As the car drove down Queen Street passed Lincoln Square, Rachel looked up at the statue of Abraham Lincoln. He was standing with his back to them, as if he disapproved.
“Where to, Guv’?” the driver of the car asked.
DS Hanson turned and leaned over the front seat and asked Rachel, “Where are we taking you, Miss?”
Rachel was about to say Wythenshawe Hospital, but she stopped, and a sudden determination came into her voice as she said instead, “It’s far. You still don’t mind taking me?”
“No, it’ll be fine. Just tell us where you want to go.”
“Knutsford,” Rachel said, “I’m staying at the house of Alex Williams.”
The detective gave her a funny look. “Are you Diana Williams?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said, brazenly.
“Oh, I didn’t recognise you with your glasses on. What were you doing with Mr McCord?”
“I used to know him. Now I’m not so sure,” was her enigmatic reply.
DS Hanson didn’t question her further; he just turned to face forward again and tapped the driver on the shoulder. Soon the police car was driving up Princess Parkway, heading for the M56.
Rachel sat alone in the back seat, contemplating what she was doing. She felt scared, as if she was going into the lion’s den. But somehow, she knew that if anyone was going to make Alex Williams see sense now, it was going to have to be her.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Confrontation
Helen was surprised when Diana Williams answered the door. She wasn’t aware that Alex’s daughter had moved into the house.
“Ms Worthington, I think my father is expecting you,” Diana said with a smile. And she opened the door wide, ushering Helen into the large hall.
“I thought you were still at the hotel,” Helen said as she walked in.
“I moved back into the house last night,” Diana replied. “Alex said two days would probably be enough time to let most of the reporters find somebody else to chase.”
Helen put her briefcase on a side table and began to take off her gloves and unfasten her coat. All the while she kept watching Diana intently. She wasn’t happy that Diana was here. She had wanted to talk to Alex while he was “I didn’t see any reporters when I arrived, but I bet there’s still one or two hanging about,” she said, as she took off her coat. “Where’s Alex?”
“He’s in the kitchen,” Diana replied, and she led the way down the hall. “We only got back a little while ago, and we still haven’t had anything to eat. Alex spent ages in his office. We’re both starving!”
Helen picked up her briefcase and followed Diana to the kitchen. As Diana walked through the door she called out to her father. “Daddy, you were right!” she said with a smile as she stopped by the door. “It is Helen Worthington.”
Helen walked passed her into the kitchen and looked around. Alex wasn’t there. She turned quickly and just saw the expression of anger on Diana’s face as the younger woman punched her on the jaw. Helen was knocked sideways by the blow, stumbled on her high heels, dropped her briefcase, and fell to the floor.
Diana picked up the large rolling pin she had placed on the worktop by the door and stepped forward. Helen was on her knees, trying to get up, when Diana hit her on the back of the head with the wooden rolling pin. Helen fell back to the floor. She tried to get up again, but Diana hit her a second time. Helen scrabbled about on the kitchen floor and Diana hit her a third time. Helen relaxed and lay still.
Diana walked over to a storeroom and opened the door. She casually tossed the bloodstained rolling pin into the room. It landed among some brushes and a vacuum cleaner in the corner. Diana then went back to Helen, grabbed both her arms, and dragged her into the storeroom. It wasn’t quite large enough, and Helen’s legs still poked out into the kitchen.
Diana came out of the store room, paused briefly to pick up one of Helen’s red high-heeled shoes and her briefcase, both of which she tossed into the store room behind her before going back into the hall to retrieve Helen’s gloves and coat. Diana searched the coat as she walked back into the kitchen, and quickly found Helen’s car keys. The coat was then used to wipe clean the streaks of blood left on the floor before it and the gloves were also thrown into the storeroom. The coat landed on top of Helen’s head and shoulders.
Diana then tried to close the door, but Helen’s legs were in the way. Fortunately, she was lying face down, so Diana was able to just lift Helen’s legs out of the way, bending them at the knee, and force the door closed. Finished, for now, she walked out of the kitchen, closing the kitchen door behind her.
