The Lake House (18 page)

‘Jesus, you gave me a bloody heart attack.’

‘Sorry, that kettle’s on its last legs. It takes for ever to boil.’

Annie thanked her and turned back to finish typing the details in about where they had searched and what other actions had been taken. Her hands were shaking so much it took her five times longer than usual. She could feel both Tracy and Sam watching her, wondering what was going on, but she didn’t want to tell them until she knew for sure. Why drag them into her nightmare? They both stood up to go outside and have a wander round the town for the last hour of their shift.

Jake came back in and grinned at her. ‘She’s not so bad is she, our old boss woman? I think she’s having kittens in there after what I just told her.’

‘What did she say?’

‘That I was to get you home, and she didn’t want to see you until the bastard is back behind bars. She also said she’s coming round to mine later on. She wants to help, but more than that she wants to kick Kav in the balls for passing you on to her. In her words, “No wonder he couldn’t wait to get shut of her. I’m about to have a bloody heart attack.” She’s not impressed by the sounds of it.’

‘Oh, you think so? I’m nearly done now. Please take me home. I want to get changed.’

‘Well, I would, but I haven’t got the car. You’re driving, remember?’

She nodded, typed the last sentence and then logged off her computer. She stood up to go and take her body armour off and grab her handbag. Jake followed her into the changing rooms.

‘I think we should take it all home.’

‘What?’

‘Body armour, CS gas, radio, baton, everything – just in case we need it. It’s no good up here. Cathy isn’t going to complain, is she? I’m sure she’ll turn a blind eye.’

Annie didn’t argue with him. It seemed like a good idea. At least it was some protection should they need it. Between them they carried armfuls of equipment out to her car. She clicked the boot, walked around and screamed at the swarm of bluebottles that were buzzing around the cars. Jake wafted them away with his hands. Annie opened her boot and they threw everything inside before any flies could get in. Then they ran to open the doors and get inside as fast as they could.

‘Urgh, did you see those flies? That was gross. Where do you think they’ve come from? I’ve never seen them swarm around like that before.’

‘Disgusting. Don’t open your windows until we get away from here. The drains are probably blocked or something.’

Annie nodded and reversed her car, neither of them really noticing that the boot of Cathy’s car was crawling with the flies and that they were all fighting to get inside. They drove to Annie’s house in silence, both of them wondering exactly what they were up against. As she pulled up outside she looked around. Henry couldn’t know that she lived up here now. That would be impossible. But he knew where her brother and his family lived because she’d been house-sitting for them when he began to stalk her.

Her heart started racing and she took out her phone and rang Ben. He didn’t pick up so she left him a voicemail to ring her back as soon as he could. Henry didn’t know Ben or his wife, Liz, and their daughter, Matilda, and he had no reason to go after any of them, so she hoped they would be safe, but it wouldn’t hurt to let them know. Jake got out of the car and looked around. He nodded at her and she got out.

Annie knew that even if Henry Smith, the monster who haunted most of her nightmares, had jumped out on Jake that she wouldn’t drive off and leave him. She would die trying to fight him because she would never live with herself if she did leave. She wanted Henry out of her life more than anyone else did. They went into her house together and she grabbed some clean clothes for both her and Will, stuffing them into a travel bag along with some toiletries. It might end up that they stayed with Jake and Alex, which would make sense – safety in numbers and all that – but she wouldn’t want to put Alex or Alice in danger.

What a complete mess this was. She reset the burglar alarm and made sure the CCTV cameras were working. When Will had insisted on installing a state-of-the-art security system she had laughed and told him he was going way over the top. Now she was thankful for it, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Will had known all along there was a chance that Henry would come back to finish what he started. They left and locked the house up, getting back in Annie’s car. Jake whistled under his breath. ‘I never thought I’d see the day that you would live somewhere so gorgeous. Look at you driving a brand-new Mercedes and even being able to work your own burglar alarm. How times have changed, Ms Graham.’

‘Mrs Ashworth.’

‘Nope, you’ll always be plain old Annie Graham to me.’

