The Back Road (27 page)

‘I might not be working at the moment, but it doesn’t make any difference to my discretion. What’s worrying you?’

Ellie pushed her empty coffee cup away. There was something about Tom that seemed solid and reliable, but she felt there was more to him than that. Even on Saturday when he was relaxed and chatting, she had noticed a hint of sadness in those eyes and she wondered what had put it there.

‘Abbie’s legs and feet when she came in. They were covered in nettle stings, and her feet were cut to shreds. Nobody has mentioned how it happened, but surely it must be relevant? I don’t know why nothing has been said. And I was looking at her X-rays the other day, and both her arms have been broken at some stage. I asked the doctor about it, and he said they were very old injuries, and it was nothing for me to worry about. What do you think?’

‘I knew about the nettle stings and the cut feet. The police have been keeping that to themselves until they work out what happened. The most likely theory is that Abbie escaped from wherever she was being held. We know that she came from the woods - we’ve found some traces - and there are plenty of nettles there. But her T-shirt had been rubbed in cow dung, so she must have come from the fields across the road. I’ve been speaking to my mate, Steve, who is working on the case. He said the trouble is that there are so many properties that back onto the fields, and they have no idea which direction she would have come from, or how far she ran. Anyway announcements are going out on the news today - I think they’ve already started - to see if anybody can help at all with the enquiry.’

Ellie was relieved that this wasn’t being ignored.
But the woods
!

She had all but forgotten the memories that had plagued her on Sunday. Should she tell Tom what happened there all those years ago? She had promised Fiona she would never tell a living soul, and surely it could have no relevance today? It was all so very long ago. Too many secrets and lies, she thought dejectedly. Fortunately, Tom hadn’t noticed that her attention had wandered.

‘As far as the broken bones go,’ Tom said, ‘they may or may not have any bearing on this case. The police will have looked into it, you know, so if you’re wondering about the parents they’ll have checked when the bones were broken and what was said at the time.’

Ellie was appalled.

‘God, no! I’m sorry, I wasn’t suggesting anything about the parents. Kath and Brian are amazing and it’s clear how much they love Abbie. I knew I shouldn’t have mentioned it.’

‘Don’t worry, Ellie. It’s right to ask questions - but it will have been covered, I can assure you.’

At that moment, one smiley and one not so smiley face appeared at the glass doors to the garden. Max followed behind, pushing one bike with, and one bike without stabilisers. Ruby was grinning from ear to ear, while Jake looked defiant. She didn’t need to ask what had happened. Her cautious son had obviously decided he wasn’t yet ready to take the risk.

Dumping the bikes on the lawn, Max opened the door and shooed the children inside. They ran over to their mum, both clamouring for her attention. She listened with wide open eyes as they each told their version of the morning’s events - adding the occasional “wow” and “how brave” or “how sensible” as the occasion warranted. She grabbed them both, one in each arm, and gave them a huge hug. They were the best.

‘Right, you two,’ Max said. ‘You can watch half an hour of a DVD, and then we’re doing something else. Ruby - you get to watch for being brave, and Jake you get to watch for being honest. Ah ah - NOT in my media room, thank you very much. In the playroom. Scoot!’

Max pulled out a chair and sat down.

‘Tom - how are you? Do you fancy another coffee, because I desperately need one - mainly on the basis that it’s a bit early for a beer.’

Ellie could see Tom looking at her to assess his welcome. She didn’t think she could cope with half an hour alone with Max just now, so she tried her best to give Tom an encouraging smile, and he took the hint.

‘Thanks, Max. That would be great, if I’m not taking up too much of your time.’

‘I have a half hour reprieve, mate - and I plan to enjoy it. The joys of school holidays. Normally we plan loads of family trips, but with Ellie working this week I’ve drawn the short straw.’ It was clear from Max’s grin that this wasn’t an issue for him. ‘What are you two nattering about, anyway?’

‘Abbie Campbell,’ Ellie said.

‘God, yes - that’s terrible about the Facebook stuff isn’t it? Ellie told me. It sounds like she was
stalked
.’

