"Right so let me get this straight... she accidentally joined the cult and then ran off with a group of children, including her own. Then she put them all in to care but she intends to keep Tobin?"

"That's right Roland."

He shook his head looking at the board. "That man beat her until she had brain damage. The things people think they can get away with. Why isn't he in prison?"

"If enough people side with him it's the whole group against one. Wounds aren't enough evidence as anyone could have beaten her. The photographs help but... the simple answer is she's afraid to stand up to them. It's easy for them to kill her."

Roland smiled. "Maybe she can come clean with us to help defend her?"

"Maybe in time." I looked down at the book in my hands the horror book was about a woman who was mistreated and ran away. The man kept following her until she eventually shot him in the chest with a shotgun.

"What I'm most concerned about is Tobin thinks the people after him have found him. They are sitting in the basement making plans in case they have to kill them. She practically told me she would shoot them if they came into her house. I know she's got our force outgunned."

"Have they found them or is it just the fears of a scared child?"

I put the book aside and shrugged. "I don't know. I think Tobin is just scared."

Roland frowned. "You got work soon."

"Yes... how are we going to hide this broad?"

Roland smiled standing and walking to the place where my canvases lay. "While you were out I had an idea." He pulled out one of the pictures and held it up over the board. "You could modify one of these to slide over the top."

I nodded. "I'll do that when I come home."

"In the morning? After your nightshirt?"

I stood picking up the canvas and returning it to its place. "Yes, Roland. The chief doesn't trust me now so I need to hide this before he comes looking."

I walked into the bathroom showered and then got ready for work.

A standard nightshirt was only broken up by me driving past the bottom of the driveways, of Tia and Edith's house. I saw no black Volvo and nothing else of interest. I parked up old Betty and walked into the station as it got light.

"Hey Mac how was the night shift?"

"Morning Janna. Nothing to report."

She put a cup of tea down at the desk for me. "You're right about the chief acting odd."

"Why what happened?"

She sat down at the reception desk. "He's been showing a lot more paranoid thoughts. He thinks you've teamed up with Tia and are planning to kill him."

I nodded sitting at the desk and starting my duty report. "Well let's hope whatever is going on with him stops soon."

"James is acting odd now too." We both lapsed into silence as the chief and James walked in. "Morning chief, Morning James." They both nodded to Janna and sneered at me.

They walked out to the chief's office and Janna looked over at me. I shook my head at her and she nodded understanding my need to keep quiet.

I finished my report and went home without seeing either of them. Roland looked worriedly out the window as I came in. "The chief and James came over and asked to come in. I told them I was in a mess and to come back later, they started yelling at me. Mac, what the hell is going on?"

I moved to the canvases and pulled one of them out. "I don't know.. I think Tia might. The chief and James are acting odd. This is why I wanted to hide this ASAP."

"Are you going to ask Tia?"

I grabbed my toolbox and opened it. "Not sure at the moment."

Roland made breakfast as I modified the canvas. I pulled my paints out and set it all up as the doorbell went Roland looked at me as I slipped the canvas over the board, before I went to the door. Opening it I saw the chief and James.

"Hi, Roland said you had come around before. What's up?"

"Let us in!" I felt my heart drop into my socks at the chief's order.

"If you insist but... I was just about to do some painting before going to sleep. So there's a mess in here."

James pushed on the door and barged past me. He walked into the living room and looked at the half-finished painting that hid the board.

The chief walked in too and I closed the door.

"What's this?" James had picked up one of the books Tia had lent me.

"Tia leant me some books. She loves books and so I thought if she showed me some of her favourite ones we would have something to talk about."

Chief frowned at the painting and James opened the book. "That was when you brought her here?" The chief sounded angry as he asked.

"Yes.. her dog got poisoned and she needed help. After I helped her and took her home I asked to borrow her books."

"What did you talk about?"

"The dog and books."

The chief rounded on me and stared at me. "That's it?"

I nodded. "You can't ask questions of someone you don't know."

He grunted and kicked the easel knocking it to the floor. I winced at the painting bouncing off the floor and landing face up. "You're hiding something."

"No chief I'm not."

James tapped the chief on the shoulder He showed the chief the horror book. "What's this book about?" The chief waved the book under my nose.

"Oh sorry, that's mine." Roland came over taking the book.

"Yours?" James asked looking doubtful.

Roland nodded. "I'm a fan of horror."

"Really?" The chief glared at him.

"You want to borrow it. It's got an awesome twist in it. There's this girl that's beaten by her man and you think he's going to kill her but...."

The chief waved his hand at Roland aggressively. "Enough we are leaving" He gathered James and left slamming the door.

