The Lake House (17 page)

Once inside the car he stripped off the latex gloves he had been wearing for the last ten minutes. He hated them. They made his hands sweat too much and they smelt terrible. Checking around to see if anyone had watched his little performance, he was satisfied that they hadn’t. He put his foot down and drove off in the opposite direction, a smile on his face that would be there for at least the next half an hour. He didn’t want to go back to Megan just yet. He needed to find a secluded place so he could park, sit back and enjoy his time alone for a while.

31 December 1930

A sodden James and two policemen came back into the kitchen, with no Joe and solemn faces. The weather had turned nasty outside and if he was out there somewhere he would get hyperthermia. He wasn’t dressed for the torrential rain that was now hammering against the glass windows. Eleanor looked at her husband, who did not want to look her in the eyes.

‘What are we to do now, James? Is that it? You can’t stop looking. None of us can stop looking. I can’t stay here not knowing where he is. Boys don’t just disappear into thin air.’

The policemen looked at each other. Neither of them knew what to say or do because Eleanor Beckett was right.

‘Look, Mrs Beckett, we’ve done an initial search. We are going to send teams of three out to check the rest of the gardens and the lake, but apart from that we are going to be stuck until it’s morning because of the dark and the abysmal weather. These aren’t the best conditions to be out searching for your son.’

‘So what are you saying? That we just leave him out there on his own to die because it’s dark and wet? Well, I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough. If I have to search on my hands and knees then I will. To hell with you all.’

She stood up but her knees wouldn’t support her body weight and she felt her legs collapse. James rushed forward to catch his wife. Scooping her into his arms he held her close.

‘I’m not giving in; I will search all night. I want you to stay here with Martha and watch her, make sure she’s safe. I will find him, I promise.’

He excused both policemen and helped his wife down, then gently led her upstairs to their daughter’s room, where Eleanor got onto the bed and lay next to Martha.

‘I’m scared, James. What if Martha is right? What if Joe went down into the cellar? Where can he be?’

He bent down and kissed her forehead, guilt and horror filling his heart. He needed to tell her about the missing Windigo but he couldn’t do it to her. Her heart was filled with enough horror without adding anything to it.

‘Davey searched in the drain and crawled as far along as he could and there was no sign of Joe being down there. If we don’t find him tonight, then tomorrow I will search it myself.’

Eleanor nodded. ‘You have to find him.’

‘I know I do, sweetheart. Don’t you think I know that?’

He turned and left his wife and daughter and thought that, if it came to that, he would spend the rest of his life searching for his son.

***

Some hours later Eleanor opened her eyes and for a moment had no idea where she was. She reached out for her husband but instead found her daughter, who was burning hot and clutching a teddy bear in one hand. It all came rushing back to her and the crushing pain inside her chest took her breath away. After carefully getting out of the bed she tiptoed out into the hallway to Joe’s room, pushing open the door and praying to God he was tucked up under his covers and she’d just woken from the worst nightmare of her life.

She saw a figure on the bed and began to cry, but as she got nearer she realised that it was much too big to be her nine-year-old son. She bent down to see James fully clothed and lying on top of the covers, and she thought that her heart might actually stop beating. She reached out for him and he turned to face her. Unable to say the words, she let out a sob and he pulled her close. She lay on the bed in her husband’s arms and cried once more. This time she could feel the hot, wet tears from his eyes falling into her soft hair and it made her sob even louder.

They stayed that way until neither of them could cry any more and James, exhausted, began to snore ever so softly. Eleanor couldn’t go back to sleep. Instead she got up and went out into the hall. The clock chimed four as she made her way downstairs and into the kitchen to make herself a warm drink. She was chilled to the bone. As she passed the cellar she heard a faint scratching noise. Pausing to listen at the door, she waited to see if it would happen again. After several minutes she heard it once more. This time it was louder and sounded much closer.

