Ben Cheetham

The Society of Dirty Hearts

Prologue

2001

When Christine and Julian arrived at Grandma Alice’s house, the dining-room had been made ready for communing with the dead. A blind had been lowered and thick curtains drawn, shutting out the early evening light. Six candles were lined like a fence around a bowl of steaming tomato soup in the centre of the oval dining-table. Six chairs were arranged at equal distances from one another around the table. In front of one was a slate and a piece of chalk. The house was bathed in the smell of fresh-baked bread. Grandma Alice was busy in the kitchen, removing a loaf from the oven, tapping its golden-brown crust.

“What are you doing, Grandma?” asked Julian.

Alice smiled down at him, her heavily made-up face wrinkling like an overripe peach. “Checking to see if it’s baked through, darling. If it’s not, it’ll make a sound like tapping on a hollow box.” A mischievous gleam came into her piercingly blue eyes, which seemed to shine out of her face as if gazing at something beyond Julian. “Or like the echo of a ghost’s voice.”

“Mum,” Christine said, in a rebuking tone.

“What? Well, it’s true.” Satisfied by what she heard, Alice took the bread into the dining-room and placed it on the table beside the soup.

“What’s the food for?” asked Julian.

“It’s to help attract the spirit we’re going to try to contact. You see, darling, the spirits of the dead still hunger after their favourite foods.”

“Mum,” Christine snapped again. “I’ve told you before, I don’t want you talking about this stuff to him.”

“Oh for God’s sake, Christine, he’s ten-years old. You knew everything there was to know about my business by the time you were his age, and it didn’t do you any harm.”

“I had nightmares for years.”

Alice waved her hand dismissively. “You shouldn’t coddle the child, Christine. He’ll end up a sissy.”

Lips compressing into a tight line, Christine grabbed Julian’s hand and pulled him towards the front door. “Where are you going?” asked Alice.

“Home. If you’d told us you were holding a seance today, we’d never have come in the first place.”

“Oh come on, Christine, there’s no need for that. Please, I’ve been looking forward to your visit all week. I hardly ever get to see you and Julian anymore,” Alice said, suddenly contrite.

Christine hesitated, puckers of uncertainty forming around her eyes. “Okay,” she sighed. “But you’ve got to promise me, Mum, that you won’t go filling Julian’s head up with all your mumbo-jumbo.”

A twitch of irritation passed over Alice’s face at the word mumbo-jumbo, then her smile returned. “Whatever you say, darling.” She made a mouth-zipped gesture.

Christine closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead. “Are you getting one of your headaches?” asked Alice.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look it, you look wiped out. Why don’t you go lie down? I’ll keep an eye on Julian.” As Christine’s brow contracted, Alice added, “Don’t worry, I’ll send him up to you as soon as things get under way.”

“Aw, do I have to go upstairs?” Julian groaned. “There’s no telly up there.”

“You’ll do as you’re told, young man, or your father will hear about it,” Christine warned him. “Do you hear?”

Julian nodded sullenly.

“Don’t worry, darling, the seance won’t last more than an hour,” said Alice. “Then you can watch whatever you want all evening.”

Christine made her way upstairs. Near the top, she turned and called down to Julian, “And stay out of the dining-room. I don’t want you fooling around in there.”

Alice put her arm around his shoulder. “Come on, you can help me in the kitchen. I’m making your favourite. Chocolate cake.”

His face brightening, Julian followed her into the kitchen. She handed him a whisk and a bowl of cake mixture. “Give that a good whisk.”

He did so until his wrist ached, while Alice lined two cake moulds with well-buttered paper. “That looks just about perfect,” she said, taking the bowl back and spooning its contents into the moulds. When she was done, she handed him the spoon to lick clean, which he did with relish.

Julian watched Alice with big curious eyes as she buzzed around the kitchen, humming to herself. Once or twice he opened his mouth, but snapped it shut again with a click. “Grandma,” he began sheepishly at last, then fell silent, chewing his lip, as if he’d been about to say something he shouldn’t.

She looked askance at him with a knowing, amused glance. “Yes, darling, what is it?”

“I was wondering,” Julian chewed his lip a little more, working up the nerve to continue, “who’s the ghost you’re going to speak to today?”

“You know we’re not supposed to talk about that, Julian.”

“I won’t get scared.”

“I know you won’t, but I promised your mum.” Smiling, Alice reached to stroke Julian’s cheek. “Someday, sweetheart, you’ll find out that there’s a great big world beyond this speck of a town, but not today. Now go on, go watch the telly.”

Seeing that he wasn’t going to get anything out of his grandma, Julian mooched into the living-room and switched on the cartoons. A short time later, there was a knock at the front door. Alice poked her head into the room. “They’re here, you’d better go upstairs.”

Julian gave out a groan, but did as he was told. His mum was asleep in the back bedroom, which was above the dining-room. In the chilly grey light that filtered around the edges of the curtains, she looked washed-out, faded, like a sun-bleached photograph of herself. Lately she always seemed to be tired, and she was losing weight too. Julian had asked her if she was ill. She’d assured him she wasn’t, but looking at her now, at the dark smudges under her eyes, the shadows under her cheekbones, he found himself wondering if she’d lied. He just couldn’t believe she’d do that, though. She’d always told him, lying is the worst thing in the world, Julian. I can forgive almost anything, but not a lie.

He took a comic out of his bag and lay down beside his mum to read it. After a while, he became aware of a murmur of voices from below. He heard his grandma’s voice and a man’s voice, but they were too indistinct to make out what was being said. His grandma sounded strange, a little shrill and strained, almost scared. The man’s voice came in short, jerky spurts, as if he were being forced to speak. Suddenly there was a burst of laughter. It wasn’t pleasant to hear. It was discordant, harsh, more like a threat than a laugh. It sent a crawling feeling across Julian’s shoulders and down his back. His mum stirred, but didn’t wake. He lay perfectly still, holding his breath, listening. A powerful urge, almost a compulsion, was growing in him. He had to know what that awful voice was saying, and more than that, he had to see who it belonged to.

Quietly as he could, Julian rose and padded from the room. His heart beating so that he felt every pulse, he crept downstairs to the dining-room door. His grandma’s voice was clearly audible now. “Give them the closure they seek, give them peace,” she said.

There was a pause, then the voice snarled with such acid fury that Julian flinched, “What fucking peace?”

“Tell them where to find Susan.”

Another pause, then, “Fuck you…Fucking whore-bitch…Fucking slut…Dried up old cunt…”

As the voice ranted off a string of staccato insults the likes of which Julian had never heard before, he reached for the door-handle. It felt greasy and cold in his hand as he slowly depressed it. He opened the door a crack, squinting through. In the gloomy candlelight he saw first a man and a woman sat with their backs to him, hands resting palm down on the oak table. The man’s head was stooped as if he had a heavy weight on the back of it. The woman was staring towards the head of the table. Her eyes were wet, her lips trembled. Then he saw his grandma. Only it wasn’t his grandma. Her mouth, the corners of which were drawn up into a sneering grin, opened and closed mechanically. And from it, like some kind of ventriloquist’s trick, came the voice. Saliva stretched from her lips to the tabletop. Her nostrils flared like a mad bull’s. Her eyes were unrecognisable, the pupils dilated and bulging. They seemed to spit hate at everything they saw. They shrivelled Julian’s insides with fear. He wanted to look away, but couldn’t. He stood transfixed, like someone trapped in a bad dream. Then, suddenly, the eyes turned their glare on him, and he fell backward as if he’d been punched in the chest. Scrambling to his feet, he ran upstairs, no longer caring how much noise he made. He dived under the duvet and hugged his mum tightly, eyes squeezed shut, breath coming in short gasps. Without waking, she put out an arm to hug him back.

Gradually, Julian’s breathing slowed and he drifted into troubled dreams. He was staring up into a face as ugly as a Halloween mask, his body heavy and immobile. The monster bent close, sniffing and licking his face. Its breath stunk like something rotten. Hands seemed to be on Julian’s throat, squeezing. Tears welled in his eyes. He tried to scream, but all that came out was a pathetic little squeal. His head felt swollen, like it would burst. The monster’s face began to blur and melt into darkness. He felt himself stop breathing. He felt himself die. Then he awoke screaming, screaming and screaming.

Christine’s eyes snapped open. “What’s going on?” she gasped. “What’s the matter? Julian, calm down and tell me what’s the-” She broke off as the door swung open and Alice staggered into view.

Alice was pale and sweaty. Her make-up had run in streaks, giving her a ghoulish look. Her eyes were her own again, but clouded and distant, as if seeing through a veil of pain and fear. “It knows you’re here,” she cried, clinging to the door-handle for support.

“What are you talking-” Christine started to say, then a frown of realisation hardened her features. “What’ve you done, Mum? Tell me.”

“There’s no time. You must leave right away. Go. Get out!”

Putting her arm around Julian and pressing his face into her shoulder, Christine shepherded him from the room. She paused by her mum, staring at her with something close to detestation. “I don’t know what’s gone on here. But I do know one thing, if you’ve messed Julian up like you messed me up, I’ll never forgive you. I’ll cut you out of our life forever. Do you hear? Am I coming through the ether loud and clear, you selfish old witch?” Without waiting for a response, she hurried Julian downstairs and out the house.

Chapter 1

2010

A fifteen-year old girl was missing in Julian’s hometown. He saw it on the news in the student union bar. Her name was Joanne Butcher. They showed a picture of her. Eyes rimmed with heavy black mascara, straightened reddish-purple bangs hanging into them, an anaemic emo kid pout. She’d gone out to meet some friends nearly a week earlier and never come home. Her mother made a tearful plea for information. She looked gaunt and glazed, like a heroin addict. She probably is some sort of addict, thought Julian. He didn’t know the Butchers, but he recognised their name. They had a bad reputation in the town as petty crims.

The dream came that night for the first time in months. Only this time it was different. This time Julian was the monster and the person beneath him was a girl. Not the girl who’d been missing for days, but another girl who’d been missing for years. Her name was Susan Carter, and she was fifteen too. She had a cute, girl-next-door face, sandy blonde-hair in a ponytail and baby-blue eyes — eyes that were swollen and wet with fear. He bent to inhale her scent. She smelt of perfume and soap, and underneath them something else, something far sweeter. His blood quickened through his veins, pulsing in his temples and groin. Horrified at what he was doing, but unable to stop himself, he ran his tongue over her face, tasting her make-up, her skin. She shuddered and struggled, but his hands were on her like steel claws, tearing at her clothes, prising her legs apart. With a loud animal grunt, he penetrated her and felt something give. Then she was screaming, and his fingers were around her throat, squeezing and twisting as if he was wringing out a dishcloth. Suddenly, he was wracked by an orgasm stronger than any he’d ever known. Bucking like he’d been shot, he laughed with triumph and pleasure until the last of his semen had pulsed into her.

When Julian woke up, his boxer-shorts were wet and sticky. A crawling sick feeling rose in him. “What’s the matter with me?” he murmured to himself. “I must be losing it.”

He switched on the bedside lamp, got out of bed and washed his groin at the sink in the corner of the room. Staring at himself in the mirror, he was vaguely surprised to see the same face as always staring back. Shaking his head with shame, he returned to bed. He couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes, though. The thought of the dream made him tremble with little shudders of revulsion. Finally, when he couldn’t stand lying there any longer, he rose, showered and dressed. He didn’t go to his lectures. He stayed in his room all day, ignoring knocks on his door from hall mates, flicking through the TV and radio channels, searching for news of Joanne Butcher. There wasn’t much to find. A missing teenage girl from a bad family didn’t generate much air time.

Julian went to bed that night determined not to dream. Closing his eyes, he meditated until his mind was a blank white space, like his therapist had taught him. But the dream came anyway. He awoke with his head reeling and his pulse pounding. He made it to the sink just in time to empty the contents of his stomach into the porcelain bowl. Overwhelmed by dread and disgust, he couldn’t even bring himself to lie down. Instead he stood at the window, staring at nothing, his forehead tensed into deep lines, like he was debating with himself. Suddenly, as if he’d come to some decision, he turned and began pulling clothes out of a chest of drawers. He packed them and a few other bits and pieces into a rucksack, dressed and hurried from his room to the carpark. He flung his rucksack onto the backseat of his car, got in and drove off the campus.

The greyish light of dawn was gathering as Julian passed beyond the suburbs of the city. He headed north along roads flanked at first by out of town shopping-centres, and light industrial estates, then by fields of tall wheat, bright yellow rapeseed and grass grazed by cattle. As he neared home, the fields gave way to a mixed forest of light, airy deciduous trees and dark, claustrophobic pine plantations. His heart lifted as he passed into the forest’s dappled sunlight. He loved the forest. He loved its sounds, its scents. But most of all he loved its secrecy. As young boys, he and his friends had spent days and weeks at a time hacking their way through its thick undergrowth of bracken and bramble, exploring its darkest recesses. They’d pretended to be outlaws in hiding, building dens, starting fires, setting rabbit snares. And as teenagers, they’d got drunk and stoned and popped their cherries in its secret gloom.

Julian’s heart fell again when he saw the police cars at the entrance to the Five Springs picnic area — a favourite spot for local teens to gather on a weekend. Drivers were slowing down, rubbernecking. There was nothing to see, except a few policemen and bored-looking journalists.

Beyond Five Springs, the road descended gently towards where the forest pressed against the town’s affluent southern suburbs. At its outskirts a group of school-children and adults were handing fliers to passing motorists. Julian opened his window to take one from a pale, skinny girl with a swirl of self-consciously messy black hair hanging down almost over her eyes. Looking at him with a searching intensity that made him want to blink, she asked, “Have you seen this girl?” There was a picture of Joanne Butcher on the flier, the same one they’d shown on the news. Printed beneath it in large blood-red lettering was the word ‘Missing’. And beneath that was a brief narrative that read ‘Joanne Butcher has been missing since 13 ^th of May 2010. Her parents and the police are concerned for her safety. If you’ve seen her or have any information regarding her please contact us on the number provided below.’

“No I haven’t,” said Julian. He drove on, turning into a broad street of large detached houses hidden behind tall hedges and fences. At a set of wrought-iron gates, he punched a code into a control box. The gates swung open and he drove along a tarmac drive through a meticulously cared-for garden to a single-story house of concrete, wood and glass. As usual, a feeling of ambivalence arose in him at the sight of the place. On the one hand, he loved the way its glass walls allowed the garden and the forest beyond to penetrate into the heart of its interior. On the other, he hated it for the same reason. He could never quite get used to its openness. It made him feel exposed and vulnerable, especially at night, when the darkness pressed in on him like a physical weight.

Julian left his car and climbed a gentle ramp to the front door, which slid rather than swung open. As he entered the house, a black Labrador ran up to him, whining and wagging its tail. “Hello, boy. Hello, Henry,” said Julian, scratching the dog’s ears, ruffling the fur under its chin. Henry followed him through a minimally but expensively furnished, open-plan living space to a gleaming kitchen of stainless steel and granite. The kitchen had low work surfaces and no high cupboards. A brunette woman, about forty, with thick wrists and powerful sloping shoulders that looked like they were used to heavy work was in there chopping vegetables. She started and turned her head. “Bloody hell, Julian, you gave me a fright. What are you doing back from university?”

“Hi, Wanda. I decided to pay a surprise visit. Where is she?”

“Where do you think?” Wanda motioned with her chin towards the garden.

“How is she?” Julian asked hesitantly, as if afraid what the answer might be.

“She had a bad night. I told her to take it easy. Christine, I said, the garden will still be there tomorrow, but you might not be if you don’t rest up. But would she listen, would she hell as like. You know how she is about her precious roses. They won’t prune themselves, she says. Mind you, what do I know — or the doctors, for that matter. They all said she wouldn’t last more than six months, and that was over seven years ago.” Wanda paused to shake her head in awe. “She’s an amazing woman, your mother. A lesson to all of us.”

Julian nodded agreement. “I’d better go see her.” With Henry still at his heels, he made his way to the back garden. A series of flat, smooth paths wound their way amongst the lawns, flowerbeds, rockeries, ponds and trees. He followed one to a rose garden. Some of the roses were just coming into bloom, others were already turning brown, drying-up. They gave off a mingled, sickly-sweet scent of life and death in the afternoon sun. Christine was bent forward in her wheelchair, pinching the deadheads off with her right hand — her left rested in her lap, clenched into a fist like an unopened flower.

“It’s good to see you’re still not listening to Wanda,” said Julian, smiling.

“Julian!” Christine spoke with a slight slur. She slowly straightened to look at her son. The right side of her mouth lifted as she returned his smile, the left remained immobile, drooping like a sleeper’s, a thin line of drool sliding from it onto her chin. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve got a fortnight of study leave,” said Julian, almost flinching from doing so, knowing how his mum hated even the smallest of lies. “There’s too much noise, too much going on to concentrate at my halls. So I decided to come home for a few days.” He stooped to kiss his mum on the right cheek — he could hardly bear to look at the left side of her face, never mind touch it. “You look well.”

“No I don’t, and neither do you.” Christine studied her son’s face as if examining it for symptoms of some disease. “You’ve lost weight and you look tired. How have you been eating? How have you been sleeping?”

“Fine and fine. Although I’ve been missing Wanda’s cooking.”

“And what about the dreams?”

“I told you, everything’s fine.”

Christine continued to look intently at Julian, eyes like fingers, probing. “I’m going in for something to eat,” he said, turning away.

“I’ll see you inside once I’m finished out here, and we can have a proper chat.”

Great, thought Julian, wondering suddenly whether he’d made a mistake in coming home. The last thing he wanted to do was dump his anxieties on his mum, but he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to hold out under the steady probing of her eyes. Although he longed for someone to speak to, he couldn’t imagine telling anyone, not even his therapist, about the new twist in his dream. Just thinking about it made him want to lower his eyes in shame.

Wanda made Julian a sandwich, which he ate on the sofa in front of the TV. Henry lay curled at his feet, waiting for any titbits that might come his way. The local news was on. Police were searching the woods around Five Springs after reports that Joanne Butcher had been seen there the day she disappeared. They’d not found anything yet. A journalist interviewed her mother outside a block of flats that looked as grey and rundown as she did. She was clutching a small brown teddy bear with a heart on its stomach that read ‘This is all I have to give.’ “If there’s somebody who has taken Joanne please contact the police,” she pleaded, her voice weak and tearful, pitiful to hear. “The family don’t feel safe anymore, it’s broken us apart. It makes you think you can’t trust anyone, not even the people closest to you. If you have Joanne, please let her go.”

Julian took out his mobile-phone, scrolled down to ‘Kyle’ and pressed the green button. After a couple of rings, a hushed male voice answered, “Hey, dude, how’s it going?”

“It’s going good. I’m back in town for a few days. Fancy meeting up at The Cut for a beer?”

“Course I do, bro. What time?”

“About eight.”

“I’ll be there. Listen, bro, I can’t talk now, I’m in class. See you later, yeah.”

“Later.”

Julian could hear his mum and Wanda talking in the kitchen. He went to his bedroom. He didn’t want to risk lying down — his body felt heavy and ready for sleep — so he booted up his PC and Googled Joanne Butcher. She had a Facebook profile, which was set to private. He scrolled down her friends list. He didn’t recognise any of the names, but a picture caught his eye. It was of a teenage girl wearing thick black eye makeup. Her tongue was stuck out, revealing a silver stud embedded in its centre. There was also a stud in her nose and several earrings in either lobe. Dozens of tiny fresh cuts, like tribal markings, were visible on her inner left wrist. As the cuts ran down towards her hand they crisscrossed to form the words ‘HELP ME’. The girl was instantly familiar, but it took him a few seconds to realise where he recognised her from — she was the schoolgirl who’d handed him the flier. Her name was listed as ‘Morsus’. He clicked on her, but her profile was set to private too. He sat staring at her photo. There was something about it, something he couldn’t quite define, but which held him strangely fascinated. He sent her a friend request and, shaking himself free, navigated back to Google. He searched for the meaning of the word ‘Morsus’ and found that it was Latin for pain.

Julian frittered away a couple of hours browsing the internet, emailing university friends to let them know where he was. At one point, he heard the burr of his mum’s wheelchair motor in the hall. It paused outside the door. He held himself silent, hoping she’d think he was asleep. After a few seconds, she continued past the door. At six-thirty, Wanda knocked and said, “Food’s on the table, Julian.”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” he replied.

Christine and Wanda were already eating when Julian got to the table. Christine used a fork with a sharpened edge for cutting. “Where’s Dad?” he asked.

“He phoned to say he’s working late,” said Christine.

Julian’s eyebrows lowered in a frown of surprise. Ever since his mum’s illness, his dad had made a point of not working late so that he could be with her. “Is everything okay at the factory?”

“He says so, but then you know how he is.” A note of irritation came into Christine’s voice. “He thinks he’s got to wrap me up in cotton-wool. I keep telling him, I worry more not knowing what’s going on. I may be ill, but that doesn’t mean I have to be treated like a child.”

“Robert doesn’t treat you like a child,” said Wanda. Her expression suggested this was a familiar topic of conversation. “I’m sure he’d tell you if there was anything to really be worried about.”

Christine looked doubtful, but said nothing. The conversation turned to Julian. Christine wanted to know how his studies were going. And more importantly, had he managed to find himself a girlfriend yet. He answered that his studies were going fine. And no, he hadn’t got a steady girlfriend. He’d had a few flings, but nothing serious. He felt relaxed talking to his mum, knowing she wouldn’t ask him about the dreams, not with Wanda there. After the meal, Julian helped Wanda clear the table and wash-up. Then Wanda gave Christine her daily massage. Julian watched as she massaged his mum’s spinal column and paralysed limbs with scented oil. The limbs looked withered and dead, like wilted vines. But it was clear there was still some life in them from the way Christine grimaced as Wanda pushed her hands over their slack, veiny flesh.

At half-past seven, Julian said he was going out to meet Kyle. “Don’t stay out too late,” Christine called after him as he left the house.

Chapter 2

Julian pulled up outside a building with a blood-red neon sign overhanging the pavement that read ‘The Cut’. Another sign in the window stated ‘No Drugs or Nuclear Weapons allowed inside’. The bar was dark and grimy, almost deserted. There was a band playing on a small stage, fronted by some emo-boy whining on about loss and rejection. A boy with long hair, a goatee and a faceful of piercings stood drinking at the bar-counter. “Hey there, bro,” he called to Julian, grinning. “I got you a beer in.”

“Cheers, man.” They shook hands, warrior-style. Julian glanced around, taking a sip from his bottle. He shook his head. “Fuck me, I never realised what a dump this place was until now.”

“Hey, don’t go slagging it off, just ’cos you’ve been living it up in the big city. For some of us, this is the best we’ve got.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be out of here too at the end of the summer.”

“As long as I get the grades I need.”

“You will this time, no worries.”

“Yeah, maybe. I fucking hope so. This town’s doing my head in. I’m so bored. There’s no one from our year left around, except me and all the dead-heads.” Kyle exhaled heavily. “Anyway, let’s stop talking about this before I get depressed.” He swilled back his beer. “I hope you’ve got your drinking boots on, Jules, ’cos I’m in the mood for getting properly fucked up.”

“I’m driving.”

Kyle’s face creased in disgust. “Aw, what the fuck. Why?”

“I’ve got some dope. I thought we could drive out to Five Springs for a smoke. You know, like old times.”

“Nice idea, bro. Only we can’t go to Five Springs. Haven’t you heard? The coppers are out there looking for that little jailbait bitch.”

“Yeah, I saw. Did you know her?”

“Nah. I spoke to her once or twice in here. She was serious trouble. I heard she fucked her way through half the scuzzballs in town.”

“You’re kidding.”

Kyle shook his head. “And that’s not all I heard, bro. I heard she was selling it.”

“You mean she slept with men for money.” Julian’s lips screwed up doubtfully. “Bullshit. How do you know that?”

“Anyone who knows anything around here knows it for a fact. If you don’t believe me, just ask around.” Kyle chuckled. “Although I don’t think you’ll find too many guys willing to admit to fooling around with an underage prozzie. Tell you what really makes me laugh. The way her mum keep’s banging on about her being abducted. What a load of shit. More likely one of her customers has done her in and dumped her in a ditch somewhere.”

Kyle opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it again as a group of goth-punk types, all black leather, torn drainpipe jeans and fishnet stockings, jet black hair and heavy makeup, entered the bar. There were two men and a woman, mid-twenties looking, and the girl, Morsus. One of the men approached the bar-counter and ordered drinks, while the others seated themselves around a table close to the stage. The girl looked drunk or stoned, her eyes glassy and vacant, a sort of vacuous half-smile, half-sneer playing around the edges of her mouth. Julian watched her out of the sides of his eyes. He couldn’t help but watch her. Kyle nudged him. “Don’t even think about going there, bro. That’s Mia Bradshaw. Jake Bradshaw’s twin sister.”

“Who’s Jake Bradshaw?”

“He’s a serious fuckin’ headcase. Been in juvie more often than you change your underpants. The coppers are after him at the moment for joyriding or something. There’s a rumour going round that he’s hiding out in the forest. Remember? Like we used to. Only for real.”

“Is she mates with Joanne Butcher?”

“Yeah, big-time, they were like twin sisters. Twins of evil, that’s what I call ’em. I know this guy who went with her for a while. He said she’s proper crazy, said she wanted him to do all kinds of weird shit to her.”

“What kind of weird shit?”

“Pull her hair, slap her around, strangle her. That kind of weird shit. He couldn’t handle it so he dumped her.”

Julian felt a twinge of the same sick feeling that’d come over him after his dream. It started in his stomach and slithered, cold and slimy as a slug, up his throat. He pushed it back down with a swallow of beer. Mia seemed oblivious or indifferent to him staring at her, but one of the men was giving him a none-too-friendly look. “Come on, let’s go for that smoke,” Kyle said, tugging at Julian’s sleeve as the man started to stand. Reluctantly, Julian allowed himself to be drawn away from the bar. As they stepped outside, a mocking peal of laughter followed them. Glancing back, Julian saw that it came from Mia. He shuddered a little.

“You trying to get the shit kicked out of us?” said Kyle.

Julian made no answer. He was thinking about Mia, trying to work out what it was about her that’d hit him so hard. It wasn’t her bad girl image. He’d never gone for that kind of thing. It wasn’t her looks, either. Sure, she was attractive — if anything, almost too much so. Her kind of looks did little for him, other than make him aware of his imperfections. No, it was something else, something deeper, beyond his understanding. It gave him chills. He could feel them now, running up and down his bones, like he was coming down with something nasty.

“Anyway, why are you so interested in a pair of no-marks like Joanne Butcher and Mia Bradshaw?” asked Kyle.

“I’m not. Doesn’t it freak you out though? I mean, you expect this kind of thing to happen in a city, but not around here.”

“Jules, man, you crack me up,” Kyle laughed, shaking his head. “You really don’t know shit about this town, do you?”

Chapter 3

Julian crept through the house to the kitchen. As he made a sandwich, Henry padded across to snuffle at his hand. He took the snack to his bedroom and lay with Henry curled at his feet, looking out into the darkness beyond the window. He wondered if Jake Bradshaw was really hiding in the forest. He imagined himself in Jake’s situation, sleeping under the stars, living off the land, moving camp every few days to avoid detection. The idea appealed to something within him that longed for a secret place, away from the reality of daily life, away from the pressure to study and achieve.

He closed his eyes, hoping he was stoned enough to fall straight into a blank sleep. He wasn’t. Bright, almost luminous images quivered behind his eyelids. He saw Mia Bradshaw, Joanne Butcher and Susan Carter. They separated and merged like colours in a kaleidoscope, until he couldn’t tell where one finished and the other began. He tried meditating, but it made no difference, so he got up and went to the living-room. His dad was there, too, sat in his dressing-gown, staring at the black walls of glass, sipping whisky. There was no light in the room except that of the moon. Even so, Julian could see that the bags under his dad’s eyes were heavier than usual, the lines on his forehead more pronounced.

“Can’t sleep?” Robert asked. When Julian shook his head, he added, “Me neither.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

“Not particularly. What about you?”

Julian shook his head again. That was the way it was with them. The way it always had been. They’d speak to each other, exchange a few words about this and that, but they never really talked about themselves, their hopes, their plans, their fears. Not when it was just the two of them. There was a kind of distance there, a deadness. Christine was their conduit, the only person who could make them connect. The current of her emotion conducted life between them. In her presence they laughed and joked, argued and cried. They were a family. Without her, they were like two halves of a severed wire.

“Where are you going?” Robert asked, as Julian pulled his trainers on.

“Out for a walk.”

“It’s past midnight. You’ll get yourself into trouble one of these nights going out walking at this time.”

“I’ll be fine. What’s going to happen to me around here?”

“Things can happen, even around here. Just look at this Butcher girl business.”

“Yeah, but I’m not a fifteen-year old girl.”

Robert clicked his tongue against his palate, the way he always did when he was irritated. “Oh, do what you bloody want, Julian. You always do anyway.” He shifted his gaze back to the darkness.

Julian continued to look at him a moment, frowning. Then he went into the kitchen and picked up a torch and a key from a shelf on his way out the backdoor. Henry raced ahead of him as he made his way to a locked door in a thorny hedge at the rear of the garden. Beyond the door, a narrow path rose up a wooded slope. The moon shone dimly through the trees. He didn’t switch on the torch, though. His feet knew the way without light, and they led him forward, anticipating every dip, rise, twist and turn. He couldn’t see Henry, but he could hear him crashing along through the undergrowth. At the top of the rise, beyond a grassy clearing, the path forked into three. Henry was waiting for him there. Julian took the fork that led straight on, which, he knew, wound down into a valley, where it merged with an old cart track that led to a derelict sawmill. Many of the area’s residents had tried to get the sawmill demolished because used needles had been found there once or twice. As he walked, he lit a joint. By the time he reached the cart track, the hot smoke had soothed away the lingering irritation he felt from his encounter with his dad. He hesitated, listening to Henry snuffling after a rabbit or whatever. Usually, he’d have continued on to the sawmill and beyond, but he suddenly found himself reluctant to go any further. It wasn’t the thought of maybe bumping into Jake Bradshaw or some junkie that stopped him. Neither was it his dad’s warning or dope-induced paranoia. It was something else, something in the air. A smell, faint but unpleasant. A smell that didn’t belong amongst the thick pine groves.

Julian flinched as Henry began to bark. He turned on the torch and directed it towards the noise, but he couldn’t see Henry amongst the rows of closely-spaced trees. “Here boy,” he shouted. The barking stopped, but Henry didn’t respond to his call. He stepped off the path, his feet sinking softly into a deep bed of pine needles. Stooping to avoid the lowermost branches of the trees, he followed the beam of his torch. With every step, the smell got stronger. It was like dustbins on a hot day, only much, much worse. He could taste it in his mouth, as if his tongue was rotting. It gripped his lungs, twisted his stomach, dragged him on. He heard the dog growling low in its throat. “Henry,” he hissed. The growling intensified. His torch found a yellow flash of fur. Henry was jerking his head, tearing at something on the ground. It looked like a bulging black bin liner, but some instinct told Julian that wasn’t what it was. His heart stuttered as he made out the shape of a leg, a boot. He rushed forward, kicked Henry. The dog yelped, skittering away. He looked down. His mouth filled with saliva like he was going to puke.

Joanne Butcher didn’t look like her photo. Her livid face was bloated and blistered. The eye sockets appeared empty, but peering closer Julian saw dozens of milk-white maggots squirming in them. Her lips were drawn back in a grotesque parody of a smile and a black tongue protruded through them as if blowing a raspberry. Something that might’ve been dried vomit or blood was crusted over her chin. Watery pus oozed from teeth marks that Henry had inflicted on her throat and face — at least, Julian assumed Henry had inflicted them. If it hadn’t been for her reddish-purple hair, which lay so lankly against her skull that it looked painted on, he wouldn’t have been able to identify her. She was wearing much the same outfit as Mia Bradshaw had done in The Cut — leather jacket, red plaid miniskirt, ripped fishnets, military boots. Her skin showed green with a marbling of purple-black veins through her tights. There were things crawling all over her, not only maggots, but also fat blood-sucking flies, beetles and mites. They moved like groping fingers under her clothes.

Julian stood staring at the corpse as if it was something beautiful, mesmerising. A dribble of vomit escaped his mouth and dropped onto it. Automatically, he swiped the back of his hand across his chin. A sound gradually seeped into his shocked senses — a gnawing sound. He shone the torch at Henry, who was hunkered down chewing on something that was maybe a stick, or maybe something else, something ripped from Joanne Butcher’s corpse. More vomit came up. He spat it out and snapped, “Drop that. Drop it!”

Henry jumped up and retreated a little, the thing dangling out of his mouth like a withered tongue. “Stay,” Julian said, in a voice of warning. He moved towards the dog. The dog turned and ran in the direction from which they’d come. He gave chase, stumbling over roots, blinking as branches lashed his face. He quickly lost sight of Henry, but he didn’t stop running. He ran all the way back to the house as if he was being chased by a ghost. His dad was still up.

“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” asked Robert, looking in alarm at Julian’s scratched, sweat-streaked face.

“I…found…her,” Julian gasped, struggling to find enough breath to speak.

“Found who?”

“Joanne…Butcher.”

The already deep lines etched into Robert’s face deepened. “Are you sure?”

“Dead sure.”

Robert’s voice grew hesitant. “Is she…is she dead?”

Julian nodded. “She’s over by the sawmill. Rotting.” He dropped onto the sofa, covering his face with his hand.

“The sawmill,” exclaimed Robert, as if that explained the matter. “I’ll bet she overdosed. I don’t know how many bloody times I’ve told the council they need to tear that place down. Perhaps now they’ll listen.” He reached for the phone.

“What you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing? I’m phoning the police.”

A short time later several police cars arrived at the gates, sirens screaming. Robert buzzed them in, fretting about Christine being woken. She didn’t wake, though. She lay wrapped securely in deep, medicated sleep. A thickset man with a police veteran’s moustache introduced himself as detective inspector Tom Benson. He told Julian to lead him to the body, which Julian reluctantly did. Although it wasn’t a cold night, he couldn’t help but shiver as they made their way there. He itched for a joint to take the edge off his nerves. If anything, the smell seemed even worse than before. It hit him in the gut like a fist. He doubled up, heaving. He couldn’t bring himself to go within sight of the body again.

It was getting light by the time Julian finished giving his statement. “How long will you be in town?” asked Tom Benson.

“A week or so.”

“Good. I’ll probably need to talk to you again.”

While Robert showed the policeman out, Julian went to the bathroom. He stood under the shower a long time, scrubbing his skin as if it was polluted. Before leaving the bathroom, he listened at the door. He didn’t want to bump into his dad, have to hear him say, what did I tell you. Henry was asleep on his bed. There was no sign of the withered thing. He woke the dog and shooed him out the room. Bone-tired, he lay down and tentatively closed his eyes. He knew he’d see the corpse, and he did. He seemed to smell it too. He lay there for as long as he could bear. Then he got up, flung open a window and sucked in great lungfuls of the morning.

Chapter 4

When Julian dragged himself to breakfast, Christine said in a concerned tone, “You look as if you haven’t slept a wink.” She made no mention of the previous night’s events. Julian noticed his dad peering at him over his newspaper. Robert gave a tiny shake of his head.

After breakfast, Julian said to him, “You haven’t told her, have you?”

“No. I don’t want to worry her.”

“She’s going to find out sooner or later.”

“I know, I know,” muttered Robert, sorting through his briefcase, obviously not wanting to hear it.

“She worries more not knowing what’s going on.” Getting no reply, Julian continued, “If you don’t tell her, I will.”

“No, you bloody well won’t.” Anger flared in Robert’s voice. He reined it in with a steadying breath. “Look, I’ll tell her this evening when there’s time to do it properly. Just do me a favour and keep quiet until then, will you?”

“What are you two whispering about?” asked Christine, approaching them.

“I was just telling Julian to make sure he gets his head down to some hard work today,” Robert lied with a smoothness that drew a surprised glance from Julian.

“He will. I’ll make sure of that.”

Robert bent to kiss his wife. He kissed her twice — once on the lips and once, with an almost fearful tenderness, on the paralysed side of her face. “See you later, darling. And don’t overdo it in the garden today.” With a last half-warning, half-pleading look at Julian, he left the house. Julian watched him get into his car and accelerate out the driveway.

“Jules,” his mum said, glancing meaningfully in the direction of his bedroom.

Taking the hint, Julian headed for his room. He sat on his bed, lecture notes spread over the duvet in case his mum or Wanda checked up on him. He stared out the window at the forest, wondering if his dad was right about the way Joanne Butcher had died, or if there was something more sinister to it. The only thing he felt sure about was that she’d died without anyone she loved around her. He thought about her mum, the teddy-bear clutched to her chest, her eyes glazed and pleading. She’d know by now that her daughter was dead. Mia Bradshaw might know, too. And there’d be others — grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins. All of them united in grief, anger and incomprehension. He heaved a sigh for the waste and pain of it.

The phone rang in the hallway. A moment later his mum knocked and said, “Jules, Mike Hill’s on the phone for you.”

Julian’s heart accelerated a few beats. Mike Hill was the editor of the local newspaper. Surely there could only be one reason for him phoning. He hurried to the door, hoping Mike hadn’t let the cat out of the bag. From the way his mum looked askance at him as he took the phone from her, he guessed he hadn’t. He went out into the garden, away from prying ears. “Hi, Mr Hill.”

“Hi, Julian. I heard what happened.”

“How?”

“Ah, c’mon now, Julian, you know what this town’s like. It’s too small for something as big as this to be kept under wraps for long. How are you? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, thanks. A bit shook up.”

“That’s only to be expected. It must’ve been awful. ” Mike paused. Here it comes, thought Julian. “I was wondering if you’d mind coming over to the house this morning for a proper chat.”

“I don’t know, I’m pretty tired.”

“It won’t take long.” Like a salesman sweetening a deal, Mike added, “And Eleanor would love to see you.”

Eleanor was Mike’s daughter. Julian had gone with her for a while in sixth-form. She was a year younger than him. He’d finished their relationship when he went away to university, citing the usual reasons — he wanted to be free to experience university life to the full, he didn’t want to have to lie to her about what he was getting up to. She’d cried, but said she understood. Said she wanted them to still be friends. He’d often wondered since then whether he’d made a mistake. None of the girls he’d met at university had come close to her. They all seemed to be trying on modified personas. He’d never known Eleanor try to be anything but what she was naturally — just a kind, sweet girl.

“Okay, Mr Hill, I’ll come now.” Julian hung up and went back inside.

“What did Mike want?” asked Christine.

“I’ll tell you later. I’ve got to go out.”

“What about your studies?”

“I won’t be long.”

The Hill’s lived on a street of houses more modest in size than Julian’s parents’, though still large. Julian had always liked their house. It was old and comfortable, with warm, cluttered rooms. Its lattice windows gave light and privacy. There were plenty of corners and nooks to hide in. Mike Hill greeted him at the door. He looked the same as ever — pale, smiling eyes with a keen glint in them, bald pate surrounded by long thinning hair, cigarette planted in the side of his mouth. He gave Julian an appraising look. “Well, I can see someone’s been burning the candle at both ends and the middle,” he said, speaking through his cigarette.

“I didn’t get much sleep.”

“I’ll bet.” Mike ushered Julian inside. “And I bet you haven’t got much sleep in the last few months, either.”

Julian gave him a quick sidelong glance. “Why do you say that?”

“I went to university once, too, you know. Seeing you takes me right back to those days. A bit of advice, I know you think you’re invincible, but no one is. You’ve got to learn to pace yourself.”

Eleanor came down the stairs a little hesitantly. Something in Julian’s chest squeezed at the sight of her. He hadn’t seen her for five months. Just five short months, but she was changed. Her hair was shorter, darker, more styled. She was slimmer, too, more angular, less cute. Yet, as she drew nearer, and he saw the expression in her eyes, her smile, he realised with relief that the change was only surface. Like his mum, like everything real and good, she was unchanged through change. “Hi, Jules,” she said.

“Hi,” he said back.

“C’mon,” said Mike. “You two can catch up once I’m done.”

Julian followed him into a study, its shelves overloaded with books and newspapers. Mike seated himself at a desk. “So tell me all about it,” he said, pen and notepad at the ready.

Julian told him. He described how Joanne Butcher’s corpse looked, how it smelt. Mike’s eyebrows drew together. He swallowed hard. “Jesus.”

“Will you put that in your paper?”

“People don’t need to read that. And I’d appreciate it if you don’t go repeating it to Eleanor, either.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Any word on how Joanne Butcher died?”

“No. It’ll be a few days before the coroner’s report comes in.”

“I heard some…things about her.”

“You mean, like she was prostituting herself.”

“So it’s true.”

“I can’t say for certain, but I think so.”

Julian puffed his cheeks, shaking his head. “What would make someone do that?”

“Heroin.”

“Seriously, you think she was an addict.”

“I don’t know. Again, I’m just making an informed guess. You probably don’t realise this, Julian, but there are buildings in this town where every room’s littered with used needles and scorched foil.”

“I’m finding out a lot about this town I didn’t know.”

A knock came at the door. “Are you two nearly finished?” enquired Eleanor.

“Be out in a minute, honey,” said Mike. Stubbing out his cigarette with just a touch more force than was necessary, he added to Julian, “Go on. She’s waiting for you.”

Julian was glad to leave the study. Mike Hill understood why he’d split up with Eleanor. In his opinion, it was the best thing that could’ve happened. Julian knew this because Eleanor had repeated it to him when he’d phoned one time in a drunken haze of guilt to apologise for the way he’d treated her. He also knew, or rather sensed, that Mike Hill wouldn’t be anywhere near as understanding if Julian hurt his daughter a second time.

When Julian saw Eleanor, he felt that squeezing again. “Do you want to go for a walk?” he asked.

“Sure.”

They walked slowly along the street, standing close, but not touching. Julian resisted an urge to reach for Eleanor’s hand. It was a warm day. She wore a vest top. Her arms were pale and smooth, unblemished. He suddenly found himself thinking about Mia Bradshaw — about the cuts on her arm. He shoved the image away to a darker place in his mind. “Dad told me what happened,” Eleanor said. “That poor girl.”

Julian made no reply. He didn’t want to talk about that with Eleanor. He wanted to keep her as far away from it as possible. “It makes me feel like crying to think of her dying there like that,” she went on.

Maybe she didn’t die there, thought Julian. “So how’s college?” he asked.

A hint of a frown drew Eleanor’s her eyebrows together. “You know, Jules, sometimes you really remind me of my dad.”

“Thanks.”

“That’s not necessarily a compliment.”

They walked on in silence for a while — they’d always been comfortable in each other’s silence. Julian had never met another girl he felt that way with. “How long have you been back?” asked Eleanor.

“A couple of days.”

“Oh.”

That ‘Oh’ was full of meaning. It meant, so how come you didn’t let me know you were in town? “I would’ve phoned but I’ve been so busy with…” Julian was going to say studying, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie, not to her.

“With what?”

Julian shrugged and said limply, “You know, this and that.”

“Oh,” Eleanor said again. “I see.”

“If you like, we could do something tonight. Catch a movie, go for a drink, whatever.”

Eleanor smiled. It was a simple, open smile, the only one she had in her facial vocabulary. “That’d be good.”

She made to turn into a narrow lane that branched off from the street. Julian hesitated to follow her. The lane led beyond the edge of town to a meadow where there was an old hay-barn. As boyfriend and girlfriend, they used to go there often to talk and make love. In its quiet, grass-smelling gloom they’d gone from early eager fumblings to slow, tender explorations of each other. Julian resisted a groin-tingling tug. He couldn’t allow himself to go back there, not unless he was certain that’s what he wanted. And he wasn’t.

“I’ve got to go,” he said.

“Are you sure?”

In spite of himself, as Julian looked at Eleanor’s eyes, her lips, her neck, the tug intensified. Not wanting to take the chance that he might give into it, he nodded and said, “I’ll pick you up around seven.” Then he hurried away, leaving her standing staring after him. As he drove past her, she raised one flawless arm to wave. “You, boy, are a fucking idiot,” he muttered to himself, waving back.

His phone rang. It was Kyle. “Fancy meeting up tonight, bro?” he asked.

“Can’t. I’m going out with Eleanor.”

“What? Like on a date, or some shit like that?”

“No, not a date. Just two friends getting together.”

Kyle sniggered. “Yeah, right.”

“Yes, right, exactly,” Julian snapped.

“No need to get shitty. I was just kidding. Seriously, though, bro, you know she’s still hung up on you. Why is beyond me, but she is. Every time I see her she’s like, have you spoken to Jules? How’s he doing? And I’m like, fuck Jules, I’m free and single and here. But she doesn’t even notice me, bro. Not like that. So go easy on her, ’cos she’s one of the good ones.”

“I know.” There was the hint of a sigh in Julian’s voice. “Later, yeah.”

When Julian got home, he went straight through to his bedroom. He didn’t want to see his mum, have to skirt around her questions. He logged onto his computer. An email alert flashed in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. He clicked on it. ‘Morsus confirmed you as a friend on Facebook’ read the message. He eagerly followed the link to her profile. Underneath her photo it said ‘Surely there has to be a reason for all this pain. A purpose…’ And on her wall she’d written ‘R.I. P Jo. I love you’. Under her hobbies, she’d listed ‘drinking, cutting, suicide’. He looked at her photos. There were photos of her alone, pouting, sneering, brandishing her cuts like badges of honour. There were photos of her and Joanne Butcher kissing each other fully on the mouth. And there were photos of them with boys their own age and men in their twenties, drinking, smoking, simulating sex. One in particular caught his attention. She was sat with her arm around a boy kissing him on the cheek. He had no top on and his body looked stripped, like a junkie boxer’s. His hair was shaved to the skull. On his chest he had a tattoo of a wolf baring its teeth. He had to be Mia’s brother, Jake — he had the same face as her, only thinner, more sunken. There was the same sullen pain in his eyes, too.

Julian noticed that there was a message in his Facebook inbox. It was from Morsus. ‘I’ll be in The Cut tonight’ it read. He stared at the message, fingers hesitating over the keyboard, a queer feeling in his stomach, like a hunger pang, only deeper and heavier. He wasn’t debating what to do. He knew he had to see her, speak to her. The question that bothered him was, to what end? What would come of it? Swallowing, he typed ‘I’ll see you there’ and hit reply. He moved to lie down. The queer feeling sat on his stomach, tiredness throbbed in his head. He couldn’t let himself sleep, though. It wasn’t safe. Not with the dream lurking like a viper in the darkness behind his eyelids.

