The Broken Ones

by Carla Kovach

  ‘We’ll find her, guv.’

  All hope was slowly diminishing. If they didn’t find her alive within the next day, Gina wondered if they would ever see their chirpy, much loved colleague ever again. ‘If the person who killed Amber has escalated, they might kill Kapoor earlier to get the same high. She might not be given two whole days. What if the killer’s frustrations at not managing to kidnap Madison drives this too?’ She checked her watch and carried her water to the door. ‘I best get this phone back to Mr Norton and let him go. Any further on tracking down where the Collinses might be?’

  ‘I’ve eliminated another four campsites.’

  ‘Keep up the good work.’

  Water sloshed over the sides of the glass as she entered the interview room. Jacob began introductions again as he rolled the tape. ‘Here you go, Mr Norton.’ She put his phone on the table. ‘You’re free to go.’

  ‘Is that it?’

  She shook the water off her hand onto the floor. ‘That’s it. Your alibi has come through. We thank you for your cooperation and I’m really sorry to hear of your wife’s illness. Interview suspended at nineteen-twenty hours on Wednesday the twenty-seventh of January.’

  Mr Norton scooped his phone up. Jacob stood and led him out.

  Gina stared at the magnolia walls with all their scuff marks and tea splats. O’Connor knocked and entered. ‘Sunny Side Caravan and Camping Park in Evesham confirmed that the Collinses checked in earlier today but then left after they’d paid. We don’t know where they are now.’

  ‘Can you head over there and speak to them? Get any CCTV footage and keep me posted. They’re looking more suspicious by the second. Firstly, why would you go off camping when you both have busy jobs teaching and your children should be at school? Why would they turn up at a site then pay and leave? They’re on the run.’

  O’Connor folded his arms and shivered. ‘I’ll see if Jacob wants to come with me. Wyre’s going with you, isn’t she?’

  ‘Yes and nice work. Keep me posted.’

  ‘Will do. The car park has been gritted by the way. Should make driving out easier, I don’t know about the roads though, the snow is coming down thicker now. Mrs O loves it but me, I hate the stuff. Roll on summer.’ He paused. ‘Drive safely, guv.’

  ‘You too, especially down those winding roads. They’re less likely to have been gritted. Wait, it’s odd that the caravan site is open now, don’t you think? Who goes caravanning in the snow?’

  ‘Mrs O and I used to go caravanning all year round early on in our marriage. It’s true that a lot close and some of the ones that we’ve called have been shut for the winter but a few are still open. People don’t always stay in their caravan for a holiday, it’s cheap accommodation when visiting relatives in different areas and the new ones are so cosy, they’re like home from home.’

  ‘Thanks for the insight into the world of the caravanner.’ She glanced out of the tiny slit window high up in the wall and shivered as she watched the snow fall. ‘We don’t know where Kapoor is being kept. She could be being transported from place to place in a caravan. That’s a possibility but they have children.’ She tried to picture the Collins family and Kapoor tied up at the back of the caravan and it wasn’t sitting right as a theory.

  ‘The children are with the grandparents. It’s just Mr and Mrs Collins that have left.’

  ‘Why didn’t I know this?’

  ‘It’s in the file.’

  ‘Dammit!’ She’d missed this vital piece of information and she could’ve kicked herself. ‘I bet they left the caravan site, knowing they’d left a record of their whereabouts. We need to get uniform driving around woodland areas and tiny country lanes in the area. Something tells me that they might not even be at a formal site. They’ve probably parked up down some tight road, gone off grid.’ Her heart began to pound as she thought of them taking Kapoor, here there and everywhere. For what reason? They didn’t even have a motive as far as she could see but their behaviour was increasingly becoming more suspicious.

  O’Connor frowned. ‘I’ll get Smith onto the case, then I’ll head straight to the caravan park, see if the person who booked them in can help in any way.’

  After he’d left, her mind toiled over everything and led her into a jumbled mess. She stood and hurried out trying to force away an image of Kapoor tied to a chair in a condensation-filled caravan that was parked up on a verge with the Collinses torturing her. Gina took a sip of her water to alleviate her dry mouth as she imagined the terror in Kapoor’s eyes as her lips were being superglued.

