Laura Read online

  “Stop!” Sophie hisses, pulling on my arm. “I see her!”

  “No,” I reply, looking at the police station ahead. “You're wrong, she's not -”

  Before I can finish, I spot a figure standing at the top of the steps. Sure enough, Laura's ghost is here too, waiting at the police station's entrance as if she's daring us to go inside. She's not smiling now. In fact there seems to be no expression on her face at all. She's simply watching and waiting, and finally I turn and support Sophie as we make our way back along the busy street. There are late-night Christmas shoppers all around us, but nobody so much as glances in our direction.

  “I need to sit!” Sophie gasps.

  “Where?”

  “Those steps!”

  I help her through the crowd, and then finally I ease her down. She's not shivering so much anymore, and blood has stopped running from the cut on her lip.

  “We have to get help!” I tell her, before looking around to make sure there's no sign of Laura's ghost. So far, we've tried going to three police stations and two hospitals, but Laura has appeared at the entrance to each of them. I don't know what she wants, but she seems to be blocking our way any time we try to go to the authorities.

  Feeling exhausted, I sit on the steps next to Sophie.

  I don't know where to go next.

  “Am I alive?” she asks suddenly.

  Turning to her, I see that she's holding her hand up, flexing her fingers.

  “Barely,” I reply. “Jonathan tried to kill you!”

  “But how do I know he didn't succeed?” she continues, her voice still trembling slightly. “I don't think Victoria realized she was a...”

  Again, her voice trails off.

  “Victoria can't have been a ghost,” I tell her, “it's just... It's impossible!”

  “I saw her body,” she replies, still examining her hand. “I saw the moment when she saw it too. There was so much shock in her eyes, and then she turned to Jonathan, and then...”

  “And then what?” I ask.

  “And then she was gone. Right in front of me, she just faded away. It's like she couldn't stay any longer, not after she'd seen her own body in the freezer.”

  “There has to be some other explanation,” I tell her. “Ghosts aren't real.”

  I blink, and in that fraction of a second I see the image of Laura stepping toward the elevator.

  “I might have died,” Sophie whimpers, pinching her hand and then gasping as she feels the pain. “Even that might not be enough.”

  “You're alive,” I reply, reaching over and touching her hand. “You already feel a little warmer. Trust me, I might not be the most insightful guy in the world, but I'm pretty sure I can tell whether or not the woman I love is -”

  I catch myself before I can finish that sentence, although I quickly realize that I'm too late. After a moment, I pull my hand away.

  “You have a pulse, don't you?” I continue.

  She reaches up and checks the side of her neck, and then she nods.

  “It's pounding,” she adds.

  “Then I think we have our answer. It's a miracle, but you're definitely alive. The question is, how do we stay alive? Nick, Lynn, Jonathan, Victoria... They're all gone. It's just us now.”

  “She really hates us.”

  “You can't seriously believe that Laura is -”

  “You saw her too!” she says firmly, as a hint of color finally returns to her cheeks. “We've all seen her! I don't know why it took her ten years, but she's finally come back and now she wants revenge!”

  I open my mouth to tell her that she's crazy, that none of this can be true, but in my mind's eye I can still see Laura's cold, dark gaze. I want to find some other kind of explanation, even though I know that some kind of force pushed Jonathan through the window. I also know that I've talked to Victoria several times over the past few months, even though she was apparently in the freezer all along.

  I blink again, and this time I see another brief, snatched image.

  Water filling a pool in a cave, and the faint sight of a submerged body.

  “If we can't get help from anyone else,” Sophie says finally, “then I think it's pretty obvious that there's only one thing left for us to do.”

  “Sit around at my place and wait for a ghost to come and kill us?” I ask.

  “Maybe Laura wants us to put things right,” she continues. “Jonathan's lackluster, self-absorbed apology clearly didn't cut it, so maybe she wants us to somehow make amends for her death. And if that's the case, then I figure there's only one thing we can do right now.”

