by Daniel Hurst
And one gold ring.
I pick it up off the carpet, but before I put into the safe, I take a second to have a closer look at it. The gold surface shimmers in the light from the bulb above my head, and I wonder how valuable it could be. Knowing Charles, it certainly won’t be cheap. Then I notice something on the inside of the band.
Is that an engraving?
I hold it up to my eye, and the writing is small, but I can just about make it out.
Charles & Mary Montague 23.05.70
The piece of jewellery falls from my hand as I realise what it says. This isn’t just any ring. This is Charles’s wedding ring.
It’s got his damn name on it.
Suddenly, my bedroom door swings open, and Louise bursts in.
‘What are you doing?’ I cry, but it’s not going to stop her seeing what I’m up to. I quickly scoop the ring up and stuff it into my back pocket before standing up and trying to close my wardrobe door before my daughter can see the open safe inside. But it’s too late.
‘Why are you being all secretive?’ she asks me, reaching out to pull the wardrobe door open again.
My safe sits open below us, and even though I kick the door closed with my foot, it’s not going to be enough to stop Louise realising I was using it.
‘What’s really in that safe?’ she asks me as I try to shut the wardrobe door again.
‘None of your business!’ I tell her, even though I know she is going to make it her business to find out now.
‘Why are you keeping secrets from me? What’s in there?’ she asks me, trying to open the wardrobe door, but I make sure she can’t do that. The safe is still unlocked, and there’s no way I’ll be able to explain having so much cash in there if she sees it all. I haven’t counted it yet, but I imagine there must be at least fifty or sixty grand to go with the twenty I had already.
There’s no way I can pass that off as savings from my office job.
‘Louise, stop it!’ I beg, and in my desperation to keep my daughter from opening the wardrobe, I end up pushing her back across the room, causing her to fall into my bedside table.
‘Oh, my God, I’m so sorry!’ I say, rushing to my daughter’s aid. ‘Are you okay?’
As Louise gets to her feet, I see that she isn’t hurt from the fall so much as she was hurt by the fact that I caused it, and she pushes past me out of the bedroom in disgust. I know I should go after her, but my safe is still open, so instead, I just brace myself to hear her bedroom door slam again. That’s always the noise that signals the end of one of our arguments, and there it is again, right on cue. But that one was louder than all the previous ones combined.
I want to go in and check on her to make sure she is alright, but then I remember the piece of incriminating evidence is currently still on my person, so I rush back to the wardrobe and open the door.
Taking the ring from the back pocket of my jeans, I put it in the safe before quickly locking it. At least that is one drama dealt with for now. Tomorrow, I will get rid of the ring that could tie me to Charles’s murder, but for now, I need to go and check on my daughter.
I also need to tell her what I keep in the safe, otherwise she won’t stop asking, and she won’t stop trying to catch me using it again. I decide that I’ll tell her about the £20,000 I have been saving up from my office job and that I bought the safe because I no longer trust the banks after the incident with Johnny. That much is true, and she can know that.
But I’ll hold off on letting her know what else is in there.
That much she can never know.
Nobody can.
34
AMANDA
I grip the phone tightly to my ear as I prepare to reveal my deepest and darkest secret.
I haven’t been fighting so hard all this time because of the money. While I hate to lose such a large amount, I wouldn’t be risking my daughter’s life over that. What I have been fighting for is the other thing in that safe that shouldn’t be there.
Charles’s ring.
It’s the one thing that can tie me to his murder if anybody should find it, and it’s still in my safe.
I know I should have just thrown the ring away as soon as I saw the engraving. Then I wouldn’t have had so much to worry about now. I was going to. I took it out of the safe the morning after I brought it home, and I planned to throw it into the Thames on my way into the office that day. But then I foolishly went looking online for a valuation on the piece of jewellery, found a photo of a similar one and saw how much it was worth.
Online estimates put it anywhere between £10,000 and £15,000.
How could I throw that much money away?
Instead, I had made another plan. I would have the engraving removed from the ring so I would be able to sell it on without the new owner seeing what was previously written on it. I planned to have that done somewhere local rather than in London, where the news of Charles’s death would be more prominent. But I underestimated how much of a big name the dead director was in the performing arts world. The discovery of his body and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it didn’t just end up in the newspapers in London. It ended up on the front pages of several national newspapers too, thus making me less confident about having the engraving removed at any high street store in the UK for fear that the engraver would recognise the name.
As the days went by and with the story of Charles’s death not showing any signs of disappearing from the daily news bulletins after his daughter discovered his body, the ring stayed in my safe. So then I formed a new plan. I was going to take the Eurostar to Paris after leaving my job at the end of the week, where I would have the engraving removed by a Frenchman with no knowledge of the murder victim’s name back in London. Then I would be free to pawn it without risk of attracting the attention of the police, and that would be an extra several thousand pounds to help fund the next stage of my life.
But then today happened.
