The Back Road

46

On her journey to the police station, Ellie had dawdled all the way and still got there quickly. Now she was trying every short cut she knew to get back to the village, but time was racing by. Of course, her blackmailer would never be expecting her to turn up. It wasn’t her they wanted. It was Sean.

The instructions had been clear. Send ‘lover boy’ to me at the old Haslett’s Farm at eight pm. Ellie knew who they meant, but had to be sure.

‘What do you mean? Who are you talking about?’ she’d asked.

There had been a sneaky laugh from the other end of the phone.

‘How many lovers have you got, Ellie? Little Miss Perfect? I want the one you were with on Friday night. The one you sneaked out to meet.’ Another nasty giggle.

How could they know so much? Ellie was sure nobody had seen her with Sean, and she certainly hadn’t told a soul about it. She nearly told Georgia when Sean turned up on Saturday night and left that bloody rose in the fridge - but she would never have named him. Of that she was one hundred per cent confident.

Whoever her blackmailer was, he was a clever sod. Ellie was the only person who could be relied upon to lure Sean to a secret assignation in a remote place. Initially, she hadn’t been intending to involve him. She had planned on going herself to find out who was playing with her mind and threatening her children. But then Sean had sent that text, and this time his intentions were explicit. So she had done exactly what she had been asked to do - she’d sent ‘lover boy’.

Ellie would be there too, though, and the blackmailer wouldn’t be expecting that. But why Sean?

She looked at her watch. It was three minutes past eight, and she was still five minutes from Haslett’s farm. She was driving as if the devil were at her back.

Five minutes became ten as Ellie was stuck on the back road behind a herd of cows. She wanted to pip her horn and drive right through them, but she knew what the farmers round here were like, and this one in particular would be more likely to try to slow the cows down if she did that. She closed her eyes in frustration.

Finally, she was moving again. The turning was just up ahead, and she took the corner too fast, nearly ending up in the hedge. Shit. That was close.

Sean’s car was there; she could see it parked at the front of the farmhouse. But there didn’t seem to be anybody else. She slammed the brakes on right behind his car and got out.

Silence.

She walked towards the front of the farm, but it was clear that there was nobody inside. She would be glad when she found him - there was something ominous about the quiet. There wasn’t a breath of air, and even the birds seemed to have stopped singing.

Suddenly the stillness was ripped apart. Ellie heard a brief shout of fear, followed by a terrible scream of agony. Then the silence returned as quickly as it had departed. It was almost as if she had dreamt it, but she knew she hadn’t.

Ellie ran. Perhaps it was foolish, but she didn’t stop to think. Seeing a huge building ahead of her and to the left, she sprinted towards it, skirting stones and debris from the ruined farmhouse and ploughing through the undergrowth.

As she dodged around the hanging door of the building, she caught a glimpse of movement at the edge of her vision, but she didn’t even cast a stray glance in its direction as her whole being was focused on the sight in front of her. At the edge of the shadows that lay darkly beneath the hayloft she saw a foot. Her eyes followed the path from the foot up the leg, until the whole body was visible to her.

‘No!’ she screamed. ‘Oh my God - no.’ She ran towards the mangled body. Sean was lying on what appeared to be a huge pile of old rusty metal; some sort of ancient farm equipment, and Ellie could see spikes sticking up through his chest and his neck. She knew before she reached him that he was dead. Blood would have been gushing from him if his heart had been beating. He had bled out in seconds. Nevertheless, Ellie leaned over him to see if there was a pulse - to see if she could do anything at all.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she cried, as she reached over Sean’s blood soaked body to feel his neck. Nothing. Even though she knew he couldn’t hear her or feel her, she brought his hand to her lips and kissed it. Whatever had happened in the last few weeks and however badly he had behaved, she was every bit as guilty as he was.

At the back of her conscious mind, she heard a car start up and skid off down the dirt track, but she was too intent on trying to communicate her thoughts to Sean - without either hope or expectation.

She had done this. She had sent him to his death.

