The Wilds (12 page)

The Martin house had been leveled to the ground, along with the house next door where Martin and the bodies were found. No one was going to want to live in those houses, that was for sure. The demolition of the house had also sealed up that weird chamber beneath it.

Pearce had seen his share of tough cases, of horrific crimes, yet none had ever affected him the way Parker had been by the Blackfriars incident. Was he stronger? Or did he care less? He didn’t think that either was completely true. Pearce had always been able to switch off at the end of the day. As soon as his shift was over, the horrors of his job were packed up in his desk along with his case files. The only thorn in his side, the only thing that bothered him at home was Jason Flynn. He was one complication that couldn’t be left at work, one that was always on his mind.

He arrived at the layby where Philip Morgan’s car had been discovered. He pulled up and got out of the car. He took a deep breath of the country air, letting it fill his lungs and clear his mind. He looked around, in the field across the road he spotted something. There fluttering in the breeze, next to a solitary tree, was a makeshift flag, he guessed this was what Flynn had left to mark the spot of their discovery. Pearce sighed and set off across the road. Before he stepped into the long grass, he let his hand brush his hip and feel the bulge of the pistol holstered there. As always, its touch was reassuring.

Karl scanned the ground carefully. It was difficult to see anything on the woodland floor. The undergrowth was ironically over grown. If there was any evidence laying around, it would be easy for it to be lost forever in here. He looked to his left and saw Jason walking along about ten feet away from him. The reporter had his eyes to the ground, but Karl could tell from his expression that he thought the search was as pointless as he did. He turned his head to the right and saw the young man, Tim, wandering along eyes down, they were glazed, though. Karl knew that the young man was not even looking at the ground his eyes were fixed on, instead his mind was fixed on thoughts of his missing girlfriend.

‘This is pointless,’ Jason announced, finally breaking the silence that had fallen upon them over the last ten minutes. The sound of his voice stirred Tim out of his daze.

‘What do you mean?’ The young man asked.

‘All of these weeds, and shrubs and shit,’ Jason said. ‘We can barely even see the ground, how are we supposed to find anything like this.’

Tim looked panicked, as though he thought that Jason would suggest giving up the search. ‘Should we split up?’ Tim suggested. ‘We could cover more ground.’

‘No,’ Jason said. ‘Not in here, if we got lost we could be in trouble.’

‘I agree,’ Karl joined in. ‘It’s best we stick together.’

‘What do we do then?’ Tim asked, and air of desperation in his voice. ‘Where do we look?’

‘Let’s just keep heading straight for the middle of the woods,’ Jason said.

Karl nodded, knowing that Jason meant that this would be the safest place in the woods in the eyes of a big cat. It was the place that the animal was most likely to take its food.

‘Okay,’ Tim said, though his voice sounded distant, and on the verge of tears once more.

The three men set off towards the centre of the copse.

Annie Hayes lived in a world of innocence. She was blissfully unaware of the problems in her parents’ marriage and to a large degree to the evils of the real world. He existence was one of fairies and unicorns, of love and happiness. She walked into the field at the side of the road, though with its long grass and the dandelion seeds dancing on the breeze, it seemed like an enchanted meadow to her.

She looked back to the car and saw her Mummy and Daddy were stood at the back drinking from the flask. Annie didn’t want to drink, though, she wanted to play. She was excited about getting to see Disney on Ice, but she hated being cooped up in the car for hours. So this was the perfect chance for her to have a run around, which she did with glee.

She carried under her arm her favourite red ball. She had had it since she was very little, and always took it with her when they went places. She knew that other children had teddies, or dollies, or even blankets that they couldn’t do without, but for Annie it was that old red ball.

She threw the ball high up into the sky and then caught it. She did this several times, then she spotted some birds flying in the sky above her and watched them for a few moments. She always like to watch the way that the birds glided through the air. It made her wish she too had wings, that she could fly high above the towns and fields.

