The Darkness Beneath, page 7
‘You’ve been giving this a lot of thought, haven’t you?’
Newt nodded. ‘We talked about doing this a couple of years ago, if the right property came along. When you inherited the guesthouse and first put it up for sale, we discussed making you an offer then, but we couldn’t get enough cash together. Then you decided to move back and Michael suggested the partnership.’
Nell’s head was reeling and she needed more time to fully process what Michael and Newt were proposing. She glanced at Luke, wondering if he had known about his brother’s plans.
The look on his face suggested he hadn’t, as he seemed as surprised as Nell at the sudden turn of events. ‘I never realized you wanted to do this,’ he said to Newt. ‘I thought you loved your job at the school.’
‘I did love it… still do at times, but this is something I’ve been thinking about, wanting to do for a long time. I think we could turn the guesthouse into something special. What do you say, Nell?’
Bella would have approved, Nell thought, and it would be a fitting legacy to her aunt, but it was a hell of a project to take on. She needed to give the proposition some serious thought. It wasn’t something she could make a decision on instantly.
‘It’s something to consider. I need time to think it over though. It’s a big commitment and I don’t want to take it on unless I’m sure I’m doing the right thing.’
‘Completely understandable,’ Michael agreed. ‘Take all the time you need.’
‘It’s weird you know, being back in the house, but Bella and Clarke not being there.’
‘I guess it would be. You’re up there alone, so the house is going to feel empty. I wish you would come and stay with us for a while, just until you decide what to do. I don’t like you in that house alone. If Caleb…’
‘Caleb won’t find me,’ Nell insisted through gritted teeth, annoyed that Michael was openly talking about him in front of Newt and Luke. She guessed Newt knew all about her past relationship, though he had been polite enough to keep his nose out, but Luke didn’t, and much as Nell liked him, she still barely knew him. She could tell from the look on his face he was intrigued to know more about who Caleb was.
‘By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Who is Sarah?’ she asked, changing the subject abruptly, fighting to keep her tone light.
‘Sarah?’ Michael’s brow furrowed.
‘I was up in the attic and her name is scrawled on the wall. It looks like Clarke’s writing.’
‘Sarah?’ Michael repeated, looking at Newt and Luke. Luke shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head, while Newt pressed his finger to his lips looking deep in thought. ‘It’s quite a common name. There are a few Sarahs on the island.’
‘Wasn’t there a Sarah who worked for Bella a few years back?’ Newt nodded to himself. ‘She was a pretty girl with long blond hair. You must remember her, Luke.’
‘Vaguely, though it was a long time ago.’
‘Yes, I remember her,’ Michael agreed. ‘She worked with Bella one summer and then ran out leaving Clarke alone. Bella was real pissed about the whole thing.’
‘She was looking after Clarke?’
Michael nodded at Nell. ‘Yeah, Bella was in hospital and had left Sarah to look after the guesthouse and keep an eye on Clarke, but she took off and went back to the mainland. I heard rumors that she had been offered another job.’
‘So why would Clarke write her name on the wall?’
‘Maybe it affected him, being left alone like that?’ Newt suggested.
It was possible, Nell thought. Clarke had Asperger Syndrome and his reactions had sometimes been extreme.
‘Or perhaps it was another Sarah?’ Luke chimed in. ‘Maybe Clarke had a girlfriend or a crush?’
‘Yeah, I guess.’
‘Why are you so interested?’ Michael asked.
Nell shrugged. ‘I’m not really. I was just curious when I saw her name. Guess we’ll never know who she was.’
*
Nell drove home instead of going into town, her original plans now shelved while she considered Michael and Newt’s proposal. Her head was filled with reasons for and arguments against, and her mind was spinning by the time she pulled into the driveway. The first thing she did once inside was put on the coffee pot and grab and pen and notepad. She created ‘for’ and ‘against’ columns and started filling them. Restoring the place in honor of her aunt was top of the ‘for’ list, but the amount of work involved was the top ‘against’ and she wasn’t sure how well Michael had really thought this through. She had spent enough summers with Bella to see how much work was involved in running the guesthouse. He hadn’t. And yes, she would have him and Newt to help her, but she still wasn’t convinced they realized how much of their time it would take.
