Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
ABIGAIL
Iwasn’t in the right headspace today to deal with good-looking, tattooed IT guys who magically appeared in the coffee shop I was in.
Yeah, I still didn’t buy his whole ‘happy coincidence’ line, but I had bigger things to think about.
Bigger things to deal with too, despite still having the head from hell after whatever that was that’d happened last night.
Maybe I was burning the candle at both ends and needed to take a break.
After tonight, I would. But tonight, I was ready to put to bed one of the last loose ends from my past. Not quite the last, but I’d find that one soon enough.
I checked myself in the mirror one last time and felt satisfied with my outfit, all black with a hoodie to hide my face if I needed it.
I zipped it up, picked up my backpack, and then headed out.
I peered up and down the corridor to make sure no one was out there, then locked my front door securely behind me.
I’d booked a taxi to drop me off outside the café I’d seen Isaiah in earlier.
The bus was too risky; too many people could identify me if it ever came to that, and there was CCTV on buses.
This cab didn’t have any of that, and the guy dropping me off wasn’t chatty.
He just wanted to take me to my destination and get the fare. It suited me just fine.
Once he parked up and I paid him, I got out and waited for him to pull away. Then I put my hood up and began to walk.
It was dark now, and there weren’t many cars on the roads.
I turned into the street I’d walked down earlier today, and then onto the avenue that became a country lane.
On any other day, I’d have enjoyed this walk.
It was a nice area. But today, I could only focus on one thing.
The rundown cottage that stood at the end of it.
A cottage that looked unlived in and probably hadn’t seen a visitor at its door for years.
The cottage was why I was here, and the woman who lived inside it.
The lane became more barren and deserted the farther I went, and I could see a gentle glow coming from inside the cottage, lighting my way. There were no streetlamps down this end of the lane, and I was glad for the light guiding me.
I approached the cottage cautiously, ducking down when I got to the stone wall, and then crawling to the back of the property.
It was so overgrown out back that I hissed more than once as the brambles pierced my skin and the nettles stung me, but it was a small price to pay.
Once I reached the rear of the property, I slowly opened the back gate and crept inside.
It was even more overgrown inside, which worked to my advantage, and I darted stealthily across the grass.
I pressed myself against the wall of the cottage once I made it there, hiding in the shadows as best I could.
Then, I took out a pair of scissors that I’d brought from home, which were hidden in my pocket, and knelt to cut through the wires for the telephone lines.
I left the electrics, so her lights wouldn’t go out.
I didn’t want to freak her out, and I didn’t want to die of an electric shock.
No, the phone lines were enough. She was cut off from the world out here anyway.
The landline was her only source of communication, as far as I could tell. And now, she had none.
I took a moment to stand and listen in the stillness of the night.
There were no sounds coming from inside.
No muted radio or television noises. But I knew she was home.
I’d peered through the back window as secretly as I could, and I could see the back of her head as she sat in an armchair.
Outside, all I could hear was the gentle swish of the breeze through the trees.
Her neighbours lived far enough away that they didn’t even count as neighbours. This cottage was perfect.
I walked back across the garden, making sure to stay in the shadows, and then I let myself out of the gate.
Slowly, I picked my way around the perimeter of the stone wall until I came to the little gate at the front.
I did one quick glance around to make sure I was alone, and then I opened the gate, entering the small front garden, and made my way down the overgrown, thorny path.
As I reached the front door, I took a fortifying breath, raised my hand and knocked on the door.
A quiet shuffle of activity sounded from inside, and then a low voice asked, “Who is it?” from behind the door.
I noticed the worn and tatty net curtain at the window beside the doorway fluttering slightly, like she’d peered out but not enough to be seen.
She was wary, but she’d still come to the door to ask who I was—that was a good start.
“I’m sorry to bother you this late at night,” I said in my most sincere voice. “But I really need your help.”
“I don’t buy anything at the door,” she snapped, showing her true colours, but I cut her off.
“I’m not selling anything. I just need to use your phone. Mine has gone dead and I think someone is following me. Please. I’m really scared,” I added, playing to any sympathy she might have.
“I don’t have a phone,” she lied, showing me she clearly had no sympathy at all. I already knew that. I don’t know why I expected anything less.
“Could I at least come in for a few minutes to charge my mobile phone then?” I asked. I wasn’t giving up.
“I don’t have a phone charger,” she shot back.
“I do.” Silence for a few seconds, then I added, “Please. I wouldn’t knock if it wasn’t an emergency.”
“Go to one of the neighbours,” she barked. Jeez, this woman was trying my patience.
“I tried, but no one answered. You’re the first person to speak to me. Please,” I begged, tapping lightly on the door again.
I heard her curse behind the door, then the clattering of metal as her key fitted into the lock. And then the door creaked open, and a haggard face peered back at me as the smell of burning incense wafted from inside the house.
“Two minutes. That’s all you’ve got. Then you’ve gotta go,” she said, and stood back, opening the door to me, but peering into the darkness behind, like she expected to see someone else appear.
“Thank you.” I made prayer hands and stepped into her cottage. “I’ll be gone before you know it.”
She didn’t offer me a drink. She didn’t offer me anything, and even walked past her telephone sitting on a side table in the hallway without a care. Maybe she hadn’t paid her bills and had been cut off? It didn’t matter. I wasn’t here to make a phone call.
“There’s a plug,” she said sharply, pointing to an electrical socket by the door to her living room. Then she sat back down on her armchair, with her back to me. So rude... and so perfect.
I put my backpack on the floor and bent down. But it wasn’t a phone charger I pulled from inside. It was a wrench. And I took a deep breath, lifted it up and then crashed it into the side of her head with an almighty thud.
Her head fell forward, and I took slow steps forward, peering around the armchair to check she was knocked out.
A small gash at the side of her head was trickling with blood, and her eyes were closed.
I didn’t know how long I had left to set everything up, but I didn’t want to waste time.
So, I threw the wrench to the floor, grabbed the rolls of duct tape and started to wind it around her body, pinning her to the chair.
Round and round I wound the tape, over her chest and the back of the armchair, around her ankles so she couldn’t kick out. I used zip ties to tie her wrists so she couldn’t fight. I got through two rolls of tape before she started to stir, groaning and gurgling as her eyes flickered.
I had questions she needed to answer, and she needed to be frightened in order to give me what I wanted.
I knew that. So I went into her kitchen and started pulling the drawers out, looking for a decent knife to use.
The old wooden kitchen drawers clattered to the floor as I yanked on them, cutlery falling everywhere, and eventually, when I found a large carving knife, I grabbed it and stalked back into the living room, leaving a holy mess in the kitchen behind me.
And what I saw when I walked back in almost made me drop the knife.
Angela Maynard was sitting in the armchair with her eyes wide. Duct tape covered her mouth, but she wasn’t trying to make a sound.
And there, standing in the middle of the living room with his arms folded, and a peculiar frown on his face as he stared right at her, was Isaiah.