After a sleepless rest, Julian took Henry for a walk in the forest. They didn’t get far. A policeman blocked the path. He could see others amongst the trees, advancing in a long line, combing the undergrowth.

For a second day running, Julian’s dad didn’t return home in time for the evening meal. He knew then that his mum was right about there being something wrong with his dad’s business. “So come on,” said Christine as they ate. She was smiling, but there was an undercurrent of seriousness in her voice. “Tell us what Mike Hill wanted. We’re dying to know.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I just can’t, that’s all.”

“Has all this secrecy got something to do with your dad?”

When Julian made no reply, Christine glanced at Wanda, as though his silence confirmed something they’d been discussing. “I think I’ll eat in my room,” he said, standing.

“There’s no need for that, Jules. I won’t ask any more questions about it.” An edge crept into Christine’s voice. “In fact, if that’s the way it is, I just won’t ask you any questions about anything.”

Julian winced inwardly, hating to see his mum waste the little energy she had on anger. After eating, he got ready to go out, taking longer than usual over it. When his dad still wasn’t home by seven, he started to feel impatient. He wanted to be there when his mum was told about Joanne Butcher. He wanted to make sure she was told. At eight o’clock, he went in search of her, intending to tell her himself. But when he saw her so fragile and tired looking, he knew he couldn’t break his promise. “I’m going out,” he said. She made no sign of having heard him. He let out a slight sigh. “Don’t be like that, Mum.”

“I’m not being like anything,” Christine said, without looking at him. “You’re a grown man now, Julian. You go where you want, see who you want, say what you want, and live with the consequences. It’s about time both of us recognised that.”

Chapter 5

As Julian drove to The Cut, his mum’s words weighed on his mind. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to be ‘a grown man’. And he knew with absolute certainty that he wasn’t ready to ‘live with the consequences’, whatever they might be. He felt an urge to turn around, head home and tell her about everything — about Joanne Butcher’s corpse, the dream, everything. He wanted to lay his head on her lap, feel her stroke his hair, hear her tell him everything would be alright. He wanted her to soothe him off to sleep, like she’d used to do. But he didn’t turn around. Another stronger urge — an urge that was both within and outside his understanding — prevented him from doing so.

Mia Bradshaw was sat on her own at the same table as the previous night. She was dressed the same, too. When she looked at Julian, he saw that her mask of makeup was streaked, as if she’d been crying. She wasn’t crying now, though. Her eyes were like blue porcelain. They seemed to be weighing him up, or maybe working out what they could get from him. Under their steady examination, he suddenly felt — despite the years he had on her — very young and green.

“I’m Julian,” he said, for want of something to say.

“I know.”

He motioned to her empty glass. “Do you want another?”

“Vodka and coke, double.”

Conscious of Mia’s eyes following him, Julian ordered her drink and the same for himself. Upon returning to the table, he said, “I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about your friend.”

The eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. “Why should you be sorry?”

“Because, well, because I am…” Julian trailed off lamely.

Mia drank her drink. Then she reached for Julian’s and drank that, too. “Is that why you’re here, because you feel sorry for me?”

Julian was silent a moment, then he admitted, “No.”

Mia tapped her glass. “I’ll have another.”

Julian fetched another round. Mia lit a cigarette. She smoked a little self-consciously, like someone for whom the habit wasn’t yet automatic. Looking at her through the smoke she exhaled in his face, Julian caught a glimpse of what she really was — a fifteen-year old girl trying to look and act eighteen. As if suddenly conscious of this, she crushed the cigarette out after only five or six puffs. “Tell me what Jo looked like,” she said.

“What do you mean?” Julian asked, although he knew what she meant.

“What did she look like when you found her?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Face intense as a knife-cut, Mia leant forward close enough so that Julian could smell her alcopop-sweet breath. “I want to know every detail.”

Julian glanced around. The bar was busier than the previous night, most of the surrounding tables were occupied. Although the music pumping out over the sound system made conversation difficult to overhear, he didn’t fancy describing how Jo Butcher’s corpse had looked with other people in earshot. He didn’t fancy describing it again at all, but something told him he’d have difficulty refusing Mia that, or anything else she asked. “My car’s outside. Let’s go somewhere else, somewhere quiet.”

Mia gave Julian that quick, weighing-up look again. She spoke in a flat, hard voice that went through him like a shiver. “Just so long as you promise not to rape me and murder me and hide my body in the forest.”

The queer deep, heavy feeling flared, pushing up Julian’s throat, big as a fist. “That’s not funny.”

“It’s not meant to be.” Mia threw back her drink and stood up. When Julian remained seated, frowning at her, she said impatiently, “Well, come on then, let’s get going.”

“But I haven’t promised yet.”

Mia gave a little smirk, as if to say, oh, I think I can handle anything you’ve got, and then some. Biting back his irritation, Julian led her to his car. “Nice wheels,” she said.

“Where shall we go?”

“Start driving and I’ll tell you, rich boy.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why not? That’s what you are, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah, I suppose, but-”

Mia cut Julian off with a loud exhalation. He stared at her a moment, then started the engine. “Which way?”

She pointed and he followed the line of her finger. She switched on the radio and, finding a tune she liked, turned it up loud. She sat slumped down in the car seat, listlessly staring out the window, trying to appear relaxed, bored even. But there was a tension about her. Julian noticed that her right hand trembled ever so slightly, while her left fidgeted with something in her jacket pocket. They drove to the northern edge of town, to The High Bridge.

“Stop here,” Mia said.

They pulled over in front of a sign displaying the telephone number of The Samaritans, which had been put up a few years earlier after a spate of suicides. They walked beneath the arched steel frame to the centre of the three-hundred foot span. “You can understand in a way why people come here to end it all,” said Mia, leaning out over the murmuring black water. “It’s such a beautiful place.”

Staring down at the swirls of foam stirred up by the bridge’s massive concrete feet, Julian couldn’t help but shudder. As Mia leant out further, he resisted an urge to grab her and pull her back. “Tell me about it,” she said, almost as if she was speaking to the river.

So Julian told her. She listened seemingly impassively, but after he was finished she took a quivering breath and said, “Fuck, I need a drink. You got anything to drink?”

Julian took out a lump of dope. “I’ve got this.”

“That’ll do. You got anything we can sit on?”

“There’s a blanket in the car.”

Mia started back towards the car. “Where we going now?” asked Julian.

She didn’t reply. They got the blanket and Julian followed her, groping his way in the moonlit dark, down a narrow dirt path that snaked back and forth along the steep grassy bank beneath the eaves of the bridge. At the bottom of the bank was a flat space with a graffiti-scarred concrete pillar at its centre. There were cans, bottles and scraps of blackened foil strewn around. Mia picked up a can of lighter fluid and squirted it over the remains of an old fire. She lit a match and dropped it. Flames whooshed up, throwing crazily dancing shadows everywhere. Julian spread the blanket over the ground and they sat watching the fire, smoking a joint.

“So do you think someone killed her?” asked Mia, fidgeting in her pocket again.

“I dunno.”

“You said there were marks on her face and neck.”

“Yeah, but my dog made those. I think. Anyway, everyone I’ve spoken to thinks she overdosed.”

Mia snorted. “They would.”

“You think they’re wrong.”

“Fucked if I know. She probably did OD. She always said that’s how she’d go. And, hey, if she was right, all those fuckers you spoke to can tut and nod and shake their little heads.”

It’s not like that, Julian wanted to say. But it was like that, and he knew it. “What was she taking?”

Mia shrugged. “Anything she could get her hands on. Speed, acid, E, ketamine — she was crazy for it all.”

“Heroin?”

The light of the flames picked out frown lines gathering on Mia’s face. “She said she didn’t do that stuff. But I know she did. I saw the needle marks.”

“What about you? You ever tried it?”

“Once,” Mia admitted as if it was something she’d rather forget. She added quickly, “I didn’t inject it, though. There’s no way I’d stick a needleful of that shit in my arm. I didn’t want to do it at all, but Jo kept nagging and nagging me. She had this thing about trying everything once before she croaked. I ended up giving in, like I always do. But I made her promise we’d only do it once. We had this big fuck off argument when I saw the needle marks. I called her a liar, and she told me to go fuck myself. That was a couple of weeks ago.” She chewed her lips, pain shining in her eyes. “We never spoke again.”

“Where did you get the heroin from?”

Mia laughed as if to say, you’ve got to be fucking kidding. She dragged the joint down to its roach, and flicked it into the fire. “Roll another,” she said. As Julian did so, she asked, “So what’s it like being a rich kid?”

Julian ignored her.

“Come on, don’t be shy,” she persisted. “I want to know. What’s it like living in a big house, driving a nice car, knowing you only have to put out your hands and everything you ever want’ll fall into them.”

Julian sighed. “Am I supposed to be ashamed? Have I done something wrong?”

“I dunno. Have you?”

To his irritation, Julian found himself blinking away from Mia’s gaze. He bent to light the spliff in the fire. “Must be nice,” Mia said. “Not being stuck in this shitty little town, living a shitty little life.”

Now it was Julian’s turn to snort. “Who says I’m not stuck?”

“You go to university down in London, don’t you?”

“How do you know that?”

Mia smiled coyly. “Someone told me.”

Julian passed her the joint. “Yeah, well, did they tell you I’m doing a business degree I fucking hate, and that at the end of it I’m expected to come back here and help my dad run his business, and in another five or ten years I’ll be expected to take over running the business. A business which, by the way, I find about as interesting as this town.”

Mia was silent a moment, thoughtful, then she said, “I guess we’re all stuck in our own little boxes.”

They passed the joint back and forth. Julian lay back and stared at the underside of the bridge. His eyelids felt heavy as stone. “But what if someone wanted to get away, just disappear someplace. Do you think that’s possible?” asked Mia.

“I don’t know. There’s this guy at uni whose parents got sick of the rat race and decided to drop out of society. Now they live on a commune in some woods in Preseli.”

“Where’s Preseli?”

“Wales. They generate their own power, grow their own food, look after goats, horses and chickens.”

Mia sniffed down her nose. “Sounds boring as shit.”

“Not to me. Sometimes I think about going there myself. This guy says everyone’s welcome, and you can stay as long as you like, a day, a year, whatever. No one asks any questions about who you are, where you’re from, or why you’re there. Just imagine, no boxes. You can be whoever you want to be.”

Mia stared at the fire, her face intent. After a moment, she shook her head. “I think that guy was shitting you. No place like that really exists.”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe there’s only one way to truly disappear.” Julian drew a line with his finger from the bridge’s railings to the water.

A strange, distant light came into Mia’s eyes. Julian watched her watching the river flow past. Her pupils looked huge and black in the firelight, like a doll’s. She began to rock gently, as if hypnotized. Suddenly, with a quick intake of breath, she snatched her hand out of her pocket. There was blood on her palm. “What happened?” asked Julian, sitting up in alarm. Mia didn’t reply, but her eyes came back to themselves and she lifted her hand to her mouth and licked the blood away. More welled up in a thin, straight line.

“It’s strange,” she said, her voice low and dreamy, like a sleepwalker’s.

“What’s strange?”

“When I saw you the other day you seemed so familiar. I felt as if I knew your face.”

“You’ve probably seen me around town before.”

“Maybe.” Mia sounded unconvinced. She turned her intense blue gaze on Julian. “You feel that way, too, don’t you? I can tell from the way you look at me. It’s like you’re trying to work out where you know me from.”

Julian licked his suddenly dry lips and spoke hesitantly. “I’m not sure how I feel when I look at you.”

A moment of silence passed between them. Mia bent and kissed Julian, a kiss as deep and heavy as the ache in his stomach, a kiss that felt wrong to him, and wronger still with every second it continued. His blood hammering in his temples, he pulled away.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“Nothing…I…” stammered Julian.

“Don’t you want me?”

Yes, he wanted her, but some whisper in his consciousness told him that giving in to that want would be like jumping off the bridge above, only less intimate and final. “What I want’s got nothing to do with it.”

“I thought we had a connection.”

“We do. I don’t understand it, but it’s there.”

“I’m not a virgin, if that’s what’s bothering you.”

One side of Julian’s mouth lifted. “Yeah, I kind of guessed that.”

“So what is it then?” Mia pouted, obviously not used to being turned down. “You bent or something?”

“Don’t talk stupid.”

Mia’s eyes flashed scorn at Julian. “I’m not the fuckin’ stupid one here.” She jumped up and started to walk away, flinging over her shoulder, “If you don’t want me, I’ll just have to find someone else to fuck.”

“Wait, Mia, don’t go.” Julian tried to get up, but whether from the dope or lack of sleep or both, his body felt like lead, his arms straw. The darkness quickly swallowed Mia. He lay thinking about her. He thought about the blood on her palm. She must have had a knife in her pocket — perhaps for self-defence, perhaps for use on herself, perhaps both. He ran his tongue over his lips, tasting her. He massaged the heel of his hand hard into his stomach, trying to push the heaviness away. It was as immovable as a rock. With a low groan, head spinning, he closed his eyes, giving in to the tiredness dogging him. The instant he did so, the dream attacked him with savage force, as vivid as a waking hallucination.

When Julian awoke, the fire had burnt down to glowing embers and he was shivering cold. He sat with his shoulders scrunched forward, his nose running and his mouth full of sticky, bitter saliva. A kind of raw sickness gnawed at his insides. The river drew his eyes. Momentarily, he considered stripping off and washing in it, washing himself free of the guilt. But it wouldn’t work, he knew. It would take more than water to wash away the memory of the dream. He climbed the bank to the car and drove home through the quiet of dawn.

Chapter 6

Christine was in the kitchen, drinking coffee. There were dark clouds under her eyes. Sometimes, even with all the pills, the pain prevented her from sleeping properly. “You smell like a fire,” she said, looking at Julian with curiosity and concern as he poured cereal into a bowl and got out the milk. “Where’ve you been all night?”

“With a friend.”

“Which friend?”

“Does it matter? Just a friend,” Julian muttered through a mouthful of cornflakes. He gave his mum a sullen glance. “Anyway, what’s it to you where I was? What I do’s my own business. Isn’t that what you said last night?”

Christine sighed. “Yes, I said something to that effect. And I meant it. But that doesn’t stop me from worrying about you, Julian. Especially when you drag yourself home looking like death warmed over. And especially when you’ve made such a traumatic discovery so recently.”

Julian stopped eating. “Dad’s told you then.”

Christine nodded. She reached out to gently take hold of her son’s wrist. “Don’t worry, we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. But if you do want to talk about it or anything else, anything at all, then I’m here. I’ll always be here for you, you know that.”

Julian felt tears tickling at the back of his throat. He swallowed forcefully, knowing that if he let them go everything else would come out with them. He managed a thin smile. “I know.” He withdrew his arm from Christine’s hold. “I’m going to get a shower.”

“Okay, darling.” As Julian turned away, Christine added, “Oh, I almost forgot. Eleanor phoned last night.”

“Eleanor, what did she-” Julian started to say. Then, remembering with a sudden sinking of his heart that he’d arranged to take her out the previous evening, he screwed his eyes up and exclaimed, “Shit!”

“What is it? What’ve you done?” Christine frowned. “You’ve not stood her up, have you?”

“I didn’t mean to, I just forgot.”

“Oh, Julian,” breathed Christine in a gently reproachful tone. “Eleanor’s such a lovely girl. She doesn’t deserve to be just forgotten. If you’re going to mess her about like that, perhaps you’d be better off leaving her alone.”

Julian stared at the floor, biting his lip. His mum was right, he knew. Eleanor would be better off without him and his problems in her life. He also knew he had to see her and, if not explain, at least apologise. Without a word to his mum, he rushed out the front door to his car. When he got to the Hill’s house, like he’d used to do when they were together, he went around back and threw gravel from the path at Eleanor’s bedroom window. Her face appeared at the glass, sleepy-eyed and frowning. She made no move to open it. Please, he mouthed, please, Eleanor. She hesitated a moment longer, then relented — like he’d known she would do. She peered down at him, waiting for his explanation.

“I’m sorry, Ellie,” he said.

“Is that it? Aren’t you even going to try to make an excuse?”

“I could feed you some line of bullshit, if that’s what you want?”

“No, that’s not what I want, Jules. I want to know why you blew me off.”

Julian made no reply.

“Fine,” said Eleanor. She started to close the window.

“Wait, Ellie. Truth is, there was something important I had to do.”

“You mean like getting wasted with Kyle.”

“I didn’t get wasted with Kyle.”

Eleanor made a sceptical humph. “Have you looked in the mirror this morning? Your eyes are totally bloodshot.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t get-” Julian broke off, realising he was saying more than he wanted to.

Eleanor’s frown intensified. “Oh, I see. You got wasted, just not with Kyle. So who was it then?”

Again, Julian said nothing.

Eleanor heaved a sigh. “Go home, Julian,” she said. Then she shut the window and the curtains. Julian threw more gravel at the glass. In the old days, she’d have reappeared, they’d have spoken some more and, finally, he’d have wheedled his way round her. But this time she didn’t reappear. He returned to his car. He didn’t go home, though. He drove to Kyle’s house — or rather, his parents’ house. Kyle’s mum let him in and he went into Kyle’s bedroom and opened the curtains. Kyle squinted over the top of his duvet. “What the fuck you doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”

“It’s seven-thirty.”

“Yeah, like I said, the middle of the fucking night.”

“Your mum told me to tell you to get your arse out of bed and ready for college.”

Kyle dropped his head back on his pillow and groaned, “Bollocks to that.” He pulled a spliff from under his pillow and lit it. “Shake and bake,” he said, passing it to Julian. “So come on, bro, lay it on me. Why are you here disturbing my beauty sleep?”

“I’ve seriously blown it with Eleanor this time.”

“Yeah, I kind of guessed that from your sorry-assed-face. What happened?”

“I stood her up for Mia Bradshaw.”

Kyle jerked his head up, eyes astonished, inquiring. “You what? Are you off your fucking head?”

“It’s not what you think. I wanted to talk to her about, well, about something that happened in the last few days.” Julian hesitated.

“Go on, spit it out.”

“I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but I guess you’re going to find out soon enough anyway.”

Julian told Kyle about Joanne Butcher. “Hoooly shit,” exclaimed Kyle. “I fucking told you. I told you she was dead, didn’t I? How did it happen, do you think?”

“How would I know?”

An almost ghoulish light in his eyes, Kyle asked, “Had she been, like, mutilated or anything?”

“I didn’t get close enough to see.” Julian knew better than to mention the bite marks.

“Jesus, this is massive.” Kyle glanced around himself. “Where’s my moby? I’ve got to tell everyone about this!”

“You can’t do that. You’ll drop me in it big time.”

Kyle pursed his lips disappointedly. “Can’t I tell just a few people? I mean, what difference would it make? You know what this town’s like. Half the people in it probably know by now anyway.”

“That’s not the point. Look, I’m asking you to keep this to yourself until it comes out in the newspapers. Then you can blabber on about it as much as you want with whoever you want.”

“Aw, where’s the fun in that?”

“Where’s the fucking fun in talking about it at all?” Julian snapped.

“Alright, chill, bro.” Kyle held up a conciliatory hand. “Jesus, you’re so fucking uptight these days.”

“Yeah, well I haven’t slept much in the last few days.”

“There’s no wonder about that, is there? Listen, if you want me to keep my gob shut, I’ll keep it shut.”

“Cheers. Sorry for getting shitty.”

“No worries.” Kyle passed Julian the spliff. “Have another toot on that. That’ll sort you out.”

Julian heaved the smoke out in a sigh. “Sometimes life can be a real pile of shit.”

“Tell me about it. My first class isn’t until eleven. If you hadn’t come knocking, I could’ve got in another couple hours of kip.” When Julian flashed him an annoyed look, Kyle chuckled and added. “Just kidding, bro. Look, tell you what, I’ll skip college today. We can chill around the house, head out to a few bars later, whatever. It’ll be like old times.”

“I dunno, I’m supposed to be studying.” Julian pictured himself sat alone in his bedroom, brooding. The thought almost made him groan aloud. “Actually, y’know what, bollocks to it. Bollocks to studying.”

“That’s the spirit, m’boy.” Kyle stretched out his hand. “Hey, man, don’t Bogart it.”

“I’m off to work now, Kyle,” his mum called up the stairs. “Don’t be late for class.”

“I won’t, Mum. See you later.”

They went downstairs and sat slumped in front of the morning cartoons, munching on cereal, cake, crisps and whatever else took their fancy. “So what’re you going to do about Eleanor?” Kyle asked.

Julian shrugged. He didn’t know what he was going to do about her. He didn’t know what he was going to do about Mia, the dreams, university — about anything. His thoughts were as confused as his emotions. A feeling of dizziness, like vertigo, swelled up inside him. He attempted to shove it back down with a deep suck of smoke.

“Do you still like her and all that?”

“Sure I like her.”

“Yeah, but do you, y’know, really like her? ’Cos I mean, and don’t take this the wrong way, bro, if you don’t really like her, maybe you should keep your distance from her.”

“Fucking hell, Kyle, you sound like my mum.”

“Alls I’m saying is-”

“Yeah, I know,” cut in Julian. “She doesn’t deserve to be fucked around by the likes of me.”

“Well she doesn’t.”

“Just drop it, will you. All I want to do is get stoned and think about nothing.”

At midday, they dragged themselves out of the ruins of their gluttony for a tour of the local pubs and bars. By the time they got to The Cut, they were staggering drunk. Some of Kyle’s college mates were there. There was a lot of gossip about Joanne Butcher. A rumour was doing the rounds that she’d fled town after getting in deep with a drug dealer. Julian kept a sharp eye on Kyle, who sat chewing his lips, obviously struggling to keep the secret from bursting forth. When Kyle’s mates drifted away, Julian fell to muttering into his pint, “Trapped in a box. Ah, what’s the fucking point?”

“What are you gibbering about?”

“University. I mean, it’s all a load of bollocks anyway. And when it’s over I’m just gonna end up back where I started. So what’s the fucking point of it? Way I see it, I might as well jack it in right now and go to work for my dad.”

Kyle choked out a mouthful of smoke. “Fuck me, bro, you really have had too much to drink. Come on, let’s go get a burger.”

The food sobered Julian up a bit. A dull ache grew in his head, as he thought about his mum, about the lines around her eyes and the worry he’d seen in them that morning. “I’d better get home.”

“Aw, do you have to?” said Kyle. “It’s only early.”

“I really need to lie down, close my eyes.” Julian didn’t say sleep. He wanted rest, but not sleep. Not until he was too tired to avoid it.

As they left the fast-food restaurant, a junky black car pulled over in front of them, grinding rock music pumping out of its windows. Mia was sat in the back. In the front was the older woman and, behind the steering wheel, one of the men Julian had first seen her with in The Cut. Mia wound down her window and said to Julian, “Hey, rich boy. What you up to?”

“He’s going home,” said Kyle, as offhandedly as he dared when it came to Jake Bradshaw’s sister.

“We’re heading out to the bridge,” said Mia, ignoring him. “You want to come along? Just you, not your friend.”

Kyle tugged Julian away from the car. “Come on, let’s go.”

Julian shook himself free and started around the back of the car. “What the fuck?” said Kyle. “I thought you-”

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Julian cut him off. He ducked into the car. Mia flicked Kyle the finger and wound her window back up.

“Well fuck you too,” yelled Kyle as the car accelerated sharply away.

The car’s interior stank of fast-food and dope. The driver bobbed his head to the music, stroking his free hand up and down between the woman’s legs, over her torn stockings. There was a tattoo of an inverted cross on the back of his hand. The woman took a sheet of translucent yellow paper printed with a grid of cutting lines from the glove-box. She tore off two five-mm squares and, as if inserting contact-lenses, carefully placed one under each of her eyelids, before passing the sheet to Mia.

“What’s that?” Julian asked.

“They’re called windows.”

“Because they’re see-through.”

“Because they let you look through the window and see stuff that’s normally hidden.”

“Like what?”

Mia shrugged. “Whatever’s on the other side. Want one?”

Julian shook his head. “The way I’m feeling, I’d probably have a bad trip.”

“There are no bad trips on this shit,” said the man. “It’s the fucking bomb. I’m telling you, until you’ve fucked on this stuff you haven’t fucked. No shit. It’s like, wow, man!”

“Whatever it is, I’m not up for it.”

“Suit yourself, mate, all the more for the rest of us.”

When they got to the bridge, blankets slung over their shoulders, they descended the steep bank. The man got the fire going, then he and the woman moved off into the shadows and lay down together. Mia and Julian sat close to each other, not touching but close, not talking for a while, listening to the couple screwing. “So did you find someone else to fuck?” asked Julian. He didn’t want to ask the question, but somehow he couldn’t help himself.

“Why?” Mia looked at him sidelong, her eyes flickering in the firelight with something that might’ve been amusement. “Have you changed your mind about fucking me?”

“No,” Julian said forcibly, as if he was trying to convince himself of what he was saying.

Mia started laughing. She laughed so hard that tears filled her eyes. Suddenly, she caught her laughter and asked, “Have the coppers told you anything else about Jo, about how she died?”

“No.”

Mia’s gaze moved to the river. The same far-horizon look came into her eyes — the same only a little dreamier and more pained, almost as if she was watching some part of herself being carried away by the current. “Sometimes I think Jo’s lucky,” she said. “At least she’s out of this shit.”

“You shouldn’t talk like that. Things can’t be that bad.”

“They can’t?” Mia jerked her dilated pupils to Julian. “Why can’t they? What the fuck do you know about my life?”

“I…nothing,” stammered Julian, taken aback by the vehemence of her question. “But if you want we can, y’know, talk about it and stuff.”

Mia stared at him a couple seconds, then burst out laughing again and shaking her head. “You don’t want to know about me. You’re a nice little rich kid. You don’t want to know where I’ve been, where I’m going.”

Julian sucked in his irritation, determined not to play her game by getting angry. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.”

Mia gave him another look, no laughter in her eyes now. “Seriously, you don’t want my life in your head.”

“So why have you brought me here, if you don’t want to talk?”

“’Cos I like you, Julian.” Mia reached out and brushed her hand down his face. “Hey, wow, the acid’s really kicking in.” She jumped up and swirled around the fire. “You should’ve tried it. The visuals are totally sick.” She skipped off along the riverbank path, which was narrow enough that a slight stumble would send her tumbling into the water. If that happened, Julian knew, the fast-flowing current would suck her under in an instant. He hurried after her. Caution slowed his feet, as darkness closed around him like a thick blanket. He couldn’t see Mia, but the echo of her laughter drifted back to him.

“Mia, wait. Mia, Mia-”

Her scream cut Julian short. Forgetting his caution, he rushed forward and almost tripped over her prone form. He felt for her in the dark. She was stiff, yet trembling as if in shock. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I saw her.” Mia’s voice was tiny and high-pitched, stripped of pretension by fear.

“Saw who?”

“I saw her,” she repeated. “In the water. I saw her, saw her, saw…” She mumbled off into incoherence.

Julian helped Mia to her feet and, one arm around her waist, guided her back to the fire. Her clothes and face were splotched with mud. He wrapped a blanket around her. She sat hunched, hands trembling in her lap, eyes goggling at the flames. Julian started to move away from her.

“Where you going?” she asked anxiously.

“To fetch your friends.”

“Don’t leave me alone.”

“But we need to get you home.”

“Home,” Mia scoffed, her voice regaining some of its strength. “That’s a laugh.” She pleaded with Julian with her eyes. Sighing, he sat down next to her. “I feel all cold inside,” she said. Hesitantly, Julian put his arm around her. She squirmed closer, pressing her head against his shoulder. At first deep tremors passed through her body into him every few seconds. But after a while he felt her relax and her breathing became slow and regular.

He held her like that the rest of the night. In the dirty grey light of dawn, she smiled at him. It was the first honest smile he’d seen on her face. It made her look different, softer, less angry. “Thanks, Julian.”

Julian rose slowly to his feet, muscles stiffed by cold. He considered asking Mia who she’d seen in the water, but decided not to — not while the shadow of her experience was still in her eyes. He’d let her tell him only if she wanted to. He crouched by the fire’s embers, while she went in search of her companions. She returned after a few minutes, with them trailing. “Was it fucking good!” the man was saying, “Fuck, man, it was like, boom!” As they climbed the bank, grinning leeringly, he leant in close to Julian. “So does she suck a good cock?” he whispered. “I’ll bet she can suck it dry, can’t she? Just like her little whore of a dead pal. Now she was a good suck job. First time she did me I was like, oh baby, that was some fucking good suck. Did your daddy teach you that?”

The man chuckled as if he’d told a joke. Julian clenched his teeth, fighting down an urge to drive his elbow into his larynx. They drove into town to the fast-food joint they’d picked Julian up outside. “We’re gonna get breakfast,” Mia said to him. “You want to eat breakfast with me?”

Julian glanced at the man, who, along with the woman, was making his way into the restaurant. “You shouldn’t hang around with him.”

“Who, Weasel? He’s okay.”

“No he’s not. He said some stuff about you and Joanne Butcher.”

Mia frowned. “Like what?”

“I don’t want to repeat it, but it wasn’t nice.”

Mia’s frown spread into her eyes, hardening them to knife slits. She shook her head. “And here I was starting to think you were different, but you’re not. You’re just like the rest of them. Fuck, who do you think you are, telling me who I should and shouldn’t hang with?”

“I’m only trying to look out for you.”

“Yeah, well don’t. I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it all my life.”

Before Julian could respond, Mia turned and entered the restaurant. He stared after her a few seconds, heaved a sigh and headed off along the street.

Chapter 7

When Julian reached Kyle’s house, he briefly considered knocking and apologising to him. He was too dog-tired to be bothered, though. He got into his car and drove home. His parents were waiting for him. From the look his dad gave him, he might’ve been waiting up all night.

“Where the hell have you been?” Robert demanded to know.

“Can we do this later?” Julian asked, stifling a yawn.

“No we can’t. You’re supposed to be studying, not staying out night after night, partying or getting drunk or whatever. If this is how you’re going to behave, you might as well go back to London.”

“Fuck that,” Julian muttered under his breath.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. Sorry, I’m too tired for this right now.” Julian headed for his bedroom. He collapsed onto his bed and put in his I-pod earphones, turning the music up loud enough that it’d wake him if he happened to drift off. He thought about what Weasel had said. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. There was that feeling again. In his stomach. Spreading to his other internal organs, insidious as cancer. It made him queasy and angry. He took off his earphones, dug his mobile-phone and a business-card out of his pockets. He punched in the number on the card and Tom Benson answered in a crisp, professional tone.

“There’s this guy you might want to talk to,” Julian told him. “His nickname’s Weasel.”

“I think I know who you mean. Crucifix tattoo on his left hand.”

“That’s him.” Then, cringing, Julian repeated what Weasel had said.

“Well, well, I’ll have to have a chat with Weasel. Thanks for that. But how do you know him?”

Julian told the policeman about Mia Bradshaw. Not everything. Just the bits he needed to hear. When he was finished, the policeman said, “Now I’ve got something to tell you. I just got off the phone with the coroner. Joanne Butcher died from a heroin overdose.”

The words, all those fuckers can tut and nod and shake their little heads, rang in Julian’s brain. “So she wasn’t murdered?”

“Doesn’t look like it. So there’s no need for you to hang around.” A cautionary note entered the policeman’s voice. “Oh, and if I were you I’d have nothing else to do with Mia Bradshaw. You’re likely to get into trouble hanging around with that kind.”

Irritation prickled through Julian. What do you mean by that kind? So she comes from a bad background. That doesn’t mean she’s bad, just unlucky. He felt like saying this, but didn’t. He simply said, “Thanks,” and hung-up.

Julian hurried from his bedroom. He had to see Mia, tell her about Joanne Butcher, tell her he was sorry, make her realise he was different from all the tut-tut-tutters and head-shakers — and he knew there was only one way to do that. He had to show her who he really was. Show her his sickness was greater than anything she carried. Then, maybe, she’d show him who she really was. He’d already caught a glimpse of her real self, her vulnerability. It made him fear for her, fear that she might destroy herself if her hatred of life grew any deeper. He didn’t know why he should care what happened to her, but he did.

“Where are you going now?” asked Robert. When he got no reply, voice rising, he continued, “I asked you a question. Don’t you walk away-”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Robert, leave him be,” interrupted Christine.

“No I won’t leave him be. While he’s under my roof-” Julian heard his dad say. Then he was out the front door and running for his car.

Mia wasn’t in the fast-food restaurant. After cruising around for a while, vainly scanning the streets for her, Julian remembered that he knew which school she went to. It was the same school his dad had attended. Not the best school in town, but as his dad had once said, a decent school, with decent people. At lunchtime, kids streamed out the gate — kids with middle-class written all over them. Mia was amongst them, but somehow aloof from them. As Julian approached her, he noticed other kids giving her looks, some hating, some mocking, some perhaps envying or even admiring. She didn’t appear to notice or care.

“I need to talk to you,” he said. Mia walked past him without looking at him. “Please,” he continued, “this is really important.”

She stopped and turned to run her eyes over his drawn, unshaven face. “Come on,” she said, almost expressionless, and continued walking.

Julian followed. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere we can talk.”

They walked along quiet suburban streets to a house — a well-kept semi with a garden and a privet hedge. “Is this your parents’ place?” Julian asked, surprised. He’d pictured her living in a flat on some run-down estate.

“Foster-parents’.”

At the front door, they met a girl about Mia’s age coming the other way. “Who’s he?” she asked, looking at Julian.

“None of your business.”

“You’re not supposed to have boys in the house when my parents are out,” the girl called after them as they made their way upstairs, putting special emphasis on the word ‘my’.

Ignoring her, Mia led Julian into a bedroom. It contained all the essentials — bed, desk, drawers, wardrobe — but there were no posters, books, cds, or any of the other things you might expect to see in a teenage girl’s room. There was a suitcase on the floor, open but unpacked, screwed up clothes leaking out of it, makeup, bits of cheap jewellery and photos jumbled in amongst them. Stretching out onto the bed, Mia looked at Julian expectantly.

Julian took a breath and told her how her best-friend died. He saw, perhaps, the faintest quiver in her eyes. But other than that, nothing. “Is that it?” she said. “Is that all you have to tell me?”

Before the previous night, Julian might’ve been tempted to call Mia a total fucking cold-hearted bitch. But now he knew — or at least, thought he knew — that her impassivity was a mask she’d learned to wear to protect herself. He shook his head, gesturing to the bed. “Can I sit?”

Mia shrugged. “Sure.”

He flopped down next to her, rubbing his eyes and murmuring, “Man, I’m so tired. I haven’t slept properly in a week.”

“Why?”

“I have these dreams.” Julian swallowed as he spoke, forming the words with a reluctant mumble.

“What kind of dreams?”

“Bad ones. It’s like there’s something in the bedroom with me, attacking me, trying to get inside me.”

Mia sat up, crossing her legs, curiosity replacing her impassivity. “You mean like a ghost or something?”

“No, not a ghost.”

“What then?”

“I don’t know.”

“So what happens?”

Julian told Mia what happened in the dream — the original dream, not the new version. She listened intently, fascinated. “That’s seriously creepy shit,” she said. “So how long have you been dreaming that stuff?”

“Since I was ten.”

“Fuck.” Mia looked at Julian with something close to sympathy. “I’d go totally out of my skull if I was you.”

“I almost did. You wouldn’t believe how many therapists I’ve been through.”

“Did they help?”

“Some of them did. The last guy I saw told me I needed to learn to accept the dream, not fight it. He said I had to let it come, in order to let it go. So I did, and it did go for a while.”

“But now it’s back.”

Julian nodded. “Ever since I heard about Joanne Butcher.”

Mia frowned, her eyes searching Julian’s. “Why would that make it come back?”

“Maybe because her disappearance reminded me of Susan Carter.”

“Who’s Susan Carter?”

“A girl from around here who went missing ten years ago. My grandma tried to help her parents find her.”

“Was she a copper?”

Julian smiled thinly at the idea. “No, she was a psychic medium.”

Mia’s eyebrows lifted. “You mean she could, like, speak to the dead.”

“Supposedly, although if you ask me it was a load of bollocks, one big act.”

“I dunno, I kind of believe in that stuff.” For the space of a breath Mia’s eyes went away again, lost in whatever she saw on the horizon of her mind. She blinked back to the real world. “So go on, what happened with your nan?”

Julian told Mia about the day his mum took him to visit his grandma, about creeping downstairs to the seance, about his grandma’s changed, distorted face. She shook her head, wide-eyed. “This just gets weirder and weirder. So how did you find out who Susan was?”

“I went to this therapist a few years later, and he reckoned that unravelling the mysteries of the dream would take away its power. So Mum took me to the library and showed me newspaper clippings about a girl called Susan Carter who went over to a friend’s house one evening, but never got there. A big search went on for her, but they didn’t find anything. It was as if she’d vanished right off the face of the planet. Anyway, about a year later the police arrested this truck-driver who tried to snatch a girl off the street in Glasgow. His name was Michael Ridgway. This guy was a loner, a real oddball. When they searched his house they found a box with bits of jewellery and girl’s clothes and underwear in it. Turned out, they belonged to other girls he’d snatched.”

“I’ve heard about that kind of thing — about how serial killers keep trophies from their victims. I remember seeing on TV about this guy who killed people by biting their throats, and drinking their blood, like some kind of vampire. He kept their heads as trophies.”

“Yeah, well this sicko had been trucking up and down the country for years, abducting and killing girls. That’s why they called him The A1 Murderer. When the police found out he’d been on a job in this area the day Susan Carter disappeared, they showed his trophies, or whatever they were, to her parents. There was a necklace the same as one she’d been wearing when she disappeared. It was obvious he’d taken her. Problem was he wouldn’t admit it. And since no one had seen anything, and they couldn’t find Susan’s body, and you could buy the same necklace on any high-street, they decided not to charge him with her murder. But they did charge him with six other murders and locked him up for life.”

“They should’ve cut his balls off n’all.”

“Maybe, but it wouldn’t have made much difference. The guy was only in jail a few months before he died of a heart-attack. That’s when Susan Carter’s parents went to my grandma.”

“And did your grandma find out where she was?”

“Course not,” Julian said, with a derisive little laugh.

“So the man in your dream is Michael Ridgway.”

“No. I haven’t got a clue who the man in my dream is, or if it’s even a man.” Heaving a sigh, Julian closed his eyes. “Whatever it is, I just want it to leave me the fuck alone.”

Something touched his cheek. It was Mia. Her fingers moved along his jaw towards his chin. She was smiling — not a come on smile, a concerned smile. He flinched away. “There’s something else.” His voice came heavily, as if dragged through deep mud. “You might not feel so sorry for me, you might not even want to know me once I tell you.”

“Who says I want to know you now?” teased Mia.

“I’m serious.”

“If you think you can shock me, go ahead. But I’m telling you, it’ll need to be totally fucking out there to shock me.”

Julian cleared his throat, swallowed. As he opened his mouth, there came a sudden dropping sensation, like falling off a high place, and Mia’s face briefly swam out of focus. “When the dream came back, it was…was…” He stammered into silence. Part of him was desperate to keep quiet, but another part of him needed to go on. “It was different. This time I’m not the one being attacked, I’m the attacker. I rape and strangle Susan Carter, and it feels…it feels good. It’s the most powerful feeling I’ve ever had.”

Mia puffed her cheeks. “That’s pretty fucking out there.”

“You think I’m sick, right?” Julian looked shamefacedly from under his eyebrows. “You think I’m a pervert, like Michael Ridgway.”

“I don’t know what you are, but I’m pretty sure you’re nothing like him. I’m guessing you’re just fucked up, like the rest of us.”

Julian almost smiled, despite the way he felt. “Thanks.”

“What I’m saying is we’ve all got our own dirty little secrets.”

“Not all of us have recurring dreams about rape and murder, though.”

“Yeah, but it’s only a dream, right? I mean, just because you dream it doesn’t mean you actually want to go out and do it. Does it?”

“Fuck no,” exclaimed Julian. “No fucking way. It makes me want to puke just thinking about it.”

“Well then, there you go.” Mia hesitated, then went on slowly, reluctantly, as if she was saying more than she wanted to, “Look, Julian, I’ve come across some bad people in my time. I’m not talking about pricks like Weasel, either. I’m talking the kind of people you never, ever want to meet. And you can take it from me, you’re not a bad or evil person. You don’t even come close. You’re just an ordinary screwed up kid.”

What bad people? Julian wanted to ask, but he knew Mia well enough by now to know he wouldn’t get an answer. He drew some relief from her reaction to his confession, but still the thought kept nagging at him, you’re not normal, there’s something twisted and rotten inside you. There has to be.

They sat in silence a while, not looking at each other. “Hey,” Mia piped up, her dark blue eyes shining with some kind of inner excitement. “What if you’re the same as your nan?”

Julian frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, what if you’ve got the same power she had. What if that’s why you keep having these dreams. Susan Carter could be trying to contact you to tell you who killed her.”

The idea had never crossed Julian’s mind for an instant. He tried to dismiss it with a snort, but there was a kind of perverse logic to what Mia said that made it cling to him like a cold limpet. “My grandma was a fake.”

“How do you know?”

“Mediums are all fakes. There’s nothing beyond this world. No ghosts, no angels, no Heaven, no God.”

“You can’t know that,” retorted Mia, suddenly tetchy.

“You’re right,” said Julian, surprised — he hadn’t expected her to be the type to buy into all that. “But it’s what I believe.”

“Well I think there is something else out there.” Mia challenged Julian with her eyes to argue otherwise.

He shrugged. “Whatever gets you through the night.”

Mia looked down at her lap, fidgeting with her hands. She glanced at Julian from beneath her fringe with uncharacteristic sheepishness. “Maybe we could try an experiment to see who’s right.”

“What do you mean? What kind of experiment?”

“We could do a seance, see if we can contact Susan Carter.”

Julian stared open-mouthed at Mia, unable to reply. Her words were like a hand reaching out to grab his throat. For a second, he wondered if he’d got her wrong, maybe she really was just a cold-hearted bitch. But then he glimpsed something in her expression, some hint of angst or even fear that seemed to suggest this wasn’t simply about Susan Carter. Right then, though, he was too thrown to give any thought to what else it could be about.

“Sorry,” said Mia. “It was a stupid idea.”

“Yeah, you got that right.”

“Can we just forget I said it?”

Julian sighed. “Sure. It’s forgotten.”

They sat in silence a while. The room was warm with the midday sun shining through the window, and the bed was soft. Julian yawned. “Why don’t you get some sleep?” Mia suggested.

Julian’s throat cinched up tight again. “Don’t you have to get back to school?”

“I’ll skip class. It’s only sports this afternoon anyway.”

“What if I have the dream?”

“So what if you do? You’re worried what I might see, right? But you don’t need to be.”

“It’s not just that. I know this sounds crazy, but what if…What if I attack you in my sleep?”

Mia laughed. “If only I was so lucky.”

“I’m serious. I might hurt you.”

“I doubt that, but if it makes you feel better I could tie your hands.” Mia stooped to pick a fishnet stocking off the carpet. She grinned, flashing her eyebrows at Julian. “Kinky, eh?”

Face creased in uncertainty, Julian put a hand to the dull, sleepless ache in his head. “I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

“Chill, it’ll be fine. Listen, you looked after me when I freaked out, so now I’ll do the same for you.”

Reluctantly, Julian allowed Mia to tie his hands. “Make sure it’s tight.”

“There. You’ll never get out of that.”

Julian wriggled his hands. Mia was right, he couldn’t work them free. “Now you’re mine to do what I want with,” she teased, taking hold of his shoulders and drawing him down onto the pillows. He took a deep breath. “Close your eyes,” she said. He did so. He felt her hand on his head, felt her fingers pushing through his hair. His body stiffened with apprehension as a slight numbness drifted over him, a hint of sleep. He heard her shush him. Then he heard nothing more, felt nothing more and saw nothing more.

He awoke refreshed, exhilarated. His sleep had been like falling into an oblivion absolved of dreams. Mia was gone. Late afternoon shadows played across the curtains. Rolling to glance at the bedside clock, he felt something hard beneath the pillows. He reached under and pulled out a little black book, Mia’s diary. He stared hesitantly at it. Aware of how much he valued his own privacy, the thought of prying into someone else’s secret place made him deeply uneasy. And yet, surely it was justified if he found something he could use to snatch Mia back from the edge he sensed she was swaying on. Ears tuned for the slightest sound of movement on the landing, he opened the book. A photo fell out, dog-eared from being handled, faded with age or exposure to sunlight. It was a school photo of a smiling girl of about fourteen or fifteen. Her mousey blonde hair was tied in a sleek ponytail. Her makeupless face was lightly freckled, her features strikingly similar to Mia’s. She had the same eyes, the same nose, but her mouth was fuller and the curve of her jaw was softer. She and Mia could’ve been sisters, or maybe mother and daughter. Julian’s gaze lingered on the photo as long as he dared, before moving to the pages it’d marked, which dated to the previous day. At the top of the page was written ‘How much is enough?’ and underneath it there was an incredibly lifelike sketch of a face. The face was jowly and thick-featured with a snoutish nose. The eyebrows formed a single line above small, close-set eyes. Swollen-looking lips curved up into a smile, which seemed to exude a kind of repulsive leering cynicism. Next to it was written ‘Mr Ugly’.

The door clicked open. Julian went to shove the diary back under the pillow, but with his hands tied he wasn’t fast enough. Mia appeared in the doorway, holding two mugs. “Hey, what the fuck you doing looking at that?” she said. “Put it down right now.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…I just…” stammered Julian.

“Just what? You just wanted to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, that’s what.”

“Who’s Mr Ugly?”

“None of your fucking business.”

“Is someone…hurting you? Is a man hurting you?”

Mia laughed contemptuously, as if to say, no man could hurt me. “Just get out.” All the softness was gone from her voice. Her eyes burned like blue flame.

“Please, Mia, you can tell me. I can help.”

“What makes you think I want help from you or anybody else?”

“Your Facebook photo.”

Mia thought for a moment, then realising what Julian referred to she said, “You mean what I wrote on my wrist. That was a joke. I was just fucking around.”

“It didn’t look like a joke.”

“Yeah, well it was. Now go on. Fuck off out of here.”

Julian rose, holding out his hands which were tingly from lack of circulation for Mia to untie. The corners of her eyes and mouth curling with mischief, she shook her head. “We don’t want you molesting any schoolgirls on your way to your car now, do we?”