But then there was the attic room she longed to turn into a studio. If she sold the place she would never have that. She added ‘attic’ to the ‘for’ list.
Money was a concern, but Michael had assured her he and Newt had the financial side covered. She would need to know what kind of figure he was talking about and have to be sure there was enough in the pot to do all of the work necessary, as it was something she was unable to contribute to. For now, she put ‘money’ on the ‘against’ list, but with a question mark against it. Just until she had ascertained how much everything was going to cost. She tapped the pen against the notepad impatiently, annoyed her brain was struggling to work. What else was there to consider?
Deciding she needed some fresh air, she grabbed her jacket. A walk along the beach would clear her head and help her refocus. She crossed the road at the end of the driveway, through the thicket on the other side to the steep stone steps she knew led straight down onto the shore. When she had been a kid, Nell had spent a lot of time on this beach, loving that she generally had it to herself. Because it wasn’t well signposted, most of the holidaymakers didn’t know the pathway existed, and those who did tended to favor the less rocky beaches closer to town.
As she made her way down the steps, careful not to lose her footing on the looser stones, old summer memories flooded back. From fishing in the rock pools with Clarke, to sharing her first kiss with Matthew Johnson under the stars, after she had snuck out of her bedroom window to meet him. Then there were the times her and Lizzie had come down here, generally dreaming and planning their futures, talking about boys and proms, and how Lizzie was going to be a famous photographer, while Nell would find success through her paintings. Only one of them had lived long enough to see those dreams become a reality.
One of the first paintings Nell had sold had been of this stretch of beach, capturing the sun setting over the ocean, bathing the rocks and the water in shades of gold. It had always been one of her favorite pieces.
Right now the sun was setting again, but this time burning orange in a sky full of pink. Nell walked down to where the foamy waves lapped gently against the sand. There was a chill in the air and further along the coast she could see the last of the fishing boats heading back towards the island. It was the middle of September and in another few weeks the waters would be far quieter as winter took hold. Reaching down for a handful of pebbles, Nell took aim with each of them, throwing them as far as she could into the water. Her thoughts returned to Michael’s proposition. Could they make it work?
Although the guesthouse was out of town, Bella had always attracted a lot of business. People were attracted to the old building with the fantastic views. If they restored the place to its former glory, would the tourists come back? Michael and Newt had big plans, wanting to put in a pool and a hot tub, landscape the gardens and revamp the rooms, giving the place a more sophisticated upmarket feel. It was a lot of work, but the potential was there, and if they pulled it off Nell wouldn’t have to worry about finding work elsewhere.
Deciding she was going to take the plunge and accept Michael and Newt’s offer she reached down for another handful of stones. The waves had washed a large pile of seaweed ashore and she pushed it back into the water with her sneaker, her toe hitting something heavy.
Assuming it was a rock, Nell reached down to pick it up and set about freeing it from the seaweed. As the green gooey plant fell away, she found herself staring at a woman’s face. The skin was grey, the eye sockets empty and what was left of her mouth appeared to be open in horror. The neck had been severed neatly and the woman’s body was nowhere in sight.
Nell screamed, and took an unsteady step back.
Bile rose in her throat as the head, now dislodged from the seaweed, rolled a couple of feet across the sand and came to a lazy stop.. Disgust burned through her and, dropping to her knees, she puked until her guts were empty. When she was done she pulled her cellphone from her jacket pocket with trembling fingers and called the police.
Her body shaking, tears forming, she sat back on her haunches and glanced warily around the empty beach. She was alone, except for the eyeless face staring up at her.
