The Doctor

by Lisa Stone

  The last thought she had before she passed out was that Robbie was alone and Amit had the keys to her house.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Amit had assumed he’d have to use the second dose of sedative at some point. Women rarely did as they were told first time. He’d spent months beating Alisha into submission, and even now she couldn’t be trusted to do – or not do – as he said. Emily would be out for at least a couple of hours and when she came to she’d have a blinding headache, shiver uncontrollably, vomit and be craving water. Serve her right. The bitch. He’d warned her of the consequences if she didn’t cooperate.

  But, on the positive side, he thought as he let himself into her house, she had written the letter to Ben without any problem. Had she refused, he would have had to send Ben a text message from her phone, but that would have meant a lot of unnecessary inconvenience for him. He would have had to have driven some distance away to send the message so it couldn’t be tracked back to his house. Forcing her to write the note had been much easier, straightforward, and a more pleasant way to say goodbye to a loved one, he decided as an afterthought. Although he doubted Emily would see it that way.

  Amit stood in the hall, listening. All the lights were on in the house and what sounded like a television with the sound on low could be heard coming from the living room. Was someone in? He didn’t think so. The door to the living room was slightly ajar; he couldn’t hear any movement. Ben wouldn’t be back for at least an hour; he knew from the conversation they’d had that morning. He had got into the routine of going to his car at the same time as Ben and exchanging a few words so he was aware of his movements.

  ‘First day back at work after Christmas?’ Amit has asked him that morning, all neighbourly.

  ‘Yes,’ Ben had sighed. ‘And a late one! A site visit, so I’m not likely to be back until after ten.’ Excellent, Amit had thought.

  He eased open the living room door and, as he’d thought, it was empty. Emily, believing she’d be back soon, had left the television on low. He’d switch that off now. Clearly, if she’d left Ben for good she wouldn’t have left the television on. Picking up the remote control, he turned off the television and placed the control on the coffee table where he’d found it. A partially drunk mug of tea, again suggesting she’d been expecting to return, was on the table. That would need getting rid of. Now, where was her phone? He saw it on the sofa. Fantastic. He’d been slightly surprised it hadn’t been on her, given that she seemed glued to it. But then again she hadn’t anticipated being out of the house for long. He tucked the phone into his trouser pocket and glanced around the living room for anything else that needed adjusting, but couldn’t see anything.

  Where to leave the letter for Ben? Where would she leave it? Somewhere he’d see it as soon as he walked in. Where would Ben expect to find Emily at this time in the evening? Most likely in here, relaxing in the living room, he decided. Amit propped the note on the coffee table and set her keys beside it. They added a nice touch. Leaving her house keys suggested a finality; that there was no chance of her coming back. He had thought about packing a bag of her clothes but decided it would take too much time and he’d no idea what she would take. A detail like that could be his downfall and arouse suspicion. She had her jacket with her, and he guessed Ben and the police – if Ben called them – would assume her new bloke would be providing for all her future needs.

  Picking up the mug, Amit left the living room and went into the kitchen, where he poured the contents down the sink. He put the mug in the bowl for washing up later. Emily didn’t seem the type of person to wash up a single mug when she was leaving Ben. He looked around the kitchen for anything else that seemed incongruous with her having left for good, but it all seemed OK. Satisfied, he returned to the hall.

  ‘Mummy!’ a child’s voice came from upstairs.

  Amit paused, his hand on the front door ready to let himself out. He’d forgotten about the child, he’d been so busy concentrating on making the house look as if Emily had left Ben. Oh well, it was nothing to do with him. He went to open the door, but the child called out again.

  ‘Daddy!’

  How old was he? More than one year, he thought, from having seen him on the CCTV. Too young to be able to tell about his mother’s visits next door or point an accusing finger at him. Or was he? Amit wasn’t clued up about children’s developmental stages; as he’d had nothing to do with his own two. Could a child this age give him away or even raise suspicion? He didn’t know, but he should find out. Better to be safe than sorry.

  Turning from the door, he went upstairs as the Robbie’s voice called out again. ‘Mummy? Daddy?’

