Echoes of the Past

by Mailer, Deborah

  “No. We only spoke for a few minutes then she left, she just lifted her mobile phone and left.”

  “My God, Jess!” Tom lifted his brief case. “I have to go, thank you.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Tom was out the door and down the steps before hearing Eva’s question. He pulled the mobile from his pocket and dialled Lee.

  “Where is Jess?” Tom’s sounded breathless as he spoke into his mobile phone while he raced to his car.

  “Hello to you to, she’s gone up to Matt’s with Gem–”

  “Get Danny, Lee, and get up there. Get her back home, take Danny with you. Call her on her mobile and tell her to head home.” He could hear Lee’s voice, panicked and questioning him as he hung up the phone and dialled Danny.

  He jumped into the Jeep as Danny’s voice mail picked up.

  “Danny, I’m on my way from Edinburgh, I’m about two hours away, it’s Matt, it’s Matt Ingles. You have to get up there, Jess and Gemma are there. Get them.”

  He sped through the narrowed streets with cars parked on either side of him. Heading toward the M8

  He dialled Scott Kerr at Edinburgh station. No reply.

  “Damn it.” He said as he realized it was a Saturday morning. With one eye on the road and the other on the mobile phone, he scrolled down for Detective Inspector Kerr’s mobile number.

  “Scott? Its Tom, I’ve got him.”

  “How the hell can you go from not a clue yesterday to …”

  “It’s Matt Ingles, I don’t have time to join the dots for you just now, just get all the local forces from Helensburgh and surrounding areas and get them up to Coppersfield, I can’t get hold of Danny.” The line went quiet for a second. “Scott?”

  “Are you sure it’s Matt Ingles?” Scott’s voice was quiet and deliberate.

  “I have a witness to the Susanna Wheeling murder, it was Matt’s father. She also puts Matt with Jill Patterson the night she disappeared.”

  Scott paused, as if choosing his words. “I don’t have to tell you what kind of shit storm this will cause if the man that set up our computer systems is a killer.”

  Tom sighed. He didn’t care about the implications, “Scott, you need to get backup there. My daughter is at Ingaldean Estate.”

  “Ok, Tom, I’m on it. And, Tom, you better be right about this, you may be retiring, I’m not.”

  The line went dead. “I pray I’ve got it wrong, Scott.”

  Tom weaved in and out of the busy lanes in the crowded city before finally reaching the motorway. He could feel his chest tightening as the realization of the danger Jess was truly in swept through him like a flood. Crossing all three lanes he moved into the outside and pushed his foot hard on the accelerator. He had over ninety miles still to travel before reaching Coppersfield.

  *****

  Jess turned to see Matt standing behind her.

  “What are you girls doing down here?” His voice was calm and unthreatening.

  “Uncle Matt, we found this room by accident.”

  Matt walked over to the table next to Gemma and examined the tools there. Jess caught a metal glint from his hand as he lifted it up and brought it down hard on Gemma’s head. Jess let out a screech as she turned and fled for the stairs. In a second, Matt had a hold of her, a pain filled her head and shoulders and everything went black.

  Jess began to stir as if waking from a bad dream; her head throbbed. She could feel the dirt floor beneath her, still sitting on the floor; she pulled herself into an upright position. She could feel the chill from the wall against her back. Her eyes began to focus as she watched Matt lift the lifeless Gemma and place her in the large wooden box and close the lid.

  “What have you done to Gemma?” Her voice was dry and her throat hurt.

  “Don’t you worry about Gemma. You're in enough trouble, young lady.”

  Matt walked back to the desk and stood with his back to her. He leaned on the desk with both hands.

  “What the hell do I do with you, Jess?”

  Jess looked over to the door just past him. She wondered if she could make the forty-foot distance from the corner she was sitting in, to the doorway before he turned. The fear paralysing her she could not even bring herself up on to her feet.

  “You have to let us go, Uncle Matt.”

  Matt let out a short ironic laugh. “Let you go. And, of course, you won’t tell a soul.”

  Jess shook her head. “I won’t.”

