Chapter 47
‘Alexa didn’t care about stupid rumours and mindless gossip,’ Jim continues, taking another step towards me. ‘She was my friend. She loved Bernie, too. We talked. There’s nothing wrong with that.’
‘I never said there was.’
‘No, but you’re acting as if there is. Standing there looking at me as if I’m evil personified. What about the woman she walked with, huh? The nosey neighbour. You don’t have a problem with her. But me? Me you do.’
‘I don’t have a problem with you,’ I squeak, but the terrified pitch of my voice makes Jim scoff.
‘Sure you don’t. You’re acting as if I’m what they say I am, and I don’t like it.’ Jim brushes aside strands of grass that are only inches away from me. ‘What, do I scare you? Do you think I’m a monster, too?’
My brain roars at me to move, but fear has me paralysed.
‘Do you? Do you think I’m a monster?’
Jim’s so close to me now that I can see a smattering of scars on his left cheek from teenage acne. I see a kink to his nose, telling me that it was once broken. Probably when he was a boxer.
My breathing rasps with fear, making Jim come to a sudden stop.
‘I’m not, you know. A monster, that is,’ he says, then the corners of his eyes squint. ‘Not unless I’m pushed to become one.’
Something inside me kicks into life at those words. I don’t think, I don’t rationalise, I just move. Launching myself forward, I shove Jim in the centre of his chest.
The level of my aggression is so unexpected, he stumbles and topples over a clump of grass. Bernie barks in outrage, but I don’t waste a second of the head start I just bought myself. Leaping past Jim, I sprint towards the treeline ahead, heading for the safety I pray is on the other side.
‘Stop!’ Jim calls, scrambling to his feet to chase after me, but his shout only makes me move quicker.
‘Help!’ I holler as I fight my way through the grass.
A growl behind me shoots terror down my spine, but fear makes me flee faster.
I race onward, clawing through the grass until I reach the narrow patch of woodland.
Before tearing through it, I peer over my shoulder.
Jim is lurching after me, still in the field, his movements slower as he reels from shock.
I know it won’t last long, though. Jim is a big man.
I know he has the ability to close the distance between us should I dare slow down.
So I don’t. I propel my body forward until the blanket of trees envelops me, concealing me in their darkened embrace.
‘Help!’ I screech, praying that the shout is loud enough to carry through the woodland.
The sound of grass swishing behind me warns that something, or someone, is in hot pursuit. The barks tell me it’s Bernie, but Bernie is always by Jim’s side. Who knows if they’re together now? I don’t dare stop to confirm if that’s the case.
Jim shouts again. ‘Stop!’
The proximity of his voice terrifies me. Twigs snap as my feet pummel the ground. Raggedly, I scream for help. I think I hear someone shout out from further ahead, and use it as fuel to keep going.
Another bark cuts through the air, echoing between the trees.
Through the gaps in the tree trunks ahead, I see a flash of the back of the Clarkes’ house.
The familiar sight makes me cry out, but it also distracts me from plotting my route.
My foot catches on a thick root sprawling across the ground, sending me flying.
Shrieking, I soar through the air until I land in a crumpled heap. My body skids across the ground, the shock of the impact rattling through my ribcage. For a split second, I lie with my face in the dirt, winded and disbelieving, but then something knocks into my foot.
I spin onto my back, the perfect position for Bernie to throw himself on top of me. As his paws dig into my stomach and chest, I cry out. Bernie seems to relish the sound, barking in response before launching himself at my face.
Panic oozes from me as I feel something wet on my forehead. Blood, I think, but then I realise it’s Bernie licking me. His happiness is so unexpected, it almost makes me laugh.
‘Bernie, no,’ I say, trying to push him off, but then I hear a man shout.
‘She’s over here!’
Scrambling backwards, I do my best to rid myself of Bernie before Jim catches up, but as more shouts echo around me, I realise they’re not coming from Jim. Twisting my neck, I find DS Rani leading four uniformed officers towards me.
Relief strips me bare. Flopping against the ground, I burst into tears. As Bernie makes it his mission to lick them away, I let him. I’m too wiped to fight him off anyway.
‘Janine, are you okay?’ DS Rani says, kneeling beside me and doing her best to control Bernie so I can sit up.
‘It’s Jim,’ I sob. ‘He’s coming for me.’
DS Rani pulls me into a sitting position. ‘Who’s Jim?’
‘He lives on the edge of Bramblethorpe,’ I sniff, wiping my cheeks with my dirt-crusted hands. ‘Alexa met him for walks.’
Then there, appearing through the trees, is Jim. This tall, imposing man who looks like he could crush you with one flex of his arm muscles.
DS Rani doesn’t need to know more. She shouts a series of orders to the officers, who rush towards Jim.
Panicked, Jim turns, stumbling back towards the field, but it doesn’t matter.
The police are onto him. A delighted Bernie chases after them, oblivious to the fact that this isn’t a game but a manhunt.
I watch them go, not yet trusting that this nightmarish moment is over.
‘I thought you’d left,’ I croak. ‘I thought Jim was going to hurt me.’
‘You’re okay, Janine. Everything is okay,’ DS Rani reassures me.
With her steady hand on the centre of my back, I slowly find myself coming to my senses.
‘I’m just glad I hadn’t set off after Mullins and Otis yet,’ DS Rani says. ‘A minute later and I wouldn’t have been here to hear your calls for help.’
The ‘what if’ attached to those words bristles every hair on my body, then a series of shouts from the fields make us both jump.
‘You can’t arrest Otis until you’ve spoken to Jim,’ I say, grabbing DS Rani’s arm. ‘You need to ask him about Alexa. Dorrit Holbeck saw Alexa leave to go for a walk every day. She said Alexa sometimes had a tennis ball with her.’
A shout rings out in the distance, followed by a bark from Bernie.
‘The tennis ball you found wasn’t random,’ I continue. ‘It was Alexa’s. She was carrying it the day she went missing, because she was going to meet Jim, yet he never came forward to tell you that. Why would he keep that secret? What is he hiding?’
DS Rani pauses, listening to the bark-spiked commotion in the field. When it echoes louder, she turns to me and whistles.
‘Two suspects in one day, huh? Let’s hope you make as good a real-life detective as you do a fictional one, S. K. Atherton.’
With those words, DS Rani pulls me to my feet. I wince as a jolt of pain shoots up my ankle from my fall, but the hurt doesn’t matter. Standing signals that maybe, finally, this might actually be over.