by Agatha Frost
“I could never forgive myself if something happened to him,” Julia whispered, and this justification was enough to send her up the staircase.
She came at the boxing studio from the rear. The space was eerier and much less impressive now that the hazy moon had replaced the shining sun. The lines in the glass ceiling cast shadows across the studio, obscuring Julia’s vision. She blinked, peering around the doors, willing her eyes to adjust. She spotted the dark shadow of Rex by the lockers. He was using a stethoscope to crack the locked doors silently; he was already on the third of at least twenty. Like Barker, Julia couldn’t help but be a little impressed by his skillset.
Thinking of her husband, she scanned the studio. After what felt like the world’s hardest game of Where’s Wally?, she found him crouched behind a large potted Swiss cheese plant on the other side of the boxing ring. His eyes never left Rex, giving her the perfect opportunity to spy on him spying on Rex.
Over the next five minutes, she switched between observing Barker and Rex. Every time Rex found a bag in a locker, he ripped it open and immediately tossed it aside. By the last locker, he was surrounded by half a dozen duffle bags and piles of scattered clothes. Even from a distance, Julia could feel his frustration.
“Dammit!” he roared when he opened the final locker. “It was supposed to be here!”
His fist struck the red locker door, the force of his knuckles crunching a huge dent in the metal. The ring echoed around the kickboxing studio, causing Barker to look around enough to spot Julia.
“What are you doing?” she saw him silently mouth as he motioned for her to go away.
Julia shrugged and put her fingers on her lips, jerking her head at Rex as he dug around in the duffle bags he had found. Her heart sank when another of the studio doors opened.
“Hello?” she heard Thomas call out. “Helen?”
Thomas emerged from the shadows in his usual shorts and vest, a heavy-looking duffle bag identical to the ones ripped from the lockers dangling from his right hand. Rex spotted him at the same time, and like a supercharged football player, sprinted at Thomas. Copying Jessie’s tackle from Percy’s flat, Rex went for Thomas’s middle. Thomas darted to the side just in time for Rex to crash into the exposed brick wall.
Thomas attempted to flee with the bag, but Rex grabbed at his ankle. National champion or not, Thomas fell flat on his face, the bag flying from his hands. Rex scrambled to his feet and dove for it, but Thomas grabbed him. The men scuffled on the floor, neither touching the bag. Julia was tempted to run in and grab it, and as if Barker could sense her urges, he shook his head. She settled behind the door only to have another urge overtake her … her bladder.
Faint blue flashing police car lights lit up the sky through the window, but their sirens weren’t blaring tonight. Julia stared at Thomas and Rex as they wrestled on the floor, each getting their punches in, but neither seemed to notice the lights.
“Give it up!” Thomas growled, pulling Rex in a headlock on the floor. “I’ll choke you out!”
Rex’s George Clooney face turned bright red, his eyes bulging as he stared at the bag; he looked hungry for its contents. Julia checked on Barker, who was slowly rising from his crouching position … until he slipped, sending the large plant tumbling. The ring of the metal plant pot hitting the floor echoed around the cavernous space. Barker quickly picked the plant up, but both men were already looking right at him. Taking the distraction, Rex butted the back of his head into Thomas’s face with enough blunt force that the boxer loosened his chokehold. Rex scrambled away, leaving Thomas clutching his bleeding nose. Not wasting a second, Rex scooped up the bag and ran for Julia.
At that moment, Julia heard the distinct sound of footsteps on metal heading towards them. Rex seemed to hear it too, because he whizzed past Julia, and instead of going down the stairs, he ran up them. Thomas staggered upright, his white vest covered in the blood gushing from his nose. He swayed from side to side as he also ran for Julia. When his eyes met hers, she noticed the confusion register, but he didn’t stop to question her. He sprinted up the metal stairs, taking them two at a time.
“Stay here,” Barker commanded as he ran after them. “I mean it this time. The police will be inside in seconds.”
Julia nodded that she would, her eyes fixed on the glass ceiling where she could see Rex running along the edge of the roof free of glass panels. Next, she spotted Thomas, but he walked in the opposite direction. She was the only one with a decent vantage point.
