NINE
"Hey Reece, it's just me. I know you'll be getting ready for tonight's shoot, but just thought I'd give you a quick call, see how things are going. I'd better hang up before I end up leaving a long rambling message which used up all of your voice mail memory... Kind of like I am now... So, everything's ok here, give me a call tomorrow if you get chance. Don't mess up any shots. See ya." Jenny hit the call end button and tossed the phone onto the kitchen table. She knew Reece wouldn't have time to pick up the call, and that was why she had rung him when she did. She just needed to speak to someone, no speak at someone, for company she supposed, but also just so she wouldn't have to sit at home in silence. (Even the newly rediscovered CD's had rapidly lost their escapist appeal after today's drama.)
Jenny had been sitting at the kitchen table with the cordless phone in her hands for a good half an hour since she got back from town. She had hit the speed dial God knows how many times but always cut off the call before it connected. The events of the day still laid too heavily on her mind for it to be distracted for long by anything else, she had tried earlier but in vain. The first thing Jenny did after she had left Mill Studios, was make damn sure she picked up her new prescription. With everything that had happened since she had listened to the tapes, she needed the comfort of knowing none of it was due to any type of relapse. She had always taken her meds right on time and she would make sure that continued to do so, it was more important now than it had been at any time since she had left Bloomfield.
With that task accomplished, Jenny knew that what she needed now was some kind, any kind of distraction. So she had hit the shops in town, mostly window shopping until her feet were sore, then she had taking in a particularly bad movie and treated herself to a meal at Akbar's Monday afternoon all you can eat Buffet. But nothing had worked.
That was because she knew deep down she was going to have to listen to the tapes again, and sooner rather than later. But just now she couldn't bring herself to do it alone. Reece would be gone for another four maybe five days. She told herself she should wait for him to get back before tackling the Nagra once more, she wasn't going to tell him what she had heard, or what she had thought she had heard. Christ no, he would be on to Kapoor before she could finish her sentence and have her carted back off to the Monkey farm.
Jenny just felt that she needed someone in the house when she did finally listen to the tapes again. For comfort, for knowing he was close. But there wasn’t anyone else. That was the sad truth of her life at the moment. All her friends had faded into the background while she was sick, and she didn't blame one of them. She had been Queen Bitch to all of them, before she had been diagnosed. Things were said, horrible hurtful things. Bridges were burnt and only Reece had stuck by her through it all.
But Reece wasn't here, was he? And could she really wait another five days to listen to the tapes again? She had to know if there was something she had missed. What little she could make out was condensed so tightly on the tape that she could quite easily have skipped past something else, something important. What she had heard was unsettling enough, but not enough for Bromlyn to disappear off the face of the earth, to leave her Husband and Two children without a word, not even to let them know she was safe. If indeed she was.
That brought another problem. What if she did find that hidden part of the tape, the one that sent Bromlyn into hiding? Jenny shivered at the thought, but there was no denying the fact that what little she had heard, coupled with Bromlyn's disappearance had sown a seed in her mind. She had to face the fact she had to know what was happening here. It felt like a physical need to listen to them again, like having a hit of a drug you know is bad for you, but one you just cannot stay away from. Maybe it was just curiosity. Those voices came from somewhere, from someone. And having heard them once she had a burning need to go deeper, find out who they were. Who this butcher was.
Of course you know what curiosity did to the Cat? Jenny smiled grimly. Had it really only been less than twenty for hours since this had begun? It felt like she had been living with this knowledge for days now, if not weeks. It was a strange intoxicating mix of fear and exhilaration. Jenny wondered if this was how it started out for Bromlyn. But she didn't dare wonder if it would end the same way for her.
An hour later, Jenny found herself sat once more at the study desk with the Nagra and the two tapes in front of her. This time she had come prepared with an A4 pad of paper and two pens. Even if it took all night she would document everything she heard on the tapes. She decided to start with the second tape this time, the one with the short sharp burst of static, the one with the voices. It was strange, she had fled this room in shock and terror last night but now it felt right to be here. If anything, now that she had given herself over to the task, she couldn't wait to hear those pitiful voices again. As with last night, her palms were sweating and her heart was racing, but tonight in anticipation not trepidation.
