Turned (24 page)

Amy walked Jodie and Vianne to school. She noticed they were being followed by some young guy. She looked at Jodie. “Go see Mr. Page when you get in. He'll be able to do something to stop the bloke from hanging around outside school. I'll be here at quarter past three to collect you.”

Vianne looked at her. “Auntie Adeline wants me to go straight to The Dolls Hospital after school.”

“I'll walk you there. That's not a problem.”

“Thank you.” Jodie and Vianne ran in to school.

The power was still off when Amy and Vicky got home. Workmen were digging up the road to find the source of the break. Vicky ran straight into the garden to play. Amy shook her head, watching as she pulled Mr. Scruffy off the pole and into a chair. Vicky then tugged the patio table in front of him and set the plastic princess tea set on the table.

Her mobile rang. “Hello?”

“Hi, there.” Dane's voice echoed, sending ripples of pleasure through her. “How's it going?”

“We still have no power.” Amy leaned against the counter. “Vicky is in the garden playing tea parties with Mr. Scruffy.”

Dane chuckled. “That sounds way more fun than we're having here in the office. Is she signing to him?”

Amy watched her. “No. Her lips are moving, but I can't hear from here. I don't want to go outside and spoil the moment.”

“I don't blame you. Could you do me a favor if you get chance? Pop into the hardware store and get some phone cable and tacks?”

“Is that the one along the High Street?”

“Yeah. I won't get there before it shuts tonight.”

Amy hesitated. “If I can, yeah.”

“Thank you. That way I can move the phone from the study into the lounge. What's that noise in the background?”

Amy wandered through to the lounge. “The workmen are digging up the road trying to find out why there is no power.” She watched the men working for a while from behind the net curtains. “Although I have never seen a foreman without a yellow jacket or a hard helmet before.”

“Stop ogling the workmen.”

Amy laughed. “Not jealous are you?”

“Yes. Now go do some hoovering.”

“There's no power.”

“Fine. Do some laundry then.”

“Uh, there's no power.”

“Watch TV then.”

Amy screamed with laughter. “Which part of ‘there's no power' don't you understand?”

Dane chuckled. “It's the combination of the three words that's confusing me. Well as there's no power, I suggest you better go to bed and eat cream cakes then.”

“That sounds perfect.”

“Or not, because you can't wash the sheets when you get crumbs all over them.”

“Go do some work. I'll see you tonight.” Amy hung up and went outside to check on Vicky.

 



 

Dane sat at his desk having gone through all of his back cases. “Did you hear back about the gas man?”

“There were three other bogus calls in your road on the same day. But nothing since. We're working on getting descriptions, but it was a while ago now. Problem is people remember the uniform and not the faces behind them.”

“Yeah.” He tossed the last file to the desk. “Nothing.” He sighed.

Nate glanced up. “There must be one you've overlooked.”

“There isn't.” Dane rubbed his shoulder. On a scale of one to ten, the pain was probably a seven right now.

“Then maybe we should check out Amy after all.”

Dane looked at him.

“Mate, I know how you feel about her, and believe me I'm not saying this to be mean, or to try and break the two of you up.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I mean you love her unconditionally, right? And so long as she is not on the sex-offenders list, you have no problem with her being around your kids, right?”

Dane nodded.

“Then there is no harm in looking, is there? If it's not you, what else could it be?”

Dane yawned. “Tomorrow. Right now, it's late and I'm tired.”

Nate looked at him. “That's not like you.”

Dane shrugged and regretted it. He rubbed his shoulder and winced. “Yeah, well.” He followed Nate from the room to the stairs.

DI Welsh caught them up as they reached the stairwell. “I have had a call from Liam Page. He is head of English at Headley Cross Secondary. A few of the kids have reported a man hanging around the school gates. I'm putting uniform there tomorrow, but wanted you to both know as you have girls there.”

“Thank you.” Dane looked at Nate. “Maybe we should go through your cases, too.”

