And I’m excited to wield a deadly weapon again.
41
HEATHER
It was precisely two months, six days and seven hours since Chloe left home and moved to university when I heard about the missing student in Newcastle.
I knew immediately that she was involved because the missing person’s case had similarities to Rupert’s. The young man had gone missing after a house party. No sign of him had been seen or found since then. Nobody had any clue what happened.
Except one person.
I was sure that Chloe knew.
It’s now a week since that student went missing on Tyneside, and not only is there still no news, but the first university term has come to an end.
That means Chloe is coming home today.
She has told me that her train gets into Manchester at two o’clock and that she would like me to pick her up from the station and bring her back home. This will be the first time I have seen her since she left for uni, and we have barely spoken in all that time. She has sent me a couple of messages to let me know that she has settled in and is enjoying her studies, as well as having made some new friends and got to know her way around a new city. It has been a relief to know that she is doing well, although any good feeling has been tempered slightly by the knowledge that this mother and daughter relationship is far from healthy.
I’m still just as conflicted about things as I was on the night when Jimmy died. I’m torn between doing what is right as a person and doing what is right as a mother. Chloe is a danger to society, there is no doubt about it, but does that mean I would be able to give the information required to the police to lock her away for the rest of her life? Not only that, but to do so would be to give up my own right to freedom too, as I would be implicated alongside her, and then both of us would lose everything.
I don’t know what to do. I can’t see any way of making this situation better. But if Chloe is responsible for the missing person in Newcastle, I am going to find out today. Depending on her answer, I will decide what I am going to do then. One thing is for sure; I can’t let any more innocent people die as a result of her actions, even if she is only like this because of me.
I lock the front door and head to my car, ready to make the twenty-minute journey into Manchester to collect Chloe from the station. My nerves are jangling, and I know it’s not because I’m nervous about seeing her after so long.
I’m nervous about being around her, full stop.
As I turn on the engine and start to reverse off the drive, the radio automatically turns on, and I hear the voice of the news reporter giving the lunchtime bulletin. It’s the top story that causes me to slam on the brakes before I am even off the drive.
I hear Rupert’s name mentioned.
Then I hear that the police have discovered human remains in the woods near the park.
The woods where I buried him.
My hands grip the steering wheel tightly as I try to keep calm and tell myself that things aren’t as bad as they sound. First of all, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is Rupert that they have found. But then again, how many bodies are realistically buried there?
It must be him.
The news reporter says it is too early to get an ID on the body, but now I feel like the clock is ticking. If they have found him, then they will know that he was murdered. That means a missing person investigation becomes a murder investigation.
It also means there may be evidence on the body linking him back to either me or my daughter.
I wonder if Chloe has heard the news. It’s doubtful if she has been on the train. I need to get to her before she hears about it from somebody else.
Reversing quickly off the drive, I set off in the direction of the station, struggling to adhere to the speed limit with all the adrenaline pumping through my body. All I can think about is Rupert’s family. They are surely on their way to the site now if indeed it is their son. If so, then it will most likely hit the national news bulletins this evening. It had only been over the last month or so when everything had started to quieten down surrounding his disappearance. With no evidence, the media had started to grow disinterested in reporting on it. As harsh as it sounds, people had moved on, barring the poor man’s family and friends, of course. But now it will be huge news again. His photos will be back in all the papers and on the TV channels, and I won’t be able to go anywhere or do anything without being bombarded by it.
It’s alright for Chloe. She has been away from all of this.
But now she is heading right back into the eye of the storm.
As I continue on towards the station, I try to figure out how the police could possibly have been so lucky as to find the body. It’s been there for months. It can’t just have suddenly popped up to the surface.
What the hell has happened?
As I turn the radio off and try to keep myself calm, I can’t help but feel that my ‘luck’ is finally starting to run out. It seems like the past is going to catch up with me, and when it does, it won’t be Rupert’s name all over the news headlines.
It will be mine.
42
CHLOE
I see Mum standing on the other side of the ticket barriers as I step off the train onto the platform, and I give her a quick wave as I drag my
