Saviour Read online

‘You stupid fucking cunt,’ he yells. The next punch hits my eye. Pain explodes. A sharp kick to my ribcage follows quickly, then another. I can taste nothing but blood, a sense of metal in my mouth. The pain is intolerable and my vision fades. The last thing I recall is the agony of being dragged by my hair towards that room until the pain causes me to lose my battle with consciousness.

  Chapter Twenty

  DC Seth Logan

  Hindley Prison in Wigan is home to Drew Wilson, Category C offender. I wasn’t the officer to interview him at the beginning of the case, but the report read that he appeared genuinely upset, and shocked that his sister was missing.

  The contrast between the healthy looking, happy picture of his foster sister and the man in front of me is striking. Gaunt faced, shaved scalp with a dark shadow. A half-dead, no-hoper. Except for his eyes. His blue eyes flash with life when they see me. Life and hope.

  ‘Have you found her?’

  ‘No.’

  The hope fades and his face hardens back up.

  ‘Why are you here then? I already told you scum what you need to know.’

  ‘I want to talk about one of your frequent visitors. A Bridget Lomas.’

  He sighs. ‘What about her?’

  ‘What’s your relationship with her?’

  He snorts. ‘She wishes. What the fuck’s she been saying?’

  ‘That’s the thing. She’s saying nothing. We know she passed on the details of the Loxley’s to your sister, but she’s denying all knowledge of doing so.’

  ‘Hang on. Back up. The Loxley’s?’ He rubs his forehead. ‘What are their first names?’

  ‘Did the first officer not give you this information?’

  ‘No. All I got when I asked questions was’-he impersonates the officer-‘I ask the questions around here,’ or ‘I’m not at liberty to disclose that to you right now.’

  I curse my belligerent predecessor. ‘The couple your sister was staying with were called Jack and Sienna Loxley.’

  ‘The fuck?’ He taps his hand against the table, faster and faster.

  I lean towards him. ‘You know something I need to know, mate?’

  ‘Give me a minute. Let me think.’ His leg taps the floor, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

  Then he slams his hands on the table. The security guard steps forward. I wave them back.

  ‘She wouldn’t. She wouldn’t be that fucking stupid.’

  ‘Talk to me, Wilson.’

  He sits back in his seat. ‘Bridget. We’ve known her years, right. Lived down the street from us. Fuck buddies we were, though I guess she always saw it as being more than it was. Thinks I’m going to marry her and shit.’

  ‘Where would she get that idea?’

  He shrugs. ‘She’s been a good source of dosh when I’ve needed it. I’m not proud, but needs must, right?’

  I raise my hands. ‘Not for me to judge your life.’

  ‘I was sorting some passports when I got arrested. I asked her to get in touch with a mate of mine, who’d finish em up. Those passports were for a couple, errr’-he bangs the side of his head-‘What were their fucking names?’

  There’s a pause. I wait while his eyes scrunch and he tries to remember.

  ‘Got it.’ His eyes fire up. ‘Karen and Mark Jennings. That’s it. Karen and Mark Jennings. Bridge knew they were bad news. The bitch.’

  I tilt my head and speak slowly. ‘Why would Bridget put Eden in touch with this couple if she knew they were bad news?’

  ‘Because she thinks Eden stopped us getting together. You’ve got to understand. I love my sister.’

  His eyes go glassy but he sniffs and the hard mask returns. ‘She doesn’t even know that. What if she’s dead and she doesn’t know that? I spent my teen years driving her away. She was so much better than me, you know that? I was so fucking proud of her when she started University. Do you know what I said to her though? I told her she was a cunt with ideas above her station. I told her she wouldn’t pass. Every time you say something like that to her, she sets out to prove you wrong. That’s what I want for her. Better things. Now, because of that stupid bitch, she could be dead. Mark Jennings is a fucking psycho.’ Clearly agitated, a tic in his cheek pulsing, he gives me the name of the friend who did the passports. ‘I’ll be in the shit for grassing him up, you know? Please, find out where my sister is and if she is okay, and tell her I’m sorry. Only I might not be able to speak when they find out what I’ve done.’