For the last month, my safe has stayed locked, which means I have been in control of the secret it contains. But as soon as it is opened by somebody else, then all that control is lost. I will have no power over what happens next. I could take losing all that money, as painful as it might be considering what I went through to end up with it, but not the risk of being found to be the one behind Charles’s brutal murder. I wouldn’t just lose my savings then.
I’d lose my freedom, and Louise would be alone with no income, no home and the shame that comes with everybody knowing what her mother had done.
But what if James gets caught with it? What if the police find out what these two men have done and trace back their crimes to me? If they know the ring came from my safe, they will know I was the one who was in Charles’s flat that night.
But what other choice do I have? A quick check on my watch tells me that we aren’t far from arriving into Brighton, and if I haven’t given up the code by then, Louise will pay for my silence. I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and hope for the best. I’ve tried to put it off as long as I can.
‘I’ll give you the code if you promise to let my daughter go,’ I say into the phone.
‘No. Code first, then I’ll let her go,’ James replies.
‘At least let me speak to her so I know she is all right,’ I try.
‘I don’t have time for this! Give me the code!’
‘Let me speak to my daughter first!’
I’m determined not to give in until he does as I ask, reminding myself that he has nothing without the information I can give him.
‘Fine. You’ve got ten seconds,’ he replies, and the line goes quiet for a moment.
‘Mum?’
It’s great to hear my daughter’s voice, even if she does sound absolutely terrified.
‘Lou, are you okay? I’m so sorry about this.’
‘Just come home, Mum. Please.’
‘I’m on my way right now, and I’ll be there soon. Are you hurt?’
‘No, I’m fine,’ Louise replies
, and the sound of her meek voice tells me that she is anything but.
‘Are you tied up?’
‘No.’
‘Okay, I need you to listen to me. I’m going to give him the code to the safe. But I need you to do something while he is opening it. I need you to try to get away from him. Run and lock yourself in the bathroom while his back is turned. Do you think you can do that?’
The line goes quiet.
‘Louise?’ I cry, terrified at what the silence means.
‘Ten seconds is up,’ James says. ‘Give me that code.’
I take a deep breath.
‘Okay. The code is 87219923.’
I slump down onto the closed toilet seat as I keep the phone to my ear. I’m exhausted and angry, but I just want this to be over with now.
Gripping the device tightly, I wait for James to talk to me again or hang up. I won’t know which until he reaches the safe. As I wait, I can hear more talking on the other side of the toilet door, but I still can’t hear the man who chased me in here. I wonder if he has given up now and moved to a different part of the train, perhaps preparing to get off quickly when the train reaches the station, and disappear before I can point him out to the police in Brighton. He probably presumes I’ve already called 999 from in here and that they are on the way to the flat, as well as the train station. But I haven’t. I’ve given his partner what he wants.
‘Give me that code again?’ James asks, bringing the temporary silence on the phone to an end.
‘87219923,’ I repeat, keeping my voice calm.
I can hear the sound of the keys being pressed on the safe, and it gives me severe anxiety to know that somebody other than me is pressing them, but there’s not much I can do about it from here.
‘It’s not working,’ James repeats.
‘What? Are you sure you’re putting it in right?’
I wonder if Louise has had a chance to run into the bathroom yet while James is distracted. He hasn’t shouted after her yet, but then he is preoccupied with getting his hands on a bundle of money. But then James speaks again, and I suddenly feel like the walls of the train toilet are closing in on me.
‘I’m not the one entering it. It’s your daughter.’
Shit.
James has got Louise doing it for him.
I was expecting him to do it.
I was hoping he would be distracted while he was at the safe, giving her a chance to run and hide. But she is the one pressing the keys on the safe. That means I have just put her in even more danger.
‘It’s been temporarily locked for ten minutes! What the hell have you just done?’ James cries down the phone, aware now that something is wrong.
My safe comes with a feature that means it won’t open for ten minutes if the incorrect code has been entered three times in a row. I knew that would happen because I had given him the wrong code, but that was only because I thought Louise would be safely locked in the bathroom by now.
Instead, the sound of her screams down the phone tell me that James is finally making good on his threat of hurting her.
Oh, my God, I’ve killed my daughter.
35
AMANDA
‘No! Stop! I’m sorry! I got the numbers mixed up! I’ll give you the right code! Just don’t hurt her! Please!’
I’m a terrible mother for risking my daughter’s life, but I thought there was one last genuine chance to get out of this without letting him in that safe. If Louise could have made it to the bathroom and locked the door while James was distracted, then she would have been safe when he discovered that the code was wrong. Then James would have had no choice but to give up and leave before I called the police, and disaster would have been averted. The ring would still be locked away, and my secret would still be safe. But I’ve messed it all up now, and it sounds like James has never been angrier.
‘You stupid bitch!’ he yells at me through the phone, and I’m not sure what he’s doing to Louise, but she sounds in pain.
‘I’m sorry! I’ll give you the code! Please leave her alone!’ I beg.