A few moments after Diana had left, there was a click, and the storeroom door swung open. Helen’s legs tumbled out onto the floor again, and somewhere from underneath the coat there was a muffled moan.
Diana was pleased with herself. She was in Helen’s car, driving it round to the back of the house. She had already erased Helen’s message on her father’s answer phone, and once her father had gone to bed that night, she would sneak downstairs, stuff Helen’s body and things into her car, and drive her somewhere for another tragic car accident. Considering how unprepared she had been, it was all working out incredibly well. Her father was due back any minute now. But with a little more luck, she would be back in the house, calm and relaxed, before he got there.
She was wrong.
A black BMW came up the drive, and a moment later Alex Williams was dropped off at his front door “Pick me up at eight,” Alex told him, and he watched as the car drove away.
Slowly, Alex walked up the steps to his front door, remembering how Sarah had been so impressed by the grand entrance. She had been so excited when the house had first been built, even he had been happy to be involved in her plans for its decoration and furnishing. Now it all depressed him. He opened the door and was about to go in when he heard the sound of another car behind him.
Alex turned and watched the police car pull up. A man and a woman got out.
“Nothing to worry about, Sir,” DS Hanson said. “I’m Detective Sergeant Hanson. Your daughter was with a Mr Robert McCord when we arrested him this evening. We thought it best that we give Miss Williams a lift home.”
Alex looked at the detective, and then he looked at the young woman standing just in front of him, her expression pleading with him not to give her away. He was about to do just that, but something inside him made him stop. There was something about this young woman, something familiar.
“Is that alright, Sir?” DS Hanson said, beginning to get a little suspicious.
“Yes, that’s fine,” Alex told the policeman. “Thank you, officer.” Alex then turned to Rachel. “So, you were with McCord, were you?” he asked her.
Rachel nodded, unable to speak.
“Then I think you and I are going to have some words tonight, my dear. You had better come inside.”
“Yes...dad,” Rachel said, and she quickly trotted up the steps and went into the house.
Alex nodded to DS Hanson and said, “Good night, gentlemen,” and went into his house, closing the door behind him.
Alex Williams and Rachel Carter stood in the hall facing each other. Neither of them spoke for a moment. Outside they could hear the sound of the police car driving away.
Alex was the first to speak. “You’re Rachel Carter, aren’t you?” he said.
“Yes, I am. How did you know?”
“I recognised you.”
“From my picture?” Rachel shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I was on steroids when that picture was taken. I put on a lot of weight. And I don’t think they published any other pictures of me. After all, I’m not that important, am I? So, how did you really recognise me, Mr Williams?”
Alex looked at her in surprise. But before he could say anything, Rachel went on talking. “I felt so nervous on the way here, I almost chickened out twice,” she said. “But as soon as I got here, seeing the doorway and this hall, I felt so...so comfortable, like I wa
s at home, that I’m not nervous or scared at all anymore. In fact I feel quite bold!” She pointed her finger at him. “You and I are going to have words, Alex Williams! But it’s you that’s going to be on the receiving end!”
Alex at last managed to get a word in. “Now, look here, young lady,” he began, but Rachel interrupted him.
“No! You look!” she said, taking off her glasses and stepping closer.
Alex stared into her blue eyes and suddenly felt cold. He didn’t know if it was a draft from the front door behind him, or whether he was actually feeling something out of the ordinary. But he was sure about those eyes. It was the same familiar feeling he had felt when he first saw her. It was like a fleeting taste, or smell, terribly familiar, but just out of reach.
A sudden urge came over him, and hesitantly, he reached out his hand and touched Rachel’s chest, gently pressing his palm between her breasts. He could feel her heart beating against his hand. It seemed to be going so fast, and so hard, that each beat was like a knock against his hand. An urgent, insistent knocking.
And suddenly he couldn’t move. It was as if the strength just drained right out of him. And at the same time, all the tension in him, all the anger and frustration that had torn and raged within him since Sarah’s death, seemed to drain away too. Just fading away as he felt her heart beating once more.
