The Serial Killer's Wife

by Alice Hunter

  ‘Thank you.’ Then I remember Adam saying they’d traced the car owner from the spitting incident. ‘It didn’t turn out to be the same person, then? The bloke who spat at me and the ones who left the gallows?’

  ‘I guess not, but I’m afraid I don’t know the details – I left that one to the local force. You need to call Banbury station.’

  ‘Yes. I should’ve already called them – I’ve just not got around to it,’ I say, as I walk with Imogen to the front door.

  It’s a huge relief she only came here to update me, not to arrest me.

  Have I got away with that, then?

  ‘I really appreciate you coming over,’ I add.

  Imogen stops and looks back at me. ‘One more thing.’

  My pulse skips. ‘Yes?’

  ‘Thank you for being brave enough to start the ball rolling.’ Her lips form a half-smile as she gives a curt nod.

  I’m not sure exactly what she means by that, but I return the gesture and say goodbye.

  Chapter 85

  BETH

  Now

  Julia rushes up to me as soon as I reach nursery at three. ‘I thought you’d come with Adam to pick up the girls?’

  ‘Why?’ I narrow my eyes into a question.

  ‘Well, you know – seeing as you two are a thing now.’ I half expect her to give me a nudge and a wink, but her gaze remains stony.

  ‘We’re not “a thing”, Julia,’ I say, tutting. Her posse are all looking over at us. I suspect Julia is asking the questions all of them want the answers to; they’ve just made her do the asking.

  ‘But you’re staying with him at his place, aren’t you?’

  ‘I was there for a couple of nights, yes – but I’m home again now. He was being a good friend and helping us out because I was afraid of being on my own. You know, with the threats and the journalists.’ I’m angry at myself for over-explaining.

  ‘You could’ve stayed with me,’ she says.

  ‘Really? Having two extra people in your house would’ve been a real challenge. Remember how frantic you were when you had Poppy over?’

  She bristles. ‘Well, yes. But still. I wouldn’t have turned you away now, would I?’

  ‘Thank you, that’s very kind of you, Julia. I’ll remember that in future. Although I’m rather hoping I won’t be run out of my own house again.’

  ‘Hmm,’ she says, her eyebrows rising. ‘The trial is coming up. I don’t think it’s over yet.’

  ‘The trial will prove Tom guilty. He’ll be in prison and I’ll be free to carry on my life with Poppy, here in Lower Tew, doing what I love.’ It’s a pretty sickly speech, I think, once I’ve finished. But I wanted to make it clear.

  Julia leans in closer, whispering in my ear, ‘Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.’

  ‘What secret?’

  ‘Don’t you remember telling me?’ Her eyes shine with what I assume to be mischievousness. Or is that a flash of malice? I didn’t tell Julia anything even slightly secretive. Why would I? I frown, and silently shake my head.

  ‘You had consumed rather a lot of alcohol,’ she says. Her stare is fixed. My insides quiver. What is she saying? She was the one who drank the most, not me.

  ‘Not really, Julia. You polished off the second bottle, if I remember rightly.’

  She shoots me a curious look. ‘You really don’t remember, do you?’

  ‘Obviously not, Julia, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation,’ I say, annoyance tipping my tone into sarcasm.

  ‘Oh, Beth,’ she says. ‘I didn’t have the second bottle. You did. Not that it matters – don’t worry.’ She lays a hand on my arm. ‘We both shared a lot that night.’

  My mind whirls. Is she right? Did I really have the bottle of Prosecco? Not her, like I thought? My mother’s face swims into my mind. Shit.

  I decide I’d best play it cautiously. ‘Well, if I told you a secret, then I assume it’ll stay that way?’

  Julia smiles and turns her back, walking back to the yummy mummies without answering me.

  What the hell did I say to her that night?

