Inside the police station was much as she’d expected, with old posters advertising local village events, a Crimestoppers poster—ripped at the corners by drawing pins, the number for the local Home Watchers Association. The walls had once been painted a light-sucking grey, and the hung polystyrene ceiling, yellowing with nicotine stains, only increased the sense that space was shrinking around her.

  A policeman in his thirties met them at the desk. A nameplate on the counter said Sergeant Callister. Linwood wondered if this was the man who’d relayed the reports of lights in the sky to the mainland. Callister was very slightly overweight, with his uniform buttoned and looking a little tight on him. His dark hair was medium length but slicked back with something, possibly Brylcreem.

  “Morning,” he said in an avuncular tone, “still bad outside?”

  “Still snowing, and that wind is bitter.”

  He grimaced. “Not what we need. Not looking forward to going out in that. Now, what can I help you with?”

  “We’ve come to see the girl you’re holding,” Linwood said.

  His whole demeanour changed at that, he straightened and his smile evaporated.

  “And just who you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  And this was where it gets tricky, Linwood thought. She could tell him who they were, but he would never have heard of MI18, and he would have to go through several hoops to establish their authenticity.

  “We’re from social services. I understand you could use our help.”

  But Callister wasn’t having any of this, and he was already shaking his head dismissively. “You’re not from social services, he said. “I’ve already spoken to them this morning. They won’t be able to send anyone until the weather improves.”

  “Lucky we were already here on the island then. There are some very serious allegations being made against you I’m afraid. We have serious concerns as to why a young girl is being held in a police cell with no representation.”

  Callister’s face turned red. “She is being well looked after. And as for representation, I’ve arranged for her father to come over as soon as he can.”

  “And have you interviewed her already?”

  “Of course I have.”

  “Did you have a responsible adult with her?”

  “What the hell are you implying?”

  “That she’s a minor and that she needs protection.”

  Linwood glared at him and dared him to continue challenging her. She was good at this. She’d done it plenty of times and knew how to stand her ground.

  Callister was shaking his head. “You’ll have to leave or I’m going to escort you to your own cells.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “I’m following procedure and ensuring that my charge is not endangered.”

  Thadeus spoke up. “Did she mention anything about seeing lights in the sky?”

  Callister looked up at him, the change in topic taking him by surprise. “Come again?”

  “Lights in the sky. I understand the girl was talking about seeing lights this morning.”

  Callister hesitated and Linwood knew that Thadeus was onto something. After a moment, Callister nodded and his face softened a little. “I’ve known that Laura Brodie all her life. I see her in the morning sometimes on her way to school, and when she comes into the village with her mum. She’s a sweet innocent little thing.”

  “What about her parents? Have they divorced?” Linwood asked.

  “Three years ago. He found out she’d been sleeping around behind his back. He’s often had to travel to the mainland on business trips and I guess she took the opportunity to keep her bed warm.”

  “But Laura stayed with her mum. Did she see her dad much?”

  “As often as he could get over. As it happens, the man that died in the incident—” he loaded the word ‘incident’ with meaning. “—was one of her newer boyfriends. A drifter from what I can gather. He doesn’t have a permanent address and as far as our investigation can show, he hasn’t had one for some time. I think he was an opportunist who liked his women and liked to take full benefit while he could. Poor Laura didn’t stand a chance with him in the house.”

  “What happened to the mother? Is she OK?”

  Callister looked like he might stop talking, realising that he was saying a lot more than he should have, but he kept on talking anyway. It felt like he needed to unburden himself. Linwood relaxed.

  “Laura’s mum raised the alarm. She’d been attacked in her kitchen—knife wounds—but she’d made it to the neighbour’s house who called an ambulance. She’s in a serious condition in hospital and as soon as she’s stable enough, they’re planning to move her to the Royal on the mainland. Between you and me, I’m hearing that might not happen. Her injuries are severe.

