she gave herself a minute or two to calm down. The phone rang again.
She was about to cut it off when she saw that it said ‘blocked’. That couldn’t be Max. He wouldn’t have a clue how to block his number - but then, he’d never needed to before. Perhaps it was something else he had learned.
‘Hello,’ she said tentatively.
‘Helllloooo Elllieee.’ The voice sounded deep and slow, like a recording played at the wrong speed. It was impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman - because it sounded like neither. It didn’t sound human. Ellie felt a shiver run up her back.
‘It’s paaaayback time.’ There was a brief and eerie laugh from the other end of the phone.
Ellie closed her eyes and bit her top lip. Should she hang up?
But she couldn’t. She needed to know what this person wanted from her.
The deep, slow, echoing voice continued.
‘I’ve saved this task for you, Ellie, because it’s something that you - and only you - can do for me.”
“Why should I do anything for you?’
‘Don’t interrupt.’ A momentary lapse in the smooth tones betrayed a quick anger, and Ellie recognised instantly that this person wasn’t entirely balanced.
‘You will do as I say, won’t you Ellie? Imagine how you’ll feel if your husband finds out what you’ve been doing, and your perfect little family is broken into pieces? If you want your secrets to be safe, you only have to do one very simple thing. If not, you’ll have to face the consequences.’
The voice hardened. ‘Or perhaps next time, it won’t just be your security pass or a scruffy soft dog that goes missing.’
Ellie felt a wave of hot fury.
‘Don’t you come near my children. Don’t you dare. I’ll hunt you down and kill you if you so much as touch a hair on their heads.’
There was a sly laugh from the other end of the phone. Even through the distortion, it tugged at Ellie’s memory but she couldn’t place it. Who was it? Somebody who’d had a reason to take her security pass. Somebody who had wanted to hurt Abbie Campbell. But why? And if they could hurt Abbie, what might they do to Ruby and Jake?
Whoever it was, they seemed to be able to come and go in Willow Farm without detection, because she was sure that her pass had been taken last night, while they were sleeping. The thought made her shudder with horror at what else could have happened.
She didn’t know what this person wanted from her, but if it was within her power, she would do whatever they asked to take the threat away from the children. That wasn’t enough, though. If it was the last thing she did, she would track this bastard down and remove any lingering threat from her family.
The caller had assumed that Ellie’s silence implied complicity, and the distorted voice continued with no further sense of familiarity or clues to gender.
‘Just do what I ask. It’s sooooo simple. You can protect your precious marriage and your children. After all, we don’t want any more tragedies in the village, do we?’
Ellie didn’t respond.
‘Why are you so quiet, Ellie? It’s not a big decision. I’m going to tell you what I need you to do, and don’t even think of taking a chance that I don’t mean what I say.’
Ellie listened. And finally she understood why she had been targeted. Why she was the one that had to be blackmailed.
44
‘Can I take you out to dinner tonight, to thank you for Tuesday?’ were Leo’s first words when Tom opened the front door.
‘Been chucked out again, have you?’ Tom asked, unable to suppress a grin. He was going to miss Leo when she went back to Manchester. She’d certainly brightened up a couple of days for him, and made him realise how isolated he’d become recently. He had consciously avoided getting too close to any woman for the last couple of years, but it had left a big hole in his life. He enjoyed the banter, the subtle flirting and the thought of a soft, naked body in his bed. It was time for his self-imposed monastic life to come to an end.
‘Yes, and no. I was going to go back to Manchester, but Max has asked me not to. Not yet. Even so, I can’t be around tonight. Those two have things to sort out. So here I am,’ Leo said, with a childlike beam that Tom guessed was an attempt