And then the man disappeared. Just like that. One minute he was about thirty or forty metres ahead of me on the track, and then he was gone. He’d turned as though to go uphill, but I couldn’t see more from that distance and when I got nearer, trying to stay out of sight on the lower side of the track, there was nothing. No flash of light jacket, no rustle of heavy footsteps. Nothing.
I withdrew into the trees and sank down onto the short, needle-strewn grass. I was knackered, and I didn’t know what to do next.
I stayed hidden and waited and waited. Maybe he would eventually reappear?
After twenty minutes I had to give up. I was due to start my shift on one of the gates at two and I couldn’t be late for that. I tried to keep quiet until I was away from the spot where I had last seen him, then I found the path that led to the little wooden bridge and began to jog down it.
I was furious and disappointed. I had been sure I was about to find out something really important. And now all I had got was hot and sweaty and with the chance of getting into trouble for being late. And I still hadn’t got the pass from Dex. I just hoped nobody asked what I’d been doing. I didn’t want to have to explain myself to Finn. Or Dex. Or even Marcus, if it came to that.
Fortunately the only person who noticed anything untoward was Cami, who was working the same gate as me. He just looked at my pink face and said, ‘Been up the hill texting mummy and daddy, have you? Glad I haven’t got anyone checking up on me.’
Oh no! I had forgotten all about texting, I’d been so intent on following the man. Which meant Mum hadn’t heard from me since yesterday morning. Dad probably wouldn’t be that bothered, he seemed to be slipping back into his normal easy-going ways, but Mum would be getting apoplectic. I’d have to find a way of sneaking off to do that as soon as I possibly could.
And there was still no sign of Finn. I asked Cami if he’d seen him, but he just sniggered and said, ‘You two fallen out? Not surprised. No one can put up with my perfect cousin for long.’
So helpful.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
GEORGE
‘Hey, you, I thought you were going to come and pick up something from me?’
It was Dex, who else?
‘Sorry, sorry,’ I said, edging him away from the gate so Cami couldn’t eavesdrop. ‘I did knock on your van door this morning, but there was no answer.’
‘You better come and get it now or you’ll have missed out.’
‘My shift finishes in ten minutes, I’ll come straight over.’
‘Suit yourself. It’s your last fucking chance.’
I don’t know why he had to be so nasty, except that was the way he was. I’d go and get the pass. After that I was having nothing more to do with him. Then I would send duty texts to my parents and see if I could get hold of Becky. It would be great to speak to her. Although I wouldn’t be able to speak for long, once again I hadn’t much battery left on my phone. I’d have to ask Marcus if I could charge it in the office, but I didn’t feel like doing that today.
Afterwards I’d go and find Finn and see if he wanted to cook with me. I wanted to know how he was. I missed him for myself, but also I was worried about whether he was okay, not still upset or anything. Life was so complicated.
As soon as the shift was over I slipped away towards the campervans. Cami would probably see me go, but he wasn’t the interfering type.
Dex opened the door of the van before I had even lifted my hand to knock. I’d been hoping to get this over with quickly, stay on the doorstep, but he pulled me straight in.
‘Hey! I …’
‘Shut it.’ He kicked the door closed with a bang.
I backed away from him. ‘I just came to pick up the pass, like you said …’
‘Very fucking likely. You came to spy on me again, didn’t you? Like this morning? Oh, Dex, I came to knock on the door and you were out. Oh, Dex, I’m sorry. Nothing about seeing one of my friends leave and following him! What are you following people for, you bitch?’
He slapped me hard across the face. I managed to duck but his fingers still caught me. I wished he wasn’t between me and the door. I wished I dared scream so that someone would come and rescue me. Should I scream? But if no-one heard, he’d hurt me for sure.
‘I, er, who says I was following anyone?’ Had the man seen me? Or someone else? Actually, anyone on the site could have seen me set off after him, now I came to think of it. What an idiot I was.