  I take the information and stand up.

  ‘I’ll do my best, Drew.’

  He looks up at me, surprised at my use of his Christian name. He nods, puts his head in his hand, and sobs. A hard man broken.

  Later, we discover that Drew’s contact has recently made Jack and Sienna Loxley three more passports. A call to Interpol, a recheck of the airport travel lists, and a trace of a Tenerife villa belonging to Mark Jennings and we’re holding in our hands the potential answer to the whereabouts of Eden Stark. I have to hope this is the end of the trail because it’s the only one we have.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Kara

  ‘We have her.’

  The only words I needed to hear.

  I see Dave lunge towards me as I faint.

  Part Three

  PURGATORY

  adjective

  serving to cleanse, purify, or expiate.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Eden

  There’s so much pain. I feel the outside of my body. Blood pools on the floor, running under my fingertips. Then there’s the noise. Lots of noise. My mind seeks information like a television trying to locate a channel, but only receiving white noise. There’s banging, taking place somewhere outside of my mind. I feel the weight on me lifting. Adrenaline makes my eyes open though they can’t focus. I think I hear someone say they’ve found me. A voice in my ear, hold on, then nothing.

  Kara

  I have never in my life before wished I had wings or the power of teleportation. It’s almost a full twenty-four hours before I enter the hospital where Eden is being treated. I know enough of the language to get by and discover she was badly beaten. The nurse reports her injuries: severe bruising, a busted lip, a black eye, rope burns and abrasions to both wrists, and a couple of broken ribs. I’m told she’s been lucky. That’s not my impression when I walk into her room. Nothing could have prepared me for this.

  She’s lost weight. Her face is gaunt, her shadowed cheekbones alongside a myriad of assorted colours of bruising make her face resemble an abstract artwork. Her left eye is bulging, her mouth swollen with cuts patched with paper stitches. A high dose of sedative means she doesn’t know I’m here, but for the moment lies asleep while her body attempts to heal itself.

  Sobs escape my mouth. She’s really here. Alive. Broken, but alive. A nurse hands me a box of tissues and leaves the room, returning with a glass of water. I thank her and take a seat at Eden’s bedside. Weary, I rest my head on the bedcovers at her side and try to regulate my breathing. I’m no good to her if I’m a mess. Though she can recover from her physical wounds, I dread to think about the psychological ones. But I’m going nowhere.

  Eden

  I can’t stop dreaming. I don’t want to. In my dreams, I hear Kara. She tells me she’s here. That she’s waiting for me to wake up. I don’t want to wake up because then I will see it’s been a dream and I’m still in hell.

  Kara

  They’ve begun to withdraw her medicine so she’ll wake up. As soon as she’s ready, we can arrange a flight back to England. Come on now, Eden. I need you.

  Eden

  Buzzers. Bleeps. Noise. My eyes open. What’s this? Light. I squint. Pain. I scream. No, I try to scream, but I barely have a voice. Dry. Something or someone touches me. I flinch so damn hard I see stars with the pain from my middle.

  ‘Eden. Eden, let the nurse give you some medicine.’

  Kara? It’s Kara’s voice. It can’t be Kara. Maybe I’m dead. Maybe he killed me. I daren’t look.
/>   ‘Eden. Please. Open your eyes. I’m here.’

  I allow my eyes to open slowly. Either I’m hallucinating or she’s really in front of me.

  Kara

  ‘Eden, you’re in hospital. They found you. You’re safe.’

  ‘Kara.’

  I peer at the timid girl lying on the bed. With her straggly hair and gaunt face, she looks like a beautiful zombie.

  ‘I’ve come to take you home, Eden.’

  Tears collect at the corner of her eye and roll down her cheek.

  ‘What home?’ she croaks.

  ‘I will get us a home together.’

  She nods slightly and then she falls back to sleep.

