Bella sniffed at her lime soda. “Grace, another glass.” She lifted a half-empty bottle of Prosecco out of a cooler.
Grace obeyed. Bella filled the glass to the brim, without a single spilt drop. “We’re celebrating.”
She touched Sue and Eve’s glass with her.
“Congratulations. What’s the occasion?”
Bella pulled a rolled-up community newspaper out of her voluminous bag. “I’m in the paper. Page three.”
“You should have received our copy yesterday,” Sue said with a disapproving frown. “If you haven’t, I’ll let them know.”
“It’s sitting on my table. I was too busy to look at it,” Eve said.
Eve opened the paper to page three, and the headline, “Let’s Hair It For Bella – Local stylist makes the final cut in competition” over a suspiciously unlined picture of the hairdresser.
“That’s fantastic,” Eve said with conviction.
“People have been ringing the salon non-stop,” Bella said. “If I win I’ll get a nice trophy too. That’ll look good on my new dating profile. Bella – a cut above.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Eve joint in the giggles.
Eve stumbled through her front door at midnight, a little light-headed from the noise and the alcohol.
She’d read the paper tomorrow. Who knew what other excitement she might have missed about her neighbours?
The next morning the pile of mail sat where she’d left it. She rifled through it. Take-away menus, intriguingly all for food to be delivered and not picked up, a garden service, her weekly offer to save money when switching broadband providers, and a plain envelope with her name printed in black block letters.
She helped herself to coffee and slit the letter open with her butter knife. A moment later, the hot liquid dripped down her leg and the mug rolled on the floor. Eve stared uncomprehendingly on the piece of paper in her hand. On it, words cut out from the newspaper she’d just read, said, “Stay Away From Him”. The paper itself was pale blue, with a white cloud covering most of it. She’d seen it before.
Eve ran to the bathroom and retched until her stomach sat empty. She splashed cold water over her face. Her hands trembled, and her head pounded. “No,” she whispered. “No.”
She tore off the drenched jeans. Something was wrong with her eyes as she searched in her wardrobe for another pair. Everything was fuzzy, as if she was caught in a bad dream.
She picked the letter of the floor and shoved it in her backpack. Hayley would help her make sense of this.
“Eve?”
She suppressed a scream as Ben loomed in front of her on the cottage’s doorstep.
“What are you doing here?” The words came out barely audible.
“I wanted to see you. Are you okay?”
He wouldn’t hurt her, Eve thought, not in public, and not in broad daylight. She should send him away and run for her friends.
“Can I come inside?” His face had a concerned look.
She forced herself to stay calm. “Hayley is expecting me.”
“Five minutes. Please.” He stepped through the still open door. She followed him, her heart beating painfully against her ribs.
They sat down in the living room. “Tell me what’s bothering you,” he said. “You know you can trust me.”
“You killed her,” Eve said before she could stop herself. “I trusted you, and you lied to me. I don’t know how you did, if you hired a man, or hired someone to use your car and your credit card.” Every breath hurt, but she didn’t care. “If you kill me too, you won’t get away with it.”
“What are you talking about?” Under Ben’s tan, his skin drained of all colour.
“He sent me a warning. Your father sent me a warning letter, to stay away from you. He knows what you’ve done.”
“Eve.” He reached for her. She shrank back, repulsed and scared.
“What letter?”
“An anonymous one, with letters pasted onto a sheet of paper from your father’s notepad. I wrote on it myself for him.”
“That’s crazy,” he said, but his tone rang flat in her ears.
“Why? Couldn’t you bear the idea she left you for a woman? That she chose Kim Potter over you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’ll sort it out. I swear.”
“Go. Just go. Don’t you ever come close to me again.” She stifled a sob.
Ben left, his eyes filled with a rage that chilled Eve to the bone.
Chapter 25
Eve’s brain worked on auto-pilot as she made her way towards the “Green Dragon”. She needed someone to talk to.
“Eve? Are you okay?” The second man to ask her this question, but at least Chris was no-one to fear.
She sniffled as she saw the kindness in his face and burst into tears.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said.
He handed her a tissue and gave her a gentle hug. “You can tell me.”
There was something about his voice, and the sympathy in his face, that broke down her barriers. “It’s Ben. And his father.”
“Is anything wrong with them?” Chris asked, frown lines creasing his forehead.
“I think they knew,” she blurted out. “About Donna’s love affair with a woman. And I think he killed her because of Kim.”
Chris caught his breath. “What? I don’t believe that.”
“Neither did I. Promise me one thing, if anything happens to me, tell the police.”
He reached for his wallet and took out an old invoice. On the back, he wrote something down and pressed it into Eve’s hand. “Call me, if you want to talk. Day or night.”
She shoved the paper into her pocket and searched for a tissue. “I appreciate that. I don’t usually unburden myself on unsuspecting people.”
The “Green Dragon” was empty apart from Grace. “Hayley’s taken her nan for an eye examination,” the bar maid said. “She’ll be back this afternoon.”