  “What's that?” I ask.

  She takes a deep breath. “I know you're probably still in shock, but do you feel up to a long drive? I think we have to go back to where this all started. Back to where we were once all friends. We have to find Laura and put this right.”

  Part Eleven

  SOPHIE

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Today

  “I never thought I'd come back to this town again,” I mutter, drumming my fingers against the reception desk as I wait for the woman to finish checking us in. “I was never the nostalgic type. I wanted to look forward, not back.”

  “You're lucky we had a cancellation this morning,” the woman says, looking up from the computer. “There's one room available.”

  “We need two,” I reply.

  As soon as those words leave my lips, I'm aware of Elliot turning to look at me. I don't return his glance. Instead, I keep my gaze fixed on the woman's hands as she taps at the keyboard.

  “Two separate rooms,” I add, just to make sure that she understands. “Thank you.”

  “I'm afraid we only have one,” the woman continues. “It's one of the nice rooms, though, with a lovely big king-sized bed and...”

  Her voice trails off.

  Elliot turns to me. “We can try some other -”

  “We'll take it,” I tell the woman.

  “Sophie,” Elliot continues, nudging my arm, “we can -”

  “We'll take it,” I tell the woman again, telling myself that we won't be using the room much anyway. If it comes to it, Elliot and I can just take turns. “Let's just get this done.”

  “Of course,” the woman replies, as she starts typing our details into the system. “Just one moment.”

  Reaching into my pocket, I take out my purse and open it to find my card. As I do so, however, I spot a slip of paper from the hospital, with the date of my last scan jotted down. For a moment, all I can think about is the baby I lost, and the fact that he or she should still be growing in my belly. I feel tears welling behind my eyes, but I quickly force myself to stay strong.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Elliot asks. “The whole trip, I mean. There's no guarantee that -”

  “It's better than nothing,” I tell him, still not quite managing to meet his gaze as I set my card into the reader and type my code. “Even if it's not what Laura wants, we can still do the right thing. Even if it doesn't make up for what happened ten years ago.”

  ***

  The sea is rough as we make our way along the beach, heading toward the rocks at the far end of the cove. A strong wind is blowing from the south, carrying screeching seagulls high above us, while several cars are parked nearby outside the golf club. Ten years after I was last here, nothing much has changed.

  Finally, I spot one of the many cave entrances up ahead, and I stop to wait for Elliot to catch up. Glancing toward the shore, I'm startled to see a group of students sitting on the sand, laughing and joking. They look familiar, and after a moment one of them turns and looks out at the sea. I recognize her immediately.

  It's me.

  I blink and she's gone, but I can't help thinking back to the days when everything felt so much easier. It's hard to believe that I was ever so naive and blinkered.

  “Are we really going in there?” Elliot asks. “It could be dangerous, there might be -”

  “We're not going deep,”
I tell him, as another seagull cries out above us. “She wouldn't be far inside, anyway, not if we're right about how she died. Anyway, we don't have a choice. If we try to contact the police, she'll probably stop us.” I turn to him. “I think she wants us to do this.”

  “But you don't actually -”

  “It's probably slippery in there,” I add, interrupting him, “so be careful.”

  “Sophie -”

  “And it'll be dark, too.” I hand him one of the flashlights, before switching mine on. “Which is why we brought these.”

  “Sophie, can we please just talk for a -”

  “We need to stick together,” I add, hoping that he'll finally get the message and realize that I can barely even look at him, let alone have a full-on conversation. “You've got your phone with you, right?”

  “Sure,” he mutters. “I guess we're ready.”

  Glancing at him, I can't help but feel a shudder of disgust pass through my body. After everything that has happened over the past few weeks, I still can't get over the idea that we once had some kind of drunken, fumbling encounter in my rooms all those years ago. And I don't think I'll ever forgive him for not telling me about it, after I drunkenly forgot. There was a time when I thought Elliot and I would end up as this perfect couple, but that chance ended as soon as I found about about his lies. In fact, after we're done here, I don't think we'll even be friends anymore.

