Chapter 54
FIFTY-FOUR
JUSTINE
She held her hand to her thumping heart as she ran across the fields towards the derelict house, the knife neatly slipped into her back pocket. She glanced back at the trees rustling in the breeze.
After passing the picnic table, she reached the wiry perimeter fence around the building and wondered how she could get in.
‘Danny,’ she called, hoping to hear his voice.
She knew she was meant to get his bag and meet at the prearranged location at midnight but if this could all be over now, she’d prefer that.
Maybe, just maybe, Danny was hiding in that house.
While speaking to Simeon, she hadn’t dared to let on where she was heading to at midnight.
He’d have been alarmed and might have called the police.
She’d already let him down enough and upsetting him like that wasn’t an option.
What was an option was Danny being cold and scared in the derelict house.
As soon as they got to the police station, she was going to blame herself for the story that she made Danny tell them.
It was only right that if she got her son to face up to his wrongs, she would too.
Danny was already in enough trouble and on top of that, she’d encouraged him to lie to the police.
She called out again. Danny wasn’t answering. She had to get inside the building somehow. A light flickered from an upstairs room and muffled sounds of people chattering came from inside. Danny had to be up there.
She ran around the building looking for a way in.
The top of the fence was covered in barbed wire.
A clattering sound coming from the treelined side of the house stopped her dead.
With trembling legs, she took a few steps forward, trying to make as little noise as possible.
In any other circumstances, she’d run away but her son needed her to be brave.
She might not like Danny right now but as a mother, she’d never stop loving him or being there for him.
She crept along the undergrowth. That’s when she spotted a badger next to an upturned metal bucket, and just a short way from the bucket was a gap in the fence.
She pushed through the metal until it was stretched enough for her to step through, into the overgrown garden.
She looked up again. The light still flickered.
She shivered, wondering if Danny was huddled up around a naked flame, trying to keep warm.
It was chilly at night. She pictured him terrified and freezing, but not alone.
There were other voices. Maybe other teens were hanging out with him. Either way, she was going in.
On reaching the back door, she pressed the handle but it was locked.
A thick woollen blanket had been draped over a window ledge where glass had once been.
The wooden board that had been placed at the window to prevent intruders had been ripped out and lay in two jagged pieces on the grass.
She sat on the blanket and shimmied around until she fell into a dark room.
After stepping into the darkness, she followed the sound of distant chatter, trying to listen for Danny’s voice but she couldn’t make out who the voices belonged to.
She placed her hands out in front of her, feeling for the door and eventually she reached a doorknob.
After slowly turning it, she stepped into the hallway.
The stairs and walls were touched by a light glow from the upstairs light source.
She could just about make out scorch marks on the stairs and walls.
She remembered that the house had previously been fire damaged after squatters had taken hold. It had been mentioned on social media.
Her heart jumped. What if the people upstairs were squatters?
She stopped on the middle of the stairs and took a few deep breaths.
If they were, she meant them no harm. They were merely people with nowhere to live.
Danny could even be squatting there with them.
She pressed on, taking step after step until she heard the chattering clearly.
It wasn’t squatters or partygoers; it was the news coming from a radio.
‘Danny,’ she called out, her knees trembling.
As she stood outside the room where the light flickered from, she stepped forward and gasped.
Danny’s bag was lying on an old sleeping bag against the far wall.
She ran over and looked through it. There were a few tops, an energy drink and one of the illegal disposable vapes she hated Danny using, but there was no Danny.
She ran from room to room before realising she was alone in the house.
Going back to the first room, she picked up the battery-powered flickering candle.
The old wireless radio crackled as she got close.
She turned it off and the silence felt deafening.
‘Danny.’ Next to the radio was another pink teddy bear, just like the one Pixie had been playing with and underneath the bear was an envelope with her name on.
She opened it and started reading the note.
Justine. If you’re not where I told you to be at midnight, you will never see Danny again. Go downstairs and you will see what happens when you don’t do what I say. If you call the police or don’t turn up, Danny dies. Or… maybe he’s already dead… Do you think you can save him now, Mummy?
She half fell down the stairs with her son’s bag in one hand as she ran into the room that must have once been a kitchen.
She held the candle up and saw a boy with his hands tied behind his back on all fours with his head in a bucket full of water.
She took the knife out, ready to release his hands.
‘Danny.’ She dropped the bag and pulled his head out, allowing the lump of a stuffed person in her son’s clothes to tumble to the floor.
Craig would never threaten Danny like that or play such a sick game.
She held a hand to her banging heart, knowing she had no option but to be at the rendezvous for midnight if she was ever to see her son alive again.