The Girls in the Woods

by Helen Phifer

  She picked the paper up and felt the room begin to swim. There were pictures on the front page of the two girls who’d gone missing twenty years ago – one of them was the girl she’d seen in the mirror a few days ago. The dead girl with her head caved in on one side… and why would a dead girl be in her house? She knew the answer but was far too afraid to speak it out loud. And why did he need those fridges? She wasn’t as stupid as he thought she was; she knew they were morgue fridges.

  If he’d gone to Barrow she had a good ninety minutes before he’d be back. Running to the kitchen and the studio door, she tried the handle – but it was locked, just as she’d known it would be. He was acting so strange he wouldn’t risk her going inside and snooping around. The only way she could get into the studio was from the outside door; he kept a spare key in the bedside table in a small box. She knew because she’d seen him put it in there years ago, but had never until now had any reason to want to even go in there without his permission. Forcing her legs to move she ran upstairs and opened the drawer, half expecting it to have been moved – but the box was still there, underneath a black diary. She grabbed the box and dropped it onto the floor; it was so cold it had burnt the tips of her fingers. Picking it up once more she lifted the lid and took the small brass key out. She didn’t bother to shut the drawer because she didn’t plan on being here when he came back.

  She ran downstairs, terrified of doing this and going against his wishes, but she had to go and see what was inside those fridges. For too long she’d buried her head in the sand, ignoring everything he did because she was scared of him. Well, she was still scared of him but not enough that she wouldn’t go and check it out. Her friend could be in there, needing her help, and if there was one thing Jo was it was loyal.

  She put the key in the lock and turned it. As she stepped inside the light-filled room she couldn’t see anything that looked out of place. She crossed to the two huge portraits on the wall; she’d only ever briefly glanced at them before but this time she walked over and studied them. Her heart began to race. It was the girls from the paper. They looked different – they were sleeping, but it was definitely them. As she turned around she noticed a black handbag under the chair in the corner and tried to rack her brains to remember if Annie had a bag like it. Bending down she opened it and saw an iPod, make-up, perfume, chewing gum and a purse. Picking up the purse she opened it to see if there was any ID inside. There was a small plastic driving licence and she lifted it up – the name said Matilda Graham. Where had she heard that name before? The fear of being caught in here by Heath was nothing compared to the ice-cold shard of fear that was now lodged in her spine. There were far too many coincidences… the radio – she’d heard that name on the radio. A missing person’s appeal. It had been playing in the shop, but she hadn’t taken much notice. With legs that were trembling, she walked across to the garage and opened the door.

  Heath hadn’t gone to Barrow like he told her. Instead he’d gone to the recycling centre in Bowness to get rid of his clothes that he’d been wearing for two days and which were covered in God knows how much DNA from the girl in the fridge and that nosy bitch Annie. He’d put them in one of the square bins for some kids’ charity. It made him smile to think of the poor sod who would open his bin bag of stinking clothes. They would just bin them, with no idea where they’d come from. He didn’t know what he was going to do with the two women in his fridges. The police were going to be all over looking for Annie – she was a local policewoman, for god’s sake!

  He didn’t really want to kill a pregnant woman either – if only she hadn’t decided to become best friends with his pathetic excuse of a wife, then none of this would have happened. It was her own fault – and Jo’s. If she hadn’t been so desperate for someone to talk to they wouldn’t be in this predicament. It was everyone’s fault except his own. Some solution would come to him. He had his baseball cap pulled down low over his head and sunglasses on, because the village was crawling with police. He needed to go home and stay inside – ‘out of sight, out of mind’ was his dad’s favourite saying. He got back into the car and began the short drive back to his house.

