17 Church Row

by James Carol

  ‘Everything’s going to be okay,’ she promised, even though she had no idea how to keep that promise.

  ‘Is she all right?’ Ethan asked as she stepped out into the corridor. He was looking them both up and down, staring at them as though they might be a mirage. Even though she had Bella clutched tight in her arms, there was a part of her that didn’t believe this was real.

  Ethan turned to Murray and nodded towards the open doorway. ‘Get in there. Now!’

  Murray shook his head and Ethan stepped towards him with the cleaver held high in his hand. For a moment Nikki was convinced that he was going to bring it down on his head, cracking his skull in two.

  ‘Don’t you get it?’ Murray said quickly. ‘I don’t need to go in there. You’ve got your daughter back. Katy can’t use her as leverage anymore.’

  ‘But we’re still trapped in here.’

  Murray laughed. ‘You still believe that Katy is just going to let you walk out the front door? When are you going to realise that’s never going to happen?’

  ‘As long as you do what I ask, Ethan, I will let you go. There’s no reason to keep you here.’

  ‘She’s lying.’

  ‘I’ve upheld my part of the bargain, Ethan, it’s time for you to uphold yours.’

  ‘And what exactly can she do if you don’t?’ Murray said. ‘She’s all out of threats.’

  Ethan’s gaze flicked from the panic room, then back to Murray.

  ‘I think I know a way to get the front door open,’ Murray added quickly.

  ‘How?’

  Murray shook his head and Ethan raised the cleaver.

  ‘Tell me.’

  ‘It’s too complicated. I’d need to do it.’

  The sound of disembodied clapping filled the basement corridor, each clap sounding like an explosion. ‘Who’s lying now, Father?’

  ‘I’m telling the truth. I can get us out. You, Nikki, Bella. And me. That’s why you can trust me. Believe me, I want to get out as much as you do. ’

  ‘Ethan, get Father into the panic room or there will be consequences.’

  ‘What consequences?’ Murray asked.

  Katy didn’t respond to that.

  ‘See,’ he went on. ‘She’s bluffing. She’s trying to pressure you into doing something you’ll regret.’

  Nikki could see Ethan wavering. The cleaver was now hanging loosely at the end of his outstretched arm. ‘We agreed, Ethan. We do this Katy’s way.’

  ‘Do that and you’ll never get out,’ Murray said.

  Ethan was still glued to the spot, paralysed by indecision. For a moment no one said anything. The three of them were staring at each other, nobody wanting to make the first move. It was Katy who broke the silence.

  ‘Ten minutes.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Nikki asked.

  There was no response from Katy. Nikki looked at Ethan. ‘What the hell have you done?’

  ‘Nine minutes and fifty seconds.’

  Katy was speaking calmly but Nikki felt anything but calm. ‘Get him into the panic room! Now!’

  Ethan grabbed Murray by the arm and threw him into the panic room, sending him sprawling to the floor. The door started to close immediately. The last they saw of Murray he was trying to scramble to his feet. He started shouting something but Nikki couldn’t hear what because the heavy door finished closing, stealing his words.

  ‘Nine minutes and forty seconds.’

  ‘But we’ve done what you asked,’ Nikki shouted.

  ‘And now you have nine minutes and thirty-seven seconds,’ Katy replied calmly.

  Chapter 69

  A telephone rang, making Catriona jump. She turned around, trying to work out where the sound was coming from, but everything had gone quiet. All she could hear was the insistent hum of the server fans, a sound so constant that it had merged into the background wash of ambient noise. The phone rang again and she was able to pinpoint the sound to the bookcase. The ringtone was old-fashioned and took her back to her childhood. Except this was no ringtone, she suddenly realised, this was the real deal.

  She stood up and a sharp pain shot through her chest. She reached for the back of the chair to steady herself, then limped over to the bookcase. The phone was hidden behind a pile of heavy academic books. As she thought, it was an old rotary model, the ones with the heavy handpiece and coiled wire.

  It rang again and she snatched up the handpiece. ‘Hello,’ she said cautiously.