Sobbing and covered in his wet, sticky blood, she grabbed her phone from her pocket and called an ambulance. It was too late, of course, but she gave the details as calmly as she could then hung up and collapsed on the floor next to Sean’s still warm body.

‘I’m sorry,’ she sobbed. ‘You didn’t deserve this. You didn’t. I’m sorry I couldn’t love you - I know you can’t hear me, but none of this was your fault.’

She had been cursing Sean for weeks now, trying to get him out of her life – but she would never have wished this on him. Why would anybody want to kill him?

Ellie held his hand while she waited for the ambulance, but as she lay by his side, she realised that there was much more to this. He had been lured to this spot. She knew she was to blame for that, but how could she explain?

Lying where she was, she pulled her phone towards her again. Looking through the list of texts, she found what she was looking for and pressed the call button.

* * *

Tom and Leo had been over everything that he had discovered for a second time as Leo tried to absorb the truth. She had remained composed, but he could see what an effort it had been, and he just wished she would cry. This was a hell of a legacy to live with.

Finally, Leo had thanked him very formally for his efforts, and finished by saying, ‘Can we not talk about this anymore, please? I’d rather pretend that things are as they were until I’ve had time to think about this and deal with it properly.’

Since then they had been subdued, but oddly it hadn’t felt at all uncomfortable. Tom was serving up the steaks and Leo was pinching chips out of the dish when the phone rang.

‘Bloody typical,’ said Tom. ‘Sorry, Leo. I know that I could ignore it, but once a policeman…’

Leo gave him a scornful smirk and continued to pick at the chips. How she stayed so slim, Tom couldn’t imagine. She had a hell of an appetite. He glanced at the phone, but didn’t recognise the number.

‘Tom Douglas,’ he said. All he could hear at the other end of the phone was sobbing for a moment.

‘Thank God. I was praying this was your number.’

‘Ellie? Is that you, Ellie?’ He heard a burst of static, then garbled crying and talking all at the same time.

Leo looked up sharply and was about to speak, but Tom held his hand up to quieten her. He could hardly make out what Ellie was saying.

‘Slow down, Ellie - I can’t understand you. Where are you?’

Tom heard two words clearly. Leo, and Haslett’s.

‘Leo’s here with me, Ellie. Do you want me to get Max?’

There was a shriek of ‘NO!’ down the phone.

‘Okay, okay. Leo’s here, but I don’t know what Haslett’s means. What are you trying to say to me?’

Leo started to speak and Tom raised his hand again. Leo grabbed it and pulled it down.

‘Ask her if she means Haslett’s Farm. Is that where she is?’

Tom nodded and followed Leo’s instructions.

‘Yes - and it’s awful. It’s truly terrible. Please come Tom. Bring Leo too. Tom - He’s dead! I’ve killed him.’

‘We’re on our way, Ellie. Sit tight. Don’t touch anything. Are you in danger?’

‘No! Just come.’

Tom was about to hand the phone to Leo so that she could talk to her sister as they drove, but Ellie had hung up.

‘What? What?’ Leo shouted at Tom.

‘Ellie’s in some kind of trouble. She’s at Haslett’s Farm. Do you know where it is?’ She nodded. Tom decided that he wouldn’t pass on the ‘He’s dead’ comment to Leo until he knew some more. ‘She specifically said that she doesn’t want us to get Max, so let’s go.’

Tom grabbed his car keys from the worktop and ran for the door, with Leo close behind. His old Jeep was facing towards the road, thank goodness. That would save them a couple of minutes.

They leapt in the car, and Tom had the engine running before Leo had managed to close her door.

‘Out of the drive and turn left,’ she said. ‘The quickest way is down the back road.’

‘Put your seatbelt on, Leo.’

‘What? For God’s sake, Tom, it’s only five minutes away.’ Nevertheless, Leo wrestled with the archaic seatbelt. ‘I know you’re a policeman, but bloody hell,’ she muttered.

