Torchwood by Carole E. Barrowman

Author:Carole E. Barrowman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409071457
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

36

JACK STOOD IN the hallway of the house, deep in thought. Gwen had spelled out ‘SUV’, but she had drifted into sleep before telling him where she had hidden the keys, never mind the vehicle itself.

She wouldn’t have been sloppy in her hiding place because she wouldn’t want Rhys to find them, to know that she had a way to get in touch with him. Hiding them in plain sight would not be an option. Besides all the household’s keys were on hooks in the kitchen, an extra set would be easily noticed.

Since returning to the house, Jack had already rifled through drawers, cupboards and Gwen’s empty gun locker, the firearms confiscated by the police when she’d attacked Rhys.

He had gone down into the basement and rummaged through boxes of Christmas decorations, old Halloween costumes, discarded wedding gifts and old bikes. He’d taken apart toilet cisterns, lifted floorboards, and cut into walls. He still had not found the key fob. Jack knew he didn’t have much time to keep looking, expecting that Rhys would be home with Anwen soon after taking Mary to the hospital.

Jack scanned the papered walls in the hallway, thinking that perhaps he’d missed a safe hidden underneath one of the pictures, but he doubted it. Then he spotted a splash of colour under the bed in Gwen and Rhys’s room. Reaching underneath, Jack retrieved a book: The Day of the Triffids. Jack skimmed the back cover, reading that the book was a post-apocalyptic novel (not Jack’s favourite genre, but clearly Gwen’s or Rhys’s), where a catastrophic event has left a few surviving humans blind while giant man-eating plants with poisonous stingers walk the earth. Jack knew all about them – a nasty species.

The book was old, its faded yellow cover stained and smelling faintly of cigarettes. Jack opened it, discovering its pages hollowed out and Gwen’s dad’s watch and wedding ring inside. Jack began tossing books from the shelves next to the window. Ten minutes later he found the Torchwood SUV’s key fob hidden in a hardback copy of Brave New World. After another twenty minutes, he’d discovered the wrecked vehicle hidden in the nearby lock-up.

Clicking twice on the key, Jack opened the vehicle’s hatch and the wave of images and smells that assaulted his senses took him to his knees. Oranges and lilies and musk. He could see the team clambering into the vehicle and racing out to the Brecon Beacons, or speeding through the narrow backstreets of Cardiff. Tosh in the backseat, working on her laptop, Owen mocking her mercilessly, Gwen mocking Owen, and Ianto, dear sweet Ianto, taking care of them all. Jack leaned back on his heels and closed his eyes. Ianto touched his cheek, put his lips on Jack’s, his hands moving under Jack’s shirt.

Jack let out a sob, and opened his eyes.

A flock of starlings swooped over a nearby roof, panicking at something, darting higher up into the sky. Jack was aware of a rustling sound, close to the lock-up. He walked back out to the street, peering into the darkness.

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