The Girl You Lost: A gripping psychological thriller (21 page)

I
rush to the door
. I am ready. My legs may be trembling beneath me, but I am ready for him. I will only get one chance to get this right.

On the other side of the door Ginny is screaming, but her shrieks soon become muffled and I can only assume he is smothering her mouth. A thud comes next, followed by several more, and then there is silence. The silence is more terrifying than the sounds.

He has attacked Ginny and I am next on his list. But I won’t let that happen. I am Grace and Ginny’s only hope now. Helena’s only hope. And despite the blood on the shoe, I have to believe she is still alive.

I don’t know how long I stand there, poised, waiting, but eventually I hear the key turn once more. The door opens and he steps inside, his face twisted, his slanted grin menacing.

Nick Gibbs.

‘Hello again,’ he says, edging towards me. ‘Bet you weren’t expecting me?’

I step back. ‘What have you done to Ginny? And where’s Grace?’

His lips turn into a snarl, and I marvel at how different he looks from the kind man who was helping us find Lucas. None of this makes sense.

‘Ginny’s taken care of. She won’t be interfering again.’

I try not to think about what his words mean. ‘So … this was you all along? You’re in this with Lucas? And Ginny’s brother?’

‘Enough of the questions,’ he says. ‘I don’t think you want to know the answers before you go.’

‘Go where?’ But I already know what he means. I need to act now, before it is too late. I slip my hand in my pocket and feel for what I already know is there. I clasp it in my fist; the cold metal reassuring against my skin.

He doesn’t notice. ‘It’s a shame, you know. I actually quite liked you. Apart from your snooping around. But then I can’t blame you. It was Lucas and his fucking mouth that started this. He caused all this mess. And now I’m the one who has to fix it. You should have all just kept out of it. Bet you wish you had now, don’t you?’

I am still confused, but there is no time to try and work out what he’s talking about. ‘Where’s Grace? Where’s my daughter?’

He smirks. ‘Your daughter? You’re sure about that, are you? You’re going to trust the word of a man like Lucas?’

‘How are you any better?’ I say. ‘Doing this?’ If I can just keep him talking a bit longer I will be more likely to catch him off guard.

Ignoring my question, he tells me how gullible I am, how easily I walked into this trap. ‘Let’s just hope you don’t make too much of a mess,’ he says, ‘I don’t have time to waste cleaning up. You should have just minded your own business and stayed out of mine.’

With a rush of adrenalin I lunge forward and plunge my car key deep into his neck, thrusting it in with as much force as I can muster. For a sickening moment I think it hasn’t done anything as he just stands there, staring at me with shocked eyes. But then blood spurts from his neck and he clutches at it, reeling backwards. I bring up my knee and thrust it into his groin, with strength I didn’t know I had.

And then I run for my life.

I don’t look behind me but rush through the hall and twist the door handle. There is a trail of blood along the carpet but no sign of Ginny, and I can’t risk looking; he might be coming after me any second. But I will get help for her.

It takes too long to thrust open the front door, the catch is slippery in my sweating, blood-soaked hand, and I can almost feel Nick’s arms grabbing me.

But I get through with no sign of him, and stumble down the stairs, holding my breath until I am outside. I take in a huge gulp of frozen air, but there is no time to stop. With my bloodied car key still in my hand, I race across the road and almost crash into someone.

Abbot.

I blink, in case I am mistaken, but he is still there, looking just as confused as I feel. ‘Sim? What’s going on? Are you okay? What are you doing here?’

But there is no time to explain. ‘Quick, we have to get out of here NOW!’ I know I must sound hysterical but Abbot doesn’t question me. Fumbling with my key, trying to force it into the car door, I end up dropping it instead. Abbot scoops it up, a frown on his face as he notices the blood, but he only grabs my arm and tells me his car is right behind mine.

Only when he has made a U-turn and we are back on Green Lanes do I dare to speak. I tell him to take the next left and stop the car.

He does as I ask but as soon as we’re parked up he asks me what’s going on.

‘I need to call the police,’ I say.

By the time I’ve disconnected the call, Abbot knows exactly what has happened. ‘What the fuck?’ he says. ‘Nick Gibbs? I can’t believe it. And why didn’t you call me to go with you? You could be dead right now.’

Like Ginny.

