by Jacqui Rose
Alfie glanced behind Franny, looking up the carpeted hallway. ‘Then how did you get in?’
Franny’s voice trilled in an odd sing-song way. ‘Me? How did I get in? I … I … oh for God’s sake, Alf, that’s a stupid question. Can’t you see where I kicked the door? It must’ve been badly fitted because it came open almost straightaway. It can’t have been on the latch properly. I dunno …’ Uneasy, Franny trailed off, holding Alfie’s stare.
‘But how did you know which caravan she was in?’
Franny’s words came tumbling out. ‘When … when I came around the corner, there was a guy. I asked him which caravan. I’m surprised you didn’t see him actually. He told me Ma was away, but I didn’t believe him, so I thought I’d check. You know, be vigilant, because when I thought about it, you were right, Alf, we needed to check this out, and now we have done, we won’t ever wonder, will we?’
Alfie looked at Franny strangely. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes … no … not really. I know I shouldn’t have done, but I got my hopes up. I thought Ma might be here, and we could’ve got some answers … Look, let’s go. Let’s get Taylor to your friend’s house.’
‘Okay, and I’m sorry, Fran, I thought we were on to something too. But like you said earlier, it’s not over yet.’
‘That’s right, it’s not over yet.’
And with that Franny gave a tight smile as she stepped out of the mobile home, closing the door behind her, knowing that she needed to leave London tonight.
Outside Claire’s house, on the south side of Muswell Hill, Franny gave Taylor a big hug. She crouched down as she spoke to him, smiling and speaking with warmth. ‘Listen, sweetie, these people are going to look after you, and I know you’re going to be really happy from now on. Really, really happy. I just know it.’
Taylor answered shyly, his big blue eyes full of mistrust. ‘Am I?’
‘Yes, baby, you are. You really are.’
She gave him another hug before standing up, watching him walk into the house, holding Alfie’s hand.
As Franny turned away to get into the car, she heard Alfie call her back. He ran up to her, a look of concern on his face.
‘Are you sure you’re all right with me staying here awhile, Fran? I just don’t want to leave Taylor straightaway.’
‘Absolutely. You do what needs to be done, Alf.’
‘And you’ll put the money in the safe for me? Maybe I can talk Mr Huang around. Maybe he’ll let me give him half of it back without the crazy interest.’
‘Maybe … Look, I’ll see you.’ She turned back to walk to the car, but stopped and spun around, rushing up to Alfie and throwing her arms round him. She squeezed her eyes closed, stopping the tears from falling, nuzzling her head into his neck.
Surprised, Alfie said, ‘This is lovely, Fran, and I could stay here all day with you like this, but what have I done to deserve it?’
She looked up at him, giving a sad smile. ‘I just wanted to give you a proper goodbye, that’s all.’
Alfie sounded worried. ‘Fran, what’s going on?’
‘Nothing, it’s just been a difficult day.’ She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on his cheek. ‘I love you, I love you so much – never forget that.’
And as Alfie watched Franny drive away, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at his screen. The text read:
FRANNY CAN’T BE TRUSTED.
48
Franny sped along Soho Square, her thoughts racing and her heart pounding as she pulled up outside her house. She turned off the engine and ran to the front door, knowing she had to be quick. This was her chance to get away, though she still had to be careful. She had no idea how long Alfie would stay with Taylor, but she certainly knew by the time he got back, she needed to be gone.
She’d take some clothes and a few essentials, grab her passport and of course, take the money left over from the auction – and once she’d found somewhere to stay, she’d sort out re-mortgaging the house from afar.
Her hands shook as she put her key in the door. She switched on the light, then froze. She stared around in horror at the sight in front of her. Hanging all around the hallway were Bree’s belongings. The belongings she’d kept stored in the missing suitcase.
In shock, Franny pushed herself against the wall, shaking, her breathing becoming laboured. ‘No … no … no … no!’
She spoke out loud, not understanding, not comprehending what was happening, her eyes darting around and, unable to stand the sight of them, she leapt forward, grabbing at Bree’s belongings, pulling them down off their hangers, collecting them up in her arms.
She charged through to the lounge but stopped in her tracks and let out a small whimper as she saw her bloodstained clothes dangling from the ceiling. She spun around looking for something, anything that would give her an explanation.
Breathing hard, she backed away, cowering in the corner with her eyes transfixed on the bloody clothes that hung above her. It took her more than a couple of minutes to force herself up, force herself forward.