The birds circled overhead for a while before flying away over the woodland across the meadow. Without even thinking what she was doing, Annie began to wander across the field, following the path of the birds.

As she reached the far side of the field, it felt a little cooler. The trees from the woods shaded this area from the sun. Annie looked back. The car seemed a little far away. Mummy and Daddy had said to stay where they could see her. She could just make them out, in the distance, so surely they could see her too.

The little girl began throwing her precious red ball up in the air and catching it once more. It was a game she rarely tired of, she would do it until something else distracted her. In this case what distracted Annie was the sound of a twig snapping in undergrowth just beyond the tree line.

Annie turned at the sharp sound, her attention taken from the ball that was still in the air. As she looked into the trees the ball came down and hit her on the top of the head. It bounced off into the trees and disappeared in the long undergrowth.

‘No!’ Annie said to herself as her most prized possession left her sight.

She turned back towards the car. She could still just make out Mummy and Daddy, they were still stood at the back of the car, probably drinking more coffee. Annie knew that they would be mad at her if she went into the woods, but she couldn’t leave her ball. It couldn’t have gone that far, perhaps she could just nip in and get it before her parents even noticed she was gone. She decided it was her only option. She took a deep breath and walked quickly into the tree line.

The air inside the wood was much cooler, and full of smells. Some Annie recognised as the smell of plants, sweet and somewhat cloying. There was also a dank earthy smell. Annie felt goosebumps appear on her arms. She was not sure if this was from the drop in temperature or from the little niggle of fear that she felt in the pit of her stomach.

She reached the edge of the undergrowth. From the field it had not looked so long, stood next to it the grass and weeds stood nearly as tall as Annie herself. Suddenly she was unsure of where exactly the ball had entered the undergrowth. She had been heading in the general direction she had watched the ball go, but now she didn’t know where to look. She didn’t want to go into the undergrowth. She was scared that if she did, she would get lost and never find her way out.

There was a rustling sound in front of her, and Annie saw her little red ball roll out of the undergrowth. It was safe. Annie felt less scared, and more curious now. Her imagination swam with thoughts of what could have rolled the ball to her. She imagined a group of fairies, protectors of the woods, getting together and rolling the ball out to her.

‘Hello,’ she said into the undergrowth. ‘Are you fairies?’

She listened intently, but there was no reply.

‘Thank you for giving me my ball back,’ she said, Mummy had always told her to be polite.

There was a low growl from within the undergrowth. It didn’t sound like fairies, Annie thought at first, then realised that she had no idea what fairies actually sounded like. She knelt down in front of the undergrowth and tried to peer in, but the weeds and plants were growing too closely together.

Annie rolled the ball back into the undergrowth, she didn’t want to lose her ball, but she hoped it would make the fairies push it back to her again. She waited for what felt like a long time to her. She began to think that she would have to go into the undergrowth or lose her ball forever.

There was a rustling sound from within, and once more the red ball rolled out to where Annie was waiting. She laughed out loud. She had to see them, she had to know what real fairies looked like. Suddenly all fear of the undergrowth, and of her parents anger, was replaced by a desperate need to see her woodland friends. Without a moment’s hesitation the little girl crawled into the undergrowth, leaving only the little red ball lying on the ground to suggest she had ever been there.

Booth sat at the dining table in the cosy warmth of the Sampson’s kitchen. She watched as a still clearly shaken Sue Sampson made her a cup of tea.

It had the detective some time to get the shocked woman out of the shed. She had just kept standing there, staring at the smears of blood. Booth had had to take her arm and physically lead her back out into the sunlight.

Once outside the woman had sobbed on Booth’s shoulder for some time, while Booth tried to placate her by saying that the blood didn’t prove that any harm had come to her husband. Booth didn’t believe it; the blood was pretty conclusive to her. Even without having it tested, she was sure it would turn out to be the blood of Jerry Sampson.

