The Darkness Visible

by Tori de Clare

  Naomi obeyed. Dan lay down beside her and held her hand. Her eyes focussed to long distance and she tuned in to a million stars. The moon was in the midst of them, radiating pure white light. The heavens were perfectly clear.

  ‘Makes you feel small, doesn’t it?’ Dan said.

  ‘I never feel small when I’m with you.’

  Dan shifted onto one elbow, his back to the stars now. He looked down on her and touched her face. ‘Tell me honestly. Do you love me like I love you?’

  She nodded. ‘Course I do. I wish I didn’t. Loving you is dangerous.’

  He moved closer. ‘It’s dangerous for me too, but here we are.’ His hair hung over his eyes.

  The still night air gently enveloped them. ‘So what does Solomon want?’

  ‘Do me a favour,’ Dan said. He moved closer. She secured her arms around his neck and felt his breath on her face. ‘Just for this moment, forget about him, will you?’

  She nodded.

  Dan tilted his head and closed his eyes and Naomi did the same. A delicious beat of anticipation and Dan’s lips touched hers, cool and tender at first. They became warm and moist and hungry, and then desperate. The troubles melted. During the ecstasy of one long kiss, Dan shared a story. He was sorry for the hurt; he was raw from the pain of separation; he wanted her. Badly.

  When he broke away, Naomi said, ‘You don’t need to say anything.’

  ‘Everything I’ve done has been for you.’

  ‘I know. I can’t explain how I know, but I get it. You’ve said it all.’

  ‘I haven’t said anything.’

  ‘You don’t need to. I understand, Dan. Really.’

  ‘I love you so much.’

  ‘I know. I’ve doubted it a hundred times, but –’

  ‘Don’t. I’ve never stopped loving you.’

  ‘I know,’ she said again. ‘And I know what you’ve been through.’

  He looked down on her for a gloriously happy moment. His smile outshone the moon. ‘You’re so worth it.’ He kissed her again, carefully and tenderly this time.

  When they pulled apart, Dan lay on his back next to her and they looked at the sky and found patterns in the stars.

  ‘Why can’t life be like this all the time?’

  ‘No reason,’ Dan said. He took her hand and held it up and played with her fingers. ‘Except we can’t stay around here. It isn’t safe anymore. We need to get away.’ Naomi twisted her neck and looked at Dan’s dark profile and her stomach lurched. He turned his head and returned her gaze. His expression was serious. ‘I wish you trusted me.’

  ‘I do trust you.’

  ‘No you don’t, but you need to.’

  Naomi reached out and touched his face. She ran her fingers over his eyelids, his cheekbones, the scratchy line of his jaw, and she lightly traced his lips with the tips of her fingers. She shifted her hand to his hair and ran her fingers through it. It was cool and soft.

  ‘I can’t leave here, Dan. I have another few weeks of uni.’

  ‘You don’t understand.’

  ‘OK, so tell me, what does Solomon want?’ In response, Dan sighed. Naomi continued, ‘You said my life depended upon me knowing. Does he want to kill me?’ she asked. She sounded more calm than she felt.

  ‘Worse.’

  The air crisped just a little. Nausea stirred in the pit of her stomach and generated an unpleasant wave. ‘What could be worse than that?’

  He looked directly at her. ‘He wants you for himself.’

  <><><>

  Henry hadn’t slept since the sound of an engine had woken him up. He’d only resurfaced from shallow sleep anyway. He checked the time. Two forty-five. Then he carefully rolled over only to realise that Camilla’s side of the bed was empty. There was a moment of confusion before nauseating memories rushed at him in the darkness and crushed him. He touched Camilla’s cold pillow and wondered what she was doing at this moment. She hadn’t responded to his texts. Had she discovered the empty drawers in Lorie’s old room? The thought brought palpitations.

  Remembering that a car engine had woken him, Henry stumbled onto the landing. He passed the spare bedroom where Joel was staying and could hear whispering beyond the door. Henry leant an ear towards the door. Annabel was in there with him. Henry had neither the will nor the energy to challenge them. It was hardly the time to be stepping onto a moral platform to lecture.