‘Sadly it looks as if you’re right - Abbie was targeted for some reason,’ Tom said.

‘Why did this person have all the fake friends, though?’ Ellie asked.

‘Anybody with no friends would be a bit suspicious, so they make up a number of phoney identities, and all friend each other. He’ll probably have approached other girls - real ones - too. Whoever this abductor is, he’ll most likely have targeted people of a similar age with a low number of friends - the ones that might be desperate.’

Max was shaking his head as he brought over the cups of coffee and sat down at the table.

‘So somebody has cold-bloodedly planned this - to befriend Abbie. But why? It doesn’t make any sense. Were any of the other kids in the network targeted, do you know? The real ones, I mean.’

‘I don’t know,’ Tom said. ‘It looks as if it was focused on Abbie - but she may just have been the first target. People reveal so much stuff about themselves nowadays - everywhere they’ve been, or worse still, where they’re going. It’s a gift to criminals. Imagine a young girl who’s missed the last bus? She posts something about it as she sets off to walk home - forgetting that she’s previously posted where she was going that evening – even down to the specific location. Sorry to say it, but even if she hasn’t been daft enough to mention the bus number, she’s easy pickings for anybody who’s been watching her.’

‘Is it really that dangerous?’ Ellie asked. She wasn’t much of a social networker herself, but lots of her friends were.

‘It can be if you’re not careful,’ Tom answered. ‘A woman was murdered because she changed her status on Facebook from married to single. It appears her husband wasn’t too impressed. But even if you’re careful yourself, a real stalker will contact your friends and get to know them, and get them to reveal private stuff about you.’

‘Why can’t they catch them, then? Surely things can be tracked back through the internet?’

‘In theory, but there are techniques people can use to make it difficult as far as this sort of crime is concerned. There are ways of rerouting communications round the world several times to make it very hard to trace back. Hopefully this guy isn’t so savvy and might have given something away.’

‘You keep saying ‘he’ - and I know that makes sense. But surely she wouldn’t have got in the car with a man, would she?’ Ellie asked.

‘Well, she was expecting Chloe’s mum. If a man had turned up and said “Are you Abbie? I’m Chloe’s dad - her mum was in the bath and we didn’t want you to have to hang around” would she have believed him? I suspect she would, you know.’

‘So this is cyber-stalking, is it?’ Max asked.

‘Strictly speaking cyber stalkers only stalk you online, and not in the flesh. Digitally enhanced stalking is a different issue. That’s when people use online information or a mobile phone or whatever to stalk you for real.’

‘Mobile phones?’ Ellie said. ‘What on earth can they do with a mobile phone?’

Tom laughed.

‘Ellie - you have no idea. There are apps you can buy online to put on somebody’s phone that let you track all sorts of activity. Don’t get me onto that or I could be here all day.’

‘I’m not sure I want to know,’ Max said

‘Actually, Max, all this talk of people knowing where you are and what you’re doing reminds me. I was talking to Ellie earlier about this visitor you appear to have had on Sunday. What’s your take on it?’ Tom asked.

Ellie looked nervously at Max. His response to Tom’s question was to look at Ellie and give her a smile, which to her mind had a hint of irritating condescension.

‘I think that Ellie perhaps
thought
somebody had been in, but maybe the kids had messed things up a bit. I’m positive I locked the door, and there were no signs of a break-in, so I don’t see how. Sorry, Ellie. I don’t want to doubt you, but…’

Ellie was quick to agree with Max. She was positive she knew who it was, and she wanted this conversation to stop before Max worked it out.

‘It’s nothing, Tom. Like Max says, I probably imagined it.’

‘What about keys. Could anybody have had keys to the house?’

Although she was sure it was irrelevant, Ellie suddenly realised that there was one thing that might put everybody off the trail.

‘Sean brought round the spare set of keys that he had - do you remember Max? I asked you about them on Sunday morning, and you said you didn’t know what you’d done with them. Maybe somebody took them?’

Max turned to face Ellie with a look of total incredulity.

