The Island

by Mary Grand

  Gabriel shrugged. ‘You’re right, I had planned to use this car. Still, it was handy to be able to use it this evening, better than coming in my own.’

  Juliet lent towards Gabriel. ‘If you’d had this car ready, why did you use mine?’

  ‘I didn’t get the idea until you came to me and showed me the keys. Suddenly it was all rather ingenious, a useful misdirection as well, got the police checking out your family. I was sure you would never suspect me of taking the car keys, it seemed fool proof.’

  She hated the pride in his voice. ‘But you made mistakes. You talked about the awful smell of the fake lavender in my car. How would you have known about that unless you were in it?’

  Gabriel looked away. ‘A mistake. A stupid mistake.’

  ‘Yes, you made a few of them. However, there is one thing I don’t know how to explain,’ she said. ‘How did you manage to video call me at the time you were killing Rhys?’

  Gabriel touched his forehead again, flinched. ‘You can change backgrounds and things.’

  Juliet stood back, crossed her arms and shook her head. ‘No, that’s not right, is it?’

  ‘It is, that’s what I did.’

  She shook her head again. ‘No. The thing is Gabriel, you may be cowardly, a liar, greedy, morally bankrupt, but one thing you aren’t, is a killer.’

  There was another growl of thunder, louder, closer and the sound of it merged with the roar of a car engine.

  Juliet turned and saw a car tearing across the grass, windscreen wipers clearing the screen so that she could make out the face of the driver. This time the car coming towards her was being driven by a steady hand. If this person wanted to kill her, they wouldn’t miss. Juliet looked around frantic to escape but before she could move, the car was in front of her. She froze, waiting to be hit, but instead the car screeched to a halt, inches in front of her. The woman driving leapt out of the car, slammed the door, ran over to Gabriel.

  ‘Oh Gabriel, what have you done?’ said the woman, speaking as if to a child who’d just fallen over while playing.

  ‘I’m sorry. I wanted to do this for you.’

  The woman shook her head. ‘You should have left her to me, you know I take care of things like that.’

  Juliet steadied her voice. ‘Yes, you are the one who kills, aren’t you Maddie? You are ruthless, you were prepared to kill your own son, Harry.’

  ‘Harry was my stepson,’ spat out Maddie. She glanced at Gabriel.

  ‘Juliet knows even more that I suspected, even more than I warned you about,’ he said. ‘She knows Harry was definitely not going to France, she knows the letter was a fake, about the stolen car, everything.’

  Maddie turned back to Juliet. ‘Harry wasn’t my blood. Gabriel is my only son.’ Juliet heard the change in Maddie’s voice. The French accent was hard, no softening of consonants, no hesitation. ‘When Harry came back from that party on the day Rosalind came home from the maternity hospital swearing he would stay, I knew something had to be done. He’d have ruined us, he wanted to destroy everything. Everything I’d done was for Gabriel and no one was going to destroy what was rightfully his.’ Maddie paused. ‘But, wait, exactly how much do you know about how Harry actually died?’

  ‘I know timing was tight. You’d arranged for Gabriel to steal the car and stage the break in so that all you had to do was get out of the house while the boys were listening to loud music and jump into the car. You drove down the military road, killed Harry, ran home. It wasn’t that far and you were a lot younger and fitter then. Back home you threw on a dressing gown, came down drying your hair, using a shower as the cover. The police would never had suspected you, after all, you had no motive. They didn’t search your house, find the key you’d brought back. That was a mistake, wasn’t it? Why didn’t you just throw away the car key?’

  ‘I admit I’d meant to leave it in the car. But Gabriel told me that Cassie had said something about going out to meet Harry. I thought that she might be an insurance policy. It was Gabriel’s idea to buy some violin cloths to wrap the key in.’

  ‘But it was the wrong colour, and that mattered. You were going to let Cassie take the blame?’