  “But at least she survived the attack. The boyfriend didn’t make it. The attack on him was savage. He’d lost too much blood by the time the ambulance arrived and was pronounced at the scene.”

  “My God,” Linwood said, “and where was Laura during all of this?”

  “We found her out on the shoreline, staring out into the bay. She was still in her nightclothes.”

  “And how was she?” Thadeus asked.

  “In shock. She still is in shock. That’s why I didn’t want to let her go anywhere else just yet. Well, that’s one reason.”

  “What’s the other?”

  Callister paused before sighing and lifting the folding section of the counter away. “Through here, I’ll show you.”

  7

  22nd October 1983

  Callister led the pair of them through the office to a short stretch of corridor that ran across the width of the police station. On their left, a glass door, opaque but letting in plenty of light. Across the corridor, two doors—one ajar revealing a small kitchenette, the other a far more serious metal door with a hatch built in at eye level.

  Callister stopped in front of the cell door and got ready to open the hatch. “I’m telling you, this isn’t the Laura Brodie that I know. Whatever’s happened, it’s unsettled her.”

  And Linwood felt a frisson of electricity pass through her. “What do you mean?”

  Rather than reply, Callister flicked a small catch and let the small viewing plate drop. He stepped back, gesturing that Linwood should take a look inside. The cell was gloomy, lit only by a small window at the top of the back wall. Through the patterned glass, she could see the lines of the bars on the other side. A cot was fixed to the left-hand wall and a toilet to the right. There were no more fixtures, the place being designed only for short-term holding.

  Laura was standing, facing the window, her back to the door. Her blonde hair was knotted and straggly, and she wore a nightie despite the cold.

  Linwood moved aside and let Thadeus look through the hatch.

  “What’s she doing?” Thadeus said.

  “She’s been like that since we brought her in. We had the doctors look at her and they were going to take her to the hospital but decided against it.”

  “Why?” Linwood asked.

  “I’ll show you if you like.”

  Callister took a set of keys off a loop from his belt and inserted a key into the lock. He turned it, keeping his eyes looking through the hatch opening as he did so. “If you come in, keep your distance.”

  They followed him inside following his instruction, whilst Callister approached Laura. He stopped when he was two metres away and hung his arms by his side. He looked uncomfortable. He really didn’t want to be in here. Linwood felt a knot in her stomach and gestured to Thadeus that he should leave the door open. There was something about the girl, about being in her presence, that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. It was difficult to explain why. As she looked at Thadeus, she saw a similar reaction in him.

  “How are you now, Laura? Can I get you anything?” Callister said, talking delicately—not the authoritarian voice he’d been using with Linwood earlier, but the gentle tones of a parent comforting a child.

  The girl mumbled something incomprehensible. Linwood strained to hear but couldn’t make it out.

  “Laura? Are you okay?”

  The girl didn’t react, and Linwood wondered why the doctors hadn’t taken her with them. She was in shock and needed attention. That much was obvious.

  Then the girl turned, and Callister instinctively stepped back toward the open door.

  “Laura, I need you to stay calm. Can you do that?”

  When Linwood saw Laura Brodie’s face for the first time, she gasped. She didn’t know what she was expecting to see, but it wasn’t this. Laura’s hair had been hanging limply around her face and now draped in front of her eyes, but she didn’t move it aside. Instead, she lifted her eyes and examined the newcomers with an intensity that made the skin on Linwood’s arm crawl.

  “I don’t need to see anybody.” Laura’s voice was still that of a girl, but the tone and inflexion reminded Linwood of someone far older.

  “My name is Alice Linwood. I’ve come over from social services to make sure that you’re being well looked after—that you have everything you need, and that you’re safe and happy.”

  She sensed Callister looking at her, but he didn’t challenge her claim to be part of social services.

  “I don’t need to be happy. I need to be alone.”

  “Do you know where you are?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “You’re in the police station, Whiting Bay, where you live. Do you remember what happened?” Linwood asked.

