The Deviants (28 page)

There was a note from Dad in the kitchen saying he'd gone to swing dance class with Celestina. I didn't even know he'd signed up for swing dance classes. There were twelve messages on our answerphone. I switched on my mobile to see twenty-three missed calls, all from callers various. The first voicemail I picked up told me all I needed to know. It was Fallon.

‘Ella, please pick up. It's an emergency. Max is here. He's got Pete Hamlin tied up in the boot of his car. I think he wants us to kill him.'

‘In the boot of his car?'

23

A Nasty Surprise

I
t didn't make sense to me either just then, but I knew I had to get to the farm somehow and find out what the hell was happening. I scrolled through my numbers for the local cab firm and booked a taxi, grabbing all the loose change in the housekeeping tin for the fare. Then I paced the house, top and bottom, while I waited, thinking and overthinking. Maybe it was a prank. Maybe he'd got Fallon to mess with me? No. Fallon wouldn't do that. And Max wasn't a pranker. This was happening.

The taxi arrived. On the way there he tried to make small talk about the tourist trade in Brynstan, but all my replies were one-word answers. I couldn't get Corey or Max to answer their phones – both kept going to voicemail. What if I didn't get there in time? What was Max going to do? What had Pete done to deserve this? I had a horrible feeling and the feeling wouldn't shake.

A part of me knew – had known all along. Max was jealous of Pete, always had been. I'd tried and tried to convince him there was nothing between us, but he didn't believe me. Why would he believe me anyway? I'd kissed Pete, hadn't I? I'd done this. I'd caused it.

When I got there, the sky was darkening – it was just after 7 p.m. The taxi dropped me off on the road outside Whitehouse Farm and zoomed back up Long Lane.

The lane was quiet. The house was quiet, too. I knocked on the door of the lean-to, and the security light blinked on above my head. But apart from the usual barking and meowing and squawking hullaballoo inside, nothing else happened. I couldn't see Max's car, or any sign of a struggle. Quiet wasn't good. The security light blinked off again.

My phone buzzed. A text from Corey.

We're at Witch's Pool. Hurry.

And I just took off then, sprinting through the damp fields, into the woods and down the dry tracks onto the Strawberry Line, pelting along the road through the long dark tunnel, not stopping until I'd reached the section of embankment we'd climbed up a million times and the sign for ‘Wit Po'.

I scrabbled through the long grasses until I saw a movement. Heard a noise. A baby was crying. I ran closer, into the clearing, and saw Fallon first, standing back from the pond. Corey was in front of her, shielding her it seemed. They both saw me at the same time. Then their eyes darted back across the pond.

There on the rickety bridge stood Max. And at his feet was a large, long bundle with a bag over its head. A wriggling bundle. A wriggling man. I got closer. It was a pillowcase over his head. The pillowcase was tied around his neck. The bundle was Pete.

‘Is he dead?' I whispered. I don't know why I whispered. It was as though any sudden noise and Max would kick forwards and Pete would roll into the pond and disappear.

‘No,' said Fallon, her voice soft, quivering like feathers.
‘But he says this will get the truth out of him. Ella, he won't listen to us.'

‘He said he wants us here as witnesses,' said Corey. ‘He's hit the green stuff hard tonight, Ella. He's not thinking straight at all. He's out of his mind.'

I turned back to the pond. ‘Max,' I said, as calmly as I could. ‘If he goes in there, he'll drown. You don't want to kill him.'

‘I want him to tell the truth,' said Max. I started moving around the edge of the water, getting closer to Max. His cheeks were tear-tracked and he looked shabby. Dirty, even. There was stubble on his chin and his hair was as greasy as I'd ever seen it. His pale green T-shirt had a couple of stains down the front. Oil-dark. Blood-dark.

‘I want to hear him say it.' Max pulled on the pillowcase and it flew off Pete's face and he was yanked into a sitting position. One of Pete's eyes was puffy and his nose was bleeding. His skin was sweating and his T-shirt was wet through. When he saw me, his good eye opened wider, and he garbled behind his gag. ‘I want to hear him say he raped you. Then I'm gonna kick him in. Let them deal with him.'