‘Good. I wouldn’t want to be anyone else. Do you think I’ve changed though, Jake? I don’t mean because Will is loaded, as you would so eloquently put it, but am I the same person who walked into the police station five years ago and got the biggest crush on you anyone has ever had?’

She was driving along the narrow lanes that would take them onto the main road at Newby Bridge and he looked at her for a few minutes.

‘Yes, you’ve changed, but for the better. You’re no longer the timid person who never talked about her home life or her obsession with chunky Kit Kats. But you’ve been through so much. Any normal woman would have cracked up and been admitted to a mental hospital, but not you. You’ve survived and come through the other side even stronger. Although you’ve got a fair few scars to prove it as well. Do you think you’ve changed?’

‘Yes, I do. I’ve truly never felt so loved and special. Will makes me feel like I can be me; I never have to pretend to be anyone else with him. With Mike it was always as if I had to put on an act. I couldn’t be myself because if I was I ended up getting a good slap. I know that Will would never hit me and I think because of his love I feel a lot more confident. Is that how you feel about Alex? I’ve never really thought about it before?’

‘I suppose it is, but Alex has a lot going for him. He’s pretty gorgeous, as you well know, you harlot. Plus he’s not as wealthy as Will, but he is relatively well off, so we never argue about money. And now we have Alice it’s like everything is just perfect and I don’t want it to end. I will do anything to protect you and my family. So if it comes to it and there’s no choice, then I’m serious about hunting down that freak Smith and putting him back behind bars. Is that okay with you?’

‘Of course it is, Jake, but I would never expect you to put your life on the line for me. And if it comes to the point where there’s even the slightest chance he knows where you live then we move you, Alex and Alice to a safe place until it’s all over. One way or the other.’

Annie didn’t say it but she would rather die than put her friends’ lives at risk. She felt her eyes fill with tears because she knew that it could come to that if they didn’t find him first. She wouldn’t expect Will, Jake or Kav to put themselves on the line for her. Henry wanted her, not them and, if she had to, she would go with him, to make sure they were safe. She’d fought him once and she hoped that she would have the strength to do it again if she had to.

Jake was staring out of the window, but his eyes were filled with as many tears as hers, because he knew her so well that he was thinking exactly the same thing, and he didn’t want to lose her.

Chapter Fourteen

Jake ushered Annie into his house where a pale-faced Alex was pacing up and down with the baby, rocking her to sleep. Jake kissed him on the cheek and then held his hands out and let Alex pass her over. He kissed her tenderly on her forehead and took over rocking and singing to her, and Annie felt her heart melt. She had never seen a sweeter sight and she was tempted to turn around and walk straight back out of this house and drive away. She couldn’t put her friends at risk. They meant far too much to her. Alex grabbed her elbow and led her into the kitchen.

‘No, you don’t. I saw that look on your face and you’re here because we want you to be. If there is the slightest chance that bastard knows where we live then we’re leaving. All of us. I already have my car packed up with everything that me, Jake and Alice might need.’

‘I’m sorry, Alex, I can’t.’

She let out a sob and he walked around the breakfast bar to where she was sitting and wrapped his arm around her, passing her some kitchen roll.

‘You can’t what? This isn’t the Annie I know, the feisty, I’m-going-to-kick-your-arse girl. Don’t let him get to you; it’s what he wants. He wants you to feel like you can’t possibly fight him a second time. Well, I’m telling you now, I think it’s him who is scared of you. Last time you hurt him and he ended up in hospital fighting for his life. You turned the tables on him so don’t you underestimate yourself.’

‘I’m not, but it’s just that last time I was lucky, very lucky. I might not be this time around. I’ve got too much to lose now and he will know this.’

She blew her nose on the kitchen roll and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

‘I’m not scared for me; I’m scared for Will and all of you. I don’t want any of you risking your life for me.’

There was a loud knock at the door and Alex rushed to open it. Peering through the spy hole, he was glad to see Will standing on the other side. He opened the door and pointed to the kitchen, then he locked the door behind him. Will went into the kitchen where he ran to Annie and pulled her close. Alex left them to it and went to help Jake put Alice to bed and give them some space.

