by Lake, Alex
Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 8 a.m.
Annabelle
She had spent most of the night awake, waiting for the sound of sirens, or a knock on the door and the voice of authority shouting, Are you in there? then someone kicking down the door and leading her from the room, past a handcuffed Guy.
Because her plan had to have worked.
In her wilder fantasies, Matt, Norman, Keith and Molly were there too, waiting for her to scoop them up in her arms and smother them with love and kisses.
Now, though, it was morning and nobody had come. She tried to think through what that meant; surely if the person in the boat had understood the message they would have contacted the police and the police would be here.
So they either hadn’t understood, or they didn’t think it was real.
Or maybe there was some other delay. That could be it: the police might not have it as a top priority, but rather something to look into when they got the chance. There could have been another event that was consuming their resources – a terrorist attack, or a shooting, or an outbreak of riots. She would have no idea; she was totally isolated from the outside world.
All she could do was hope her message had got through and they were on their way.
She was hungry, too. Guy had not come that morning – she thought it was around 8 a.m., so perhaps he had already gone into work.
Nothing to eat until tonight, then. She’d be fine. She didn’t care.
She looked at the lake. It was still, and empty. Perhaps the person she had signalled would come back for another look. She would keep her eye on the lake, just in case.
There was a click as the lock turned. So Guy was here after all.
He walked into the room. He was in dark jeans, trainers and a black T-shirt. It didn’t look like he was going to work at all. Was it the weekend? Had she missed some days?
‘Morning,’ he said. He looked tired, his expression serious. ‘Big day, today.’
‘You’re not going to the office?’
‘No.’
‘Is it Saturday?’
‘No. Wednesday. But I’ve had a rethink. Something came up.’
‘What happened?’ she said.
‘The police called me. They’re coming here, this afternoon.’
It was the SOS signal. It had worked. It had got out into the world, and its effects were rippling out, and now the police were coming here.
‘Why?’
‘It’s a long story, but it means we have to leave. Now.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘I’ll tell you on the way. But we have to go. Get yourself ready. I’ll be back in five minutes.’
The doorbell rang. He started, and then a look of fury crossed his face.
‘Fuck,’ he said. ‘Wait there.’
He slammed the door shut.
Annabelle smiled. This was it. This was the end.
Finn
1
Suneela had not wanted to get back together. She had not even really wanted to talk. She had only wanted to make sure he was all right.
I care about you, she said. We can be friends.
They could not be friends. Not now, not ever. If he couldn’t be her boyfriend he wanted nothing to do with her. He didn’t even want to think about her, not that he could stop himself.
What he wanted was to never have met her in the first place. It was too painful.
So he’d gone to see Eric, and play his PS4. As he was leaving, he’d remembered the SOS signal and mentioned it.
Eric raised an eyebrow. You should tell someone.
I will, he said. Tomorrow.
2
He was just past the Co-op on the way to school, when he saw two cops and remembered what Eric had said. He braked his bike to a stop next to them.
‘Excuse me,’ he said. The two cops turned to face him. One was a man; the other was a woman. He felt guilty talking to them, even though he knew he had done nothing.
‘Yes?’ the woman said.
‘I wanted— something happened last night.’
‘Keep going,’ she said.
‘It’s a bit weird,’ he said.
‘We do weird,’ the male officer said. He glanced at his colleague. ‘We’re all ears.’
‘I was on the lake. You know, up past River Road.’
‘I know it,’ she said.
‘I was on my dad’s boat. It was dark and I was about to come back when I saw a light in a house.’
‘A light in a house,’ the man said. ‘Keep going.’
‘It was flashing on and off. I think it was SOS. You know, that signal.’
‘Morse Code,’ the female officer said. ‘You think you saw an SOS distress signal from a house by the lake? Are you sure?’
‘Yes. Pretty sure. I googled it.’
‘There’s no way it was just someone turning their light on and off? Or changing a bulb?’ she said.
‘They did it three times, at least,’ Finn said. ‘Then I flashed my headlamp back at them and they started on a message.’
‘Which was?’ the man said.
‘Aneal. A, N, E, A, L.’ Finn shrugged. ‘No idea what it means.’
The female officer looked at him with a penetrating gaze. ‘Are you having us on, young man? Because if you are, you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.’
‘No,’ Finn said. ‘I’m not.’
‘OK,’ she replied. ‘We’ll check it out. Which house was it?’
No one ever comes here. I don’t have deliveries and if there are letters they are put in the letter box at the end of the drive.
It is my sanctuary.
And it is being violated.
I look out of the window at the top of the stairs. It affords a view of the front door.
There are two police officers there, a man and a woman. For a moment I consider killing them. I have acid in the basement and I picture myself running down and grabbing it and then throwing it in their faces when I open the door.
Then I drag them into the basement and torture them to death.
It is a delicious thought but I have to put it to one side. It will only invite more trouble.
What I have to do is get rid of them.
I descend the stairs step by step, making sure I am not breathing heavily and my expression is composed. I feel the ice in my veins. This is almost fun.