Eve huddled on her sofa, a blanket wrapped around her body to stop the shivering. A thought pierced through the fog in her brain. She had to talk to Kim. Her friend needed to hear the truth.
As soon as Eve’s thoughts cleared, she’d call her. But first, she had to stop her thoughts going in circles and driving her insane. One moment she was convinced of Ben’s guilt, the next she could swear he was innocent. And doing something so out of character as to unburden herself on Chris, was the final proof she’d become unhinged.
Ben drove home with a reckless disregard for his own safety. Deep inside, he’d always been aware of the inevitability of this moment. Five years, all that he’d done to prevent this, were for nothing. The tires screeched as he turned the corner onto the driveway. The electric gate was barely open as he squeezed through.
Ben marched unannounced into his father’s room.
John’s one moveable eyebrow rose. “Is the house on fire?”
“What have you done? How could you?”
John’s mouth dropped open. “What are you talking about?”
“The letter. How dare you threaten Eve? Would you have killed her too?” Ben stood over his father, hands clenched in his pockets, so he wouldn’t choke the old man.
John’s hands shook. “You’re crazy.” He tried to move the wheelchair away from Ben.
“I’ve protected you all these years,” Ben said. “I’ve buried myself with you in this mausoleum, to make sure nothing bad would happen again.”
“Protected me from what?”
“Don’t lie to me. I should have let you rot in prison. You’re lucky the police never really looked at the cripple, after your stroke.”
“Ben.” John’s speech was strained. Normally, Ben would have panicked. Now he no longer cared if his father suffered another stroke.
“You were the one who’d have lost everything he loved if Donna had walked away with half my property. You were already in the house, and she’d never have thought twice about turning her back on you. Did yo
u take the brick earlier and hide it in your clothes, or was it a spur-of-the-moment thing?”
Ben’s anger rose with every word. “You could easily drug yourself, the moment she lay dead at your feet. Did she know it was you? Did she cry out for help?”
“You’re crazy,” John said again.
“I blamed myself for bringing Donna here. I thought sitting in this chair was punishment enough for you, but threatening Eve.” Ben shook his head. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I never threatened your girl, and I never laid a finger on your wife. I thought it was you.” Dribble formed in the left corner of John’s mouth. “I’ve been protecting you.”
“What? No.”
“Who else could it have been? Who else would be careful enough to give me a dose that sent me to sleep but was small enough to be harmless? You were angry with her, about threatening to take this place away from us.”
“Away from you, you mean.”
“You did it for me. I never blamed you.” John fumbled for a handkerchief.
Ben wiped his father’s mouth in an automatic gesture. “How could you believe I’d kill for this pile of stones? It’s a millstone round our necks.”
“Who else could it be?”
“I don’t know,” Ben said.
The notepaper. Eve mentioned the notepaper.
“Your notepad. That’s what Eve recognised.”
“It was left over from a ten-pack Donna bought. She gave them away to a few people. Should we call the police?”
“And tell them what? That we both suspected each other, but have reason to believe there’s a murderer at large who uses the same notepaper you do, courtesy of the original victim?” Ben sank onto his father’s bed and buried his head in his hands. “It’s all a bloody mess.”
Eve woke up from a nightmare. Ben had chased her through the woods, a rock in one gloved hand, the other reaching for her throat. An owl hooted from the cabin roof, and Eve’s feet sank into a black bog as she struggled to escape.
She wiped the clammy sweat off her brow and reached for the phone. The ringtone echoed in her ears, but Kim didn’t pick up. “Please leave a message …
Eve hung up. She’d try again later, before her courage failed her completely. How could she have been so gullible?
Kim heard a faint ring as she locked the shop door a few minutes early. She’d forgotten to pick up the marrow bones for Laika from the butcher’s.
She groped for her key on the way to her back door. A shadow fell on the path, and a sickly-sweet smell hit her nose before she drifted off into oblivion.
Chapter 26
When Kim regained consciousness, she had no idea how much time had passed. The skin around her mouth burned, and she had trouble breathing. Sticky tape prevented her from uttering any sound.
She slowly opened her eyes. She was surrounded by darkness. The air smelt dusty and stale. She was tied to a chair with thick ropes around her chest and her ankles. Her hands were tied at the back. Her muscles screamed.
Kim tested the ropes. They were lashed tight enough to only allow her a fraction of an inch of movement.
Despair engulfed her. She fought it down. Whatever was going on, she needed to stay calm. What did the kidnapper want from her? She was neither rich nor important. Maybe it was all a mistake, and the person would let her go once he realised his error.
Her eyes adjusted to the dark. She saw the outlines of a bedstead without a mattress, two chairs and a table. A sliver of daylight shone through a chink in a window shutter; it must still be before sunset. If she’d been unconscious the whole night, she’d be parched and ravenous.
Kim held her breath and strained her hearing for another sound in the room. All she heard was the pounding of her own heart. She carefully turned her neck. She was alone. Her feet stood on a rough wooden floor. She wiggled her left foot. A few grains of sand crunched under her sole.
At least Laika was safe, at home. If she didn’t appear for work, somebody was bound to look for her, and find her dog.
