The Girl in the Rug

by K Leitch

  ‘Er…no love that’s ok you call her, I’ve got to meet someone this evening,’ Maggie said coyly.

  Helen smiled she had a good idea who Maggie was meeting, but she wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

  ‘Sooo,’ she began looking closely at Maggie, ‘anything new with you that you want to tell me about?’

  Maggie’s face broke into a happy smile, ‘Bloody hell is it that obvious,’ she said with a grin.

  ‘I can’t help noticing that you look like the cat that got the cream,’ giggled Helen.

  Maggie burst out laughing, ‘Oh you do have a way with words love,’ she giggled, ‘and I certainly did get the cream…oh my god did I…the man is amazing. I’m telling you Helen there are things that man does…well never mind, suffice it to say that Duncan is back where he belongs and I’m loving every minute.’

  Helen squeezed her hand, ‘I am so pleased honey…you two are so right for each other. It’s been bloody purgatory watching you skirting around each other, I have felt like banging your heads together a few times. So has Martha, you should hear her on the subject, she’ll be thrilled I know.’

  ‘Oh god…I’d forgotten about Martha, I’ll never hear the bloody end of it will I?’ Maggie said laughing.

  They had pulled up outside Helen’s house, Helen leaned over and gave Maggie a kiss, ‘Thanks love for the lift…and I am so, so happy for you Maggie…you of all people deserve to be happy, hold on to him he’s pretty special. And I will call Carla tonight…I’ll let you know what happens, bye.’

  Maggie returned her kiss and watched her to her front door waving as she went inside. She smiled contentedly to herself…whether she deserved this happiness or not she wasn’t going to waste a minute of it. A great wave of euphoria swept over her, this morning her friend had been missing which had been a great big blot on her horizon. Now Tracy was back, safe and well and there was nothing but blue skies ahead. She turned the radio up and sang along loudly with Catrina and the Waves who were ‘Walking on Sunshine’ just as she was.

  CHAPTER 58 - CARLA

  It was a frustrated Carla that made her exhausted way to the hospital later that evening. Both Tracy and Linda had been put into side wards with police guards outside, someone had gone to extreme lengths to do away with both of them so Carla wasn’t taking any risks now she had them back.

  Linda had regained consciousness, but wasn’t talking much due to a badly bruised jaw and cheekbone. She looked dreadful and was obviously still in shock, hardly managing to hold back the tears. Frank was super glued to her side which was obviously giving her comfort. Carla didn’t stay long, she had just popped in to make sure she was awake and to blow her a kiss, she would need to formally interview her within the next few days but tonight the girl needed to sleep and recover. Carla called Frank outside for a moment as she was leaving.

  ‘We bloody lost him Frank,’ she said without preamble. ‘I don’t know how, but the fucking bastard got away again.’ Carla was pacing up and down angrily.

  ‘Shit!’ Frank said putting his head in his hands.

  ‘I’ve put out an APB and alerted the airports and ports etc. I don’t know what more I can do. We’ve got six men cooling their heels in the police cells at Redbank, including two councillors, one Mayor and a DCI all of which have got to be interviewed. Superintendent Drew has volunteered to take care of DCI Riley and DI Steve Lucton and his team have been interviewing the Mayor, who it seems is singing like a bird in the hope that we’ll keep his name out of it. I’ll need you to organise a meeting in the incident room tomorrow morning Frank, so that we can plan our interviews with the others.’

  Frank nodded, ‘Yep fine I’ll take care of that…that was the one good thing I was able to tell Linda, that we had found her camera and as a result we’ve got the bastards. She almost tried to smile, not a good move if your jaw’s all smashed up but still…’

  Carla could see that Frank was desperate to get back to Linda so she left him to it and went down the corridor to Tracy’s room.

  The last time Carla had seen Tracy she had been laying on the ground at her feet in a muddy field. Now cleaned up and in a hospital bed it was horrifying to see the change in her since her kidnap. She looked tiny, like a little girl. Her cheeks looked hollow and there were dark bruises all over her face and neck. Her lips were cracked and bleeding and she still had a vacant feverish look about her. She was attached to a couple of drips and a bleeping machine but she appeared to be conscious.

