Page 66 of The Memory Wood

‘Oh,’ Lena mutters. ‘Lasse. Yeah, sorry. Hi.’ She wipes her forehead. ‘You haven’t heard.’ Another pause. ‘Just – I’m sorry, Lasse, I … Just watch the TV, OK? I’ve got to go.’ She hangs up, shaking her head. ‘Elissa’s chess teacher, Lasse Haagensen. I forgot to cancel yesterday’s lesson.’

‘Does he always call if someone doesn’t show?’

‘I suppose. Elissa’s his best student.’

Mairéad climbs to her feet. ‘Thank you, Lena. I’ll leave you with Judy for now. She’ll answer any questions you have, but you can call me any time. One last thing before I go. YouTube have kept that video up at our request, but I strongly suggest you avoid the site. The comments section is open, and we’re monitoring it in real time, but you can imagine the kind of human swine this sort of thing attracts. You don’t need to see that, and it won’t do you any good.’

Lena nods, but her mind is already elsewhere.

‘Can you track him that way?’ asks Elissa’s grandfather. ‘Through YouTube?’

‘I’m afraid not. Right now, while we wait for further communication, our priority is the location of that white Bedford van. I have every resource I need, so I don’t want you to worry about that. Hundreds of officers, not just from Dorset but from all the neighbouring counties. The National Crime Agency too. The public response has been huge – thousands of people up and down the country out searching. I’mjoining the deputy chief constable for another media briefing at six. I’ll call you straight after.’

Lena stares in dull acknowledgement.

The déjà vu is awful; it’s Bryony Taylor, all over again.

Back in the car, Mairéad sits behind the wheel with her hands on her belly. Since this morning’s press briefing she’s had no further pain, but that doesn’t mean her baby is safe. She needs to phone the surgery, get a referral to the early-pregnancy assessment unit. She wants an ultrasound, right now. Wants to hear a heartbeat and a doctor telling her everything’s OK. And yet there are a million different things to do first.

Taking out her phone, she contacts Halley, back in Bournemouth. ‘What’ve you got?’

‘Lab came back on the number-plate DNA swabs,’ he tells her. ‘Not a bean.’

‘Great.’

‘Are you still at the house?’

‘Just left.’

‘How’s Lena doing?’

‘Christ, Jake. I don’t know. It’s not good.’

‘Yeah. Feels like a horror story unfolding, doesn’t it?’

Mairéad glances out of the side window at the Mirzoyan home. ‘I want to look more closely at Lasse Haagensen, the chess teacher. I know it’s been done. But this time I want his whole life turned over.’

She throws the phone on to the passenger seat. With Bryony Taylor, there were three communications and then silence. The window for saving Elissa Mirzoyan is narrowing every hour.

Elissa

Day 6

I

He comes for her while she’s asleep.

When Elissa wakes, she can’t immediately work out where she is. For the first time, there’s no sharp floor pressing against her skin. Then she remembers the story she narrated for the camera and the prizes she earned for her duplicity: a bed, a blanket, a hot meal. In the outside world, those things are nothing special. Down here, they’re everything.

As soon as she opens her eyes she knows the situation has changed. There’s something manic about the ghoul’s light as it flits around the cell. He’s panting, too. Great gouts of condensation billow from his silhouette.

Once he’s checked everything, he lays his torch on the floor, angled towards her. Elissa scrunches up her eyes against its glare. The blanket is around her shoulders, so she’s not as cold as before, but she’s frightened now. This feels serious.

The ghoul hunches over the iron ring. There’s a clink, as of something unlocking. A sharp rattle of chain.

‘Up,’ he whispers.

Earlier, she thought they’d made progress. Now, themenace rolling off him drains her stomach of blood. ‘What’s happening?’

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