‘Who, for God’s sake? Those people are all our friends. Who on earth was going to take a set of keys so that they could come in and root around in your knicker drawer? Come on, Ellie. That’s a bit far fetched, don’t you think?’

Ellie knew that Max was right - but it was the best story that she could come up with.

* * *

As soon as she possibly could without appearing rude, Ellie escaped to the bedroom leaving Max to show their guest out. She had intentionally left her phone switched off since the previous night, and although she was anxious about what she would find when she turned it on, she couldn’t put it off forever. And anyway, there was something that she was going to have to say. Once more she went into the bathroom. Ridiculous as it was, there was little choice if she wanted to avoid being interrupted. Leaning her back against the closed door, she switched the phone on.

As expected, the minute it sprang to life the phone beeped to signal that there were messages and missed calls. Five text messages last night, and two missed calls, plus more this morning. All from the same person. What did he think he was doing?

The messages were all along the same lines.

She knew he was telling the truth. She permanently felt as if hot eyes were boring into the back of her neck, and was constantly looking over her shoulder.

There were other messages, demanding that she call him. She truly didn’t know what to do. Dropping her hands to her sides, she leant her head against the soft comfort of her dressing gown, hanging on the back of the door. Thinking there was nothing that she would like better than to wrap herself in its warmth and curl up on the bed, she thought about her options.

‘Sod it,’ she muttered, bringing the phone back to her ear and pressing the screen once. He answered immediately, as she’d known he would.

‘About time,’ he said. His voice sounded harsh, and Ellie felt a hard knot of fear. She had always thought that she could control the situation, but suddenly she wasn’t so sure.

‘What’s going on, Ellie? I thought we were just waiting for the right time for you to tell Max that you’re leaving him - and then you behave like
that
. Dancing with him, holding your body against him. What am I supposed to think?’

She took a deep breath, and tried to speak with a calm she wasn’t feeling.

‘I have never said that I’m leaving Max. Not once, and you know that. If he leaves me, that’s his choice. But I’m not going to leave him - for you, or anybody else. I don’t know what I have to do to convince you, but I want you to leave me alone.’

She heard a deep sigh of frustration from the other end of the phone.

‘I know you’re trying. I know you think you can make your marriage work. But you know that it’s me you want. You
proved
it.’

‘I proved
nothing
! I was stupid, hurt, angry - all of those things.’ Ellie realised that she was shouting, and dropped her voice lower. ‘How many times do I have to tell you?’

‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I realised yesterday what the problem is. You don’t know how to tell him, do you? Well, don’t worry about it. I’ll tell him. I’m not scared of Max. I’ll tell him that you and I belong together, and then it will be easy for you.’

Not Max. Please don’t tell Max.

But she couldn’t say the words. That would only inflame him more. She had to keep him calm until she could work out what to do.

‘I don’t
want
it to be easy. If Max ever needs to know about this, I’ll be the one to tell him. But there’s something else. You’ve been in my house, haven’t you? When we were out on Sunday, you came in the house didn’t you? You went into my bedroom and my bathroom. Why?
Why?
I don’t understand why you would do such a thing.’

‘Is that what you think of me? Is it? Seriously?’ There was a pause, and Ellie didn’t fill it. ‘What you and I have is special, darling. I would never do anything that would damage your trust in me. I promise you, I haven’t been in your house. If you remember, on Sunday I was close to you.
Very
close. I couldn’t have been in your house. The other day you were accusing me of knocking over a child and leaving her to die, and now you’re accusing me of breaking and entering. I know your trust in men has been shaken, but for God’s sake, Ellie!’

‘I don’t know what to think about anything any more, but please, I beg you, don’t say anything to Max, don’t go to the police about Friday night. I know you want to see me. I
will
see you, but can you just give me some time. Please?’

She knew she was stalling. She had no desire to see him at all, but maybe if he thought she was coming round to his way of thinking, she would have a chance to calm things down.

‘A couple of days, then. I can’t promise longer than that. But remember that I’m always here. Always watching. Always keeping you safe. Just remember. And my patience is running out.’