Gone (33 page)

‘Hey,’ Adam shouted and the man looked both ways before turning to run, back the way he’d come, back towards the town centre. ‘Hey,’ Adam shouted again and ran across the road, almost slipping on the icy surface.

A woman with a pushchair watched them run past, Adam barely missing her as he passed her. But he couldn’t stop, couldn’t slow down. He’d just found the man who’d taken Louise.

He struggled to find his phone in his pocket as he ran. He felt his feet go from under him and put his hands out to break his fall, his phone skittering across the pavement. He cursed as the pain shot through him, up his arms to his shoulders. A couple of people stopped and looked and a man came over, bending to pick him up.

‘Are you all right, son?’ he asked. Adam nodded, picked up his phone and started to walk away, too breathless to thank him. He saw Lucas further down the street, getting away from him. He started to run again but he felt a stitch in his side, slowing him down. He was running towards the town centre, towards the crowds.

Adam tried to ignore the pain and picked up his pace. He couldn’t lose him. This was the only way he was going to find her. The only way he’d find out what was going on.

He kept his eyes on Lucas as he darted in and out of groups of people. He had no idea what he’d do if he caught him. Sit on him until the police came? Twist his arm until he told him where she was? He knew he couldn’t beat it out of him. He’d never even been in a fight. Not a proper one anyway. A scuffle at school that was stopped before it ever started, that was it.

He kept running. His chest was burning. He tried dialling Gardner as he ran, getting it wrong twice before he finally managed it. He could barely hear anything. The phone just kept ringing. Why wasn’t he picking up? He had to be somewhere in Alnwick, somewhere close by.

He looked ahead and realised Lucas had turned a corner. He sped up, ignoring his heart, which was almost bursting out of his chest. He couldn’t lose him. He turned the corner and scanned the street. There were too many people, he couldn’t take them all in.

He was gone.

Adam bent over, trying to catch his breath. The wind was stinging his eyes and his legs felt like jelly. He couldn’t run any more. Gardner’s voicemail kicked in.

‘DI Gardner, it’s Adam Quinn. I’m in Alnwick and I just ran into that guy. Lucas whateverhisnameis. He’s here.’ He walked to the side of the street and leaned against a wall. Shoppers passed by and some looked at him, but most ignored him, too busy navigating the streets and trying to work their way through the rest of the crowd. He kept walking and found a quiet spot. There were no shops, just the backs of buildings and piles of rubbish waiting for collection.

‘I’m somewhere in the town centre now. I lost him but—’ His phone was knocked out of his hand. He started to turn and felt an arm around his neck, someone grabbing him from behind.

Chapter 78

17 December 2010

Emma sat huddled over the Formica table in the hospital cafe, her hands cradling a cup of coffee. She was freezing. As she’d run from Ben’s it had started to sleet and she was soaked again. She’d now spent the last of her money on coffee and she didn’t know what to do. She had no money, no ideas. Nowhere to go. She felt like she had all those years ago when she’d left for the last time. When she’d left her dad for the last time.

Her chest felt tight at the thought of him. She’d seen his name in the paper when they thought it was her who’d been buried in the woods. What must he be going through? What had she put him through all these years? She’d never wanted to leave. After the abortion she’d come back thinking everything would be okay. That she’d go back to school and at least try to make up for lost time. That she’d rebuild her relationship with her dad, make up for everything she’d done. Things didn’t quite work out. But how could she ever have been so selfish? He’d lost his wife and then she’d abandoned him too. She didn’t deserve the kind of love he’d shown her. The kind of love Adam had shown her. She was worthless.

She wondered if Lucas would find her here, if he’d stick around, waiting for her to show her face. And what about Adam? She should call him, let him know she was all right. But how could she possibly explain it? How would she even start? She didn’t want her life with Adam to be over. Didn’t want to have to run again, become someone else. She’d been happy. Or at least as happy as she could ever be. She didn’t want things to change. But it was too late for that. Things
had
changed. Her secret was out.

Maybe she should’ve stuck around at Ben’s after she’d called the police. Instead she’d run, as far from Lucas as she could get. She should go to the police now. But not to save herself from Lucas. She deserved to be punished for what she’d done. To her dad, to Adam, to that girl and her family. To Ben. She’d got him into it. Got him involved with her fucked-up life. If he’d never met her he wouldn’t be in hospital now. Wouldn’t have spent the last eleven years of his life living in fear. Living with the image of that girl’s dead body in his mind.

She needed to hand herself in. Tell them what she’d done. But she couldn’t involve Ben. Couldn’t let her mistakes ruin the rest of his life. She’d go and find him and tell him what she was going to do. Explain to him it was better that way. She didn’t want him to contradict her story when they came looking for him. And they would. She would tell them it was her. All of it. It was her idea. Her plan. Her alone who buried Jenny Taylor in the woods.

Chapter 79

17 December 2010

Adam felt the wind go out of him as Lucas slammed him against the wall. He bent over, the pain coursing through his body. He could see the feet of passers-by, people hurrying through the street at the end of the alley. He wanted to call out but he doubted anyone would hear him or do anything, even if he could find his voice.

He saw Lucas’s fist before it cracked into his cheek. His brain was telling him to do something but his body was slow to respond. The blow knocked him to the ground and he lay there looking up at the grey sky and tops of buildings until Lucas moved into his view and looked down at him. He could see spit at the side of Lucas’s mouth and for a second all he could think was
I hope it doesn’t drip down on me
.

‘Where is she?’

For a second he thought he’d managed to speak but then he realised it was Lucas who had asked the question.

