The Girl in the Rug

by K Leitch

  Carla squeezed her hand, ‘Come on, let’s not assume the worst yet love…have you rung round all her friends Simon?’ she said as soon as they were inside the house, ‘and I know this may sound like a stupid question, but have you tried her mobile?’

  Simon shook his head and pointed at a mobile that was plugged into a recharger on the kitchen table. ‘She’s not got it with her, I guess she thought she wouldn’t be needing it, and yes I’ve been in touch with everybody that I can think of. I went round to Nora’s in case she’d dropped in there for a chat…no one’s seen her Carla, not since this morning.’ Simon was running his hands through his hair and pacing the room with worry.

  ‘Do you have any idea where she was going for this walk today?’ Carla asked him.

  ‘Not really…but she usually takes Buster to the common if it’s fine. I have already walked down there, I couldn’t see any sign of her though, or Tilly…I mean she had Tilly in the buggy Carla, she can’t just have disappeared. And then there’s Buster he would have come home I’m sure if he lost Tracy. Oh god,’ Simon broke down, ‘where are they…where are they Carla?’

  Maggie put her arm round Simon and Carla took his hands, ‘Right you listen to me Simon, we will find them…I promise you we will. You just have to keep it together for when she gets back. WPC Irene Watkins is going to stay here with you,’ she said indicating the WPC that had just walked into the kitchen, ‘just in case she returns before we do alright, and she will keep you informed on everything that happens. Now Frank, Maggie, Linda and I are going to join the search…we will find them trust me Simon, I won’t let anything happen to Tracy,’ Carla finished with a determined look on her face.

  They started the search at the most obvious point where the common joined the road that Tracy would have walked along, there were about twenty of them altogether fanning out over the common their torches shining a light in front of them. As they came to the trees it became harder to see and they had to start thrashing through the branches and bracken of the woods, calling out for Tracy all the time. Two hours passed with no sign and Carla was beginning to feel real fear for her friend. She knew from bitter experience how terrifying these woods could be at night and she sincerely hoped that Tracy wasn’t lying injured somewhere…she might never be found.

  At about eleven thirty the call came in. A woman had turned up at the police station in Kenley with a baby in a buggy and a dog. She had heard a baby crying from outside her kitchen but had ignored it thinking it must be a neighbour’s, but when it continued and a dog started barking and howling as well she had gone to investigate. She could not believe her eyes when she found a screaming baby and a little West Highland terrier parked up beneath her hedge. She had called the police immediately and then had taken the pair to Kenley police station.

  Carla and Frank raced back to Kenley, Carla called Simon on the way and he turned up at almost the same time.

  Tilly was distressed and extremely cold but otherwise thankfully she seemed unharmed, an ambulance was called to check her over. Simon held her to him tears streaming down his face, while Carla fussed over Buster who was delighted to see a familiar face.

  The woman that had found them, a Ms Sarah Trent, didn’t really have much more to tell them; she hadn’t noticed anyone near her house that day. She had heard a dog barking earlier this evening…but that was not unusual apparently, she hadn’t taken any notice of it. Carla showed her a picture of Tracy, but she didn’t recognise her, shaking her head as she looked at the photo.

  ‘No I’m sorry dear, I don’t know her, and what was she thinking of leaving that child out there in the cold. Poor little mite, she was screaming herself red in the face when I found her…wet through she was too…poor little mite.’

  Carla thanked her for being a good citizen and went back to where Simon was sitting with the paramedics who had turned up to check on Tilly. Maggie and Linda had arrived; Maggie grabbed Carla by the arm and drew her away from Simon.

  ‘What the fuck is going on Carla?’ she said tears in her eyes. ‘You know as well as I do that Tracy would never leave Tilly alone like that… something’s happened to her hasn’t it?’

