Scarred Horizon (Scarred Series Book 4)

by Jackie Williams

  “Nothing that I can find. I think we have been enclosed in here for good.” Geraldine’s voice quavered for the first time.

  Amy bit her lip and breathed in deeply, calming her nerves before she spoke.

  “But why? What have we done to hurt them?” She couldn’t find any answer to her own question but she squeezed Geraldine’s hand confidently. “No, don’t worry. David and Paul will come for us. You know they will. It is all going to be fine. We just have to sit this out and wait for them,” she sounded a lot more positive than she felt. She tried not to think of the phone message she had left for Paul. He wouldn’t know that she was here. He thought that she would be on a flight to England but she didn’t share that information with the woman on the floor beside her.

  Geraldine let out a sudden yelp and then snorted into the darkness.

  “Yes, well I may be able to sit this out but my baby’s not going to. I think my waters just broke.” She wriggled away from the spreading wet patch on the floor and Amy moved with her, helping her to lie down on her side again as she struggled to find a comfortable position.

  Amy fumed in the darkness.

  “This is insufferable. You can’t have your baby laying on a filthy concrete floor. Even Jesus had some straw and a manger to lie in,” she grumbled as she stripped her sweater and balled it up beneath Geraldine’s head. She stroked Geraldine’s sweating brow with the sleeve of her t-shirt and then stripped that too as the labouring woman let out another long groan.

  “I am so sorry Amy but you are going to have to help me out of my underwear. I don’t think I am going to be able to hang on much longer.” Geraldine groaned painfully as another contraction gripped her.

  Amy felt for Geraldine’s legs and then lifted her skirt to help her undress.

  “Well, if nothing this darkness covers any personal embarrassment. Look, Geraldine as you have far more experience having babies than I, I’m not going to do anything unless you need my help, okay? So you tell me if anything feels uncomfortable or abnormal.”

  Geraldine gasped in relief as the contraction stopped again and she let out an almost hysterical laugh.

  “If the situation wasn’t quite so horrible I might find that remark really funny.”

  Amy laughed with her friend but she felt tears run of near despair down her cheeks. She wrapped her arm around Geraldine’s shoulder and held the woman in her arms as she wiped the sweat that gathered and ran down her face.

  Paul burst through the gate at the end of the herb garden. The metal squealed on its hinges and bounced back, clattering against the stonework behind him. He’d taken only a few paces before he stumbled over the uneven forest ground and before he knew it he had hit something much more solid than himself. He stepped back from the tree and tried to calm his furious breathing. At this stage he couldn’t decide if he was more angry at himself for believing that she would stay with him or at her for actually having the front to leave him. He clenched his hands at his sides knowing that if he didn’t calm down he was going to lash out and probably hurt himself far more than whatever he hit.

  He lifted a tentative hand to feel the tree in front of him and then leaned into it and rested his forehead against the rough bark. He couldn’t believe that she had actually gone. This last week with her had been the best of his life. Hope had risen up in him, had spilled light onto his blackened horizon and he’d stupidly thought that it had cast its glow over her too.

  She’d given so much of herself to him, loving him every time he’d demanded it of her, giving herself to him over and over. He’d woken every morning with her plastered to his side, his arms clasped tightly around her soft body, her glorious hair drifting all over his face and he’d wanted it forever. That she had not wanted him in the same way had never even crossed his mind.

  He pushed back from the tree and rubbed his forehead. He could feel the indentations of the bark and he let out a grim laugh as massaged them away. And then he just stood there, his heart aching with a grief he couldn’t describe and he knew that even in his worst depths of despair at being blinded he had never felt as alone and as bleak as he did now.

  There was a sound behind him but he couldn’t face anyone yet.

  “Go away. I want to be alone,” he ground out savagely.

  “But she didn’t go.” Ellen spoke quickly knowing that in his present mood she may not get another chance. Paul stood stock still and held his breath as Ellen carried on. “She was booked on the flight but she didn’t make it. She was a ‘no show’.”

  Paul spun back to Ellen. He looked as though he was about to collapse again and she moved to him instantly. He grabbed hold of her and held on as though she were his last lifeline.

  “She was leaving me but then didn’t go. If she didn’t go to the airport maybe she changed her mind,” he spoke hesitantly and the hope in his tone had tears brimming in Ellen’s eyes.

  She dashed them away furiously. She knew that Paul would hate any signs of pity.

  “Come back and help us find her Paul. I know that she wouldn’t leave you without some proper explanation and that phone call isn’t telling us the whole story. You heard how it ended abruptly, she could have been about to say that she’d be back on Saturday.”

  Paul couldn’t let his heart hope that much. He bit back his feelings and took a deep breath as his mind analysed her words. He frowned suddenly as he realized what she was saying.

  “Find her? Surely she will just come back here if she missed her flight.”

  Ellen tried to keep her voice calm.

  “But that’s the problem. She went to pick up the tiles with Geraldine earlier and we don’t know where she is either. If they are together then maybe they are both just very late but if they’re not then we have no idea where either of them are and with Geraldine in her condition that’s not a good sign. Patrick’s trying to check their movements today but we’ve come up with a big blank so far. All we know for sure is that they were together when they picked up the tiles. Please come and help us find them Paul,” she pleaded.