Pulling a chair to under where her clothes hung, Franny stepped up but suddenly the lights went off and the sound of a child’s music box played out from the hallway.
She screamed in terror, crying, calling out, her voice shaking, panic racing through her veins. In the pitch-black she stepped off the chair. ‘Hello? Hello? Whoever’s there, it isn’t funny now. Whoever you are, you can stop … You hear me? You can stop.’
‘Oh, I hear you, all right.’ The lights came on and standing in the doorway was Shannon.
‘It’s you?’
‘Yeah, it’s me.’
‘You little bitch, you did all this?’
‘No, that was me … Hello, Franny, surprised to see me?’ Stepping into view, Vaughn Sadler stood next to Shannon, holding baby Mia in his arms.
Stunned, Franny stumbled back, and held on to the chair for support as her legs gave way. Covering her mouth she sobbed into her hand, ‘Mia … Mia, oh my God, Mia – but you, I thought …’
Vaughn interrupted, ‘You thought I was dead? Disappointed, are we?’
Franny held her head, pacing around in a circle as her whole body felt like it was going into shock. ‘But they said … they called Alfie and said …’
Vaughn scoffed. ‘They said they’d found a body in the club? Yeah, that’s right they did, but I asked them to call him. I asked them to say that. You know, it’s amazing what people will do when you pay them enough. It seems everything is for sale, even your soul if you’re willing to pay enough, wouldn’t you agree, Fran, or did you never have one in the first place?’
‘Get out! Get out!’ Franny ran towards Mia. ‘Give her to me! Give her to me! She’s mine!’
Vaughn twisted away, holding Franny off. ‘But that’s the thing – she ain’t yours, is she? We all know whose baby she is.’
‘Why are you doing this?’
Vaughn laughed scornfully. ‘Why am I doing this? Franny, seriously, you need to look in the mirror, darlin’.’
Franny, staring at Mia, shook her head. ‘I don’t understand where you got her from. Ma said she’d sold her.’
‘That’s right, she did. And you’re looking at the happy buyer. I paid a lot of money for her as well because when Ma told me you were trying to get her back, well of course, I couldn’t have that, and I couldn’t have anyone else taking her either. It was easy because you know how much Ma likes her dough.’
‘I can’t believe it was you!’
Vaughn handed Mia to Shannon, walked across the room and poured himself a large glass of scotch. ‘Shannon filled me in on everything. She told me she’d seen Mia in your car and taken her, though she didn’t know it was me who’d bought her from Ma. I thought the fewer people that knew, the better. She only learnt that later, when I needed her to look after Mia.’
‘What? You got her to look after Mia?’
With a threatening air, Vaughn laughed. ‘Well I had to
get someone – after all there was the small matter of me having to recover from what you did. Bullet wounds take time to heal – maybe you need a reminder of that?’ He stared at Franny, hatred oozing from his eyes.
‘I don’t need this – just move out of the way and let me leave. You have no right to stop me, and you have no right to hang on to Mia, especially as you let this crackhead look after my baby.’
Vaughn smiled nastily. ‘Your baby? Your baby, Franny? I think you’re losing the plot, darlin’.’
Franny snapped. ‘You know what I mean.’
‘Get this into your head. Mia has nothing to do with you. Nothing.’
Franny shook her head. ‘I don’t want to do this in front of her.’ She pointed at Shannon who responded by sticking her tongue out as she rocked Mia gently.
Vaughn shrugged. ‘Why not, Fran? Cos she knows what you’re like? She knows what a dark, evil bitch you are? You see, she watched you, Fran, after she’d taken Mia. She hid and watched you take that petrol can out of the car. I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for Shannon pulling me out of that fire. Unlike you thought, Shannon is my friend, and I’m hers. And friends look out for each other, hey, Shan?’
Shannon blushed with delight, her happiness complete as she grinned a toothless smile.
Turning his attention back to Franny, Vaughn said, ‘But then you wouldn’t know that; you wouldn’t know about friendship, would you? I mean, look what happened to poor Bree.’
Franny pointed at Vaughn, her voice on the edge of hysteria. ‘Don’t you dare, don’t you dare talk about Bree. You don’t know anything.’
Vaughn took a quick gulp of the scotch, enjoying the burn at the back of his throat. ‘I know enough, and I know anybody who gets close to you, Franny, ends up getting hurt.’
Franny, still shaking, glowered. ‘Get out of my way, Vaughn.’
‘Oh no, not this time. I’m afraid I can’t do that because we’re waiting for a visitor.’
