'Shit,' Neo cursed as Charlie's phone continued to go to answer machine.
'She probably has no signal down in the tunnel. I'm sure everything is fine.' Gwilt tried to soothe him whilst they made their way back to Marton.
'Why the hell would she go down there alone, knowing that Jane Bennett could be dangerous?'
'In her defence, she knows Jane suffers from schizophrenia, but not that she's killed before,' Gwilt pointed out.
'It was still a stupid thing to do alone either way,' ranted Neo.
Gwilt remained quiet, not wanting to add to Neo's anger. He thought Charlie's actions were stupid, same as Neo, but he knew she had little choice. Unable to get hold of Neo, and her poor relationship with the local police, was what lead her down that tunnel. The only problem was she was unaware of what she was truly facing.
'Did you get through to the station? Are they sending a team?' Neo asked as he continued trying to call Charlie, to no avail.
'I did. But they're still trying to gather everyone, and you're going to love this; no one can seem to get a hold of Palmer.'
'Where the hell is she?' Neo gritted out.
Gwilt shrugged as he made the turnoff to Marton.
'Apparently, her house is empty and her car is gone. Could have gone for a night away with her husband, perhaps? Either way, she's not answering, and no one knows where she is.'
'Damn it! We'll just have to keep trying. We need a team in place, an ambulance crew, possibly a psychologist as well.' Neo planned aloud. 'I'll send Barry and Colin a text. They may know someone willing to assist.'
'And what if Jane Bennett can't be talked down?' Gwilt questioned.
'We can't go in all guns blazing. For a start, there are still two kids to think about, not to mention Charlie and Harry Bennett. We need to resolve this peacefully. Mr Phillips was right; his daughter needs help.'
They pulled over once they were close enough to the tunnel entrance, saving Gwilt from voicing his queries on just how they were going to resolve the situation peacefully.
A flustered looking officer flagged them down and Neo could see his two kids sitting in the back of a police car.
'Dirk,' Gwilt greeted.
'Gwilt, Chief, I'm sorry I left my post. I didn't think. I was only gone for five minutes. I didn'teven see the woman waiting for me to leave,' he rushed.
Neo nodded his head. 'This isn't your fault,' he reminded him. 'You were only looking out for the wellbeing of two minors who most certainly should not have got involved.' He raised his voice and looked directly into his kids' guilty faces, letting them know exactly how he felt about what they'd done.
'Want me to take them home?' Dirk offered.
'Yes, and stay with them so they don't get into any more trouble,' Neo ordered.
'Right,' agreed Dirk, as he headed back to the driver's side. 'By the way, Chief, it's good to have you back.' He smiled at Neo before driving away.
Neo waved at his kids, who hesitantly returned the gesture, before he watched the car travel down the rest of the road and out of sight.
'So what is the plan?' Gwilt asked.
'You're staying here for the rest of the team. And I'm going in. Here, take my phone.'
'Are you serious?' demanded Gwilt, pocketing Neo's phone on impulse. 'You just spent the entire car journey here telling me how stupid Charlie is for going down there alone and now you want to join her? You're crazy if you think I'm letting you go down there by yourself.'
Neo rolled his eyes. 'Stay here until the rest of the team arrives, then I need you to get everything organised. I'm only going to scout the area out, hopefully find Charlie, and then leave and come back here to wait for backup.'
'That's it? You're not going to engage with Jane Bennett or her family?'
'Absolutely not,' Neo reassured him. 'It's a quick in and out. If in the meantime Palmer gets here, she's more likely to talk to you than she is to me,' he reasoned before Gwilt could suggest they trade places.
Gwilt's lips thinned as he thought it over before agreeing.
'I only have a keyring flashlight but you'll have to make do. Good luck, boss.'
Neo took the keyring and headed over to the tunnel entrance. He could hear Gwilt already on his mobile, trying to find out where his officers were.
A gnawing guilt in the pit of Neo's stomach made him feel sick as he descended into the darkness. He always hated lying to Gwilt.
***
Charlie's head lolled as she came back to her senses. She tried to raise her head but could only lift it so far before a radiating pain tore through her scalp. The back of her t-shirt felt damp, and she tried to work out why, before she realised it must have been the blood from her wound.
She flicked her tongue out over her dry lips, tasting blood from her split lip. She pushed her tongue across her teeth, checking to see if there was anymore damage from her fall against the shelving.
When she was satisfied that none of her injuries posed an immediate threat to her health, she focused on her surroundings.
Cracking an eye open, she noticed she was still in the storeroom. Her head swam as she pulled herself into a seated position.
