The private wing of the hospital was a far cry from the lime green walls and frantic activity of the floors below, and there was silence around them as they approached the nurse seated behind the curving wooden counter that also served as her desk. She smiled professionally from behind a vase overflowing with scented lilies, no disinfectant invasion here, and Rob’s heart twisted. He’d paid for Jason to be here, but as usual, it felt like he’d done too little too late.

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  His voice echoed around him. ?We’re here to see Jason Milburn.?

  ?Of course.?She picked up a file and came around to their side of the smoothly varnished wood, her uniform white and perfectly pressed.

  ?How is he??

  ?I’m afraid there hasn’t been any change as yet. The doctor was with him about an hour ago. We’re just going to have to be patient.? She seemed unaware of her pun, and checked her watch as her soft shoes ushered them toward a door on the left of the corridor.

  ?He already has a visitor. She arrived about half an hour ago, but it should be all right for you all to be in there. Sometimes, in these kinds of cases, familiar voices can help bring the patient out of his coma.? She smiled again as she reached for the handle. ?Can I get either of you a cup of tea or coffee??

  Rob shook his head as did Kelly, and he wondered who would be up here visiting Jason this early in the morning. Maybe it was his girlfriend from the pub the other night. Nodding a thank-you at the nurse—Barbara, her name tag informed him—he stepped inside, still holding Kelly’s hand.

  The first thing Rob noticed was the perfectly French-manicured fingernails of the hand holding Jason’s, and he knew he’d gotten his original guess wrong. This woman’s slim build had none of the ageing tiredness of the woman he’d seen in The Plough, and although dressed in jeans and a blouse, these were not the kind of casual items you’d pick up anywhere near Streatford. This woman was designer labeled from head to foot, and as he studied the glorious dark hair that was pulled into a loose ponytail, his heart missed a beat, forgetting itself in the shock of recognition.

  The face that turned toward him was as beautiful as it had ever been; its lines and curves of bone more defined now that the fullness of youth had dissipated. It was the

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  eyes that finally confirmed it for him though, that wonderful blue so bright that if he hadn’t known better he’d have thought she was wearing contact lenses. So blue and full of pain, just like they’d been the last time he saw them.

  ?It wasn’t me, Rob. I had nothing to do with this. What’s happening??

  Her terrified words echoed through the past, and Rob stood frozen in the doorway. Gina. Gina was back. For a moment the world spun, and then a quiet shuffle beside him prompted him back to the present, to the strange formality of adulthood.

  ?Kelly, this is Gina Grace. Gina, Kelly Hollingsworth. You may remember her from school.?

  Gina’s eyes barely glanced at Kelly, and Rob too, found himself forgetting she was there. ?How did you know? How did you know to come here??His hand slipped away from Kelly’s as he stepped forward.

  Gina’s voice was like tremulous velvet. ?I got your message and came back. I didn’t want to, but I knew I couldn’t stay away. I knew it had to be something serious for you to call.?Her eyes slipped to Jason for a second. ?But not this, I didn’t expect this.?

  Rob watched as her brow furrowed and she swallowed hard, allowing her to gather herself before she continued. Maybe she had cared about the three of them, after all. Maybe she had cared about him. She came when he called. Something in the thought sent a shiver down his spine.

  When she turned back to face him, he noticed that her eyes glistened, but no tears fell. She always had been such a contained little girl, so wary of showing emotion. Apart from that last day. That last awful day.

  ?I got here early this morning and met my solicitor to pick up the keys. He told me about poor Carrie and then that Jason had been found at the house where the police were searching for a little girl that had gone missing. What’s going on, Rob? What’s happening? I don’t understand it. Any of it.?

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  ?It’s my little girl that’s gone. Tabitha.?Kelly had stepped up beside Rob and taken his arm. Gina said nothing in response, and Rob suddenly felt awkward standing between the two women. There were things he needed to say that only Gina would understand, but he didn’t want to hurt Kelly. It seemed that she felt the change in atmosphere, because suddenly his arm was alone and she took a step away from him.

