The Well (41 page)

Sammy half opened her eyes. “Mummy,” she whispered.

“Oh Sammy!” Abby leaned forwards and kissed Sammy’s forehead, then held her cheek to hers.

“I’ve done something naughty,” said Sammy.

“Hush,” said Abby.

Abby turned to Hannah. “Who did this?” she demanded.

Hannah paled.

“Old Tom,” said Hannah. “The – the school crossing man.”

Abby looked around. “Where is he? Did he run away?”

Hannah looked very uncomfortable. “He’s in the well,” she said. “I think he’s –” Her voice trailed away.

Abby tapped 999 into her phone and held it to her ear, her mind racing. She looked around, but there were no clues as to what had happened. The call connected on the first ring.

“Emergency services. Fire, police or ambulance?”

Keep it simple
, she thought.
Keep yourself calm, don’t lose it.
She sniffed and wiped the tears from her cheeks and face.

“Ambulance. Police. No, ambulance.”

“What address are you calling from?”

Shit.

“I’m not at an address,” said Abby. “I’m at the top of the old quarry, just outside Bankside. Near the old lane – er – Harper’s Lane.”

“Can you tell me what’s happened?”

Abby took a deep breath. “I’m with my daughter.” Abby held back a sob. “She’s eight. She’s been stabbed. She’s lost a lot of blood.” Her voice quivered. “There’s so much blood. Oh God.” She paused, pulling herself together. “And there’s a woman. At the bottom of the quarry, not far from here, she’s badly hurt.”

“Could you tell me in what way she’s hurt?”

“Her back,” said Abby. “She fell into the quarry from high up. Her back’s badly cut.”

“You also said you wanted the police?”

“There’s a man here,” said Abby. “The one who – who stabbed my daughter. I think he’s dead.”

“Can you stay on the line, please?”

“What?”

“Can you stay on the line to give us some more details?”

“No. I can’t,” said Abby, only just holding back her temper. “My daughter is beside me, dying. She needs me way more than you do. Do you have enough information to get here?”

“Yes, but –”

“Then hurry, I think she’s dying,” snapped Abby. “I can answer your questions later.” She lost control, sobbing. “I think she’s nearly dead. If you can just hurry –”

Abby hung up. Sammy had drifted off again.

“Sammy?”

Sammy didn’t move. Abby gasped and shook her. “Sammy?”

Sammy stirred. “Mummy?”

“Stay with me, baby. Don’t go to sleep.”

This is your time
, Abby thought to herself.
Your problem
.
You messed up and your little girl stepped in to sort it for you, because you weren’t up to the job. And look what happened.

Hannah touched her shoulder. “I have to go.”

Abby turned to her, astonished. “What? Go where?”

“Becca. She’s – it’s hard to explain. She’s – I have to go. Sammy told me I have to.”

“Go where?” Abby struggled to comprehend.

“Down to the quarry. Becca’s crawling out of the well, through a tunnel.”

Oh my
–

“Two minutes,” said Abby. “Just wait two minutes. Tell me everything. I need to know
everything
.”

“I don’t know –”

“
Please
,” said Abby. “It’s important.” Abby turned and squeezed Sammy’s hand and kissed her again.
If Sammy dies
, she thought,
then none of this matters.
But if she lives –
“Hang on, baby,” she said.
Why did I not come to her first?
she thought, chastising herself bitterly.

She turned back to Hannah. “Tell me.”

Hannah recounted the events of the morning, as quickly as she could.

Oh my God,
thought Abby.
Fuck
.

Hannah turned to go; Abby grabbed her arm. “No wait.”

“But you said –”

“Listen,” said Abby. “This is the most important thing ever. When the police get here, they’ll want to know what happened. If you tell them – about Sammy. What Sammy can do – she won’t be safe. Someone who can do what she can do – she won’t be safe.” Abby grasped both of Hannah’s hands. “Please.”

“I don’t know –” stammered Hannah.

“You don’t want to tell them that you killed that man, do you? There’s no need. We can protect you. And Sammy. Please.”

“OK,” said Hannah. “What do you want me to say?”

