The Taken (14 page)

“What? Whatisit, Paul?”

Shaking his head, his words came in sobs. “I opened the door.” His eyes wandered to Kay’s room before bringing their sorrow back to Alex. “Don’t you see? I opened the door.” He paused before repeating the words in a whisper to the chill air. “I opened the door.”

Alex looked back at the floor in Phil and Kay Chambers’s bedroom. The metal hooks flashed a grin at her before she took in the twisted threads of limp wire weaving their awful story. She looked up at Paul and 134

saw the full horror of what he’d unwittingly done etched in his expression. Her stomach clenched. Maybe I am capable of reacting after all.

Pauls eyes met hers before they both turned to look at the girl’s bedroom door, and it was her that spoke first.

“We’re going to need a ladder.”

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Having got Simon out of the pub, her shaky expression telling him that way too much was wrong here, they fetched Daniel Rose, who was still trying in vain to get any sort of outside contact from his radio. They sent him to gather the villagers to the pub. There was a sense of urgency now. What had happened to the vicar could have been a trick that went wrong, but what had happened to Kay was calculated and terrible. And if it could happen to Kay, then it could happen to any one of them.

Pulling Paul out of the house, Alex tugged the door locked shut behind them. No one else needed to go in and see what they’d seen. Crouch was fetching his long ladder from the coal shack at the back of the pub, and it was inevitable that as people came down to the pub, they would wonder what the hell was going on at the Chambers’s place. Beside her, Paul froze. “It’s gone.”

“What’s gone?”

“The writing on the window. When I came down 136

here there was writing in the window. Like finger writing in steam. It said, ‘Come inside, Paul. Let’s play fishing with Kay’ And now it’s gone.”

Alex stared at the smooth panes of glass. They were clear. “Why would someone write a message to you on the glass? How would anyone know you were coming?”

Paul let out a long sigh. “Because there is some very weird shit going on.” He stared at Alex. “Don’t you think?”

Standing there in silence, Alex couldn’t deny it. But she knew that whatever it was, it had to have something to do with that Melanie Parr girl. It just had to.

And when they had everyone together in the pub, she was determined to find out what it was.

She had tried to pull her thick, long hair into a makeshift plait, but strands blew loose in the wind, dancing around her head as she stared up at where Simon and Crouch were trying to balance the creaking ladder against the uneven cottage wall and the slick cobbles beneath their feet. Water stung her eyes, forcing them shut.

Was little Laura hanging up in there like her mother? Who would do that to a child? Maybe another child. She thought of the frightened little boy who had appeared in her room, and again at the church, and the two stranger children they’d seen on the way to the shop. And then there was the giggle she’d heard at Kay’s house, just like the one that had woken her the night before. Who was that? You know damned well who it was. You just don’t want to admit it, because then you’ll have to admit that Paul is right and there’s some crazy shit going on here. But you know who it was. It was Melanie Parr. The Catcher Man brought her back. How about that for an answer? Just how much 137

can you blame on the morphine? Staring, she watched Simon take a first tentative step up the slick rungs of the ladder. What was happening to the village tonight? And how were they supposed to stop it?

James Partridge came alongside her, silently watching the activity. He was a quiet, dependable man who never spoke much, but when he did there was a soft warmth in his tone that let you know still waters could sometimes run deep.

“What’s going on in there, Alex?”

She glanced up at him and watched the rain run through the crevasses of his weathered face, trying to avoid his eyes as he studied her.

He didn’t wait for an answer. “Your Aunt Mary don’t seem too well, either. My Jan is sitting with her, but she won’t say a word.”

Alex’s eyes drifted back to the ladder and watched as Simon started to climb more confidently, the base held firmly by Crouch and Tom, old farmer Tucker’s eldest.

She didn’t look at James, but just followed Simon’s feet, rung by rung, as she spoke. “Kay’s dead.” Her voice was almost as soft as his, and he leaned so close to hear her that she could feel the vague touch of his breath warming her face.

“So is Reverend Barker. And we’re trying to find out what’s happened to Laura.”

