The Girl Behind the Lens: A dark psychological thriller with a brilliant twist

by Tanya Farrelly

  Carmen Hernandez was standing feet away in the dark.

  She hadn’t yet seen Joanna, who had frozen in the bed beside him. He felt Joanna’s hand on his arm, and he guessed that she was silently asking him what she should do next.

  ‘Carmen? Jesus, what are you doing creeping around in the dark?’

  He had pushed Joanna’s hand away, hoping that she would take it as a signal to ease herself from the bed and make some attempt to hide. It hadn’t occurred to him that he had used Carmen’s name. If he’d only said nothing, Joanna would have mistaken her for Mercedes as she had done before.

  Joanna was still beside him, but sitting upright with the covers pulled round her when Carmen switched on the ceiling light and exposed them all. Carmen’s look of shock quickly turned to rage.

  ‘I should have known …’ she said.

  Oliver jumped out of bed before she could make a lunge at him. Joanna had jumped up, too, and was shouting at Carmen, demanding to know what right she had to go barging into people’s houses in the middle of the night. Carmen sneered at her.

  ‘Is this what you replace me with when I’m out of sight,’ she said.

  She spat at Joanna, who moved back, scared.

  ‘I should have known you’d do this. You made a fool of Mercedes, but you’ll never do it to me. I know you, Oliver. I know what you’re capable of. Maybe now you’ll tell me what you’ve done to my sister. Maybe you’ll tell her, too, because soon everyone’s going to find out.’ Carmen had moved closer to Oliver.

  ‘Don’t be stupid, Carmen. You’ve seen Mercedes. You told me yourself you met her in Belfast. That’s where you’re supposed to be now. Did you say that just so you could come back and spy on me?’

  Joanna was putting her clothes on as quickly as she could. Carmen turned to her.

  ‘Don’t believe a word he tells you. You mean nothing, just like the rest. Ask him where he was last night.’

  ‘Working, he—’

  Carmen bellowed with laughter. ‘Wrong. He was with me – that’s where. Tell her.’

  Joanna looked at Oliver. He could see the look of hurt on her face and, in that moment, he decided that he couldn’t let her believe anything that Carmen said.

  ‘Is this true?’ she said.

  ‘Of course not, she’s crazy. She’s my wife’s crazy sister. I think it’s time you left, Carmen, before I call the police.’

  ‘Oh, you’ll be talking to the police all right. And you’re going to tell them what you’ve done to my sister. I’ll never forgive you for this. Never.’

  Carmen stepped closer to Oliver. She swung at him and her fist connected with his jaw. He stumbled backwards at the unexpected blow. She attempted to hit him a second time, but he caught her by the wrists and she kicked and screamed at him. He twisted one of Carmen’s arms behind her back, and she shouted out with pain. He’d forgotten that Joanna was in the room until he heard her voice.

  ‘Stop it, for God’s sake. Just stop.’

  He loosened his grip on Carmen, and she squirmed away from him.

  Joanna stood there, shaking.

  ‘Get out of here,’ Oliver said. He attempted to put his hand on Carmen’s shoulder to usher her from the room.

  ‘Get your hands off me,’ she screamed.

  She walked down the stairs in front of him.

  ‘How did you get in here anyway?’

  Carmen took a set of keys from her pocket and threw them at him. He ducked and they landed with a crash on the stairs.

  ‘I took them back last week, but I guess I won’t need them now!’

  ‘You didn’t really think you meant anything to me, did you? What we had – that was just sex, Carmen. I’d never get involved with someone like you.’

  ‘And you think I’d want to be involved with someone like you? You must be crazy.’

  Carmen picked her coat up from where she’d left it on the banister. She made her way towards the front door without stopping to put it on. For a moment she paused with her hand on the lock, and then she turned towards him. ‘You’ll regret this, Oliver,’ she said.

  She spat the words like venom and then she was gone, leaving him staring at the closed door.

  Immediately he crossed to the door and bolted it. There would be no more surprise visits tonight. He put his hands to his head. His mind was racing. Would Carmen call the police before the morning? He wouldn’t put it past her. She was mad enough to do anything. He had to be ready. He had to get the story straight in his head before they started asking questions. He heard a noise and looked up. Joanna was standing halfway down the stairs staring at him over the banister.

