by Edie Baylis
‘Money,’ Robert barked, wincing hearing his mother sobbing loudly. ‘It’s all about money.’ Cradling his mother in his big arms, he sighed. ‘I raced over to Helen’s house. James told me what was going on. He found stuff in their garage and wrote to me... I got there... she... she’s killed him.’
Teagan wobbled and leant against the bed’s wooden footboard for support. This was too much.
‘I’m guessing Helen killed James earlier tonight. She staved his head in and then came over here. I think she was planning on...’ Robert jerked his head towards his mother.
Teagan couldn’t comprehend this. Was he saying Helen was planning on killing Dulcie too? Was that why she was here?
‘She was so angry with me,’ Dulcie whimpered, clinging on to Robert like a child.
Teagan moved to sit next to Robert and Dulcie on the bed. If Helen had planned to kill Dulcie...?
‘We were in here arguing,’ Dulcie murmured. ‘Helen hit me... She was saying the most dreadful things... I fell... banged my head.’ Her voice became quiet, almost inaudible. ‘I was on the floor behind the bed. Then... then I heard a man. He was screaming at Helen, saying... oh, I don’t know what he was saying.’
Dulcie wiped her shaking hands across her eyes. ‘He didn’t notice me... I crawled under the bed whilst he tipped out all my drawers. Helen was shouting, calling him a liar. The next thing I heard the gun go off and that was it. I must have passed out.’ She threw her hands up in the air. ‘Oh God, my daughter, my beautiful daughter is dead. He killed her! I should have been able to protect her... I...’
‘Sshh, you couldn’t have done anything,’ Teagan soothed, her mind racing. She looked at Robert. ‘We need to call the police.’
Robert nodded. ‘I’ll do that now.’
Dulcie gripped onto Robert as he got up from the bed. ‘Don’t let them take me away! Don’t let them take me to the hospital. I want to stay here with you. I...’
Robert held his mother’s face in his big hands. ‘Don’t worry, you won’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I’ll make sure of that. This isn’t your fault, mother. Helen was involved in a lot of things none of us had the faintest clue about. This man must be something to do with her and whatever she was involved in. Her luck clearly ran out. I’m just so glad you’re safe.’
Kissing the top of Dulcie’s head, Robert staggered from the room, dialling 999 on his mobile.
Forty Eight
SITTING DOWNSTAIRS WAITING for the police to arrive, Teagan shook with both nerves and shock. The relief that Dulcie was ok was immense, but she couldn’t get her head around what Helen had done and her mind was knotted into a thousand different tangles.
When seeing the man had rushed from the house she’d immediately thought he was something to do with those despicable people Joe had got himself involved with, but from what Dulcie had said, it was all to do with something Helen had been involved in. This was nothing to do with Joe.
Relief poured over her – as much as that was possible in a situation such as this. The knowledge that this hadn’t happened off the back of anything inadvertently connected to her made the awfulness marginally more bearable.
But she was also angry. Angry, hurt and incredibly sad.
She looked at Robert sitting outwardly calmly, but locked inside his own head with his own collection of tumbling thoughts.
‘How could I have been so stupid?’ Teagan whispered. ‘I believed Helen. I believed she was worried sick about Dulcie and genuinely trying to do her best, but all along... all along...’ A fresh wave of tears poured down her face.
‘She fooled all of us. I believed her too,’ Robert said. ‘I fought Helen for a long time over her claims that mother’s behaviour was getting worse. I never wanted to believe mother had dementia. It was only recently when she told me what you’d said...’
‘See! I gave Helen the ammunition to get Dulcie into that home. I thought I was doing the right thing... I thought...’
‘Teagan, you did do the right thing. What else were you supposed to do or think with the way those tablets were making my mother act?’ Robert countered. ‘This is not on you.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘This is on Helen. She’s always been cold, but I never dreamt she’d do this. Any of it! She did it so methodically too; so well planned... And James... the poor bastard.’
