Behind Closed Doors (Season One: Book 7) (Jessica Daniel) (20 page)

Jessica waited until Charley had ended the call and then checked the battery indicator. In just three days, she had already drained over a quarter of it. She slipped it under the mattress,
before returning to the window, staring at the emptiness of the gardens and wanting to go home.

Jessica spent the rest of the afternoon in the bedroom, cleaning. When she first arrived, she couldn’t figure out why Heather had seemed so pleased to do it, now she
reckoned it was because there wasn’t much else to do. She realised early on she was only cleaning areas that were already spotless, wondering what Adam, Izzy, Dave or any of her other
colleagues would think if they could see her.

Not long after she had finished, Heather arrived back, slightly rosy-cheeked from being out all day. She seemed pleased that Jessica was back on her feet, pressing her palm to her
roommate’s forehead in the way a mother would check for a temperature, and then telling her they’d sold everything they’d taken.

‘How much money did you make?’ Jessica asked, thinking it was a reasonable question.

Heather shook her head. ‘I don’t know, Zip deals with everything like that. Why does it matter?’

Jessica shrugged. ‘I suppose it doesn’t. I was just wondering how good today was for us all compared to a normal day.’

Heather seemed to accept the explanation, smiling. ‘Oh, it was more than usual. Zip had us working extra hard this week to get things finished.’

That was interesting considering what Jessica had overheard in Moses’s office and the fact Charley said there was less money than expected in the bank accounts they knew about. Was there
some great need to get their hands on cash?

The pair got changed for dinner and filed down the stairs with everyone else when the bell sounded. Zipporah and Katie were already waiting at the end of the table as everyone took their places,
Zipporah nodding and smiling at Jessica, who returned the acknowledgement to indicate she was feeling better.

It was only when she got to her seat and looked closer that Jessica realised Zipporah’s neck and arms were covered in bruises. Some people’s turned black or purple, but hers were
yellow, not that dissimilar to her natural skintone. From a distance it was barely noticeable but Jessica wondered if she had gone out of her way to cover it up with the turtleneck jumper that
morning. Now, in her evening dress and from close up, they were clear. Jessica thought of the way Glenn had summoned her away when they had been sitting on the stairs, plus the brutal injuries
suffered when Moses had let the new recruit fall and crack his head open. Either of them could have been responsible for the marks.

She had assumed Glenn was unlikely to simply talk Naomi into submission but hadn’t considered that Zipporah could be in the same position. It might also explain why Zipporah seemed so
annoyed that morning, telling her she could sleep with Moses if she wanted. Perhaps that was one of the things they argued about?

Jessica had to look away from Zipporah, unnerved by the marks. Across from her, Naomi was deliberately avoiding eye contact too, staring at the table. Jessica’s eyes flickered across the
other woman’s features but she couldn’t see any bruises. Either way, she didn’t know how much longer she could sit and say nothing as people were harmed around her. She knew what
the longer game was but keeping quiet went against everything she believed in.

Moses soon entered and everyone sat as the cooks brought in the food. From overhearing their conversation, Jessica already knew it was some sort of chicken dish but she found it hard to eat,
wondering if there was a safe way she could approach Zipporah to ask if she was all right. Or if there was someone she could ask about the greenhouse.

She picked at her food, moving things from side to side and mashing everything together, trying not to draw too much attention to the fact that she wasn’t eating.

Jessica noticed a slight edge at this meal that she hadn’t felt before. Moses ate his food without talking to either of the women around him, with others seated at the table sensing the
unease and staying quiet too.

The scraping of cutlery on plates was unnerving in the silence, grating, grinding and scratching until the din was interrupted by a sound far more worrying.

Somewhere in the far reaches of the house, a phone began to ring.

Everyone around the table stopped moving, staring at each other, first in confusion and then in the realisation that somebody had broken one of the strictest rules going.

Jessica avoided everyone’s eyes but looked from side to side aimlessly, matching the others. The ringtone wasn’t a piece of music, it was the tinny type of annoyance that came
pre-programmed with older mobile phones – such as the one Jessica had under her mattress.

