An Affair of the Heart

by David George Richards

  Diana just laughed again. “My, my, how strong you are!” she mocked. “But I think now it’s time for little Sarah’s hearty to go beddy-byes!” And raising her fist, Diana suddenly punched Rachel hard in the chest.

  Rachel gasped. Her head came up and her legs stuck straight out. Slowly she relaxed, and her head fell back to the floor. “That hurt,” she moaned. And she started to cry.

  Diana laughed and punched her again.

  Rachel heard the blow this time, as well as feeling it. It was really hard and loud. She was winded, and there was a sharp pain in her chest.

  “Stop it! Stop it!” she pleaded, gasping for breath.

  Diana punched her a third time.

  Now Rachel felt a much worse pain, and this time it didn’t stop after the punch. She felt breathless, her heart missed a beat, and she suddenly felt hot and faint.

  There was a flash of yellow and gold light, and Rachel heard a loud ‘gong’ sound. Almost immediately she felt Diana’s weight lift from her body, and at the same time her hands became free. She rolled over quickly, gasping for air and clutching at her chest. Even without her glasses, Rachel could see Diana on her knees just in front of her, propping herself up with one hand, and clutching at her head with the other. And then she saw the other woman. She had bright red hair, her clothes all looked sort of messed up, and she was holding an enormous copper saucepan in her hands. She was also only wearing one shoe and she had an intensely manic expression on her face. Standing there right in front of Diana, she looked just like some strange demented tennis player.

  Helen Worthington gripped the saucepan in both hands and swung it with every ounce of strength in her body. It was a beautiful, two handed, upwards forearm smash that would have been worthy of any Wimbledon champion. Rachel watched it all as if it was in slow motion. The base of the pan caught Diana Williams full in the face with an enormous ‘gong,’ and a definite crunch. There was a splatter of blood, and Diana was lifted right off the floor. She just flew, her body going head over heels and landing with a crash on top of the side table. Decorative china smashed and flew in all directions, and the table collapsed. Diana just lay there in the wreckage, her arms and legs spread out.

  Helen Worthington spun round, following through with her swing. She lost her balance, hit the wall, and slid down to the floor. There she sat, sort of dazed, still clutching the giant copper saucepan. She looked up at Rachel, and smiled with immense satisfaction.

  “That’s the best bit of work I’ve done with a saucepan, in or out of the kitchen, in years,” she said rather too calmly. Taking a deep breath she added, “Actually, that’s the only bit of work I’ve done with a saucepan in years.”

  Helen looked down at the saucepan. There was a deep, bloodstained dent in its base. She held it up for Rachel to see, saying, “Let’s see them air brush that out on her next photo shoot!”

  Rachel merely closed her eyes and fell forward, rolling over onto her face.

  Chapter Forty

  Closing Ranks

  “I think she’s only fainted,” Alex said, clutching at his head. He was kneeling beside Rachel in the hall. “Thank God! I’m going to phone for an ambulance.” Alex got up and hurried into the lounge.

  “Better make it two,” Helen Worthington replied as she heard him pick up the phone. She was holding Alex’s handkerchief to the gash on the back of her head. It was already bloodstained. She was standing over Diana, looking down at her motionless body. “Unfortunately, this one’s only sleeping too,” she said with a chuckle. “But I’m glad to say that she does look like she’s been hit by a number 53 bus that reversed over her just to make sure.”

  Helen turned and limped after Alex. She was still only wearing one shoe, and gave up trying to walk with it when she got to the lounge doorway. She leaned on the door, shook her foot, kicking the shoe off, and then continued on her way.

  “Don’t forget the police,” she told Alex when he put the phone down.

  “I don’t want them involved,” Alex replied.

  “They are involved. You can’t keep this quiet, Alex. Your daughter brained both of us and was trying to punch the life out of that girl in the hall. Call them!”

  Alex still hesitated. “Diana’s not well, that’s all,” he argued. “She just needs to talk to a psychiatrist. To sort things out.”

