Ben’s eyes shone in the fading light coming through the dining room window. ‘In all honesty, I don’t think I would have. I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but as far as I’m concerned all that is in the past. It was a lifetime ago. I haven’t thought about any of it, of her, in years. It was only when that detective dragged me away from you on Saturday night that it all came flooding back. I remembered how utterly terrified I’d been waiting to learn the outcome of the jury’s verdict. If they’d found me guilty I would have been sent to prison for life for something I didn’t do. I was on my own, staring into the abyss, but fate or God or something else pulled me back from the precipice and allowed me to walk out of that court and make a fresh start. I rebuilt my life: went to university, graduated, set up my own business, and then met you. Every day since you and I got together I’ve worked my arse off to make you proud of me, to put distance between that old me and the man I want to be. You’ve been my inspiration and I’m now terrified that everything we’ve built together is about to disappear because that vindictive bitch has dragged you into all this. Please tell me I’m not losing you.’
A single tear broke free and rolled down his cheek. She’d never seen him looking so scared and so desolate, and her heart reached out to him. She moved quickly around the table and leaned forwards, wrapping her arms around him.
‘You could never lose me,’ she whispered into his ear. ‘Til death do us part, remember?’
She kissed him, hard and fast, slipping her tongue between his lips and showing him exactly what she wanted him to do.
FORTY-FOUR
Alice collapsed back onto the mattress, breathless, her heart close to bursting. Ben pushed the duvet back, his breaths as short and sharp as hers. A line of their discarded clothes led back from the bed towards the landing like a trail of breadcrumbs to show the journey their passion had taken.
Ben suddenly turned to face her, squashing his elbow into his pillow to prop up his head. ‘Mrs Goodman, I reckon some of what you just demanded is illegal in some counties.’ He laughed raucously like the huge weight that he’d been carrying for so long had finally been lifted.
She didn’t respond immediately, focusing instead on breathing and returning her pulse to a more steady rhythm. She wanted to shower, to clean up, but the mattress was warm and comfortable, and the en suite looked so far away as fatigue took hold.
‘Do you know what I fancy right now?’ Ben asked.
She looked over to him, amazed at how quickly he’d composed himself. ‘You’ll have to give me a few minutes,’ she cautioned.
‘No, not that,’ he chuckled. ‘I meant I feel like I could eat a horse right now. Let’s get an Indian takeaway. I really fancy vindaloo, lashings of poppadum and a cool, crisp beer.’
She hadn’t felt hungry since lunch, but suddenly her appetite raised a guilty hand at the suggestion of food.
‘I could eat a curry, but you’ll have to go and collect it.’
He punched the air in satisfaction with both fists as his head plumped back into the pillow. ‘I might need to shower first, but I don’t mind picking it up. You grab a menu and phone while I clean up.’ He paused. ‘You never know, we might have just started our family.’
Instinctively, Alice’s hands gently rubbed her belly, small delicate circles where her womb waited to be employed. It was certainly possible, but only time would tell.
Ben leaned over and kissed her. ‘I love you so much, Alice. You know that, don’t you?’
She smiled. ‘Of course I do. I can finally see traces of light at the end of this dark tunnel.’
‘Me too,’ he said, kissing her again before rolling over and off the bed, practically skipping to the bathroom and closing the door.
Swinging her legs over the bed, she stretched her arms high above her head and allowed a much-needed yawn to escape. It had been a long day, and although sunset was still a couple of hours away, she had no doubt that if she fell asleep now, she wouldn’t wake until morning.
Collecting her bra and pants from the carpet, she followed the trail of clothes back to the top of the stairs, finding her mobile off to the side where it had fallen mid-passion. The phone’s LED was flashing to indicate a notification, and as she unlocked the screen she was surprised to find she’d missed half a dozen calls from Faye.
Sitting on the top step, she redialled the number and waited for it to connect. ‘Faye? Is everything okay?’
‘No,’ Faye sniffed, her voice tempered with sadness. ‘I’m at the hospital. Can you come and see me? I didn’t know who else to call …’ her words faded into a high-pitched whisper as she began to cry.