The image of James’ caved-in skull flashed vividly in Robert’s mind. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to erase it from his memory. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to erase anything from this day from his memory.
Teagan smiled weakly. She’d got Robert all wrong. She’d chosen the wrong sibling to suspect. It hadn’t been him, it had always been Helen. ‘Do you think we should have allowed Dulcie to go back into the room? The police... it’s a crime scene.’
Robert shrugged. ‘I can’t see how it will make much of a difference. You didn’t see the guy’s face, as neither did I and mother said all she saw was his feet and his gloved hands holding a gun.’ His eyes grew cold. ‘Personally, I don’t know why she wants some time alone with Helen before the police cart off her treacherous body.’
‘Helen’s still her daughter.’
‘Yeah, a daughter who had been poisoning her for months and planning to rip her off by selling her house from under her. It’s obvious my sister was involved with unscrupulous people and she’d pissed them about. To top it all off, she murdered her own husband because he’d worked her out. She knew the game was up.’
‘What are we going to do if the police insist Dulcie goes to hospital to be checked over? You heard what she said, she wants to stay here – she’s terrified, bless her.’ Teagan wrung her hands together in despair.
Robert pursed his lips. ‘My first thought was to get her to the hospital and get all of those drugs Helen’s been shoving into her out of her system, but now I’m thinking that would do more harm than good.’
Teagan nodded. ‘I think you’re right. They’ll be completely out of her system within a day or two anyway. It’s not like she’s had an overdose and you don’t know what they’ll want to do. They might want to pump her stomach or subject her to countless blood tests.’ She looked at Robert, worry reflected equally in his eyes as her own. ‘I-I don’t think she’ll be able to take it. She’s already had too much to deal with.’
‘Don’t worry. I won’t let them take her anywhere. She’s been through enough.’
Teagan placed her hand on Robert’s arm, the sensation feeling at odds after all the time she’d spent thinking so little of him. ‘But what will happen? She can’t stay here – probably not for a few days. The police will need to remove... remove the body, then do their investigation and...’
‘I know I didn’t want you here, but I have to say that I’m glad you were!’ Robert placed his hand over Teagan’s. ‘You’ll both come and stay with me – at least until we know what’s going on.’
Teagan smiled weakly. ‘Thank you. I think Dulcie will need you around – especially tonight. And I’ll feel so much better knowing you’re around too. It’s so much to take in. My head’s spinning, so I hate to think how Dulcie feels. Imagine your daughter doing something like that to you?’ Teagan shook her head wearily watching Robert do the same in a mixture of despair and anger. ‘I’d better go and get her. The police will be here any minute.’
Robert nodded. ‘Do you mind? I really don’t want to set eyes on my bitch of a sister again. I hope she fucking rots in hell.’
DULCIE STARED AT THE BODY of her daughter, a slow smile spreading across her face. ‘Thought you’d got away with it?’ she whispered, her beady eyes fixed on Helen’s lifeless face. ‘But you didn’t, did you?’
Getting down on her hands and knees, she reached under the bed, blindly feeling around, her ears finely tuned for any movement signalling Teagan or Robert were coming upstairs. Satisfied they were respecting her wish to spend a last few moments saying goodbye to her ‘darling daughter’, her fingers probed further until they closed around the barr
el of the Beretta she’d pushed behind the furthest foot of the bed.
It was fortunate Teagan hadn’t spotted it when she’d crouched down to help her out from under the bed, but thankfully she’d been too busy concentrating on getting her out unharmed to notice anything else.
Scrabbling back up from the floor, Dulcie rubbed her knees, scowled at her ripped tights, courtesy of getting under the bed in such a rush in the first place when she’d heard that man coming. That and the split lip where her bitch of a daughter had backhanded her. She’d already got a lump forming on the back of her head, courtesy of whacking it on the mirror, but it had all been worth it in the end.
She glanced at Helen again. More than worth it.