  ‘We might have had to do that, yes. As it was, no one questioned us; it went very well.’

  ‘Apart from the fake letter and Barbara’s questions. But you got away with it. And then Gabriel showed my father the old VW key. That was stupid, all to stop my father telling Rosalind about Harry being her father.’

  ‘It was not stupid,’ said Maddie indignantly.

  ‘Gabriel told me your fears about people asking questions.’

  ‘Of course it would have been a huge risk. However, I’d not expected your father to react in that way, he was just meant to see sense and keep quiet.’

  Juliet took a breath, tried to steady her voice. ‘Gabriel told my father that someone he knew had killed, I don’t know how you expected him to react.’ She paused; she couldn’t go over that again. ‘In any case, when my father knew he was dying, he spoke to Rhys, told him that someone in my family had killed Harry. Rhys was torn apart by this, and finally decided he had to tell you what he thought was the truth. He told this when he came to see you on the anniversary of Harry’s death?’

  ‘Yes, he was good like that, he came every year.’

  Juliet stared at Maddie. Unlike Gabriel, who sat a crumpled heap in the car, she stood very upright. She was talking to Juliet in a disturbingly casual way, as if they were stood in a garden admiring the borders on a summer’s day, not in darkness close to a cliff edge, cold rain falling on their heads, talking about murder.

  ‘Rhys had clearly wrestled with telling anyone about what he knew, but he felt I had a right to know. He had no idea that he’d got things all wrong. He told me he would be speaking to you all the next day and he would be expecting one of you to go to the police. He said he’d give you all a chance to confess to each other. Honestly, these vicars, they can be so naïve.’ Maddie shook her head. ‘You can imagine how I felt when he talked about the police being involved. I really didn’t want it all being dragged up again. Anyway, it was useful, I knew he wasn’t saying anything that evening, it gave me the chance to get rid of him.’

  ‘But you’d collected those things at the pub the day of Dad’s funeral: the theatre ticket, the travel card, even the lighter you used to set fire to the car. You were planning to lead the police to suspect someone from the mainland. It shows you’d been planning this murder before Rhys came to see you.’

  ‘Oh yes, at the funeral I knew.’ Maddie crossed her arms. ‘But like with Harry, you have no proof.’ Maddie looked closely at her. ‘Tell me how I managed to kill Rhys when Gabriel told you, I was very sick in bed? Barbara saw me, I was genuinely ill.’

  ‘Ah I know exactly why you were sick. It was the mustard. I saw it in the kitchen the day after, remember, I came up to see you. Before you went out you took the precaution of video calling Barbara, maybe put on a bit of makeup to make yourself appear ill, then you drove to the church, parked at the bottom of the drive, walked up and killed Rhys. Interestingly, you removed the crucifix, a request for forgiveness? Like the crosses you placed at the scenes where Harry and Rhys died?’

  ‘We all look for a sign God has understood what we’ve done. I am sure God understood I acted out of love for my son. To be honest, I thought the crucifix, like the key, was something I could use to plant on someone. I thought of Cassie, I saw her leaving the church, you know, close to one o’clock that night. She was already a good line up for Harry’s death, if I needed it I could plant the crucifix on her.’

  ‘Yes, you put it in my mother’s handbag when she came to the tea party, didn’t you?’

  Maddie nodded. ‘Yes, I thought that was clever. I was sure your mother would never suspect I’d put it in her bag. If she found it, she may suspect Cassie, if someone else found it they may suspect your mother. Most importantly, it all pointed at your family, not mine.’ She paused, gave Juliet an appraising
glance. ‘Still, you did well to work out I’d put it there. You are quite good at this; I can see why Gabriel was attracted to you. Of course, you would never have been good enough for him.’

  Juliet shook her head and continued talking, ‘While you were killing Rhys, Gabriel phoned me pretending you were upstairs being sick. When you returned you ate mustard and were then genuinely unwell by the time Barbara came round. But I saw the mustard in the kitchen that morning. However, at the tea party you said you never had mustard in the house, it made you too unwell. Indeed, when I checked your kitchen at the barbecue tonight, the mustard had gone.’