Once she had her back against the shelving, she placed her head between her knees for a few seconds. Bright lights danced in front of her vision as she overcame the urge to pass out.
With her hands and feet bound, there was little she could do other than sit there, so she waited for the feeling to pass before she tried raising her head again. The pain flared, but she gritted her teeth and pushed though it until her neck straightened.
It took everything in her to stifle the scream that wanted to escape at the scene in front of her. She'd never been in the presence of Harry Bennett, but there was no mistaking the man in front of her.
Harry was unconscious and strapped to a chair with rope similar to the one that bound Charlie. His hair was matted and cuts covered every inch of skin that was visible. His glasses dangled from one ear, both the lenses smashed, but it was his shallow breaths that worried Charlie the most.
'I wouldn't feel sorry for him.'
Charlie couldn't help it; she screamed at the sound of Jane's voice. She hadn't realised she'd even been there.
Charlie tried to turn her head, but the pain was too much. As if sensing her struggle, Jane stepped out of the shadow into the glare of the harsh camping lights.
It may have been years since Charlie had seen her, but Jane had barely changed. She still looked like Lucy, athletically built and sturdy. But the cruel set of her mouth was not something Charlie recognised.
'Jane,' Charlie whispered. 'Why are you doing this? Please stop.'
But Jane paid her no attention, she just continued to glare at the motionless body of her husband.
'You never got married, Charlotte. I always thought you'd get married,' Jane said, glancing at her for a second before looking back at her husband. 'Good. They're all liars, anyway. And then they leave you.'
Charlie went to open her mouth, but Jane rushed forward and slashed a kitchen knife down her husband's cheek.
Harry Bennett didn't even flinch as his blood dripped off the end of chin from the fresh wound Jane had inflicted.
'Stop! Jane, you have to stop this,' Charlie begged. She could hear soft crying and knew Emma was there, having to listen to all of it, had probably watched her mom torture her dad for days.
Charlie's stomach rolled at the thought and she resisted the urge to retch.
Jane stepped back to admire her handy work, not even sparing Charlie a second glance.
'He was leaving me, going to take the children away from me, but I was only doing what he wanted. I was getting clean. I wanted to prove I was a good person. I had to prove it to Lucy. She always wanted me to be good,' Jane declared.
'This isn't being good, Jane. Look at what you're doing. Hurting your husband, hurting your kids. How can this make you a good person?' Charlie reasoned.
Jane lowered her knife whilst she thought.
'Bad people need to pay. They can't get away with being bad. Nobody stops them. But I do.' Jane whipped around to where Charlie sat on the floor. 'You are a bad person. You shouldn't have come here. I didn't kill you last time, but now I have to. Why did you have to come?' Jane demanded.
Charlie scouted back but there was nowhere for her to go as Jane advanced.
'What do you mean, kill me last time?' Charlie panted, trying to think of anything to delay Jane.
Her words did the trick as Jane stopped and tilted her head.
'You didn't know about the baby, Lucy's baby, so you didn't need to die. But the others, they knew. They murdered my baby niece. She had to have justice!' screamed Jane.
Charlie blanched as she realised what Jane was admitting to.
'Y-you killed them? You killed your own sister? And Jack and George,' stuttered Charlie.
'I heard them all arguing. It was over money. About whose responsibility it was to take care of it. George was trying to convince Jack that he had to help with the costs of the abortion,' Jane sneered.
'They were talking like the baby was a problem, Lucy told me as much when she caught me eavesdropping. She said I couldn't tell anyone, so I didn't. I thought I convinced her to keep the baby, but she went ahead and killed her.' The sneer dropped from Jane's face to replace with a look of utter devastation. 'My baby niece dead and I knew what I had to do.'
'But why spare me?' Charlie urged, hoping that if she kept Jane talking that help would come. Surely someone would come, she thought, feeling desperate.
'You're allergic to opioids. Did you know that?' Lucy asked. 'You only had a few mouthfuls out of the decanter and you started to be sick.'
'You drugged the alcohol,' Charlie stated, already knowing it was the truth.
'With the medication my mother was trying to give me. You almost ruined everything. I had to alter my plan and go after you, but then I saw your scar whilst you were bent over being sick. You were so wasted that when I asked about it, you told me everything. You even cried about what you'd lost. And I knew then that you'd never have let Lucy go through it. I knew you'd be on my side, so I made sure you got home and gave myself a reasonable alibi.'
A hollow feeling snaked through Charlie as she realised how close she'd come to dying. She shivered at the thought.
'You went back to the pond after you left my house?'
