Liz was becoming frustrated and struggled to raise her voice.
“You don’t understand, there is somewhere I really, really need to be and I need to get there soon, before………..before it’s too late.”
Terry went along with the conversation, without meaning to sound patronising, but he found it hard not to. It was clear, even to Liz, that he was humouring her.
“Where do you need to be?”
“The hill dad, I need you to take me to the hill where Ben died.”
Terry looked at Anne, who was having difficulty in hearing what Liz was saying.
“She wants us to take her to the hill.”
“Why, why do you need to be at the hill?” said her mother.
Liz didn’t answer, not straight away. Her eyes looked around as if she was searching for what to say next.
“I need to be with Ben, and I need to be there soon before it’s too late.”
“She’s probably delirious,” whispered Anne.
“I am not bloody delirious and I need to get to the hill.”
Anne sat back when she heard the determination in her daughter’s voice.
“Listen, I don’t know if you know, but I am dying. I’m sorry to break it to you, but I don’t have long. I know where I am and I know you can get me to the hill in less than ten minutes. I need to be there to be with Ben………..and I can’t be late.”
The conviction in her voice was staggering. She certainly didn’t seem delirious. In fact for the first time since she’d woken from the coma she sounded completely compos mentis.
“Listen, I have complete control of my mind and I know exactly what I am asking of you. I know it won’t be easy to wheel me out of here, but I beg you to try your best………..and if you don’t, I will get up and walk of my own accord, and I doubt if you’d want that.”
Terry and Anne knew she wasn’t bluffing. She reminded them of how she was before she was attacked. Stubborn, determined and sometimes pigheaded.
“But why do you need to be with Ben ………..you know he’s no longer with us?” asked Anne.
“He’s no longer with you, but he can still be with me.”
They looked at her quizzically.
“I can’t really explain, not right now, but please just do exactly as I say, and do it now. Drive me to the hill, the hill in Badock’s Wood.”
Chapter one hundred and fifty three
Maria and Campbell’s flat
10.35am
Saturday 23rd June
“Ben’s back!” called Maria. She was so shaken she could hardly make herself heard and was lying on her front after tumbling over the coffee table.
“Ben’s back where?” asked Campbell, clearly sensing Maria was frightened.
She motioned with her hand and pointed to the lounge.
“In there.”
Campbell threw down the tea towel and rushed into the lounge to find Christopher in the highchair. He looked different. Campbell could tell by the expression on his face and the glint in his eye that it wasn’t Christopher.
“Sorry for scaring Maria,” said Ben.
“What do you want, I thought that you’d agreed not to bother Christopher anymore.”
“I’m sorry, I hadn’t planned to do this, it just happened.”
“Why, what do you want, why are you back?”
Ben was about to answer, when Maria came back into the lounge.
“Make him go away, please tell him to leave us alone,” shouted Maria.
“Sorry, this is not my doing………..but I do need your help, and then I promise………..I promise that I’ll never bother Christopher again.”
Maria covered her ears with her hands and repeated, “Make him go away - Make him go away - Make him go away - Make him go away.”
Campbell stepped over to her and held her by her arms.
“Listen to me, stop it and listen to me.”
Maria stopped shouting and stared at him. Campbell could see the look in her eye had returned. It was the same look she’d had when she’d lost it completely in Christopher’s bedroom the previous month.
“Maria, I can’t just make him go away, I can’t just pick Christopher up by his ankles and shake him until Ben disappears.”
Maria didn’t speak and continued to stare manically.
“Ben needs us to do something and we need to listen to him.”
Campbell led her by the hand and walked her over to Christopher. He looked up at Maria.
“I’m sorry to put you through this………..”
“Just tell us what we need to do to put an end to all of this?” interrupted Campbell.
Christopher’s eyes looked at Campbell, then to Maria and then back to Campbell, but it wasn’t Christopher’s eyes that were looking, it was Ben’s.
“I need to be at the hill, the hill where I was murdered.”
Chapter one hundred and fifty four
Southmead Hospital
10.43am
Saturday 23rd June
Terry and Anne were trusting their instincts. Neither of them were sure why Liz was so determined to be with Ben, but something about the urgency of the way she had spoken had convinced them to do as she said.
Terry had found a wheelchair and had brought it behind the curtains. He struggled as he opened it, the same way he struggled to put up a deck chair. After a couple of minutes he had clicked it into place and it was ready for Liz to climb into.
Anne pulled back the sheets and noticed the catheter tube under her bedclothes. Terry turned the other way as Anne removed the tube. Liz winced with pain as she did it.
Terry hauled her into an upright position. For a girl whose muscles had wasted over the years and who weighed less than seven and half stone, she was a heavy lump to move. She was floppy like a huge rag doll.
He propped her up as Anne swivelled her around and let her legs hang down over the side of the bed. Liz was helpless and needed her parents to do all the work. She could barely lift her arms and had no strength in her lower body to allow her to climb down from the bed.
Anne wheeled the chair as close as it would go. They struggled to haul her down from the hospital bed.
“The things too damned high,” cursed Terry.