She tried to remember if she had turned off the phone after talking to Charley. Surely she had? She remembered checking the battery and then tucking it under the mattress but had she pressed the
off button? If so, had she held it in for long enough? She couldn’t remember. Even if it was on, Charley would have known better than to call. It couldn’t be her phone . . . could
it?

Then she realised it could be a wrong number, anyone dialling a single incorrect digit. She had no idea what the default ringtone was for the phone she had been given but would bet it sounded
exactly like the one echoing through the house.

Glenn was on his feet before anyone else had the chance. Without a word, he ran for the door, heading towards the stairs.

Moses stood, glancing from person to person as if he was trying to read their minds. Nobody spoke but Jessica could feel eyes staring into her accusingly. Or was it in her mind?

The ringtone stopped and the house was silent.

‘Would anybody like to confess?’ Moses asked, his tone level and calm, even though his eyes were boring into each of them. He didn’t appear angry, more hurt at the rejection of
one of his core rules.

Silence.

Jessica felt a bead of sweat slide down the back of her neck and fought to suppress the shiver. Across the table, Naomi was finally looking up from the table but this time it was Jessica who
could not make eye contact. She felt as if everyone was looking at her.

She was the new girl, so the phone was most likely to be hers – unless someone was being even more devious than her.

What was going to happen to the person responsible? She hadn’t even been here a day when she had seen one man crack his head open. Wayne had been attacked in front of her and had now
apparently left. Liam had been killed, perhaps here, perhaps not, but the fact remained that violence was only ever a wrong word away. She couldn’t imagine what the punishment would be for
such a blatant breach of the rules.

She tried to judge the distance to the door. If she slid her chair back now and made a dash for it, could she get out of the room to the front door and unbolt everything before anyone got to
her? If so, would she be able to get all the way up the drive to safety before someone caught her? Perhaps they would be able to get to the minibus in time – there was no way she could outrun
that. She had been away from the force for so long that she was out of shape and had lost weight and muscle definition. Now she wasn’t even confident she could beat Dave Rowlands in a race
– and that was saying something.

If she stayed, she needed an excuse. Could she get away with saying the phone wasn’t hers if it was found under her mattress? It seemed unlikely, especially as someone – probably
Heather – had made the bed for her before she had arrived. She couldn’t get Heather into trouble, especially when it wasn’t her fault.

She couldn’t even feign confusion over the rules as both Zipporah and Moses had gone through them with her, not to mention Heather bringing it up too. Zipporah had watched her undress, so
there was no way she could even claim that it had accidentally been stuck in her clothing.

With no realistic way of being able to escape, plus nothing she could think of that would allow her to talk herself out of trouble, Jessica sat in the silence of the room trying not to catch
anyone’s eye.

In the distance, the ringtone began again.

Seconds passed, perhaps minutes, perhaps lots of minutes. Jessica had no idea.

Eventually Glenn returned, his fist clenched around what Jessica assumed was a phone. Considering the speed with which he had torn out of the room and apparently raced up the stairs and around
the bedrooms to find it, he didn’t seem out of breath in the slightest.

He strode across the room towards Moses, whispering something into his ear and then passing him the object. Jessica’s heart was hammering so loudly that she felt sure Heather next to her
must be able to hear it. People were now shuffling nervously in their seats and Naomi had returned to staring at the table.

Jessica was trying to see what was in Moses’s hand but his fingers were clamped too tightly around it.

‘Would anyone like to confess?’ Moses asked, glancing from one person to the next.

Jessica thought about it: would it be better to confess and get it out of the way, or would the inevitable punishment be worse if she remained silent?

Moses stood straighter, loosening his fingers and holding out the phone for them all to see. ‘I said, would anyone like to confess?’

Jessica felt so relieved to see that the device wasn’t hers that she almost forgot where she was, starting to breathe out deeply before stopping herself and controlling things.

