Blood Sisters: The #1 bestselling thriller from the author of My Husband's Wife

by Jane Corry

  Who were these people looking after Ali? And why did she need someone to look after her anyway? It wasn’t as if Half a Sister was in a fucking wheelchair like she was.

  Little Vanessa was coming too. Kitty wanted that but she also didn’t want her to cry so much.

  It took ages to get there in the van, which Call Me Jeannie had given Friday Mum. It was big enough to take the wheelchair in the back and it had a ramp for her to get in and out. But Friday Mum was a bloody awful driver. She kept stalling. Baby Vanessa screamed most of the way from her baby seat. ‘I should have brought someone to help me,’ Friday Mum kept saying. ‘But I didn’t want …’

  Then she stopped as if she’d been about to say something and then changed her mind. ‘You might be a bit shocked when you see your sister,’ she said. ‘I haven’t told you this before because I didn’t want to upset you and because … well, I’m not sure how much you understand. But Alison is in a prison.’

  A prison? Kitty felt a cold shiver going down her spine. ‘Why?’ she babbled.

  ‘Remember we went to see your sister in court?’

  Of course she bloody well remembered. Half a Sister had hogged that glass box, hadn’t she? Refused to share. Had worn her locket – the one she’d stolen from her. So she nodded her head. But it came out like a shake again.

  ‘I don’t know if you recall what I told you afterwards but … well, Ali told everyone about pushing you in front of the car.’ Friday Mum’s voice was all wobbly. ‘So she’s going to be locked up for a very long time.’

  Another cold shiver down the spine. At the same time, little Vanessa began to yell again.

  ‘She hasn’t wanted any visitors and … well … she doesn’t actually know we’re coming today.’ Friday Mum was pulling into a service station now. ‘It might be a bit of a shock for her. But we’re going to see if it makes a difference.’

  ‘What makes a difference?’ yelled Kitty.

  ‘Don’t get upset now. Oh dear. I do hope we’re doing the right thing. Now just sit tight. I’m going to change Vanessa’s nappy in the van and give her a drink. Not much longer now and we’ll be there.’ Friday Mum was looking even more harassed than ever. ‘I do hope you can help your sister, Kitty. She needs you.’

  And something deep down inside her, that Kitty didn’t even know she had, gave a little ping like someone plucking a violin string. And making a horrible jarring sound.

  This place gave her the shivers! Even little Vanessa was shocked enough to keep her gob shut. Kitty stared up at the high walls with barbed wire on top as Friday Mum stopped at the gate. It reminded her of a show that had been on the telly a lot recently. Something like Orange and Black. Friday Mum gave a piece of paper to the woman guard, who nodded curtly. Then she looked at Kitty in the back in her special chair and then at little Vanessa in hers and her face softened.

  It took ages for Friday Mum to help her out of the van. Then she had to get little Vanessa, who had started yelling again. ‘Just as well I brought the sling,’ she heard Friday Mum muttering.

  They had to go through these special gates and then through some more. ‘They need to frisk us,’ Friday Mum said. ‘Don’t worry.’

  Frisked. Kitty ran the word round her head. They did that to people on telly if they thought they had drugs. ‘Get your fucking hands off me,’ she roared as one of the guards ran her hands down her body.

  ‘Ow!’

  ‘I’m so sorry.’ Friday Mum was babbling with embarrassment. ‘My daughter didn’t mean to hit you – she just lashes out sometimes when she’s scared.’

  On through another door with a guard next to them, and then another and another. Along one corridor. Along the next. Friday Mum was puffing as she pushed Kitty’s chair with little Vanessa in the sling on her front. She was cooing now. As if this was one big game. Then into another room. There were two women there. Kitty recognized one. It was the lady from the room with the glass box.

  ‘Hello, Kitty,’ she said, smiling. ‘Remember me? I’m Lily.’

  ‘Hello,’ said the other woman.

  Who the hell was she?

  ‘Kitty, this is Sarah. She’s your sister’s psychologist. Do you know what that is?’

  Of course she fucking knew. They were always on breakfast telly, weren’t they?

  ‘In a minute, your sister will be here.’ This was the Sarah woman talking. ‘We’d like you to have another go at your machine, if you don’t mind.’

  That’s when Kitty saw it. On the desk. How did it get there?

