Leah
Now
Archie is missing.
I don’t stop to lock the back door as I run through the kitchen and grab my mobile.
Archie is missing.
If I call the police now they’ll want me to stay home so they can send someone out, and how long might that take? With my track record of reporting things that aren’t real they probably won’t rush with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing. Anything could happen to Archie, could be happening to Archie. He was taken in the same way as we were. It stands to reason he’ll have been taken to the same place.
A new angle.
You can’t get more dramatic than this. The open gate, the missing dog, my son being snatched. Part of me wants to think it’s a stunt Simon and Marie have planned together for money. How much would the TV and newspapers pay for an exclusive of this story? A lot, I bet. If Marie is involved she wouldn’t hurt Archie, would she? I may have drifted apart from my twin but deep down I believe she wouldn’t hurt anybody. Yet… I remember the mice on the doorstep.
Three blind mice.
Killed. Their eyes brutally gouged out – and there’s another part of me, a bigger, louder part, that is screaming, Archie hasn’t been taken for money. He’s been taken for revenge.
Simon spent all those extra years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. What if he had found out I was behind it and…
My heart actually hurts. Not a dull ache but as though someone has pierced it with a knife, is dragging the sharp blade through it, slicing it in two.
My darling, darling boy.
I’ll do anything to get him back.
Anything.
My car tyres screech as I accelerate off the driveway, onto the road. Thankfully the reporters George had chased away haven’t returned.
What will I find when I get there? I am second-guessing Simon just as he will be second-guessing me.
See how they run.
Well, I’m not running now.
The traffic thins. I’m on a country road, punching out a text on my mobile as I drive. A horn blares. I have drifted over the white lines. I toss my phone onto the passenger seat and concentrate until I am almost there and then I slow. Pick up my phone once more.
I send it to George, Tash and Carly. One of them will see it straight away, if not all. I complete the last few hundred yards of my journey, wondering who will be waiting for me inside. Marie? Simon? Both of them together?
Norwood looms out of the shadows. I feel myself shrink.
I’m back.
Memories crush down upon my chest. The feel of rope around my wrists. My ankles. Eyes blindfolded, mouth taped shut.
I’m back.
Sometimes when you revisit a place as an adult that you’ve only ever seen through a child’s eyes it seems smaller, you feel bigger. This isn’t the case now. Norwood is still huge and horribly, horribly frightening.
I’m back.
Now I’m here, it seems inevitable. The camp has been waiting for me to return. Any smidgeon of doubt I had that Archie might not be here vanishes.
Daylight is beginning to fade. Grey clouds sucking away the light.
I abandon the car on the grass verge we had crawled along to make our escape that harsh, stormy night. A new security fence was erected after we’d been found in a bid to stop the ghouls and the true-crime addicts gathering at the site as though it was a tourist spot.
It didn’t.
As I jog towards it I can see place where the wire has been snipped, rolled back to create a space big enough for an adult to crawl through.
WARNING – GUARD DOGS signs are cable-tied to the fence, along with a 24-HOUR SECURITY notice, but I know it’s a lie. There hasn’t been anything here for years to protect. Until now.
Archie.
He must be terrified. I don’t hesitate before dropping to my knees and crawling across the ground. I don’t care about germs or contamination or anything except the small boy who will be scared and confused and longing for his mum. Sharp edges of wire drag at my hair. Scrape my cheek, which dampens with blood.
My legs are shaking, my knees rubber, but I force myself to stand. The police aren’t yet here but I hope they won’t be long. George and Carly will be out of their minds. Tash too. They’ll likely all come, but for now there is only me.
I’m back.
And I’m not leaving without my son.