The Border Part Six (5 page)

And then she saw her.

Nearby, Jane’s car was where she’d left it earlier, and there was a figure sitting in the passenger seat. Even before she could see any of the figure’s features, Jane knew who it was, and she stopped for a moment before heading around to open the driver’s side door. She sat in the seat and pulled the door shut, before turning to Caitlin.

They sat in silence for a moment.

“You’re real,” Jane said finally, her voice trembling with fear. “You
are
real, aren’t you?”

“Define real,” Caitlin replied softly.

“You’re really here. You’re not…” Jane paused, too scared to continue. “I mean, you’re not a figment of my imagination.”

“No, I’m not.”

“So you’re…”

Silence again.

“But…” Jane paused again, feeling as if she was on the verge of losing her mind. Looking at the bag of pills, she began to wonder if she’d been given something at the hospital that might have caused her to hallucinate. Then again, she’d been seeing Caitlin for a while now.

“I came back for Joe,” Caitlin said after a moment. “He was so alone after I died, and I knew… I knew what was going to happen to him, and I knew I couldn’t stop it, but I felt I should at least try to help him through it all. Over the past nine years, he’s come so close to copying the stag-headed man on so many occasions, but I was always able to talk him out of it until recently. When he finally broke down and killed Mel Armitage, I was screaming at him to stop, but he couldn’t hear me. He blocked me out. He was listening to the stag-headed man instead.”

“And Hayley?”

“I watched the whole thing,” Caitlin replied. “I begged him to leave her alone, but… The only way he could deal with the pain was to do those awful things. He thought that if he copied the stag-headed man, if he obeyed him, then somehow he’d be helping. His mind is so messed up and twisted, I don’t think it could ever have been put right.” She paused. “Well, it
was
messed up and twisted. Now that he’s dead, maybe there’s hope for him.”

“Dead?” Jane turned to her, shocked by the suggestion. “Joe’s dead? Since when?”

“Since a few minutes ago. Alex Gordon hasn’t found the body yet, but at some point soon he’ll go into the cell and find that Joe’s hanging from the window. I helped him do that, he wouldn’t have been able to kill himself alone.”

“I have to go and -”

“It’s too late,” Caitlin said firmly.

“There was another way,” Jane replied. “He didn’t have to die.”

“I wanted to end his pain.” She looked down at the pills. “Speaking of which, aren’t you going to take some of those? Your shoulder’s hurting you, I can tell.”

Jane shook her head.

“You don’t want to numb the pain?” Caitlin asked.

“I don’t think pain should always be numbed,” Jane replied. “I think pain has a reason. I think pain is a message. Numb the pain and maybe you can ignore the message, but that doesn’t mean the message didn’t have something to tell you.” She stared at the pills for a moment. “I want to find another way to get rid of the pain.”

“Don’t be a hero. Your shoulder hurts.”

“It should hurt.”

“I get it,” Caitlin continued, “you’re trying to prove some kind of point. But if your shoulder hurts, take the goddamn pills.”

Jane paused, before tossing the bag of pills onto the back seat. “When this is over.”

“So you’re going to torture yourself until then?”

“I want to keep my head clear. I don’t want to take pills and get foggy.”

“It’s
not
over, you know.”

“I know.”

“Joe killed Mel and Hayley, but only because he was copying the person who killed me.”

“I know.”

“The person wearing the stag head.”

“I know.”

“The person who -”

“I know,” Jane said firmly. “I know he’s still out there, and I know we’re no closer to finding out who he is or catching him.” She stared out at the dark town square for a moment. “It’s that place, isn’t it?”

“The Border? What about it?”

“I have to…” She took a deep breath, feeling a sense of fear starting to tighten in her chest. “It can’t be allowed to go on.”

Caitlin laughed. “Who’s going to stop it? You?”

“It’s connected to all of this somehow.”

This time, Caitlin paused. “Maybe. Yes.”

“And it’s been allowed to continue for far too long,” Jane muttered. “I don’t know how, not yet, but I’m going to stop it all. I’m sure I’m not the first person who’s decided to do that, but I swear to God, I’m going to be the first who actually gets the job done.”

“If you stop it,” Caitlin pointed out, “then people are going to find out about it.”

“I know.”

“Your husband’s going to call you in a few seconds.”

“I don’t want to talk to him.”

“You should.”

She shook her head.

“Trust me,” Caitlin continued, putting a hand on Jane’s arm. “You really should talk to him. Promise me you’ll at least give him a chance. It’s very important.”

Jane paused. “Fine,” she said finally, through gritted teeth.

“And at least think about taking some of those pills.”

She shook her head again.

“Well…” Caitlin smiled. “It’s your choice. You know, you can be pretty brave when you want to be. And dumb.”

“I don’t feel brave.”

“Really? I don’t know many other people who’d willingly get into a car with a ghost. See you around, Jane. One day maybe.”

“What does -”

Turning to her, Jane realized that Caitlin was gone. A moment later, she saw that the word Goodbye had been traced across the window; a moment after that, she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. When she saw that Jack was trying to get in touch, she felt physically sick, but still she answered.

“Hey,” she said cautiously, “what -”

“Where are you?”

“I’m…” She paused. “I’m heading home. I just have a couple of things to do in the office first. It’s been a crazy night.”

“I heard about what happened,” he continued. “I’m heading home too. I think we need to talk.”

“Me too,” she replied, with tears in her eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Look -” She froze for a moment. “What did you say?”