“Then lower it,” suggested Liz in a pathetically weak voice.
He grabbed the electronic adjuster and fiddled with the buttons until the bed began to lower to the level of the wheelchair.
“Stop, that should be low enough,” said Anne.
They slowly lugged her off the bed until she dropped onto the wheelchair. Her limp body skewed to one side.
Liz motioned to the bowl on her bedside table with her other hand over her mouth. Her blood pressure had dropped and she was feeling dizzy and nauseous. Terry got the bowl to her just in time as Liz began to vomit.
“We don’t have to do this, why don’t you get back into bed?” said her mother.
Liz shook her head.
“I’m OK, let’s get on with it,” she whispered.
Terry poked his head around the curtain and looked up and down the ward.
“The coast is clear,” he whispered.
The insanity of what they were about to do did not occur to any of them. Compared to the strange events of the last few weeks, what they were about to do seemed relatively normal.
Liz’s bed was near the top of the ward, about fifty feet away from the reception area, where there were always one or two nurses poking away at computers and making notes.
“How are we going to get past the nurses?” whispered Anne.
“We need to create a distraction,” said Terry.
Liz was beginning to fade in and out of consciousness.
“I’ve an idea, give me a couple of minutes,” said Anne as she disappeared along the ward and to the reception area.
Anne walked up to the nurses and asked whether the toilets were vacant.
“What does the sign say?” asked one of the nurses abruptly.
�
��I’m sorry, I’ve left my glasses by my daughter’s bedside,” replied Anne sheepishly.
The nurse popped her head up and looked at the door of the ladies toilets which were opposite reception.
“It’s green, they’re empty”.
Anne thanked her, went into the cubical and locked the door. After a couple of minutes she started knocking and calling for help.
“Can anyone hear me? I’ve locked myself in and I can’t get out. Help, can anybody hear me?”
Terry could hear the commotion and got ready to wheel Liz along the ward.
“Hello, can anyone hear me?” Anne called again.
Both nurses made their way to the toilet door.
“What’s wrong?” asked one of the nurses.
“The door won’t open,” was Anne’s muffled reply.
“OK, hold on,” called the nurse as she went back to the reception desk to find a screwdriver.
A minute later she had returned.
“Don’t worry, these doors can be opened from the outside, we’ll have you out in a jiffy.”
As the two nurses busied themselves opening the toilet door, Terry quietly wheeled Liz past them and out of the ward and into the corridor.
Seconds later Anne was free. She apologised for causing trouble, looked down the ward and could see that Liz’s curtain had been pulled back and she was no longer there.
She hurried out of the ward and caught up with Liz and Terry who were approaching the exit of the main hospital wards.
No one paid the slightest bit of attention to the innocent looking parents taking their poorly daughter for trip around the hospital gardens to breathe in the glorious midmorning air of the magnificent June day. Luckily, even less attention was paid when Liz was bundled into the back seat of Anne’s car in the visitor’s car park.
Terry took the wheel as the silver Mercedes sped out of the car park and towards the Monks Park Avenue exit of Southmead Hospital, with the sound of the wheelchair sliding from side to side in the boot.
Anne sat next to Liz and propped herself against her daughter’s limp body as she listed from side to side as Terry took each turning and roundabout.
He had been driving a little too fast for some of the corners, but was mindful not to go over thirty miles an hour as he didn’t want to raise the interest of any passing police officers.
In less than ten minutes they had pulled up at the Doncaster Road entrance of Badock’s Wood.
Terry lugged the wheelchair from the boot and wheeled it alongside the nearside rear passenger door. He opened it and reached in to release Liz’s seatbelt.
It was a struggle and took several minutes to gently pull Liz from the car. Although she was conscious again, she was of no use. She had little control over her weak and limp frame, apart from being able to hold onto her father’s shoulders as he pulled her onto the wheelchair.
Nobody spoke as Terry wheeled Liz towards the woods with Anne walking a couple of paces behind. As they veered to the right along the footpath Liz could see the hill coming into view, where Ben had lost his life that fateful September evening.
Terry and Anne shuddered in unison when they saw it. It was the first time they’d been there since the attack on Ben and Liz.
Liz smiled contently as she approached the exact spot where she and Ben had kissed the night he’d died.
“Ben, promise me you won’t be late, I’ve waited so long for you,” she whispered to herself.
Chapter one hundred and fifty five
Outside Maria and Campbell’s flat
10.35am
Saturday 23rd June
Ben had eventually convinced Maria and Campbell to drive him to the woods. Maria was strapping him into the child seat as Campbell started the car.
“Garraway needs to be there,” said Ben.
“Why?” demanded Maria.
“Just because he does, sorry, I should have mentioned it earlier………..call him and tell him to get to the hill now.”
Campbell pulled his phone from his pocket and searched for the number.
“Markland, its Campbell………..listen, I can’t speak for long. Please stop whatever you are doing and get to Badock’s Wood as fast as you can.”
Maria strapped herself in as she listened to his side of the telephone conversation.