  I phone Xavier and update him on Eden’s condition. Then I ask him to perform what is probably an impossible task, but he agrees and tells me he’ll call me back. I don’t know how he does it, but by later that afternoon, he has secured a three-month tenancy on our old student accommodation.

  When Eden is next awake, I tell her.

  ‘We’re going home. To our old home.’

  She clutches my hand tightly. It causes her to wince. She says thank you as if I’ve presented her with a diamond necklace. A return to a safe refuge worth far more than the most precious of jewels.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Eden

  After a few days, I insist I want to return home and a flight is arranged. The hospital staff have done all they can for me in terms of my physical mobility. I now need time to recover and heal. I’m informed the police will want to see me. Someone briefly visited while I was here, but all investigations are now focused in the U.K.

  I feel fine. I just want to be alone. The doctors tell me I’m suffering emotional numbing. I need to be away from people. I’m sick of all the fussing. That includes Kara. I was so pleased to hear her voice but now I need her to keep her distance. I want my room, my old room and I want to be left alone.

  Kara

  The flight home seems to take forever. Eden barely says a word. She asks for drinks of water. She eats fruit and one sandwich. Then she places her head back in her seat and closes her eyes. There’s not even a response to take off and landing. It’s like she’s dead inside. Maybe she is? At this point, none of us has any idea what happened to her in that villa.

  Xavier meets us at the airport. I look at Eden to see her reaction as we head through to arrivals. I note relief in her eyes when he appears. She says the strangest words to him, and then follows him out of the door. She says, ‘You saved me.’

  Xavier

  I stand in arrivals unable to stand still, my heart thudding, waiting for Kara and Eden to come through. Their plane arrived twenty-two minutes ago and they should be through baggage soon. Then they’re here. The small, usually bouncy Kara attempts to walk in a straight line while at the same time trying not to take her eyes off Eden. For Eden herself, I have no words. Her face is a patch of bruises. She is so thin. She looks like a baby bird who’s fallen out of its nest, weak, pitiful and, to be honest, dead. Her eyes are lifeless. She barely lifts her feet to put one foot in front of the other. Her hair is like rat tails and is partially covered by a red scarf. I feel like I shouldn’t be here, seeing her like this. I barely know her and she’s in front of me, raw and exposed. As she gets nearer, her eyes meet mine. Her body finds a spark of energy.

  ‘You saved me,’ she says.

  I swear my heart stops beating for a split second. What does she mean?

  ‘I-I’ve come to take you home. If that’s okay? Just a lift and then I’ll leave you and Kara alone.’

  She nods. Kara looks at her and then back at me. A question I have no answer for in her eyes.

  Eden follows me outside to the car and I drive them back to their old accommodation.

  Kara

  When Eden is home, she walks into her old room and closes the door. She doesn’t come out for the rest of the evening. Xavier hangs around for a short time and then leaves us. I quietly knock to check if she wants anything, but she says she just wants to be left alone. The strangest thing is that her room is bare apart from a wardrobe, chest of drawers and a bed. There’s not even a stitch of bedding. I decide to leave her tonight and try to talk to her in the morning.

  Eden

  Finally, I am home. Here in my old bedroom, it’s like I can feel the sunshine warming my face. The familiar wallpaper and carpet. I take the pillow off the bed, then lie on the floor in the corner of the room and sleep. I feel safe here.

  The next morning the police visit. I leave my room to speak to them. I can see Kara hovering on the periphery. She wants to know what happened to me. She wants to help. I know. But I’m not there yet. I want to get this interview over with. I tell them all I know as quickly as I can, but I know they’ll want more. Everyone is so fucking greedy. They are all bleeding me dry, sucking the remainder of my soul. Even Kara. When they’re gone, she looks at me.

  ‘Can I do anything?’

  ‘You already are. You’re here.’

  ‘I feel so helpless. If you want to talk…’ Her eyes look at me hopefully. I hate to disappoint her after all she’s done for me but I have no energy to spend on words.

  ‘I’m going back to my room.’

  She nods. I sense her eyes on me as I walk away.