CHAPTER NINE
Tommy Dolan was the only officer available and it was with some reluctance he headed down to the beach where Nell waited with her gruesome find. He hadn’t spoken to her in over eighteen years, had been a kid when she had left, and her return to the island had awoken memories he had tried so hard over the years to bury.
She was sat on the rocks when he arrived, chin resting on her knees and her arms hugging her legs. For a moment she was sixteen again, still slender with blond loose curls falling around her face.
Nell had always been Tommy’s favorite babysitter. She only visited during the summer, but she was carefree and fun, and as a ten-year-old, he had idolized her, thought she could do no wrong. He had convinced himself that had it been her and not Lizzie in the house the night of the murder, things would have worked out differently. She would have known what to do and no one would have died.
But Nell hadn’t been there, she had left him and Emily alone with Lizzie, and he had watched the man who had broken into the house with his uncle stab Lizzie in the throat with one of his mother’s kitchen knives.
Everyone had expected Tommy to be able to name Lizzie’s killer and Chief Bristow had grown frustrated with him when he couldn’t even offer a description. He had to live on the island; Tommy must have known who he was. But the man had worn a baseball cap and Tommy had only ever seen him from behind. He had felt useless, unable to give the adults the information they so desperately needed from him.
His parents had taken him to a child psychologist, hoping to unlock memories, but it had been to no avail and his mother had grown fearful for Tommy’s safety, aware he was a witness and that the killer could come back for him. They had lived under police protection for a while, but Tommy never remembered, and the killer was never caught. Eventually life had moved on.
Nell should never have come back, but here she was, and she was living in her aunt’s old guesthouse. Everything about her return made Tommy uncomfortable. It felt like the safe cocoon he had wrapped himself in might start to unfurl. He wished she had stayed away.
She heard his approach, got to her feet as he neared the bottom of the stone steps, brushing her palms on her jeans; her face was deathly pale in the dusky light and she was visibly shaking.
Tommy wasn’t sure how to greet her, wasn’t even sure she would recognize him after all these years. He supposed he should have kept it official, but the situation was awkward. Everything about this was awkward.
‘Hey, Nell.’
She hadn’t recognized him, but the familiarity of his greeting had her looking closer and he saw the moment realization dawned. ‘Tommy? Jesus, Tommy, I can’t believe it’s you.’
For a moment she looked as though she wanted to hug him, but then something, it looked like regret, passed over her face and she looked plain uncomfortable. Nothing about this situation was easy and Tommy wished to hell the chief was here right now. Alex was off duty, but Tommy had left him a voicemail. Purity was a small island community with an almost zero crime rate. He was going to want to know that a head had washed up on the beach.
For now he tried to focus on the job, keep Nell on the professional and away from the personal. ‘Dispatch said you found a head?’
‘I, yeah…’ She looked green around the gills, like she was going to puke, as she pointed across the sand towards the sea. ‘Over there.’
As she appeared reluctant to go near it, Tommy approached on his own, flashlight on in the fading light, grimacing when he spotted the head lying on the sand. When he had received the call, he had initially figured it as a prank. This kind of thing didn’t happen in Purity. Someone was playing a joke. But then he had been informed of the caller’s name, knew if Nell was involved it would be no joke. He couldn’t help but wonder if her return to the island was responsible for this. Bad things seemed to happen around her. It was as if she attracted trouble.
He slipped on latex gloves, carefully not to disturb any evidence. While he would have liked to think this was some kind of horrific accident, he could tell from the clean cut that a knife had been responsible. Which suggested someone had intentionally done this to the victim, and begged the question, where was the rest of the body?
*
Nell was numb all over, still couldn’t stop shaking. She watched Tommy work from a distance, finding it hard to believe the grown police officer before her was the same little boy she had once babysat. She still pictured him at ten years old, but here he was, all grown up, his thick tawny brown hair still neatly cut in a similar style he’d had as a boy, his eyes that deep pool of blue she remembered, but his scrawny little frame now matured into a man’s. He had been a beautiful looking kid and that beauty had carried through into adulthood, though she was certain he must be broken a little on the inside. He had witnessed his babysitter’s murder. It wasn’t something a ten-year-old would forget easily.