‘What is it, sweetie? What’s happened?’
‘It’s Johnny … he’s … he’s dead.’
After a car journey where Alice was sure Ben had consistently been over the speed limit, they finally skidded into the hospital car park.
Thoughts of their lovemaking and the prospect of takeaway were now far from Alice’s mind. Faye had been unable to say much on the phone, other than repeating that she needed Alice to come to the hospital. She’d messaged to say Alice should come straight to the Accident and Emergency department, and as Ben pulled up as close to the entrance as he could, Alice’s mind was racing with possibilities.
Ben kissed her cheek. ‘I’ll park up and then I’ll come and find you.’
Alice heard without really listening. Pushing her door open, she felt frozen to the core despite the warm breeze clawing at her cheeks. She was nauseous as the bright lights of the waiting room zoomed into focus, but hurried in through the automatic doors and joined a queue of people waiting to check in at reception.
After giving Faye’s name to the man behind the desk, Alice was escorted through the secured doors and into the treatment area, where two uniformed police officers stood guard outside a closed door. The nurse identified Alice to them, and they stepped aside to allow her into the room. Faye was sitting up in bed wearing a hospital gown. Her face was swollen, and a single bloody scratch mark scaled the length of her cheek and neck, disappearing beneath the gown.
Alice’s hands shot up to her face in shock. The wounds were fresh, clearly not a result of the beating on Sunday, and suddenly the implication became crystal clear. Johnny was dead and Faye was once again banged up, but this time the police were here and that could only mean one thing.
‘Oh God, Faye, what’s happened?’
Faye’s face screwed into an inflated ball the second Alice spoke, and she started sobbing hysterically.
It was as if the dark cloud that had followed Ben and Alice for three days was suddenly back in the room, but this time it was Faye it hovered above like Damocles’ sword.
Placing one unsteady foot in front of the other, Alice tottered forwards, moving to the right side of the bed, away from Faye’s right arm which was suspended in a sling. A machine bleeped somewhere to the left, but Alice’s eyes stayed on the terrified creature struggling in the bed, praying to wake from the nightmare.
Alice pressed a cold hand against Faye’s forehead and gently brushed the fringe from her friend’s eyes. ‘It’s okay, sweetie, I’m here. Whatever you need, I’m here.’
Faye’s swollen cheeks were wet with tears, and now that she was closer, Alice could see yellow and purple bruising beneath Faye’s chin. She had no doubt that whatever had happened between them, Johnny’s death had come at a painful price for his wife.
‘Can you tell me what happened?’ Alice asked nervously, not even sure she wanted to know the full horror, but realizing she had to. After all, if she didn’t understand the truth, how could she possibly help?
Faye dried her eyes on the thin sheet covering her legs and abdomen, taking deep, broken breaths as she tried to control her sobs. ‘He-he-he had been gone since Sunday.’ A breath. ‘He came home drunk.’ Another breath. ‘Turns out he’d been at his mum’s.’ Another breath, this one the deepest and most settling. ‘He hadn’t called and I’d been fearing the worst. When I chall
enged him about it … he pushed me away. I told him I wanted a divorce. I couldn’t live with his violence any more, and he punched me. I don’t know what happened, but something snapped in my head: I fought back. I slapped and scratched his face – I was desperate to make him see what he was doing – but that only made him angrier. He knocked me to the floor and grabbed my neck.’ She mimed the action with her own hands. ‘He squeezed and I thought I would pass out, but then a second wind came, and I managed to knock him off me.’
She reached for the small oxygen mask near her left hand and pressed it against her face, taking several short breaths before lowering it again, her voice steadier.
‘I wasn’t going to let him kill me, so I ran towards the front door, but he got there first and blocked my exit. Then I raced upstairs, looking for anything I could use to defend myself. I went into the bathroom and locked the door, but he kicked it in. There was this fury in his eyes – like nothing I’d ever seen, and as I held up a pair of nail scissors he slapped them out of my hand and forced me over the side of the bath. He had his hand on the back of my head and kept pushing my head further into the tub. It was all I could do to keep grip of the side of the bath to stop myself falling in.’ She paused again, willing herself to say the words. ‘He pulled up my dress from behind, and scratched my legs as he yanked down my pants …’
The mask was back over her lips and mouth, her sad eyes staring up at Alice, and a lump rose rapidly in Alice’s throat.