‘Terry realised you were behind him. Not soon enough, he’s such a dickhead, but he realised eventually. Lost you then, didn’t he?’
‘I, er, went for a walk and, er …’
‘I’ve had enough of you meddling. Beck wouldn’t have left if it wasn’t for you.’
Dex advanced towards me and I backed up, but I’d only taken a step before I was pressed against the unmade bed. I really didn’t want to be down this end of the van, but Dex was so enormous I couldn’t see how to get round him. I remembered how I’d once thought no one would know what you were doing in this van, with its windows so high up.
‘Becky’s fine, I’ve been phoning …’ I needed to get him to think about her, that’s the only time he seemed remotely reasonable. He wasn’t looking reasonable right now.
‘Hah, Beck. I’m over her.’
I tried to get past him, looking for a way out, but Dex had hold of my arms and was shaking me, hard. ‘Let’s get something straight, interfering bloody Georgina. You stop nosing around what I’m doing. And you never ever tell anyone anything you’ve seen here. Right?’ He shook me again.
‘Right,’ I squeaked. I could hardly form a word. If I promised to shut up would he let me go? Why had I been so stupid stupid stupid as to come here … ‘I promise. Honestly.’
‘That’s better.’ He twisted one of my arms until it really hurt, smiling like he enjoyed it.
I held my breath, praying he’d let me go now. He’d scared me and he could see it, but I’d agreed to what he said ...
Then he released one of my arms to lift my chin, making me look at him. He licked his lips and looked at me in a totally different way, like he’d just had an idea. Oh Jesus, oh no, not that. ‘Now how about you do something else to let me know you can do as you’re told?’ He pinched the skin under my chin, making me gag. ‘You know, I think you and I could have some fun.’
He kept hold of an arm with one hand and dropped his other to his jeans, beginning to undo the belt. I screamed then. I couldn’t help it. I was too terrified to think straight.
He punched me in the stomach, winding me. ‘No screaming!’ I gagged and choked. Before I recovered he’d pulled a scarf out of a locker and wrapped it around my mouth, tightening it viciously so I could hardly breathe. ‘Think that might keep you quiet, bitch?’
I grunted. It was all I could do. I tried to twist away from him but he was way too strong. After one hard push I fell across the bed. His hands were all over me, kneading my breasts in a way that hurt, his breath coming in ever louder gasps. Then he reached for my jeans, struggling to undo the button.
I twisted desperately from side to side.
‘Stop … that …’ He hit me so hard across the head I thought I was going to black out.
And then a beeping sound started and he froze. ‘What the …?’
He reached for something off the bench, his phone I think, and checked it, still holding me with one hand. ‘Looks like I’ve got to go. Better not keep Chester waiting, had I?’ He stood up and began to fasten his belt. ‘But don’t you worry, sweetheart, you can wait here for me and we can carry on where we left off.’
He opened a cupboard and pulled out a rope. He flipped me onto my front and tied my hands behind my back. Then he tied my legs. And then he was gone, locking the door behind him.
I lay on my stomach, shuddering, wanting to vomit but I couldn’t because of the scarf over my mouth; I was hardly able to breathe. For a while I just didn’t move. My ears were ringing from the blows and my mind was blank. It
was like it wasn’t possible to think, I was just shaking with shock, my face pressed into the dirty sheets.
But when he’d been gone five minutes, or maybe more, my brain began to start working again.
I had to get out of here. I had to. I was in the middle of a campsite, there were hundreds of people around. There must be a way of attracting their attention.
I turned over and pushed myself into a sitting position. Then I tried to stand. That’s when I realised he’d not just tied my feet together, he’d tied them to the bed, too. I couldn’t get anywhere near the door. I could just about reach one side of the van, but the only thing I had to knock on it was my head. I tried that, but it hurt, and hardly made any sound at all. I couldn’t reach a window or the door. I was totally helpless.
I started to panic again. What if he came back? He might be here any minute. What could I do? There had to be something I could do!
