Sleep Tight (22 page)

‘Thanks. Let’s hope it wakes me up.’ She paused. ‘You didn’t need to come, you know. I can handle this.’

Tom shook his head slowly. ‘I’m not here because I don’t think you’re up to it. I’m here
because three kids are missing, and two heads might be better than one. Okay?’

‘Okay,’ she answered quietly.

‘How are we doing with Sophie Duncan, then?’

‘Not great at the moment. She refuses to leave her mother until she’s been checked over, and then the doctor wants to look at her leg. It seems Robert has done quite a bit of damage to it. As far as I can gather, the original injury from when she was caught in the bomb blast hadn’t knitted together properly, so she’s had to have more surgery on her leg and the wound was still a bit raw. Our friend Brookes exploited that, although I bet she didn’t let on how much he was hurting her. She’s one hell of a tough cookie, if you ask me.’

‘Did you manage to get anything at all from her?’

‘Nope – other than the fact that this was all done by Robert Brookes, who has understandably been called the full range of expletives. I was going to ask her what the hell it was all about, but I got shooed out by the doctor. This was really vicious, Tom. He wasn’t playing games. I told you he was a murdering bastard.’

Tom sat back and rubbed his hands over his face.
What a mess
. They should have taken Robert in, and it was his fault they hadn’t. But they hadn’t had anything to go on, and Robert’s solicitor would have got him out in no time. Still, Tom couldn’t help thinking that he might have been able to prevent this.

He looked at his watch. He felt they were wasting time just sitting here. There must be other things to be done, but he needed to speak to Sophie Duncan. And now would be good.

‘How long is she going to be, do you think?’ he asked.

‘Not too long. The doctor came out just before you arrived to tell me she was just going to be stitched up.’

Out of the corner of his eye, Tom sensed some movement – the first he’d seen in what appeared to be a fairly dead emergency room. A doctor was walking towards them. He stopped and faced Becky.

‘DI Robinson, you can go and talk to Captain Duncan now. She’s ready to go home, but we’ve let her stay until you’ve spoken to her and her mum’s been settled for the night. We’re keeping Mrs Duncan in because her blood pressure is through the roof, and we’re concerned that the fear of going back into the house might just tip her over the edge. I was given permission to explain that to you. Captain Duncan is in the cubicle at the end. She’s a strong-willed woman, that’s for sure.’ The doctor smiled with what looked like awed respect. ‘I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the man who did this to her.’

Becky and Tom stood up and made their way to the cubicle that had been pointed out to
them, pulling the curtain to one side to enter.

‘Sophie, this is Detective Chief Inspector Douglas. He’s been involved in the case concerning Olivia Brookes from the start.’

Sophie pulled herself slightly more upright on the bed and winced with pain from some part of her body.

‘Are you okay?’ Tom asked.

‘Hunky-dory. What do you want to know?’

‘Tell us what happened, from when Robert Brookes arrived at your house.’ Tom suspected that Becky knew some of this, but it would be better to hear it from scratch.

‘I wasn’t there when he arrived. The bastard got in through the front door. It was only on the Yale, so I bet he used a credit card or something. He went upstairs and threatened my mum with a blade on a Swiss army knife. Terrified her to death, or close enough. But it was me he wanted.’

Sophie was quiet, but her lips were set in a narrow line and, from the set of her jaw, Tom could tell she was clenching her teeth. Her fists were gripping the edge of the blue waffle blanket that covered the bed and he could practically hear the sizzling of her anger.

‘Look,’ she spoke through lips that were barely open, ‘I’m feeling pretty crap – can we just get this over with as quickly as possible, please?’

‘Okay, Sophie,’ Tom said. ‘Just answer a couple of questions now and we’ll be on our way. We’ll catch up with you again tomorrow. Is that all right?’

Sophie nodded, and settled back slightly against the pillows.

‘The most crucial thing is that you tell us where Olivia Brookes and the children are.’

‘Oh, shit. I knew you were going to ask me that – and I don’t know. I honestly don’t have any idea where they are. I’m worried sick about them all.’

Tom looked into her anxious eyes, and he knew she was telling the truth.

