13 Nights of Horror: The Disappearance of Rose Hillard (6 page)

“Put them on properly!” a male voice could be heard hissing from inside the building. “Don’t be a wimp, clamp them on all the way! No, not like that, look, like this. Really get the serrated edges into the skin. Do you think it’s an accident I got the clamps with the biggest bite? There… see the blood?
That’s
what I want! Now fix the other side like I showed you and let’s not have any more stupidity.”

“Are you sure she’s still -”

“Do what I tell you!” the male voice continued. “For God’s sake, man! Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to try this! It might be my last chance!”

“She looks paler than usual,” said another voice. “Are you sure she didn’t lose too much blood? Maybe we should let her rest for a few minutes. She seemed out of it. When she looked up at the lights, she was muttering about stars.”

“She’s fine, look -”

With a slow sense of dread creeping through his body, Ricky stopped and listened to what sounded like human flesh being slapped several times, almost as if someone was being checked for consciousness.

“See?” the first male voice said after a moment. “Her eyes are opening, so she’s fine! Her pupils are a little large, but that’s nothing to worry about, it’s probably just excitement. Now plug this in and stop wasting time!”

Ricky paused, his mind racing with possibilities. He wanted to believe that he was overreacting, that nothing like this could really be happening in a quiet town like Vantage, but at the same time he was starting to realize that he’d stumbled into something truly terrifying.

“Turn the current up,” the male voice continued. “Keep the camera running and really focus in tight here. I want to get every last bit of detail, really go in as close as you can on the skin and remember, she might jolt around a lot so you need to -”

Suddenly the night was broken by the sound of a horrified, panic-stricken scream coming from inside the building, followed by frantic voices arguing about what to do next. Frozen with fear for a few seconds, Ricky finally ran back around to the other side of the barn and tried to pull open the metal door he’d noticed earlier, only to find that it was locked. He turned the handle frantically, before banging on the front.

“Rose!” he shouted. “Let me in! Rose!”

The screaming continued, becoming more guttural after a moment, as if a hand had been clamped over her mouth. There were muffled voices now, as if people were panicking.

He tried the handle a couple more times before racing along the side of the building, desperately searching for another way to get inside as Rose continued to scream. In desperation, he tried to kick through the wall, only to find that the old barn seemed to have had its sides reinforced.

“Rose!” he shouted helplessly. “I’m going to get you out of there!”

Once he’d reached the far end, he stopped and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Bringing up the number for the Sheriff’s office, he suddenly spotted movement back the way he’d just come, as the metal door swung open and a dark figure emerged from the blinding light inside. With the door open now, Rose’s screams seemed even louder, as if her soul was being twisted in pain.

“Hey!” Ricky shouted, running toward the figure as he waited for someone to answer the phone. “What the hell are you doing to her, you -”

Before he could finish, the figure stepped forward and plunged a knife straight into Ricky’s chest, piercing his heart perfectly. The phone flew from his hand and hit the wall before dropping down into the mud, and a voice called out from the speaker. Slowly, with a shocked look in his eyes, Ricky tried to say something, but all that came out of his mouth was a torrent of blood as he stared into the face of his killer. Finally, he slumped forward and the figure let go of the knife, allowing his lifeless body to fall to the ground.

From inside the barn, there was the sound of Rose’s screams slowly dying down and becoming a kind of harrowed whimper until that, too, slipped into silence, followed by a man’s voice calling for the camera to be kept running and for the lens to move closer.

Nearby, a voice was still shouting from Ricky’s phone.

Today

“Did you find it, Sheriff?”

“Good morning to you too,” Gorman replied as he limped across the road, with Michael hurrying to keep pace. Rain was still falling steadily, and the sky was rumbling as if the storm was waiting to return. Wincing at the pain in his hip, he was convinced he could feel the cold metal of the rods that had been inserted a few years ago after his accident. “No,” he continued, “I’m sorry, I’m still working on it. Don’t worry, though, I’ll get to the -”

“You’ve got to find it,” Michael hissed, stepping in front of him to bar his way. “It’s been more than twelve hours! I mean, Jesus Christ, every second it’s missing is another second when someone could be loading it up to watch! Don’t you care about the fact that Rose is going to be humiliated all over again if anyone sees the video?”

“Michael -”

“It’s out there!” he hissed. “Someone’s got it, and why would they go to all the trouble of stealing it if they’re not going to do something with it?”

“I’ve been following leads,” Gorman told him. “I’m sorry, there were a few false starts along the way but believe me, this situation has my full attention. Right now, a forensics team from out of town is going over my office. Whoever broke in there, they have to have left something behind. A hair, or a flake of skin, or -”

“If anyone watches that disc,” Michael replied, interrupting him, “they’ll know what happened to her!”

