The Housemaid

by Sarah A. Denzil

  “You’re right. It does.” My fingers tightened around the hot mug. “I just need him to be locked away. I won’t be able to relax until then.”

  He nodded. A tentative smile played across his lips. “I swear, Ruby Dean, as soon as Lord Psycho and Mini Psycho are behind bars, we’re going to the nicest restaurant in Paxby, which is… Well, it’s Gino’s Italian restaurant near the brook. But we’re going to order lobster or caviar or whatever fancy food posh people eat and the best, biggest bottle of champagne you’ve ever seen.”

  I laughed. “Ade Bello, that’s rather forward of you.”

  He shrugged. “I’m sick of wasting time.”

  “Me too.”

  When he shook his head and bit his bottom lip, I thought it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. And I realised there was no other person on Earth I’d rather go through hell with except for maybe Roisin. Our eyes met, a question in his expression. I saw him wrestle with the decision of whether to kiss me or not. But as soon as I realised what he was thinking, I tensed slightly, and it broke the spell. He returned to his feet, and I considered blurting out an explanation about how I didn’t mean it. I did want Ade to kiss me, just maybe not first thing in the morning after finding out Alex Howard was in Spain.

  He paused by the door. “It’s nearly over, Rubes. We’re through the worst.”

  I nodded my head.

  “Hey, I almost forgot. Pawel wanted to meet me for a drink later. He’s struggling, poor lad. Do you mind if I meet him for a beer?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “I know we’ve not been apart…”

  “Yeah, no, that’s fine,” I said, desperately trying not to let fear creep into my voice.

  “He’s in Spain. He can’t hurt us.”

  “I know. Seriously, I’m fine.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I’m making eggy bread, so get your arse downstairs pronto. I’m not exaggerating when I say that my eggy bread is the best bloody eggy bread in the entire world.”

  “No exaggeration? Well, all right then.” I forced the smile to stretch across my face to hide the sharp edge of fear I lived with every second of every day.

  He left the room with a wink, and I sank back down into the pillow. The thought of being alone even scared the daylights out of me, but I couldn’t admit that to Ade. It was irrational and stupid. The man who terrorised me was across a sea, far away. I was safe. And yet my hands trembled.

  Ade left the house just after seven p.m. and walked around to the Crossed Scythes to meet Pawel. He’d requested Ade alone, presumably for some man talk. I found myself wandering around Ade’s home, running my fingers across plant leaves, hovering next to the drawers and wondering what was inside. But in the end, I didn’t snoop. I settled on the sofa and watched old episodes of Friends and Frasier. Anything with a friendly laugh track to make it feel as though I wasn’t alone. The house shivered with emptiness. I pulled a blanket around my shoulders and eventually fell asleep to Rachel and Ross arguing.

  I woke to the sound of my phone ringing. The soundbar on the television had turned itself off, and now an episode of Sex and the City played on mute. I rubbed sleep from my eyes and answered the phone, expecting it to be Ade telling me he was coming home or staying out late. In my sleepiness, I hadn’t noticed the number on the screen.

  “Hi, Ruby.”

  I dropped the phone.

  A scream lodged in my throat as I scrambled off the sofa, falling heavily on my knees. The blanket tangled around me as I sat on the floor, staring at the illuminated screen of my mobile phone. A thin, tinny voice came out of the speaker.

  “Ruby? Answer me, Ruby. You’re going to need to listen to me.”

  I snatched it from the sofa cushion. “How did you get my number?”

  “You’ve always asked such fascinating questions,” Alex said. “But this time you might want to know why I’m calling you and why it’s after midnight and your gardener hasn’t turned up to your little love shack yet.”

  A dull punch of despair spread through my body. “What have you done to Ade?”

  “Why don’t you come and see?”

  I shook my head in disbelief. I didn’t want this to be real. A squeaky voice emitted from my throat. “But you’re in Spain.”

  Alex laughed. “Oh, Ruby. You sound so different. So meek. Where’s the manipulation now? Where are your silly cameras and little doll house?”