This time she did look at him. His dark eyes were wide, but he stayed silent as she spoke. “What’s going on? I don’t have a fucking clue. But I wish I knew. I really, really wish I knew.” Turning away, she stepped forward, needing a small space of her own, but he stepped up beside her.

He kept his eyes forward and his voice low. “Do you 138

think it’s got anything to do with these strange children in the town?”

Alex stared at him. “What do you mean?”

He swallowed, hesitant. “Seems the town’s been full of children since the rain came. Jan saw a few hiding in the trees when she went out to round up the chickens. Thought she was seeing things when she told me, but I’ve changed my mind now. Seen a few today, myself. Playing games on street corners, mainly dressed wrong for the weather.” He looked down at Alex, unused to this much speech. “I couldn’t help but feel they were watching us. Watching and laughing.”

He paused. “And you might think I’m crazy for saying this, and perhaps I am, but one or two of them seemed ever so familiar. Like I’d seen their faces somewhere before.”

Alex stared at him for what seemed like a very long time. “I don’t think you’re crazy. I think it might have something to do with the children. I just don’t know what. Or maybe we’re both crazy. Who knows.” They stood in silence after that, just watching and thinking.

Simon was almost level with the window and Alex’s heart started to race as he took the last step and leaned forward, peering into the glass. He seemed to stare for an eternity before straightening up and starting his descent. Alex met him as he reached the ground and grabbed at his arm. “Well?”

He shook his head, his face full of disbelief. “She’s not there. She’s not in there.” He looked back up at the window. “If she’s not in there, then where the hell is she? Where is she?”

They were still standing there gathered round the ladder when Daniel Rose ran down the street toward

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them, the awkward movement of an old man who’d done little running in too many years.

“We’ve got a problem.” Staring at the red of his face, Alex couldn’t make out what was covering it more, rain or sweat. “Little Peter Granville’s gone missing. Emma’s almost hysterical, poor thing; doesn’t know how long he’s been gone. Dawn Wilbur’s helping her get the other kids together, and then they’re coming down here.”

Alex’s heart sank. Petey could only be about three or four. Why would he wander off on his own? “Laura’s missing too.”

Daniel stared at her. “Emma says that Laura was over playing with her kids this morning, and then after a couple of hours said she wasn’t feeling well and left.

Maybe wherever they are, they’re together.”

Alex peered frantically into the rain. God, she hoped that Laura and Pete were together. At least the little boy would have a chance in this weather with someone else. The sky had darkened so much with the weight of the storm that she could barely see the end of the street. “We’ve got to try and find them. We’ve got to.”

James held her slim shoulders. “We can’t go looking in this rain. Not while it’s so dark. We got no chance of seeing anything, let alone finding anyone, and the weather’ll make it too dangerous. Let’s at least talk to the other Granville children first. They may have an idea where they could have gone.” He looked up at Daniel, who nodded.

“He’s right. We can’t search in this, Alex, not without any idea of where to look. I’ll get back and keep trying the radio. We’ve got to get hold of the police somehow.”

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Alex suddenly wanted to scream at them for their calm demeanor as they talked to her. Turning away from Simon, ignoring the offered crook of his arm, she risked slipping on the cobbles and strode back to the pub, needing a couple of seconds to vent her anger. They were right. She knew they were right. But that didn’t make her feel any better. Hearing Simon’s feet coming quickly behind her, she sped up, reached for the heavy wood, and swung the door open into the warmth and light of the pub.

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Jenny and Jimmy were clutching each other’s hands so tightly that Alex could see the whites of their knuckles screaming through the skin as they sat down at a table in the restaurant area of the pub. Emma was in the bar, still crying, while Crouch tried to get her to drink a brandy, and someone had gone out to check that Dr. Jones was on his way. Emma Granville was definitely going to need something to help calm her down if Petey didn’t get found soon. Especially if and when she heard about what had happened to the vicar and Kay.

Taking Jenny’s spare hand, Alex rubbed it gently. “I’m sure Pete’s fine, really.

But we need to know if there’s anywhere that he hides or if he’s got any places he likes to go to play.”