Still, she wondered as she picked up the second tape and turned it over in her hands. Why had Bromlyn had used an old Nagra? She worked for a well-financed Film and Television facility and that would have given her access to all manner of state of the art sound recording gear. Even a PC or Jenny’s own out of date lap top, with the right software would have been better than this antique. With modern post-production software you could slow the sound right down to within a fraction of a second, set the thing to play on a loop and listen over and over with just one click of a mouse button. Jenny’s own Nagra was so out of date she couldn’t even buy a cable to connect the machine to her lap top if she had wanted to try it that way. Instead she was left to manually feed the tape through until she hit the right spot.
Jenny threaded the second tape and manually wound it until the sound meter went mental once more, she slowly fed it through with the volume at 10 but as before most of this section was totally inaudible to the human ear. Still she went through it another two times but with the same result. So she wound the tape on further, until with growing excitement she reached the burst of static. Her heart was hammering and she felt an almost electric sense of expectancy. She held her breath without realizing it. Chop.... Chop.... The... butcherssss... Back...
She wrote down the words on the pad, taking care to note the tapes counter. This section was seven minutes into the inaudible section. She played it again, slower. The voice, or voices were so distorted at this speed it was impossible to make out their number or sex. But she could make out the low drone of scraping underneath, but again at this speed it could have been anything, little more than a low rumble, but it was instinct, for want of a better word, Jenny felt it was metal scraping against metal. Yes that made sense, don't Butchers do that scraping thing to their knives to sharpen them?
Was this recorded in a butchers shop? She wrote, then without thinking. These voices, could they be animals? Waiting for the slaughter?
“Jesus, Woman!” Jenny scolded herself. “Get a grip!” She scribbled this out. If she was living in a cartoon, maybe! But no matter how weird her life was at the moment, it hadn't descended into the realm of talking animals just yet.
Then came the scream. Jenny felt it jolt through her fingertips and up her arm like an electric shock. Tears came instantly to her eyes and she had to bite back a sob. “So horrible,” she breathed and had to force herself to play it again, as slow as was humanly possible. It made her feel physically sick, she could only imagine what terror had produced such an unearthly sound. She was glad when it was cut short, and the sound meters needle died once more. She let the tape play on for a good few minutes, just in case she had missed another audible section from before, but the needle stayed glued to zero for the duration.
Now for the blank tape. Jenny unspooled the first and replaced it in the Nagra with the one she couldn't make anything out on. She cued it up and just let it play in normal speed, volume maxed out, she closed her eyes concentrating and just listened...
Jenny jolted awake, what seemed like a just a second later, awakened by the tape unspooling as it came to the end. Disorientated, Jenny sat up straight in the chair, her back ached from where she had been slumped forwards on the desk, and she rubbed her tired eyes. The click, click, click of the unspooled tape catching on the Nagra as it rotated drew her attention back to the machine. What the hell had just happened? The Nagra tape was twenty minutes long when played at normal speed, she had just started it at the beginning and the next thing she knew it had played out. Twenty minutes gone in the blink of an eye. Jenny switched off the machine and sat in silence for a moment, trying to compute what was going on. Her thoughts foggy from sleep.
The pen, which was in her hand, which she had no recollection of having picked up again after threading up the second tape, fell from between her fingers and clattered on to note pad which was laid on the table next to the Nagra. Jenny squinted at it, below the words she had transcribed from the first tape was a nonsensical mass of frantic scribbles and scrawls, some written with such force that the paper was torn here and there. Underneath, she could just about make out the vague sketch of what could have been a figure, plainly drawn with long flowing hair, but Jenny had then scribbled over and over it (in her sleep?) She leant forwards to get a closer look, still groggy from being awakened so suddenly. Yes, definitely a figure underneath, a crudely drawn outline with very basic facial features, eyes, nose, but missing a mouth of any kind. There was something about it that made Jenny go cold.
She pushed the pad away and ran her fingers through her hair. “Jesus.” She threw off the remains of sleep with a vigorous shake of the head and was contemplating coffee, and lots of it, when the phone rang in the bedroom. Jenny jumped up, glad of the distraction and jogged through into the bedroom to answer it. She got another shock seeing the time; 11:30pm. She had started listening to the two tapes at about 8pm. Reece must have finished early tonight.
