Gone (37 page)

‘What’s the situation?’ he asked the officer.

‘I’ve checked the car, no one inside, no sign of any damage but then the light’s not great.’ Gardner nodded and Freeman caught up with him.

‘Can you wait by the car?’ Gardner asked the officer, and he nodded as if he was always in charge of waiting by cars.

‘How far away is back-up?’ Freeman asked, looking at her watch. ‘We need to get in there.’

Gardner sighed. He looked up and down the road for any sign of a car. Nothing. He turned to the officer again. ‘We’re waiting on some support. When they show up, tell them we’ve gone in looking for her. Tell them to secure a perimeter first and then anyone else should come in and start looking too. All right?’

Gardner started walking towards the car that Lucas had dumped. He ducked down and looked inside, shining his torch around the interior. He turned and looked at the fence surrounding the woods. ‘Shall we?’

Gardner climbed over first and put out a hand for Freeman, which she ignored and jumped down behind him. They both had their flashlights on but still couldn’t make out much beyond a few feet in front of them. The trees were closely planted, and though the branches were bare they hung low, dipping down under the weight of recent snow.

Behind him Freeman cursed as another branch hit her in the face. He only had to deal with them hitting him in the chest. That was something. He could feel his feet sinking into the sleet-soaked earth and every time he stood on a rock or bit of rubbish he’d drop his light to the ground, wondering if he’d found Emma.

‘There’s a light over there,’ Freeman said and pointed to the left.

‘It’s probably from a car.’ He turned to look back at the road. He couldn’t see any sign of it now, even though they’d only been walking a couple of minutes. He wondered where the back-up was. They were going to need more than two pairs of eyes. They needed another team to start at the other side at the very least. He’d chosen to start here because of where the car had been dumped but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. She might not even be here. He tried to push the thought out of his mind.

‘Did you hear that?’ Freeman said and stopped walking. She shone her light to the right, moving it back and forth. ‘I thought I heard something.’

Gardner looked over to where her torchlight shone. ‘I think you’ve been watching too many horror films,’ he said. Then he heard a rustle. ‘Okay, I heard it that time.’ His heart beat fast.

Freeman started walking towards the sound. Gardner followed. There was nothing there but ahead they could see a clearing. Freeman turned back to him.

‘I see it,’ he said and they started running towards it. Freeman slowed at the edge of the clearing; her light showed a mound of earth. ‘Shit,’ she said and shone her torch on a piece of twine discarded on top of the soil.

Gardner spun around, checking for any movement, any sound, while Freeman knelt down.

‘Gardner?’ she said, her voice low. He turned back and saw it. The arm sticking out from beneath the soil.

He dug away the mud and turned Emma over and Freeman checked for signs of life. ‘Very faint,’ she said.

Gardner pulled his phone out and called for an ambulance. ‘We need to get her out of here,’ he said and bent down to pick Emma up. ‘I think he’s still here. She can’t have been under there long.’

‘Get her out, I’ll check for Lucas,’ she said.

‘I’ll go,’ Gardner said, but Freeman shook her head.

‘No. You need to get her out. I can’t carry her.’

Gardner glanced down at Freeman’s stomach. Couldn’t help it.

‘I’ll be fine,’ she said. ‘Go.’

Gardner picked Emma up and started to make his way out of the woods, hoping he could find his way. He looked back over his shoulder as Freeman edged her way through, flashlight in hand. That was the only weapon she had. He hoped she wouldn’t need it.

Chapter 94

9 July 1999

He’d been thinking about it for days. The morning after had been a blur. The power of vodka. But bit by bit things were coming back and he couldn’t stop thinking about it. About her. What he’d done to her.

He remembered seeing her in the pub. He’d just seen Emma. Finally caught up with the little bitch, told her he knew what she’d done. But Mikey had got in the way and she’d run off, leaving him with his anger and nowhere to direct it. And then he saw Jenny in the pub. She was already fucked up. Obviously her trips to see Ben hadn’t helped. She was all over him the minute she saw him. He didn’t want to know.

He sat there in the pub among all the scumbags who paid his wages and let it stew. He could barely hear the pounding music, the inane chatter, the clatter of the fruit machines. All he could hear was the blood pumping through his veins, his pulse thumping.

He got up to leave. She started to follow. He knew she was there but he let the door slam into her face. She didn’t care. Kept coming. Knew he could give her what she wanted.

‘Fuck off, Jenny,’ he said and lit another fag.

‘Where you going?’ she asked, catching up to him. She took the fag from his hand without asking. Took a drag. Gave it back.

‘Fuck off,’ Lucas said.

‘I’ll give you a blow job,’ she said, skipping in front of him. His hand curled into a fist. She thought she was sexy but she wasn’t. Wearing a dress a hooker wouldn’t be seen dead in, topped off with a filthy tracksuit top. She was a skank. She’d had her roots done. He wondered how she’d paid for it. How many blokes she’d had to shag for that?

‘Piss off,’ he said and turned back the other way. He should go to Emma’s. Show her he meant what he said. Show her she wasn’t going to get away with it.

Jenny came up behind him, slid her hand round onto his chest. ‘Come on, Lucas,’ she said. ‘You know you want it.’

Lucas grabbed her wrist and swung her in front of him. He could see fear in her eyes that quickly dissipated. She started laughing and pulled him towards the estate.

