Spiritwalker (10 page)

            She switched off the TV and headed upstairs.  She couldn't find Jane anywhere, she knew she had to be somewhere, she had just seen her on CCTV.  She reached the room at the far end of the corridor tried the handle it was locked.  Must have locked the door so they wouldn't be disturbed by the cleaning lady.  The sight of them two at it would be enough to strike the poor woman blind as well, Sylvia thought and she smiled to herself.  She knocked gently on the door calling out their names...Nothing, no reply.  “I know you're in there she said raising her voice a little as she knocked louder.  Still nothing, no reply.  She called out Jane's name louder, listened and then she heard it, a faint voice coming from further away than she would have expected.  “Jane is that you she asked, open the door I have to talk to you.  Molly was around looking for you and she had a private detective with her.  Your sister hired her to look for you.  Please open the door.  They're all very worried about you.  Then she heard Jane more clearly.

“I can’t get out I'm locked in.  He handcuffed me to the bed, please help, let me out.”

What kind of strange things were these two up to? Sylvia wondered.  “Where's the key?” she shouted through the door.

“I don't know, please get me out, I want to go home.”

Sylvia was getting worried, she didn't like the tone of Jane's voice, she sounded scared.  She went to look for the key.  “I'm going to look for the key” she shouted back.

Sylvia headed back down to the office again, that was where he usually kept his keys, she had seen a bunch of keys on the desk, maybe it was on that?.  She retrieved the keys and went back up to Jane.   “I found some keys, hang on I'll see if one of them works.” she shouted through the door.  After trying a few keys she found the one that fitted.  She unlocked the door and opened it.  She was in a room but not the one Jane was in.  “Jane, where are you?”

“In here, quick let me out before he comes back.”

Sylvia followed the direction of Jane's voice, there behind a Chinese screen was another door, the key was hanging on a hook outside the door.  She opened the door, there in front of her was Jane sitting on the bed, one of her hands was handcuffed to it.

“Thank god, oh Sylvia get me out of here please.  Hurry.

Sylvia looked at the strange spectacle in front of her stunned.  Jane was on the bed, she was wasn't wearing any make-up and her face and body were covered in bruises, she looked thin and drawn not at all like her usual self.  Jane had always taken great care of her appearance and to say that Sylvia was shocked would be an understatement. 

“What on earth have you been up to? What kind of crazy games are you two playing? You look awful.”

“I'm not playing games” Jane said crossly.  “That bastard kidnapped me and won't let me go.  I've been here for nearly two weeks.  He's fucking crazy.  He even tried to kidnap Sassy and bring her here.”

“What. Richard, why would he do that?” Sylvia asked incredulously.

“How the fuck should I know.  Find the key for these god-damn things and let me out of here.”  Jane was struggling desperately trying to get the handcuffs off. 

“It's not here.” Sylvia said going through the bunch of keys one by one.

Phone the police them, hurry before that bastard returns, he'll be here soon.”

Sylvia took her phone out and tried to dial 999. “Fuck there's no reception.  Hang on I'll try to get some bars.”  She walked over towards the window holding her phone out in front of her.   “Nothing, I don't believe it, I can't get a signal.  I'll go downstairs and see if I can find a land line.”

“Don't bother, there isn't one.” A voice from behind her said.

“Shit, Richard, you frightened the life out of me.  What the hell is going on here? Don't you know her family are going crazy with worry about her?  Let her go, she looks awful.  I had a private detective around looking for her earlier.  What the fuck's wrong with you?” Sylvia said taking a step towards him.  She looked at Jane huddled on the bed, she had begun to whimper like an injured animal.

Richard's mood changed in a flash.  He bounded over to Sylvia and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her slightly off the floor.  She couldn't breathe.  He began shouting at her. 

“What detective? What did you tell her?  Did you tell her about me?” He asked squeezing her neck tighter.  Sylvia was choking, clawing at his hands trying to make him loosen his grip, her face was turning blue; she was losing consciousness.  Just as suddenly he released her.  She barely stayed standing, gasping for breath she said hoarsely.