  FORTY

  ‘Is it true what she said, that you were involved with her?’

  Oliver nodded. ‘Yes, but not now, it was before. Please, just come in and sit down. I want to tell you everything. I had hoped I wouldn’t have to.’

  Joanna hesitated, not sure anymore that she wanted to hear anything, but how could she condemn him without first hearing the evidence? He didn’t speak for a moment, shaken still by his confrontation with the woman. Carmen, is that what he’d called her? It certainly hadn’t been Mercedes anyway. Not this time.

  ‘Before Mercedes left, our relationship hadn’t been the same. I don’t want you to think I’m using that as an excuse, I just want you to know how things were. The physical side of our relationship had become non-existent. We were like strangers living in the same house. There was no warmth between us, and yet Mercedes didn’t want to acknowledge that. Every time I tried to bring it up she just got angry, and every time I attempted to get close to her she pulled away. I guess what I’m saying is it would have ended sooner or later regardless of Carmen.’

  Joanna averted her eyes as he took a breath and went on.

  ‘Carmen had been staying with us for a couple of weeks. She and I did and didn’t get on. Mercedes had told me to be nice to her and I was trying. From the moment I’d met Carmen, she’d made it clear that she was interested. She was blatant about it, had tried it on a few times when Mercedes wasn’t around. I’d mentioned it to Mercedes before and she’d laughed and said that was just how Carmen was and that she didn’t have any real intention, but I knew otherwise. Anyway, usually it annoyed me when Carmen acted like that, but things were the way they were between Mercedes and me, and I have to admit that I started to enjoy Carmen’s attention, encouraged it even.’

  Joanna shifted in her chair but said nothing.

  ‘Mercedes had to go to a conference for work. Carmen and I both knew this and things had already gone further than they should in the odd moment when Mercedes was out of the room. It was exciting … I mean Mercedes would go upstairs and Carmen would—’

  Joanna put up a hand to stop him. ‘I don’t want to know about that,’ she said.

  ‘I’m sorry. Anyway, you can imagine. Carmen didn’t care about anything, and Mercedes and I hadn’t been physical for months. I didn’t even feel like I was cheating on her. Anyway, she went away for the night, and Carmen and I finally slept together. When she came back, we acted as though nothing had happened, and I thought that that was an end to it. I didn’t want to pursue anything with Carmen. It wasn’t like that; it was just sex.’

  ‘And Mercedes found out?’

  Oliver nodded. ‘It wasn’t until a couple of months later. Carmen had gone home. I thought it had been forgotten, that Carmen had got her way and now she wasn’t interested, but I was wrong. She told her everything.’

  ‘What did she say?’

  Oliver stood up and paced the floor, face contorted at the memory. ‘She went crazy, started attacking me. She said she never wanted to see me again, that she couldn’t believe I’d betrayed her like that, and with Carmen of all people … She took her things and left.’

  He sat down again, leaning forward in the chair trying, she thought, to gauge her reaction. He spread his hands.

  ‘And that’s it, that’s what happened. I’m sure you feel the same about me now as Mercedes d
id. I know only too well how women feel about … about that.’

  Joanna was silent for a moment before she spoke. ‘And Carmen, did you and she continue—?’

  ‘You must be joking. I didn’t want anything to do with Carmen. You’ve seen what she’s like. I couldn’t understand why she’d told Mercedes … she knew that it didn’t mean anything. It was her twisted way of trying to get one up on everyone. Look I just want you to know, I’d never done anything like that before. I’d never cheated on Mercedes. If things hadn’t been the way they’d been at that particular time, I don’t think any of it would have happened.’

  ‘You don’t think?’ Joanna stood up, she couldn’t think straight. She needed to get away from him.

  ‘No, it wouldn’t have happened. Look, Joanna—’

  She put a hand out to ward him off. She didn’t want him to touch her, not now. ‘I’m sorry, look I have to go, I can’t … I can’t be around you right now.’