  Carla glanced quickly at Simon who was still wrapped up with the paramedics, ‘I can’t think of any other explanation…I wish I bloody could believe me, but you’re right, whatever the circumstances there is no way that Tracy would willingly leave Tilly on her own, so…’

  ‘So…so what Carla…do you think she’s been abducted or something?’ Maggie said shocked.

  Carla sighed, worry for her friend etched on her face, ‘Well until another explanation turns up I think that is what we are going to have to assume. I must get a search organised, and start going door to door…somebody might have seen something.’

  Maggie just stared at her, ‘Oh my god Carla…oh my god, you don’t think she’s been hurt in anyway do you?’

  ‘Let’s not jump to any conclusions yet Maggs. Now I need to speak to Simon again, see if there was any reason she didn’t come home.’ Carla walked back over to Simon and began to gently question him.

  Just then Helen followed by Maya and Sophie, Maya’s daughter, rushed into the station and ran over to Maggie who hugged a tearful Helen to her.

  ‘She’s just disappeared Helen…someone’s taken her,’ and she too broke down, hugging Helen fiercely as she cried.

  A police search team was soon organised and a door to door enquiry launched, all Tracy’s many friends and neighbours joined in the hunt, everybody worried for her safety, and as the hours passed by without any sign of her Carla began to feel real fear that she might not see her friend alive again.

  Eventually door to door enquiries turned up one clue…a white transit van had been seen driving slowly past the edge of the common at about 11.45 that morning. It had been spotted by a couple of people, who had noticed it because it had been driving so slowly, as though its driver had been waiting for someone.

  CHAPTER 46

  The next evening was when Linda and Frank were scheduled to stake out the big house, but with Carla and Frank tied up looking for Tracy, Linda decided she would go by herself. According to Nellie’s notebook the next party was due to take place this very night, and all the activity at the house itself seemed to bear this out. From where she had parked her car Linda had watched the preparations, deliveries had been coming thick and fast all day, all presided over by a thug of a man who seemed to be a sort of gofer for Freddy Robinson. The Robinson’s themselves had put in a brief appearance earlier, which was interesting because they seemed to be really angry about something. Ranting and raving as they strode about the garden and shouting at the thug, who from his body language was obviously trying to absolve himself from any blame. She heard Gordon Robinson shout at him to ‘sort it’ before their guests arrived, and then both brothers jumped back into their car and raced back down the drive, leaving thug features to swear loudly and kick up the gravel, before heading back round to the rear of the house.

  The rest of the day passed relatively uneventfully, so arming herself with a flask of tea and some sandwiches, Linda resigned herself to a long evening of watching and waiting, hopefully it would be worth it. She had scouted round the house a few days earlier, trying to find a good vantage point from which she would be able to get some shots of the guest’s arriving. But to get the sort of pictures that Carla wanted was not going to be as easy, she would have to try and get as close to the house itself as possible for those.

  She waited in her car until she could see definite signs of people arriving, sure enough at nine on the dot the first of the car’s started to arrive, and soon dignitaries of all sorts were being ushered into the house by their genial hosts.

  Linda clicked away, recording each of them as they drove passed her and through the gates. Then, her heart racing, she left the safety of her car and skirted round to the side of the property where she had discovered a broken fence panel the day before that was loose enough for her to squeeze through. Once
inside the rather overgrown gardens she crept under the cover of darkness round to the back of the house and up onto the paved terrace which was directly behind the large French windows of the rear reception room.

  Judging from the buzz of conversation and the occasional bursts of laughter, this was where the party was being held and as luck would have it, the curtains in that room didn’t quite join in the middle giving Linda a reasonable view of the room inside.

  ‘Brilliant,’ she thought to herself, as she attached the telescopic lens and made sure that the flash was switched off on her dad’s state of the art camera. Then she sat back and waited for the perfect photo opportunity.