  “Do you really think Laura's body is still in there?” he asks, looking toward the cave. “I mean, even if it is, will there be much left? Ten years is a long time for a body to be out in the open.”

  “We have to try.”

  “Do we?”

  “You don't have to come,” I tell him. “I'm doing this because I think it's the right thing. I'm doing it because finally somebody has to go and find her. But I can do it alone.”

  With that, I start climbing over the rocks, making for the entrance to the cave.

  “How do we know it's not a trap?” he calls after me.

  “Laura wouldn't need to set a trap,” I point out. “There's nothing she can do to us here, that she couldn't have done to us in Victoria and Jonathan's apartment. Like it or not, I think she's been trying to drive us here for some specific reason.”

  Not even turning back to look at him, I keep clambering over the rocks. A moment later, I hear Elliot coming after me. Up ahead, the entrance to the cave is a dark, yawning void that seems to be waiting for us. As I get closer, I switch my flashlight up to the strongest setting, and once I cross the threshold I find that the rocks are much colder and wetter, and that the sound around me seems different somehow. I almost slip a couple of times, before climbing up a small incline and stopping to shine the flashlight into the darkness. I'm already out of breath, which I guess means that I'm a little out of shape.

  “Are you sure we shouldn't get someone else to do this?” Elliot asks as he reaches me, his voice echoing slightly now that we're in the cave. He sounds like he's even more out of shape than me. “What if there's a sheer drop ahead?”

  “We'll be careful,” I mutter, watching as the flashlight picks out the rocks ahead. “Anyway, you saw what happened when we tried to get help before. It's not what Laura wants.”

  “But if -”

  “And we owe her,” I add, turning to him. “After the way we treated her, we owe her this.”

  “She's dead, Sophie.”

  “Yeah, well...” I hesitate for a moment. “You can remind her of that fact,” I add finally, “the next time we see her.”

  He sighs. “Sure, but -”

  Suddenly his right foot slips and he starts to tumble down, but I grab his arm just in time and manage to hold him up. It's not as if he was about to fall down a huge cliff-face, but still, he could have twisted his ankle.

  “Be careful,” I tell him as he adjusts his grip on the rocks. “It's slippery down here.”

  Once I'm sure that he's steady again, I let go of his arm and then I turn and make my way cautiously around the next pile of rocks. I almost slip twice myself, but I just about manage to hold tight, and slowly Elliot and I head further into the cave. I don't even know what I'm expecting, but I guess deep down I'm waiting to spot a dead body. If Laura drowned somewhere around here, she might have lain undiscovered for a decade. Maybe that's what she wants, maybe she needs us to find her so she can be buried properly. There can't be much dignity in a death like this, and I feel like it's our duty to at least do this for her.

  When we reach the edge of a small drop, however, I see that the cave splits into three separate tunnels, each of which appears to wind deeper and farther into the darkness.

  “Now what?” Elliot gasps as he joins me.

  “We have to keep searching.”

  “Are you serious? We have no equipment and no experience. It'd be suicide going down there.”

  “Then what do you suggest?”

  “We'll regroup. Maybe we can find a map of this system and -”

  “There's no map,” I tell him. “I checked on my phone on the way here.”

  “Which still doesn't mean we should go charging into those tunnels. The tide comes in around five, and we can't risk being here then. We'd drown.” He pauses. “Sophie, I know you feel like we have a debt to pay. I feel that too. But getting ourselves killed won't help, not unless that's what Laura wanted all along.” Another pause. “Do you think that is what she wants? For us to die the way she died?”

  “Whatever she's after,” I reply, “it must have been enough for her to come back for us.”

  “Sure, but...”

  His voice trails off, and I can't shake the feeling that there's something he's not telling me.