I open the door and raise my eyebrows to show I am surprised to see police officers at my door. Then I smile to show I am not worried by their presence.
‘Hello,’ I say. ‘How can I help?’
The woman speaks. ‘I’m PC Berry. This is PC Gibb. We had a report of an SOS signal from this location yesterday,’ she says.
I make a baffled face. It is easy, as that is how I am feeling.
‘SOS?’ I say. ‘I don’t understand.’
Now the man speaks. I want to smash his face into the wall. ‘There was someone on the lake last night. They saw a light from this house, flashing an SOS distress signal.’
Annabelle. She betrayed me. I feel my world start to collapse. There is something very wrong with her. I want to go to her immediately.
But first, these two.
‘I’m afraid that’s ludicrous,’ I say. ‘I’m here alone.’
‘They were quite adamant that they saw the signal,’ he says.
‘I don’t doubt it. But is it possible they were mistaken? I was watching television last night. Perhaps it was the light from that they saw?’
I see from the look that passes between them that it is possible this person was mistaken. Their witness is unreliable.
‘Who saw it?’ I say. ‘If you don’t mind me asking?’
‘It was a teenager. He was out fishing.’
‘Oh,’ I say. ‘I see. A teenage boy. Well, I’m sure he is sincere, but …’ I let my voice tail away. The implication is obvious. This teenager is an idiot.
‘Look,’ I say. ‘You’re welcome to come in and look around. Take your time. I’m work
ing in my office, but you can have the run of the place.’
I can offer this. The door to Annabelle’s room is hidden. It is sunk into the wall, and, unless you know it’s there, it looks like the wallpaper.
They would have to be looking very carefully to find it, and they won’t. I can tell they already feel like they are wasting my – and their – time.
‘That’s OK,’ the woman says. ‘We’ll be on our way.’
‘If you have any further questions, please let me know,’ I say, and then close the door behind them.
I sink to the floor. It has taken all my strength to hold myself together. What has she done? She is trying to escape.
Which means she does not want to be here, and that means – what? What else is she hiding from me?
I need to talk to her, now.
Annabelle
Annabelle waited for the door to open and the police – or anyone – to come in and put this to an end. She kicked and banged the door with her good arm in case anyone was passing by – she thought it was a safe assumption that Guy had somehow concealed the door from the outside.
No one came.
She looked out of the window, hoping to see people patrolling the grounds.
No one. Just the still waters of the lake and the trees standing sentinel over the garden.
And then the door opened.
It was not the police, or Matt, or a concerned neighbour.
It was Guy, and he looked awful.
Whatever had happened, had left him drained of colour, his cheeks sallow. He looked as though he was near to tears.
For a moment the friendship they had shared rose up and she almost felt sorry for him, then she remembered where she was and any sympathy vanished.
‘What happened?’ she said. ‘Who was it?’
He did not reply. ‘How could you?’ he said. He blinked rapidly, then brushed his mouth with his fingers. He looked on the verge of losing whatever control he had. ‘How could you do that?’
She felt suddenly uncertain. The way he was looking at her was different; the false cheerfulness and optimism was gone, replaced with suspicion and a hardness that made her very uncomfortable. The landscape had changed in a way she didn’t understand.
‘Do what?’ she said.
‘That was the police,’ he said. ‘They said someone signalled an SOS last night. It was seen by a teenager.’
It was the police? Then where the fuck were they? Why had they left?
‘I got rid of them,’ he said. ‘I’m good at that.’ His lips started to quiver and he steadied himself against the wall. ‘But it was hard, because I couldn’t believe you had done that.’
She bit her bottom lip. ‘I – I want to see my family,’ she said.
He clutched his head in his hands as though he was in severe pain. ‘You made me do all this for nothing. For nothing.’
‘I didn’t make you do anything,’ she said quietly. There was no longer any point in playing along with his delusions. ‘This was all in your head, Guy.’
His head snapped up and he stared at her. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No! It was not! This is my life! I did all this for you. All of it. We made a mistake, Annabelle, when we were younger. We didn’t see we were meant to be together until it was too late. But we fixed it! Together, we fixed it!’
‘No,’ she said. ‘You’re mistaken.’
‘Don’t say that!’ he shouted. ‘I won’t let you say that! Don’t lie to me, Annabelle. You’re treating me like I’m a fool. Like I made all this up. I won’t have it. Maybe you changed your mind. I didn’t change mine.’
‘I didn’t change my mind,’ she said. She pointed at him, her finger jabbing. ‘You think I wrote my novels as a secret message to you? That I’d think it was a clever idea for you to kidnap my children so I would have an excuse to leave my family?’ She shook her head, her anger getting out of control. ‘That’s fucking insane, Guy. You’re fucking insane. That’s the problem here. You’re crazy. You’re utterly deluded. And in the end everyone will know it, because there’ll be no Angelica and Guy. As soon as you turn your back, I’ll be gone. So all you can do is keep me here forever, but that will mean you accept you got this wrong, and I’m not sure you want that.’ She took a deep breath. ‘So accept it, Guy. There’s only one option left. Let me go, and I promise you’ll never hear from me again. This is over, Guy. You must see that.’