  Carla went over to the opposite side of the bed to Simon and held the other hand; Tracy slowly turned her head and looked at her trying to smile.

  ‘Oh god Tracy am I glad to see you darling,’ was all Carla said before breaking down and sobbing out the stresses of the day. Maggie came round and gave her a hug until she got control of herself.

  ‘I’m so sorry love…’ whispered Tracy, ‘so very sorry.’

  ‘You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for darling,’ sobbed Carla. ‘You poor thing, I can’t begin to imagine how scared you’ve been…I need you to tell me what happened honey,’ Simon went to protest so Carla held up a hand, ‘No I don’t mean tonight Simon…but tomorrow I will need to hear it all, we have to find the man that did this…you must see that.’

  ‘Of course I do,’ Simon said, ‘but she needs to rest and get better Carla…’

  ‘No,’ Tracy croaked, ‘I must tell her Simon…I must tell her soon, what if he does this to someone else I’d never forgive myself.’

  Carla squeezed her hand, ‘Thank you love…I’ll be back tomorrow…it’ll just be me, so nothing scary ok?’

  Carla finally got home after ten that night, James sensing that she was nearly collapsing with exhaustion bundled her up in a quilt on the sofa, fed her homemade chicken soup and talked about mundane things until bedtime. Then he held her in his arms as she cried with relief that her friend had come home safe and with frustration that the man that had hurt her was still free.

  CHAPTER 59

  Nellie didn’t know how much longer he could go on as he stumbled further and further into the woods. His ribs were on fire, he must have smashed a couple when he rolled the van, not to mention that the burns on his face had him shaking with fever and seeing monsters behind every tree. With sheer bloody mindedness and despite the agony, Nellie had pushed his broken body to breaking point and climbed a tree as high as he could go. He had hidden there, high in the canopy of the trees, lashing himself to a thick branch as the wind and torrential rain swirled round him, whilst he watched those stupid fuckers beating their way through the bracken below trying to find him. Once the light had gone they had given up and he was able to half climb and half fall back down to earth. Only then did the pain and the fever begin to kick in as he dragged himself through the woods looking for a place where he could rest and recoup.

  His fevered brain was blurring what was real and what was imagined. He could hear the mocking laughter of his many victims as they watched him running blindly through the night, they were all around him, behind every tree sometimes even rising up in front of him from the sodden earth blocking his path. He tried to push them away shouting angrily at them, but they evaded his fists and continued to taunt him. He spotted a faint light in the corner of a field up ahead and began to run towards it hoping that it was real and not something conjured up by his brain to tease him. As he got really close to it though, he realised it was an old caravan. It was probably being used by a woodsman or a charcoal maker, there were piles of logs stacked against the outside of the van and a rusty old Landrover parked a few yards away.

  A filthy emaciated dog that had been sleeping unseen beneath the van, suddenly sprang into life barking at Nellie in the shadows. Nellie backed into the trees out of sight as a elderly man, who looked as skinny and filthy as his dog, poked his head out of the door of the van and shouted at the dog.

  ‘Shut the fuck up Weasle,’ he said peering out into the darkness. He pulled out a torch and shone it out towards the tre
es checking for intruders. He did this a few times until, satisfied that there was no one there, he spat on the ground, switched off the torch and went back inside mumbling under his breath, ‘stupid fucking dog’.

  Nellie retreated further into the trees; circling round behind the van and then creeping to the side nearest to the door. The dog started up again stretching the chain that tethered it to the van and confronting Nellie growling, its teeth bared. Nellie pulled out his knife and lunged at the dog who barked furiously at him again.

  Swearing furiously the elderly man once again opened his door and took an angry step out towards the dog. He got no further, with a flash of his blade Nellie opened up his throat, blood spurted out like a fountain as gurgling and clutching at his neck he fell to the sodden floor with a splash, his blood mixing with the pools of water on the ground. Nellie rolled his twitching body underneath the caravan out of sight.