  “You are a fool, Alex!” Helen said walking up to him. She reached into the pocket of her stained and battered looking jacket and pulled out a crumpled photograph. “I came here tonight to show you this.” She handed him the photograph. Alex held it in both hands, peering at it closely as Helen explained. “It’s a still from a security camera in the bank in Chicago where your money disappeared. It was taken at the exact time that the account of Mrs Sarah McCord was closed. You can clearly see the woman collecting the cashier’s cheque. I knew it was Diana as soon as I saw her. You see, she was wearing that same black leather jacket when I picked her up at Manchester airport. She must have flown back to Milan from Chicago, got your message, and then flown straight here. I thought she looked a bit ragged for a supermodel. I bet you that money of yours is in a bank in Milan. Just think of it, millions and millions of Euros, all in Milan, surrounded by all those designer fashions and accessories.” Helen sighed. “It makes my heart pound.”

  Alex slowly put the photograph down and telephoned the police. When he had finished, he walked into the middle of the room and just stood there. Helen suddenly felt sorry for him. His whole world had come crashing down on him in a matter of weeks. He looked crestfallen. But with Helen, compassion for others didn’t last long. She walked over to him.

  “We can still win this case, Alex,” she told him. “Even if Diana doesn’t implicate McCord, there’s still enough evidence against him to damn his testimony when we come up in court against the Carter’s. No one is going to believe him now!” Alex was shaking his head, but Helen ignored him. “Not only was McCord cheating you,” she went on. “But he was lying and cheating Sarah, too! Both of you were the victims, Alex! Duped by an evil and manipulating daughter who was only interested in your money! And McCord was in it with her all the way!”

  “No!” Alex finally managed to say. “We have to stop this now!”

  “But we can still win!”

  “Win what? There’s nothing to gain, Helen! Dragging all this into the open isn’t going to help me, or Sarah, or Diana for that matter! It has to stop now!”

  “But it’s what you wanted!” Helen raised her voice. “You came to me, remember? You wanted someone without a heart to steal a heart for you! You said you wanted them punished for what they did! Well, you’ve got what you wanted! I don’t know what’s come over you, Alex! But you can’t go soft on me now!” She pointed towards the hallway. “That girl out there and her mother aren’t going to stop! And neither is the MRI! They think they’ve won! We both know they haven’t! I can smash them, Alex! I can do this! Just say the word!”

  Alex looked at her intently. “Alright,” he said. “But first go over to that bureau and look in the second drawer down on the left.” Helen looked puzzled. “Go on,” he told her.

  Helen did as he asked. Inside the little drawer she saw an orange and blue card. She pulled it out and stared at it in amazement. It was an organ donor card. It was signed by Sarah Williams.

  Helen spun round and marched back to Alex, waving the card at him. “You lied to me!” she accused him. “You told me you didn’t have this! You lied! You’ve had it all the time! You bastard, Alex! You complete and utter bastard!”

  Alex was shaking his head. “I didn’t know it existed until the MRI asked you about it,” he said. “That’s the truth, Helen. Out of curiosity, I looked, and there it was, in the back pocket of her jeans. I never even knew she had one. Oh, we spoke about it once. I don’t believe in the idea of transplants or anything like that. It’s just the way I feel, the way I am. But after we spoke about it, no, after we argued, and I told Sarah the way I felt, I thought that was the end of it,
and I never thought anymore about it. But she obviously did. McCord was right; I didn’t let Sarah discuss things like that with me properly. But she must have discussed it with him. After all, he did say that he was there when she filled it in.”

  Helen looked at the card in her hand, and then she looked at the open fire. “We’ll burn it!” she said, and she marched over to the fireplace. Alex quickly followed her, grabbing her hand and the card she still clutched.

  “You can’t do that,” he told her.

  “But if we burn it, we win! No one will ever know that it really existed, not for sure!”

  “No!”

  “But we can win, Alex!” Helen was almost pleading with him.

  Alex reached up with his free hand and brushed Helen’s cheek, his fingers moving into her hair. “I’m sorry, Helen. I can’t let you do this,” he told her. “If you burn the card, I’ll have to tell everyone that I saw you do it.”