  Naomi’s bedroom door was open. Unusual, Henry thought. The room was in darkness. He peered around the door to find her bed vacant. He went downstairs and made his way to the front of the house and looked out of the window. Her car had gone. He wondered if she was visiting Camilla and quickly ruled it out. Camilla wouldn’t be sending out distress calls. It wasn’t her style.

  What to do?

  He went into the downstairs study and checked his phone. No messages from Naomi or Camilla. He stood still, disabled by disappointment. Then he booted up his laptop, logged onto Facebook and carefully and suspiciously read through all the messages Lorie had sent and he had foolishly sent back. How stupid could he be, telling her he was selling the car?

  He’d reached the final message now: Lorie asking to meet up with him. What did he have to lose? Lorie may have returned the money she’d borrowed, but she’d stolen two cars worth a quarter of a million and wrenched him from his peace. Maybe it was time to tell Camilla the truth and then threaten Lorie with legal action. If she couldn’t blackmail him any longer, she’d have no leverage either. The risk was that Camilla wouldn’t forgive him. That thought was unthinkable.

  He found himself tapping the keys. ‘I agree. It’s time we caught up. Give me a time and place.’ He didn’t add his name.

  Henry wandered over to his safe and opened it up. Inside was a wad of cash, a bunch of spare keys, some jewellery, plus the note that Naomi had found in her pocket eight years earlier. How could he tell Camilla that the family had been targeted in Johannesburg? How could he admit that he’d failed to protect them, failed to notice the danger? It had only been days since he’d suggested going back there to live.

  He read the message twice.

  Hide and seek is fun. Finding strange ways to greet old friends. Catch up with you soon. Old friends. Did he know the person who’d put that message in his Naomi’s pocket?

  His laptop sang three electronic notes from the desk. A response already? At this hour?

  He returned to his laptop sitting on his desk beside Naomi’s piano. Lorie had written, ‘This coming Saturday, The Lamplight, Hazel Grove. 8 p.m.’

  35

  ‘He wants me?’ Naomi’s tone was strangled.

  ‘Of course he does. I’ve been so stupid. I don’t know why I didn’t realise sooner.’

  Naomi couldn’t respond.

  Dan said, ‘He visited me, a while ago. He talked about work I’d done – phase one of some plan. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I’d refused to work for him as far as I knew. But finally, I understand. The first time he met you, he decided that he wanted you, but he needed me for a job that no one else could do.’

  ‘What job?’

  ‘Healing you; giving you a reason to recover from what had happened – and a reason to push Nathan to end the marriage. It’s what I do, isn’t it? I’m a doctor and he knows I’m good at what I do. I make people better. He knew how much I thought of you and he knew I’d do whatever it took. That’s why he needed me.’ Dan paused. Naomi’s heart was restless. ‘Then it was months later when he called again and talked about phase two and mentioned a wedding and justice. Honestly, I thought he was losing his mind. I didn’t know who was marrying who. It made no sense. I didn’t tell you because there was nothing to tell. I thought he was just intimidating me for fun. I didn’t want you worrying about it. Then he came again this evening, and now I get it and it’s worse than I thought.’

  ‘What did he say?’

  ‘He made it clear I’m in the way. He knew I’d visited you at the hospital this morning.’

  Nao
mi swallowed. ‘How?’

  ‘Who knows? He has his spies, and all these weeks when we haven’t seen each other, he’s been happy. And now he sees me as a threat. Phase two of his plan is obviously to claim you for himself and win you over. If I oppose him, I guess he’ll kill me. He offered me money to disappear. A lot of money.’

  ‘How much money?’ she asked numbly, as if it mattered.

  ‘Two million.’

  ‘Two million?’

  Dan nodded. ‘And there’s another phase – phase three. That’s the marriage part, and justice, I assume for Nathan. He protected Nathan because he owes Lorie. He couldn’t have had Nathan convicted without landing Lorie in trouble. But there’ll be a plan to nail him, you can bet.’

  ‘What’s happened to Lorie?’

  ‘I’ve no idea.’

  Silence a beat. ‘Why me?’ she asked.

