Are you saying my son was murdered because of a ghost?
That was what Dean Price had asked her. But as Amanda rocketed along the dark main road toward the town of Gritten Wood, it was Mary Price’s words the same day that returned to her.
Dean used to be in the army.
It’s only since Dean left the army that the two of them started to bond.
Dean’s always been practical. A problem-solver.
At the time Amanda had said this wasn’t a problem anyone could solve, but now she wondered if that was true. Michael Price had been murdered because Charlie Crabtree had never been found. The mystery of his disappearance had cast a shadow over everything and caused so much pain. And that was a problem that could be solved, couldn’t it?
If you had the training and the will.
If you had nothing left to live for.
Back at the department, Mary had told her Dean had walked out of the house three days ago, and she hadn’t heard from him since. His phone was switched off. The man had gone dark.
Everything is fine, Amanda told herself.
She had already checked, and Paul wasn’t in his room at the hotel. But that just meant he was probably at his mother’s house. And, while he wasn’t answering his phone, the most likely explanation was surely that, after the events of the day, he didn’t want to speak to her.
So there was nothing to worry about.
But that was logic speaking, and she was hearing other, louder voices right now. The dark landscape outside the car reminded her of the nightmare she often had, and she was beginning to feel the same panic and urgency it always brought. Someone was in trouble and she was not going to reach them in time.
Her phone was attached to the dashboard. She dialed Dwyer.
“Where the hell did you disappear to?” he said.
“I’m on my way to Gritten Wood.”
She explained what she’d learned from Mary Price.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he said. “You didn’t think to wait for me?”
“No time. I’m sure everything is okay, but I wanted to get out here as quickly as possible. Stay on the line and I’ll let you know if I need you.”
“I’m sending someone anyway.”
She thought about it. “Fine by me.”
The car in front of her was driving too slowly. Amanda pulled out and overtook it, accelerating away and ignoring the horn blaring behind her—but then the turnoff for Gritten Wood came up suddenly on the left, and she swerved off the main road, hardly slowing as the street narrowed. The car juddered and bounced around her, the tires bumping over the rough ground. The husk of the town appeared ahead of her, as dark and apparently deserted as before.
And beyond it, the black mass of trees.
Her heart started beating more quickly.
She reached the house a minute later. Paul Adams’s car was parked outside. She pulled in behind it, cricking on the hand brake and grabbing her cell phone from the dashboard.
“I’m there,” she said.
“Anything?”
“The car’s here.” She got out and looked at the house. “The hall light’s on.”
“Just stay on the line.”
“Will do.”
“And don’t do anything stupid.”
Amanda remembered the savagery that had been done to Billy Roberts, and the terror she’d felt afterward at having come so close to such a monster.
“Don’t worry, I won’t.”
She kept the phone pressed to her ear as she headed up the path to the front door. She knocked, but didn’t wait for a reply—just turned the handle and found it unlocked. Inside, the brightly lit hallway was empty.
“Paul?” she shouted.
There was no reply.
“What’s going on?” Dwyer said.
“Hang on.”
Amanda stared down the hallway toward the kitchen at the far end. The light wasn’t on in there, but she could feel a breeze coming from that direction. She headed down. The back door was open onto the black, overgrown sea of the yard.
“Back door’s open.”
She stepped out. It was difficult to make out much detail, but she could see the trees at the bottom. The darkness there was absolute.
“Officers en route,” Dwyer told her.
Which was excellent news, Amanda thought. Because she was aware she needed help here—that she couldn’t do this by herself. There was absolutely no way she was setting foot into those woods on her own. But at the same time, a different thought was gnawing at the back of her mind, and while there was no way she could know it for certain, somehow she did.
The backup wasn’t going to get here in time.
For a few seconds she found herself frozen on the back step, unable to head down through the grass toward the implacable blackness at the end. She was shivering. Even though she was willing her body to move, it wouldn’t respond.
Then:
Calm down, she told herself.
The voice came like a slap. For a moment, she thought it was her father’s, but it wasn’t.
It was just hers.
Someone needs you.
Yes, she realized. That was what it came down to. She wasn’t that little girl anymore, lying in bed in the middle of the night, afraid of the dark and waiting for someone to save her. She was the person who came when someone else called.
“Are you there?” Dwyer said.
“I’m here,” Amanda said.
And then she lowered the phone and headed quickly down the yard toward the woods.