‘There’s no airbag on that side, Leo. Only on the driver’s side. It’s an old car - and I don’t want to be worried about you flying through the windscreen every time I brake. Nothing to do with being a policeman.’

Tom could feel the tension rippling from Leo, but she had the sense not to keep asking him questions about his conversation with Ellie. She knew he would tell her whatever he thought he needed to. She was a smart girl. He reached his hand across and grasped one of hers.

‘It’ll be okay, Leo. Ellie’s upset, but she didn’t sound as if she was hurt.’

Leo grasped his hand tightly, and he managed the whole journey steering one handed, glad that the old wreck he had bought for shifting garden rubbish and the like was an automatic.

They reached the farm in five minutes, and as they approached the farmhouse, Tom could see two parked cars.

‘There’s Ellie’s car,’ Leo said. ‘But whose is the other one? I’ve seen it before somewhere - I recognise the cover over the spare wheel. It was parked down the lane on Friday night.’

‘I think it’s Sean’s,’ Tom said. ‘It looks like the Discovery he arrived in on Saturday, and I saw it again on Sunday.’

He pulled up quickly.

‘Stay in the car, Leo.’

‘No,’ she replied, opening the car door and jumping out. Tom had a quick flash of déjà vu. He remembered another crime scene where he’d asked a woman to stay in the car and she had refused. But he had no time to think about that now.

Leo was shouting at the top of her voice.

‘Ellie? Ellie - where are you?’

A faint noise came from the direction of the barn, and Leo set off at a run with Tom right behind.

They both entered the barn at the same moment, and stopped. Leo was the first to react, and within a space of no more than two seconds she had raced across the barn and launched herself at Ellie, wrapping her arms round her blood soaked sister and rocking her backwards and forwards.

‘Where are you hurt, Ellie? Where? Tell me what to do?’

Ellie was sobbing too much to answer.

‘Leo,’ Tom said calmly. ‘I don’t think Ellie’s hurt. I think the blood is Sean’s.’ Tom nodded towards Sean’s body. Leo must have seen it, but she’d been so intent on getting to her sister that she had shut it out of her mind. Tom saw the flash of horror in her eyes as she registered the blood soaked body and the massive spikes that skewered Sean to the rusting machinery.

‘Leo, you need to step away from Ellie and come back over here. This is a crime scene, and you are buggering it up something rotten. Come here.’

‘Piss off, Tom. I’m staying with Ellie.’

Given that she had undoubtedly done the damage already, Tom told both of them to stay where they were, and not to move. He grabbed his mobile and made a call, turning his back on the girls in the hope that they wouldn’t hear him. But he wasn’t about to leave them alone in the barn either.

‘Steve? I don’t know if you’re on duty, mate, but you’re needed. Dead body. It’s pretty bad, so I’d only bring people with strong stomachs. I’ll stay until you get here. Haslett’s Farm, if you know where that is. Okay. Twenty minutes.’

Tom turned his phone round and took some photos.

‘What the f*ck are you doing, Tom?’ Leo shouted. ‘I can’t believe you just did that!’

‘Shut up, Leo and listen. Ellie’s in a very compromising position. She’s here on her own with somebody who is dead. She’s covered in his blood. You have trampled all over the scene. I want to get you and Ellie away from that body, and I want to preserve what’s left of any evidence - because I don’t think this has anything to do with your sister, but I’m likely to be in the minority. Okay?’ Tom was trying to be gentle, but he had to make Leo understand. The glare she gave him was one of outrage, but at least she had stopped arguing.

He took some more pictures, including upwards to where it was evident that Sean had fallen through a hole in the upstairs level of the barn. He could see sawdust on the floor to one side - the other side having been trampled by first Ellie and then Leo. Once he had finished with his photos, he spoke again.

‘Leo, help Ellie to her feet. I can hear sirens, and at a guess she’s called an ambulance. Is that right, Ellie?’

She nodded.

‘Well there’s not much they can do for Sean, other than pronounce life extinct, but they might be able to help Ellie with something for the shock. Can you help her up Leo and take her outside?’

Leo nodded.

