Page 58 of Gone in the Night
A fresh wave of tears poured down her already red and swollen cheeks, and, as if to add insult to injury, an intense pain in her lower back that radiated to the front of her stomach took her breath away and she doubled over sucking in a deep breath.It was like the worst kind of cramp and backache all rolled into one, and she cried out.
‘No.’ Her eyes squeezed shut as she waited for it to subside and realised that this might be more serious than a Braxton Hicks contraction, which would just be her luck. She didn’t have time to go into labour right now, not when she was consumed with grief and guilt.
When she could straighten up, she began to gather her things together just in case this was happening. She pottered around unplugging her phone charger and shoved it into her hospital bag. Then even though she wasn’t hungry, she made herself a sandwich because she needed some kind of energy if she was going to push a baby out. Her stomach was churning, and she thought she might be sick.
Cain was going to kill her. They would be up to their necks in the investigations and wouldn’t be able to spare him to go to the hospital with her. Amy decided that if she had to go, she would go on her own. She wasn’t the only woman in the world to have to give birth without a birthing partner. It happened all the time, she would just have to suck it up and get on with it.
Another wave of cramps hit her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, breathing deeply until it passed.
She looked at the clock. She hadn’t timed it but that felt as if the last one had been less than ten minutes ago. She dialled the maternity unit at Kendal hospital for some advice. It would take her twenty, maybe thirty minutes to get there and that was even if she could get a taxi because lately there was a shortage of drivers and it had been taking forever. Eyeing up her car keys she wondered if she could drive herself and pull over if a contraction came, then she realised that was totally stupid and dangerous. This baby had already lost one parent. What if she crashed and it was born with her in a coma?Stop it, Amy, stopthinking weird thoughts.She shouted the words out loud and dialled the only local taxi number she knew.
The contractions were coming a lot faster than she’d ever anticipated. On all the documentaries she’d watched and books she’d read they were supposed to happen slowly over a long period of time and gradually increase in intensity. She wondered if the grief and sadness she was feeling over Jack had speeded things up.
The taxi driver had parked outside of the A&E department on double yellows with his hazards on and ran inside to get help. She guessed he didn’t want her giving birth on his backseat, and to be fair to him neither did she.
As she was heaved out of the car and into a wheelchair by two nurses, she wished she’d phoned Cain; she didn’t want to be on her own anymore. He would make it all better. His stupid jokes would help to keep her mind off the pain even if she did want to throttle him and tell him to shut up.
She was taken straight into one of the birthing suites. The maternity unit hadn’t long reopened and she stared longingly at the small pool in the corner. She was so hot, she wanted to strip off and get into it and submerge herself fully in freezing cold water.
The nurse was asking her questions that she couldn’t answer, then she was being helped out of her clothes and into a hospital gown so the midwife could examine her, a blood pressure cuff cinching the skin on her upper arm as it tightened.
Once she was on the bed she asked for her phone, which was given to her, and she caved in, phoning Cain and leaving him a gasping voicemail, telling him where she was and if he wasn’t busy could he come see her.
She let out a low groan as another contraction hit her before she’d even ended the call and thought that he would never let her live this one down.
Whether she was ready or not, in a few hours her entire life was going to change. She couldn’t stop it now, things were in motion that were out of her control. Then she closed her eyes and tried to breathe deeply through the pain that took away all her conscious thoughts.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Yolanda Crystal didn’t read the news, she didn’t watch it either and when urgent local alerts flashed up on her phone, she quickly swiped them away. She wasn’t interested full stop in the goings on in the crazy world around her. All she cared about was her own inner peace and that of her followers. She was taking over the world one yoga class at a time. She loved being able to solo travel and record her classes in the most beautiful of places.
The Lake District never failed to inspire her. She was planning an evening new moon vlog deep into Grizedale Forest, where she was going to set up her little campsite on her own. There was a small access road that was mainly used by farmers and cyclists. If she drove carefully, she knew there were a couple of places she could pull off the road and set up camp out of view of anyone passing by, so she wouldn’t get chased away. It was Sharon who’d inspired her on her own journey of self-discovery, and she hoped to meet up with her one day to tell her this. She was loving the freedom this life afforded her, and the following she had gathered was just the sweetest apart from the odd weirdos that left strange comments, but she ignored those. Logging on to do one last check before she left the world ofthe internet behind, she saw a message from one of her newest followers, Fairy Rose.