“I didn't tell her anything, I promise.”  She stepped away from him, back towards Jane, still clutching her throat.  She was scared now, he had never attacked her like that before...At least now outside of the bedroom.  She knew her neck was going to be severely bruised.  Little did she realise that a little bruising was going to be the least of her worries.

            “What did that bitch want, what did you tell her?” He asked stepping menacingly towards her and pushing her on the bed beside Jane.

“I didn't tell her anything.” She repeated, she was terrified now.  “She was with Molly, they were asking if I knew where Jane was, I said I didn't.  Then they asked if Jane had a new boyfriend.  It just clicked I remembered Jane telling me how you had been pestering her for a date for ages.  But I swear I didn't say anything.”

“Molly, Molly, is she okay? Is my baby okay?” Jane asked clutching at Sylvia.  She was curled into a ball rocking back and forth.

Sylvia ignored her, she knew she was in trouble here and didn't know how far Richard was going to go.  She had never seen him so obviously insane before.  His face was purple with rage.  “Let us go, Richard, please.  You can't keep us here, people will be looking for me now too.  They will find out where I went.  They will know I headed out here.  My friends know we used to date, they will put two and two together.  Let us go, we won't say anything, will we Jane? My car is outside I can take Jane with me” 

Jane nodded.  “I won't tell anyone” She was trying to sound sincere, indeed she was sincere, all she wanted was to get the hell out of there and back to Molly. 

“Your car, yes you're right, the police will be on the lookout for it.  And you too.  Yes you had better go.” He said thoughtfully

Sylvia's heart jumped with joy, he had said she could go.  She couldn't believe her luck. “Can you get the keys for the cuffs” She asked him timidly as she got up from the bed.  “I'll take Jane back with me.”

“Oh Jane's not going where you're going.” He said menacingly grabbing her again. “No just you.”

He put one hand behind her head and with the other grasping her chin, he made a lightning fast movement and snapped her neck.  The sound of her neck cracking echoed loudly around the room, there was silence for a moment then Jane screamed and screamed.  The sound was more heart wrenching than the cries of a banshee.

            “It's okay my love.” Richard said as he went over to comfort Jane. Sylvia’s body made a soft thud as it fell to the floor.

It took him twenty minutes to calm Jane down.  She burrowed under the duvet and wept inconsolably.  He kept saying over and over “She had to die, she would have tried to come between us.  She wanted to take you away from me.  You do see don't you. I couldn't let her do that.”

Jane didn't answer, she couldn't.  She had thought that she was going home when she had seen Sylvia come through the door. Had thought she was free.  Then ten minutes later, her friend, her best friend was lying dead at the bottom of her bed in this prison of a room.  All hope of a rescue gone, vanished. She stopped screaming but inwardly her screams were deafening.  He got up and went to the bottom of the bed, he pulled Sylvia’s body into a sitting position, caught her under her arms and dragged her lifeless body out of the room.  He glanced back at Jane, all he saw was her hand still in the cuffs and the duvet rising up and down with her convulsions.  He dropped Sylvia on the other side of the door and sighed as he locked Jane in.  He pocketed the keys, he wasn't going to chance letting them out of his sight again. 

            He waited until it got dark before he drove Sylvia's car back to the city.  He had changed into dark clothes, he was wearing a dark hoodie, with the hood pulled up and dark glasses.  Sylvia’s body was in the trunk.  He knew it was a risk taking her back like that but he had no choice, besides if he stayed below the speed limit and avoided taking any risks, he was sure he would make it to her home without being stopped by the police. He made it to her apartment and drove into the underground car-park, checking that no one was around, before he dragged her body out of the trunk and took the lift up to her apartment.  Once inside he laid her body on the bed and decided what to do next...  He went through her purse and found the card that Anna had given to her.  He then took out Sylvia's phone and sent a text message asking her to come to the apartment the following day, but not to bring anyone with her, that she had vital information regarding Jane.  Next he had to erase all CCTV footage of himself entering the building, he waited until the fat slob of a guard was gone on his break and he entered his little office and erased the day’s recordings.  He then unplugged some cables from the back of the receiver box.  He left it plugged in to the power supply. No one would notice that it had been disconnected unless they deliberately thought to check.  The CCTV monitors still showed their areas on the screen but none of the footage was now being recorded.  He had just enough time to make his escape without being seen before the guard returned. 

