by Beevis, Keri
For a moment, Lila stilled, back in the basement room, Judith’s face looming over her.
‘It was you.’
When the woman’s eyes narrowed, she elaborated. ‘The night of the car accident you were in the water. I saw you kill Stephanie and then you tried to kill me.’
‘Bravo, Miss Amberson.’ Judith scowled. ‘At least you know now why you have to die. I always knew you would remember eventually. That you were the one loose end I had to take care of.’
‘But why kill Stephanie?’
‘To protect my son of course. I know he didn’t mean to kill that girl, Phoebe, that it was a careless accident. The other one was still alive when I found them and at first I didn’t know what to do. You have to understand that I couldn’t let her go. My son’s life would be over. I didn’t want to kill her, but she left me with no choice. You see I have to think about Aaron’s future. He has so much ahead of him, so much to live for.’
And what about Shona and Stephanie? Why did their lives not matter? Anger rubbed against Lila’s fear. She wanted to ask the questions, but knew Judith was as cold and calculating as her son, that there would be no rationalising with her.
‘Stephanie Whitman showed up at the house unexpectedly to see Aaron, her timing was terrible. It was late at night and I had just loaded the bodies into the boot of my car. I had gone back in the house to get a knife and when I stepped outside and saw Stephanie, my heart nearly stopped. She was standing by the front door holding the locket that had been around Shona McNamara’s neck. At first I thought she had seen the bodies, but I guess it must have come off when I was dragging Shona to the car.
‘I intended to talk to her, tell her Aaron wasn’t home and send her on her way. The bodies were in the boot and she hadn’t seen them, and I kept the knife hidden behind my back. I told her the locket was mine and I must have dropped it. She was about to hand it over, but the lid popped open on the boot. I guess the latch hadn’t caught properly. After she saw the bodies, I knew I had to deal with her.
‘She tried to get back to her car, but I managed to grab hold of her, wrestle her to the ground. I had seen her slip the locket in the pocket of her jeans, tried to get it. Little bitch poked me in the eye with her keys though, managed to wriggle out from underneath me. She ran for her car, but changed direction when she realised I was close behind her, that she didn’t have time to open the door and start the engine. I chased her round the back of the house and into the woods, managed to catch hold of her when she tripped over a fallen branch. She was struggling like crazy and I was having trouble subduing her, knew I had to kill her there and then. I didn’t want to use the knife, knew it would make a mess, but I had little choice. Your friend, the one you were in the accident with, stumbled across us just as I was about to slice her throat.’
Judith sniffed. ‘He was not much of a man if you ask me. He screamed like a girl, but didn’t attempt to help her. Unfortunately he did manage to distract me long enough for Stephanie to hit me in the head with a stone and pull herself free again. They bolted in different directions, your friend back to you I presume, Stephanie to the house and her car. I honestly thought it was over. By the time I had managed to get back on my feet, they had both gone and I had two people who were going to go straight to the police. I was actually ready to confess, was going to tell the police that I had killed both girls to spare Aaron.
‘But then I heard the crash. I was the first on the scene and when I realised what had happened, who was involved, I understood I was being given another chance to fix things. Stephanie couldn’t live and when I realised that you had seen me too, neither could you.’
‘But I did live. Your husband–’
‘My husband came home earlier than intended.’ There was anger in Judith’s tone. ‘Ironic really given that he’s usually late, sometimes doesn’t come home at all. He stopped on the bridge and saw me in the water with you. Of course he thought I was trying to save you, not drown you. He came down to the water, helped pull you ashore. By that point, two other cars had stopped and I knew there was nothing I could do. You were unconscious and no-one knew if you would make it. I had to keep quiet, hope that you wouldn’t wake up. Another fifteen seconds and you wouldn’t have been a problem.
‘Of course, Richard took full credit. He might be a private man, but there was no way he wanted anyone knowing that I had already been in the water when he had got there. He’s very protective of his family that way. And it was for the best. When you woke, I worried you would recognise me, that the memories would come back.’