  ‘Okay. I understand. But just so you know, I have told you everything. I know I was weak, stupid, but Mercedes had her hand in it, too. I mean things were over. We just didn’t want to face it, not after four years of marriage. If it hadn’t been Carmen, it would have been something else.’

  Joanna felt sick. If she didn’t get away from him soon, the nauseous feeling would overwhelm her. She grabbed her coat and bag from the chair. He followed her to the door.

  ‘Is it okay if I call you in a few days?’ he said.

  ‘I’d rather you didn’t. I need time to think.’

  ‘Okay. I’m sorry, Joanna, sorry I didn’t tell you everything from the start. But I liked you, and I didn’t want to spoil it. I won’t call, but I hope once you’ve had time to consider everything, you might … I hope it’s not the last time I see you.’

  They stood awkwardly. He put out a hand but she turned from him, said goodbye brusquely and hurried out the door. At the car she fumbled the car keys, dropping them on the ground. She stooped to pick them up and hurriedly sat in before having to lean over the pavement to vomit. She glanced at the house, thankful to see he’d gone back inside.

  When the episode had passed, she drove away from the house, but she didn’t feel like going home. Her mother would wonder what had made her return in the middle of the night. She drove out of the estate and then pulled the car in by the canal. The water shone slick beneath the garish glow of the streetlamps. She lowered the window to feel the sting of the cold night air and breathed in deeply. Oliver said that he had told her everything, and she wondered if he had. He’d been frank in his description of his relationship with Mercedes, if it was true. The fact that the relationship had perished long before may have been nothing more than an excuse, and what’s more, he knew it was the sort of thing she’d want to hear.

  Carmen Hernandez was a different story. If she hadn’t made her dramatic entrance, Joanna would never have known she existed. And in turn she wouldn’t have found out why Oliver’s marriage had ended. She thought about his betrayal of Mercedes, and wondered if it was true that Carmen had tempted him at a time when his resistance was low, or whether he’d have succumbed anyway despite the fragility of his marriage.

  Joanna got out of the car. She needed to walk, needed to breathe the cool air. She thought of how shocked Carmen had looked to find her there. But there were several things, apart from the obvious, that bothered her about Carmen’s intrusion. The first was Carmen herself. Did she bear such a remarkable likeness to her sister that she couldn’t tell them apart, or was it Carmen and not Mercedes that she had seen that first night coming out of the house? The woman she had seen undressing before the fire, that had been Carmen surely? And, in that case, had she ever seen Mercedes?

  She thought of the way that Oliver had grabbed Carmen’s arm, twisting it behind her back so that she couldn’t move with pain. It was like a badly choreographed tango where neither partner knew which step to take next, and so they’d stood – frozen – each unwilling to concede. She, the forgotten spectator, had watched until she couldn’t bear to watch any longer, and it was the thought of what might have happened if she hadn’t intervened that bothered her most.

  Oliver said that Mercedes had attacked him when she’d found out about his betrayal. What had he done to defend himself? Had he taken hold of her wrists as he’d done with Carmen or had he simply allowed her to beat him? There was no one there to stop it, no one there to see what had happened between them. Had Mercedes simply packed her bag and left without returning? What if she’d never left at all?

  Joanna had been walking briskly. She found herself now near the place where Oliver had found her father’s body. She walked onto the lock and stood peering into the water. There was no one around, no one to hear the screams of a person drowning. She thought about Vince Arnold. What had he been thinking as he crashed through the ice? As his body was sucked under without hope of escape. About Rachel, or Angela, or the daughter whom he’d failed to acknowledge, but who would inherit fifty thousand euro on the event of his death. Did he think that was enough to make up for what he’d done? It was ironic that he, the absent father, had been the catalyst – the reason for her meeting Oliver Molloy. At the beginning she’d seen it as fate, but now she wondered if their relationship hadn’t been doomed from the start.