I am too shaken to explain my reasons so only offer an apology. He takes my hand and we sit and wait until an ambulance and two police cars pass us, sirens blazing, and we know it is safe to head back to Belsize Avenue.

When we get there, a police officer, who tells me his name is PC Millbank, meets us at the car and peers into the passenger side window to ask me what happened. I quickly recount the details, watching as he rushes off and heads towards the house. His colleagues join him, and they have no need to break the front door down; it is wide open, exactly as I left it.

Two paramedics wait on the pavement, standing beside a stretcher and other equipment I can’t name. My insides turn cold as I remember the noises Ginny made. How will I ever explain this to Grace when we find her? I am the one who led Ginny here. I am the one who trusted Charlotte Bray.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Abbot asks. ‘Maybe you should get checked out at the hospital?’ He has barely taken his eyes off me since I ran into him, but I don’t feel uncomfortable.

I nod. ‘He didn’t have a chance to hurt me. But Ginny …’

Abbot pulls me into a hug and all the tension between us melts away. He is still my friend. ‘And you think you injured him badly? That he’s still in there?’

This is what I am hoping. He didn’t come after me, so there’s every chance he is. ‘There was a lot of blood,’ I tell Abbot.

We stay in the car, sitting in silence until, after some time, the police officer I spoke to a moment ago appears in the doorway, beckoning the paramedics to join him. They all disappear inside, and I relax a bit. This will soon be over. They will bring Nick Gibbs out, handcuffed, and then they will find Grace. And Chris Harding’s sister.

‘There’s still so much I don’t understand,’ I say to Abbot. ‘Is he in this with Lucas? And did he take part in those attacks too?’

Abbot frowns. ‘It doesn’t make sense at the moment, but we’ll get our answers. Speaking of answers, I still don’t understand what you were doing here with Ginny and Charlotte Bray. I mean, I know you were looking for Lucas, but how did it come about? They said at work you’d gone away with Matt. To Cornwall?’

For the next ten minutes I fill Abbot in on everything that led to me being here. He is open-mouthed when I’ve finished and takes a moment to piece it all together. ‘So Grace
is
yours? She’s Helena?’

‘It looks that way.’

‘How do you feel about that?’

I am about to tell him I can’t answer that right now, when I realise I am not the only one with explaining to do. ‘How did you find me? How did you know I was here?’

‘When I was at Ginny’s the other night, she was talking about Daniel quite a bit and wanted to show me photos of him. So we were going through her albums when I saw a picture of him and Lucas from university. There was another guy in the photo, but I didn’t recognise him. He had longish hair and stubble covering half his face. Anyway, I took the photo while she wasn’t looking and got my mate to run it through a facial recognition programme. I found out this morning it was Nick Gibbs, but I didn’t recognise him at all; he looked completely different with facial hair. I tried to call you but your phone was off. I’ve left a ton of messages.’

‘Charlotte Bray took it. And Ginny’s. And Daniel’s phone with the video. The evidence the police need.’

Abbot looks towards the house. ‘Don’t worry, I think they’ll have plenty of that.’ He shakes his head. ‘Anyway, I went straight to his house and parked up, ready to confront him for lying about the extent of his friendship with Lucas, but then he came out and got in his car. So I followed him to Wood Green. I lost him a bit further back but spotted his car right on the corner back there.’ He points towards the other end of the street, where Nick Gibbs’s car is still parked. At least that must mean he’s still in there. ‘And then I saw your car,’ Abbot continues, ‘and was deciding what to do when you rushed from that house.’

Through the window I see the paramedics reappear, pulling the stretcher along with them. Without a word to Abbot, I fling open the car door and rush towards them.

When I get closer I see it is Ginny lying on the stretcher, but her face isn’t covered with a sheet. She is alive. There is an oxygen mask attached to her mouth so she must be in a bad way, but I’m just relieved she’s not dead.

‘Is she okay?’ I ask one of the paramedics. He is young, with a shaved head, and looks as if he’s only just left school. ‘We need to get her to hospital now. Are you family?’

‘Not really,’ I say, wondering what Grace makes us. ‘But as good as.’

Abbot appears at my side, clutching my arm.

‘You’ll have to visit her later,’ the paramedic says. ‘North Middlesex University Hospital. The police will need to talk to you first.’ He turns away, back to the job of saving Ginny’s life.