The footsteps grew louder, but instead of the police officer Julia expected, Helen appeared, red-faced and panting. She tripped on the final step, catching herself on the handrail. She paused to clutch her ribs; a sheet of paper was scrunched in her fist. Her tightly squinted eyes drifted up to the glass ceiling, sliding past Julia. For a moment, Julia thought Helen had seen her, but they didn’t make eye contact.
“Thomas?” she called out, looking between the boxing ring and the glass ceiling. “I got your letter, Tom! The police are out front, and it’s only a matter of time before they break the door down or figure out the back is open.”
When this garnered no reply, she huffed and set off up the stairs. Julia’s heart thumped in her chest. She knew she should stay hidden in the shadows, but she couldn’t bring herself not to be there for Barker. Her head tried to force her feet to remain glued to the floor like they had outside the Plough; her heart drove her up the stairs.
Julia passed through the open door and into the fresh night air. A summer breeze pulled at her hair, unbalancing her. Even though the building only had three stories, the river below seemed miles away. From her position, she spotted Barker hiding behind one chimney and Helen behind another; neither seemed to have seen the other. Rex was already on the far side of the roof, balancing on the edge, with Thomas advancing on him.
“Give me the bag!” Thomas cried. “The money is mine.”
Rex pushed his arms through the straps, wearing the bag like a baby in a papoose. Julia crept further along the roof, hiding behind an air-conditioning vent.
“How do you figure that, son?” Rex called back, glancing over the edge to the street below. A grin spread across his face. “Police are here for you. Hope you can explain this to them.”
“It’s my money,” Thomas repeated, holding out his hand as he edged forward. “I don’t know who you are or what grudge you have against my father, but he won that money fair and square.”
“Won?” Rex laughed, his teeth flashing through the wash of blue light. “Is that what the pathetic old man told ya, son? Ian Cropper lost every penny he took to Atlantic City and then spent a full year sucking up to my boss. And the idiot fell for it! Your daddy got juuust close enough to my associates to snatch a bag full of our cash before running for it.”
Thomas paused and stopped advancing.
“You’re lying.”
“Do I look like I’m lying?” Rex tossed his head back and let out a deep laugh before glancing down at the police again. “Good luck, son. You’ll need it.”
Rex sprinted around the perimeter of the building with a gymnast’s balance and a cheetah’s speed. He rounded the corner and ran towards the river. Julia expected him to make his way back to the stairs, passing Helen’s chimney and her air-conditioning unit, but he didn’t slow down as he approached the next corner. In fact, he appeared to speed up. He reached the edge and sprang into the air, as graceful as a dancer. He flew through the air in complete silence, arms and legs stiff by his side. Julia heard the splash as Rex hit the river, but the blackness of the night swallowed him up.
“No!” Thomas called, nose and mouth covered in his blood. “My money!”
“Your money, Thomas?” Helen stood, her steps unsteady as she shimmied across to her brother on one of the few beams holding up the glass. “I read your letter, Thomas.”
“Helen, please, I can—”
“Explain?” Helen shrieked, the volume upsetting her balance. She half-squatted, arms wobbling to either side. �
��Explain how you were going to run away with the money that we were supposed to be using for a new life?”
Helen regained her balance and continued advancing on her brother. She tossed the crumpled paper at him. It flew over the edge, and the crowd below reacted. During his altercation with Rex, Thomas hadn’t looked scared at any point –not even when Rex broke his nose. As he shuffled backwards, away from his sister, his eyes were as wide as those of a deer caught in the headlights.
“You’re no different than the others!” Helen cried, inches from her brother. “I thought you were, but you aren’t. You’re just like my pitiful excuse for a husband. You’re just like our father. You don’t care about me. You never did.”
“I gave you a home, Helen.”
“And you were about to leave me homeless!” she shrieked, shaking her head wildly, her hair tangling in the wind. “Were you going to send me a postcard from your villa in Spain? The one we were going to buy together with Dad’s cash? Why, Tommy? Why?”
