by Roz Watkins
‘How could I let you go, Violet?’ Tony said. ‘Once you told me you were famous on the internet. Parading around in a bikini. As soon as you told me that, I knew I’d have to protect you. It was a rash decision, but how could I not?’
Violet turned to him and screamed, ‘I don’t want your fucking protection, you fucking psychopathic bastard!’
‘You have to stay here with the others, Violet,’ Tony said. ‘But the detective can’t be with you.’
Violet sobbed and grasped my arm. ‘He shaved my hair off. He took blood from me. I came round and he had my blood in a massive syringe. And he stole my clothes. And he was talking on the phone to Kirsty about it. What was he doing to me? Why did he do that?’
He was talking to Kirsty. Could she have masterminded everything? I pictured Daniel living in his caravan, building his rock sculptures, drinking tea with oat milk, desperately trying to do the right thing. Trying to make up for past sins. Had he been Kirsty’s sacrificial lamb?
Tony fished a set of handcuffs from the pocket of his coat and pointed at me. ‘I need to put these on you.’
I hesitated. Violet started backing away from me, crying. The others stared wide-eyed. Tony was banking on the fact that if I killed him now, we couldn’t get out. I held out my arms.
‘Hands behind your back,’ he said.
I reluctantly let him cuff my hands behind me. He pulled me towards the door.
‘No!’ Violet screamed. ‘Don’t leave us!’
‘Let him take her,’ Bex said under her breath. ‘It’s our best chance.’
Tony pulled me towards the door. Pressed his thumb onto a pad. The door swished open. We both went through and it closed behind us, leaving us at the base of a set of stairs. We climbed them, me desperately trying to make a plan. I wasn’t in a strong position. The knife was in my pocket but I couldn’t get it out.
At the top of the stairs was another door. Tony reached up to press a code into a keypad. I tried to see the numbers he pressed, but he shielded them from me. The second door opened, and we were out. In a large gloomy barn that smelled strongly of pig.
I swung my leg back and kicked at Tony’s knees with all my might. He yelled and crumpled forward. I kicked out at him again, but with my hands behind my back, it was hard to put any force behind it. He yanked at my arms and dragged me towards a wall. A creature squealed. The barn contained pigs. Pigs in cages. I lost focus for a moment and Tony shoved me to the floor. Attached to the wall was a chain, on the end of which was a single cuff. There was brick dust on the floor below. That must have been the drilling earlier. He’d been preparing to chain me up.
Tony was fiddling behind my back, trying to get the cuff onto my wrist. He was struggling to get it on with the handcuffs already there. I lifted my foot and kicked at his head, but he managed to duck.
He grabbed my torso and slammed my head into the wall. Everything went dark.
I opened my eyes. I must have blacked out for a few moments. Pain filled my consciousness. I was aware of nothing except how much my head hurt.
I forced myself to focus. The pigs were making frantic grunting noises and gnawing at the bars of their cages.
I could feel metal encircling my wrist. I yanked at it. He’d cuffed me to the wall, but he’d had to remove the handcuffs. I now had one hand free. My head was still spinning and so painful I felt it would explode, but this was my chance.
Tony was checking my wrist. He didn’t notice my other hand moving. I inched it forward and grasped the knife. Happy that I was firmly attached to the wall, he gave the cuff one last pull and then shoved something into his coat pocket.
I whipped the knife forward, rammed it into his stomach, gave it a twist, and pulled it out.
At first, he didn’t react. Then slowly he looked down, registering the red bloom which was spreading outwards on his shirt like ink on blotting paper, part-hidden by his coat. He shuffled away from me, an expression of surprise on his face. He crashed into the corner of one of the pigs’ cages, but somehow managed to stay on his feet.
I watched transfixed as he dragged off his coat and dropped it on the floor. He pressed his hand flat against his stomach. Blood was everywhere. ‘What have you done?’ he gasped. ‘They’ll starve to death if I die.’ He lurched over to the far barn wall. Through the gloom, I could see that he was leaning over, tapping on a keypad. My heart pounded. He was typing in a code. Oh God. The carbon monoxide.