  He stood resolutely for a moment longer but then came towards her, his jaw set in determination as they walked back through the gate and herb garden. He spoke softly as they neared the back door to the kitchen.

  “I’ll help you find Geraldine, Ellen, you know I will but I’m not laying myself or my heart on the line again. If Amy wants to go then she can go. I’m not going to try and keep her here ever again.”

  Ellen walked ahead and opened the door. She was about to speak again but the scullery door opposite suddenly slammed open and a breathless David ran into the kitchen.

  “What’s going on? I rang Geraldine but her phone is turned off and I tried Amy too but there’s no response from her either. I rang Geraldine’s mother in case they had dropped by and she said that you rang her a while ago asking the same questions.”

  Ellen quickly moved to her brother’s side. She placed a steady hand on his arm and waited until he looked down at her before she spoke.

  “We are trying to find out where they are David. Amy left Paul a message about going home to England but she didn’t make the flight.” She held up her hand as her brother looked as though he was about to explode. “It’s no use you going all ape on us. We need to keep clear heads. We don’t know that anything is wrong yet. It’s not late; the shops will have only just begun to close. They could be coming up the drive any moment now so will you please stop acting like a cave man and calm down.”

  David wasn’t buying it and neither was Paul.

  “There’s something wrong and you know it. Even if Amy was leaving me, Geraldine should have been back hours ago and Amy would never have turned off her phone with Geraldine in her condition. She knew that David would be worried. Even if their phones have run out of battery we should still be able to contact them on the car phone but that’s not working either.”

  Patrick glanced up at the clock on the wall. Seven thirty was way past when he would have expected the women to co
me home. He took a deep breath and came to a decision he’d been trying to put off.

  “Dave, go get Joe and those Marines in here. There’s something we all have to discuss.”

  Ellen’s head jerked up.

  “What have they to do with anything? They are our guests.” Her heart tripped as Patrick shook his head.

  “Well strictly speaking that’s true, but there’s something else we have to talk about too and I’m afraid that you cannot be part of it Ellen,” he winced at his wife’s furious glare.

  “Fine. I’ll go and find Lucy to help serve the rest of our guests and you will tell me what’s going on later. Put that dinner in the lift and I will get one of the men upstairs to help me with it to the tables. You stay here David. I’ll send those Marines or whoever they are right down.” She marched out of the kitchen without a backward glance at any of the men.

  David covered his ears as Paul bellowed.

  “You knew I was telling the truth about that bastard and you didn’t fucking tell me!” He raged as he pounded his fist into the kitchen table.

  Patrick didn’t even blink.

  “Of course I knew. As soon as I heard what had happened in that job centre, I knew. You must have one of the best brains in the army; there was no way that you would have made an error of that magnitude. But I didn’t have any evidence so I did the best I could in a bad situation. These American guys were the elite when they were in their unit and their CO was fine with them coming here. Our chaps were covered from head to foot in red tape, what with that European agreement we have,” his voice was calmer than he felt.

  David slumped down into a chair. He shot a glassy gaze from one man to the other.

  “Someone please tell me that my wife and baby are going to be safe. I don’t care who is to blame for this bloody shambles, I just want to know where Geraldine is.”

  Paul spun around at his friend’s desperate tone.

  “We’ll find them Dave. Mick and his team are already out there searching. We know they were already at the tiling place before lunch and we know that Amy missed her flight for whatever reason so we just have to follow their route from between those two points in time,” his tone was calmer again. He turned back to Patrick, his face a little less angry. “I wish you had told me that you believed me about that pig. I assumed that everyone thought I had a screw loose.”

  Patrick breathed out a relieved sigh.

  “When Amy originally rang Dave she was desperate to keep you out of prison. She’d already guessed that things would go against you and had called up Gemma. When we arrived at court, I hadn’t even considered that the bastard would come after you. And when you think about it, he didn’t. You had been found guilty, no one believed that you recognized a terrorist’s voice. It didn’t matter what you said against him ever again, no one would ever accept your word. But when the judge had his wonderful idea to keep you out of trouble and Amy had to come along here too I just knew there would be problems. She’d seen Samadi sitting in the courtroom. She was the only one who had believed you right from the beginning and she could identify him so it stood to reason that she would be followed. I know he left England the day after we came here but no one knows his whereabouts now. It seems like he’s disappeared into thin air but I knew he’d be out there somewhere just waiting to get hold of her.” He leaned forwards and gripped Paul on the shoulder. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before but I couldn’t until the man made a move. I didn’t even know how he would get to you or Amy and we don’t even know if he has them now so just try to keep calm until Joe and the Marines make their report. They’re checking everything that we thought of before I call in reinforcements.”

  There was a footstep at the kitchen door and Joe strode in. He didn’t bother making any small talk.