  “Have you been following me?” I thought of the shadowy figure I saw across the street near Margot’s hotel. “Did Margot help you escape?”

  “That’s more like it,” Alex said. “There’s that curiosity I know and love. If you come to find your lover, perhaps I’ll answer some of those questions.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Where it all began,” he said.

  I pulled in a deep breath, steadying myself, steadying the fear. “I’m coming.”

  “Good girl. Now, there’s one stipulation, Ruby.”

  “What is it?”

  “If you call the police, I’ll slit his throat.”

  I pulled the phone away from my ear for a moment, allowing the rage to bubble up inside me. Then I placed it back. “How do I know you haven’t killed him already?”

  “One moment,” Alex said in the exact same tone a person would use when putting someone on hold.

  I waited.

  “Ruby, don’t come. He’ll kill us both. Go to the police—”

  “Ade!”

  My hand gripped the phone so tightly that I felt the blood drain from my fingertips. A rush of tears hit my eyes. He’d never sounded so panicked, so afraid. I seethed and burned.

  “There you go—”

  “I’m going to kill you,” I blurted out. “I’m going to. I swear it.”

  He chuckled slightly. It wasn’t the evil villain laugh from a superhero movie, but the kind of titter a person lets out when told a mediocre joke. Somehow, that was even more terrifying.

  I was about to hang up when I heard him say one more thing. “Do you trust me?”

  “Never,” I replied.

  The sound of his laughter continued in my mind long after I’d hung up the phone.

  Chapter 50

  I followed the edge of the woods where the boughs of the trees were crooked and the roots poked up through the earth. It was a warm night, and I sweated through my T-shirt and cardigan. My palm felt slick against the hilt of the kitchen knife I carried, and every now and then I swapped hands. Pins and needles worked their way up my arms. Dozens of thoughts flashed through my mind. How did Alex get past the police guard? How would I?

  The wrought iron gates loomed up ahead with the turrets of the house poking above. I walked over to the control panel and used the code to open the gates. As far as I could see, the place was empty. The mechanical whirring made me start, and the hand holding the knife flew up in defence.

  “Stupid,” I whispered, watching the gate judder open. I lowered my arm.

  A couple of security lights flashed on as I stepped onto the drive. Yellow police tape fluttered around the place, some tied to the gate, some loose, flapping along the breeze. Part of the lawns had been dug out, destroying Ade’s hard work. I found I couldn’t look at the excavation site; it made my chest constrict.

  Aside from a couple of lights on inside the house, Highwood seemed still and quiet. I made my way to the main entrance, pausing to control my breathing. I hadn’t called the police. I couldn’t risk it. No matter how much I wanted justice for my mother, Ade’s life was worth more than that. If the only way to save him was coming here alone, then so be it. But this time I had no tricks up my sleeve. No hidden cameras and microphones. No Mrs Huxley with her keys to the locked rooms. No Ade with the shotgun stolen from Bertie’s hunting collection.

  All I had was me and the knife in my hand.

  I opened the door. Perhaps that was enough. I’d made it this far, hadn’t I?

  As soon as I stepped inside, I heard the music. Chopin. The dreamy étu
de floated through the hallways. I knew the sound of that piano and the unmistakable touch of Alex’s playing. It froze my blood now, chilled the marrow of my bones. And yet, I walked towards it. Alex had to be in the music room, which meant I couldn’t surprise him by using the servant corridors. None of them connected to that part of the house.

  I turned the knife in my hand as I strode through the grand hall, noticing something amiss. Highwood smelled wrong. It smelled like petrol. The air reeked of it all around me.

  My heartbeat quickened. Of course I’d entered a trap. I’d expected nothing less. But still, that odour released primal, terrible fear. And yet I carried on until I reached the music room door. Inside this room, Alex and I had felt like we were in another world. But that had been the point, hadn’t it? To break down my defences, to groom me, make me like him. Make it fun for him.

  I saw the security guard first. So that was how Alex had got through the surveillance. He’d either knocked out or killed the poor man employed to watch the estate. He lay in a heap on the ground by the music room door. I bent down to check his pulse before noticing anything else.

