Brutal Crimes by Michael Hambling

Author:Michael Hambling [HAMBLING, MICHAEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-09-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20: In the Woods

Amy Birkbeck was often a little late getting home from school. Most days she took her time tidying her things away in her locker, sorting out what she needed for the night’s homework and chatting to her friends. Then there were the after-school clubs she attended twice a week. Cross-country running on Mondays and junior wind band every Thursday. She often took the later bus which meandered in a vaguely south-easterly direction from Wareham. She preferred this one because it was always quieter than the bus that left five minutes after school finished. A bus full of exuberant teenagers tended to create a cacophony of noise, and she was unable to distinguish what her friends were saying. Today, however, she hurried to catch the earlier bus. She’d spotted the way the weather was set to change overnight and wanted to check the bat boxes, which she had left alone since the dreadful events of the previous weekend. She was home within ten minutes.

She ran into the house, startling her mother.

‘Goodness, Amy. You look in a bit of a rush. Do you want a bun?’

‘In a bit. I’ll get changed first. Gotta check the nests and boxes before it gets too dark.’

Her mother frowned, but Amy was already gone, thundering up the stairs to find her jeans and warm sweater. She ran back down, grabbed a fruit bun from the kitchen table, swallowed most of a glass of water, slipped into her olive-green anorak and made for the door.

‘Bye!’ she called to her mother.

She cannoned into her father as she hurtled down the steps.

‘Bat box check,’ she yelled. Her father watched her run past, his mouth open.

The woods were silent. The recent windy conditions had stripped the final few dead leaves from the bushes and trees, but today the air was still. A few birds could be heard in the distant trees. There was no other sound. It was important to check the boxes after a spell of windy weather. During the previous winter, Amy had lost a nest when a falling branch had crashed into a bat box on its way down, dislodging it from its mounting. She’d never found the hibernating bats. She hoped some of them had been lucky and had found somewhere else to snuggle down, but some might have fallen prey to the hungry predators that tended to prowl the woods in the cold winter months. She headed for the pool and rounded a corner, to find herself face to face with a tall thin man coming from the opposite direction. After a moment’s hesitation, she kept going, trying to look nonchalant and pretending she hadn’t spotted him. Which was stupid, really. How can you not spot someone so close to you? She passed him and kept going until she reached the next bend in the path, then turned slightly to glance behind her. He had stopped and was looking back, following her with his eyes and frowning.

Amy kept going and rounded the bend.

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