by Ali Carter
Once the body and boot were secured, Charlotte slumped into the driver’s seat with the exertion of it all and turned the ignition. The Roadster purred into life as she stuck a cigarette into the lighter, waited a few seconds for it to ‘pop’, lit up and dragged the nicotine down nice and deep. Then the Morgan pulled quietly out of the lane to take the route out towards Hill Road and St. Peter’s Church.
Gina was in bits. A phone call had come from the nursing home late that afternoon to say her grandmother’s heart had become a great deal weaker and could she come in that evening to see her as they didn’t think it would be long. Now they were back home it was all Andrew could do to comfort his girlfriend at all. He felt helpless, she’d been so devoted to the old lady, who after all’s said and done, had been a mother to her for the best part of eighteen years.
They’d arrived at Kirkby Nursing Home at about 8.00p.m. Gina had sat next to Margaret Rowland’s bed with her cheek resting on the old lady’s hand and an arm across her waist. Tears rolled down her cheeks whilst Andrew had sat alongside, his arm around her shoulders. She couldn’t believe how quickly the end had come given the fact her grandmother had seemed quite well the last time she’d visited, although Andrew had reminded her the staff had warned on several occasions she could suddenly take a turn for the worst. Gina had to console herself with at least having been able to spend a couple of hours with the wonderful lady before she passed, a lady who as far as she was concerned had been a mother to her all her life. What was strange though, Margaret Rowlands had managed to briefly stroke her granddaughter’s hair one last time, but called her Emily before her hand had fallen back onto the bed. Gina had sat up sharply then but through her tears could see it was too late for a chance to ask why…
Andrew felt it would be something his girlfriend would want to find out about in the coming days and weeks, but for now they just both lay snuggled up on the sofa with a couple of strong whisky coffees, and he held her close whilst she wept.
So many people lost in the last few weeks, he’d never known anything like it, all their lives had been turned upside down – and there was still a killer out there. Andrew reached for his drink and warmed his hands on the mug. Something has to give he thought as he stared across the room, something’s about to happen and it’s going to be soon – I can feel it. Gina had now fallen asleep – as he put the mug back on the table and took care not to wake her – he felt a sudden chill cut straight across the back of his neck.
Ethan James shut the cab door and paid the driver. He looked up at the luxury white brick hotel, shook his head slowly and smiled; “Just like you Em – only the best!” He took the steps two at a time and pushed at the spotless glass door, walked through to reception and booked in.
The nap on the way had paid dividends; at least he wasn’t completely feeling like death warmed up. Tomorrow though would probably be an almighty sleep fest. Once in his room he texted Emily, threw his holdall on the bed and walked through to the bathroom. Definitely time for a shower, change and a few other necessary ablutions…
Almost immediately the reply came through:-
‘8.00 p.m. is fine – don’t be late’
Short and sweet he thought with an eyebrow raised. He glanced at the holdall on the bed. For some reason, although he’d wanted to, Ethan hadn’t checked to see what it was she’d got him to bring over. With his concentration needed on flying it had been fairly easy to ignore on the trip, now though curiosity had got the better of him. He walked back out of the bathroom, phone in hand. As he ran the zip backwards and lifted out the package, breath held and hand poised – his phone bleeped again.
‘DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT…’
He released the breath and placed it back in the bag. You always were a bit of a witch Mrs. Stone…
Emily heard the knock at exactly 8.00p.m. and went to answer it. Ethan stood there, holdall in one hand, bottle of wine held high in the other. He gestured to the bag with the bottle;
“Just so you know I’ve not touched it – thought you’d like to chill out a little.” Emily gave him a half-smile and stood back as he walked in. She went to get two glasses and set them on the table. Her room had more than a regular mini-bar, large lounge area and sofas – it implied she was doing very well indeed. Still, he thought, the odd undercover diamond job didn’t exactly keep him penniless…
He handed over the package. Emily took it into the bathroom and locked the door. She opened the sealed box and unwrapped the 9mm Luger she’d packed in her Manhattan office the previous week, the box of cartridges sat neatly alongside. All good, she thought as she took a deep breath – all good. She packed both back up, tucked them inside the vanity unit cupboard and walked back into the bedroom.
They finished the wine and then without ceremony, Emily got up and pretty much kicked him out. From Ethan’s point of view he knew he could do with hitting the sack so wasn’t really bothered, from Emily’s point of view, he’d paid his dues. It was time to start the next phase – and to work out how she was going to handle Jenny.
The following morning, although Andrew had suggested she rest at home after her loss, Gina still decided to go into work. She didn’t want to sit around the flat and mope on her own, and Andrew had already said he really needed to get into the Courier. Jenny had got so absent-minded he was having to check half her work as well as doing his own, and he really needed to know what was going on with her. Gina told him she wanted to see Molly anyway, and would pop over to the Carpenters at lunchtime where they could all meet up as usual.
Andrew really hadn’t wanted to leave her, but with Jenny behaving the way she was and not giving any real explanation as to why – an affair with Miles just wasn’t cutting it as far as he was concerned – he didn’t really have much choice. Gina had insisted she’d be fine and they’d arranged to meet for lunch so he wasn’t unduly worried, but he would still much rather have taken her somewhere nice for the day, just the two of them.