  Helen stared into Alex’s watery eyes and sighed. “Something tells me that you’re not looking at me with the same dispassionate eyes as you did when you first came into my office, Alex. I’m really disappointed in you. I thought you were harder than this.”

  “I am, when I’m right,” he replied, sadly, and managed a weak smile. “But I’ve been wrong all along. Until I found the card, I genuinely believed that the MRI had made a mistake. And after I found the card, I hung on to the possibility that they were just guessing, that they never really found it that night. But that was wrong, too. The only mistake they made was to show me the wrong body when I came to identify Sarah. After that they must have panicked. That’s all it was. The rest was all my fault. Just me, doing what I do best, ruining everything. Even McCord will come out of this looking better than me. If he was as bad as you say, he and Diana would have been long gone once the money had been transferred. But McCord stayed. Not because he had to, or because he was doing anything underhand. No, he stayed because he knew what Sarah wanted, and he knew that I was trying to stop her. He really loved her, Helen. Even though I can’t help hating him, I have to grant him that.”

  They heard the distant sound of sirens. Helen looked at the donor card, now all crumpled up in her hand. Then she looked at the fire again, just a short distance away. Above it was the portrait of Sarah Williams, looking down at them both, smiling. Slowly, Helen allowed Alex to take the card from her.

  “This is going to ruin my reputation,” Helen said, softly.

  “No it won’t. You’ve already achieved enough notoriety from this case to keep you going for years.”

  “But to give in like this...It’s just not natural! Burn the card, Alex! Burn it, and we can still win this case!”

  Alex smiled at her and shook his head. “You won’t be giving in,” he told her. “I’ll arrange for the MRI to get their hands on the card, you just make sure Hargreaves looks surprised when it turns up in court. As for the money, forget it. Drop the charges against McCord, and tell the police the money was just mislaid in an incorrect account, and that it’s turned up. All you have to do after that is lose gracefully.”

  “Lose gracefully?” Helen repeated, stepping away from him. “Look at me! These clothes cost a fortune! And they’re all ruined! And I’ve got a king-sized headache! I want compensation, Alex! I want revenge! I want–” Helen made a fist with both hands and growled. “Arrrggghh! I hate you Alex! You’re making me do something nice! I hate that! I hate it!”

  Chapter Forty-One

  Secrets

  When Rachel woke up she could hear an ambulance siren. It was a few moments before she realised that she was inside it. She half opened her eyes and squinted, trying to focus, and realised that she wasn’t wearing her glasses. But even without them, she could just make out three blurred figures in the ambulance with her. There was a paramedic, a policewoman, and Alex Williams. Alex had a bandage around his head. Rachel could hear the policewoman talking.

  “You don’t get on very well with women, do you Mr Williams?” WPC Foster was saying.

  Alex shook his head. “So it would seem,” he replied. “The funny thing is, Diana hit me with a vase that was one of a matching pair.”

  “Oh, expensive was it?”

  “It would have been, if Sarah hadn’t thrown the other one at me the night she died.”

  Rachel swallowed. “Alex…” she muttered weakly, her eyes half open and blinking.

  Alex leaned forwards quickly. “You’re going to be alright, Rachel,” he said anxiously, holding onto her hand. “You’re on your way to hospital. You’re going to be alright. Just don’t worry about anything. Helen’s in another ambulance with Diana. Like me, Helen’s got a bad head. The paramedic said she was lucky not to get a fractured skull. As it is, they’ll probably want to keep her in hospital for a day or two. But she’ll be okay. She even took that pan with her, she said it was just in case Diana woke up in the ambulance.”

  Rachel smiled. “Where are my glasses?” she muttered. “I can’t see without my glasses…”

  “I brought them with me. Here.” Alex gently put her glasses on. “Alright?”

  Rachel blinked again, and looked around at their anxious faces. “That’s better,” she said, and then she made a face and added, “I feel funny.”

  “That’s just the medication,” the paramedic told her. “The blows to your chest have opened up the wound from your surgery. I’ve got a monitor on you just as a precaution, but your blood pressure and your heart rhythm are both fine. Just take it easy, and we’ll be at the hospital in no time.”