She snatched up the phone. “Reece?” She was greeted with silence. “Hello, Reece, you there?”
She could faintly hear someone breathing shallowly on the other end. Then after an age. “Did you hear them?” A voice whispered hoarsely.
It was a woman's voice which threw Jenny for a second then her heart skipped. “Bromlyn? Brom is that you?”
“Did you listen to the tapes?” Her voice was stronger now, insistent.
“Yes,” Jenny replied. Now she was fully awake.
“So you heard them?” Bromlyn asked. “Please God tell me you heard them?” Jenny winced at the desperation in the Woman’s voice.
“Bromlyn, for God's sake, what's going on? Don't you know the police are looking for you? Where have...”
“Just answer the fucking question!” Bromlyn snapped harshly. “Did you hear them!?”
“Christ, yes,” Jenny answered. “I heard.... Something. Voices.”
“Oh thank God,” Bromlyn's voice flooded with relief. “Jenny I need to see you, can we meet? Tomorrow?”
Jenny was suddenly reticent, yes of course she wanted to meet with her, she had a million questions, but there was something about where manic switching of emotions the Woman was exhibiting. It felt too much like herself, not so long ago.
“Jenny?” Bromlyn almost shouted.
“Look, Brom, I don't know... Where did you get those tapes? Why use a Nagra?”
“Not now!” Bromlyn snapped back. She sounded like a woman balancing on the edge of sanity to Jenny. “Please, Jenny, please come, I really need to see you.” Her tone was pleading now, tinged with grief. “I really need your help.”
Jenny took a breath, she had to admit in the end she needed to see Bromlyn almost as much as Bromlyn needed to see her. So many questions would go unanswered if she bottled out of this now. (Whatever this was)
“Alright,” Jenny relented. “Where?”
“Oh God, thank you,” Bromlyn gushed, Jenny could hear tears were close and could only imagine what state the Woman was in physically. “Erm, let me think... Somewhere, somewhere bright, somewhere public.” There was a pause where Jenny could only hear her ragged breathing, then. “Roundhay Park. You know the Children’s playground, near the restaurant?”
“Yeah, the place where you can hire those peddle boats, by the lake?” Jenny knew the place well.
“Yes, yes that's it. Say about Nine tomorrow morning?”
“Ok, sure,” Jenny said, secretly thankful it was such a public place.
“And you mustn't tell anyone,” Bromlyn insisted. “No one can know about any of this. Not yet. I don't want them to lock me up.”
Jenny winced at 'lock me up.' “Ok, I promise,” she replied.
Bromlyn began to sob down the phone. “Oh, Jen, thank you.. And I am, so very sorry... It's just that I couldn't think of anyone else. I'm so, so sorry...”
“Hey, hey, Bromlym, It's ok...” Jenny said. But wasn't sure if Bromlyn even heard her she was crying so much now. “I'll see you tomorrow.” Jenny suddenly wanted the woman off the phone, her sobbing was cutting right into her and she felt tears of her own sting her eyes.
“Ok... I'll see you... Tomorrow...” Her voice trailed off, exhausted but at least she and stopped crying and sounded ready to hang up.
“Brom!” Jenny snapped, she had one more question that couldn't wait.
“Yes?” Bromlyn replied weakly.
“What are they? The voices?”
She heard Bromlyn sigh heavily on the other end followed by a long pause. “I think they're the dead, Jen.”
Then she hung up.
Jenny's legs gave way and before she knew it she was on her backside on the bedroom floor with that nerve shredding scream from the tape ringing in her ears.
TEN
Although Jenny was glad they had agreed to meet in such a public place, it did seemed like such a contradiction for someone like Bromlyn, who had done her best to avoid detection over the last week or so, would want to meet in such a well- populated place like Roundhay Park. Especially as it was during the School Summer holidays, and on such a beautiful August day like today, the park would be chock full of people enjoying the British Summer while it lasted.
She could have picked an out of the way bar or hotel somewhere where they could hold this clandestine meeting without worry of discovery. Bromlyn was after all, now officially a missing person. But how had she put it on the phone last night? She wanted to meet somewhere bright, somewhere public.