  “He’s dead. Put the knife on the floor, Ruby.”

  I leapt away from the body on the ground. Shock ran through me, quick as an electrical current. The piano stool remained empty. The playing I’d heard was a recording, and Alex was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Pawel lounged in an armchair with a remote control in one hand and a smaller object in the other. A petrol can sat at his feet. He smiled at me. I couldn’t believe what I saw.

  “Put the knife down or I’ll set everything on fire. I swear I will.”

  I dropped the knife to the carpet.

  “Well done.”

  A muffled sound pulled me out of my shock. Ade was tied to a chair on the other side of the room. I ran over and removed his gag as Pawel used the remote control to turn off the music.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” Ade said. “It isn’t safe.” His eyes drifted over to the piano where I noticed the portrait of my mother, resting against the piano stool. Half of the wood panel had been ripped from the dining room wall. The sight of her severed body made me nauseous. “This is all a trap for you.”

  “How did this happen?”

  Ade’s eyes flicked over to the cook.

  Pawel grinned as he fiddled with a small, square object, and a tiny flame manifested between his knuckles. “Your boyfriend here was too stupid to suspect anything. When he got in my car, Alex and I restrained him. We took out the guard, disabled any surveillance equipment and tied him to that chair.”

  I stared at him in disbelief. “But why? Why are you here?”

  “Destroying evidence before it’s too late. Which includes you.”

  “Where’s Alex?”

  He shrugged.

  “Why are you working for him?”

  “He’s good to me.” The tone of his voice brought out the alarm bells in my mind. I knew danger when I heard it. I’d been around enough drug dealers and bad boyfriends to recognise a man about to snap. He was drunk. I saw that in his red eyes. His hair was greasy and pulled forward. “Everything worked. Until you and Roisin came along. You two women managed to screw everything up.”

  “Did you kill maids too? Were you helping the Howards all this time?”

  “I didn’t murder those women. I just…”

  “What?” I snapped. “Raped them?”

  “No!”

  “Oh, you were one of their lackeys then. A pathetic bootlicker paid to do what they asked of you. Including burning evidence. Why are you doing that, Pawel? Is it because you murdered Roisin?” The realisation hit me hard. Now everything clicked into place. I hadn’t seen it before. Even Ade let out a gasp.

  Pawel’s eyes were dark and dangerous. “She wasn’t supposed to be with him. She was supposed to be with me.”

  “So you strangled her?”

  He flicked the lighter, and another flame licked his fingertips. Orange light reflected in his glassy eyes, bringing them to life. “It was an accident.”

  “She fell into your hands, and you squeezed the life out of her by accident?” While Pawel was preoccupied by his thoughts, I backed up closer to Ade. Keeping my hands behind my back, I reached towards the ropes around his arms. “How did you get away with it? There was an autopsy.”

  “Bertie knows people,” Pawel said. “Besides, I used… I used an apron string. The marks… on her neck… they were similar to that…” He cleared his throat. How dare he be upset? “Bertie helped me get her into the tree. We waited until night.”

  I thought of Roisin’s lovers stringing up her lifeless body. But despite the vomit-inducing story, I managed to work through the knotted rope behind my back. Soon Ade had one arm free. I positioned myself between Pawel and Ade to block him from Pawel’s view. Behind me, I sensed Ade’s movement as he worked on his second arm.

  “How did Alex get rid of his car? Why was there a sighting of him in Spain?” I kept talking, biding time for Ade.

  “There was a kitchen boy who worked here for a while. He lives in Leeds. When he got caught dealing drugs, Lord Bertie paid for his lawyer. He stayed loyal.”

  “So Alex drove the car to this kid who then drove it all the way to Edinburgh?”

  Pawel nodded. “They’re about the same height, same hair colour. You know, for any CCTV footage. As for the tip in Spain, all I needed to do was email in some convincing sightings from a few different email accounts.”

  “Clever,” I said, lacing my voice with sarcasm. “Where is he, Pawel? He called me. I know he’s here.”

