Behind Closed Doors (Season One: Book 7) (Jessica Daniel) (32 page)

‘They had these plastic tie things which dug in. They asked all sorts of questions about who I was and had this really large knife. I didn’t know what they were going to do with it
but they eventually cut me loose and brought me back.’

‘My husband likes his way of controlling people. He thinks that if he can break them down, then he gets to build them back up in whichever way he chooses. Glenn is his right-hand man. Ali
. . . I’m not so sure.’

From what Glenn had said, Ali was the next in line – assuming he continued to do whatever Glenn told him. Jessica had looked into his eyes though, seeing how scared he was of the knife
when he held it. She doubted he had it in him.

‘So have you had enough?’ Zipporah added.

Jessica couldn’t stop herself from yawning again. ‘I want to go back to my old life.’

‘Even after everything with your father?’

‘Yes.’

‘And the baby that you lost?’

Jessica reached for her stomach, running her fingers across the area underneath.

‘The doctor said there might be a chance it could still happen. It might only be slim but a small hope is better than no hope.’

It was exactly what Adam had told her in the doctor’s office all those months ago. If only she had listened to him then.

‘So you might still be able to have children?’

Jessica shrugged. ‘I have no idea.’

‘If you go, you will be much missed.’

Jessica bit her lip, not knowing how to respond. She might be missed by Moses having one less person to grope, or Glenn as someone who wasn’t going to end up in his torture room. One less
person to be crushed if the fertiliser bomb went off.

‘I’m sorry,’ Jessica replied, not feeling it at all. She nodded towards Zipporah’s face and her arms. ‘Perhaps you should think about—’

Zipporah didn’t let her finish, pushing her long black hair back behind her ears defiantly. ‘You forget whose house this ultimately is.’

Jessica was about to reply when she heard footsteps in the corridor. She closed her mouth, staring at the door, wondering if it was about to be pushed inwards. Zipporah was silent too,
understanding what was going on.

When the person passed, Jessica whispered: ‘Why do you let him run it if it’s your house?’

Zipporah rubbed above her eyes, blinking away the tiredness. ‘It wasn’t always like this. He always had his beliefs but things grew and grew. If it had been one spur, you could have
turned around and said “stop”. When things happen over a long period, you don’t even realise until it’s too late.’

‘What does he do?’

Jessica knew she had to go but wanted to hear what Moses was like to his wife. It felt important.

Zipporah sighed. ‘Are you married?’

‘No.’

‘I’m not sure I am any more, either. It’s not as if our vows have meant anything for a long time – “loving and faithful as long as you both shall live”
hasn’t been true in a while.’

‘Katie?’

‘Not just her. It isn’t her fault either, not really. At first, he had the idea of using this great big house to help others. We could create a haven for runaways or other people who
had problems in their lives. Before I realised what was happening, everyone here was female. You must have noticed that all the girls are younger and most of the males older?’

‘But aren’t you the one who recruits them?’

Zipporah nodded. ‘If you know someone is going to be rejected and sent away, then what would be the point of bringing back a person who was unsuitable? There are the odd younger males but
mostly this is the balance we’ve had for some time. With the girls, they see what I saw all those years ago. Moses is a captivating figure – you must have seen it?’

Jessica thought of the way his uninvited hands moved across her. ‘He speaks well but I don’t see it.’

There was a flash of confusion on Zipporah’s face which disappeared as instantly as it arrived. ‘You’ve not been tempted?’

‘No. I have someone.’

‘Perhaps it’s because you’re a little less naive than some of the others? Is it the father of . . . ?’

‘Yes it is.’

A thin smile spread on Zipporah’s face. ‘At least you have something to return to. Some of the others would simply have the streets.’

Jessica knew that was the other reason some of the residents were so willing to believe in Moses. He gave them an alternative to the lives they had lost. Jessica still had something to go back
to.

‘I need to go,’ Jessica said.

‘You never really said what you discovered. You just said you’d been taken to the woods.’

‘It’s Glenn – he doesn’t want to let me go.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know. I suspect he’s worried about what I’ll say about the woods when I’m out.’