  Amit went along the landing to the second room on the right. The door was open and a night light was on. He could see the child standing at the bars of his cot, looking out hopefully, waiting for one of his parents to answer his call. Amit stood by the door and stared at the child. Robbie looked back, trusting and naïve.

  He was an attractive-looking boy, and healthy. Normal, in fact. What right did they have to a healthy son when he had been denied one? It wasn’t fair. Another injustice meted out at birth. A child like this should have been his. Amit’s anger and frustration grew. A child like this would have made his parents proud. Emily and Ben had no right to the healthy child he had been denied.

  Amit took a couple of steps into the room and saw the child’s expression change, from trusting inquisitiveness to uncertainty and then fear. He continued up to the cot and reached in. Robbie cried loudly and tried to back away from the frightening stranger, but there was nowhere for him to go.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Emily felt her stomach cramp and the nausea rise in her throat before she could open her eyes. She was cold, shivering and her head pounded with the worst headache ever. Was she ill? She couldn’t remember. It didn’t feel as though she was in bed. She desperately needed a drink of water to stop her from being sick again. Too late. She vomited in a bowl.

  A bowl. Being held. Someone was holding a bowl to her chin. Not Ben. She forced her eyes open.

  ‘Alisha. What are you doing here?’ she asked, groggy and confused. Alisha was holding the bowl and now offering her a glass of water. They were in Eva’s room and the night light was on.

  Emily gulped the water. She couldn’t hold the glass; her wrists were bound with parcel tape. So were her ankles. Then she remembered. Panic and terror gripped her.

  ‘Get away from me!’ she cried, recoiling. ‘You’re evil. You lured me here. You and your evil husband. Robbie is alone. Untie me now. I have to go to Robbie.’ But Alisha just looked at her. ‘Now!’ Emily screamed and pulled and twisted her wrists to try to free herself. The tape held fast. She was bound, just as she had been in the kitchen. Alisha and Amit were working together. ‘Take it off now!’ she screamed. ‘I need to go to Robbie.’ An excruciating pain shot through her head and she winced.

  ‘I can’t untie you,’ Alisha said quietly. ‘And you mustn’t shout or Amit will come up and tape your mouth shut again. He said I could take it off to allow you to be sick so you didn’t choke on your own vomit. But if you scream he will put it back on.’

  ‘And I’m supposed to be grateful!’ Emily cried. ‘You’re as evil and mad as he is. You tricked me into coming here. You didn’t need milk for Eva. You made me leave Robbie alone.’ She gagged and Alisha held the bowl to her chin again, then offered her more water.

  ‘Amit forced me.’

  ‘Why am I ill?’ Emily asked.

  ‘The injection he gave you. It will wear off soon. Drink plenty.’ She held the glass to her lips and Emily drank.

  She could see now that they were in the living area of Eva’s bedsitting room and she was on the floor with her back against the wall. Alisha was kneeling beside her. ‘Where’s Eva?’ Emily asked.

  ‘In bed with her headphones on. I didn’t want her to see or hear what he was doing.’

  ‘Protect your own, but never mind Robbie,’ Emily hissed, and
tears sprung to her eyes. ‘I need to get to him. Please help me. You have a child. Untie me so I can go to him. I won’t tell anyone what you’ve done.’

  ‘I can’t, I daren’t, and even if I did untie you, you couldn’t escape. Amit has fitted a bolt to the outside of this door. We’re prisoners in this room. He only lets me out to get tablets and food.’

  Emily stopped struggling and, defeated, rested her head back on the wall and tried to think. ‘You knew what he was planning and yet you went along with it. You’ve known all along.’

  ‘No. Honestly. I haven’t. He saw your mobile phone number on our telephone bill. I didn’t realize all the numbers were listed. I had to admit I’d phoned you and said you’d been here once. But he checked the CCTV and saw the gaps in the date and time where I had deleted your visits. He beat me and threatened to kill Eva if I didn’t phone you and bring you here.’

  ‘But you must have known what he was doing in that lab?’

  ‘Not until you showed me that video on your phone of the cylinder being delivered. That’s when I became suspicious. You must believe me. Eva and I are in as much danger as you. He’s insane. I should have told you about Tibs when I first found out.’