‘Where is she?’ he asked again and bent down to pull Adam up.

‘I don’t know,’ Adam said.

Lucas grabbed Adam’s face and squeezed. ‘Don’t fucking lie to me,’ he said. ‘You don’t want to know what I did to the last person that lied to me.’

Adam managed to push himself up and pulled away from Lucas’s grip. ‘What did you do to her?’

‘I haven’t touched her. Yet,’ Lucas said and grabbed Adam’s coat, forcing him against the wall again. ‘Did she tell you what she did?’ His face was inches from Adam’s. ‘She tell you that she was a junkie? A fucking slag? A killer?’

Adam pushed forward, trying to get Lucas off him. ‘Bullshit,’ he said, though he knew part of what Lucas was saying was true.

‘Yeah, she was a proper little slut.’

Adam clenched his fists. He could hear heavy breathing but he wasn’t sure if it was his or Lucas’s.

‘She was a good fuck, though. I don’t blame you for wanting that back,’ he grinned and Adam took a swing at him.

Lucas stumbled back and laughed. ‘You’ll have to do better than that, mate.’ Then he launched at Adam, hitting him in the gut, knocking him to the floor. ‘You’re as fucking stupid as he was,’ he said and slammed his fist into Adam’s face.

Adam could taste blood in his mouth and spat it out, wanting to get rid of the coppery tang, but Lucas just hit him again and again. He tried to put his hands up, to defend himself, but Lucas had his knee on one of Adam’s arms and held the other down with his fingers digging into the skin. He could hear Lucas panting hard and fast and when he sat back a little to catch his breath, Adam brought his knee up, watching Lucas’s face pale. He pushed him off and scrambled to his knees but Lucas was already up and his foot swung at Adam, catching him under the chin.

Adam fell forward; he didn’t need to spit the blood out any more, it just poured. He gagged on it and recoiled as Lucas booted him again in the ribs.

Somewhere behind him he heard a noise, a woman’s voice, footsteps pounding on the pavement. His head was spinning. He closed his eyes and when he finally opened them there were two women in expensive-looking scarves standing over him, one scrambling around in her bag, the other just staring. They didn’t look the type to run towards brawling men.

Pain shot through his head as he turned to look for Lucas, but he wasn’t there any more and Adam realised it was him he’d heard running away, not the women running towards him.

‘I’ll call the police, love,’ one of the women said. ‘God, where’s my phone?’

Adam rolled onto his back and reached out for his phone, finding it on the ground beside him. He found Gardner’s number. ‘It’s okay,’ he said, his voice thick with pain. ‘I can do it myself.’

As he turned and spat out more blood, his phone started to ring.

Chapter 80

17 December 2010

Gardner followed Freeman into the canteen where she promised him some mediocre coffee. She looked knackered but he didn’t tell her that. She’d looked pretty pissed off when the doctor had told her Ben would be in surgery for at least a couple more hours. He didn’t fancy winding her up any more.

‘So what now?’ he asked instead as she passed him a plastic cup of brown swill.

‘I guess we wait,’ she said, dropping into the nearest chair. ‘Williams reckons everyone’s got their eyes peeled for Lucas and Emma. So until one of them shows up, or Ben’s up for a bit of storytelling . . .’ She pressed her face into her hands and groaned.

‘We’ll get there,’ Gardner said.

‘Will we?’ She looked up at him. ‘This is a complete mess.’

Gardner wanted to offer some wise words but he was at a loss. He had less idea than she did what was going on. It seemed clear to him that Emma had at least been involved in Jenny’s death, even if she hadn’t killed her herself. Which left Ben and Lucas.

Lucas was the most obvious candidate, but not with Emma. So if Ben and Emma had done it, why did Lucas Yates care so much? Gardner doubted he was avenging Jenny’s death.

Freeman’s phone rang and she looked at it before excusing herself. Gardner checked his own and noticed he had a voicemail, probably received while he’d been upstairs in the land of no signal. He dialled his voicemail and was listening to his message when Freeman came back.

‘That was Tom, the pathologist,’ she said, oblivious to the fact that he was on the phone too. ‘He got hold of the X-ray and it’s looking good. Or bad. Depending on which way you look at it. Looks like a match for Jenny Taylor.’

‘Shit,’ he said.

‘Well at least we know now.’

‘No,’ Gardner said. ‘That was Adam Quinn. He’s in Alnwick. And he also found Lucas Yates.’

‘What? What happened?’

‘I don’t know. He got disconnected,’ he said as he rang Quinn back. ‘But I wouldn’t be surprised if he was on his way here too.’

Chapter 81

17 December 2010

Lucas pushed his way through the pub, past the Christmas shoppers and work parties. His hand was throbbing as much as the bass coming through the speakers. He found the toilets and shut himself into a cubicle to inspect the damage. There was blood all over his hand, though most of it wasn’t his, a fact that did little to make him feel better.

He’d lost her. He knew that now. She’d got away from him again, could be anywhere, and now the fucking boyfriend was looking for her, as well as the cops. He’d considered letting the little prick go so he could follow him but the idiot seemed to have about as much idea where she was as he did.

He slammed his fist into the cubicle door; the pain shot up his arm but he didn’t care. He was still pounding the door when he heard a couple of guys come in, shouting and laughing. If they noticed him smacking the door they didn’t care. He leaned back against the door, listening to them taking a piss and then leaving without washing their hands.

Lucas opened the cubicle door and went to the sink. He washed the blood off his knuckles and stared at himself in the mirror. For a second he thought he could see the blood pumping through his veins, pressing against his skin, making it bulge. He blinked as the sound resonated in his head.