‘I’m so scared.’
‘I know, I am too, but we can’t let him win, can we? He killed my friend and dragged her into the water. Why didn’t he kill me?’
Scarlett sat up, tucking her knees up to her chin and wrapping her arms around them. ‘He did the same to my friend Dawson. My other friend ran away; I don’t know if she’s alive or dead.’
‘God, I hope she got away. What’s her name?’
‘Tori.’
‘I think that Tori got away and will tell them what happened, so they must be out there searching for us and they’re going to find us sooner or later. We need to remember that. Thank God for Tori.’
Scarlett hadn’t thought about that. She hoped that Tori had managed to escape and tell the police. She was right; if she had, they would be out looking for her and that gave her a tiny bit of hope.
‘Do you know where we are?’
‘No, it feels as if we’re in some kind of cellar, but I don’t know where. It’s so cold and echoey in here.’
Scarlett had her coat on, and she unzipped it then put it on back to front, not sure if it would make any difference, but she lay down so her back was at least covered by the mattress, and drew her knees up again. All there was in this cell, and it was a cell – she didn’t know how else to describe it – was a bucket which she assumed was to pee in and the bottle of water. She thought about how much damage she could do with the bucket. It was plastic so not a lot, but maybe if she peed in it and threw it in his face when he opened the door, it might give her enough time to shove him inside and lock him in. That was a lot of mights and what ifs. She knew that it would probably be pointless, but she had to try, didn’t she? Otherwise she may as well roll over and die now.
‘Have you got anything you could use as a weapon?’ Janey asked.
‘No, have you?’
They were both whispering now in case the creep was in here somewhere.
‘Whatever happens you have to fight him. If he comes in to your space, do your best to attack him. Scream, cry, pull hishair, kick him in the nuts, whatever it takes, but do not let him hurt you without trying to stick up for yourself. I read loads of true crime, watch the documentaries, and most of the time these weirdos are not as brave as you would think. They’re only brave when they have the upper hand, let’s make sure we don’t give that to him again. The first time he caught us off guard and we weren’t expecting him to attack us, next time we’ll be ready.’
Scarlett nodded, she got that and kind of agreed with Janey, but come on, all she had was a plastic bucket to defend herself with and she didn’t think that was going to do the trick.
‘I’m sorry about your friend.’
Scarlett saw Dawson’s icy blue eyes, his long black fringe and chipped fingernails. She could smell his aftershave too. He always wore the same one that he got for his birthday and Christmas. She didn’t know the name, always too shy to ask him, but she would know the woody amber and vanilla scent anywhere. His parents would be devastated and what about Tori, where was she? They had been a bit off with each other before they got out of the car. Tori had been snappy with her because she’d been flirting with Dawson, but she couldn’t help it, she had fancied him like mad and had never told him that. She couldn’t ever tell him how much he meant to her now, and she felt herself crumble as her whole body shook with the grief and heartbreak at the thought of losing her two best friends.
THIRTY-FOUR
Morgan carried the clear evidence bag with the phone back into the house and into the kitchen, where Amos was sitting on a chair at the table, his huge, weathered hands wrapped around a mug of coffee. Ben was standing leaning against the worktop. His gaze fixed on the evidence bag. Morgan lifted it to show to Amos.
‘Is this your phone?’
He shook his head, then pushed himself up off the chair. His eyes wide and he looked terrified. ‘No, I’ve never seen it before.’
Ben looked at the bag she was holding out. ‘Where did you find that?’
‘In the shed full of cow shit,’ muttered Marc.
Amos looked at Marc. ‘It’s horse manure not cow. I keep it for the garden, or I used to, not that you can see much of a garden now. It’s all got a bit overgrown. Whose phone is that?’
‘Morgan, can you phone the Peters’ family liaison officer like now and ask them what colour Scarlett’s phone is?’
She nodded. Placing it on the kitchen table she went outside and asked control to give her the number, and then she paused and took out her tablet – it should be on the missing person’s report that was originally logged. After skimming through it shesaw that it had been a green iPhone 16 and sighed so hard, she wanted to scream. She was so mad, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t evidence. They had barely any information about Janey Moore or her deceased friend Lizzie Thomas, it could belong to one of them; it most likely did. She walked back into the kitchen and felt the warmth that radiated from the ancient Aga settle over her like a fluffy blanket. She shook her head and glanced in Ben’s direction, and he looked relieved. Amos looked terrified.
Morgan turned to Marc; he looked pissed. ‘Can you get onto it?’ he asked.
‘I doubt it, there’s no charge and it will have a passcode.’
The rest of the search team piled into the house. Al cleared his throat. ‘Nothing we could find.’
‘Thanks, guys, I appreciate you looking.’ Ben nodded at him.