  ‘You knew he killed Tibs?’ Emily asked horrified.

  Alisha gave a small, regretful nod. ‘Not at the time. But when I found out he’d lied to you about where and who had found Tibs’ collar, I looked at the CCTV. I saw he’d accidently dropped it in the dark outside our back door. He’d come from his lab carrying large dustbin bags that were clearly very heavy, together with cat and dog collars that he threw in the bin. That night, he put the dustbin bags into his car and was gone a long time. I realized later that he was responsible for the dead animals found in Coleshaw Woods. I’m so sorry, Emily, I should have told you sooner.’

  Emily looked warily at Alisha. Her regret and sorrow seemed sincere. ‘So why didn’t you leave him, or tell me when you found out what he was doing?’

  ‘I was too scared. I’d nowhere to go and Amit has always told me that if the police or social services found out we’d been keeping Eva here, they’d put her in an institution and us in prison. I couldn’t bear the thought of Eva in an institution. She’d never survive without me.’ Tears filled her eyes.

  ‘He was lying to keep you silent,’ Emily said. ‘You wouldn’t have gone to prison when the whole story became known. You were a victim. You would have been given help to look after Eva, not locked up.’

  ‘Do you really think so?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Emily. I never meant for any of this to happen.’

  ‘You need to release me and we can plan our escape. Between us we can overpower him. You have to, Alisha. Robbie is all alone and Amit is planning to kill us for the sake of his monstrous experiment.’

  But Emily saw the look in Alisha’s eyes, the beaten, hunted animal, and knew that years of abuse had rendered her impotent to act, and even now she was incapable of saving them.

  ‘Alisha, if you don’t help me you will be in a lot of trouble. Ben will be home soon and he won’t believe I’ve left him. He’ll call the police and they’ll go through the contacts on my phone. They’ll see your telephone number and all the calls between us and will come here looking for me. Unless you help me to escape, you will be guilty – an accomplice to kidnapping me – and then what will happen to Eva?’

  Alisha looked away. ‘Amit has your mobile phone,’ she said, her voice flat. ‘He showed it to me when he brought you up here. He found it in your living room when he left your letter for Ben. He also switched off your television and poured away your tea so it would look like you had gone for good and not just popped out. I doubt the police will come looking for you here. Why should they?’

  ‘Amit has my phone,’ Emily repeated numbly. Were there any other clues to her being here? She didn’t think so. ‘Did Amit say anything about Robbie? Sometimes he wakes and calls out for me.’

  ‘Yes, he heard him and went to his room. I don’t know any more. But you don’t have to worry about Robbie now. Ben has just returned.’

  ‘How can you possibly know that?’ Emily asked astounded.

  ‘I heard his car come down the road. Being shut up inside a house for years sharpens your senses, a bit like being blind. I know the comings and goings of my neighbours from hearing them. I know when the carers arrive and leave at the elderly neighbours’ on the other side, when you and Ben come and go or have visitors. It’s like an eye to the outside world. You wouldn’t notice those sounds because you have no need to, you are part of the world. Listen carefully. He’s just pulled onto your drive.’

  Emily concentrated and finally heard the sound Alisha referred to, the low throb of a car engine, then silence as he switched if off. Ben was home, but where was Robbie?

  Please let him be asleep in his cot …

  Chapter Forty

  All the lights in the house were on which meant that Em must have waited up for him, Ben thought, as he took his briefcase from the passenger seat. If she went to bed, she usually just left the hall light on so he could see to let himself in. He appreciated it when she stayed up if he was very late back from work. It gave them a chance to talk and catch up on the day’s news, although he understood why she would go to bed after the broken nights they were having from Robbie’s teething. Em was always the one who saw to Robbie at night. She said it was only fair with her on maternity leave and him having to get up early for work. He was enjoying his new role, although it was proving challenging in some areas. Thank goodness he had Em’s support.

  The car locked behind him as he crossed the drive and he quietly let himself in so as not to disturb Robbie. Setting his laptop case down in the hall, Ben took off his shoes and hung his jacket on the coat stand.

