Behind Closed Doors (Season One: Book 7) (Jessica Daniel) (10 page)

Jessica freed an arm to click off the lamp, leaving only a faint light coming from Heather’s side of the room. She was partially sitting up, reading her Bible.

‘Everyone’s so friendly here,’ Jessica said.

Heather peered over the top of the book. ‘I’m really glad you think so. It’s so good to have you here.’

Jessica paused for a second, thinking how to phrase her questions. ‘It’s such a big house, I suppose there’s always an occasion where people fall out or something happens but
it’s great that everyone’s so kind about things.’

Heather didn’t answer instantly but she hadn’t looked back down to the Bible. ‘How do you mean?’ she replied eventually.

‘Nothing really, just that we all know what it’s like at school or work, where there’s a lot of people in a small area. Eventually people end up arguing over something or
another. It might not mean anything but that’s just what happens.’

Another pause.

‘Everyone’s very happy here.’

‘Of course they are, that’s not what I’m saying. It’s like with Naomi at dinner. Sometimes there are little niggles between people. It doesn’t mean anything but
it’s really great that you all get along and get over things.’

Jessica was pushing her luck but hoped she was careful enough how she worded things not to be too obvious.

‘I suppose you’re right. Perhaps that’s what makes things different here.’

Jessica lay still, listening to the stillness of the night. It was only her first night. Should she risk it?

‘Someone mentioned something about a person named Liam who upset a few people . . .’

Silence.

Jessica could hear Heather breathing. ‘Where did you hear that name?’

‘When I was being introduced to everyone downstairs, someone spoke about a Liam who had upset them.’

‘Who?’

Jessica laughed, trying to make light. ‘I don’t remember the name. I’ve met so many new people today that it’s difficult to keep up.’

‘Liam caused trouble here – he broke the rules. We all know what they were but he couldn’t abide by them. We tried to help him.’

‘So he was asked to leave?’

‘He ran away.’

Jessica knew Heather would have been told that by either Glenn or Moses, possibly even Zipporah. She did at least now know that Liam had encountered problems while here.

‘Do many people run away?’

‘Of course not. We’re all one big family.’

Jessica didn’t reply, closing her eyes and turning to face the wall. There weren’t many families where people disappeared and ended up dead in a canal forty miles away.

Jessica had struggled with sleeping for most of her life. Sometimes she would lie awake through the night, staring at the ceiling, worrying about cases she was working on.
Other times, she could sleep through entire days if she didn’t have someone to wake her. With no watch and no alarm clock, she had no choice but to force herself to stay awake, listening for
the rest of the house to go quiet. At first there was the padding of feet as people headed off to their bedrooms, then there were the clunks and clangs that come with any house. They were even
louder in something as old as this.

Water pipes squeaked as people took showers; outside, owls hooted to each other until, eventually, there was nothing but the sound of Heather’s deep breathing.

Jessica hadn’t realised it until now but there was very little more disorientating than not knowing what time it was. She tried to think if there was anywhere in the house where she had
seen a clock. There were many paintings, portraits and photographs. The call to dinner had come via a bell and Jessica assumed all meals and probably their wake-up call would be signalled in the
same way.

There was no single thing that made the house particularly sinister; it was a combination of lots of small details. Having no reference point for the time, other than whether it was daylight,
left them completely at the mercy of whoever sounded the bell. The way everyone so willingly opened up about the horrors in their lives might work in small doses but it simply became a way for them
to constantly wallow in their pasts, rather than focusing on the life in front of them. Mixed with the way Moses could so easily manipulate them, it made for a potentially dangerous
combination.

When they were utterly reliant on one person, it wouldn’t take much before they became unable to picture life any differently. Day after day, Moses would be drumming into them how
dangerous outsiders could be. Jessica had seen it with Heather’s father – the moment he began shouting, they all acted together, creating a wall of people between him and his daughter.
That happened when Moses wasn’t even there.

Jessica’s eyes were tired but she continued waiting, turning things over in her mind.