This time, she felt as free as everyone else to look around the table. Assuming it had been discovered in a bedroom, the person who owned it must know they had been found out.

‘Last chance,’ Moses said, more firmly this time.

To Jessica’s left there was a scraping of a chair as a man stood. He was the youngest male in the group, apart from Ali. He was shorter than Jessica and very slight, with none of
Glenn’s build or presence. His thin shoulders twitched nervously as he peered towards the front, avoiding Moses’s gaze.

‘It’s mine,’ he said.

Moses’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t move, uttering a single word: ‘Kevin.’

Glenn hurried across the room, grabbing Kevin’s upper arm and pulling him towards the front.

Kevin was in Jessica’s evening group but she hadn’t had a proper conversation with him since arriving. She didn’t know exactly where he worked but it wasn’t outside and
it wasn’t with the craft team.

Moses seemed genuinely sad as Kevin was thrust in front of him. Moses breathed out loudly, shaking his head as Glenn waited nearby.

‘Oh, Kevin,’ Moses said. ‘Why would you do this? Everyone knows the rules.’

Kevin hadn’t stopped staring at the ground. Out in the open, he seemed even thinner than he had when he first stood. His clothes were too big for him, but his wrists were narrow and his
face was so lean that his cheekbones jutted out.

‘I’m sorry,’ he replied, still not looking up.

Jessica didn’t see Moses move but Glenn stepped forward anyway, standing between them and cupping his fingers underneath Kevin’s chin, forcing him to look up. ‘It’s
polite to look at someone when they’re speaking to you,’ he said harshly.

They were almost the exact same height but incomparable in every other way, Kevin like a child, Glenn a thuggish man.

Glenn stepped away but Kevin was now trembling as he peered into Moses’s face. The fact Moses hadn’t done anything to stop Glenn said everything about their relationship.

‘What have you got to say for yourself?’ Moses asked, his voice still level.

‘I’m sorry,’ Kevin repeated. ‘I’ve been feeling a little lonely. I called my girlfriend but there was no answer. She must have called back.’

‘Are there not enough people here to confide in?’

‘Of course, I’m really sorry. It was a moment of madness.’

‘Where did the phone come from?’

Kevin gulped, glancing away towards the fireplace and the step that had been drenched with blood days before. Realising he was disobeying Glenn’s instructions, he quickly corrected
himself, looking back to meet Moses’s stare. The rest of the residents were hushed, waiting for the reply.

‘I brought it in with me. I hid it.’

Around the table there were a few gasps but Jessica didn’t get the sense that anyone was really surprised. More people than Kevin had surely considered it when they were told the only way
to join the community was if they left everything at the doorstep. Despite that, with Glenn hanging around menacingly, it was probably sensible to seem outraged.

Moses nodded slowly. ‘But you knew the regulations?’

‘Yes.’

‘You knew there was to be no contact with the outside world?’

‘Yes.’

‘And that no technology was to be brought here?’

‘Yes.’

‘But you broke not one but two of our most critical rules?’

‘I’m sorry . . .’

Moses began pacing, walking along the length of the fireplace, the echo of his shoes the only noise.

‘What did your girlfriend say?’

‘Nothing, I couldn’t get through.’

‘You expect us to believe that?’

Jessica had seen this type of behaviour from lawyers in the past, grandstanding and playing up to the public gallery in a courtroom. Moses not only had a presence and a way with words but he had
a sense of showmanship too. The more he talked, the more questions he asked, the longer he drew things out, the edgier Kevin was becoming.

‘It’s true,’ Kevin protested but it didn’t particularly matter. This was all for show.

Moses went back and forward asking variations of the same questions over and over, sometimes looking to the table and asking if they believed certain parts of the story. Jessica believed all of
it but it was hard to do anything differently when the people around her were being whipped into a frenzy.

‘You’ve let everyone down,’ Moses brayed, to howls of outrage from the table.

Kevin nodded meekly.

‘You’ve let me down.’

Fists banged the table.

Moses turned to the table. ‘You’ve let your brothers and sisters down.’