“Because I needed to get away.”
“From what?”
Thomas gulped and glanced over the ledge.
“From you.” His bottom lip wobbled, and his head cocked to the side as he stared at his sister and pointed a finger at his shiny black eye. “I’m scared of you, Helen. Look what you did to me. Ever since you murdered Dad, I don’t know who you are.”
Julia clasped a hand over her mouth, silencing her gasp.
“I did that for us!” Helen closed the gap between them. “You were the only one I had left, and you ruined it. Men like you always ruin it.”
Helen’s hands lifted to rest on her brother’s shoulders. Julia thought she was about to force her brother into a hug, but she did the opposite.
She pushed him.
Thomas toppled backwards over the edge.
He landed below with a metallic crunch.
The crowd screamed.
15
Julia’s last look at Thomas revealed the look of pure terror on his face as he seemed to realise his sister was murdering him. Julia froze, unable to look away from the blank space where Thomas had stood only seconds earlier. The crowd below continued to cry and scream, but Julia could only think about how silent Thomas’s fall had been.
Helen turned around, her eyes clenched shut. If Julia expected the murderer to break down in tears, she was disappointed; Helen let out a sigh of relief and smiled to herself. Barker emerged from his hiding place, hands lifted, palms out. Helen’s eyes darted to him, and her tears turned on like they were controlled by a tap.
“He fell!” she wailed, clutching at her hair and mouth as tears streamed down her cheeks. “I tried to stop him, but he fell! I think he jumped. I think he killed my dad for money.”
“That’s not quite true, is it, Helen?” Barker asked, his voice calm. “I heard what Thomas said. I saw what you did. You murdered your father and pushed your brother off the roof.”
Helen’s charade continued for a split second longer. Then she dropped her head and came back up laughing. Below, the police finally broke through the front door with a crash; they would soon have company.
“Oh, Barker,” Helen called, pinching the bridge of her nose. “It’s your word against mine. I’ll tell them you pushed him and tried to push me. Who are they going to believe?”
“They might believe me,” Julia said, rising from her hiding place. “Two against one, Helen.”
Helen’s eyes doubled in size as they darted between them. Her smile dropped and, for a moment, her face remained entirely expressionless. Like Rex, she ran towards the edge, but she wasn’t a fast or confident runner. Barker intercepted her, and for the third time that week, Julia witnessed a rugby tackle. While Jessie’s had been perfect, Barkers was almost too perfect. They took air before landing on the glass ceiling. The old glass burst on impact, sending them both hurtling to the studio below.
“No!” Julia screamed in a voice that didn’t sound like her own.
Vision clouded by tears, she staggered to the door and scrambled for the handle. There wasn’t one; the door had locked from the inside. She yelled and screamed, choking on her tears. She beat her fists against the metal door, but she couldn’t get through with strength alone. She searched for another way down, but without following the others over the edge, she was trapped.
The door opened outwards, pushing her backwards. DI Christie appeared through her hazy vision, but she didn’t linger to thank him. She shoved past him and hurried down the stairs, slipping on the last two. She caught herself with the railing and steadied herself enough to run into the studio. At least a dozen officers surrounded Barker and Helen, who lay in the middle of the glass-covered boxing ring.
“Is anyone going to help me up?” she heard Barker groan. “You could have come in through the back door y’know. It was open the whole time.”
Julia had never felt relief like it. She dropped to her knees, her sobbing intensifying. She clasped her hands against her face and thanked whoever was looking down on them.
Despite the distance of the fall, landing in the padded boxing ring seemed to have cushioned their fall. Helen scrambled to her feet; her face was bloody, covered in tiny cuts. She dove for the ropes, but her clumsiness undid her. She cried out in pain as her ankle gave way under her.
“Cuff her,” Barker called as he sat up, wincing as he held his wrist. “She murdered Ian and Thomas Cropper.”
“Thomas isn’t dead,” one officer said. “Not yet, at least. Paramedics are seeing to him. Boss?”