Eventually Sue let go of her, and Holly led her back to the house. She had accepted the offer of a hot drink more for Mrs Sampson’s benefit, the poor woman was evidently on the verge of a total breakdown. Holly wondered what comfort she would be able to bring the woman. Despite the discovery of the blood, it was unlike that Inspector Pearce would want to start an investigation yet, he would put it off as long as possible.

Mrs Sampson walked over carrying the steaming mugs of tea. She placed one in front of Holly then sat down at the opposite side of the table.

‘Thank you,’ Holly said as she lifted the mug. The tea inside was still way too hot, but she forced a mouthful down. She didn’t want to stay any longer than was essential.

Mrs Sampson nodded, then put her head in her hands again.

‘What am I going to tell the children?’ she sobbed.

‘In my experience, in these sort of situations it’s best to be as vague as possible, until there are some answers,’ Holly said. ‘There’s no point upsetting them when he could arrive home at any minute. If I was you, I would just tell them he had to go away.’

Mrs Sampson looked at her.

‘In your experience?’ she said. ‘Do you have any children Detective?’

Holly instinctively put her hand on her stomach.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Not yet.’

Mrs Sampson nodded.

‘When you do, you’ll know that protecting them and making them happy is the only thing that matters.’

Holly had always been a career girl. Rising up the ranks of the police was all that had ever mattered to her. For that one end she had sacrificed so much, friends, a social life, and yes even the potential for a happy relationship with Jason. She found it hard to imagine that all of that would become second to the fluttering she was starting to feel inside her.

‘How am I supposed to tell them that their father, who they idolise, is gone?’

‘There’s nothing to suggest he’s gone,’ Holly said, knowing that she was lying to the woman.

‘What about that blood?’ Mrs Sampson said.

‘He went in there with a gun to scare off an animal,’ Holly said. ‘We don’t know that he didn’t shoot it then follow it off somewhere. It could be the animal’s blood.’

‘Why would he leave the gun?’ Mrs Sampson said. ‘It was still loaded, and I didn’t hear a gunshot.’

‘He could have reloaded the gun,’ Holly suggested. ‘It’s possible you wouldn’t have heard the shot through these thick walls. As for why he left the gun, perhaps he thought it was too dangerous to carry it around.’

Mrs Sampson shook her head.

‘But he didn’t think it would be dangerous to just leave it lying in the shed?’

Holly could see that there was no easy way she was going to placate the other woman. Mrs Sampson knew, in her heart, that something awful had happened to her husband. Holly felt terrible for trying to convince her otherwise. Pearce would say that it was part of the job. Protecting people, in his eyes, often meant protecting them from the truth. Holly couldn’t bring herself to do that. The life growing inside her told her she had to protect this woman and her children from the very real threat.

‘You’re right,’ Holly said. ‘By telling you this I’m going against the direct orders of my superiors. I agree with you, something terrible has happened to your husband. There’s a good chance he’s gone for good.’

Mrs Sampson stared at her, her jaw slack as if ready to talk but unable to find the words.

‘Something very bad is happening here, Mrs Sampson,’ Holly continued. ‘It has been for a long time, but it’s getting worse. I don’t know exactly what it is, my boss knows more than me but he’s keeping it to himself. I will do everything I can to find your husband, but I want you to do something for me.’

‘What?’ Mrs Sampson asked.

‘Pack your things, get your girls from school and get the hell away from here,’ Holly said.

Mrs Sampson shook her head.

‘I can’t just leave,’ she said. ‘The farm...’

‘Fuck the farm,’ Holly said, interrupting her. ‘I’m telling you to protect those girls.’

The other woman looked at her, at first in utter disbelief, but then she saw something in Holly’s eyes that told her what she was saying was true.

‘How long for?’ she asked. ‘When can we come back?’

Holly thought about this, the answer she gave showed that she believed that this was going to end badly.

‘Keep watching the news,’ she said. ‘Then you’ll know when.’