A flush rose up Julian’s throat. “That’s not fair and you know it.”

Mia’s eyes flickered as if she realised she’d gone too far, but she didn’t untie Julian. Sighing, he made his way downstairs and out into the street. He found a low brick wall and sawed the stocking against its edge, conscious that it wasn’t the kind of neighbourhood where a stranger could loiter without causing curtains to twitch. It took him a good ten minutes to work his hands free. Stuffing the stocking into his pocket, he returned to his car. He felt bad about the diary, but it occurred to him that Mia must’ve known there was a good chance he’d find it. Perhaps on some level, conscious or subconscious, she’d wanted him to find it. Perhaps, like her Facebook photo, it was a call for help — help she desperately needed, but was too proud to ask for. He released a heavy breath. Perhaps he was just an idiot for reading it. Still, he couldn’t shake the image of Mr Ugly from his mind. He had no doubt that Mr Ugly was one of the ‘bad people’ Mia had referred to. But who was he? Did he even exist or was he just something produced from her mind, a representation of her troubled psyche? Julian shook his head. That face had displayed a sordid cynicism of almost inhuman proportions. Sure Mia was cynical, but that wasn’t all she was. Beneath her cynicism, he knew now, there was a tender heart. But that heart was being eaten out of her by bad people. And when the last bite was gone, Mia would be gone too, gone like Joanne Butcher.

Henry greeted Julian with a bark as he entered the house. Stooping to scratch behind his ears, he made his way through to the kitchen. Wanda was preparing the evening meal. “What’ve you been up to?” she asked.

Julian expelled a breath of irritation. “Not you as well. Always questions, questions.”

Wanda’s eyes grew stern. “Don’t get offish with me, Julian. If we ask questions it’s not because we’re trying to pry into your life, it’s because we’re worried about you. Would you rather we just ignored you and let you get yourself into a worse mess than you’re already in?”

“Who says I’m in a mess?”

Wanda made a who are you trying to kid face. “I’ve seen you like this before, Julian, when you were having those nightmares. You’ve got the same look in your eyes now that you had then.”

Julian dropped his gaze from Wanda’s. “Where’s Mum?”

“In bed. All this upset has wiped her out.”

A twinge of guilt tugged at Julian. “I’m taking Henry for a walk.”

As he headed for the back door, Wanda said, “All we want is for you to be happy, Julian.”

He hesitated, glancing a smile at Wanda. “I know. I’m sorry for snapping.”

Julian made his way through the woods to where the path forked. He took the fork that led straight on. The police were gone now. The only sign that they’d ever been there was some torn strands of yellow-and-black plastic ribbon dangling from tree-trunks where he’d found the body. He thought about Joanne Butcher, about the way she’d looked alive, about the way she’d looked dead. He thought about Mia. “How much is enough?” he said to himself. “How much is enough for what?”

Chapter 8

When Julian returned from his walk, he went to bed. He wasn’t particularly tired, but he was eager to see if the dream returned. He closed his eyes and tried to relax. Sleep came on, and with it the dream. He jerked awake, trembling with disgust and rage. Catching a glimpse of himself in a mirror, he snatched up a mug and hurled it at his reflection. The mirror cracked with a loud pop. The distorted, fragmented face that stared at him from it seemed like the revelation of his inner being. There was a knock at his door.

“Everything okay in there?” asked Christine. “What was that noise?”

Julian slung a shirt over the mirror, before opening the door and smiling at his mum. “I just dropped something, that’s all.” He studied his mum’s face. The lines were perhaps a fraction more deeply etched, the shadows perhaps a shade darker than when he’d first arrived home. “Listen, Mum, I realise I’ve been behaving in a pretty shitty way the last few days, but I want you to know, well, I…the thing is…” He faltered. He’d meant to lie to her, tell her there was no need to worry about him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. The lie was too big for utterance, even if it was to protect her. She waited for him to go on, but he didn’t. He couldn’t lie, and neither could he tell the truth. All he could do was hide behind silence, staring awkwardly at the floor.

To Julian’s relief, the sound of the front door opening and then approaching footsteps attracted his mum’s attention. His relief dissolved into a fresh wave of apprehension as his dad burst out angrily from the living-room. “Julian, if you’re in, I want to talk to you.” Robert emerged into view flushed and frowning. “You’re a bloody liar. I phoned the university today, spoke to your personal tutor. There’s no study-break. You haven’t attended class for nearly a fortnight. You’ve been playing us for mugs.”

Julian glanced at his mum, then quickly back to his dad. Anger he could deal with, but not the disappointment he saw in her eyes. “What do you think you’re doing, checking up on me?”

“I’ve got every right to check up on you, Julian. It’s my money that pays for your studies.”

“I never asked for your money.”

“Only because you’ve never had to. You’ve never really had to ask for anything your whole life.” Robert nodded with a sardonic twist of his mouth, as if he’d hit upon some minor revelation. “Maybe that’s the problem here. Maybe if we hadn’t just given you everything you wanted, you wouldn’t think this kind of brattish behaviour was acceptable.”

“Yeah, and maybe if you showed some trust in me, I wouldn’t feel the need to behave this way.”

“Don’t try to turn this back on me. I’m not the one in the wrong here.”

Julian raised his eyebrows. “Oh no, you’ve never lied to anyone about anything, have you?”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Robert demanded to know, his anger flashing higher.

“You know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the-”

“Don’t change the subject, Julian,” Christine interjected. “Why did you lie to us? Why are you here and not at university?”

Julian hesitated to look at her. He knew his defensive indignation would crumble under her calm, forceful, yet gentle gaze. She repeated his name. He looked at her, eyes pleading understanding. “Because, well, because I don’t know if I want to be at university anymore.”

“I knew it, I bloody knew it,” exclaimed Robert. “Julian, there’s absolutely no way you’re dropping out of university. Do you hear? No sodding way.”

Streaks of red blotched Julian’s face and neck. “And here was me thinking it was my choice.”

“Not if you don’t have the maturity to make the right choice for your own good.”

“Who says it’s not the right choice?” retorted Julian, his face growing more alike to his dad’s the angrier he got.

“I bloody do.”

“You never even went to fucking university.”

“Calm down, both of you,” put in Christine. She looked searchingly at her son. “What’s brought this about, Julian? You seemed happy enough at university last week. What’s changed since then?”

Julian thought about Joanne Butcher, about her short, brutal life. “Nothing…except…” he began hesitantly, struggling to put his feelings into words.

“Except what?”

“Well, I guess I was happy enough just drifting along until now. It kind of didn’t matter that I wasn’t enjoying the course, as long as I could go out and have a laugh with my mates and stuff. But this thing with Joanne Butcher, it’s made me think, what’s the point?”

“The point is that you’re learning to live independently,” said Robert.

“No I’m not. Like you said, I’m just living off you in another place.”

“I don’t understand,” said Christine. “What’s Joanne Butcher got to do with anything?”

“Well, I suppose it’s made me realise that all I’m doing is wasting my time, delaying the inevitable.”

“So what’re you going to do instead?” asked Robert. “Because if you think you’re going to hang around here, sleeping all day and partying all night, then you can think again.”

“Oh, so you’d rather I did that at uni and flunked out at the end of the year, would you?”

“I’d rather you knuckled down to some hard study. You don’t seem to realise how lucky you are, Julian. My parents couldn’t afford to send me to university. When I was your age, I was working two jobs-”

Julian rolled his eyes, hissing out a breath. “Jesus, here we go again.”

Before Robert could shoot back another angry retort, Christine asked, “What do you mean, delaying the inevitable?”

“I mean that sooner or later, I’m going to end up working at the factory. So I was thinking I might as well start now.”

Robert let out a harsh, almost mocking laugh. “What makes you think I’d employ a university dropout?” He turned to Christine, hands spread. “You see. This is what I was talking about, he’s had it so easy he doesn’t think he’s got to work for anything.”

“But I am willing to work for it,” protested Julian. “I’ll work on the production line, sweep the floors, make cups of tea, whatever. I’ll do like you did, work my way up from the bottom.”

Robert wrinkled his nose as if he’d sniffed something nasty. “You’re studying so you don’t have to do like I did. Do you really think I’ve worked so hard all these years so I can watch my son struggle like I had to?”

“But you just said I’ve had it too easy.”

“Don’t twist my words to your purpose, Julian.”

“I’m not, I just want the chance to prove to you-”

“No.” Robert made a cutting motion in the air. “I’m not discussing this anymore. Tomorrow you’re going back to university and you’re going to buckle down to hard work, and that’s all there is to it.”

“And what if I refuse?”

“Don’t push me, Julian. I’m warning you.”

For a full thirty-seconds Julian faced his dad over the wheelchair, neither flinching from the other’s stare. Then he gave his mum an I’m sorry look and, keeping his head down, pushed his way past his dad. “Jul-” she started to say.

“Leave him, Christine,” Robert cut her off.

Julian didn’t get into his car. He needed to walk off the frustration that made him feel like pounding his fist into his face. Without thinking about it, his feet led him to the suburb where Mia lived. It was several miles’ walk to the semi-detached house, and he felt calmer by the time he got there, but anger bubbled not far beneath the surface of his mind. There was a car in drive and lights in the downstairs windows. He knocked and a tall man — presumably Mia’s foster father — came to the door. The man, Julian noted, looked nothing like Mr Ugly. Even so, there was something unpleasant about his face. A small brown moustache perched over a mouth pursed into firm, disapproving wrinkles. Pale, almost colourless eyes peered down at Julian as though he was an insect that needed removing.

“Is Mia in?” asked Julian.

“You’re the boy my daughter saw with Mia earlier today, aren’t you?” said the man.

Julian remained silent, suddenly put on his guard by the man’s demeanour.

“You do realise that statutory rape is a serious offence.”

Eyes widening, Julian held up his hand, palm forward. “Whoa, hold on, you’ve got totally the wrong idea.”

“Really. My daughter tells me Mia didn’t return to school after lunchtime. So what were you doing alone in the bedroom of a fifteen-year old girl all afternoon?”

“Just talking.”

“Just talking,” the man repeated dubiously. “About what?”

Julian gave a little shrug.

“What’s your name?”

“Julian.”

“Julian what?”

“I…Tell Mia I called, thanks,” stammered Julian, backing away.

The man stepped after him, taking a pencil and notebook from his pocket. “I want to know your full name and home address.” Julian turned away, quickening his pace. “Luring underage girls into kinky sex, that’s what you get your kicks out of, is it?” the man continued.

Julian paused to glance back at him, face arched into a deep frown. “What?”

“You like being tied up.”

Realising a neighbour must’ve seen him leave the house, Julian shook his head. “I already told you, you’ve got the wrong idea.”

“I don’t think so. And I don’t think the police will think so, either.”

“Talk to Mia, she’ll tell you.”

“Oh I intend to, when I see her.”

Julian continued walking. The man stood, arms crossed, at the end of his drive, watching him until he was out of sight. He wondered if the man would really contact the police. Even though he’d done nothing wrong, it gave him a headache thinking about having to explain himself to them. From the man’s parting words, it was apparent Mia was out somewhere. Julian headed to The Cut, but she wasn’t there. He considered checking out the bridge, but it was a good five miles away and he didn’t have enough money for a taxi. He heaved a sigh. He still really needed to talk to someone, try and get his feelings straight. But who? Definitely not Kyle. There wasn’t much use trying to get any sense out of him anytime, but especially not after eight o’clock. No, there was only one person he could talk to. He scrolled down the contacts on his mobile-phone until he got to ‘Eleanor’. His call rang through to her answering machine. He hung-up and redialled. This time she picked-up. “I don’t even know why I’m answering this,” she grumbled, berating herself more than him. “What do you want, Julian?”

“Just to talk.”

There was a pause, then, “Well, I’m waiting. Let’s hear it.”

“My head’s in a mess. I just had a big-time argument with my dad about university. I told him-”

“Hang on,” interrupted Eleanor. “I thought when you said you wanted to talk, you meant you were going to explain why you stood me up, not dump your problems on me.”

“I guess you could say my problems are part of the reason I stood you up. Look, can I come over?”

“No.”

“Well, can we at least meet up? Please, Eleanor, I wouldn’t ask unless I really needed someone to talk to.”

More silence. A sigh. “We can talk on the phone. That’s the best I can do. Okay?”

“Okay.” Julian was unable to keep the disappointment out of his voice. “Thanks for this, Ellie. I knew I could count on you,” he added quickly, not wanting to risk irritating her into retracting her offer. After all, talking on the phone was better than not talking at all. He told her about the argument with his dad.

“You want to quit uni,” Eleanor said, taken aback. “No wonder your dad’s angry.”

“Yeah, but like I said, what’s the point me wasting my time and their money doing something I don’t want to do?”

“But you don’t really want to work at the factory, either, do you?”

“No, but I’ve got no choice in that.”

“Why? It’s your life. You can do what you want with it.”

Julian sighed down the line. “You don’t understand. The factory is Dad’s life’s work, his legacy. He’s always dreamed of passing it down to me someday, and of me passing it down to my children. He’s got this whole big thing about giving future generations of our family the kind of security his parents couldn’t give him. If I told him I didn’t want to take it over, he’d be…Oh, man, I don’t even like to think about what he’d be.”

“And if you let him mould you into something you’re not, what will you be?”

Julian knew the answer to that — he’d be miserable and resentful, and end up hating himself and everyone around him, his dad most of all. He also knew that knowing that made no difference whatsoever. “If this was just about my dad, maybe I could say no. But this isn’t just about him, it’s about my mum too. And, no matter what, I can’t risk upsetting her.”

“How do you know she’d be upset?”

“Because she wants what Dad wants.”

“Are you sure about that? I don’t think you’re giving her enough credit, Julian. I know your mum, and I’m certain that what she wants more than anything is for you to be happy.”

“Perhaps I can be happy at the factory. Maybe I’ll get to like it in time.” Julian sounded unconvincing, even to his own ears.

“Maybe.”

Julian chewed his lip, like he always did when wrestling with uncertainty. “So you think I should talk to my mum?”

“I don’t see you’ve got any choice.”

Eleanor was right on both scores. All his mum had ever wanted was for him to be happy, and she was the only person who could change his dad’s mind. But the thought of bringing them into conflict sat uneasily on his shoulders. He huffed a breath down his nose. “Why does my dad have to be such a hard-nosed bastard? Everything’s got to be his way or no way at all. Why can’t he compromise just this once?”

“I guess he’s used to getting what he wants.” Eleanor added meaningfully, “Like someone else I know.”

“I’m no way as stubborn as him. I know how to compromise.”

“Really? You mean like when you refused to give it even a chance to see if it could work between us with you at uni.”

Oh man, you walked right into that one, Julian thought. “Please, Eleanor, my head’s not up to this.”

“Well do I at least get to know what all this has got to do with you standing me up?”

“Sorry, I’m not up to explaining that either.” When Eleanor let out a low snort as if that’s what she’d expected him to say, Julian hastened to add, “I will tell you, just not right now.”

“When then?”

“When I’ve sorted out what I’m going to do.”

The line was silent a moment. Eleanor’s voice was softer when she spoke again. “Good luck.”

“Thanks, I’ll need it.”

After hanging up, Julian made his way home, taking his time, thinking over what he wanted to say to his mum. He needed to make her realise he was serious about working at the factory — and for the right reasons, too. Only problem was it wasn’t for the right reasons. He didn’t even know the reasons for it. It wasn’t the path of least resistance — that was university. It wasn’t what he wanted — that was unknown. It wasn’t even out of a sense of duty to his dad. Not really. And yet, he sensed, there was a reason, only it lurked far behind his eyes, seemingly beyond the reach of his conscious mind.

“So what do I say?” Julian muttered to himself. “I want to work at the factory because I hate uni and can’t think of anything better to do.” He shook his head. There was no way that would cut it. He tried to catch hold of his thoughts, but they scuttled away into dark holes like rats in a kitchen. “Fucking fuck,” he hissed in frustration. Ever since he’d heard about Joanne Butcher, everything had been in turmoil. He stopped suddenly as if he’d walked smack into a wall. No, he realised, his brow pinching into a frown, this wasn’t about Joanne Butcher. It wasn’t even about the dreams. Sure, those things had compelled him to return home, but they weren’t what threatened to hold him here. That was down to something else, something more recent, more real. Mia. The name rang out in his mind like a bell. Could she be the reason? He doubted it, and yet from the first moment he’d seen her she’d held his attention like no other female ever had. Not because he desired her more than other girls, but because — because of what? He’d quickly come to care for her. Not like a potential lover or a friend. It was beyond that somehow. He didn’t know where the feeling came from or what it might lead to, all he knew was he needed to be close to her and to protect her with everything he had.

But even if Mia was the reason — and that seemed like a big if — he could hardly say that to his mum. He knew what she’d say if he did — she’d say he was infatuated. And maybe she’d be right, but not in the way she meant. No, he needed to give her something more concrete, less intangible. He needed to do the worst thing in the world — he needed to lie.

By the time Julian got home, he’d decided on the lie. He had a whole spiel worked out about how he’d made up his mind to leave university when he realised the factory was struggling. After all, what was the point of him studying business if there was no business left for him to takeover when he graduated? The business needed new blood, new ideas, a fresh injection of energy and enthusiasm. Together, he and Dad would turn things around.

Of course, if he was wrong about the business he’d have no excuse for not returning to university. But he felt sure he wasn’t wrong. There was a tension about his dad’s face, a kind of fear in his eyes he’d never seen before, not even when his mum first got ill.

Julian’s dad was snoring in front of the television. He crept past him to his parents’ bedroom. His mum was in bed. The slackness of sleep gave her face a symmetry it didn’t have when she was awake. She looked like the mother he used to know, only much, much older. He stared at her a long moment, reluctant to wake her. Then, reaching to gently shake her, he said, “Mum, Mum.”

Her eyes flickered open, glassy, struggling to focus. “Julian,” she murmured. “What is it?”

“I…I…” Julian paused, then tried again. But he couldn’t bring himself to speak the lie, not even a few words of it. Then, suddenly, he was leaning forward and tears were streaming down his face. “I’m so confused, so confused, so confused.” He pressed a hand to his eyes as the words bubbled through his lips.

“Shh,” Christine soothed, drowsily drawing Julian’s head onto her shoulder, stroking his hair. Her voice fading off into sleep, she murmured over and over, “Everything’s going to be alright. Everything’s going to be alright.”

Julian felt the tension drain from him, but although his body craved to follow his mum into sleep he didn’t release his grip on wakefulness. After maybe an hour, he rose and left the room. His dad was still asleep on the sofa, the telly blaring. There was a two-thirds empty bottle of whisky and an empty glass on the coffee-table. Julian covered him with a blanket from the back of the sofa. A plate of pasta had been left for him in the kitchen. He took it to his bedroom, followed by Henry, and ate on his bed, thinking about Mia and trying not to think about her, wanting to be with her, yet at the same time wishing he’d never set eyes on her.

Chapter 9

A little after seven am, Julian’s dad came into his bedroom without knocking, still wearing the previous day’s clothes, and looking hung-over. “Right, Julian, get your stuff packed. If you set off in the next half-hour, you should be back in time for afternoon classes.”

Julian wasn’t caught off guard. He was showered and dressed in a shirt, tie and trousers, his hair neatly combed. “No.”

“What do you mean, no?” Robert frowned, noticing Julian’s clothes. “And why are you dressed like that?”

“For my first day of work at the factory.”

Robert stared at Julian as if unsure what to make of him. “Is this a wind up? Are you trying to provoke me?”

“I’m trying to show you I’m serious.”

“Serious about what? Screwing up your future?”

“I want to protect my future. I know the factory’s struggling-”

Robert’s frown turned into a scowl. “Who the hell told you that, your mother?”

“No one told me. It’s obvious from the way you’ve been acting lately.”

Robert was silent a moment, chewing his lip. He sighed. “Okay, let’s say you’re right, let’s say the business is going through a difficult patch. In that case, why would I want to take on a new worker?”

“I’ll work for nothing.”

“It’ll still cost money and time to train you. Listen, Julian, if you want to help me, the best thing you can do is finish university.”

“But what’s the point if-”

“Oh for Christ’s sake,” Robert burst out. Putting a hand to his head as if it ached, he continued more quietly, “We’re not going through all that again. This matter isn’t up for discussion. Now change out of those clothes and get packed.”

Julian shook his head. He held his dad’s gaze, trying to appear calm while his heart raced. His dad’s expression briefly seemed to be caught between anger and disappointment. Then anger tipped the balance. His voice was cold with it, as he said, “You have two choices, Julian: either you do as I say, or you don’t do it. But whatever you do, you’re not stopping in this house.”

“So you’re throwing me out?”

“Yes, if that’s what it takes to make you see sense. I warned you not to push me on this.”

“Okay, fine.” Figuring he was calling his dad’s bluff, Julian stuffed a few things into his rucksack and slung it over his shoulder. His dad watched impassively, arms crossed. Julian walked past him to the kitchen. He stooped to kiss his mum, who was eating breakfast.

Christine twisted round to look at him in surprise. “Are you going back?”

“No. Dad’s throwing me out.”

Her face drew up into a one-sided frown. She looked past Julian at her husband. “Is that true?”

Robert spread his hands. “I’ve tried to reason with him, Christine, but he’s too damned pig-headed to listen. I don’t see what else I can do.”

Julian snorted at the word ‘reason’. “I’ll speak to you soon, Mum. Take care.”

“Hang on,” Christine said, as he turned to leave. “This is ridiculous. Where will you go?”

“Oh don’t worry about him, he’ll bunk-up with his mates, and when they get sick of him and turf him out, he’ll realise how stupid he’s been about this,” Robert said, with more than a hint of condescension.

Biting down on an angry retort, Julian headed for the front door. Even as he stepped through it, he half-expected his dad to call him back, try to reason with him some more. But he didn’t.

Julian drove around aimlessly. He’d intended to go to Kyle’s, beg a place to kip for a few nights, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so with his dad’s parting remark still smarting in his ears. When his car ran low on fuel, he pulled into a petrol station and filled up. He tried to pay with his bank-card, but it was rejected. He guessed at once that his dad had put a stop on it — they had a joint account, which his dad paid a monthly allowance into. “Bastard,” he muttered under his breath, paying with most of the cash in his wallet.

Julian drove to Mia’s school. He sat hunched down like some kind of deviant, scanning the faces in the playground. Mia was stood alone in the crowd, as if on her own little island. He left the car and called to her through the railings. Although she must’ve heard him, she turned to go into the school building. Sucking his lip with annoyance, he returned to the car. It flashed through his mind to drive out of town at top speed in some random direction, and keep driving until the tank was empty. He didn’t, though. He rolled a joint and smoked away the turbulence in his veins, smoked away the morning. When Mia reappeared at lunchtime, he approached her at the gates.

“I need to talk to you,” he said. She blanked him. He dogged along after her. “Please, Mia.”

“Go away.”

“Not until you talk to me about what happened yesterday.”

“Go away or I’ll scream.”

“Just answer me one question.”

Mia stopped and let out a scream. Other school kids stopped, too, turning towards her in surprise and curiosity. “Hey, what’s going on?” asked somebody.

“Okay, okay I’m going.” Julian backed away from Mia. I’m sorry, he mouthed, before heading to his car. He drove to the bridge and leant over the handrail, wondering what Mia saw when she stood there. The look that came into her eyes reminded him of something, he realised. It reminded him of the way his Grandma Alice had looked all those years ago when she’d burst into the bedroom after the seance. It was the look of someone seeing, or trying to see, into the unknown, the beyond. But who did her eyes search for there? And why did it matter to him? Why did this nobody girl matter so much to him? He wondered if there was a connection between the one and the other. He stared into the water, the water stared back inscrutably, holding onto its secrets jealously.

Julian drove to The Cut. He bought a beer with the last of his money and sipped it slowly, making it last as long as possible. His eyes were never far from the clock on the wall behind the bar. At three o’clock he returned to the school, parking where he could see the gate, but out of the line of sight of a casual glance from the gate. At the end of the school day, when the kids streamed home, he followed Mia in his car, careful to keep his distance. She went straight to her foster parents’ house, speaking to no one along the way. He parked on the busy main-road at the end of the street out of sight of the house. The street was a cul-de-sac, so Mia couldn’t leave it without him knowing. One hour passed, two, three. The street-lamps flickered into life. A girl emerged from the street, walking quickly, head down as if she didn’t want to see or be seen by anyone. She was almost past the car before Julian realised it was Mia, looking so different as to be almost unrecognisable. Gone were the torn fishnets, leather jacket, heavy makeup and facial piercings. She wore a knee-length summer dress that clung to her pencil waist, flat pumps and little makeup other than childish pink lipstick. Her hair was dyed sandy blonde and tied back in a ponytail. It gave Julian a jolt to see her. It was as if she’d found an old newspaper photo of Susan Carter and got herself up to look like it.

Julian lowered the driver’s side window. “Mia.”

She hurried onwards, seeming not to hear. He got out of the car, calling her name again. She started and looked up. A frown gathered between her eyes. “Are you stalking me or something?”

“What’s going on? Why do you look like…like that?”

“How many times have I got to tell you to leave me the fuck alone?”

“Please, Mia. If you’re in trouble, I can-”

Mia’s hiss silenced Julian mid-sentence. She turned away from him and continued walking. He followed her. Her eyes flashed an angry glance at him. “Do you want me to scream again?”

“Scream your lungs out. I don’t care.”

“Why are you doing this? What the fuck am I to you? I mean, you don’t want to fuck me. And we’re not even friends.”

“I…I like you, that’s all. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

Mia stopped and turned to Julian. Her eyes were softer than before, but there was a kind of contempt behind them too. “You’re too late, Julian. The bad thing already happened.”

He shook his head hard. “It’s not too late. You’re still here, still alive.”

“Just because something looks alive on the outside doesn’t mean it’s alive on the inside.”

“Maybe so, but there’s nothing dead about you.”

“How the fuck would you know? You can’t see inside me.”

“Then open up. Show me what’s inside you. It can’t be any worse than what’s inside me.”

Mia snorted, the contempt at the front of her eyes now. “There are no dreams inside me, rich boy. I can’t afford them. There’s nothing inside me but piss, shit and cheap vodka. I’m sick, rotten, like this fuckhole of a town. Can’t you smell me? I can and it makes me want to puke.”

Before Mia finished speaking, she started walking again. Again, Julian followed. “You don’t have to do this. Whatever it is.” Mia ignored him, but he persisted, “I can help. Just tell me how.”

Mia whirled suddenly and slapped Julian, her nails drawing blood. They stared at each other a moment, him with his mouth hanging open, her po-faced. Then she resumed walking away from him. This time, he didn’t follow. Head hanging, he returned to his car. He watched Mia dwindle from sight. He thought about Susan Carter, missing all these years, her parents still not knowing for sure what happened to her. He thought about Joanne Butcher, her maggoty eye sockets, her livid, bloated flesh. “No.” The word hissed out from between his tight-pressed lips. “No fucking way.”

Julian drove after Mia. There was a set of traffic lights ahead on red. He braked, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, muttering, “C’mon, c’mon,” as Mia turned a corner.

The lights changed. He accelerated around the corner. His heart accelerated too. Mia was nowhere to be seen. Jerking his head from side to side, he spotted her a short distance along a side street bordered only by a windowless building. She approached a black Mercedes with its lights off. Julian wondered who the hell she knew with a car like that, as she opened the backdoor and ducked inside. He could see two other figures in the car — one in the driver’s seat, the other in the backseat. But the light was too dim to make out their features. They disappeared from sight as the car’s headlights glared into life. As the car pulled out of the street, he caught another glimpse of them. The driver was a middle-aged white man with a dark beard and shades. Big and serious-looking, not the kind of guy you’d want to tangle with, and wearing what looked like a chauffeur’s uniform. The figure beside Mia was a busty woman in a low-cut black dress, thirtyish, red-hair piled into an intricate coil, good looking, but with a hard-bitten edge. Mia was staring out the window towards Julian, but she didn’t see him. She had that somewhere else look on her face again.

The Mercedes headed for the southern suburbs. Julian tailed it at what he thought was an inconspicuous distance, his mind whirring with the possibilities of what Mia might be getting herself into. He pictured Mr Ugly’s snoutish nose sniffing at her. He pictured a tongue emerging like a fat pink worm from thick, leering lips to lick at her. He pictured powerful, hairy-backed fingers closing around her throat. The images passed before his eyes in a sickeningly vivid cavalcade. The Mercedes put on a sudden burst of speed, jumping a red light. He pressed down hard on the accelerator. There was a crunch of smashing glass and crumpling metal, and his neck snapped to one side as a car hit the front end of his car and swung it around.

An electric shock of pain crackled from his neck to his feet, as he twisted his head to watch the Mercedes speed into the distance. When it passed out of sight, a thought struck him like a knife sliding under his skin, that’s it, Mia’s gone and I’ll never see her again.

Chapter 10

Julian lay pretending to sleep as the doctor reassured his parents that, with the exception of some bruises and a minor case of whiplash, their son was unhurt. “He’s been very lucky, you know,” the doctor said. Julian didn’t feel very lucky. He felt about as low as he ever had in his life. “We’ll keep him in overnight, just for observation,” continued the doctor. “If everything checks out, he can go home in the morning.”

What home? Julian felt like saying, but he kept silent. He heard the doctor leave the room. He sensed his parents looking at him. He felt a hand — his mum’s, he guessed, from its cold softness — rest gently on his. He didn’t open his eyes. He knew he was in trouble — before the doctor arrived, he’d seen his parents talking to a policeman. “Julian,” his dad said.

“Shh,” said Christine. “Don’t wake him. He’s had a car crash, for God’s sake. He needs rest.”

“He could’ve killed somebody. They’re talking about charging him with dangerous driving.”

“Shut up, Robert, or leave the room.”

Robert huffed out a breath, but said nothing. There was a warning in his wife’s voice that suggested she didn’t care about any of that stuff — at least, not while her son was laid up in a hospital bed in a neck brace. She gave Julian’s hand a squeeze. “Get a good night’s sleep, darling, and try not to worry about anything. All that matters now is that you get better.”

Her soothing voice took Julian away from his anxiety to a place where he was willing to let go. As usual, the dream was lurking in the shadows of sleep. Only this time it was Mia in her Susan Carter get-up who writhed and struggled beneath him. Ducking his head, he bit her windpipe, chewing deeper and deeper, blood spurting around his jaw. He saw his face reflected in her dying eyes, mutated by a violent orgasm into something a thousand times uglier than the face in her diary. He awoke with a heavy, choking sob in his throat and Mia’s words seeming to echo in his mind. You’re too late. The bad thing already happened. Too late. Too late…

Julian didn’t go back to sleep.

In the morning, after the doctor had checked him over, his dad took him home. At the very least, Julian expected a lecture about the idiocy of running red lights, but all his dad said was, “The garage called. Looks like your car’s a write-off.” He wore the tight-lipped expression of someone who’d been strictly warned to keep his thoughts to himself.

Julian shrugged. Right then, he couldn’t have given a shit about his car. Right then, all he cared about was finding out if Mia was okay. He would’ve left the hospital before his dad arrived and gone in search of her, if it hadn’t been for his neck. The pain was something else. Even with the brace and pain killers, every slight jolt made him wince.

His mum and Wanda were waiting at the front door. “I’ll bet you’re hungry,” Wanda said to Julian. “I know what hospital food’s like.”

Julian nodded and wished he hadn’t. “You can eat in bed,” said Christine. “The doctor said to give your neck total rest for at least three days.”

Robert looked on with ill-disguised disapproval as the women fussed over Julian, almost as if he suspected his son had somehow contrived to injure himself so that they’d be forced to let him return home. When Julian was propped up in bed with everything he needed close to hand and everyone but his mum had left the room, he said, “So what happens when my neck’s better?”

“We’ll talk about that when that time comes. All I’m going to say now is what I already said, everything’s going to be alright.” Christine smiled. “It’s okay, Julian. It’s okay to be confused. Nineteen’s not an easy age to be. When I was your age I doubted and questioned everything. But it’ll work out. You’ll work it out. You’ll see, you just need time.”

Looking at his mum’s concerned, sympathetic face, Julian wanted to break down and tell her everything, talk to her about what was happening to him until he was empty like a drained cesspool. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to open up to her. Partly because, like she’d said the other day, he was a grown man. His problems were his own to work out. She already had enough to contend with without him dumping more of his shit on her. But mainly because the thought of describing the dreams made him shrivel with shame. He wondered why he hadn’t felt like that with Mia. She’d asked him if he could smell her. And perhaps, in some strange way, he had. Perhaps he’d smelled what was inside her, and, through the feeling of that smell, felt safe opening up to her.

“I love you. You know that, don’t you?” said Christine.

Julian smiled back at her. “Of course I do.”

“Just shout if you need anything.”

“I will.”

When his mum left the room, Julian flipped open his laptop and logged onto Facebook. He clicked on Send Morsus a message and wrote ‘Are you okay? That’s all I want to know’. Throughout the rest of the day, every few minutes, he checked his inbox. It remained empty. He sent more messages, each increasingly anxious and pleading. Still no response. He considered phoning Kyle, asking him to see if he could find Mia, but decided against it. Knowing how Kyle felt about her, he’d probably tell him to go fuck himself. Besides, there was only one person he could really depend on, and that person was Eleanor. But he couldn’t bring himself to contact her. It wasn’t just the thought of coming clean about why he’d stood her up, and fielding the stream of awkward questions that would inevitably follow which stopped him. It was the thought of getting her involved at all, of exposing her to something she wasn’t equipped to handle, something which, although he had no idea what it was, he sensed in his heart and in his brain to be not just ugly, but sordid and degenerate.

Julian’s mum looked in on him several times during the day. His dad didn’t look in on him once, perhaps fearing he wouldn’t be able to hold his tongue. That evening, after Wanda had gone home, he heard raised voices from the lounge. He couldn’t make out much of what was being said, but it was obvious his parents were arguing about him. There was the sound of the front door slamming, a car starting up and driving away. Despite the pain in his neck, Julian guiltily considered going to see if his mum was okay. The thought was swept away by the car returning almost as soon as it’d gone. Even angry, his dad couldn’t bear to leave his wife alone for long. His love for her was the most important thing in his life. He never said it outright, of course. Just as he’d never have admitted that when Julian was living in the house, occupying the centre of his wife’s anxious care, he sometimes acted more like a jealous sibling competing for her attention than a father.

The night, when it came on, seemed to go on and on. Julian staved off sleep for a long as possible, but the painkillers made him drowsy and he nodded off. He jolted awake with the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, and found that he’d bitten through his lip.

He managed to resist logging on until after Wanda brought him breakfast. His heart slumped at the empty inbox of his Facebook page. He picked up his mobile-phone, put it down, picked it up again, started to dial, then hung up. With every passing minute, the sense that something was wrong, that something terrible had happened to Mia grew in him. At last, it got so strong he couldn’t resist it. He phoned Eleanor. “What now, Julian?” she asked.

“I want to explain why I stood you up.”

“Does that mean you’ve sorted things out with your parents?”

“No.”

“So why the sudden urge to tell me now when you didn’t-”

“If you’ll just listen, I’ll try to explain,” Julian cut in impatiently. He told Eleanor about Mia — only what she needed to know, nothing else. He suddenly had the feeling that every second counted.

“I knew it. I knew it had to be something like that, the way you’ve been acting.”

“It’s not like you think. I don’t fancy her or anything,” Julian was quick to point out.

“So what is she, a friend?”

“She’s…” Julian struggled to find the words to define what she was to him. “She’s someone I feel responsible for.”

“Why?”

“I guess because I found her best-friend’s body.” Julian knew that wasn’t the reason, but he wasn’t about to try and explain something to Eleanor that he couldn’t explain to himself.

After a moment of silence heavy with doubt, she said, “It’s an awful thing, I know. And I can’t begin to imagine how bad Mia must be feeling, but I don’t get why that should make you feel responsible for her? Joanne Butcher’s death has nothing to do with you.”

“To be honest, I don’t really get it either.” Before Eleanor could say anything, Julian added, “Look, the thing is, Ellie, I need to ask a favour.”

She clicked her tongue in exasperation. “And here was me thinking you simply wanted to straighten things out between us.”

“This isn’t about you and me. It’s about Mia. I need you to find out if she’s okay.”

“Why wouldn’t she be?”

“I think she might be in some kind of trouble.”

“What do you mean, some kind of trouble?”

“I don’t know. I’ve just got a feeling.”

“Like, what kind of feeling?”

“A bad one. Last time I saw Mia she said some stuff, nothing specific, but…well, I think Joanne Butcher’s death has pushed her into doing something stupid.” Julian didn’t mention the Mercedes, he didn’t want to get Eleanor more involved than was absolutely necessary.

“You think she might have hurt herself?”

Julian’s stomach knotted. The possibility that Mia might have harmed herself hadn’t occurred to him, but now his mind flashed back to her Facebook page where she’d listed her hobbies as cutting and suicide. He thought about that look in her eyes. Thinking about it made his head swim. “No. No way.” He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself more than Eleanor.

“Something else I don’t get. Why do you need me? Why can’t you find out if she’s okay yourself?”

Julian told Eleanor about the crash, leaving out the reason for it. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

“I will be in a couple of days.”

“You weren’t drunk or anything, were you?”

“No, just tired and…distracted.”

Eleanor was silent a moment. Julian could sense her mind ticking over. He knew her well enough to guess what was coming. “Maybe you should call the police,” she said. “I mean, if Mia’s hurt herself-”

“She hasn’t hurt herself — at least, not in the way you mean.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

Eleanor was right, of course, but still Julian was reluctant to follow her suggestion until he had no other option. If he got the police involved, he knew Mia would never forgive him. “Look, if I really thought she’d hurt herself don’t you think I’d have called the police already.”

“I suppose.” Eleanor sighed. “Okay, Julian, I’ll do it. But if I can’t find her-”

“If you can’t find her, I’ll phone the police.”

Julian started describing Mia to Eleanor as she’d looked when he first saw her. Then, realising his mistake, he broke off and described her as she’d looked the previous evening. “You sure about that?” Eleanor asked. “That’s a pretty radical image change. They sound like two different girls.”

“I’m sure, unless she’s dyed her hair back to its original colour.”

“Well it’ll be a lot easier to pick her out of a crowd if she has.”

Julian told Eleanor where Mia went to school, where she lived. “And if you come across her foster dad, don’t mention it was me who sent you,” he cautioned. He paused, before continuing awkwardly, “Thing is, he’s somehow got it into his head that me and Mia…well, that we’re, you know, screwing each other.”

“Why would he think that?” Eleanor asked in a quieter, frowning tone of voice.

“I don’t know, but he’s way, way off the mark.”

“Honestly?”

“I’ve got a lot of faults, Ellie, like most people do, but I’m not a liar.”

Again a moment’s silence, again a deep intake of breath at the other end of the line. “If I’m going to do this, I’d better get moving. I’ll be in touch as soon as I’ve got anything to tell you.”

The hours seemed to stretch as Julian waited to hear from Eleanor. His mum came to see him, but his attention kept drifting to his phone and laptop, and she soon gave up on trying to have a conversation. “Turn those things off and get some rest,” she gently remonstrated.

Julian closed his laptop, but the moment his mum was gone he flipped it open again. He tried phoning Eleanor a couple of times, but to his frustration she didn’t answer. By late afternoon he was wound so tight with waiting that he flinched at a knock on his bedroom door. Wanda poked her head into the room. “Eleanor Hill’s here. She says-”

“Show her in,” Julian interrupted. The instant he saw Eleanor’s face he knew something was up, and the knot in his stomach coiled tighter. “You didn’t find her, did you?”

“No. I waited outside her school, but I didn’t see her. So I went to her house. Her foster dad answered the door. When I asked if Mia was in, he gave me this really suspicious look and asked who I was. I told him I was a friend of Mia’s, and he said she wasn’t in. So I asked if he knew where I could find her, and he said, you tell me, she didn’t come home last night and she wasn’t in school today. And then he asked if I knew you. I said no, but it was obvious he didn’t believe me, and as I was leaving he shouted after me, if you find them, tell them they won’t get far. I think he thinks you’ve run off together or something.”

“Run off,” murmured Julian, his face creasing.

“So are you going to call the police?”

Julian nodded, reaching for his phone and dialling slowly. He knew he had no choice, but in some strange way Eleanor’s words had made him more, not less reluctant to contact the police. When Tom Benson picked up, he said, “I need to speak to you about Mia Bradshaw.”

“That’s funny,” replied the detective, “I was about to phone and say the same thing to you. I need you to come down to the station for a chat.”

Julian guessed at once that Mia’s foster dad had beaten him to phoning the police. He explained about his neck. “Ah, yes, I heard about that,” said the detective. “Well, in that case, I’ll come to you.”

Julian thought about his parents. Almost as much as he wanted to find Mia, he wanted to avoid causing them — especially his mum — anymore upset. “Can’t we do this over the phone?”

“I’m afraid this is too serious for that.”

“When are you coming?”

“Now.”

Julian hung up and said to Eleanor, “You’d better go.”

She looked at him with concern. “Are you sure? I can stay if you want.”

“There’s no need.” Whatever the policeman might have to say to him, Julian didn’t want Eleanor, or, for that matter, anybody else to hear it.

Eleanor heaved a sigh. “God, I really hope nothing bad’s happened to Mia.”

No matter what’s happened to her, it’s too late to hope that, thought Julian, but he said, “I hope so too.”

“First one girl goes missing and turns up dead. Then, just a few days later, her best mate goes missing too.” Eleanor shook her head. “It’s crazy. I mean, like, what’s going on in this town?”

“To know that, you’d have to know what really happened to Joanne Butcher.”

“She OD’d.”

“Yeah, but what made her OD?”

“Nothing made her OD. It was an accident.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Eleanor frowned. “Are you suggesting someone might’ve killed her on purpose?”

“I don’t know what I’m suggesting. I just get the feeling there’s more to it than a simple overdose.” Julian stopped himself from saying anymore. He’d already let out more than he intended to.

“Why?”

Julian shrugged. “I haven’t got any answers. Like I said, it’s just a feeling. I’m probably totally wrong.”

Eleanor raised an eyebrow, obviously not satisfied by his answer, but she didn’t press him. A little hesitantly, she reached to lay her hand on his arm. Her touch seemed even softer than he remembered. It stirred the desire he’d always felt for her. “I know how badly you want to find Mia, but I think you should leave this to the police now. If you’re right, if there’s more to Joanne Butcher’s death than a horrible accident, you could be getting yourself mixed up in something dangerous.” Her fingers flexed lightly against his wrist. “I couldn’t stand it if anything bad happened to you, Julian.”

He tried to smile reassuringly. “Nothing’s going to happen to me. How can it when I’m stuck in bed?”

Eleanor released his wrist. “Will you call me? Soon?”

Julian nodded. When Eleanor was gone, he shouted Wanda. “Where’s Mum?” he asked.

“In the garden.”

“Good. There’s a policeman coming here to talk to me. Will you keep her outside until he’s gone?”

Wanda frowned. “You know I don’t like keeping things from her.”

“Neither do I usually. But she’s already had more than enough worry these last few days, don’t you think?”

Wanda regarded Julian uncertainly a moment, then nodded. “Okay, I’ll try, but no promises.”

When Tom Benson turned up, Wanda showed him through to Julian’s bedroom. He seated himself, pen and notebook in hand. “Why don’t we start with you telling me what you’ve got to tell me?” he said.

“I’m worried about Mia Bradshaw. I think she might be in trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

Julian gave the policeman the full story about his previous night’s encounter with Mia. “It just seemed so odd,” he said. “It was like she’d got all dressed up to play some sort of part.”

“That doesn’t sound so odd to me. I’ve got a young daughter myself who changes her hair colour nearly as often as she changes her clothes.”

“Well, what about the car?”

“Did you take the registration?”

“No.”

“That’s a shame, but it’s probably not important. After all, it’s not illegal to get dressed up and go out with your friends.” Suddenly, the detective bent forward, his voice dropping low, as if he wanted to make sure there was no chance of anyone who might happen to be listening at the door overhearing. “But it is illegal to engage in sexual intercourse with a minor.”

Something — some almost intimidating intensity — in the detective’s eyes made Julian wonder if he’d made a mistake not having his parents present. “I haven’t touched Mia.”

“That’s not what her foster father says.”

“Well he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“Doesn’t he? So why were you seen leaving his house the other afternoon with your hands tied with what looked like a stocking?”

Julian felt his neck getting red. He chewed his lip as his mind raced for a plausible lie and failed to come up with one. The detective nodded, Julian’s silence and expression told him all he needed to know. “He wants to press statutory rape charges, you know.”

“But I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“That remains to be seen.” Inhaling audibly through his nose, the detective sat back. “I warned you, didn’t I? I warned you you’d get in trouble hanging around with Mia Bradshaw.” The intensity left his eyes. He flipped his notepad shut. “Look, between you and me, I’m inclined to believe you. Mia’s foster father thinks she’s with you, but he’s obviously wrong on that score.”

“He’s wrong on every score.”

“That’s what I’m saying. If he’s wrong about that, he’s more than likely wrong about everything else. But I’ve got to follow procedure. And once your name’s in the system, it’s in the system, if you know what I mean. That’s the worst thing about cases like this, even if there’s no conviction, the accusation alone is enough to leave a permanent stain.”

“Look, I really don’t care about that as long as Mia’s okay.”

“Well you should. Your father has a good name, a good reputation in this town. That reputation brings a lot of business his way.”

“This has got nothing to do with him.”

“Don’t be naive. You’re his son, this has got everything to do with him. Keep that in mind. And bear this in mind, too, I assume I’m right in thinking that someday you’ll take over his business, which means…”

Wrinkles furrowed up between Julian’s eyes as the detective’s words sank in. He finished the sentence for him in a voice heavy with the strain of responsibility, “Which means that someday its success will depend on my reputation.” He heaved a breath, imagining everything his dad had worked so hard to build falling apart, imagining what that would do to his parents. “But what can I do? Like you said, you’ve got to follow procedure.”

“I’ll tell you what I can do. I can talk to Mia Bradshaw’s foster father, convince him he’s got it all wrong.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because you’re a good kid, and this town needs you. Your factory employs a lot of people. I’d hate to see them suffer because you made one stupid little mistake. But you’ve got to do something for me in return — you’ve got to take my advice. Forget about Mia Bradshaw.”

“How can I forget about her when she’s missing and might be in danger, or worse?”

