One Mistake: A totally unputdownable gripping psychological thriller

by Rona Halsall

  She heard her mother’s voice in her thoughts: It takes two to tango… Matt was as much to blame as Fiona. Bloody two-timing hypocrite, accusing me of being unfaithful when he and Fiona were… She slammed on the brakes as a bike swerved in front of her, and took a deep breath. She didn’t even know where she was going; remembered that she was supposed to be meeting Hailey back at the house and pulled over. She called her sister.

  ‘Where are you?’ Hailey asked when she answered.

  ‘Slight change of plan. Meet me at the coffee shop. You know, the one by the station. I just need to calm down and get my head straight. I’ll tell you when you get here.’

  ‘Oh, okay.’ Hailey sounded puzzled. ‘I’ll be there in ten.’

  Sara took a few deep breaths, hand on her chest as if that would be enough to steady the thundering beat of her heart, and set off on the short drive to the coffee shop. She was glad to park up and get out of the car. This new information changed everything. And there was something flickering in her mind, an elusive thought she was trying to grab hold of, but it was slippery as an eel and she couldn’t quite keep it in her grasp.

  Caffeine. I need caffeine, she thought as she pushed open the door. Maybe then her mind would make the creative connection she needed.

  When Hailey arrived a few minutes later, she found Sara sitting at the back of the coffee shop, where they could talk without being overheard.

  ‘Fiona and Matt?’ She almost spurted coffee all over the table when Sara told her. ‘That’s not something I would ever have imagined.’ Sara would have to agree that they weren’t two people you would naturally put together; two dominant characters who were more likely to fight than agree.

  ‘I know.’ She took a sip of her coffee, wondering whether she was jumping to conclusions. ‘She had an affair with James, though, so it’s not like she thinks her marriage is sacred.’

  ‘Her husband’s a lot older than her, isn’t he?’ Hailey said, blowing on her drink before taking another sip. ‘You know, when I’ve seen pictures of the two of them at charity dos, I always thought of her as a sort of trophy wife. She’s so glamorous and intelligent, isn’t she? Just the sort of woman a successful businessman would want on his arm.’

  ‘Hmm. I think she likes the money and status and living in that amazing house of theirs. But I get the feeling she’s happier when he’s away on business trips than when he’s home.’

  ‘You never know what goes on in other people’s marriages,’ Hailey said, with feeling, and Sara knew she was referring to her own experiences with a husband who was a serial cheater. ‘I mean, Matt’s a good-looking man. Maybe she decided to make a play for him. They see each other often enough at football, don’t they?’

  Sara put her cup down, a new thought coming to mind. ‘The woman you saw getting out of Matt’s car the other night. Could that have been Fiona?’

  Hailey narrowed her eyes as she thought, then nodded slowly. ‘You know, I think it might have been.’

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Having convinced herself that Fiona and Matt were having an affair, Sara was more determined than ever to find out what Matt was doing with his business. She had told him all of her secrets. Now she needed to know his.

  Fortified with coffee and cake, they parked round the corner from the house and crept up the footpath that ran down the back of the properties. There was a gate into the garden, which was bolted on the inside and too high for them to climb over. But the footpath ran down the side of the garage to the road at the front of the house, and they snuck around the corner, careful to be quiet.

  Matt had arranged for a small glass window to be put in the side wall, to give some natural light in his office. It was frosted security glass, with wire inside, and although they couldn’t see through, they could make out the glow from the lights, a shadow moving. Matt was in there.

  Their plan was already decided. Sara would stay out of sight while Hailey knocked on his office door, pretending she was a delivery driver with a package that needed to be signed for. When he opened the door, they’d rush him and get inside. Then he wouldn’t have time to turn things off and hide what he was doing.

  Sara’s pulse raced as she had a quick look up and down the street to make sure the neighbours weren’t around, then she pressed herself to the side of the garage while Hailey knocked on the door.

  ‘Got a package for you here,’ she called in a gruff voice.

  No answer. She knocked again. Called louder.

  ‘Got a delivery that needs to be signed for.’

