The Girl in the Rug (26 page)

Linda lay her head back against the cold brick wall and gave
way to a moment of misery, tears streaked her grimy face, she wiped her running
nose on her sleeve. Everything seemed hopeless, she was stuck in this foul
smelling cellar with only a corner on the packed earth for a toilet, her
clothes were encrusted with filth and she knew that she stank to high heaven.
Not that any of that mattered anymore because she wouldn’t be seeing anyone
again.

‘Shut the fuck up you stupid cow,’ she wailed in disgust,
shaking her head as if to dispel those defeatist thoughts. ‘What would Dad
think if he saw you giving up…I will survive this…I will.’

Wiping her face again with a grimy hand, her attention was
drawn to a rasping whisper coming from her cell mate. Tracy was calling for
water again, Linda held the bottle up to the shard of light that had scythed
its way through the edge of the door, they had about a third of a bottle left,
about another day’s worth…after that.

Crawling over to her, Linda put the bottle to Tracy’s
cracked lips and tried to help her to drink. Tracy was running a high fever and
despite the cold she was burning up, Linda knew that she had to get as much
liquid into her as they could spare.

‘Come on love…move your mouth this way that’s it…good
girl…no don’t gulp Tracy, just take little sips…that’s it…good.’ Linda lay
Tracy back down, wrapped an old smelly throw around her shaking shoulders and
huddled up next to her, sharing her warmth. Tears threatened again pricking the
back of her eyes; she was in fact almost ready to give up. Apart from once when
the door had been cracked open and two bottles of water thrown in, they had
seen no one and she reckoned that had been about two days ago. They were both
freezing, Linda had found an old woollen throw that had been screwed up in a
corner of the tiny cell, it smelt as if something had died in it but it had
helped a bit. After two days in this place however, the cold had seeped into
their bones making it hard for Linda to imagine ever being warm again. That and
the hunger was sapping at her strength, she was finding it hard to think let
alone plan an escape. But that was what she knew she had to do…Tracy was in a
bad way and if she didn’t find a way out of here soon she wasn’t sure if she
would make it.

Tracy had seemed to rally a bit when Linda had first
arrived; they had talked and tried to think of ways of escaping. They had
pooled their resources, Tracy had the lighter and Linda had half a tube of mint
Polos in her pocket…they had rationed those until the last one had been eaten
yesterday. Then Tracy had started to get sick, she was burning up and delirious
and kept going on and on about some dead body that was in the cellar with
them…somebody called Louisa apparently. Linda told her over and over that there
was no body, she must have dreamt it, but Tracy was adamant so Linda stopped
arguing with her.

Now she wished Tracy would argue with her, she seemed to be
drifting in and out of consciousness and Linda knew that somehow she had to get
her out of here before it was too late. She had a plan but it all depended on
her captor coming down to check on them. In amongst the discarded cardboard
boxes she had found a rusty old can of spray paint. Now if she remembered her
science classes correctly, the can, despite being almost empty still contained
a gas…a flammable gas. Which meant that with Tracy’s lighter, she had one
chance to make a sort of flame thrower with which to disable anyone that came
through the door. She had also found a half full can of emulsion paint which
was quite heavy…she could hit somebody with that she thought, hopefully giving
them time to make their escape.

Ok, ok it was a pretty flimsy plan, full of flaws not the
least being that she had no idea how she was going to get Tracy out, she could
barely stand let alone run…but it was the only plan that she had come up with
and if she was given the chance she was going to go for it. So she had moved
Tracy over near to the door and explained what she was going to try and do. She
had no idea if anything she said had registered with Tracy, but she could only
hope that it had and when the time came Tracy would be able to move on her
signal. She kept the lighter and the spray can at hand at all times, so that
she could put the plan into action if she got the chance, and then she
waited...and waited, until she was close to giving up altogether.

As it happened she very nearly missed her chance, she had
slipped into an uncomfortable doze when she was jolted awake by noises from
outside the door ...someone was fiddling with the key.

With her heart pounding Linda rushed to get herself into
position directly in front of the door, spray can and lighter in hand, praying
with all that she had in her that she would have the strength to do what she
must do.

The key turned in the lock…the door swung open.

Nellie was furious; this was the last thing he needed today.

‘Just fucking leave them where they are,’ he had told him,
‘they’ll not survive long down there and then we can shift ‘em later.’

But no, apparently Freddy was getting his knickers in a
twist because the police had widened their search for Tracy.