  Will jumped out of the van and ran to the cottage. ‘Annie, Annie, are you home?’ The house was silent and he knew that she wasn’t but still he went inside and checked every single room just in case she’d blacked out again. He checked the notice board in the kitchen just to be sure she didn’t have any hospital appointments – but there was nothing on the calendar for today and no cards pinned anywhere next to it. He ran his fingers through his sandy blond hair. Where the hell was she? It didn’t make sense. He’d left Jake with his phone in the van, ringing around everyone on his contact list. Her car was outside so she hadn’t gone far; she was in the village somewhere and he was probably being a complete wanker and getting all stressed out over nothing… but with everything that had happened the last two years he wasn’t prepared to take that risk. He knew the phone signal was crap here but he just couldn’t think of where she might have gone. He went out to the van and Jake shook his head.

  ‘I spoke to Ben’s wife – God, that woman can talk. She never shut up but she did say that she hadn’t heard from Annie at all today and Ben was on his way up here to go and look for Tilly.’

  ‘Jesus Christ, what a fucking mess. Not only can we not find my wife, I can’t find her niece either. It doesn’t add up, does it? Where the hell are they? It’s not as if we live in the middle of London, is it? This is a fairly quiet Lakeland village.’

  ‘You losing your touch, Mr Golden Boy Detective? It seems like you can’t keep an eye on any of the women you love.’

  Will stared at him in disbelief and Jake realised how terrible what he’d just said sounded.

  ‘Oh Will, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that. It was a tasteless joke. I have no idea what I was thinking – it just came out.’

  Will rolled his eyes.

  ‘Take me back to the village hall. I want to organise some groups of people to start searching the village for Annie.’

  ‘Anything you say, boss. I’ve already phoned the esteemed Cathy and Kav, who are going to leave the safety of their cosy offices and come to help look for her. I think you should get Annie a GPS microchip inserted in the back of her neck; that way we could track her and we’d never lose her again, just like those chips vets inject into dogs.’

  ‘Shut the fuck up, Jake. I can’t take much more of your bullshit. Although to be fair it’s not a bad idea. I just want to find her and make sure she’s okay. My heart feels like it’s about to burst from my chest. How does she do this to me?’

  ‘And to me, and to everyone she knows… it’s only since she met you, to be honest. I mean we’d get into scraps down Cornwallis St with the drunks on a Friday and Saturday night, but nothing more than a cut eye or bruised fist. Not like the full scale “I’m about to be murdered by a serial killer” crap that’s happened the last couple of years. I mean, come on, we didn’t even have a serial killer in this part of the country, ever. Now they’re popping up left, right and centre.’

  Will felt a cold chill settle over his back. Something was seriously wrong and he knew it. He just didn’t know what.

  Chapter 28

  It was dark inside the garage. Jo felt along the wall for the light switch before she dared to step inside. She was terrified of what she might find in here, but knew there was no choice – she had to see. The watery light illuminated the room and she stepped inside. She shivered; the air was much cooler in here. The bank of four steel fridges stared at her. What would anyone in their right mind want with them, unless they were starting an undertaking business? Forcing herself across to them she opened the bottom one – it was empty and so was the one next to it. Her fingers crossed now, she hoped to God the others were and she’d just let her imagination run wild; that way she could go inside and pack her stuff, get the hell out of here and never look back. Grasping the metal latch of the next one she tugged it open and gasped to s
ee someone inside. Pulling the steel stretcher out it took her a few seconds to register that the semi-conscious woman lying in front of her was Annie. Her face was swollen on one side and she was gagged. Jo lifted her head and began untying the gag.

  ‘Oh my God, Annie, I’m so sorry. Are you okay? Please talk to me. We need to get you out of here because I don’t know how long he’ll be and if he comes back and catches us he will kill us both.’

  Annie opened her eyes, relieved to see Jo standing there; the look of concern etched across her face wiped away any fears that she might be working alongside her husband. As the dirty rag was taken from her mouth she coughed and sucked in big gulps of fresh air.

  ‘Thanks – there’s someone in the next drawer and I think it might be my niece. We need to get her out and phone the police.’

