Fear the Dark

‘I know you and Dr McCormick were very close.’

Were.

‘Sir, I understand –’

‘I don’t think you do,’ Scott said. His voice was quiet. Respectful. ‘We put birds in the sky equipped with thermal imaging. We didn’t find a heat signature anywhere in the woods. If Savran … people who get caught in those rapids, sometimes they’re never found.’

‘That doesn’t mean she’s dead. What if Savran took her as a hostage?’

‘Then why hasn’t he contacted us?’

Coop didn’t have an answer. The feeling of dread that he woke up with each morning gripped him, but he said the words anyway: ‘She could still be alive.’

Scott tried to keep his face empty. ‘DD wants you on the next flight home.’

‘Why?’

‘He thinks you’re too close to this – conflict of interest and all that.’

‘And you? What do you think?’

Scott didn’t have a chance to answer; his satellite phone started ringing.

As Scott took the call, Coop saw himself walking back to the main road as the dawn broke. Darby wasn’t anywhere in those woods. And yet he had refused to get back into the car and pack it in because it felt like a betrayal. As if he were turning his back on her. Because if the roles had been reversed, she’d have moved heaven and earth to find him, dead or alive, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Then his mind snapped back to the present, back to Lancaster’s missing keys and the fact that he hadn’t found a computer or any computer-related equipment inside the man’s house. Maybe Lancaster was one of those people, like Hoder, who disliked computers, or maybe Lancaster thought his iPhone was all the technology he needed.

So why was it nagging at him?

Scott hung up, his face and tone grave when he said, ‘They found Savran. He’s dead.’

79

Darby heard the trapdoor open and saw a glint of sunlight on the ladder’s rungs.

Nicky Hubbard wasn’t alone this time; Ray Williams had come with her. She stood slightly behind him, arms crossed over her chest and pouting, eyes flaring with hatred.

Williams had the put-out expression and demeanour of a parent summoned to the principal’s office to discuss an argument between his child and another student. ‘My Sarah says you –’

‘Nicky,’ Darby said. ‘Her name is Nicky Hubbard.’

A dangerous light came into his eyes, one that for some reason brought to mind video images she’d seen of Nazi soldiers. It made her skin crawl.

‘Her name is Sarah,’ Williams said.

Nicky Hubbard’s wide smile glowed with satisfaction.

Williams stuffed his hands deep in his trouser pockets. ‘Her name is Sarah,’ he said again. ‘You will not ask my Sarah any more questions. You will do what she says, when she says it. If you don’t, when I come for you, I’ll punish you like this.’

Darby heard a new sound, a whining squeak, above her; then whiplash-quick the lead co

Then the tension in the cord suddenly gave way, and Darby crashed against the floor, gasping. Her legs had no strength in them, they had turned to liquid. She couldn’t breathe – she tried, but it was as if her lungs had quit working. When they finally, mercifully, roared back to life, she sucked in great gulps of precious air. Her vision cleared, and she could see Williams next to Hubbard, rubbing her back as he whispered words of comfort into her ear.

Then Williams kissed the top of her head and turned back to the ladder. Nicky Hubbard remained standing, hatred still glowing in her eyes as she slammed her thumb against the remote button for the shock collar and kept it there.

This time the shock was a hundred times stronger; it was as if she’d stepped on to a high-voltage wire. Her eyes slammed shut and she saw a supernova of white stars explode and scream through her skull as her limbs flapped uselessly, banging against the concrete. Darby kicked and thrashed, spittle flying from her mouth, and an i

‘My vision’s getting better each day,’ I say into the phone.

‘That’s good,’ Griffin replies. It’s coming up on 10 p.m. and I can tell he’s slightly drunk. He feels the need to call me each day, to check up and see how I’m faring – which is good. I can also get information on the progress of the Savran manhunt.

‘What about the headaches?’ Griffin asks.

‘Awful.’ Which is completely true. Lancaster treated me to a hairline fracture. ‘They’ve got me on this migraine-level medication. Guess who has to pick up the tab for it?’

Griffin chuckles. He knows our health insurance is for shit.

‘If I were you, I’d ride the disability and workman’s comp into the sunset. I bet you’re making more on those two than you do on your regular pay.’

‘You’re right.’

‘I’m telling you, go out on a permanent disability.’

‘I’m seriously thinking about it.’

‘Good. Because guys like us who actually give a shit and play by the rules? We’re suckers. And I’m sick and tired of being a sucker, Ray. Tomorrow morning I think I’m go

I laugh. ‘What’s going on with Savran?’

‘You haven’t heard?’

‘Heard what?’

‘They found his Bronco at the old coal plant in Leadville earlier today – and Savran lying in a ditch about a mile away. ME said it’s a suicide.’

I close my eyes, sweet and blessed relief flooding through me. Lancaster had told me the truth about Savran being dead.

‘Blew his brains out,’ Griffin says.

‘When did they find him?’

‘Couple of hours ago.’ Griffin takes a sip of his drink. I hear a rattle of ice cubes and then, in the background, a man who sounds like Billy O’Reilly shouting something about immigrants. ‘I don’t have any idea about the McCormick broad. My guess is he dumped her body in the rapids where they found her phone, which means we’ll never find her.’

You got that right, I add silently.

‘That fed there, what’s-his-name, Cooper, he thinks Savran took Lancaster’s keys and went through Teddy’s house and took a whole bunch of his computer stuff.’

I had given Teddy’s keys to Sarah. She drove to Lancaster’s house to remove any computers, programming books and computer equipment – CDs, USB keys, anything that could be used to store copies of the videos – anything that would suggest that Lancaster knew his way around computers.

Later that same night, when I returned home from the hospital, I looked through Teddy’s laptop and discovered he had kept copies of the videos. He wasn’t in any of them, of course, because he had to use the videos to frame Savran.

‘Did the feds find any evidence suggesting Savran stole Lancaster’s laptop or whatever he used?’

‘No,’ Griffin said. ‘If Savran did it – why he did it – well, we’re not going to know now, are we?’

‘What’s Brewster saying?’

‘Nothing. Everyone knows the feds like to invent shit to keep themselves busy. It’s how they justify their pay cheques to the taxpayers.’

After I get Griffin off the phone, I pick up the walkie-talkie, call Sarah and tell her to come to the house. Then I stand by the window. Several minutes later, I see the shed door open under the moonlight.