As he drove out of the flat car park, he remembered Jenny had seemed really scared when they’d spoken about the Suzy Sarrandaire (Danielle Mogg), murder. At the time she’d managed to persuade him it was something else, but now he wondered if that was a straight-up lie.
Andrew approached the crossroads at St. Peter’s Church and braked to let someone go past before he carried on down the steep, aptly named Hill Road. As he drove he began to break again, harder as it descended more steeply halfway, then – nothing! He pumped the brake pedal again – nothing! The car quickly gained speed and the tight Z-bend came up! He panicked now, graffiti was one thing – to cut his brakes quite another! Pedestrians on the nearside were open-mouthed, some jumped into property gardens to get out of the way, others flattened themselves against walls, and some dove straight over them. Andrew knew what had to be done to avoid killing someone, including himself, and yanked the steering wheel down hard right – it sent the car speeding across the grassy hill slope that ran down the driver’s side of the road – towards the lake. He undid his seat belt in readiness, and pressed his window button so it dropped down fully open… then eyes skyward – he let fate do the rest.
As he hit it nose on, gallons of muddy lake water soon gushed through the opening and the car began to fill quickly, cold, dark and stinking. He just prayed it would work. Before it was above his head Andrew took a deep breath, brought his feet onto the seat, closed his eyes and pushed his way out through the open window into the lake. Arms pointed upwards like an arrow, he used his legs to kick himself up and away – his intended coffin sank quickly, deep into the murky depths. He knew he just had to keep going, just one stroke at a time and swim as effectively as he could till he reached the top, even though his clothes weighed him down, hampered every arm movement, every leg thrust.
Suddenly his upper body hit something! In the dark, cold and wet, blind to his direction, he thought at first he’d been barged by some large floating vegetation. His br
ain raced… which way?! Which way?! He couldn’t open his eyes and it would be pointless anyway. Lungs desperate for air now, and not sure how far he had to go to the surface, Andrew lunged out as hard as he could with his arms, thank God! Thank God it moved!
He sensed the water pressure was a little less now and there was a muddy brightness outside his closed lids. Before he knew it, in one huge whoosh his head broke the water, his body rose up; he gave a guttural gasp for air and then splashed back down! For a few moments he just trod water and breathed slowly, evenly – in and out, to calm his mind, regain some clarity. Once he felt his head was clear, Andrew stared straight at the shore, fixed his eyes on a single point and began a steady crawl purposefully back to land.
There was quite a crowd waiting for him including an ambulance, and there had been no mistaking the clapping, whistles and shouts of; “Hooray! Yessss!!! He’s made it! He’s okay!” as one stroke at a time he swam methodically back to land. Right then he felt forever grateful his parents had made him attend weekly swimming lessons as a boy – that was a definite. People ran down to the water’s edge to help him up now as he fell onto the shore exhausted and thankful… but he also realised that without any doubt at all – he was a marked man.
As he shivered in a recovery blanket, Andrew only half heard the buzz of voices around him. He stared out of the ambulance window to the lake as a mug of hot tea was pressed into his hands whilst both his blood pressure and heart were being monitored, but he barely noticed the activity.
That was no vegetation out there, it had moved far too easily. With everything that had been going on in his town lately it was likely to mean only one thing… another body.
THIRTY-FOUR
Harry stood on the shore with a couple of officers and watched the divers go in. When the call had come through about young Gale’s accident and what he thought was out in that lake, he felt sure it wouldn’t be long before the police surgeon, forensics and erection of an examination tent were in place – and unless there were two nutters running around this ‘quiet’ Cumbrian town, felt pretty certain it wouldn’t be a woman’s body that was brought up. If – after his flat break-in and psychic friend’s attempted murder, Andrew’s suspicion of his brakes being cut was correct, then it was the same perpetrator; but the M.O. was completely different from the murders of all the women. That was of course assuming it didn’t turn out to be a bundle of rags someone couldn’t be arsed to run down to the recycling centre.
When a diver’s hand went up to signal a find, he motioned one of the sergeants to go down to meet them. Two rubber-suited officers flanked the sides of the long tightly-bound object, swam it in to shore and hauled it onto the bank. From their exertions it was pretty obvious to Harry what they’d brought up was nothing any waste depot would accept. Their safety line was now untied, headgear pulled off, and bodysuits removed as they acknowledged the sergeant who’d arrived to take over. He’d already donned a pair of disposable gloves in readiness, and Harry walked down to see his officer cut the ropes around the large package, pull up the top bag and reveal its contents.
“We have a crime scene sir.”