Thoughts whizzed round and round my head but led nowhere. Fear was rising up in me like a bitter liquid, threatening to choke me. I yanked on the rope, hoping it might give, but it just got tighter and tighter.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
FINN
‘Where’ve you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.’
It was Cami, swinging dark hair back from his face, looking aggressive.
‘Aye? So? You’ve found me now.’ I didn’t feel like speaking to anyone. I hadn’t all day. I’d felt kind of odd, empty.
‘I think George might be in trouble.’ Cami fingered the gap where he’d lost the teeth, shooting me glances to see how I’d react. ‘I saw her go to Dex’s van and she didn’t come back out.’
‘She what?’
‘Keep your voice down! That’s why I was looking for you. Thought you’d like to know.’
I jumped up. Jesus. Was any girl ever as stupid as George Wray? ‘Why didn’t you stop her? Or go over and see what’s going on?’
‘Me? Are you mad? I know what happens when you cross Dex Barker.’
I didn’t have time to argue now. I sprinted across the wet, slippery grass. A few people stared at me but I didn’t care.
I banged on the door of the van, trying the handle but it refused to open. I wasn’t even thinking what I would do when Dex came out, I just knew I had to do something.
There was no response. I banged again.
‘George! George! Are you in there?’
Still nothing. And then, when I was going to scream in frustration, I heard a kind of shuffling bang.
‘Is that you George?’
The banging came again, two clear knocks this time. Jesus, what had he done to her? Why couldn’t she speak? At least Dex didn’t seem to be there himself. If he was, I’d have heard him shouting at me to get lost, or worse.
I pulled at the door again. I remembered Beck saying something about the lock being dicey, that there was a knack to opening it. If I pushed, and then turned the handle, and then kicked at the bottom while I pulled ...
And then the door flew open with a crash.
‘George! Jesus! What’s he done …? Here, let me …’ She had a gag over her mouth and a rope round her wrists. It made me cold with rage. How could Dex do this, how dare he? I fumbled until I managed to get the gag off and she drew in great breaths of air.
‘What did he do to you? What happened?’
‘He didn’t do anything, but he was going to come back and …’ The words tailed off and she began sobbing uncontrollably.
‘It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay, but we’ve got to get out of here.’ I tried to undo the rope with my fingers and when that didn’t work looked around helplessly for some way to cut them.
‘That drawer,’ she said, indicating with her head. ‘There are knives in there. Hurry.’
I sawed at the rope by her hands and eventually it came apart, then I did the same for her feet.
‘Come on. We don’t want to be here when Dex gets back.’
She didn’t need telling twice. We stumbled out of the door and ran.
We headed for George’s tent. At the moment I just wanted to get as far from his van as possible.
‘He’ll find us here,’ she said, terrified.
‘It doesn’t matter. He won’t do anything if there are other people around.’ I hoped. ‘Get inside.’
She did and I zipped all the flaps closed behind us. And then I just held her for a while, held her really tight. She was crying again and a million swear words were going around in my head. Why had I let her out of my sight? Why had she gone there?
‘I’m so glad you came,’ she said between sobs. ‘I can’t believe ... If you hadn’t ...’
‘But I did.’
‘He was going to … he was going to ...’
‘It’s okay. You’re okay now.’
‘He hit me, and he was, he was …’
‘Ssh, ssh, you’re okay now.’
And then more crying.
Eventually she calmed down enough to realise she needed a tissue and began to wipe some of the tears away.
‘Why were you such an idiot as to go there?’
She hesitated, looking away. ‘He promised me a backstage pass, for Murdo Mensah.’
‘So what? Are you mad? To go there, after everything!’
She sniffed and didn’t even argue. ‘But how did you find me?’
‘Cami told me. Thank Christ he did. He saw you going over to the van. When you didn’t reappear he came to find me.’ I didn’t think I’d ever felt so grateful to anyone. Cami had actually come good.