  ‘The hospital has kindly lent it to us for the day.’ The Sarah woman was leaning forward. ‘I know you got a bit upset the last time but we hoped you’d give it another go.’

  Kitty’s body felt like ice. ‘I don’t want to,’ she began.

  But then the door opened and this very tall woman with limp blonde hair and baggy blue trousers came in. Her eyes were on the ground. She lifted them really quickly to nod at Friday Mum and Kitty. Then she stared down at the ground again.

  Kitty felt a bolt of horror passing through her. Could this really be Half a Sister Ali? The pretty woman whom she’d last seen in the court?

  She looked so … well, upset. Older and more tired too.

  For a minute, Kitty had a flashback to the home when Margaret sometimes used to come out with a swear word that had made Kitty giggle. It took her to another memory. One about Ali. Once, she had helped Kitty do an April Fool joke on the flabby-faced man who said he was her dad. They’d hidden his car keys. It had been her idea and to her surprise Ali had gone along with it. It had been nice, Kitty thought, doing something together like that. But then their mother had told them off and Kitty had blamed Ali.

  Little Vanessa began to cry. ‘Not now, please,’ murmured Friday Mum. But Half a Sister held out her arms. ‘Is it all right?’ Friday Mum asked the Sarah woman.

  ‘Would you like to hold your niece, Alison?’

  There was a nod.

  ‘Be very careful,’ whispered Friday Mum.

  Everyone watched as Ali held little Vanessa in her arms, gently rocking her to and fro. The baby was staring up at Half a Sister, eyes fixed on her. She was quiet now. ‘I’d have liked a baby,’ murmured Ali.

  That’s when Kitty felt it again. That funny thing inside her that was like a violin string being plucked. But this time it made a nice noise.

  ‘Perhaps you had better give her back now,’ said Friday Mum. She sounded nervous. Maybe she was scared that Half a Sister might drop Vanessa like she, Kitty, had almost done the other day when trying to take her. Just as well that Friday Mum had still been holding on.

  ‘Kitty. Your mum says that you got upset when you used the machine before. I’d like you to tell me why, if you can.’

  Sarah pressed a button. A photograph of Flabby Face holding a little girl appeared on the screen. ‘That’s you with Dad,’ said Friday Mum. ‘On the beach when you were little. Do you remember?’

  Kitty thumped the chair. ‘No. No,’ she babbled.

  ‘No, No,’ repeated the machine.

  ‘Do you remember why this picture upsets you so much?’ said Sarah.

  Kitty began to scream. The machine made a horrible noise.

  ‘I’m not sure about this,’ said Friday Mum.

  Then Half a Sister leaned forward and touched her arm. Her face looked so kind. So worried. So … sisterly. ‘What happened, Kitty? You must tell us.’

  Don’t say anything, Kitty told herself. Stop. Right now. But the machine wouldn’t listen. ‘He told me. About your dad.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Lily, who had been quite quiet until now.

  There was a funny sound. It was Friday Mum. Crying softly. Then the tinny voice took over.

  ‘Dad was angry. Told me Ali’s father not dead. In prison. Murderer. Said I should tell Ali.’

  Friday Mum let out a little cry. ‘How could he! I made him promise to keep my secret.’

  ‘And did you tell Alison?’ asked the Sarah woman.

&nb
sp; Kitty nodded her head. ‘No,’ said the machine. ‘Told Vanessa. She was going to tell Ali. I couldn’t let her.’

  The room was deathly quiet.

  ‘So I pushed her.’

  ‘Who, Kitty? Who did you push?’

  ‘Vanessa. I pushed Vanessa.’

  76

  July 2001

  Kitty

  Kitty couldn’t recall a time when she hadn’t known Vanessa. She’d just always been there. And – most important – she was the same age. Ali was too old to be a proper sister. It was like having an older aunt instead. (Vanessa had had an aunt.) Ali was allowed to do things that Kitty couldn’t, like going to bed late. It wasn’t fair. And as Kitty grew up, she began to realize that Ali was cleverer than she was. That wasn’t fair either.

  Vanessa was fun! Her parents let her go out on her own. She kept telling Kitty that she should ‘stand up for herself’. When they started school, everyone else liked Vanessa too. But it was Kitty who was her best friend. It made her feel special. But every now and then Vanessa would be friendly with another girl and Kitty would be scared that she’d go off her.