  Jo helped Annie off the stretcher and she leant against the wall, feeling dizzy and still queasy from whatever drug he’d given her. Annie watched as Jo opened the next fridge and dragged the stretcher out. Relief filled her entire body to see the shock of long, black hair that belonged to her niece, Tilly. She wasn’t responsive like Annie had been and Jo began to panic, listening to her chest.

  ‘She’s breathing but she’s unconscious.’

  Annie stumbled across to see what she could do.

  ‘We need to get out of here, Jo, because he could come back at any time and catch us.’

  Jo took the small phone from her pocket and dialled 999.

  ‘Ask for urgent assistance, officer down, and give your address, then hang up.’

  Jo did that, then she dialled Paul’s number – it went to voicemail.

  ‘I’m in big trouble, Paul. He’s been killing women. I’ve phoned the police, but he might come back. Can you go and get the police from the village hall to come to my house?’

  She didn’t listen to see if he answered because she heard the hammering on the front door and dropped the phone in shock.

  ‘He’s here.’

  Annie looked around for something to protect them with.

  ‘No, get back inside the fridge and I’ll pretend I don’t know anything – it will be safer for you.’

  Jo pushed the stretcher with Tilly on back inside the fridge and shut the door; before Annie could find a weapon or even think about climbing back into the fridge a loud clapping noise echoed around the garage.

  ‘Brav-fucking-o! I never thought I’d see the day that you actually grew a pair of balls, Jo. Now tell me – what the fuck are you doing in my workshop when you know fine well it’s out of bounds?’

  His voice had risen to an angry scream as he strode towards her, grabbing a handful of her hair.

  ‘What have I told you, again and again?’

  He dragged her away from the fridges and Annie. Jo began clawing at his hands, drawing blood and scratching him as hard as she could.

  She screamed, ‘It’s all over Heath – the police are on their way.’

  He smiled at her. ‘It might be all over for me but it’s also all over for you.’

  He grabbed her head and slammed it into the brick wall; an explosion of black and silver stars filled her mind. Then she kicked out at him in anger; this time she wasn’t going down without a fight. Annie pushed herself away from the fridges she was leaning on to go and help Jo, but her legs were too wobbly and she fell to her knees. Her phone slipped from her bra and she picked it up, speed dialling Will.

  ‘I’m at Jo’s house, come quick – Heath’s going to kill her and he killed those girls.’

  Heath heard her speaking and threw Jo to the floor, turning to look at Annie. He was in front of her in seconds and snatched her phone from her hand; throwing it to the ground, he stamped on it. She watched horrified as it cracked and splintered into pieces. Turning back to her he wrapped his hands around her throat and began squeezing, cutting off her airway. Annie tried to kick and stamp on him, scratching at his hands, but he was much stronger than her and she could feel herself losing consciousness. All of a sudden his hands let go as shock registered on his face and she fell to the floor, scrabbling to get away from him. Annie could see Jo standing behind him, holding on to an axe that was now dripping with bright red blood from where she’d buried it into his back. Annie’s voice was hoarse but she croaked. ‘Hit him again, Jo – now.’

  But the shock of what she’d just done had all but rendered Jo incapable of moving, Heath swung around to face his wife and grabbed the axe from her hands. The door flew open and Annie was relieved to see Jake, Will and several uniformed officers standing there with tasers drawn – they had already been on their way back to search the house and workshop.

  It was Jake who stepped forward and red dotted Heath. As Jake shouted his warning to him not to move, Heath swung the axe towards Jo. The taser hit him, making him fall to his knees, but not before the axe hit Jo’s neck – sending a spray of arterial blood across the room. Someone fired a second taser and this time Heath collapsed on the ground. Annie screamed as Jo fell towards her. She held out her hand, catching the woman who had just saved her life and praying that she could save hers. Will ran across the room; ripping off his shirt and rolling it into a tight ball, he bent down, pressing it with as much force as he could against the gaping wound in Jo’s neck whilst screaming for someone to get an ambulance.