  The key turned in the lock, and as soon as the door started to open, Hailey pushed forwards, Sara behind her, their joint momentum making Matt stagger back. His arms windmilled as he lost his balance, and Hailey was on him in a flash, grabbing his arm and pulling it up his back. He screamed, and she gave a satisfied smile, while Sara looked on in alarm, wondering when her sister had learnt to be a ninja.

  ‘Don’t hurt him, Hailey.’

  ‘I’m not,’ she said, between clenched teeth, giving his hand a twist and making him wince. ‘I’m just securing him. It’s a restraining technique we use at work. Quite safe.’

  Matt’s eyes slid to the two large screens set up side by side on his desk, both of them blank.

  ‘You can’t do this. You can’t barge in here,’ he said, all stern and authoritative, as if that would be enough to stop them. ‘This is confidential. I have an obligation to my client—’

  ‘Oh shut up, will you?’ Hailey snarled. Her eyes had a steely glint and Sara didn’t think she’d ever seen her look quite so ferocious. ‘Start searching. Let’s see what we can find, shall we?’ She tugged Matt backwards to give Sara access to the desk.

  ‘No, Sara, no, don’t you dare.’ Matt tried to move to stop her, but Hailey held him tight. Was that fear in his eyes? Sara thought it might be.

  ‘Or what? What you going to do to me?’

  ‘It’s not what I’ll do, it’s what they’ll do.’

  ‘And who is this mysterious “they”?’ Sara scoffed.

  He shook his head, eyes wild. ‘I don’t know. It’s all done electronically.’

  She clicked the mouse and the screen in front of her came to life. Not a video as she’d expected, but something that looked more like a spreadsheet. She scanned it, scrolled down, then went back to the top of the page, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. The headings across the top read: Client, Location, Date, Fee – but the clients had numbers instead of names, so that wasn’t too helpful. However, the location was very familiar – it was the hotel she’d stayed at with James.

  Her jaw dropped, appalled at what she was seeing; her worst fears, that Matt was involved, now confirmed. She slipped her phone out of her pocket and took screen shots before turning her attention to the second computer. Tentatively she clicked the mouse, and a page appeared with two headings: Sleeping Princesses and Voyeurs.

  When she clicked on Sleeping Princesses, a list of options came up: Meet a Princess; Book a Princess; Buy a Video; Chat Room.

  She turned to Matt, still not completely clear what she was looking at. ‘What exactly is a Sleeping Princess? What does that even mean?’

  His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, but he didn’t respond until Hailey gave his arm another twist. ‘Answer the question. We’re intrigued, aren’t we, Sara?’

  His face contorted with pain. ‘Only if you ease off,’ he gasped. ‘You’re going to break my bloody arm.’

  Hailey gave his wrist another tweak, making him scream again, before she relaxed her grip a little. ‘There you go. Come on, enlighten us.’

  He ran his tongue round his lips, eyes on the floor when he started to speak. ‘As far as I’m aware, it’s women who get a kick out of seeing themselves being… well… fondled while they’re unconscious. Bit like a rape fantasy sort of thing.’ Sara saw him wince.

  She snorted. ‘Don’t be ridiculous! It must be the other way round. Men getting a kick out of molesting unconscious women.’ H
er eyes scoured his face for evidence he was lying. ‘I was unconscious when those men abused me. I didn’t give them permission.’ She jabbed a finger at him to make her point. ‘I didn’t even know it had happened until you showed me that video.’

  He wouldn’t look at her. ‘It’s… it’s just a fetish site. For people who want to act out their fantasies. It’s all between consenting adults, and although it may seem weird, they’re not doing any harm.’

  Sara was so incensed she couldn’t speak.

  Fortunately, Hailey didn’t have the same problem. ‘Oh come on! You don’t believe that, do you?’ The scorn in her voice would have stripped paint. ‘That makes it all sound okay, doesn’t it? Instead of your wife being sexually abused for money – a business transaction that you were involved in facilitating – you’re saying she made herself unconscious after inviting two strange men to molest her?’ Her voice finished an octave higher and a few decibels louder than when she’d started.