The woman was completely mad, perhaps even more so than her sick sex pest of a son. Crazy ran deep in this family.
Lila glanced apprehensively as Judith pulled the scarf taut in her hands, tried to renew her efforts to wriggle free, realising she wasn’t going anywhere. Judith was much stronger than she looked.
‘Please don’t do this,’ Lila begged, hating how pathetic she sounded. ‘Please, just let me go and I promise–’
Her words were cut off as Judith forced the scarf into her mouth, knotting it tightly behind her head. Lila let out a muffled humph, her heartbeat accelerating. What the hell was Judith planning to do to her?
As though she were a mind reader, Judith smiled cruelly as she yanked Lila to her feet. ‘Okay now, dear. It’s time to go on a little car journey.’
42
Lila had fought like a wild cat when they had forced her into the passenger seat of Jack’s car, locking the seat belt across her, but now they were moving, she was strangely subdued.
Aaron knew she had spotted the blankets in the rear of the car where they had lowered the seats; that she understood Jack’s body was beneath them. It was almost a shame he was dead, finally succumbing to the blow he had taken to the back of his head. After all the trouble he had caused, Aaron had hoped to be the one to kill him, to do it in front of Lila. They still needed to get rid of his body though, which wouldn’t be easy, Judith had warned. She had killed Shona at the house before driving her and Phoebe’s bodies to the site they were heading towards and admitted she hadn’t considered how difficult it would be lugging a dead body. That was why Lila was still alive (and Jack would have been too if he hadn’t pegged it). It would be easier to kill her at her final resting place.
It was just the two of them alone in Jack’s Land Rover, with Aaron’s mother leading the way in her own car. Once the bodies had been hidden, they intended to drive along the North Norfolk coast and dump Jack’s car near a deserted stretch of beach. They had his and Lila’s phones, planned to set it up to look like a suicide. The coastline was notorious for riptides and strong currents and no-one would be suspicious if their bodies were never recovered. Everyone knew Jack was volatile, even a little unhinged, going crazy over his sister’s death. Whether Lila had joined him in his suicide bid or he had killed her first before dragging her body into the sea with him, they would leave people to speculate.
Not liking the silence in the car, Lila appearing to have accepted her fate now she knew Jack was dead, Aaron decided to tell her about the suicide/murder plan. She was restrained and could hardly go anywhere, so there was no harm in her knowing. He wanted her to understand how they intended to get away with it, to know that her family and friends would never know the truth about what had really happened to her.
Of course he didn’t tell her what was actually going to happen. That bit was a surprise and he couldn’t wait to see the look of horror on her face when they showed her where they intended to hide her body.
She didn’t react as he spoke; only to squeeze her eyes shut as though she was trying to block him out, but he didn’t miss the tears that escaped, trailing their way down her cheeks, pleased that he had managed to get under her skin.
He removed one hand from the wheel, reached across and ran his fingers up her bare leg. She flinched, eyes shooting open, and mumbled through her gag.
‘What was that? Do you like me touching you?’
More mumbli
ng, this time sounding angrier and more frantic, and he grinned; just about able to make out the vile name she had called him.
It was a shame they had been interrupted earlier. He had so been looking forward to his afternoon of fun with Lila and having her beside him was torture. Her dress was still ripped down the front, exposing her pretty pink bra, though much of her was covered in Jack’s blood, and with her hands tied behind her, her breasts were thrust forward, caught either side of the seat belt. Aaron had spent the entire journey with a hard-on, knew if his mother wasn’t in the car ahead he would pull over on the side of the road, fuck Lila. If he did that though, his mother would kill him. She was already mad enough at him for snatching Lila and bringing her to the house, telling him he had risked everything. Aaron couldn’t see how, knew he had been careful, still he didn’t want to piss his mum off, understood that Lila was off the table. Not a problem though, he would find himself plenty more girls to have his fun with when he went travelling. Although he couldn’t have her, he kept his hand on Lila’s leg, liked having the power over her and knew how much she despised him for it.
