What We Saw (26 page)

Adam tilted his head towards the floor. I had won the argument. Emily clutched at her blanket, looking at Donald for reassurance.

Donald glared back at me. I shook with the buzz inside me, my knees rattling.

‘Look, Donald—if you don’t come, I’ll go myself. I’ll tell him I know where Emily is, and I’ll try and lure him up here. I don’t know what he’ll do, but it’s the right thing to do. And then we’ll ring the police. Now we know what he’s done, and how he’s blackmailed you, more people will start to find out. We’re doing this for the best, Donald.’

Donald was sullen. His eyes surveyed the ground. I turned to Emily and to Adam before walking past them both and brushing past Donald, being sure not to look into his eyes. I felt their glare on my back as I marched towards the door. Through the doorway, the trees were barely visible in the distance. At least I had taken the torch to guide me.

‘Wait.’

I turned round and pointed the light at Donald.

He held his hand up. ‘Just wait—’

‘Sorry,’ I said, eager to leave this wretched old house. ‘If you want to come with me, any of you, you can. Otherwise, I’ll do it alone.’

‘I’ll come with you.’

Adam walked briskly into the flashlight’s glow. I felt my shoulders relax.
Finally!

He shook his head at me as he arrived, whispering in my ear. ‘I hope you know what the hell you’re doing, cuz.’

Donald and Emily stood side by side, together and alone in the glare of the torchlight, just as they had been before we found them. Donald frowned, and Emily clutched her blanket. I saw her breathe faster as she threw herself into Donald’s arms, burrowing her head in his big chest. He put his arms on her back reluctantly and shook his head.

For a moment, I felt awful about what I was doing. Tearing them apart and sending Emily back to a home that she didn’t want to be a part of. A home that she had done everything to escape from. This strange, ageing man had put everything on the line to help her. I wondered if she knew about his daughter and what had happened. I wondered if Emily had any idea about what her dad had done to Beth Swanson and what he’d forced Donald to do before now. The two of them, standing there in a close embrace, looked uncannily like father and daughter.

He let go of her, whispered something in her ear, and held her hand. The pair of them walked towards us, sunken faces.

‘We’re coming with you,’ Donald said. ‘I don’t want you boys on your own with that man.’

A coldness hit my core, my mouth twitching as it struggled to find the words. ‘But I… if you come, he’ll know.’

‘He’s her father, Liam. You’re right. What I did was wrong. But I took Emily for the right reasons. I should be the one to tell him about what happened. It’s about time I started standing up to him. There’s nothing left for him to take away from me now.’ Donald sighed. ‘We’ve got to make him confess, somehow.’

Donald forced a smile as he approached. Emily gripped his hands and looked back at the two of us, tears rolling down her cheeks. We had betrayed her, sure, but it was for the best. This was no life for her. One way or another, we could make the situation better for her now.

She whimpered and sniffed as she clutched onto her blanket. Donald left the rucksack of things behind.
I suppose we wouldn’t be needing them now.

‘Do they know about… about Patricia?’ Emily asked.

Donald closed his eyes and inhaled a deep, cleansing breath. He sighed as he spoke. ‘Yes, Emily. They know about the accident. Good little mystery solvers, like I said.’

He looked between Adam and me. I curled my lips and nodded my head. Once upon a time, it would have been the ultimate compliment to be called a ‘good little mystery solver.’ Right now, it seemed completely insignificant. How things had changed.

‘So, shall we do this?’ Donald asked. His face twitched and he spoke fast.

The fear and excitement of another leap into the unknown made my arms shake. I yawned and glanced at my watch: 4:00 am. I stood next to Emily and grabbed her hand, gesturing for Adam to hold her other. Emily let her hand sink into mine, her soft fingers brushing against my palm. After a moment’s delay, Adam held her other hand. I saw Emily’s mouth flicker at the side. A big, wide grin grew across my face, and I let out a giggle from somewhere in my stomach. It was a mixture of nerves and something else. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it wasn’t a feeling I was used to.
Being a part of something, perhaps?

Donald led the way, and we followed behind closely, hand in hand. The old staircase in the house creaked like a monster’s rumbling stomach as we stepped back out into the spacious outdoors. I squeezed Emily’s hand and she squeezed back as we headed towards her caravan, her dad, and the complete unknown.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The sky was a strange, dark shade of orange now. It felt like daytime but with the brightness turned down a little. The volume levels were higher than usual, though, as the breaking dawn gave way to a chorus of birdsong.