Jenny Flood looked jaded as she walked across the marble mosaics of the hotel reception to the lifts and pressed the call button. It had been a long time since she’d seen Emily Stone apart from the odd few minutes on ‘FaceTime’ and ‘Skype’. Initially she’d begun to wonder how she could’ve even got sucked into this crazy scheme of hers – just because a man they’d both been involved with had hurt them both badly and made a choice neither of them had wanted. It had all begun three years ago when they’d met up at a publishing conference in Carlisle and discovered a common bond – Miles. It had taken the intervening time to persuade her, and now it had all begun to seem rather lame – especially as she’d fallen back in love with him, but now… she shuddered. Her life could never, would never be the same again after what she’d seen, what she couldn’t wipe out of her head. What was worse, she couldn’t even tell Miles, couldn’t tell anyone or Jason would suffer at her hands, Charlotte’s sick, evil, blood-red murderous hands.
And then there was the fact her brother hadn’t even come home last night…
Yes, initially she’d wondered about Emily’s crazy scheme, now though Jenny was scared and just wished someone could make Charlotte Peterson disappear – for good.
The lift arrived, people got out and she got in. It remained empty for the journey for which she was grateful – she didn’t feel like smiling, not since that night – the nightmares just kept coming…
The bell tinged its announcement to Emily’s floor and she took a deep breath and walked out into the corridor. What exactly that woman had in mind to discuss she hadn’t a clue, she didn’t really care anymore, all she knew was she wanted out of this crazy arrangement, whatever ‘this’ was. Her sanity couldn’t take much more, and that was what she’d come to tell her.
“Jenny! Hi!” Emily hugged her warmly; “Come in, come in I’ll get you a coffee, sit – sit.” Emily waved her hand in the vague direction of the sofas. She poured two espressos whilst her eyes darted over at the younger woman sat nervously on the sofa fiddling with the strap of her handbag. She looked like she needed a week’s worth of fast food and a few large cakes – and that was just for starters…
“I hope you don’t mind me saying Jen but… you look… really terrible…” Jenny stared open-mouthed in utter disbelief at the beautifully dressed, poised and confident woman who stood in front of her and held out her coffee. She had clearly forgotten that Jenny had not long witnessed the gruesome murder of an old friend, by the wife of the man they’d both had a relationship with, the wife that Emily had told her she’d planned for the last God knows how many years to send completely over the edge and into a long-term psychiatric unit – at the very least. Her brother had been threatened, she’d been blackmailed over his liberty, and her new job had suffered badly under the stress of it all – let alone her own mental and emotional health.
Jenny took the coffee, placed it on the table and fished a small hip flask out of her handbag. She unscrewed the lid and Emily watched as she poured a generous slug of brandy into her cup, stirred, and took a large gulp, shuddering slightly as it went down. This was a new habit.
Emily sat down slowly on the opposite sofa, placed her coffee on the table and stirred too, omitting the brandy… Well – she’d been right about one thing – Jenny Flood was going to be a complete liability. Plan B it was then.
Just then Jenny’s mobile rang and she saw Andrew’s name flash up. Damn that man! He was always on her back. She swiped right and answered the call. Crossed legged and relaxed into the sofa, Emily sipped her coffee and waited. When Jenny’s face began to look even paler than when she’d walked in, she slowly replaced the espresso on the table and sat forward in readiness for what was clearly about to be bad news.
“Andrew what are you saying!” shrieked Jenny desperately, “he’s been pulled out of the… the lake??!! Where? Why? How?!! What do you mean? Is he okay?! Are you okay?” This was definitely not sounding good thought Emily. Jenny pulled a notebook and pen from her bag and started to scribble.
“Yes, yes I’ll come over, I’ll come now, about twenty minutes I think, yes – bye – yeah got that, right, okay bye…”
She looked as sick as a dog by this point and Emily stood up in anticipation she would dive straight across the room to the en-suite then need help to hold her hair back. Instead though, she just sat in shock and stared at her phone. Emily couldn’t stand it any longer…
“Well?? What the hell’s going on??”
“It’s… my brother… it’s… it’s Jason. Andrew said he’s just been pulled out of… the lake – near St. Peter’s.” Hands clenched around her phone, Jenny bit her bottom lip and now stared hard at Emily. There’s been an accident… with Andrew’s car, I don’t know the details.” She snatched up her bag then and stood up abruptly.<
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“I have to go, right now, he wants me to drive over to his place and pick him up. He won’t tell me anything on the phone.” She walked to the door in a daze, then stopped and turned round.
“I don’t understand why Jason would be with him though, it doesn’t make any sense.” Emily juggled a few thoughts, if he couldn’t say what had happened to Jason that sounded bad – really bad, especially as Andrew was obviously well enough to be at home. Nobody delivers serious news over the phone. She went up to her, gave her a long hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Take care Jen, I hope it’s not bad news but I think you should be prepared – if you need me just call.” Jenny smiled weakly and nodded.
As she left she was relieved that at least one problem she felt had suffocated her for the last few weeks was now over, and without the need to actually say she wanted out. There was something about Emily that was just too full on for Jenny – she wasn’t entirely sure how far she’d go, and although she wanted Charlotte dealt with – she didn’t want any part of how. Now though, the only thing that was uppermost in her mind was her brother and whether he was alive or dead. The very thought it could be the latter was unbearable, but if he was… then Charlotte would no longer have a hold over her.