  Then, one night, when Kitty was at Vanessa’s for a sleepover, they saw this programme about two girls who lived next door to each other. They promised to be friends for ever and ever. One of them cut her arm with a penknife and made the other do the same. Then they rubbed their arms together. ‘We’ll be blood sisters,’ they told each other. ‘It means we’ll be there for each other.’

  Vanessa had got really excited by this. ‘Why don’t we do that?’ she suggested.

  Kitty had been scared but she didn’t want to say no in case Vanessa stopped being her friend.

  ‘Where are you going?’ asked the babysitter. (Vanessa’s parents were out at the time.)

  ‘To get a drink,’ Vanessa had said quickly. ‘Come with me, Kitty.’

  She found the kitchen scissors in the cutlery drawer. ‘Go on,’ she said. ‘Be quick. Make a mark on your arm.’

  ‘I can’t.’

  Vanessa’s eyes had gone cold. ‘Then I’ll ask Wendy.’

  No! Wendy was one of the other girls Vanessa was friendly with. It had been bad enough when Vanessa had asked Wendy over for a sleepover the other day and not Kitty.

  It was only a little nick, but it hurt.

  Then Vanessa did the same. She didn’t even cry out.

  ‘Now we have to rub our arms together,’ she said.

  ‘What on earth are you doing?’

  It was the babysitter. ‘Oh my God … put those scissors down. You’ve cut yourselves! Whose idea was this?’

  Vanessa looked at Kitty. ‘Hers,’ she said.

  Kitty swallowed. She could deny it but, if she did, Vanessa might ask Wendy to be her blood sister instead.

  Luckily the cuts weren’t deep, but Vanessa’s parents had still sent Kitty home that night in disgrace. ‘Was it really your fault?’ Mum had asked.

  Kitty had hung her head. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well, I’m very disappointed.’

  The next day at school, Vanessa took her hand. ‘You passed the test,’ she whispered. ‘We’re real blood sisters now. It means we will do anything for each other. One day I’ll do something for you.’

  But she never did. And Kitty was always too scared not to do what Vanessa told her in case she didn’t have a best friend any more.

  Then came that terrible day when Vanessa showed her the note.

  I don’t want to be your friend any more, it said. I hate you.

  The handwriting looked exactly like Kitty’s.

  ‘I didn’t write this. It wasn’t me,’ she kept saying. But Vanessa wouldn’t believe her.

  ‘You’ve got to prove it,’ she said. Her eyes had narrowed. ‘Otherwise you can’t be my blood sister any more.’

  But how could she do that? The writing was just like hers with that loopy ‘f’ and ‘y’.

  ‘We could tell your sister that we saw her in the summer house,’ mused Vanessa. ‘I don’t know why you haven’t done that already.’

  Nor did Kitty, to be honest. It just felt … well, wrong. That picture of her sister ‘doing it’ with a boy … Ugh! She’d rather forget it altogether.

  ‘No,’ continued Vanessa. ‘That’s not big enough. You need to tell me a really big secret. That no one else knows.’

  Kitty began to feel scared then. ‘But I don’t have one!’

  ‘Then you’ll have to find one, won’t you. I’ll give you until the last day of term. If you haven’t come up with something, then I’ll just have to be best friends with Wendy instead.’

  Kitty hadn’t been able to eat or sleep properly after that. She couldn’t think of any secrets. ‘Are you all right?’ Mum had asked. She wasn’t looking very happy either. She and Dad seemed to be rowing all the time. Then one day when Dad picked her up from Guides (she and Vanessa had recently started) he said he had something to tell her. ‘You’re a big girl. You deserve to know. Remember we’ve always told you that Ali’s father had died when she was little?’

  Kitty had nodded solemnly.

  ‘Well he’s not dead at all. He’s been in prison for years because he murdered someone.’

  A cold shiver shot through her. ‘Could he come and hurt us?’

  ‘No. He’s still in prison. But he wants Mum and Ali to visit him.’

  She had a sudden picture of a scary man behind bars like a film she and Vanessa had once seen when the babysitter was there. ‘Isn’t that dangerous?’

  ‘It could be.’ They were nearly home now. ‘Actually, Kitty, I think you ought to tell Ali about her dad. Just in case.’