  “Jess, please do not insult both of us. You are far too intelligent for that.” He turned to face her leaning against the table behind him. “You were never meant to be part of this, Jess. You have to know that, this is going to be very difficult for me. You mean a great deal to me.” Matt sighed. “But you have left me no choice, if I let you go, the first thing you will do is go running to Tom. You and I both know what, ‘must do the right thing, Tom’, is going to do. No, that is not an option I’m afraid. I could keep you up at the house.” He spoke almost absently, as though he were discussing his options with himself rather than with Jess, as though he was there alone. “The problem is, Tom is never going to stop looking for you is he.”

  “Uncle Matt.” Jess struggled to get her words out; her voice seemed trapped in her throat.

  “Unless may be there was an accident. He may accept that. He never looked much into Sara’s untimely death.”

  “Uncle Matt.”

  His eyes lifted from the floor and looked over to her. “Sorry, Jess, I was thinking aloud.”

  “Did you take Olivia?”

  Matt sighed again. He pulled the chair out from the desk and sat facing her.

  “Did you see her photograph?” he asked indicating the wall behind him filled with pictures of young women.

  “No, Gemma found her bracelet in the desk drawer.”

  Matt nodded. “Gemma; no end of trouble that girl. Yes, Jess, I suppose if you have the courage to ask me, then you deserve the truth.”

  Something inside of Jess told her to keep the communication going, even if it was only to delay the inevitable.

  “Why did you take her?”

  “Why?” Matt let out another short laugh. “Why, indeed. I wanted to, Jess. Can you understand that?”

  Jess shook her head unable to relate in any way to the man in front of her.

  “Did you take all the women in the pictures?”

  Again, Matt glanced at the wall behind him, a look of pride came across his face, which he quickly dismissed and replaced with his usual demeanour.

  “Yes, Jess, why do you want to know?”

  “I’m trying to understand what happened.”

  “What happened? All right.” Matt began to roll his shirtsleeves up and leaned forward on his seat. “First thing you must know, Jess, is these women.” He turned slightly and pointed to the pictures on the wall above the desk. “Every last one of them came with me willingly. I did not grab strangers off the street kicking and screaming into my car boot.”

  “Olivia, did she go willingly?”

  Matt nodded.

  “Did she ever try to get away?”

  He shifted slightly in his seat. Jess knew the questions were getting closer to hitting a nerve, if he had one.

  “That’s irrelevant, Jess, the fact remains that each and every one of those people got into my car willingly without any fuss. Now back to the issue at hand, what to do about you.”

  “Why did you take their pictures, Uncle Matt?”

  “Why? Well, Jess, in truth. I took these pictures for my father. I have excellent control you see. I only do this once a year and only to take the photographs for my Dad for his birthday. I don’t need to do these things, I simply like it, so every August I find just the right one and I bring her back here, After Dad’s stroke in 1981, in September I take the pictures to my Dad at the nursing home, and it’s all over for another year.” He leaned forward to stand, obviously coming to some sort of decision on what to do with her.

  “But Olivia was
taken in December.” A panic rising in her blurted the words out. Matt leaned back in his chair.

  “Yes, Olivia was for me. I admit it, your honour.” he said mockingly raising his hands. “I wanted to have her, so, she was an early Christmas present to myself.”

  Jess could feel a vile taste rise from her throat. Falling to the side, she threw up on the dirt floor. The water running down her face, her legs felt like dead tree limbs beneath her, unable to move. Matt handed her some tissues and rubbed the side of her arm.

  “Are you all right?” Matt asked.

  Jess could not understand. The contrast between the man she knew, and had known her whole life, and the monster that had done such terrible things. Her brain would not allow her to merge fully the two images. Everything surreal, she flinched as Matt touched her arm.

  He smiled at her and holding his palms up toward her, he backed away. “Ok, I can see you are upset, I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”

  “Why have you never been caught?”

  “Because I’m very careful, Jess. Only one other person has, stumbled, if you like on to my secret. Yet again, I was forced to hurt someone that I was very fond of. Something I’m not proud of.”

