Izzy ducked behind the tree, clamped her hand over her mouth. She so wanted to yell, to scream, because that thing out there, that thing with its mouth, its eyes, its nose all tightly covered over – that was probably Melissa. That was what remained of the girl who thought she had turned a corner, who had made a decision to put her mistakes behind her and start again, the girl who not so long ago Izzy had been tightly hugging. And now here she was. Dead. About to be buried under a heavy layer of wet, worm-infested earth, never to be seen again, never to laugh or cry or love again.
Izzy didn’t know what to do. She had trudged all this way without the merest ghost of a plan in her head. And that was mainly because she hadn’t expected to encounter this, hadn’t really known what to expect. Despite her certainty about what Kenneth Plumley was and what he had done, her mind had refused to grapple with the reasons for his need to be away from prying eyes.
But now she had been confronted with an answer that hit her like a brick, and she didn’t know what to do with that information. She was here alone. She couldn’t challenge him or even reveal her presence, not in these circumstances. He would stove her head in with that spade and bury her along with Melissa.
She had to get out of here, to summon help.
That was if anyone would listen.
Proof, she thought. Josh keeps telling me I need proof.
She opened the camera app on her phone, made sure the flash 211was off. She edged around the tree again. Kenneth was still hard at work. She raised the phone in front of her, centred the camera lens on the terrible scene. It was too far away. Izzy tried zooming in, but the phone struggled with the dim light, wildly altering its focus in order to lock onto something it understood. She zoomed out again, took a deep breath, thumbed the capture button.
To Izzy, the artificial shutter noise was almost deafening. She had remembered to cancel the flash but in her anxious state she had totally forgotten about sound.
Kenneth abruptly stopped his labours. His face snapped towards Izzy, and she ducked behind the tree again.
No, she thought. Surely he can’t have heard that? Not over that distance. It’s pure coincidence.
She held her breath. Kenneth did not resume his work.
He’s taking a break, she thought. Dig, you fucking maniac, dig!
And then her nerve broke and she was pushing herself away from the tree and running, bouncing off trees and tripping over roots and slipping down slopes, her heart in her mouth, choking off her need to scream for someone, anyone, to help her, to believe her, to stop this madness only she ever saw. She fumbled awkwardly with her phone, desperately struggling to get the torch back on now that she was once more enveloped in blackness, and thinking, Don’t drop it, don’t lose the only thing you’ve got to get you out of here. And when the light finally did reappear, she started to worry about how much battery power it was consuming, that it was probably going to die soon, which meant that she would probably also die soon, and her stress levels suddenly ramped up and now she really did want to cry and pray for divine intervention because, please God, she didn’t want to end up like Melissa, under several feet of mud and insects and squirrel shit, and he might even bury her alive, he might do that just for fun after how she had dared to go up against him. And if that were 212not bad enough, it also occurred to her that she had no idea where she was going – every direction looked exactly the same and she hadn’t laid a trail of breadcrumbs like in that other happy children’s story about the kids who get shoved into the old lady’s oven or whatever. She was lost, and she had no sense of direction at the best of times. Andy was always laughing at how she never knew where to go to find the exit of department stores, but this was no shop with bright sweaters and crystal glass and heady perfume, this was a fucking forest full of lethal critters and the wolf with the teeth that were all the better to eat her with, and the mad axeman who any minute was going to jump out in front of her and say ‘Here’s Kenny!’ This wasn’t funny, it was the least fun she’d ever had in her all-too-brief existence, and why did every tree have to look like every other fucking tree?
And then there was light.
Not her light, not the light from the phone that was about to burst a blood vessel with the effort it was putting into squeezing out some energy. No, this was other light, some distance in front of her, and what she could only hope now was that it wasn’t Kenneth’s light, that she hadn’t run round in a circle like some headless chicken, and that she really wasn’t about to end up headless. But there was a noise, too. A heavenly noise. Not singing angels, because she was happy to wait several decades before hearing them, but instead something even more welcome: the rising drone of an engine!
The light grew, the sound grew, and then it was filling the air, assaulting her senses. It arrived and then left in an instant, but now she had direction, she had an objective, and she kept her focus on that, kept going towards that point with a determination that was enough for her to knock down any tree that dared stand in her way.
And then she exploded out from the woodlands, free at last of 213the dankness and the smells and the threat. Here was the open road again, her salvation. She ran along it, towards the hill, back to her car, and if someone else was to stop for her now, she wouldn’t care who it was, she just needed to be with another human being, someone who wasn’t Kenneth fucking Plumley.
But then she found the car, its little blue butt poking out from the trees, and she cried with joy at the sight of it. She threw herself inside, located her ignition key, fired up the engine, and then she put it in reverse, revved and revved, but the damn thing wouldn’t move, it couldn’t get its creaking old bones past a root or a stump or whatever, and she started crying again as it felt as though the engine might burst into flames any second now, and once again death was breathing down her neck.
She had left the handbrake on.
She took it off too hastily and it was like the car had been shot out of a cannon onto the road. She slammed on the brakes, spun the wheel, shifted into first, and then she was roaring back up the hill, willing the car to get to the top like The Little Engine That Could, all the while checking her mirrors for any sign that Kenneth was coming after her.
She drove like a maniac back towards town, breaking all the speed limits and probably the car too. She needed to be surrounded by people again, to see lights and traffic; it was only when she got these things that she felt safe enough to pull into a pub car park, and even then she left the engine running.
She picked up her phone from the passenger seat, her hands trembling, then hesitated. A call to 999 was the obvious choice, but she could imagine how it would go. Hello, I’ve just followed a guy into the woods, and … No, I don’t make a habit of doing that, but that’s not the point. He’s burying a body … Well, I didn’t actually see the body, but I saw something wrapped up that looks like a body and he’s definitely digging a hole, and it’s the same guy who 214abducted the woman who works in my bookshop, and … Hello? Hello?
There was only one other option she could think of, and so she made the call.
‘Hello, Izzy.’
Josh Frendy sounded tired and a little bit like he knew he was going to regret answering this call.
‘Josh, I need your help and I need it now. It’s Kenneth Plumley. He’s burying a body.’
The pause was worryingly long. ‘What?’
‘Plummers. A body. Probably Melissa. He’s burying her in the woods. You need to get here right now.’
‘Izzy … Izzy, what is this?’
‘I’m serious! I followed him. I saw him. He’s digging a hole right now. Please listen to me. You can catch him red-handed if you hurry.’
‘Izzy, I’m at home. I’ve had a long day. If you really want to make another complaint about Mr Plumley, you should call the police station.’
‘You know as well as I do that they won’t do anything about it. They’ll fob me off.’
‘You think? A hot tip like this, I’m sure they’ll send out every car at their disposal.’
‘There’s no need to be sarcastic. Look, I know I’ve been a pest, but this time you can check it out for yourself. I have proof. Wait, I’m sending you a picture.’
‘Izzy …’
‘Wait.’ She launched the photograph across the airwaves. ‘Have you got it?’
‘No.’
‘Give it a second.’
‘Okay, it’s here now. What am I looking at?’215
‘You see it? That’s Kenneth, digging a hole.’
‘Looks like a black cat in a coal cellar to me.’
‘I know it’s not great, but it’s the best I could do. Please, Josh, you need to hurry. I’m sure he’s still there.’
‘Izzy, this is ridiculous. Why are you even doing this, after all that’s happened?’
‘Because … because I can’t let it go, okay? I can’t. He’s putting my friend Melissa into a hole. You have to catch him before he leaves.’
There was a long silence and then a heavy sigh.
‘Where are you?’