  The girl turned around again, facing the wall, disinterested in her new visitors. “There was a problem, and I fixed it. Laura doesn’t need to be afraid anymore.”

  “But you are Laura. What are you afraid of?”

  “There was a man hurting Laura’s mother. He won’t be hurting anyone again.”

  Linwood could understand why Callister was unsettled by her. Her delivery was matter-of-fact and eerie to hear in the voice of one so young.

  “Do you mind if I carry on talking to you?”

  There was a slight shaking of the girl’s head, and she replied, “It doesn’t matter either way. Stay or leave.”

  “I’ll stay then,” Linwood replied. “If it’s all the same with you.” And then to Thadeus and Callister she turned and suggested that she be given a chance to talk more with Laura Brodie. “Perhaps you could get us both a drink.”

  Callister looked unsure, remembering perhaps that Linwood shouldn’t even be here.

  “Five minutes.” And then he backed out of the room with Thadeus pulling the door to behind them.

  Linwood took another couple of steps into the room and then decided to sit on the cot. She perched on its edge and wondered how far she should push for answers.

  “Laura, I’ve come because people were scared about seeing some lights in the sky.” Linwood studied the girl, looking for a reaction. “Sergeant Callister told me you were found outside this morning and asked him about the lights in the sky. Do you remember saying that?”

  “The sky was fierce. Unrelenting. Unending. I came alone. But there were three of us. I don’t understand.”

  “Three of you? What do you mean there were three of you?”

  “There were three lights in the sky.”

  “OK, there were three lights in the sky.”

  Laura turned and rested her gaze on Linwood. There was more going on here than a traumatised girl.

  “How long did you watch these lights?” Linwood asked.

  “I tried to escape the ship.”

  “What ship? Is that what the lights were?”

  “Mummy’s boyfriend was not a nice man. I didn’t want to be in the house anymore so, I ran to my rock and watched, hoping to see the lights again. But then I saw something on the ground. I wanted to pick it up and take it home. But I was scared of going home. I didn’t want to see Mummy if that meant seeing her with her new boyfriend. I just wanted Daddy to be home. Daddy would know what to do, and if I was a good girl, he might even take me back home with him on the ferry. He told me once that he’d be able to get me to come and live with him, but I didn’t want to leave my friends at school, and I cried. I wish I hadn’t cried. Things could be different and I cried and ruined it.”

  Whilst talking, Laura had become more animated, but as she reached the end, the energy seemed to drain from her, like her batteries had run out of juice.

  “Laura?” Linwood asked.

  The girl stepped back around, lifting her head to the window on the back wall. Linwood stood and felt a chill race up her back. Talking to the girl was an unusual experience. Laura Brodie needed to speak to a counsellor. She was clearly under a lot of stress and disturbed by what she’d witnessed.

  The cell door opened and Callister stood there with Thadeus, holding a metal tray with a glass of milk and a plate of biscuits.

  “I thought you’d like a snack,” Callister said and took a step inside.

  Thadeus entered and stood beside Linwood. Laura ignored the newcomers.

  “Did she tell you anything?” Thadeus said to Linwood, speaking softly.

  Linwood shook her head, not wanting to talk about this in front of the girl. She gestured that they should take the conversation outside and Thadeus followed her into the corridor.

  “So, what did you find out?” Thadeus asked.

  “She definitely saw the same thing that Dowling described. But, talking to her is difficult. She’s confused.”

  “Callister told me the boyfriend was stabbed with a kitchen knife. He didn’t stand a chance and was pronounced dead at the scene. Her mother was badly injured but managed to raise the alarm. They found Laura later on the shore.” Thadeus raised an eyebrow. “Apparently, Callister got her another set of clothes to wear because the ones she was wearing were covered in blood.”

  “Jesus,” Linwood said, “You don’t think she was the attacker?”

  Thadeus shrugged. “No witnesses have come forward to say they’ve seen anyone else.”

  “What about the mother? What does she say happened?”