"Alright... you should warn Tia. What the hell is wrong with those two?" Roland was shaking as he righted the canvas.

The board hadn't slipped at all and I sighed with relief. "Yer I think you're right."

I grabbed the phone and hurriedly dialled Tia's number. The phone rang and rang, but no one answered. I put the phone down and fingered my wallet that held the number to ring in an emergency. "She's not there?"

I shook my head worry growing in my chest. "Maybe try her again in a bit. Let's have breakfast then call her." Roland's voice tried to be cheerful but his shaking made it quiver.

I nodded and he went back to the kitchen. Roland ate his breakfast and I just stared at it. "Mac eat then call her. I'm sure she will answer."

"Why wouldn't she be there?"

Roland sighed. "Maybe she was in the bath or picking up Burt." I nodded and picked up my sandwich thinking the worst.

As soon as I had finished I rushed to the phone. Still no answer. I fingered my wallet again. "Mac.. you're about to fall over from exhaustion. I'll keep trying here you go to bed."

"Alright..."

I went to bed sure I wouldn't sleep, but before I knew what happened Roland was waking me up. "Mac she hasn't answered all day."

I jumped out of bed. "Calm down Mac. You can check on her when you're at work."

I breathed again after what felt like forever. "You're right..."

The phone rang and we looked at each other. "Go answer it!" Roland shoved me and I darted off.

I grabbed the phone and was saying hello before it got to my ear. "Mac.. it's Janna... we are calling everyone in."

"Why?" I couldn't hide my panic any more.

"There's been another one..."

"On my way."

I hung up the phone and looked up at Roland. "There's another body.." His gasp cut me off. "Keep trying her! I'm getting ready."

Roland nodded switching places with me as I darted off. It was the fastest I'd got changed in my life. I came back into the living room and Roland shook his head at me. "Keep going until someone answers."

Taking the car key I drove to the station. The volunteers were leaving when I got there. The chief looked tired when I walked in. "Mac you need to meet the other team at Miss Frost's house. We will meet you there." He sounded as tired as he looked.

James looked pale and had the bin in front of him. "Are you two alright?"

The chief shook his head. "We've been drugged. The doctor came in and saw how we were acting. He gave us something to counter it... we may have been drugged to put us out of action."

"What were you drugged with?"

James took a sip of water and the chief watched him. "Those pills Miss Frost takes are good for her problems but in normal people cause erratic behaviour."

"Do you think she did it?" I asked knowing she wouldn't have done that.

The chief shrugged. "Look, you're leading this until James can stand to drive me out there."

"I can take you with me and Janna can look after James."

The chief looked at Janna who nodded then at James who was sipping the water. "Alright." He grabbed the key from the hook and followed me out to the car. He handed me the key to one of the newer cars and got in the passenger seat. "I'm sorry Mac."

I slid into the seat. "It's alright Chief You were drugged. You can't be held accountable for what you do when you're drugged"

I pulled out driving out towards Tia's place. "We dropped around her house after coming to yours... and saw the bodies.. when we got back to the station the doc turned up and helped us. I think Janna called him."

"What did you see out there?"

The chief shook his head. "The same as before but... no sign of blood in her home."

"You went in?" The chief shook his head again. "No. We looked through the window. Her car is gone and there's no sign of her there. She's not meant to have left town."

I pulled into her drive stopping halfway up so it was blocked off. "Come let's go."

I nodded and followed the chief with the moonlight guiding our way. A short way further up the drive, the chief shone his torch at a tree. It was covered in blood. "It's this way."

"Is it Tia chief?"

The chief turned looking at me. "I don't know Mac."

He turned back to the woods walking into them. I followed him through the trees to a pile of viscera. Then he leads me further to a pile of body parts. I breathed out hard. "It's not her or Tobin."

"How do you know?"

I pointed my torch at the torso. It was a man's torso wearing a suit that looked expensive if it hadn't been torn apart and covered in blood. "Too big to be Tobin and not female." The chief nodded and turned to walk back.

Following him back back to the car the chief then turned and walked up to the house. Her car was gone. The space it sat in was odd. I shone my torch over it and smiled. "For an old car, she never leaked."

The chief laughed. "Since when do you call cars she?"

"Since I realised what you have been telling me about old Betty is true. They tell you when something is wrong if only you open yourself to listen."

He scoffed and walked on to the door. The house was dark the door securely locked. There was a bloody handprint on the glass of the door. The phone inside started to ring. "Janna can you call Roland and tell him he can stop now. Don't tell him anything else."

I looked up at the chief. "Sure thing Mac. James is starting to feel better." Janna said.