Dulcie stared at the gun in her hands. Something else Michael insisted she kept in the event she should need it. His words of that day from very long ago resounded clearly in her mind. ‘Just in case, babe, just in case. You never know when you might need it’.
Well, Michael was right. She had needed it – albeit forty years on and not for what she’d thought she’d need it for. But she’d enjoyed finally putting it to good use. Enjoyed it very much indeed.
With a grunt of effort, Dulcie prised the floorboards back up, exposing her secret hiding place. Wrapping the gun back in a towel, she carefully placed it back in its wooden box, glad she’d relied on her instinct that this day was fast approaching and got it out ready.
Helen really had been stupid to think she hadn’t noticed what she’d been planning. Dulcie smiled. She hadn’t even been completely sure that Helen was swapping out those vitamins, but she did know her daughter well enough to know that she’d been doing something. She knew she wanted her out of the way so she could have Footlights.
Her wrinkled forehead furrowed, unable to work out how Helen had found out about the stash and about Robert’s father, but now it all made sense.
When that man had turned up, everything had made sense.
Before replacing the floorboard back in its correct position, Dulcie removed another box – a small wooden one and held it in her hand, smiling once again.
‘I promised you Michael and I haven’t let you down. They’re still safe and will remain so.’ She’d have to change her plans a little now because something had become very obvious. It was imperative she covered all bases.
Dulcie shoved the small box into her pocket and replaced the floorboard carefully. She stared at her daughter’s lifeless body once again. You little bitch, she thought acidly. You should have gone years ago.
But at least one thing Helen had done before she was removed off this mortal coil was to unknowingly give her a heads up.
Helen knew Dulcie was in possession of the diamonds – those beautiful pink diamonds – Michael’s beautiful pink diamonds, because someone had told her. And the only people that could have told her were the Powells. She knew they’d been looking for her for years, but she was too clever. Oh yes, she was far too clever.
Dulcie knew she was lucky to be in the position where she’d had time to scramble under the bed before that man had reached the bedroom. It was all very fortunate all round.
After despatching Helen she’d been wracking her brains to think of a reason – a plausible reason as to why she had shot Helen. Self-defence? Although not without its many problems, Dulcie knew she’d have to use that one. She’d say it was Helen’s gun; that she’d pointed it at her – tried to kill her and then it had just gone off. She’d have thought of something, but now she didn’t need to.
When she’d heard it – that floorboard – the one half way up the stairs that sounded like the whole staircase would collapse, she’d known someone was coming.
From where she’d hidden under the bed, she’d watched the man, his face livid to see Helen’s body on the floor and the turned over state of the room and had obviously come to his own conclusions. She’d seen his face only briefly, but she’d known straight away who he was. She didn’t know his name, but she knew he was a Powell.
She’d seen those eyes, that jawline and that expression many years ago on more than one occasion. And she knew exactly who that man’s bloodline was. That man was a Powell. She’d seen Jacky Powell himself on several occasions whilst working at The Feathers and whoever had been standing at the foot of her bed tonight was, it was a Powell. A son, presumably. And he was here for only one thing. Those diamonds.
Well, he wasn’t having them. She’d seen his expression as he’d surveyed the scene and Helen’s body. It must have been him who’d told Helen about the diamonds in the first place; cut a deal with Helen to get her dear old mother out of the picture and then lift the jewels, but he must think Helen had involved someone else, because she’d single-handedly in her rage made it look that way, the idiotic girl.
Dulcie tried not to laugh. The Powell man also presumed that, judging by what he’d said on the phone, she had been kidnapped, along with the diamonds. Oh yes, she’d heard his conversation. He thought he’d been turned over. It couldn’t be better.
Dulcie smiled serenely. Luck was definitely on her side. If he hadn’t got that phone call warning him that Teagan and Robert were coming he would have discovered her under the bed. Bless their perfect timing.
Dulcie’s smile dropped. But there was something else. As well as the Powell man that was here tonight, there was that other one – that Darren Harding. She couldn’t leave him out of the equation.
