The Girls in the Woods

by Helen Phifer

  ‘Look, it’s got nothing to do with you – Mr Perfect, “look at me my life is so fucking wonderful” – you wouldn’t know a bad day if it bit you on the arse.’

  Will flinched.

  ‘Bollocks, my life hasn’t exactly been wonderful now, has it? My wife was almost killed and I nearly died three months ago. Why don’t you stop feeling sorry for yourself, snap out of it and start acting your age, Stu?’

  Fuming, Will walked away from him. What Stu had said burned inside his chest, though, and he questioned himself. Had he done nothing but brag about how wonderful his life was? No, he knew that he hadn’t because bragging wasn’t Will’s style – in fact, he was the complete opposite. He’d never told anyone at work about his dad or his wealth. Annie only found out by accident and that hadn’t gone down too well. Stu had always been jealous and he’d known that but he hadn’t realised he was that upset about his whole situation. He walked back to his car and drove back to the woods, where the dog handler was waiting for him and the DI to turn up at the possible new grave site. He parked his car and phoned Stu.

  ‘Take the rest of the day off, go sort your head out and I want you back in work tomorrow first thing, in the right frame of mind, or you can go work someone else’s department because I haven’t got time to put up with your childish rubbish. When you decide that you want an adult conversation about your situation then I’m here for you, Stu, and you know that.’

  ‘Yes, boss.’

  ‘And Stu, if something’s wrong at home and you don’t tell me, how am I supposed to know?’

  ‘Yes, boss.’

  Will ended the call, then rang Jake next.

  ‘How’s it going, big man?’

  ‘Who told you?’

  ‘Told me what?’

  ‘That I’m a big man.’

  Jake started laughing and Will smiled.

  ‘You have a filthy mind. Listen, have you heard anything about Stu and Debs? He’s acting really weird and I didn’t know if something had happened at home I should know about.’

  ‘What would you do without my amazing head full of gossip? I have heard a rumour that Debs has been seeing that new boy in CSI and Stu caught them in bed together. New boy is currently sporting a black eye and broken nose by all accounts. Oh, and Debs has kicked Stu out – he’s supposed to be sofa surfing on Smithy’s couch. Bit of a mess if you ask me.’

  ‘Shit, really? He looks like such a kid. No wonder Stu’s pissed off then; it all makes sense now. I can’t believe that Debs would cheat on him, though. How come I haven’t heard about any of this? Is the new boy not pressing charges then?’

  Jake snorted.

  ‘Apparently he’s saying he fell down some steps when he was drunk, and are you being serious, Will? Stu isn’t exactly Mr Personality, is he?’

  ‘Well, maybe not, but I always thought they made a good couple. You just never know, do you? How’s things? When are you all coming to visit? It might cheer Annie up if you come and see her. She’s so bored.’

  ‘Life’s too normal for our Annie, finally. I’m off this weekend. I’ll see if Alex has anything planned and if not we’ll come up Saturday night. Annie already texted to see if we were doing anything so I hope that you’re cooking, because I love her but not enough to eat her food – and I mean that in the nicest possible way. Take care, my friend – I hear you’re up to your neck in skeletons.’

  ‘Haha, did she really? Yes one body up to now but the dogs have found another potential grave site. Thanks, Jake, I’ll speak to you later.’

  He put his phone away. Poor Stu – he might be a pain, but he didn’t deserve this. It wasn’t until there had been a misunderstanding with one of his own colleagues that it had sunk in just how hurtful it was when you thought your partner was cheating.

  Annie opened her eyes; the room was much darker than when she’d come upstairs. She felt around for the laptop and looked down to see it was upside down on the floor. Bugger. She leant over, picked it up and pressed the button. It powered on and she shut it down again. She’d found some bits and pieces on the missing girls and sent them downstairs to the printer before she’d dozed off. Her stomach let out a loud groan and she smiled to herself. Hungry, son? She got off the bed and was about to go downstairs when she noticed the young woman standing outside on the landing. Annie felt her heart skip a beat. No matter how many times it happened it still scared her.