  Matt cast his mind back to the day he had met Sara. The urgency she had to meet with Tom. Her discovery of what his father had done to Susanna Wheeling had jeopardised his whole existence. It would only have been a matter of time before Tom would have put all the pieces together if she had told him what she knew. He quickly slid the memory out of his mind, he wasn’t fond of the feelings it evoked in him, in fact the only feelings Matt had any time for were of self gratification and adulation. The very emotions that empowered him and drove him to do the horrific things he did.

  “I also have friends in high places.” Matt smiled at Jess. “Do you believe for one moment that I am the only rich man in the country with, shall we say unusual hobbies.”

  Jess looked in horror not fully understanding or hearing what he was saying.

  “I could sit and talk to you all day, Jess, you know how much I love our chats, but we have to deal with the real issue at hand. What do we do with you?” Matt stood up and slapped his palms against his thigh. He knew deep down what he would eventually have to do, he was just weighing up the consequences. Wondering just how big a risk he would be taking.

  “Uncle Matt, my legs are numb, can I stand up please?”

  Seeing her as no real threat Matt nodded. Jess slowly pulled herself to her feet. Although standing she still could not feel the legs beneath her, uncertain as to whether they would continue to support her she leaned against the wall. A strong scent of perfume drifted under her nose. Jess drew a deep breath as her senses where ignited with the familiar smell of her mother that seemed to be all around her. Slowly a sense of power and strength ebbed its way into her stomach, smothering the panic and terror that had been gripping her until this point. She jumped at the sound of a bang as the light bulb shattered, plunging the room into complete blackness.

  RUN, RUN.

  Jess could hear the barely audible whispers in her head. The only thing that she could see was a faint stream of light coming in from the upstairs, filtering its way down the dark stairs only just visible by the open door. With renewed vigour, she made a lunge for what she thought was the door, banging her shoulder on the frame she made it out of the dank room to the bottom of the stairs. She ran up the flight with her hands touching the step in front as she almost fell over her self trying to increase her speed, to afraid to look back she could sense something behind.

  “JESS!” A loud bang came from behind as Matt negotiated the darkness to follow her.

  Jess emerged from the secret place in to the stall; Matt was right behind.

  *****

  Danny stood outside the Deer Lodge with John Caulder.

  “So you’re sure you haven’t had any strangers pop in for a drink, anyone from the other villages or any thing?”

  “I’m positive. Business is quiet at this time of year, maybe Patrick should spend the money on some CCTV or something if he thinks someone is stealing his fuel or whatever from his farm.”

  John Caulder was sitting in his usual seat outside the hotel watching with only slightly veiled contempt as the village began to come to life.

  Danny put his note pad away and thanked him. He was walking away when he noticed the message on his mobile. Goyl farm had a black spot, with no reception.

  I must have missed a call when I was up there, he thought.

  He stopped a few feet away from John to retrieve his message. Hurriedly Danny dialled Lee but got no reply. Quickly he dialled Tom.

  “Tom, I got your message, I can’t get hold of Lee …”

  “Just get up there, Danny, get Jess home.”

  “Are you sure it is Matt?”

  “Danny get up there, I’ve called for back up, there is no question. It’s Matt.”

  Danny hung up the phone and stood for a second taking in the information. He turned to get into his car and found John Caulder standing close behind him.

  “Did you …”

  “I have to go, John.” Danny pushed him aside and climbed in to his car. His siren wailed as he pulled up the high street to make the short journey to Ingaldean Estate.

  John Caulder stood silently watching as the young officer drove away. He knew Tom Hunter had been looking into Angela Harrison. It had put him on edge for some time. John had always suspected that his daughter had played a part in the disappearance of her friend; he even thought on some level that she might have involved her brother. He went over to the table and flopped down on his chair, as he began to realise that not only was his daughter innocent of any crime, but that he had been punishing her for it for so many years, pushing her away.