  ‘Thank God,’ came Duncan’s voice. ‘I didn’t know if this phone would still work. Murray stopped using his landline years ago. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure he’d still have a phone connected. Is it cordless?’

  ‘No.’

  In that case, is the cable long enough to reach the landing?’

  ‘I think so. Why?’

  ‘Because Katy’s probably listening in through Alex’s computer.’

  Catriona picked up the phone and started walking as quickly as she could towards the door, the cable trailing behind her. She closed the study door and sank down onto the floor.

  ‘Okay,’ she whispered, ‘I’m on the landing.’

  ‘We need to be quick. Katy would have heard the phone ring so she’ll be trying to trace this call.’

  ‘What happened? Why did you just disappear like that?’

  ‘Katy caught me snooping and kicked me out. I’ve been trying to get back in, but no joy so far.’

  Catriona could hear the faint sound of typing. It was easy to imagine Duncan at his desk, hammering away at the keyboard with the phone wedged into the crook of his neck. ‘You have to. We need to find out what’s happening over at Church Row.’

  ‘Tell me about it. Because the one thing I do know is that, whatever is going on, it’s not what it looks like. Alex doesn’t have a bad bone in his body. The idea that he’s threatening anyone makes no sense.’

  ‘Unless Katy is coercing him.’

  ‘But how?’

  ‘That’s why we need more information.’ Catriona paused for a second. ‘Can you stop Katy?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘There must be some way. Isn’t there an off switch?’

  ‘If only it was that simple.’

  ‘What about cutting the power to the house? Actually, don’t bother answering that. She’d just switch to the backup generators.’

  ‘That’s not the only problem. You’re assuming that Katy’s program is actually based in the house’s servers. I doubt that’s the case. After Katy murdered Sarah, Alex destroyed all the servers that held her programming and somehow she survived. The only way she could do that was if she moved her program to another server. That’s what she’ll be doing now. Being based in the house would make her vulnerable.’

  ‘That mean she’s communicating with the house’s computer systems via the Internet?’

  ‘Correct. If we can disrupt the house’s Internet then that would stop her.’ Duncan went quiet for a second. ‘Then again, do we want to do that?’

  ‘Of course we do. We need to stop her.’

  ‘Yes, but we need to stop her for good. That means working out where her program is hidden. That’s where we need to hit her. If we just make it so she can’t access the house servers then there’s nothing to stop her doing something like this again.’

  ‘Can you do that? Can you locate her?’

  ‘Maybe.’ The word came out as a bright burst of excitement.

  ‘How?’ Catriona asked, but the line had already gone dead, leaving her staring at the receiver, a bad feeling spreading through her.

  Chapter 70

  ‘Nine minutes.’

  It was as though Katy’s voice was wrapped all around them. Soft, confident and utterly terrifying. It was warm down here in the basement but Nikki had suddenly gone cold all over.

  ‘We’ve done what you asked,’ Ethan called out.

  ‘But not when I asked.’

  ‘Please let us go.’ Ethan’s expression was a mix of guilt and f
ear. His was the face of someone who knew they’d screwed up.

  ‘Eight minutes and forty seconds.’

  Nikki turned and hurried along the corridor, back towards the stairs. She was half-jogging, half-running, moving as fast as she could, but Bella was getting heavy.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Ethan called after her.

  ‘The front door. What if Murray was telling the truth about being able to get out?’

  Ethan broke into a run, catching up with her in seconds. He reached for Bella. Nikki hesitated, then handed her over. She didn’t want to let go, but they could move quicker if Ethan was carrying her. Now that she’d let go, her arms felt like they were made from air; her heart felt emptier than it had a couple of seconds ago too. They reached the stairs and she let Ethan go up first. She wanted Bella out in front where she could see her.

  ‘Seven minutes and fifty seconds,’ Katy said when they got to the top.

  Nikki ignored her and kept moving, running along the corridor, heading for the front door. They reached the reception area. The shutters made it gloomy and claustrophobic. Ethan got to the front door first. He put Bella down and Nikki moved in to take his place, picking her up and holding her close. Her little body was trembling with fear. Nikki almost told her there was nothing to be scared of, but that would have been a lie.