  Chapter 86

  BETH

  Now

  My body feels heavy but restless today, like my internal organs are itching and the only way to alleviate it is to keep moving. The awful events are taking their toll physically as well as mentally. And I can’t get Julia’s words out of my mind. They’re especially menacing now I know who the car in the spitting incident was registered to. I’ve kept the knowledge it was registered to one Julia Bennington to myself and informed the police officer from Banbury I don’t wish to press charges. I’ve never seen Julia’s car, so I hadn’t even dreamt she could be behind it when Adam told me the owner was female. I’ve no idea who the man was – it most definitely wasn’t her husband. I think it might have been her brother, but I’m not going to ask her.

  Right now, it’s the news which holds my attention. The remains of a woman’s body have been found. The grim discovery is already being linked with Tom. They haven’t released the victim’s name; they only say that her identity has been confirmed and her family have been informed.

  But I know.

  More will follow, they say.

  My phone rings and I immediately expect it to be reporters. I nearly hit the decline button, but it’s Maxwell. I let it ring a few more times, debating whether to let it go to voicemail. He was very off with me during the previous two calls – abrupt and business-like. Likely due to my part in all this. I don’t suppose he imagined that the wife of the accused would help the police secure such damning proof.

  I answer it. It’s to tell me the latest updates, he says, about the evidence against Tom. He is downbeat; his tone is flat, which leads me to mirror it. It’s a depressing conversation.

  ‘Alongside the evidence you were aware of, Beth,’ he says, in such a way as to leave me in no doubt he’s angry with me, ‘I need to inform you of what else the police have in order to adequately prepare us all for the trial.’

  ‘Before you go on, Maxwell, I want to say something.’

  He gives an audible sigh. ‘Right, go on,’ he says.

  I haven’t prepared for this conversation, so my speech is scattered with pauses and umming and ahing. But he seems to get my point, that I hadn’t meant to sabotage Tom’s chances of getting off – it wasn’t intentional, it was just that I’d become so stressed and confused, and the police backed me into a corner which I’d struggled to get out of again. ‘I crumbled, Maxwell. It was all too much,’ I say through my tears.

  He mumbles a bit, then carries on as though I’ve not spoken. But his words seem softer; his hard edges are smoothed. I settle back on the sofa and listen to his monotone voice as he explains the evidence. He would make a great hypnotherapist.

  ‘The forensics found blood stains at Katie Williams’ flat—’

  ‘Really? After all this time?’

  ‘Yes, Beth,’ he says. ‘Even when someone attempts to wash blood away, traces can be found. And originally the hallway floor wasn’t carpeted – once they lifted it, they found it.’

  ‘That’s where Tom threw the paperweight that killed her,’ I say.

  ‘Yes, that appears to corroborate what you say Tom told you. But there’s more.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I’m suddenly nervous. Tom said he’d thrown it to prevent Katie leaving; that she’d died there and he’d left her, afraid of what he’d done.

  ‘The blood trailed from the hallway to another room, which is likely to have been Katie’s bedroom at the time. But there wasn’t enough blood, they reckon, for them to believe it was a life-threatening injury.’

  This information barrels at me. It isn’t how Tom described what happened. ‘So, what you’re saying is, Tom hadn’t killed her? He’d just injured her and she managed to crawl to her room?’

  ‘Not quite.’

  ‘What, then?’

  ‘Initial post-mortem results show a fractured hyoid bone. Indicative of stran
gulation.’

  My hand unconsciously goes to my own throat. Christ, Tom strangled her too.

  It was no accident.

  For a moment I’m shocked, and then I’m angry. Angry he lied. Again. But then my emotions settle. I have to be honest with myself, if nobody else: this is what I expected. Deep down, I had always known it was no accident. Nor Phoebe’s death. And Natalia’s death wasn’t a sex game gone too far either. He’d strangled her to kill her. He’d meant to murder them all.

  I really have had a lucky escape.

  Strangely detached, I ask Maxwell how Tom is bearing up. I don’t know why.

  ‘As you’d expect, given the circumstances. And although he hasn’t been told you were the one to divulge the whereabouts of the body, he will of course know it was you, Beth.’

  ‘Yes. I’m aware of that. Tell him I’m sorry, but I did what I had to do. What any good mother would.’

