Final Account Read Free

policewoman sitting by her. I can’t sleep. It keeps going round in my mind, what happened. I want to tell you about it now. Can I?”
    â€œOf course.” Gristhorpe asked PC Weaver to stay and take notes. He introduced Banks and himself, then pulled out a stool for her. Alison gave them a sad, shy smile and sat down, holding the mug of tea to her chest with both hands as if she needed its heat. Gristhorpe indicated subtly that Banks should do the questioning.
    â€œAre you sure you feel up to this?” Banks asked her first.
    Alison nodded. “I think so.”
    â€œWould you like to tell us what happened, then?”
    Alison took a deep breath. Her eyes focused on something Banks couldn’t see.
    â€œIt was just after dark,” she began. “About ten o’clock, quarter past or thereabouts. I was reading. I thought I heard a sound out in the yard.”
    â€œWhat kind of sound?” Banks asked.
    â€œI … I don’t know. Just as if someone was out there. A thud, like someone bumping into something or something falling on the ground.”
    â€œCarry on.”
    Alison hugged her cup even closer. “At first I didn’t pay it any mind. I carried on reading, then I heard another sound, a sort of scraping, maybe ten minutes later.”
    â€œThen what did you do?” Banks asked.
    â€œI turned the yard light on and looked out of the window, but I couldn’t see anything.”
    â€œDid you have the television on, some music?”
    â€œNo. That’s why I could hear the sounds outside so clearly. Usually it’s so quiet and peaceful up here. All you can hear at night is the wind through the trees, and sometimes a lost sheep baa-ing, or a curlew up on the moors.”
    â€œWeren’t you scared being by yourself?”
    â€œNo. I like it. Even when I heard the noise I just thought it might be a stray dog or a sheep or something.”
    â€œWhere were your parents at this time?”
    â€œThey were out. It’s their wedding anniversary. Their twenty-first. They went out to dinner in Eastvale.”
    â€œYou didn’t want to go with them?”
    â€œNo. Well … I mean, it was their anniversary, wasn’t it?” She turned up her nose. “Besides, I don’t like fancy restaurants. And I don’t like Italian food. Anyway, it’s not as if it was Home Alone or something. I am nearly sixteen, you know. And it was my choice. I’d rather stay home and read. I don’t mind being by myself.”
    Perhaps, Banks guessed, they hadn’t invited her. “Carry on,” he said. “After you turned the yard light on, what did you do?”
    â€œWhen I couldn’t see anything, I just sort of brushed it off. Then I heard another noise, like a stone or something, hitting the wall. I was fed up of being disturbed by then, so I decided to go out and see what it was.”
    â€œYou still weren’t frightened?”
    â€œA bit, maybe, by then. But not really scared. I still thought it was probably an animal or something like that, maybe a fox. We get them sometimes.”
    â€œThen what happened?”
    â€œI opened the front door, and as soon as I stepped out, someone grabbed me and dragged me back inside and tied me to the chair. Then they put a rag in my mouth and put tape over it. I couldn’t swallow properly. It was all dry and it tasted of salt and oil.”
    Banks noticed her knuckles had turned white around the mug. He worried she would crush it. “How many of them were there, Alison?” he asked.
    â€œTwo.”
    â€œDo you remember anything about them?”
    She shook her head. “They were both dressed all in black, except one of them had white trainers on. The other had some sort of suede slip-ons, brown I think.”
    â€œYou didn’t see their faces?”
    Alison hooked her feet over the crossbar. “No, they had balaclavas on, black ones. But they weren’t like