The Cottage

by Lisa Stone

  It was 11.20 by the time Jan had paid and left the supermarket. As she was crossing the car park she realized she’d forgotten coffee. Drat! She wasn’t going back to stand in that queue again; she’d stop off at Lillian’s store in Merryless. She’d also get some more change for the meter while she was there.

  The roads out of Coleshaw were busy so it was 11.50 before Jan drew up outside the shop in Merryless. Before getting out, she texted Ruby just in case she got to the cottage before she did. Will be there shortly x

  She was about to open her car door when she saw Chris go into the shop. Damn and blast! She really didn’t want to meet him right now. It would be embarrassing after their disastrous evening and then bumping into him with Anne yesterday. She had nothing to say to him. She waited in the car for a few moments longer, but he didn’t reappear. She couldn’t wait indefinitely. He might be in there for some time talking to his sister-in-law.

  Steeling herself, Jan got out and went into the shop. Chris was at the counter talking to Lillian with his back to her. ‘Hi, Jan,’ Lillian called, while Chris didn’t even bother to turn. Not even a nod of acknowledgement. Well, sod him, Jan thought.

  Keeping her gaze away from them, Jan went over to the shelves containing the packets of filter coffee and pretended to browse as Lillian wound up their conversation. ‘Give my love to Mel and the little ones,’ she said. Jan had no idea who Mel was.

  She waited until Chris had left the shop before she took the packet of coffee to the counter. ‘Can I have some meter money as well, please?’

  ‘Sure, love. How are you?’

  ‘Fine, thanks.’

  Lillian went into the back office to fetch the coins from the safe.

  ‘How did your date go?’ she asked, setting the bag of one-pound coins on the counter.

  ‘With Chris?’ Jan asked, surprised Lillian had mentioned it. Surely Chris would have told her.

  ‘Well, yes, unless you’ve been dating others,’ Lillian said with a smile.

  ‘It wasn’t good. I doubt we’ll see each other again.’

  ‘Oh dear, I am sorry to hear that.’ She seemed genuinely concerned.

  ‘Didn’t Chris mention it then?’ Jan asked as she paid.

  ‘I haven’t seen him since Wednesday,’ Lillian replied.

  Jan stared at her and thought she must have misheard. ‘He was in here just now. You were talking to him.’

  ‘No,’ Lillian laughed. ‘That was Robert Jarvis. They look similar from a distance. But Robert is happily married with three children.’

  ‘Oh.’ Jan felt foolish.

  ‘You’re not the only one to make that mistake. There’s a few round here that look similar. Camile does. Have you met her?’

  ‘No, Chris gave me the keys to the cottage.’

  Jan thought back to the photographs of Chris and Camile and how alike and compatible they’d appeared.

  ‘Why did Camile and Chris split?’ Jan asked, tucking the meter money and coffee into her bag.

  ‘I’m really not sure,’ Lillian said. ‘I’m sorry it didn’t work out on Wednesday. A nice girl like you. I’ll tell Chris off when I see him.’

  Jan smiled. ‘That’s kind, but probably best not to say anything. I think he already has someone else.’

  ‘Not as far as I know,’ Lillian said, surprised. ‘What makes you think that?’

  ‘I saw him yesterday while I was walking Tinder in the woods. He was with someone called Anne.’

  ‘Anne?’ Lillian asked, puzzled. ‘I’ve no idea who that could be. The only Anne I know is a local midwife and she’s not Chris’s type.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter, perhaps they’re just friends.’

  ‘Possibly.’ Lillian shrugged, clearly still slightly baffled. ‘Bye then, love. Take care.’

  ‘Bye,’ Jan said and left the store. Perhaps they were just friends, Jan thought, but that didn’t excuse Chris’s weird behaviour on Wednesday evening.

  THIRTY-TWO

  Friday morning finally drew to a close and at 12.30 Ian stood and took his jacket from the back of his chair.

  ‘Are you coming to Rocco’s for lunch?’ Mike, a work colleague, asked, also standing. They sometimes went to the café, either eating in or taking out as did others from the office.