“Missing. That’s an emotive word. If I thought for one second that she was missing, do you think we’d be sat here chatting like this? I’d have you hauled down the station, neck-brace n’all. And I’d have every available man out searching for her. But she’s not missing. She’s holed up in some dive, out of it on booze and drugs. Or she’s a runaway. Whichever the case, she’ll either be picked up by the police, or she’ll go crawling home by herself.”

“You really think so?”

“I guarantee you. That girl’s got a history as long as my arm of this kind of thing. I give her two or three days max.”

“What if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not.”

Tom Benson sat looking steadily at Julian, as if waiting for him to say something. Julian knew what he wanted to hear, but the word caught in his throat. Just the thought of saying it felt like a betrayal of Mia. A brief flash of that same intensity in the detective’s eyes drew it out. “Okay.”

The detective’s moustache twitched slightly as, standing to leave, he smiled. “Good. And let’s hope we don’t have to have any more of these chats.”

Heavy with unease, Julian could only nod in mute agreement. It wasn’t just Tom Benson’s unwillingness to take his concerns seriously that disturbed him. He felt that he’d been backed into a corner, forced to choose between safeguarding his own future and abandoning Mia to whatever fate she might’ve brought upon herself, and he was disgusted at the ease with which he’d made his decision. Mia was right, he was just a rich kid, that’s all.

Chapter 11

One day passed. Julian didn’t call Eleanor, didn’t answer her calls. He didn’t want to speak to her, didn’t want to speak to anyone. He didn’t look at his laptop, didn’t read, didn’t watch television. He did sleep, though, long and restlessly. Even the dreams were preferable to the guilt that coursed through him to the bone whenever he thought about Mia. Two days dragged by. The pain in his neck eased off to a nagging ache. Pale as a ghost, he rose and showered. His mum gave him a worried look when he sat down at the table for breakfast. “Are you sure you should be up and about?”

“I’m fine.” Julian looked at his dad. “So what happens now?”

Robert looked back at him. There was a moment’s uneasy silence. “Me and your father have been talking,” said Christine. “And we’ve come to a decision, haven’t we Robert.”

“Yes.” Robert’s tight-lipped response made it clear that whatever decision had been made he far from approved.

“We’ve decided to allow you to work at the factory.”

“On the condition that you don’t drop out of university,” put in Robert. “You defer your course for a year.”

“That way you leave your options open in case you change your mind.”

“I won’t change my mind,” said Julian, his voice flat, toneless. Normally it would’ve given him some satisfaction to get his own way, even when it came to an issue that called forth so many mixed, conflicting feelings. But at that moment he had no room for any emotion other than the dreadful hollow guilt festering deep down inside him.

“That’s the deal. Take it or leave it,” said Robert.

“Okay, fine.” Julian made to stand.

“Where are you going?”

“To get dressed for work.”

“You don’t have to start today,” said Christine. “Rest up a few more days. Relax in the garden, invite your friends over, whatever you feel like doing.”

Julian shook his head. “I told you, I’m fine.” Besides, he might’ve added, I want to work, I want to work so hard it deadens all thought and feeling.

“You’d better be quick, if you want a lift,” Robert told him. “I’m leaving in a few minutes.”

As they passed between the gates, a red car further up the street pulled away from the kerb behind them. The thought vaguely passed through Julian’s mind that maybe it was an unmarked police car, keeping tabs on his movements. He watched the car in the rearview mirror. He couldn’t make out the face of its driver. After a couple of miles, it took a different exit at a roundabout.

Julian and his dad didn’t exchange a word, didn’t even look at each other during the drive to the factory, which was on an industrial estate on the outskirts of town. ‘Harris’ Shoes’ read the sign over the entrance to the hanger-like building. Julian had once asked his dad, why shoes? And his dad had replied, good or bad times, people always need shoes. The workers were taking their places, but work hadn’t begun on the assembly lines yet. When it did, Julian knew, the noise of the machines would be loud enough to vibrate his diaphragm. The workers nodded hello, giving Julian curious glances, as he and Robert made their way to the soundproofed offices at the rear of the factory. Seating himself at his desk, Robert began flipping through mail and papers. Julian sat opposite him. Several minutes passed. The dull rumbling of the assembly line starting up reached their ears.

“I wanted to talk to you about some ideas I have for cutting costs,” said Julian.

“Hmm?” Robert looked up at him as if he’d forgotten he was there.

“Have you considered investing in new technology? It would cost in the short term, but provide gains in the long term by allowing us to cut down on production line workers.”

“No I haven’t considered it, Julian. For one thing, every Harris shoe is hand finished. That’s why people choose us over our competitors. For another, we’re not in the business of chucking people on the dole. And besides, decisions on operating strategy are for management to make. You said you wanted to start at the bottom. So you can start by making me a coffee. My secretary’s off sick.”

Julian stared at his dad as if trying to work out if he was serious — which he obviously was. With a low sigh, he made his way to a kitchen. He returned with the coffee. “What now?”

“Sit down and be quiet while I think of something.”

Julian watched his dad drink his coffee, make some phone calls, have a conversation with one of the factory foremen who poked his head into the room. Half an hour passed, an hour. He sighed again. “Have you thought of anything yet, or shall I just sit here like a dummy all day?”

Robert looked at Julian with a thoughtful frown. “Come with me.” He led Julian through the din of the factory to a door marked ‘Cripples’. Inside were thousands of mismatched shoes, some in boxes on shelves, most in piles on the floor. “You can sort these seconds into pairs.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t matter why. It’s simply a thing that needs doing. So do it.” Robert was closing the door even as he spoke.

The room smelt of leather and glue. Its thin stud wall barely muffled the noise of the machines. Yet another sigh broke from Julian as he laid aside his suit jacket. He worked as fast as possible, gladly retreating into an almost hypnotic oblivion of monotonous movement. When the lunchtime whistle blew, he became suddenly conscious that several hours had passed. Squatted against a wall outside the back of the factory, he ate the sandwiches Wanda had made for him. Some of the factory-floor workers were gathered there, smoking. A few glanced acknowledgement, but none said anything. Perhaps they were wary of speaking to the boss’s son. Perhaps they simply had nothing to say to him. Whatever, it suited Julian fine if they chose to keep their distance. Right then, he had nothing he wanted to say to them either, or anyone else for that matter.

The afternoon swept by in the same way as the morning. Julian found himself almost reluctant to stop when the day came to an end. His dad poked his head into the room, looking over his work without comment. “So how have you enjoyed your first day?” he asked with a disingenuous smile

Julian made himself smile right back. I know what you’re trying to do, he felt like saying, but you’re wrong if you think a few shitty jobs will send me running back to university. He didn’t want to give his dad the satisfaction of even that answer, though. “Better than I expected.”

“You want a lift home?”

“No thanks.”

Julian caught a bus into town. He tried his best not to think of Mia. Still, he couldn’t help but feel relieved to note that no posters with her face on them had gone up in place of Joanne Butcher. After grabbing a burger, he went to a pub where no one he knew was likely to be. He drank the evening away alone, staggering home at closing time to sleep it off.

At breakfast the following morning, Julian’s mum asked the same question his dad had, and he gave the same reply. “Better than I expected.” Instead of a suit, he wore jeans and a t-shirt to work. He didn’t bother asking his dad what he wanted him to do, he just went straight to the ‘Cripples’ room. He actually felt relieved to get in there and close the door, close out everything. After work, he headed straight for the pub and a long swallow of beer.

Two more days passed in this monotonous cycle — wake, slide from beneath sweat-dampened sheets, eat, work, eat, work, eat, drink, sleep, dream. He stopped going outside at lunch. He just stayed in the ‘Cripples’ room all day. Alone in that dim, rumbling place, he felt distant and detached from the world, as if in a trance. If anyone looked in on him — which they rarely did — he’d turn to them blinking and dazed, like someone roused suddenly from deep sleep.

On Friday, on his way to the pub he bumped into Kyle. He thought about dodging out of sight, but it was too late. “Hey, Jules,” called Kyle, rushing over to him, eyes wide with surprise. “What you still doing around here, bro? I thought you’d gone back to uni.”

“I’m not going back.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Why?”

Julian shrugged. “I hated the course. Didn’t like the place much, either.”

Kyle’s surprise gave way to incredulity. “How can you not like London? London’s fucking wild.”

“Guess I’m just a small town boy.”

“But you couldn’t wait to get away from here.”

“Things have changed.”

“What things?”

Julian shrugged again. The last thing he wanted was to get into all that with Kyle. All he wanted was a beer to numb his mind, push reality as far away as possible. “Just things.”

“So, like, what’re you doing with yourself?”

“Working for my dad.”

“No way, dude, I thought you hated the factory.”

“Yeah, well, like I said, things have changed.” Julian sighed, his head aching from the effort of conversation.

“You can fucking say that again. Jesus, you used to say you’d rather do just about anything than work there.” Kyle motioned along the street with his chin. “I’m heading down The Cut. Why don’t you come along? You look like you could do with a beer or five.”

“Nah, I’ve got stuff to do.”

“Are you sure? If you change your mind you know where to find me.” Kyle grinned. “It’ll be like old times with you back here, bro.”

Julian was about to hurry on his way, when Kyle added, “Hey, you heard about that crazy bitch, Mia Bradshaw?”

Julian felt a sharp, tight pain encircling his heart as, suddenly, all the images of Mia lying dead that he’d been blocking out for the past few days ripped through him. His voice seemed far away, as he asked, “What about her?”

“No one knows where she is. She’s taken off somewhere with some guy — at least, that’s the rumour I’ve heard.”

“From who?”

“A girl I know who knows someone she goes to school with. You okay? You’ve gone really pale.”

Julian nodded. “What guy?”

“Dunno. All I know is she’s not been in school all week. Maybe the rumour’s true. Or maybe she’s gone the same way as that stupid bitch friend of hers. Either way, if you ask me, it’s no big loss.”

Julian clenched his jaw, resisting an urge to smash his fist into Kyle’s face. With a shake of his head, he turned away from him and started walking. Kyle called something after him, but he wasn’t listening. His head was swirling with all the things he wanted to say to Tom Benson. His gaze swept along the darkening street at shop windows, bus-stops and lampposts. Suddenly, the absence of posters with Mia’s face on them didn’t seem hopeful, it seemed bewildering, sinister even. He took out his mobile phone, hands trembling as he searched for the detective’s number. As the dial tone rang in his ear, he took a breath, tried to compose his reeling thoughts. “You were wrong,” he blurted into the phone the instant Tom Benson answered, his voice sharp, accusatory.

“Who’s this?”

“Julian Harris.”

“Ah. Yes I know I was.”

“So what’re you doing about it?”

“Believe me, Julian, everything we can.”

“Then why haven’t I seen any appeals for information or anyone searching the forest, like with Joanne Butcher? Why haven’t you hauled me down the station?”

“This is a completely different case.”

“Different how?”

“Well, for starters we’ve good reason to believe Mia Bradshaw’s run away.”

“What reason? A rumour?”

“Something a bit more substantial than that. I can’t discuss the specifics of an ongoing investigation. What I can say is that we’re keeping this one out of the newspapers. This is an extremely sensitive matter, considering all that’s happened recently. So I’d appreciate it if you’d keep this to yourself for the time being. And as for hauling you down the station…” There was a meaningful pause, before Tom Benson continued, “You didn’t keep anything from me, did you?”

“No.”

“So what would be the point? I’d simply be wasting precious man-hours that should go into finding Mia Bradshaw.”

Julian had no reply to that. He recognised the sound of the detective inhaling through his nose. “You remember what we spoke about before?” said Tom Benson.

“Of course I do.”

“Good, because I’m sticking my neck out for you, Julian. Don’t make me regret it.”

Am I supposed to be grateful? Julian felt like retorting. Tom Benson seemed to have Mia, his and the town’s best interests at heart, but there was something about the business that made him feel used and manipulated. Remembering the red car that’d seemed to follow his dad’s car a few mornings back, another thought occurred to him. Maybe the detective was playing him. Maybe all that stuff about protecting him and the factory was a load of bollocks. Maybe the real reason Tom Benson hadn’t hauled him down the station was because he was waiting to see if he’d lead him to Mia. Julian glanced around, half-expecting to see the same car lurking nearby, but the road was empty.

His face faraway in thought, Julian made his way to the pub. His beer sat untouched as, over and over, his thoughts followed the same track — I should’ve never listened to that fucking policeman. I’ve got to do something. But what? What can I do? “You can get up off your arse and start looking for her,” he muttered at himself, standing to leave.

The curtain of dusk had fallen low, but the streetlamps hadn’t yet come on. Julian glanced about for a taxi. His gaze locked on a car parked further along the street — a red car. But was it the same car? It was hard to tell in the gloom. Squinting, he slowly approached it. His head snapped forward as something hit him hard from behind. He fell over, instinctively flinging out his hands to break his fall. Hands grabbed him and rolled him over. A hollowed-out face and shaved head swam into focus. Wolfish teeth leered at him. “What the fuck have you done to my sister?” demanded their owner.

“Nothing.” Pain lanced through Julian’s neck as he tried to sit up. A whole galaxy of stars burst in front of his eyes when Jake Bradshaw knocked him back down with a punch to the jaw.

“Fuckin’ liar!”

“It’s the truth.”

Jake raised his fist for another punch, but a shout from somewhere nearby drew his attention. Like a startled wild thing, he straightened and sprinted away. “Wait, I need to talk to you,” Julian gasped, fighting off waves of dizziness. A second later two men’s faces loomed into his line of sight.

“You okay?” asked one of them, reaching to help him to his feet.

“Yes,” answered Julian, swaying a little, licking his lip and tasting blood. After a moment, he thought to look for the red car and saw that it was gone. He thanked the men and staggered to a taxi rank, wondering who’d put Jake Bradshaw onto him. Most likely, he realised, it was Weasel or his girlfriend. During the taxi ride, his eyes scanned the streets constantly for Mia, without hope. By the time he got home, the grogginess had cleared, but the pain in his jaw and neck remained. His mum was in bed; his dad was asleep on the couch. He took some painkillers, quietly lifted his dad’s car keys from the coffee-table and left the house. The fact that Mia’s brother didn’t know where she was had brought home to him even more sharply that she might be beyond finding. But that didn’t matter to him anymore. All that mattered was that he tried to find her, and kept trying as long as he could. And fuck Tom Benson, fuck the future, fuck anything or anyone that got between him and his search.

He drove to the crossroads where he’d crashed, and followed the road to the edge of town. He didn’t see the black Merc, didn’t see anything that struck him as suspicious, all he saw was row after row of neat suburban houses, then fields and the forest edge. He cruised around aimlessly for a while, before heading out of town to the bridge. He scrambled down the bank under the eaves of the huge steel and concrete structure. There was almost no daylight left, so he squirted fluid from the same can Mia had used over the sooty remains and held a lighted match to them. In the light of the flames, he studied his surroundings. He didn’t know what he expected to find, but there was some profound connection between Mia and the place. He felt sure of it. And he felt sure, too, that if he could find out what that connection was it would bring him a step closer to finding her.

Julian noticed something at the base of one of the bridge’s concrete feet. A small, multicoloured Indian-style purse. Inside was a tenner, some loose change and a school identity card with Mia’s unsmiling face on it. He stared at it a moment, hardly breathing, before returning it to the purse. Looking to see if there was anything else of hers there, he spotted words scrawled on the bridge — words that that seemed to confirm the dreadful fear his heart was already sinking under the weight of. They read ‘Mia Bradshaw, May twentieth, two thousand and ten. R.I.P.’. The day after he’d last seen her. “Oh God,” he murmured.

Hesitantly, as if afraid what might be waiting for him there, Julian approached the water’s edge. The river was its usual inscrutable self. He tried to imagine what drowning would feel like — the water sliding over you like an icy blanket, the bursting lungs, the obliteration of consciousness, of everything. He pictured Mia amongst the sludge and weeds at the river bottom, fish nibbling her flesh. Swallowing a thickness in his throat, he phoned Tom Benson. “You got it wrong again,” he said, trembling between anger and tears. “Mia hasn’t run away. She’s thrown herself in the river.”

“What? How do you know that?”

“I should never have listened to you. I knew you were wrong all along. I fucking knew it!”

“Calm down, Julian. Where are you?”

“The High Bridge.”

“Stay there. I’ll be there soon as I can.”

Julian made his way back up to the road. He took out the ID card again. “I’m so sorry, Mia,” he said, his voice choked with shame. Tears ran down his face. He swiped them away when Tom Benson pulled up alone, and brandished the card accusingly at him. “I found this under the bridge. And there’s something else down there too.”

Tom Benson took the card and frowned at it. “Show me.”

They clambered down the bank, Julian lighting the way with a torch the detective handed him. Tom Benson studied the writing in silence for a full minute, as if trying to decide on its authenticity, before turning the same scrutinising gaze on Julian. “How did you find this?”

“I came here with Mia a couple of times. This place seemed to mean something to her.”

“Oh this place meant something to her alright. This is where her mother died.” The detective traced a line with his finger from the bridge’s railings to the water. “She jumped. She was only fifteen.”

“Fifteen,” Julian parroted, shaking his head as the grim symmetry of it all became clear to him. “What happens now?”

“We’ll drag the river, see what we find.”

“You really think Mia’s killed herself?”

“Looks like it. I can’t keep you out of this anymore, I’m afraid. I’ll need a statement.”

Julian followed the detective up the bank, his legs heavy as wooden posts. He suddenly felt bone tired, as if he’d grown old under the dusty, graffiti-scarred eaves of the bridge. Fifteen, he kept thinking, fif-fucking-teen. He gave his statement mechanically, then asked, “If she’s in there, will you find her?”

Tom Benson shrugged. “The current’s strong here. As I recall, her mother surfaced after nearly a month, a good thirty miles downstream.”

Something about that shrug sparked Julian’s anger again, but he said nothing. He was too drained for recriminations. All he wanted to do was sleep, blank everything for a few hours. “Can I go now?”

“Yes, but don’t go too far. I’ll probably need to talk to you again.”

Julian gave the river a lingering glance, before returning to his car. He didn’t drive home. He didn’t want to have to explain to his dad why he’d taken the car. He drove to the forest and, wrapped in its silence and secrecy, slid into an uneasy, dream-wracked sleep.

Chapter 12

Julian awoke long before dawn to a gnawing pain, not in any one place, but all over and all through his being. She was nothing to you, nothing at all, he tried to tell himself. But it was no good. Mia had been something to him — something he didn’t understand, but something nonetheless. She’d felt that nameless connection, too, and reached out to him — consciously or subconsciously — for help. And he’d failed her — and, in doing so, failed himself.

Julian started driving. He had no clear idea where he intended to go, but a short time later he found himself outside Eleanor’s house. He made his way around to the back garden and threw gravel at her window. A light came on and she appeared at the glass. “Julian, is that you?”

“I need to talk.”

“It’s the middle of the night.”

“Please, it’s important.”

“It always is when you need something from me. But what about when I need something from you? You wouldn’t talk to me when I called last week. So why should I talk to you now?”

“I know I’ve used you, Ellie. I know that, and I’m sorry for it. But if you’ll just let me in, I’ll explain.”

Eleanor’s forehead wrinkled in thought a few seconds, then she shook her head. “No, Julian, enough is enough. You’ve got to-”

“Mia Bradshaw’s dead,” interjected Julian.

Eleanor’s eyes widened, her hand went to her mouth. “Oh my God. How?”

“Let me in and I’ll tell you.”

“Okay.” Eleanor disappeared from the window and reappeared a moment later at the backdoor in her dressing-gown. She frowned at the sight of Julian’s face in the light of the kitchen. “What happened to you?”

“Jake Bradshaw.” Rubbing his bruised jaw, Julian dropped heavily onto a chair. “I could do with a drink.”

“You want a coffee or something?”

Julian nodded and as Eleanor made it he told her everything that’d happened the previous day. She shuddered, no doubt imagining, as he’d done, what it would be like to drown. He sipped his coffee, staring at the tabletop. “I should’ve known she’d do something like this.”

“How could you know?”

“From the way she looked at the river. Her eyes had this weird blankness.”

“This isn’t your fault, Julian. This isn’t anybody’s fault.”

He shook his head hard. “People don’t kill themselves for no reason. There’s something behind all this — maybe something that goes back to Mia’s mother’s death.” A sudden thought came to him. “When Mia’s mum died it must’ve been in the newspapers at the time. Would it be possible to look through some old copies of The Chronicle?”

“Sure. But why bother? What good can it do now?”

“Probably none, but I need to at least try to understand what’s happened.”

“Why does this mean so much to you, Julian? You barely knew Mia Bradshaw.”

Feeling he owed Eleanor at least an attempt at an explanation, Julian said awkwardly, “It’s hard to put it into words, but I felt something when I was with her that I’ve never felt with anybody else. I’m not talking about love…Or maybe I am. I don’t know. Maybe if I can find out why she did what she did, I’ll know why I felt what I felt.” Eleanor lowered her eyes from Julian’s, the hurt plain on her face. “I’m sorry,” he said.

She managed a smile. “Don’t be, there’s no need.” Raising a finger to her lips, she motioned for Julian to follow her. They went into her dad’s study and she booted up his computer. “The website’s only been online a few weeks,” she said, logging onto the newspaper’s archives site. “I designed it myself. What year do you want to look at?”

“Well Mia can’t have been more than a baby when her mum died. So I guess we’re talking roughly fifteen years ago.”

Mia clicked on 1995 and typed in the search term ‘Suicide. The High Bridge’. “Here we are.” She read a headline, “Missing schoolgirl found dead in river.” Underneath it was a photo of a girl — the same photo Julian had found in Mia’s diary, except that it was black-and-white.

He bent to read the article, which continued ‘Police searching for a fifteen-year old girl have found her body in a river. Deborah Bradshaw was last seen when she left her home on the night of March 23. It’s been speculated that Deborah jumped from The High Bridge because her twin babies, a boy and a girl aged just three months, were taken away by Social Services last month after a family court hearing. A police spokesman said: “At this time we’re treating the death as suicide. However, we can’t be a hundred percent sure, and theories of something more sinister are understandable.” An inquest into Deborah’s death is expected to be opened later this week.’

“Something more sinister,” said Julian, frowning. “What does that mean?”

“It means some people thought Deborah Bradshaw was killed and it was made to look like suicide,” said a voice from behind him. He started and looked over his shoulder.

“Dad, what’re you doing up?” said Eleanor. “We didn’t wake you, did we?”

Mike shook his head. “I’ve been awake a couple of hours, thinking.”

“About what?”

“Funnily enough, about Deborah Bradshaw. I’ve been thinking about her a lot since her daughter went missing.”

Eleanor gave Julian a slightly sheepish look. “I had to tell someone, and Dad promised to keep it to himself.”

Julian barely heard her. Mike Hill’s words were swirling in his head like debris in the aftermath of a tornado. “What people and why?” he asked.

“People who knew her and said she just wasn’t the type to kill herself,” said Mike. “They were convinced her death had something to do with the father of her babies.”

“Who was the father?”

“No one’s ever found out. A rumour did the rounds that it was a much older man, a family man.”

Eleanor wrinkled up her nose. “That’s horrible. It makes my skin crawl to think of it.”

“So this guy, whoever he is, threw Deborah Bradshaw off the bridge because she was going to expose him, is that it?” said Julian.

“Something like that,” said Mike.

“Do you think that’s what happened?”

“Maybe. Or maybe she was simply overwhelmed by everything that happened to her.” Mike motioned at the computer screen. “So what’s got you reading this?”

“Mia Bradshaw’s dead. She jumped off the bridge too.”

Mike’s eyebrows lifted. “How do you know she jumped?” When Julian told him, his eyebrows drew together again and he said, “Well, I must say that sounds pretty conclusive. But it doesn’t have to mean what it looks like.”

“What else could it mean?”

“Maybe Mia wants the police to think she’s jumped when-”

“When she really has run away,” Julian interjected, his voice quick with fresh hope.

“Exactly.”

Anxiety returned to Julian’s eyes as another possibility occurred to him. “What if somebody threw her in the river and made it look like she jumped.”

“Why would anyone do that?”

“There’s something else,” Julian glanced at Eleanor. “Something I haven’t told you.” He gave them the full story about Mr Ugly and what’d happened the night Mia disappeared. “I thought maybe she was involved in some kind of prostitution or pornography, something like that. But now I’m thinking, what if it had something to do with her father? What if she found out who he was?”

“How would she have done that?”

“Maybe her mum left behind a letter or a diary.”

“If she had, the police would’ve found it at the time she died.”

“Well maybe someone told her.”

Mike shook his head. “Why would they do that after all these years? It’s tempting to look for some conspiracy, but if you ask me, you were closer to the truth with your first guess. I’d say Mia Bradshaw got mixed up in something unpleasant, and she’s either trying to run away from it or it’s driven her to suicide. Of course, there’s always the possibility she simply couldn’t bear the death of her friend.”

Now it was Julian’s turn to shake his head. “There’s something going on in this town. Deborah Bradshaw, Susan Carter, Joanne Butcher and now Mia Bradshaw. That’s four fifteen-year old girls who’ve gone missing from around here in the last fifteen years.”

“Susan Carter.” Mike looked at Julian curiously. “That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. What makes you mention her?”

Thinking about the dreams, Julian struggled to maintain eye contact with him. “My grandma was a clairvoyant. She tried to help her parents find her.”

“Yes, I know. I just don’t see how Susan Carter’s connected to this.”

“Her body was never found, right. What if that’s because she ended up in the river, too?”

“Hang on. Let me get this straight. You’re suggesting somebody around here’s killing girls and dumping them in the river?”

“Maybe they are.”

“And Joanne Butcher’s death wasn’t an accident either, right?”

“Well maybe it wasn’t.”

“You’re making connections where none exist, Julian. If there was even a hint of a connection between Susan Carter’s disappearance and the other three, don’t you think the police would’ve spotted it?”

“Maybe they have.”

“What the hell does that mean?” A crooked smile tugged at Mike’s mouth. “Oh, I get it. The police are in on it too.”

“Well Tom Benson didn’t seem all that interested when I went to him about Mia.”

“Hey, maybe the root of it goes even deeper than the police. Maybe half the town’s in on it as well.” Mike’s voice was heavy with sarcasm.

“I know I sound paranoid, but I’m just trying to make sense of all this.”

“What if there is no sense to be made of it? Bad stuff happens, Julian, especially to vulnerable kids like Deborah and Mia Bradshaw and Joanne Butcher. It’s hard to take, I know, but that’s the way it is.”

Heaving a breath, Julian put his head down and closed his eyes. “You’re probably right, I’m probably reading way too much into this. Truth is, I don’t know what to think. My mind’s going like crazy.”

“I know I’m right. I’ve been reporting the news in this town for twenty-five years. And believe me, whether it be the work of a lone predator or a whole conspiracy of them, if someone was doing the things you say, I’d have got wind of it.”

Julian thought about Tom Benson. He’d been certain of his rightness, too. “What if you’re wrong though?”

Contemplating the possibility made Mike reach for his cigarettes. He sparked up, took a drag, and looked at Julian gravely. “In that case, you should get out of town today, go back to university, go travelling for a while, whatever. Just put some distance between yourself and this business.”

Julian sat silent a full minute, brow creased. He shook his head. “I can’t.”

“But what can you do to help Mia?” said Eleanor.

“I don’t know. All I know is I can’t abandon her.”

“You’re going to get yourself in serious trouble, Julian, maybe hurt even worse than you already are.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t matter anymore.”

“Yes you do,” Eleanor shot back, her eyes shimmering with barely contained tears. “You matter to your parents, and to me.”

Julian looked at her apologetically. “I’d better go. Thanks for your help.”

Eleanor lowered her gaze from his. He continued to stare at her a moment, knowing suddenly and with absolute certainty how wrong he’d been to leave her. Then he headed for the front door. Mike followed him. “A piece of advice Julian, don’t go repeating what you’ve said here to anyone.” His voice dropped. “And do me a favour, as long as you’re going to be involved in this — whatever this is — keep your distance from Ellie, will you?”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Julian assured him. “I only came here tonight because I needed her help.”

Mike reached for a pen and paper, and scribbled down his mobile number. “Well, if you need any more help, or you just want to talk, or whatever, you can reach me on that number anytime.”

“Thanks.”

A look of concern came into Mike’s pale eyes. “And for Christ’s sake, Julian, be careful. You may not care much about yourself right now, but there are a lot of people around here who’d suffer if you did something reckless.”

Julian thought about his mum. He nodded. “I will be.” He returned to his dad’s car and drove home.

Chapter 13

The instant Julian pulled into the driveway, his dad stormed outside with rage in his eyes. “What the hell do you think you’re doing taking my car without asking?” he yelled as Julian got out of the car.

“I needed it.”

“For what?”

“There was something I had to do. I’m sorry.”

“You’re not bloody sorry,” spat Robert. “You’re a selfish little shit, you always have been. You don’t think of anybody but yourself. What if your mum had taken ill and needed rushing to the hospital? What then?”

Letting out a sigh, Julian handed over the car keys and made his way past his dad into the house. Robert stamped after him. “Don’t you dare walk away from me.”

Julian’s mum and Wanda watched from the kitchen doorway. Christine looked as though she didn’t know what worried her more — her son’s pale bruised face, or her husband’s furious purple face. Putting his head down, Julian headed for his bedroom. Robert grabbed his arm and yanked him around to face him. “I said don’t walk away from me.” He thrust his face toward Julian’s. “I’ve asked you several questions, and you’ve answered none.”

“Let go,” said Julian, a tinge of colour rising to his cheeks.

Robert jabbed a finger into his breastbone. “Not until you’ve answered my questions.”

“Let fucking go.”

“No. I’m sick of your games, Julian. We’re going to get to the bottom of all this right here and right now.”

Julian clenched his fists, his eyes set hard, mirroring his dad’s. For a full thirty seconds, they stared at each other. Then Julian brought his fist down on his dad’s hand, knocking it away. Robert’s eyes widened, more in shock than pain. Turning, Julian made for his bedroom again. With a cry of indignant fury, Robert lunged after him. Julian tried to dodge his grasp, but his dad caught hold of his t-shirt. The two of them staggered and toppled over. The breath whistled between Julian’s teeth as he hit the floorboards. Winded, he twisted and vainly tried to shove his dad, who was several stones heavier than him, away.

“Answers,” Robert shouted.

“Fuck you,” Julian shouted back.

“Stop it,” said Christine, her voice shrill and quivering. “Stop it, stop it, stop-” She choked off suddenly and her head slumped back, teeth clenched, body taut and shaking.

“Christine,” Robert gasped, scrambling across to his wife, holding her arms and legs steady while Wanda cradled her head.

“Phone an ambulance,” Wanda told Julian.

Heart going like crazy, he jumped up and dashed off to breathlessly do so. He’d seen his mum have seizures before. Most lasted only a few minutes, and passed without causing lasting harm. There was always the chance, though, that one could lead to further paralysis, even death. By the time he got off the phone, the spasms had subsided and Wanda was checking to make sure Christine hadn’t swallowed her tongue.

“Can you hear me, darling?” asked Robert, trying and failing to sound calm. A barely audible grunt from Christine brought a loud breath of relief from him.

“Is she going to be okay?” Julian asked, arms hugged around himself.

“She’s going to be fine,” Wanda said, as the fingers of Christine’s right hand slowly curled and uncurled.

“You see,” Robert hissed in a whisper, eyes flashing at Julian. “You see what happens when you behave-”

Wanda silenced him with a, “Shh,” and a warning finger to her lips. She wheeled Christine into the lounge, spread a blanket over her lap, and fetched her a glass of water. Christine slurped at it, spilling most of it out of one side of her mouth.

“How do you feel?” asked Robert.

“Like I’ve been wrestling a gorilla,” said Christine, her voice stronger, but slurry.

“The ambulance will be here soon.”

With difficulty, Christine shook her head. “I don’t need it.”

“Now come on, Christine, don’t start that again. You need checking over, just to be on the safe side.”

Christine looked at Julian. “What happened to your face?”

“Nothing. I had an accident, that’s all,” said Julian, wincing inwardly at the lie.

“What kind of accident?”

Robert shushed his wife. “We can get into all that later.”

When the ambulance turned up, Robert tossed his car keys to Julian. “I’ll ride in the ambulance. You follow.”

At the hospital, the usual doctors ran the usual battery of tests. Julian and his dad sat in the waiting room, tense, unspeaking. Over and over, Julian kept thinking, if there’s anything wrong with her, it’ll be my fault and I’ll never forgive myself. From the occasional glowering looks his dad cast at him, it was clear he would’ve agreed with that line of thinking. Morning dragged into noon, and noon into afternoon. A doctor came to tell them that the seizure didn’t seem to have caused any immediate problems, but they’d given Christine a sedative to help her sleep off its after-effects. A long, deep breath swelled from Julian’s stomach, puffing his cheeks. The doctor led them to Christine’s bedside, where they stood looking down at her, Robert holding her good hand in both of his. For a while, all thoughts except thoughts of his mum had been driven from Julian’s mind, but now Mia’s face rose into his consciousness again. Thinking about her made him feel almost as helpless as the sight of his mum. But he knew he had to do something — no matter how useless it might prove to be — and the only thing he could think to do was find Jake, find out what he knew.

“I’m going,” he said. “I’ll be back later.”

Without looking at Julian, Robert held out a hand. “Keys.”

Julian handed over the car keys. He stooped to kiss his mum’s forehead, whispered, “I’m sorry. I love you,” in her ear, then left. He caught a bus home, answered Wanda’s questions about his mum and grabbed a bite to eat, before heading out into the forest. Rumour had it that Jake was hiding somewhere in the sprawling, congested tangle of trees. If he was, Julian knew, it could take days, even weeks to find him. By which time, there was a good chance Mia would’ve been found too — one way or another. Still, he had to try. Anything was better than the agony of just sitting and waiting for something to happen. He took Henry with him in the hope that he’d warn him if anyone was around. He hiked along the sandy trail, hurrying past the spot where he’d found Joanne Butcher to the derelict sawmill.

The sawmill was a brick building with a partially collapsed corrugated iron roof. A wire fence with signs that said ‘No Trespassing’ surrounded it. The fence had been pulled up and pushed down in numerous places. Julian peered through a door hanging off its hinges into a dank gloom. The mill had long since been stripped of its machinery and anything else of any worth, but a sappy smell of cut lumber still lingered, only faintly detectable underneath the sour-ammonia reek of old urine and the heavy wood-smoke scent of a recent fire. As his eyes adjusted, he saw that the walls were papered with graffiti and the concrete floor was littered with leaves, cigarette butts, broken glass, beer and aerosol cans, and other rubbish. At its centre, a torn, stained mattress was pulled up close to a circle of ash. “Anyone in there?” said Julian.

Silence was the only reply. Cautiously, Julian approached the remains of the fire and poked around in them with his foot. The ashes gave off a faint heat. Henry sniffed at something behind a corrugated panel propped against a wall. Julian pulled him away and saw that a rolled up sleeping-bag was stowed there. He sat on the mattress, figuring that whoever the sleeping-bag belonged to would show up sooner or later. The gloom had deepened to twilight when Henry suddenly sprang up from where he’d been lying and barked. Julian rushed to the doorway. There was no one to be seen. “Jake, this is Julian Harris,” he called, his voice echoing back eerily from the trees. “I need to talk to you about your sister.” When no reply came, he added, “And about your mum.”

A minute passed. Henry darted to the rear of the building, barking. Julian ran after him, crunching leaves and glass underfoot. He stumbled and had just managed to regain his balance when something hit him in the back, knocking him to his knees. Jake’s scowling face loomed at him through the murk. “What the fuck do you know about my mum?” he said, one hand clutching Julian’s throat, the other raised and clenched.

Before Julian could reply, Henry buffeted into Jake, teeth flashing. The boy reeled aside and the dog’s teeth closed on the air with a snap. “No, Henry,” commanded Julian, scrambling to grab the dog’s collar. Henry strained momentarily to get at Jake, then settled back, eyeballing him. “Good boy.” Julian turned his attention to Jake, whose knife-like eyes glared at him from a face as pale as his knuckles. There was a coiled tension about his wiry but muscular frame, as if at any second he might spring to strike or flee. “I don’t know who’s told you what, Jake, but I’ve got nothing to do with Mia’s disappearance.” Jake’s face was unreadable, except for his eyes, which narrowed in a way that suggested he wanted Julian to further explain himself. Julian was struck by how much he looked like his sister. If he’d grown his hair and slapped on some makeup, they would’ve been almost impossible to tell apart. “I’m here because I want to find out what’s happened to her and I need your help,” he continued.

“Why the fuck do you care what’s happened to Mia? What’s she to you?”

There was that question again. With every asking, it seemed to assume more significance. “I don’t know exactly. I only knew her a few days, but, well she…she…” Again, Julian reached for but failed to grasp the words he wanted. He heaved an exasperated breath.

“You fuck her, did you?”

“No.”

Jake spat out the side of his mouth. “Bollocks you didn’t.” His hostile voice brought a growl from Henry. Julian shushed him.

“Believe what you like, but it’s true. I care about your sister as a friend, and that’s all.” But that wasn’t all there was to it. Julian knew it, and, from the glint of suspicion in his eyes, Jake knew it too.

“And what about my mum?”

“The thing is…well, it looks like…like…” Each word weighed like a rock on Julian’s tongue. It looks like your sister’s thrown herself off the same bridge as your mum did. He thought the words, but didn’t know how to say them.

“Well, fuckin’ spit it out then.”

“Maybe we’d better sit down,” Julian suggested, and not just out of concern for Jake. A great wave of tiredness had suddenly come crashing over him.

“What for?”

Without replying, Julian moved to sit on the mattress. Jake remained standing a moment, eyeing him uncertainly. Then, with the wariness of a cat, he approached the circle of ash and dropped down on his haunches. He dug at the ash with a stick, found some glowing embers amongst the grey wood and fed in several handfuls of leaves and twigs. As flames crackled into life, Julian looked at Jake’s intense, suspicious eyes, looked at his androgynous teenage face, and dragged the words out one by one. He told him about what he’d found at the bridge, about what Tom Benson had told him, and about the newspaper article. Except for maybe a slight thinning of his lips, Jake’s face gave no clue as to his emotions. “So she’s gone and done it,” he said, when Julian finished. His eyes shifted to the flames, taking on a familiar blankness. “She always said she would one day, but, fuck, I never believed she’d actually do it.”

“You mean she spoke about jumping off the bridge?”

“All the time. It used to do my head in. She said she wanted to feel what Mum felt, see what Mum saw when she hit the water. I told her, you won’t feel or see nothing ’cos you’ll be dead.” Jake gave a barely perceptible shake of his head, his gaze drifting further.

Doubts crowded in on Julian. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe Mia really had killed herself. He pushed the doubts away. He had to keep telling himself there was more to it, because at least that way there was a chance, however slim, that she was alive. “I don’t believe she’d do it.”

Jake’s eyes blinked back to Julian. “Why not?” His eyebrows knitted together as Julian gave him the rest of the story, flicking apart when he heard the part about Mia’s change of image and the Mercedes. “Let me get this straight in my head. You reckon Mia’s either faking it, or this Mr Ugly dude — who might be my dad — did my mum in and made it look like suicide, and has now done the same thing to my sister.”

Julian nodded. “Don’t suppose you’ve any idea who Mr Ugly is?”

Jake looked at him as if to say, what the fuck do you think? “Whoever the fuck he is, he’d better pray I never find out. ’Cos I’ll cut his cock off and feed it to him.” There was a quiet menace in his voice that suggested the threat wasn’t empty bravado.

“Well is there any way Mia could’ve found out who your dad is?”

“If there is, she never told me about it. All I know is he’s supposed to be an older dude. Probably one of those pervs who can’t get their dick up unless they’re fucking little girls.”

“And what about the man and the woman in the Merc? Any ideas about them?”

Jake rocked back onto the mattress. He took out a cigarette, lit it with a stick from the fire, and ran his tongue over his wolfish canines. “You say the woman was a red-head, big tits, looked like she’d been around.” When Julian nodded, Jake’s face wrinkled into a thoughtful frown. “Could be Ginger. She works behind the bar at the H-Bomb.”

“The H-Bomb? Where’s that? I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s on the other side of town. It’s The Outlaws’ place.”

“Who are The Outlaws?”

“They’re bikers.” Jake squinted sideways at Julian. “How long you lived in this town?”

“All my life.”

Jake snuffed contemptuously, but for an instant a kind of bitter longing showed in his eyes. “Fuck, you must’ve led a sheltered life.”

“I suppose I have,” admitted Julian. “So what makes you think the woman I saw could be this Ginger?”

“She’s the only person I can think of who looks anything like you say. And Mia and Jo used to go to The H-Bomb with Weasel sometimes. There’s something else n’all.” Jake sucked uneasily on his cigarette, as though the something else disturbed him. “Ginger’s not just a barmaid, she’s also junkie whore.”

Julian frowned too now. “So if it was this Ginger I saw, does that mean Mia was…” He hesitated, loathe to suggest to Jake that his twin sister was prostituting herself.

“Pulling tricks,” said Jake, reading between the lines. “I can’t think of any other reason for Mia to get in a car with Ginger done up like some slutty little girl. Can you?”

Julian’s earlier doubts returned to haunt him. If Jake was right, Mia’s disappearance surely had nothing to do with her father. Like an extension of his nightmare in a waking state, an image rose in his mind of Mister Ugly leering at Mia, sniffing, licking. He shifted his gaze to the fire, clenching his teeth, suppressing a shudder. Another thought ran like a cold sickness through his brain. What if both me and Jake are right? What if Mia had been prostituting herself and somehow chanced to discover that her ‘trick’ was also her Julian abruptly checked the thought. No, that was too twisted, too nauseating to even contemplate. But what if? What if? He couldn’t hold the shudder in any longer. It passed convulsively over his frame.

“You okay?” asked Jake, an edge of suspicion back in his voice.

Julian nodded, uncomfortable under Jake’s searching eyes. “What about Joanne Butcher? Were the rumours about her true?”

“Yeah, probably. Junk’ll do that if you let it get on top of you. And she was using way, way too much.”

“When did you last see her?”

“A couple of days before she went missing. We got high together. She phoned me, said she had some good junk. Fuck knows where she scored it from, but it wasn’t the usual watered-down shit you get round here. One hit knocked me on my arse, and I only smoked it. Jo was shooting the stuff up. I tell you, I didn’t even blink when I heard she’d OD’d.”

“How do you think she ended up in the forest?”

Jake shrugged. “Maybe she was looking for me. She knew I used this place.”

“But you weren’t here.”

“Obviously not,” said Jake, a little rise of irritation in his voice. “I move around a lot. Keeps the coppers off my track.”

Perplexed, Julian wrinkled his brow. “It doesn’t make any sense. Why didn’t she phone and find out where you were before coming out here?”

“She was a junkie. Junkie’s don’t make no sense.” Jake eyed Julian with the look of a wary animal trying to work out the motives and strength of another. “You know what don’t make no sense to me. You, you don’t make no sense to me.”

A thin smile stretched Julian’s lips. “I don’t make much sense to myself most of the time, either.”

Jake made a low noise in his throat as though he didn’t buy that. “Weasel says you’re loaded.”

“Do I look loaded?”

“Oh yeah, you look it alright.” Jake flicked his cigarette into the fire. “Someday I’m gonna look it n’all. I dunno how, but I am. I’m gonna have money and a big house, plasma TV in every room, and all the rest of it.”

Julian remembered something he’d heard his Grandma Alice say to his dad once. “Being rich isn’t just about money. It’s about having enough.”

“Enough? What the fuck does that mean?”

“I guess it means that some of us, no matter how much money we have, will never be happy.”

Jake spat in the fire. “Shit, you gotta be rich in the first place to talk like that.”

They sat in silence a moment, watching the flames shoot shadows up the walls. Jake drew a long breath suddenly, rubbing his hand over his chest as though there was a pain there. “It’s funny,” he said. “Mia used to reckon that if I hurt myself she felt it. She said it was ’cos the souls of twins are linked by ES…ES something.”

“ESP,” said Julian, thinking about his grandma.

“Yeah, that’s it.” Jake looked at Julian with a kind of appeal in his eyes. “Do you reckon that’s true?”

Julian felt a prickle at the back of his throat. Any suggestion of the supernatural put him on edge. He wanted to reply with a flat no, but couldn’t bring himself to — not in the face of the vulnerability Jake was exposing to him. He shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

“If it is true, that means Mia can’t be dead. ’Cos if she was I’d have felt something, wouldn’t I?”

Julian said nothing. Jake nodded to himself as if reinforcing his belief in the possibility. He jumped up. “Where you going?” asked Julian.

“To look for Ginger. What’s your mobile number?” As Julian told him, Jake tapped it into his own phone. “I’ll call you when I find her.”

Jake headed for the doorway. He paused to look back at Julian, eyes narrow. “You sure you didn’t fuck my sister? ’Cos if I find out you’re lying…” He broke off and let the words hang between them.

“I could of, but I didn’t,” said Julian, holding Jake’s gaze, but cringing inwardly at the gruesome image the threat conjured up.

Chapter 14

When Julian got home, Wanda was gone and his dad was there, drinking whisky. There was a slight glaze over his pupils that told Julian he already had a few glasses under his belt. He stared at Julian for half-a-minute, not speaking, looking straight into his eyes, as if trying to see inside his skull. Then he said, “I thought you were coming back to the hospital.”

“I meant to, but I took Henry for a walk and, well, I guess I just kind of lost track of time.”

“You just kind of lost track of time,” Robert enunciated slowly, his voice loaded with reproach.

Julian felt heat rise to his face. “How’s Mum?”

“No change. If she has a good night, she can come home in the morning.”

“That’s good.” Julian blinked awkwardly from his dad’s alcohol-flushed face. “I’m going to head to bed.”

“Wait a moment, Julian,” said Robert, as his son started to turn away. “We need to talk.”

Julian’s heart sank at the prospect of getting into another row. “Can’t it wait? I’m totally whipped.”

Robert shook his head, motioning to the sofa. As Julian sat down, his dad pointed to the whisky bottle. “You want one?”

Surprised, Julian nodded. His dad had never offered to share his whisky with him before. Robert poured him a generous measure. He swallowed a mouthful and choked — he wasn’t used to drinking spirits straight.

Robert shook his head, almost smiling. “Easy. Just sip it or you’ll get sick.”

“I know that.” There was a slightly petulant twist to Julian’s lips.