The chief talked into his radio. "Get him to come up with supplies. We need search and rescue up here at the Frost place. She may be in these woods somewhere." The chief turned and we walked back towards the car.

I saw the van pulling up and moved the car so they could pull into the driveway. "Right. I need two teams. One on body the other on house." The chief said into the van.

"If I know Tia sir there will be a way into the house. We just need to find it."

"Good, you go with the house team I'll take the team to the body."

Three of the men got out of the van with some kit and I got in. The van pulled up the drive and stopped near the entrance. "I'll come with you. If you need something moved or touched I'll do it." I nodded at the man.

We started at the porch. I looked at everything there, nothing was out of place. We walked around the side of the house. I saw tracks in the mud. The man with me photographed the tracks as he followed me around the back. There were footprints as well as tyre tracks here, why are there tyre tracks? The Volvo was there in the back of the house, listing slightly where one wheel had gone in a dip. I stopped looking at it. "Something off?" The tech asked.

"Why would she move her pride and joy off the path to the mud?"

I shone my torch at her and saw she was unlocked and there were small scratches on the paintwork with the mud kicked up from the soft earth. "You need to photograph this. She keeps this car pristine, and she would never leave it unlocked."

"Alright, I'll look it over." He said already taking photos.

I watched over the man as he rifled through the car. In the glove box was the car key and a single key. "You think this opens the door?" He held up the key.

"It will be the back door if it does."

He walked to the door and he tried the handle. Then he used the key and the door opened. "I'm going to have to get you some kit so you can change. I need you with me in case someone is in there but, we can't have you contaminating the scene."

"I've been in here before."

He nodded pulling out a paper overall and plastic foot coverings from his box. "You still need to wear these."

I put them on and he followed me inside as I searched the house for anyone. There wasn't a soul in the building. I unlocked the front door and the rest of the team started traipsing through Tia's house for the second time.

Standing outside watching them didn't help the foreboding I felt. The chief walked up to me. "How's things here?"

"Something feels very wrong here chief"

He shifted next to me. I turned from the house that felt cold now its owner was missing. "I'm sure she has opened up to you more than you let on... I'm not asking you to break that trust. Is there more that I don't know?"

"There are tones more you don't know. Almost as much as I don't know. What's relevant is Tobin thought he saw the people after him and they were hiding in the basement."

One of the other men walked up. "We found the gun safe, it's empty."

The chief shook his head. "She has enough firepower in there to take us on and win."

"Chief she's not going to hurt us. Look she's a fan of puzzles. So there's a chance she left us with clues as to where she is."

The chief nodded looking at the other man. "Take Maverick through the house and see if he can understand what, if anything she's left for us. I'll check on James and start briefing search and rescue."

I followed the man back into the house. "We didn't see anything unusual."

I stood in the middle of the room. "Because you don't know her." I turned kneeling so I was at roughly her eye level when she was sitting in her chair. I saw the clock that sat just above the table. It was stopped at 3 o'clock.

"Can you take the clock down?" The man did laying it on the table as I stood. He turned it over and pulled out the piece of paper from the battery compartment. He opened it and it read.

3 of 8.

2nd of 12.

105.

"What on earth is that?" The man said looking at the paper again.

I spun counting the bookshelves. There were 8 of them. Counting from the tidy one I found the 3rd one walking to it. The man followed me with the paper. "3 of 8.... what's the next line?"

He looked down at the paper. "Second of twelve."

I counted the neat books on the shelves. The first shelf had 14 books. The next had 10. The next shelf had 12. I pointed at a book. "That one page 105 I think." Of course, she would know what books are where this is how she stores her photos.

"This seems convoluted." He opened the book to page 105.

There was another slip of paper and a photograph. He took both out, showing me the photograph. It was her car outside a body shop looking brand new. Then he opened the paper. It read,

rhhl.

See to it, bright eyes.

I laughed. "She made this easy."

"Easy?"

I nodded and walked towards the kitchen. The man followed me to the car and I pointed at the headlamp. "R, h, h, l, right-hand headlamp." He popped the bonnet of the car. He lifted the headlamp out, pulling the bulb out and there was another piece of paper wrapped around it. "This is really odd behaviour. Why the hell would you do this?"

"You would be surprised what you would do if you were afraid. What does it say?"

He unfolded the note and held it up for me. It read.

Alone I stand, reaching out for something, time turns and lonely becomes normal.

Normal becomes outcast, outcast becomes safe.

So alone I stand, then something brushes the edge, the brush becomes a smile, the smile becomes a hand.

That hand reaches back, and out of the dark I look, that hand takes mine.

Fear without pain, safety shattered in light.

Look then for the hand in the dark, a friend reaches.

Reach back.