  ‘Why doesn’t Mum tell her?’

  There was a sigh. ‘Your mum wants to wait a bit.’

  ‘Is that why you’ve been arguing so much?’

  ‘The thing is,’ said Dad, not answering her question, ‘that – like you’ve just said – it might be dangerous for Ali and Mum to visit this man in prison. Besides, we don’t want him in our lives, do we? We’re happy the way we are.’

  Kitty nodded.

  ‘But if you tell Ali about her dad and explain why you don’t want her to visit him, then maybe she won’t.’

  Kitty began to feel uneasy. ‘But Ali will be really sad if she knows her dad is a bad man. I would be sad if someone said that about you.’

  ‘You’re a sweet kid,’ he said, ruffling her hair. They had pulled up in the drive now. ‘But you won’t really mind upsetting Ali, will you? After all, it’s for the best. Anyway, it’s not like you’re that close, is it?’

  That was true, Kitty told herself. But when she got ready for bed that night, Ali put her head round the door. ‘How was Guides? Did you have fun?’

  Usually Kitty would have ignored her or told her to mind her own business. But Dad’s words were still whirling through her head. Might be dangerous. Happy the way we are.

  ‘It was OK.’

  ‘It must be nice to have a dad to pick you up,’ said Ali suddenly. ‘I’d have liked that at your age.’

  ‘But my dad always picked you up from Guides when you did it.’

  ‘Yes – he did. But like you said, he’s your dad. Not mine.’

  Then this shadow seemed to pass over her face. ‘You know, I often wonder what life would be like if he was still here.’

  Kitty felt another shiver. ‘But then I wouldn’t have been born.’

  She could see Ali hesitating. Wondering if that would be a good thing or not. ‘You’re right,’ she said eventually. ‘And I’m glad you’re here, Kitty, I really am. I just wish we were better friends, that’s all. Anyway, I’ve got to get back to my revision or I won’t get anything done.’ She sighed. ‘ “Nothing comes of nothing,” as Shakespeare more or less said.’

  ‘What are you on about?’

  Ali gave one of her superior smiles. ‘Just a quotation. See you in the morning.’

  She could have done it then, Kitty told herself when Ali went back to her own room. She could have destroyed her sis
ter’s life with a single sentence. ‘Your father is still alive but he’s in prison for murder.’

  Yet she hadn’t because, even though Kitty didn’t want to feel sorry for Ali, she couldn’t help it. Besides, if she did blab to Ali, Mum would be furious. Hadn’t she told her off the other day when Kitty told her sister to ‘shut up’ because she was talking over the television. ‘You really need to be a bit kinder to her,’ she’d said. ‘Ali is very good with you, you know.’

  Still, at least Kitty could now prove to Vanessa that she was worthy of being her blood sister.

  ‘Really?’ gasped Vanessa, when she told her about her sister’s real father. ‘Wow, that’s huge. I think she needs to know the truth.’

  ‘You can’t tell her,’ said Kitty desperately.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘It would hurt her too much.’

  ‘Why should you care?’

  ‘I don’t.’

  ‘Then that’s all right, isn’t it?’

  But no. It wasn’t.

  ‘Have you told your sister yet?’ Dad asked Kitty the next day.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well, what are you waiting for?’ he snapped.

  And for the first time in her life, Kitty began to feel that maybe Dad wasn’t as wonderful as she’d always thought he was …

  Kitty did everything she could to make sure that Vanessa and Ali didn’t bump into each other. On the last day of term – a Thursday – she deliberately loitered upstairs so they’d be late for school. Then, with any luck, Vanessa would have already gone.

  But she was there. Waiting for them. Grinning as she flicked her plaits and applied some lip gloss. Ready to wreck Ali’s life – and get Kitty into terrible trouble with Mum.

  As they walked along – Vanessa trying to hitch up her school skirt as they went in case they saw some boys – Kitty tried desperately to think of a way to stop it happening. Crispin! That was the way. She could pretend the secret was about him. Threaten to tell Mum. Pretend she was on Vanessa’s side to keep her friend sweet.

  Ali’s eyes had gone all strange when she’d told her about seeing her and Crispin making out in the summer house. When Ali had then pushed Kitty into the road, she had thought it would be the end of it.