“I can’t really explain why, but Ben’s awake………..no he isn’t hypnotised, he’s just………..he’s just awake and he’s demanding we take him to the hill and he wants you to be there too.”
Campbell paused as Garraway spoke.
“Don’t worry, if it means you turn up wearing your dressing gown, just get there as fast as you can.”
Campbell ended the call and turned to Maria.
“He’s still in bed, I woke him up………..but he said he’ll be there.”
Campbell turned to Ben in the child seat.
“Garraway says he’ll be there.”
“Yes, I heard you the first time, now please drive.”
Campbell headed towards Southmead. Neither he nor Maria had been to Badock’s Wood. It was somewhere she had vowed never to go and it was certainly somewhere she’d never wished her son to visit. But this was different, it was Ben who was going and not Christopher.
Fifteen minutes later they were driving along the main Southmead Road.
“I don’t know which way,” said Campbell.
Ben was peering out of the window. He knew exactly where he was and which way to go.
“Keep going and I’ll tell you when to turn, you’ll need to take a left soon,” said the voice from the back of the car.
Maria shuddered as Ben spoke.
For just over a minute there was silence in the car, until Ben gave directions.
“Turn left at these lights.”
Campbell caught the lights on amber and almost lost control as he took the left turn too fast. He struggled to keep the car on his side of the road and heard the horn of an angry driver.
“OK, this is Doncaster Road, we’re nearly there, slow down a little.”
Campbell slowed down as they passed the adventure playground.
“It’s just here, pull over,” demanded Ben.
Campbell brought the car to a halt and parked behind Anne Mason’s Mercedes.
Maria unbuckled Ben from the child seat.
“Can you walk or would you like me to carry you?”
Ben tried a few unsteady steps and then fell to the floor.
“Sorry Maria, I’ve not mastered walking yet, you’ll need to carry me.”
She lifted him into her arms. It was the strangest thing she would ever do in her life. She carried Christopher, her two year old son, fully aware it wasn’t him who was in her arms.
Ben directed Maria into the woods and towards the hill.
“Look!” shouted Campbell as he pointed to the hill.
“She’s there,” said Ben.
The hill was two hundred metres away and Liz, Anne and Terry could be seen waiting at the bottom.
Terry’s jaw dropped when he saw Campbell with Maria, who was carrying Christopher and walking towards them.
“What is it daddy?” asked Liz.
“I’m not sure, hang on, I’ll find out what’s happening.”
Terry walked with a purposeful stride towards them as they approached the hill.
“What are you doing here?”
Campbell was about to speak, but Ben spoke first.
“Because I told them to bring me,” said Ben.
Terry stopped in his tracks.
“Ben?” said Terry quizzically with a look of disbelief on his face.
Campbell and Maria nodded.
“He said he had to be here,” added Maria.
“I promised Liz I’d be here for her. She asked me to meet her at the hill.”
“But why, why now?” demanded Terry.
Ben didn’t answer. He knew that Terry understood exactly why he needed to be with Liz.
Maria, Campbell and Ben
continued towards the hill, with Terry walking behind.
Ben caught site of Liz. His heart was in his throat. It was the first time he’d seen her in almost three years. As Maria got closer, with Ben in her arms, he began to cry. He could see her in the wheelchair, with her eyes shut and her head tilted forward.
In the short space of time her father had walked over to Ben, Liz had lost consciousness.
Maria placed Ben on the ground and he sat upright and looked up at Liz.
“How long has she been unconscious?” asked Ben.
Anne tried to reply but couldn’t. She knew it was Ben who was talking and not the little boy she could see in front of her.
“She was awake just now, she must have only just lost consciousness,” replied Terry.
The moment was interrupted by the sound of Campbell’s phone ringing.
“Don’t answer it, not now,” demanded Maria.
“I have to, it’s Garraway.”
“Campbell, I need a bit of help. I’m here, but I can’t make it all the way to the hill………..if you look behind, you’ll see me.”
Campbell turned around and saw Garraway in the clearing about two hundred metres away. He was propping himself up with his crutches and struggling to walk to the hill.
Campbell looked at Liz slumped in the wheelchair.
“Terry, Garraway is here, but he can’t make it to the hill, it’s his arthritis, he can’t walk very far,” said Campbell, as he gestured toward the wheelchair.
Terry and Campbell gently lifted Liz from the wheelchair and laid her on the grass at the bottom of the hill. Anne adjusted her hospital gown to cover her up.
Terry and Campbell walked together as Terry pushed the empty wheelchair to Garraway, who was leaning against a tree.
“Thank you,” said Garraway as he flopped into the chair.
Campbell pushed him towards the hill and Terry walked alongside.
“What’s happening?” asked Garraway.
“No one’s really sure,” replied Campbell. “It seems that both Liz and Ben have a reason to be here. They were adamant that they should be at the hill together, and Ben insisted that you should also be here.”
By the time Campbell had wheeled Garraway to the hill, Liz had regained consciousness and was looking at Christopher who was sitting on the grass.
The Hill - Carla’s Story (Book Two): A Paranormal Murder Mystery Thriller. (Book Two) Page 28