I clutched my knife, stood up, and tried to follow him, but the metal cuff was around my wrist. I yanked at it, but couldn’t get it off. I was chained to the wall.
Tony stopped typing on the keypad and there was a deep click, followed by a hissing and a whirring noise. Still clutching his stomach, he slipped through the barn door and slid it closed behind him.
I screamed. ‘Bex! Violet! Nina!’
Frantic voices from below me, muffled and hard to make out.
A faint ripping noise, and then Bex’s voice. ‘Can you hear me now? The vents are solid metal, and he’s sound-insulated them. I’ve ripped the cladding off, but there’s a piece of plastic between us still.’
‘I can hear you. I stabbed him. He’s badly injured. But he’s put the code in, Bex. I think it’s the carbon monoxide. I can hear it hissing.’
A pause. Then Bex: ‘Can you get out and get help?’
‘He chained me up. I can’t get away.’
More muffled voices.
Beside me was a large gas cylinder. A tube extended between it and a sealed hole in the floor. The cylinder was labelled ‘CO’. Carbon monoxide. The hissing was coming from it. Carbon monoxide was flowing from the cylinder and presumably into the sealed basement area.
I shouted, ‘Is the gas coming out? I can hear it.’
Muffled voices. ‘Yes. We’re trying to block the inlets but there are lots.’
‘I stabbed him,’ I said. ‘It’s my fault. He’s done it so that if he dies you don’t starve to death.’
My eyes had adjusted to the gloom. I peered down at my wrist. The cuff looked unbreakable. It was very clear he’d planned to put me here. But why? Was it so he could work out how to get rid of me in a way which looked like an accident? So nobody would come looking and find his little family.
I tried again to pull my hand through the cuff. I had slim hands. But it wouldn’t go. Not even close. I yanked at the chain, but it was firmly attached. I looked around for an implement to smash it with, but there was nothing within reach. Just a couple of coats hanging on hooks, and a pile of bagged pig pellets.
I pulled to the end of my chain and lay down, twisting to push my feet towards the blood-soaked coat Tony had discarded. I was sure he’d put the key to my cuff in the pocket. But I couldn’t reach it. Even stretched out fully, I was nowhere near. ‘I can’t reach. I can’t reach his coat. The key’s in his coat but it’s too far away.’
The pigs had calmed down and were grunting softly and shifting side-to-side, which was as much movement as they could manage in their tiny cages. The cages had metal dividers which would separate the mothers from their babies once they were born. Perhaps I could use one of the dividers to reach Tony’s coat? But without even trying, I could see they weren’t big enough to bridge the gap between me and the coat.
Maybe Jai or Fiona would come looking for me. Surely I’d been gone a while? But they weren’t expecting me back at the station. If Dad had still been at my house, he’d have wondered where I was. But he wasn’t at my house and he certainly wouldn’t be wondering why I wasn’t answering his calls.
Nobody would be missing me.
It hit me then. This was it. I would die in this barn with these desperate people and equally desperate pigs.
At least Hamlet was with Hannah. He’d be okay. Maybe she’d keep him.
The carbon monoxide tube was within my reach. If I could pull out the tube and plug the hole, I could stop the carbon monoxide getting to the people trapped below. I could use the coats to block the hole. If I did that, I’
d be poisoned instead. ‘I can save you,’ I shouted. ‘I can pull the tube out.’
Voices from below. ‘But then it’ll go into the top barn and you’ll die.’
‘If he survives, he’ll kill me anyway. At least this way I’ll have carbon monoxide in my bloodstream. He can try and make it look like an accident, but he won’t get away with it. And then they’ll come and find you.’
‘No! You can’t do that.’
‘There are four of you,’ I said. ‘And only one of me. And six pigs.’
I wondered if I could make myself do it. Pull the tube so the carbon monoxide killed me and the pigs instead of the people below. If Tony died, I thought we’d eventually be found, but it would be too late for me. If Tony didn’t die after all, he’d come back and kill me and dispose of my body and keep the others. If I’d breathed in carbon monoxide, he’d have to be really clever. Make it look like my Victorian boiler did me in, perhaps? I doubted he’d get away with it.