‘He didn’t actually do anything to you, did he?’

‘No, it was just a scare.’

‘So what are you going to say?’

Jessica knew this was her opportunity to let everything out. She could admit she was a police officer, tell Zipporah that if she gave evidence against her husband and Glenn that this could all
be over with. She could keep using her house as a refuge if she so chose, or keep it for herself as somewhere to live.

‘Nothing,’ Jessica replied. ‘I’m just ready to leave. You said I could go any time I wanted to, so I’m not sure why he’s trying to stop me. If it’s your
house, perhaps you can tell him to let me go?’

Zipporah’s smile was weary. ‘I’m not sure that would be for the best.’

‘He’s not going to let me go otherwise.’

‘I’ve lived in this house for my entire life. You probably know by now that the windows are secured. That wasn’t done by Moses or me. When this was my grandfather’s
house, there was a burglary. My father was a child at the time. He never forgot and was obsessed by security. That only leaves two doors out – the main one at the front and the delivery one
in the kitchen.’

‘The front door is still bolted. I don’t know where Glenn is, or if there’s anyone else in the corridors.’

‘Do you know where the kitchen is?’ Zipporah asked.

‘Yes.’

‘If I go to the front, I can keep Glenn occupied there while you do whatever you have to.’

For the first time since realising her phone had gone, Jessica felt a sense of relief. Zipporah would head one way, she would go the other and within a few minutes, she would be out. Glenn would
not realise she had gone until she was out of the grounds and on her way towards the town.

‘Thank you,’ Jessica replied.

Zipporah pushed herself up, ready to move.

‘Can I ask you one more thing?’ Jessica said.

‘Of course.’

‘When we first met, in the city centre, you didn’t hesitate in inviting me here. Was that because I’m a woman and I’m not too old and you thought I’d be the right
type, or . . . ?’

Zipporah licked her lips, her eyes flicking across Jessica. ‘Oh, my dear, I thought you knew. I thought that’s why you came here. Regardless of anything else that goes on, the
principle of this house is the same – that we try to help people. The reason I invited you is because you’re as broken as anyone I’ve ever met.’

Jessica gulped, glancing away from Zipporah, unable to meet her gaze. She had always hoped that wasn’t the reason, even though it had been so clear the entire time that it was.

‘Okay,’ Jessica replied, stepping towards the door, keener than ever to leave.

From the inside, the opening looked the same as the outside – a wooden panel. Jessica reached for a handle that wasn’t there, running her palm along the grain of the wood before
realising she simply had to push. As she emerged into the corridor, Jessica looked in one direction, feeling so close to freedom that she was already planning what she would say to Adam.

In the fraction of a second it took her to check the other way, the blow clattered across the back of her head, sending her slumping to the ground as thoughts of home slipped from her mind.

Home.

Jessica thought of walking through the front door of the house she and Adam had bought, throwing her keys towards the basket he had picked up because she was always losing them. He knew her so
well. Annoyingly well.

She breathed in, but it didn’t smell the way their house did, instead it was cleaner. The faint whiff of bleach drifted through her, meaning she definitely wasn’t at home. Jessica
didn’t think she had ever cleaned a room with disinfectant in her life. It was always someone else, mainly Caroline, who did that type of thing and now Adam. He’d get on and do it
without complaining, allowing her to put her feet up after a long week. As if she ever had any other kind.

Her head felt heavy, her legs tired. Jessica realised she was standing but it felt like too much of an effort to open her eyes. She had been so tired for such a long time that sometimes it was
nice to rest with her eyes closed, stare into the darkness and relax. Perhaps if you spent long enough thinking about sleeping, then it would actually count as sleep and you wouldn’t feel so
tired any longer?

Except that Jessica couldn’t sleep because of the smell. She wondered why she was standing with her eyes closed and tried to move before finding her hands were behind her, locked together.
There was something digging into her back too, square and pointy, her hands tied behind it.