‘Thank God he did. And that you came …’
She started crying again, more quietly and I put my arm around her and we sat there in silence for a while.
When I heard footsteps approaching I moved to check who it was.
‘Don’t leave me!’
‘I’m not. I thought I heard Marcus …’ I undid the zip. ‘Yes, here he is. I wasn’t sure bloody Cami would give him my message.’ Even if he had come good, you could never quite rely on Cami.
‘Marcus?’ she said doubtfully.
Marcus’s dark head appeared in the opening. ‘She all right?’ he said, glancing at George once and then away.
‘She’ll be fine. But if I hadn’t found her …’
‘Yeah, yeah.’ He sighed. ‘Look, we can’t talk in this piddling little place.’
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ George said.
I had to admit I didn’t much fancy the idea of walking across to Marcus’s van, going anywhere near where Dex might be.
Marcus said, ‘We’ll use Mitchell’s tent. I’ll tell him to clear out.’
Mitchell was the owner of the only tent which was big enough to stand up in. He knew what was good for him and he and his friends left immediately Marcus spoke to them. It wasn’t a bad place. There were proper folding seats and a two-ring gas cooker on a table. I began heating water on this and Marcus told George to sit down and explain what had happened.
She did, as much as she could. I swore a couple of times in the background but didn’t actually interrupt. It didn’t take her long. She explained about the Murdo Mensah pass, and how Dex had grabbed her.
She started crying again when she explained how Dex had been interrupted by his phone. If it hadn’t been for that …
‘It can’t have been a phone,’ snapped Marcus. ‘They don’t work here.’
‘It’ll have been an alarm on his mobile,’ I said. ‘I’ve noticed he uses that quite a lot, he’s always charging the thing in the office. So he doesn’t miss any of his little appointments.’ Thank God it went off just then.
‘I wonder who he was going to meet,’ said Marcus. I’d like to have known that, too. George just shivered and sniffed, like she still wasn’t quite with us.
I handed out mugs of tea and chocolate biscuits. I hoped Mitchell wouldn’t mind us making free with his stuff. Then I sat down beside George. I was glad the story was over. She’d finally stopped shaking. There was still only the canvas
between us and the rest of the world but it gave an illusion of privacy, and Marcus was here, looking murderous. Marcus was the one person Dex was scared of.
‘This time we have to go to the police,’ I said.
Marcus shook his head once. ‘No. It’ll be just her word against his.’
‘And mine. And the rope burns on her wrists.’ I grabbed her arm to show Marcus. ‘And the rope in the van.’
‘That’ll have gone by now. And I said no. No police.’
I wanted to argue and then saw the expression on his face. He really was determined to keep the police away.
I said, ‘Then Dex has to go. He’s too dangerous, Marcus! He’s out of control. Even if he says he’ll leave George alone, you can’t trust him.’
‘I thought you wanted Dex to stay?’ said Marcus, watching me. ‘I thought that was what was needed.’
I frowned, wrong-footed. It always caught me out when Marcus was so much more switched on than he seemed. Although why he thought I needed Dex to be anywhere I don’t know. It wasn’t up to me what happened now.
I shook my head, ignoring George’s puzzled look and glared back. ‘It’s not my choice. And anyway I’d rather he went, now.’
‘But it would be better for your associates if he stayed, wouldn’t it?’
‘What are you talking about?’ said George.
‘Nothing,’ I said.
‘So Dex stays,’ said Marcus. ‘For now. And no police until … well, not at the moment. This is what we’ll do. George can stay out of sight tonight. I’ll go and speak to him, might even get someone to rough him up a bit if you’d like that?’
He was looking at George. She shuddered and shook her head. I agreed with her for once. We didn’t want any more violence, even if it was Dex on the receiving end.
‘And then when we’re finished on Saturday I’ll see you safely home. I promised Beck I would.’
Music and Lies (George and Finn Book 1) Page 15