“Do as Barker says,” Christie ordered as he helped Julia up off the floor. “C’mon, love. Nobody died tonight. You’re alright.”
Julia regained as much composure as she could and ran to Barker as he climbed out of the ring. His exposed skin showed its fair share of tiny cuts. He winced when she grabbed him, but she couldn’t bring herself to let go.
“Broken ribs,” Barker called as he attempted to hug Julia. “Definitely. And I’m going to guess I’ve a broken wrist. Aside from that, I think I’m fine.”
“Fine?” Christie cried. “You both could have been killed!”
“It wasn’t my intention.” Barker pulled away from the ledge. “She was going to jump, and she might be the only person to survive this who knows the truth and has a first-hand account of what happened.”
“I thought…” Julia’s voice trailed off.
“You’ll have to try harder than that to get rid of me.” Barker winked as he clutched his wrist. “I have a baby to meet.”
“I can’t believe you’d do this in your condition,” Christie said, almost into Julia’s ear. “When are you going to learn?”
Julia decided not to waste her breath to tell Christie she did nothing but watch, knowing he would never believe her. Instead, she focussed on Helen as the officers attempted to wrestle her into cuffs in the ring full of shattered glass. Julia walked over, wiping the drying tears from her cheeks.
“Why did you kill him?” Julia asked, clinging onto the ropes. “Why did you murder your father at your uncle’s wedding?”
The question caught Helen off-guard enough for one officer to twist her hands behind her back. Even though this hadn’t been Julia’s intention, she was happy to be of some service.
“You met him, didn’t you?” Helen snarled. “He was awful.”
“He was your father.”
“Was he?” Helen forced a deep laugh. “As far as he was concerned, I was a mistake. It was no accident that I didn’t meet him until I was thirty. He wanted it that way. He was happy having a son he rarely saw, he didn’t want a daughter too. That pain never goes away. I saw him run into the wedding reception when I was getting a round of drinks. I followed him backstage, and he told me about the American man chasing him.”
“Did you know about the money?” Barker asked, appearing behind Julia, his uninjured hand delicately resting on her shoulder. “Is that why you killed him?”
Helen smiled. “Men can be so dumb sometimes, don�
��t you think? My father returned from America and went straight to Thomas’s flat. Thomas might have pretended he didn’t care about our father, but he’s like any damaged kid. He’ll take a slice of something fake if the only other option is giving up altogether. Our father needed somewhere to lie low, and Thomas was more than happy to oblige. His sister was already in his spare bedroom, so what was one more wretched guest?”
“You said you hadn’t seen him in months,” Julia reminded her.
The officers dragged Helen to her feet. She winced when she was forced to put pressure on her left foot. The officers tried to get her to the edge of the ring, but Helen resisted, her eyes trained on Julia. Christie held up his hand. The officers slackened their grip on Helen enough for her to pull away. She hobbled to the edge of the ring where she loomed over Julia, the moon behind her casting her face in shadow.
“I lied,” Helen said with a grin. “I knew if anyone would figure it out, it was you. Uncle Percy told me all about it. I didn’t want to ruin his wedding. He’s one of the few men I actually like.” She glanced down and sighed. “Though maybe that’s because he hasn’t had a chance to disappoint me. I was thirty by the time I knew he existed, after all. I didn’t like the thought of Uncle Percy going to prison for killing my father, but it made sense, didn’t it?”
“How did you find out about the money?” Barker asked.
“Like I said,” Helen continued, shrugging, “men are stupid sometimes. A lot of the time, actually. The first night he was back, my father stayed up drinking with Thomas. He barely waited an hour to start bragging about all the money he’d won in Atlantic City. At least a million, he said. They didn’t know I was listening. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I was getting up to use the bathroom when I heard them. They weren’t even quiet.”
Helen’s nostrils flared. She cracked her neck from side to side and exhaled.
“My father told Thomas he would leave the money to him in his will.” Helen’s jaw clenched as she gritted her teeth. “I’ll give Thomas credit where it’s due. He asked about me. He said ‘What about Helen? She’s your daughter.’ Do you know what his response was?”