  ‘Look, I can see you and I want to help you. What do you want? If you don’t tell me I can’t help you.’

  ‘He’s at it again.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘The man who killed me. He’s got another girl and you need to help her.’

  ‘Who is he? Where is he?’

  ‘I don’t know his name, but he lives near the trees. He likes to keep pictures of us.’

  The house phone began to ring and the woman disappeared. Annie’s arms were covered in goose bumps. What was going on? She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that this was all to do with the skeleton that had been found. But what did that mean? That after all this time he was still out there killing? How many bodies might there actually be in those woods? It had been twenty years since the possible girls went missing. What if he’d carried on killing every year – that would be at least twenty bodies. She shivered and made her way downstairs to answer the phone which rang off just before she got to it. She turned to go to the kitchen and it started ringing again. Picking it up she heard her sister-in-law’s frantic voice on the other end.

  ‘Thank God! Where have you been? I’ve been ringing your mobile for the last hour.’

  ‘Asleep. Why, what’s wrong?’

  ‘Have you heard from Tilly? I can’t get hold of her and she should have been home by now.’

  ‘I don’t know, I’ve just woken up, Lisa. Let me go and find my phone, then I’ll ring you back.’

  Annie put the receiver down. That was all she needed – Lisa freaking out over nothing. She went into the living room and picked up her mobile from the coffee table. There were ten missed calls from Lisa, the earlier missed call from Tilly and a text message from Jake. She dialled Lisa’s number which was answered before it finished ringing.

  ‘She rang me at one but I missed her call and when I tried to phone her back it was switched off. Her phone’s probably died. What time was her interview?’

  ‘Twelve-thirty, so she rang you after it. She didn’t bother to ring me. Bloody typical.’

  ‘Have you spoken to Ben? Did she ring him?’

  ‘Yes, and no she hasn’t; she only rang you. She might be stranded in Bowness somewhere.’

  ‘Does she have any money on her? She is capable of getting a bus or a train; she could probably even use a phone box at a push, Lisa. Give her some time. She might have gone for a wander around. I’ll have a drive over and see if I can spot her.’

  ‘Would you do that? Ben’s not home yet. He said the same as you, but he’s got the car or I’d have had a drive around myself. I can’t drive his pick-up; it’s far too big and a bloody disgrace.’

  ‘Yes, I’ll text her now and go and see if I can see her.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’

  The phone went dead and Annie groaned. Lisa was such a nuisance. She wouldn’t be surprised if Tilly had decided to make the most of a chance to spend time on her own doing her own thing. She went and got dressed, grabbed a bar of chocolate and a banana, and got in her car to begin the drive to the car ferry. She passed a car coming into the village, driven by Jo’s husband, and she wondered what he’d been up to. He’d told them he was going to Barrow, which was in the opposite direction to where he’d come from. Maybe he was having an affair; she wouldn’t be surprised. Mike had been popular with the women even though he was a thug and he’d cheated on her a few times, which never even used to bother her because it meant he’d leave her alone while he had some other poor bugger to mess around with. Annie was in Bowness before long and she began to drive as
slowly as she could, seeing if she could spot her niece along the pier or near the coffee shop. She carried on through the small town to the police station where she worked. It was much quieter up here. No sign of Tilly; she could be anywhere and Annie knew this. She was more than likely sitting on the bus back to Barrow and Lisa was making a fuss over nothing. Annie turned the car around and drove through the back lanes and small side streets. As she came to the road which led back out towards Newby Bridge, instead of turning off for the ferry she decided to drive along it to the A590 just in case Tilly had decided to walk to the bus stop near the main roads. By the time Annie got there and then drove back to Hawkshead and her house it was getting dusky. As she passed the village she could still see a couple of police cars outside the village hall. Will’s car had gone and she hoped he was waiting at home for her. As she reached the gate to the cottage she sighed; his car wasn’t there so that meant he was probably down in Barrow. She picked her phone up and rang Lisa; it was Ben’s soft voice that answered.

