Written In Blood

Chapter Twenty-Six

Zack brought his Land Rover to a stop at the side of the road. He watched in the rear-view mirror as the figure ran down the road towards him. He was not normally in the habit of stopping for people who waved him down at bus stops, but on this occasion he recognised the person doing the waving. Even then he wouldn't normally have stopped, but she looked so desperate and in need of help that he couldn't simply drive on, without at least finding out what was up.

"Thank God you stopped, Kier..." Emily cut herself off when she realised that it wasn't her brother in the Land Rover she had just flagged down. "Oh, sorry, Mr Wild, I thought you were Kieran; I can't imagine why, up close, the two of you are nothing alike."

"That's okay, Emily, I've got no problem with being mistaken for someone half my age," Zack said with a smile. "And given how difficult it can be to see through a windscreen on a moving car, it's not really a surprise that you thought I was your brother – there are superficial similarities between us: height, build, hair colour. So, why were you flagging your brother down?"

"I was after a lift home," Emily said. "I missed the bus, and there's ages till the next one. I thought my luck was in when I thought I saw Kieran. If I have to wait till the next bus, I'll be late getting home, and late getting dinner ready, and dad'll kill me."

"You could still be lucky," Zack told her, noting the concern in the teen's voice. "If you ask nicely." He grinned at the girl who had been helping him to tame the jungles that had once been gardens at the front and back of his house.

Emily grinned back. "Please, can you give me a lift back to the farm, Mr Wild, I'd be really grateful," she said with what she hoped was a suitably coy look.

"I'm sure you will be grateful, so yes, I will take you home, and it's Zack, remember," he said. "I'm not keen on being called Mr Wild, it makes me feel old."

"Thanks." Emily threw her bag onto the floor in front of the passenger seat and then climbed up. "And for the record, you're not old."

Zack made no comment on that, instead he concentrated on pulling away from the kerb and re-joining the traffic. Despite it being a Sunday, that was no easy feat, for there seemed to be far more traffic on the road than was usual for an apparent day or rest. Fortunately, once he merged with the traffic heading past the bus stop he made good time, and was soon on his way out of town.

The journey passed without conversation until they were on the road from town to Oakhurst. A wince from Zack as he pressed down on the clutch while shifting gears prompted Emily to break the silence.

"Did Oliver do something to your foot when he attacked you last night?" she asked, glancing down at the foot in question.

"You know I was attacked?" Zack asked in surprised.

Emily nodded. "The whole village knew by about eight this morning. Everyone knew why he attacked you as well."

"And why's that?"

"Because Sergeant Mitchell thinks you killed Georgie and Lucy," Emily told him. "Raped and killed them even. Oliver attacked Kieran when he thought it was him who killed Georgie and Lucy, but now he thinks it's you because Sergeant Mitchell arrested you yesterday, so he went after you. I know Oliver's in hospital, that went round the village as well, but no-one's said if you were hurt by Oliver and his moron friends."

Zack was not pleased to hear that he was the subject of village gossip. He suspected he had been previously, but then it would only have been idle gossip about who he was, what he had done or did for a living, and why he had moved there; now it concerned whether he was a murderer of teenage girls. While a part of him refused to care what a group of gossiping villagers thought of him, a more significant part was distressed by the thought that the community he had chosen to join was willing to believe him guilty of such nasty crimes. There was something else about the situation that bothered him.