  ‘Em?’ he called softly, going into the living room. She wasn’t there, and neither was she in the kitchen. She must be upstairs. Perhaps settling Robbie, or getting ready for bed herself.

  He padded quietly up the carpeted stairs and along the landing, past the bathroom, which was empty, and to Robbie’s room. He looked in, but Em wasn’t in there. Just a mound under the duvet that was Robbie. The light was off in their bedroom and the door was slightly ajar. Perhaps she was in bed asleep after all or she would have heard him and called out by now.

  Ben took a step into their bedroom. It was dark and it was a moment before his eyes adjusted, but he couldn’t see a mound in the bed. He switched on the light. The bed was empty.

  ‘Em?’ he called quietly as he went out. He’d check the guest room, although what she’d be doing in there he’d no idea. It was empty. A slight feeling of unease ran through him, but he dismissed it. Of course she was here somewhere. She could be in the garage, although he wasn’t sure why, or putting the rubbish in the bins down the sideway. Yes, that must be it; at the same time he’d let himself in the front door, she had gone out the back and was now putting out the rubbish so she hadn’t heard him. She must still be there.

  Hurrying downstairs, he opened the integral door to the garage and flicked on the light switch. He could see straight away she wasn’t in there, and also that the door on the far side which led to the sideway was closed and locked. His pulse quickened. Where the hell was she?

  ‘Em!’ His voice echoed around the house, but there was no reply.

  The garden? He hadn’t checked the garden. There was absolutely no reason for her to be in the garden at this time of night in the middle of winter, but his mind was frantically searching for a plausible explanation for her not being in the house, and he was running out of options.

  Going to the rear of their kitchen-diner, he unlocked the patio door and called into the darkness, ‘Em!’

  Nothing. Of course she wasn’t in the garden, and the fact that the patio door had been locked confirmed that. His heart set up a queer little rhythm as he struggled to construct a rationale, an explanation for where she might be.

  Robbie’s room. He hadn’t gone f
ully in. If Em had been sitting on the beanbag on the other side of Robbie’s cot as she did sometimes while waiting for him to drop off to sleep, or had been standing by the window, he might not have seen her. It didn’t make sense that she hadn’t heard him and called out unless she’d fallen asleep on the beanbag or was listening to music with her earbuds in, or possibly she’d collapsed, ill.

  He ran back upstairs, taking them two at a time, and went all the way into Robbie’s room. He could see straight away she wasn’t in here. He stood for a moment, listening for any sound that could be Em, his anxiety growing by the second. She wouldn’t have gone out and left Robbie alone. That was impossible. The cover was over Robbie’s face, he pulled it up sometimes, and Em always repositioned it, concerned he could overheat or not be able to breathe.

  Ben went to the side of the cot and, expecting to find Robbie fast asleep, eased back the cover. To his surprise he saw Robbie was awake. He stared back unblinkingly, his eyes red from crying; he looked petrified.

  ‘What’s the matter, little fellow?’ Ben said, reaching in and gently lifting him out. Robbie clung desperately to his father, his little body hot and wet from crying. ‘What is it, son? Where’s Mummy?’

  ‘Mummy,’ Robbie said and buried his head in his father’s chest.

  Em would never have left him to cry himself into this state, Ben thought. She always answered his calls straight away. Something was wrong. Badly wrong. Where was she?

  ‘I’ll take you down and fix you a cool drink,’ he said, holding Robbie close.

  As Ben passed their bedroom, he looked in again as if Emily might have suddenly materialized. It was irrational, he knew, but his brain was striving to create logic where there was none. Their bed was still empty, as was the floor around it. Still holding Robbie, he knelt down and looked under the bed, then checked the bathroom again before returning downstairs, his thoughts frantically searching for something that would explain Em not being here. He was certain now that she wasn’t in the house. Was it possible they’d run out of an essential item like milk or bread and she’d popped to the local shop, and not wanting to disturb Robbie had left him sleeping in his cot? She’d never done it before. But why hadn’t she taken her car? It was on the drive. The only shop open at this time was a mile away. She wouldn’t have walked there, leaving Robbie alone. And if they had run out of something, surely she would have texted or phoned him and asked him to pick it up on his way home as she had done before? None of it made sense.