The Secret Mother(68)

‘It’s finished, Daddy. But I can hear that lady upstairs in the attic. She’s making a noise again.’

We all turn our gazes from Harry to Fisher. He opens his mouth, but no words come out.

‘What have you done?’ I say to Fisher. ‘Who’s up there?’

‘Nobody,’ he replies. ‘Nobody’s up there.’

‘Yes there is, Daddy. You said it’s the lady who keeps asking too many questions.’

Fisher looks as though he’s about to deny it once more. But then his expression changes to an indignant frown. ‘She was snooping… Threatening me!’

‘Are you holding her up there against her will?’ Ben asks.

‘No! Well, I was going to let her go…’

Ben and I turn and rush to the staircase.

‘Can you show us where the lady is, Harry?’ Ben asks.

‘She’s in the attic,’ Harry replies. ‘Daddy said she was naughty.’

‘Did he?’ I turn to Fisher and shake my head.

‘What’s going on?’ Scott asks, a bewildered expression on his face.

We ignore him and continue up the staircase.

‘You can’t go up there!’ Fisher cries, making no attempt to stop us. He simply follows on behind, with Scott trailing after him, a strange procession of people led by Harry and me.

Harry takes my hand and pulls me upwards to the landing and then along to another smaller staircase with a door at the top. Dull thuds and muffled cries emanate from beyond the door. I try twisting the brass knob, but it appears to be locked.

‘Key,’ Ben says, turning back to Fisher, holding out his hand.

‘It’s downstairs on my…’

But Ben doesn’t wait for him to finish. Instead, he turns back and boots the door open with the back of his heel. With a splinter of wood, we tumble onto the narrow landing beyond, and I follow the sound of muffled cries through one of the painted wooden doors into an unlit room. I scan the walls until I locate the light switch and press it.

Illuminated beneath the weak ceiling light, Carly sits on a chair, her ankles tied to its legs, arms tied behind her, a gag between her teeth. I turn to glare at Fisher as Ben rushes forward to release her. She blinks, getting used to the light, and then her eyes grow wide with anger as she scowls at Fisher. Carly is not one of my favourite people at the moment, but for Fisher to have tied her up in his attic is outrageous.

I take Harry’s hand and crouch down to his level. ‘Can you go back into your bedroom now, Harry? Your daddy will be down in a minute to see you.’

‘What happened to that lady?’ he whispers in my ear.

‘We were playing hide-and-seek, but now we’ve found her.’

‘Can I play?’ His eyes light up.

‘Maybe later. Go back to your room, okay? Can you do that for me?’

His face falls, but he turns and leaves the room. Good job too, as the language now flying from Carly’s mouth isn’t fit for a five-year-old’s ears.

‘You’re going to jail for this!’ she yells at Fisher.

‘Carly? Is that you?’ Scott says, his face creased in confusion. ‘What are you doing here? What’s going on?’

‘If you’d paid attention to what Tessa had to say in the first place,’ Ben snaps at Scott as he unties Carly’s ankles, ‘maybe you’d have a clue.’

Scott flushes and turns to me for an explanation.

‘Not now, Scott,’ I say, giving him my best withering look. I feel a tug on the back of my coat and turn round to see that Harry has come back into the room. ‘Harry, sweetie, you need to go back to your room, remember?’

‘You’re my real mummy, aren’t you?’ he says in his clear, pure voice, silencing everyone and making me catch my breath.

‘Angela’s been filling your head with nonsense,’ Fisher tells his son, his voice weak, one hand against the wall, the other hand pressed to his chest. ‘Of course this lady isn’t your mummy.’ He reaches out to take Harry’s hand and tries to lead him away, but Harry isn’t budging.

‘My mummy who’s in heaven told me that I had a new mummy who was my real mummy. She said our angel would take me to her. And I think Tessa is my new mummy because she likes trains, same as me.’ He stares up at me, his brown eyes meeting mine, his expression all at once strange and familiar.

I’m sure my heart has stopped beating. I’m sure the world has stopped turning and I’m sure that everyone else has frozen in time. I stare from Harry to Fisher and back to Harry again. I still don’t quite understand what Harry has just said, but I understand that it is possibly momentous. Life-changing.

Everything speeds back up and my heart jump-starts itself. Ka-boom. Ka-boom. A deafening sound that rattles the whole house and makes my vision blur.

‘What’s he talking about?’ Scott asks hesitantly, looking at Fisher, some kind of understanding dawning.

Fisher is quiet, pale, his face twitching, his whole body sagging like a deflating balloon. Everyone turns to him. Even Carly has stopped swearing and is studying the doctor like he’s a rare specimen in a glass case.

‘What’s he talking about?’ Scott asks again. ‘We’re not stupid, Fisher. There’s something going on here.’