The Stolen Sisters: from the bestselling author of The Date and The Sister comes one of the most thrilling, terrifying and shocking psychological thrillers of 2020

by Louise Jensen

  ‘And we will have to wear rags,’ Marie said sadly. ‘And eat scraps.’

  ‘Possibly,’ he said. ‘We might all lose touch and never see each other again.’

  ‘I’ll never not see Leah – we’re twins. And Carly’s my sister. We all belong together.’

  The Adam’s apple in her dad’s throat raised and then dropped. ‘You might never see Leah or Carly again.’

  ‘No!’ Marie’s whole body shook as she sobbed. ‘Can’t you do something, Daddy?’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  Marie felt a little spark of hope.

  ‘I do have an idea but I’m afraid it’s not very nice, but Mummy agrees it’s the only way to save our family. It would mean a couple of horrible days but then it would all be over and we’d go on holiday—’

  ‘To Disneyland?’ Marie remembered what she’d heard.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And I’d meet the real Ariel!’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well, do your idea then, silly!’

  Dad took Marie’s hands in his. ‘It’s not that easy. One, because it has to stay a secret or it won’t work. Even afterwards. If anyone ever finds out, you will all be taken away and put in separate homes and never be allowed to see each other again.’

  ‘Okay. Daddy, I have something to tell you…’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘It was me who knocked that m-mink vase and smashed it. When you and Mum asked I blamed Bruno because he was only a puppy then and I’ve kept that a secret for years and years. You must keep it too now and not pass it on to Mummy, or shout at me. I’m only telling you so you know I am good at keeping secrets.’

  ‘You are indeed, Marie. There’s a second problem, though. To carry out the plan I need a really brilliant actress to make sure everyone is in the right place at the right time.’

  ‘That’s me! Don’t you remember I was Annie! And I was so good that Mrs Walters said she thought I’d go to Hollywood!’

  ‘She did indeed. But, Marie, you’re only eight.’ He shook his head sadly.

  ‘I may be small but I love you all big and if there’s a way we can all stay together I want to do it. I do.’

  Her dad tilted his head to one side and studied her. ‘Okay, you’ve worn me down! I will share my idea with you but only because you’re my best girl and I trust you. Remember, it might sound awful but it’s not for long and it isn’t real.’

  ‘It’s like a game?’

  ‘Exactly like a game but only you and me can know.’

  ‘Or we’ll all be split up and hungry.’

  ‘Yes. And it’s worth a tiny bit of being uncomfortable for the rest of our lives together as a family, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Right. We’ll make it happen tomorrow. You must promise to do exactly what I say and don’t tell anybody?’

  ‘I promise, Daddy.’

  Be good and he won’t send you away.

  If she needed to lie, she would.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Carly

  One week ago

  ‘You’re lying!’ Carly couldn’t accept what she was hearing. She couldn’t accept she’d been betrayed by her mum as well as her dad. By her little sister. ‘You just want a new angle so we can sell our stories again. How could you make—’

  ‘I’m not making it up. Yeah, okay, I need the money, but I do think it’s time the truth came out. It’s been killing me keeping it to myself all these years.’

  ‘There’s no way—’

  ‘It’s true.’

  ‘True? You wouldn’t know the truth if it—’

  ‘It’s true,’ Marie said softly.

  ‘You didn’t think to warn us? When we were pissing in a corner and terrified… of course you wouldn’t have been terrified, would you? Always the fucking actress, weren’t you, Marie? Well, that must have been your biggest role. Bravo.’ Carly began to slowly clap.

  ‘Stop it! You don’t understand.’

  ‘No, I don’t understand. Have you got any idea what I’ve been through? How awful Mum made me feel all these years. She couldn’t wait to get rid of us. I thought it was because she couldn’t cope with what we’d been through but what she couldn’t cope with was the fact she’d known all along. She must have been terrified of being found out.’

  ‘She couldn’t help it, she loved him. She loves him. Still.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘I know that she still visits him.’

  Carly didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t understand why her mum would stand by her dad, even now. What would she do when he was released again? Take him back?

  ‘Do you know what this has done to me?’ Carly dropped her head in her hands.

  ‘Yes! I know what you went through. I was there.’

  ‘Not there. Since. I have felt responsible for what happened every single day. I was supposed to be the one in charge, watching you both. God… Leah? Does Leah know?’

  ‘No. I never told her, I swear. She’d never have coped.’

  ‘And now? You think she’ll cope now if this all comes out?’

  This time a flicker of indecision crosses Marie’s face. ‘She’s stronger than we think.’

  ‘I don’t think she is. She’ll fall apart. Remember what happened last time she thought he was back? The Fregoli? The ways she was convinced he was everywhere she turned. She was nearly sectioned, for God’s sake, and yet you’re willing to sell her out for cold hard cash.’

  ‘But don’t you see? Once it’s all out there. The truth about the way I was persuaded by our dad—’

  ‘That man is not my father. Fuck, my whole life has been ruined by that fucking man and I’m not even related to him. Barely related to you and Leah.’

  ‘That’s not fair.’

  ‘How can you talk to me about fair? You knew he’d planned it but even when were locked in that stinking room you didn’t tell us, Marie.’