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I was wrong. I should never have gone into your phone or your emails. I should have listened to you.”

She sat in silence for a moment. In her head, she’d run through a million different possible conversations with her husband, but she’d never even considered the possibility that he might do something as simple as apologize.

“Jane? Are you still there?”

“Yeah,” she replied, wiping the tears away. “Yeah, I am. Jack, listen, I think there’s something I need to tell you. It’s about…” She paused, before realizing that she needed to tell him about the Border, but face to face. “Later. When we get home. With the kids at your mother’s, it’s the perfect time.”

“But we’ll be okay, right?”

She swallowed hard. “Yeah. Yeah, we’ll be okay.”

“I still think Ben is linked to all of this,” he continued. “Fine, Joe killed Mel and Hayley, but Caitlin nine years ago and the other -”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Jane replied, interrupting him. “Let’s just…” She turned and looked toward the police station, and after a moment she spotted Alex at the coffee machine, which meant he most likely hadn’t found Joe’s body hanging in the cell yet. “I have to go and do something,” she continued, “but I’ll be home in about an hour. We’ll talk, and then it’ll be Christmas.”

“I love you,” Jack replied.

“I love you too.”

Cutting the call, she sat in the dark car for a moment before climbing out and walking with heavy steps toward the station’s front door. Once she was inside, she went through to the office and found Alex adding cream to his coffee.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, clearly shocked. “Jane, your shoulder -”

“It’s fine. I got some painkillers.”

“Are they working?”

She nodded, even though it was a lie.

“I was about to go through and check on Joe,” he continued. “That kid is a complete mess. I don’t know what’s going to happen to him, but he needs locking away and then he needs serious help.” He flicked the button on the coffee machine. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

“No,” she said suddenly, grabbing his arm. “I’ll go and check on him.”

“Come on, you need to -”

“Let me,” she continued, realizing that she didn’t want Alex to have to deal with such an awful discovery. “I’ll do it. I’ll be fine.”

He frowned. “Okay,” he said finally. “I’ll make the coffee, then.”

She watched as he headed back to the machine, and then she began to walk across the office. When she reached the door that led through to the cells, she paused for a moment, hoping against hope that maybe Caitlin had been wrong and that Joe would still be alive. Somehow, though, as she looked through at the dark corridor, she felt as if she could sense death in the air. Realizing that there was no point delaying things a moment longer, she made her way along the corridor and then stopped at the end. She felt certain that if she turned and looked into the last cell, she’d see Joe’s body but, as tears filled her eyes, she struggled to find the strength. Finally, somehow, she was able to look.

Joe was hanging from one of the light fittings, his body partially illuminated by a patch of moonlight that shone through the window.

***

“I love you too,” Jane said, before the call was cut off.

Sighing, Jack stared at his phone for a moment longer, before slipping it into his pocket. The night was cold and he was facing a long walk home, but he figured the fresh air might do him some good. Making his way along the empty street, he saw Christmas decorations in some of the nearby windows and he realized that in less than twelve hours’ time he’d have to be at his sister’s house, pretending that everything was okay. Still, so long as Jane was with him, and the kids, he knew he’d manage, even if he had to fake a smile while he was in the same room as his brother.

Soon the morning papers would be delivered, and people all across Bowley would start to learn the truth.

After a moment, he realized he could feel something vibrating beneath his feet. The sensation only lasted for a fraction of a second, and it was over by the time he looked down at his feet. Still, there had definitely been something, and he stood in silence as he waited to see if it would return.

Eventually, he began to walk again. Turning away from the main road, he took a shortcut behind one of the old factories. There were no lights, but the moon was bright and he knew the route by heart, having played in the area with his brother and sister when he was younger. Reaching the yard behind the factory, he checked his phone again to make sure that Jane hadn’t tried to call back, and then he began to make his way toward the far side.

Suddenly he stopped.

There was someone up ahead, a dark silhouette barely visible in the shadows.

“Hello?” Jack called out.

No response.

Taking a couple of steps forward, he realized that there was something wrong with the shape of the figure. It seemed tall and strong, and its head seemed to have something protruding from the top. And then, with no warning, the figure seemed to fade away, disappearing into the shadows as if it had never really been there at all.

“Hello?” Jack said again.

Silence.

After looking around to make doubly certain that no-one was nearby, he took a few steps forward, trying to ignore the growing sense that he was being watched. He told himself that he was wrong, that the supposed ‘figure’ had actually been a brief, coincidental alignment of shadows, but as he got closer to the spot where the figure had been standing, he began to feel distinctly uneasy. Stopping, he listened for a moment, and slowly he became aware of a faint, slow creaking sound approaching from behind. He began to turn, before telling himself that he was being foolish, that there was no way anyone was nearby.

Still, the creaking sound came closer.

“Okay,” he said, turning, “what -”

Before he could finish, an arm reached around his neck and pulled him back with such force that he gasped with pain. Feeling something sharp sliding into the small of his back, he immediately tensed, trying desperately to pull away before he was suddenly pushed forward into the wall. A moment later his shoulder was grabbed and he was spun around, finally allowing him to see the figure looming over him.

“Ben -”

A long, wide blade sliced into his chest, cracking two ribs as it cut to the edge of his heart. His whole body shuddered, and a fraction of a second later warm blood erupted from his mouth and ran down his chin. He tried to say something, but his throat was filling with more blood as the figure pulled him away from the wall and gently, almost tenderly laid him down against the cold, dirty concrete.