‘As he tugged at his belt, I managed to wriggle free enough to drive my heel into his groin. He stumbled backwards, and it took all my strength to push myself up and around. I knew he wouldn’t be incapacitated for long, and I was desperate to get out. I tried to half-leap and push past him, but as I was about to land, he grabbed my ankle and pulled me back down. I lashed out. I kicked with both legs like a stubborn mule and I must have connected with his face, because the next minute he’d disappeared from view. As I scrambled free, I looked down and saw him lying slumped against the toilet bowl, his eyes wide open but not blinking. Then this patch of blood started to pool on the carpet. He must have cracked his head as he fell or something. I don’t know. It all happened so fast.
‘At first I thought he was just faking and that he’d suddenly wake and come for me again, but he didn’t. I must have been in shock because I froze to the spot. I couldn’t move. I must have sat there for an hour or so before I managed to get up and find a phone to call for an ambulance. I killed him, Alice, and now I don’t know what I’m going to do.’
FORTY-FIVE
The cigarette between Alice’s lips wobbled as the nurse cupped her hands and lit the tip for her. Alice nodded gratefully before coughing and spluttering as the smoke attacked her virgin lungs.
The sun hung low in the sky in the distance, but the sky directly above the hospital had already turned a much darker shade of blue. Patients with a variety of ailments came and went in a blur as Alice remained perched on the wooden bench, holding the cigarette that she didn’t really want but unable to think of any way to calm the nervous tension bubbling through her veins.
Almost an hour had passed since she’d first found Faye in that tiny room, but her friend’s confession still stung her ears.
I killed him, Alice, and now I don’t know what I’m going to do.
The doctors had set Faye’s wrist in plaster after confirming the fracture by X-ray. They had treated her kindly, seeing through the cloud of suspicion now surrounding the badly beaten woman, and focusing on the vulnerable patient who was struggling to grasp the enormity of what had unfolded over the course of a few hours.
Ben had remained in the A&E waiting room initially and had then agreed to go with one of the officers to make a formal identification of Johnny’s body. He had yet to return, and Alice was grateful for a moment alone.
It wasn’t what Faye had done that most upset her, nor what Johnny would have potentially done had he not been stopped. The guilt of not being there when her friend needed her most was overwhelming and was threatening to swallow Alice whole.
It was bad enough that she’d been too wrapped up in her own wedding day to realize her friend’s marriage was under strain, but even when Faye had come clean on Sunday, what support had Alice really provided? A shoulder to cry on maybe, but she’d done little else than send a message yesterday to ask if Faye was okay.
Her friend had reached out and Alice had allowed herself to become distracted by Kerry Valentine’s murder and Ben’s historical run-in with the law. The more she now thought about it, the more she realized she should have insisted Faye and Isabella join them at their house until things with Johnny were properly resolved. Why hadn’t she foreseen that this outcome was always a possibility, given what Faye had experienced on Sunday?
Alice inhaled again, the smoke making her cough once more, but the burn in her throat lessened.
If Faye and Isabella had been with her instead of at home, Johnny would have returned to an empty house and could have slept off the alcohol. He would still be alive today.
Now he was gone, and Isabella would never be able to hug her dad again or hear him say how much he loved her.
The tears broke free – tears for her friend and for Isabella. Three lives ruined when simple action, rather than inaction, could have made a difference.
It wasn’t her fault, of course it wasn’t, but her guilt was on overload, and nobody would convince her differently, at least, not tonight.
This was where her inactivity would stop. Faye needed a friend, and support, and that was precisely what Alice would provide.
Pulling out her phone, she dialled the only person she knew who would understand what was required.
The knock on the room’s door was followed by Hazelton’s head popping around it.
‘Is it okay if I come in?’ she asked.