His mother slowed as they passed through a village. Aaron supposed he should be taking a note of where they were, but he’d been too distracted. As they came out of the other side heading back into the country, thick wooded trees flanking the road, she indicated left, turning down a dirt track.
Aaron followed her, gave Lila a sidelong glance. Her eyes had widened and, although she was trying not to show any fear, he could feel her leg trembling beneath his hand.
They drove for about half a mile before his mother stopped and opened a gate. As he waited patiently he let his fingers creep up under Lila’s dress.
‘This is fun, isn’t it? The wait is almost over. Are you excited to see your final resting place?’
Another stream of expletives partly made it through the scarf. Although her eyes were damp, they were flashing angrily.
He removed his hand, putting both hands back on the wheel as he followed his mother through the gate, turning off the ignition as she closed it behind her.
This place was perfect. She had described it to him earlier, confessing where she had hidden Shona and Phoebe’s bodies. Apparently she had seen the derelict farmhouse one day while out with her running club and in the days when Shona was locked in the basement games room, Judith had done her research, finding out that the place had been abandoned for years.
Past what looked like an old cattle shed, Aaron spotted the well, his blood heating in excitement. His mother had tested the depth with a weighted down piece of rope before finalising her plan for Phoebe and Shona, knew it was over forty feet deep with at least fifteen feet of that filled with sludgy brown water. Once the bodies were submerged, it was unlikely they would ever be found.
Lila struggled again as Aaron dragged her out of the car. Her fear escalating as she spotted the well, understood where they were heading. He roughly dragged her across to where his mother was waiting, pushed her down on the ground beside the well and held her in place while his mother secured her legs together with more rope, winding over and around the cast, before attaching one of his old weights to the other end, the same as she had done to Phoebe and Shona. Although the well was deep and you would need a heavy-duty torch to see down to the water, she told Aaron they couldn’t risk the bodies floating to the surface.
They left Lila by the well, returned to the car to get Jack’s body.
* * *
‘We have to call the police.’
Dave had said that as soon as they had parked up by the driveway that led down to Richard Gruger’s house, repeated it again when two cars had exited the property, one driven by a woman, the other by a kid of about eighteen, nineteen, who looked like he had done a few rounds in the ring with Mike Tyson. Judith and Aaron Gruger, Elliot guessed. He stared at the second car, wondering why it looked familiar. Did a double take. ‘That’s Jack’s bloody car.’
‘We have to call the police,’ Dave repeated.
‘I promised Jack I wouldn’t.’
‘So where is he? Why isn’t he answering his phone? If that’s Jack’s car and he’s not driving it, he must be in trouble.’
Elliot debated. It had seemed like a good idea finding out where the Grugers lived and driving out to their house at the time, but once he arrived, he wasn’t quite sure what to do. Did he get out of the car and approach the house or wait there on standby for Jack’s instruction? Elliot was hardly a superhero, ready to save the day. Hell, he had never even thrown a punch. Had no idea if he even could. And he’d had to bring Dave along for moral support because he wasn’t brave enough to come alone.
This was his sister though and Jack thought she was in trouble. But where was Jack? He had gone to the house to get her and his car was there, so why wasn’t he driving it?
‘We need to follow them.’
‘No, what we need to do is call the police.’
Elliot ignored Dave as he swung the car around, keeping his distance behind the two vehicles. He had no idea where Aaron and his mother were heading, but he had a bad feeling his sister and Jack might be in a lot of trouble.
His fears were confirmed when twenty minutes later, both cars left the main road onto a dirt track. Elliot pulled over on the side of the road, not wanting to alert either driver that they were being followed. He glanced at Dave, who had spent the entire journey telling him what a bad idea it was. For the first time, his friend was quiet.
‘What now?’ he asked, unsure if he should follow the cars down the dirt track.