Franny blanched. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘They should be here any minute now.’ Vaughn grinned as he looked at his watch. He began to count down, mouthing the numbers, when suddenly there was a knock on the front door. He winked at Franny. ‘Bang on time … I’ll be back in a minute.’
Leaving Franny standing there, Vaughn rushed out of the room, but a moment later he returned, followed by several police officers. He pointed at Franny. ‘That’s her, that’s Franny.’
The tallest police officer walked up to her, trying to pull her hands behind her back. ‘Franny Doyle, I’m arresting you on suspicion of murder …’
She pulled away from the officer. ‘What? No! No, there’s been some mistake. Vaughn, you know it was an accident, you know it! Vaughn!’
‘… You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned …’
‘What’s going on?’ Alfie stood at the door, a look of shock on his face. He stared at Franny and then at Vaughn, and then at Shannon who was holding a baby whilst a police officer roughly grabbed Franny’s arms behind her back, putting her in handcuffs as she fought against him. ‘I said, what the fuck is happening? Why are you arresting her?’
Ignoring Alfie, the police officer continued to read out Franny’s rights as she struggled ‘… something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’
Alfie turned to Vaughn. ‘Tell me what the fuck is going on.’
‘You should’ve asked Franny that. I did try to warn you … Ask Franny what she’s done.’
Alfie frowned. ‘The texts, they were from you? Why? Vaughn, for fuck’s sake, why are the Old Bill taking her in?’
‘For murdering Bree.’
It was Alfie’s turn to stumble back. He rested against the wall, staring at Franny. ‘Fran, what’s going on? What the fuck is he talking about?’
Vaughn smiled at Alfie. ‘I’ll tell you everything later …’
‘No, you tell me now! How the fuck can she have killed Bree? She didn’t even know where she was; nobody did. Tell them, Fran, tell them!’
Franny stared at Alfie, tears running down her face. ‘I never killed her, I swear.’
Alfie, incensed, raged, ‘You see, she never killed her! Listen to what she’s saying. She just told you, so let her go! Let her fucking go!’ Alfie began to rush towards Franny but Vaughn held him back.
‘Alf, calm down, please. Please, mate, we’ll talk later, I promise, but first I want to introduce you to someone … Meet your daughter, Mia.’
Vaughn gently took Mia from Shannon, placing her in Alfie’s arms as Franny began to scream. Alfie gazed at Vaughn. ‘What, she’s mine? How can she be mine? I don’t understand? I …’
‘You will do, you will do, but I just need to say a quick goodbye to Franny.’
Vaughn turned and walked towards Franny, who screamed at him. Her face red and wet with tears.
‘You bastard, you fucking bastard, you know I didn’t do it! I didn’t murder anyone.’
As Alfie stood in the centre of the room in shock, unable to speak a single word, unable to process quite what was happening, Vaughn leant in, whispering to Franny as the police began to drag her away. ‘I know that, I know you didn’t kill her, but they don’t know that. I even know where you buried her. Try to get out of that one, Fran. You’ll be going away for a very long time.’
Franny’s face screwed up as she tried to pull away from the policeman who dragged her down the hallway towards the waiting police car. ‘You’ll never get away with it! You hear me, Vaughn? I will come after you, so you better watch your back! This isn’t over yet! This isn’t over!’
Acknowledgements
As always a huge thanks to the wonderful and supportive team at Avon but especially to Katie, my editor, who gives such positive encouragement and fantastic ideas, even getting me to write in more hugs! A big thank you to Darley, my agent, who gives the best advice on books and life – I’m lucky to have him in my corner. Thanks as well to Pippa – another year of answering my emails with patience and kindness! And a huge shout out to my readers and love to those around me. Lastly, to my wonderful 4 legged friends of the equine, canine and cavy variety – without them my life wouldn’t be complete.
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Another compulsive thriller from bestselling author Jacqui Rose …
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About the Author
Jacqui Rose is a novelist who hails from South Yorkshire. She first came to appreciate the power of the written word when as a child she charged her classmates a packet of sherbet dips to write their essays for them. Adopted at a young age and always a daydreamer, she felt isolated growing up in a small mining village and it was her writing which kept her company. Jacqui has always written for pleasure whether it be screenplays or stand-up, she is the author of eight bestselling novels as well as the author of two political thrillers written under a male pseudonym. She is a keen equestrian and the owner of two horses and spends most days riding.
Also by Jacqui Rose
Taken
Trapped
Dishonour
Betrayed
Avenged
Disobey
; Toxic
Fatal
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