We watch as they load her into the ambulance and drive away, the siren blaring as they disappear onto Green Lanes. I turn to Abbot to ask him whether he thinks we should talk to Tamsin and Elliott Bray, when the police officers emerge from the house.

With no sign of Nick Gibbs.

I rush over to them and PC Millbank steps towards me. In his hand is a clear plastic bag with the blood-stained converse trainer. ‘There’s nobody else in there. We’ve checked the whole flat and there’s no sign of this Nicholas Gibbs.’

Despair washes over me. ‘But his car’s still parked at the end of the road.’ I point towards it.

‘He must have left on foot,’ PC Millbank says.
And he will be coming after me
, I think.
I couldn’t have injured him as badly as I thought, and now he will try to find me. The thought makes me shudder. ‘Anyway,’ PC Millbank continues, ‘let us worry about that. If you’re up to it we need you to come down to the station and make a formal statement. The sooner the better, while everything’s fresh in your mind.’

‘Yes, of course,’ I say. At least I will be safe there. And I do want to help the police, but I am not ready to tell them everything. I point to the bag in PC Millbank’s hand. ‘Will you test the blood on that shoe?’

He offers a vague smile. ‘Yes. Look, try not to assume it’s your friend’s daughter’s. There are millions of people who own Converse trainers.’

I know he is right, and I need to keep reminding myself of this. ‘But without Grace here, how will you know it’s hers?’ I ask this, but I already know the answer. They will test the DNA against Ginny’s.

PC Millbank confirms this before turning to Abbot. ‘Sir, we’ll need you to give a statement too. You’re a witness.’

Abbot tells him that’s no problem and we arrange to go immediately to Wood Green police station.

F
our hours
later I leave the police station with Abbot, grateful to be outside, breathing in a lungful of fresh air. I have been in many police stations before, covering stories, but never as a victim. I feel like my soul has been exposed.

‘So they know almost everything now,’ I say to Abbot. ‘About Lucas, Charlotte, Daniel and Nick. I even told them about Gabby, because surely Nick must have paid her off or manipulated her into meeting me at that pub? It was just his way to ensure I focused on Lucas and didn’t turn my attention to him. But I couldn’t tell them anything about Grace being mine. They just think she’s missing and that I’m a friend of Ginny’s and was helping her out.’

Abbot’s eyes widen. ‘But how did you get away with that? Didn’t they wonder why you hadn’t reported her missing? And when they find her, how will they find out if Grace is Helena when they’ll be testing her DNA against Ginny’s?’

‘Matt and I can sort out a DNA test, we don’t need them for that. And yes, they did ask why we hadn’t reported Grace missing, but I just told them we thought she was away with friends.’ I try to ignore Abbot’s frown. ‘Look, I couldn’t tell the truth and get Ginny in trouble. I told them about Daniel being in that video so she will already have to deal with that. But she’s fighting for her life in hospital and they’d just arrest her until they have evidence she didn’t know Helena was abducted. And what proof is there? I’m sure she’d still be in trouble either way, but Grace wouldn’t want that, would she?’

Abbot sighs. ‘I suppose you’re right. But it’s a dangerous game, Sim, lying to the police. And what are you going to do when they test Ginny’s blood?’ He shakes his head.

‘Well, it just won’t be a match, will it? They’ll just say it’s not Grace’s.’

‘But don’t you want to know if it is?’

‘I just have to believe they’re going to find her, Abbot. And that bastard Nick Gibbs, then I’ll deal with whatever I have to. I need to see Ginny as soon as possible to let her know what I’ve told them. Our stories need to match up. Look, the main thing is we’re not on our own with it anymore, Abbot. We’ve got the police on our side.’

‘Yeah, let’s focus on that. They’ve got the resources to find Grace.’ He smiles a thin smile. ‘Does part of you feel relieved?’

‘Not until they find Nick Gibbs and lock him up for the rest of his life. I mean, this goes way beyond rape, doesn’t it? There’s also child abduction and attempted murder. It makes my blood run cold.’

‘But are they offering you protection or anything? Surely they realise he could be after you?’

I tell Abbot they’ve assured me patrol cars will make regular visits to the house, driving up and down the road to check everything is okay. And I’ve also been assigned a Family Liaison Officer called Sandra, who will keep me up to date with the investigation.