  As usual, Hailey had gone straight to the heart of the matter, and hearing it summarised so clearly turned it from a theory into reality. But it was a hollow victory. Hurt and shame and disbelief surged through Sara in quick succession, an almost overwhelming blast of emotions that exploded in a fury like she’d never known before.

  ‘You make me sick!’ she yelled, hands flying in the air. ‘How the hell did you get involved in this? And how can you not see what’s really going on here? Talk about deluded!’

  Hailey put more pressure on Matt’s arm, and he squealed. ‘Answer her,’ she said, teeth gritted, ‘because I’d really like to know too.’

  There were tears in his eyes now, but Sara didn’t care how much Hailey was hurting him. It was nothing compared to the damage he’d allowed to be done to her, his own wife.

  ‘Okay, okay, I’ll tell you everything I know. Just… let’s calm down.’ He whimpered until Hailey loosened her grip a little, then began to speak. ‘It was just after I’d lost my job. I got an email asking if I’d like to help design a secret erotic website for a closed group of friends.’ He swallowed, eyes on the floor. ‘It sounded okay – maybe a little dodgy – but they assured me it wasn’t illegal, just a fetish they shared that they wanted to keep private. They were all in high-calibre jobs, and if it went public, their reputations and careers would suffer. I honestly took it at face value. I didn’t need to know what they were going to put on the site, and they assured me it was only between consenting adults. Like a dating site for people with matching fetishes.’ He ran his tongue round his lips again, a nervous habit Sara knew well. ‘I thought it was, you know, a bit weird, but whatever floats your boat. Who am I to judge? I’m just the tech guy, the architect. And I needed the work, didn’t I? To keep our family going. So I agreed.’

  He shook his head, his eyes meeting Sara’s for the first time. She glared at him until he looked away. ‘I honestly thought everything was consensual. You’ve got to believe me. When I saw the video of you, I thought you must be into the fetish as well. It was only when they wanted to develop the site that I got a bit twitchy.’

  Sara gasped. ‘You are kidding me? We’ve been together eighteen years; don’t you think you would have known by now if I was into stuff like that?’

  He hung his head. ‘Looks like I jumped to the wrong conclusion,’ he mumbled. He looked up then, eyes brimming with tears. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone off on one like that. I know it was jealousy speaking and I know I didn’t listen to you.’

  An apology from Matt was a rare thing, and she gazed at him, at the tears, but made herself stand her ground, hands clenched by her sides. His emotion might not be real. I can’t trust him. There was more, she knew there was, and this could be a ploy to get her sympathy, prevent him having to tell her everything. She folded her arms across her chest, a hard edge to her voice. ‘Carry on, you were saying?’

  ‘When they asked for the Voyeurs section to be added, I wanted to stop.’ His eyes pleaded with her. ‘I said I couldn’t be involved any more, but they wouldn’t let me out of the contract. They put… they put that video of Milly in the shower all over social media and said if I didn’t carry on working for them they had other videos I wouldn’t want to be made public.’ His eyes glistened, pain in his voice. ‘Can’t you see? I had no choice.’

  ‘You bastard,’ Hailey hissed. ‘Exposing your own family to these filthy animals, not to mention all the other victims. I bet most of them don’t even know they’ve been filmed, do they?’

  He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. The truth was obvious as soon as his eyes dropped to the floor and stayed there.

  ‘Who are they, Matt? Who’s behind all this?’ Sara stood in front of him and grabbed his chin, made him look at her.

  ‘I don’t know, honestly I don’t.’ His voice sounded convincing but his eyes told another story. Sara fought the urge to lash out. Instead, she backed away, needing time to think.

  ‘So what happens now?’ Matt asked, grimacing as Hailey gave his arm another twist.

  ‘I want any videos of me destroyed. And any of the girls. Take the site down, get rid of the content.’ Sara glowered at him. ‘That’s the least you can do.’

  Hailey’s eyes widened. ‘But what about evidence for the police? We can’t just wipe it all. These people have to be stopped, brought to justice. Otherwise it’ll just keep happening.’

  Sara sank into the chair by the desk and pointed at Matt. ‘You think he’ll cooperate? He’ll probably just hide everything or start a new site or something. These things don’t go away, do they? Once they’re online, they’ve got a life of their own.’

