I burst through the door and the heat hits me like a wall, and I’m grateful because I really want to feel my fingers again. ‘Zoe, it’s just me.’ The door to the snug is slightly ajar. I accidentally stomp snow along her stone hallway, peer into the snug. Zoe isn’t there. Cora has gone too. Sausage barks again, so I try to work out where he might be in the house. ‘Zoe.’ Barks come from behind the closed kitchen door. I take a deep breath and open it to see Zoe standing by the back barn door with Cora in her arms. Sausage runs up to me, barking. ‘Zoe?’ I say again. She ignores me. ‘Zoe,’ I yell at the top of my voice. I don’t know what’s up with her. It is like she didn’t notice me coming through the door.
She slowly turns around and stares at me. Snowflakes sit on the top of her head. Cora is wrapped up and fast asleep, snuggled against her chest, but I can see that Zoe is trembling. ‘I didn’t want to leave her on her own in the snug. I heard a noise. There was someone in my kitchen…’
I go over to her and look outside. Her back gate is wide open onto the woods.
‘I heard a bang. Sid must have let Sausage out for a pee earlier and left the back door unlocked, but he wouldn’t have left the gate open. Someone must have reached over to slide the lock. When I came out, I saw this.’ She points at the kitchen chair that had fallen over. ‘It wasn’t like that earlier. It was tucked in under the table. Someone’s been in my house.’
A chill runs through me as I picture someone out there watching me fumble for the key in the snow. They must have startled the fox.
Zoe looks like she might cry. I pick the chair up for her and close the door on the snow. I turn the key in the lock then regret touching anything. What if she was going to call the police? Detective Morgan fail. There would be no point dusting for prints now.
‘I was about to call Sid, to see if he left the chair like that, but there was a bang.’ She furrows her brows.
‘The door to Clover House was open when I popped out. I closed it but I think someone must have been in there because we locked the door, didn’t we? You saw me do it.’
She shrugs. ‘I don’t know. Your sister was crying and I was holding her.’ Cora half yawns but falls back to sleep. Zoe begins slowly rocking her.
I let out a long, slow breath. ‘I saw Ray wearing his winter coat, watching from his upstairs window, then Tessa left her house too. It could have been either of them.’ I recall Ruby’s stare, and missing girl, Jasmine, keeps whirring through my mind, like a song on constant replay. Her name was at the end of the letter stuck to our door.
Zoe shakes her head and passes Cora to me. ‘I think Ray and I are going to have words tomorrow. This has to stop.’
A knock at the front door makes me crash into the table backwards, and Cora starts to whimper in my arms. We look at each other, then Zoe checks her phone. ‘Ah, it’s your dad. I didn’t hear that message. It must have come through when I was in the garden.’
I leave her and hurry to open the front door. Dad steps in out of the cold and hugs me closely. I swallow down the lump in my throat. ‘Is Mum with you?’
He loosens his embrace, takes Cora off me and kisses her head. ‘She has to rest. They’ve kept her in. It looks like an infection. We’ll know more in the morning. Where’s Zoe? I need to thank her.’
‘She’s in the kitchen. Something just happened so she’s a bit upset.’
‘What?’
‘I think someone came into her house. I popped to Harry’s for a few minutes and?—’
He frowns. ‘You left Cora? Morgan, what were you thinking?’
‘She was asleep and Zoe was looking after her.’
‘But Mum and I needed you to look after her.’
‘Okay, I’m sorry.’ I fold my arms and look at my feet. I haven’t even told him about the note stuck to our front door or the fact that the door was wide open.
Zoe and her dog come out from the kitchen. She’s holding a note in her hands. ‘Someone definitely came into my house. They left this on the worktop next to the bread bin.’ She reads it aloud as we read along with her.
HELLO NEIGHBOUR. I’M STILL HERE AND I THOUGHT IT ONLY POLITE TO TELL YOU THAT I WILL MAKE YOU ALL PAY FOR LETTING ME DOWN. WHEN SOMEONE GOES MISSING, PEOPLE ARE MEANT TO LOOK FOR THEM AND THE PEOPLE AROUND HERE DIDN’T LOOK FAR ENOUGH WHICH MEANS THEY DIDN’T CARE. NO ONE CARED FOR POOR LITTLE JASMINE. NOW THE PEOPLE OF CLOVER LANE MUST PAY.
ALSO, BE WARY OF NICE PEOPLE, IT’S ALWAYS THE NICEST PEOPLE YOU HAVE TO WATCH OUT FOR.
‘Morgan, love. I won’t be angry but I ask that you answer me honestly. I’ve been nothing but kind and understanding, haven’t I? Please, I won’t be mad at all. You were out at the time when someone came into my house and left this note, and you mentioned Jasmine earlier. You also knew that I wouldn’t leave the snug because Cora was fast asleep on the sofa and’ – she looks at me and Dad – ‘you both seem really nice.’ She glances at the note again. ‘Did you come through my back gate and leave this note on my worktop?’
‘No, why would I?’
‘It’s hard moving. You must miss your friends a lot. You don’t have to do this, Morgan.’
‘Are you seriously accusing my daughter?’
Thanks, Dad, I want to say. I need someone to stick up for me now because I’d never say the horrible things in those letters.
‘Well, she had opportunity and I’m not blaming her. She’s left all her friends behind. Your wife has had a traumatic evening, and Morgan has been upset. It’s hard for her so I won’t go to the police. We’ll forget this, okay? We can just forget it. I understand but please, it has to stop now or I will have no option but to call them.’ Her stare moves from my dad to me. The letter vibrates as her hand shakes.