  Paul, who had got Jo’s message and driven straight to her house, ran from his car carrying his black doctor’s bag faster than he’d ever run in his life. He ran towards the back of the house where he could see police vans and officers standing around. Telling them he was a doctor they stepped to one side to let him through. In seconds he assessed the scene and went to where Will was cradling Jo in his arms, trying to stop the bleeding. He knelt down and looked at Jo, who was losing far too much blood, and he felt the panic begin to rise in his chest. He didn’t want to lose her now.

  ‘I’m here now, Jo. I’m going to take care of you. I promise you will be just fine, but I need you to stay awake. Keep looking at me, okay? Try not to go to sleep.’

  He turned to Will.

  ‘ETA for the ambulance?’

  ‘Any time.’

  Jake came running back in with some bath towels and rolled them up, passing one to Paul who pushed it against Jo’s neck with all the pressure he could. After what seemed like forever the sirens finally came closer and Paul breathed a sigh of relief when two paramedics came running in.

  Will helped Annie up from the floor and hugged her, pulling her close.

  ‘Did he hurt you?’

  ‘Not much but I have no idea what he’s done to Tilly.’

  She pulled open the fridge door and slid the stretcher out. The teenage girl looked lifeless. Annie tried her best not to but she couldn’t stifle the sob which escaped from her lips.

  Will shouted to Jake.

  ‘We need another ambulance, now.’

  ‘It should be on its way. I requested two.’

  Heath lay on the floor stunned and bleeding from the wound in his back, but he was alive and no one gave a flying fuck. Two coppers were standing over him with their tasers drawn as Will pulled the cuffs from his pocket.

  ‘It’s over, you sick bastard. One of you two read him his rights. I can’t bear to look at the piece of shit.’

  ‘I’m bleeding – I need an ambulance. She hit me with that axe in the back.’

  Will turned around – about to kick him so hard in the nuts he’d never be able to use them ever again – when Annie dragged him away. Jake had taken his jacket off and wrapped it around Tilly; he’d also untied the gag from her mouth. Pressing two fingers against her neck, he smiled.

  ‘She’s got a pulse! But it’s weak. We need to get her to the hospital – the sooner the better.’

  The look he gave Will conveyed exactly how urgent it was for them to get her to the hospital. They looked up to see Kav parking the big police van outside. He wound down the window.

  ‘The other ambulance has been diverted to a motorcycle accident on the A590.’<
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  ‘Are you having a laugh, boss? We need it like now.’

  Kav shook his head. Jake scooped Tilly into his arms, running towards the van with her.

  ‘Hospital, now.’

  Will opened the door and helped Jake to get the girl into the van. They laid her down across the back seats and covered her with an assortment of police jackets that had been left in there – trying to bring her body temperature up. Next, Will pushed Annie up into the front of the van next to Kav.

  ‘Buckle up.’

  She fumbled with her belt but finally snapped it in. The sliding doors slammed shut as Will jumped in the back to help Jake keep Tilly as safe as possible whilst they blue-lighted her to the hospital. The sirens screeched into life as both the van and the ambulance prepared to set off, the ambulance following the police van.

  Annie couldn’t speak – all she could see was that axe hitting Jo’s neck and the spray of blood. There had been so much blood. Will’s white shirt had been covered in it; so was the short-sleeved white T-shirt he’d had on underneath. Kav reached across and squeezed her shoulder, then put his hand back on the steering wheel as he made it through the narrow, twisty lanes at record speed, clearing the roads for the following ambulance. The journey was bumpy, fast and uncomfortable, but before long they were screeching to a halt outside the front of the accident and emergency department. Thankfully the paramedics had pre-warned the hospital and there was a team of doctors and nurses waiting to greet them with trolleys and wheelchairs. Jo was rushed through first with Paul by her side, still holding the rolled-up, blood-soaked towel against her neck. Kav opened the doors and Tilly was carried out onto the waiting trolley and then rushed her through.