She made her way closer to where he worked, her legs rubbery, though was careful to keep her distance from the head.
‘I didn’t know you had joined the police,’ she said to him, reaching for normality, annoyed her voice was sounding reedy and that she couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering.
His shoulders tensed, but he didn’t turn around. ‘Yeah, a few years back.’
‘Do your mom and dad still live locally?’
He nodded.
‘And Emily?’
He got up from the ground, turned to face her, looking annoyed.
‘You might want to go back up to the house. I have work to do here and I need to concentrate. I’ll come take your statement in a while.’
He was being formal, cold even, and Nell got the impression she made him uncomfortable.
‘Yeah, okay, sure.’ She forced a smile. ‘I’ll be there whenever you’re ready.’
He nodded, turning his back on her. Nell watched him for a moment, feeling the need to try and close the distance between them, but not knowing where to start. The words not coming, she turned and made her way unsteadily back up the stone steps. When she reached the top she glanced down to where Tommy was bent down in the sand, flashlight on, his silhouette now barely visible against the darkening sky.
Back in the house she felt vulnerable and alone. It was stupid, as she’d been living here almost a week and had spent a lot of time by herself, but it hadn’t felt as big, empty and unwelcoming as it did right now. Rubbing the goosebumps on her arms she went from room to room turning on lights, in the kitchen flicked on the radio, trying to make the place feel homely. Aware she had touched rotting flesh she went to the sink and washed her hands under the burning water until they felt raw. Hugging her cold body, she relented and turned on the heating.
She wondered how long Tommy would be down at the beach. How long it would be before he knocked on the door wanting to take her statement. Restlessly she paced, wringing her hands together, not knowing what to do while she waited. She felt cold to the bone, probably the shock of what she had stumbled upon. Whose head was it and where was the rest of the body? It had looked cleanly cut, like a piece of meat. Had it been an accident or had someone cut the woman’s head off intentionally? The skin around the nose and mouth had been chewed – by fish or crabs, she supposed. Nell hadn’t wanted to remember that detail, but it was one of the first things she had spotted, and the image of the gnarled lips and the eyeless sockets was clear in her mind.
Where was the rest of the woman and what had happened to her? She shuddered, not sure she wanted to know the answer.
Glancing at her wristwatch she noted she had only been home fifteen minutes. It felt longer. Although she was tempted to go upstairs and run a hot shower to take the chill off her bones, she wasn’t sure how long Tommy was going to be. Instead she filled up the coffeepot, thinking it would be polite to offer him a cup when he showed up. While she waited for the water to boil she went upstairs, cleaned her teeth to get rid of the taste of sick, and ran a washcloth over her face. Back in the bedroom she looked out of the window to see if she could see any sign of him. Her view of the beach was obscured by trees. His car was still parked on the road, but he was nowhere.
She went back downstairs, made a coffee, paced some more, toyed with calling Michael, but dismissed the idea. So, she had found a head on the beach. What would he be able to do about it? Nell laughed to herself. It sounded almost hysterical.
She picked up her coffee, realized she had let it go cold, poured it down the sink.
Come on, Tommy.
Would it be awkward when he came to take her statement? He’d seemed so distant towards her. Sam Kent blamed her for what had happened to Lizzie. Did Tommy blame her too? Nell tried to push the thought from her mind, told herself she was being paranoid, but was she?
Focus on something else.
She thought about turning on the television, but knew she wouldn’t be able to concentrate. Maybe she should make something to eat. She had forgotten all about dinner. No point though as she had no appetite. The discovery of the head had taken care of that. Her throat felt sore where she had thrown up, her belly empty. It was so cold in the house. Why couldn’t she warm up?