Eventually, when she couldn’t wait any longer, she slid the covers away, untucking them as quietly as she could, reaching under the mattress for the mobile phone she had hidden. In the
negotiations between her district and Charley’s, it was the one concession that had been made. She wasn’t happy at the method of bringing it in but, given she had to strip to her
underwear in front of Zipporah, it had proved to be the only way – exactly as Charley had suggested might happen.

Under the covers, she poked at the buttons, unfamiliar with a device that wasn’t hers, trying to find the right one to make the screen flash to life. Having the phone was one thing but
there was no way to charge it, meaning she couldn’t be wasteful. They had provided her with an old model with nothing but the bare minimum of functions. She could send a text message and make
a phone call but nothing else. This way, the battery would last far longer. Slowly it came to life, flashing up the time as 03.18 and then connecting to the network. How there was signal here but
only an intermittent one in the village a few miles away, Jessica didn’t know.

She crept through to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She lay in the bath, wrapping a towel around the phone and her mouth, hoping it would make her voice quiet enough not to disturb
Heather.

There was only one number programmed into the phone. Charley answered on the second ring, sounding as awake as if it were the middle of the afternoon. ‘What time do you call
this?’

‘I’m in.’

‘Good. Are you safe?’

Her tone was clipped and short but it was good to hear someone’s voice from the outside.

‘I think so.’

‘Anything to report?’

‘Liam was definitely here. Someone says he ran away but they all believe whatever they’re told. As well as Moses, there’s another man called Glenn who I’ll try to keep an
eye on.’

‘Weapons?’

‘Not that I’ve seen.’

‘Anything else strange?’

‘One of the new recruits was hurt. It was in this trust exercise but Moses let him fall and he cracked his head.’

‘Is he all right?’

‘I’m not sure. He wasn’t dead. These people would do anything for Moses if he asked them to. Almost all of the girls are in their early twenties. I’m pretty sure
he’s got a mistress, who’s maybe nineteen or twenty. There’s something under the surface but I’m not there yet.’

There was a humming sound from the other end of the line. ‘Thanks for the call. You know what we said; emergencies and updates only to keep the battery. I should go.’

‘Charley . . .’

‘What?’

‘It’s nice to hear someone else’s voice. Everyone here has a tone to them, like a robot, as if it’s rehearsed.’

There was no emotion to Charley’s reply. ‘Okay.’

‘There was one other thing you said I could call you for . . .’

‘I remember.’

‘Please tell Adam that I love him and miss him.’

A pause and a sigh. ‘Will do.’

The line went dead.

EIGHT MONTHS AGO

Jessica sat in the hospital waiting room staring at the floor. The last time she had been in a similar position was when Dave Rowlands had broken his arm. She also remembered
the day she’d found out her colleague Carrie had died, in a room just like the one she was in. Hospitals meant death and devastation.

Today was going to eclipse any of that.

‘Are you okay?’ Adam asked.

He had been absent-mindedly tapping his foot on the hard floor for the past five minutes. It was annoying but Jessica did not have the anger to tell him to stop. She just felt empty.

‘I’m fine.’

‘Would you like a drink?’

‘No.’

‘Something to eat?’

‘No.’

‘Would you—?’

‘I’m fine!’

Jessica couldn’t stop herself shouting, attracting the attention of a woman with two young children on the far side of the waiting room. Adam went silent, even stopping tapping his
foot.

A few moments later, a door swung open noisily, clattering against the frame with a bang. Jessica didn’t look up, even when the person asked for ‘Miss Daniel’.

She could feel Adam nodding towards her but the floor still seemed like the best option, the gentle brown zigzags on the cream surface offering her something to look at which wasn’t the
white imposing walls of the hospital.

Jessica felt someone sitting next to her.

‘Miss Daniel?’

‘Yes.’

‘Your mother’s in there now.’

‘Okay.’

‘Has someone explained things to you?’

‘Sort of.’

She assumed the voice belonged to a doctor but continued to stare at the floor, sensing him exchanging a look with Adam.

‘Do you mind if I talk you through it? Even if it’s only for a minute?’