Then the line goes dead.
‘No!’ I scream, jumping up from the toilet seat and checking the phone. But it just confirms what I feared. James hung up on me, and now I have no idea what is happening in that flat.
I desperately hit the button on the phone’s screen to call him back, and I pray that he will pick up, but several rings later I have no luck. ‘Answer the phone!’ I cry out, tears welling in my eyes.
I’ll never forgive myself for this. I’m responsible for my daughter’s death. I should have just given them what they wanted an hour ago, no matter what I was trying to hide. But it seems like it’s too late now.
I call James three more times, but there is still no answer, and every second that ticks by means there is a greater chance that Louise is paying the price for my reckless actions.
If only I could speak to him. If only there was some way to make him stop.
Then I have an idea.
I quickly unlock the toilet door and pull it open, bursting back out into the carriage and hoping to see his partner standing outside, waiting for me.
But he’s not here.
No one is.
‘No! Where are you?’ I call out, looking both ways frantically down the train for any sign of the man. But he’s gone.
I make a decision and turn left, heading back in the direction of the table where we were sitting. Maybe he has gone back there. Hopefully, I’ll find him sitting in his original seat, and I can get him to send James a message and stop him from whatever he is doing right now. I’ll tell him how sorry I am, and I will give them the real code.
No more games.
I try calling James again as I keep moving past the rows of seats, but there’s still no answer, and every second that goes by is making me feel sick with dread.
How will I be able to live with myself if Louise gets hurt?
I reach the carriage where the man and I sat for the majority of this journey, and I hold my breath as I look towards our table at the other end.
Is he there?
No. The seats are empty.
I make it back to the table as if to double-check, but the fact it is unoccupied was already clear.
‘No, no, no! Where are you?’ I say to myself, attracting a few strange glances from the sparsely seated passengers around me. ‘The man who was sitting here. Have you seen him?’ I ask them, the desperation clear in my voice.
A couple of them shake their heads, but most of them just bury their faces back in their mobiles, and I’m left standing in the aisle, devastated and afraid.
I look down at the phone and think about trying James’s number again, but I fear that too much time has already passed. Instead, I slump down into my old seat and hold my head in my hands, and it’s not long until the tears start to flow.
I’ve never been a crier, not even after all the bad things that have happened to me over the years, but none of them compare to what might have just happened now.
I may have just lost the only person in the world I really care about.
‘What’s the matter, Amanda?’
The recognisable voice sends a shiver down my spine, and I spin around to see its owner standing over me with a grin on his face.
‘I believe you have something of mine,’ he says, reaching down and snatching his phone from my hand.
I have no idea where he just came from, but I’m relieved to see him.
‘You have to get through to James! Make him stop!’ I cry. But he’s in no rush to do as I ask. In fact, he seems to be revelling in my distress as he slowly retakes his seat opposite me and looks down at his phone.
‘I see you two have been chatting,’ he says as he scrolls through his phone log. ‘What’s the matter? Things not go to plan? Isn’t it annoying when that happens?’
‘You have to get through to him! He’s going to hurt her!’
‘Of course he is. You haven’t done what we a
sked. You knew the rules, Amanda.’
‘We’re not at the end of the line yet!’ I protest. ‘You said I had until the end of the line!’
‘That was before you stole my phone and locked yourself in the toilet,’ he replies. ‘And that was also before you tried to impersonate me to call the whole thing off.’
He turns his phone around to show me that he has found the message I sent to James where I pretended to be him, and he shakes his head at my petulance.
‘You broke the rules, Amanda, so you can’t be mad if James does the same.’
‘Please! You need to speak to him! Tell him to stop!’
‘And why would I do that?’ he asks me.
‘Because I’ll give you the code,’ I reply, swallowing hard.
He studies me, obviously suspicious, but I hold my hands up as a way of letting him know that I’m done playing games.
‘Type it in here,’ he says, handing me his phone, and I do as he says, pressing the correct eight numbers that will unlock my safe and expose my secrets and lies to their new owner.
I hand the phone back to him and watch as he writes out a message before he presses send and puts his phone in the inside pocket of his suit jacket.
‘I’ve sent it. But at this point, I can’t guarantee that James will even see it, let alone act on it. That’s your fault, Amanda, not mine.’
I say nothing.
Instead, I just stare at the horizon through the train window. It’s a pretty sunset on the south coast, and the sky has a reddish glow to it. But it’s not much consolation, and if anything, the colour only makes me think of bad things.
Danger.
Warning.
Blood.
36
LOUISE
I’m sitting with my back to the wall in the corner of my mum’s bedroom, as far away as I can from the dangerous man who I thought was going to kill me a moment ago. James went into a wild rage after the code Mum gave him over the phone failed to work, and as he grabbed me by the hair and dragged me away from the safe, I was convinced that it was over and I was certain to die. The look in his eyes told me that he had lost all control, and I prepared myself for the worst.
