Dan looked at the freezer door, tugging at the handcuffs. “Shit!”
***
Crammed behind the shelves I was sure I’d not been seen. The door swung closed with a thud and the room went dark, there was a roar as fans started, the temperature starting to drop rapidly. I could hear Adam leaping up, pulling at the door handle.
“Shit!”
“What?”
“The doors stuck…” I could hear the rattling of the door handle over the whirr of the fans.
“Hang on.” I heard footsteps and a thud followed by Adam crying out in pain.
“Adam, are you okay?”
“Yeah… My shoulder. I tried to force the door… Shit… We’re trapped.” I slithered forward on the icy floor, finding Adam sat down. He reached out for me. “Oh goodness, you’re cold. Here.” I felt something being placed around my shoulders. I tried to hand it back but he forced it onto me. “Keep warm.”
“Adam… Are we going to be okay?”
“Kate… I told you, we’re survivors.”
My teeth chattered, the temperature seemed to be falling by the second, glancing up I could see a small red display which was ticking down numbers, it was reading minus thirty-nine degrees. I hugged Adam tightly.
***
“The officer said that the scene of crime people needed to see it. He locked it so that we couldn’t use it, but I need it to freeze off…”
Dan was running, he entered the plant room and reached for the large wrench he had seen earlier. He approached the freezer. “Stand back!” He slammed the steel wrench into the door handle.
“What the hell are you doing!” The cook yelled as Dan smashed the lock with repeated blows. There was a snap and the handle snapped clean away from the door, Dan pulled it open. The cook yelled out…
“Don’t just stand there… Get them out.” The sight of Adam and Kate crouched in the darkness was too much. My legs started to buckle. Their skin was blue and mottled, there was frost across their bodies. Adam was still, Kate whispering.
“He gave me his coat…”
I was lunging for them, feeling the deathly coldness of his skin, desperately trying to drag them from the freezer. Dan pulled me back, forcibly holding my body, as the paramedics attended to them.
***
I felt the breeze on my face. I woke with a start, crying out.
“Shh…” The warm hand touched my cheek. “There, there… Take it easy.”
“May?” Confusion flooded my body. Where was I? I looked around my bedroom, the farmhouse. “Adam!” I tried to struggle out of bed but was held down.
“Please, Amanda, be calm.” She turned away, speaking to someone else. “Maybe another dose, just to keep her calm.” May placed something in my mouth. “Here, take a sip of water…” I drunk, swallowed the pill she had given me. “You’re my brave girl. You’ll be strong, but for now, you need to rest.”
Rest? How could I rest? Yet, my eyelids were so heavy, maybe just a moment. If I could just rest my eyes for a moment things would feel better.
***
“You have nothing on me…” Patrick sneered.
“You’re bloody deluded. We have witnesses that you tried to kill them and now CCTV footage of your leaving a crime scene. I don’t know how much you bribed the judge to get bail, but it will not be happening twice. You will be going down for a long time.”
37
Family Ties
“Her stats are normal now.” Voices, a steady beep and hissing of air. I flutter my eyes open. I try to move. “Hang on… Kate… Hello Kate?” I see a face in my field of vision. “Stay where you are babe. She’s waking up.”
I look around me, there are medical machines, tubes and wires, I had a mask covering my face, I try to remove it, but my hands are pinned beneath the sheets. I’m so tired, wracked with pain, my body stiff. Have I been in an accident?
***
“Annie?” I sit up in bed, looking at the silhouette standing in my window. She turns and I see that it isn’t a dream, she rushes towards me her eyes red, tears rolling down her cheeks, embracing me.
“Oh, I missed you, sis.”
“What are you doing here?”
She smiles, looking away, deliberately avoiding eye contact. “With what happened.” She breaks down crying again, her embrace tighter than ever.
***
“Miss Gibbs?… Are you awake?” I look up, a policewoman is sitting beside my bed. The mask and most of the tubes and wires have gone. My body is still sore and stiff but I feel considerably more human.
“Hello?”
“I’m WPC Clarke, how are you doing?”
“Better than I was.”
“I need to ask you some questions…”
***
I sit at the kitchen table flanked by May and Annie, it was just like being back in Wiltshire.
“We thought you needed some support. I’m sorry we weren’t here sooner, but as you had never told us where you lived.”
“I’m sorry… So how did you find me now?”
“Mandy you’ve been in all the papers. ‘Stable owner’s attempted murder at sea’, it wasn’t hard to find you when your life story is in every tabloid. You seem to court danger in your life.”
“I don’t want it anymore… I’m tired.”
“I imagine you must be…” May took my hand.
***
“I need to know about Adam!”
“Calm down miss… He was in a bad way. He had no pulse when he was found. The medics attempted CPR.”
The words make no sense… I stare at the policewoman who is sitting beside me. I hear the sound before I realise that it’s me making it. The wailing, a cry of pure agony. I feel myself being restrained, the prick of a needle in my arm and give myself up to a dreamless sleep.
***
Amanda
I heard your news, I am so sorry for what has happened to you and your family, your friends.
You may not believe it of me, but I am not totally heartless. I wish I could be there to comfort you in your hour of need.
