She looked across at him. “A DeSoto? Do they make those things anymore? What were you doing in a DeSoto?”
He smiled ruefully. “I honestly don’t know, it’s the car I always seem to be driving when I have the dreams. I guess it’s because I learnt to drive in one, but really, I just don’t know.”
He pointed ahead to where the track got just a little wider. “That’s it. Stop over there.”
She pulled in to where he had pointed and cut the engine.
“We won’t get any further, even in this.” He said. “It’s through there.” Pointing towards the dense, overgrown woodland.
“How far from here?” she asked.
Ed looked at her; she seemed a lot less certain now, her resolve starting to crumble. He couldn’t think of anything to reassure her that wouldn’t sound patronising. He gently took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She gave him a lame, sickly smile that reminded Ed of Pinnochio in the poolroom on Pleasure Island after he’d had a large drag on a cigar that made him go green.
“Not far, maybe twenty minutes, depending on how overgrown it is.” With a last squeeze, he added, “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
“Ed, I don’t know if I can…”
“Yes, we can,” he interrupted with more certainty than he felt. He opened the passenger door and slid out of the car. As Linda exited on the other side Ed grabbed the spade and flashlight from the floor behind where he had sat. He then looked up at the sky, it was ablaze with pinks and reds as the sun offered a spectacular finale to the day. It wasn’t dark yet but it wouldn’t be long in coming. Handing the large Maglite to Linda, Ed said, “We’d better get going, I don’t want to be lost in the woods all night.” And with that, he set off across the track and into the undergrowth. Linda hesitated a moment longer, looking around suspiciously at the darkening forest, then blipped the remote central locking on the Jeep and headed quickly after Ed.
The going was easier than Ed had expected but still tough. He could make out the faintest hint of an old pathway made by either humans or wild animals. Where brambles grew thickly he hit them back with the spade, cutting a path through but spiky thorns and low branches still clawed at their clothes and exposed skin. Nothing was said until they reached the break in the trees where the stream ran down some fifteen minutes later. Ed walked to the bank and looked down. In the half-light, he could see that the stepping stones seemed just a little smaller but there was a lot less water flowing too. The stream was barely more than a trickle now.
“This is where I crossed, we’re nearly there.” He looked into Linda’s large brown eyes, gaining strength from the compassion he saw in them. He stepped closer to her and removed a small twig from her raven black hair, then gently stroked her cheek.
“Nearly there.” He repeated, more softly.
“I’m okay, let’s get going.”
He nodded, took her hand and led her across the brook.
TWENTY-TWO
The boy had been easy to take. Still dreary from sleep, he had put up little resistance. When the attacker had placed the gaffer tape over his mouth, Josh’s eyes opened in confusion but quickly turned to alarm when he saw the masked figure. Josh kicked and flailed out with his arms, knocking the Buzz Lightyear bedside lamp to the floor with a crash but a swift smack to the back of the boy’s head with the back of a hand quickly subdued him. The assailant dragged the boy roughly from his bed, holding him by the collar of his pyjamas.
“You make a single sound, try to run, anything, be the last thing you ever do. Understand?” Fear made the boy’s eyes nearly pop from his head but he did not respond to the man’s threat or look into the masked man’s eyes. The intruder shook him again.
“Understand me boy?”
The boy finally nodded meekly, still avoiding eye contact. He looked down at the floor. At that, the attacker twisted the boy around and bound his wrists behind his back with more of the strong tape. With a forceful shove in the back, he pushed the boy towards the door.
“Move!” he barked.
Josh stumbled into the hallway towards the stairs guided by the abductor’s hand gripping the back of his top. They made their way down the steps, through the house to the kitchen. Josh lifted his head only briefly to look into the living room, where he saw the body of Esther laying on the floor. The stranger frog-marched the terrified boy out of the backdoor and into the chill night air of the backyard. As the pair made their way from the house into the darkness, the small sharp stones cut into the sensitive underside of Josh’s naked feet making him jump and skip in pain. He stumbled and almost fell on his face; only the weight of the assailant grabbing him back stopped the child from slamming head-first into the rough ground. Half-dragged and half-pushed they got to the pick-up truck where the attacker man-handled Josh into the passenger side of the truck and got him to sit in the footwell, out of sight. From his pack, he took out a small cloth sack and placed it over the terrified boys head. Now that he couldn’t be seen, the man peeled up the knitted mask to reveal his pale, fleshy face, then started the truck, spun it around and headed away from the farm. When he had the bumpy farm track behind him and was on smoother blacktop, he pulled his cell-phone from his breast pocket, hit a speed-dial button and waited for a reply. The call was answered but no-one spoke at the other end of the line. The driver said just two words, “It’s done.” then hung up.
TWENTY-THREE
They were both panting slightly as they made the clearing. The last vestiges of daylight had bled away so that there was no colour to the sky but an inky blackness. Wispy clouds covered most of the stars that were already visible and the moon had yet to reach any height that would help the couple see. Linda switched on the flashlight and played the powerful beam around the area. She guessed it was almost forty-foot square and was mostly moss and tufts of hardy long grass with the occasional fallen tree. The forest made a tall, almost impenetrable barrier around them. As they had entered the clearing the local wildlife had become silent but very soon the noise of crickets, cicadas and the occasional bullfrog could be heard. Most of the birdlife seemed to be sleeping already but the eerie soft hoot of an Eastern Screech-Owl added to the already tense atmosphere.
“Is this the place?” she asked quietly.
“Yes, I’m positive. When I first came here, in the second dream I had, I crouched over there behind that trunk.” He replied in little more than a whisper. He pointed to what was left of the husk of a large pine that was now barely a few pieces of bark, eaten away and rotted over the years. He took the flashlight from her hand and guided it across the ground. Tentatively he walked forward, panning left and right with the beam. Looking back at the tree line they had come from for guidance he stopped near the centre of the clearing.
“I think it was about here.” He offered.
“Well, it doesn’t look as if anyone has ever been here, let alone recently, which is good, right?”
“You mean whoever was doing this stopped at some point? Well, yeah, I guess so, or maybe they just found somewhere else to bury the evidence.” He handed the flashlight back to Linda then tried the earth with the tip of the spade, it gave way easily.
“Ed!” she exclaimed, stopping him from his exploration. “I’m still not sure about this, it feels, I don’t know, it feels like desecration, like we’re disturbing a grave, a hallowed place, it feels wrong.”
“We are digging a grave, but it’s not the one she should be in is it? This isn’t a cemetery, it’s a murderer’s hiding place and we need to be certain that Grace and the others are here. We can’t go to the authorities and tell them I had a dream, they wouldn’t believe it, and even if they did, we can’t prove who did it. I want to dig around here just about as much as you do, but we have to do this Linda. We have to know they are here and then find a way to trap the killer, then we can get them home, where they belong.”