  ‘Not straight away,’ Ian said. ‘I’ll catch you up. I’ve a few things to do first.’

  ‘OK, see you later,’ Mike said, and headed out of the office.

  Ian needed to phone Emma first to make sure she was all right. It wasn’t a conversation he could have with someone standing a little way off, waiting. Checking he had his phone and wallet in his jacket pocket, Ian left the office and went down the back stairs. The front of Wetherby Security was close to the main road where traffic noise made talking on a phone near impossible, but at the back there was just the firm’s car park.

  Ian found a quiet corner away from the main building and called their landline number. If he was honest, he was dreading speaking to Emma. She was always so down and short-tempered with him these days. He could picture her sitting on the sofa in their living room, whiling away the hours with daytime television or a book, or thumbing a magazine, mournful and dejected.

  ‘Are you OK?’ he asked as soon as she answered. Then straight away realized his mistake. He should have said, ‘How are you?’ For clearly she wasn’t OK.

  But to his surprise Emma replied, ‘I’m good, thank you. A lot better.’ Her voice sounded brighter too.

  ‘Are you? That’s great. Sorry about this morning. I hate it when we argue.’

  ‘So do I,’ Emma said. ‘I was partly to blame. You were right about me getting back to work. I’m going to phone them this afternoon and suggest I start back on Monday. Anne, our midwife, persuaded me to. She visited earlier.’

  ‘Oh, I see,’ Ian said, slightly disappointed that he hadn’t been the one responsible for Emma’s change of heart. ‘Well, that’s good.’

  ‘Yes. We had a long chat. She knows exactly the right thing to say. She doesn’t mind talking about what happened to David. She said I could talk to her whenever I wanted to. She understood. I even asked her what David looked like.’

  Ian grimaced. ‘I thought we’d agreed it was better we didn’t know.’

  ‘Yes, but I’m glad I did ask. I was expecting her to describe something horrible, but do you know what she said? That although he was born different, he was beautiful in his own sweet way.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Anne said wherever David was now, she knew he was happy and at peace. It really helped, Ian. I should have asked her before about David.’

  ‘I’m glad it helped,’ Ian said.

  ‘We also talked about when I should go back to work and she said there was no medical reason why I shouldn’t return now. Indeed, she thought it was a good idea, but I should take it slowly. She gave me some literature on contraception. It’s part of her job as a midwife. She said perhaps we’d like to consider sterilization, as it’s so important we don’t have another child given the same thing is likely to happen again.’

  ‘I don’t see how she can be so certain,’ Ian said. ‘We need all the facts before we can make that type of decision. Those DNA kits should be here tomorrow.’

  Ian immediately realized his mistake and was expecting Emma to snap at him for mentioning DNA, but she didn’t.

  ‘I told Anne about your research,’ Emma said. ‘She looked shocked and worried to begin with, then seemed to change her mind. She said if you found something to tell her and she’d discuss it with us.’

  ‘What did she mean by that?’

  ‘She wants to help us, Ian. She’s so nice. She also said she knows another couple who are going through something similar to us and it might be possible for her to put us in touch, if they agreed. She said that sharing something like this can help. I said I’d let her know.’

  ‘All right,’ Ian said, while thinking the last thing he needed was to be saddled with someone else’s horror story. ‘I’m
glad you’re feeling better. I’m going for lunch now, so I’ll see you later.’

  ‘Yes, bye, thanks for phoning.’

  ‘See you later, love.’

  THIRTY-THREE

  Ruby topped up their glasses of red wine as Jan gathered together the plates and took them into the kitchen.

  ‘That was delicious, thank you,’ Ruby said. ‘But you shouldn’t have gone to all that trouble.’

  ‘No trouble. It was nice to cook for someone else for a change. When it’s just me it’s pasta or a jacket potato. We’ll have our pudding later, shall we?’

  ‘Oh yes, I’m full. Now come and sit down and tell me what’s been going on here. I understand from what you’ve said so far that Chris turned out to be a bit of a weirdo, but what’s wrong with the cottage? It seems idyllic if you want time out, although I think I’d prefer it in summer.’