  ‘Tell me she’s home safe and sound – false alarm.’

  ‘I wish I could, Annie, but she’s not here. I’ve phoned the bus company, then I phoned the hotel she was going to for an interview. They haven’t heard of her and there were no interviews today. We don’t know where she is and she hasn’t answered her phone for hours – it keeps going to voicemail.’

  ‘Jesus Christ, where the hell is she then?’

  ‘I don’t know. Lisa is talking to a police officer now. They’ve been very good and came not long after Lisa phoned it in. I told her not to, in case Tilly has just gone off to meet some boy and wanted some space, but you know what Lisa is like. She was frantic with worry and at first I wasn’t too worried – you know what it’s like being a teenager – but now I am. It’s not like her, she’s a good kid. Even if she hated living here, she wouldn’t run away.’

  Annie didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like her niece at all. She was a good kid, but Lisa was a nightmare to live with and Annie couldn’t blame her if she’d run off.

  ‘Have you phoned her friends, looked at her Facebook?’

  ‘Annie, I can barely use a mobile – I haven’t got a clue about Facebook.’

  She pushed away the short, panicking breaths that were threatening to make her start hyperventilating, and inhaled slowly.

  ‘I’ll do the computer stuff – I’ll get a list of her friends and we can start making our way through them. Ask the officer who is taking details to ring me when they get a minute so I can talk to them, and make sure you get their collar number in case they forget so I can ring them. Ben – we’ll find her, she can’t be far. I’ll be in touch soon and if she turns up in the meantime, ring me straight away.’

  ‘Yes, will do. Do you think she’s okay?’

  He whispered the last words so his wife couldn’t hear; Annie knew her brother so well, even if they didn’t see a lot of each other.

  ‘Of course she’s okay. She’s probably with a friend somewhere having a good time and it hasn’t even entered her head to ring you.’

  She put the phone down and breathed out – this wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all. Moving as fast as she could, she went upstairs to get the laptop from the bedroom. It was freezing cold upstairs but she was so hot and flustered that she didn’t notice. Grabbing the computer off the bed she went back downstairs to the kitchen where she sat down at the table and fired it up. Opening one of the drawers she took out a notepad and pen ready to write down a list of the friends Tilly interacted with the most. Annie just hoped her niece had been naïve enough not to change her profile settings to private. It was unlikely, as most people never considered the implications of the whole world being privy to some of your most personal information. As she loaded Facebook and typed her niece’s name into the search bar she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head as her name came up with a thumbnail image of Tilly. Clicking on the picture she smiled to see her niece’s face appear in front of her; she was such a pretty little thing. When she clicked on her privacy settings she was relieved to see they were public, but also mildly annoyed and made a note to have words with Tilly about it when she next spoke to her. Head bent she began to list the friends she seemed to talk with the most and jumped when her phone began to ring next to her. Grabbing it she pushed her pen behind her ear and smiled to hear Will’s voice.

  ‘Sorry, I had to come to Barrow. Look, I think that Stu has split up with Debbie. They were arguing when I arrived back here earlier and he’s in a foul mood. Should I tell him I know or ignore it and hope it will all blow over?’

  ‘Will, have you seen the logs?’

  ‘Not today, why?’

  ‘Tilly hasn’t turned up at home yet. Ben rang the hotel – she didn’t have an interview there at all. Lisa rang the police and there’s an officer with them now.’

  ‘Jesus, where is she?’

  ‘Wouldn’t we all like to know. I wasn’t worried at first when Lisa rang earlier, but I’ve had a drive all around Bowness and didn’t spot her anywhere. I’m scared. I know she doesn’t get along with Lisa but she wouldn’t do this to Ben.’

  ‘Or to you. She’s not a bad kid, Annie, and she knows you’re pregnant and the first person that her mum is going to ring. I’ll take a look now and go and speak to whoever is dealing with them.’

  ‘Thanks, Will. I have a list of her friends here off Facebook. I’ll email them to you and you can give a copy to the officer in charge.’