“I’m fully aware of -”

“And then there’ll be questions,” he added, taking a step back as he stared at Gorman with a wild look in his eyes. “People are gonna start wondering what happened to Scott and Luke Everham, and to Ricky. Just because
we
know that the three of them were the ones who killed Rose, we can’t assume that other people are going to see it the same way. If they realize what happened, they won’t care that we were just trying to protect everyone from the truth. They’ll come after us with everything they’ve got!”

“You don’t need to lecture me on my duties and responsibilities,” Gorman replied, forcing himself to stay calm. “I know this is difficult for you -”

“You have
no idea
what this is like for me,” Michael shouted, taking a step back. “Believe me, you don’t have a goddamn clue! To think of people out there watching that awful video, watching everything that happened to my poor little girl… You have to find it, and you have to find it today! You can’t let people know. If Carey ever found out what happened to Rose, not just that she’s dead but that she died in such a horrible way, it’d destroy her. This whole town would be torn apart! It’s like we agreed, we have to protect everyone from the truth!”

“You can rely on me,” Gorman said firmly. “Have I ever let anyone down in Vantage?”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

“I give you my word,” he continued, “that I will get that disc back, and this time I’m just going to go ahead and destroy the damn thing forever. I don’t care what the consequences are for me, even if I end up having to resign or face charges for tampering with evidence, I’ll… I’ll put this right. I’ll bury the truth deeper than ever.”

“You’d better,” Michael replied. “If that video gets out and people see what happened to her, it’ll be your fault. You’ll be as guilty as the men who did it to her in the first place! Just because she’s gone, that doesn’t mean we have to stop protecting her!”

***

A few minutes later, once Michael had hurried back to work, Sheriff Gorman sat alone in a booth at the diner, staring down at a cup of coffee he didn’t want to drink and a sandwich he didn’t want to eat. He kept replaying Michael’s pleas over and over in his mind, trying to imagine the torment of a father whose daughter had died in such horrific circumstances, but something didn’t quite seem to sit right: he felt as if there was a snag in the back of his thoughts, something his subconscious mind had noticed but which he hadn’t quite understood fully.

“You trying to make it levitate?” a voice called out.

Looking over at the counter, Gorman saw that Eileen was smiling at him as she wiped some glasses clean.

“The way you were staring at that cup,” she continued, “it’s like you’re trying to make it hover using the power of your mind. Now, of all the people in Vantage, you’re the only one I think might actually have a chance to do something like that. You’ve always had a kind of intense look about you, Ben. Still…”

“I’m just thinking about a few things,” he replied, unable to muster more than a faint smile.

“I heard there was a break-in at your office,” she said. “Is that true?”

Gorman paused, annoyed that news had begun to leak.

“I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” she continued, “it’s just… I heard from Jill Shephard, who heard from Monica at the hardware store, who heard from Shep, Elizabeth’s nephew, and… Well, you know how it is.”

“There was a small disturbance,” Gorman admitted.

“At the Sheriff’s office? Jesus, you’d think if there was one place in the whole town where no-one could get in, it’d be that place. I mean, what kind of idiot would ever try to break into a building that’s guaranteed to be crawling with cops? Then again, I guess the criminals we get around Vantage probably aren’t the smartest. Probably trying to get into any drugs or firearms you might have confiscated. Did they actually steal anything?”

“No,” he replied uneasily. “No, they… Nothing.”

“Idiots,” she continued. “Still, makes you think. Must be pretty tough for you, having something like that happen right in your own backyard. Don’t worry, though, I won’t gossip about it. Maybe it’s best if you keep it close to your chest, huh?”

“Chance’d be a fine thing,” Gorman muttered.

Looking back down at his coffee, he began to replay the conversation with Michael again, trying to work out why he felt so uneasy. He understood that the man was worried about the disc being watched by other people, that he didn’t want his daughter’s horrific final moments to end up being shared around the world, but his desperation seemed tinged with something else, as if he was scared for himself. There were several possibilities, none of which Gorman particularly liked, but he couldn’t help wondering if he’d somehow managed to miss something obvious.

“Ricky Baggard wasn’t one of the three men,” a voice whispered in his ear.

“What?” he asked, turning and finding that there was no-one next to him. He glanced at the counter and saw that Eileen was busy at the other end of the diner, while the radio was playing low in the background.

He waited.

Outside, the rain had intensified again, and the overcast sky made the whole scene seemed strangely washed out and blue. Beads of rain were running down the window, and some kind of faint electric light was flashing in the glass, casting grainy shapes in a kind of hypnotic, rhythmic motion.

“They killed Ricky because he came to help me,” the voice whispered suddenly. “He’s the only person in my whole life who ever actually tried.”

Turning, Gorman looked around at the next booth, but there was no-one. He got to his feet and took a step back, convinced that there had to be someone nearby.

“You okay there?” Eileen called over to him.

“Was anyone else in here just now?” he asked.

“You what?”

“Was anyone else in here?” he asked again, trying not to panic. “Did someone…” He turned and looked toward the bathroom.

