The Paradise Trees (26 page)

Was
he Oberon? She flattened the accelerator and felt the car surge forwards. She would go to the pet shop and insist on going inside, she would look in every single room and if Kenneth
Taylor had her daughter she would strangle him with her bare hands there and then.

A car passed going in the opposite direction, its horn blaring as it swerved to avoid Frank’s car. Alicia slowed down. That was stupid, she could have caused an accident. She would be no
use at all to Jen if she was in hospital herself. Soberly, she drove on, steering the car frantically onto the verge when her mobile rang. It was the police.

She listened, her mind going numb as the sergeant reported what little progress they’d made and arranged to meet her at home later. The minute he rang off her phone shrilled out again.
This time it was Frank.

‘They haven’t found her, Frank. I’m just outside the village now.’

‘I’m in a taxi, I’ll be with you soon. What did the police say?’

Alicia clutched the phone to her cheek. ‘They’ve been through the woods, they’re pretty certain she’s not there but they have teams out searching the whole area again.
They’re making enquiries in the village too, asking if anyone saw Jen or anything suspicious today. I’m going to see if Kenneth Taylor’s in his shop. Jenny loves his kittens,
maybe she went there and he, well, he’s a bit strange, isn’t he, Frank, what if he... ’

‘Alicia.’ His voice faded and she heard him speak to the taxi driver. ‘Quick as you can. Alicia. Wait in the car in front of the pet shop. Don’t go in before I get there,
okay? There’s something I have to tell you first.’

He broke the connection, and Alicia drove on. The road was busier now, people were returning from Saturday excursions. The day was nearly over and she’d wasted a whole lot of time that
could have been spent looking for her daughter. It would have been so much better if they’d called the police straightaway. But they hadn’t known that then.

She parked in front of the pet shop and switched off the engine. Would Kenneth Taylor see her and come out? Surely he must notice her here, so if he didn’t come out, wasn’t that
suspicious? Of course the shop was closed now and she didn’t know if his flat above looked out over the street or towards the woods at the back. Maybe she should just go and ring the bell.
But the day’s events had caught up with her; she was pinned to the seat, her head leaning on the steering wheel. Jenny baby.

A taxi pulled up behind the car and Frank hurried over.

‘Alicia.’ He lowered himself into the seat next to her.

She blinked at him. ‘I’m alright. What did you want to say about Kenneth Taylor? I need to go and make sure she isn’t there.’

He reached out his hand and took hold of one of hers and she was startled to feel how warm he was. Or was she cold? He rubbed the back of her hand.

Tears welled up in Alicia’s eyes as the numbness vanished completely, Christ how painful it all was. She could feel how fragile her self-control was, and she needed to keep that control to
face whatever was going to happen. She would let Frank help her, he obviously wanted to. She found herself gripping his hand, squeezing his fingers and not letting go.

‘The police say either Jen’s gone off by herself somewhere, which I can hardly imagine, or someone’s taken her. Frank. Tell me about Kenneth Taylor.’

‘You sounded as if you thought Kenneth might have something to do with Jenny’s disappearance,’ he said, and she could hear that he was speaking carefully. ‘I can’t
give you any details, Alicia, he’s my patient and I have to keep confidentiality, but I can say I’m one hundred per cent sure that Kenneth has nothing at all to do with what’s
happened. If I had a child and I needed someone to look after her for a while, Kenneth would be one of the first people I’d go to. Truly.’

Alicia couldn’t speak. She had to believe him. So Jenny wasn’t in the woods, she wasn’t with Paul and she wasn’t with Kenneth Taylor.

‘Then it’s a stranger, if she’s gone off with someone,’ she said, her voice a mere whisper. ‘Frank, she might have been abducted by some pervert.’

Her voice rose in pitch and then broke on the last word. Frank pressed her hand to his face.

‘Alicia love, don’t torture yourself until you know more. Try to keep calm, it’s the only thing you can do now to help Jenny. You have to be ready to react the moment
there’s any news.’

But what would the news be? She felt her hand shake as she turned the key in the ignition.

‘I’ll go home again. The police said I should wait there.’

‘Right. Alicia, is there a friend you could call to come and be with you?’

