The Lies We Told(85)

‘Right,’ Clara said, keeping her gaze focused on the horizon as they trudged through a meadow full of cowslip. She had been determined that there would be no recriminations while she listened to his story, but now hurt and bitterness rose up inside her and she had to swallow hard to control it.

Glancing at her, Luke’s eyes widened. ‘No, nothing like that, Clara, I swear! But … I don’t know, there was something about her … I can’t explain it, it was like I knew her somehow, like I’d always known her. She was interesting, we talked about music and art and stuff; she’d been to the same festivals and gigs I’d been to, liked the same films, even been to the same exhibition I’d gone to the week before. Everything that came out of her mouth, all her opinions, were just spot on, I was … drawn to her, I guess. The conversation flowed between us, she seemed so switched on, so interesting. You know what I’m like, I love meeting people, talking to new people, we hit it off, that’s all.’

She nodded stiffly. ‘So what happened next?’

‘We said goodbye, and I put her out of my mind. I thought it had been nothing more than a pleasant evening. I certainly never thought I’d see her again. But as I was leaving work a month or so afterwards, she pulled up beside me in this van. She called out my name and seemed surprised to see me, asked where I was going and when I said I was on my way home, she told me she was heading east herself and to get in, she’d give me a lift.’

‘And so you got in,’ Clara said.

He glanced at her. ‘Believe me, I have regretted it every minute of every day since. I was fucking stupid. It was pure impulse, spur of the moment.’ He shrugged. ‘I just thought, fuck it, why not?’

‘Christ, Luke!’

‘I know. I know. She had a bottle of that whisky I like on the passenger seat, and I was really surprised, because not many people know about it, and it’s my favourite. But anyway, when I mentioned how much I liked it she asked if I wanted a bit, and it had been a long day so I took a few swigs while we chatted … The next thing I knew, I woke up in a pitch-black car park in the middle of fucking nowhere.’

‘The Downs.’

‘Right.’ He stopped talking and she heard his breath catch in distress. ‘My wrists and ankles were bound. She had a knife. Told me to get out of the car and when I wouldn’t she cut me, said she’d do far worse if I didn’t do as I was told. I was still so groggy and confused … she got me out of the car and there was another one parked a few feet away, she loosened the rope around my ankles just enough so I could shuffle and told me to get in it and we started driving again.’

‘And you drove back to London?’ Clara frowned. ‘Why did she do that?’

‘To confuse the police, I guess.’

Clara tried to imagine how it must have felt to have been in that car, how terrified he must have been. As if reading her thoughts, Luke said, ‘I was scared witless. It was surreal, waking up like that, I thought it was a joke, a prank, you know? And then she cut me, and I suddenly realized I was in big fucking trouble, that she was completely off her head. The drive back to London, I kept drifting in and out of consciousness as she started talking about my dad, about Emily, but none of it made sense. I realized she was the one who’d been sending me the emails and photos, and the more she talked, the more crazy I realized she was, and the more it dawned on me what deep shit I was in.

‘I still thought I’d be OK, though.’ He laughed bitterly. ‘I mean, I’m tall and fit, you know? I thought she’d take her eye off the ball and I’d escape somehow, I always am all right, aren’t I? I thought I’d get out of this OK in the end. But when we got back to London we pulled up in the car park outside her building, she had the knife, kept prodding me with it ’til I was bleeding all over, she’d gagged me so I couldn’t shout out, and then she made me get out of the car. When she opened the back door to the building and told me to go inside, I thought no fucking way, so I didn’t move.’

‘And then what?’ Clara asked.

‘She told me Emily was inside. That my sister was waiting for me in there. It was all so crazy, but in my weird, drugged-up state I kind of thought it might be true.’ He shook his head as he remembered. ‘And I was still so certain that I’d be able to knock her out or something, so I thought, OK, I’ll go along with it, see if she really does know anything about Emily. I’d wondered for twenty years what had happened to her and here was this nutter saying she knew something. I thought I’d still be able to get out later, she was only one skinny woman, after all. I don’t know, I was too cocky, too curious.’

‘So you went in?’

He nodded. ‘My legs were still loosely bound so I couldn’t kick but I could shuffle, so, yeah, I walked in.’ He ran his hand over his face as he remembered. ‘Fucking idiot that I am.’

Luke told her how Hannah had pushed him into a pitch-black room, how he’d fallen to the floor and she’d locked the door. As he reached this part of his story he had to choke back his tears. ‘She didn’t come back for two days. I just had to lie there, waiting. Pissing myself, not eating or drinking.’ Angrily he swiped his tears away, his face burning at the memory. ‘She barely gave me any food or drink, I was always tied up, so I couldn’t even go to the toilet without her help.’