Flyers were pinned up on each gate in front of every caravan. Trees with Emily’s smiling, ice-cream-covered face stared out wherever you turned.
‘Missing Girl
:
Have you seen our daughter?’
I pictured Emily’s mum and dad marching around after realising she was gone, their eyes scanning every hedge and every crevice in case she was hiding in there.
Had they seen this coming?

We stood outside Emily’s caravan. A light was on inside. It was 4:15 now. I figured that they were struggling to sleep. Donald unbuttoned the top few buttons of his coat and took his glasses off the edge of his nose, slipping them into his inside pocket. He dusted his chest, stood upright, and toyed with his hair. I could hear him breathing heavily through his nose as he fidgeted and prepared to knock. I squeezed Emily’s hand again and looked her in the eye. She let go of Adam’s hand and held her blanket up to her mouth, her eyes beaming and bloodshot.

‘It’ll be okay,’ I whispered. ‘I promise you, it’ll be okay.’

She kissed me on the lips. Her mouth was sticky and stale, but it took me back to those beautiful, perfect days outside the launderette. She pulled back and smiled, her big, brown eyes staring deep into mine.

Donald smiled at us. Adam folded his arms and rolled his eyes, tutting as he did.

Then, Donald knocked.

Three knocks. And another three, firm and sharp. I saw a shadow in the light and heard movement indoors. Donald hurried into his coat and threw something towards me. I barely caught it.

‘Almost forgot,’ he said. ‘Just in case.’

It was a phone with
‘Emergency Calls Only’
written across the screen. It was strange holding a phone again. Usually I only got to hold one when kids snuck them into school.

‘But it says—’

‘Exactly,’ Donald said, reading my mind. ‘Like I say, just in case.’

I understood him now. I slipped the phone into my pocket as the door of the caravan clicked and a figure appeared. It was Emily’s mum. She looked thin and her eyes were heavy with bags as purple as the night sky. She looked at Donald with a confused frown on her forehead. Then she spotted Emily. Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and she let out a moan of relief.

‘Emily!’ she said, as she threw herself out of the doorway and towards her daughter. She wrapped her arms around her and stroked her hair, peppering her face and head with kisses.

‘My beautiful daughter… my beautiful daughter.’

They both cried, together, as they held each other. Donald wiped his eyes.

‘I’m sorry, Mummy.’

‘No, you silly girl, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…’

This exchange continued for a few moments until another silhouette appeared at the door. His shoulders were wide and blocked the dim light from inside from escaping. He looked around to see what all the fuss was about. He watched as his daughter and his wife cried and clutched each other. He didn’t say a word, only watched.

Emily stopped crying when she lifted her head upwards and saw her dad stood there over her mother’s shoulder. I slipped my hands into my pocket and tapped against the mobile phone.
I had to be ready, just in case.
Emily’s mum must’ve felt her daughter go rigid in her arms, as she turned round and spotted her husband standing there. She seemed oblivious to our presence.

‘Jonathan, she’s back, Jonathan,’ she laughed, turning between her daughter and her husband. ‘Come on and give her a hug.’

Her dad let his mouth turn up at the corners somewhat, attempting a smile, and walked towards Emily. He moved slowly, like a remote control car running low on battery. His face was devoid of emotion. He rested his hand on Emily’s head, and she shifted her eyes towards the ground. Her lips quivered at either side.

Emily’s dad pulled his hand back and turned to face Donald. ‘You found her then?’

Donald took a deep breath, glancing over at me for a moment. Emily’s mum leapt up from her daughter’s side, finally acknowledging our presence, and she threw herself around Donald. Donald did not return the hug, standing firm and staring back at Emily’s dad.

‘I am so thankful,’ she said. ‘So very, very thankful,’ as she rested her head on his chest. Donald put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back, steadily. She grinned and let out a snotty splutter of relief and laughter.

‘I need to talk to you, Mr. Beadsley,’ Donald said, his eyes focused on Emily’s dad. He looked sincere, like people in school looked when they were getting ready to tell a prepared apology to another student.

Emily’s dad looked back at Donald and licked his front teeth with his tongue. ‘Call me Jonathan, please,’ he said. I put my arm on Adam’s shoulder. Emily’s mum frowned as she looked between the two of them.