  ‘Why you?’ Dan looked at her. ‘It’s so obvious to me now. You’re the perfect queen. He sees himself as the king, and he’s wanted a queen for some time to complete his game. No one else has measured up. Lorie wanted to fill the slot. He didn’t want her. Then he met you. You’re strong, but just vulnerable enough. You’re intelligent and talented. You’ve got guts and integrity. You’re not like anyone else he knows, which makes you totally desirable. Most importantly, you’re a virgin.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Yeah. It all makes sense now. He has a thing about cleanliness. He won’t touch anything that someone else has touched. He likes things new and unspoilt, including women, so finding the right one has been a problem. No one’s ever been good enough.’

  ‘No,’ she breathed.

  ‘I’m sorry, Naomi. You have to know.’

  ‘He told you all this?’

  ‘Not all of it, no. I worked it out. He quoted the Bible at me, chapter and verse. He told me he was preparing himself. I wondered what the hell for, and then I realised. He’s preparing for his life with you – because he knows the Bible is important to you.’

  ‘His life with me?’ she repeated. The thought sent a shiver. ‘What makes him think I’d agree to a life with him?’

  ‘You won’t have a choice. I’m sure he’ll try to win you over, but if you refuse . . .’

  ‘He’ll force my hand. Literally?’

  ‘Exactly.’ They looked at each other for a while. The air seemed colder now. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘What a complete creep,’ she said, clinging to Dan’s hand.

  Dan took her in his arms, and for minutes, they lay entwined, not speaking.

  In time, Naomi sat up. ‘My mum left home today.’

  ‘No way!’

  ‘Yep. My dad’s messed up. I don’t quite know how, but they had this huge row and then my mum packed a case a left. She’s gone back to our old place. It’s like there’s a dark cloud sitting over the family. We’re being threatened by an invisible darkness. We’re fragmenting. I can’t describe it.’

  ‘It isn’t invisible. Not now. Solomon is the darkness visible. I’m telling you, he’s causing the problems.’ Dan squeezed her hand then kissed it. ‘I wish I knew what to say about your mum and dad. They’re just crumbling under the pressure, without knowing how to deal with it.’

  ‘Yeah, well, they’re big enough to solve their own problems. What are we going to do, Dan?’

  Naomi lay down beside him again. She was on her side, elbow on the ground, head propped on one hand while Dan looked up at the stars and drew a picture in the air with his forefinger as if he was tracing a pattern. ‘We come up with a solid plan. We’ll have to play Solomon at his own game and out-play him.’

  ‘What chance do we have?’

  Dan squeezed her hand. ‘What choice do we have? We need to survive this, and we need each other to do that.’

  For a few moments, she searched Dan’s eyes. ‘It’s too risky for you to be with me. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.’

  ‘The risk is mine to take. No part of me is hesitant. I want you, OK? I love you. Enough said.’

  ‘Do you want to marry me?’

  He broke the tension and laughed. ‘Is that a proposal?’

  Naomi was serious. ‘It’s a question.’

  A solemn expression returned to his face. He set his stare on the heavens again. ‘Of course I do. I’d marry you tomorrow if I could.’

  ‘Let’s do it.’

  ‘I can foresee a couple of problems, the first being that you’re already married and the second being that I don’t even have a job.’

  ‘I want you to get your job back for your sake, but I have money. You don’t need any. And I’m going to break free from Nathan. I have to. It might cost me, but I just want to be rid of him. I’m not giving him the satisfaction of a divorce. I’m going to push him into an annulment.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Trust me. I’m going to do it. I’ve had enough of being Nathan’s wife.’

  ‘You’re making me nervous. He could have killed you already.’

  ‘But he won’t because he wants my money. He isn’t going to murder me. That would be his life over.’

  ‘Naomi, you’ve already ended up in hospital because of Nathan. What if this backfires?’

  A long pause in the silence of night. ‘Don’t worry about me, Dan. I’ll deal with Nathan; you deal with Solomon. Come up with a plan to get us out of this mess. And make sure we’re still alive at the end of it.’

  Dan turned to look at her now. He touched her face and half sat up and kissed her gently, then looked at her again. ‘Naomi, promise me you’ll tell no one about us. And I mean no one.’