“Not just you,” said Abby. “Rebecca too. And down by the water, there’s a woman, Helen. She’s – my friend. You have to tell her, too.”

“What about telling Sammy?” asked Hannah.

“She’ll know what to say,” said Abby, turning back to her daughter.
If she makes it
, thought Abby.
If she makes it, she’ll know what to say.

Abby explained quickly to Hannah what she wanted her to say.

19

Once out of the cavern, the tunnel was as cramped as before. Becca dragged herself forwards in the dark. The iPod, still switched off, was held tight in her hand. She pushed herself towards the dim glow as if it were a beacon, but the light wasn’t enough to see by. For the first few feet, Becca banged and scraped herself more badly than before, so she turned the iPod back on. Its light, though hardly bright, was strong enough to banish the glow from the tunnel’s exit.
It’s enough to know it’s there
, thought Becca.

As Becca had expected, the tunnel started to shift slightly upwards. This change in angle was marked by a definite kink in the rock: a point where the tunnel’s ceiling became briefly much lower, although it seemed to maintain most of its width. The change in angle was enough to make it difficult – if not impossible – for Becca to continue on her stomach. She rolled herself onto her back, aware that it would slow her progress – but at least her spine now bent in the same direction as the tunnel. It was a tight squeeze. She had to turn her head on its side to get it through the gap. Her shoulders were next, but her breasts – small though they were – scraped painfully against the rock above as she forced herself through.
Thank God I’m only a 32A
, she thought, gritting her teeth. She wriggled her stomach through fairly easily, but her hips were a different matter. Though slender, they were still tight against the rock. For a few moments, Becca thought that there was no way to squeeze them through; whichever way she twisted and pulled, she just couldn’t move any further.

Fearfully, Becca bent her legs as much as the tight space would allow, braced her feet against the rock and pushed hard. Her right foot slipped. She tried to push again and found that her foot had become lodged firmly in a crack in the stone. Unable to reach down to free it, she pulled as hard as she could without success. Desperate, she wriggled her foot around and just about managed to extricate it from her shoe, scraping it along the rock as she pulled it free.

Becca cranked her head backwards to look behind her; although she still couldn’t see the exit, the light was definitely much brighter. The thought of failure, after all she had been through, and so close to the outside world, was not something that Becca could endure. She gritted her teeth, twisting her hips from side to side and pulled as hard as she could. Her pelvis grated along the rock, sending a searing pain shooting around her hips. The iPod slipped from her fingers. She had to stifle a cry – but then she was through.

She fumbled around briefly with her hand for the iPod but her fingers only found rock and silt.
I don’t need it now
, she thought.

She pulled herself to where the tunnel’s angle evened out a little and then twisted herself back around onto her stomach, her hips protesting in agony whenever they made contact with the rock.

Shaking with pain, chest straining, she pressed forward as fast as she could.

Then it happened: at first without Becca realising it. As she pulled herself forwards, the top of her head was out of the water. After a few yards’ further frantic crawling, she realised that she was hearing a familiar yet unexpected sound: water splashing against rock.

She twisted her head on its side and could just about make out the surface of the water above her. It was a moment of unbridled elation. Becca rolled herself onto her back, but the surface was still just too high for her mouth to fully break water. She arched her back and pushed her body as high as she could. Her face broke the surface of the water and she took long, deep grateful breaths of the clean, fresh air.

She was too weary to hold her body up for long. After a few moments, she took a deep breath and submerged. Then, staying on her back, she pushed herself on. She guessed that she was now moving gradually upwards as, with each push, the water level got a little lower. At the same time, the tunnel got progressively lighter.

Before long, her face was entirely out of the water and she allowed herself to lie there, panting between violent coughs, revelling in a satisfaction beyond comparison.

I did it
, she thought, her mind almost singing the words.
I bloody well did it.

Becca pulled the goggles from her face, squinting in the unbearably bright daylight, and gave herself a few minutes to rest. Then she rolled back over onto her stomach, raised her head and looked forward, her eyes struggling to adjust to daylight. Ahead was another upward kink in the tunnel, but much shallower than the last. Beyond it, Becca could see the last few yards of the tunnel. Her eyes hurt to look towards the bright sunshine but she forced herself. There it was: the entrance to the tunnel, capped with a metal grating. Beyond that, she could see sky and trees.