Donald took in another deep breath. ‘I would rather speak to you on my own, actually.’ He broke the stare by flicking his eyes at the assembled crowd and then back to Emily’s dad. Emily’s dad was still for a moment before he turned around to look at us all.

‘Sue, you take Emily inside.’ He paused as he looked at Adam and me, paying particular attention to me. I stared back at him. All the anger and rage inside my stomach boiled through my eyes. I hoped he could feel it, but I had to leave Donald to do what he came to do.

‘Come on, Adam,’ I said. We walked out of the gate. I looked back and saw Emily’s eyes through the bedroom window, as I had done so many times in the past before. This time, she wasn’t making any attempt to hide.

Adam stood with his ear pressed up to the hedge surrounding Emily’s caravan.

I shook my head. ‘Come on. This isn’t for us to hear.’

He tutted and began to say something before following.

We sat against the wall at the other side of the road before climbing into the hedge above it, out of sight. My heart had stopped pounding, probably exhausted from all the extra work it had done over the last few hours.

‘Do you think he’ll be okay?’ Adam asked.

Voices raised in Emily’s garden. Shouting now. And then a crack, more shouting. There was a cry for help and a woman’s scream. Adam tried to jump off the rock wall and out of the hedges, but I held him back by his shirt.

I dialled ‘999’ into the phone, pressed call, and listened to the dialling tone as closely as I could, trying to drown out the screams and shouts from Emily’s caravan garden. I covered my face with my hands.

‘You fucking perv,’ Emily’s dad shouted. ‘You fucking old perv.’

‘Please, I—’

My heart raced against my chest again as Adam began to breathe faster. I pulled my hands from in front of my face and saw Donald lying across the ground. He held his hands up to defend himself as Emily’s dad plummeted his foot into his stomach. Lights flickered on nearby, curtains twitching.

‘Hello, is anyone there, please?’

I noticed the voice coming from the phone. My throat felt dry as I tried to speak. ‘He—hello. Someone’s killed somebody. But it was a while ago. He’s—he’s beating somebody up. We’re at the caravan site—Hawthorne’s. Please, hurry.’ I tossed the phone to one side and covered my ears. I caught a glimpse of Donald’s eyes as he looked up from the ground, blood trickling down his chin. Emily’s mum screamed as Emily’s dad threw her back towards the caravan garden.

‘Stop this right now, you fucking murderer!’

I looked to my side and noticed Adam pulling himself from the hedge. My whole body went weak.
He’d blown our cover.

Emily’s dad held his foot in the air, ready to take another swing, but paused as Adam emerged from the hedge. He smirked and wiped the sweat from his mouth. ‘What, kid? Something you have to say?’

Adam’s bottom lip quivered. He fumbled and put his hands into his pockets, fixing his gaze at the ground. Emily’s dad walked over to him slowly, a look of disgust on his face. Donald reached for Emily’s dad’s leg, who kicked it away.

Emily’s dad squared up to Adam. ‘I said, is there something you have to say, kid?’

My whole body vibrated. There was nothing to lose now. ‘Don’t you dare lay a hand on him,’ I shouted, as I pulled myself from out of the hedge. My hands buzzed. A couple of neighbours gathered now, their faces in shock, but they looked blurry in the background. Emily’s mum continued to cry.

Emily’s dad laughed as he turned from Adam to me. ‘What’s this? The grand inquisition from a couple of pikey kids? Go on then, who have I killed?’

I took a deep breath.

‘Who have I killed?’ he shouted.

‘The girl. The missing girl. From the telly. Beth Swanson.’

I heard a chorus of ‘oh’s!’ in the background. Emily’s mum’s eyes widened.

Emily’s dad burst out laughing before taking another swing at Donald’s body with his foot. I winced as he smacked his ribs. Donald looked defenceless, completely broken, spluttering blood.

‘The only person I’m gonna kill is this lowlife for stealing my precious daughter away from me,’ he roared. He turned round to face his small audience. ‘Does anyone else want to accuse me of anything? Murder? Rape, perhaps? Go on, Marvin, how about you? Seen me kill anyone lately?’ Marvin backed down and shuffled his feet as Emily’s dad turned towards him. ‘In fact, I’ll tell you a little something,’ he said. ‘This sick fucker on the floor here hasn’t only kidnapped my daughter, but he has a little murder secret of his own, don’t you?’