Jessica breathed in through her nose, the faint smell of disinfectant creeping through her.

‘Is he in pain?’ she asked.

The doctor cleared his throat. ‘He’s comfortable and he’s able to speak with full awareness.’

‘Tell me why you can’t save him. All this equipment, all this technology. Tell me why.’

Jessica’s voice was calm but angry. She heard the doctor gulp. It wasn’t his fault but she wanted a reason.

‘Your father had a brain aneurysm. We operated and did everything we could to stabilise him. Unfortunately, it was too big and had done too much damage. Every time we bring him back to
consciousness, the pressure increases on his brain to such a degree that we find ourselves in the situation we are now. The only way he can live any sort of life is if he remains
unconscious.’

He didn’t say it but he might as well have added: ‘And what sort of life is that?’

‘So how long has he got?’ Jessica asked.

‘We can’t say for sure, perhaps ninety minutes, perhaps two hours. He’s been with your mother for around ten minutes since we brought him back to consciousness. All I can say
is that he will be mostly himself during that time and that he shouldn’t be able to feel the pain.’

‘And then he’ll die?’

‘I’m sorry.’

The doctor continued sitting for a few seconds, wondering if Jessica had any further questions. Instead, she continued staring at the floor. He muttered something consoling to Adam, but Jessica
wasn’t listening, then he stood and walked away.

Half of Jessica wanted to turn and run, not knowing if she could see her father in such a position. He was the person who had taught her to ride a bicycle, took her blackberry-picking in the
summers, buried her in sand at the beach.

One night when she was young she’d had a nightmare and gone downstairs, curling up on the sofa, shivering. He had followed her down, tickling and joking with her, before carrying her back
to bed and kissing her on the forehead. ‘Don’t worry about the monsters, Jess,’ he’d said. ‘If they want to get to you, they’ll have to come through me
first.’ She believed him then as she did now, that strong, soothing voice teasing and reassuring in the way only a father’s could.

Adam’s hand was on her back, rubbing gently, but she shrugged him away.

Time passed, doors opening and closing until eventually her mother entered. Jessica could tell from the weight of the footsteps they were hers, even before she heard the voice. ‘He’d
like to see you now, Jess.’

Did she want to see him? That great man who had helped make her the person she had become was now in a bed wasting away as the clock ticked away on his life. Who did she want to remember him as:
the person with the tanned arms who used to push her higher on the swings, or the man he was now, dying in a hospital?

Slowly Jessica rose, unable to meet her mother’s eyes.

‘I want to go on my own,’ she told Adam, voice cracking, as he started to stand. ‘Sorry,’ she croaked, but he told her he understood.

Her mum told her which room and then Jessica trudged her way through the corridors. The bright white overhead lights dazzled her, the disinfectant stench becoming stronger. Jessica felt woozy
herself, unsure how to cope as she stood in front of a door, staring at the numbers.

With a deep breath, she pushed it inwards, stepping forward into the dimmer light, focusing on the figure in the bed. He was half-sitting up, her father but not her father. Thinner, frailer, no
trace of that playful grin he so often had.

Jessica sat on the chair next to the bed, taking his hand in hers. He tried to smile but his lips simply twitched. It wasn’t the same.

‘Jess.’

‘Daddy.’

‘Your mother told me you had something exciting to share.’

Jessica shrugged, unable to stop the tears forming around her eyes. She stood again, pulling up her top and pressing her father’s hand to the area under her stomach.

‘It’s a little boy.’

She felt her father’s fingers twitch on her skin and, with that, she was gone. He rolled over as much as he could, using both hands to touch her but Jessica could do nothing but cry.
Within seconds, he was soothing her, shushing and reaching for her hand again.

Jessica sat, rolling her top down and trying to calm herself; she was supposed to be the strong one.

‘My little girl all grown up,’ he said, his voice wavering but still undoubtedly her father’s.

‘I’m so sorry you’re not going to meet him.’

He chuckled slightly but it might have been a cough. ‘Are you happy?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is Adam happy?’