‘Look just fucking deal with it…I don’t want them on my
property,’ Freddy had said furiously. ‘I don’t know what you were thinking of
dumping them down there in the first place. Why the fuck didn’t you get rid of
them properly like I told you to…this is on you Nell, now you go and finish it,
and you make sure you do it right this time. I don’t want any more of your cock
ups.’

So now he was here in the fucking rain, freezing his
bollocks off, all because those two stuck up twats didn’t want to get their
hands dirty, well it was the last time. After he’d dealt with this he was going
to get his share of the money from that bastard Tutt and he was getting out. He
figured that he just needed to get over to Ireland, he had friends there that
would, for a price, get him a passport and a car and then he was off to warmer
climates. He fancied Portugal, he’d never been but he’d seen it on a holiday
program and it had looked like somewhere he could get lost.

He looked out of the van window at the rain sheeting down.
‘Anywhere’s better that this shit hole,’ he mumbled to himself as he reversed
the van into the drive and up near the side entrance of the house.

He sat and waited for a break in the weather, he didn’t
anticipate any problems getting this job done. They were probably dead already
or close to it…it had been particularly cold over the last couple of nights, he
would probably just have to dump them. He had a spot in mind…a disused quarry
on the way to Dartford, there were a couple of old mine shafts there that he had
used before…the perfect dumping ground.

The rain had eased a bit so grabbing his knife and a couple
of black plastic bags he made his way round to the back of the house and down
the steps.

It was hard to find the key to the door in the rain and he
dropped it on the floor before finally turning it in the lock and opening the
door.

A screaming banshee holding a flame thrower flew at him. The
white heat from the flame blinding him…he smelt burning flesh and felt the
searing pain. Roaring like an animal and clutching at his face he stumbled
around trying to put out the flames as his hair started to burn. Tripping over
the old boxes he sank to his knees, then a hefty blow to the back of his head
sent him to the floor and he lay there dazed and barely conscious.

Almost hyperventilating with panic at what she had done,
Linda grabbed Tracy under the arms and dragged her stumbling and grumbling out
of the cellar and up the steps. She didn’t know how long she would have before
that monster came to and she was hampered by the dead weight of Tracy, who,
although attempting to stumble along, was leaning heavily on Linda and slowing
her down.

‘Come on Tracy…come on please…please …please…move Tracy,
keep moving…no don’t you dare give up…come on come on,’ she screamed as she
half ran half dragged the disorientated Tracy.

She was trying to get round to the front of the house where
they might be seen by a passing car but Tracy kept losing her footing and she
had to keep stopping to pick her up.

‘TRACY…TRACY…PLEASE KEEP MOVING… NO NO NO…COME ON…COME ON…WE
HAVE TO MOVE!’

Linda’s voice was getting more and more desperate the nearer
they got to the front gates.

‘PLEASE…PLEASE GOD…PLEASE GOD…’ she prayed running and
dragging Tracy without looking back until she threw herself at the gates. They
didn’t budge…she shook them frantically… they were locked. Linda wailed and
shouted as she shook the gates.

‘PLEASE…SOMEONE HELP US…PLEASE.’ The little lane was
deserted, no help there.

In desperation she remembered the broken fence panel in the
back garden…she would have to get out that way. So once again, dragging the
almost comatose Tracy behind her, she stumbled and ran her way round to the
back of the house once more. It was harder to make any progress in the
overgrown back garden but soon she had the fence panel in sight. Her heart was
pounding and her lungs bursting as she desperately hauled Tracy through the
weeds and brambles towards the fence.

‘NEARLY THERE…NEARLY THERE,’ was her breathless mantra.
Every muscle and sinew in her body was screaming out for relief, her arms were
cut and bleeding…she was nearly there…nearly there.

Tracy screamed and Linda turned just as something hard and
heavy smashed into the back of her legs bringing her down, she landed in a heap
at the feet of their hideous pursuer, whose blackened and burnt face was
looking down at her with a fierce hatred.

‘Come ‘ere cunt…you fucking bitch,’ he growled reaching out
for her. He grabbed her by one arm nearly pulling it out of its socket and
started to drag her back towards the house. He was dragging Tracy by the other
hand, uncaring that they were being bumped and scraped over the ground. Linda
could see Tracy’s head bouncing up and down like a rag dolls as she was pulled
along, she began to scream and fight for her life…she was not going back into
that cellar…she was not!