  “We’ve covered every shop and restaurant from Morlaix to Brest and then back to here by whatever route. None of them have seen Geraldine today. We’ve double checked to make sure but everyone says the same. Apart from the fact that she’s enormously pregnant, most of the restaurateurs know her anyway. They wouldn’t hesitate to tell us if she’d been in today. We know Amy didn’t make the flight and we’re checking all garages in case of breakdowns but we don’t think it could be that. Geraldine would have rung or asked the breakdown services to call us. Mick and the others have been through all the likely shop owners that they might have visited and I rang Alex too. He can still get access to all the right people via the internet and he’s seeing if he can access any CCTV or traffic cameras. Gemma and James refuse to stay at home and are booked on the late flight into Brest. James said he’s reserved a hire car at the airport so we can continue the search without interruption.” He looked anxiously towards David.

  David closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to his temples as he tried to calm his frayed nerves.

  “We’ve checked at the hospitals, the doctors’ surgeries, the chemists. Where the hell would they go all afternoon where no one could find them? Someone must have seen the two of them somewhere. I mean, you can’t hide women who look like they do. Geraldine is the most spectacular woman on the whole planet, even more so now that she is carrying my child and Amy is gorgeous too. They both stand out a bloody mile.”

  Patrick narrowed his eyes.

  “You’re right. We’ve been going about this the wrong way. No one has seen them because they weren’t anywhere they could be seen. That means they didn’t stop anywhere after they collected the tiles, but they didn’t come back here so where would they go?”

  David, Joe and Patrick all stared at one another for a moment.

  “The new château !” David leapt up from his chair as they yelled in unison but Joe suddenly frowned.

  “Why would they go there? No one was there to help them unload the tiles today because of the strike.”

  Patrick marched around the table.

  “They didn’t know there was a strike when they left here this morning. The farmer’s union didn’t call the rest of the general workers out in support until lunch time. Jean-Paul came and told us right before Paul and the others joined you at the zip wire.”

  David scratched his head.

  “But they would have phoned us from there if they had a problem.”

  Patrick picked up his car keys and headed for the door.

  “There’s no phone line set up yet and the mobile signal is a bit dodgy on the coast. They may not have been able to get through. We don’t have a better idea at the moment and we have to check before we call in the authorities.” He nearly slammed into Ellen as she suddenly appeared in the doorway.

  She looked worriedly up at her husband.

  “Sorry, but I couldn’t wait upstairs. I overheard you talking. I meant to say something last week but I just forgot with all our new guests arriving. I really didn’t like one of those new workers of Jean-Paul’s. I know Jean-Paul said that he is Eastern European but he barely spoke anyway so I don’t know how anyone could tell where he came from. He kept staring at Amy when we were at the château and the looks he gave you Paul, well, they were alarming. I thought I must have been imagining it but after hearing Patrick say about the man who tortured you following Amy here…” she hesitated as the atmosphere thickened around her. “I mean, do any of us know where this man really came from? Did you even get to see him, Patrick? I never saw a picture of Samadi so I wouldn’t know what he looked like. Could he be disguised as Jean-Paul’s new worker?” She was greeted with a stunned silence and then Paul spoke up.

  “About six foot tall with a heavy build but not fat. Forty I’d guess by now, perhaps a little younger. It’s hard to tell with all that beard. Dark brown hair and eyes with deep creases in the corners. Terrible teeth, crooked and black at the gum line. He stank of stale tobacco back then too.” His description was vivid but Ellen frowned.

  Patrick took hold of her hand and pulled her towards the computer. He opened a new file and tapped quickly on the keyboard as prompts for passwords appeared on the screen. A
sketch of a man suddenly appeared and Patrick stood back so that she could get a good look but she shook her head at her husband.

  “I don’t know. Right sort of age and height I suppose. He has no beard now but he does have strange skin. Pasty looking. Crinkled eyes for sure but a lot of forty year old men have crow’s feet. I never saw his teeth and fortunately didn’t get close enough to smell him,” she sounded very unsure.

  Patrick gave her a grim smile.

  “Don’t worry Ellen. I didn’t really get a good look at him when I was in England either. He had left the court by the time I finished speaking to the judge but I know he had a beard then. I bet he shaved it off as soon as he realized that he was likely to be recognized again. He knew something was going to happen when I turned up with Amy and he legged it pretty quickly but he could have had friends in the gallery who would report the outcome to him easily enough.”

  David threw up his hands in dismay.

  “You could have shared this information with us earlier Patrick. He could have attacked Amy or Paul at any time.”

  Patrick shook his head.

  “I know I could have handled it better but Geraldine wasn’t well and I didn’t want to give you anything more to worry about. I sent the artist’s pictures from Paul’s original file to all the agencies but they keep coming back with the same old thing. They’re sticking to their line that Samadi was killed when they rescued Paul from the village and the guy at court was just some random bystander. I’ve asked them to re interview him and Paul’s rescue team in case anything has come to light since but I’m still waiting for a response. When I sent the sketch to…” he coughed and looked around at the others before raising his eyebrows and adding innocently, “to some friends in the States, they took an immediate interest as he looked remarkably similar to a suspect who had slipped through their nets a few years back. As soon as I heard that Jean-Paul had new staff I had the Marines flown in. They have been trying to find evidence to confirm his identity but even though I suspected that the easiest way to get at you would be through the building site, without any concrete proof…” Patrick blew out an exasperated breath.