There was a long pause. He seemed to be having an internal struggle. Then he looked at her, and the fury on his face was gone. He smiled his fake smile.
‘I do,’ he said. ‘It’s over, all right. But not in the way you think. We’re leaving.’
‘Where to, Guy? Wherever it is, you’ll have to live with the knowledge that I detest you. I loathe you.’
‘Detest? Loathe?’ he said. ‘No. You won’t be detesting or loathing anybody. This is over, Annabelle.’ He smiled. ‘But I can’t do it here. The police will be back – they’re coming to take my DNA – and we have to be gone by then. So we’re leaving.’
She felt suddenly deflated. In that moment he had changed, and not for the better. The mask was back; the anger had drained out of him. She got the distinct impression from the way he looked at her that she had almost ceased to exist, at least for him.
She did not know what had just happened, but she didn’t like it at all.
Wynne
Wynne listened as the phone rang. The police station was in a small village so it was perfectly possible there was no one there. It was irritating; she’d have to try later, by which time it may be too late in the day to get Guy Sanderson’s DNA test done. Maybe there was a large station in a nearby town she could use.
She was about to hang up when someone answered the phone.
‘PC Rainford,’ a male voice said.
She put the phone on speaker and beckoned to Dudek to join her.
‘Hello,’ Wynne said. ‘I’m glad you’re there. I’m Detective Inspector Jane Wynne. I’m with a colleague, DS Dudek. We’re working on a missing person case.’
‘How can I help?’ Rainford said.
‘We have a person of interest living nearby,’ Wynne said. ‘And we need him DNA tested.’
‘OK,’ Rainford said. ‘How urgent is it?’
‘Urgent. I need it today.’
‘Oh.’ His voice perked up; this was probably the most interesting thing that had happened in a month. ‘I could go myself. Who’s the person.’
‘Guy Sanderson. Do you know him?’
There was a pause. ‘The name rings a bell,’ Rainford said. ‘But I don’t think he’s a local. Could be someone who has a second home here.’
‘He is,’ Wynne said. ‘He has a house on the lake.’
‘On the lake?’ his voice rose another notch. ‘Which house?’
Dudek gave him the address.
‘Are you sure?’ he said.
‘I’m sure,’ Dudek replied. ‘What’s going on?’
‘That’s the second time that address has come up today.’
Wynne glanced at Dudek. ‘What was the first?’
‘Two officers went out there earlier. A teenager told them he’d seen an SOS signal coming from the house last night. He was out on the lake.’
‘They went out there?’ Wynne said. ‘What did they find?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Shit.’ Wynne banged the table. ‘It’s him,’ she said. ‘It’s Guy Sanderson. She’s in his house.’
‘We have to get down there,’ Dudek said.
‘We can’t wait for that. If the police have been there, he knows we’re coming. PC Rainford,’ she said. ‘What time did they leave the house?’
‘About twenty minutes ago.’
‘Then get them back there, right now. You as well. No one leaves that house, OK? Especially not Sanderson. He’s keeping a woman prisoner in there. Take down my number and call me as soon as you get there. Got it?’
‘Got it,’ Rainford said. ‘We’re on our way.’
W
ynne gave him her number and hung up. ‘That’s the second time,’ she said. ‘The second time we’ve been this close to him.’
‘I know,’ Dudek said. ‘Let’s make sure there’s not a third.’
PC Gibb
1
PC George Gibb sat in the passenger seat. Next to him, PC Julie Berry switched on the siren and pulled out of the lay-by they had been waiting in, looking for people breaking the speed limit.
Get there as fast as you can, Ted Rainford had said. And don’t let anyone leave the house. There’s a woman being held prisoner in there.
She accelerated hard, the siren blaring. Cars moved out of the way to let them pass. When they were about a mile from the house, he reached up and turned the sirens off.
‘Don’t want him to know we’re coming,’ he said.
‘When we arrive,’ Julie said. ‘I’ll park across the drive. You go around the back of the house. If you see anything, shout. If not, meet me at the front. We can force our way in. Ted should be there shortly too.’
He watched from the window as the hedges and trees went past. He felt alert with adrenaline; it wasn’t often he and Julie did something like this, and a number of unfamiliar thoughts ran through his mind: what if he’s armed? What if he’s killed her? What kind of trouble are we going to be in for not going in and looking around earlier?
Because he realized now that was what they should have done. He could picture the conversation he’d be having with his boss later.
The fucking teenager told you he’d seen an SOS call, and you didn’t go in?
The home owner was so convincing. And it was a teenager.
Shit. They’d probably both be fired.
He felt the car brake to a stop.
‘Right,’ Julie said. ‘We’re here.’
2
PC Gibb ran around the back of the house. There was a vast bay window and he peered inside. It was a dining room, with a long table. There was a candle in the middle of it; other than that, it was empty.
He continued onto a terrace. There was a gas barbecue next to a set of French doors. He tried them; they were locked, but he could see into a modern kitchen. It, too, was more or less empty.