For a moment she considered calling Eva Campbell. But then she didn’t know Eva well. And apart from Margaret there was no-one else she wanted to be with right now.

‘My friends are all in Bedford, there’s only Margaret here. I’ll call David, though, he could come and be with us. Yes, that’s a good idea.’

She pulled the car around and drove back up the street. If only they had never come here, if only she had listened to the child in her head that very first day, warning her about the bad place.
She should have driven away with Jenny when she’d had the chance.

Back at her father’s house she stood in the doorway for a moment, staring towards the kitchen. ‘Shit, Frank. Why did I ever come back to this place?’ She stepped inside and
kicked a rubber bone to the side.

‘Where’s Conker, anyway?’

‘Kenneth’s got him.’

She sighed. ‘I’ll call David.’

He was hesitating at the front door, and she turned.

I don’t want to be alone yet. The thought was loud in her head.

‘If you’ve time... could you stay a while?’

He nodded slowly, then followed her into the house. Alicia made her call to David, listening to Frank making coffee in the kitchen. David promised to be there as soon as he could, and Alicia
rang off, mildly comforted. She wasn’t alone here. There was Margaret and Frank and soon David but oh, where was Jenny? Sobs rose in her throat and she was unable to hold them back. Again
Frank was there, comforting her, holding her while she sobbed. Would she ever see her daughter again? The thought that she might not was unbearable. After several minutes, the spasm passed and she
was able to blow her nose and talk again.

‘David’s on his way.’ She accepted a mug and sat down at the kitchen table. Moritz came running up and wound himself round Frank’s ankles before leaping up to
Alicia’s lap. Jenny’s cat. Frank sipped his coffee silently and Alicia looked at him uncertainly. It was so difficult to work out what was going on between them, beside the friendship
and trust there was the awkwardness of being in this terribly intimate situation and neither of them knew what the other was thinking about their sudden togetherness, which after all had only been
caused by Jenny’s disappearance.

She struggled to say something to fill the silence. ‘The police should be reporting back soon,’ she said tonelessly. ‘Look, it’s half past four already. I should let Doug
know what’s going on too, he said he would keep Margaret informed. He’s good like that, isn’t he?’

Frank had flinched at her words and she looked up to see real anguish on his face before he controlled his expression and replied.

‘Yes. His talents are wasted in an administrative job, but I suppose it’s better paid. But he seems a, a good man.’

Alicia felt her own body flinch too. ‘My father always said that. A good man. He was proud of being a good man... a God-fearing man. But I think, oh God, Frank, he undressed me, and it was
his belt... the buckle, right down my back and my legs... the pain... and there was blood everywhere, I thought I was going to die and I was so afraid and Mum didn’t come. I could hardly
breathe but... I can’t remember what happened after that.’

‘Alicia, can I look at your back?’ His expression was unreadable.

She stood without a word and turned around. He lifted her top, moving her into the light. When he spoke his voice was hard with anger.

‘You have masses of tiny scars, dozens of them, and a couple of bigger ones as well,’ he said. ‘They’ve healed and faded so they’re not very noticeable now unless
you’re looking for them. But they’re quite definite. You must have been beaten badly, and probably more than once. Alicia, we’ll deal with this, I’ll help you, but this
isn’t the time. We should concentrate on Jenny for the moment.’

For a few moments they sat in silence. Alicia felt the child’s presence in her head again, there was still something more, she could feel that. The child still knew something that she
didn’t know yet. But Frank was right, now wasn’t the time. She should keep herself in control, the police would be here soon.

Frank’s mobile rang out in his trouser pocket and he jumped up to silence it. Alicia winced.

Was that Laura’s voice she heard, far in the distance through Frank’s mobile?

‘I’ll talk to her. Thanks, Laura. Tell Margaret her son is on his way too. But get Ian Cummings in, he’s on call today. I expect I’ll see you in a bit.’

Dear God. Her father was worse. Maybe he
was
going to die. Alicia pressed her hands between her knees to stop them shaking. She could feel the child inside her waiting, whimpering
quietly.