Her heart racing, she slid back the lock and pulled the door open. ‘Joe, is that you? Are you down there, sweetheart?’ She was greeted by silence but every hair on her body stood on end and a peculiar feeling spread over her, making her fingers tingle. She listened and got the impression that whatever it was that was down there was waiting and listening back. Her hand reached out and tugged on the light-pull. As the light flooded the dark below there was a scurry of clacking and scratching that made Eleanor almost slam the door shut and bolt it. Instead she forced herself to step forward.

‘Who’s down there? Answer me now. What have you done with my son?’

Anger taking over her fear, she began to walk down the steps into the cellar, determined to find out what was going on in her own house. She reached the bottom and picked up the nearest thing to her, which was a rusted lantern. Armed with that she stepped into the cellar.

‘Joseph, it’s me, Mummy. Where are you, darling? Tell me and I’ll come and get you, I promise.’

Movement from one corner of the cellar made her whip around to see something the size of a tall man crouched on all fours scurry back into the darkness. Eleanor stared in horror, realising that whatever it was couldn’t be human because she saw one sharp claw reach out of the shadows and drag itself along the floor in front of her eyes.

She stood her ground, determined that she wouldn’t be scared away by something that was quite clearly a freak of nature. Unable to speak, she waited for it to move again, and after a painfully long time it did. It began to move forward. She lifted the lantern but realised that it was no match for the razor-sharp claws the thing had instead of fingers. As its body moved into the light she saw the red glow in its eyes and remembered the last time she had seen something so horrific. It moved again, this time much faster, and she screamed and threw the lantern at it. There was a squeal and a clatter of claws as whatever it was came rushing towards her. Without thinking she turned and ran as fast as she could up the cellar steps. Stumbling on the last one she felt a whoosh as one of those claws grabbed for her foot, and then she was outside.

She slammed the door shut using her whole weight. She pushed the bolt across with hands that were shaking, and then she ran to the kitchen and pulled a chair along. Ramming the back of it under the doorknob, she began to cry and knew that whatever it was had taken her little boy and he wasn’t coming back.

Tomorrow she would send for the rat catchers, a hunter, anyone who had a rifle and could shoot whatever it was dead. Petrified, she waited by the door for someone to come down and make the cellar safe. When she had first seen that thing in the freak show it had somehow held her fascinated, as horrified as she was to look at it. The fire had pushed all thoughts of the creature from her mind, but now here it was, alive and in her cellar, and now her baby boy was missing. The pain in her chest took her breath away. She was terrified of whatever it was and wanted to run away upstairs to tell James…no, to demand that James explain how the thing had come to be in their house. But she couldn’t go back upstairs in case whatever it was escaped, because she knew if it did it would kill them all.

Chapter Thirteen

They said goodbye and climbed back into the van. Annie began the drive back to the station. As soon as they were out of sight, Cathy let out a huge sigh of relief.

‘What the hell do you make of that? I totally got sucked into it. I was actually terrified the Creature from the Black Lagoon was going to come out of the cellar and eat us all like some fairy tale monster.’

‘I know you did; we all did.’

Sam and Tracy nodded in agreement; for once they were unusually quiet.

‘I think that Miss Martha Beckett has a monster in her cellar that eats people.’

Cathy looked at Annie, who wasn’t smiling, and she began to laugh, really laugh.

‘Piss off, Annie. You’d believe anything. There’s no such thing as monsters in cellars, unless you count sick bastards like Henry Smith. People are the real monsters and you should know all about that.’

Annie decided not to say anything else. She’d already said it out loud. If her boss didn’t believe her that was up to her, but she wasn’t going back in that cellar unless they had armed officers with them who could kill moving targets with precision. Occasionally you heard of strange things happening. Who were they to say that they weren’t? The problem was: what could she do about it? Miss Beckett had lived in that house all her life with the knowledge that there was something bad down there. She needed to do some research on the house and the area. Go back and see if there were many missing person reports from around that area. She didn’t know of any herself except for Seamus, but she’d only been working here two years. She turned to look at the two women in the back.

‘What did you make of it all?’

It was Sam who answered. ‘I don’t know, but I’ve never been so frightened in my life. It was so scary down there I kept thinking that I don’t get paid enough for this and that you two were all right because you have your spray and batons. What were we supposed to do if something had grabbed you two “use harsh language”?’

