I turn to her. “I understand. And I’m with you all the way. I will never forgive that bastard for what he’s done to my daughter.”
We look into each other’s eyes for a second.
A lightning rod shoots up my back. When I look at Claire I see Marigold. The darker half of the Palmer Twins. The girl who dies and becomes a ghost.
The thought makes me shiver.
We’re on a dangerous path, she and I, one from which I intend to return, though I can’t say for sure that I will.
Claire’s eyes glisten. Her energy is something I want to consume. We need each other. We could be more powerful together if we can channel this. I know it deep down in my bones, like I always knew I wasn’t alone, that there was someone else out there just like me.
It’s almost like an omen, this realisation. We’re going to get my daughter back.
CHAPTER 69
THE GRAVEDIGGER
He staggers backwards, away from her.
It’s done.
She gazes up at him with her eyes wide open, her body twisted and no breath leaving her lungs. He has done it. He’s killed Dina.
He turns away from her, disgusted by the sight of her weakness. She’ll be under the ground soon. Then he’ll only have Penny to worry about. He checks Penny is still tied up and unconscious from the drugs he fed her this morning and leaves the bothy, the corpse outstretched behind him on the flagstone floor.
He walks outside to the small shed where the logs are stored. In there he finds a shovel and then treads across the gorse to find the most suitable location for her eternal resting place.
He walks away from the loch, over towards the trees. It’s a gloomy morning. All traces of summer sun have been scrubbed from the sky, with a thick, dark cloud gathering above. He smiles. It’s the perfect day for Dina to leave this earth.
Maybe he can get a job somewhere near here. Cash in hand on the farm, then buy forged passports so they can leave the country. He has enough pills to keep Penny sedated for a few weeks. He bought the stash, including the sedatives, from a dealer the day after his father died. He originally intended to use them to control his stepmother.
He walks around for half an hour and sees no sign of anyone. It does him good. He needs the air, the peace. There’s low fog hanging in the air, clinging to the ferns underfoot. No sunshine glimmers against the surface of the loch. It’s dull, like dishwater. Then he circles back closer to the bothy, so he won’t have far to drag her body. He finds the perfect place – soft earth, plenty of undergrowth to thrive off her rotting flesh and hide what lies beneath. Satisfied, he heads back to the bothy to check on the other one before he commences work.
As he approaches the small house made of stone, his heart stops at what he sees.
He hurries his pace, trying to get a better look.
The car is gone.
Penny must have got out.
He dashes inside through the wide-open front door of the bothy. Penny is still there, tied up on the bunk bed where he left her.
But Dina’s corpse has fled.
CHAPTER 70
FAYE
We are getting close now.
My daughter is waiting for me. I’m coming, Penny. Just hold on.
It might be summer, but the weather doesn’t know it. The fog thickens, obscuring the visibility on the single-track road. I keep a white-knuckled grip on the door handle while Claire drives cautiously forward. I watch the windscreen wipers sweep back and forth, hypnotised by their movement. The sky is so dark the automatic lights come on and we sweep the road ahead with our beam.
The road swings around unexpectedly, and Claire jerks the steering wheel suddenly to move through the bend. We screech around the corner and tilt to the side, almost ending up careering onto the sodden moor grass. My heart pounds and Claire lets out a relieved breath.
This road wraps around the coastline. The fog is so low that it dips below the cliff edge, replacing the distant sea.