“Just you and me, sweetheart,” she replied. “Why? What’s making you so jumpy?”

“Nothing, just…”

Glancing at the window again, he watched as a lorry sped past, and seconds later he realized that there was a figure standing on the far side of the parking lot, watching him. A cold shiver passed through his body as he stared at the figure and saw that it was the same person he’d spotted a couple of times already. She was standing over by the line of trees that ran to the side of the diner, and it was clear that she was staring straight at him, almost as if she was waiting for something. Behind her, the trees – just like the apple tree in his garden – seemed to be starting to curl and dip their branches back into the soil, almost as if they’d given up on growing tall.

And still the girl stood before them.

Waiting for him.

“Rose,” he whispered.

“What was that?” Eileen asked.

Without replying, Gorman grabbed his hat and his cane and hurried to the door. As he made his way outside and down the steps, he saw that the figure was still watching, so he began to limp across the parking lot, determined to reach her before she had a chance to -

“Don’t come any closer,” she whispered in his ear.

He kept moving.

“Don’t come any closer!” her voice shouted.

Stopping, he felt a sharp pain in his hip. The figure was still on the other side of the parking lot, too far away to make out much detail, but he could see that it was Rose. She was even wearing the same clothes she’d had on the last time he saw her, when he and Michael were moving her body from the barn and getting ready to put her in the ground. Those moments felt so surreal now, almost as if they’d happened to someone else.

“It’s not right,” she whispered. “You know what he did to me, and he got away with it. He always got away with everything.”

“No,” Gorman replied, keeping his voice low as rain fell all around. “You can’t be -”

“Ricky just wanted to help me,” she continued. “There were three men, but Ricky wasn’t one of them. Ricky was good, he cared about me and he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wasn’t the one who was working with the Everham brothers, and anyway they were just hired hands who wanted to join in. You know who was really in charge. You know who drove me there every night and did those things to me.”

“What are you?” he asked. “How can you be -”

“It’s time,” she added. “I’m bringing up all the things you helped to bury. You just need to watch and listen.”

“Listen to what?”

“Don’t you hear it?” she continued. “It’s all around, in the rain. I know you can hear it if you listen hard enough. You can see it, too. It has to be seen.”

“I don’t know what you’re -”

Before he could finish, he realized that once again there
was
another noise mixed in with the constant hiss of the rain, and the click from before had returned. Standing completely still, he slowly began to hear a sobbing voice emerging through the hiss, as if the sound was weaving its way between the falling raindrops as it reached his ears.

“Please don’t do this,” Rose was whimpering, her voice distorted by fear and pain. “Turn the cameras off. Please, I want to stop! You promised me it was going to end! You’re going too far this time! Daddy, please!”

“Who’s doing this?” Gorman shouted, turning to look back across the parking lot. “Show yourself! You’re not in trouble, I understand you just want to put things right, but this isn’t the way to do it! Let’s talk about the -”

Suddenly he noticed something flickering on the rain-battered window of the diner: a moving image being played out in ghostly form across the glass. Leaning heavily on his cane, Gorman took a few steps forward as he realized that the video from the disc was somehow being projected, its light dancing across the rain drops that covered the window, although when he looked toward the road he couldn’t see any way that the image was being run. It was as if the video was appearing spontaneously, out of nowhere.

“What did you think?” Rose’s voice whispered. “That if you hid it away, somehow it wouldn’t really exist? I know you were trying to do the right thing, but you can’t hide something like this. Not forever. I understand why you did it, but you shouldn’t even have tried.”

Turning back to the window, he felt his heart skip a beat as he saw the horrific image of Rose Hillard tied naked to a wooden chair, her body torn and bleeding as a figure moved past the camera. Rose’s eyes were open and filled with fear, and she was staring at the camera as if she desperately hoped that someone might still come and save her. As the shadow of a man fell across her body, she began to tremble violently, and her lips moved as if she was begging for him to stop. Tears ran from her eyes and there was thick mucus in her nostrils, while blood was caked in a pair of ragged wounds on either side of her mouth.

“He always kept his face out of shot,” Rose’s voice whispered directly into Gorman’s ear. “Look at the way he moves, though. That’s not Ricky. It’s someone older, someone a little stockier. Someone who had a small beer-gut.”

“Who is it?” Gorman asked, unable to stop watching the image as the camera zoomed in on the girl’s terrified face. He wanted to turn away, to never see another frame of this video again, but he couldn’t even blink.

“You know who it is.”

“I…”

“You already heard me say his name. You just can’t admit that it’s true. You’re blocking the realization because you don’t want to admit that he fooled you.”

“No, I…”

He paused, watching as the video showed Rose screaming with fear, her features contorted as she cried out in agony. He remembered seeing this part before; it was from near the end, just before the section where she died.

“He got away with it,” she continued, her voice sounding soft and calm. “He played the part so well, and you never even considered the possibility that he could have done something so horrific, so totally evil, to someone he was supposed to love and protect.”