  Chapter 87

  BETH

  Four months later

  With the huge amount of circumstantial evidence, the forensic files and the DNA profile secured from Katie Williams’ burial site, together with her mobile phone – complete with Tom’s fingerprints – the jury only took three hours to deliberate. It’d felt more like three days. They returned a unanimous guilty verdict.

  To say I was relieved didn’t come close.

  But seeing Tom in the dock was much more traumatic than I’d anticipated.

  The way he looked at me had made me shudder.

  Hatred. Those beautiful peacock-blue eyes were dark, and completely void of love. I’ve betrayed him more than anyone else in his life; even his parents. And that’s the message he asked Maxwell to convey.

  I’ll have to live with that.

  * * *

  ‘Well done, Beth. I’m so proud of you. You’re the strongest person I know.’ Adam envelops me in his arms, and I stay there for a moment, cocooned in this safe, comfortable embrace. Having Adam here today has meant the world to me. At the beginning, he’d been cautious about us being seen together, about people gossiping, and so we’d conducted our relationship in private; we didn’t want to rock the boat by flaunting it. But here he is, openly at my side. He couldn’t bear to think of me alone in the courtroom, he’d said. His need to support me outweighed his concern about wagging tongues. Although, of course, we’re still being careful because we have the girls to think about.

  Raised voices bring me back to the here and now. There are crowds of people outside the Crown Court waiting for me to walk out, and to bombard me with more questions.

  ‘We’d better get this over with,’ I say, giving him a squeeze, and then I release myself from his grasp. We leave the reception area of the court and walk outside. We don’t hold hands. The noise surges as I open the door, and grows as I make my way down the steps through the archway towards the waiting cameras.

  ‘How does it feel to be the one to put your own husband behind bars?’

  Flashes. Groping. Pushing.

  ‘What is it like being the wife of a serial killer, Beth?’

  Hands too close. Lenses in my face.

  ‘What are you going to do now?’

  I almost look up.

  This final question is the easiest to answer – and as much as I’d like to respond, I know I can’t tell them. I chew on my lip, tuck my chin down onto my chest, and allow Adam to drag me by the arm to the waiting cab.

  ‘If this is how people react every time you step outside, Beth, I’m going to have to rethink being your boyfriend,’ Adam jokes, as the car makes its way through the throng of people.

  ‘I think a quieter life is preferable, don’t you?’ I say.

  ‘Plan A still a go, then?’ He smiles at me.

  I nod, then when we’re far enough away from photographers and film crews, I slide up to him and we kiss.

  ‘Thanks so much for having the girls, Constance.’

  ‘Oh, you’re welcome, Adam. Always a delight to have Jess. And Poppy kept me entertained with her animal stories,’ Constance says, laughing. ‘She is quite the little storyteller, isn’t she?’

  I refrain from saying she takes after her father. ‘She is! I see a future in writing for her,’ I say, instead.

  ‘I’m going to miss Jess. And you, of course, Adam.’ Her eyes glisten with tears.

  ‘I promise we’ll visit, Constance. And anyway, we’ll both be back to sort out house sales. And Beth will be checking in on Poppy’s Place.’ Adam puts his arm over Constance’s shoulders and gives a gentle squeeze. ‘We will miss you, though, won’t we Jess?’

  Jess wraps her arms around Constance’s legs and says she will. ‘But I really want to see the sea!’ she beams.

  Adam’s parents retired to Devon, and after much discussion we’re convinced that the only way of being together, happily, with no interference, is to move out of Lower Tew. Away from the stares and gossip – free from the constraints of Tom’s notoriety and Camilla’s ghost. Not that she was in any way haunting us – it was more that other people were reluctant to let her go; to let Adam move on without putting in their two-penn’orth.

  Particularly as he was choosing to move on with the wife of a serial killer.

  Adam showed me the photos of his parents’ house in its wonderful seaside location and it immediately felt right. Their place isn’t huge, Adam had said, but they would accommodate us on a short-term basis until we found something else. In some ways everything had happened quickly between us – some might say we rushed – but in other ways, time had slowed, and each step we made felt precise and planned.

  When he’d suggested Devon, I didn’t hesitate. It made perfect sense.

  ‘I can work from home, but I don’t know what you’ll do about the café, though?’ he’d said.

