“It’s Harrison Woolf. I need you to pack up my daughter’s things and get her ready. I’m coming to collect her.”
“Sir, it’s after midnight—”
“I don’t need you to tell me the time, just do what I asked. I’ll be there in an hour.” I end the call and speed up.
Five minutes later when my phone rings I only answer because of the caller ID.
“Hello, Mr. Woolf. I’m just calling you back from The Manor—”
“What now?”
“I’m afraid we’re unable to locate your daughter.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She’s not in her room.”
“It’s after midnight. Where else would she be? You lock the bloody bedroom doors, she’s not fucking Houdini. Go and look again.”
I hang up and grip the steering wheel.
Then I feel a small, cold hand on my shoulder.
And a female voice whispers, “I love you to the moon and back.”
62CARTER
A voice whispers in the dark: “Carter, can you hear me?”
I’m dreaming about DCI Bird and not for the first time. In this dream she is telling me I did a good job and she is sorry. I don’t know what she is sorry for or why she keeps asking if I can hear her. Of course I can hear her.
“Open your eyes if you can hear me,” she says.
I’ve never had such a demanding boss. She even gives me orders in my sleep. I don’t want to open my eyes, but when I do, I see I am not where I thought I was. Unless I’m still dreaming. But that wouldn’t account for the pain or dizziness. I’m in what looks like a tunnel. Bird is on her knees beside me. She’s taken off her jacket to put it beneath my head, and has rolled up the sleeves of her white shirt revealing a lot of tattoos. I have a curious urge to touch them.
“Where are we?” I ask.
“Spyglass. You were right about the secret tunnels. This one leads all the way to Blackwater Bay.”
Everything starts coming back to me. Eden. Mary. Harrison. Her.
“Did you lie about being my boss?” I ask, sitting up too fast.
“Shh, take it easy. You’re bleeding.”
“Where is Harrison? Did he get away? Is he in the tunnels?”
“Try to relax. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
“What about Mary?”
“You don’t need to worry about Mary. She lived and worked in this house for almost twenty years, caring for my grandmother. She dressed her, fed her, cooked for her, cleaned for her, washed her, cleared up her mess and her accidents, barely earning the minimum wage, and all on the promise of one day inheriting this place when her employer died. But it took longer than either of them expected for that day to finally come, and when it did, Mary wasn’t too happy about my grandmother’s will saying that Spyglass had been left to someone else after twenty years of servitude. Mary wanted what she believed was hers, and that’s why she went to work at The Manor, to get closer to the family who now owned the house she thought was owed to her. Gabriella and Harrison had no idea about her true motivations until she had already befriended them.”
“I don’t understand—”
“I know and I’m sorry. I wish I could explain but I have to go now. I’m almost out of time and there is something I need to do.”
“What are you talking about? You can’t leave me here.”
