Page 79 of Gone in the Night
It bloody worked, well I never.
This needed to be shown in schools when they had public safety lessons or life lessons, whatever they called them, because in Rydal Falls there was more chance of being killed by a psychopath than there was of dying of a drug overdose or a car crash. Which was crazy, but true.
Taking a moment to slow her breathing down to normal and think, she lay back and wondered what she was going to do. She wasn’t a hundred per cent sure what was happening, but Morgan knew one thing: she was getting out of here alive. After pushing and hammering against the trapdoor, she realised it must be bolted from above, but she wasn’t giving in.
She felt around in her pocket and realised she had no phone, no keys, nothing to protect herself with except the bits of broken tie wrap that were pretty sharp. She felt all of the pieces to find the one with the most jagged edge. When she came face to face with whoever had thrown her into this pit like a sack of shit, she would be ready to poke their bloody eyes out with their own plastic ties. And she wouldn’t feel one ounce of regret about it.
FIFTY-THREE
The footsteps came back into the garage, and Morgan realised they were louder this time. Whoever it was had a heel on the bottom of their shoes or boots that made it echo around the open space. She wondered if it was Marie; it sounded like a woman walking around up there. Opening her mouth to shout, she stopped herself, pausing a moment to make sure she was ready to fight. She managed to get herself onto all fours so she could spring up the moment the door was opened. Her head was a bit fuzzy, but she could worry about that when she was out of here. Sucking in a deep breath she began to shout. ‘Help, help me.’ Over and over again.
The footsteps hurried towards where she was which proved to her that whoever it was they knew about this pit.
‘Hello, is someone down there?’
‘Yes, let me out. Please.’
Morgan thought she recognised Beth Montgomery’s voice and prayed it was her and not Marie. The sound of stuff being dragged around above her filled her with hope.
‘Hang on, I just have to move this blasted lawn mower.’
Then the sound of the rug being dragged away and a bolt being worked free was like music to Morgan’s ears. The doorwas thrown open, and the light that filtered down hurt Morgan’s eyes. She lifted her hand across them to shelter them from the brightness.
‘Morgan, how did you get in there? Did you fall in? Here, let me help you up.’
Beth reached down and gave her hand to Morgan, who clutched hold of it tight. She felt Beth yank her up and she clambered out of the pit. Onto her hands and knees.
‘Oh my, you’re bleeding. Your head is cut. We need to get you to the hospital.’
‘I’m okay, give me your phone, please. I need to ring my boss.’
Beth nodded and patted her designer jeans for her phone. ‘Oh, crap, it’s in the house, let’s get you inside and you can ring him there. I don’t know what’s happened, but it looks as if a bomb has exploded. There’s broken glass in the hallway and everywhere is a mess, and I can’t find Marie or Stefan. Has he done something to Marie? Did he kill Sharon? What the hell is happening?’ Those last words were a strangled cry of fear and angst that made Morgan feel terrible for Beth.
Morgan didn’t know what had gone on either but if there were no officers around clearly everyone had gone back to the station, and she wondered how long she’d been unconscious.
Beth hooked her arm through hers and helped her across the landscaped courtyard up the steps and into the house. She was right, it was a mess in here. The crunching of the glass from the broken hall table under her boots as she walked over it towards the kitchen an indication that all had not gone as planned when Ben and the team had searched the house.
Beth sat her on one of the high stools at the breakfast bar.
‘I have a first aid kit, let me clean you up.’
‘Thanks, I’m okay. I’ve had worse. Can you get your phone for me, Beth? They’re going to be looking for me, and my partner is going to be beside himself with worry.’
‘Of course, it’s in the office charging. I’ll go grab it. Here.’
She took a huge green plastic box out of a cupboard and passed it to Morgan, who opened it and began to rip open some packets of gauze to press against the cut on the back of her head. When she lifted the first pads away and saw the deep red blood that was covering it, she felt a little queasy. She hadn’t even realised she’d hurt her head, but she’d hit it off the wall as she fell into that awful pit in the garage. Lowering her head onto her arms, she sucked in some deep breaths of air. There was no way after all of that was she passing out on Beth’s kitchen floor. It wasn’t happening, not now, not ever.
‘Here you go, Morgan.’
Beth’s voice sounded so far away. She lifted her head off her arms unable to turn to look at Beth because of the wave of sickness that was hanging over her like a dark cloud. She waited for her to come closer.
‘If you want it, you have to come get it.’
Beth’s voice was different; it had lost all its gentleness and was cold. Morgan straightened up. She shivered as a chill ran down the entire length of her spine. Forcing herself to turn around, she saw Beth leaning against the kitchen doorway with an iPhone in one hand and a shiny steel chef’s knife in the other.
‘What are you doing, Beth?’
‘What are you doing, Morgan?’ She mimicked her with a gleeful look in her eyes.
