Sunday 21 October, 9.30 p.m.
It isn’t hard to pretend you’ve left. No one watches you. No one checks. They just assume when you open and close a door that you have gone.
Eleven o’clock, Kath had said. Just over an hour to wait. Jubilee sat and waited for her phone screen to light up.
11 p.m.
She heard the car creep over the gravel. Quiet as a ghost walk but she was listening out for it. The staff were in the kitchen, washing up the cups from the evening drinks. They would be helping themselves to Horlicks, cocoa, tea, coffee. It was a nightly ritual. They would have a drink and soon they would retire to the coffee room. She crept upstairs. Zac was hunched up in bed, lying in the foetal position, snoring softly. Something was puncturing his dreams. He was twitching and muttering something unintelligible. She bent down and whispered in his ear. ‘I can help you find Teddy.’ He sat up, recognized her face, slipped his hand in hers, confident she would help him. She raised her finger to her lips.
‘Sssh. You mustn’t make a sound.’ And he smiled, trusting. She slid his slippers on, opened the wardrobe door. ‘You’ll need a coat. It’s cold outside.’
She sat with him while the night staff retired to their room and soon the entire home was silent. Then she smiled. ‘Now remember. Not … a … sound. I’ll help you down the stairs.’
It was slow going, one step at a time, but finally they had reached the bottom. She led him along the corridor. He waited while she unlocked the French windows, watched her replace the chair against the wall and then followed her through.
She took his hand, closed the door softly behind her, and led him down the steps towards the waiting car.
She didn’t feel cruel, she didn’t feel a traitor. Not then. She felt, like him, that this was an adventure.
It wasn’t until she’d closed the car door on Zachary Foster and had seen his face, completely bewildered, hands stretched out towards her. He didn’t understand. It won’t be for long, she’d mouthed. But then she’d heard Kath speak to him. ‘Shut it, you fucking aged saddo. You can stop whining about your stupid …’ She affected a silly childish voice. ‘Teddy bear.’
The words were accompanied by an eye-watering slap on Zachary’s thin shoulders and he’d dropped his face into his hands in an attitude of despair and complete bewilderment.
And then the car had whisked off and Jubilee stood still on the drive. What had she done?
She felt terrible.
She’d walked back to her flat, seeing his face everywhere. And even trying to replace Zac’s terrified eyes with an image of her and Chi sprawling on a beach – rum in hand, white sand, blue water – all she could see were the sharks circling. And one of those looked just like Kath.
Perhaps it would have been some consolation to know that Chi was feeling just as bad. Sitting in the back of the car, Zac between her and Kath, she could feel the old man’s bones, his hand shaking, sensed his confusion. Though the car was warm – almost stuffy – and he was wearing a warm coat over his pyjamas, the old man was shivering. She hadn’t actually met him before. This reality was a shock; the tethered goat to keep Kath at bay. She’d never considered him as a person – simply the owner of an object which would fly her out of here. Now, as she looked at his face, Chi felt curious. How much of this was sinking in? How much of this would he remember? Would he be able to identify faces? In which case Kath wouldn’t risk it. Which would make her and Jubilee an accessory to murder. Did he realize he was in danger?
How much could he feel fright?
Could he sense that he was about to be used as bait? It didn’t help that he was now looking at her, his face screwed up like a child’s, the appeal mute but perfectly clear. Help me.
Kath shot her a warning look and she settled back, returning to the uncomfortable thoughts. This was not how she’d imagined it. She hadn’t realized she’d feel so awful, so guilty, so full of pity for the vulnerable. She tried to ignore him but Zac Foster slipped his hand into hers and she knew he’d transferred the trust he’d had for Jubilee to her.
Bad choice.
Monday 22 October, midday
The Roaches near Leek
It seemed as though The Winking Man was watching over her as she pulled over to the verge.
Diana Sutcliffe was already there in a blue Mercedes. Chi had persuaded a friend to drive her out there. There was no way she would have trusted Debs. If Debs had caught a glimpse of this much money she would have wanted a cut. And that didn’t fit in with their plans. Chi got out of her car and walked over to Diana, who leaned across and threw open the passenger door. They smiled at one another, neither quite trusting the other. Chi’s eyes dropped to the brown envelope which she hoped contained the money. Slowly she drew the teddy bear out of the bag and held it up. She could read the lust in the dealer’s eyes and knew she would be making plenty out of this. Diana Sutcliffe gave the bear a quick once-over then handed over the money: £20,000 in £50 notes in £5,000 bundles with the bank’s paper band still intact. Chi checked it. All there. She made Chi sign a piece of paper confirming ownership and the sale and watched as Chi filled in a false name and false address. She had the feeling the dealer didn’t really care. When asked to provide provenance she would be equally inventive and dishonest. Chi put the money in the carrier bag while Ms Sutcliffe took possession of the bear, wrapping him in some tissue paper she’d obviously brought. Her fingers felt the wad of notes. Surely now they could get the hell out of here? The plan was to catch the bus from Hanley down to Heathrow Airport and get the first available flight out. They might only be able to be there for thirty days initially, but they’d deal with that when they were there. There were plenty of illegals in most countries. They’d just be joining the worldwide throng. The main thing was to get out of Leek. Get away from Kath.
