The Border Part Four by Amy Cross Read Free Book Online Page B

hand and moved it to her chest, forcing his fingers into the gap.
    “Please,” he whimpered, “don’t make me…”
    “It’s your fault,” she told him, her voice trembling a little. “You’re the man. You should have found a way to save me.”
    He shook his head as tears streamed down his face.
    “It’s okay, though,” she continued, as the stag-headed man stepped closer. “I came back, see? I was dead, but I found a way back. I had to crawl through the mire. Do you have any idea what that’s like, Joe? To crawl from the world of the dead, back to the world of the living? To crawl through the darkness and the pain, to have to keep low in case the angels spot me and drag me back? I made it, though, and now I’m here to make sure that the man who killed me pays for his crimes. He will, you know. He’s here, he’s in Bowley right now, he’s one of you.” Leaning closer, she kissed his forehead. “I’m with you, Joe. Even when you can’t see or hear me, I’m with you and I see everything you do.”
    “Everything?” he whispered.
    She nodded.
    Looking up, Joe saw the stag-headed man staring down at him.
    “Something’s about to happen,” Caitlin whispered, her lips still touching the side of Joe’s head. “Listen to the silence of the town, and then listen to it being broken.”
    “I don’t hear anything,” he replied.
    “Come to the window. Ignore him and come to the window.” Getting to her feet, she held Joe’s hand until he stood and followed her. When they got to the window, she unfastened the latch and swung it aside. “Get some air in here,” she continued with a faint smile, before turning to him as the stag-headed man stepped up behind them. “Do you hear that? Do you hear the vast silence?”
    Staring out at the street, Joe realized she was right. The town was silent, but it was the kind of silence that builds as a kind of buzz, getting stronger and stronger all the time until it has to break.
    “And now,” Caitlin continued, with a tear in her eye, “it’s all about to happen again. In three… two…” She paused, as a tear ran down her cheek. “One.”
    ***
    “Where is she?” Jane shouted, racing around the corner as she tried to find the source of the scream that had suddenly filled the town square a few minutes earlier.
    “Down there,” a woman replied, pointing along the alley. “Oh God, it’s awful. It’s just the most horrible thing!”
    Hurrying past her, Jane reached the door at the back of the old Bailey’s warehouse. Stopping, she saw a couple of onlookers consoling Harriet Lucas, who’d obviously been the one who’d made the grim discovery.
    “Jesus,” Jane said, stepping forward as she looked down at the bloodied corpse on the concrete floor. There was blood everywhere, spilled across the floor and also smeared on the wall, while the girl’s dead eyes stared up and her mouth was open, as if she’d died while calling out. On her chest, above the heart, there was a telltale hole that looked to have been torn through her ribs, and as Jane edged closer she saw that the heart was missing. Knocking something with her foot, she looked down and saw that one of the girl’s shoes had come off.
    “It’s Hayley Maitland,” said one of the women nearby. “The poor girl, who’s going to tell her parents?”
    “Who found her?” Jane asked, making her way around to take a closer look at the dead body. Her heart was pounding, but she knew there’d be time to panic later; she’d immediately slipped into the cold, detached mode that always fell upon her whenever she was faced with something awful.
    “I came to put some supplies on the shelf,” Harriet replied, staring in shock at the bloody scene. “We don’t normally use this part of the building, but we needed some extra space today. So I came through and… and…”
    “It’s okay,” one of the men said, putting an arm around her as she began to sob.
    “Have you touched her?” Jane