Dave shrugged, his round face pale in the shadows. ‘Now would be a really good time to make that phone call.’
* * *
‘Jack’s dead… suicide… driven crazy by his sister’s death…’
Snippets of conversation filtered through the pain, the blackness and the cold. Damn it, it was summer. Why the hell was it so cold?
At first he couldn’t move and his mouth was drier than sandpaper. Where the fuck was he? The conversation became clearer, one voice talking. Aaron Gruger.
‘Do you like me touching you?’
A muffled response that sounded like it might be a slew of angry swearwords.
Lila!
Did the fucker have his hands on her again?
Jack was going to kill him. He started to move, realised it was a bad idea, as pain blasted through his skull. Besides, he couldn’t move his hands; they were bound behind his back.
And then it all came back to him. Lila tied to the bed, Aaron on top of her. He had beaten the crap out of the kid, freed Lila, but then something had smacked him hard on the back of the head. After that it was mostly blackness, though he vaguely remembered coming to at one point. Lila had been with him, told him she loved him. Or had he dreamt that bit?
He was pretty sure he wasn’t dreaming now though. His head was throbbing like it had a pickaxe in it and from the conversation he was hearing Aaron still had Lila, was taking her somewhere where he planned to kill her. And he had help.
At first Jack wondered whom that help was, assumed it had to be Richard. But then the kid mentioned his mother and another piece of Jack’s dream slid into place as he remembered looking up to see Judith pacing and panicking, Aaron way too nonchalant about everything, as they discussed what to do with the bodies.
Judith Gruger, the meek subservient wife of Richard. Jack had been convinced she was a victim, had even felt sorry for her. He hadn’t fucking seen that one coming.
Jack’s dead.
He sure as hell felt like he should be, wasn’t sure how he was even conscious, but he was at least for the moment, and he had to figure out a way to get Lila to safety. Even if he didn’t survive this, she had to.
How exactly he planned to get her to safety he wasn’t sure, but the fact he was covered by blankets, that Aaron thought he was dead, had to be an advantage. Jack tested the rope around his wrists, thought it gave a little when he gave it a test yank. He tried again. Yeah, it wa
s definitely getting looser.
The car stopped.
‘This is fun, isn’t it? The wait is almost over. Are you excited to see your final resting place?’
More muffled words and though Jack couldn’t quite make them out, he could hear the anger behind them.
That’s right, Lila. Be mad at him. Don’t let the little prick see you’re scared.
The car started again, though only briefly then the engine was turned off. Wherever they were, this was the place Jack and Lila were supposed to die.
He heard the car doors open, was aware from Lila’s screams and the amount of cursing coming from Judith and Aaron that Lila was putting up a fight. Jack used the distraction to work harder at freeing his wrists, aware he was running out of time.
Where the hell were they?
The door closed and he realised he was alone, used all of his strength to give one final hard tug, felt the rope snap. He pushed back the blanket, tried to sit up, fighting against the wave of nausea that had stars floating in front of his eyes, threatening to pull him under again.
He sucked in a deep breath, held it, tried to sit up again, this time more gingerly. It looked like they were at some kind of abandoned farm and from what he could see they were in the middle of the countryside, though Hell knew where.
As his eyes adjusted, he could make out movement in the distance, realised Lila was on the ground and being held down as something was tied around her legs. And then he spotted the well behind her, understanding exactly why she had panicked and was fighting to get free. Knew what it was they planned to do to her.
Ignoring the pain in his head, he clambered into the front seat of the car; his car he realised, pleased when he noted Aaron, dumb kid that he was, hadn’t had the sense to take the keys. Jack snatched them out of the ignition and shoved them in his pocket, quietly eased open the door, closing it again behind him before crossing to the derelict building that had once been a farmhouse. He leant against the wall for a moment, feeling woozy, forced deep breaths as he glanced around for a weapon, aware he had to get to Lila before they threw her in the well.
