‘I don’t care what’s happened, but I need to know how long you’ll be stopping with us. I’m not here to judge anyone, Ava, but it seems obvious that your parents are in police custody and it is more than a bit worrying. Are they going to be let out, or is a social worker going to get involved and take you into foster care?’
Both girls yelped in horror, and Natalie felt bad scaring Ava, but damn it she wasn’t going to get herself into some almighty mess and not have a clue what it was.
‘They wouldn’t do that, would they?’
She shrugged. ‘They might, technically they could, you’re not old enough to be left alone.’
‘My dad got taken to the police station earlier and asked questions about Sally, the woman who was killed. Then the police spoke to my mum, who said he was on his own when it happened and basically tried to blame him for it. When my dad was released, he wasn’t supposed to come to our house, but he was pissed off and raging with my mum. She also had the locks changed while he wasn’t there.’
Natalie’s eyes were so wide they were almost popping out of their sockets, and she had to force herself to keep watching the road and not Ava.
‘Then what happened?’
‘He stabbed Maggie, the old lady across the street, with a big knife after my mum smashed him across the back of the head with a poker.’
‘Holy fuck.’
‘Lexie, do not use language like that.’ Natalie admonished her daughter, but had been thinking exactly the same thing.
‘Where is your dad now?’
‘The hospital, she knocked him out cold. He was so mad at her, he smashed the front window and climbed through it to get inside. Honestly it was terrifying.’
Natalie was wondering just how something could go so wrong. ‘Is the old lady okay?’
‘I don’t know, she got rushed to hospital and taken to surgery.’
‘Your mum is still at the police station?’
‘Yep, they are taking a statement from her.’
‘Are you happy now, Mother, anything else you want to know, like if Ava has a boyfriend or girlfriend?’
‘Lexie, I’m warning you stop the attitude, or you’re grounded, young lady.’
She drove the rest of the way to her house in silence, trying to get her head around the mess that Ava’s parents had caused. The girls didn’t speak another word. When they reached the house, they ran straight upstairs to Lexie’s bedroom, leaving her still shocked about the turn of events. She didn’t mind Ava stopping a couple of nights, but she wasn’t going to be able to let her stay here indefinitely. Lexie was an absolute nightmare at the moment, and the thought of two moody, hormonal teenage girls in her house would send her over the edge in no time at all. As per usual, Jasper wasn’t home.
She didn’t know if Ava had eaten or if she was hungry, but she grabbed a couple of frozen pizzas out of the freezer. She’d feel better if she kept herself busy and made her something to eat; at least the house wasn’t so quiet with the two girls upstairs.
Music began to filter down the stairs, that heavy thud, thudding beat that Natalie hated, but if it made Ava happy, she could put up with it for a couple of hours. Tonight had been a tough night for the poor kid, the least she could do was feed her and hope that by tomorrow something had been sorted out so she could go home. As she began slicing open the pizza boxes, she felt the familiar chill settle across the back of her neck – someone was watching her. Spinning around she stood in the huge kitchen, a knife in one hand, staring out into the hallway expecting to see the boogey man standing there, or a ghost. There wasn’t even a dark shadow because Lexie had left every light on in the hallway, and on the stairs. If there was no one there, why did she feel as if there was? Why was the skin on her arms raised in little goosebumps, and why did she have the unsettled feeling that something wasn’t right?
FORTY-FIVE
Morgan had dropped the key back at the station, then gone home after walking the dog for Maggie. She’d been tempted to bring him back with her, but Kevin was strutting around the kitchen as if he owned the place and she didn’t know if he liked dogs. Not to mention that Ben didn’t really like either animal, although she suspected it was because he was too soft and didn’t want to get attached to them. He clearly liked them because whenever she came in Kevin was usually curled up near to Ben and neither of them seemed to mind. She’d promised Roley she’d be there first thing to let him out and find him somewhere to stop until Maggie was able to come home, making sure he had fresh water and a bowl of dog biscuits. He didn’t seem bothered and had padded down to Maggie’s bedroom, using a little set of plastic steps to climb onto her bed. Morgan ordered pizza because since she’d mentioned it earlier, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it, and there was no way she was starting to cook now.