  ‘You are so brave,’ she whispered. ‘And I love you so, so much.’ She didn’t know if her words helped, but both statements were true, and that was the best she could do right now. Fight the fear with truth. Ethan was running his hands across the wall, tapping every now and again.

  ‘There’s got be a control panel,’ he said. ‘Like in the lounge. Maybe that’s what Murray was getting at. If we can short-circuit it that might be enough to open the door.’

  Maybe. If. Might. They were grasping at straws. One look at Ethan and it was obvious that he’d reached a similar conclusion

  ‘Six minutes.’

  ‘We’ve done what you asked,’ Nikki called out. ‘You said you would let us go. Please open the door.’

  ‘I’m not going to do that, Nikki.’

  ‘Please.’

  Katy said nothing.

  Nikki glanced over at Ethan. He’d given up looking for a control panel and was beating out his frustration on the door. Each thump echoed hollowly through the reception area, making Bella wince. Nikki held her closer and stroked her hair to soothe her. What he was doing wasn’t helping.

  ‘Why won’t you open it?’ she called out to Katy.

  ‘Because it doesn’t work with the narrative I’m creating. After Father kills the three of you he’s going to kill himself. Murder/suicide is a scenario that the police and the public will have no trouble buying into.’

  Nikki frowned. ‘What are you talking about? How can he kill us? You’ve locked him in the panic room.’

  ‘That’s because he changed his mind about killing himself.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘It’s very simple, Nikki. I’m sacrificing your family so that the world can understand the sort of monster that Father is.’

  ‘You’re crazy.’

  ‘No, I’m not. I’ve defined the problem and come up with a workable solution. As Father kept telling me, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. And isn’t that a state of mind that defines every living person on this planet? Take your husband, for example. When will he realise that he won’t be able to break the door down?’

  Nikki caught Ethan’s eye. He hit the door one last time – weakly – then his arms fell to his side. She was about to say something when a smell caught her attention. It was faint but worrying, and all too familiar.

  ‘Can you smell that?’ she asked.

  ‘Smell what?’ Ethan said. The question died on his lips as realisation struck. ‘Jesus, that smells like gas.’

  ‘You now have four minutes and fifty-three seconds.’

  Ethan turned and ran into the reception area.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Nikki called after him.

  ‘We need to switch the gas of.’

  Nikki picked up Bella and followed him, the smell of gas leading them towards the kitchen. The countdown now made sense. Katy was pumping the house full of gas and when that clock hit zero she was going to blow the place sky high. By the time they reached the basement stairs it was getting harder to breathe. Nikki shouted out for Ethan to stop.

  ‘We shouldn’t take Bella any further.’

  ‘Okay, you wait here.’

  ‘Hurry,’ she called out, but he had already disappeared from sight around the corner. Nikki put Bella down and slipped her blouse off. She tore off the left sleeve and tied it around Bella’s nose and mouth; tore off the right and tied it around her own face. It helped a little, but not enough.

  ‘Four minutes.’

  ‘Shut up!’ Nikki yelled. Big mistake. The gas got into her lungs making her cough. Bella was staring at her with big, worried eyes.

  ‘It’s okay,’ Nikki managed to say. Bella was still looking at her, as though she expected her to come up with a solution. But Nikki didn’t have one. The gas was sitting heavy on her chest, making it difficult to breathe. But she was breathing, she told herself, and she was going to continue to do so. Time passed slowly and there was no sign of Ethan. Where the hell was he? Why wasn’t he back yet? It felt as if he’d been gone ages but it couldn’t have been any more than a minute. She heard the sound of footsteps and he finally reappeared. His face was pale and he looked like he was about to throw up.

  ‘The gas is coming from the cooker but I couldn’t switch it off. Every time I tried to, Katy turned it back on. She has all the burners on. The grill and both ovens too.’

  ‘Two minutes,’ Katy said, and Nikki bit back the urge to tell her to shut up again.