  “The mother was able to call an ambulance before collapsing from her own loss of blood. Callister’s been to see her but she is keeping quiet about what happened. She also suffered a fair amount of internal bleeding. She’s in a serious condition.”

  “Do you think we should pay her a visit?”

  “It wouldn’t do any harm.”

  A sharp cry of alarm from inside the cell startled them both into action. Thadeus charged into the prison cell, Linwood close behind.

  Callister was clutching the side of his head and trying to stop the blood pouring from a head wound. The tray of food was on the floor, the plate in pieces. Biscuits scattered. The glass of milk smashed into shards. And in the middle of this perfect scene of violence, Laura stood, crouched like a feral creature.

  “Watch out!” Callister cried, and Linwood followed Thadeus’s lead in approaching the girl, aiming to pincer her into the corner.

  But the girl was ready and swung her arm in a wide arc, the light from the window catching the side of the broken plate she was holding. Thadeus’s attention split between Linwood and Laura and in the moment of hesitation, Laura charged between the pair of them, ducking under Thadeus’s outstretched arm.

  “Stop her,” Callister cried, getting to his feet, but the surface was treacherous with the spilt milk, and he slipped, grabbing onto Thadeus’s arm for support.

  Linwood spun and chased after the girl. In the corridor, the girl hadn’t slowed but had hauled a fire extinguisher from its fixings. Without pausing, the girl swung the fire extinguisher at the side door, smashing the lock, letting the door swing open. Then she turned and hurled the extinguisher back towards Linwood.

  Linwood tried to avoid the missile but its edge caught above her hip and she dropped.

  Laura Brodie stepped outside, glanced to her left and right, and ran from view.

  8

  22nd October 1983

  Poking her head into the cell, Linwood appraised the damage. Thadeus was checking Callister’s head wound, but he seemed fine.

  “She’s escaped,” Linwood explained, clutching at her side. “I’m going after her.”

  “Wait, you stay. I’ll go,” Thadeus said, but Linwood was determined to own this. She had made a connection with the young girl and despite what she’d just seen her do, she had to believe there was some hope she could take advantage of that connection again. “Look after him,” she said, gesturing at Callister.

  And then before Thadeus could argue anymore, she hurried from the cell and out the back door. The back door led out into a small garden with a tiny patch of grass and a tub of forgotten plants. A couple of plastic garden chairs were arranged beside a small table. The garden was covered in snow. An icy wind blew across the back garden.

  Linwood hurried through the back gate and round to the front of the police station and onto the main road, zipping up her jacket as she ran. The traffic was almost non-existent and the lack of pedestrians made her job considerably easier.

  Laura was a hundred yards away, heading towards the main shopping street of the village, leaving a trail of footprints in her wake.

  Linwood tried to ignore the dull throbbing ache from above her hip and gave chase. She quickly got out of breath but she was gaining on her quarry, albeit only fractionally. She blinked away the snowflakes hitting her face.

  Up ahead, Laura was at the next junction and from Linwood’s memory she recognised the right turn would take the girl onto the high street whilst the left would lead her back up the main road that she’d travelled in on with Thadeus.

  Where was she headed? The ferry port? What else lay in this direction? There were houses? Could she be running home?

  She glanced around trying to find Laura, and she was almost ready to give up when she glimpsed the girl running up the driveway of a pub called The Red Lion. Linwood gave chase. “Laura! Laura, please wait.”

  The girl didn’t respond to Linwood’s shouts and ran inside the pub. Linwood was only thirty seconds behind as she pushed her way through the front doors, finding herself in the main lounge. The pub was quiet. Two old guys, sitting at a small table by the window, a cribbage board in front of them. At the bar, a young man sat nursing a pint. And at the far end, a young family, a boy in shorts with his mum and dad, and a baby in a high chair being spoon-fed from a jar. Several pairs of eyes turned to look in Linwood’s direction, and she realised how bizarre she must look to them. There was no sign of Laura, so she hurried to the bar. The landlord came in from a back room.

 

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