  The dog, which proved to be a very distant relative of a Jack Russell terrier, went mental, barking and growling at Nellie. Calmly Nellie stared it down until the dog, recognising a lethal opponent backed away and allowed Nellie to release his chain. With unaccustomed gentleness, Nellie coaxed the dog into the warmth of the caravan. He liked dogs…that old bastard deserved to die leaving a dog outside on a night like tonight. Inside, the caravan smelt of old grease and paraffin; and it was hardly big enough for a big man like Nellie to turn round in. There was a bed of sorts, covered with a grubby quilt that took up the whole of one side and a small row of cupboards and a teeny tiny kitchenette on the other. After hunting around a bit Nellie found dried food for the dog, this was gobbled up by the poor starving creature almost before the dish was put on the floor. He then went through the rest of the van trying to find anything that he could use to reduce his fever and sooth his burning face. He found both…paracetamol for his fever and an old tube of Savlon for his face.

  He took four of the paracetamol tablets, before examining his burnt face in the tiny mirror above the kitchen sink. His skin was badly blistered and peeling off in places, half his hair on one side had been burnt away…he looked horrific. Nellie swore fluently and viciously as he vowed to get revenge on the bitch that had done this to him. He carefully applied as much of the Savlon as he could bear. His face was so sore it was all he could do to dab at it. The drugs that he had taken were beginning to make him feel sleepy but he knew he had to get out of his wet clothes before he could sleep. Once naked and wrapped in the smelly quilt he finally lay down on the mean little bed.

  If he could just find Freddy Robinson and get the money that was owed him, that, along with what Tutt had stashed away, would be enough to keep him going for a while. First thing in the morning he would find a way of getting hold of both Tutt and Freddy…he wondered sleepily if the old Landrover that he had seen outside the van was working…he would find out tomorrow he thought just before he fell into a deep sleep.

  CHAPTER 60 - TRACY

  Cold was seeping into her bones. She watched in horror as it began turning her limbs blue before her eyes. She tried to rub them keeping the cold at bay, ‘keep the blood flowing…don’t let it stop or you’ll freeze solid’ a voice was saying. She looked wildly round, who had spoken to her…it wasn’t Tilly…Tilly wasn’t there, Tilly was all alone…oh god Tilly was all alone! She started to crawl around towards the voice, she could feel the dirt beneath her hands. Creatures kept running over her fingers…fast legged creatures making her skin crawl, panic stricken she brushed them away from her, but they just came back more and more of them crawling up her arms and legs.

  ‘No, no, no,’ Tracy murmured batting out wildly trying to disperse them.

  ‘Make him wear a dinner jacket,’ the voice said again, ‘men look good in dinner jackets.’

  Tracy couldn’t help but smile and agree…she could see who it was now, sitting on the far side of her cell facing away from her. She slid along the ground towards the figure until she was right next to it.

  ‘I agree I love a man in a dinner jacket,’ she began, tapping her companion on the shoulder. A face swivelled round towards her, a frozen deadly white face, eyes fixed and staring, blackened lips which curved into a skeletal smile. The creatures were crawling all over it, in and out of its mouth, its eyes, its nose. Tracy flew back screaming and screaming as she frantically scrambled away from the ghoulish creature…but it followed her, even as she pulled away, it was there right next to her.

  ‘AAAAARRRGGH…no leave me…AARRGHH …PLEASE PLEASE LEAVE ME….’

  ‘Tracy,’ the creature called her… ‘Tracy, Tracy…wake up sweetheart…wake up…’

  Tracy woke up with a start and stared into the sweet face of Daphne, the ward sister. Relief flooded through her and she buried her face in her pillow and sobbed.

  ‘It’s ok now my lovely,’ Daphne cooed in her lovely lilting Welsh accent. ‘You’re safe now, it’s the drugs giving you nightmares.’ She stayed with Tracy until she had calmed down, bringing her a hot sweet tea from the machine and talking gently to her before tucking her back in and telling her to try to sleep some more.

  ‘You know they’ll be waking you up at the crack of dawn anyway my love, so best to sleep while you can.’