Frank ended the call and turned to her. ‘That was Laura. Bob’s taken a turn for the worse again, his heart rate is down and his breathing isn’t too good either.
Margaret’s still with him. Alicia, what do you want to do?’

She stood up, surprised that she was able to feel so determined. ‘I’ll go to St. Joe’s,’ she said. ‘I can do that. I can’t be with Jenny, but I can help
Margaret if, if anything happens to my father.’

She saw Frank close his eyes. And how right he was, there was no end to all this today. When he looked at her again his voice was gentle.

‘Alicia? Are you going to manage this?’

‘Frank. My – the child’s voice, in my head – it’s crying nearly all the time now, sort of in the background. It’s as if all this pain now has switched the
pain from those days back on again.’ And yet it was good, somehow, that one of them was able to cry. The child could do the crying and she could do the coping.

She picked up her bag. ‘Will you come with me?’

‘Of course I will.’ He looked down at his trousers and shoes, still muddy from the trek through the woods. ‘I’ll take you to St. Joe’s, but I’ll have to leave
you for a bit while I go home and change. The way I am now, they probably won’t let me back on the ward.’

The Stranger

The sun had moved behind the house, and with the heavy curtains still closed his living room was in almost total darkness. He tiptoed to the window and opened the curtains
halfway. That was better. Now he could see his little treasure, safe on the sofa where he’d left her, eyes still closed in her drug-induced sleep. He bent over her, stroked a couple of stray
hairs back from her perfect little face and sighed happily. This was his time, right now. This was what he’d been waiting for since he’d first set eyes on her, no, he’d been
waiting for this since Helen died, since Mummy died, all his life, actually. And his moment had come, here and now and safe at home, away from all the weeping and wailing that was going on in the
world today. He’d been part of a lot of it, in fact he had caused it, but like the good actor he was he’d managed to play his part without anyone realising that he
was
acting.
No-one had suspected that all he wanted was to be back here with little Helen, to enjoy those last few hours on Earth with her.

He moved the gold coloured throw that was covering her and lifted her into a sitting position on the sofa. She was like a rag doll, soft and floppy, but breathing so sweetly and steadily, eyes
closed and her delicious little lips parted slightly. Pulling at the knots, he untied the cords from her wrists and ankles and pulled her clothes off, tossing them into the corner. Dreadful shorts
and garish yellow t-shirt. White panties with tiny pink flowers, sandals and white socks. He would get rid of them later. The golden robe was all she would need to go to Paradise, and the fluffy
blanket in the meantime too, to keep her warm. He wrapped the blanket round her, then cocooned her passive body in the golden throw. It wasn’t easy, but at last he had her wrapped in a lovely
golden parcel on the sofa.

Now for the bedroom. He would take her through and lay her on his bed.

It was awkward lifting her in his arms, her legs were longer than he’d thought and her feet were peeking out from under the robe, and she was heavier than she looked, too, how amazing that
such a slight little thing should weigh so much. But he managed, and carried her to his bed where he laid her down and spread the robe out, leaving little Helen wrapped only in the blanket. A
silvery thread of saliva was hanging from her mouth, and he wiped it away tenderly. His fairy queen really needed a bath, he would do that straightaway, yes, oh yes, he would even get in with her
just like he used to with his own Helen. And then he would massage her while she was sweet-smelling like Helen.

Shivering with excitement at the thought of an oil bath with little Helen he hurried through to the bathroom and started to run the water. He was adding a generous slosh of Helen’s bath
oil when the doorbell rang. He froze. Who on earth would ring his bell at this time on a Saturday? He couldn’t afford to ignore it, what if something had gone wrong with the
‘outside’ part of Plan B? Angrily, he turned off the tap, closed the bedroom door, strode across the hallway and jerked the door open. Two woman were standing there, and oh, God, one of
them was Mary Johnstone, backbone of the Woman’s Guild and busybody extraordinaire. She beamed up at him and spoke.

‘Oh good, you’re in. I wonder if we can have just two minutes of your time? We’re collecting for the cat home in Upper Banford. You might not know... ’

His eyes glazed over as the woman went on with her boring little speech, but there was no way he could shut the door in their faces. He had to be normal here, get rid of them as soon as he could
without them realising anything.