Chapter 56: NOW - The Safe Room

The outside cameras show nothing but the gloom of a cold, overcast January afternoon. I don’t know how long Sophie has been out there. Has it been thirty minutes? There’s no sign of Peter anymore either.

I want to believe in hope. Sophie reached someone and told them I was in trouble. I did see the woman approaching and I can’t stop wondering if it was Yvonne. But with Emily outside the door, it distracted me from seeing for sure.

I skip through the camera channels, my breath shaky. The air is still thick, still making me sweat, and my head is pounding. The living room is empty, so is the hallway. The kitchen and study are both empty. But then when I glance back to the stairs, I’m sure I catch the barest glimpse of a shoe as someone walks up the stairs. I try the hall upstairs and that’s when I see her.

A woman.

She has her back to the camera. She’s around my height, with long blonde hair. She’s wearing a thick raincoat and a hat with a bobble on the top. Her strides are slow and cautious, like she’s looking for something… or someone.

This woman is not Yvonne. I can’t be sure, but I think she might be a stranger. Sophie may have flagged down a car, or a person out for a walk and told her all about how I was locked in the safe room. Has this person called the police?

I start banging on the door and screaming for help. There’s no way she’ll hear while she’s upstairs. Then I see him again. Peter Harlow is back, and he’s heading up the stairs. There’s something in his hand. It swings by his side as he walks.

“No,” I whisper.

It’s a hammer. Peter has armed himself.

But he doesn’t have Sophie, which means she’s still out there away from his clutches.

I flick through the channels, searching for the woman. Sophie’s bedroom is empty. My bedroom is empty too. Where did she go? Is she hiding?

I shake my head. Why would she hide? Something doesn’t feel right. I’m staring at a puzzle with only half the clues. I can’t know for sure that Sophie flagged down this woman and explained the situation to her. I’m not in this person’s head so I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe she went into the bathroom to use the toilet. Or she came to burgle the house and hid when she heard footsteps. Or she knows how dangerous Peter is because Sophie told her and she’s hidden in the wardrobe.

Maybe she knows Peter? No. Surely he can’t have had two accomplices. That would be insane. I wipe sweat from my forehead. My mind feels mushy and there’s pressure behind my eyes. Emily is right. A flood could trip the electric. But I can’t wait for a flood.

I hate this. I wish I knew where Sophie was. She isn’t with Peter which has to be a good thing. She could also be freezing to death in the snow. Please let that woman have taken her to a house for safety. Please.

Peter stalks through the upstairs like he’s searching for the woman. He must have seen her come into the house. This is unreal now. Like I’m watching a cat and mouse thriller. My eyes are glued to the screen.

There’s no doubt in my mind that he knows someone is in the house. He can’t be searching for Emily because she left an obvious blood trail down to the cellar. No, he’s hunting this mystery woman. They must have had an altercation outside that I didn’t see. It’s the only explanation for it.

I watch him pull open the wardrobe doors in Sophie’s bedroom and drop down to the ground to check under her bed. I’m shivering as he gets up on his feet, lithe as a cat, and walks out of the room. He sticks his head into the bathroom on the way to my bedroom and I hold my breath. But then he re-emerges.

She didn’t come back down the stairs. I know she’s up there somewhere and I can’t warn her about the evil that is about to find her, because he will find her. I know there aren’t any good places to hide upstairs. It’s why I built this safe room in the first place.

He creeps along the hall towards the bedroom, the hammer still swinging by his side. The throb of my pulse whooshes through my ears. I’m starting to think there is no hope anymore. I don’t know where Sophie is. The woman who came to help is hiding from a violent murderer armed with a hammer. And I’m trapped in a steel, bulletproof box with no way out.

And then I hear him say a name that makes it all a thousand times worse.

“Honey.”