***

It was dark by the time Cathy left the station; she could hear the buzzing of flies but couldn’t actually see them. She got into the clapped-out car she had bought for her daughter, Georgia, to learn to drive in. Her own was at the garage so she’d resorted to using this to come to work in. Considering how old it was it was a surprisingly nice drive. The radio only played The Bay, which was the local radio station, but that didn’t matter. Tonight was eighties night so the drive back to Barrow went pretty fast. A couple of times when she went round a steep bend there had been a thudding noise from the boot, which sounded as if there was something rolling around in there – like a football.

She hadn’t noticed it that morning, but she’d been late and the roads had been much busier than they were now. Before long she was pulling up outside her house in Hawcoat, which her mother used to call Cornflake Hill, because she said that the people who lived in that area couldn’t afford to eat anything else, the houses were so expensive.

Her divorce had finally come through and the prick had agreed she could keep their marital home, which had pleased her spoilt brat of a daughter no end. She’d hated living in Bowness with a passion and was glad to be back home with all her friends. Which meant that she didn’t spend as much time moaning to Cathy about how crap her life was, meaning that Cathy actually got some peace and quiet. Probably too much peace, because all she did now was fire up the laptop, open a bottle of wine and settle down to watch Netflix. Cathy forgot all about the noise in the boot and went inside her house, glad to be home. Before she could get a quick shower her daughter appeared with two of her friends.

‘Mum, can we have a lift to the pictures, please?’

Cathy sighed and turned around to walk back out.

‘And is it okay if I sleep at Ellie’s house?’

She nodded. Another night of peace and quiet. It also meant she could go to Jake’s house and not have to worry about leaving Georgia on her own while they discussed the possibility of Henry Smith being back on the scene. Her daughter had an overstuffed backpack with her that rattled. As long as it wasn’t her bottle of vanilla vodka she didn’t care, so she ignored it.

‘Stick that in the boot, Georgia, and take that bloody football out. It’s been rolling around all the way home driving me mad.’

‘I haven’t got a football. Did you leave a tin of baked beans in it when you went shopping last night?’

‘Possibly. Well, have a look and take it out, whatever it is, please.’

Georgia, who was chattering away to her friends, opened the boot that never locked because it needed fixing and waited for the light to flicker into life. When it did it took her a few seconds to register that the face staring back at her was dead. She pulled away and looked for her mother, wondering if this was some kind of joke and if it was a mask, but then a bluebottle crawled out of the woman’s open mouth and Georgia began to scream.

Cathy, who was gulping cola from the bottle in the kitchen, heard the noise and dropped the bottle onto the worktop where the fizzy brown liquid glugged all over. Her heart skipped a beat. She didn’t understand what her daughter was screaming at. She ran out of the front door to see Georgia standing at the boot of the car, her mouth open and the most awful sound coming from it. Thinking that she’d trapped her fingers or dropped the bottles of alcohol in her backpack she ran around to see what the commotion was.

Cathy looked down into the boot and felt the world begin to swim as bile rose up her throat. There was a woman’s head staring back at her. She pushed her daughter away, and her friends, and screamed at them to get inside the house and lock the doors. After pulling her phone from her pocket she dialled the control room and told them to get patrols to her house now. She looked once more at the head and wondered why the fuck it was in the boot of her daughter’s car, and who would have had the audacity to do such a thing?

The neighbours from either side came out to see if everything was okay and Cathy wasn’t been able to speak to them. For once in her life she was speechless and just shrugged and held her hand up for them not to come any closer. She had been relieved to see them, but she couldn’t have them seeing what was inside the car. She was going to have nightmares for the rest of her life. She couldn’t inflict that on two seventy-year-olds. She’d driven all the way back with it rolling around the inside of her car. Finally snapping herself out of it, she went to her front door and asked Georgia if she was okay. Her daughter was sniffing but had thankfully stopped screaming. Her face was white. Her two friends were sitting either side of her on the sofa.