Still with her eyes closed, Jessica remembered what had happened: Glenn and then the library with Zipporah. She had tried to leave the room but something had prevented her. She tried listening
to see if she could pick up anything that would give her a clue as to where she was but then she remembered the rest too. In the torture chamber in the basement, there were two pillars, both
covered with the green padding. She could feel that now, brushing against her skin. The corners hadn’t quite been covered and were cutting into her shoulders. Her wrists were still sore from
the ties but they were secure again, this time with the handcuffs she had seen in the cabinet at the bottom of the stairs.

Eyes clamped shut, Jessica realised she was in more danger now than she’d ever been. All she could do was stall. If she could keep pretending to be unconscious, she might be able to buy
more time, to think of a way . . .

Jessica’s eyes flew open instinctively as water was thrown into her face. She had been breathing in through her nose as it hit her and coughed painfully, trying to free the liquid from her
lungs. She blinked rapidly, eyes focusing on herself as she realised she was facing the large mirror in the basement.

‘Wakey, wakey,’ Glenn said, stepping into her eye line. He had an empty glass jug in his hand but put it on the floor. Behind him was a table with a row of tools neatly laid out.
Jessica could see two of the saws, a hammer, a pair of pliers, the bolt cutters and a drill.

Glenn must have seen her eyes flicker towards the table because his smile grew. ‘Nice, aren’t they?’ he said.

Water was still dripping from Jessica’s face into a puddle on the floor, although she could breathe again. ‘I just want to go,’ she whimpered.

‘I know you do. Unfortunately, I did warn you in the woods about asking questions and then you went and broke the rules again.’

Glenn reached into his pocket, pulling out Jessica’s phone and dropping it to the floor, stamping on it three times until the casing was flat.

‘How did you get that?’ Jessica asked.

‘A little birdie . . .’

Heather.

‘This time there’s no Ali to speak up for you,’ Glenn continued. ‘He’s a good lad but far too soft. In the woods, I said there was something not quite right about
you but he insisted you were fine. I shouldn’t have listened but perhaps I’m getting lenient in my old age too. It’s been a busy few weeks and I’m tired of cleaning up, so
there was that as well. He’s got a thing about that girl you share a room with. Perhaps I’d be better finding someone else to train up?’

Glenn crossed to the table, picking up the hand drill. He rotated the handle, creating a gentle whirring noise and purring with pleasure himself. After wiping away a speck of dust, he returned
it to the table, lining it up with the other tools, and then picked up the hammer. Gently at first, he tapped it on the table, the metal clang being absorbed unnaturally by the room.

‘Do you hear that?’ he asked, turning to Jessica. She couldn’t look at him directly, staring into his back via the mirror, not replying. ‘I love that sound,’ he
added. ‘The padding gives everything that extra little touch if you ask me. Wait until the screams come later, it’s unbelievable.’

He put the hammer back down, turning to the side as the door that led behind the mirror opened. When the person emerged, hood hanging limply around the shoulders, mask in hand, Jessica realised
how naive she had been not to see it before.

Zip’s keen on getting her involved a little down the line
.

When she had heard Moses say that, Jessica had assumed he meant that his wife wanted her to be part of the recruitment team. As Zipporah walked into the room with a smile on her face, Jessica
understood that this room was hers all along. What Moses had actually meant was that his wife was keen to bring her here at some point. He might not have been involved with the greenhouse directly
but he knew enough about it.

Zipporah hadn’t taken Jessica into the library to help hide her from Glenn; she had been in the halls with him, trying to find her.

Zipporah nodded to Glenn, who disappeared through the door that led behind the mirror.

‘Hello, Jessica,’ Zipporah purred. ‘Thank you for the chat upstairs. I know you want to leave but it was useful to find out how much you knew about everything before we brought
you here. As it turns out, you know practically nothing.’

Jessica didn’t know how much worse things could have been if she had admitted to knowing about the basement, let alone if she’d said she was from the police, but she felt some relief
anyway at what she had held back.

‘Welcome to my greenhouse,’ Zipporah said. ‘We used to call it a basement, or a dungeon, but that’s a bit dull, I think.’

‘What are you going to do to me?’

Zipporah was standing directly in front of Jessica, blocking her view of the mirror but she half-turned, motioning towards the table. ‘What do you think?’