The Silent Ones: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller(51)

She had raced down the hill and up to the top road that traced around the boundary of the warren, running faster than she’d ever moved in her life.

A small bungalow, perched close to the edge of the warren, was the first house she got to. A lady answered when she knocked at the door and immediately called the emergency services.

She introduced herself as Anne and kindly allowed Juliet to use her telephone to call home. She listened to the ring and through the kitchen window, watched a small boy on a toy tractor, trundling up and down the path of the long back garden.

‘Dad?’ she said breathlessly when he finally answered. ‘Come quick as you can to the warren. Corey’s had an accident on Stony Side Hill.’

‘What kind of an accident?’

She couldn’t answer.

‘Juliet?’

‘He… he fell. Just come quick, Dad, please.’

Her father continued to bark questions at her, demanding to know exactly what had happened, but she quietly said goodbye and replaced the receiver.

She couldn’t handle facing her own incompetence so starkly, not at this moment and not in front of a stranger.

Anne gave her a glass of water and thankfully left her alone to wait for the ambulance on the front step. A golden retriever nuzzled her hand for attention and Juliet lay her face against the warmth of his head for a moment.

The ambulance arrived and the paramedics immediately pulled portable medical kits from the back and followed Juliet to the entrance to the warren. When she pointed to Stony Side Hill and explained where Corey had landed, the two men upped their pace. They soon moved well in front of her, jogging towards the foot of the hill. She followed as swiftly as she could with hope in her heart.

She imagined Corey sitting up, rubbing the back of his head. Chloe would be comforting him and joking about his misadventure in that way she had that could sometimes make you feel better about stuff you’d done wrong.

But Dad would be on his way now, and Mum… well, Mum was a different story altogether. Juliet could barely face the thought of facing Joan, telling her she’d somehow fallen asleep and left Corey to his own devices. It was enough to turn her blood to ice.

Her fingernails begin to flex against her hand as she walked, squeezing the soft flesh of her palm a little harder with each step.

After her initial flare of adrenalin, she was flagging again, but still she focused on keeping up her pace, trying to forge through the exhaustion.

By the time she’d reached the bottom of the hill, the paramedics were halfway up it.

Please, please let Corey be OK, she chanted to herself like a mantra, in time with her laboured strides.

There was no denying that Corey was a little live wire, and he got on all their nerves at times, but Juliet adored him. She would never willingly do anything to put her brother at risk.

She had heard her mother say some awful things to Ray: that she had never wanted a third child, that Corey was hyperactive and out of control and she was sick to death of the sight of him. But that was just her mum. Underneath all the showboating, Juliet knew she loved him. She loved them all, didn’t she?

It was just that she struggled to cope with life itself sometimes. But if anything happened to Corey, her mother would be devastated.

They all would.





Thirty-Seven





Tom suggests I make a list of the things I need. ‘I’ll go back to the house and pick everything up you need for Beth,’ he says. ‘You’re best staying here in case Maddy needs you.’

I realise there’s something I need to tell him.

‘It’s crazy at the house. I’ve been back there, just before Dana spoke to the girls the second time. There are press there. Lots of them outside the gate and…’ I sniff. ‘There are locals hanging around. Unfriendly ones, shouting abusive stuff. When I left, I had to sneak out of the back across another garden to call a cab to come to the road behind ours.’

He’s incredulous. ‘Why on earth did you go there alone?’

‘I had to look for the secret phone Josh told us about, and I knew you’d try and put me off if I told you what I had in mind. The people outside the house… they said awful things I don’t want to repeat. I just don’t understand how they get to know everything that’s happening. I thought this stuff was supposed to be confidential.’

Tom’s shoulders shoot up to his ears. ‘Word gets around; you know what the village grapevine is like, it’s more effective than any newspaper. Neighbours will have seen the girls being taken away from the house, heard that the old lady had been attacked.’ His voice drops low. ‘Did you… find the phone?’

I nod and pat my handbag. ‘It’s in here, but I haven’t looked at it yet. If I’m honest, I’m scared to.’

‘Give it to me,’ he says gently. ‘I’ll take it to the car and look through it so there’s no chance of anyone seeing.’

I clamp my jaw closed, sparking with the injustice of us having to behave this way because of people we don’t even know judging our daughter.

‘Tom, it wasn’t just the horrible stuff they were shouting; there’s some really vile graffiti sprayed across the garage door. The front door lock has been blocked with glue and someone’ – I wince – ‘has posted dog mess through our letter box. The whole place stinks of it.’