  For the next hour Linda sat on the cold concrete patio, watching the proceedings through her tiny peephole in the curtains. She was beginning to think that maybe they had been mistaken; from what she could see it seemed to be a perfectly normal gathering of men. There were tables set up for gambling and an enormous buffet to one side of the room groaning with all sorts of delicious culinary delights and expensive wines. Although Linda had nearly had a heart attack at one point when one of the men, a well known magistrate no less, had made use of the little table directly in front of the French windows (and about six inches from where she was sitting unseen in the darkness) to set up two lines of coke and snort it up his hairy nostrils, wiping his nose on a large white handkerchief… unbeknownst to him, she had it all on film.

  The longer she waited though the more dejected Linda felt…maybe Tracy had been right after all and the children that had been there that night had belonged to the kitchen staff. Maybe her dad had got it wrong and there were no children being abused whilst in the care of the state, or maybe they had just read too much into Nellie’s notebook and this was the wrong night. She would give it another half hour and then go home she decided.

  Ten minutes later Linda heard the sounds of an engine, a van it sounded like, and headlights lit up the side of the house about fifty yards from where she was crouched on the patio. Linda took a deep breath, this could be it! She crept along the edge of the back of the house keeping low to the ground and then flattened herself against the wall at the end, before very carefully peering round the corner.

  Sure enough there was the white van parked beside the rear entrance of the house. The driver, who Linda immediately recognised as Clive Tutt, jumped down from the driver’s seat and went round to the back doors of the van, opening them wide. From where Linda was, she could only see little feet jumping down onto the ground behind the van and walking in through the side door. There was an older boy, the one she had seen arguing with Tutt the other day, who seemed to be directing the smaller ones. Once they were all inside the house, Tutt got back into his van and took out a newspaper, lit up a cigarette and sat back to wait.

  As quickly as she dared Linda shuffled back along the patio and took up her position at the French windows. She didn’t have to wait long before she could clearly see the children being ushered into the party. The men were all smiles, offering them food and goodies. There were three boys and four girls all varying in ages from about four to about eight or nine. They all looked bewildered and shy as the men fawned over them. One of the men took one little girl onto his lap bouncing her up and down making her laugh, while another of the older boys was led out of the room by another man, he looked tearful and scared and Linda found it hard not to run in there and shout at the bastards to leave the kids alone. Instead she took pictures of them and she took pictures of the children’s worried little faces, even more confused and scared when a few minutes later the older boy told them to undress and dance around while a few of the men took photographs. A few of the children were made to sit on the laps of men who stroked and caressed them, while some other men watched and masturbated. She carried on taking pictures for as long as she could, making sure she got the faces of the men involved. When she thought she had enough she started back up the garden to her loose fence panel, filled with disgust at what she had seen, but exhilarated at the evidence she had collected.

  She was almost out of the garden when she heard the snap of a twig behind her…someone was following her…she began to run scrambling through the unkempt garden as if her life depended upon it, the panel was just up ahead…not far to go…nearly there…nearly there.

  A large hand grabbed her round one ankle bringing her down with a thump. Linda screamed and kicked out with the other foot, connecting with something; she heard a grunt of pain from behind her. That was all the encouragement she needed, she kicked and punched wildly pulling away all the time, but he was much too strong for her, holding her foot in an iron grip. Linda knew she was going to lose this fight, but there was no way they were going to get her pictures. As thick arms grabbed her again she suddenly went limp, taking her attacker by surprise and causing him to lose his balance slightly, giving her just enough time to swing her arms around and throw her dad’s precious camera over the fence, it landed with a quiet thud on the grassy bank on the other side. Her assailant who was far more interested in grabbing her again hadn’t noticed what she had done; smashing his fist into the side of her face he picked her up and carried her kicking and screaming back towards the house.

  Instead of being taken into the house as Linda had expected, she was carried round to the side and down some steep steps. She really began to panic then as she was taken through a small door and along a corridor that ran underneath the house; it was dark and smelt of damp and rotting vegetation.