Cathy started laughing again and had to wipe away a tear from the corner of her eye. ‘Give me strength. What are you lot like? We just got caught up in the moment, you know, the atmosphere, and the old dear was quite convincing. There’s no more a monster down there than there is Brad Pitt waiting in my bed for me at home.’

All four of them laughed and before long Annie pulled up in front of the police station, parking the van next to Cathy’s battered old Clio.

‘Watch my car; you know it’s my pride and joy.’

This set the other three off laughing even harder and Annie spluttered, ‘Now who’s delusional?’

All four of them climbed out and began to walk into the station, not noticing the amount of bluebottles that seemed to be landing on the boot of Cathy’s car. They went inside. Tracy went to put the kettle on and the others went into their respective offices. Just as Annie sat down Cathy shouted down the hall, ‘Will you stick a log on for our missing man and then fill out the report?’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘Good. Put down everything that we’ve just done except for the bit where we ran out of the cellar screaming like a bunch of girls. You’ve my permission to leave that bit out.’

Annie smiled as she began to log on to her computer to input the details on the system. The next step would be to do a leaflet drop in the area just in case there was anyone they hadn’t spoken to. It was going to be a long day. The door slammed. Annie smelt Jake before he actually entered the room and she let out a sigh of relief. She always felt so much safer when he was around. He walked in, chatting on his phone and getting quite animated.

‘Yes, I don’t care. No, I didn’t say that, did I? You’ll have to come to my house because Alice goes to bed at seven and I don’t want to get her out of her routine. Right, okay, yes, that will be fine. See you then.’

He sat on the corner of Annie’s desk and patted her head as if she was a pet dog. She shrugged his hand off.

‘I’ve got good news and bad news from your other half. Which do you want first?’

‘Is he okay? The bad news…why? What’s happened?’

‘He’s fine, probably a bit smellier than usual, but you should be used to that by now. Will is convinced that those two bodies Stu discovered earlier are the work of your friend Henry. He said that he’s convinced Henry has dumped the head for us to find. Which means it could be anywhere. As from now you are no longer allowed to be without your special bodyguard, who if you ask me deserves a shiny new Mercedes as danger pay.’

Annie had been doing her best to try and talk herself out of the fear that Henry was stalking her again, but if Will thought it was Henry then there was a good chance it was. Which meant that he was watching her and possibly Will, but definitely her. She shivered, and then groaned. ‘Why me? What did I ever do to that man to make him hate me so much?’

‘Let me think about that one. Well, for a start you didn’t lie down and die like he expected you to, did you? Nope, instead you had to pick a fight with him, stab him and almost burn him to death, so that could be the reason why he’s a bit obsessed and pissed off with you. How am I doing?’

She punched him in the thigh.

‘Ouch, see? Danger money. Seriously, Annie, I think Will is freaking out, although I do agree with him that you can’t be left on your own. Kav has suggested we meet at my house tonight, to see if we can come up with a plan of action, so to speak. None of us is willing to wait around and let him sneak up on us a second time.’

Jake lowered his voice and leant towards her ear.

‘Seriously, this time I’m going to catch him. I promise you, before he so much as gets a chance to hurt you I’ll take him out.’

Annie nodded, unable to speak; her stomach was churning so much she actually thought she might be sick.

‘What have you got to do now?’

‘Missing persons report and that’s it.’

‘Good. Because I’m finished in ten minutes and whether the boss woman likes it or not you’re coming home at the same time as me. Alex was going to drive up with Alice and we were going to go for an ice cream, but I’ve told him to stay at home and make sure everywhere is secure. I know Henry isn’t interested in me. He probably doesn’t know who I am, but I sure as hell know who he is and I’m going to be ready for him.’

Jake stood up to go and discuss what he’d just told Annie with Cathy. She heard her swear loudly and then her door was slammed shut. Annie tried to block it out while she typed up the report on the computer, but she could feel his hot breath in her face as he straddled her, whispering into her ear how he was going to kill her. Tracy walked in with a cup of coffee and almost made her jump out of the chair and spray her with CS gas.