Within the Shadows by J.D MCG (book recommendations .TXT) 📗

'But that changes nothing. We've been there for one another, ever since I can remember,' he continued to try to calm and console her.

'But it does!' she shouted. 'You're not my brother!'

She stormed off to her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her, leaving Jacob and Belle alone. Jacob's eyes began to leak tears, while Belle moved over towards him and gave him a huge hug.

'She'll calm down,' she embraced him. 'She doesn't mean it.'

'I think she does though. I made the mistake of hiding this from her. I should have just told her.'

Scarlett Thatcher was ravenous. Her hunger had taken over her thoughts, being the only thing on her mind as she tried to get a good look at her surroundings. But it was no good. It was too dark. Her lips were dry, gasping for a slight drop of water. Her throat dry and itchy was unable to say a word to the woman lying next to her.

The woman's body was bone and scrawny like she hadn't eaten for weeks. Even though Scarlett had been trapped for a week, her body was not as bad as the woman next to her. In that time she hadn't even had one meal or fluid.

'Hey. Are you okay,' Scarlett asked the lady.

She didn't answer. Scarlett tried to nudge her with her elbow, but the chains and shackles around her wrist didn't let her reach that far. The woman hadn't moved in hours. The smell of the room was foul, like a vile odour of what she could only imagine dead corpses to smell like.

'Hey, lady,' she called out again, but no answer.

Scarlett pulled on the chains, trying to free herself, but no such luck. She desperately wanted to see her family again, to kiss her girlfriend and feel her warm embracing hug. She started to get teary, before trying again to free herself.

A voice came out from the dark corner. 'I wouldn't do that if I was you.'

'Who said that?' Scarlett asked.

'You won't be able to see me. It's too dark in here,' the female voice replied.

'How long have you been here?'

'I think it's almost been two weeks. Hard to tell in here,' the female voice explained.

'Are you as hungry as me?' Scarlett asked.

'I'm starving,' she replied. 'I think she's starving us to death.’

'She?'

'Yeah, I only ever seen her the once, when I first arrived.'

'How'd you wind up here?'

'I was out with friends, just about to go home when they put a bag over my head and stabbed me with a needle. The next thing I know I woke up here. What about you?'

'Similar situation. Out with friends, bag over my head and an injection of some sort.'

The woman next to Scarlett awoke and started to talk with an itchy voice, but she couldn't understand her. The voice from across the room knew what she was asking.

'She's asking for water. She'll be next.'

'What do you mean, she'll be next?' Scarlett demanded to know what she meant by her comment.

'They'll come and take her. She's on death's door.'

'So, these people enjoy watching us starve to death?'

'We only leave here when we're dead,' the woman explained.

The women could hear the jingle of keys as somebody approached the door to the room, and what sounded like the key turning in the door. Footsteps entered the room as the squeaky door creaked open.

'Anybody dead yet?' the woman shouted and laughed as she walked in.

'Go to hell!' Scarlett shouted.

The woman laughed. 'You first.'

She edged closer to Scarlett and leaned in close. She smelt the air surrounding Scarlett and the lady next to her.

'Somebody's close to death around here,' she chuckled again.

Scarlett mustered as much saliva as she could before launching it into the woman's face.

'You little bitch!' she yelled at her, before slapping her across the face, knocking Scarlett's face to the floor.

Chapter 16

The next morning, Barnes arrived at the CID before 7 am, to see Ally in the briefing room. She spent the whole night trying to figure something out that Hannah Jones' parents had told her when Barnes walked in.

'Morning,' he greeted her. 'Early bird catches the worm, hey?'

She chuckled, but he noticed something wasn't right with her.

'Okay, what's wrong?' he asked.

'Just something Hannah's parents said to me last night. They told me she'd been missing for over a week,' she explained.

'Missing? So this can't be linked to Jack Roberts then?' he expressed his thoughts.

'That's what I thought. That means there could be two killers out there. Both struck in the exact same place on the exact same night. That can't be a coincidence.'

'Two separate killers. I'll pass it over to another team to investigate,' he said, removing his phone from his suit jacket.

Seeing that Julia Higgins had left a voicemail, Barnes decided to call her back. It took a few rings before she finally answered.

'Thanks for calling back,' she answered. 'I've completed the post mortem and I've found something strange. Our victim did die of asphyxiation due to the strangulation around her throat, but she also hadn't eaten in days,' she explained her findings.

'Do you think she could've been anorexic?' he asked.

'No. She may have weighed considerably less than what she should, but there are no clear signs that she was suffering from anorexia.'

'So somebody starved the girl, then strangled her to death?'

'The lab has run the DNA found on Hannah's body and it's a match to Jack Roberts,' she informed him.

'That's great!' Barnes shouted with delight.

'But listen, Joe. The blood found on our victim isn't hers, neither is it Jack's.'

'Then whose is it?'

'We don't know. Hopefully, the forensics will be able to tell you, but I'm afraid there might be