I thought Bex was considering what I’d said. If I was going to die, I wanted to take Tony Nightingale down with me. I clutched my knife and remembered another case I’d worked on where a murder victim had managed to communicate that it wasn’t an accident. I’d do the same. I’d carve it on my skin. Under my arm where Tony wouldn’t look. I’d carve a message that told them it was him and made them look in this barn. My body would be the clue that made them find the others. It was almost poetic.
A voice from below: Bex. ‘Don’t you dare save us and kill yourself. We don’t want this life! We’d rather die.’
Was that what they all thought? Or just Bex? Nina and Sofia had already survived thirty years of captivity.
Bex’s voice came louder from below. ‘Can you reach to let any of the pigs out?’
I looked at the pigs in their cages. I was chained to a wall in a dark barn but I still had more freedom than the pigs. I stared into the eyes of the closest. She gazed back. There was a patch on her face. She had an intelligent look. A creature in a tiny cage with such an intelligent eye. There were too many horrors bound up in that thought. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I can reach the nearest one. But she can’t escape. The barn door’s closed.’
And then I remembered. The pigs had been taught to fetch. ‘The pigs …’ I said. ‘Could the pigs help us?’
A murmuring from below and then Bex spoke again. ‘What’s within your reach?’
I looked around me. ‘There are some bags of stuff. Pig food, I think. And a couple of coats hanging behind me. And a few empty hessian sacks.’
‘Have you ever trained an animal?’
I looked at the pig, the huge pig, and felt a flush of adrenaline in my stomach. ‘I clicker-trained my cat to do a high five.’ I pictured neat little Hamlet raising his paw. A very different proposition to a pig the size of a small car.
‘Can you hear me clearly? I’m right by the grille.’ Bex’s voice was quieter. Speaking rather than shouting, but I could hear her.
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘Right. Do not mess with that carbon monoxide. We need you to be able to think. You’re going to get us out of here. You and that pig.’
54
‘These pigs can fetch,’ Bex said. ‘I know exactly what Dad taught them.’
‘Right.’ My voice came out as little more than a whisper.
‘I’ll coach you through it. We’re going to get the pig to fetch Dad’s coat. She’s going to get us out of here. She’s bloody well going to get us out of here.’
My breathing was coming fast. ‘I’m not sure I can … She’s massive.’
‘Yes, you can do it.’ Bex sounded confident, as if she’d switched to work-mode. This was what she did, and she was good at it.
My heart thudded steadily. If I diverted the carbon monoxide and Tony died, he’d be found and they’d look in the barn. If they found him quickly and the lower barn was reasonably airtight, the others would be saved. I’d be dead but they’d be saved. But if he survived and came back, he’d either kill them or they’d stay locked up, and Bex claimed they didn’t want that life. Or if it took too long for people to come, everyone would die. I didn’t have the energy to make the decision. I let Bex take over.
‘You’ll have to give me a running commentary,’ Bex said, ‘but I know you can do this.’
‘What do I have to do?’
‘You’re going to release the pig, and you’re going to reward her for touching one of Dad’s coats. Use one of the ones behind you. Then you’re going to move that coat towards the coat with the key in it, and reward her for touching that coat. Then you’ll only reward her if she bites it. And then if she pulls at it. She can drag it to you.’
‘Oh God.’
‘Do you remember how you trained your cat to high five?’
‘Yes.’
‘Thank God you did that. You’ll be fine. This is the same. But it will happen fast once you free her. She’ll be excited and we need to tap into that. She can’t get to the food, can she?’
‘No, it’s behind a barrier.’
‘Okay, rip open one of the bags of feed, and put a load of pellets in your pocket. Leave the bag open so you can get more pellets. We’ve got no time to waste.’
‘Okay.’ It was like a dream I have where I’m about to do an exam but I’m completely unprepared and usually naked. This time I was completely unprepared and chained to a barn wall, surrounded by vast, scary pigs.
‘She’ll be free to wander,’ Bex cautioned, ‘so she needs to work out quickly that you’re the source of rewards. Now get one of Dad’s coats.’
