The Poppy Field

Chapter 19

I spent every second of the rest of the weekend working on the case, more determined than ever. I went down to the club and to the block of flats, managing to get the CCTV footage by slightly exaggerating my position at the office. They backed up Kara's story but there was only so much that you could tell from such a small amount of footage. From the whole night, we had less than ten minutes accounted for and it wasn't particularly incriminating.

I managed to get in contact with the taxi driver from that night, although it appeared that he hadn't paid much attention to the people he'd picked up and dropped off that night. But I was distracted, other thoughts playing on my mind instead of the case. I was finding it difficult to ignore what Ben had said to me that night and, instead, began searching for the details of the woman who had worked as the personal assistant of Mr Walsh before I had.

Sally Williams was only a couple of years older than me and had suddenly quit her job two weeks before I started there. I managed to get this information out of Caitlyn who still had her contact details. Despite her repeated questioning I didn't tell her why I was searching for her, making her very hesitant to give me the details. Eventually she gave in, sensing how important it was.

I called the number that Caitlyn had given to me but it went straight through to the operator, telling me that this number had been disconnected. So I did what anyone with access to the internet, and social networking, would do. I typed her name into Google, looking through every result until I was certain that I had found the woman that I was looking for, matching the brief description I'd been given. She still lived in the area and her Facebook profile told me that she worked at the local bank in town. Hoping that her lunch break was similar to mine, I jumped into my car and drove into town, parking just next to the building where I sat and waited.

I had almost given up hope, my watch told me that I only had five minutes until I was supposed to be back at work, when I saw her walk past my car towards the building. She stopped at the traffic lights, nervously looking around her as if wanting to make sure that there wasn't someone following her. The light turned green and she crossed the road, surrounded by other pedestrians. I got out of my car, not wanting to lose her before I had the chance to talk to her.

'Miss Williams,' I called out as I ran down the street in an attempt to catch her. I dodged a group of teens who were blocking the path, huddled together outside an off licence. She turned around, suddenly stopping, and gave me a confused look. It wasn't an everyday event to be shouted at by a complete stranger. In person she looked a lot more similar to me than she had done on her profile pictures and I was taken aback for a moment before she replied.

'Do I know you?' She asked and I began to pick apart the differences between the two of us. A pair of glasses, with thick black frames, were balanced on her nose and her hair was a couple of inches longer than mine and a slightly darker shade of brown.

'No,' I began. 'But I need your help.' She raised her eyebrows at me, waiting for me to explain myself. ' You used to work for David Walsh didn't you?' I could tell from her reaction that I was right. That Ben had been right, there was definitely a dark reason for why she had quit her job so suddenly. Her eyes looked fearful as she glanced around me, as if to check that he wasn't there.

'I'm sorry, I don't know who you're talking about. I've never heard that name before in my life.' She said, turning on her heel and walking away from me.

'Please,' I begged as I reached out to grab her hand. This clearly sparked an unwanted memory as she flinched, pulling her wrist away from me in anger. 'I'm sorry.' I quickly apologised. 'I know how you feel.' She looked at me in shock, not sure whether or not she should believe me. I didn't blame her, she had no reason to.

'I'm sorry, but I'm late for a meeting,' she lied. I could tell, by the way her eyes were looking anywhere but directly at me. She turned on her heel and carried on walking, wrapping her scarf tightly around her neck as she did so. I wasn't quite ready to give up yet.

'Wait!' I shouted after her, receiving some strange looks off the surrounding people, although their opinions weren't even slightly important to me right now. 'I need your help.' She didn't stop. She didn't even turn around. If anything her pace quickened as she hurried to get away from me. Just hearing his name had caused her to want to run as far away from me as possible, she didn't trust a single person who knew him. Realising that it was possible that she'd had it much worse than me, I let her go.

I got back into my car and turned on the engine. It took a second but then the engine revved and the lights lit up. A wave of hot air rushed out of the heaters and I turned them down immediately as I waited until the windscreen had unfogged.

I drove out of town, not wanting to go back to work whilst simultaneously not wanting to go home. The second I got home I would be admitting failure, admitting the fact that I didn't have a case. I would have to call Kara, and then Ben, to tell them the bad news and I wasn't quite ready to face that reality. Not yet. Instead, I found myself driving aimlessly around, turning around every other corner until I found myself in an area of the town that I'd never seen before. The houses were all identical as they lined up along the street, appearing to have the same car parked in every drive and the same neatly trimmed hedges at the bottom of their gardens. I turned left at the bottom of the road and found myself at a roundabout that I recognised. I turned left again and drove down the road towards the supermarket. I hadn't driven this way since the day of my crash. I felt my heart start to rush as I drove past the poppy field, the flowers looking taller and brighter than before.

I heard a scream, and frantically turned around, pushing my foot on the brake and slowing down as I tried to figure out where the sound had come from. The car behind me honked its horn and I quickly pulled over to the side of the road. I looked around as I got out of the car, the smell of the fresh air hitting me. The sun was beginning to set in the sky and it cast a shadow across me, I shivered as I heard another scream. But no one was screaming, it was all in my head.

The memories of the accident rushed back to me all at once. These images that I had spent weeks trying to remember had all suddenly made an appearance and my brain couldn't quite handle it. I reached out towards my car to balance myself, but it wasn't enough, my legs couldn't support my weight. I slid my back down the side of the car, unable to stand properly, my hands clutching at my head as the screams and sirens continued. I felt as if my head would explode at any minute.

I was driving down the road, the sun was setting, just as it had tonight. A car suddenly pulled out in front of me, I swerved trying to avoid the car and jammed the brakes. The car in front crashed into mine and I felt the car behind me crash into mine, causing the car to jolt forward just a little bit more. I looked up, only for a second, that was all I had before it faded into darkness.

I racked my brain, my hands balled into fists, pulling at my hair and causing a few strands to break off. I let out a cry, both in happiness and frustration. I was almost certain now that the accident hadn't been my fault but the images still weren't perfectly clear. I suddenly sat up, conscious that I was appearing to have a mental breakdown whilst sat at the side of the road. I just wanted to cry and scream and curl up in a ball. The overgrown strands of grass tickled against my bare legs as I continued to shout out. I couldn't get the image out of my head, from when I'd looked up, just before it had all gone dark. I'd seen a face. A face that I could only just make out, but a face I recognised nonetheless. Behind the cuts and blood I knew I recognised the face from somewhere, it hadn't been a stranger after all, but I was struggling to remember where I knew it from.

I just about made it home without crashing, barely able to focus my concentration on the road. I collapsed onto the sofa the second I walked into my apartment, barely stopping to close the front door. The images continued to flash through my head as I slept, the image of a bloody and cut face haunting me as I slept. The screams still ringing in my ears, like an alarm I couldn't turn off.

I jolted upright when I woke up. It was the middle of the night, but that didn't stop me as I hurried out of my apartment and down the stairs, pushing open the front door of the building and running out onto the street. I didn't even stop to put on any shoes. The pavement was cold beneath my feet and I stepped on a couple of stones, grazing the souls of my feet as I ran, faster and faster through the night, with only the streetlamps to guide my way.

I stopped outside of his house in frustration and anger as I knocked on the door.