Rachel also stood stock still, as if frozen to the spot, as Alex continued to stare into her eyes, his hand still pressed against her chest.
“Daddy! What are you doing? Who the bloody hell is that?”
Alex and Rachel sprung apart like two young lovers caught by an unexpected parent. Diana was standing behind Alex by the open front door. Her expression was one of complete puzzlement. She slammed the door shut and walked up to them, looking at Rachel and then at her father.
“What’s going on, Daddy?” she demanded.
Alex was white faced, like he had just had some kind of terrible shock. He swallowed and pointed at Rachel, saying in faltering words, “She has...er...Sarah’s heart...”
Rachel quickly put on her glasses and said, “Hello! I’m Rachel! You’re Diana, aren’t you? You’re the one who met Robert McCord at a fashion show in New York last year, and persuaded him to break up your father’s marriage because you didn’t want his young wife to inherit all your money!”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Truth
“That’s not true!” Diana blurted out. She was completely shocked by Rachel’s outburst. She turned to Alex. “Don’t believe any of this nonsense, Daddy! It’s not true, I tell you! Its just McCord! He’s put her up to this!”
Alex just stared at her, totally bewildered by what was happening to him.
Rachel had the bit between her teeth. She kept going now that she had Alex’s full attention, accusing Diana of even worse deeds. “You mean you didn’t introduce Sarah to your father because you were showing off how rich you were going to be? And you weren’t angry at all when Alex started to love Sarah more than you? And you didn’t mind at all when they got married, and you realised that she was now going to inherit all of Alex’s money when he died?”
“It’s all lies, Daddy!” Diana said desperately. “You know I wouldn’t do anything like that to you! I love you, Daddy!” She put her arms around her father, hugging him tightly. “Please believe me, none of this is true!”
Rachel took another stab. “You mean Alex isn’t dying of leukaemia? And you didn’t decide to look him up only after the hospital contacted you, and asked you if you might be willing to have a test to see if your bone marrow was compatible for a transplant?”
Alex looked closely at his daughter, his eyes filling with tears. He looked so devastated.
“Don’t believe her, Daddy!” Diana pleaded with him. “It’s not true! None of it is true!”
Alex pushed Diana away from him. “But how does she know that I’ve got leukaemia?” he asked her. “Only you knew that.”
There was a brief, painful silence, after which Diana screamed and punched Rachel in the mouth, knocking her glasses from her face. And before her startled father could react, she turned and kneed him in the groin. Alex doubled up in pain. Diana grabbed him and shoved him against the far wall. Then she picked up a large vase from one of the side tables and smashed it over his head. He collapsed in a heap, unconscious. Finished with him, Diana now marched over to Rachel, who was stumbling about on the floor, trying to find her glasses and clutching at her blood filled mouth.
Diana kicked her over with her foot, rolling Rachel onto her back, and kneeling across her body, she pinned her down. Rachel tried to wrestle with her, but without her glasses she couldn’t see too well, and Diana soon had a firm grip of both her wrists.
“You’ve got a big mouth!” Diana told Rachel. “You just couldn’t keep it shut, could you? You interfering, useless little bitch! You’ve ruined everything! You’re going to pay for what you’ve done today!”
Rachel struggled, her legs kicking. “Get off me!” she yelled.
“Oh, not so happy now, are we?” Diana taunted her. “It’s okay to mess up my life, isn’t it? Lots of fun then! But oh, no! It’s not so funny when you’re on the receiving end! No, it’s not so funny then, is it!”
“Get off me!” Rachel repeated, kicking and struggling harder. “You’re only making things worse!”
“Making things worse?” Diana was outraged. “Me? You’ve got a nerve! It’s you who’s made everything worse! And like usual, I’ve got to sort it all out! Well, this is one job I’m going to enjoy! It really is ironic. I never planned for Sarah to die. But, oh God, how I wanted her to! It would have been much easier! But I just couldn’t work out a foolproof way to do it! That’s why I came up with this idea. This way, I didn’t have to kill the stupid cow, but I still got back what was rightfully mine!” Diana laughed. It wasn’t very humorous.