My mouth dropped open. ‘Max, no,' was all I could say. ‘No. No. No.'

I looked across at Fallon and Corey, who were shivering like two puppies left out in the cold. Let who deal with him? I wondered. And then I got it – he meant the witches. The women who'd drowned, the ones who haunted the pool.

‘It's just a bloody story for God's sake, it isn't real. It's something they made up for tourists,' said Corey, wrapping his arm around Fallon's shoulder. She was shaking so hard, even though it wasn't a cold evening. It was only then that I noticed Fallon had the baby in her arms, wrapped in her coat.

‘Why are Fallon and Corey here, Max? They've got the baby. It's not fair…'

‘I need witnesses,' he gabbled. ‘People to testify whether or not he sinks or swims. Otherwise it won't work.'

‘The baby doesn't need to be here though.'

‘Yes, she does. She's in the Five.'

‘Jesus, Max, this isn't a game any more. This isn't a Fearless Five thing. You've got to see that. You've got to untie him.'

‘No.' And he yanked him closer to the edge of the pond and balanced his foot sole on top of his thigh. ‘Not gonna happen.'

‘Max, Pete hasn't done anything to me,' I said slowly, moving closer to the bridge. ‘He really hasn't, I promise you. You need to untie him now.'

‘Don't touch him. He's mine.'

‘OK. I'm staying here. It's all right.'

His chipmunk smile had been replaced by a thin, closed mouth, like his teeth were caged just inside, frightened to be seen. ‘I'm teach-ing the tea-cher a les-son,' he sing-songed.

‘A lesson in what?' I said, breathlessly, desperately trying to keep the panic at bay.

Max laughed, the candles all around him flickering. ‘A lesson in revenge, of course.'

‘But Pete hasn't done anything! Listen to what I'm saying. He's innocent.'

‘I don't believe you, any more than I believe him. So we'll let the water decide,' he said. ‘I figured it out, Ells. Why you hate running. Why you're always angry. Always moaning about Pete. Why you've been coming back injured from training. Why you never
ever
wanna talk about it. And why you won't let me touch you
there
.'

His eyes dropped to my thighs and my cheeks flamed instantly.

‘He's gonna pay for what he's done to you, at least. Just like the Shaws paid for what they did. Just like Zane paid. Just like Shelby paid. Only much worse.'

‘I told you at the hospital he's never laid a finger on me. It wasn't him, I swear.'

‘He said you kissed him.'

I looked at Pete, then back at Max. I could smell rotting vegetation at the edge of the pond where it had all silted up. The water looked black in the early evening light. Oily and thick with weed. ‘That was all me, Max. And it was only a few days ago and my head was all over the place. Seriously, that was nothing…'

‘He did it to Jessica, as well. I know he did.'

‘What? No, he didn't. Jess didn't even go to our school.'

Max nodded slowly. I didn't know what he was nodding at but he rolled Pete closer to the edge of the pond. I couldn't figure out why Pete wasn't fighting back and then I realised his feet and hands were tied together. And he was right on the water's edge now.

‘I swear to you, this is a massive mistake. He didn't even know Jess.'

‘They do this, you know. I Googled it,' he said. ‘They groom their victims until they can't even admit what's happened to themselves.' He looked up at me. ‘You and Fallon – when you changed in Jess's room the other day, at my house. You looked in her journals.'

‘I…'

‘We put them back after,' Fallon called out. ‘All of them.'

‘One was out of place,' said Max. He fumbled behind him and pulled out the yellow Composition notebook that
had been tucked into the back of his jeans. ‘This one,' he announced to the meadow.

I could feel Fallon's eyes on me, and I glanced at her. I could hear her quiet sobs on the warm summer air.

‘You left it sticking out. Only slightly, but it had definitely been moved. I would know, see, because I have to make sure everything's back the way it was for when Mum goes in there. She doesn't like anyone touching Jess's stuff, even me. She still thinks one day Jess is going to come home. You were both acting weird over lunch.'

‘So were you,' I said.

‘Yeah well I'd seen it, hadn't I?' he shouted. ‘I'd seen this.' He opened up the book and held up the white page but the writing was too fine to see.

‘I think we should take the baby back to the house now,' said Corey quietly, moving himself and Fallon away from the water's edge.