  48

  As I drift in and out of this strange dream world, I try to fight my way to consciousness. He must have put something in the sandwich that made me sleep. I’m not Jhanvi Kapoor, he called me Hailey. I am Hailey and I mustn’t forget. Who are you? Hailey. You want to live, don’t you? Yes I do. So, who are you? I am Hailey.

  Something smells fresh. I think it’s my hair. Shaking my head as far as the binds will let me, I feel the two braids hit my cheeks and I shiver. I can’t cry. It won’t help. My skin feels soft and the grime of the food I’d dropped in the crease of my chin has gone. He’s bathed me or given me a wash. The thought of his hands touching my skin makes me cringe. I prise an eye open but the room is as dark as when my eyes are closed.

  There’s a coolness around my legs. My legs are bare, that’s why they’re colder than the rest of me. When I last saw daylight it was either frosty, slushy or snowing. Where are my trousers? Then, I remember the nightdress. He’d already changed me into it earlier. My heart begins to race and my mouth is dryer than ever. I don’t know if he’s touched me or not. I can’t feel anything I shouldn’t feel but would I know? I feel panic rising and in my mind I’m bursting from the binds. Every twitch in my body is vying for me to attempt to break free but I know I can’t. Did Amber try to break free and scream and shout? Is that why she died?

  I take a deep breath through the cloth in my mouth. It’s suffocating me. I can’t breathe. I bite down and my gums itch as they clench the cold damp material that tastes weirdly of toothpaste.

  ‘You’re not suffocating. Just calm down, Hailey.’ Again, he is there in the darkness. He can see me but I can’t see him. That dreaded tune plays again. It’s driving me crazy but he tells me that I love it. I have to embrace it, allow it to possess me so that I can be what he wants me to be. It’s either that or die.

  I’m trying to be brave. I’m a police officer, a pillar of the community, a much-loved daughter and sister, a respected colleague. I miss my family and my heart aches for my mother. I wonder if her news was good or bad. Me not calling her to hear her results will be seen as a let-down. She’ll think I’m putting my job first or that I’ve forgotten.

  Deep in the pit of my stomach, I know I’m never going to see them again and I want to shriek like a wild animal and lie on the floor, grieving for everything I’ve lost, including myself. I just wished that I’d called my mother last night and told her how much I loved her.

  ‘Hailey. I’m going to tell you a story. The story of you.’ His hand slams onto the chair and my heartbeat skips a beat. ‘I don’t have long so don’t you dare interrupt.’ I hear a click as he swallows. ‘There was once a boy and a girl…’

  And so he continues for a couple of minutes, describing them and all the shocking details.

  ‘That girl was you, Hailey. I’ll carry on next time but for now, you are going to rest.’

  I hold back a tear. I’m trying to remember everything he said but my head is fuzzy. I was half listening while trying to think of how I can get out of here. He removes the cloth from my mouth and places a bottle to my lips, then moments after gulping the liquid down, I begin to drift to the warped sounds of that record. That’s when the nightmares start. I can’t fight the drug. A tear spills out of the corner of my eye. What will he do to me while I’m not present? I can’t think about it.

  49

  I feel a spring in my step and a lightness in my heart. This time,
I know she’s the right one. She said she is Hailey and she hasn’t attacked me with loads of questions. She’s not fighting. She’s not calling me names. That’s how I know she’s really my Hailey. I knew I’d found her and I was right.

  I remove my boots and grab a beer. It’s too early to celebrate but while I’m here on my own for the shortest of time, I am going to allow myself the luxury of feeling triumphant. Soon Hailey and I can leave and start afresh, away from our past. When she fell asleep, I watched her for a few moments and stroked her hair before leaving the bungalow for the evening. The heating is on so she’ll stay warm and I know she won’t wake for hours.

  I glance out of the window. My car is already covered in snow and a shiver runs through me. What if I get snowed in here and I can’t get back to her? Shaking that thought away, I know it wouldn’t be for long. A human can survive for ages without food. She’d be okay without water for a couple of days and it’s not like she can go anywhere. I’m not planning on leaving her there for that long.