  ‘NOOOOO…put me down…how dare you…get off me you great brute…HELP…HELP,’ she screamed until she was sore, still kicking out as hard as she could. Her booted feet had connected a couple of times she knew, so she tried to work out where she could cause the worst damage and aimed her kicks there. Finally she caught him hard right between the legs, he let out a huge roar of rage and dropped her onto the hard floor. Linda tried to get back onto her feet but was dragged back again and this time the giant of a man wasn’t messing around. His fist smashed into her face and she tasted blood in her mouth, another punched into her stomach and she fell to the floor in agony.

  ‘Fucking whore,’ the man growled furiously as he once again lifted her up and slung her over his shoulder. Linda was only just aware of the sound of a rusty key turning before she was unceremoniously thrown into darkness as the door was slammed shut behind her.

  She groaned and lay back on the dirt floor trying to get her breath back, ‘Bloody hell Linda,’ she whispered to herself, ‘what the fuck have you gotten into this time?’

  She sat up and tried to work out where she was, but it was almost pitch black…it seemed to be a cellar of some sort and there was no window. The air was fetid and stale and it was unbelievably cold. Linda wrapped her arms around herself and tried to figure out what to do now, hopefully Frank would try and find her once she didn’t report back tonight…and again hopefully he would see her car and maybe find her dad’s camera…what was that! Linda stayed very still and listened…it had sounded like a faint groaning sound…yes there it was again.

  ‘Hello,’ she said to the darkness, ‘who’s there…are you okay?’

  She heard a definite groan coming from just behind her; Linda swivelled round and began feeling her way slowly towards the sound.

  Suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder, she let out a scream.

  ‘Help me…please help me,’ whispered a voice in the darkness.

  ‘Who’s there,’ hissed Linda, holding onto the hand and feeling for a face, who ever she was, she was shivering with cold, lying on the dirt floor in a huddle.

  ‘Tracy…I’m Tracy,’ so faint Linda could barely hear it.

  ‘Oh my god Tracy…is that you?’ said Linda excitedly realising who it was, ‘Carla’s got half the village out looking for you.’

  ‘How do you know me…who are you…I don’t understand,’ asked Tracy trying to get her muddled thoughts together.

  ‘I’m Linda…Linda Connelly…Ted’s daughter, we met at his funeral, I don’t expe
ct you remember me but…’

  ‘Oh I do remember you…Linda…Ted’s Linda,’ Tracy’s voice broke and she grabbed onto Linda’s arms desperately pulling herself up against her. Linda put her arms around her and the girls clung to each other for a moment, Tracy was sobbing and shaking almost uncontrollably.

  ‘Tilly…my baby Tilly,’ Tracy sobbed, ‘I don’t know what he’s done with my baby…she was…she’s only eight months old, I had her with me you see when…’

  ‘Oh Tracy sweetheart, she’s fine…she’s safe,’ Linda assured her, Tracy broke down again, with relief this time.

  ‘Some lady found her and your little dog and took them to the police station. Simon’s got them…they’re safe,’ she repeated.

  ‘Thank god…thank god,’ cried Tracy over and over as she clung onto Linda.

  Linda was no doctor, but she could tell that Tracy was in a bad way; she was almost certainly suffering with hypothermia and dehydration, she had been here in this freezing cellar for over twenty four hours now and if Linda didn’t find a way to get them both out of here soon she might die. It was obvious also that her brain was not working as it should be, her speech was very slow and she kept repeating herself.

  ‘Have you seen her?’ Tracy asked again and again, ‘she’s in the corner…don’t go over there you mustn’t see her.’

  ‘Who?’ Linda said bewildered, ‘there’s no one else here Tracy…just us two.’

  ‘No you’re wrong,’ Tracy said clinging painfully onto Linda’s arms, ‘she’s sitting over there…poor Louisa…poor thing. I knew something was wrong when I saw her wheelchair…but I never thought.’

  Linda tried to calm her down, while she wracked her brains trying to think of a way out. Somebody would come soon she was sure, even if it was just to kill them…she had to think of a way to overpower them so she and Tracy could get out of here.