As they neared the centre of the woods the canopy above became more dense, making it darker. This lack of light meant that there was far less undergrowth. The plants needed light to grow, but here deep in the woods they didn’t have that. Here the ground was mainly hard dirt, with a layer of dead leaves. Karl was walking ahead of Jason and Tim, so he was the first to spot the small puddle of blood on the floor. He stopped and pointed to it.

‘Look,’ he said.

Jason and Tim followed the line of his outstretched finger, he could tell that Jason saw it first, Tim was still struggling to see, Jason joined in pointing. When the young man finally saw it, his face drained of colour once more.

‘Looks like we’re heading in the right direction.’ Jason said.

Tim suddenly appeared overcome, tears ran down his cheeks and his breathing became shallow. His hopes for his girlfriend’s safety where quickly disappearing.

‘Are you okay?’ Karl asked him. ‘You can go back if you want to. We won’t think any less of you.’

Despite the tears, and the silent sobbing Tim shook his head.

‘No,’ he said. ‘I need to know.’

Karl looked at the young man; he didn’t know whether he and Jason should make him go back. It was clear that his emotional state was deteriorating rapidly. The puddle of blood was not a good sign. Karl worried that if they actually found the girl dead there would be no way they would be able to control the young man. At the same time, though the concern Karl felt for Tim was distracting him from his own worries for his brother.

Tim stared back at him, and through the tears in his eyes Karl saw something, a flash of strength and determination. No matter how bad it got he knew that the young man had to see this through to the end. Karl respected that and nodded to him.

‘Let’s keep moving then,’ he said.

Jason nodded and took the lead while Karl walked alongside Tim. The young man dried his eyes on his sleeves and then resumed scanning the floor for more clues.

Pearce found the pool of blood next to the makeshift marker. When he had seen the small amount on the grass in the bag that Flynn and Morgan had brought into the station, he had hoped that the reporter had made a mistake, but as he crouched down next the sticky liquid, which had turned a rusty brown colour, he knew full well he was looking at blood. He had seen more than his share of it over the years.

His phone began to ring in his pocket. He saw it was Booth and answered in his usual manner.

‘Pearce,’ he said into the phone.

‘It’s Booth, sir,’ she said in reply, as if he hadn’t seen her name come up on his phone. ‘I’ve just left the Sampson farm.’

‘Find anything?’ he asked.

‘Yes, sir. There was a puddle of fairly fresh blood in the shed.’

Pearce sighed. Things were getting worse by the minute.

‘I’ve just found the one that Flynn was on about,’ he said. ‘It’s definitely blood, no way of knowing whose or what’s, though.’

‘Mrs Sampson saw it,’ Booth said.

Great. Pearce could see the trouble he was going to have. The Sampson woman would pester them to investigate. Flynn would latch on to it, and Pearce would have field some very awkward questions.

‘So she wants us to organise a search no doubt,’ he said.

‘No, sir,’ Booth said. ‘I managed to persuade her it was probably the blood of the animal he was looking for. She said she’s going to take her girls away for a few days so that they don’t know their father is missing.’

This was some of the best news he had received all day.

‘Well done, Booth,’ he said.

‘What should I do now?’ Booth asked.

‘Get back to the station and do some paperwork,’ he said. ‘I’ll get back to you later.’

As always he hung up without saying goodbye. He looked back down at the rusty pool of blood. Phil Morgan’s blood, he was sure of that. He wondered whether he should have ordered a search of the field the day before, but what good would it have done? If his suspicions about Philip Morgan’s disappearance were correct then there would be nothing they could have done to help him. Besides there was no way of knowing whose blood this was, it could even belong to an animal for he knew. They would only know it was human when the results came back from the lab.

He pulled an evidence bottle out of his bag, and scraped some of the liquid into it, just to make sure it really did come from the same source as Flynn’s evidence. Despite what the reporter thought, Pearce was always a stickler for following proper procedure.

The sound of heavy breathing in the long grass to his right made him drop the evidence bottle and put his hand to his hip. With a speed his eyes could barely perceive, something shot out of the long grass, it clawed at his face, cutting deep trenches into his flesh. The force of the blow made Pearce fall backwards, and the pain in his face made him scream as he fell.