  ‘She’s not me.’ Hailey’s voice rings through my mind.

  I throw my beer bottle and it smashes against the table but your voice remains in my head. ‘You should have let me go.’ My hands are shaking and my jaw is clasped so tightly I fear I may crack my teeth if I don’t loosen up.

  I slam the front door knowing I have a list of things to deal with this evening and I’m expected to be somewhere.

  I will never let you go. Never!

  50

  Madison hobbled over to Alice’s freshly changed bed. ‘Thank you for putting me up.’

  ‘Don’t be daft, girl! You’d do the same for me. And your nanna looked okay so that’s another thing to relax about. You’re like a regular Florence Nightingale the way you look after her.’ Alice grabbed some extra pillows from the wardrobe and passed Madison the remote control.

  ‘Thanks for taking me to check on Nanna first, and for making her some food. I don’t know what I’d do without you.’ Madison paused and clutched the soft Bagpuss toy that always sat on Alice’s bed, holding it close to her chest.

  ‘Don’t thank me. I’ll get you back when I have an accident or a shitty hangover. For now, my bed is yours and you can stay as long as you like.’ Alice lay on the bed next to Madison. ‘I will warn you, people tell me that I snore.’

  ‘Great!’ Madison laughed but then the sobs came. ‘Who did this? Who attacked me?’

  ‘Come here.’ Alice pulled Madison towards her chest and stroked her hair.

  ‘He must’ve known I was at the hospital and the only way he could have known is by following me. Even I didn’t know I’d be there that day.’ Madison’s tears began to dampen the shoulder of Alice’s jumper. ‘I bet he’s out there now, watching and waiting for me to leave so that he can try again?’

  ‘You don’t know that. It might have been an opportunist. Wrong place, wrong time.’

  Madison pulled away and shook her head. ‘I could have gone with that theory had that weird incident in the toilets at the Angel not happened. Seriously, someone was in there and they were trying to intimidate me. Then there was hedgehog man. Too many weird things have been happening lately.’ She gazed into the stuffed toy’s eyes and stroked it like it was a real cat. ‘Where’s Ty?’

  Alice shrugged. ‘I called him earlier and he was totally shocked when I told him what happened. He said he’d pop by to see you in a bit but he had something really important to deal with and it couldn’t wait.’

  ‘When I was in the toilets, Ty left you to go to the loo as well?’

  ‘It was only for a moment. You know how long guys take to pee and he probably didn’t wash his hands. He’d give me that look he does if he heard me say that.’ Alice pulled an open bag of Haribo from her bedside drawer and offered one to Madison.

  Madison took a sweet and began to chew as she allowed her thoughts to settle. ‘Where is he now? What could be that important? He was always here or hanging out with us in the run up to Christmas. Since New Year, we’ve barely seen him. What changed?’

  Alice’s brow furrowed. ‘I hadn’t really thought about that but now that you mention it… What’s he doing with his time? He didn’t mention that his studies were getting on top of him but he does keep asking me if anyone is moving out of our block. He still wants to live here. I heard that Ali was moving so I texted him earlier with our landlord’s details. He answered swiftly saying he was on it so he is reading his messages straight away. I don’t think there’s anything in it. He’s been doing a lot of dating lately. Maybe that’s all it is.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Madison’s head began to twinge. She grabbed her phone and checked Tyrone’s Facebook. He hadn’t posted anything for about a week. ‘It’s odd,’ she showed Alice her phone. ‘Ty’s normally glued to Facebook and Instagram. He hasn’t even sent any of his silly TikToks to our WhatsApp group. Something’s up and we have to find out what that is.’

  51

  Gina parked the car around the back of the apartment block off Bulmore Drive. She watched as Vincent Jordan trudged through the snow leaving fresh boot marks across the grass. He appeared to be carrying a cardboard box containing a few tools. The orange glow coming from the street lamp shone through the trees, just catching the back of him as he cut through to get to his bungalow at the end of the path. ‘We have a good vantage point here. He didn’t even see us when he passed.’