  Jan sat in the armchair opposite Ruby. Ruby was on the sofa, her legs curled under her, Tinder at her feet. Their conversation so far had been mainly catching up – about work, relationships, their families and mutual friends, and village life. Jan had wanted to leave the rest until after they’d eaten and she had a few drinks inside her. She’d mentioned Chris and their disastrous first date, and that she’d seen him with another woman the following day, but nothing about being stalked or the strange happenings around the cottage.

  Now she needed to try to explain to Ruby what she’d seen without sounding hysterical.

  ‘It’s difficult to know where to begin,’ Jan said, taking another sip of her wine.

  ‘Start at the beginning – that’s what you always tell me when I have a problem,’ Ruby smiled.

  Jan nodded thoughtfully. ‘OK. For the first few weeks here, everything seemed fine. I mean, living in the country took a bit of getting used to, but I enjoyed the peace after everything that had happened. It gave me time to think and I didn’t see or experience anything odd. Then something started coming into the garden after dark when the curtains were closed. I assumed it was an animal, out here in the middle of nowhere.’ Ruby nodded. ‘It came right up to the window. Tinder always knew when it was there. His hackles would rise and he would run to the back door, wanting to be let out to chase it. One night he disappeared completely and didn’t come back for hours. I was worried, thinking he’d got lost. When he did return he was so pleased to see me, as if something had frightened him.’

  ‘I would think just getting lost scared him,’ Ruby said sensibly.

  ‘Maybe, but then the next night he came back with food stuck in the fur by his mouth. It was cooked meat, possibly sausage. It hadn’t come from here and there are no other houses until you get to Merryless. So I began to worry that there could be someone living in the woods. This cottage backs onto the deepest part of Coleshaw Woods and you’d never know if there was someone in there.’

  ‘Couldn’t a bird have dropped the food?’ Ruby suggested.

  ‘I suppose so.’ Jan hesitated. How easy it was to explain away what was happening if you hadn’t been here. ‘But the next night I caught a glimpse of something as Tinder chased it through the hedge at the bottom of the garden. It was dark so I couldn’t get a good view, but it was really strange, not like any animal I’ve ever seen. I researched online what animals live in the woods and it just came up with the usual, like badgers, foxes and so on. So I sort of convinced myself it could have been a fox. I told Chris – we were on good terms then – and he thought it could be a fox or a dog that had come from the village.’

  ‘He should know, living around here all his life,’ Ruby put in.

  ‘That’s what I thought, but then I discovered something that convinced me it couldn’t be a fox.’

  ‘What?’

  She had Ruby’s full attention now. ‘I promised Camile, the owner of the cottage, that I would cut the grass, and when I was in the back garden I found track marks coming through the gap in the hedge. It was like a walkway through from the woods into the garden. Lots of prints, so I knew it had been going on for some time, and there could be more than one of them. I continued cutting the grass, but I had this really strong feeling that I was being watched the whole time and kept turning to check behind me.’

  ‘You’re giving me the creeps now,’ Ruby said, instinctively glancing behind her towards the garden.

  ‘There’s a motion-sensor light on the patio,’ Jan continued. ‘Chris told me it was broken, but when I checked, it had been switched off. Camile said to save electricity – the cottage is on a meter. I switched it on and once it was dark I sat where you are, hoping to see whatever it was that was coming to the window.’

  ‘And it didn’t come?’ Ruby said.

  ‘It did, but it must have known the light was on – a small red light flashes when it’s working. It avoided the sensor and came to the back door instead. I knew then it was too intelligent for a woodland animal. It seemed to know what I was doing. I let Tinder out and he chased it. I followed him but it had gone through the hole in the hedge. Then I heard a noise behind me and I spun round just in time to see a shadowy figure run down the sideway and disappear over the gate. I don’t know what I saw, but Chris found Tinder in the village and brought him back at midnight.’

  ‘Did you tell him what had happened?’

  ‘No. It seemed ridiculous.’

  ‘So was that the end of it then?’