Ben still wasn’t home, so she sat at the kitchen table and spread out the pictures of the Lawsons’ house, then she downloaded the photos she’d taken onto her laptop so she could enlarge them to study them. Annie had thought that Sally may have had a stalker, which was the most plausible considering what had happened. If so, though, how were they able to hide and watch her? Or Natalie for that matter? She’d checked her house herself and although there were cupboards and walk-in wardrobes to hide in, it just didn’t seem possible. She tucked the photos of the Lawsons’ dead bodies away from view, not before glancing at a close-up of Tim though. She shuddered, just thinking about his awful death; pointless death made her so sad.
A loud knock at the front door signalled the arrival of her piping hot pizza, as well as making her jump out of her skin. As she opened the door and took hold of the box, she looked around Ben’s hallway. This was a big house, a Victorian house probably built around the same time as Natalie’s. Did this have places someone could hide in and watch you? God, she hoped not, she was scaring herself now and she didn’t scare easily.
Taking the pizza to the kitchen she grabbed a few slices and sat down to stare at the photos again. How could you watch someone and not be there? She looked up at the discreet security camera in the corner of the room. Ben had installed a top-of-the-range system when she’d agreed to live here. A camera, of course, she could have slapped her own forehead. Why had it taken her so long to figure that out? Someone could have hidden tiny cameras in Sally’s house that she didn’t know about, and watched her whenever they wanted to. How would they get them inside though? She looked at the freshly painted walls, the new bathrooms, the beautiful open-plan kitchen. There were a multitude of places you could hide one of those tiny spy cameras. When she’d been a response officer, she had gone to a house where the husband had reported that he’d found a camera in the smoke alarm in the bedroom that his ex-wife must have put in, so she could still watch him to see if he brought anyone around. None of the crime scene photos showed any smoke alarms, but the house must have them, she decided. She would check tomorrow.
As she finished her pizza, Kevin was pushing against her legs, and she bent down to scratch his ears. ‘I don’t know about you but I’m having a shower and going to bed. I’m knackered, Kev.’ He miaowed loudly which she took as his agreeing with her.
Ben should have been home ages ago, she hoped he wouldn’t be long. Tomorrow she would get started on the list of names that Nigel would be sending her, and look them up to see if any of them were on the intelligence system, not that they would be, she thought because she was pretty sure that whether retained firefighter or full-time, they would still have to go through all the usual DBS checks. It was possible they’d slipped through the net, though, it happened, or maybe they could have given false details, she would also cross-reference their addresses to see if anyone lived in close proximity to the Lawsons’. She’d tell Ben when he got home, but by the time she’d showered and got into bed he still wasn’t home, and she couldn’t keep her eyes open. A loud thud as the mattress at the end of her bed went down signalled that Kevin was about to make himself comfortable whilst Ben wasn’t here, and it made her smile to herself; at least he was good company.
FORTY-SIX
Morgan found herself there, at the Lawsons’ house, watching them all going about their business. David grabbing a slice of toast before kissing his wife on the cheek and rushing out of the door. Tim in his bedroom, hunched over his laptop playing a game on it. He was so absorbed he didn’t hear his mum shouting for him until she hammered on his door, making him jump up, slamming down the lid so she couldn’t peek at what he was doing. Morgan whisperedwhat are you doing? Why are you being so secretive?He grabbed his school bag from the bed and rushed downstairs, taking a packet of chocolate fudge pop tarts from the cupboard before running out of the door, shouting, ‘Bye, Mum.’ Sally was left on her own. She had her back to Morgan as she was rinsing cups, using her left hand to put them in the dishwasher. As if sensing she was being watched, Sally began to turn slowly to face Morgan. Her lips were parted in a wide o shape, but the worst thing of all was the bloodied stump where her right hand had been cut off, rivers of blood running down Sally’s arm, huge, fat drops hitting the pristine marble tiled floor. There was so much blood and Morgan couldn’t do a thing to help her because she was frozen to the spot. Finally, a scream burst through her lips, and she began to shake.
