Page 55 of The Girl in the Grave
‘My name is Andrew Salt, I’m the governor of Haverigg Prison. We have a bit of a situation going on here that you might be able to help with.’
‘I’m sorry, Andrew, but I’m in the middle of a high-risk missing person’s case. On top of that I’ve just discovered a body – not of the missing person. So, I’m a little tied up.’ He wiped dirt from his palm.
‘This is also life or death. Well, it is for the nurse who currently has a nebuliser tightly wrapped around her throat by one of the patients in our hospital wing.’
Josh felt bad for the nurse, for the governor’s situation, but didn’t have time for this. It wasn’t in his remit in any case; he had no jurisdiction over what went on inside a prison.
‘I don’t know why you think this has something to do with me?’
‘The prisoner is requesting to speak to you; he said it’s a life or death situation and only you will do.’
‘Who is this prisoner? Name?’
‘I believe you know him. Robert Hartshorn.’
At the mention of a name from all those years ago, a name he’d buried along with the memory of finding Beth at the last minute – almost too late – Josh felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
‘I can’t get there, are you familiar with his background?’
‘I am indeed, and he said that he needs to speak to you about someone called Beth.’
‘Can I speak to him on the phone?’
‘Just a minute.’
Josh could hear a muffled conversation in the background and then a raspy voice echoed in his ear.
‘I haven’t got much time; I can’t hold her much longer. I don’t want to hurt her, but I needed to speak to you.’
The voice on the other end began to cough: a deep, rattling cough that made Josh want to cough for him.
‘What’s going on, Robert?’
‘He’s going to take Beth and hurt her, if he hasn’t already. I’ve spent the last few years deeply regretting the hurt and pain that I caused her. I’ve written to her every month telling her this, but she has never replied. I don’t blame her, it was unforgivable.’ He began to cough once more, and this time it took longer for him to gain his composure.
‘His name is Phil Sullivan; he runs a self-defence class that Beth attends. She knows him and trusts him. I also believe he killed the girl you found in the cemetery; he took another one.’
‘How? How do you know all this?’ Josh was suspicious. Robert was a psychopath; how could he trust him where Beth was involved? He’d have read about the case in the paper and guessed Beth would have been involved with the autopsy. He was wasting his time.
‘Because he’s an old friend, and he told me a long time ago that he would. It’s taken him a lot of years to pluck up the courage. He came to see me yesterday—’
‘Yesterday,’ Josh interrupted. The details had only gone into the paper today.
‘And he told me he was going to hurt her. He said he was going to finish what I started. You have to find him and stop him before he does. Please tell Beth I’m sorry for everything, I’m trying to save her.’
Josh wondered if he should tell him, but he said it anyway. ‘It’s too late, she’s gone.’
Then he hung up. He wasn’t giving Robert Hartshorn any more of his precious time. At least they had a name now. If Hartshorn was to be believed. But why would he lie?
Josh passed the name over the airwaves and asked for intelligence checks, address checks and a team to go to Phil Sullivan’s house and put the door through.
He looked at Barry sprawled out in the grass, spewing up his guts. But before he could leave the cemetery and join in with the manhunt, he had to know for sure that Beth wasn’t inside one of the other crypts. It could be a trick. He knew Robert from the days he’d listened to his evidence in court. To his poisonous lies at the interviews, and his pathetic excuse that he’d got the idea from a book.
‘Barry,’ he said. He nodded at the crowbar lying in the grass by his feet.
They’d managed to open three of the doors, there were just two more to go.
Seventy-Seven