  ?Look, you two obviously have some catching up to do. I know Sharnice is in this hospital somewhere, so I think I’ll go find her. I’ll come back in about half an hour.?Looking into her hurt face, Rob felt a pang inside him. Don’t be a bastard again, Black, he told himself. She doesn’t deserve it. Leaning forward, he kissed her on the cheek, but her response was cool, and he let her leave without saying a word.

  Waiting for her to close the door, he knew the ache he was feeling. He’d felt it so many times before. Guilt. Guilt at wanting her to leave so he could spend some time with Gina. Beautiful, elusive Gina. Guilt at wanting her out of the way just for a little while.

  Kelly found Sharnice two floors down in the women’s ward. There was no private room for her, but the weary nurses had made sure she had a bed by the window, so that when she had the curtain pulled round her tiny space in this enormous hospital, she could look out at the sky and have natural light.

  The ward nurse told Kelly that since coming out of intensive care Sharnice had kept the thick blue drapes closed as much as possible. She was pleased the girl had a new visitor but told Kelly not to expect too much. The physical scars may be healing, but the emotional ones were going to take a lot longer. What those boys had done to her was terrible. Kelly nodded impatiently, and then pulled back the curtain and stepped inside.

  ?Hi.?

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  Looking at the girl sitting up in the bed looking so young and fragile, no makeup masking the child, Kelly was almost glad that Rob had been such an arsehole upstairs. If he hadn’t frozen her out, then she’d have never come down here. She sat on the edge of the bed. ?I thought I’d come and see how you were doing. You’re looking good.?She kept her voice as soft as possible, and eventually Sharnice brought her hollow eyes round to meet Kelly’s.

  ?I’m okay. It’s nice to see you, Miss Hollingsworth.?There was no hardness in the girl’s voice, none of the cheeky arrogance Kelly was used to seeing in the classroom where Sharnice had a reputation to live up to. But then, Sharnice’s world had changed all too dramatically over the last few weeks. Despite the way she looked younger here than Kelly had ever seen her, Sharnice’s childhood days were gone forever.

  ?I think you can probably call me Kelly now, if you’d like.?

  Sharnice didn’t say anything for a moment, but just studied her teacher’s face. ?You look tired, Kelly.? Her voice kept the same low tone, and Kelly wondered if maybe part of this calm exterior was due to painkillers. The girl seemed a little bit spaced out. Not too spaced out to see how tired you look. Not too spaced to notice that.

  ?I am tired. You know my little girl, Tabitha? She went missing the night before last.?

  She hadn’t come down here to talk about this, she’d just wanted to get away from Gina Grace and the way Rob was looking at her, but now that she’d found Sharnice, it seemed to make sense to tell her about Tabby. To talk about the house.

  Sharnice nodded, her face betraying no surprise, but Kelly was sure that she saw those pale eyelids open wider for a moment.

  ?Where did she go missing??

  Kelly’s heart started pumping up into her throat, and

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  ridiculous as it sounded, she felt suddenly as if she were in the presence of an old wise woman.

  ?The police have been searching up at Syracousse,?she whispered. ?I found her slipper there, and a man with a broken back. He’s here in the hospital in a coma.?

  Sharnice nodded, gazing somewhere past Kelly.

  ?It’s a bad place. I could feel it, but Lee and Darren couldn’t. We should never have gone there. Never.?

  Kelly reached for Sharnice’s hand, bringing her attention back. ?What do you mean, ‘it’s a bad place’? Tell me, Sharnice. I need to know.?

  A lank strand of hair fell into the girl’s face, and she left it there as a disguise for the tear that fell from her eye. She couldn’t keep her gaze on Kelly, but instead looked blankly out of the window as she spoke.

  ?You know, when I got out of intensive care, a policeman came and told me that the boys had tried to kill themselves after they’d given themselves up. I think he thought it would make me feel better, you know, to know that they felt that bad about what they’d done.?She paused, chewing her bottom lip, worrying at the skin there. ?But it didn’t. It didn’t make me feel better at all.?She looked back at Kelly. ?‘Cos I knew something that policeman didn’t. That it wasn’t their fault. None of this was their fault. They were my best friends.?