  ‘I couldn’t. I was terrified we’d be split up. I thought it was for the best. Dad sounded so convincing. We’d have gone on holiday afterwards and everything would be okay.’

  ‘I can’t believe someone would be cruel enough to put their daughters through that and think a holiday to Disneyland would make up for everything.’

  ‘I didn’t know it would be so awful, Carly. I was terrified but I thought if I told you what was going on then we’d all be separated and the trauma of being tied up and shoved in the van would be for nothing. I didn’t know what to—’

  ‘You should have told us.’

  ‘I was eight! And if I’m honest, there… there was a part of me that… that was scared of him. Although he never threatened me, it was unspoken that if I ever told, he’d do something bad to me. And… and the thought that my own father might… might…’ Marie dissolved into tears.

  Carly thought about how betrayed she had felt when she found out Simon was behind their fake kidnapping. How hurt and unloved – but ultimately she wasn’t his biological daughter. How must Marie have felt all these years, knowing that her natural dad had set her up? Carly felt herself softening.

  ‘I think you should have told me – someone – but it can’t have been easy for you knowing your dad was prepared to put you and Leah through such an ordeal… What?’ Marie had turned away, hanging her head as she swiped furiously at her cheeks.

  ‘Marie?’ Carly touched her sister’s shoulders. ‘What is it?’ But then it hit her.

  The truth.

  ‘Oh God.’ Carly clasped her hands over her mouth. She was going to be sick. She shook her head from side to side. Marie sobbed, knowing that Carly had worked it out. Carly tried to breathe but her throat was burning with bile, nausea rising up as she kept swallowing it down. ‘Oh God.’ She couldn’t find any other words. She sank to a crouch. Her head in her hands. She was going to faint. ‘Oh God.’

  It was all so blindingly obvious. The way there were only two men to snatch three girls. The insubstantial amount of food. One mattress. The
single blanket. A lonely teddy bear. She began to cry.

  Minutes passed until Carly raised her tear-stained face. Marie’s expression confirmed what she already knew but she had to hear her say it. ‘It was only ever meant to be me that was taken, wasn’t it?’ Carly had thought she’d closed herself off to hurt, but the pain she felt was unimaginable. She wiped her nose with her sleeve. ‘You and Leah? You were never part of the plan.’ She thought back to when they were reunited at the police station. Simon balancing a twin on each hip – thank God, thank God, thank God.

  ‘I was supposed to get you out of the garden and into the alley where I knew they’d be waiting. I threw the ball over but you wouldn’t fetch it. I didn’t know what to do when you made us go inside the house for tea so I pretended I’d left my fleece outside, opened the gate and let Bruno out. You were supposed to go and look that way on your own but—’

  ‘I had Leah with me, and you didn’t want to put her through it.’ Carly gave a wry smile, although inside her heart was breaking. ‘That’s understandable, she is your sister.’

  ‘You’re my sister too,’ Marie said. ‘But yes, when you took Leah I panicked and followed you. When the men grabbed you both I couldn’t let you go through it alone. I thought… I thought I could make it fun.’

  It’s a game, isn’t it? Marie had kept saying. Perhaps she really believed that, Carly thought. Perhaps that’s the only way her mind could cope with it.

  But Carly’s mind couldn’t cope with what she was hearing now. She just couldn’t process it all. Her body was ice. Her teeth rattled together.

  ‘Carly, please. Now you know we can—’

  ‘There is no we.’ Carly picked up her bag from the floor.

  ‘Carly, please don’t leave.’

  Carly turned to look at the girl she once thought of as her sister. The desperation on her face. She sighed. ‘Get your coat. Your coming with me.’

  ‘Where?’ Marie’s face creased with anxiety.

  ‘To the cashpoint. I’ll give you some money. Not enough, but some, but we’re not doing the TV interview. We have to think of Leah.’

  It took three attempts for Marie to push her arm into her sleeve, she was trembling so hard. ‘Thanks. Afterwards, can you drop me somewhere?’

  ‘Where?’

  Marie told her. Carly wished she had never asked.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Leah

  Now

  Archie is missing.

  I don’t stop to lock the back door as I run through the kitchen and grab my mobile.

  Archie is missing.

  If I call the police now they’ll want me to stay home so they can send someone out, and how long might that take? With my track record of reporting things that aren’t real they probably won’t rush with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing. Anything could happen to Archie, could be happening to Archie. He was taken in the same way as we were. It stands to reason he’ll have been taken to the same place.

  A new angle.

  You can’t get more dramatic than this. The open gate, the missing dog, my son being snatched. Part of me wants to think it’s a stunt Simon and Marie have planned together for money. How much would the TV and newspapers pay for an exclusive of this story? A lot, I bet. If Marie is involved she wouldn’t hurt Archie, would she? I may have drifted apart from my twin but deep down I believe she wouldn’t hurt anybody. Yet… I remember the mice on the doorstep.

  Three blind mice.

  Killed. Their eyes brutally gouged out – and there’s another part of me, a bigger, louder part, that is screaming, Archie hasn’t been taken for money. He’s been taken for revenge.