  Joanna took a coin from her pocket, raised her arm and threw it into the water. She heard it hit the surface with a plop and imagined it sinking slowly to the bottom of the canal. She remembered a park she’d been to with her mother. She must have been about four years old. There’d been a big fountain, its base filled with hundreds of coins. Her mother had opened her purse and given her a penny to throw in, telling her she should make a wish. She wished now: not that she hadn’t met Oliver Molloy but that he was telling the truth. She wished that Mercedes would turn up to dispel the suspicions that Carmen Hernandez had stirred up. Mind churning, she turned and walked quickly back to the car.

  FORTY-ONE

  Oliver couldn’t get back to sleep after Joanna had left. Instead, he sat in his armchair in the living room and wondered whether there was substance to Carmen’s threats. She had extorted money from him on the pretence that she’d seen Mercedes as recently as a week ago; could she afford to go to the police? It would be impossible to do so without getting herself into trouble. Then again, she was livid. Logic might not come into it if she was hell-bent on revenge. He couldn’t afford to take a chance, and so at eight o’clock in the morning he called the guards.

  They arrived a little after ten: the same two men that Oliver had met at the canal bank the morning he had found Vince Arnold’s body. What were the chances?

  ‘Mr Molloy?’ the older man asked as soon as Oliver had opened the door.

  ‘That’s right. Come in.’ He opened the door wider and stepped back allowing the two men to enter.

  They waited in the hallway until he invited them to follow him into the living room. He saw them take a quick glance around. Sweeney’s shrewd eyes rested momentarily on the framed photo of himself and Mercedes that he’d replaced on the mantelpiece after he’d made the call.

  ‘When was the last time you saw your wife, Mr Molloy?’ Sweeney crossed to the picture and picked it up.

  ‘About two weeks ago.’

  ‘About two weeks ago? Why did you not report her missing right away?’

  Oliver thought of Joanna. Had she realized by now that the woman she’d seen at the house that night was Carmen? He decided he’d take his chance and hope that she’d back him up if he needed her to.

  ‘We’d been living apart; she came by to pick up some of her things.’

  ‘You and your wife are separated? When did that happen?’

  ‘Close on two months ago.’

  The younger garda was taking notes while Sweeney asked the questions. He put the photo back on the mantelpiece and looked at Oliver with piercing blue eyes.

  ‘And what were the circumstances of the separation?’

  Oliver ran a hand through his ha
ir. Stick to the truth as closely as possible, that way there would be less probability of mistakes. That way, he would paint Carmen black without even mentioning the money.

  ‘Mercedes found out that I’d slept with her sister. We had a big row and she left.’

  A raised eyebrow. ‘And do you know where she’s been staying since she left you?’

  ‘No.’ He’d been about to tell them about the message – the one that placed her in Belfast – but let them find out; it would be better that way. The trail he’d left using Mercedes’s debit card would lead them straight there.

  ‘And you’ve had no communication with her?’

  ‘Well, yes, there was a message she sent from Facebook, but that was a fortnight ago.’

  ‘What did it say, this message? Was there any talk of a reconciliation; had you arranged to meet?’

  ‘No. Nothing like that. She said I wasn’t to contact her, that she doesn’t want anything to do with myself or Carmen – her sister.’

  Sweeney looked at him, impatient. ‘And so, what makes you think that your wife is missing, Mr Molloy, if she’s expressed a wish not to communicate with you?’

  ‘She’s not answering calls – not just that but her phone is powered off the whole time. She hasn’t updated her Facebook page or Twitter.’

  ‘Surely, there’s nothing strange in that, unless your wife is a daily user?’

  ‘Well, no, not necessarily. I’m sorry, obviously you think I’m over-reacting here – but I’m concerned. I just need to know that she’s all right. She’d been suffering from stress, had been on prescribed medication before we’d split, so I’m concerned about – about her state of mind.’

  ‘What kind of medication was she taking? Would you say she was depressed?’

  ‘Maybe, yes. It was more anxiety. The doctor prescribed anti-anxiety tablets.’

  ‘I see. And you and your sister-in-law, Carmen, have you continued this … relationship?’

  ‘Relationship? No, there is no relationship. Carmen just arrived from Spain a couple of weeks ago. She became concerned when Mercedes failed to answer her calls. She was desperate to sort things out with her – after what had happened.’