  Tracy lay awake looking out of the window. The rain had been tipping down most of the night but it seemed to have stopped now and the clouds were breaking up. She knew who it was in her dream and she knew that she hadn’t imagined what she had seen in the cellar. Louisa had been there…correction Louisa’s body had been there. She didn’t know when it had been taken out, presumably when she had been knocked unconscious by that brute…but she knew it had been there and she needed to speak to Carla as soon as possible. To make her search the cellar again…looking for evidence of Louisa this time…there had to be some surely, and they had to speak to Tim. Tracy would see Carla tomorrow, she had said that she would be interviewing her then…she would tell her all about it, make her listen. With that sorted out in her mind Tracy let her thoughts wander, she wondered how Linda was…the nurse said she was doing fine. She had a badly swollen jaw but she was healing nicely. Tracy owed that girl her life…she may have been high with fever but she would never forget Linda pulling her along, never letting her fall. Linda holding the water bottle to her mouth and wrapping that old blanket round her shoulders.

  Tracy sat bolt upright in bed, she pushed the blankets to one side and tried to get out of bed only to be pulled back by the cables and the drips. She needed to speak to Carla, what if they threw it away thinking it was rubbish, oh god there would be no proof then…she needed to make sure nothing happened to it.

  Sitting on the side of the bed she rummaged through her locker, Simon had brought her handbag up earlier; maybe her mobile was in it…yes it was there. She quickly pressed Carla’s number; the phone rang and rang until finally.

  ‘Hello…Tracy is that you?’ came Carla’s surprised and sleepy voice on the other end.

  ‘Yes hi Carla it’s me…sorry I forgot it was so late. Listen Carla I need to know if you found the blanket.’

  ‘What,’ Carla asked in bewilderment, ‘what the fuck are you talking about Tracy love?’

  ‘The blanket…from the cellar, have you got it?’ Tracy asked urgently again.

  ‘Tracy…it is two in the morning, shouldn’t you be sleeping instead of worrying about some old blanket…’

  ‘Noooo…’ said Tracy getting agitated, ‘you don’t understand Carla it’s vital that you don’t throw it away, don’t you see…she was wrapped in it. I’ve remembered Louisa…she was wrapped in it, you’ll be able to find proof won’t you…DNA and such like on the blanket…’

  ‘Right your saying there is an old blanket in the cellar and that Louisa Boulter was wrapped in it…is that what you’re saying?’ Carla said patiently.

  ‘Yes,’ answered Tracy pleased to see that Carla had got the point. ‘You will make sure won’t you Carla, that they keep hold of it?’

  Carla sighed, ‘Yes love, I will make sure…now go back
to sleep will you and stop worrying about it…night love.’

  ‘Night,’ said Tracy heaving a sigh of relief…she got back into bed and snuggled down. Everything would be fine now, Carla would take care of it she thought as her eyes slowly closed and she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

  CHAPTER 61

  Nellie’s mouth tasted like the bottom of a parrot’s cage when he woke the next morning. His head was pounding and he ached all over. The dog was asking to be let out so he slowly hauled himself up and opened the door. The rain had stopped and for once the sun was shining…in fact the sun seemed pretty high in the sky. Nellie hunted round for a clock or watch of any kind, something to tell him what time it was, finally he switched on the tiny TV that sat on the side in the kitchen, it took ages to warm up but eventually Phillip Schofield smiled compassionately out from the miniature screen and began to talk about the worrying problem of child obesity in the capital.

  Nellie shook his head at the TV, ‘Fucking fat bastards…they should staple the little fucker’s lips together that’d do it,’ he laughed at his own joke as he put some more food out for the dog. He found some bottled water and took several more pain killers, then began to search for food and any money that might be lying around the place. There was milk in the fridge and a box of cornflakes on the side so he sat down and watched the TV as he ate his breakfast.

  Phillip Schofield finished his interview with Jenny, an unfortunately plump six year old, and her mum Mandy a twenty stone growler, and took a break for the news. Nellie nearly spat his cornflakes across the caravan as Freddy Robinson and Mayor David Wesley’s faces appeared on the screen behind the newsreader, as she announced that the Mayor, several local Council members and high ranking business men had been detained by the police for questioning about sexual offences to children. She went on to say that the caretaker from a children’s home run by the council was also being questioned although he was at the moment recovering from a recent attack in hospital. Then worst of all Nellie watched open mouthed as those pictures were replaced by one of him! ‘Police are looking for this man, Elliot Dentch, better known as Nellie, he is wanted in connection with the recent abduction of two women, both of whom have been found and are recovering in hospital. If you do happen to see this man please do not approach him as he is known to be violent and dangerous, just inform your local police station at once…’