Thinking back to how terrified Bromlyn had sounded, Jenny was only too glad she had agreed to meet at the park. As she walked from the car park and through the park itself, even though it was only half past eight in the morning, the place was already starting to fill with scattered pockets of families getting set for a day in the sunshine. The roller bladers and joggers were out in full force winding their way alone the network of paths that crisscrossed the park.
It was quarter to nine when Jenny arrived at the cafe by the lake. Although the place would not open for another fifteen minutes, several of the cafes staff were buzzing around the decking area where you could sit out and enjoy the scenery whilst having your coffee, preparing for what was bound to be a busy day ahead.
Close to the cafe was a large children's playground made up of several wood and rope climbing frames a rustic style roundabout, and an impressive looking wooden fort. Half a dozen children were already in the playground climbing all over the place running around and otherwise shouting and screaming the place down, while several grown-ups sat chatting casually, reading the morning papers and of course occasionally kissing the odd skinned knee better.
Jenny stood watching the kids play for a moment and felt the growing anxiety which had been building up inside her since she had awoken (again from an unremembered nightmare) fade somewhat at this perfectly normal scene. It was a beautiful peaceful day in a beautiful peaceful park. A million miles from the darkness and dread that surrounded the tapes and those voices trapped on them.
Perhaps this was why Bromlyn had chosen to meet here. The nightmare world the tapes inhabited didn't seem so bad out here and watching the kids play and the day unfolding into another sunny one, the hold they had over Jenny had diminished considerably, so much so that she even caught herself half wishing Bromlyn wouldn't show up at all and cast a dark shadow over the day.
That was of course when she appeared, walking along the footpath that ran alongside the lake on the other side of the playground. Jenny caught sight of her through the jungle gym. She was dressed entirely in black with her head bowed one hand thrust in her coat pocket the other grasping a canvas sports bag. And it wasn't until she trudged closer that Jenny saw that her usually bright red hair had been hastily dyed black to match her outfit.
Bromlyn didn't notice her at first as her eyes were down cast, she just sat down at a picnic table close to the cafe by the water, her shoulders slumped like she had the weight of the world on them.
Jenny took one last look at the children and the normality they represented and made her way around the playground and over to were Bromlyn was sitting, the Woman looked like some kind of middle aged Goth. And when Jenny reached her, Bromlyn looked up at her with bloodshot eyes, her skin, which had always been pale was almost translucent with its lack of color. She clearly hadn't slept in days, the fatigue was etched all over her face. The shock of her appearance must have registered on Jenny's face because Bromlyn gave her the thinnest of smiles in greeting. There was no other word for it. Bromlyn looked like death.
“You'll have to forgive my appearance, Jenny.” Bromlyn said softly. “I'm not at my best at the moment.”
“No, it's, ok.” Jenny said. Along with lack of sleep, Bromlyn clearly hadn't bathed in days either, her hair was a matted mess and she stank of stale sweat and fear.
“I don't sleep much, lately,” Bromlyn said stating the obvious. She gestured for Jenny to sit opposite her, which Jenny did. For a long moment neither woman spoke. Finally Bromlyn nodded her head.
“You can say it. I look like shit.”
“What happened to you, Brom?” Jenny asked. “I went to the studio yesterday. They said you'd gone missing. It's been two weeks now since anyone has seen you.”
Bromlyn looked genuinely alarmed at this. “Two weeks! Are you sure?” She looked forlornly off over the lake and gave a slight shake of her head. “Has it really been that long?” She said to herself. Tears came to her eyes until they were twin pools matching the water close by. “God,” she whispered.
Jenny leaned forward and took a hold of one of Bromlyn's hand, which made the other woman start. Jenny felt a pang of guilt seeing her distress, it wasn't that long ago that she wanted to tear strips off Bromlyn for getting her involved in all this. But looking at her now, it was like looking at herself eighteen months ago. She felt a chill run through her when Bromlyn's lost, red rimmed eyes met hers.
She squeezed Bromlyn's hand reassuringly. “The police are looking for you, Brom. You need to go home, get some help.”