Nate nodded. “Tomorrow. I assume there is CCTV footage for us to look at, Guv?”

“It will be on your desk first thing in the morning.”

“Thank you.” Dane walked with Nate, who was chatting on the phone to Adeline.

Nate hung up. “Vianne is at The Dolls Hospital. Amy dropped her off after school. Vianne said she has seen this bloke on and off for the past week or so. I'll talk to her when I get in.”

Dane got into the car. “This whole thing is making me more than a little uncomfortable.”

Nate started the car. “So, we've got a bloke hanging around the school—most likely the one the girls were running from yesterday. Blood on your front door, criminal damage to your car, and lots of nasty calls to your house—all directed at Amy.”

“Don't forget the gas man that wasn't. And the arson.”

“And Amy's friend being kidnapped and murdered.” Nate glanced at him. “That's way too much to be a coincidence.”

Dane nodded. “If it were anyone else we'd have acted way before now.”

“Yeah. We'll look into my cases tomorrow, but honestly, we need to run at least a cursory background check on Amy. If not a more detailed one.” Nate pulled up outside the house. “Is your power still off?”

Dane looked up at the dark house. “It looks that way. Either that or the girls have convinced Amy to do a candlelit dinner again.”

“You want to come and stay with us?”

He shook his head. “Nah, we'll be fine. It's like camping. The only difference being it's indoors and we don't get wet or blown away. I'll see you tomorrow.”

He let himself into the house. “Hello?”

“In the kitchen,” Amy called.

He went in. The gas lamp glowed on the bench and the girls sat crouched around it doing homework. Amy stood by the hob, stirring something that smelled delicious.

Dane kissed the girls' heads, and then crossed over to Amy. “How have they been?”

“Fine.”

“We are bored of the dark,” Jodie said.

“You are, are you?” Dane laughed. “I thought you liked candlelit meals.”

“Once in a blue moon, not three times a day. We want the lights and the TV back again. And don't think we can't see you hugging Amy from here, because we can.”

“I wasn't,” Dane protested.

“Then why weren't you hugging her?” Jodie looked at him. “We know you like her, Dad. It's obvious.”

Vicky nodded.

“It is, is it?” Dane asked.

“Yes. So by all means hug her, but don't do any of that kissy-kissy stuff, because that's disgusting.”

Amy laughed.

Dane hugged her. “There, everyone happy now?”

“Yes,” Jodie said. “Dad, when are they fixing the lights?”

“Hopefully tomorrow. Jodie, we had a phone call from the school, from your English teacher.”

“Yeah. Mr. Page said he'd ring. Vianne and I went to see him at break. He's been hanging around for a while.”

“I assume you mean the bloke you were running from yesterday, and not Mr. Page?”

She looked at him for a moment, and then nodded. “Yeah. He didn't do anything; it's just a little creepy having him hanging out there watching us.”

“Could you describe the bloke for me?”

“Sure. But we can go one better than that, can't we, Amy?”

Amy pulled out her phone. “Sure can. I got the girls to pose outside the school gates before we left. The bloke you want is in the background.”

Dane hugged her and kissed her. “Amy, you're brilliant.”

“I said
don't
kiss her,” Jodie complained. “Ewww. That's gross.”

Vicky grinned, signing the same thing.

Dane scowled.

Amy ignored her. “I do my best to be brilliant,” she said.

“Text it to me, please. I'll forward it to Nate and my DI.”

Amy did so, and then turned off her phone. “The battery's low. Need to keep what little charge there is for the school run tomorrow.”

Dane looked at the photo on his phone. First thing in the morning he was going to run a background check on Amy.

Nate was right. If it wasn't either of them, then it had to be her.

 



 

Dane sat in front of the computer and scowled at it, almost as hard as he had frowned at his phone earlier that morning. Everything seemed to be conspiring against him.

“What's up now?” Nate asked as he trawled through mug shots, trying to place their mystery school gate stalker. The police presence had at least scared him off for the time being.

