Page 41 of The Girl in the Woods

Beth smiled. ‘You should try the beef and ale pie one day.’

‘As long as I never have to suffer your homemade soup again, I think I’ll survive.’ He laughed.

‘Ungrateful sod,’ she said.

‘Back to normal, I see,’ said Jack.

‘Still eavesdropping, I see,’ said Tom.

Beth laughed and realised she hadn’t laughed like that for some time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Laine crouched in the corner of her bedroom, her arms cradling her legs, trying to stop the throbbing of her thighs.

She was desperate to shower and take a wee, but she felt too shaken to pull her abused body from the floor, and she knew peeing would sting.

She felt guilty. She thought she should have fought back, but she couldn’t. It was as though her body hadn’t belonged to her. She had tried; she felt sure of that. He must have put something in the water he’d given her. She’d felt fine before that.

She should never have gone. How she wished she’d gone into town with Jassy.

It did occur to her to go to the police, but who would believe her word against his? She couldn’t bear to tell her parents or Needles. She felt too ashamed.

The memory of his body on hers made her feel physically sick, and she had to rush to the bathroom to throw up.

‘You okay?’ her mum’s voice called from downstairs.

‘Just a tummy upset.’ She wiped her mouth of the sick and sat on the toilet to pee, wincing as the urine stung. Finally, she forced herself into the shower and scrubbed herself so fiercely that her body was red and sore when she finished. Lying on her bed, she thought of ways she could make him pay. Laine was quite inventive, and blackmail shot through her brain like a bullet.

He’s had my body, and now I’ll have something of his. It’s amazing what you can learn about a person online. It didn’t take long to find him and learn he was married.

‘I’m sure you wouldn’t want her to know,’ Laine said, looking at his photo on a health site.

Oh yes, she could do well out of this.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Sajid walked cautiously through the woods. The sun felt hot on the back of his neck. The wind rustling through the leaves made him nervous, and he looked behind him.

Saturday night’s incident with the coach had affected him more than he’d thought. He should have gone to the police. Supposing some of the other passengers had and the police had visited those lads? They were bound to believe it was him that grassed them up.

He consoled himself that they didn’t know his name or where he lived… But what if they saw him again at another match? A sudden grassy rustle made him jump, and then he saw it was just a squirrel racing to the top of a tree. He sat on the rotten fallen log they’d claimed as their own and waited patiently. The hum of insects calmed him, and he began to relax. The clock on his phone told him it was 12.15. Where was she? He’d have to get back to college soon.

He jumped at the sound of a branch cracking in the distance. He saw a flash of long brown curly hair and sighed with pleasure.

Laine was wearing her school uniform, and even in that, he thought she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. ‘I thought you weren’t coming,’ he said.

‘Don’t be daft. I just didn’t feel too good earlier. I’m okay.’ She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he smelt vinegar.

‘You look pale,’ he said.

‘I’m fine, honest. I had to go to that counselling session this morning – it was a waste of time. I got us some chips,’ she said, holding up a bag.

Sajid licked his lips as Laine lifted out the bag of chips.

‘I asked for a curry sauce, too,’ she said, smiling.

Sajid heard a noise and jumped. ‘What was that?’ he asked nervously.

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