Seven Days(61)

But they weren’t unimportant to Max, so she had to try.

‘I’m going to tell you about friends,’ she said. ‘Friends are the most important thing – after family – in the world.’

She thought of Chrissie and Fern. Of how they relied on each other, of how secure she’d felt when she was with them. They were a team, and like all good teams, they were much stronger together than the sum of their parts. She smiled at the memory of a boy, Christopher, a few years older who had kept asking Fern to go on dates with her. She said no; they were thirteen and starting to get interested in going on dates with boys, but she didn’t like him. No one really did; he was sullen and aggressive and a bully, and when the kids his own age started to ignore him he turned to the younger ones.

At a school disco he had trapped Fern in a corner and tried to kiss her.

She refused, but he didn’t let her go.

Maggie and Chrissie watched it happen.

What should we do? Maggie said.

We have to help her, Chrissie replied. Come with me.

They walked over and Chrissie tapped the boy on the shoulder. He turned around and scowled.

What do you want? We’re talking, he said.

We want you to get lost, Chrissie said, then shouted. We want you to leave her alone!

A crowd was forming, and Christopher was starting to look uncertain.

You get lost, he said.

He’s a cradle-snatcher! Maggie said. Leave her alone!

There was some laughter, and Christopher’s face flushed. He backed away and walked towards the exit.

‘Why are friends important, Mummy?’ Max said.

Maggie hugged him. ‘Because with friends,’ she said, ‘you can do anything. If you have friends, nothing can hurt you.’

‘Do I have friends, Mummy?’

She pressed her hand to his heart. ‘In there you do,’ she said. ‘In there you have all the friends in the world.’

‘So nothing can hurt me?’

‘That’s right, Max. Nothing can hurt you.’

‘Good,’ Max said. ‘That’s good.’

She closed her eyes. If only it was true. Because there was something that could hurt Max.

And it – he – was coming tomorrow.





3


The day seemed to pass slowly, and yet it was a surprise when evening came and she heard the scraping noise.

The door opened and the man came in, two plastic plates and two plastic cups on his tray.

Max toddled over and looked at the food.

‘Sausages,’ he said. His voice was thick with the cold. ‘And orange juice. Yum.’ He picked up one of the cups and drank. The man stepped back towards the door.

‘You can take mine,’ Maggie said. ‘I’m not hungry.’

The man shrugged. ‘I’ll leave it. You might change your mind.’ He pointed at Max. ‘Is he ill?’

‘He has a cold.’

‘Orange juice should help.’

‘What do you care?’

The man caught her gaze. ‘I suppose I don’t.’

She watched him leave. She’d had many feelings towards him over the years – anger, of course, and hatred, but also pity and sympathy and wonder. Wonder at what made him do this, at the life he led.

Now, though, she saw only one thing. He was a monster. He had kidnapped and imprisoned a fifteen-year-old girl and taken and murdered – she was sure that was what had happened to Seb and Leo – two of her sons. Tomorrow he would take a third. To the world he seemed mild-mannered and calm but it was a veneer that hid the truth: he was violent and cold-hearted and selfish and utterly lacking in any sense of the harm he was doing to other people.

‘Why are you doing this?’ she said.

He paused, hand on the door.

‘I’m only bringing food.’

‘Not that. You know what I mean. This’ – she gestured around the room – ‘all of it. Why keep me here? Why take me in the first place? Why did you want a girl – and now a little boy – in your basement? How is this good for you?’

He frowned. ‘I told you. You’re safe here. Out there is’ – he shook his head – ‘it’s a bad place. No harm can come to you in here.’

‘Every day harm comes to me. Every second you deny me sunshine and laughter and family and love you are doing me harm. And Max.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘You never listen. Why won’t you listen? Sometimes I wish I’d not bothered with this, but then I remember. This is my duty. This is my burden.’ His voice rose. ‘I have to save at least one. I watch the girls. They start so innocent, so perfect, and then they change. They are corrupted. By boys and alcohol and cigarettes. And I couldn’t let that happen to you. I tried with your mum, but I let her slip away. She was so beautiful, so perfect, and I was sure that she felt the same way about me, but no. The world took her from me. I realized then that I would never get what I wanted. What I needed. People like me didn’t get such perfect prizes, so I decided I would have to take it. It was too late, though. Your mum was gone.’ He smiled, a lopsided, clownish smile. ‘But then I got the chance with you. And I was not going to miss it.’

‘You haven’t saved me,’ Maggie said. ‘You say I would have been corrupted, but you’ve done worse. You’ve ruined me. Raped me. Dirtied me. You’ve destroyed my life.’