I did it,
she thought again, still not quite believing it. She crawled forwards.

20

Helen kept watching the spot where Abby had disappeared from view, expecting – hoping – for her to return with Sammy. Long minutes passed; the deep, throbbing pain from her back and arms causing her to wince or yelp each time she moved even slightly.

Then, unexpectedly, two things happened at almost the same time.

First, a blonde girl, who Helen at first thought must have been the girl who was trapped in the well, came scrambling down the hill. Helen looked closer, puzzled. From what she recollected from school, she was sure that the missing girl – Rebecca – was dark-haired.

While Helen watched the girl pick her way down the final part of the hill, there was a movement in the corner of her eye. She looked across to the other side of the quarry, but at first couldn’t see anything unusual.

The girl ran up to Helen and squatted at her side, gathering her breath.

“Helen?”

“That’s me,” said Helen, mystified. “Who are you? Where’s Abby and Sammy?”

“I’m Hannah – I’m Becca’s friend. Sammy’s – Sammy’s hurt bad. A man stabbed her. He tried to –”

“Stabbed?! Is she OK?
Is Sammy OK
?” interrupted Helen, desperately.
Oh Christ
, she thought.

“Sammy’s Mum called an ambulance. She –”

At the edge of her vision, Helen caught the movement again: inside the culvert, partway up the quarry face, something –
someone
– was moving. She glanced over.
Not moving,
she thought,
waving.
Waving through the metal bars of the culvert.

Helen pointed; Hannah looked around then jumped to her feet. “Becca!” she shouted. “Jesus, it’s Becca!” Her voice was filled with astonishment and relief. “Becca! Becca!” Hannah was jumping up and down, delighted.

What the hell is going on?
thought Helen, standing as carefully as she could, gasping with the pain of simply pulling herself upright.

The girl shouted, though her voice seemed far away. “Hannah!”

Hannah turned back to Helen. “The other woman – Sammy’s Mum – says you’re to stay here,” said Hannah.

“Like hell,” said Helen.

“Yeah, she said you’d say that too. But you have to. The ambulance and the police are coming. She told me some things I have to tell you. They’re important.”

“But –”

“For Sammy, her Mum said. To keep her safe.”

“Tell me,” said Helen.

There was a splash behind them. Hannah and Helen looked over to the pool. The metal grating that had covered the hole was gone, and vast ripples were spreading across the surface of the water.

“Stay there,” shouted Helen.
Dear God,
she thought,
she’s going to drop into the water, where she just pushed that grating
.

“No,” said Hannah to Helen. “We have to tell her too. We have to get her before the police come. We have to be really fast.”

Hannah took off her pumps and waded into the water, gesturing to Becca to stay put. Becca shook her head.

“Wait,” shouted Hannah. “Wait for me.”

Hannah swam over, as quickly as she could, until she was just beneath the hole – leaving enough room for Becca to drop into the water beside her.

When the moment came for Becca to leave the tunnel, she had no choice. The hole wasn’t that much bigger than her, so it was impossible for her to turn herself around to exit the hole backwards – which would have allowed her to climb out and hang down with her hands, reducing the distance she would have to fall. Instead, Becca came out headfirst. Although exhausted, she did her best to push herself as far away from the quarry wall as she could and curl herself into a ball as she fell. In reality, she tumbled head over heels, only just managing to tuck her legs partway to her body. She landed next to Hannah with a large, ungainly splash.

The instant that Becca disappeared under the water, Hannah submerged and hunted for her, her eyes trying to make sense of the gloom below. Not seeing anything in the murk, she waved her arms around hoping to grab hold of Becca – but they grasped nothing but empty water.

Hannah surfaced, only to find that Becca was already there, treading water.
I should have known
, she thought. The two girls embraced in the water, Becca sobbing with sheer relief.

A reddish cloud was growing in the water round the two girls. Hannah looked at Becca’s scarred face and shoulders and realised that it was blood.
Shit
, she thought.
That’s a lot of blood.