‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ he says to me. ‘Do you really believe I can let you leave now? You know too much.’
He slowly reaches into his pocket and that’s when I see he’s got a knife.
Olivia screams. ‘Run! Jenna, run!’
I hesitate for a split second. I don’t want to leave Olivia but I have to get out of here if I want to live. He makes a grab for me as I dart towards the door, but I’m younger and quicker and manage to duck under his arm. I run from the cabin, sensing he’s right behind me. My heart is pounding: Jay knows the forest well – he’ll find me there in minutes. Samuel’s car isn’t in the driveway, I have no choice but to run towards the Devil’s Corridor in the hope I can stop a passing car, if Jay, or his dog, don’t catch up with me first. He might be twenty-odd years older than me but he’s stronger and more powerful and clearly psychotic. If he kills me he won’t get away with it, but that’s of little comfort to me.
I run like I’ve never run before, like I did as a child. It feels as though my legs won’t be able to keep up with me. My lungs are burning with the effort. I can hear Jay behind me, the bark of a dog. He’s gaining on me. It’s raining again and the weight of the water seeping through my clothes is slowing me down. I’m nearly at the end of the dirt track. I just need to get to the main road. I make the mistake of looking back. Jay is within reach and Anastacia is running behind him, her arms windmilling in the air. Is she trying to stop him or is she urging him on? Olivia is standing at the cabin and she’s bravely grabbed the collar of the dog, thank goodness, phone pressed to her ear.
I dart across the road. I’m so blinded by fear I only notice the pick-up truck heading out of town as I sprint past it. I collapse and roll into the grass verge on the other side, shaking at the near miss but then I hear the screech of brakes and a thud. The truck has stopped and a man is getting out on the passenger side and another guy – the driver – is standing over a figure lying prostrate in the road.
51
Olivia
Dale hands mugs of tea to her and Jenna. They are sitting side by side on the sofa in Jenna’s living room and Dale takes the armchair by the patio door. Olivia feels like she’s gone into shock. She can’t stop shaking and she feels she might throw up. By the look on Jenna’s face she must be feeling the same.
Jay was taken off in an ambulance and her mother went with him, along with a police officer. Olivia and Jenna stayed behind to give their statements to the baby-faced constable DC Stirling, and now they’re in Jenna’s cabin, alone with Dale.
‘What will happen to my mum?’ she asks Dale now. Her voice sounds small even to her own ears. She laces her fingers around the mug, trying to steady her trembling hands.
‘We’ll need to interview her formally.’
‘She might deny it.’
‘If she does we’ll just have to gather all the evidence we can and hope it’s enough. But don’t think about that now. You’ve been through so much,’ he says kindly. There is sadness in his eyes too and she remembers how fond he’d once been of Tamzin.
To her horror she begins to cry and Jenna reaches over and rubs her arm.
‘I suspected they must have died …’ she sobs ‘… but to have it confirmed, it feels … well, it feels …’ Her chest is so heavy with grief she can’t breathe. ‘Do you think they would have survived the accident if it hadn’t been for John-Paul?’
‘We’ll never know,’ says Dale. ‘You were lucky to survive it, Olivia. I know it doesn’t feel that way after what you’ve lived with but …’
She remembers Katie and Tamzin weren’t wearing seatbelts. She can’t bear the thought of them in the back of that van, in pain, denied hospital treatment because of her psychopath of a father. If he hadn’t moved them they might have survived their injuries.
‘All these years. My mother knew and never told me. No wonder she didn’t see Maggie and the others again. How could she face them knowing the truth?’
‘It would have been difficult for her,’ pipes up Jenna, who had, until now, remained quiet. ‘She did say she was trying to protect you. I like to think I’d have done the right thing, if it had been me, but having to leave my son …’ Pain flashes in her face. ‘I’m not excusing her, just saying it must have been a hard decision.’
‘But it was self-defence, wasn’t it? He was chasing her,’ says Olivia. ‘She might not have gone to prison.’
Dale places his mug on the coffee-table. ‘She must have believed everything was stacked against her and didn’t want to take the chance. Maybe she was worried the police would find out about the drugs and her role in it all.’
‘I bet Jay didn’t help,’ says Olivia, her voice bitter. ‘He’s had a hold over her all these years. It was so manipulative,’ she turns to Jenna, ‘the way they pretended John-Paul was still alive by hiding out in the cabin opposite. Scaring you like that.’
‘Jay borrowed the dog from one of his dealer mates,’ explains Dale. He crosses his legs and Olivia notices he has novelty penguin socks on. ‘I don’t know if you’re aware, Olivia, but Jay is currently being investigated for his role in a drugs ring here in Stafferbury.’
Olivia isn’t surprised. ‘My mum said something about Wesley. Is he involved too?’
‘It’s looking that way. I’m sorry,’ says Dale. ‘There’s something else about Wesley.’ He grows uncomfortable and fidgets in his chair. He glances at Jenna, then back at Olivia. ‘I’m happy to tell you about it in private.’
‘I don’t care about Wesley,’ she blurts out. ‘After everything else that’s happened he’s the last thing on my mind. And Jenna,’ she turns and smiles at the journalist, ‘I have no secrets from her.’ She swallows the lie with a gulp of the hot tea.
Dale fidgets in his seat. ‘I went back to the stones last night, after I found you. I had my suspicions about what happened to you. And I found a needle and had it tested. Your theory was right. Someone injected you with a date-rape drug.’
Olivia sits up in her chair, her hands gripping her mug. ‘But … I wasn’t raped. There’d be signs, wouldn’t there?’
‘I don’t think the plan was rape,’ he says softly. ‘I’m not sure what it was. I’m afraid for that you’d have to ask Wesley.’
Nausea rises in Olivia’s throat. ‘Why?’ she asks. Her whole body goes hot and then cold, like she’s been doused with a bucket of water.
‘I went to The Raven and asked to look through their CCTV footage. I saw you with Wesley, around seven thirty p.m. He was carrying you along the high street, away from his flat and towards the standing stones. There was a witness too. A woman in the pizza place saw him carrying you across the road to the field.’
She recalls the fear she’d felt last night as she walked home, the neck-tingling sensation that someone was behind her, following her. A hand. A hand had clasped her mouth. And the pain she’d felt in her leg all day. That pin prick in her thigh, the tear in her jodhpurs. He’d injected her. She can hardly believe it.