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FOURTEEN

KEELEY

Tuesday, 3 September

Keeley should have appreciated the sound of the birds tweeting just before the sun was due to rise, but she didn’t. She hated leaving her kids and husband in bed while she headed out to do her cleaning shift at Cleevesford High. Every weekday was the same: she rose at four thirty and showered.

Before leaving, she had checked on the twins and seen they were sleeping deeply. The weekend couldn’t come too soon, and it was only Tuesday. She needed to start looking for something to do in school hours, ready for when the boys started Reception later in the month.

The walk was the same every day: she left her house, crossed the high street and began the twelve – yes, twelve – minute walk away from the shops to reach the back road leading to the school. Each morning, she looked at the houses where rich people lived, just like she was doing now. All detached with at least four bedrooms, and gardens that seemed to reach for miles. Glancing up, she could see that all the windows were closed.

She shivered. There was a slight chill in the air.

The end of the path was near and the school was in sight. Just one more road to walk down. She looked at her phone: it was now five fifty.

Glancing ahead at the school car park, she could see that the others were already there and a few lights were now on. The art and science block were lit up. She inhaled, knowing her job was the PE hall and it was time to buff the floor. As soon as her shift was done she was going to go back to bed for a couple of hours.

Someone driving a white van pulled up just shy of the school gates. It was too early for tradespeople. Maybe the driver was lost.

The engine stopped humming. She walked around to the driver’s side, past the huge white panel where she heard a click noise, and went to peer through the window.

Strange, there was no one there, but the keys were still in the ignition.

Whoever was in there must have shimmied out of the passenger side. It was quite a big cab, enough room to do that fairy easily, but why?

She spotted something dangling from the rear-view mirror and leaned in for a closer look, just as someone slid the doors open on the other side. There was a loud bang followed by a yelp.

‘Hello, are you okay?’ She wanted to walk around, but the whole situation felt strange. Maybe the best thing she could do was hurry towards the school. She could see Lucie dancing around through a window, earphones in as she waved around a duster.

Then she heard loud, rasping breaths, which made her neck tingle.

‘Hello?’

She stepped slowly to the end of the van, her heart starting to bang. She didn’t know anything about first aid, and the person around the final corner of the van sounded like they needed help. What if there was blood? She’d have a panic attack if there was.

Grabbing her phone, she pressed 999 without hitting the call button, just in readiness.

Be brave, Keeley.

‘Help!’ the male voice gasped.

She hurried around and saw the person’s legs hanging out of the side of the van. Darting towards him, she leaned in.

‘It’s okay, I’m calling an ambulance—’ Her finger hovered over the call button as she furrowed her brows.

The man lying in front of her was nothing more than stuffed clothes.

How could she not have noticed that the legs had no shoes on the end? Someone was pranking her, and it wasn’t funny.

The new caretaker at the school was a bit weird, maybe it was his idea of a joke. It wouldn’t be the first time. When she had cleaned the gym toilets, he’d left a load of strawberry sauce all over the showers. She thought she’d been walking into a murder scene and she’d ran down the corridor screaming and saw him and the others laughing. It was meant as fun and she took it as that, but right now he was scaring her.

‘Xavier, you didn’t scare me. Whoever’s watching and waiting to film me run away screaming, you can quit now.’

In fact, they were being stupid. She was thirty-five, not ten. All she wanted to do was finish work and go home, not be late and have to work overtime because of a practical joke.

‘You didn’t scare me,’ she said, yet her phone trembled in her hand. Who was she kidding? ‘Okay, I’m going to call the police because you’re a weirdo, Xavier.’

That’s when someone came up behind her and knocked her phone flying.

She watched as it crashed to the road, smashing to pieces. As she turned, she caught sight of the figure in a ski mask as he grabbed her arms and spun her around, his hands gripping her while his knuckles dug into the small of her back as he nudged her closer to the stuffed clothes.

‘Get in the van,’ he said in a hushed tone.

‘ No !’ she screamed, then she screamed again. Someone from the rich-people houses had to hear her, because Lucie sure as hell wouldn’t.

He nudged her forward so she was doubled over, her legs on the pavement and her face buried into the dummy’s stuffed shirt.

She couldn’t breathe.

While wriggling, she freed a hand. As he tried to lift her legs into the van, she pushed back with all she had. She thought of her children. If she ended up in the van, she might never escape. Was he going to rape her or kill her?

She kept fumbling underneath the stuffed clothes and felt a solid cylindrical object. She grabbed it and he weakened his grip slightly.

She turned to gasp in a few breaths, and with all she had she swung the travel mug around and hit him in the neck. He began to gasp and his grip loosened.

She used her other hand to pull him off her.

Stumbling away, she began to dart in the direction of the school, heading through the main gate waving her arms in the hope that Lucie would see her, but Lucie had gone.

That’s when she felt his hand pulling the back of her jacket, just as the sun was coming up. She fell to the pavement. He yanked her up and began dragging her weakened body back towards the van.

‘ Help !’ she screamed, but it was no good.

No one was listening as he thrust her through the side door and into the van.