  “Out with it,” I say finally.

  “What?”

  “You're holding something back.”

  “Me? No. I swear.”

  I stare at him for a moment, and I still don't quite believe him. I know Elliot well enough to know when he's lying, but at the same time I'm not sure I can be bothered right now to deal with any more of his bullshit.

  “Whatever,” I say finally, turning and starting to clamber toward one of the tunnels. “You can turn back if you want, but I -”

  Suddenly I slip on a rock. I try to steady myself, but I'm too late and I let out a cry as I tumble down and land hard on my right foot. Feeling a sharp, ripping pain, I gasp as I fall back against the wet, rocky wall, and I feel another burst of pain as soon as I try to stand.

  “Sophie!”

  Elliot scrambles down to join me, arriving just as a throbbing pain starts pulsing in my ankle.

  “I tried to grab you,” he stammers, “but I wasn't quick enough!”

  “It's not broken!” I hiss, through gritted teeth. “I think I just twisted it real bad!”

  “But -”

  “I'm fine!” I take a step forward, but a burst of pain shoots through my ankle and I cry out. Elliot grabs me as I lean forward against one of the rocks, and I quickly push his hand away from my waist. “I'm fine!” I gasp again, even though I know I'm not.

  “We have to stop and come up with a better plan,” he replies. “This, what we're doing right now, is never going to help Laura. Not in a million years. There has to be another way.”

  I open my mouth to tell him that he's wrong, that he's giving up too easily, but the pain in my ankle is much stronger than I'm letting on and I'm not sure I can keep going. Looking toward the dark tunnels, I realize that maybe he's right. Maybe we need to get some equipment before we come and do this, and maybe we need a better plan. Still, as I watch the darkness and feel the cold, wet rocks against my grazed palms, I can't help thinking about Laura.

  “I think she's down here somewhere,” I whisper. “I think she's waiting for us.”

  “You don't know that,” he replies.

  “I can feel it,” I continue, before turning to him. “Can't you?”

  He looks ahead into the darkness for a moment. He doesn't say anything, but I can see an answer in his e
yes. He's terrified.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Ten years ago

  I'm going to die.

  Standing in the bathroom, leaning against the sink, I feel a throbbing pain right behind my eyes. Over the years at uni, I've become accustomed to drinking as much as I want and more or less feeling okay the next day. Right now, however, I feel as if an electric drill is buzzing through my skull, and I'm quite certain that I'm never, ever going to drink another drop of alcohol again.

  And this time, I mean it.

  “Are you going to be much longer in there?” a croaking, hungover voice calls out from the landing. “Sophie? I really need to use the toilet!”

  Figuring that it's only fair to let someone else have a turn, I head over to the door and pull it open. Elliot's on the other side, and he hurries straight past me and sits on the edge of the bath, leaning toward the toilet. I want to tell him to give me a moment, but I guess he and I don't have many boundaries anymore.

  “You too, huh?” I mutter.

  “I didn't even know I had that much last night,” he groans. “I'm never drinking again. I swear.”

  I should head to my room and try to sleep, but instead I grab the wooden chair from next to the radiator and place it in front of the toilet, and then I sit down. My entire body feels exhausted, and I feel as if I've hit some kind of wall. Uni has been fun, but the real world beckons and I feel as if last night's big party was the end of an era.

  “We're all leaving at the weekend, aren't we?” I say finally.

  He nods.

  “Then it's over,” I continue. “This life, it's finished. Do you have a job lined up yet?”

  “I'm going to work in my Dad's shop while I figure something out,” he replies, looking a little green around the gills. “Which, ironically, is what I was doing three years ago before I came to uni. I'm not entirely sure I've made very much progress.” He sighs. “My brother didn't go to uni. He screwed up his exams at school so he got a job at a garage instead. Now he's making good money, he's married and he's got a kid on the way. I'm starting to think he might have been the smart one.”