She had the money. The friend drove her back to the town. Chi gave her a twenty-pound note she had in her pocket and the mate was well happy with that. Chi wandered across to Jubilee’s bedsit.
Which was where she hit a snag.
Jubilee refused to fly. From somewhere or other she’d grown a conscience.
‘I can’t go until I know he’s safe.’
Once she’d got over the shock, Chi tried every argument she could think of. From, ‘He’ll be all right. Kath’ll let him go,’ to, ‘it won’t make any difference’ and ‘it’s too risky for us to stay’. But Jubilee flatly refused to leave Leek until she was sure Zachary Foster was safe.
Chi had no intention of leaving without Jubilee, so if Jubilee refused to leave Chi was stuck in Leek. For the time being. It wouldn’t be for long, she told herself. Kath would soon make her move.
But Kath was taking her time, perfecting her plan. She couldn’t afford for this to go wrong. She’d spent too many years plotting. And there was something she hadn’t expected – savouring the anticipation of the moment, which meant she lived it over and over again in her mind.
Wednesday 24 October, 8.15 a.m.
Mill Street
The ‘goat’ was proving a problem. Kath hadn’t bargained for this. She hadn’t really thought of the old man as a person, only as a means to an end. The sprat to catch the mackerel. The goat to catch the tiger. But the fucking goat was misbehaving. She’d gone up to give him a drink as Fifi had headed off to the doctor’s for some antibiotics to treat her infected nose, which had become swollen, red and very painful. Debs was out getting some shopping in and Chi was at work. So it was left to Kath to keep an eye on the goat. Not a natural nursemaid.
She put the cup of tea down on a chest of drawers, which was a good job as he lunged at her. She fended off his weak assault with a sharp slap of her own which didn’t appear to teach him anything. He just glared at her. But she didn’t want him too obviously damaged. He needed to look as though he’d just wandered out of the home and got lost for just over a week. That was the little story she was telling herself. Not that he’d been abducted and tied to a bed by a team of psychos, which was what people sometimes called her and her mates. Only the once.
Truth was she hadn’t thought what to do with the old man once he’d fulfilled his function of luring Piercy to Lud’s Church. And she didn’t much care. She could let him go but he wouldn’t get very far. However, trailing him back to civilization would prove tedious to her. Elated, she planned to spend the evening celebrating Piercy’s demise with a pub crawl. The place would soon have its quota of coppers. They could find him.
But now, when she looked at him, she realized she might have to deal with him too because she didn’t know how much of this was sinking in. She wasn’t sure whether there was any point in making up some cock-and-bull story to explain his plight to him. Would he remember it anyway? But it was just possible that the old guy did have a working brain cell after all, and whatever she told him he’d remember and spit it out when or rather if, by some holy miracle, he was rescued alive. Debs had provided an explanation to him of sorts, patting his hand. ‘Think of it as a bit of a holiday, mate,’ which had shut him up for a bit but now he’d got disruptive again. They’d tried locking him in the bedroom but he’d banged on the window so hard she’d worried he might break it. And then there’d be trouble. There were thin walls either side and plenty of nosey neighbours round here always on the lookout to complain. And the last thing she wanted was the police hammering on her door. So far, sensing the potential for trouble, apart from the guy next door, most of the neighbours had given Kath a wide berth. But if they heard an old man yelling and shouting or even worse banging on the window they’d soon start dialling 999 with their nosey, interfering little fingers. This was not the right setting for her little drama. So she had no option but to tie him to the bed and feed him with some of the tablets Chi had got from Jubilee. It didn’t take long for them to work. Ten minutes later he was quiet. In fact, looking down at him now, Kath wondered whether they’d overdone it a bit. He looked zonked and was breathing funnily. She kicked the bed and Zac’s eyes fluttered. Not dead yet then. And she left the room. Not long now. Leave it a couple more days. She had another job to do.