‘Come on,’ she said again.

Lucas stood still and she bounced back as if she were attached by elastic. He stared at her. He’d done her before. Used her while Emma was gone.

They were standing below the flats where her filthy squat was. He stared at her fake hair, her desperate smile, and something made him want her.

He pushed her inside and she stumbled against the wall, giggling. He grabbed her wrists and forced her onto the bed.

‘Emma,’ he whispered.

‘Whatever,’ Jenny said and let him hold her down.

And then it went black. A blank until he was running down the piss-stained concrete stairs from the flat. He pulled a tab out of the pack and dug around his pocket for the lighter. He came up empty-handed. Fuck. He must’ve left it in the flat. He wasn’t going back for it.

He made his way through the estate, ignoring the shouts from all the fuckwits wanting something from him. He knew it wouldn’t make any difference. They’d always be back. There was no such thing as customer service in this business. Besides, most of them would be too pissed to remember in a few hours.

The offy on the corner was still open. He went inside for a lighter, wondering if he had enough cash on him for a bottle of something.

He slid the lighter onto the counter and pointed at the bottles of booze lined up across the back shelf. ‘One of them,’ he said, pointing vaguely in the direction of the vodka. He didn’t much care what it was. He just needed something to forget about things. Forget what had happened.

He didn’t drink much these days. But seeing Emma like that had pushed something inside him. If it hadn’t been for her he wouldn’t have got so angry. Wouldn’t be drinking half a litre of cheap vodka in the street like the fucking homeless.

Lucas unscrewed the lid and tossed it over a fence. He doubted he’d save any for later. He kicked a black bag across the street, the contents scattering. Bits of old kebab and dirty nappies.

He hated this place. He needed to get out. Needed to leave. The place was a shithole. Nothing to do. He had to move on, forget about Emma. Get out before the cops came looking for him. And they would, sooner or later.

Now, three days later, there was still a sickness in his stomach and it wasn’t the vodka. Curiosity got the better of him.

He looked around the estate, but it was deserted. Too early for the scumbags to be up and about. He’d wondered if anyone would’ve noticed yet. If the place would be crawling with coppers. But there wasn’t a soul about.

He climbed the stairs, dodging the shit, presumably dog’s, possibly not, and went to the door. It was unlocked. He pushed it open with his elbow, though it was probably too late for that. He knew he shouldn’t have come here. He should’ve gone, left town.

But he had to see for himself. Had to see what he’d done.

He walked inside. There was a smell but he couldn’t tell if it was anything different to the usual stench of the place. He ignored the living room, the kitchen, the filthy bathroom. He paused outside the bedroom. He could taste bile in the back of his throat.

What if he was right?

He pushed the door open, expecting her to be there, waiting for him; expecting to see her half-naked, decaying body on the bed.

But there was nothing.

No dead girl.

Lucas let out a breath. He’d been wrong. He hadn’t killed her.

There was no dead girl.

Chapter 95

17 December 2010

Lucas kept moving. The lights had freaked him out. It had to be the cops; no one else would be walking about in the dark. But if the cops were there, then how was he going to get back to the car? He could walk away, head in another direction, but he had no fucking idea where he was and he’d probably freeze to death before he found civilisation.

He heard movement; like someone running. They were going to find her. They were going to find her and get her out and she wouldn’t be dead. He should’ve just finished her off, smashed her fucking head in. He slashed at some branches with the shovel.

All this time and he thought he’d been wrong about Jenny. Thought she was fine, that his imagination had got the better of him. That maybe he’d just wished he’d done it. But he was wrong. He
had
killed her. He’d known it was her as soon as DS Freeman showed him the picture of the trackie top. He remembered his fists pounding at her face, the blood spattering onto the grubby nylon. But how she’d ended up out in the woods? That was something he hadn’t been able to get his head around. Not for a while. And then it’d clicked. Emma’s things were on the body. They didn’t get there by mistake. She was setting him up. And for a while there he thought she’d really grown a pair. That she’d finished what he’d started. But instead she just cleaned up his mess. Maybe Ben really was right about guardian angels.

He could hear voices somewhere behind him, snapping him back to reality. He needed to get out. He started moving faster. He thought he could see a light ahead but he’d lost his sense of direction. He had no idea if he was heading back to the road. He could be walking straight into a trap.

Lucas pushed aside the foliage and after a few more minutes found himself looking at the road he’d stopped on. He could see flashing lights. He crouched down and crab-walked to the fence, trying to see how many of them were out there. To the left he could see his car parked at the side of the road, maybe a hundred yards away. There was one cop car to the right, another just behind it, much closer to him than his own car. He’d never get to it.

His fist curled around the handle of the shovel. He couldn’t see anyone else around. Maybe they were all in the woods. He looked behind him. He couldn’t see any lights coming towards him. It was now or never.

He edged along the line of the fence, keeping his eye on the officer standing by the road. When he was directly behind him, he stood. A twig cracked beneath his foot and the officer turned.

‘Hey,’ he said and came towards Lucas. Lucas’s arm shot out, the shovel cracked the officer’s head and he staggered back. Lucas jumped over the fence and stood over the cop. He raised the shovel again and brought it down; the sound seemed to echo along the empty road. The cop fell back, blood pooled around his head. Lucas stood over him for a second, watching the cop’s eyes flicker. Then he turned and ran for the car.