Max heard him. ‘Stay where you are. I need you here. All of you.' He started thumbing through the pages. ‘Stories. Drawings. Little thoughts Jess had over the years. Some of it I didn't get at first. It confused me. But some of it was clear enough. About wishing kids never had to grow up. About this older guy taking advantage. Kissing her when she didn't want him to. Forcing her to do stuff. She never said who. I could only read so much of it.' He held the same page aloft again and I moved close enough that I could read it.

The page was turned to the drawing of the rat with the noose around his neck, swinging from a tree branch.

‘Ring any bells?' he said. ‘Rat Man. Now who could Rat Man be, I wondered.'

‘Max…'

‘And then I got it. The Pied Piper. He was the Rat Man,
wasn't he? The Pied Piper took the children, and they never came back. I cracked her code. And I cracked yours too.'

‘You're wrong, Max. Pete
hasn't
been molesting me, and he
didn't
hurt Jessica.'

‘What does he call it then? Love? Your little special little secret?'

I'd never seen Max's eyes so black. He was submerged in the lust for revenge, so much so I didn't think I could reach him. Not just because he had the wrong man – but because I was so afraid of what he'd do when he found out who the
right
man was. He grabbed hold of Pete's hair and yanked his head back. The baby grizzled in Fallon's arms.

Pete looked at me and his eyes started to water.

‘Ella, tell him,' said Corey. By this time the baby was wailing.

‘So you say you didn't rape Ella,' said Max. ‘And you didn't touch my sister.'

Pete sighed. ‘For the hundredth time, I didn't even KNOW your sister.'

‘Max, don't do this,' I said, making plans to grab Pete the second Max pushed him forwards. I inched closer still.

‘What, this?' he replied, punching Hamlin in the side of his face.

‘Stop it!' squawked Fallon. ‘Please!'

Pete spat out a glob of blood onto the wooden floor of the bridge. He looked up at me. I heard a creak. How it was holding both their weights I didn't know. They could both go in, at any second. I would lose them both.

The baby was screaming now. ‘He's not saying anything, Max,' said Corey, gently. ‘He's telling the truth.'

‘The water has to decide. Then we'll all know for sure.'

And still Pete looked at me. And still the baby screamed into the hot summer air.

‘Shut that kid up, Fallon!' Max yelled.

‘Tell him, Ella. Please tell him!'

‘I didn't do anything to her, I swear!'

‘Is that your final word?' Max got squarely behind him.

‘NO. NO!'

‘What's the matter, didn't she love you back? How old was she when you raped her and got her pregnant and left her to deal with it, huh? THIRTEEN.' He pushed Pete to the bridge and held him there with his boot, ready to roll him off.

‘Ella –
please
,' Corey screamed.

‘Ella, stop him!' Pete shouted. ‘For Christ's sake, please, please say something! I thought you were my friend.'

‘He'd going to drown in there!' Fallon cried, echoed by her baby.

‘Max,' I said, walking onto the bridge. There was another creak, louder. ‘Max, I'll tell you who it was. OK? I'll tell you what you want to know. Let him go.'

He wasn't listening. His boot was still poised.

‘I SAID LET HIM GO!'

Max looked up at me.

‘Pete is not Rat Man. Rat Man is someone else.'

It was so quiet when it came out it was almost a whisper. But it did come out. And Max heard me. They all did, then.

‘It wasn't Pete who raped me
or
Jessica.'

‘You're protecting him. If it wasn't him, then who was it? Cos you know. I
know
you know who it was.'

I walked forwards, stroked his quivering eyebrow with my thumb. I put my sweating forehead to his and I kissed his lips. And then I let go completely.

‘It was Neil. Rat Man is Rittman. It was your dad.'

‘How did he take it?'

24

Discoveries at the Witch's Pool

S
ucker-punched. It sounds stupid, but from that moment on, Max looked different. He dropped the book and just stared down at the water. Pete was lying still, all out of breath on the bridge, sweating and breathing like crazy. Corey and Fallon were as still as statues. The only sound was the baby's crying but the air had somehow muted it.

‘She's hungry. I need to take her back,' said Fallon, though she didn't move.