In the meantime, all she could do was wait.
Ben circled the fish pond. Incessant exercise might help put his thoughts into an orderly fashion. Right now, they merged into a thicket of ideas and impressions. How could his own father consider him capable of murder and live with the idea? It had been hard enough for Ben to sit across the old man day after day and keeping his own anger and sadness at bay. But for a helpless cripple in his wheelchair the constant worry and fear about what was going to happen next must have been almost unbearable.
No wonder John insisted on keeping Ben away from other people. The first murder was supposed to be the hardest. Once that threshold had been crossed, taking a life got easier and easier. How many murderers went on a killing spree the moment they sensed danger to themselves?
Eve; he had to keep Eve safe. Ben strode faster. She wouldn’t see him, she’d made that clear, but he could go and ask Hayley for assistance. Eve listened to Hayley. All he had to do was go to the “Green Dragon” and enlist her help.
The clump of lead in his stomach dissolved, now he had a plan of action. He’d walk down to the stream and take the footpath to town. He didn’t trust himself behind the steering-wheel until he’d solved the problem of Eve.
Ben hurried down the path to the cabin. He thought he’d spied movement between the trees and slowed down as a searing pain shot through his neck and his legs buckled under.
Kim’s mobile phone still went straight to the mailbox. Eve’s unease increased with every try. She’d drive over and wait for Kim to come home.
The lights in the apartment were out. Eve pressed the doorbell, without any clear idea what she hoped to achieve. She leant against the door.
She was on the verge of giving up when she heard a faint noise in the building. Eve rang the doorbell again and pressed her ear against the keyhole. There it was again, a noise gaining in volume; a dog’s bark.
The fine hairs on Eve’s arms rose. Kim would never leave Laika alone at this time of night unless for a good reason. Something must have happened.
Bile rose in Eve’s mouth. She’d told Ben she knew about Donna’s love affair with a woman. It didn’t take much for him to come up with a name, if he’d been unaware as to Kim’s identity until then.
A man who could ignore his wife cheating on him with another man but was driven to a murderous rage by the simple fact she preferred another woman to himself, might bear enough of a grudge to strike again.
John had tried to tell her, but she’d been too blind to understand. Now she’d lead Ben directly to Kim.
He wouldn’t have killed her in her apartment. She’d told him enough about Kim’s security measures to stay well away. One point in Kim’s favour.
Where could he have taken her?
She searched in her backpack for her phone. She had to warn Hayley, before Ben hurt her as well, for knowing too much.
Eve’s fingers touched a slip of paper. The invoice Chris gave her. Thank God. Chris and Ben were close; if anyone had an idea where Ben might have taken Kim, it would be him. And he was strong, strong enough to wrestle Ben down.
She smoothed the paper. Chris Ripley, written in spiky, slanted letters. A handwriting imprinted in her memory. “If God chose, I shall but love thee better after death.” He had. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet had been both a declaration of love and a threat.
Chapter 27
Eve sat motionless in her car. She should have seen it. Brown-haired Chris, who loved health bars. Chris, who had a key and was considered part of the family and John’s confidant. Chris, who’d been the sole person able to coax Donna out of a bad mood.
He had easy access to John’s notepad, and he must have watched Eve’s cottage for any sign of her reaction. She remembered the prickling of her skin which she’d attributed to her frayed nerves and overactive imagination.
Where could he have taken Kim?
She called Ben. No answer. Eve bit her lip until the metall
ic taste of blood stopped her.
This was all her fault. She’d mentioned a woman in Donna’s life to Chris. His shock had been real. It would have been easy for him to find out who Eve was talking about and where his prey lived. She imagined Donna, innocently mentioning Kim and the shop, a happy smile playing on her lips.
Where did Chris feel safe from discovery?
The door opened without a noise. The hinges must be freshly oiled, Kim thought incoherently.
She dropped her chin onto her chest and feigned unconsciousness. If her kidnapper noticed his error, she only posed a threat if she could identify him.
A kick made the door fly wide open. The unknown person grunted, as if struggling with a heavy load. Wheels creaked closer and closer. The door shut with an almost imperceptible noise. A feeble light came on, too weak to shine through the chink in the shutter.
Kim risked a sideways glance out from under her lowered lashes. A man in jeans and tennis shoes with silent soles, and another man, sitting in a foldable wheelchair.
She glanced up for a scary split second and saw a tanned face under a shock of blonde hair. She choked back a groan, all hope vaporised in thin air. Despite the dim light she recognised the second captive. Ben Dryden, Donna’s husband. They were both here to die.
The man behind the wheelchair gave Ben a vicious kick against the kneecap. It took all of Kim’s willpower not to react, but Ben stayed motionless. Maybe he was already dead.
She mustn’t cry. If anybody had seen her being dragged away from her building, a rescue team could be on its way.
He probably had used the wheelchair to bring her here. People didn’t look twice at a patient being wheeled to a car, except her neighbours would know Kim was perfectly healthy.
Let Sleeping Murder Lie: A cozy mystery Page 20