Tim vomited uncontrollably at the sight of the internal organs lying on the ground. Karl watched as the young man dropped to his knees, shaking violently and sobbing. Jason covered his mouth and nose and knelt down to get a closer look at the carnage on the ground. He poked at it with a stick and lifted bits.

Karl tried to comfort Tim, but there was nothing that could be done to ease his hysteria.

‘Julie. It’s Julie. Oh God, no, oh God,’ he muttered over and over.

Jason motioned for Karl to join him. Karl didn’t relish the thought of going any nearer to the bloody viscera, but stepped over to Jason anyway.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘Hard to tell,’ Jason said. ‘They’re some intestines; I think a liver, maybe a heart. I don’t know if they’re human or not.’

‘It’s Julie,’ Tim said once more.

‘All I can say is this hasn’t been here that long,’ Jason said. ‘There are only a few bugs crawling around on it. If it’d been here any length of time then it’d be riddled with them.’

Karl nodded, this made sense.

‘So whatever they belonged to was killed recently?’ he asked.

‘It’s Julie,’ Tim repeated.

Jason ignored the young man and looked at Karl and shrugged.

‘I don’t know how long ago the owner of these...’ He paused, struggling to find the right word. ‘Parts was killed. All I’m saying is that these parts haven’t been here long.’

‘It’s Julie!’ Tim screamed at them.

Karl turned back to the young man.

‘We don’t know it’s her for sure,’ he said as reassuringly as he could manage under the circumstances.

‘I know it is,’ Tim sobbed. ‘Something ripped her apart.’

‘It could be anything,’ Karl said. ‘None of us are doctors, there’s no way we can even tell if they’re human remains.’

Tim shook his head, his grief had taken such a hold on him that he was unwilling to listen to any other explanation. Karl could understand that, when they had first spotted the pile of organs his mind had convinced him that they belonged to his brother. He also had the idea of Jason’s big cat in his head. His imagination had created graphic tableaus of Phil being torn apart by an enormous, demon panther. The creature his subconscious gave birth to in these vision was far larger and fiercer than any big cat he had ever heard of in reality.

Jason tapped him on the shoulder.

‘You stay here with Tim,’ he said. ‘I’m going to go a bit further ahead and see if there’s anymore.’

Karl nodded, this was a good idea. If these organs did in fact belong to Tim’s girlfriend and a little further up the path they found her hollowed out remains, the young man would surely lose his mind forever. If he was honest, there was also an element of fear that the organs belonged to Phil, and as much as he wanted to know the truth, he was unsure whether he could face the sight of his brother’s mangled corpse. Jason was the only one without a connection to either of the missing people.

Jason wandered away and Karl knelt down next to Tim.

‘She’s gone,’ the young man whimpered.

Karl put his arm around Tim’s shoulder. He could feel how violently the boy was shaking. For the first time that day Karl suddenly wondered what the hell he was doing. Surely they should have left this to the police? They weren’t prepared for this, especially not Tim, why had they dragged this poor young man on their stupid quest for the truth? It was starting to seem like the truth they were looking for was worse than they could have possibly imagined.

Leon finished his second cup of coffee and looked at his watch. It had been twenty minutes since they had broken down; he wasn’t sure whether this was long enough for the car to have cooled down.

‘What are we going to do if the car doesn’t start?’ Maria asked, putting the flask back in the boot.

Leon shook his head.

‘I guess we’ll have to call your Dad to come and help us out,’ Leon said. ‘He’ll love that I’m sure. He’ll have proof that I’m not capable of looking after his baby girl.’

Maria laughed.

‘Oh, grow up,’ she said with a smile. ‘My Dad thinks you’re great. It’s just I’m his only daughter.’

‘And don’t I know it?’ Leon said, smirking. It felt good for them to be joking. Things had gotten so serious. He had driven her away. Looking at her now, he knew they would make it. He noticed a frown replace her smile as she looked around.