Robert gave him another long, direct look. “Yes, I guess you do,” he said gravely. He finished his drink in a gulp, watching Julian over the rim of his glass. “Look, about what happened this morning, you were in the wrong taking my car, but I shouldn’t have reacted like that. I’m sorry.”

Julian sipped his drink, not quite sure how to respond. First the whisky, now an unheard-of apology, what next? An acceptance of his decision to leave university? “I know we’ve had our differences recently,” continued Robert, “but we’re going to be spending a lot of time around each other, so we might as well start trying to get along. For our sakes and your mum’s sake.”

A sardonic smile crossed Julian’s lips. “Why don’t you just say it straight, Dad? This isn’t about me and you at all. This is about Mum.”

“It’s about all of us. Sure, it’s about caring for your mum and keeping her alive. But it’s also about building a future for after she’s-” Robert couldn’t bring himself to say the word in his mind. He took another big mouthful of whisky, wincing as it went down. His eyes grew glassier.

Jesus, he’s going to cry, thought Julian. His dad wasn’t the type to cry in front of anyone. When Christine first got ill and it was touch and go whether she’d survive, he never broke down once in front of Julian. A week after she went into hospital, Julian had woken in the dead of night and thought he heard sobbing through the walls. But he hadn’t been sure. His sardonic smile evaporated. He wanted to reach out to his dad, put an arm around him, but he didn’t know how. When he’d turned thirteen and puberty hit, his dad had stopped hugging him. It was like an invisible barrier had sprung up between them. Julian had been confused and upset, but his mum told him, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you, it just means you’re growing up into a young man. Do you understand? He’d nodded, but he hadn’t understood. Not really. He just never questioned his mum at that age.

Robert gave a sharp sniff, sucking the tears back in before they could form. “You know, Julian, I want to believe you’re working at the factory because you really want to. Not simply because you’re bored with university and can’t think of anything else to do.”

“I’m there because that’s where I need to be,” Julian said, and it was the truth, nothing more or less. Looking at his dad’s worn down, used up face, he found himself seriously wondering if there’d even be a business for him to take over if he stuck it out at university. “Just give me a chance to prove it.”

Robert chewed over his appeal, brow creased, then said, “Okay, Julian. If you want a chance, you got it.” He managed a smile. “Truth be told, I’m glad you’re here.” He reached out to take Julian’s wrist and tugged at it. Just one brief, gentle tug, but, coupled with the words, it was enough to throw Julian completely off balance.

He glanced from his dad’s hand to his face, as if doubting his senses. “I’d better go to bed,” he said quietly.

Robert withdrew his hand. “Thanks for this chat, Julian. You’ve made me feel much better, much clearer in my mind.”

“Have I?”

Robert nodded. “Go and get a good night’s rest.”

With slow, uncertain movements, Julian rose and headed for his bedroom. Behind him there was the clink of glass on glass, the hollow gurgling sound of liquid being poured into a tumbler. He paused to look back at his dad. “I’m sorry, too, about this morning.”

“I know you are.”

Lying in the darkness of his bedroom, the whisky burning in his belly, Julian rubbed his arm where he could still feel his dad’s touch. Over and over, he ran through their conversation. He couldn’t work out what he’d said or done to change things between himself and his dad. But they had changed. And something must’ve been the catalyst. But what? Maybe his dad had simply come to the realisation that he couldn’t hold it all together alone anymore. Maybe he needed someone to share the weight. The thought settled on Julian heavily. An hour or so later, when his ear caught what sounded like a sob from the living-room, it grew so heavy that it felt like he had a brick in his chest.

At breakfast, Robert sat silent and distant, the strain of a long, sleepless night etched in his face. There was a strain in the air, too. Julian wondered if it was simply down to worry about his mum, or if there was more to it. There was something about his dad’s scrunch-shouldered posture, about the way he was careful to avoid looking too directly in Julian’s eyes, which hinted at embarrassment, sheepishness, perhaps even a slight degree of shame. He was relieved when Wanda arrived and noisily set about cleaning the kitchen. “Do you really need to do that now?” asked Robert, wincing a little at each clatter of pots and pans.

“You know how Christine likes a clean kitchen.”

“Christine might not even be coming home today.”

Wanda wagged a remonstrative finger. “Ah, come on now, think positive.”

Robert turned to Julian. “You coming to the hospital?”

Julian nodded. The silence resumed when they set off, but he hardly noticed it now. All his thoughts were concentrated on his mum. When they arrived at the hospital, Christine was awake, but droopy-eyed. “How are my two favourite boys?” she asked, smiling, her voice mushy and drugged.

“We’re good,” answered Robert.

Christine looked at them meaningfully. “Really?”

“Really. Everything’s fine.”

Julian smiled to reinforce his dad’s words. “So what’s the verdict?”

“I’m fine too,” said Christine. “Just waiting to be discharged.”

A short time later, Robert wheeled his wife to the car. Now that Julian knew his mum was okay, his thoughts returned to Mia. After helping his mum into the front passenger seat, he said, “I’ll see you later. I’ve got some stuff to do in town.” He found a taxi and told the driver to take him to The High Bridge.

There was a crowd of journalists and gawkers strung out along the bridge’s walkway, watching the police drag the river. A TV camera crew was setting up. Spotting Mike Hill, Julian approached him. “Have they found anything?”

“No. If Mia did jump, it could take days to find her. The currents here are strong and unpredictable.” Mike gestured with his chin and Julian followed him to a quieter spot. “So, any new developments?”

“There is something,” Julian began hesitantly. “But it’s nothing definite. So you’ve got to promise to keep it to yourself until I know for sure.”

“I only print the facts.”

“I’m not just talking about the newspaper, I’m talking about the police.”

“Whatever you say is between us alone.”

Reassured, Julian told Mike about his encounter with Jake. The journalist frowned when he mentioned The Outlaws. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re involved in this somehow. A lot of the bad stuff that happens around here’s to do with them. You know, Julian, you really should go to the police with this. These are dangerous people.”

Julian said nothing, but the look on his face made it clear he had no intention of doing as Mike suggested.

“You’re not still thinking the police might be involved in all this, are you?” asked Mike.

“I never said I thought they were,” Julian responded, a defensive edge to his voice. “I may be paranoid, but I’m not stupid.”

“I don’t think you’re paranoid or stupid, Julian. I think you’re way out of your depth, and I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I don’t intend to get hurt. Look, if I find out this Ginger is the woman I saw in the Merc, I’ll go to the police. I just want to be sure first.”

“Well, it’s your choice, but consider this, if Mia is still alive, the longer you keep this information from the police, the more you’re putting her at risk.”

These words gave Julian a jolt. “You mean like someone could be holding her prisoner somewhere.”

“Anything’s possible, although that seems unlikely. I was thinking more along the lines of her being with people she shouldn’t be with, doing things she shouldn’t be doing.”

Julian stopped listening after the first few words, his gaze moving past Mike to the police divers plunging into the water, a picture forming in his mind of Mia bound and gagged in some basement. The thought of her suffering because of the choices he made caused the weight on his heart to grow even heavier. He fingered the phone in his pocket, thinking, for fuck’s sake, Jake, ring! For a second, he considered going in search of Tom Benson, but a nagging uncertainty held him back. He exhaled a long, helpless breath.

“Go home, Julian,” said Mike. “You shouldn’t be hanging around here. If my fellow journos catch on who you are, they’ll be all over you. I’ll call you if they find anything.”

With a final lingering glance at the river, Julian trudged away from the bridge. He walked all the way home, knowing that when he got there there’d be nothing to do but sit and wonder about Mia, and wait for Jake to call. He had a strong, almost desperate, desire to see Eleanor and pour his fears into her sympathetic ears, but he knew it wasn’t possible. Not while there was even the slightest chance of endangering her. He couldn’t have lived with himself if he’d done that. When he got home, Mia’s disappearance was on the news. “Do you know about this?” asked his mum, turning shocked eyes on him. “Another girl’s gone missing. Her name’s Mia Bradshaw. Apparently, she was good friends with Joanne Butcher. They think she might’ve jumped off the bridge.”

Julian nodded. “They’re talking about it all over town.” It wasn’t an outright lie — people almost certainly were talking about it all over town — but it wasn’t the truth either, and so it left an unpleasant aftertaste. He looked at the TV so as not to have to look at his mum. The screen showed footage of the police scouring the river. A diver surfaced holding something aloft, and suddenly Julian’s heart was beating like he’d snorted coke. Relief took over as the camera homed in to reveal a slimy, bulging black plastic bag. If Mia was dead and someone wanted it to look like suicide, they’d hardly have stuffed her body into a bin-liner.

“Fifteen,” said Christine, shaking her head. “What a waste, what a horrible, horrible waste of life.”

“How are you feeling?” asked Julian, changing the subject.

“A bit groggy. I think the sedatives the doctor gave me are still washing round in my system.”

“Where’s Dad?”

“He’s got a headache. I told him to have a lie down. He spends so much time worrying over me, he forgets to look after himself.”

“I think I’ll go for a lie down, too.”

“Okay, darling.”

As Julian headed for his bedroom, Robert poked his head into the hallway and beckoned him into his room. His hair looked as if he’d been running his fingers through it. There was a telltale moist sheen on his pupils. Robert shut the door and, his drinker’s eyes narrowing, asked, “What do you know about this missing girl?”

Julian’s nose wrinkled slightly at the sour smell of whisky on his dad’s breath. “She was friends with Joanne-”

“Yes, yes, I know that,” Robert interjected. “What I’m asking you is, do you think she’s really jumped?”

Julian shrugged, his mind swaying between concern over his dad’s increasing drinking and wondering what his interest in Mia’s disappearance meant. It flashed through his mind that somebody had told his dad about him and Mia.

“So you don’t know this girl?”

“Only…only by sight.” Julian stammered over the lie. Faking a yawn in an effort to conceal his agitation, he started to turn to leave. But his dad caught hold of his shoulders, not letting him squirm away from his questioning gaze.

“You’re lying, Julian, I can tell. You know what I think? I think all this nonsense that’s being going on with you lately, the way you’ve been behaving, it’s got something to do with this girl.”

Julian blinked, taken aback at his dad’s insight. So someone has been talking, he thought — most probably Kyle out of spite, or maybe Eleanor out of concern. Hoping he was wrong, he said, “Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve seen her in The Cut a couple of times. That’s all.”

“So why were you at The High Bridge today?”

“Who told you I was there?”

“It doesn’t matter who. You were seen.”

That didn’t surprise Julian. His dad was an influential man with a lot of eyes around the town. “I went because I wanted to see for myself what was going on. Have you forgotten that I found Joanne Butcher?”

“How the hell could I forget that?” Robert pursed his lips irritably. Then, making an obvious effort to keep his voice low and calm, he said, “Look, all I want to know is the truth.”

You and me both, thought Julian. “I’m telling you the truth.”

“I don’t buy that one bit.” Robert shook his head with a saddened air. “What’s happened to you, Julian? Since when did you start lying?”

Julian made a contemptuous hissing sound. “Around the same time as you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know fucking well what I mean. Look at you. You’re so stressed you can’t get through the morning without a drink.”

Robert scowled, his temper flaring. “Don’t swear at me you little sh-” He caught the word on his lips, inhaled deeply through his nose, then continued, “Of course I’m stressed out, Julian. Your mum — my wife — who I love more than my life has an inoperable brain aneurysm that might pop and kill her at any second.”

“That’s not just it. Mum’s been ill for years and I’ve never seen you like this before. Admit it, Dad, it’s the factory. The factory’s struggling.”

Robert looked at Julian in silent indecision. Twice he glanced at the door, as if trying to work out if anyone was listening at it. Then, his voice dropping even lower, he said, “Okay, so business is a bit tight right now. We’ve been having some problems.”

“Such as?”

“Well, for a start, our biggest supplier has put up their prices by twenty percent in the last year. Also, we’ve lost a couple of big customers recently.”

“And does Mum know about this?”

“Of course not, and there’s no need for her to.” Robert’s voice contained a warning note.

“Oh right, so it’s okay for you to lie and keep things from her, is it?”

“This is totally different, Julian. Sometimes you have to lie to protect people.”

“Yeah, well maybe that’s what I’m doing.”

“So Mia Bradshaw’s still alive.” Robert’s drink-shot eyes stared intensely into Julian’s. “Where is she?”

“How should I know if she’s alive or where she is?”

“You just implied that you’re protecting her.”

Julian tried to shrug off his dad’s hands, but their hold on him tightened almost painfully. “This isn’t a fucking game, Julian.”

“I know that.”

“Do you? Because if you really do, you’ll tell me the truth.”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

Robert studied Julian a moment, then said gravely, “I hope so, because this is the kind of thing that wrecks lives — and I’m not just talking about one life, Julian. If something happens to Mia Bradshaw because you didn’t do the right thing, you’ll carry that with you forever.”

Do the right thing. Those words throbbed in Julian’s head like an anxious heart. Doing the right fucking thing’s all I want to do, he felt like yelling. He brought his arms up between his dad’s and thrust outwards, knocking his grip loose. Then he turned for the door. “Wait,” said Robert, his voice almost imploring. “Just tell me one thing. Tell me you didn’t do anything with her.”

Julian frowned over his shoulder at him. “Do anything like what?”

“Like have sex with her.”

“What kind of question’s that?” Julian’s voice rose in angry indignation. “Jesus Christ, what the fuck do you think I am? She’s fifteen.”

With a worried glance in the direction of the living-room, Robert raised his hands to quieten him. “Okay, okay, I see you’re not lying now. I’m sorry, Julian, but I had to ask.”

“Why?”

“Because if they do pull her out of that river, they have ways of telling if she had sex before she died.”

“Even if we had done anything, do you really think I’d care about that if she’s dead?” Julian stabbed a finger at his temple. “You can’t be right in there. Saying such twisted things.”

“I’m only trying to look out for you.”

Julian echoed Mia. “Well I don’t need looking out for.”

Robert pulled an incredulous face. “Have you looked in the mirror recently?”

“Have you?” Julian shot back. With a shake of his head, he made for his bedroom. He flopped onto his bed, pulling out his mobile phone. “Ring, Jake. Ring, ring,” he muttered, as if by force of will he could make him do so.

Chapter 15

Second by second, minute by minute, the day passed. Jake didn’t ring. The police found nothing other than mud and rubbish in the river. Julian sat down to an excruciating Sunday lunch with his parents. His mum still seemed half-doped. His dad was more interested in the bottle of wine he opened than eating or conversation. Julian shoved the beef, potatoes and all the rest of it down his throat and excused himself from the table. As the sun set over the forest, turning the trees into flame, he fell into his usual troubled sleep. By the time the next morning rolled around, he must’ve killed Mia a dozen times.

Julian checked his phone and the TV, but there was still no news on either front. He dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. His dad was at the breakfast table, looking a little jaded, but immaculately shaved and dressed. When he saw Julian, he shook his head and said, “Go and put a suit and tie on.”

“What for?”

“I’ll explain in the car. Hurry up and get changed.”

On the way to the factory, Robert kept licking his lips as though his mouth was dry. Julian would’ve put it down to the drink, if he hadn’t sensed an edginess about him, a preoccupation. “So why am I dressed like this?” he asked.

“I’m meeting with a buyer from a High Street chain-store today to discuss a possible order,” said Robert. “I want you to sit in on the meeting. Not say anything, mind you, just sit there and listen.” His tongue ran over his lips again. “If we can clinch this order, it’ll really turn things around for us.”

“And what if we can’t?”

Robert said nothing, but his face said plenty.

When the buyer arrived at the factory, Robert briefly introduced him to Julian and then the business talk started. To Julian the meeting seemed interminably long and tedious. There was lots of talk from his dad about the history of Harris Shoes, the dedication of their employees, the outstanding quality of the shoes themselves. And then there was lots of talk from the buyer about the company he worked for, its reputation for fair dealing, its general buying policies, and so forth and so on. In the end, though, it boiled down to one thing — price — but neither man seemed willing to talk figures. After listening for what seemed like hours, Julian had to grit his teeth to stop himself from bursting out, “Jesus, can’t we just cut the bullshit and get down to it.”

After they’d shaken the buyer’s hand and waved him off, Robert turned to Julian and said, “That went well, don’t you think?”

He shrugged. “Seemed like a lot of talk that didn’t amount to anything. I was expecting you to try to get him to commit to an order, but you didn’t even discuss prices.”

“Patience, Julian. You can’t do business until you’ve done the small talk. It’s a bit like dating. If you want the relationship to last, you don’t jump straight into bed.” Julian almost flinched when, with a smile, his dad reached to pat his shoulder. “I’ll bet they didn’t teach you that at uni.”

Julian spent the rest of the day going through the orders book with his dad, listening to him talk about his relationship with his buyers. He knew every one of them on first name terms, knew their wives, sent them cards and presents at Christmas and on their birthdays. “It may seem like a lot of bother, but these little extra efforts really pay off in the long-run,” he said. There was an animation about him, an excitement that Julian had rarely seen before. He’d built the business on sheer hard work. It was his baby, and his love for it was written all over his face. A few years earlier it would’ve been enough to make Julian jealous, but not anymore. He was past that now. And besides, it was clear that if he wanted to get closer to his dad all he had to do was put his heart and soul into the business too. “You know, Julian,” Robert went on, “I had my doubts, but I’m starting to think maybe you were right, maybe what this business needs is new blood, a fresh perspective. Maybe together we can drive it on to new heights.”

“For any build-up strategy to work there needs to be a strong flow of new orders in the pipeline.” The line was straight out of Julian’s business textbooks. He said it more because, faced with his dad’s sharp U-turn of opinion, he felt a responsibility to reciprocate his enthusiasm than because he believed it.

Robert clicked his fingers in assent. “Exactly. And that’s what I want you to do — find new markets, new buyers.” He talked on eagerly about all the possibilities they could explore, but Julian was only half-listening. The other half of him was thinking about Mia and Jake. He suddenly found himself longing to be back in the ‘Cripples’ storeroom, shut away from the world and himself. By the end of the day he felt exhausted from listening to his dad. But he wasn’t ready to go home and face the nothing of the evening. Neither did he want to risk going out drinking. Knowing what this town was like, there was every chance word had gotten out about his involvement with Mia.

When his dad offered him a lift home, Julian shook his head. “I’m going to hang around here a while and have a good think about everything you’ve said, maybe come up with some ideas of my own.”

Robert’s eyebrows lifted. “You sure? It’s been a long day and you look tired. There’s no need to burn yourself out trying to prove your commitment.”

“I’m fine, Dad, honestly.”

Robert stood by the door, keys in hand. “Maybe I should stick around too. We could brainstorm together.”

“I don’t need to talk, I need to process.”

“Process?”

“Yeah, I feel a bit overloaded with information. I need to let it all sink in.”

“Why can’t you do that at home?”

“’Cos I’ll just end up staring at the TV or messing around on my laptop. There are no distractions here.” Still, Robert hesitated to leave. Julian didn’t doubt his concern was genuine, but he also had a sneaking suspicion that he was reluctant to trust him in the factory alone. “You should get going. It’s already late. Mum’ll be wondering where you are.”

Julian guessed that would do the trick — and it did. His dad tossed him a bunch of keys. “Just make sure you lock up and put the alarm on.” He gave him a final look that was half pleased, half uncertain, before leaving.

Julian wandered around the factory. He’d never been there alone before. There was a kind of unnatural hush over the place, as though the machines were sleeping. A thought came to him. He returned to his dad’s office and searched his desk drawers. In the bottom one there was a tumbler and a bottle of whisky. He poured himself a large one and sat sipping it in his dad’s leather swivel chair. His gaze moved around the office. A slight thickness came into his throat at the sight of a framed photo of his mother in her bridal dress, her smile as big as a full moon. He’d almost forgotten what she looked like before she got ill. He couldn’t bear to look at the photo for long. His eyes dropped away from it, coming to rest on a filing-cabinet. He approached the cabinet and opened it. Inside was nearly two decades worth of business accounts. He took out files containing the balance sheets for the previous five years and returned to the desk to peruse them, quickly and gladly losing himself in the figures. Hours passed, night came down. He worked backward through the years, occasionally pausing to sip his drink or scribble notes. When he was done, he took out more files and worked through them too. Darkness was wearing away to the blue edge of dawn as he returned the last of the files to the cabinet and dropped, yawning, into the swivel chair. He only closed his eyes for a second, and then suddenly he was waking to find his dad frowning down at him. He sat up with a jolt, his neck stiff from the chair, his mind still reeling from the dream. He blinked the dark images away.

“You’ve been here all night,” said his dad, stating the obvious.

“I started working on something and lost track of time. I meant to come home when I finished, but I guess that, well, I must’ve fallen asleep. I usually don’t go to sleep so easily.”

Robert glanced at the almost empty bottle of whisky. “Looks like you had some help.”

“Sorry about that. I needed something to keep me going. You don’t mind, do you?”

“That depends. What were you working on?”

“I went through the balance-sheet accounts to look for any possible savings.”

Robert’s frown gathered intensity. “And what did you find?”

“It’s not rising supply costs or even lack of orders that’s killing us, it’s overheads. You see, overheads accumulate on companies the way barnacles accumulate on the hull of a ship. And, from time to time, they need to be scrapped off, just as barnacles need-”

“Enough of the business-school stuff,” broke in Robert. “Get to the point.”

Julian gathered up his notes, motioning for his dad to look at them. “Here’s the thing, year on year our spending on stationary, telephone bills, insurance, equipment repairs, rent, interest on business loans and so on has risen. I’m certain we could make significant savings in all these areas.”

Robert thumbed for Julian to get out of his seat, sat down and scanned through the notes. His frown gradually relaxed into a smile. “This is really good work, Julian. I’m…well, I’m impressed.”

Julian was surprised to find himself blushing with pleasure at his dad’s praise. There was a genuine enthusiasm about him as he said, “So, I guess now I should start work on a strategy for reducing overheads.”

Robert nodded. “But that can wait until tomorrow. Now you should go home and get some rest.”

Julian was about to tell his dad that he’d rather get to work right away, but at that moment his phone vibrated in his pocket. He snatched it out. ‘1 message received’ read its screen. The text-message was from Jake. ‘meet me at mill asap and bring food’ it said.

“Anything interesting?” asked Robert.

“Just a friend wanting to meet up.” He returned the phone to his pocket. “See you later then.”

As Julian turned to leave, Robert said, “Hey, Jules. Here, catch.” He tossed him his car keys.

“But how will you get home?”

“I’ll sort something out. And next week we’ll sort you out a new car.”

An expression of pleased surprise flitted across Julian’s face. “Seriously?”

Robert smiled. “Seriously.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“I’m the one who should be saying thanks. Truth is, I’ve let things here slide,” Robert admitted. A certain sadness came into his smile. “What with your mother and everything else that’s been going on.” He heaved a breath, breathing away the sadness. “Anyway, from now on things are going to be different. We’re going to make this company great together, aren’t we?”

Julian felt his dad’s weight of hope in him with the same reality that he felt the weight of tiredness in his body. He forced a smile. “Of course we are.”

Chapter 16

As Julian drove home, his phone vibrated again. This time it was Eleanor ringing. His thumb hovered over the answer button, but didn’t press it. “Sorry, Eleanor,” he murmured.

When he arrived at the house, his mum was in the front-garden. From a distance, at a glance, she almost looked her old self — the self from the wedding-photo. It gave him a lift to see her pruning her beloved roses. She waved to him and called, “Where were you last night?”

“Working.”

“Working? What’s so important you had to work on it all night?”

“I’ll tell you later. I’ve got to be somewhere. How are you feeling?”

“Better than I have done in ages. I think the seizure must’ve jiggled some life into me.”

Julian changed into jeans and a t-shirt, and grabbed some cheese, bread and a couple of cokes, before heading into the woods. Despite his tiredness, he walked quickly, almost running. There was no sign of Jake outside or inside the mill. “Jake, where are you?” he called. After a minute or two, the boy emerged from the trees and approached him. He seemed to have grown even leaner and hungrier looking, less human, more like the tattoo on his chest.

“Just making sure you’re alone,” he explained. “You brought the eats?”

Julian handed Jake the food. Almost savagely, he tore at the bread with his teeth, belching as he swilled it down with coke. “So have you found Ginger?” Julian asked eagerly.

“I saw her go into The H-Bomb a couple of hours back.”

Julian frowned. “In that case, why get me to meet you here?”

“I needed to fetch some of my things.”

“But she could’ve left The H-Bomb by now.”

“No she couldn’t.”

“How do you know that?”

“’Cos I do. You got a car?”

“No. Well, yes, but it’s my dad’s. Haven’t you got one?”

“Sure, I can get hold of one easily enough, if you want to risk driving around town in a stolen car.”

“Okay, we’ll use my dad’s, but you’ll have to meet me in the street out front of my house.”

“Why? Don’t you trust me?”

“It’s not that,” said Julian, although it was partly that. “If my mum sees you, she’s going to start asking all sorts of questions.”

Julian explained where he lived, then hurried back there. His mum and Wanda were in the kitchen, making lunch. He skirted around the side of the house, careful not to be seen. As arranged, Jake was waiting outside the gates. “Nice fuckin’ place,” he said as he ducked into the car, displaying a sullen resentment that reminded Julian sharply of Mia.

“Where to?”

“Just drive, rich boy. I’ll tell you as we go.”

“Don’t call me that,” retorted Julian, accelerating harder than he meant to in his irritation.

“Why not? That’s what you are, isn’t it? That’s what I’m gonna be n’all one day. A big, fat rich fuck.”

Julian sighed, not for himself, but for Jake. He couldn’t imagine him ever being any of those things. Jake directed him to the north side of town to a street of dirty-grey houses and flats, many of which had metal-plates welded over their windows. “Stop here,” said Jake. Julian pulled over outside a block of maisonettes fenced off and ready for demolition. Opposite was a three-storey house whose windows were barred and blacked out. The front door, which looked heavy-duty enough to withstand a battering-ram, had a cartoon style H-bomb painted on it. There was a security camera above it. Several big, low-rider motorcycles were parked in the yard. Jake stuck his head out the window and whistled. A woman in a short denim skirt and high-heels emerged from the shadow of the maisonettes, slid through a gap in the fence and tottered over to the car. Julian recognised her as Weasel’s girlfriend.

“Still in there, is she?” asked Jake.

“Well I ain’t seen her come out.” The woman looked admiringly at the car, and said to Julian, “Hello again.”

“Do me a favour, Cookie, don’t tell Weasel about this,” said Jake.

Cookie curled her lip. “You don’t have to worry about that, babe, I won’t tell him nothin’. You just find out where Mia is. ’Cos I know as sure as I’m standing here in front of you that she’s not done anything crazy like what they’re saying.” With a wink at Julian, she turned and teetered away.

Jake thumbed at the maisonettes. “Better park around back. We’ll get noticed fast if we stay here.”

Julian did as Jake said. Uneasy about leaving the car, he followed him to a boarded-up doorway. Jake pulled back the already loose board and they squeezed inside. “Don’t touch anything if you can help it,” he said. “Junkies use this place. There’s used needles all over everything.”

They edged their way along an almost pitch-black hallway and up some stairs to a flat. A finger of sunlight pointed through a partially boarded window, glinting off the scraps of scorched foil strewn over the filthy carpet. In the centre of the floor was a dark, roughly circular stain that might’ve been blood. Somewhere flies buzzed. Julian pulled his t-shirt up over his nose. “It smells like something died in here.”

“Something probably did,” said Jake, approaching the window.

Julian squatted next to him and breathed deeply of the air draughting through the cracked glass. From the window they had a clear view of The H-Bomb’s entrance. A long-haired, bearded, tattooed biker, wearing a leather jacket with the words ‘OUTLAWS’ stitched across its back, rolled up on a Harley and knocked at the bar’s door. The door opened, but they couldn’t see who let him in. Jake took out some cigarettes. “Smoke?”

Julian accepted one, eager to drive the stink of the room from his consciousness. “You think Cookie’s right about Mia?”

Jake puffed thoughtfully on his cigarette, then shrugged. “When we were like ten or eleven, we got sent to live with this foster family. Nice people. I mean, they really tried to make us feel part of the family. And for a while things were good for us. Y’know, three proper meals a day, presents on our birthdays and at Christmas. We even went on holiday. It was only a week in a crappy caravan in Wales, but it was nice. We had ice-cream on the beach, swam in the sea, all that kind of thing. It was like we were a real family.” Jake’s eyes drifted briefly. “When I think about it now, it’s like I dreamed it or something.”

“So what happened?”

“Mia fucked everything up, that’s what.” Jake’s expression grew sour at the memory. “One day our foster parents took us for a picnic by The High Bridge. Mia started acting all weird, doing that staring off into space thing she does. Our foster parents thought she was ill, so we went home. And when we got there she just went nuts. Started smashing everything up. She smashed the TV and a load of ornaments. Then she locked herself in the bathroom, and when there was nothing but herself left to wreck in there, she slashed herself up with broken glass. She was out cold from loss of blood by the time the coppers got there and broke in the door. She was in hospital for ages and when she got better she refused to go back to live with our foster parents. I tried to tell her it wasn’t their fault, they hadn’t been told about what happened to our mum, but she wouldn’t listen. So we ended up back in the children’s home ’cos they wouldn’t split us up. And just look how that worked out for us.” Jake fell silent, shaking his head.

“What about Mia’s latest foster family. Did you live with them too?”

“Yeah, for about a month, until I got caught joyriding.”

“What did you think of her foster dad?”

“Mr Aldridge, he’s alright, bit of a toucher.”

“How do you mean?”

“Y’know, he likes to get in your space, put his hands on you.”

“What, like in a sexual way?”

“Maybe. Or maybe he’s just friendly.”

“He didn’t seem very friendly to me,” muttered Julian, lapsing into a frowning silence. As he watched several more bikers roll up to The H-Bomb, shuddering at the thought of it, he said, “You don’t think Mr Aldridge ever did anything to Mia, do you?”

Jake snorted. “If you knew Mia like I do, you wouldn’t need to ask that. When you grow up in children’s homes, you have to learn how to look after yourself. If that fucker tried anything on with her, she’d have torn his dick off.”

They watched in silence for a while. Jake took out a penknife with a six-inch blade and dug at the rotten window-frame with it. “What’s that for?” Julian asked uneasily.

“Protection. I told you junkies use this place.”

A thought occurred to Julian. “What if this Ginger is the woman I saw, what then?”

“We get her to tell us where she went with Mia.”

“And what if she won’t?”

Jake pushed the blade deeper into the wood. “She will, I’ll make fuckin’ sure of that.”

Not liking the sound of that, Julian frowned. “Don’t you think it’d be a better idea to call the police, let them deal with her?”

Jake looked at Julian, that animal light in his eyes again. “Thought you said you cared about Mia.”

“I do, that’s why-”

“No fuckin’ coppers,” cut in Jake. “We do this ourselves, right?”

Julian returned his stare a moment, then blinked and said, “Okay.” In his mind, he saw Jake holding the knife to the woman’s throat. It gave him a queer sliding feeling in his stomach, a feeling of fear mixed with excitement. He took a deep breath, like someone about to dive into deep water.

The day wore on into the afternoon and beyond. They smoked the last of the cigarettes. They didn’t talk much. They had little or nothing in common except Mia, and they’d said all they needed to say about her for the moment. The squalor of the room made Julian feel oppressed, claustrophobic. He could feel the stink in his nostrils, on his skin. A sense of panic, a need to get out of there grew in him as darkness closed on the street. He stood suddenly, heaving a breath. “How much longer are we going to have to wait in his shit-hole?”

“I was here four days before that bitch showed up,” said Jake.

“Fuck, how did you stand it?”

Jake shrugged. “It’s just a place. Places can’t hurt you, if there’s no the people in them.”

Feeling somewhat spineless, and a little ashamed, Julian squatted down again. Heavy rock music was thumping out of The H-Bomb now. Groups of bikers were gathered in front it, smoking and drinking. “Those are some serious looking dudes,” said Julian.

Jake gave a contemptuous grunt. Julian started to say something else, but Jake shushed him and pointed. “There she is.”

A woman in biker’s leathers stepped out the door framed by the light within. Julian craned his neck, squinting. The woman in the car had worn her hair up, but Ginger’s hair was down and spread over her shoulders, so that it was difficult to make out her face. “Is it her?” Jake asked.

“I-” Julian broke off with an intake of breath as Ginger moved forward into the glow of a street-light. “Yes, it’s her.” His tone was one of slight disbelief. Somehow he’d never expected it to really be her. But it was, and now the sliding feeling was back, stronger than before.

Jake sprang up. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“Where do you think? We’re gonna follow the bitch.”

Chapter 17

Julian stumbled after Jake through the reeking darkness to the car. Relieved to find it still there and in one piece, he started the engine and pulled around to the street in time to see Ginger climb onto the back of a motorbike. The guy in front of her had the bloated body of a weightlifter gone to seed. He looked, to Julian, like he could’ve effortlessly picked up him and Jake, one in each of his hands, and cracked their heads together. They followed the motorbike to a street in which hardly any of the houses had all their doors and windows intact. Ginger and the man went into one of the houses. A light came on in the downstairs window.

“What now?” asked Julian.

“We wait,” said Jake, rocking in his seat, too ramped up to stay still, his eyes wide and glinting.

Ten minutes passed, twenty. The biker reappeared, mounted up and roared away. Jake got out of the car. Somewhat reluctantly, Julian followed. With each step, he had the sense that he was drawing closer to some invisible edge. You should stop this now, he thought. But he didn’t stop it. As they neared the front door, Jake pointed around the side of the house, whispering, “Stay out of sight while I talk to her.”

Jake knocked at the door. Peeping around the corner, Julian could see his hand fidgeting at something — no doubt, the knife — inside his jacket. He passed his tongue over his suddenly dry lips. “Who is it?” a female voice asked through the door — this wasn’t the kind of neighbourhood where you opened your door after dark without knowing who was knocking.

“Jake Bradshaw.”

“What do you want?”

“It’s about my sister?”

There was a pause, then the click of a lock and the squeak of a door opening. “What about her?”

“I just wondered if you’d seen her in the past few weeks.”

“No I haven’t.” The reply was spoken without hesitation, as if Ginger had been ready with it before the question was even asked.

“You sure you haven’t seen her?”

“I just said so, didn’t I? Is that all?”

“Yeah, unless you wanna suck my cock.”

“What? Is that some kind of joke?”

“Nah, seriously, I’ve got twenty quid here. That’s the going rate, isn’t it?”

“Piss off, you filthy little shit,” retorted Ginger, starting to close the door.

Jake shoved his foot between the door and the frame. He grinned as Ginger tried unsuccessfully to kick it out of the way. “That’s it, baby, I like it when you get rough.”

“I’m fuckin’ warning you,” yelled Ginger.

In response, Jake drew his hand out of his jacket. He wasn’t holding the knife, as Julian had feared. Instead, he gripped a crowbar. “Don’t, Jake,” cried Julian, springing forward. But he was too late. Jake brought the crowbar down with bone-breaking force on Ginger’s hand that held the door. She reeled backward onto the floorboards, crying out.

Jake loomed over her, brandishing the crowbar. “Where’s my fuckin’ sister?”

“Jesus, Jake, there was no need for that,” said Julian, his heart pounding in his voice.

“This bitch lied to me. Now she’s gonna open up and tell the truth, or I’m gonna open her fuckin’ head.”

Ginger’s eyes flicked between Jake and Julian, wide with pain and anger. “You’re crazy,” she groaned. “When Bull finds out about this, he’ll kill you.”

Jake’s lips curled into a sneer. “Ooh, I’m shaking.”

“You will be when he gets hold of you.”

Jake snorted. “That fat fuck couldn’t shift his arse fast enough to catch a snail, never mind me.”

“Maybe, but you won’t be able to outrun all The Outlaws.”

“Fuck The Outlaws. Bunch of bearded old cunts tossing each other off in their clubhouse.” Jake jabbed at Ginger with the crowbar. “Besides, if you don’t tell me what you were doin’ in a car with Mia and some guy the night she went missing, you won’t be in no state to tell nobody nothin’, you get me?”

Ginger blinked at the mention of the car, the anger in her face shading to a kind of hesitating fear. She looked at Julian. “You’d better tell your friend to back off, before he goes too far.”

Julian spread his hands helplessly, as if to say, sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. He returned Ginger’s gaze in a mute appeal for her to tell Jake what he wanted to know. “Right, you’ve got five seconds,” said Jake. “Then I start breaking bones. One…two-”

“Don’t make me laugh. Run away, little boy, while you still can,” said Ginger, grinning up at him. But it was bravado, and they all knew it.

“Three…four-”

Ginger raised her uninjured hand. “Okay, okay.” She heaved a quivering breath. “Yeah, I was with Mia that night. But how could you know that unless you’ve spoken to her since then?”

“That don’t matter. You just tell me why.”

“We were on the job.”

“Do you mean like prostitutes?” said Julian.

“No, I mean like Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Ginger retorted sarcastically.

Julian wasn’t surprised, of course. He’d guessed it all along. But even so, without him being aware of it, some tiny part of him had clung to the hope that he was wrong. Sadness clouded his eyes — sadness and something else, something which frightened him like a face leering out from a nightmare. “Where did you take Mia?” His voice was tight and trembling.

“I didn’t take her anywhere. The client’s driver picked us up and took us to his house. We did the job and left.”

“So Mia was fine when you left her.”

“Yeah.” There was something not quite convincing about Ginger’s tone. Julian heard it, and Jake did too. Jake made a threatening movement with the crowbar, prompting Ginger to go on, “Well, she was a bit quiet. You know, kind of faraway. But then she was always like that after we did a job.”

“You mean this wasn’t the first time.”

“No. I’d done a few jobs with her and Jo before.”

“Joanne Butcher?”

Ginger nodded. “I hadn’t seen Mia for months. Then, after Jo died, she came to see me, said she needed money. So I set the job up.”

“Did she say what for?”

“No. Probably for junk.”

“My sister wasn’t no junkie,” snapped Jake, his face contracting into a scowl.

“Okay fine, she wasn’t a junkie, but she needed money for something.”

“Yeah, probably to get the fuck out of this town.”

“Well whatever. We did the job, she went her way and I went mine, and that’s all there is to tell.”

“Who was the client?” asked Julian.

Ginger made no reply, her lips compressing.

“Who was the fuckin’ client?” said Jake.

“Just some guy,” said Ginger. “What does it matter?”

Anger flashed up inside Julian like oil in a frying-pan flaring to flame. He snatched the crowbar off Jake and shoved it into Ginger’s stomach hard enough to force her breath out in a hiss. She tried to push him away, but he caught hold of her hand. “There’s a girl missing. Maybe dead. Maybe runaway. Maybe imprisoned somewhere. So you’re gonna tell us who this fucker is, understand?”

“I dunno his name,” gasped Ginger. “He calls himself Mr X.”

“Mr X?” Julian repeated incredulously. “You’re lying again.”

“It’s the truth. Look, this guy comes to me, says he wants me to keep an eye out for girls like…well, girls like Jo and Mia. What makes you think a guy like that would want me to know his name?”

“You know where he lives, though.”

“Yeah, but like I said, Mr X didn’t do nothing to Mia.”

Julian stared into Ginger’s eyes, darkly. “Yes he did. And you’re gonna take us to his house.”

“Trust me, you really don’t want to go there.”

“Trust you,” said Jake, with something between a laugh and a snarl. “That’s a good one.”

Ginger’s gaze transferred to Jake, and Julian was surprised to glimpse beneath the hard-bitten mask of her face a glimmer of what might’ve been concern. “Leave now and I promise I won’t tell anyone about this.”

“We’re leaving alright, but you’re coming with us.” Jake took a length of rough brown rope from inside his jacket. He tied Ginger’s hands, taking no care to be gentle with her injured hand. Then he took back the crowbar and said to Julian, “Fetch the car.”

Julian sprinted to the car. His hands were shaking so badly he fumbled the keys twice before managing to slide them into the ignition. He parked in the driveway, keeping the motor running. Jake emerged from the house, leading Ginger by the arm. He’d put away the crowbar and the knife glinted in his hand, the point of its blade touching Ginger’s side. They got into the backseat. “Which way?” asked Jake. Ginger said nothing. He pushed the blade a little harder against her and, with an intake of breath, she pointed wordlessly.

Julian followed her finger across town, heading south. Ginger leant forward and spoke in his ear. “You can still stop this before it’s too late,” she said, echoing his thoughts.

“No one’s stopping anything,” hissed Jake.

“This guy, Mr X, he’s not someone you want to mess with.”

“Neither am I.”

Ginger shot Jake a mocking glance. “Oh I know all about you, Jake Bradshaw. Thug, petty thief, loser.”

“At least I’m not a whore.”

“Unlike your sister.”

With a lurking light of violence in his wet, black wolf’s eyes, Jake yanked Ginger backward. “Do you fuckin’ want me to stick this blade in you, or what?”

“Go on then, do it.” There was a sneering undertone of laughter in Ginger’s voice.

“I will if you don’t shut your fuckin’ gob.”

“You haven’t got the balls. I know your type. I’ve known you all my life. You’re a nothing. A lost little boy trying to cover up how shit-scared he is with a lot of big talk.”

Jake’s lips drew back from his teeth in a snarl. “Fuck you! Fucking whore-bitch! Fucking slut!”

As Jake spat the stream of obscenities at Ginger, an image rose into Julian’s mind of his Grandma Alice’s possessed face — the bulging, hate-filled eyes, the flaring nostrils, the sneering grin. Chest constricting as if in a vice, he pulled over and jerked around to glare at Ginger and Jake. “Fucking enough! Both of you,” he managed to squeeze out.

Ginger gave Julian a weighing-up look. “Now you, you’re no born loser. You come from money, don’t you? I can tell. I should be able to. I’ve fucked enough of your kind in my time. What I can’t work out is who you are and what you’re doing here.”

“I’m a friend of Mia’s.”

“So how come I’ve never seen you with her?”

“I’ve only known her a few weeks.”

“Then you’re not her friend. Kids like her don’t make friends easy. Especially not with people like you.” She narrowed her eyes. “No, you’re something else. You look like a nice boy, but there’s something about you — your voice, or your eyes, or something…”

Julian’s fingers dug into the headrest, his eyes jumping around in a quick, jittery way. “There it is again,” said Ginger. “It’s in the eyes. Can’t you see it, Jake?”

“I dunno what you’re on about,” muttered Jake. He frowned at Julian. “Do you know what she’s on about?”

Julian shook his head. He couldn’t speak. The car seemed airless. “Course he knows,” said Ginger. “That fucker’s got shifty eyes. Like he’s got something to hide.”

Her voice was like fingernails on a blackboard, scratching at Julian’s nerves. All he could think about was shutting her up. His eyes landed on the knife in Jake’s hand. “You’d like to use that on me, wouldn’t you?” said Ginger, taunting, but with a quiver of nervousness in her voice. “Bet you’d like to fuck me while you’re using it n’all. That what you did to Mia, is it, hmm?”

That was more than Julian could take. He jumped out the car, sucking for air to shout, “Sick! You’re sick!” It wasn’t clear if the words were directed at Ginger or himself.

Jake got out too. He pointed the knife at Julian, suspicion rife in his eyes. “Why would she say that?”

“She’s trying to turn you against me, distract us from what we’re here to do.”

Jake looked hard at Julian for a moment. “I guess you’re right.” He didn’t sound entirely convinced, but he lowered the knife and ducked back into the car. “Come on, let’s get this fuckin’ over with.”

Taking a steadying breath, Julian got back behind the wheel. “Fifteen,” he said, looking at Ginger in the rear-view mirror. “Mia and Joanne were only fifteen. How do you live with yourself?”

Ginger pushed her face close to his again, nostrils flaring indignantly. “I was the same age when I started turning tricks.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“Fuck you. Don’t you sit there with your silver spoon up your arse judging me. You don’t know shit.”

Jake grabbed Ginger’s shoulders and yanked her back. “Another word, bitch, and I’ll gag you. Just keep your mouth shut and point.”

After glaring at Jake a few seconds, Ginger raised her bound hands and pointed. Julian resumed driving, heading through the wealthy southern suburbs, nearing the turn off for the street he lived on. He found himself wondering uneasily if Mr X was anyone his parents knew. Perhaps he was a family man with a wife and children to support. Perhaps they were all tucked up in bed, blissfully ignorant that the man they looked up to and depended on was about to be exposed as a deviant and maybe worse. A small kernel of relief opened in Julian’s chest as they passed the end of his street and left behind the outskirts of the town. The forest rose up on either side of the road like a dark green wall.

“How much further?” asked Julian.

“Not much further now.” Ginger pointed again, and Julian turned onto a road that led towards the heart of the forest. At first they passed a few houses tucked back into the trees. Then there were only trees and more trees.

“You sure this is the right way?” asked Julian. He knew — or, at least, thought he knew — the forest well enough to know that there were no houses for the next ten or so miles.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“You better not be shitting us,” warned Jake.

“I’m not, but you might wish I was before this is over.”

Jake made a scoffing noise. “Why? Who is this Mr X? Some kind of big-time criminal or something?”

“He’s your worst nightmare.”

A shudder ran through Julian. Jake burst into a sneering laugh. “Yeah, well I’m looking forward to meeting him.” He ran his finger along his knife. “Me and him’s gonna have a nice little chat.”

Ginger shook her head, sighing. “Turn in there.” She pointed to a gravel road so narrow and overgrown that you could easily drive by without noticing it. There was no sign to suggest it led anywhere in particular. Julian winced as branches scraped along the car.

“You ever been to this part of the forest before?” Julian asked Jake.

“No. You?”

“I don’t think so.” Much of the forest looked the same, making it difficult to know exactly where you were a lot of the time. After about half-a-mile, the road forked. At Ginger’s direction, they took the left fork, which descended into a heavily wooded valley. As the trees crowded more thickly, Julian had a familiar sense that he was entering a hidden world — a world he was usually more comfortable in than anywhere else, but which at that moment seemed sinister and menacing.

“Ah, this is bollo-” Jake started to say, but broke off as, after climbing a steep incline, they rounded a curve and came to a tall iron gate topped with spikes. A razor-wire fence stretched to either side of it. Beyond it, the road continued to curve to the right, out of sight behind trees that swayed darkly in the night breeze with a wailing murmur like a creature in pain.

“Back up,” hissed Jake, pointing at a security camera on the gatepost. Julian reversed around the corner. Jake opened his door. “You stay here and watch her while I check this place out.”

“Wait,” said Ginger. “Please, please don’t do this. This is crazy.” And the way she said it gave Julian a shrivelling feeling, as though he was teetering right on the edge of a cliff within himself.