  ‘Annie –’

  ‘No. Not even her. Not yet. And not your mum or dad or Siobhan either. The next few weeks will be crucial. Assume someone is watching and following you all the time. Behave normally. Don’t attract attention. Go back to Siobhan’s to live. Work hard at college. Eight weeks and you’re done for the year. Hopefully by then a judge will have annulled your marriage to Nathan and I’ll be reinstated as a doctor. Fingers crossed. Then we’ll take it from there, OK?’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘Until then, we’ll text and meet in secret. Keep your phone with you all the time, delete all my texts and calls, and don’t let anyone have access to it.’

  ‘OK,’ she said again.

  ‘We’re going to survive this.’

  She smiled. ‘I trust you, Dan.’

  36

  Late morning the next day, Henry was making coffee in the kitchen and Joel was gathering his stuff in the hall, preparing to leave. Henry felt relieved and guilty about it. The one naturally led to the other. It wasn’t that he minded having Joel around or that Joel had been any trouble at all. It was more to do with the state of the family. At times like this, visitors were an added strain.

  Joel strode purposefully into the kitchen with Annabel draping from his arm. She looked tearful.

  ‘I just wanted to say thank you for having me.’

  Henry rustled up a small smile. ‘Our pleasure, young man. If you hadn’t been here when Naomi hurt herself, I don’t know what we’d have done.’

  ‘Glad I could help. Thank Camilla for all the food and stuff, would you? Shame I can’t say goodbye.’

  Joel thrust out his hand. Henry shook it. There were a few moments of silence.

  Then Joel added, ‘I’m sure she’ll be back.’

  ‘Yes,’ Henry nodded and found he was too choked to add any more. Besides, there was nothing more to add. He was hot and embarrassed and then resentful. He cleared his throat. ‘Drive carefully.’

  ‘Will do. Take it easy.’ Joel clapped Henry on the side of his arm, then swept his hair aside and lugged a sorry-looking Annabel out of the kitchen towards the door.

  Henry stirred his coffee and decided that he didn’t have the stomach for food.

  He could hear Naomi in the hall, saying her goodbyes. An engine fired, then moved off, and the front door closed.

  The girls wandered into the kitchen linki
ng arms. Naomi looked tired. The atmosphere was heavy.

  Annabel said, ‘What’s going on, Dad?’

  Henry sighed. ‘It’s been a horrible few months for all of us. We’re all a bit frazzled, that’s all. I was hoping to take us all away on holiday, but events of this weekend have tipped your mother up and now she’s unreachable. I’m going to speak to her today. I’m hoping to persuade her to come home.’

  Annabel wiped her eyes. ‘Is there anything going on between you and the woman next door? Mum obviously thinks there is.’

  ‘No, petal, no of course not. I barely even know the woman next door. She went to the same gym as me – that was before she moved in next door and before I stopped going. I’ve no idea why she flung her arms around me as if we’re best buddies. We’re certainly not. We used to have a chat at the gym, that’s all.’

  ‘Why did you chat to her?’

  Henry hesitated. ‘She’s a friend of Lorie’s. She knew who I was. She introduced herself. Look, your mother doesn’t know that yet. I’m going to tell her later.’

  ‘What’s her name?’ Naomi asked.

  ‘Amber Bridges.’

  ‘I’ve never heard Lorie talking about her,’ Naomi said. ‘I’m sure I’d know if she was Lorie’s friend.’

  Henry said, ‘There’s obviously a lot we never knew about Lorie.’

  Naomi raised an eyebrow in response. ‘Well, I’m not happy about Lorie’s friend living next door to us, Dad. Don’t you think it’s an incredible coincidence? Did you tell this Amber woman where we lived?’

  ‘Of course I didn’t,’ Henry said. ‘Anyway, don’t worry, I’ll speak to your mother and see if we can straighten things out. I think I’d rather we all moved back to Alderley Edge. But first, your mother and I need a break together. I’m going to suggest it, just the two of us. Are you girls alright with that?’

  ‘I don’t think she’ll agree to it, Dad,’ Naomi said. ‘Not at the moment. And especially not if you bring Lorie into it.’

  ‘We’ll see.’

  Henry added milk to his coffee and sipped, while his stomach gurgled and churned like a tumble dryer.