Chapter 1
One
Ursula
Ursula half sang ‘Where Is My Husband’ by Raye while sweeping the last of the pet hair from the floor.
Like in the song, she wondered where her husband was because he hadn’t texted her back when she asked him if he wanted her to pick up a curry on the way home.
In fact, he rarely replied to her anymore.
A few high notes later and a little bit of a dance to wind down, she’d finished and placed the broom back against the wall, ready for all the pet hair that would come tomorrow.
The news report earlier told her that today was Blue Monday, a day when everyone was probably depressed but she had no reason to be blue.
She loved her life. There – the salon was all spick and span.
She flinched as something crashed against the window leaving a muddy splat behind.
She placed a hand over her beating heart.
The darkness outside gave nothing away but she already knew who had kicked the ball at her window.
She pressed her nose against the glass and looked out.
The tall kid with the blond hair stared at her as he swigged from a can.
He stuck his middle finger up and turned to the others before kicking the ball again at the empty shop next door.
She was proud of her little business and all that she’d created but she hated the fact that the teens ran amok, destroying everything and scaring her and the other business owners.
There was no delaying the inevitable. She had to leave the safety of her salon.
‘Come on, Dooby. Let’s get you home.’ She stepped into the office and collected her very old and frail terrier, the little dog she’d practised on all those years before taking the plunge and opening up her pet beauty parlour.
She placed a couple of invoices into Mindy’s tray, ready for her to pay in the morning, then she locked the office door.
Ursula could never handle paperwork but Mindy was a whizz at it and it helped that they had become good friends.
Dooby looked up at her longingly. She knew his game. He wanted to be picked up. His little legs couldn’t carry him far anymore so she scooped him up. It was probably safer to have him in her arms anyway. If the teens looked like they were out for trouble, she could run.
On stepping out into the crisp, cold air, she glanced up and down.
One youth lit a cigarette and another swigged out of a bottle of cider.
All the businesses had reported them to the council and the police, but nothing much got done.
For a while, police patrolled the streets, that stopped and what a surprise – the trouble came back.
She shivered as she pressed the button to bring down the electric shutters.
So far, the youths hadn’t noticed her leaving.
She’d clean the dirt off the window in the morning.
Dooby started yapping in her arms. ‘Shush.’
She jumped at the loud bang followed by the youths roaring.
They were always playing football and using shopfronts as goalposts.
One of the boys looked across so she turned away quickly and walked away as fast as she could.
The scent of pizza filled the air. That was the only shop still left open at this time.
Ursula often opened later for the customers that couldn’t make it during the day, but not tonight. She had no more bookings.
She stepped onto the road and crossed the car park.
It was almost empty now, not like when she arrived in the morning.
There was a nursery close by and when she arrived it had been full of parents dropping their little ones off so, as usual, she didn’t get a parking space by the door.
An eerie silence momentarily filled the air but only until the next goal shooter went for it.
The youths howled again. She cut through the path to where her car was parked, trying not to slip on the frosty slabs or get shredded by the overgrown brambles.
Then she stepped out onto the side road where she could see her car.
She stopped and frowned. Mindy’s car was parked up at the end of the road.
She glanced up to see if she could see her friend anywhere but all she could see was a wall of unruly shrubbery and Mindy’s car, but no Mindy.
Maybe the car had broken down. Mindy kept saying that it was making funny noises and she’d been late because it wouldn’t always drive well until it had warmed up a bit.
A rustling of trees coming from behind her sent her heart booming again.
She turned around but there was no one there.
‘Hello,’ she said. The blond-haired teen stepped out, his pupils dilated.
She guessed he had to be close to six feet tall.
He stepped closer. She shuffled back a little, hugging her dog.
His crooked smile spread across his face and she couldn’t help but shiver. Dooby barked and snapped.
‘Report us again and I’ll burn you, your rat dog and your shop down.’
‘I didn’t…’ It was no use lying, they knew it was her. Most of the other units were empty and the guy who owned the pizza shop loved them. They were his main customers.
The youth kept walking until he was so close, she could smell his cheap body spray.
She closed her eyes then nearly fell as he shoulder-nudged her to get past. Relief flooded through her as he kept walking.
He’d passed and he was heading towards Mindy’s car.
He kicked the back tyre before hurrying into the woodland where she could see him already undoing his fly as he disappeared behind a tree.
She’d complained about the stench of urine, too.
Ursula glanced at Mindy’s old blue Fiesta before placing Dooby on the road, much to his dismay.
He whined at her feet so she unlocked her car and let him in where he curled up.
He was safer in there, away from the youth.
‘I know, I know, Dooby. I want to go home, too.’ She pulled out her phone and pressed Mindy’s number.
She had to check on her. Maybe Mindy needed a lift in to work the next day.
Her call didn’t even connect. Mindy was always glued to her phone.
Maybe she was on Instagram or TikTok. Ursula opened up Instagram and selected Mindy’s profile.
On glancing up at the woodland ahead, she hoped that the youth wouldn’t come back too soon.
Mindy’s profile loaded. She hadn’t posted anything since yesterday.
There was a picture of her chilling on her sofa drinking a pina colada from a can – her favourite wind-down tipple.
She stopped dead as she heard shaking and rattling coming from the driver’s side of Mindy’s car.
The youth was still somewhere in the woodland.
He wouldn’t be long now so she had to hurry.
‘Mindy.’ That was silly. Of course, Mindy wouldn’t be hiding behind her car and rustling around.
It was almost seven that evening. Mindy had left around six.
Ursula flinched as the weird sound came again.
She took a few more steps towards the car.
She kept her focus on the long dark path that led through the woods.
It eventually came out at the industrial estate, but that was about a fifteen-minute power walk away.
Maybe the youth had gone home that way. Her heart thrummed harder as she stepped closer to the woodland, and worse still, closer to the weird noise that had now turned into a rattle and a thump.
‘Mindy…’ The closer she got, the less street lamps there were to light up the road.
She tried to call her husband again but once again, he didn’t answer.
Come on, Ursula, get your big girl pants on.
She furrowed her brows and peered through the back window of Mindy’s car.
She couldn’t see anyone in it. She bent down to see if she could see feet underneath it because if there was some weirdo lurking, she was going to run to her car as fast as her legs could take her.
As she leaned down, she saw something that looked like a box, but there were no feet.
The thumping sound was coming from the box and that was followed by someone running.
It was the youth and he was darting through the trees and then directly at her.
He nudged into her shoulder and laughed as he passed.
It was okay, he was gone now, but she still had the weird noise to figure out.
She dusted herself off and walked around the car.
Her gaze fixed on the sight of Mindy’s fluffy white angora rabbit, Hoppy, still in his basket from when Ursula groomed him over an hour ago.
She crouched down and looked through the front of the basket at Hoppy.
‘What are you doing here? Where’s your mummy? ’
She used the torch on her phone to peer into Mindy’s Fiesta.
Not even Mindy’s bag was on the seat. She’d never leave Hoppy out in the cold like this.
Mindy loved him like he was her baby. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.
That’s when she saw Mindy’s smashed phone on the road.
There were red smears on the windscreen – blood.
She gasped and almost stumbled back, before grabbing the basket and running straight to her car, where she locked herself, Dooby, and Hoppy in.
With trembling fingers, she called the police.
Her rear-view mirror was filled with the youth’s dilated pupils and that lopsided grin, then he turned and ran.
Dooby started barking and jumping on her lap as she got through to the police. ‘Help, someone has hurt my friend. She’s gone. There’s blood… so much blood.’