  Kelly gently pushed the hair out of Sharnice’s face. ?What happened at the house? What made them do that to you??

  ?I’ll tell you, but only if you promise to do one thing for me.?

  ?What??

  Sharnice pulled herself up on her pillows a little further, wincing slightly.

  ?When you’ve got your little girl back, I want you to try to see Lee and Darren. Tell them that it’s okay. I know it wasn’t their fault. I’ve had lots of time to think about it, and I know they didn’t mean it. I’d write and tell them

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  myself, but no one will let me. They don’t think it’s healthy.?She smiled a small, cynical, adult smile. ?Will you do that for me??

  Kelly nodded. ?Of course I will.?

  Sharnice nodded, as if happy with the agreement.

  ?I’ve told some of this to the police. Probably all of it at the beginning, but I think they thought what happened had made me fucking crazy. Anyway, they didn’t believe me. The house made the boys do what they did. I didn’t want to go in there in the first place, but I’d made them leave the Rec, so I figured I’d better go along with it.

  ?It’s weird that we’d never thought of going there before, but I’d forgotten the place was there, and I reckon if it wasn’t for Lee’s dad working at that solicitor’s office, then he’d have forgotten it, too. Anyway, when we got there the door was open, and the electric was suddenly working. It was warm, too, like someone had had a fire in there, not like a house that had been empty for ages. The boys loved it, but I didn’t. There was something weird about it, something not right, and then Lee told us what had happened there, with that murder and everything, and how the daughter wanted it left empty forever.?

  She looked up to check that Kelly was following, and Kelly nodded at her to continue, eager to hear what she had to say. Eager to hear anything that might help her find Tabby.

  ?I was a bit pissed by then, and I started saying how we should burn it down on bonfire night, you know, do the owner a favor? The boys thought I was joking, but I wasn’t. If I could’ve, I’d have done it right there and then. I didn’t like it in there. There was something about it that made me feel trapped. The kind of place that I wouldn’t spend the night on my own if someone offered me a million quid. Worse than that, though. It felt like somewhere that had gone bad. I can’t describe it properly.

  ?Anyway, I got them going on the idea and we started to plan it, you know, how to get the petrol and everything,

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  and it was then that things started to go funny. The room went cold to start with. Really cold. Like one minute it was all warm, and the next I wanted to put my coat on. But the boys wouldn’t give it to me. They were looking at me funny. And then the light went out.?

  Kelly stroked her hand. ?It’s all right, Sharnice. You don’t have to say any more.?

  The girl continued, as if she hadn’t heard. ?Afterwards … afterwards I can remember them crying. Really crying. I hurt so much I thought I was dying, and every time they tried to move me, I just screamed for them to let me go, to leave me on the floor to die. But they wouldn’t.?Her forehead furrowed with the memory, and her voice fell to just more than a whisper. ?They wouldn’t leave me there. They were scared to leave me in that house alone. They knew. They knew it had made them do it. They carried me so gently, you know? Carried me out into the lane. Into safety.?

  Kelly’s own tears were falling now, listening to the girl’s broken voice. Sharnice sniffed hard.

  ?That’s why I say it’s a bad place. Because it is. Something’s wrong up there. I hope you find your daughter all right, Miss Hollingsworth. I hope it hasn’t done anything bad to her.?

  Behind them, the curtain rustled and the ward nurse appeared carrying a small tray, a vision of normality.

  ?That’s enough for one day, I think. You’ve still got a lot of recovering to do. I’ve brought you a cup of tea and your medication.?She looked at Kelly. ?You can always come back another time.?

  Kelly nodded, still unsure of what to make of Sharnice’s story, and stood up to leave. ?I will. Thank you.?She looked at Sharnice. ?Thank you, too. You’re very brave, you know. Very brave and very special. Is it okay if I visit again??

  The girl in the bed nodded, but her face was serious. ?You won’t forget what you promised me??