  *****

  Tom accelerated hard, his siren screeching as he passed the other traffic on the motorway. The needle was pushing ninety, he sent up a silent prayer to Sara. Please, keep her safe. They were the only words he would repeat, as he careered up the motorway toward Coppersfield.

  *****

  As Jess emerged into the brighter stable, she could feel her feet slipping in the fresh sawdust. Her head banged and her shoulder ached from the force she had hit the doorframe. Just in front of her, she saw the wheelbarrow they had been using, still filled with the sawdust and a large spade sitting on top of the pile. With strength she didn’t know she had, nor did she question, she lifted the spade and turned swinging it at her uncle as he emerged from the hallway. The spade caught him on the lower jaw sending him back, staggering against the barn wall.

  Jess dropped the spade and took off running for the stable door. She pulled the heavy wooden door open, her lungs filled with the damp air that rushed her. The rain was just easing off as she fled from the barn with no direction in mind, just to escape.

  Lee’s small blue mini pulled up in a skid in front of her. Jess could feel her legs give way at the relief of seeing Lee. She ran the last few feet to the car before falling against the hot bonnet. Lee jumped out and grabbed her.

  “Get in,” she yelled as she pushed Jess in the front seat. Running round she climbed into the driver’s side.

  “Aunt Lee, Gemma is still in there.” Lee could feel a sensation of dread wash over her knotting her stomach. The urge to run was tempered by the knowledge that a child was in danger. She knew she was the adult; she had no choice.

  “It’s uncl–”

  “I know, Jess. Where is Gemma?”

  “You won’t find her on your own, I have –”

  “Jess. You stay in the car, now where is she.”

  “In the barn, the first stall has a door taking you down to a bunker, she is in a wooden box down there, I think she’s hurt bad.”

  Lee stared at her in disbelief.

  In a wooden box, a secret bunker. She gathered her thoughts.

  “Do not leave this car, sit in the driver’s seat, if Matt comes out and I don’t, drive.”

  “
I can’t drive.”

  “Sure you can. Just press hard on that peddle, and push this into drive. Keep the doors locked till I get back.”

  Jess looked at her pleadingly. She wanted to get Gemma, but she did not want Lee going in alone.

  “I mean it, Jess, wait here.”

  Lee got out of the car and walked toward the stable. She felt as though the building itself was watching her approach. Slipping in the open door she looked around. She could hear the horses in their stalls, but the rest of the barn had an eerie silence. Slowly and tenuously, she walked up the centre of the large stable house. Looking around her as she went. There was no sign of Matt Ingles. Half way in she came to the horse stalls. Just as Jess had said, the first stall had a doorway. Ominously silent it revealed a yellowish light and a flight of stairs going down. Lee swallowed hard. Her feet planted firmly in the spot she could feel the dread sickeningly rising inside her; she became aware of a presence behind her.

  *****

  Jess sat for what seemed like a long time. The rain had stopped but the streams of water running down the windscreen gave the barn an undulating effect. She jumped when Danny wrapped on the side window.

  “Are you all right, Jess?”

  Jess shook her head. “No, Aunt Lee has gone in there to get Gemma and she hasn’t come out yet, Uncle M–”

  “I know who it is, stay here.” Danny pulled his nightstick and ran for the stable. He slipped in the door and looked around. He could see a pair of feet thrashing around outside the first stall. He ran toward them. Matt Ingles was on top of Lee, his hands squeezing tight around her throat. Without a second thought, Danny brought his nightstick down on top of his shoulder, then across the side of his head. Matt fell to the floor as Lee rolled on to her knees and leaned forward coughing.

  Danny had another hit at him before pulling his handcuffs out of his belt. “Matt Ingles, I’m arresting you for assault.” Danny pulled his arms hard behind his back and pushed the cuffs hard on his wrist. The wail of sirens from outside, told Danny the back-up had arrived.

  Just like in the movies, he thought, they’re too late.

  *****

  Tom arrived to see the estate bathed in blue lights. He got out of his car and ran toward the first ambulance where he could see Danny standing. Jess and Lee where inside. The relief washed over him leaving him weak as he held on to Jess, he reached out a hand to Lee.