But no matter how much she fought, she made little
impression on the man who just kept walking, ignoring all her twisting and
kicking. She was relieved slightly when he dragged them passed the steps that
led down to the cellar but soon her relief turned to fear when she realised
that they were being bundled into the back of a van. Worryingly Linda noticed
that Tracy was completely unconscious and bleeding from her head as she was
thrown like a piece of rubbish into the back of the van. Then with a look of
hatred on his burnt and disfigured face, the man turned his attention to her…

‘Oh you ain’t got no idea the pain you are going to suffer
bitch,’ he snarled at her, ‘I am going to slice you up.’ He held up a wickedly
sharp looking knife, just letting it drag along the side of her cheek. Linda
could feel a trickle of blood running down her face.

Whimpering, desperate and out of her mind with fear, she
began again screaming, kicking, scratching and biting, anything to fight
against the inevitable. With dead eyes he watched her struggling with a
malicious smile on his burnt and disfigured face. Then, to Linda it seemed
almost as if it was in slow motion, he pulled back his fist and punched her
with all his strength round the side of her head…everything went black.

The order had been given at three thirty precisely, and all
the teams had jumped into action, pouncing on all the men in the photographs.
Carla imagined with a wry smile the number of… “do you know who I ams” and “you
will regret this once my solicitor gets heres” that would be heard around
Kenley and Redbank that day, as some of those upstanding members of the
community were taken to the station for questioning. At the same time
Superintendant Drew had arrested DCI Riley and he had been put kicking and
shouting into an interview room to cool his heels.

Freddy Robinson had been picked up at his office, but his
brother was out of the country it seemed, which was frustrating, but at least
they had one of them to question.

Carla and Frank were just pulling up to the Robinson’s house
on Smithem Lane with a CSI team behind them, when  the gates opened and a white
van screeched out of the drive and hurtled past them at top speed.

‘That was him Frank,’ yelled Carla urgently, ‘that was
Nellie in that van.’

Frank didn’t need telling twice he did an impressive
handbrake turn in the road and raced after the van.

Carla switched on the blue lights and radioed in to the
station the number plate of the van and the direction that it was travelling.

‘He’s heading for the main Godstone road as far as I can
tell…we have got him in our sights but we’ll need some backup.’

Frank had made good progress and they could see the van
driving at a terrific speed up ahead. Carla was terrified, the roads that they
were racing along were small country roads, with many a blind corner, the
torrential rain was hampering visibility and Nellie was driving like a
maniac…if he met anyone coming the other way they wouldn’t stand a chance.
Luckily the road they were on turned into a dual carriageway up ahead…just as
long as they didn’t run into anybody before that.

They hit the dual carriageway at over eighty miles an hour
and they were closing in on the van now. No matter how hard Nellie pushed it,
it would be no match for Frank’s BMW. Nellie must have realised that he had
nowhere to run, because suddenly he turned the van off the main road and onto a
small side road. Swearing fluently as he missed the turn Frank had to waste
some time reversing back up until he was on the right road again.

It was a while before they had sight of it again, obviously
Nellie had made good on Frank’s mistake but then Carla spotted the van up
ahead. It was flying along the tiny road swerving and screeching round every
corner.

‘Bloody hell he’s going to topple that thing over if he’s
not careful,’ Carla said as the van practically went up on to two wheels to
turn a corner.

‘This road is slippery too,’ Frank said, ‘it’s covered in
mud and leaves from the rain, I’m struggling to keep this from skidding and
I’ve got ABS, I bet he’s having a nightmare.’

Almost as soon as the words were out of Frank’s mouth the
pair watched with horror as the van hit a bank and flipped over, it flew over a
hedge and rolled a few times before coming to a stop just in front of a small
wooded area at the bottom of the field.

Carla and Frank arrived a few minutes later. Carla called
for an ambulance as Frank, oblivious to the sheeting rain, climbed over the
hedge and made his way down to the crumpled van which was sitting on its side
about five hundred yards away.

Carla pulled her waterproof jacket around her fastening the
hood tightly beneath her chin and followed Frank down through the field. He was
kneeling on the sodden ground at the front of the van, as she got closer he
stood up shaking his head in disbelief.

‘He’s not here Carla…he’s fucking gone…how the hell did he
manage to survive that?’ he said, frustrated, ‘He must have legged it into
those woods.’

‘He can’t have got far,’ Carla said peering into the van.
‘I’ll get some men into those woods…I mean where can he go, we’re miles from
anywhere.’