  In my room, I get a piece of paper and a pen and I write a list of things I would like. A new duvet cover and pillowcase, a tray for putting food on, some dark curtains. The police returned my bag to me, though my mobile phone remained missing. I take out my bank card, scribble my pin on the piece of paper and post the list and the card underneath the door.

  Kara

  When I notice the piece of paper on the carpet, I panic. I think it's a suicide note until I pick it up and see the bank card with it. As I read the small shopping list, I place my hand against my heart. I feel like I could almost pass out. Picking up my phone, I text Xavier, apologising for annoying him on a work day but ask if there’s any way he can meet me for a quick coffee. I feel like I’m failing. He tells me to come to the branch.

  Everyone stares at me as I walk through the door. He’s obviously forewarned them. Nutcase coming at eleven.

  ‘Come through to the staff room.’ I follow him down a corridor and into a small room with a table and chairs. He gets two mugs out of the cupboard and extracts tea bags from a canister. I get up, pick up the cups and wash them in the sink.

  ‘They were clean.’

  ‘I’m weird, sue me. I need to make sure.’

  Not a word is said about Eden until the drinks are made. Xavier adds a packet of unopened chocolate digestives to the middle of the table and we take a seat opposite each other.

  ‘She won’t come out of her room,’ I tell him. ‘She’s given me a list of things for the room and her bank card.’ I show him the list. ‘I thought it was a suicide note.’ Defeated, I put my head in my hands and weep. Xavier moves to the side of me and turns me to him so that I’m crying on his arm. When I’ve finished, he gets up and passes me some kitchen roll. I blow my nose. Then I apologise. ‘Your sleeve.’

  ‘It’ll dry. You needed that. You can’t do this on your own Kara.’

  ‘I know.’ I hold my breath and speak the words I’ve been thinking in my head. ‘My finances are getting really tight. I need to look for work.’

  ‘Okay. Are you wanting to get back to…?’

  ‘No. I’m staying with Eden until she’s okay. If she’s ever okay that is. No, I thought I’d get some restaurant work. Eden used to work for a place called Johnnys. I might phone the Manager there, see if he has anything going. Because we know him, he might cut me some slack if Eden needs me.’ I laugh to myself. ‘Then again, he might not. He and Eden dated for a while.’

  I witness Xavier’s neck tighten. ‘We have a receptionist vacancy to fill. If you were interested?’

  ‘Thank you but I need something in an evening. I want to be around in the daytime in case Eden emerges. I appreciate it though. You’ve done so much.’

/>   He nods. ‘I understand.’

  I feel an inappropriate giggle bubble up. From nowhere, I start to laugh and I can’t stop. I hold my stomach. The more I try to stop myself, the more I laugh. All I can manage is the odd, ‘I’m sorry.’ Eventually, it stops enough for me to speak.

  ‘I’m sorry. It’s just… how fucked up is this? All you did was have a shag. Look what’s happened.’

  ‘Yeah. One-night stands are supposed to be uncomplicated.’ He smirks.

  ‘You must think I’m a lunatic.’

  ‘It's good to see you laugh. I get it. It's a release. Anytime you need to pop in, if it gets too difficult, I’m here. If I’m not, Jane is around. She knows the situation, and she’s a bloody good listener.’

  ‘You seem very close.’

  ‘She’s like a mother to me.’ I see his face close down and know not to ask any more questions.

  ‘Look,’ he says. ‘If you get a job in the evening. I’ll come and sit with Eden.’

  ‘She’s not a baby, or a dog.’

  ‘I know. But its early days and I get that you’d feel better if you knew someone was with her.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yeah. Get the job. Call me with your hours. I’ll see what I can do.’

  ‘Thank you.’ I exhale as a weight I didn’t realise was there lifts. ‘You came into my life in a weird way, Xavier, but I’m so pleased you did.’

  He smiles. ‘Speaking of your life. You and Dave can’t be getting any time together.’

  ‘No. But seeing as he didn’t offer to let Eden come and stay for even a couple of days, I’m not going to worry about it.’

  He looks at me with sympathy.