“Either I'm not looking right, or there's something wrong with the system.”

Nate scooted his chair across the carpet. “Why?”

“There is no record anywhere of an Amy Stabler.” Not born the year she claims she was anyway. Nor is there an on-line presence either.”

Nate tilted his head. “You're not on a certain social media site either.”

“I have my reasons.”

“Amy must exist,” Nate said. “She's at home with Vicky.”

“And Jodie.” Dane pulled out his phone and showed him the text. “The school has no power so they sent everyone home. I guess the power outage is spreading.”

“Where's Vianne?”

“Amy dropped her off at the Doll hospital with Adeline. But by all means, feel free to double-check.”

“I will.” Nate pulled out his phone and dialed. “Maybe she lied about her birthday. You know how some women are with their ages.”

Dane tuned him out. There was nothing, and there should at least be something. He pulled up the main database. He didn't want to do this, but he had no choice. Slowly he typed Amy's name into the national database.

Nothing.

He leaned back in his chair, his hands falling to his lap. Stunned shock filled him.

“Dane?” Nate touched his arm. “What is it?”

“She doesn't exist,” he said numbly. “No national insurance, no school records, banks, or anything. So who's at home looking after my daughters?”

Nate picked up the phone. “I'll call Ray Malone. She claims to know him, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So we ask him. I'll put it on speaker so you can hear what he has to say. I'll call his mobile rather than the landline.”

“Oh?”

Nate just looked at him. “When Jas died, you ignored the landline for weeks. You'd only answer your mobile because you knew it wasn't going to be a reporter.”

“Good point.”

 



 

Amy carried the lunch dishes into the kitchen. They'd had a picnic in the study and now the girls were in the lounge. She grinned as Jodie jumped up in front of the kitchen window and pulled faces at her. Amy pulled one back and headed to the study for the rest of the dishes.

She brought them into the kitchen and put them by the sink. Turning on the taps, she squirted washing up liquid in and then picked up a plate. She glanced up and jumped, crying out in fright.

Mr. Scruffy filled the kitchen window. His twig hands rested on the glass, either side of his evil grinning pumpkin head. The plate fell from her hand and smashed on the tiled floor.

She sucked in a deep breath, turning her back on him, shaking hard. She stood there for a moment, before bending to pick up the pieces of broken china. “Jodie, that isn't funny anymore,” she yelled.

Jodie appeared in the doorway leading to the hall. “What isn't funny anymore? Oh, you broke a plate.”

Amy looked up. “Moving Mr. Scruffy isn't funny. And leaning him against the kitchen window like that definitely isn't. He scared me half to death.”

Jodie frowned. “I didn't put him there.”

Amy raised her hands impersonating the scarecrow, right down to his evil grinning face. “He was like that, peering through the window when I came in with the dishes.”

“But I didn't do it. And he isn't there now, look.”

Amy looked over at the window. He wasn't there. “He's gone.”

Jodie grinned. “I reckon you're seeing things.”

She shook her head. “I'm not seeing things. I'm telling you he was right against the window.”

“Then where is he?” Jodie pulled herself up onto the counter and peered through the glass. “I can't see him.”

“Get down before you fall and end up in a sling, too. I have enough one-armed bandits in the house as it is.”

“OK.” Jodie turned and prepared to jump down. Her eyes widened, color drained from her face and she screamed.

Amy dropped the cup into the sink. “Now what?”

Jodie pointed behind her, still screaming.

Amy turned.

Mr. Scruffy stood right behind them, wind blowing through the open door, as he reached for her.

 

 

 

 

18

 

Dane sat, lacing his fingers and unlacing them, worry gnawing at his gut. Had he made a mistake hiring Amy? Had he made an even bigger mistake in falling for her? Had he let her bedazzle him and use her good looks to lure him into a false sense of security?

Nate hit the speaker button as the phone was answered. “Hello, Ray, it's Nate Holmes from Headley Cross. How are you?”