“She’s right,” said Julian. “This is crazy. We should call the police, let them deal with this guy.”

“Jake, listen to him, he’s talking sense.”

Scowling, Jake hawked and spat. “Fuck the police and fuck both of you.” He got out of the car and, hunkering into a low run, quickly melted into the darkness.

Julian glanced at the clock. It was just after two am. He took out his mobile-phone. “You won’t get a signal out here,” said Ginger. She was right. Julian stared out the window, biting his thumbnail. A few minutes crept by. The wind dropped and silence pressed in on him from every side. He heaved a breath just to break it.

“How do you know Mia?” asked Ginger. Julian made no reply. Telling her that would be as good as telling her his name, and he didn’t want her knowing who he was or, more importantly, who his parents were. “It may surprise you to know that I care about what happens to her.”

Julian turned to look at Ginger, incredulous.

“You’ve no right to look at me like that,” she said. “Not until you’ve lived my life. You think I like living this way? You think I chose this life? You think I chose to be conceived in the womb of an alcoholic mother from the seed of a one-night stand?” She shook her head. “Ah, what the fuck am I telling you this for? Unless you’ve been there, you can’t understand how it is.”

“But I want to understand,” said Julian, thinking about Mia, thinking that maybe it would help him understand her.

“Then you’re as crazy as that boy out there.”

“I need to know where Mia’s been.”

“Why?”

“Because maybe then I can work out where she’s gone.”

Giving Julian another long, appraising stare, as if she wasn’t sure what to make of him, Ginger said, “You into sexual role-play? You know, dressing up, acting out a part?”

“No.”

“Well the client me and Mia were brought here to…” Ginger searched for the right word, “service was into it. He had very specific needs. He wanted a fourteen or fifteen-year old girl, a blonde, girl-next-door type. And she had to be English, not some dyed-blonde, two-a-penny Eastern European slut. That’s where the real premium comes in. It didn’t matter so much about the woman, just so long as she was old enough to be the girl’s mother.”

A queer, sick feeling rose in Julian. He put his fist to his mouth, swallowing.

“You see where this is going, don’t you?” said Ginger. “Do you want me to go on?” Julian nodded. He didn’t want to hear it, but he had to. So she went on and told him how her and Mia played mother and daughter, and the client played father. And she told him how together they’d ‘serviced’ the client, the things they’d done and the things they’d said. And suddenly the sickness in him was replaced by rage-fuelled visions of punching, kicking and strangling the life out of Mr X, whoever the bastard was. “How could you?” The words grated between his teeth. “How could you do those things?”

“It’s business, that’s all,” said Ginger, eyeing him warily. “You just do it and don’t think about it.”

“Yeah, well it makes me want to hurt something thinking about that ugly fucker with his hands on Mia.”

“What makes you think the client was ugly?”

It suddenly occurred to Julian that there was an important question he hadn’t asked. “What does Mr X look like?”

“Dunno, I’ve never seen him.”

Julian screwed up his face in confusion. “But how’s that possible? You said-”

“I know what I said,” interjected Ginger. She sighed. “Okay, look, here’s the truth…” She fell silent, biting her lip, as if she was having second thoughts about saying what’d been on the tip of her tongue.

“Go on,” implored Julian. “If you really do care for Mia.”

Ginger’s eyes flashed with resentment. “You think I’d be here if I didn’t care for her? Anything you or Jake could do to me is nothing, you hear me, nothing compared to what Mr X will do when finds out I brought you here.” A sheen of tears filmed her eyes. She blinked them away and managed a grim smile. “Fuck it. If you dance, you got to pay the piper, right? Truth is, Mr X wasn’t the client. He’s the guy who sets up the jobs.”

“You mean like a middle-man?”

“I suppose. When there’s a job going, he rings and tells me what the client wants. I sort out the girl, or girls, or whatever, then he sends his driver to pick us up and take us to the house. The driver and the client are the only people we ever see. After the job’s done, the driver pays us and takes us back to town.”

“So you’ve only ever spoken to Mr X on the phone.”

“Yes.”

“Well, could the driver be Mr X?”

“Dunno, he never says anything. I doubt it, though. He’s a big guy, looks like he’d have a big, deep voice. Mr X’s voice is clicky, like…like some kind of insect.”

“What about the client? What was he like?”

“Middle-aged, average looking. You know the type, hair starting to go, bit of a beer-belly. He looked like somebody’s dad.”

Julian cleared his throat in disdain. “Just you’re average guy with average fantasies about raping his daughter. Don’t suppose Mr Average told you his name?”

Ginger looked at Julian as if to say, what do you reckon? He pushed his hand through his hair, digging his fingernails into his scalp, almost drawing blood. “How does something like this happen around here?”

“Why shouldn’t it? What’s special about here? It’s just a place like any other.”

No it’s not, thought Julian, this is my home, the place I grew up. Stuff like this happens other places, not here. He remembered what his Grandma Alice had said to him all those years ago. She’d said, someday, sweetheart, you’ll find out that there’s a great big world beyond this speck of a town, but not today. Well, he was seeing that world now, whether he wanted to or not. Only he didn’t have to look beyond the town, it was right there in front of him. The whole world contained in one place. The whole beautiful, ugly world.

More time passed. Julian glanced at the clock again. It was nearly half-an-hour since Jake had left the car. “How much longer you gonna wait for him?” asked Ginger.

“As long as it takes.”

“He’s a crazy little shit, but I like him. You like him, too, don’t you?”

Julian hadn’t really thought about it. But now that he did, he realised Ginger was both right and wrong. Jake was someone he found easy to like and dislike, the same as Mia. Besides, it wasn’t really a question of like or dislike. He was drawn to both Mia and Jake by something else. He couldn’t define what it was. It was simply there, haunting him like a shadow in the moonlit forest, seemingly too vague and deep to be expressed in words. “Yeah, I guess I do,” he said, not seeing any point trying to explain what he couldn’t explain.

“Then drive to the edge of the forest, phone the coppers. Every minute you stay here puts him in more danger.”

Julian stared out the window, biting his lip.

“Listen to me.” Ginger’s voice grew loud with urgency. “You’re way out of your depth. That boy’s gonna end up hurt, maybe dead. And it’ll be on your conscience, ’cos he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.”

Julian twisted around to look at her. “How do you know that?”

“Well someone must’ve seen me in the car with Mia, and I’m guessing that someone was you.”

Julian’s forehead scrunched into lines of uncertainty. “Maybe I should go look for Jake.”

Ginger shook her head. “Do that and you’ll be fucked too. Besides, the second you leave me I’m out of this car and running for the main-road.”

Julian resumed looking out the window, his hands clenching and unclenching on the steering-wheel. “Come on, Jake,” he muttered, “Where the fuck are-” He broke off with a start as a light came on, flooding the road ahead with its harsh white glow.

“Shit!” cried Ginger. “Let’s get out of here!”

His heart beating in his mouth, Julian’s hand shot to the ignition key. He hesitated to turn it. “What the fuck you waitin’ for?” yelled Ginger, almost choking on her own panic.

“Shh,” hissed Julian. From around the curve in the road came a scraping, electronic whirr.

“The gate’s opening. Oh God, oh God, he’s coming! You have to hurry. Please, please.”

Still, Julian hesitated, held in place by that indefinable something else. There was the click of a door opening. Ginger lurched out of the car and fled, stumbling in her high-heels on the uneven, stony surface. Julian didn’t go after her. He goggled at the road ahead, his eyes illuminated externally by the security-light and internally by the fear coursing through him like fire. The internal light flared brighter as Jake staggered into view and collapsed against the car’s bonnet, his head hanging forward. Flinging the door open, Julian rushed to help him upright. When he caught sight of the blood oozing from Jake’s mouth and nostrils, he felt a sharp dropping sensation inside. “What happened?”

“Get me the fuck away from here,” Jake replied, with a gurgle in his voice.

One arm around Jake’s waist, Julian guided him onto the backseat. Jake didn’t seem to notice — or if he did, didn’t care — that Ginger was gone. “What happened?” Julian asked again.

Jake made no reply. He lay with his eyes closed, breath grating in his throat. There was no room to turn the car. Julian was forced to back up along the lane. The car jolted around each curve. Half-watching where he was going and half-watching for signs of pursuit, he’d almost lost control of it several times already, when its read end skidded out. The car spun around clockwise until, with a sound of crunching glass, the front-headlight hit a tree. Jake groaned loudly. Julian’s head smacked into the driver’s door window. He sat dazed for a moment, before jerking the gear-stick into first. The tires spun, then caught. He flew along the lane as fast as he dared, his eyes constantly flicking to the rearview mirror. When he reached the main-road, he floored the accelerator-pedal. It only occurred to him after he’d put a good few miles between the car and the turn-off that he hadn’t passed Ginger. Figuring that she’d hidden amongst the trees, he said, “Ginger ran away. Do you reckon we should go back to look for her?”

“Fuck her,” Jake grunted, barely moving his bloodied lips. “Where are we going?”

“Hospital.”

With an effort that caused his breath to hiss between his gritted teeth, Jake sat up. “Stop the car.”

Julian glanced at him in surprise. “What for?”

“Just fuckin’ do it.”

Julian pulled over at the Five Springs carpark. Jake clambered out of the car and, arms hugged tightly across his chest as if trying to hold himself together, started to shuffle away. Still dizzy from banging his head, Julian went after him. “What you doing?”

“Leave me alone.” Without looking at Julian, Jake continued walking with quickening, unsteady steps.

“You need to see a doctor.” When Jake shook his head, Julian continued, “At least tell me what happened back there.”

“Leave it.”

“Please, Jake, I need to know.”

Julian reached to put his hand on Jake’s shoulder. The boy whirled to face him, fists balled, teeth bared. “Don’t fuckin’ touch me.”

Sensing rather than seeing the fear skulking behind Jake’s anger, Julian raised his hands, palms forward. “Just tell me, did you find out something about Mia?”

“Mia’s gone.”

Julian’s eyes popped wide. “What do you mean gone? Do you mean she’s dead?”

“I mean you can’t help her.” Jake exhaled raggedly, his shoulders sagging. Voice heavy with fatalistic resignation, he added, “Give it up, rich boy.” He turned and headed once more along the path.

“I won’t give up,” Julian called after him. “No matter what, I won’t ever give up.”

Julian watched Jake disappear into the darkness of the trees. Then, his mind whirring, he returned to the car. It was obvious some great fear had been put into Jake. What shape that fear took was less obvious. Even if you tried to strip away the bravado, Jake didn’t strike Julian as someone easily frightened by threats to himself. In which case his fear must relate to a threat to someone else. And that someone was surely Mia. Which meant she was alive — alive but with Mr X holding the power of life and death over her. What gave him that power? Perhaps, thought Julian, it’s a debt over drugs — heroin, most likely — and he’s keeping her as a sex-slave until it’s paid off. She’d claimed she didn’t use, but junkies weren’t exactly known for being truthful. Maybe those cuts on her arms hid needle marks. Yes, that was it. The pieces suddenly seemed to be falling into place in his mind. At first, Mia had used Mr X to get money for junk. But now he was using her, and he’d keep using her until she was all used up. And then what? Would he fling her into the river for real or — as perhaps he’d promised Jake — would he let her go? Whatever, Julian knew he had to do something. Jake might’ve been hardened by his upbringing to accept, even embrace the darker side of life, but the thought of Mia playing the daughter to one more sicko made Julian want to throw up and scream and cry all at once. The grim memorial under the bridge was clearly a cry for help, and he was going to do everything in his power to give her the help she needed.

Julian took out Tom Benson’s card. He stared at it uncertainly a few seconds, before returning it to his pocket. Assuming Mr X did have Mia, getting the police involved might force him to carry out his threat. No, somehow, someway, he’d have to do this himself. A shadow of fear passed across his face, leaving behind a tight mask of resolution. He ducked into the car and jerked the wheel. The vehicle lurched forward, heading back into the heart of the forest. He barely let up on the accelerator even when he turned onto the lane, fearing his nerve might give way. He drove right up to the gate. The security-light was still on, illuminating an intercom box on one of the gateposts. As Julian got out of the car, a Doberman ran up to the gate and pushed its muzzle between the bars, barking. Eyeing it warily, he pressed the intercom button. After a moment, the intercom crackled to life, but no voice came over it.

Julian spoke into it, trying without success to keep emotion out of his voice and sound business-like. “I know you’ve got Mia.” He knew no such thing, of course, but he figured the bluff was worth a shot. “If she owes you money, I’m willing to pay it. I can get however much you need.” That wasn’t strictly true, but his dad had offered to buy him a new car, so he knew he could get his hands on several thousand. And if the debt was more than that he had a laptop, a PC, a stereo and plenty of other things he could sell. “I promise I won’t get the police involved.” He glanced up at the CCTV camera, waiting futilely for a reply. The silence coming over the intercom was palpable. The dog rolled its eyes at him, tongue lolling and head nodding, as though amused. He spoke into the box again. “Okay, I’m going, but my offer stands. Think it over and I’ll be back tomorrow.”

He ducked into the car, agonising over whether he’d done the right thing. Like bollocks you have, nagged an inner voice, all you’ve done is put Mia in more danger. He pushed the voice away, saying out loud, “Relax, you can do this. It’s just business, that’s all.” The whole way home, he kept repeating the words over and over, as if they were a mantra to ward off evil. They snagged in his throat when he saw Tom Benson waiting at the end of the driveway. The thought flashed through his mind that he was wrong about Mr X having Mia, that they’d dragged her out of the river. He lowered the window and asked with a sharp, metallic anxiety, “What is it? Have you found her?”

Tom Benson shook his head. Julian had no time to feel relieved as, getting into the passenger seat, the detective said, “We need to talk. And you’d better be ready to do some serious explaining. We received a call tonight about an attempted break-in at a house out on The Old Forest Road. The homeowner heard someone trying to jimmy a window. He tried to apprehend the intruder, who was…” He flipped open a notepad and read from it, “a boy of about fifteen or sixteen, slim build, shaved head. But after a struggle, the intruder managed to get away. A car was caught on CCTV at the scene.” He patted the dashboard. “This car.”

Julian knew the game was up — he’d known it from the instant Tom Benson opened his mouth. So, heaving a sigh, he just plunged in and told him everything about Jake, Ginger and Mr X. “Christ,” said the policeman, when Julian was finished. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking about Mia, about saving her life.”

“You should’ve come to us.”

“I wanted to, but if Mr X-”

Tom Benson cut Julian off with a snort of impatience. “There’s no such person as Mr X.”

“But Ginger-”

“Ginger’s a lying, conniving, junkie who’d tell you anything to save her worthless hide.”

“No, she was telling the truth. How else would she know that house was there?”

“Maybe she didn’t, maybe she was just looking for an opportunity to get away.”

Julian sat in frowning silence. Could the detective be right? It didn’t take him long to admit that he could well be. After all, why else would Mr X, or whatever his name was, have contacted the police? Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to accept the possibility. Sure, Ginger probably hadn’t told him the whole truth, but the fear he’d seen in her eyes, and in Jake’s, had been genuine. He felt certain of it. “So who lives at that house?”

“A businessman.”

“What’s his name?”

“I can’t tell you that. He’s a law-abiding citizen with a right to privacy.”

“How do you know he’s law-abiding? Have you been and checked him out?”

“That’s where I’m heading as soon as I’ve finished with you.” Tom Benson sighed, looking across at Julian with something approaching sympathy. “Look, I know it’s easier to believe in Mr X than face up to the possibility that Mia Bradshaw’s killed herself, but I’m telling you Ginger fed you a line of horseshit. I’ll tell you something else, too. And I’m only going to tell you it one more time. Withholding information from the police is a criminal offence. So if you’ve got anything else to say…” He let the sentence hang like a threat.

“The only thing I have to say is, you’re wrong about Ginger lying. Mr X exists.”

Tom Benson shook his head in exasperation. “You don’t seem to realise the trouble you’re in, Julian. You have any idea the charges you could be facing? Breaking and entering, assault, kidnapping. By rights I should be taking you to jail. The only reason I’m not is because I know you did all this to try and save a young girl’s life. Now, when I speak to the man whose house you and Jake broke into tonight I’ll explain that to him, and maybe he won’t press charges. And when I find Ginger I’ll try and convince her not to press charges either.” The detective’s features grew grim. “But if you persist with this Mr X nonsense, if you continue to harass this man, I’ll be forced to arrest you. Do you understand? Am I getting through that stubborn head of yours?”

Julian nodded. “Will you call me after you’ve spoken to Mr…to the businessman?”

“Sure.” Tom Benson got out of the car. Almost as an afterthought, he added, “Oh, and if you see Jake Bradshaw again, make sure the next thing you do is call me.”

Julian drove into the driveway, aware of the policeman watching him. Quietly as possible he entered the house and made his way to his bedroom. A glance in the mirror showed him there was a half-egg shaped swelling where he’d hit his head, and his pupils were huge with concussion. He flopped onto the bed, not bothering to undress or get under the duvet. Again, he wondered whether Tom Benson was right. Again, he dismissed the possibility. The detective was either mistaken or lying. Maybe that’s what Jake had meant when he said, you can’t help her. Maybe the local police were corrupt. Maybe the whole fucking town was corrupt. When he closed his eyes, he felt the dropping sensation again. He was falling, dropping down, down into a fog of doubt, where he saw nothing but lies. Lies. Everywhere lies. They crowded in on him as thickly as trees in a forest, until it was impossible to know where they stopped and the truth began.

Chapter 18

Julian felt something prodding him. “Julian, Julian.” His dad’s insistent voice summoned him away from the horror of his dreams. His eyes flicked open and he yanked the duvet over his groin to hide his erection.

“What is it?” he asked groggily.

“Time for work.” Frowning with concern, Robert pointed at Julian’s forehead. “What happened?”

Remembering about the car, Julian’s mind raced for a credible lie to explain the damage. The worst thing in the world, his mum’s words echoed in his mind as he said, “I was driving in the forest and hit a deer. I braked so hard my head rammed into the steering-wheel. One of the headlights got damaged and I think there might be a few dents. I’m sorry.”

At the very least, Julian expected a lecture about driving carefully — he’d often been warned to watch out for deer crossing the forest roads — but his dad merely smiled. “No need to apologise, it’s not your fault. As long as you’re okay.”

Julian managed to return a smile. He was still unsure what to make of this new, softer version of his dad. He wanted to believe the change was real, but the cynic in him said it was for his mum’s benefit. “I’m fine.”

“What were you doing in the forest?”

“Just driving and thinking about the business. You know, trying to come up with ideas.”

“And did you?”

“One or two.”

“Well, I look forward to hearing them. Get yourself in the shower. I’d better check the damage.”

Julian checked his phone. There were no missed calls. There was a message from Eleanor, though. ‘Call me. X’ it read. Julian deleted it. After showering and dressing, he called goodbye to his mum and hurried outside. He was hollow with hunger, but he knew that if he sat down to breakfast he’d have to lie to her about the bruise on his temple — and he preferred hunger to that. His dad was waiting by the car. “Looks like you hit the deer full on,” he said, pointing to smears of blood where Jake had leant on the bonnet.

“Mind if I drive?” asked Julian, needing to keep active to keep his mind off Mia. Robert shook his head. As he got into the car, Julian quickly laid his jacket over the bloodstains on the backseat.

On the way to the factory, Robert said, “So tell me about these ideas.”

“Um, erm, well, err,” stammered Julian, wracking his brain for something, anything, to offer his dad. “I was thinking we need a new website.”

“The current site’s only a couple of years old.”

“I know, but web design moves fast, the site looks dated, and it’s awkward to navigate.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Robert cautiously agreed. “But I thought we were looking to reduce costs.”

“If we build a new site and hype it, I’m sure it’ll pay for any capital invested.”

“Okay. Look into it. See how much it’ll cost.”

At the factory, Robert showed Julian to a room adjacent to his office that’d been used to store files and other clutter, but which now contained a desk, chair, computer and phone. “How do you like it?” he asked, watching his son eagerly for approval of what he’d done.

“It’s great,” said Julian, trying to keep the sinking feeling out of his voice.

Robert patted him on the shoulder. “I’d better get back to it. If you need me, you know where I am.”

Julian moved behind the desk and sat down. He stared at his reflection in the monitor, thinking, this is it, this is the next thirty or forty years of your life. He pictured what he’d look like after all those years — rounded shoulders, double-chin, red-rimmed eyes, face as pale and lumpy as fungus. The image would’ve bothered him more if his head hadn’t been so full of Mia. He tried to redirect his thoughts, booting up the PC, browsing through lists of web designers, even phoning for a couple of quotes. But Mia’s face continually rose into his mind, blotting out everything else. He kept seeing her in that hometown girl getup. Against his will, he kept seeing her doing the things Ginger had said she’d done. He couldn’t shake the images. They picked him up and carried him out of the office, carried him all the way to his dad’s car. He still had the keys. He drove away from the factory fast with all the windows down, letting air wash over him like a cold shower.

Feeling calmer and cleaner, he phoned Tom Benson and said, “I thought you were going to call me.”

“I was, but I also happen to be running a major investigation into a missing girl,” the policeman responded curtly. “Anyway, you’ll be relieved to know that no charges regarding last night’s little escapade will be pressed at this time.”

Julian wasn’t relieved. He couldn’t have cared less. All he cared about right then was Mia. “Did you search the house?”

“I had no right or reason to search it.”

“But what about what Ginger said?”

“I thought we discussed this. Besides, I’ve not been able to get hold of Ginger to speak to.”

That gave Julian a bad feeling. “Maybe Mr X has got her.”

Tom Benson’s breath hissed into the phone. “If I hear that name one more time, I’m hanging up. Ginger’s probably not at home because she’s terrified you and Jake will come after her again.”

Julian doubted that. If Mr X didn’t have her, it was more likely she’d be out looking for him and Jake with Bull and the other Outlaws. He glanced in the rear-view mirror, half-expecting to see a string of lowriders in pursuit, but the forest road was empty. “So you’re not going to do anything?”

“Not unless Ginger corroborates your story. And she’s more likely to put you in jail than do that.” A warning note entered the detective’s voice. “Remember what I said, Julian. You’re treading on very thin ice. Slip up again and there’ll be nothing I can do for you.”

“I realise that, thanks.”

Julian slowed to turn into the lane. When he reached the gate, the dog was there. It didn’t bark, but rolled its eyes at him as if to say, not you again. He pressed the intercom button. As before, after a minute or so, the intercom crackled into life. And again, as before, no voice came over it, but he could sense a presence on the other end of the line, a background sound that might’ve been static or might’ve been breath clicking faintly in a throat. Emulating as best he could his dad’s sharp but sincere business voice, he said, “That was clever going to the police like that, but unnecessary. This has nothing to do with them. It’s a business transaction, pure and simple. I’ll give you however much money you want, and you’ll give me Mia. No one will say anything to anyone, you have my word. I don’t care about what goes on here. All I want is Mia.”

The intercom’s silence roared at Julian. It didn’t scare him as it had previously, it only made him more determined. “How about I double whatever Mia owes you,” he offered. However much it turned out to be — five thousand, fifty thousand — he’d find a way to raise it, even if it meant stealing from the business accounts.

More silence — ominous, foreboding silence — unbroken except for the clicking. Click, click, click, it came, so tiny Julian began to wonder whether he really heard it or whether it was a creation of his imagination fuelled by Ginger’s description of Mr X’s voice.

“Okay, I’ll triple it, quadruple it, whatever-” Realising he was starting to sound desperate, Julian broke off. Keep cool, he told himself, this isn’t about emotion, it’s about business. That wasn’t true, of course, but he had to kid himself to keep from breaking down and begging. When he next spoke, his voice was tightly controlled. “If you need more time that’s fine. I’ll be back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and I’ll keep coming back as long as it takes to get an answer.” He waited a breath to see if his words drew a response, before adding, “I realise you can make life difficult for me, but I can make life difficult for you too. I know a lot of people in this town — journalists and other people who’d be very interested to know what goes on out here. So just think about that before you go phoning Tom Benson.”

Julian managed a crooked smile and a wave at the CCTV camera, before returning to his car. As he drove away, his business face slipped and his breath came out like it’d been trapped. If you’re not in jail tonight, he thought, you’ll know you’re right about Mr X. And what if you are in jail? wondered another part of his mind. Will that mean you’re wrong about him? Will it mean Mia’s dead? Or will it simply mean that Mr X doesn’t fear your threats? His mind circled like a merry-go-round, faster, faster, getting nowhere, making his bruised temple throb. At the edge of town, he stopped at an off-licence to buy some whisky. He’d discovered a taste for it while drinking his dad’s, and the heat of it calmed his brain. He half-expected to find Tom Benson waiting for him when he got back to his office. The detective wasn’t there, but Eleanor was. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“You don’t return my calls, so I came to see you in person.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” said Eleanor, hurt that he needed to ask. “I wanted to make sure you’re okay — which you’re obviously not.”

“You shouldn’t be here.” Julian was trying to be brusque, but there was little force in his voice.

“Why not?”

“I promised your dad I’d stay away from you until this…thing is over.”

Eleanor frowned. “Dad had no right to make you promise that. I’m not a kid anymore, Julian. I make my own decisions, and if I want to see you then that’s up to me.”

“We were only trying to protect you.”

“Well I don’t need to be protected.”

Yes, you do, Julian told himself. He didn’t say anything to Eleanor, though. He didn’t have the energy to manoeuvre his way around all the questions such a response would provoke. “You should leave.”

Instead of doing so, Eleanor stepped closer to him — close enough that he caught her scent. She smelled of soap and talcum powder. He had a sudden urge to bury his face in her hair, hold on to her tightly while pouring everything, all the frustration, anxiety and fear of the past few days into her ears. He knew she’d gladly take it from him, but he couldn’t allow himself to pollute her with it. Rightly or wrongly, he’d come to think of her as something pure and good, something that needed to be preserved. “This thing with Mia Bradshaw could go on and on,” she said. “If you keep your promise, I might not see you again for days, weeks, maybe even months. Is that what you want?”

“Of course not, but-”

“But nothing.” Eleanor interjected. The soft line of her lips drew into a sad smile. “Don’t you understand, Julian? I can see you’re hurting, and anything that hurts you hurts me. I’d convinced myself I didn’t love you anymore, but seeing you like this, looking so…so tired and lost, I realise I was wrong.” She looked up into Julian’s face for a reply or some sign that her feelings were reciprocated. He remained silent. He suddenly felt that if he spoke tears would come streaming from his eyes. And he knew he couldn’t afford to cry. If he was going to have to keep returning to Mr X’s house day after day, week after week, month after month, he needed to keep his emotions locked down tight.

“Don’t worry,” said Eleanor. “I don’t expect you to say you love me back. I know — at least, I think I know — you have feelings for me. For the time being, it’s enough if you’ll just let me be with you. Let me help you.”

“You’re right,” said Julian, as the tears behind his eyes subsided. “I do have feelings for you. That’s why I can’t let you help me.”

“I’m not talking about helping find Mia Bradshaw. I’m talking about taking care of you. You can’t keep on like this, Julian. You’ll get sick, and then you’ll be no good to Mia or anyone.”

Julian lowered his gaze, his brow jagged with lines of indecision. Eleanor was right, he knew. What with Mia, and the dreams, and his mum, and trying to save the business, he was almost ready to collapse, both physically and emotionally. If she could take just a little of the pressure off him, maybe it would be enough to keep him going — keep him sane. He felt himself weakening, felt his eyes drawn back to her eyes, her hair. “You’ve got to promise, no questions about Mia Bradshaw.”

Eleanor smiled again, this time with relief, and nodded. Then she was putting her arms around Julian, leaning in to press her mouth against his. She tasted of lip gloss, a familiar sweet, waxy taste. And she tasted of yearning. He sighed into her mouth, feeling her warmth and strength, taking it for his own. It ran through his veins, hotter than whisky. For a moment, he was lost to everything but her. Then, realising the danger, he drew away, shaking his head. “No, I can’t do this now, Eleanor. No matter how much I want to. I’m sorry.”

“Well, then, we don’t have to do this…anything…now…” Eleanor’s voice wavered, tears coming into her eyes. “We can just be friends, until you’re ready for more.”

“I don’t know if I can just be friends with you. Besides, it wouldn’t be right. I’d be using you, and I…well, I care for you too much to do that.”

“Then use me. I’ve got enough strength for both of us.”

Julian stared at Eleanor almost in disbelief. She’d bared her heart, laid herself open to him. Now she was offering everything she had, asking nothing in return. How could he not give in to that? He gave her cheek a slight caress with one finger. “Leaving you was stupidest thing I ever did.”

Eleanor nodded as if that was self-evident. “But you’re back now, right?”

“You always were stubborn.”

“We’re both stubborn, that’s why we’re good for each other.” Eleanor’s eyes searched Julian’s. “So what happens now?”

“Now I need to work. The business is going through a bad patch.”

“How bad?”

“Well put it this way, if we don’t start to turn things around in the next few months, we might never turn them around.”

“Seriously? That’s awful. Is there anything I can do to help out?”

Julian considered Eleanor’s offer a moment, then said, “Actually there is. We’re thinking about having a new website designed. You can help with that if you like.” When she eagerly agreed, he showed her the old website and they made a list of things he wanted from a new one.

“It’s a bit different to setting up an archive but, yeah, I think I can do that. I’ll start work on it today.”

“That’d be great. It’d save us an absolute fortune and free me up to get on with other things.” Feeling a slight lightening sensation in his chest, Julian smiled and added, “We’d pay you, of course.”

Eleanor shook her head. “I don’t want your money, Julian, I just want to see you happy.” She picked up the list. “I’d better get to work on this.”

“I’ll see you later.”

“You promise.”

“I promise.”

Eleanor looked at Julian as if she was thinking about kissing him again, but made no move to. “You’ve changed, you know.”

“Have I?”

“Yeah, you seem…older.”

“I suppose living away from home does that to you.”

Eleanor shook her head. “It’s not that. I didn’t notice it when you first got back, but now, well, it’s like years not weeks have passed since then.”

It felt like that to Julian too. He held in a sigh. “Nobody stays the same.”

“I guess not.” Eleanor hesitated, then added, “You know, if there’s something bothering you other than Mia Bradshaw, you can talk to me about it. You can talk to me about anything.”

Not for the first time, Julian wondered how Eleanor would look at him if he told her about his dreams. She’d look at him with the same revulsion he looked at himself in the mirror each morning, he knew that much. But would she ever again be able to look at him with the same pureness of love as now? Or would her eyes always be tainted by the knowledge that there was something so monstrous trying to get in, or trying to get out of him? “Thanks,” he said, blinking away from Eleanor’s eyes. He made a show of typing on the computer, but as soon as she was gone he reached for the whisky and took a long pull at it.

Chapter 19

For a while Julian dwelled on Eleanor, trying to make sense of his feelings. He needed her. He supposed he’d always known that, but he hadn’t really admitted it to himself until now. She symbolised the best of his world and anchored him to it. Without her, he was an emotional wreck, drifting towards a nervous breakdown. But if he wanted to have a future with her, he knew, sooner or later he was going to have to let her see into the darkest corners of his mind. The thought made him want to shrink away from that future, but it was preferable to living a lie. Wasn’t it? Or was it better to keep that part of himself hidden from her? In his head, he heard his dad saying, sometimes you have to lie to protect people. Then his mum’s voice rose up in opposition. The worst thing in the world, it chanted, the worst thing in the world, the worst thing in the world…

He silenced the competing voices with another mouthful of whisky. His thoughts returned to the only person he’d felt comfortable opening his mind to, the only person he’d met with the power to stop the dreams. Mia. “Where are you?” he murmured, closing his eyes. In desperation, he tried to reach out to her with his mind, thinking, maybe she was right, maybe I do have my grandma’s power. But if he did, he couldn’t tap into it. He found himself struggling even to picture Mia’s face. The memory of it was fading like an old photograph. A kind of panic rising up in him, he logged into Facebook and navigated to her homepage. He stared at her face, fixing the smallest details of it in his mind — the intense blue eyes, the pale skin scattered with a faint spray of freckles, the painted pouting lips, the hard curve of her jaw. He stiffened at every sound outside his door, expecting it to be Tom Benson come to haul him down the station. But the policeman didn’t come. He wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not. By the end of the day, the whisky bottle was almost empty, and he felt almost empty too. His dad came into the office and asked, “So, how’s your day been?”

“I found someone to design the website,” said Julian, and he told his dad about Eleanor.

Robert smiled. “That’s fantastic. Come on, time for home.”

Muzzy-headed from drink, Julian sluggishly followed his dad to the car. He sat slumped in the passenger seat, unmoving, unspeaking, until his dad drove past the turn for their house. “Where are we going?” he asked, sitting up, little puckers forming around his eyes as he looked at the approaching forest.

“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.”

As they drove further into the forest, getting closer to the turn off for Mr X’s house, Julian began to feel increasingly agitated. It crossed his mind that maybe Tom Benson had contacted his dad and arranged to meet them at Mr X’s place, so that they could prove to him once and for all that Mia wasn’t there. He hoped with everything he had in him that that wasn’t the case. The policeman was right, it was easier for him to believe in Mr X, than face up to the possibility that Mia was dead. He released a silent breath of relief, when his dad turned into the driveway of a house just off The Old Forest Road. Robert pointed to a car parked in the drive — a shiny Audi, the kind of thing middle-ranking executives drive. “Well, what do you think?” he asked. “Do you like it?”

“Yeah sure, it’s nice.”

“I’m glad you think so, because it’s yours.” Robert smiled at Julian as if expecting a smile in return. He just about managed to muster one up. His dad went on to tell him that a business acquaintance had happened to mention he was looking to sell his car and he thought it’d be perfect for him.

“It is, but are you sure you can afford it?” Julian asked, a little awkwardly, not wanting to embarrass his dad.

Robert wafted his words away. “When it comes to business you need to look the part if you want to be taken seriously.” With a wink, he added, “And besides, it’s tax deductible.”

Julian looked the car over while his dad went off to collect the keys. When he returned, he handed him them and the car ownership documents, saying, “No driving too fast on the forest roads and no jumping red lights. I don’t want anymore trips to the hospital this week. Okay?”

“Okay. Thanks for this, Dad.” Julian would’ve liked to say more, tell him how grateful he was for everything he’d done for him, maybe even hug him or something. But he didn’t know how. “You want to go for a spin?”

Robert shook his head. “I’ve got a few details to sort out here. I’ll see you back at home.”

Julian drove extra carefully back to town — not because of what his dad had said, the last thing he needed was to be pulled over with a quart of whisky sloshing around inside him. He didn’t go home, he went to the Hill’s house. Mike Hill came to the door. “Hello, Julian, what can I do for you?”

“I’m here to see Eleanor.”

A frown of surprise creased the journalist’s forehead. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he said in a hushed voice, “I thought we’d agreed you’d stay away from Ellie for now.”

“I know, but things have changed.”

“How have they changed? Have you found something out about Mia Bradshaw?”

Julian shook his head. “Thing is, me and Eleanor, well, we’ve decided to get back together.” Mike didn’t look pleased. Bolstered by alcohol, Julian didn’t care. “Is she in?”

“Yes.”

“Can I go up and see her?”

Mike stretched his arm across the doorway. “I’ve got to say, I’m disappointed in you, Julian.”

“Well you’ve got no right to be,” Eleanor said sharply, descending the stairs behind her dad. “Julian would’ve done as he promised, if I hadn’t convinced him not to. I’m the one who should be disappointed — disappointed in you. You had no right to interfere in my life like that. I’m not a child.”

“You’re right,” agreed Mike. “You’re not a child, but you’re not an adult yet either.”

“I’m eighteen. In the eyes of the law, I’m an adult.”

“In the eyes of the law, yes, but not in my eyes. In my eyes, you’re still my baby girl. Do you understand?”

Her eyes softening to their usual tenderness, Eleanor sighed and nodded. “But you’ve got to understand something too, Dad. I love Julian and want to be with him no matter what.”

“And does he feel the same?” Mike shot a narrow glance at Julian. “I mean, he left you once before, what’s to stop him doing it again?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Julian. “I’m here, and I’m staying here.”

“Well Ellie’s not. She’s going to university in September. What’ll you do then?”

“I’m not definitely going,” said Eleanor. “I might put it off a year, reapply somewhere closer to home.”

Mike’s eyes widened in disapproving surprise. “What? You can’t be serious. You’ve been accepted into one of the best universities in-”

“I don’t want to talk about this now,” Eleanor cut him off.

“Well I do. You’re talking about putting your future in jeopardy over some boy who, well, to put it frankly, who isn’t worth it.”

Spots of colour came into Eleanor’s cheeks. Pursing her lips as if to contain her anger, she turned to Julian. “Want to go for a walk?”

“Sure.”

Avoiding her dad’s gaze, Eleanor moved off to fetch her shoes. Eyes hard with worry, Mike leant in close to Julian. “If anything happens to her, I’ll hold you responsible.” His voice was low and heavy with intent, almost threatening.

Even through all the alcohol in his system, Julian felt a little surge of adrenaline. Blinking, he dropped his gaze from Mike’s. Eleanor pushed past her dad and, taking hold of Julian’s hand, drew him away from the door. “This isn’t over,” Mike called after them. “We’re going to talk about this.”

Eleanor ignored him. “Sorry about that,” she said to Julian. “He didn’t mean what he said, he was just angry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Mike’s comments hadn’t offended Julian. In fact, he agreed with them. He showed her his car. “Want to go for a drive?”

Eleanor shook her head. “Let’s just walk.”

Hand in hand, they wandered along until they came to the lane that led to the hay-barn. Eleanor looked at Julian meaningfully. “Do you want to go that way?”

“Do you?”

Eleanor nodded. Julian’s heart beat in time to their quickening footsteps as they made their way to the stile at the end of the lane. Beyond was a meadow, hazy in the evening light. They ran through the long grass to the barn, which was stacked half-full of bales of hay. Julian hesitated in the grass-smelling gloom. “Are you sure about this?”

“Completely.”

They pulled out some hay and lay on it, face to face, each waiting for the other to make the first move. “I haven’t been with anyone else since we broke up,” said Eleanor.

“There was this girl at uni,” Julian admitted, guilt tingling through him. He added quickly, “It was nothing serious.”

Eleanor smiled, reaching to push her hand through his hair. “There’s no need to explain, Jules.”

Her words strengthened rather than eased his guilt. “Your dad was right, you know, about university and about me.”

“Shh.”

Julian made a low noise of pleasure as Eleanor dragged her nails gently across his scalp. Blood pounding in his head and groin, he rested his hand on her thigh, moved it over the curve of her waist and drew her close. She wrinkled her nose. “Have you been drinking?”

Not replying, Julian dipped his chin to kiss her neck. “Mmm,” she purred, arching her head. He worked his way up to her mouth. As their lips met, he closed his eyes. The instant he did so a face flashed into his mind — a cute, girl-next-door face with baby-blue eyes framed by sandy blonde-hair. With a start, he snapped open his eyes, passing his hand over them as if to swipe the image away.

“What’s wrong?” asked Eleanor, a slight frown marring the smoothness of her forehead.

“Nothing.”

“Listen, we don’t have to do this if-”

“No, I want to,” Julian interjected with sudden resolve. The dreams already ruled his nights, he wasn’t about to let them rule his days too. Cupping his fingers around Eleanor’s chin, he kissed her again. He couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes, though. She threw her leg over him, rolling so she straddled him. As she bent forward, her hair blinded him. Again, the image burst upon his consciousness, vivid as a living being. Like a physical force, it reached out to him from the dark, accompanied by a surge of lust so intense, so raw, it shook him to his core. Gasping, he brushed Eleanor’s hair away. Light rushed in, but the image remained, as if it’d been branded on his retinas. Before he even realised what he was doing, he’d flipped Eleanor onto her back, pinning her arms.

“Hey, take it easy,” she said.

He didn’t see Eleanor anymore. He only saw the face in his mind, the blue eyes swollen and wet with fear. There was no light in his eyes as he bent to run his tongue roughly over Eleanor’s cheek. “Stop, I don’t like that,” she said. He didn’t stop. He felt drugged, powerless to resist the white-hot scour of his desire. She tried to squirm out from under him, but his hands were on her like iron, pulling at her clothes, grinding into her crotch.

“No, Julian. I said no!” Eleanor brought her knee up hard between Julian’s legs. The pain that exploded in his groin blotted out everything else. With an agonised groan, he rolled off her and lay crumpled in a heap. “What the fuck’s the matter with you?” she demanded to know, glaring at him.

“I’m losing it,” said Julian, speaking more to himself than Eleanor. He started shaking his head and banging his forehead with his fist. “I’m losing my fucking mind.”

“Stop that.”

Julian didn’t hear. He hit himself harder and faster. When Eleanor reached to catch his hand, he recoiled from her as if his touch might infect her with some dreadful disease. “Stay away from me.”

“Why are you being like this, Julian?” There were tears in Eleanor’s voice now, as her anger gave way to confused desperation. “Are you trying to drive me away? Is that it?”

“Christ, I wish that’s all there was to it.”

“Well what else is there to it. Speak to me, Julian, for fuck’s sake.”

“There’s…” Julian struggled to find the words. “There’s something in me, some kind of sickness.” He hammered his hand into his head again. “I can feel it in there trying to get out.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I. I keep having these…these…” Julian couldn’t bring himself to say the word dreams. He didn’t even want to think it in case doing so caused the images to spill out of his subconscious again. Desperately trying to make his mind a blank space, a white sheet of emptiness, he struggled to his feet. “I’m sorry, Eleanor. I’m so-” He broke off, voice choked by tears of shame. Keeping his eyes on the ground, he hurried out of the barn.

“Wait, Julian,” Eleanor called after him. But he didn’t wait, he quickened to a run. He knew now what he must’ve known unconsciously all along, it wasn’t just Mr X he needed to protect Eleanor from, it was himself. Feeling sick to his stomach, he got into the car, threw it into gear and screeched away. He drove fast to the centre of town, to The Cut. He ordered a whisky, chucked it down his throat, ordered another, did the same with that, and another, and another. When he blearily glimpsed himself in the mirror behind the bar, a look of revulsion and loathing etched itself into his face. It was all he could do to resist the urge to fling his glass at his reflection. He felt, or imagined he felt, a pressure growing behind his eyes. As if the darkness that lurked there was trying to burst forth. Again, he wondered where the darkness came from. For a long time he’d managed to convince himself that its source was external, that the seance had released something, not a ghost, but some kind of malevolent energy that was bent on taking over his psyche. But now he couldn’t help wondering whether in reality the darkness had always been there and the seance had simply acted as a catalyst, setting in motion the subconscious forces of his own nature.

A hand touched Julian’s shoulder. He jerked around to find himself facing Kyle. “I thought it was you,” Kyle said. He was grinning his usual idiot grin, but it disappeared and he took an instinctive step backward at the sight of his friend’s face. “You okay, bro?”

“No,” slurred Julian, swaying, his eyes barely open. “I’m not fucking okay. I’m all wrong.” he stabbed a finger at his temple as if to indicate where the wrongness lay within him. “I’m no good. No good to anybody. I should do the world a favour and end this shit.”

Kyle wet his lips nervously. “Come on, dude, things can’t be that bad.”

Julian laughed — it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “What the fuck would you know about it? What do you know about anything, except getting stoned?”

“No need for that, Jules, I’m just trying to help.”

“If you wanna help, shut the fuck up and buy me another drink.”

“I think you’ve had enough already. Look, why don’t I give you a lift home?”

“If you’re not gonna buy me a drink, fuck off,” Julian said, loudly enough that he drew uneasy glances from nearby drinkers.

Kyle’s tongue flicked over his lips again, which trembled now with anger. “You’re right, Jules, you are all wrong. That poisonous bitch has fucked you in the head, just like I warned you she would.”

“Shut up, Kyle.” Julian’s voice was quieter, less slurry, more menacing.

“No, I won’t fucking shut up. You want to know something, I hope the little whore has jumped off the bridge. Good fucking riddance to bad rubbish, that’s what I say. This town’s better off without her. And I’m not the only one thinks so. Ask anyone in here, they’ll tell you the same. ”

Kyle’s last word came out in a gasp as Julian shoved him in the chest, sending him reeling. “Say another word about Mia and I’ll spread your fucking nose over your face.”

“I’d like to see you try,” retorted Kyle, fists balled.

Julian took an unsteady step towards him, catching hold of a table for balance. He shook his head as if trying to clear it and flapped a hand at Kyle. “Ah, fuck you.” He raised his voice so the whole bar could hear. “Fuck all you pricks. She’s worth more than the lot of you put together. She’s worth more than this whole shitheap of a town.”

“I think you’d better leave,” the barman said to Julian.

“Don’t worry, I’m going.”

Staying upright with difficulty, Julian made his way outside. Kyle followed him as far as the door. “Julian,” he called after him, the anger gone from his voice, concern taking its place. “You’re not going to do anything stupid like kill yourself or anything, are you?”

Julian glanced back at him, eyes swimming. “No, but maybe it’d be better if I did.”

Relieved, Kyle let out a breath. “And what about us?” he asked tentatively. “Are we still mates?”

Julian stared at Kyle a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t think so. Bye, Kyle.”

After fumbling the key into the ignition, Julian pulled away with a crunching of gears. He didn’t think about where he was going, he only thought about where he wasn’t going. I’m not going home, he told himself, all this shit has got to end, and end tonight. He kept slamming the heel of his hand into the steering-wheel as, in a kind of drunken trance, he drove out of town to Mr X’s place. As usual, the dog was waiting for him. His face twisted with irritation at the sight of it. He snatched up a stone and flung it with all his strength, scoring a direct hit on the animal’s muzzle, whooping triumphantly as it yelped and skittered away. He reeled backward himself a second later as it thrust its nose between the bars, barking.

“Shut the fuck up,” Julian yelled, stooping for another stone. The dog sprang away. It loitered at a safe distance with malicious intent in its eyes as Julian pressed the intercom button. “No more fucking around,” he hissed into it. “I’m here to cut a deal.”

As usual, silence roared back at Julian, closing in around him, beating against his eardrums. He pointed to the car. “That’s worth ten thousand at least. It’s yours. And there’s more where that came from, much more, as much as you want. My family’s rich. Just tell me how much you want.”