When Rachel had first decided to come and talk to Alex, she had known that she would have to confront Diana at some point. But she had never expected Alex’s daughter to turn violent. Angry yes, but not this. Now Rachel was getting really frightened. She was frightened by what Diana was saying, and by the way she was behaving. It was as if she had gone completely crazy.
“Let me up!” Rachel demanded. “You’re hurting me!”
Diana ignored her pleas. “If I’d only known she was going to have a fatal accident,” she continued, gripping both of Rachel’s wrists in one hand. “I wouldn’t have had to do all this crap either! All I had to do was sit tight. But you can never second-guess the future, can you? She may have only died because of the affair between her and McCord, so maybe I did sort of kill her. Who knows? It doesn’t really matter now, of course! One way or the other, the silly cow’s still dead! But the fun thing is, now that you’re here, I still get to kill her anyway.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve got her heart, haven’t you?” Diana replied, staring into Rachel’s eyes. “That’s what’s so ironic! You came here to mess up everything for me. But instead, I’m going to put everything right in one go! After all, what one accident can do for one interfering bitch, it can do for two, and my bastard of a father! I’m going to stick you all in one car, trundle you down a country lane, and get rid of the lot of you!” Diana suddenly put on a tragic expression. “How the newspapers will love me!” she said, clutching at her heart with her free hand. “The poor bereaved daughter! ‘It was such a shame!’ I’ll tell them. ‘Daddy had just made it all up with that young transplant patient. How brave of her to come out here that night. Everyone had become friends. And then how tragic! To die like that, all together, as they drove her back to the hospital.’“ Diana’s expression turned rather unpleasant again. “What a shame,” she added coldly.
“You’ll never get away with it!” Rachel blurted out, terrified now. She tried to pull her hands free, but Diana’s grip was too strong.
“Oh, but I will!” Diana said, her voice calm and cold now. “But first you
have to pay! Just like Sarah, and Daddy dear! And do you know why? Because he cut my mother and me out, just when he was getting rich! The heartless bastard!” She laughed again. That same humourless chuckle. “That’s a joke, isn’t it? Heartless! Get it? No?” Rachel remained silent, as if mesmerised. “You will do! And soon!” Diana continued, and she reached out with her free hand and began gently caressing Rachel’s chest. “No, mother wasn’t good enough for rich Daddy! Rich Daddy wanted lots of younger, prettier little bimbos at his side! Now rich Daddy isn’t good enough for me! But his money belongs to me! And I’m going to get it! All of it!” Diana pressed harder against Rachel’s chest with her fingertips. “Silly Sarah thought she was going to get it all, but I soon fixed her, didn’t I? But now it seems she’s come back to haunt me. Stupid, silly, Sarah!” Diana’s fingers prodded harder against Rachel’s chest each time she spoke the last three words. The hardest prod accompanying Sarah’s name.
“But Robert knows everything! He’ll tell the police!” Rachel finally managed to say, and she resumed kicking and struggling as she felt Diana’s fingers pressing even harder into her chest.
“Oh, yes! Darling, handsome Robert McCord!” Diana’s voice took on a mocking childish tone as she continued. “Is Sarah’s little hearty still beating for her handsome hero then? Poor little Sarah, poor little Robert.” Her voice went back to its harder tone. “He’s going to prison! For stealing money from Daddy dear, and for cheating on his profession. He’ll be ruined! And that’s what he deserves! The two timing bastard! As for telling the police, what can he say? It’s just my word against his. And everybody knows how I’m such a loving, caring daughter, and he’s a two-timing, lying, cheating bastard!”
“You still won’t get away with it! You won’t!” Rachel wailed, desperate now. She began to struggle as hard as ever, twisting and arching her back, and almost lifting Diana off the floor.
An Affair of the Heart Page 12