  I did.

  Lucy will make the perfect manager.

  So, we’re doing what we have to do in order to be together.

  ‘How do you feel now it’s properly over?’ Adam says, handing me a champagne flute – this time filled with the real thing.

  ‘Cheers,’ I say. ‘Here’s to new beginnings.’ We clink glasses. ‘I’m feeling relieved. I’m feeling lucky. But it’s at a price, isn’t it? Those poor women.’ I lower my gaze.

  ‘You must never blame yourself – do you hear me? You didn’t know in time to save them. And when you did find out, you had to keep quiet to save yourself. You were really brave to tell the detective about the sweatshirt. We all make choices, Beth – we don’t always like all of them. Some things are for survival.’

  ‘Yeah, you’re right. Thank you.’ I note he doesn’t mention my knowledge of the whereabouts of Katie’s body. I know he understands my having been reluctant to take that information to the police, and even though I’d explained how it was more of a hunch than certain knowledge, I do think he feels awkward about me keeping it quiet once Tom was already in custody. I’m hoping now we won’t ever need to discuss it.

  ‘Now, drink up – we’ve a whole bottle to get through.’

  ‘A couple of glasses is fine, thanks. Let Constance have the rest.’ Another thing I need to change in my life is my alcohol consumption. It can get me into trouble. I’ve come to the uncomfortable conclusion I’m going down a similar path to my mother. Julia’s comments about me having necked the second bottle of Prosecco the night she came over made me panic. And I’d clearly said more than I should’ve. I must’ve let something slip. Hopefully nothing too damning …

  I need to make a fresh start for me and Poppy with Adam and Jess. I need to distance myself from everything that’s happened.

  Chapter 88

  TOM

  Now

  Who the hell did she think she was? Sitting there, holier than thou – confidently eyeing the jury as she spouted lie after lie.

  Never once did I control her. And manipulation? Bull. She is the master manipulator, not me. For a year after I told her about everything, she pretended to stand by me – promised she’d stay with me and get rid of t
hat sweatshirt – and all the while she was planning to send me down. I can’t believe it.

  ‘All I want is a secure family, to be good parents to Poppy,’ she’d said. How does me getting sent to prison fit with that? Stupid bitch. I did everything for her and Poppy. I put them first every time.

  The cell clanks shut behind me. I’m no longer on remand. I’m now a convicted criminal.

  A serial killer.

  There’s some kudos in that label, I guess. It might go some way to ensuring I’m not messed with in this place.

  But for life? My mind can’t comprehend it yet. The judge – a bloody woman of course – gave me a whole life order.

  Here until I die.

  All because of Beth.

  The betrayal cuts deep: I feel it in the pit of my stomach; I feel it in my heart. Every limb is heavy with it.

  I sit on the bed and look at each of the four walls in turn. My life now is destined to be as dull and empty as they are.

  I couldn’t care less about Beth – she’s hurt me too much. But as I lie down and stare at the ceiling, I wonder about Poppy. Will Beth tell her where I am? And eventually what I did? I suppose when she’s old enough, Poppy will be able to Google me and learn the truth anyway. Technology has a lot to answer for.

  I still don’t get it, though. Why would Beth split our family up? She believed me that the deaths of Phoebe and Katie were accidental. And she was adamant we had to keep being a normal, happy family to ensure Poppy never grew up without a father, like she had. Or an abusive one, like I’d had.

  What changed her mind?

  Chapter 89

  BETH

  Now

  It’s been three weeks since the trial and we’re due to leave for Teignmouth later. I just need to do one last thing before we go.

  It’s 8.30 a.m. and I’m at the visitors’ centre for the second and final time. I’m here a full forty-five minutes beforehand to ensure I can go through all the security palaver, get my visit done and get back to Lower Tew for around lunchtime. We’re planning to leave at two. Adam is currently loading his car with the first lot of luggage. He’ll be hiring a van for the second trip, then once we’re settled in our own house, which we’re going to rent short-term, we’ll organise for the rest to be brought and put into storage. I’m excited and terrified at the same time. It seems to have taken an age to have reached this point.