Julian knew he sounded desperate, knew he’d lost all pretence of self-control, but he didn’t care anymore. “Look, I’m laying it all on the table here. This is everything I’ve got to offer. Just give me Mia. I know you’ve got her, otherwise I’d be in jail, wouldn’t I?” After a moment’s more silence, he continued in a pleading, pathetic voice, “Oh God, give me her, please give me her, please, please…” He trailed off, hanging his head, his eyes filling with tears. The silence seemed to be getting louder and heavier by the second, as if it was trying to browbeat him into giving up.

Wiping his tears away savagely, he glowered at the security camera. “I won’t give up. Do you fucking hear me? Call the police, kick the shit out of me, whatever. I’ll keep coming back. I’ll never stop. Never!” With this last word, he hammered his fist against the intercom hard enough to crack its casing. Static flared, then the hiss of the intercom died. As it did, the gate began to slide open — not all the way, just far enough to let the dog through.

Heart lurching, Julian ran for his car. He might’ve made it, if his reactions hadn’t been dulled by alcohol. As he yanked the door open, the dog’s teeth closed around his right ankle. He screamed as they sank into his flesh. The dog ragged his leg from side to side, trying to drag him away from the car. He clung to the door and kicked the dog in the head. For an instant, its jaws loosened. Jerking his leg free, he dove into the car and slammed the door shut. The dog howled and scrabbled at the window, its breath misting the glass. Julian examined his leg. Blood leaked from two half-moons of deep looking puncture wounds on either side of his ankle. He pulled off his shoe and tied his sock around the wound in a vain attempt to staunch the bleeding.

The dog, seemingly realising the futility of trying to force its way into the car, stopped howling and sat on its haunches, eyeballing Julian. He stared back at it, his eyes wet with pain and hate. He stared into the darkness beyond the gate, crazy thoughts rushing through his head. He imagined running the dog over, smashing through the gate, fighting his way into Mr X’s house and rescuing Mia. He shoved the thoughts aside. Likely, all such a course would achieve would be to get himself and her killed. “I’ll be back, you fucking sick fuck!” he shouted, almost screaming in his rage-spitting impotent frustration. Then he shoved the car into reverse.

Julian didn’t go home. A low groan escaping his lips every time he needed to brake, he drove around town until he found an all-night chemist, from which he bought a bandage, gauze pads and antiseptic wipes. Teeth gritted, he cleaned the bite and bandaged it as best he could.

Still, Julian didn’t go home. He parked in a side-street and sat staring at the night, his leg throbbing as painfully and relentlessly as his heart. He tried not to think about Eleanor. He tried not to think about Mia. He tried not to think about the consequences his loss of control might have on them. But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He sat trapped between the desire to escape his thoughts through sleep, and the desire to escape his dreams by staying awake. He felt like shouting his lungs out, he felt like tearing the car apart, he felt like tearing himself apart. The pain throbbed on and on, like pulses of electricity. And at that moment he was glad of it, he immersed himself in it, kept himself sane with it.

Chapter 20

Somehow Julian got through the night. Somehow he drove to the factory. He limped to his office and sat behind the desk, staring dead-eyed at the computer monitor, thinking, what the fuck am I doing here? Why did I come in today? Where else have you got to go? his mind asked. I should be out there, he replied silently. Doing what? I don’t know, something…

Julian gave a start when his dad entered the room. “Where did you get to last night?” Robert asked.

“I went to see Eleanor.”

“How’s the website going?”

Julian blinked his sore eyes. He’d forgotten all about the website. After what’d happened, it was a fair bet to assume it wasn’t going anywhere. He wasn’t about to tell his dad that, though. He didn’t have the heart or energy to face his disappointment and questions. “Fine.”

Robert raised a smiling eyebrow. “When are you two going to get back together?”

Julian winced, not because of his leg. “I don’t know, probably never.”

“That’s a shame. She’s a great girl and you’re really good-” Noticing his son’s increasingly pained expression, Robert broke off. “You’re upset aren’t you, I can see it.” He hesitated, looking like what he was — someone on unfamiliar terrain — then asked a little awkwardly, “Want to talk about it?”

Julian shook his head. Even if he’d wanted to, he wouldn’t have known how to talk about it, not with his dad. “Well you know where I am if you change your mind,” continued Robert, with a flicker of something in his eyes that might’ve been disappointment or, more likely, thought Julian, relief.

He nodded. “Thanks.”

A moment’s silence passed between them. Robert scratched at the base of his neck and cleared his throat. “Listen, Julian, you remember that guy from the other day? The buyer from the high-street store. Well, he’s coming here again this morning. I was going to ask you to sit in on the meeting, but you’re obviously in no state for it. You look as if you haven’t slept a wink.”

“I haven’t. I was up…working most of the night.”

“In that case, why don’t you go home, get some sleep?”

Sleep. The word sent a shudder through Julian. Along with a guilty sense of duty, it bound him to his desk. “I’ve got a ton of work to do. The overheads-”

“Can wait until tomorrow. I know you’re eager to get on with things, Julian, but you’ll be no good to anyone if you don’t take care of yourself.”

“I guess you’re right,” Julian admitted reluctantly. Robert stared at him as if waiting for him to get up and leave. He didn’t move. He didn’t want his dad to see his limp. He felt faintly nauseous at the thought of having to come up with another bunch of lies to explain it away.

Robert put his hands together as if he was about to pray. “Right, better get to it. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, Dad,” Julian said, and he really meant it. He was, he realised, starting to believe that maybe the change in his dad wasn’t an act put on for the benefit of Christine. Maybe it was for real. The thought pricked him with guilt, but he also drew comfort from it, even hope — hope that as the emotional distance between them closed, he might come to understand his dad, and in doing so, come to understand himself too. Perhaps then he’d be able to put his demons to rest, live his life without fear, have a future with Eleanor. His thoughts returned to Mia, and his hope died like a snuffed candle. He could never have a future, not while she was missing. He was stuck in this moment, this nightmare.

When Robert had left, Julian rose and slowly made his way to his car. He drove to the nearest off-licence and bought a quart of whisky. He drank enough to take the edge off the pain, but not to kill it completely. All morning, he limped around the town centre, peering vaguely this way and that, wandering aimlessly through shops, occasionally swigging from the bottle. In a backstreet antique shop’s window he caught sight of something that brought his eyes into focus. He went in the shop for a closer look.

“Looks like a medieval torture device, doesn’t it?” said the shopkeeper.

Julian nodded. “What is it?”

“It’s a mantrap. Gamekeepers used to use them to catch poachers.”

“How does it work?”

“Wait there and I’ll show you.” The shopkeeper disappeared through a curtain at the rear of the shop, returning after a moment with a thick length of wood. He placed the mantrap on the carpet, carefully pulling apart its spring-loaded steel teeth. “Stand back,” he warned, placing the length of wood’s tip on the pressure-pad at the device’s centre and pushing down. The teeth snapped shut breaking the wood in two. “Just imagine what that’d do to your leg.”

Julian could well imagine. “How much is it?”

“It’s not for sale.”

“Name your price and I’ll double it.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t sell it at any price. These things are illegal. What do you want it for anyway?”

Julian made no reply. As he turned to leave, he noticed a black-bladed, wooden handled knife. He picked it up and thumbed its blade. “That’s a jungle survival knife from World War Two,” the shopkeeper told him.

“How much?”

“Twenty quid.”

Julian handed over the money. “There’s a sheath to go with it somewhere,” said the shopkeeper, stooping to root through a box.

Julian wasn’t interested in the sheath. He left the shop. On the high-street, the pubs and bars were opening their doors. He headed into one and bought a pint. He sat by the window, watching passersby. It made resentment surge up in him to see them going about their business. He wanted to yell at them, there’s a young girl missing and you carry on as if nothing’s wrong. What the fuck’s the matter with you? Am I the only one who gives a shit? Part of his mind knew it was illogical, but he felt the resentment nonetheless. Like an invisible boil, his rancour towards his fellow townsfolk festered and grew as he drank his way through the afternoon. By the time early evening drinkers began drifting in for a post-work pint, his eyes were beady with alcohol and hate. “Sick,” he muttered to himself. “Sick and tired. No good for nobody. Nothing you can do for her. Nothing anyone can do. Nothing, nothing…”

“Excuse me, are you okay?”

Julian looked up blurrily at the speaker. It was a girl about his age, maybe slightly younger. She was slim with a pale face and sharp blue eyes. She had black hair with a purple streak going down her bangs. She was dressed in black too — black leather jacket, black t-shirt, short skirt, tights and boots. He blinked and, for one heart-wrenching instant, he saw Mia. He blinked again, and the phantasm was gone. “Are you okay?” the girl repeated.

Julian’s head bobbed, partly in reply, but mainly because of the drink. “Mind if I sit down?” continued the girl. Julian shrugged. The girl sat opposite him. He stared into his drink, hoping to shut off anymore attempts at conversation. “I’m Nikki,” she persisted.

Julian heaved an irritated breath, lifting his gaze to hers. “Do you know me?” he asked, each word slurring into the next.

“No.”

“Then why are you speaking to me?”

“You seem upset. I thought maybe you might need someone to talk to.”

“Do I look like I want to talk?”

“Yes, I think you do.”

“Well I don’t, so leave me alone.”

“Okay, whatever you say,” Nikki said, but she made no move to leave. Julian took another look at her from under his eyelids as she sipped her drink. Superficially she bore a resemblance to Mia, but under her clothes she was athletic rather than skinny, and her cheeks showed blotchy through her pale makeup. There was a blemish under her right eye that might’ve been a bruise, although it was difficult to tell. A silent minute passed. “I don’t suppose-” she started to say.

Julian cut her off. “Jesus, what do I have to do to get you to leave me the fuck alone?”

“I was just going to ask if you know anywhere I can get a room for the night, that’s all.” Nikki’s tone was hurt. Shaking her head, she started to stand to leave.

Little creases of disquiet appeared between Julian’s eyebrows. “You not from around here?”

“No, I’m just passing through.”

“On your way to where?”

“None of your fucking business.”

“Are you on your own?”

Nikki stared at Julian, perplexed, hostile. “Why the sudden questions? I thought you wanted me to leave you the fuck alone.”

“I do…I mean, I did…” Julian sucked in a breath, trying to clear his drink-fogged mind. “Look, will you sit down.” When Nikki remained standing, he continued, “I’m sorry for the way I spoke to you just now. I’ve had a shitty day. In fact, a shitty week.”

The hostility left Nikki’s eyes. She sat back down. “What’s been so shitty about it?”

Julian shrugged. “The usual stuff — work, women.” He changed the subject. “What about you? What’s your story?”

“I guess you could say I’m just kind of drifting around.”

“Doing what?”

“Not much, that’s kind of the point of drifting.”

“Don’t you think it’s dangerous to travel alone?”

“Not really, if you know how to look after yourself. Anyway, I’m thinking about hanging around this town for a while, maybe even trying to find a job.”

The creases between Julian’s eyes deepened until they were like cuts. “I’d keep going, if I were you. Take it from me, this isn’t the kind of place you want to be.”

“Why not? Seems like a nice enough town to me.”

“Yeah, well appearances can be deceptive.” Julian rolled his eyes around the room as if to make sure no one was listening, before going on, “There’s something very wrong with this town.”

“Really? What’s wrong with it?”

“Don’t you read the papers? A girl went missing from around here just the other week.”

“Oh yeah, I heard about that. But I thought she was supposed to have killed herself.”

“Well you thought fucking wrong,” snapped Julian. Seeing the hurt look come back into Nikki’s face, he raised a conciliatory hand. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just that I know the girl. She’s a friend.”

Nikki smiled sympathetically. “Don’t worry about it. No wonder you’re so down.” She reached across the table and gave Julian’s hand a squeeze. “Poor baby.”

At this show of compassion from a stranger, Julian felt tears rising up his throat. He swallowed them back down with the last of his drink. “She’s not the only one who’s gone missing either. There’ve been other girls. Three for sure. Maybe more.”

Nikki leaned closer, intrigued. “So what do you think’s happening? Do you think someone’s abducting them?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” Even drunk as he was, Julian wasn’t about to get into all of that, not there, not with a stranger.

“Well what do the police think?”

Julian’s lips curled into a sneer. “I don’t think they think at all.” He removed his hand from under Nikki’s. “Look, all I know is a girl like you shouldn’t hang around here. You should move on as fast as you can.”

“Well I’m not going to be moving on anywhere tonight. I don’t have a car.”

“I do. I’ll give you a lift anywhere you want to go.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think you’re in any condition to be driving.” A mischievous glint came into Nikki’s eyes. “Besides, how do I know it’s not you doing the abducting? How do I know you won’t take me out into the woods and have your wicked way with me?”

“Because I was only four or five years old when the first girl went missing. And anyway, you’re not really my type.”

“Oh, so what is your type?” When Julian shrugged, squinting at him as if trying to weigh him up, Nikki added, “I’ll bet you like blondes. Cute little things with dimples and good-girl smiles. I’m right, aren’t I?” Julian made no reply, but his eyes dropped away from hers. “Ah, he’s gone all shy,” she teased.

“You want a lift or what?” Julian asked a touch brusquely.

“Tell you what, let’s have another drink, and I’ll think about it.” Nikki stood. “What you drinking?”

“Coke.”

“Vodka and Coke.”

“Just Coke.”

When Nikki returned with the drinks, she said, “So tell me about yourself.”

“There’s nothing much to tell. I grew up around here, and nothing much happens around here.”

“Except all those girls going missing.”

“Except that.” Julian swallowed half his drink in one, spilling dark trickles out of the corners of his mouth. “What about you?”

“I guess I’m trying to work out what I want to do with my life.”

“Where you from?”

“All over. My parents were travellers, not Gypsies, but Hippy types.”

“You’re lucky. Growing up in a town like this, it makes you small. Small and afraid.”

“Of what?”

Julian jerked his chin at the window. “Of the world out there — the big, bad world.”

“From what you say, sounds like there’s more to be afraid of around here than out there.”

Julian’s mouth turned up in a sour smile. Nikki threw back her drink, and stood. “Where you going?” asked Julian.

“You convinced me, I’m getting the fuck out of this town. Come on, drink up and let’s go.”

Julian finished his drink. As he pushed back his chair, he felt a strange sensation, like his feet were sinking into the floor. He staggered and Nikki hooked her arm through his, steadying him. “I’ll be alright,” he assured her. “I just need some air.”

Nikki guided Julian through the crowded bar. Something occurred to him. “Haven’t you got any bags?” he asked.

“I travel light.”

As they made their way to Julian’s car, he sucked in lungfuls of the evening air, but rather than clearing his head, it made him even groggier. His legs felt loose and wobbly, barely able to support him. There was a bitter taste in the back of his throat. “Fuck,” he slurred, vainly trying to insert his key in the lock. “I must be drunker than I thought.”

Nikki took the key off Julian and opened the door. He collapsed into the driver’s seat. “So whe…where do you wa…wa…” He struggled to shape the words, as if his tongue and brain were out of synch.

“Where do you want to go, Julian?” Nikki’s voice was different, neither hostile nor friendly, it had a flat, uninterested tone.

Julian rolled his head to look at her. Through the fog of his mind a thought reached him. “Ho…how do you kn…know my na…na…”

Nikki finished Julian’s question for him. “Name.”

He nodded so slightly it was barely perceptible.

“You must’ve told me.”

No I didn’t, thought Julian. But the words wouldn’t form in sound. Something was happening to Nikki, something that caused his mouth to hang open and a guttural sound to tremble in his throat. She was inflating, ballooning to a giant size — either that or the car was shrinking to the proportions of a dollhouse. She leant over him, big enough to crush him. Her lips opened and closed, but all that came through them was a mushy, incomprehensible drawl. Now her facial features were blurring at the edges, losing their shape — or rather, taking on a new shape. And then she was no longer Nikki, she was Mia — Mia as she’d looked the last time he’d seen her. And they were no longer in the car, they were in Mia’s bedroom, lying on her bed. “Kiss me,” she said, moving closer.

“No.” Julian tried to hold her off, but his arms were as weak as a baby’s. Her lips touched his, and, as they did so, the bed floated to the ceiling and began to spin around. The room flashed by, colours blurred towards white. Faster, faster, whirling, faster, faster, faster, like a fairground waltzer. A black blur appeared within the white blur, seeping outward like ink on blotting-paper. And then the last of the light was gone, and Julian was gone too.

Chapter 21

Julian’s eyelids seemed to be glued together. Slowly, painfully, he forced them open, and found himself looking blurrily at his own naked image in a mirrored ceiling. He was lying on a bed — not Mia’s bed, but a vast double bed. His legs were covered by a white sheet patterned with intense red flowers, some small, others large. For an instant he wondered if he was still hallucinating, then he felt the pain in his ankle, and knew he wasn’t. He blinked and his vision cleared. His breath came in a gasp. The flowers weren’t flowers at all, they were stains. And they weren’t only on the sheets, they were on him too, streaking his stomach, chest and face, discolouring his hands. He tried to sit up, but his arms collapsed under him as if they were broken. Panting like a panicked child, he brought his hands up in front of his eyes. Blood! The word screamed in his mind. He ran his hands over his head and body, checking for injuries. There were no new ones, and the bandage was still on his ankle. If the blood wasn’t his, whose was it? A face rose into his mind. A name hissed between his teeth. “Nikki.”

Once more, Julian attempted to sit up, and this time he managed it. He saw his reflection again in a mirror at the end of the bed. It was a big mirror that covered almost the entire wall. Its reflection seemed slightly off, stretching his features a fraction, making him look thinner, older. Head reeling, blood throbbing in his temples, he scanned the room. It was large and windowless with a plush wine-red carpet that wouldn’t show bloodstains. There was no furniture other than the bed. His clothes were nowhere to be seen. “What the fuck’s going on?” he said to himself, his voice shaking so much it was barely audible. The bitter taste was still in his throat, and it occurred to him that maybe Nikki had spiked his drink. Recalling suddenly how she’d known his name although he hadn’t told her it, his suspicion turned into certainty. But why, he wondered, would she do such a thing? He could think of only one reason — Mr X. Yes, that had to be it. Mr X had had him drugged and brought to…to wherever this place was.

But that still left the question of the blood. Whose was it? Whose could it be? Surely not Nikki’s if she was in on whatever was going on. Like a ghost, another face materialised from the blackness at the back of his skull — a pale, intense face with eyes like blue porcelain. A churning ball of nausea pushed up his throat. He choked on it. Choked out the name, “Mia.” He rocked forward, hugging himself, groaning, “Oh God, oh God…”

Frantically, Julian wracked his brain for some clue as to what’d happened after he passed out. He stared at the blood, visions of rape and murder flooding his mind. He shook his head so hard his whole body trembled. “No fucking way. Nothing could make you do that to her.” As if trying to force himself to believe what he said, his voice grew loud, “You fucking hear me? Nothing!”

Something else occurred to him. Another horrifying possibility. Even if he was right, that didn’t mean the blood wasn’t Mia’s. Maybe someone else had hurt her and made it look like it was him. Maybe this whole thing was a set up job. As this thought flashed through his brain, his ears caught a sound. For a long moment, he sat anchored to the end of the bed, paralysed by fear. Then, hardly breathing, he approached the mirror and pressed his ear to it. The sound was faint, but it was there. Someone in the next room was crying — a girl.

Strangely, the heart-wrenching sound lent Julian new strength and hope. There was one door to the room. It wasn’t locked. He poked his head into a gloomy hallway. To his right was a curtained window. The crying came from away to his left, louder now, somehow familiar. Feeling utterly vulnerable in his nakedness, he followed the sound to a door, the thick carpet making his footfalls soundless. Struggling to keep his emotions and his breathing under control, he balled one hand into a fist and reached for the door handle with the other. The sound jumped out at him as he opened the door.

The first thing Julian saw was the two-way mirror, overlooking the room he’d just left. Light filtered through it washed-out of colour. A video-camera on a tripod pointed at it. The only other light in the room came from a television against the far wall. Like a magnet, its flickering screen drew his gaze. It showed the same scene that could be seen through the mirror, except there were two figures sat on the bed. One of them was a girl, maybe fifteen-years old, slim, blonde, pretty, wearing just a hint of makeup and a knee-length dress. Her thin shoulders were scrunched forward, her hands were clasped between her knees. She rocked ever so slightly. Tears fell from her face, staining her dress. The other figure was a man, early thirties, white, dark-haired, medium build, dressed in a shirt and suit trousers. He had one arm around the girl, like a father trying to comfort his daughter. But there was nothing fatherly about the way he stroked his hand up and down her arm. He spoke into her ear, his voice too low to be heard. But Julian didn’t need to hear to know what was being uttered, the sickeningly sensuous look in the man’s eyes said it all. The girl shuddered as he kissed her cheek, but didn’t try to move out of his embrace. She allowed him to lay her back onto the bed, allowed him to kiss her neck. At first his kisses were gentle and measured, but gradually they became harder and faster. In a sudden explosion of movement, he was all over her, tearing at her dress and underwear, yanking her thighs apart to make room for himself between them, grunting apishly as he ground his hips against her. The girl closed her eyes and lay limp as a new corpse. Julian wanted to close his eyes too, but couldn’t. They were riveted to the picture as if by force. The man let out a moan that seemed to tremble between pleasure and pain, before collapsing twitching onto the girl. At the same instant, Julian bent and vomited violently.

He recognised both the figures on the screen — the girl was Mia’s mother, the man was his father. And with recognition came understanding. He understood the insistent subconscious whisper that’d warned him against giving in to Mia’s advances, he understood the nameless, profound connection they’d felt. They shared a bond that nothing could break, except death. She was his sister. Now that he thought about it, it was as obvious as black clouds in a blue sky, or blood on a white sheet. She had the same eyes and nose as her mum, but her mouth and jaw-line belonged to her father. He understood the dreams too. As he’d suspected, they weren’t a product of the seance — that’d just been the catalyst, the key that opened the door to the darkest recesses of his soul — they’d been handed down through the gene pool, a twisted biological keepsake. He’d been right about another thing too — although he wished to God he hadn’t been — in coming to understand his dad, he’d come to understand himself. And, like a fuse to an explosive, that terrible understanding burned through his veins, burned its way to his brain, his heart. Finally, he knew why his dad had kept him at a distance. It was the same reason Julian had been reluctant to let Eleanor get too close — he was afraid he might see inside him, see him for what he truly was. He wasn’t just a liar. He was a lie himself. He was the worst thing in the world.

More thoughts rushed over Julian, flowing like blood from a gaping wound. Not only had his dad committed statutory rape, he’d done so while his wife was at home looking after their young son. Even worse than that, he’d forsaken the offspring of his crime, driving Deborah Bradshaw to suicide — if suicide it was. Words sprang into Julian’s brain and seared themselves there — words like blackmail and murder. Oh God, his mind groaned. “Oh God,” he groaned aloud, trying to stem the thoughts that were draining him to the point of collapse. He pounded his fist into his forehead, seeking to blot out one pain with another, but they kept coming. He thought about his mum. Did she know? “No.” The word came out in a savage rush of breath. If she knew, she wouldn’t be with his dad. More than that, she’d have gone to the police. She’d have destroyed him. If he knew one thing, he knew that.

Julian braced his hands against his skull as though trying to keep it from splitting apart. A sound — the most pathetic sound he’d ever heard — drew his eyes reluctantly but inexorably back to the screen. His dad was sat on the end of the bed once more, elbows on knees, hands over his mouth, sobbing so hard his shoulders shook and his breath came in gasps. Behind him, Deborah Bradshaw lay staring at herself in the ceiling mirror, and her reflection looked back at her with an expression of numb loathing.

A great, choking wave of anger surged up inside Julian. He clenched his fists to smash the sickening images, but at that moment the screen went blank. He stood trembling, dazed and dumbfounded, like someone emerging from sleep to find themselves in a different world. Gradually, he became aware that the room wasn’t totally silent. There was a noise — a small, repetitive noise that raised the hairs on his neck. Click, click, click, it came at one or two second intervals. He jerked his gaze towards it, peering goggle-eyed into the gloom at the back of the room. As his vision adjusted, he made out rows of shelves from ceiling to floor, running the width of the room. They were crammed with hundreds, maybe thousands of videotapes and DVDs. In front of the shelves was a black-leather armchair. And sat in the armchair was a jowly, thick-featured little goblin of a man with a snoutish nose. His eyebrows formed a single line above close-set eyes. His swollen-looking lips curved up into a smile, which exuded a repulsive leering cynicism.

“Mr Ugly.” Julian breathed the name hoarsely.

“Mr X,” corrected the man, standing. As Julian took a flinching step backward, he continued, “Relax, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to give you this.” He held out a videotape.

“What is it?”

“It’s the original of your father’s film. Think of it as a coming-of-age gift.” As Mr X moved into the light from the mirror, Julian saw that he was even uglier than he’d first appeared. There were deep pockmarks in his cheeks and he had an overbite so pronounced he couldn’t close his mouth fully. But it wasn’t his physical characteristics that made him truly repulsive, it was the rotten soul and polluted heart that moulded their expression.

“Why are you giving this to me?” asked Julian, hesitating to take the tape.

“I’ve got no more use for it. Your father’s all used up. I’ve squeezed as much as there is to squeeze out of him.”

“You’re blackmailing him.”

“I have been for the last fifteen or so years. But not anymore. Now I’m looking to the future, the next generation.”

“You mean me?”

“Who else?”

Julian’s mind returned to the room nextdoor, the blood. His mouth filled with metallic-tasting saliva. With difficulty, he swallowed and said in a thick voice, “What did you make me do?”

“I never make anybody do anything, Julian. I just help them to open up.” Mr X added with a touch of pride, “I suppose you could say that’s my talent, getting people to open up and let it out.”

Julian’s throat seemed to be closing. “What’s it?”

“ It’s whatever’s inside here and here.” Mr X touched his chest and head. “Dreams, fantasies. Things people can barely admit to themselves, let alone their spouses and partners. For your father it was what you saw on the screen. For you…” His lips pulled up to show more of his crooked teeth. “Well, let’s just say it gave us quite a performance. The intensity of it surprised even me. You put your dad to shame.”

Julian shook his head as if trying to dislodge Mr X’s words. “There’s nothing like that inside me.”

“Really? Then what’s that about?” Mr X pointed at Julian’s blood-stained hands.

“I…I…” Julian scoured his brain again, frantically trying to remember, but still nothing came. “I couldn’t hurt her,” he cried, feeling hysteria close to engulfing him. “I couldn’t fucking do it.”

“By her I assume you mean your sister, Mia.”

Sister. The word echoed in Julian’s mind. Hearing it said, somehow made it more real. His eyes grew hard with hate. “What have you done to her, you ugly fuck?”

“I told you, I don’t do anything to anybody,” Mr X said equably, untouched by the insult. “I’m merely a facilitator. I facilitate whatever it desires.”

“And I told you, it’s not in me. I couldn’t hurt Mia.”

“Maybe you couldn’t, but you’ve definitely got it in you.”

A glimmer of warped hope flickered in Julian’s eyes. He held up his trembling hands. “Are you saying this isn’t Mia’s blood?”

Mr X grinned impishly. “I think I’ll keep you guessing on that for now.”

Hope turned into rage. “You fucker,” spat Julian, his fingers flexing as if itching to wrap themselves around Mr X’s throat. “You twisted, sick little cunt.”

Mr X clapped his free hand against the videotape. “That’s it. That’s what I like to see.”

Julian wrenched his eyes away from Mr X, shading them with his hand as if to conceal some deformity. Mr X tut-tutted. “There’s no need to hide. You don’t need to worry about showing who you really are here.” He made a sweeping gesture at the rows of tapes and discs. “You’re amongst friends.”

“You’re not my fucking friend.”

Mr X screwed up his face in mock hurt. “What am I then?”

“I…I don’t…” A strange, uncertain light came into Julian’s eyes.

“You have the look of someone who doubts the reality of what they see. Believe me, Julian, this isn’t a dream. This is as real as it gets.”

Julian heaved a breath and spoke, dragging the words out one at a time. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to succeed, of course. This is your time, Julian. The world could be yours. All you have to do is reach out and take it.” As he spoke, Mr X glanced meaningfully at the videotape in his hand.

“You want me to destroy my father?”

“All sons destroy their fathers, one way or another, sooner or later. That’s just the way of things. Besides, if you don’t do it, he’ll destroy himself and the business with it. And I’ve put too much hard work into building that business into what it is today to let that happen.”

Julian’s face twisted into an incredulous scowl. “My father, and my father alone, built that business.”

Mr X gave a placatory wave of his hand. “Don’t get me wrong, Julian. I don’t mean to claim I’ve had a direct hand in the business’s success. But I’ve always been there, in the background, giving a prod in the right direction when it’s needed, pushing your father onto greater efforts. And when you takeover the business, I’ll do the same for you.”

“And what if I don’t take the tape?”

“You will.” Mr X spoke with the absolute confidence of a man used to getting what he wanted.

“Give me one reason why I should.”

“I’ll give you two. For starters, there’s your mother. She deserves to know the truth about the man she loves before she dies. Don’t you think?”

Julian blinked with uncertainty at the mention of his mother. Did she really need to know? Wasn’t the trail of misery, pain and loss left in his father’s wake long enough already? Before Julian could think anymore about that, Mr X continued, “Then there’s this.” He took a disc from his pocket. “I’ll bet you can guess what this is, can’t you?”

“My film.”

“Correct.”

Julian’s gaze flicked between the disc and Mr X’s face. His fingers flexed again.

“You’re thinking about taking this from me,” Mr X said, reading his mind. “Well it’d be pointless. This is just a copy.”

“So what’s the deal? Either I do as you say or you send that to the police?”

“Something like that. But I really hope it doesn’t come to that, Julian. You’re a young man with a brilliant future ahead of you. I’d truly hate to have to have to rob you of that future.”

Julian’s lips drew up into a grim smile. “More like you’d hate to lose out on all the money you’re going to squeeze from me.”

“There’s that as well.”

“And what if I don’t give a fuck about my future?”

“Don’t kid yourself, Julian. You know the value of the future. People like you — privileged people — always do. Besides, there’s not just you to consider. Spare a thought for your poor mother. If finding out about your father doesn’t finish her off, finding out about her son almost certainly will.” Julian grimaced at the threat. Mr X sighed as if the thought of carrying it out pained him too. “And then there’s your brother, Jake. What future has he got to look forward to? A short, miserable life of addiction and prison, that’s what. You could change that, give him the future he deserves. It’s all in your hands, Julian. So what’s it going to be?”

A long speechless moment passed, disturbed only by the gentle click of Mr X’s breathing. Click, click, like a lock falling in place, the sound of entrapment. Locked in a nightmare, Julian thought despairingly. No way out, no way out…

Slowly, as if afraid it might burn him, Julian reached to take the videotape. His arm dropped straight, as if the tape weighed a hundred pounds.

“Good lad,” said Mr X. “I knew you’d see sense. This calls for a celebration.”

“A celebration?” Julian repeated, as if unsure he’d heard right.

“Yes, a celebration.” Mr X looked past him. “Champagne.”

Glancing around, Julian saw a man stood on the threshold of the room, his bulk almost filling the doorway. He recognised him as the driver of the Mercedes. Hands like bunches of bananas dangled from the sleeves of the chauffeur’s jacket. Julian swallowed at the thought of what those hands could do to him. The man nodded and moved away. As they awaited his return, Julian’s gaze moved over the shelves of videotapes and DVDs. “Who are they?”

“They’re everybody and nobody. Businessmen, politicians, judges, solicitors, accountants, priests, doctors, teachers, policemen, and the like. Decent, honest people.”

Julian’s breath came in a sharp hiss. “They’re sickos, perverts.”

Mr X tutted. “You know something, Julian, you really must learn to stop seeing things in black and white. It’s not healthy. People are more complex than that. We all have God and the Devil in us. And we need to understand and love both sides, if we want to understand and love ourselves.”

“Who says I want to love myself?”

“Of course you do, Julian. You want to love yourself above all. That’s your nature, that’s everyone’s nature.”

You’re wrong, Julian wanted to yell, but the words would’ve rung hollow. Most of his life he’d clung to a reality that was in conflict with his dark side. He was tired of fighting with himself. He took a deep, sighing breath. So very, very tired…

The chauffeur reappeared with two flutes of Champagne. Julian looked dubiously at the glass proffered him. “Don’t worry, it’s not spiked,” Mr X assured him, raising his glass in a toast. “To you, Julian. To the great things you’re going to do.”

“What makes you so sure I’m going to do great things?”

“Don’t be so down on yourself. I can see the potential in you, even if you can’t. The way you found me was remarkable. But what really impressed me, what convinced me you were ready to take this step, was the way you bargained for Mia’s life. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such single-mindedness in one so young before. If you can apply that to the business, well, there’s no limit to what it could become.

Julian scrutinised Mr X’s face for signs of disingenuousness, but found none. He might’ve been a father lavishing encouragement on his son. Mr X quaffed his champagne, making a queer gurgling in his throat. Julian raised his drink to his lips, but didn’t swallow any. “So what happens now?”

“Now it’s time for you to leave.” Mr X extended his hand. “Goodbye, Julian, and good luck.”

“Don’t we need to talk about money and stuff like that?”

Mr X shook his head. “Don’t worry, when you’ve got something I want, someone will be in touch.”

“What about my clothes?”

Mr X gestured with his chin at the chauffeur. “My friend here will take care of that.”

With a nervous glance at the hulking figure, Julian reluctantly shook Mr X’s hand. His handshake was warm, damp, repulsively tender. His gaze flicked down to the videotape. “Just to make sure we understand each other, Julian. That’s for you and your parents’ eyes only. If it was to find its way into anyone else’s hands, the consequences would be, well, very possibly fatal.” Shuddering, Julian pulled his hand away. As he turned to leave, Mr X piped up, “Oh, I almost forgot to say, welcome to The Society of Dirty Hearts.” His lips curled into a horribly triumphant smile. “We’re proud to have you as a member.”

Chapter 22

The chauffeur led Julian to a bathroom where his clothes were folded on a chair. When Julian reached for them, the chauffeur shook his head and pointed to the shower. Julian stepped into the cubicle and turned on the water. The chauffeur watched through the glass as he washed away every external trace of whatever had happened in the bedroom.

After towelling himself dry and dressing, Julian followed the chauffeur down a flight of stairs. The same red carpeting ran all the way through the house. Apart from that the house’s interior was fairly nondescript — unadorned white walls, flat panelled doors, no furniture. The exterior was equally unremarkable. It was a large, square, brick house with a flat roof, the only unusual feature being that its downstairs windows were high enough above the ground to prevent anyone looking in — as if the isolated location wasn’t private enough in itself for the purposes of what went on within. There was a time when those windows would’ve appealed to Julian, but not anymore. Now they just seemed sinister. A broad lawned area surrounded the house, rising to some dense shrubbery, split by the driveway. Julian’s car was parked beside the Merc in front of the house. The chauffeur mutely handed Julian his keys and, to his surprise, the survival knife. He approached his car, his step faltering as he spotted the dog sat on the lawn a short distance away. It sprang into motion suddenly, the muscles on its flanks rippling as it raced across to him with long, loping strides. He glanced back to see if it was responding to some signal from the chauffeur, but the hulking figure remained as impassive as ever. He broke into a limping run. The dog reached him as he opened the car door. He tensed, expecting to feel its teeth sink into his flesh again, but all it did was press its nose against his bandaged ankle, sniffing.

As Julian drove away, a pain far worse than any the dog could’ve inflicted ate at his mind — the pain of knowing about his dad and of not knowing about Mia. And a burning sense of guilt filled his heart, scorching away the last vestiges of unreality, leaving behind something that seemed to him too dirty ever to be made clean.

The morning sun peeped over the heads of the trees, dappling the road with shadows, as Julian neared town. Panic drained through him at the thought of confronting his dad, but he didn’t hesitate. The stomach-churning images he’d seen kept replaying in his mind, propelling him onwards. They made him feel like thousands of insects were crawling over his skin. He tried to banish the sensation by opening the window, letting air rush over him. A bad smell hit his nostrils. He closed the window, but it made no difference. The smell seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, almost gag-inducing. He glanced at the suburban houses, wondering how many of them were inhabited by Mr X’s ‘decent, honest people’. All of them and none of them, came his mind’s embittered reply. Lies everywhere. Nothing but stinking, rotten lies.

When Julian pulled up outside his parents’ house, he sat gripping the steering-wheel. Seconds passed, minutes. He couldn’t bring himself to get out of the car, couldn’t even bring himself to look at the house. He stared at the garden — its manicured lawns, its well-pruned shrubs and well-weeded flower beds. He looked at the forest beyond, pressing close to the fence, the trees digging their roots under it, the ivy creeping over it. How long, he wondered, would it take for the forest to reclaim the garden if there was no one to care for it? How long would it take for a lifetime’s labour and love to be obliterated? Ten years? Twenty? Not even the blink of an eye on an evolutionary timescale.

“Not even the blink of an eye,” he murmured, tears pinching the corners of his eyes.

Julian jerked around at a knock on the passenger-door window. His dad’s smiling face was peering through the glass at him. He was ready for work, his hair neatly combed, his face closely shaven. His eyes were full of anticipation and hope. For the first time in a long time he looked truly happy. Julian hated him suddenly. Hated him with every cell of his body. He felt like springing out of the car, grabbing a fistful of his throat and demanding to know, how the fuck can you smile when your daughter’s missing?

Julian lowered the window and Robert said, “Where’ve you been all night?” Before Julian could reply, speaking fast and excitedly, he went on, “Never mind. Great news, Jules. The buyer decided to go with us. He’s put in an order that’s even bigger than I’d hoped for. Big enough not only to keep us afloat, but to make us profitable again.”

“Great news,” agreed Julian, his voice flat, hollow.

Robert didn’t appear to notice. “You’d better hurry and get changed for work. It’s going to be a busy day.”

“I’m not going-”

Robert spoke over Julian. “We’ve got a hell of a lot to do if we’re going to get this order out on time. We need to contact our suppliers and order extra, well, extra everything. We need to talk to the staff, find out who’s willing to work overtime. We might even need to look into taking on some new-”

“Shut the fuck up!” The words burst out of Julian like bullets. Robert stared at him, wide-eyed, mouth hanging open. Anger pulsing behind his eyes, Julian said, “I know, Dad.”

“Know what?”

“Everything.” Julian stabbed his finger at the videotape on the front-passenger seat. “I know everything.”

Robert looked at the tape. ‘Robert Harris. 14/9/94’ was written on it. He screwed his eyes shut and opened them, blinking as if unsure where he was. An expression of sudden, sick clarity settled on his face. He clutched the window-frame as if for support, head sagging. His mouth worked soundlessly a moment, before he managed to say, “How?”

“Mr X gave it to me.”

Robert lifted a stunned, bewildered face to Julian. “Why?”

“He says you’re all used up, squeezed dry.”

“But I paid him.” Anger flashed in Robert’s eyes. He drove the heel of his hand into the car door with enough force to dent it. “I fucking paid him! I fucking…” His voice trailing off, he stared as if dead at the ground for half-a-minute, before murmuring, “I always knew this day would come. I’ve been waiting for it for fifteen years.”

“How could you do such a thing?”

“It was just one time. I let it get the better of me one time. I’ve hated myself for it ever since.”

“Liar! If you hated yourself for it, why did you abandon your children?” As Robert jerked his gaze up in horrified astonishment, Julian continued, “That’s right, I know about Mia and Jake. I told you, I know everything.”

“Did he tell you about them?” Robert said the word ‘he’ with trembling hate in his voice.

“No. I worked that one out all by myself. How could you do it to them? How could you let them grow up like that?”

“I did it for you and your mother.”

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Julian spoke through clenched teeth. “Don’t you dare try to use us as an excuse.”

“What else was I supposed to do? I would’ve lost everything over two children I couldn’t even be sure were mine.”

“You fucking weasel!” The force of Julian’s words took even him by surprise. “You knew. You fucking knew they were yours!”

“Please, Julian, try to understand. I worked so hard for what I had. I couldn’t just throw that away.” Robert gave a hopeless shake of his head. “But how can you understand? You’ve never known a day’s want in all your life.”

“So it was about money.”

“It was about protecting what I love. I love you, Julian.”

The words — words Julian had waited all his life to hear — sliced through the hard, blackened lump that was his heart. “Don’t,” he said, his voice thickening and hoarse. “You’ve got no right to say that to me. Not now.”

“If I’d acknowledged those children, who would it have benefited?” Robert pressed on, sensing his son’s weakness. “Nobody. My marriage would’ve been over. My business ruined. I wouldn’t have been able to give them or you any kind of life. So I made a choice. And every day since, I’ve lived with that choice.”

“Yes, you’ve lived with it. But Deborah Bradshaw couldn’t. She died because of your choice, indirectly or directly.”

“What are you suggesting?” A fresh wave of disbelief swept over Robert’s face. “Christ, are you suggesting I murdered her? Do you really think me capable of such a thing?”

“I don’t know what it’s capable of.”

At the mention of it, Robert lowered his eyes again as if to hide what was behind them. “I may be a fucking bastard, Julian, but I’m not a monster.”

“How can I believe you?”

“Because I’m your father and I’ve never lied to you.”

Julian shook his head, incredulous. “No, you’ve never lied to me, but you’ve never told me the truth either.”

“I know what I’ve done is unforgivable. So I’m not going to ask for your forgiveness, Julian. But I am asking you to spare your mum. She’s been through so much already. This would finish her off.”

“Maybe that’d be for the best.”

Robert shifted his gaze back to Julian, eyes glazed with shock. “How can you say such a thing?”

“You’ve made her life a lie, and I’m not sure I can bear the thought of her living that life any longer.”

“You don’t mean that, Julian. You’re upset. Not thinking straight.”

“I’m thinking perfectly straight, for perhaps the first time in my life. You’re the embodiment of everything she hates.” Julian winced with revulsion. “The thought of you touching her, kissing her, it makes me want to puke.”

Face twitching, Robert wrung his hands. For a second, Julian thought his dad was going to fall apart completely, collapse in a heap. But then he took a steadying breath. “Okay, let’s talk about this, see if we can come to some sort of agreement,” he said, putting on his business-face. “I can’t undo what I’ve done, but I can try to put things right as best I can. I’ll give Jake, and Mia if she turns up alive, the life they deserve. I’ll pay for their schooling, find them jobs, whatever it takes. They wouldn’t have to know where the money was coming from. I could go through a third party. It’d be difficult, but it can be arranged.”

“So why didn’t you arrange it years ago, before Mia was driven to prostitution, before Jake became a junkie thief?”

“I’m offering to do it now, aren’t I? Isn’t that enough?”

“Nowhere near.”

“Well, you tell me what you want from me?”

“This isn’t about what I want.”

Robert’s business-face started to slip. Worms of sweat beaded his forehead. “How about this: I’ll go away permanently. I’ll tell your mum I’ve met someone else. She’ll be devastated, but she’ll survive that. I’ll leave everything to you — my savings, the business, everything.”

“That’d just be another lie to add to the list.”

“Yes, but a lie to protect someone we both love.”

“And you get to walk away from all of this, start a new life. No, I don’t think so.”

“A new life?” Robert let out a ragged, pitiful laugh at the idea. “You and Christine are the only life I’ll ever have. Without you I’m nothing.”

Julian was silent a moment, as if mulling over the offer. “It could work, except-”

“Except fucking what?” exploded Robert, his face changing with the suddenness of a mask falling away. A vein throbbed down the centre of his forehead. His lips twitched. His eyes bulged, the pupils huge and black, the blackness stretching back seemingly deeper than light could penetrate.

Julian tensed, ready to defend himself if necessary. “Except you could do this again to somebody else.”

“It was just one time. One fucking time,” Robert ranted. “And she wasn’t forced into it. She was well paid.”

“And that excuses it?”

“Of course fucking not, but-” Robert broke off, catching his anger. The vein receded, his pupils shrank. His voice quiet with shame, he continued, “Of course not. Nothing excuses it. And I’d rather die than do it to somebody else.” His eyes filmed with tears. “Is that what you want? Do you want me to jump off the bridge too?”

Julian’s voice softened a fraction. “No, I don’t want that. But like I said, it’s not about what I want. It’s about what Mr X wants.”

“Mr X.” Robert spat the name out as if it tasted impossibly disgusting. “What more can he want from me than he’s already taken?”

“It’s not what he wants from you, it’s what he wants from me.”

Robert scrunched his forehead, perplexed. “You? Why should he want anything from you?”

Julian released a breath that seemed to have been bottled up inside him for years. “You know, I used to wonder why you kept your distance, why you never hugged or kissed me. Now I understand. You were afraid — afraid your touch would infect me with what’s inside you. Well you needn’t have worried. It was already in me. Mr X drew it out.”

Robert grimaced as if Julian’s words were pins that pierced deep under his skin. They looked at each other, their eyes like open windows. A shock of connection thrilled between them, instantly followed by a shock of realisation — the soul-rending realisation that the thing which had finally, truly brought them together had also torn them apart.

“What did you do?” The question grated from Robert’s lips.

His voice heavy with shame, Julian started to recount what’d happened with Nikki and at Mr X’s house. “Hang on,” cut in Robert. “So you don’t know for sure that you did anything.”

“No, but what about the blood?”

“The blood proves nothing. It might not even have been human.”

“It was.”

“How can you know that?”

“Because of what’s in here and here.” Julian slammed his fist against his chest and head with bruising force. “You see, Dad, I’m a lot like you, but not exactly the same. I have my own dreams and nightmares.”

“What dreams? What nightmares? What are they about?”

“The same thing they’ve always been about. Only now, instead of being attacked, I’m the one doing the attacking.”

Robert shook his head. “You could never do anything like that to anybody. I know you couldn’t.”

“Really. Then you must know me better than I know myself.” A vein of bitter insincerity ran through Julian’s voice.

His fingers whitening on the window-frame, Robert continued to shake his head with increasing vehemence. “He’s bluffing. The bastard’s bluffing.”

“Maybe. But what if he isn’t?”

Robert jutted his face forward, his eyes like knives trying to slice through the fog of Julian’s mind. “Think! Try to remember what happened.”

Julian tried again, vainly. “It’s no good. It’s as if part of my memory has been cut out.”

“Fuck! This can’t be happening. I won’t let it. I won’t let him do to you what he’s done to me.” Tremors of rage and hate shook Robert as he whirled suddenly to head for his car.

Julian stared after him a moment, uncertain whether he should try to stop him, then a surge of concern jolted him out of his seat. Taken aback by the strength of the emotion, he called, “Dad.” Robert looked at him, his forehead knotted, his eyes hard and haunted. Julian felt something like an electric shock shiver through his frame again. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to put an end to this once and for all.”