  Simon spent all those extra years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. What if he had found out I was behind it and…

  My heart actually hurts. Not a dull ache but as though someone has pierced it with a knife, is dragging the sharp blade through it, slicing it in two.

  My darling, darling boy.

  I’ll do anything to get him back.

  Anything.

  My car tyres screech as I accelerate off the driveway, onto the road. Thankfully the reporters George had chased away haven’t returned.

  What will I find when I get there? I am second-guessing Simon just as he will be second-guessing me.

  See how they run.

  Well, I’m not running now.

  The traffic thins. I’m on a country road, punching out a text on my mobile as I drive. A horn blares. I have drifted over the white lines. I toss my phone onto the passenger seat and concentrate until I am almost there and then I slow. Pick up my phone once more.

  Archie taken to Norwood. I’m going to get him back.

  Call police.

  I send it to George, Tash and Carly. One of them will see it straight away, if not all. I complete the last few hundred yards of my journey, wondering who will be waiting for me inside. Marie? Simon? Both of them together?

  Norwood looms out of the shadows. I feel myself shrink.

  I’m back.

  Memories crush down upon my chest. The feel of rope around my wrists. My ankles. Eyes blindfolded, mouth taped shut.

  I’m back.

  Sometimes when you revisit a place as an adult that you’ve only ever seen through a child’s eyes it seems smaller, you feel bigger. This isn’t the case now. Norwood is still huge and horribly, horribly frightening.

  I’m back.

  Now I’m here, it seems inevitable. The camp has been waiting for me to return. Any smidgeon of doubt I had that Archie might not be here vanishes.

  Daylight is beginning to fade. Grey clouds sucking away the light.

  I abandon the car on the grass verge we had crawled along to make our escape that harsh, stormy night. A new security fence was erected after we’d been found in a bid to stop the ghouls and the true-crime addicts gathering at the site as though it was a tourist spot.

  It didn’t.

  As I jog towards it I can see place where the wire has been snipped, rolled back to create a space big enough for an adult to crawl through.

  WARNING – GUARD DOGS signs are cable-tied to the fence, along with a 24-HOUR SECURITY notice, but I know it’s a lie. There hasn’t been anything here for years to protect. Until now.

  Archie.

  He must be terrified. I don’t hesitate before dropping to my knees and crawling across the ground. I don’t care about germs or contamination or anything except the small boy who will be scared and confused and longing for his mum. Sharp edges of wire drag at my hair. Scrape my cheek, which dampens with blood.

  My legs are shaking, my knees rubber, but I force myself to stand. The police aren’t yet here but I hope they won’t be long. George and Carly will be out of their minds. Tash too. They’ll likely all come, but for now there is only me.

  I’m back.

  And I’m not leaving without my son.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  George

  Now

  The screen lights up on George’s phone. Leah’s picture grins at him. He doesn’t need to read the text to know what it will say. His stomach turns.

  It’s all come to a head, lightning fast and just as frightening.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Leah

  Now

  The world seems to hold its breath once I’m inside Norwood’s grounds. The silence perfect.

  ‘Archie?’ Fear tears his name from my throat. ‘Archie!’ A flock of birds rises from the trees, black wings beating, cawing out a warning. The back of my neck tingles.

  Is someone watching me?

  I turn a slow 360. There’s nobody visible but still I feel eyes on me. Waiting to see where I’ll go. What I’ll do when I get there.

  It’s easier than I thought to get my bearings. The camp is huge – hiding places everywhere – but Simon will want me to find him. There’s little point to coming back here otherwise. Archie will be in the room we were held in.

  Determinedly, I run over to the building where I was o
nce carried inside, gagged and blindfolded, terrified, but the horror I felt then pales in comparison to the horror I feel now. I’d sacrifice myself a million times over to save my child.

  The building is gloomy. Darkness swallows me as I step inside. I need a torch. Too late I realize I have left my mobile in the centre console of the car.

  I’d been so young when I was here that I wasn’t sure whether I’d know which room had been our prison, but evil is thick in the blackness, beckoning me forward. Broken glass crunches underfoot as I edge down the hallway.

  Something touches my face. I stifle a scream and bat it away.

  A cobweb.

  I can do this.

  My body feels like one of the paper dolls Marie and I used to dress up, flimsy and insubstantial. I place my hands on my thighs to reassure myself that my legs are still there, solid and able to support me.

  I can do this.

  My teeth chatter as I reach the room.

  Our room.

  In the muted grey light spilling in through the patchy roof, my eyes scan the door. There are six nail holes where the bolts used to be. Crudely painted in faded red on the outside is RIP Sinclair Sisters as though we had died that day. I suppose in a way we had. We had come out of here altogether different children to the ones who had been dragged in. I squint as I search the corridor for a weapon. There’s a wooden post with rusted nails jutting out from its splintered sides.

  I raise it above my head.

  I can do this.

  Archie is all I can think of as I kick the door open, pelting to the room as fast as I can.

  The element of surprise.

  But it is me who is surprised.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Carly

  Now

  Leah’s at Norwood.

  Norwood.

  Carly thrusts her phone into her pocket and begins to run.