  Maddie put her head to one side. ‘You are clearly a bright young woman, but I hope you appreciate that what I have done has been very well executed. Nothing was left to chance.’

  Juliet stepped closer to Maddie. ‘I don’t admire anything about you. I despise you. You are a wicked, evil woman who manipulates and kills to get what she wants. You have killed three people and yet you show no remorse.’

  ‘Three?’

  ‘You killed Harry, Rhys and my father.’ Juliet clenched her fists to stop herself from grabbing Maddie.

  ‘I didn’t kill your father, he was weak.’

  Juliet raised her hand to Maddie but was grabbed from behind.

  ‘Don’t you dare hurt Maddie,’ said Gabriel. She could feel the warmth of his breath as he pulled her back into his body, his face close to hers. The gentle way he normally held her was replaced by a vice like grasp, his strength was frightening. She struggled to breathe, was unable to move.

  Suddenly, a crash of thunder seemed to envelope them and a crack of lightening wasn’t far behind. Juliet gasped, desperate to get away, but she was held as if tied to a stake, unable to get free, unable to run to safety.

  ‘So, what do we do next?’ Gabriel shouted at Maddie. His voice had changed now Maddie was here, a horrible mix of confidence and subservience. He was back on firm ground taking orders from Maddie.

  ‘We’ll use the Fiat,’ Maddie shouted back as another clap of thunder echoed through the sky. ‘I brought that broach you took from Anwen at the funeral, we’ll leave that in the car, and we can plant the keys on her mother or Cassie, I’ve a few things in mind.’

  Juliet stood helpless, listening not only to the plan of how they would kill her but even the defence they were planning for themselves. The fact Gabriel had stolen a broach, kept the car keys made her wonder when exactly they’d started preparing for the possibility of killing her.

  Juliet was desperate now; her fate had been decided by them. She tried to pull her arms free, to kick, bite, anything, but Gabriel’s grasp just got tighter.

  ‘The keys are in the ignition,’ he said.

  ‘Good, I’ll drive.’

  ‘No, stop,’ shouted Juliet. ‘You can’t. It’s not just me, others are working out what you did. Mum knows you planted the crucifix, I have written everything down, Mira or Cassie will find it, take it to the police. They will find start digging. You can’t keep killing, you won’t get away with this.’

  Maddie grinned. ‘Oh I think I will.’

  She walked over to the car. A crack of lightening lit up the sky but its prongs seemed to reach down to the earth and light up the ground. Maddie was in the car, she slammed the door shut, switched on the ignition and wound down the window.

  ‘You can get in now,’ she shouted to Gabriel and instantly he threw Juliet hard on the ground, ran, jumped in the car.

  Juliet caught her breath, staggered to her feet. ‘You’re completely mad,’ she screamed.

  ‘I think you’d better get moving,’ shouted Maddie, a wild excitement in her voice.

  Maddie wound up the window and turned on the lights. The engine roared as she touched the accelerator, but the car stayed stationary.

  This is all some cruel game to her, thought Juliet, frantically looking around for a way to escape.

  Juliet knew it was useless to run back to the road; there were no cars about, she would be an easy target. She looked to her right, across the grass was the cliff edge, but the terrain was uneven, there were obstacles, as long as she could keep away from the edge, it had to be her only option.

  She started to run. The rain was falling heavily now, the thunder and lightning almost in harmony, crashing and lighting up the sky. She ran but at any moment she could stumble fall.

  She heard the crunching of gears behind her, screeching of brakes as the car was turned and then the roar as it started to race towards her. She stumbled, felt overwhelmed by the hopelessness of her situation, but kept running, knowing any minute now she would die. But at that moment the sky shot a warning and an arrow of lightening lit up an enormous black rock in front of her. She glanced frantically behind her. She was temporarily blinded by the headlights of the Fiat, but then she saw Maddie’s face. She was hunched over the steering wheel, her face close to the windscreen, her eyes wild, her mouth open screaming at her.