“You can’t stop him. You’ll just get hurt, and I don’t want that to happen. No matter what you’ve done, you’re still my dad.”

Robert’s eyes softened a shade. An edge of tenderness came into his voice. “He can’t hurt me anymore than he’s done already.”

“What about…” Julian glanced at the house, finishing the question with his eyes.

Robert exhaled a weary, fatalistic breath. “That’s up to you. I’ve put everything I have on the table. There’s nothing left for me to say, except, well, except I’m sorry. Sorry for all of it. Goodbye, son.”

Chapter 23

Julian watched until his dad’s car was out of sight, before heading towards the house. His step faltered at the front door. His mind felt overloaded, ready to burst. The past, present and possible future paraded relentlessly through it, melting into one another like colours on a prism. He saw his dad on top of Deborah Bradshaw, Mia as she’d looked the last time he saw her, Jake dead with a hypodermic needle in his arm, Joanne Butcher’s bloated corpse, himself on top of Eleanor in the barn. Finally, he saw his mum in hospital hooked up to all sorts of IVs, tubes and machines. You’ve got to hold it together for her, he told himself sharply, she’s going to need you now more than ever.

Julian opened the door. “Where’s my mum?” he asked Wanda, who was dusting in the lounge.

“She’s sleeping. She was up late celebrating the good news.” As Julian started towards his mum’s bedroom, Wanda added, “You’re not going to wake her, are you?”

“I have to talk to her.”

“Can’t it wait?”

Julian shook his head. Without knowing it, his mum had already waited fifteen years to hear what he had to tell her. Every extra second was a second too long. Wasn’t it? Well, wasn’t it? Of course it fucking was! But even with this thought ringing in his mind, his feet dragged into the hallway like he was wading through deep mud.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Wanda said. “Mike Hill phoned.”

Julian turned quickly to her. “When?”

“Several times yesterday and again this morning.”

“Did he say why?”

“No. He just said he wants you to contact him as soon as possible. He mentioned something about Eleanor. I think-”

Before Wanda could finish, Julian had his phone out and was punching in Mike Hill’s number. Mike picked up on the first ring, as if he’d been waiting by the phone. “Is Eleanor okay?” asked Julian.

“That’s what I wanted to ask you. I haven’t seen or spoken to her since she left the house with you the other day.”

Mike’s words drove all thoughts other than thoughts of Eleanor from Julian’s mind. A vision flashed before his eyes of him on top of her, not in the barn, but on the bed at Mr X’s house. Her face was bruised and bloodied, her clothes and throat torn as if by some wild animal. The image staggered him like a punch to the gut. The sound of his breathing filled the line as he tried to work out whether it was the product of memory or imagination.

“I assume from your silence that she’s not with you,” continued Mike.

“No,” Julian answered, the word barely audible.

“I also assume you don’t know where she is?”

Julian shook his head. “He wouldn’t do that.” He wasn’t talking to Mike anymore. He was talking to the inner voice that told him Eleanor hadn’t returned home because Mr X had abducted her.

“Who wouldn’t do what?”

“She’s not some bad girl who might overdose or runaway. He wouldn’t dare go near her.”

“What the hell are you on about?” Mike demanded, his voice swaying between confusion, anger and anxiety. “What’s going on? Julian. Julian…”

Julian didn’t answer because he was running for his car. As he screeched away from the house, he kept repeating to himself in a low, quivering voice, “He wouldn’t dare. He wouldn’t dare.” He drove with one hand on the wheel, the other holding his phone to his ear as it called Eleanor’s mobile. It went through to the answering service. He tried again, and still she didn’t answer. His chant grew louder and faster. “He wouldn’t dare…”

At the end of the road, he didn’t turn for the forest. He turned for the town-centre. Jumping red lights, overtaking wildly, narrowly avoiding oncoming rush-hour traffic, he soon came to the antiques shop. He sprang out of the car, sprinted into the shop and grabbed the mantrap.

“Hey!” shouted the shopkeeper, catching hold of his arm.

Julian elbowed him away and returned to his car. He flung the mantrap onto the backseat and sped back the way he’d come. The driver-side mirror clipped another car and was sheared off. Horns blared. He barely noticed. “He wouldn’t dare…”

The suburbs were behind Julian now, trees passed in a blur. He took the turn for The Old Forest Road so fast that he almost skidded out of control. The speed of the car was nothing, though, compared to the speed with which the image of Eleanor bloodied and torn turned over in his mind. Over and over, looping to feed his doubt, his fear, his rage. “He wouldn’t dare…”

He hit the gravel road without slowing. Stones kicked up, cracking the windscreen. His body was bounced around by the bone-jarring impact of potholes. “He wouldn’t dare…” The car ground up the slope, barrelling around the final corner. The gate came into view. Still he hurtled onwards, arms braced as straight as ramrods, every muscle tensed. “He wouldn’t fucking dare!”

There was a screech of rending metal and breaking glass as the car slammed into the gate. The air bag blew out, hitting Julian in the face. He sat dazed for a moment, trying to catch his breath, before clambering out of the car. The front wheels were off the ground, resting on the gate, which had buckled, collapsing a section of the fence. The sound of barking reached him from somewhere near the house, faint, but getting louder. He quickly retrieved the mantrap and pulled its teeth apart. He tore the bandage off his ankle and carefully placed it on the pressure pad. Then he got back into the car and ducked down. After a minute or so the dog appeared. The instant it put its nose to the bandage, the steel jaws snapped together, biting into its flanks. The dog jumped about five feet into the air, letting out a high pitched yelp. It staggered around briefly before collapsing. Julian took out his knife and warily approached it. It was obvious at once that it was fatally wounded. Its muzzle was flecked with froth and its breathing was laboured. Blood oozed out from around the steel teeth buried in its flesh. It rolled its eyes at Julian as if begging to be put out of its misery. There was no time for hesitation. He stabbed it several times, shuddering as the blade grated between its ribs. When he was sure it was dead, grimacing with each footfall, he ran towards the house.

Julian wasn’t surprised to see his dad’s car beside the Merc, but even so his heart constricted with anxiety. There was a metal bin with smoke rising from it outside the house. He slowed to an abrupt stop. A deep blackness seemed to emanate from the house’s windows. He felt it almost like a physical force holding him back. Sweat wormed its way down his face as, step by faltering step, like a child learning to walk, he pushed through the invisible barrier. Glancing in the bin, he saw the burning remnants of some white sheets — most likely, the blood-stained sheets, although it was impossible to tell for sure. The knife held in front of him, he reached for the front door. It wasn’t locked. He half expected to find himself faced by the chauffeur — his arrival could hardly have gone unnoticed — but the hallway was empty.

There was a door to the right and left of the stairs. Moving quickly now, Julian opened the right-hand door. It led into a living-room — sofa, armchairs, television, coffee-table, deep-pile rug. Everything as you might expect from a living-room, except the furniture looked new and unused, giving it a curiously sterile, unlived in feel, like a shop window display. The door to the left led to a dining-room — six chairs around a dining-table set as if for an elaborate meal. A fine sheen of dust lay over the table, plates and cutlery. Julian would hardly have been surprised to see mannequins occupying the chairs in poses of eating, drinking and talking. “All of it a fucking lie,” he muttered.

Suddenly, the muffled sound of voices yelling came from upstairs. For maybe ten seconds, Julian stood tense and motionless, vainly trying to make out what was being said, until an agonised shriek impelled him to action. As he sprinted upstairs, there was the sound of breaking glass, followed by a thud. Then silence descended over the house.

The first thing Julian saw when he reached the room was the chauffeur. He was on the floor, facedown, his head through the two-way mirror, which lay in jagged shards all around him. A thick, dark stream of blood flowed from his throat to form a slick around the toppled video-camera. His eyes bulged like marbles and his mouth gaped as mutely as ever, saliva foaming at its corners. His huge hands clawed spasmodically at the carpet. The next thing he saw was Mr X, knelt with his back to him, clutching a large triangular splinter of glass in both hands. Mr X’s breath came in rapid, hoarse clicks as he plunged the splinter downwards again and again. Finally, Julian saw his dad. He was laid on his back, arms flung wide, shirt torn open from neck to waist, chest tarred with blood, like some kind of sacrificial offering. With each plunge of the splinter, his head gave a little jerk.

“No!” cried Julian, charging across the room, white-faced and white-knuckled with intent.

Mr X jerked his head around, the same leering grin twisting his face out of shape. The grin disappeared as Julian buried the knife halfway to the hilt in his back. With a piercing scream, he toppled forward across Julian’s dad. Julian dragged him aside. He squirmed like a skewered worm, scream after scream curdling the air as he groped at the knife’s hilt. The horrific noise barely registered on Julian’s mind. His attention was focused on his dad. Blood welled from gashes like obscenely yawning mouths in his chest and stomach, pooling in the hollows of his body. His eyes were closed. He didn’t appear to be breathing. Frantically, Julian felt for a pulse. He couldn’t find one. He tried to give mouth-to-mouth, not sure if he was doing it right, but not knowing what else to do. A hot, metallic taste filled his mouth. It was blood. He doubled up, retching. Tears blurring his vision, he pressed his hands against the wounds, trying to staunch the bleeding, but it was like trying to hold back a burst dam. “Open your eyes, Dad. Live!” he cried, as if he could summon him back from the dead by the force of his will. But he didn’t possess his Grandma Alice’s power. His voice broke. He hung his head.

Gradually, Julian became aware of a grotesque gurgling. Mr X lay motionless on his belly, head twisted awkwardly towards him. His eyes were dull and glassy, his face pale as chalk. Blood ran from his lips, which he’d chewed to a pulp in his agony. His mouth worked slowly, forming barely audible words. Julian leant in close to hear what he was saying.

“Call an…ambulance,” Mr X croaked, blowing putrid little gasps of air in Julian’s face. When Julian glared incredulous hatred at him, he continued, “I didn’t want…to hurt your…father. He attacked-” He broke off, choking wetly. After a moment, trembling with the effort, he lifted his left arm a fraction to display a deep gash on his wrist.

“Where’s Eleanor?”

“Who?”

“Eleanor Hill. What have you done to her?”

“Nothing…Would never touch a girl like…her. Only nobodies nobody much will miss.” Mr X sucked in a tight, rasping breath, before continuing, “Besides, why would I need to when I’ve already got…you…where I want you?”

In a rush of relief and rage, Julian instinctively accepted these words as genuine. He’d never really believed Mr X would go near Eleanor, he realised with a sharp pang in his chest. He’d just needed an excuse to go after his dad, and try and save him from harm. He’d failed in that, though, like he’d failed to save Mia. He reached a trembling hand towards the knife, hissing, “Mia isn’t a nobody, she’s my sister. Where is she?”

Eyes bulging, Mr X gave a low moan as Julian’s fingers brushed the hilt. “Ambulance.”

“Not unless you tell me where Mia is?”

“Your film. If I…die…” Mr X’s eyes rolled as if he might lose consciousness, before refocusing on Julian. He forced his next words out in a gasp. “Your film will be sent to your mother, the newspapers, the police. And everything you love will be taken from you.”

“Who’ll do the sending if you’re dead?”

“Mr X.”

Julian’s face crumpled into lines of confusion. “But you’re Mr X.”

“No I’m…not.”

“Who the fuck are you then?”

“I’m nobody.”

Julian stared at the injured man as if trying to pierce his thoughts. “You’re lying.”

A repulsive sound that might’ve been laughter bubbled out of Mr X’s throat. “Am I?”

Julian grabbed the knife’s hilt, wiggled it, felt the blade scrape bone. “You’re going to tell me the truth,” he said grimly, as Mr X twitched and screamed, “about Mia, about yourself, about all of it, or I’m going to kill you.”

“Kill me and you kill yourself,” Mr X screeched, before his eyes rolled upward and he passed out. For a few seconds, his breathing continued to gurgle like a drain, then he fell silent. Julian felt for a pulse, and found it, weak and thready. Half-a-minute passed. Mr X’s eyes flickered open and looked at Julian with an expression of approval, even pride. He spoke quite clearly, as if buoyed by his feelings. “You’ve got even more potential than I thought.”

“Fuck you,” retorted Julian. He glanced warningly at the knife. “The truth.”

“Don’t be foolish. There’s no such thing as truth — at least, not the kind you’re after. There’s only perception. Now call me a fucking ambulance.”

Julian looked again at the shelves of videotapes and DVDs. His mind spoke in two voices. Your whole life, everything you hope for, everything you love will be lost, said one. Your whole life, everything you say, everything you hear will be a lie, said the other. There was a phone on the bottom shelf beside a video and DVD player. With these thoughts weighing on his breath like lead, he reached for it. “Good boy, I knew you’d see sense,” said Mr X.

Again, Mike Hill picked up on the first ring. “Have you found her?”

“No, but I don’t think you need worry, Mr Hill,” said Julian. “I think she’s okay.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I was right, he wouldn’t dare go near her.”

“Who wouldn’t dare go near her?”

“What are you doing, Julian?” said Mr X.

“I’m proving you wrong. There is such a thing as truth. And I’m going to show you it.”

“Fool!” Mr X spat the word and a mouthful of blood into Julian’s face. “Stupid spoilt, rich-” He choked off into a croak. Veins popping on his throat and forehead, he forced out a hoarse whisper, “You’re finished. You might as well jump off the bridge.”

Julian wiped the back of his hand across his face. “Better that than live the life you’re offering.”

“Who are you talking to?” asked Mike.

“Nobody. There’s something I need to show you.”

“For Christ’s sake! What’s going on, Julian?”

“I can’t explain over the phone, you need to come here and see it for yourself.”

“I can’t. Eleanor might return while I’m gone.”

“Leave a note. She knows how to contact you if she needs to. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this. It might be the biggest story you ever come across.”

“Where are you?”

Julian explained where he was.

“But that’s in the middle of the forest. What are you doing there?”

“I’m at a house.”

“I didn’t think anybody lived out there.”

“They don’t, not anymore. No more questions. Are you coming?”

Mike was silent a moment, doubt and unease vying with his professional curiosity. Curiosity won out. “Okay, Julian.”

Julian hung up and looked at Mr X, his hands slowly clenching and unclenching. He looked at his dad. Blood billowed like a dark red storm cloud around the corpse. His hands clenched harder and faster. Pale to his lips, he jerked his gaze back to Mr X.

Mr X’s pupils shrank with fear in their dirty-brown irises. Then he caught hold of himself, and his nostrils flared. “Go on. Do it. Do it!” His voice was defiant, almost goading.

As if someone had struck his elbow, Julian’s hand shot towards the knife’s hilt, but stopped just short of it. For several seconds, it wavered back and forth as if caught between two opposing forces. Then, with a sharp intake of breath, he snatched it back. Mr X’s leering, contemptuous grin returned as Julian rose and approached the shelves. Names and dates were written on the spines of the videotapes and DVDs, which were seemingly arranged in no particular order. He searched fruitlessly for his disc and any discs dating to the day of Mia’s disappearance. “You won’t find your disc,” said Mr X, guessing in part what he was looking for. “And even if you did, it wouldn’t do you any good. I told you, it’s just a copy.”

“I think you’re lying. There was no time to make copies.”

“Maybe you’re right, but even if I am lying you still can’t leave me alive. Not unless you want that reporter to find out what’s behind your mask.”

“I’m not afraid of showing people the truth of myself.”

Mr X gurgled with harsh laughter, blowing bloody bubbles. “Who’s lying now?”

“I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I agree. All of us here do,” Mr X said softly, and with what seemed genuine sympathy, as if they were surrounded by phantoms with which he and Julian shared an intimate, sorrowful kinship. “We accept you for what you are, but no one else will. You’ll be an outcast, worse than dead. Is that really what you want?”

“I…” Julian’s voice faltered.

“It’s still not too late, Julian. Ring Mike Hill, stop him from coming here.”

“The truth…” Julian swayed as if he might fall over. “I’m going to show you…”

“How are you going to show me the truth?” Mr X’s voice grew stronger, as if feeding on Julian’s weakness. “By killing me? By destroying yourself? That’s not the truth, Julian, that’s just a different kind of lie.”

Julian clutched the shelves for support, his eyes moving back and forth along them. Most of the names were unfamiliar. Some he seemed to vaguely recognise. Two were all too familiar. The first of these didn’t surprise him. After everything Mr X had said, he’d guessed he’d find Tom Benson’s name. The second caused his breathing to stop momentarily. “Michael Ridgway,” he murmured. “The A1 Murderer.”

“One of our more illustrious members,” boasted Mr X.

Julian looked at him as if he doubted his sanity. “He was a serial killer.”

“No, merely a serial abductor. To my knowledge, Michael only ever killed one girl. The rest he sold to us. Funny thing is, the police charged him with the murders of all the girls except the one he actually killed.”

“Susan Carter.”

“Once again, you’ve impressed me, Julian. How did you know that?”

“My grandma tried to help her parents find her body.”

Mr X nearly choked on a bubble of mocking laughter. “Ah yes, of course, your psychic granny.”

“So Susan Carter and all those other girls died here.”

“I’ll let you find out for yourself what happened to them.” Mr X rolled his eyes at the shelves. “They’re all up there somewhere.”

A sudden thought struck Julian, shaking his certainty that Eleanor was alive and unmolested. “You said you never go near girls like Susan Carter.”

“I didn’t tell Michael to take Susan. He took her on an impulse, because he saw her and wanted her. I was angry. But I couldn’t stay angry with him for long. He was such a nice man.”

“A nice man!” Julian’s voice was rank with incredulous revulsion. Reassured, however, he removed Michael Ridgway’s disc and, very carefully, as if it was something fragile and precious, inserted it into the DVD player. The TV flickered into life, showing the adjoining room. Michael Ridgway was pacing agitatedly up and down beside the bed. He was middle-aged, balding, paunchy. Nobody out of the ordinary. Nobody you’d give a second glance. He stopped pacing when the chauffeur entered with his hands on Susan Carter’s shoulders, guiding her in front of him. The chauffeur closed the door, leaving her alone with Michael Ridgway.

Michael Ridgway looked at Susan Carter and she looked back at him. A minute passed, two minutes. Neither of them moved, spoke, or even seemed to breathe. Julian might’ve thought the DVD was faulty, if it hadn’t been for Susan Carter’s eyes. They were alive with fear. It seeped out of them, seemed to seep right out of the screen into his heart, pleading for help, for mercy. Suddenly, as if acting on some silent signal known only to himself, Michael Ridgway lashed out, hitting Susan Carter full in the face. Without a sound, she collapsed to the carpet and lay with her eyes closed, motionless as a doll. Michael Ridgway stared down at her a moment, his eyes blank and dead, like a shark’s. Then, straddling her waist, he hit her again, and again, and again, mechanically, relentlessly. To Julian, the beating seemed to go on for hours. He flinched at every blow, but didn’t turn away from the screen. Something was building inside him, something he needed. Finally, Michael Ridgway stopped and stood off Susan Carter. Except she wasn’t recognisable as Susan Carter anymore. Now she was recognisable only as something dead. A piece of meat. Michael Ridgway’s chest heaved, but his expression was calm, almost serene, as he looked at himself in the mirror, then looked through the mirror directly into Julian’s eyes. There was no spark of connection. The eyes were as unrecognisable to Julian as those that’d glared out of his Grandma Alice’s possessed face.

The screen went blank. But Julian continued to stare at it, trembling, pressure building inside him until he couldn’t contain it any longer. In an eruption of white-hot fury, he lunged at Mr X and drove the knife into him fully to the hilt. A scream croaked in Mr X’s throat. His body spasmed into a tight, foetal ball. Then he lay silent and limp.

After that, in a kind of semi-conscious frenzy, Julian started tearing the house apart, searching vainly for his DVD or any clues to Mia’s whereabouts. In one room, he found a trunk of dildos, lubricants, whips, chains, leather wrist and ankle restraints, and other sex paraphernalia. In another, he shuddered at the discovery of a cupboard neatly stacked with latex gloves, duct tape and plastic wrap. He was in the kitchen, flinging stuff out of a cubby-hole so that he could get to a trapdoor, when Mike Hill arrived.

“Hello,” Mike called from the hallway, his voice uncertain, perhaps even a little afraid. “Julian, are you there?”

“In here,” Julian shouted, yanking at the trapdoor’s handle.

Mike gasped when he saw Julian. “What happened to you?”

“Help me open this.”

“Why? What’s down there?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” Quivering tendons stood out on Julian’s neck as he strained to lift the trapdoor. He pitched backward as the handle slipped through his sweaty, blood-stained hands. “For fuck’s sake, help me.”

“No. Not until you tell me whose house this is, and whose car that is all smashed up outside, and why there’s a dead dog in some kind of-”

“There’s no time,” Julian interrupted breathlessly. “Don’t you understand? She might be down there.”

“Who’s she?”

“Mia!”

Mike’s eyes widened. “Mia Bradshaw?”

“Yes. Now help me.”

They both bent to grasp the handle. Faces reddening, arms trembling, they lifted the thick, wooden trapdoor. Stairs led down into darkness. There was a switch inside the hatch. Julian flicked it and a bulb flickered into life down below, illuminating a dirty concrete floor. The stairs led to a large, low-ceilinged cellar full of exactly what you might expect to find in such a place — a well-stocked wine rack, a tool bench, some dusty old furniture piled in a corner, a row of shelves crammed with cleaning products, rusting cans of paint, boxes, and glass jars full of nails and screws. Julian’s eyes scoured the room. He rushed over to the furniture, and started flinging chairs and tables aside. They concealed nothing.

“There’s nothing down here,” said Mike. “It’s just an ordinary cellar.”

“That’s exactly what he wants you to think.”

“Who?”

Without replying, Julian turned to the shelves and swept his arm along them, sending their contents crashing to the floor.

“Stop, Julian.” Mike caught hold of Julian’s arm and pulled him away from the shelves.

“Get your fucking hands off me.” Julian wrenched his arm free, hitting the light-bulb with his hand. Shadows whirled wildly around the room. The bulb flickered and Mia’s face leaped at him out of the momentary darkness, pale and blood streaked. With a gasp, he recoiled against the tool-bench.

“Okay, enough is enough,” Mike snapped. “I want to know what’s going on, and I want to know now.”

Julian wasn’t listening, he was staring at the floor, eyes narrowed. There were parallel scuff marks on the concrete, as if the tool bench had recently been moved. He dropped to his knees and felt around under the bench. His fingers detected what was hidden to his eyes. “There’s another trapdoor here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Help me move this bench.”

Julian and Mike dragged the bench away from the wall, revealing a recessed metal handle. They heaved the trapdoor open, releasing a warm puff of air as fetid as the breath of a nightmare. Mike put the back of his hand to his mouth. “It smells like something died-” He broke off as the full import of his words swept over him.

Again, stairs led down. Again, there was a switch inside the hatch. Again, a light came on when Julian flicked it, illuminating a concrete floor. As Julian started forward, Mike said, “Maybe you shouldn’t go down there. Maybe we should call the police.”

“No police,” Julian retorted, scowling. “Not until we know for sure what’s down there.”

The smell grew stronger with every step they descended, until the air seemed thick with it. Julian could hear Mike swallowing hard behind him. Julian felt no urge to vomit. After what he’d witnessed upstairs, it would take more than a bad smell to sicken him. “What the hell is this?” Mike said in a low, nauseated voice, when they reached the second cellar.

A table stood adjacent to the foot of the stairs, its surface cluttered with unused hypodermic needles and brown medicine bottles. Several pairs of police-style handcuffs and leg-shackles dangled from nails above the table. Six human-sized cages lined one of the walls. In each of the first four cages there was a camping-bed and a bucket. It was too gloomy to see what was in the final two cages. Julian picked up one of the bottles and read its label. “Diamorphine.”

“Heroin,” said Mike, taking the bottle from him. “Looks like it was stolen from a hospital.”

Julian squinted into the darkness, thinking of Joanne Butcher. “Heroin for an overdose nobody would find suspicious.”

“More like for getting girls hooked on, then making them work for a fix. A sex trafficking operation, that’s what this is, isn’t it?”

“This is The Society of Dirty Hearts.”

“What’s The Society-”

“There’s someone in the last cage,” exclaimed Julian, darting towards the rear of the cellar. A dimly visible figure lay on a camp-bed, swaddled in blankets, head buried beneath a pillow. Julian’s voice trembled in the gloom, half fearful, half hopeful. “Mia!” The figure didn’t move. He frantically rattled the cage’s padlocked door, calling Mia’s name again. Still no response.

Mike’s lighter sparked to life. The wavering flame extinguished Julian’s hope. “It’s not her,” he said, staring hollow-eyed with disappointment at the wisps of red hair curling out from under the pillow.

“Who is it then?”

A name came into Julian’s head. Ginger. “We need to get this door open.”

“Wait here.” Mike dashed away. He returned after half-a-minute with a hammer. It took ten minutes to smash the padlock open. The figure on the bed never once stirred. Julian ducked into the cage and removed the pillow. As he’d suspected, it was Ginger. She looked dead. But when Mike felt for a pulse in her wrist, he said, “She’s alive…barely.”

“What do you think’s wrong with her?”

By way of explanation, Mike pointed at a row of fresh needle marks on Ginger’s inner forearm. “Help me move her. She needs to get to a hospital.”

Looking at Ginger’s sunken, pale bluish face, Julian felt no antipathy. But neither did he feel any sympathy. You were right, he thought, I’ll never understand. “Okay, but first I have to show you something upstairs.”

“There’s no time. She could die.” As Julian turned and headed for the stairs, Mike added, “Do you hear me?”

“I hear.” Julian started up the stairs.

Mike pursued him, catching hold of his arm. “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you care?”

“Yes I care. That’s why I need to show you this.”

“Show me what? What could be more important than that woman’s life?”

“The truth,” said Julian. “Only the truth.”

Chapter 24

Julian scanned the columns of figures on his computer screen, silently tallying. He wrote a number down and stared at it, unable to tear his eyes away until the whistle blew for knocking off. He took a bottle of whisky out of his desk drawer, poured himself a measure, swallowed it, and poured another. He tensed at a knock at his office door. “Come in,” he said in a low voice, almost as if he didn’t want to be heard. He drew a little breath of relief when Jake entered. Not for the first time, Julian was struck by the change in his appearance. He was barely recognisable as the boy who’d staggered off into the forest all those months ago, bruised and bloodied. His shaved hair had grown out. His face was fuller, healthy-looking. He wore the blue overalls of a machinist.

Jake glanced at the drink in Julian’s hand. “Bit early for that, isn’t it?”

“I’m celebrating.”

“Celebrating what?”

“The business is back in the black for the first time in over two years.”

“Hey, that’s brilliant.”

Julian poured Jake a shot. They lifted their glasses simultaneously and emptied them. “Y’know what, we should head into town tonight,” suggested Jake. “Celebrate properly.”

Julian shook his head. “I’ve got too much work to do.”

“Aw, come on, Jules, take a night off, kick back for once.”

Julian’s gaze strayed to the photo on the office wall of his mum in her bridal dress. “You sound like my mum. She’s always telling me I push myself too hard, that I should take a holiday.”

“She’s right.” An expression of almost childish eagerness lit up Jake’s face. “Hey, we could go away together to Spain, or somewhere like that. I’ve never been abroad before.”

Julian swabbed the scratch of guilt Jake’s words inflicted with another shot of whisky. “Maybe in a few months, when things have settled down here. The business is only just back on track. I can’t afford to take my eyes off it right now.”

Jake sighed, but nodded agreement. “I guess you’re right.”

Again, Julian’s thoughts travelled back over the past several weeks and months, to the change in Jake that’d been gradually occurring ever since he’d taken him in and given him a job. There’d been times when Jake had irritated, even infuriated him with his sullen, often perverse obstinacy and quick temper. There’d been times when he wondered whether Jake would ever be able to adjust to a regular life with a regular routine. He was fairly certain that even a couple of weeks ago his unwillingness to go along with either of Jake’s suggestions would’ve been met with a display of angry disappointment. But suddenly the balance of his personality had shifted. The torrent of grumbling complaints from his line supervisor had dried to a trickle, then stopped, and finally been replaced by cautious praise. The old expression of shifty distrust in his eyes had been replaced by something more open and direct. Jake Bradshaw, it seemed, had left the building. Jake Harris had arrived. “Come on,” said Julian. “Let’s lock up and go home.”

“Oh, I meant to tell you,” Jake said, as they made their daily round of the factory floor. “I heard on the radio that another one of them’s killed himself.”

A familiar tightness came into Julian’s throat. “Which one?”

“That doctor they locked up for killing one of them girls they thought Ridgway killed. They found him dead in his cell. He’d cut his wrists and his throat. How many’s that now?”

Julian counted them in his mind. Tom Benson had been the first. When it came out that he had a taste for cocaine, prostitutes and sadomasochistic sex, in rapid succession he lost his job, his wife and finally, after jumping off The High Bridge, his life. Some sleazeball, closet homosexual politician with a penchant for underage boys was next. He gassed himself in his car. After him came a businessman who enjoyed playing the role of an entrepreneurial philanthropist in public and murdering young girls in private. He gave himself both barrels of a shotgun, after his name was connected to the deaths of two girls previously attributed to Michael Ridgway. Then there was a solicitor who after having sex with Joanne Butcher had watched while she lay dying from a heroin overdose. And then a teacher, a judge, two priests. All so-called decent, honest people. They OD’d, jumped off buildings, and hung themselves, and nobody went to their funerals. “Eight.”

“There’ll be more before this is over. They still haven’t found half the fuckers on those videos. Imagine what it must be like to be one of them, sat at home with your wife and kids, or whoever, just waiting for the coppers to come knocking.”

Julian didn’t need to imagine. He knew what it was like to live with that. He knew how the sick feeling welled into your throat every time there was a knock at the door, every time the phone rang, every time the post arrived, every time you opened your eyes.

“Man, if I was one of them fuckers, I’d do myself in,” continued Jake. “Wouldn’t you?”

Julian made no reply. He pretended to check something on a machine so that he didn’t have to look at Jake. Recently, he’d thought a lot about suicide. He’d even driven to the bridge and leaned far out over its railings — like Mia had done — wondering how it would feel. The rush of air, the stinging cold slap of water against his body, his lungs filling with water, burning. Then blackness. Merciful, dreamless blackness. He knew he couldn’t do it, though. Not while his mum was alive, not while Jake needed him, and not while there was a chance, however seemingly slender, that Mia was alive.

Jake sighed. “You know, whenever something like this happens…” His voice faded into sadness.

Julian nodded, managing a sympathetic half-smile. “I know.” Whenever something like this happened, it brought thoughts of Mia to the fore and made Jake wonder where she was. Was she dead? If so, where was her body? If not, where was she? Was she safe? Or was she somewhere where she might soon be dead? So many questions and no answers. Only fear, frustration and sadness.

When they arrived home, Henry came bounding to greet them. Jake laughed, rolling him onto his back, scratching his belly. After Jake moved in, he and Henry had quickly formed a deep bond. Now they were practically inseparable. Every day, Jake took Henry for long walks in the forest. Every night, Henry slept at the end of Jake’s bed. The relationship was mutually beneficial — Henry helped Jake not to think about Mia as much, and Jake eased Henry’s grief over the loss of his master. Julian went through to the kitchen where his mum and Wanda were busy preparing a meal. He bent to kiss his mum, noting the puffiness under her eyes that suggested she’d been crying. “How was your day?” she asked.

“Good.” Julian told her about the company returning to profit.

Christine smiled, but the sadness in her eyes remained. “I always knew you’d turn things around. You’ve got your father’s head for business.”

As always, Julian winced inwardly at the mention of his father. “It’s got little or nothing to do with any business acumen I may have. All the publicity and goodwill generated by the newspapers has brought more orders our way than we can deal with.”

“You must learn to give yourself credit, Julian. I’ve seen how hard you work. Your father would be proud.” Christine’s gaze was drawn to the living-room by the sound of Jake’s laughter. “He’d be proud of what you’ve done for that boy too. You’ve really helped him turn his life around.”

“It’s ready,” said Wanda. She called Jake through, and the four of them sat down at the table. Julian ate mechanically, not really tasting his food, swilling it down with wine. His parents had always drunk wine with their evening meal, but Julian had never had a taste for it, until recent months. At first it was only one glass, but one glass had quickly turned into two or three — a fact that hadn’t escaped his mum’s notice.

“You shouldn’t drink so fast, darling,” she said, as Julian reached for the bottle. “It’s not good for you.”

“I know, but it’s the only thing that helps me relax.”

Christine smiled that sad smile again, the one that told Julian she was thinking about his dad. “You know, your father would say the same thing whenever I nagged him about his drinking. And I’m going to tell you what I used to tell him, you need to find an alternative way to relax, one that helps you enjoy life, rather than deadening it.”

“You mean like a hobby.”

“Maybe.” Christine gave Julian a meaningful look. “Or maybe something else.”

He frowned. “If you’re talking about Eleanor-”

“What if I am?” interrupted Christine. “If you ask me, it’s about time we talked about her.”

“Well I’m not asking you.” Julian stood. “I’m going to finish my meal in my room.”

“Don’t be like that, Julian, I just want to understand what happened between you two.”

“All you need to know is it didn’t work out. The rest is none of your business.”

Julian didn’t finish his meal. The prickly exchange with his mum had killed what little appetite he had. He sat at his PC, trying to work, but his head was too full of thoughts of Eleanor and the most recent suicide — two things that were separate, yet connected in his mind by a terrible sadness — to concentrate. He lay on his bed, staring at the TV, a heaviness in his chest like a concrete block. Gradually, the sensation faded off and his eyelids slid closed. As usual in recent months, the dream started with him pacing back and forth on the wine-red carpet beside the bed. The door opened, and the chauffeur guided Mia into the room. At the sight of her, rage bubbled up in him like a white-hot poison. He fought desperately to suppress it, but it burst forth, spewing all over Mia in a flurry of violence. And when all the poison was out, he straightened to stare at himself in the mirror, and Michael Ridgway’s deadly calm, shark-black eyes stared back.

Julian awoke in darkness, burning with thirst. But not for water. He rose and peered into the hallway. All the lights were off and the house was silent. Assuming everyone was in bed, he padded to the lounge. He stopped when he saw his mum sat by the moonlit windows, staring at a photo of his dad. He was about to creep back to his room, when she said in a low, tear-filled voice, “Today’s the first anniversary of his death.”

“I know.” Julian approached her and laid his hand on her shoulder. “I haven’t mentioned it because I didn’t want to upset you.”

Letting the photo rest in her lap, Christine lifted her good hand to Julian’s. It troubled him to feel how cold her touch was. “Knowing he died trying to save Jake’s sister, that’s the only thing that keeps me going, apart from you.”

Julian removed his hand from hers, thankful she wasn’t looking at him. There was nothing inward about the grimace passing over his face. “You should get to bed. It’s cold in here, and you need your rest.”

Sighing, Christine returned the photo to the mantelpiece. “Goodnight, my love.”

Julian couldn’t tell whether she was talking to him or the photo. “I’ll help you into bed.”

“That’s okay, I can manage.”

As Christine turned her wheelchair to head for her bedroom, Julian said, “I’m sorry about earlier, Mum.”

“I’m sorry too. Sorry you feel the way you feel. Sorry you won’t talk to me about it. You seem so alone. And believe me, Julian, life’s too short to be alone.”

Julian waited until his mum was gone, then reached for the whisky. After a couple of glasses, he took out his mobile-phone, and scrolled through the list of contacts to Eleanor’s name. He stared at it for a long while, before flinging the phone aside. It was pointless, crazy. Torturing himself with thoughts of what he might have. Now, more than ever, he needed to isolate himself from her. There were already too many lives that’d be devastated if Mr X’s threat came to pass. He swallowed more whisky, closing his eyes.

Julian almost vomited up his drink when the intercom buzzer sounded. His eyes darted to the clock. It was well after midnight. He could only think of one reason anyone would come to the house at that time of night. The buzzer sounded again, the noise cinching like a barbed wire noose around his nerves. He approached the intercom and spoke into it, his voice husky, strangulated. “Who is it?”

“It’s Eleanor.”

Relief swept over Julian, swiftly followed by a surge of elation that threatened to overwhelm his self-control. He checked his emotions, and his voice was carefully modulated, containing neither pleasure nor pain as he asked, “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think I’m doing here? I’ve come to see you.”

“I realise that. But why now after all this time?”

“Are you going to let me in or make me talk to you from out here?”

Reluctantly, but seeing no other option, Julian buzzed the gate open. On his way to the front door, he paused to look in a mirror, smoothing his hair and rearranging his face into a bland mask. He’d only seen Eleanor once since that night in the barn. At his dad’s funeral she’d caught his eye and smiled sympathetically, but he hadn’t smiled back. He’d avoided her at the wake and ever since, ignoring her calls until she eventually stopped calling. At first, Mike had kept him updated on how she was doing. When he heard she’d gone to university, he’d been both relieved and devastated. After that he hadn’t asked about her anymore, hoping that with the passage of time he’d begin to think about her less. But the opposite was true. When it was going crazy with the police and the journalists and the trial, he’d barely had a spare second to think about her. Gradually, though, as things settled down, she’d crept back more and more into his thoughts.

When Julian opened the door, they stared at each other without speaking. Eleanor looked the same, except her skin had lost some of its freshness. No doubt the result of too many late nights of studying and partying. Julian knew he looked a lot older than the last time they’d been together. Every time he looked in the mirror, he saw the premature lines that worry, work and whisky had etched into his face. Eleanor broke the silence. “Hello, Julian.”

“I assume this isn’t a coincidence.” Julian’s voice quivered a little, despite his best efforts to keep it even. The sight of Eleanor was like a knife cutting at the strings of his mask.

“You’re right, it’s not,” admitted Eleanor. “Your mum rang me tonight.”

Julian pursed his lips, hissing air through his nose. “I told her it was none of her business.”

Eleanor’s eyebrows gathered into a reproachful frown. “She’s worried about you.”

“Well she’s no need to be.”

“Really? From the looks of you, I’d say she has every need to be.”

“I’ve been working too hard, that’s all.”

Eleanor stared at Julian, clearly unconvinced. When he blinked away from her gaze, she said, “Look, can we go inside. I’ve just driven for three hours. I could do with a drink and maybe something to eat.”

Julian stood aside. “Do you want a coffee?” he asked, as Eleanor made her way to the couch.

Shaking her head, she pointed to the whisky. “I’ll have one of those.”

“I didn’t think you drank spirits.”

“I didn’t until I went to uni.”

Julian poured Eleanor a drink. “Do you want a sandwich or something?”

“This’ll do for now.” Eleanor patted the couch for Julian to sit down. He lowered himself onto it, careful not to sit too close to her. Another silence passed between them. Again, Eleanor broke it. “Your mum seems to think you’re heading for a breakdown.”

Julian laughed softly through his nose. “Sometimes I think my whole life’s been one long breakdown.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way, though. If you’d just open up and let someone help-”

Julian cut Eleanor off with a shake of his head. There was only one person he could ever imagine letting see inside him, and she was gone, probably dead, maybe by his hand.

“Why are you doing this to yourself, Julian? Why do you always keep everyone at arm’s length?”

Once more, Julian found himself avoiding Eleanor’s eyes, which searched his as if looking for a way in. “I’m not the person you think I am. I’m not a good person.”

Eleanor shook her head in disagreement. “Look at what you’re doing for Jake. Why would you do that if you weren’t a good person?”

Because I owe him that much at least, thought Julian. But he said, “It’s just perception.”

“What’s just perception?”

“Truth. And the truth is, you only see two things when you look at me: what you want to see, and what I want you to see.”

Leaning forward suddenly, Eleanor clasped Julian’s hands between hers. “I see someone lonely, confused and hurting. I don’t know what this thing is you’re carrying inside you, but I do know this, you’ve got to let it out, share it, otherwise it’ll poison your whole life.”

Julian stared at Eleanor with a frightened longing in his careworn eyes. His lips worked soundlessly. They stopped. They started again, but still no words came. He pulled his hands away from hers, lowering his gaze.

“Why won’t you trust me?” said Eleanor. “What are you afraid of?”

“You don’t understand.”

Gently, Eleanor lifted Julian’s chin with her hand. “No, you don’t understand. I love you, and nothing will ever change that.”

“What about what happened in the barn? I could’ve hurt you.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Only because you stopped me.”

“No, Julian, you didn’t because you couldn’t hurt anyone.”

Julian’s eyes grew incredulous. “I killed a man!”

“That was different. You were trying to protect your dad.”

“And now I’m trying to protect you.”

“By shutting me out of your life. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know it doesn’t seem to, but believe me, Ellie, you’re better off out of it. Way, way out of it.”

“Well here’s what I know. I know you’re the kind of person who’s willing to risk everything for someone they owe nothing. I know you’d rather hurt yourself than anyone else. And…” Eleanor hesitated. Then, almost under her breath, she continued, “And I know you feel the same way about me that I do about you.” Now it was Eleanor’s turn to lower her eyes. She stared at her lap, as if afraid to look in Julian’s face for confirmation or refutation of her words. “Just tell me I’m wrong, and you’ll never have to see me again.”

Julian’s gaze moved past Eleanor to the mantelpiece. His vision bounced between his dad’s photo and her, between the past and the future, like a beam of light trapped between facing mirrors. She was right — at least, she was right about his feelings for her. But it made no difference. Not while Mr X’s threat was hanging over him like a ticking bomb. And, above all else, not while he didn’t know what’d happened to Mia. If she was dead and buried somewhere in the forest — as the police feared — then so was any possibility of allowing himself to be released from his self-imposed prison of emotional isolation. When he finally spoke, his voice was as flat as his eyes. “You’re wrong.”

Face taut, lips compressed into a pale line, Eleanor stood and moved away from the sofa. Guilt clawing at his insides, Julian followed her. At the front door, with difficulty, she brought herself to look at him. He could see she was fighting back tears. “Don’t be angry with your mum,” she said. “She only wants to see you happy.”

“I know.”

“Take care of yourself, Julian.”

“You too.”

“I only hope that one day you find someone you can trust enough to share your inner self with. Because that’s when you know you love someone, isn’t it? When you feel like you can share anything with them — your hopes, your fears, your dreams, even your nightmares.”

Julian made no reply, but his teeth came together like a spring-loaded trap. Somehow he managed to keep his face impassive, although the blood was churning through him. Eleanor hesitated to leave, as if hoping for a change of heart. Julian felt his mask begin to crack. He knew he couldn’t hold it together much longer. He was about to shut the door in Eleanor’s face, when she turned away. As fast as she walked, she hadn’t made it to the gate, by the time the first tears were running down Julian’s face. Shoulders quaking, he hurried towards his bedroom. He didn’t go into it, though. He went into his mum’s room, and dropped to his knees at her bedside, laying his head on her paralysed hand. Stirring, drowsy-eyed, she slowly moved her other hand to his head. “Shh,” she soothed, her voice breathy, just barely there, stroking his hair as if he was a child that needed calming. “It’ll be alright.”

“No it won’t,” said Julian, inconsolable.

After a while, Julian’s sobs faded away. He lifted his head and saw that his mum had sunk back into her medicated sleep. She looked painfully old and frail. The last year had clawed away almost every remaining trace of the woman who used to pick him up and swing him around in the air as a young boy. He bent to kiss her cheek. Then he left the room and the house. He drove to the factory, made his way to his office and opened the safe. He took out a pile of newspapers and flipped through them, passing headlines such as ‘Fifth Body Discovered Buried In Woods Near Death House’ and ‘Third Local Man Arrested In Death House Investigation’ and ‘No Charges To Be Brought Against Julian Harris’ and ‘Susan Carter’s Parents Hail Father and Son As Heroes’. At the centre of the pile nestled a videotape — his dad’s tape. As he’d done dozens of times before, Julian stared at it with an agonised uncertainty. Only this time he didn’t return it to the safe, this time he snatched it up and started unreeling its insides. He piled the shiny black tape in a metal wastepaper bin, took some matches from his desk drawer, struck one and held it to the tape. As it crackled and melted, he muttered, “Not even a different kind of lie. Just more of the same.”

When Julian was sure the tape was destroyed beyond repair, he returned home and slept only because his eyes refused to stay open.

In the morning at breakfast, Julian watched his mum out of the corner of his eye, wondering what she remembered about the previous night. Several times he caught her giving him inquisitive sidelong glances too. When Jake took Henry for his walk, he said to her, “I had a visitor last night after you went to bed.”

“Oh really, who?”

“Don’t be coy, Mum. You know who.”

Christine looked at him direct now, eyes full of eager enquiry. “So come on, tell me how it went.”

As Julian had suspected, she’d been too heavily medicated to remember his visit to her bedroom. “Me and Eleanor are over, finished.” His voice was gentle, but there was a ring of finality in it. “I know you mean well, Mum, but I’m asking you, please leave it alone.”

Christine shook her head in disbelief and dissent. “Eleanor loves you. Don’t you know how rare love is in this world? You’d have to be insane to-” She broke off as Julian started to stand, reaching to take hold of his wrist. “Okay, Julian, let me say one more thing then I’ll drop it.” He waited mutely for her to continue, eyes on the floor. “Just do me a favour, take a few days off, get away somewhere and think things through. If you feel the same way after that, I promise I’ll never mention Eleanor’s name again.”

“I can’t. The factory-”

“To hell with the factory,” Christine interjected. “Please, Julian, do it as a favour to me, will you?”

It’d be a waste of time, there’s nothing to think over, Julian was about to tell her, when Wanda entered the kitchen, saying, “Julian, you got something odd in the mail.”

He turned to her, panic spiking in his chest. His fear turned into curiosity when he saw what she was holding. “A postcard, what’s odd about that?” said Christine.

“There’s no message on it.”

Wanda handed Julian the postcard. It showed a map of Pembrokeshire surrounded by smaller images of rolling hills, beaches and castles. Someone had ringed the Preseli Mountains in blue biro. Julian flipped the card over. As Wanda had said, there was no message, only his name and address. Like someone in a daze, he traced the outline of the writing with his index finger.

“That is odd,” agreed Christine. “Who do you think it’s from?”

As if prompted into action by her question, Julian hurried to his bedroom. Exchanging uneasy glances, Christine and Wanda followed him. “What are you doing?” asked Christine, as he began pulling clothes out of his drawers and stuffing them into a rucksack. Still getting no reply, she persisted, “Julian! What’s going on? Are you alright?”

He looked at her then, and slowly a smile spread across his face. “Yes,” he said. “Maybe I am.”

Content

Ben Cheetham
The Society of Dirty Hearts

Prologue 2001

Chapter 1 2010

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24