Chapter 49
Forty-Nine
Tabitha
With her back to the fence in the garden, Tabitha stared up at the house waiting for a bomb to go off.
Brian’s screams of anguish and pain, reached into her very core, twisting it until she felt his pain, too.
She placed her hands over her ears, not wanting to hear her brother get blown to pieces.
She stared up at his bedroom. It was still there. There hadn’t been a bang.
She grabbed her phone and called Aunt Claudia. Brian was right. She’d been stupid suspecting their aunt. They couldn’t do this on their own anymore. Aunt Claudia would know what to do. They had to come clean.
She pressed Claudia’s number and she answered immediately. ‘Tabitha?’
‘We need you, Aunt Claudia. You have to come home, now.’
‘What’s going on?’
How did she explain all that had happened? She didn’t have the words. ‘Please just hurry.’
‘I’m on my way, actually. I was already on my way.
Really, I thought I could trust you both.
’ Their aunt let out a sarcastic laugh. Tabitha went to interrupt but Aunt Claudia continued.
‘One of the neighbour’s called and I’m not too happy with you and Brian.
Thinking you could bypass the doorbell camera by smuggling your party in over the back fence.
You’re both in so much trouble. I’m guessing all has gone to shit and you need me. Is the damn dog back, too?’
A loud crash coming from behind sent her gasping.
An axe head narrowly missed her but knocked her phone from her hands.
It flew through the air and landed face down in one of the muddy borders.
She went to chase after it but a rope coming from above hooked under her chin.
Whoever held it, wrapped it around again then pulled it upwards choking her.
‘Scream and I will throttle that pretty little neck until it snaps.’ The voice was nothing more than a whisper but she heard every word.
She stood on her tiptoes, not daring to move an inch as the man in the morph mask axed through the rest of the panel.
OpenMeSmiler had come for her. He dragged her through the gap, the jagged wood scraping through her jogging bottoms and scratching her legs.
There was no bomb. The front door hadn’t been rigged.
This was all part of his game plan and she had run straight into it.
She tried to say something, to croak out some words but choking noises came out instead.
He then continued dragging her along the path behind their house where she kicked repeatedly to no avail.
She needed a dog walker or a late-night reveller returning home to save her.
What was she thinking? It was early on a Thursday morning.
There were no late-night revellers in the week and she couldn’t scream if she wanted to.
The boot of a parked car popped up.
She squeaked out a noise among the choking and shook her head rapidly but OpenMeSmiler pulled the rope tighter until she had no option but to keep still or die.
As he brought her closer, she tried to hit him but missed.
He punched her hard in the face until the faint whispers coming from his mouth were nothing more than moving lips with no sound.
Her legs buckled as she fought to stay conscious. She’d never been punched before.
The stars above in the icy night sky started to spin. As she fell back, she was saved by the arms of her attacker as he wrestled to turn her over and tie her hands behind her back.
Her vision started to clear a little, the boot coming into focus and the smell hitting her. The deep scent of ammonia made her stomach lurch but she did all she could to hold on to it. She widened her eyes as he tipped her right next to the dark mound in the boot.
The closer she got, the more she could see. It was a body, eyes wide open with no shine to them at all – a smile drawn crudely over the man’s lips and a corner of paper sticking out from his mouth. She kicked out but all she hurt was the inside of the car.
He slammed the boot shut. The killer had her trapped. She was next and there was nothing she could do about it.