Frank started towards the woods but Carla stopped him,
‘Frank wait for backup to get here…he is still a dangerous man no matter how
badly injured he is.’

‘I’m just going to see if there’s any trail we can follow,
although in this rain I can’t imagine there will be.’ He wandered off towards
trees while Carla looked over the van and waited for her team to arrive.

Soon she spotted the flashing blue lights of an ambulance
and a police car following it, she had just started back up the hill to meet
them when a thump and a faint moaning sound stopped her in her tracks. She
walked back to the van and put her ear to the side…nothing…no wait there it was
again, there was someone moving around inside the van.

‘Frank,’ she called in a loud whisper, beckoning urgently to
him, ‘Frank get back here…there’s someone inside the van.’ Frank came running
back and put his ear to the van until he heard it too. He put his fingers to
his lips and motioned for Carla to move away.

‘It might be Nellie,’ he whispered to Carla when they were a
few yards away. ‘He might have thrown himself into the back or he might have
been thrown into the back when he rolled the van.’

Carla nodded, ‘Looks like backup has arrived just in time,’
she said as they saw DC Sam Warren and DC Midge Jones who had followed the
ambulance running down the field to join them. She quickly explained the
situation and all four of them surrounded the back door of the van, while Frank
used a crowbar to prise open the doors which had been jammed shut when the van
had rolled.

Just as they were about to fling the doors wide though, one
of them was kicked open from inside the van, as with a desperate scream, Carla
was knocked flying by a delirious and panic stricken Tracy, who, sensing
freedom, had made a determined and focused effort to rush the doors only to
fall flat on her face on the ground outside the van.

Carla, realising that the filthy bloodied creature that had
knocked her to the ground was none other than her best friend, screamed with
delight and called desperately for the paramedics. On a hunch Frank ran back
over to the van flinging both of the back doors wide, he let out a shout of
fury and clambered on board. Linda who was still unconscious and bleeding lay,
almost covered by a black plastic sheet, in the back of the van. Frank called
for another ambulance and covered her with his coat, holding on to her until
they arrived.

Sobbing with relief Carla clung onto Tracy’s hand as she was
being treated. She didn’t think Tracy had any idea that she was there, but she
wasn’t letting go of her for now. She called Simon on her mobile crying again
when she heard his almost animal like howl of relief as he broke down. Unable
to speak he handed the phone to Maggie who had happened to be with him, they
had been going through the wording on the website appeal.

‘Oh thank god honey…oh thank god,’ Maggie babbled. ‘Is she
ok…where had she been…oh Carla…oh thank god.’

‘I know honey, paramedics are just checking her over, then
she’ll be taken to hospital,’ Carla said. ‘I’m not sure how she is yet Maggs to
be honest…she doesn’t seem to recognise anybody or even be aware of what’s
happening…but anyway we’ll know more once she’s been checked out.’

She rang off arranging to meet them at the hospital later
and then went over to where Frank was holding Linda’s hand.

Frank was looking distraught and Carla could see why.
Linda’s face was swollen out of all recognition, her nose was bent and bloody
and one of her cheeks had a long gash in it that was oozing blood…she had
obviously taken a beating recently.

Carla put her hand on Frank’s shoulder, ‘It probably looks a
lot worse than it is love,’ she said hoping that she was right. ‘Do you want to
go with her to the hospital…I can take your car back?’

Frank turned to her with tear filled eyes and nodded, ‘I
need to be with her Carla…what if…’

‘That’s not going to happen Frank’ Carla said firmly, ‘she
is so much stronger than she looks. Remember she’s been all around the world…by
herself, that takes a lot of courage and strength…I couldn’t do it, and I’m as
tough as old boots. Come on you have to be strong for her, don’t let her see
that sad face when she wakes up.’

Carla watched as the two girls were loaded up into the
ambulances and driven away. She wanted desperately to go with Tracy but she had
a man on the run and she needed to see to that first.

Soon the woods near the crash site were teaming with as many
officers as Carla could muster. She was determined that Nellie wasn’t going to
get away again. The woods were in the middle of farm land and miles from
anywhere, it didn’t seem likely that Nellie would be able to hide for very
long. But after nearly four hours of searching the light had gone and Carla had
to admit that once again he had managed to get away. How the hell did the man
keep managing to evade capture, surely he must have been hurt in that crash,
the van had been a right off, no one could have walked away untouched she was
sure.