‘Come on, Ellie. Lean on me.’

With her arm wrapped round her sister, Leo helped her to her feet, and then walked her towards the door as the ambulance pulled to a halt in the now busy forecourt of the farm. Tom went over and had a brief word with them, and Leo guided Ellie towards her car.

‘Not in there,’ Tom shouted, and came running over. ‘She’s got sawdust on her feet - she can’t get in her car.’

‘So? She needs to sit down - what does the state of her feet matter?’

‘Jesus, Leo, can’t you do as you’re told for once?’ Tom whipped off the denim shirt he was wearing over a T-shirt and placed it on a rough looking hay bale. ‘Here you go, Ellie. Sit yourself down here.’

Ellie sat, and Leo perched on the very edge, holding on tight to her sister. Tom crouched down to face Ellie.

‘The police are going to be here in a few minutes. They’re going to want to understand everything. Now would be a good time for you to tell me what you know so that I can do whatever possible to help you. Do you think you can talk?’

Leo gave Tom another of her fierce looks, which he studiously ignored.

‘I’m trying to help, Ellie.’

Ellie buried her face in her hands, and her words were barely audible.

‘It’s my fault. I sent him here. I was being blackmailed - do as I say, or I’ll tell Max. So I told him to come. I was coming too - but I was late. God help us, Tom, I never thought for a minute that he’d be killed.’

‘Who was blackmailing you, Ellie, and what would they tell Max?’ Leo asked, a look of incredulity on her face.

‘Leo - I like you, and I think you know that,’ Tom said. ‘But if you don’t shut up, I am going to have to ask you to leave. Is that clear?’

Leo scowled, but resisted the temptation to respond. She hugged Ellie closer to her.

‘Take your time, Ellie. Start at the beginning.’

Before she had a chance to speak, a young paramedic appeared, and offered Ellie a cup from a thermos full of some hot, steaming liquid.

‘Have some tea - it’s only what I bring when I’m on duty, so I don’t have enough to go round - but it might help,’ she said kindly.

Ellie tried to give a smile of thanks as she took the cup in shaky hands. She dropped her head again, staring sightlessly into the plastic beaker.

‘It started about three weeks ago. It was the day before we moved into the house. The carpet fitters were coming to finish off downstairs. Max was supposed to be coming home, but he was with her - that Alannah from his school.’

Leo looked as if she were about to speak, but Tom threw her a warning glance. Let her finish Leo, he thought, willing her to keep silent.

‘I knew by then that Sean liked me - I mean really liked me - and he was there, you see. Just when I needed somebody.’

Without looking up, Ellie took a sip of her tea, and nobody spoke.

‘Max had said he would meet me at lunchtime - so we could see our finished house. I thought he would be as excited as me. But he called at the last minute to say that he was going to have lunch with Pat - because Pat was devastated about the whole Georgia thing. I was a bit put out, but it was okay. Then in the early afternoon Georgia called me. She said Pat had been round for lunch, but they’d made no progress. So Max had been lying to me, and he’d only do that for one reason. He must have been with her. I knew things weren’t right, but I would never have believed he was having an affair. And he’s going to leave me. I heard him. He’s going to tell me on Saturday, but I already know. He’s not very discreet on the telephone, you know.’

Ellie gave a brief laugh, her fondness for Max showing through despite everything.

‘I was so upset. I knew he didn’t want me anymore. He tried, but… Well, things didn’t always work out, and that had never been a problem for Max until the last month or two. So I knew, you see. He didn’t want me. And I knew that Sean did. I’d known for months. He found me lying on the floor - on my beautiful new carpet - and I was crying. Sean had called to see if the fitters had done any damage and if any paintwork needed touching up, but he sat down next to me and pulled me into his arms. I told him everything.’

Ellie started to cry again. Leo looked at Tom as if begging him to stop, but he knew it was all going to have to come out. He waited in silence, just leaning forward to give Ellie’s arm an encouraging squeeze.

