laura found herself being pinioned by an equally distraught and out-of-breath Ellie.

‘Laura, stop!’ Ellie cried, her own tears running down her face and now mingling with Laura’s own. ‘There’s nothing you can do to bring them back – whatever you think you’re doing, it won’t change anything!’

Collapsing into Ellie’s arms, Laura finally gave up the struggle, all the fight gone out of her. Smoothing Laura’s hair, Ellie cradled her, and the two clung to each other. In between bouts of tears, Ellie began softly singing a lullaby.

It was there, a little while later, that they were found by the police.

C
HAPTER 70

A
s the weeks went by, Laura began to feel more settled and secure. There hadn’t been any further incidents, and she was beginning to accept that it had simply been an incompetent driver who’d almost knocked her down. Her rented apartment was comfortable and in a lovely location, Bill Maddison seemed happy with her work, and all seemed well in her world.

As she left the lecture hall one morning, Laura was feeling in exceptionally good form. She loved it when her students were genuinely interested in the subject, instead of regarding it as something to be regurgitated at exam time.

As she stepped into her office, she turned on her phone and noticed that there was a message in her inbox. The screen said ‘Number Withheld’, and Laura’s heart gave a little, downward jolt. She was disappointed that it wasn’t from Darren, since his regular calls, texts and newsy emails allowed her to feel that she was still part of his department. Since Jeff hadn’t bothered her for quite a while now, she was a lot calmer when her phone rang or she received a text.

But as she opened the text and scrolled down, Laura wondered if she was about to have a heart attack.

Hello Laura – I really did enjoy your lecture today. You know your subject so well! I was sitting in the back row, so I don’t think you saw me. You didn’t see me either when you were crossing that busy road, did you? I’m disappointed you left London, but glad to know where my dear wife is now living. J xx

Frightened, Laura threw her phone across the room, feeling that it was now contaminated. How on earth could Jeff have got this latest number, and found out where she was working? Was he here in Dorrington? Had he arranged for that man to follow her?

Laura shuddered, although she was trying to think things through sensibly. She couldn’t just up and leave a job every time Jeff managed to find her. Surely he couldn’t think she’d ever go back to him? While it was clear he hadn’t wanted their marriage to end, surely he had to accept his own role in its demise? Once again, Laura wondered where this would all end.

Laura felt bad about ringing Kerry again, but there was no one else who’d understand how scared she was feeling.

‘I’ve just received a text from Jeff. He said he’d attended my lecture today.’

‘Jeff? But how on earth –?’

‘I don’t know,’ Laura said miserably. ‘I’ve already changed my phone number three times. How could he get this latest number?’

‘What exactly did it say?’

Laura read her the wording of the text.

‘Look, he’s just trying to scare you. He probably wasn’t there at all, but I think you should go to the police, anyway.’

‘What’s the point? They weren’t very receptive before.’

‘Well, the Dorrington police might be more proactive,’ Kerry reasoned. ‘Look, just because he texted you, doesn’t mean he knows where you are. He’s just trying to unnerve you.’

‘Well, he’s succeeding,’ Laura said dryly.

Kerry was beginning to sound exasperated. ‘Can’t you just try and forget about him? Leave him in the past, where he belongs. He can’t possibly find you in Dorrington!’

‘Can’t he? I wish I could believe you, but I know Jeff. And
what about that guy that’s been following me? I can’t help but think Jeff is behind it all.’

‘What? You never told me about a guy following you! Are you sure you weren’t imagining it?’ Kerry asked. ‘You are rather jumpy at the moment, so it wouldn’t be surprising if you read more into situations than was really there.’

‘No,’ Laura said firmly. ‘I caught this guy looking at me, and turning away quickly. Give me some credit, Kerry – Jeff hasn’t caused me to lose my mind just yet!’

‘Listen, I’ve got to go,’ Kerry told her. ‘Norma, Jack and the gang are meeting up to discuss the progress of our star project. But call me if anything else happens, okay?’

As she rang off, Laura had the distinct impression that Kerry was losing sympathy with her, and she couldn’t blame her. She had her own life to live, and who needed a paranoid nutcase for a friend? Laura made a vow to take more interest in Kerry’s work – that way, she might be able to support her friend, and repay a little of the kindness that Kerry had shown to her over the years. Kerry had been there for her through thick and thin, and it was time she got her own life in order. And somehow banish Jeff for good.

C
HAPTER
71

L
aura woke early. For a brief moment, she managed to forget the tragedy of the day before. But realising she was in the spare bedroom at Treetops, the horror of it all came flooding back.

Creeping out of bed, her eyes once again filled with tears, she tiptoed past Kerry’s room, then Ellie’s room, and down the stairs, where she left a note in the hall explaining that she was briefly visiting Greygates again.

Not surprisingly, she’d completely forgotten about the injured bird. Now she felt guilty for neglecting it. Hurrying down the road, Laura entered the big, metal gates that gave Greygates its name, then made her way to the tree platform in the wood, praying that the little bird’s wing would have repaired itself and that it might have managed to fly away. Somehow she felt as though its recovery would indicate that something good, no matter how small, might be garnered from the awful events that had occurred the day before.

But as she climbed the tree to the platform, her heart plummeted as she spotted the little bird’s body. It lay stiff and unmoving exactly where she’d left it – it hadn’t even attempted to fly. Seeing it tiny, lifeless body seemed to open the floodgates once again, and Laura wept until she had no tears left.

Unable to see because of her tears, Laura caressed the bird’s shiny feathers, wishing she had the power to inject life back into the little creature and into all those she loved, or to turn back time so that they could all still be together.

Eventually, she climbed down from the platform and, using a stick, dug a small grave in the soft, damp earth beneath the tree. She cried again as she placed the tiny body in the trench. The bird had represented something wild, beautiful and untamed. But now, along with her parents and brother, it was no more. All the beauty, all the hope, had been destroyed.

Laura was filled with guilt – clearly her delaying tactics the day before had been responsible for her father’s change of plan. If she hadn’t kept her mother waiting in the car while she tended to the bird, her father wouldn’t have been able to take a lift with her. It was all her fault, and she’d never be happy again as long as she lived. And she hoped that wherever her beloved brother was, he wouldn’t know that she’d been planning to play a mean, stupid trick on him.

Tears trickled down her cheeks. How could she not have
known?
Why hadn’t she felt something at the moment of their deaths? What had she been doing at the precise moment that the lorry had ploughed into their car? She’d heard murmurings about what had happened, but adult conversations ended abruptly as soon as she appeared. She knew that people were only trying to protect her, yet she had a perverse need to know exactly what had happened. She wasn’t sure if that was to punish herself, or to simply understand the enormity of it all.