  Matt’s eyes widened. ‘I won’t. Honestly, Sara, I want this to stop as much as you do. Just tell her to let me go and I’ll do whatever you want.’

  Sara glared at him, incredulous. ‘You think I trust you after everything you’ve done? You’re a two-faced liar.’ She caught her sister’s eye. ‘You’re right, Hailey. Let’s get him somewhere safe, where he can’t mess up the site, then we can call the police.’

  ‘I think it’s the right call,’ Hailey said, her face a little red with the effort of keeping Matt under control. She glanced at the door. ‘Look, shall we take him into the house? We can lock up the office so it’s secure. Then we can make that phone call.’

  ‘Good idea.’ Sara got up from her seat and led the way. A shout made her turn just as she reached the door. A fist caught the side of her head, sending her sprawling to the ground, smacking her hip on the concrete as she landed. Winded and helpless, she watched Matt lock the office door, trapping Hailey inside. Then, without a backward glance, he ran down the garden path and out of the back gate.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Sara watched Matt disappear, her head spinning from the force of the punch, her eyes unable to focus properly. He hit me. That was the only thought she could fit in her head. It was so shocking, so unexpected, it pushed everything else from her mind.

  It took a few minutes for the dizziness to fade enough for her to get to her knees and lever herself to her feet. But as soon as she was upright, the ground started to sway, nausea struck and she spewed her breakfast into the flower bed, leaning on the wall for support, her legs so weak and wobbly she felt like a sailor in a storm at sea.

  She heard a faint sound from the other side of the office door, a low moan. Oh my God, has he hurt her? She rattled the door handle, to no avail. ‘Hailey! Are you okay?’

  No response.

  Her eyes darted around, looking for some way in, but she knew it was hopeless. Security had been high on Matt’s agenda when he’d set up the office, and with the door locked, there was no way to get access. My phone’s inside. She groaned, leaning her head against the door. What am I going to do?

  Then she heard a muffled grunt and pressed her ear to the door. ‘Hailey, are you okay?’

  She could hear movement, then her sister’s voice. ‘I’m all right, I think. I was just winded for a minute.’

  Relief flooded throug
h Sara’s body. ‘What happened? You seemed to be well in control, and then…’

  ‘I got cramp in my hand. He must have sensed the pressure come off, elbowed me in the face, punched me in the stomach. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor and he was bloody gone.’

  ‘He’s locked the door, I can’t get in,’ Sara said, rattling the handle again. ‘He punched me so hard he knocked me off my feet and then he scarpered out the back gate.’

  Hailey groaned. ‘Goddammit. What do we do now?’

  ‘I honestly don’t know. I’ve no idea where he’s gone.’ Sara winced, her fingers finding the place on her cheek where Matt had hit her. ‘My God, I never thought he’d punch me. Vicious with words sometimes, but never with his fists.’

  They were quiet for a moment, until Hailey spoke, back to her usual businesslike self. ‘Look, I’ll ring a locksmith, then once I’m out of here we can sort out what to do next.’

  ‘What if he comes back, though? We can’t have him destroying evidence.’

  Sara closed her eyes and slid down to the floor, her back against the door.

  ‘Even if it means I have to come clean about everything, I can’t let this website carry on. I can’t. My conscience won’t let me. Goodness knows how many women have already been abused. It won’t just be me. There’s lots of dates on that spreadsheet. What if there are more spreadsheets, more venues? I didn’t look that carefully. Christ, it could be massive.’

  ‘That’s the dilemma.’ Hailey sounded as weary as Sara felt, the burden of this decision weighing heavy on her. ‘Do you look out for yourself or do what’s right for the greater good?’

  Sara’s brain was humming, her face throbbing.

  ‘Perhaps we should try to talk to James before we go to the police. He said he had some information for me.’ She thought about it for a moment, the mysterious request to meet on the moors. His accident. ‘He must know who’s behind all this.’ She checked her watch. ‘It’s visiting time at the hospital. How about I go and see if I can talk to him while you wait for the locksmith to come? You can tell him Matt accidentally locked you in or something.’