  ‘No. I blocked up the hole in the hedge, which kept them out for a couple of nights. But then the next night one came right up to the window. It was dark – I’d switched off the sensor light to save electricity – but it made eye-contact like a person would. I was terrified and phoned Chris. He came straight over and went down the garden. It was pitch dark but the wood I’d used for blocking up the hedge was scattered all over the lawn. Whatever it was had removed it all. I was grateful to Chris for coming and he stayed for a drink. It was then he asked me out.’

  ‘And the rest is history, as they say,’ Ruby said, finishing her glass of wine.

  ‘Far from it. The following day, when it was light, I went into the garden and found the twine I’d used to tie the wood in place over the hole had been unpicked, not chewed through, which confirmed it wasn’t an animal. I thought it must be a person to be able to do that and I was really worried. I called the police and they sent an officer. He was helpful but couldn’t find any evidence of an intruder.’

  ‘Well, I suppose that’s reassuring,’ Ruby said.

  ‘No, it’s not. They’re getting braver. When I walked to the village along the lane I saw someone or something running between the trees. They’ve also been to the front door. Chris saw one of them when he brought me back on Wednesday evening, but he denied it. He suggested it was my imagination and said if I was so nervous about living in the cottage then I should leave.’

  ‘He might be right,’ Ruby said, and topped up their glasses again. ‘It’s very isolated here and maybe being all alone isn’t right for you. You lost your bloke and job in the same week, which was very traumatic. I can understand why you wanted to get away, but perhaps you’ve been by yourself long enough.’

  ‘I thought you might say that, but I have proof,’ Jan said.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘You know I said I bumped into Chris with a woman in the woods yesterday?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Just before that, while I was in the deepest part of the woods near the back of the cottage, Tinder found a ball of twine that had been taken from the shed in the garden here. I threw it towards the back garden. I’ve no idea where it landed. But later the doorbell rang and when I opened the door I saw it on the front door step. There was no one there, just the ball of twine. I’m sure someone saw me pick it up in the woods and was trying to scare me – to let me know they were watching me.’

  ‘Chris?’ Ruby suggested doubtfully. ‘But why?’

  Jan shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. I left it out the front, but then this morning I found the same ball of twine outside the back door, placed on t
he patio where I couldn’t miss it. I’ve left it there for you to see.’

  ‘So it’s still there?’ Ruby asked.

  ‘Yes. I checked just before you came. Come on, I’ll show you.’

  Jan took Ruby into the kitchen and opened the back door. Her heart sank. ‘It’s gone!’ she exclaimed. ‘They’ve taken it. They know you’re here and they’re playing tricks on me.’

  Jan saw the look of pity on her friend’s face and knew she didn’t believe her. She began searching the patio and garden as Ruby watched from the back door. It was late afternoon and on an already overcast day, the light was fading fast and the air was chilling.

  ‘Come in now,’ Ruby called. ‘It’s cold. Let’s have that pudding and open another bottle of wine.’

  Jan checked the sideway but there was no ball of twine. She knew she was making a fool of herself. Reluctantly, she came in. ‘It was there,’ she said helplessly. ‘They’ve taken it while we were in the living room. But look at this, I have more proof.’ She grabbed her phone. ‘See this photo. I took it this morning. Footprints all over my car. The same track marks I found by the gap in the hedge at the bottom of the garden.’

  Ruby peered at the photo. ‘I can see muddy prints on your car,’ she said. ‘But that could be anything.’

  Jan heard her friend’s rationality. And standing here with her now she could see the muddy marks weren’t proof and could indeed be ‘anything’.

  She felt Ruby gently touch her arm. ‘Jan, I think you’ve seen something and got spooked by living out here all alone. Why don’t you come and stay with me for a while? I have a spare bedroom. I’m at work all day so you’d have the place to yourself.’

  ‘I’ll think about it,’ Jan said, then realized she’d sounded curt. ‘Thank you,’ she added. ‘And thanks for listening. I’m sure you’re right, so let me get that pudding and we’ll talk about something else.’