Jane's head tilted to the side like she was assessing Charlie. 'Dad said you'd become a private investigator, said that you'd find me, of course, that was before I killed him as well.'
Charlie jumped and clamped her mouth shut, lest she gave the truth away. If she didn't survive, then at least Jerry would remain safe as long as his daughter didn't know he was alive.
'I met Jack on the road. He was out of it and rambling on and on about how George and Lucy had fallen asleep and he couldn't wake them up. The thing about opioids is that they make people so suggestible in high enough doses. It was easy to lure him in the tunnel and kill him. Lucy and I had discovered the tunnels years ago, it was our little secret. I knew no one would ever find him there. I even took his hands so the police would have the perfect suspect. Poor troubled Jack.'
Charlie could only shake her head as the words poured out of Jane, unable to believe what she was saying. And yet she knew it made sense. The opioids in George and Lucy's system, the reason Jack was in the tunnel, her own sickness not caused by alcohol but by the effects of the drugs she hadn't known she was ingesting.
Charlie wanted to scream, wanted to make Jane stop, but in a sick way, she needed to know what happened that night. After years of not believing the story the police had sold to everyone; a lovers quarrel between three friends, she wanted the truth.
Jane admired her blood spattered knife whilst she talked, knowing that there was nothing Charlie could do. There was no way for her to escape.
'Once Jack was good and buried, I went back to the pond. He'd been right about George and Lucy; they were barely breathing so I acted quickly. It seemed fitting to kill them with Lucy's scarf. It had always brought her good luck, but I was the one to change that,' Jane mused.
'Jane, you're not well but I can help you.' Charlie tried, but Jane was already shaking her head.
'You die and then everything goes back to normal. My family will be safe here, all of us together forever.'
Jane raised the blade and stepped towards Charlie. And for the first time in her life, Charlie realised she had nothing left to say.
She wished she could have said goodbye to her parents and tell them how much she loved them. To tell Trap, how much he meant to her, how much she owed him for what he'd given her. Names and faces of people she wished she could say her farewells to. But one stuck out more. She wished she could have seen Neo again, to tell him how she really felt about him.
She closed her eyes not waiting to watch her approaching end.
'Jane.'
Jane swivelled and held her blade higher as she faced Neo.
Charlie's eyes popped open and she wanted to cry with relief as she made out Neo's dishevelled appearance. He looked worn down and haggard but right then he was better than all her dreams put together.
'You don't need to do this, Jane. Charlie is right, we can help you. This doesn't need to continue.' Neo tried to maintain eye contact with Jane but he couldn't help glancing at Charlie, his stomach dropping as he saw her hair was matted with blood.
'You lie,' Jane raged, making Neo focus back on her. 'She deserves to die. She's trying to tear my family apart just like my husband.'
'And did Dean Montgomery deserve to die? The boy who you murdered with his own injection of heroin.' It was a stab in the dark, but Neo knew he'd hit the nail on the head when Jane flinched.
'He was in the tunnel. He saw us. I had no choice,' she muttered.
'He had a family, Jane. A mother who will never get to see him.'
'No, no. He was alone,' cried Jane.
'He was alone, Jane, but he was still very much loved by his family and you took him away from them. Just like Lucy took your baby niece away from you.'
'I didn't mean to,' she whimpered.
'I know, but this needs to end before another Dean gets hurt. Think about Danny and Emma, your kids. End this for them, let them go home,' Neo urged.
He felt a tiny pair of arms wrap around his leg and looked down to see a sniffling little girl with dirty hair.
'Please mommy. I just want to go home. I just want to go home,' she whimpered.
The knife in Jane's hand shook. 'Emma?' She blinked.
'Please Jane, your children are suffering. You have to end this,' Neo urged.
'Danny is sick, Jane,' Charlie said as Jane's attention focused on her. 'You know he is. And the longer he stays down here, the worse he'll get.'
Jane's lip quivered. 'He's so hot. I've tried to make him better but he's so listless, nothing I do makes him better.'
'He needs medicine and a clean warm bed. We can make sure he's okay,' Charlie reassured her.
'I-I just don't know what to do,' Jane whispered. 'Please help my babies.'
Neo stepped forward and gently took the knife from her hand. 'I promise I won't let anything happen to your kids,' he vowed.
'I just wanted to protect them,' Jane wailed as she collapsed against the floor, her head held in her hands.
'I know, Jane. I know,' Neo said sadly, picking up the little girl.
Neo stepped back and turned to see an angry looking Gwilt enter the room, along with the rest of the team.
Finally their backup had arrived.