Love your content, would be great to do a collab with you some time. If you’re ever in the Grizedale Forest/Hawkshead area give me a shout.
She clicked on the profile to see a woman with pink hair grinning back at her, yoga pants and crop top on, sitting in the lotus position with a view of a forest behind her that looked very much like the Grizedale she remembered from her trips there as a kid with her parents. They would fill the Vauxhall Zafira of a weekend, her two sisters and two brothers, and off they’d go with a ginormous carrier bag of crisps and sandwiches for a walk through the woods and a picnic. At the time she’d hated those family day trips out, but she knew now that her mum and dad had only been doing their best with what little they had, and she looked back on them with nostalgia. Especially now she didn’t see much of her family. She was the only one without kids, the others were in relationships and lived locally, but she’d moved away to live in the city. Realising what she was missing, she was in the process of moving back to Barrow-in-Furness to be nearer everyone. It was funny how as she found herself getting older, she just wanted a quiet, peaceful life, and her family around her.
She wasn’t an expert on the forest, but she knew that area pretty good. Maybe she would contact Fairy Rose. It might be nice to do a collab. She sighed when she saw that Fairy Rose only had three hundred followers – damn, that wasn’t exactly going to get her many extra likes on her YouTube channel – but everyone had to start someplace. She sent her a quick message.
Hi, actually I’m heading that way soon. If I can get a signal when I’ve set up camp, I’ll message you, maybe you couldcome meet me and we could record the new moon session together.
She smiled at her phone screen; she might as well call herself Saint Yolanda. Still, it was nice to be supportive of others, and it would make her look good if she was seen to be giving a newbie a helping hand. All publicity was good, as long as it didn’t cause a scandal. So many influencers were getting cancelled because of stupid comments they’d made. She wasn’t going to make that mistake. She was the queen of neutrality and made sure she never said anything to cause a stir, be offensive or give anyone a reason to give her any grief. If she wanted to truly make a living from her YouTube channel, then she would do anything. There was no way she could go back to a corporate job now she’d tasted the freedom this lifestyle afforded her, and she wanted more. Maybe one day she could set up her own little yoga studio, but for now she was grateful she could do what she was doing with no stress and a calmness in her life she’d never known could exist.
THIRTY-NINE
He’d been thinking that things were complicated, a lot more complicated than he’d anticipated. Then he’d heard the radio news reporter make the boldest statement he had ever heard. The guy who sounded as shocked as he was said that the police were not looking for anyone in relation to the two murders. What the hell did that even mean? He pushed back in his chair, stretching his arms above his head, realising that it meant he had a get out of jail free card, one that had been handed to him with a huge fucking grin on his face and at no cost to him whatsoever. He should cut loose now, stay quiet, keep out of the way and go about his business like he usually did. The chance of some jumped-up copper falling for what he intended was too much for even him to think about. There had to be some catch. It was too perfect. His foot kept tapping against the floor, a nervous tick he’d had since school that he tried to control. When he got nervous or excited it was hard to contain it, even when he placed his hands on his thigh to stop it.
Staring down at Yolanda’s Instagram account for the tenth time today, he knew he should stop this madness that was consuming him, but how did you stop something that was like a sickness inside of you, growing and getting stronger each dayuntil it completely took over? That was the battle raging inside of him right now.
Did he admit defeat and walk away whilst he had this most perfect opportunity, that never, ever happened. Or did he finish his little spree with the beautiful Yolanda Crystal? There was no way that was her real name either. The thought made him more excited than he wanted to admit. What was exciting over doing the right thing? It was everything, the buzz of adrenaline that ran through his veins at the thought of hunting her to her remote camping place and having some fun with her. Maybe this time she wouldn’t be found as quickly as the previous two, and he’d be able to see if her body mummified in the right conditions. It would be nice to be able to keep checking on her progress before it was discovered and someone reported her missing. Although he couldn’t guarantee she would find the ideal secluded place to record her New Moon vlog that she’d posted about yesterday on her Instagram account. Was there anywhere that was completely remote when there were fell walkers, farmers, campers, mountain bikers and God knows what else kind of extreme sport some people liked to torture themselves with?
The door opened and in walked one of his colleagues, mugs of coffee in hands. He smiled as they passed him one. Today was getting more interesting by the hour.
He was staring at the picture of Yolanda he’d screen-shotted from her YouTube channel as he wondered what he was going to do.
Was he going to take this golden opportunity and not spoil everything?
Or was he going to have some fun?