  Kelly shook her head. ?I won’t forget. You can trust me.?

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  *

  She went back to meet Rob and Gina, and the three of them walked out of the hospital together, Rob immediately taking her arm. Somewhere inside, she felt better for that. The fresh air raised her spirits, and she leaned her body toward his, forgiving him for his coolness earlier. He responded by squeezing hard against her elbow.

  ?How was Sharnice??

  She shrugged. ?It’s difficult to say. She’s not the same girl anymore. Nobody would be after that.?She paused. ?It’s strange how people find ways of healing. She says she doesn’t blame the boys. She seems to have gotten it into her head that the house made them do it. She called it ‘a bad place.’ Weird, huh??

  Rob’s body stiffened, and she looked up to see him exchange a look with Gina. A secretive, worried look. What was going on with these two? Something Gina had said when they first met her in Jason’s room flashed into her mind, and she felt the urge to question her on it.

  ?Gina, what did you mean when you said, ‘it was nothing to do with me’? How could what happened to Jason be anything to do with you??

  Gina’s beautiful, pale face flinched, again her eyes darting to Rob, and Kelly felt her frustration rising. ?Look, will someone just tell me what’s going on? What is it that you don’t want to tell me??

  She may as well not have been there as Gina and Rob stood silently looking at each other as if they could hear each other’s thoughts without speaking. It was Rob who broke the moment.

  ?I think we need to go back up to the house, Gina.?

  She nodded, as if having expected his words. ?I’ve got a set of keys. If the police aren’t there anymore we should be able to get in without too much of a problem.?

  Kelly tugged at Rob’s arm. ?Are you going to let me in on this? Why do we need to go back up to the house? The police have searched it and they can’t find Tabby

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  anywhere. Why are you so concerned about that fucking house?? The pain and anger of the week was welling up inside her, and she could feel it all about to explode inside her. All she wanted was her baby back. Screw Rob and Gina. Screw all of this. All she wanted was Tabby.

  Rob pulled her close, and gazed intently at her. ?Just bear with me on this, Kelly. Let’s go back up to the house and find out if there’s anything to be worried about. If there is, I’ll tell you the whole fucking story, okay? I promise.?

  Gina stepped up almost between them. ?No Rob, you can’t…?

  He cut her off. ?I’ll do what I fucking want, Gina. I’m tired of carrying it all around inside me. I’m tired of secrets. Anyway, Tabby’s missing. I think she has a right to know, don’t you? She’s part of all this now.?

  Part of all what? Kelly felt Gina’s blue eyes reappraising her, reassessing her importance to Rob, before the elegant woman shrugged. ?Okay. She’ll think we’re crazy, but okay.?

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  Stepping onto the gravel outside the main gates to Syracousse, Kelly felt relieved to get away from the icy atmosphere within the car. The tension had radiated from Rob all the way through their silent journey, and from her position in the backseat she’d noticed again and again the looks that flitted between Rob and Gina. Her twinges of jealousy were getting stronger, and she couldn’t help thinking that her pale blond looks were dull and ordinary next to Gina’s striking beauty. It was also obvious that these two seemed to have some kind of history. What was it he’d called himself? The king of the meaningless fling. Maybe she was about to find out the truth about that firsthand. She tried to squash this new pain inside her. Well, at least he’d warned her. But why the hell had she let herself get so involved?

  Waiting for Gina to finish struggling with the padlock on the main gates, Kelly took in the view of the house from this new angle. At first, she’d thought that coming back up here was going to be a waste of time, but now that they’d arrived, now that she was looking up at the

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  building, all she could think about was how sure she’d been that she’d heard Tabby calling for her in there. It had been her baby’s voice, somewhere just out of reach.

  Finally, Gina got the padlock off and pushed the reluctant gates open. The hinges groaned, and the metal seemed to resist Kelly as she helped wedge the left one back against the hedges. Not that there was much chance of it swinging shut. Obviously, not many people came in this way anymore, if at all, but she thought that with all the activity yesterday, the hinges would have loosened up a little. Apparently not.