Gabby’s eyes creased in confusion.
‘I’m Sarah Middleton. Daughter of Nigel Middleton, the man who shot his family in cold blood.’
‘No, there were no survivors.’
‘That’s what my family wanted people to believe.’ Sarah inhaled. ‘He killed my little brother first. Mum locked me in the wardrobe while he was shooting my gran and grandad, and she kept the key.’ Sadness coursed through her as she returned to Blackhall Manor. To the smell of gunpowder. The sound of her mother’s guttural screams. ‘She was shot trying to defend me. I remember hearing my father’s footsteps … then the police sirens. He blasted through the wardrobe, but I was hiding under some coats and the bullet skimmed my head.’ She pushed back her fringe, displaying the jagged scar on her forehead. ‘They found Dad dead. Everyone was dead … except for me. In the wardrobe. Bleeding.’
Her eyes met Gabby’s and she saw her own pain reflected back at her. ‘They saved my life, but I was in a coma for months. My other grandparents moved me to a private hospital in the next county and the media lost interest. The locals presumed I’d died and that was the way we wanted it to stay.’ She sighed at the memory of everyone fussing around her. How she had sat in the bedroom of her grandparents’ house for months, feeling numb. Taking her mother’s maiden name, she’d tried to reinvent herself but like Elliott, her nightmares dragged her into a world of terror time and time again. The death of her family was something she had been unable to process for years. Her mother’s parents had been too paralysed by grief to be able to help her.
‘It’s not difficult to get a rumour going in Slayton if you have the right people on your side,’ Sarah continued. ‘And I had friends back then, friends who thought I deserved some peace after everything I went through.’ Maggie. What a star she had been, even at that young age. ‘Besides,’ Sarah said. ‘They were right. Part of me died with my family that day. Fourteen-year-old Sarah Middleton is back in the house still sitting in that wardrobe and I cannot bear to step inside there. So please don’t make me go back.’
Gabby turned her head, swiping a tear from her eye. She coughed, clearing her throat. Sarah was flooded with relief. ‘Who owns the house?’ Gabby’s face was devoid of the anger it had radiated just moments before.
‘I do. I pay a management company to take care of security and a local estate agency has a key. I know the locals have been campaigning to have it knocked down for years. But I can’t. I still feel like I’m there.’ She paused for breath. ‘He called my name. My father called my name so he could find me and shoot me before the police arrived. And I wanted to answer him. Because a part of me still believed that my daddy would keep me safe.’ Closing her eyes, she swallowed back her grief. She would not cry any more tears over this. Not today.
‘You should have told us,’ Gabby said. ‘You should’ve declared it when you joined the police.’
‘DI Lee knows everything on a confidential basis. I didn’t want people treating me differently.Pleasedon’t make me go back.’
‘Of course I won’t. God.’
‘Sarge, with all respect, a few minutes ago you were asking me if I was crazy and suggesting I quit CID. I am more than capable of taking statements and I can be relied upon. I only mentioned the supernatural because one of our glorious team said it would impress you because you are such a great believer in alternative explanations.’
‘Who?’ Gabby’s brows knotted in a frown.
Sarah shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter. I won’t be taken in again. Please don’t tell anyone about this. I don’t want people to look at me with pity – the way you’re looking at me now. I just want a chance to live a normal life, move on.’ The air between them was heavy with her grief.
‘Do you need me to organise help? Counselling?’
Sarah offered a watery smile. ‘I’ve been counselled up to my eyeballs. All I want is to get on with my job.’
Gabby nodded. ‘For what it’s worth, you got me at a bad time. I’ve just had to explain to Angelica’s parents that their daughter’s internal organs were removed from her body beforethat monsterburied her in a shallow grave.’ Sarah winced as something flickered in her memory. Such horrific details were usually held back unless the victim’s family insisted on knowing every painful truth.
‘We’ll catch him,’ Sarah uttered, nodding to herself.
‘I know. And Sarah …’ Gabby touched her lightly on the arm. ‘I wasn’t wrong. You are as strong as I first thought you were, and more.’ Her gaze went to the door as a tannoy called her name from the hall. ‘Best we get back to work, eh? We have a murder to investigate.’
22
Sarah thought she was alone in the office for once, as her colleagues attended the 5 p.m. police press release. She wriggled her toes in her boots. Her hair was frizzy from the rain, her legs stiff from conducting door-to-door enquiries all afternoon. The residents of Lower Slayton were a strange and vulnerable breed. One middle-aged man had answered the door wearing nothing but a string vest and socks. Another old dear, her eyes cloudy with cataracts, let her all the way into her kitchen before asking where her Tesco grocery delivery was. Some residents were lonely and needed reassurance, but not one could shed light on Angelica Irving’s movements that night.
Sarah clicked on her emails, methodically deleting the ones she didn’t need. She didn’t see Richie looming over her, and she jumped as he cleared his throat. If he was going to take the piss, she wasn’t in the mood. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, his skin tanned. Richie had a charming, easy-going way about him. Today, charisma would be lost on her. After what happened with Yvonne, she didn’t trust her colleagues an inch.
‘Yes?’ she said, stony-faced as she swivelled her chair to face him. Most likely he was used to Yvonne hanging on his every word. He rubbed his chin, taken aback.
‘I just wanted to say … It was out of order, what Yvonne did.’ He folded his arms, his brown eyes holding no malice. ‘That’s not how we do things here.’
‘Really?’ Sarah said. ‘Because it seems very much how you lot act. I’m not deaf, you know. I hear the snide comments. It hasn’t exactly been easy, coming back here after …’ She sighed. She’d had enough of raking over the embers of her past today.
Richie looked at her thoughtfully. ‘Gabby’s a decent sergeant but she’s not perfect. She’s good at handling caseloads, schedules … but she’s deficient when it comes to the emotional stuff.’
‘I gathered that.’ Sarah recalled how she had turned away to wipe a tear from her eye.
‘She should have welcomed you back, at the least. Reintroduced you to the team. It feels like unfinished business, you know. All that stuff with David …’
‘I had nothing to do with that.’ Her husband’s misdemeanours might not be a pleasant topic of conversation, but it felt good to clear the air. She returned her attention to her emails, but Richie was still standing there, with a stupid grin on his face. ‘You don’t remember me, do you?’
Sarah’s hands twitched with the urge to tug on her fringe. ‘Remember you? Why, should I?’