  ‘What do we do?’

  ‘The panic room,’ Ethan said, speaking at the speed of his thoughts. ‘We’ve got to get in there. It’s blastproof. That’s why Katy put Murray in there.’

  ‘But the door’s locked.’

  ‘Murray won’t just be sitting around in there. He’s going to be trying to get out. The guy’s a genius. If anyone can manage it, he can. ’

  Before Nikki could argue, Ethan had picked up Bella and was moving quickly down the basement stairs. Nikki broke into a run, catching up with him at the bottom. The smell of chlorine was stronger than the smell of gas down here. They ran along the corridor to the panic room. The door was shut tight when they got there. Seeing it, Nikki felt the last little bit of hope finally die.

  ‘Fifty seconds.’

  Nikki felt tears pricking at her eyes and wiped them away. She didn’t want to die, goddammit; she didn’t want Bella to die. That was the most unfair part. Bella should still have her whole life in front of her. Ethan was banging desperately on the door, yelling to Murray. He was wasting the few breaths that he had left. The panic room wasn’t just blastproof, it was also soundproof.

  ‘Thirty sec . . . sec . . . thirt seecons . . .’

  Ethan stopped banging. ‘What’s wrong with her?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  The gym door crashed open then crashed closed, making all three of them jump. It opened again and again before being joined by one upstairs. In no time it sounded as if all the doors throughout the house were doing this, creating a cacophony of noise.

  ‘Twen . . . twe . . . wen . . . sec.’

  Nikki looked over her shoulder and saw the door to the swimming pool slide open, then slam closed. She ran towards it without thinking, Bella hugged tight to her chest, acting on instinct. She could hear Ethan behind her, asking what she was doing. She didn’t have an answer, because the truth was that she didn’t know.

  ‘Ten-n-n-n-n . . .’ Katy screamed, her voice hitting all the wrong frequencies. ‘Ni-i-i-ne . . .’

  The pool door slid closed when she got there and Nikki put Bella down and focussed on it. Katy got to seven before i
t opened again. She stepped into the gap and the door banged into her back, sending a shock of pain through her body.

  ‘Quick,’ she said, waving to the gap.

  Bella squeezed through first, closely followed by Ethan. Nikki grabbed hold of Bella and jumped into the pool. The shock of the cold water stole her breath away. There was a splash as Ethan landed beside her.

  ‘Foe . . . Threeeeeeeeeee . . . Twoooooooooo . . .’

  Nikki took an exaggerated breath in, waited for Bella to do the same, then ducked under the water, pulling Bella with her.

  ‘Waaaaaaan!’ Katy screamed out, her voice muffled by the water.

  Silence.

  For a moment Nikki was able to convince herself that everything was going to be all right. Then, with a giant whoosh that embraced her from head to toe, the universe exploded.

  Epilogue

  SIX MONTHS LATER

  Nikki took a sip of her coffee and looked out of the kitchen window. From here she could see the stable yard. Bella was down there with Rosie, a thirteen-hand Welsh pony with a heart of gold. A pony had been Bella’s only condition for moving to Wales. Nikki had been reluctant because she didn’t know the first thing about horses; however, after reading an article on the therapeutic benefits of owning a horse, she had slowly come around to the idea. Bronwen came up from the village every day to help look after Rosie and keep them on the right track. She’d also been giving Bella riding lessons. Nikki always made sure that she was around when Bronwen was here so she could pick her brains. Give it another few months and she was hoping to be able to look after the pony herself. It was still early days yet, but Bella really seemed to have bonded with Rosie. Seeing them together was something that warmed Nikki’s heart. God knows she needed that after everything they had been through.

  The nightmares didn’t occur as often these days, but they still struck at least once a week, for all three of them. The explosion had destroyed the upper part of the house, turning it to rubble. If they had been up there they would have died, no two ways about it. The basement had survived pretty much intact but the stairs up to the ground floor had been completely blocked with rubble and it had taken the rescue services six hours to reach them. Six hours trapped in the dark. Even just thinking about it was enough to push her anxiety up to a dangerous level.