‘Where’s Annie?’ she said.

Leon had not seen her for a while. He scanned the field she had gone to play in. It was still and there was no sign of her. He had felt fear before in his life, but nothing like the terror he felt at that moment. It was as though a giant, ice cold hand had reached inside of him and grabbed hold of his soul in a vice like grip.

Without another word between them they were both running into the field.

‘Annie?’ Maria called out, the desperation in her voice barely concealed.

‘Annie?’ he shouted. His voice was much louder than his wife’s, and he hoped that their daughter would hear him, even if she couldn’t hear her mother. There was no response to either call, though.

In his youth, Leon had been part of the athletics team for his school, and, though it had been many years since those days, he found himself running quite a distance ahead of Maria. When he was halfway across the field he noticed something. There, just inside the tree line of the woods, was a small blob of red. He had spent so much time looking for that particular red blob over the years that he would know it anywhere, it was Annie’s favourite toy, her red ball.

Blood ran down Pearce’s face as he laid on his back in the field. The pain was almost unbearable. He touched one of the deep trenches that had been gouged into his face. They would need to be stitched and undoubtedly he would now be scarred for life; however, he was thankful he still had both eyes and a nose. His vision was impaired by the blood running into them, stinging as it did, but there seemed to be no actual damage to his eyes themselves. There was a loud growl from the long grass and the sound of something moving towards him rapidly. Whatever it was, it was coming back for more; he was certain it was coming back for the kill.

He pulled the gun out of the holster on his hip. He quickly took off the safety and lifted the gun towards the direction of the sound. His vision too bad to aim, he had to squeeze the trigger and hope. The sound of the gun shots was deafening in the quiet of the field. He fired another shot, and another, and another. There was a yelp, and the sound of something scurrying away from him.

Pearce kept the gun held up for a long time. He was certain that whatever had attacked him would return. The weight of the gun was becoming difficult to keep held up. His head felt light, and Pearce knew he was going to pass out. He tried to get to his phone; if it was blood loss that was causing him to feel like this, then he needed to get help or he could bleed to death. He rummaged blindly in his pocket. As the darkness of unconsciousness was about to take him, he grabbed his phone, but before he could dial a number, the darkness took him.

Leon reached the ball and picked it up. He looked around; there was no sign of his daughter. He turned back to see Maria making her way to him. He could see the tears streaming down her face as she approached him.

‘Annie!’ he screamed.

There was the sound of movement in the undergrowth next to him, and Annie crawled into view.

‘Jesus Christ, Annie,’ he said sweeping the girl into his arms.

The girl burst into tears, scared by his reaction to seeing her. Maria reached them and grabbed hold of her as well. For a long time they stayed there in that three-way embrace, a family joined together. Finally Leon set the girl down. Maria knelt down in front of her.

‘Don’t ever scare us like that again,’ she said to the girl. ‘I told you to stay where I could see you.’

The girl looked at her wide eyed.

‘I went to look for the fairies who gave me my ball back,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t fairies, though, it was a monster, but he was lonely so I thought I should keep him company. Then I heard Daddy calling, and I came back.’

Maria looked at her, then looked to Leon. He shook his head and smiled. It was obvious that the girl had one hell of an imagination. That was the best excuse for her disobeying them she had come up with yet. Maria smiled and hugged the girl again.

‘Just don’t run off like that again. Okay?’ Maria said.

‘Okay, Mummy,’ the girl said.

With that, the three of them walked back across the field to the car. Periodically on the journey Annie would stop and look back towards the woods and wave. Leon was amazed at her commitment to the story, that was for sure.

When they got back to the car, Maria decided to strap Annie back into the car; she did not want to take any more chances. Leon sat in the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition. He prayed to the god of broken down cars to help him out just this once. The car sputtered, but then started to tick over. Leon sighed with relief.

‘We’ll drive into town then get it checked out before we go any further,’ he said.

‘Good idea,’ Maria said leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.