‘The landscapers were outside finishing off my yellow rose bed, so he guided me upstairs - away from prying eyes, he said. He sat me on our new king sized bed and put his arm round me. Then I had this mad notion that if I was unfaithful too, it wouldn’t seem so bad when Max came clean. I thought that I wouldn’t have to leave him, because I was as bad. Does that make sense?’ Ellie looked up for the first time. ‘I’d always said that trust had to be the most important thing in my marriage, and if Max ever betrayed it, I would leave him. I didn’t want to become an embittered old hag like my mother. But I couldn’t leave him. I love him. I adore him. So what could I do? This way, I would be able to forgive him.’

Leo grabbed a tissue from the pocket of her jeans and passed it to Ellie.

‘I didn’t have sex with him, though. I couldn’t. But you see, I let him get close - so what does that make me? When I was at school, we’d have called somebody like me a prick tease. But I didn’t mean to. Sean was nice. But then he became a bit weird. I know that it was my fault. But after that day, he wouldn’t leave me alone. Wherever I went, there he was. Whatever I did, he knew about it. It was the most dreadful feeling.’

‘Ellie,’ Leo said softly, ‘I know Tom has told me not to interrupt, but there’s something you need to know. Max has never had an affair. Not with Alannah, or with anybody else. I know what the problem was. It was just the money. He told me this morning. He felt he wasn’t the man of the house anymore, and so he did something stupid - something very stupid - but I promise you, it had nothing to do with another woman.’

Leo gave Tom a defiant look.

‘I know you told me to be quiet, but she needed to know that, Tom.’

He gave her a gentle smile, and a brief nod.

‘We understand, Ellie. I can see how it happened, and it sounds as if Sean became obsessed, would that be right? Why was he here, though? The police will be here soon, so if you can it would help if you told me everything now. Then I can help you.’

And so Ellie began her tale. Of the blackmail, the stalking, the breaking into the house, and how Sean came to be at Haslett’s farm.

* * *

Ellie was so grateful to Tom and Leo for coming to her rescue, but she knew that somebody was going to have to tell Max what was happening. He’d been calling her endlessly, and she had finally switched off her phone. Leo had done the same. At least he was at home to keep a careful watch over the twins, although now that the blackmailer had what he wanted, maybe that threat would be over.

She had been so wrong about Max. In spite of the horrors of this evening, the fact that he wasn’t having an affair had lifted a lead weight from around her heart. It was wrong to feel this way, because whatever Sean had done and no matter how he had frightened her, she was far from blameless, and this was something that she was going to have to face.

The police had arrived just as she finished explaining everything to Tom, and he had spoken to them. Nevertheless, she was an obvious suspect. They had found Sean’s phone, with the message that she’d sent asking him to meet her here, at the farm, and she was covered in his blood. Tom had pointed out that the floor upstairs had been sawn through, and the hole covered in cardboard and straw so that it was invisible, but they hadn’t found any tools of any description and she had no alibi. She hadn’t seen a soul since she left work. She hadn’t spoken to anybody, and she’d not been home when Max returned with the twins. In fact, she had been sitting outside the police station, but nobody would have seen her there.

Tom came towards her with the detective, a huge man, whom he’d called ‘Steve’.

‘Ellie, I’m sorry but you’re going to have to go down to the station with Detective Inspector Corby here. I don’t want you to worry too much, but they will have to arrest you. It’s procedure, and under the circumstances they don’t have much choice. But whatever you do, don’t panic. Tell them the truth and we’ll get it sorted, okay? I’ll take Leo home, and she can get you some clean clothes. We’ll bring them to you. We’ll speak to Max too. What do you want us to tell him, Ellie?’

Before Ellie had a chance to answer, one of the other policemen came over and whispered in the inspector’s ear. He nodded a couple of times, and turned to Tom.

‘Apparently we have a very positive lead on the driver of the car in the Abbie Campbell accident. Have you got a moment, Tom?’

The detective inspector put his hand on Tom’s elbow and guided him away from Ellie, but not before she had heard one name.

Charles Atkinson.