Helen Phifer - The Girls In The Woods

He slid a sandwich across the table to her and she thanked him, not wanting to eat because she felt sick, but not daring to turn it down because he would go mad at her for wasting his time and food – so she picked it up and began to nibble on it. He began to chatter away; when he did occasionally talk to her there was no stopping him, but today she couldn’t be bothered. Her eye was throbbing and her head hurt, not to mention that her heart was having palpitations because she couldn’t get the image of the woman from the mirror out of her mind. Jo wanted to scream at him to shut up; she wanted to pick up one of the pans from the hanging rack and smack him across the head with it to see how he liked it, give him a taste of his own medicine. Instead she listened to him going on about what a fabulous photographer he was and how he had this idea for a great project, something which no modern day photographer had ever done. She nodded and agreed with him whenever she thought it was necessary, anything to keep the peace and stop the pain.

When she looked up from her plate to face him, she felt her blood freeze. The rack of pans which hung down from the ceiling behind him was moving. The pans were swaying from side to side; they were heavy-based copper pans which she struggled to lift most of the time so how they were moving like that was beyond her. She glanced across at the window to see if it was open and letting in a breeze but it was shut tight, as were all the doors. Even if she did leave the windows and doors open she had never seen them all move like this all at the same time, ever. He looked at her.

‘What the hell is the matter with you today? What are you looking at?’

Jo shook her head.

‘Nothing. I don’t feel well. I must have banged my head when I fell over in the garage.’

She emphasised the ‘I’, careful not to accuse or throw any blame his way – even though it was completely his fault. The pans were still moving behind him. Why weren’t they making a noise? They should have been clanging together but they weren’t. She began to cough, choking on a bite of her sandwich, and the breath that came out of her mouth was surrounded by a plume of white smoke as if it was a crisp, frosty December day – not the end of August. He looked at her as if she was mad, shoved the last of his sandwich in his mouth, then stood up to go back to his studio.

‘I have clients in this afternoon Jo. I do not want you to come in or disturb me – do you understand?’

She nodded her head. She was going to go upstairs and lie down.

‘Good, I’m glad we cleared that up – because if you disturb me again when you’ve been told not to, I’ll fucking kill you.’

And with that he walked out of the door, turning the key in the lock from his side. She looked up at the pans which were now still, then towards the door that he’d just locked. Putting the plate on the side she stood up and forced her hand to reach up and touch one of the pans; her fingers brushed against the cold metal and she pulled back – it felt as if it had been in the freezer for an hour. She turned and stumbled her way upstairs to her bedroom… she needed to lie down. She wasn’t well at all.

Chapter 4

Will loaded the cases into the back of his car then took the trolley back; it was drizzling in Manchester and the airport behind them looked grey and gloomy. Annie was sitting in the front passenger seat not quite believing that they were back in England after such a perfect holiday. She pulled her phone out of her handbag and rooted around in the glove compartment for the charger. As it vibrated back to life she saw that she had twelve missed calls from her sister-in-law. She also had a message box full of texts saying ‘ring me’ but not what it was about. If it had been urgent then she would have said there was something wrong. Annie liked the woman but she was a bit too tightly wound up for her – she made a huge fuss over everything and insisted on sharing every trial and tribulation over her social media accounts, which drove Annie mad to the point where she had unfriended her. Annie didn’t want to know about every argument that Lisa had with her brother and her niece and neither should anyone else. She pressed the green button to ring her back, hoping this wasn’t going to be a thirty-minute phone call about Ben being late for dinner three times this year. Will got in the car and she mouthed the word ‘Lisa’ to him, and he smiled and turned the key. By the time they got back to Hawkshead the conversation might have finished.

‘Well, I’m sorry, Lisa, but I agree with both Ben and Tilly this time. You don’t know if she’ll even get the job.’

Annie held the phone away from her ear and Will laughed a little too loud, making Annie slam it back against her ear.

‘What no, it was the radio. You know she’s welcome to stop with me and Will if she does get it. I don’t mind driving her to work and picking her up. That’s no problem. Look, if I was you I’d just let her go and see what happens and then I’d start to worry about it. Okay, bye.’

She looked at Will.

‘Bloody hell. Tilly wants to get a job living in at some hotel in Bowness.’

‘And I take it Lisa doesn’t agree.’

‘That’s putting it mildly. I also got the distinct impression that she doesn’t want Tilly to live with us either if she does get the job. You wouldn’t mind, would you? It might stop me dying of boredom.’

Will nudged her in the side.

‘Families, eh? Of course I wouldn’t, although I kind of understand why Lisa wouldn’t want her daughter to live with us.’

Annie looked at him. ‘Why not?’ She paused then nodded.

‘I guess not. She probably thinks she’ll be sending her off to join the “serial killers anonymous” group. Which also reminds me – I don’t want our baby being dragged into that world either. Do you think everything will be okay? Is it definitely all over with him… you don’t think he has any kind of revenge plan organised with someone in the event of his death?’

She didn’t want to think about him but now Lisa had forced her to.

‘I bloody well hope not. Look, he’s dead. We know he’s dead – I even went to his post mortem. I didn’t tell you because I was still in hospital and you had more than enough to worry about, but Matt sent Stu to come for me. I watched as Matt sliced his body open and removed his internal organs. To be honest I was surprised the man had a heart inside there, but he did. They all got shoved in a plastic bag and sewn back up inside him. Then I watched as he was cremated. I had to make sure he wasn’t coming back to get you, to get us. Henry Smith is definitely dead. I promise you, it’s over with him for good.

‘Why did you not tell me about any of this before?’

‘I let you down, Annie. Twice that man got the better of me and twice you almost died. I wasn’t going to wait on the sidelines and pretend it was all okay. I had to make sure it was over, to make sure that I didn’t let it happen a third time.’

She reached over and stroked his arm, feeling terrible that he blamed himself when the only person to blame was finally dead and out of their lives.

‘None of it was your fault, but thank you, Will. I didn’t want to go back to reality just yet – we’ve only been in England for an hour and boom, back in the room. Thanks a lot, Lisa.’

‘I’m afraid so. Never mind, don’t worry about her – let her sort her own mess out for a change. How many missed calls have you got off Jake?’

‘None. He knew we needed that holiday and a break. For once he hasn’t had any dramas that he couldn’t cope with himself. I’m beginning to feel a bit redundant.’

‘I wouldn’t worry about that too much. You know as well as I do Jake will be on fine form. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t waiting for us to get back to the cottage.’