  But the cook nonchalantly shrugged as though he couldn’t care less. I glanced behind me to check that Ade was free. Then I directed my eyes to the wood panel resting against the piano stool. It was the closest we had to a weapon that I could reach out and grab.

  Pawel played with the lighter, bringing the flame to life and then making it disappear, then bringing it to life again. I grabbed one end of my mother’s portrait, lifted it and rammed the wood panel against Pawel’s jaw, tipping back the chair. The lighter dropped from Pawel’s hand and hit the carpet with a bounce.

  The flames came to life.

  Chapter 51

  I couldn’t let it go. Even at half the size, the panel was heavy, and it pulled my arm down with its weight. Behind me, flames latched onto everything in its path. Every curtain, every ornate piece of furniture, every portrait. It did not discriminate. But where was Alex?

  Ade looped his uninjured arm over the back end of the wood panel to help me move faster. We outpaced the flames, but barely. By the time we came to the entrance to the house, the hall had been consumed, but to our surprise, so had the kitchen. Someone else had started a fire here too. Alex?

  Heat emanated from the open kitchen door. Tiny, delicate flames licked the doorjamb, growing and expanding with each moment. On the other side, Pawel stood between us and the exit. He must’ve slipped out of the music room and used the servants’ corridor. I kicked myself for not doing the same.

  “Ade in three,” I said, hoping he’d catch on. I counted us down and thrust the wood panel forwards as hard as I could. I felt Ade’s weight behind it too, knocking into Pawel’s chest. It sent him flying back towards the door.

  But Pawel was merely winded, able to shake off the blow with ease. I swung my gaze back towards the kitchen where the fire was building in intensity, the heat piling out of the room, waves of it hitting my face. And then my blood turned ice cold because I’d just seen two blue eyes staring at me from the shadows.

  He was crouched, halfway down the stairs, slithering low like a snake, his hands on a lower step than his body. He’d tried to creep up on us like a cat, but the fire had illuminated his features in the dark. I knew exactly where he’d come from. Alex had been hiding upstairs. He probably ran into the cupboard when he heard us walking through the home. And now, he smiled at me. He smiled, and his lips stretched, and his teeth came out.

  He straightened himself to full h
eight.

  “I believe that belongs to me,” Alex said, nodding at the wooden panel.

  “The place is about to burn, Alex,” I said. “Just let us go. Don’t do anything stupid.” I’d turned to face Alex, and now I checked on Ade behind me. Pawel was back on his feet, blocking the exit. His arms folded. My mind screamed at me to stay calm and think rationally, but the heat from the fire and the pounding of my heart made it almost impossible. Meanwhile, Alex walked leisurely down the stairs like it was Sunday morning and all he had to do that day was read a newspaper and smoke a cigar.

  “I want my property back,” he said, his eyes lingering on me.

  That’s right. I had been next on their murder list, and that meant he owned me. I dropped my half of the panel, and Ade did the same. At least it freed up our hands. I racked my brain, trying to think of a way out of this. But we were surrounded by fire. I checked Alex for weapons, but I didn’t see anything. No obvious knife or gun.

  “Take it then,” I said.

  He kept coming. I saw no hesitation in his eyes whatsoever. He walked towards me until we were face to face.

  “That’s not the property I was referring to,” he said.

  So swift it almost blurred at the edges, Ade was by my side, shoving a hand against Alex’s chest. “Run, Ruby.”

  But I saw Pawel moving out of the corner of my eye, and I knew Ade was in danger. Ade managed to push Alex back towards the fire while Pawel lumbered up behind, his arms stretching. I had to act fast, so I dropped to a crouch, took hold of the panel with both hands and spun it until it hit Pawel on the back of his knees. He flinched, but it wasn’t enough to knock him down. When he stumbled and caught himself, I dropped the wood and ran to the door, praying it was open. It was.

  “Ade!” I yelled, but he was tussling with Alex on the floor, the two of them dangerously close to the fire. It raged now; it had a rumbling sound all of its own with golden-red flames covering the walls. I saw them spread into the entryway and felt the thick smoke hit the back of my throat. “Ade! We need to go!”