‘After Robert attacked you, he disappeared. We know he’s been lying about when he last spoke to Olivia. Do you think he might have hurt her or the children?’

Sophie looked down at her leg and grasped the top of her thigh in both hands.

‘You’ve seen what he’s capable of. I don’t even know why you’re asking me that question.’

She turned her head slightly towards Tom.

‘There is one person who might have more of an idea than me where she is. If you can track Dan down, you could ask him if he knows anything,’ she suggested. ‘I’ve been trying to
get hold of him, but he’s not answering his mobile.’

‘Dan?’ Tom asked, in no doubt whatsoever who she was talking about.

‘Danush Jahander – the guy who ran away from Liv all those years ago. Well, he’s back, and he wants
her
back. But she was bloody terrified of what Robert would do if he found out.’

Tom looked at Becky. Despite Sophie’s obvious discomfort they weren’t going to be able to leave this until tomorrow. He thought back to Robert’s smug, almost amused expression when Jahander was mentioned.
He knew
, Tom thought. And if he did, what would that have meant for Olivia?

His thoughts were rudely interrupted by the buzz of his telephone. He glanced at the screen as he accepted the call.

‘Excuse me, Sophie – this could be important.’ He stepped outside the cubicle. ‘Yes, Jumbo. Tell me you’ve got more news?’

Jumbo’s deep voice rumbled down the phone. ‘I have – and not news you’ll be expecting, my friend. The blood at the scene? Well, as it’s for you I managed to pull in a few favours. I know a rush job is usually forty-eight hours, but I also know you’re worried about Olivia Brookes and the children. So we’ve done the analysis on the blood and it turned up an unexpected result.’

Tom waited.

‘Given the height of the blood spatter, we are fairly sure this is blood from an adult, although of course we’ll check that. I know we were all expecting this to be Olivia Brookes’ blood, but we were wrong. It’s not female blood at all. The blood is from a man, as yet unidentified.’

Tom felt a cold run of fingers down his spine. It was a feeling he’d had many times, but he never quite got used to it.

PART THREE

OLIVIA

32

Monday

Some people believe that freedom is every person’s right, but I have had to fight for mine. And it’s been a long and difficult battle.

It began when Robert took my children. That day, he sent me to a darker place than I had ever imagined. I thought I had experienced the worst that life could throw at a person, visited every dark dungeon of despair, but nothing compared to the fear that I had lost my children. And that is exactly what Robert wanted; it was a warning, a taste of what might be if I didn’t stay within his control. From that day forwards, I knew I would never again feel we could sleep safely in our beds, and the threat of all Robert was capable of hung over me like a black cloud.

My only option was to leave him, but how could I do that? I had no money of my own any more, and no means of getting any. I couldn’t leave a trail; if he finds us, the consequences are too dire to contemplate.

The years since Dan haven’t all been bad, but in the brief time I had with him I felt as if my spirit was alive – as if bubbles were effervescing inside me. I sparkled. With Robert there were never bubbles, but I was content to settle for stillness. After Dan and then what happened with my parents, serenity and calm seemed to be just what I needed, but as the years passed I started to realise that it wasn’t enough. And that was before I understood it all – before I knew the reason I had lost Dan.

I’d begun to feel as if there was a creeping deadness inside me, encroaching on the calm and replacing it with a black void, a vacuum where emotion should be. And the deadness was growing and penetrating every corner of my soul, reaching out its dark tentacles to smother all natural reactions.

When Robert took my children, two things happened. I realised I had to banish the
deadness and bring myself back to life. Not for my sake, but for my children. And somehow I had to use my stagnant brain to work out a solution to the terrible life in which I had found myself. I didn’t know how, though. Every idea I came up with was flawed.

I couldn’t just leave. I knew what Robert would do if I did, and anyway he had been so clever. He had managed to bring my sanity into question. The whole of our tiny, shrinking world believed that I couldn’t cope with life without Robert’s help. To an outsider, he appeared to take care of me and provide everything I ever could have wanted.

What I wanted was freedom.