I did that, reaching up awkwardly with my unchained arm. ‘I’ve got it.’
‘You’re going to let her out, and then throw some food at her. Okay? Can you open the cage at the front and let her out? Stand back. She might be a bit over-excited. Can you imagine how you’d feel if you’d been trapped in there?’
I fiddled with the catch and pulled open the door of the cage nearest me.
The pig shot out and barged into me, knocking me off my feet. She was enormous and seemed completely unaware of me. The other pigs grunted and pushed at the fronts of their cages.
I scrambled up, bruised and now scared of this panicked animal. I told myself she was scared too. We needed to help each other get out of here.
The pig looked around the gloom of the barn. Her attention was everywhere but on me. She was heavily pregnant. Frighteningly big. She stood, listening. An ear flicked in my direction. I chucked a handful of food towards her. It landed on the concrete floor and the pig looked down at it warily. She didn’t go for it immediately, but looked back up again. Although I was focused on the pig and on what Bex was saying, part of my brain kept telling me I might be about to die, and wondering if Mum would be okay. She’d have to cancel her trip to El Salvador.
‘If she’s too stressed, she won’t eat,’ Bex said. ‘Which means we’re pretty much screwed.’
Something in the pig’s body softened and she reached down and snuffled on the ground, picking up the food.
‘She’s eating it!’ I told Bex.
‘Chuck her some more. She needs more time to settle.’
‘Yes, okay. Except we don’t have more time.’
‘Well, do you have any better ideas?’
The pig ate and then looked up. Her body language had softened some more. I chucked a few pellets at her. She’d registered my presence. I made an effort to slow my breathing and project calmness towards her. I didn’t know if it would help but it was making me feel better.
The pig shuffled in my direction. ‘She’s coming towards me,’ I said. I wasn’t scared of pigs, but this one was enormous and looked flighty, and I was chained to a wall.
‘You need to get her to notice the dummy coat. Hold the coat out towards her.’
I held the coat out. ‘She’s not going to bite me, is she?’
No reply.
I shoved the coat at the pig and she initially jumped back, but then hesitated and stepped forward to sniff
it. I clicked and threw food. I knew I needed to tell Bex what I was doing, but it was taking all my concentration watching the pig and rewarding her for doing what I wanted.
I rewarded the pig when she focused on the coat, or touched the coat. Once she even mouthed it.
‘Put the coat on the floor,’ Bex said. ‘We need it to move towards Dad’s coat, and we need her to bite it, so we can eventually get her to drag Dad’s coat to you. She can do it, because she knows how to fetch a dog-toy.’
‘Don’t panic me! It’s too complicated. But she’s touching it.’ I tried not to think about Tony out there. Patching up his wound. Coming back to finish the job he’d started. How could he have kept his family locked up for thirty years? Ivan had tried to escape, but had been so horrifically damaged by his life that he ended up raping Bex, his own sister. And Kirsty had known. I was sure now that Kirsty and Tony had killed to keep this secret. And my instincts had been right about Daniel after all. He’d been framed.
The pig snuffled at the coat on the floor. I rewarded her.
I knew the principles. We needed the pig to start biting the coat or she’d never pull it anywhere. But this was hard. I remembered with Hamlet. Not rewarding the paw movement he’d been rewarded for before. Waiting a little longer. Hoping he’d raise that little black-and-white paw higher so I could click and give him one of the Dreamies cat treats he loved so much. Thinking about Hamlet made me want to cry. Would Hannah want him? Or Mum? Because there was no way this insane plan was going to work. No way I was getting out of here alive.
‘Don’t be afraid to withhold the click,’ Bex said. ‘It might not be the best training, but biting’s what a pig naturally does when she’s frustrated.’
The pig bit the coat. Yes! I clicked and threw food, while in the back of my mind, I was wondering if I should have lived differently. Was Mum right when she said I was a workaholic? Should I have worked less and lived more? Seized opportunities for happiness? I thought of all Jai’s subtle overtures that I’d ignored. Had I been wrong?