  ‘I wonder what he’s been doing. Fixing something maybe. It’s late.’ Wyre stepped out of the car and grabbed her scarf. ‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’

  ‘The snow?’ Gina pressed the central locking and did her buttons up, wishing that she’d worn a thicker coat. She had barely got warm that day.

  ‘Yes, it just reminds me of what Christmas should look like but never does.’

  ‘Christmas is so overrated. Not only do all the idiots come out with their fighting and drinking, filling up the station, it’s an excuse to part with lots of money to buy junk that’s slowly killing the environment.’

  ‘I can’t argue with that.’ Large flakes landed in Wyre’s black hair and on her shoulder.

  ‘Let’s hurry before we turn into snow people.’

  Wyre and Gina ran to the front of the building and pressed the main bell. As she touched the door, it must have been on the latch as it opened a little. Heavy footsteps thudded down the central staircase and Lauren was standing there in a dog onesie.

  ‘Come in. Damn, I wish people would stop leaving the door open.’ She flicked the latch off and allowed the main door to close properly.

  ‘Hello, Lauren, may we have a word with you? Sorry to intrude on such an awful night.’

  The young woman smiled. ‘Don’t worry. It’s probably the best night to come. I think we have a full house so anyone you need to speak to should be in.’ Lauren waved at Corrine as she came out of her apartment with a bin bag. Corrine did her coat up over her pyjamas and pulled her hood over her head. Curtis came out with a roll-up between his lips and as he opened the front door, he clicked the latch on again.

  Gina followed Lauren upstairs and into her apartment. It was a far cry from Amber’s. Lauren had a place for everything and her bookshelves were perfectly stacked in colour order and baskets for her work stacked next to them. She had a little table and her laptop screen was filled by a photo of a dog with a huge nose. Textbooks were stacked up to the right with little bookmarks and Post-its marking out reference pages. ‘It’s lovely and cosy in here.’

  ‘Can I get you a drink?’

  Gina thought back to their travel mugs in the car. Time was running short and she wanted to get back as soon as possible to not miss anything. ‘Thank you but time is against us tonight.’

  ‘I think I told you all I know.’

  ‘There’s something we found in Amber’s flat that I need to tell you about. Would you please take a seat?’

  The woman’s chirpy expression quickly changed and worry lines appeared across her forehead. ‘Okay.’

  ‘There’s n
o easy way to tell you this but our investigations have led to the discovery of surveillance equipment in Amber’s apartment, more specifically her hallway, and you and Amber are on it.’ Gina took a seat at the table as Lauren sat. Wyre gave her a sympathetic look.

  ‘No… no way.’ She swallowed. ‘Not when we…?’

  Gina nodded. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Did Amber do that to me? She was my friend.’

  ‘It wasn’t Amber.’

  ‘Who was it? Was it that bastard landlord, Vincent? He’s always around here looking creepy and messing about with things under the guise of maintenance.’

  Gina shook her head. ‘We have made an arrest but I can’t share the details with you yet. It isn’t your landlord. We’ll need to speak to you further about this when you’ve got over the shock. Are you okay to come to the station at some point and we can tell you where we go from here?’

  Lauren nodded and held the back of her hand to her red cheek. ‘I’m all hot now. I can’t believe someone did this to me and to Amber.’

  ‘You didn’t mention that you and Amber were in a relationship when we interviewed you.’

  ‘That’s because we weren’t.’ Lauren began playing with the zip on her onesie, pulling it up and down by a couple of inches. ‘It was one drunken night, that’s all. Amber had well moved on from that. I still liked her but I know she wasn’t really into me. I’m sorry I didn’t mention it.’

  ‘We’ve since found that she kept another phone, an unregistered phone.’ Gina nodded to Wyre who removed her notepad.

  ‘Oh, the “date phone” she called it. She didn’t give out her main number to people on AppyDater. If anyone gave her grief, she said she could just vanish online and bin the phone. She wanted to keep her contract mobile number separate. The last person she was meant to meet, she gave him her proper number though. She seemed to like him more.’