The schedule on the kitchen wall was supposed to be there to help me. So why did I have to write down every action that required contact with other people? Robert said that if he came home unexpectedly and I wasn’t there, he needed to know where I was.

Why?

I felt as if I was in a cage, being controlled, being observed. And I knew he was watching me. He couldn’t bear me to be out of his sight, and the thought of me having a friend – even just another mother of a child at school – brought out the worst in Robert. His campaign to undermine me would be stepped up a notch.

It wasn’t me I was worried about, though. It was my children. Robert’s obsession was focused on one thing. Me. To him, the children were just another weapon in his armoury.

From the day Robert took my children, I spent six months trying to find a way to escape – but I had no money and no ability to get us all to a safe place. That was when I found Sophie again, and from that moment I began to hope.

It’s been hard to maintain the outward image of the old me for Robert’s sake while simultaneously starting to feel alive again. But I did it, and I just pray he never finds us. Nobody knows where we are. Not even Sophie. Especially not Sophie, because she is the only link. She knows so much, but I had to make sure our location is a secret even from her, because I know Robert.

I’m getting worried about Sophie. She was supposed to call me last night, and I’ve heard nothing. That’s not like her. She has been amazing since the word go and I couldn’t have made it through the last eighteen months without her. And she gave me a precious gift. That day I went to see her for the first time since I married Robert, she gave Danush back to me.

‘Dan loved you, Liv,’ she’d said. ‘Whatever happened, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind about that, and Samir feels so guilty about what he did. But he thought he was doing the best thing for his brother, and it’s all so long ago. Anyway, now you have your husband and three children to think about. Tell me all about them.’

But I hadn’t been able to. Not that day. Not after hearing about Dan. More than anything
it had made me realise how much I’d missed Sophie, how much I loved the company of other women – and yet somehow I had lost touch with reality and shut myself away. I promised Sophie I would come back to see her again. She suggested visiting our house and meeting the children, but I couldn’t let that happen. Robert wouldn’t like it. He’d never met Sophie, but he would hate her for no reason other than the fact that I love her.

I waited a couple of weeks, and found a time when I felt reasonably certain that Robert wouldn’t check up on me. He had been moaning about a presentation he had to give, and I knew when it was happening. It gave me about an hour and twenty minutes of free time – a rare commodity in my life – and for those few meagre minutes, I felt able to breathe.

I chose some photos to show Sophie, and drove quickly to her house. When I calculated the time there and back, it was going to allow us forty minutes together, which for me was bliss. I couldn’t let her know I was coming – her number would have shown on the phone records. Robert received copies of my mobile account too, so I just prayed she would be in. She was.

Sophie hadn’t seen Jaz since she was two months old, and when she saw the pictures I knew she would be amazed at how beautiful my daughter had become as a seven-year-old. Jaz is nearly nine now, and she’s getting prettier by the day. Sophie had never seen the boys, of course. Both with bright blond hair to offset their sister’s dark, silky tresses – as a family we really stood out. Which is why Billy’s hair is now dyed a darker brown, and Freddie’s has been cut so short he almost looks bald.

Sophie wanted to know all about us. Where Robert and I had met, where we lived. I remember playing the happy wife, talking about everything we have and how close knit we are. I don’t think she was fooled, though. She knew something was wrong, because
I
was wrong. I wasn’t me any more, and she could see that. I wasn’t
Liv
.

When her penetrating glance became too much, I fished in my bag for the photos.

‘God, she’s adorable,’ Sophie had shrieked as she looked at a picture of Jasmine. ‘She looks exotic, but then it’s not surprising based on her parentage. I don’t often say this about men, but Danush was bloody beautiful, wasn’t he?’ I said nothing, and just sorted through the photos yet again. First Billy, then Freddie. She eulogised about them for the requisite two minutes, but it was obvious she was more interested to see who I had ended up with after Dan.

‘Let’s see him then. Come on, don’t hold back on your knight in shining armour.’ By then she knew the story of how we had met.

I extracted a rare photo of Robert and me, taken by Jasmine when I let her use my camera on our last holiday. Sophie looked at the picture, smiling broadly. Then, although her face didn’t change, I realised her smile had become forced.