  The paramedic smiled at her, brushing her hair. She smiled back. Slowly, she turned to Alex. “I’ve got something to ask you,” she said to him.

  “You should rest,” the paramedic said.

  “Just one question,” Rachel told him. “Please?” He nodded, and Rachel turned to Alex again. “Why did you do all this?” she asked him. “You needed a transplant yourself, so why did you want to stop mine?”

  Alex looked sorry, embarrassed and guilty all at the same time.

  “I’m a fool, I know,” he said. “It’s just that I’ve never believed in it. Just never liked the idea, that’s all. When I was diagnosed as having acute myeloid leukaemia two years ago, the consultant contacted Diana without telling me. He said that I would have a better chance if I could have a bone marrow transplant. He said that without it I would only live another four or five years. I told him that I didn’t want a transplant, or chemotherapy. Just the basic minimum treatment. And that was that. I never told anybody else, not even Sarah. That’s why I was so possessive with her. I wanted so much for her to stay with me these last few years. But not out of pity. It would have been easy to tell her. But it was only her love I wanted. So, instead, I hid my illness and my pain from her. I would visit my consultant and take any treatment I needed in secret. Sometimes, when I was really bad and could bear the pain no longer, I would stay away from her for days. I think my deception finally confused Sarah. On the one hand, I would be madly possessive, even hiring people to watch her. And on the other hand, I would be excluding her, staying away for days and avoiding her. It slowly drove us apart. And when McCord finally stole her away from me, I was incensed. And when she died and I learned about what they had done to her, I...” Alex choked on his words. He looked away and sighed.

  “This police woman is perfectly correct,” he said once he had regained his composure again. “My relationships with the women in my life have been very poor. Even my daughter hates me. But she has good reason. I did abandon her and her mother when she was quite young. And I was going to leave her everything until Sarah came.” Alex squeezed Rachel’s hand. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Rachel. Or anybody else. I just lost control. I felt that I couldn’t grieve or even bury Sarah until I had put things right. You see, I knew that Sarah really did love me. It was my fault that she left; I drove her away. But I just couldn’t help myself. I suppose I was just a selfish, proud old man, hiding my infirmity from my young wife, even when I knew it was d
estroying our marriage. And when I finally lost her, I got confused and bitter. I’m sorry, Rachel. Can you feel it in your heart to forgive me?”

  There was momentary silence before Rachel replied, “Only if you now do the right thing. I didn’t just come to talk some sense into you tonight; I also came to get something. I lost it and I wanted it back. It’s been driving me crazy. Will you give it to me? Now? Please?”

  Alex nodded and sighed again. He reached into his pocket and brought out a crumpled organ donor card. “I had a feeling that you might ask for it,” he said, as he pressed it into her hands.

  “Did you have that all this time?” WPC Foster asked him in surprise.

  Rachel put her finger to her lips and made a shushing noise. Hugging the organ donor card to her chest, she smiled, said, “Thank you,” and content at last, she closed her eyes.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Debenhams

  Rachel Carter stepped out of the Metro at Piccadilly Gardens and smiled. It was a bright sunny and warm day. She wore a battered pair of jeans and trainers, and a short sleeveless top that just covered the scars on her chest, but also left her midriff and tummy bare. In front of her on the grass, people were strewn about, chatting, cuddling, or just taking in the sun. Who said it always rained in Manchester? Rachel breathed in deeply and walked down the platform. She felt marvellous. She had a credit card in her pocket and she meant to spend it.

  First was Marks & Spencer, followed by Kendals, various smaller but much more expensive shops in King Street and Saint Anne’s Square, then Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, and finally, Debenhams. By the time Rachel made her way to the restaurant on the third floor, she was laden down by a multitude of coloured shopping bags.

  Why she chose the restaurant in Debenhams she didn’t really know. Maybe it was because it was the last shop on her tour, and she felt like a rest and a drink. And it was non-smoking, which she preferred. Or perhaps there was another reason. In either case, when she saw Robert McCord sitting on his own at a round table near the wall, staring into his coffee, she didn’t feel surprised at all.