Alice nodded and moved away from the bed to greet her.
‘She’s the victim in all this,’ Alice whispered, determined to make that part clear. ‘Johnny attacked her and what she did was done in self-defence.’
Hazelton looked over to the now-sedated Faye, asleep on the bed. ‘Okay, I will do what I can for your friend but I haven’t been assigned to this case, and I doubt I will be as I’m only in Southampton to support the Kerry Valentine inquiry. I’ll speak to the SIO and make sure he understands their history.’
Alice allowed a small sigh of relief to escape. ‘I really appreciate you coming out here. What must you think of me and my friends? We’re really not a bad lot.’ She instantly regretted her attempt to lighten the tone. It wasn’t the time or place for light-hearted quips.
‘You said on the phone this wasn’t the first time Johnny attacked Faye?’ Hazelton said as she pulled out a smartphone and began to record the conversation. ‘Don’t worry about this,’ she said. ‘It’s only for my purposes. I’ll type up notes later.’
Alice tried to ignore the phone. ‘She called me round on Sunday and her face didn’t look dissimilar to how it does now, though there was no scratch on her cheek. Her eyes and cheeks were puffy and there was blood beneath her nose. She told me Johnny had beaten her and stormed out.’
‘Did she report the incident to the police?’
Alice shook her head. ‘I told her she should, and now I regret not phoning them myself, but she didn’t want the police involved.’
‘She doesn’t have any choice now,’ Hazelton sighed. ‘Are you aware of any other altercations between them?’
Alice tried to remember what Faye had told her on Sunday. ‘There was an incident the weekend before last when he was dropping her at the airport for my hen do in Paris. They argued then I think.’
Hazelton frowned. ‘Are we talking about the Saturday before last? The same night Kerry Valentine was murdered?’
Alice nodded, acknowledging the inference.
‘Do you know if he was violent towards Faye then?’
Alice screwed up her face. ‘I really don’t know. I don’t think so, at
least she didn’t tell me he had, but then I also think she kept it well hidden for a long time. I get the impression this violence has been a regular occurrence for some time.’
‘Johnny was at Ben’s stag do in Bournemouth, wasn’t he? I remember watching the recording of his interview on Sunday morning.’
Alice nodded again, the taste of the cigarette tar clinging to her tongue like mould.
‘And on the occasions when you and I have met since Faye came clean on Sunday, you didn’t think to mention Johnny’s violent streak to me?’
Alice could only shrug. ‘I wanted to, but I didn’t know if you would think I was jumping to conclusions and throwing my friends under the bus to help Ben. I didn’t have any real evidence, and I knew Faye wouldn’t back up my story if I told you.’
‘Even so, if we’d been made aware of his violent streak sooner, it might have helped steer our investigation.’
‘So you think he killed Kerry?’
Hazelton ground her teeth uncertainly. ‘I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. It’s possible Johnny could have been responsible for Kerry’s death, but if that’s the case then one or more of the stag party has lied to us, and there will be repercussions for that.’
Alice recalled Dave’s conversation with the mystery caller: We all stuck to the same story, so they’ve no reason to doubt what we said. Don’t worry, I made sure everyone knew the timeline of activity.
Alice’s eyes fell back on Faye. ‘What will happen to Faye? Will they arrest her?’
‘As soon as the doctor clears her to go home, we will have to arrest her. It’s standard protocol when a domestic disturbance results in a dead body. We need to know what happened in Faye’s own words. The important thing for her to remember is the truth.’
‘Then what happens? Johnny’s dead, but she didn’t mean to kill him; she’s not that sort of person. I swear on my life!’
Hazelton’s thin smile did little to reassure her. ‘What happens then is dependent on what she tells us and what the pathologist discovers in the post mortem. If your friend’s version correlates with the pathologist’s findings, then it’s possible no charges will be brought, but it’s far too early to speculate at this point. The important thing right now is that Faye isn’t in any more danger. We have a duty of care to all – regardless of the crimes they’re accused of committing. We just want to make sure she’s okay and then the process will begin.’
Till Death Do Us Part Page 22