            He returned to Sylvia's apartment and sat there in the dark waiting for Anna.

Chapter fourteen

            After leaving Sylvia's apartment, Anna and Molly decided to go for something to eat.  They had plenty of time before they caught the train back to Canterbury.  Anna had wanted to spend more time in London making enquiries, but she decided it would be best to return to Kent and make sure Molly was looked after.  Molly phoned her sister and her father and filled them in on the latest developments.  Sam insisted on returning to look for her mother and agreed to get the next train down from Edinburgh.  She told Molly that she would meet her at their aunt Eva's and that they would decide what to do from there.  Molly's father was abroad, he was very alarmed when Molly explained about Sassy being abducted.  He assured her that he was going straight to the airport and that he would be on the first flight home.  He sounded relieved when Molly told him that she was going to stay with Eva for a few days.  He wasn't happy for her to stay in London on her own. 

            The train arrived at Canterbury and they decided to take a taxi from the station, they were astonished when they got to the Westhall's home, to see the huge number of journalists and TV crews with vans parked outside, milling around the gates.  Anna told Molly to stay in the taxi and the moment she stepped out she was immediately swamped by reporters and camera crews wanting to know who she was and what her connection was to the Westhall's.  She had to fight her way to the intercom. It wasn't easy she was being bombarded with questions.  She purposely did not answer any of the dozens of questions fired at her.  She had just managed to reach the gates and press the intercom, when a car screeched to a halt and Inspector Morley jumped out.  The crowd of reporters abandoned her, and swarmed over to him instead.  He shouted for the policeman who was supposed to be on duty at the gate.  A uniformed policeman appeared from somewhere and quickly ran up, apologised sheepishly to his superior and pressed the button to open the gates.

“Miss Cotter, if you would like to get into your taxi I'll meet you at the house.”  I need you to clear up a few things from your statement for me.”  Inspector Morley whispered quietly so the reporters wouldn't hear.

“Yes of course.” Anna replied.  She had been dreading this conversation, but she knew she couldn't avoid it, she also needed him to hear what Molly had to say about the change of phone numbers.  She hoped the police would be able to track down the crank caller.  She hopped back into the taxi and they drove up to the house.  The policeman on duty closed the gates once the Inspector was safely inside. 

At the house Molly was hugged and kissed profusely by her aunt and uncle.  Eva thanked Anna for having the fore-thought to bring Molly down so she wasn't alone in London.  Sassy was laying on the couch, still shook up from her experience.  Molly hugged her warmly and sat down beside her.

“How's my favourite little cousin? I hear you've been causing all sorts of trouble.”  Molly scolded her.

“I'm all right, it was scary though.” Sassy admitted.  “Have you seen all the reporters down by the front gate, there's hundreds of them.”

“Seen them, we could hardly get through.  You're going to be famous Sassy.”

“No thanks, if that's what you have to do to be famous you can keep it.” Sassy said sounding very serious.       Eva drew Anna aside, leaving her niece and daughter to talk.  “You said on the phone that you had more information about Jane.  What did you find out?”

“Molly told me that her mother had changed her number because she was getting a lot of crank calls, did you know that?” Anna asked her.

“I knew she had changed her number, but she never mentioned anything about crank calls.  Who were they from?”

“I'm not sure, but Molly also said that her mother had gone to a party, and that she had been brought home by a man.  Molly thought at first that it was her dad, but then she heard someone shouting at her mother and when whoever it was realised that Molly was in the house, he stormed out slamming the door.  It wasn't her father.  Her mother wouldn't talk about it. It happened a good while before she went missing so she didn't think any more about it.  But Molly is convinced that it was after that incident that the crank calls began.  Her mother changed her number and insisted that no one gave out her new number, without her prior approval.”

“What did Sylvia have to say, does she know who he was?” Eva whispered