Something was going on there too. Whoever he said he was, there was an unmistakeable link to Michael there. Something about him, his eyes – something. It was there and it was clear.
That man hadn’t been here because of his interest in Teagan, she’d bet her life on it. He was here because of the diamonds too.
Dulcie’s eyes narrowed as the pieces of the jigsaw slotted into a feasible place.
That boy must be to do with Michael’s first family – the one he should never have had. That boy was something to do with Sophie Pointer, she was sure of it. It was the only thing that made sense. How he had found her or discovered about the diamonds was another mystery, but not one she could afford to ignore.
One thing was certain and that was she couldn’t risk hanging on to the jewels. Not on her person and not in this room. She needed someone else to take on that burden just in case Powell returned and she suspected he would. Perhaps not next week or next month, but he’d be back now he knew where she was and when he found out that she was still about.
That was unless she could frame him for Helen’s murder. Robert and Teagan had certainly believed her when she’d said the man had shot Helen and the police had no reason not to either. It all depended on whether they could link it back to him. But she could hardly give his name without dropping herself in it. Neither did it help her where the Harding boy was concerned.
Dulcie frowned. She had to make sure that if Teagan was to continue seeing the man, then she only spoke to him of things that she instructed. Actually, it could be imperative that Teagan remained seeing Harding – that way she could control it.
The trick was how she would do this without the girl knowing.
It was ok. She had a plan. She just had to keep up the pretence that she’d taken those pills and act the part of the distressed mother and all would be good. There was no way she was going to the hospital. It wouldn’t take them long to discover there were zero traces of any of those drugs in her system and never had been. She couldn’t have that, it would ruin everything.
Teagan was imperative in the next phase of keeping her prized possessions safe. That girl soaked everything in, like a sponge. She’d been able to see that from the off, which was why she was just so perfect. And Teagan would continue to being just that if she worked this the way she needed to.
Dulcie grinned. She had ultimate faith in her own ability. It hadn’t let her down yet.
DULCIE’S HEAD SWUNG UP with the tapping at the bedroom door.
‘Dulcie? It’s me,’ Teagan’s voice came through the thick door.
Dulcie knelt back on the floor, adopting a convincing position next to Helen. Grabbing one of her daughter’s cold hands, she put on a shaky, distressed voice. ‘Come in.’
Teagan moved into the room, her eyes immediately moving to Helen’s body, even though she’d told herself repeatedly all the way up the stairs that she wouldn’t look at it again. She quickly averted her eyes, moving them to Dulcie, her heart aching for the desolate expression on the old lady’s face, tears running down her cheeks.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. This was awful – so unfair. ‘It’s time to come downstairs now, Dulcie. The police will be here any minute.’
‘I can’t... I can’t leave her...’ Dulcie sobbed. ‘She’s my daughter.’
Teagan gently pulled Dulcie to her feet. ‘Please. I know it’s hard.’
Dulcie stared at Teagan and grasped her hand. ‘I’m sorry for acting the way I have half the time towards you,’ she said. ‘I...’
‘Oh, Dulcie,’ Teagan cried, pulling her against her chest and wrapping her arms around her tiny frame. ‘It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t you – it was those pills. You’re going to be just fine.’
Leaning against Teagan’s body Dulcie smiled, then pulled away. ‘I need to ask something of you.’ She fished the small box from her cardigan pocket. ‘I want you to look after something for me. Just for the time being.’
Teagan stared at the small box. ‘What is it?’
Dulcie placed the box in Teagan’s hand and gripped her arm, staring up at her pleadingly. ‘The police will want to go through this room and... and Robert will know... He’ll find out. This is something Michael gave me. But please don’t tell anyone I’ve given it to you. I want to be the one to tell Robert about his father. I don’t want him to find out like this and certainly not now. Not after what’s happened... what’s happened with his sister. He’s got enough to deal with right now.’