  ‘She’ll turn up, Annie. Try not to get yourself all upset and worked up. I know you must be worried sick but Tilly isn’t stupid. There’s probably a very good reason she hasn’t come home.’

  Annie put her phone down, blinking back the tears that were filling her eyes. Being pregnant was making her an emotional wreck and she hoped with all her heart that Will was right.

  Chapter 17

  Heath drove home, the bile threatening to rise up from his stomach. The village was crawling with police. He was off his fucking head thinking he could get away with this. What had he been thinking? Clearly not very straight. At least he had the fridges to keep her body in. They would mask the smell of decomposition. As he reached his cottage he saw the words ‘POLICE DOGS’ in big black letters on the side of the police van which was parked nearby. He thought he was going to faint there and then in his car as his whole world went foggy. He parked behind it and got out with shaking legs. He forced them to walk one step in front of the other to his front door. Glancing into the van he saw it was empty and scurried the rest of the way. He heard dogs barking in the distance and wondered just exactly what they were doing. He went into the house and the smell of fish made him gag. It didn’t help that his stomach was already in knots and churning. The last thing he wanted was to eat fish, but she wasn’t to know and normally he enjoyed a piece of haddock. He avoided the kitchen and went back outside to go to his workshop from the side entrance. He just hoped the dogs weren’t out there because dogs made him nervous anyway. Combined with the sickness he felt and the cold sweat that had formed on his brow he might as well write ‘Fucking Guilty’ across his forehead in big, black marker pen for them all to see and go hand himself in. He opened the door and was relieved to see the dogs were in the distance, busy with what looked like his second grave. Blocking it from his mind he opened the door and crept inside; he couldn’t think about what they were doing out there because he had no control over it whatsoever. He did have control over what was going on in here, though, and he needed to think it through. She couldn’t die yet. What if those were cadaver dogs specially trained to find dead people? He’d read all about them in an article online and apparently they could sniff out a skeleton that was twenty-five years old – it was incredible. They would probably smell her dead body from miles away, so he needed to keep her drugged up and tied up until the police had stopped hanging around the woods – he just hoped it wouldn’t be weeks.

  ***

  Annie was so engrossed searching through Tilly’s friend
s on Facebook that when the hammering on the door started she jumped up, startled. Her heart began to pound. Who would be banging on her door at this time? She walked across to the utility room where the computer monitors linked up to their CCTV cameras, and looked at the one on the front door. Slumped against the door was what looked like a very worse-for-wear Stu. She tutted and went to open it. As she pulled it open he stumbled into the hall; the smell of alcohol hung around him in a thick haze.

  ‘Sorry to bother you, Annie. Is the boss man here?’

  ‘No, Stu, he isn’t. Where have you been to get in this state?’

  ‘That pub in the village. Can I come in and wait for him? I don’t want to go home just yet – well, actually I have no home to go home to and no way of getting to it if I did.’

  Annie grimaced but she had no choice. She couldn’t let him go out in that state – anything could happen. He didn’t know the area and he could end up falling in a stream or passing out along one of the narrow lanes where there were no streetlights.

  ‘Come in. I’ll get you a strong coffee. Have you eaten at all today?’

  ‘Nope, not a bite. Don’t want coffee. Have you not got anything a bit stronger?’

  ‘Sorry, we haven’t bought any alcohol since I’ve been pregnant so it’s coffee or water, your choice.’

  That technically wasn’t true. They had a fridge full of wine in the utility room but he wouldn’t know that. She walked to the kitchen, leaving him to follow her. She looked on the table for her phone so she could text Will and tell him to come home, but it wasn’t there. It had been there less than five minutes ago, so where the hell had it gone? She cursed under her breath. Now was not the time for any of her ghostly friends to be playing games. She turned to look at Stu who had managed to drape himself onto the kitchen chair that she’d been sitting on. He was staring at her, making her feel uncomfortable, so she turned away from him and began to make him a mug of coffee and popped some bread into the toaster.