The paper is folded over and over, but there’s no mistaking the presence of both horizontal and vertical lines. Katie reaches out for it, then stops. She’d been so wrapped up in the horror of it all that for once she had forgotten the process. At the same time she knows that putting on the gloves might upset Ellie, might even make her snatch it back. And it’s already been handled by the child. Nevertheless, she will stick to the rules.
‘I don’t want to damage something so precious,’ she says, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a pair of blue latex gloves. Instead of worrying her, seeing them seems to excite Ellie even more. As, it seems, does the sight of Katie’s whole arm shaking as she takes the paper off her and carefully opens it up.
HA HA, YOUR MUM IS DEAD
Mark is standing by Katie’s shoulder, his breathing short, his eyes wide.
‘What is this?’ he spits.
‘What do you think it is?’ asks Katie, crouching down to Ellie’s level.
‘It’s what he told me.’
‘Who told you?’
‘The wizard in the garden. He pushed the paper through a hole in the fence. He said it was a magic piece of paper and that whatever was written on it would come true.’ Ellie looks a little embarrassed at her next confession. ‘I can’t read yet, so he told me what it said. It said I needed to get this back.’ She holds up the doll triumphantly. ‘If I did, and if I keep our secret, then Mummy will come back too.’
Mark pushes past Katie, knocking her onto her knees, and takes his daughter in his arms. He’s sobbing uncontrollably, and Ellie looks up at Katie, the first sign of worry on her face.
‘Are you not here to help bring her back? Did I do something wrong? Was it because I told my sister Ava about the wizard?’
‘You’ve done nothing wrong,’ says Katie, her own voice breaking, unable to find the strength to rise. She knows it won’t be long before this little girl learns the truth – the same truth she had learned at a very young age. There is no magic in this world.
Finally standing, she wants to leave, to walk away and never come back, but there’s work still to be done. She places a hand on Mark’s back, and he turns to her with a look that’s a mix of hatred and desperation.
‘Why?’ he says. ‘Why would he do this?’
The answer had been there from the moment she’d discovered the significance of the doll to a killer who delights in drawing out pain. She had known that in pursuing the link she would somehow be a part of inflicting that pain and yet, as always, she couldn’t stop herself. The truth would come at any cost.
‘I will need to get a team here,’ she says softly, and Mark’s eyes close in resignation. This had been a place of escape, somewhere to hide from the hideous events. And yet now it will be trampled all over in the search for clues that she knows will not be there, not unless the killer has left them intentionally. It’s all part of the game: it’s a game that she knows, as she looks at Mark, then at his dad, who has appeared in the doorway with an even smaller girl alongside, she is losing.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, and Katie is walking back to her car. She glances at where the suspected journalist had been. He or she has been moved on by one of the team that has arrived. She hears the sound of a car window being lowered and looks down at a black saloon that’s pulled up next to her. Dr Miles Parker is staring up at her with a twisted grin.
‘What’s your partner got caught up in now? Always had my suspicions about him. Surprised you didn’t. But then I guess it’s true what they say about love being blind.’
Katie bends over and leans heavily on the sill.
‘You told Mark Brooks about Nathan’s brother.’
‘I merely kept him informed of developments. In the same way you ought to have.’
She should have seen this coming. She should have heeded DS Peters’ warnings. She had created an enemy. Or rather she had followed her instinct from the first time they’d met, looking into the doctor’s eyes and seeing the sort of person he was.
‘You undermine my investigation again and I will ruin you.’
‘Don’t think you carry that weight anymore,’ Miles says with a sneer. ‘Rumour has it you’re on the way out. Not even Daddy’s reputation can save you this time.’
‘That’s right,’ she says. ‘The bosses think I’m losing it, that I’m reckless and dangerous.’ She leans in closer, so close she has to fight the urge to use her forehead to spread his nose across his face. ‘What do you think?’
He leans back, face paling. ‘I think you’re as crazy as your boyfriend.’
‘Quite possibly,’ she says, noisily dragging her nails across the door trim. ‘And imagine the damage the two of us could do.’
* * *
Back at her own car, she finds the PC has kept watch the entire time, and she thanks him with a nod. He doesn’t say a word, looking relieved to be able to move away. Falling into the driver’s seat and starting up the Rover’s engine, she searches for something to say to the man slumped against the passenger door, wishing he could tell her what to do next, wishing he could be her partner again.
And, as if he’s sensed her need, he struggles to push himself up and to find his focus.
‘I don’t know what happened with the family in there,’ he says, thumping his forehead. ‘But I can imagine… I can imagine. And I’m sorry, so sorry for everything he’s doing.’ He opens his eyes wider and settles his stare. ‘I will do whatever it takes to make this stop.’
‘Does that mean…?’ She can’t bring herself to complete the question, knowing what it would represent for Nathan: risking his control, his sanity, his very identity.
‘Whatever it takes,’ he says, closing his eyes.
Twenty-Two
Nathan is sitting staring at Katie’s kitchen table, lost in his most vivid and most difficult memory. He’d thought his mum was asleep when he’d found her, drained by the exertions of looking after his dad, but it hadn’t taken long to realise the terrible truth that both of his parents had gone in a single day. Even though he’d known she was dead, he’d rocked her gently, as she would have done him when he was at the very start of his life, until she’d started to slump towards the floor. He’d reached out to grab her, falling himself and remaining on the floor, holding her tightly. He didn’t move for nearly two hours. When he’d heard his brother walking up the drive he’d jumped to his feet to block him off at the door, then turned back towards the table, removing the one thing he knew would hurt Christian even more than the sight of their mum’s body.
He’s thinking of that item now, rapidly rewriting the past the same way he had after he’d been given his mum’s book and wondered if she somehow knew about him – reading between the lines of his terrible nightmares and perhaps identifying the very same dark vision that had shaped her writing, and possibly her life. Might she also have spotted the same affliction – and that’s the only way he’s ever been able to think of it – in Christian? Might that have been the reason she couldn’t carry on, heartbroken, envisioning a life without her husband, but also terrified of what she had passed on to both her sons?
He snaps back into the present, aware that Katie is pacing around in the living room, impatient for them to begin.
‘What did he do to those little girls?’ says Nathan. He hadn’t wanted to ask, but he knows he can use this.
‘He gave them hope,’ she replies. ‘Made them believe their mum might come back.’
Nathan nods, thinking of his own mum again, thinking of the desperate prayers he’d said on the day that he found her.
‘Okay,’ he says, pushing himself up and heading for the small door behind the curtains.
‘I’ll just be outside.’
‘No!’ he says sharply, before breathing out slowly to make himself clear. ‘I need to know there’s no other option, nowhere I can go, nobody I can shout out to. No escape.’
‘You’re kidding. There’s no way I’m leaving you here on your own. You heard what the Super said. I’m amazed he hasn’t already got you locked up.’
‘And that’s exactly what I will be,’ he says, nodding at the room again. ‘I want you to take the key with you.’
‘Even so…’ She shakes her head.
He pauses before speaking. ‘Do you want me to do this, or not?’
She stands in front of him with her arms crossed, but already he can see her features soften.