Echoes in the Woods by Georgina Scott (ebook reader web txt) 📕

“What about Mark and Henry?”

“Daddy said if I stay, they stay.”

“This is going to break your mum, Matthew.”

“And if we go, it will break my dad,” said Matthew, heading back into the house.

“Would you like coffee?”

“Yes, please,” she said, sitting down at the kitchen table with Mark and Henry, touching their hair and faces like she hadn’t seen them for years.

“The house seems different somehow.”

“Less furniture, we smashed it up.”

“I hear you have taken some lodgers?”

“Yes, but not lodgers, it’s only a temporary thing until they find somewhere else.”

“Where’s Mitch?”

“Waiting in the car,” she said, looking around the kitchen.

John put the coffees on the table and sat down. There was an awkward silence.

“You look different.”

“You look beautiful,” he said, seeing her blush.

“How did we get to this John? How did this happen to us?” she said, sipping her coffee.

“I’m sorry; I failed you and the boys.”

“We failed each other.”

“Come home, Faith, please come home baby. We can sort this out, I can change!” he said, crying into his hands.

“I’m here for the boys John, I want them with me,” she said, tearfully. John wiped his tears away. “They are staying here Faith; uprooting the boys wouldn’t be good for them. Ask them yourself, they want to stay here with me at the farm.”

“Matthew?” he said.

“I want to stay here, Mum, at the farm with Daddy. Mummy, please come home.”

“I can’t baby, I can’t come home. I can’t do that,” she said, with tears streaming down her face. Putting his little hand in hers, she squeezed it tightly. Her heart broken and her soul in turmoil, looking at her boys with tearful sore eyes, feeling and seeing her whole world had just collapsed around her.

“Faith, I won’t stop you seeing them. You can have them every day after school and every other weekend.”

“It’s not enough John; I don’t want to be a part-time mum.”

“Then come home, you belong here with us!”

“John, please don’t make things difficult.”

“I promise you things will be different.”

“Promises I have heard many times before and still it didn’t change anything.”

“Boys, please go and pack your things; you’re coming with me,” Faith said wiping her face.

“Stay where you are. They are staying here!” John said with a raised voice.

Faith got up from the table and started to head upstairs. John grabbed her arm. “Faith, don’t look at them, you’re frightening them!”

“I’m frightening them?” she said angrily, looking over at them her face dropped, seeing them huddled in the corner with Matthew’s arms wrapped around them for protection, their little faces had gone white as a sheet.

“They want to stay here, and there is nothing you can do about it.”

“You son of a bitch, damn you, you bastard,” shoving his arm away from her. He grabbed her by the hips and pressed her up against the wall, groin against groin, putting his legs in-between hers, he drank her in and felt the softness of her hair. His lips caressing her neck, he felt her becoming aroused.

“Come home baby, we love you!” she cried into his shoulder and he held her tightly. “I’m sorry Faith, I am so sorry for everything, please come home,” he whispered into her ear, and then let her go. She staggered out the front door towards the car, not looking back. The ache in the pit of her stomach hurt like nothing she ever felt in her life. She left a broken woman.

Chapter 19

Jake felt on top of the world, he felt untouchable; he had gotten rid of any evidence associating him with the killings. He had burnt the clothes, only ashes remained and he even disposed of them by spreading them around in the cornfield, destroyed the trainers by ripping the sole from the main body then burnt them until nothing was left and again disposing of the remnants in the farmers’ fields. Anything that was burnable he burned in the old abandoned warehouse and made sure nothing was traceable back to him. He locked himself in the bathroom and cleaned the instruments twice with bleach, then returned them back to their rightful place in the garage and carried on as if nothing had happened.

As the school was closed for a week, the children received schoolwork to do at home. So he and Ella got their heads down and into the books. The murders were on every news channel and in every newspaper. No one let their children out of their sight without supervision, not even to a neighbour’s house or in the front gardens. The parents of the murdered children were parading themselves on television now that the six kids had been identified. Jake didn’t care much for this and just smirked when he saw them.

Jake didn’t take much notice of the coverage and when asked by his grandparents how he felt about it and if he knew the children, he said he knew of them and told them of the altercation he had with Kevin and that they were the school bullies; they were the ones that attacked Ella.

Ella and Jake were in their den, learning Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for the school play. Ella was cast as the mirror and Jake was cast as grumpy. “Jake,” Mary called out. “Jake,” she called again. “Yes, nana, I’m coming,” Jake was not amused at being disturbed and walked out of the den. “Jake you need to come home. There are some people here to see you,” she said, holding out her hand.

“What people, nana?”

“Police officers, darling.”

Jake’s legs went to lead. He wasn’t scared but had he prepped enough for this moment, he thought. Would he be believable? He knew it was inevitable before the police turned up on his doorstep. “Hello Jake, I am Inspector Jenson and this is my colleague Inspector Rankin, Would you mind if we asked you some questions?” Jake shrugged his shoulders in indifference and sat down at the dining room table along with his grandparents.

“Jake, we are speaking to all