Jenny didn’t speak, but Jimmy shook his head. “Pete never goes off by himself.

He’s not like that. Never.” The boy’s eyes were shaking, challenging Alex to accuse him of lying. He was angry, she could see that, and he didn’t have anyone to vent his anger and emotion on.

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If he wanted to snap at her, that was fine. She could take it. She decided on a change of tack.

“Laura’s missing too. She was at your house this morning, wasn’t she?”

Both children nodded.

“What time did she leave?”

Jimmy shrugged. “Not really sure. She was fine and we were watching a movie to pass the time till the rain stopped. Then she went to the bathroom. When she came back she said she wasn’t feeling well and was going home.” His voice broke a little. “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Jenny suddenly let out a small gasp of air. “There was something odd, though.

But it’s probably nothing.”

“What?” Alex leaned forward slightly. “What was odd?”

“Well, when we were sitting upstairs she asked if we’d had any text messages.

She said she’d had some odd ones this morning. But when she tried to turn the phone on to show us, the battery must have died.”

“I thought you said there wasn’t any signal out here.”

“There never is.” Jimmy shot Simon a glare. “We never normally turn our phones on unless we’re at school. No point.”

Alex focused on Jenny. “Did she say who these texts were from?”

“I can’t remember. A girl. She said she wanted Laura to play with her.”

“Melanie,” Jimmy cut in. “Laura said the girl’s name was Melanie and she was lonely.”

Pulling her hand back from the girl’s, Alex stared at Simon. Melanie. Melanie Parr. Once again this missing girl seemed to be at the center of an awful event.

What was happening? Surely the village wasn’t being 143

haunted? It couldn’t be. That kind of shit just wasn’t real. The same questions flared back at her from Simon’s eyes.

“We need to get to the bottom of this.”

Simon nodded. “I know we said it was pointless going out and looking for the children in this weather, but if no one can get a car out with the roads flooded and that bloody overturned lorry, then I think it’s time someone tried to get out on foot. Is there a way through the woods or something that Paul and I could try? At least that way we can shout for them and try and get help.”

“Yes, you should be able to find your way through. If Paul has kept his childhood bearings, that is.” Standing up, Alex left the children with Dawn Wilbur and went with Simon back to the bar. “I’ll stay here, and when we’ve finally got the villagers gathered I’ll see if I can push them for information about Melanie Parr. And see if anyone knows anything about these creepy children.”

“What’s going on?” James Partridge stood between the two of them.

“Paul and Simon are going to try and get out of the village through the woods.

The road is blocked, so no one can get out that way, plus the river will have flooded it by now. We really need to get the police here.” The words sounded good, but Alex wondered just what the police would make of what was going on in the sleepy village of Watterrow. Two deaths and the rest of the people seeing things. She and Mary weren’t the only ones to have had weird experiences in the past twenty-four hours. There were too many people looking troubled and staring into their drinks dotted around her in The Rock, their eyes slipping from each 144

other, for that to be the case. There was something secretive about them. As if they thought that something was very wrong with their head or themselves. She knew that look. She’d worn it too many times since the clock started ticking loudly inside her.

The villagers that were just suffering from the shock of finding out about Kay and the vicar were chatting animatedly to each other. How awful, how terrible, who could possibly be doing this in their village? All normal hyper reactions.

She remembered it from 9/11. It was the rest that made Alex think that whatever weirdness had gripped the town, ghostly or not, it was holding it tightly.

“Alex?” Paul’s grip on her arm brought her back to the conversation at hand.

“Sorry, I was just… well… just thinking, I guess.”

“We’re going to go out in two pairs. Simon and I will take the route out by the old tin mines, which should lead us close enough to Wiwy, and James and Tom Tucker reckon they know another way that will bring them out by Bampton somewhere. One pair should find their way out, and going two ways will also give us more chance of coming across the kids.”

“Sounds good.” Even Emma Granville was looking calmer knowing that someone was going to be out in the woods looking for her baby, or at least getting some help. “I’ll check on Ada and Daniel and then maybe get some food going here. You guys should at least take a flask of something to keep you warm if you get lost.”