  Juliet ran headlong at the rock and at the last minute swerved to the side, staggering behind it. As she fell to the ground, her back to the rock, the thumping of her heart banged in her ears. Then she heard it, a sickening sound of metal crunching into the unforgiving boulder.

  She sat, petrified, waiting for Maddie or Gabriel to get out of the car, to come and find her.

  There was silence. As if in retreat the thunder’s grumble was softer, the lightning took refuge back in the sky, no longer sending splinters of light to the earth.

  Juliet’s head was screaming at her to run and so she tried to stand up. However, as soon as she put weight on her foot, pain shot through her body, making her very aware something was wrong. She tried to ignore it, to start walking, but it was agony.

  She realised that there was no noise coming from the other side of the rock. Slowly, using the rock to support her, she managed to get herself around and then she saw the crumpled wreck of the car. To her horror, she saw the faces of Gabriel and Maddie against the windscreen, covered in blood. No seat belts or airbags had been used to save them. Maddie’s eyes were closed and she was completely still. Gabriel’s face was a thing of nightmares. Eyes open, unblinking, unseeing. Juliet dragged herself to the driver and passenger doors, but they were impossible to open.

  She collapsed into a heap on the grass and sobbed. And then she felt familiar, warm, gentle arms wrap themselves around her. She looked up and saw Mira and fell into her embrace.

  ‘I’m sorry we took so long,’ Juliet heard her mother say. She pulled herself away from Mira’s hold and wiped her face. Mira didn’t move, stayed close to her.

  Her mother tried the car doors, but she couldn’t open them either. Maddie and Gabriel were still frighteningly still.

  ‘I’ll phone an ambulance,’ said her mother, the slight shake in her voice betraying her sense of shock.

  It was only then Juliet saw her mother’s car parked at the side of the road.

  Her mother knelt down beside her. ‘I thought we were too late,’ she said and burst into tears, held Juliet tightly to her.

  ‘Oh God, Mum, she was going to kill me. If it hadn’t been for the rock…’ Juliet stared at the rock, now in darkness.

  ‘It’s all right now, you’re safe.’

  ‘I think they’re dead,’ Juliet said, staring at the car in horror.

  ‘The ambulance will be here very soon. We can’t do anything.’ Her mother stroked Juliet’s wet hair. ‘I’m so sorry. I’ve been so slow, got so many things wrong, all these years I’ve been so frightened.’

  ‘You suspected Cassie of killing Harry?’

  ‘I’m ashamed to say I did. I never asked her if she had, none of us ever talked about that night. I don’t think your dad ever thought such a thing, though I never even talked to him about it. Even when he showed me the key, we didn’t talk, all we did was agree not to tell Rosalind. I was frantic when Rhys said he was going to tell all, so worried for Cassie. When he died, I didn’t know what to think, I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t Cassie. And then
I found that crucifix in my handbag, it seemed to confirm it. It wasn’t until I overheard you talking to Cassie that night I realised just how wrong I’d been…’ Her mother’s voice broke. She held Juliet closer. ‘All the time you were trying to find out the truth, I was fighting you, I am so sorry. If you’d given up, we’d have never known what really happened.’

  Juliet looked around. ‘Hang on, how did you know I was here?’

  ‘Cassie phoned me. She wanted to check when you were home and when I told her you were still out, she told me to go and find you. She was worried about you.’

  ‘But where is she?’

  ‘Just before Gabriel made his speech, Cassie received a text from Anwen, she needed money, so she went to meet her.’

  ‘Oh no, Mum, that’s dangerous.’

  ‘It’s alright, Cassie had phoned the police. She was scared but she knew the police wanted to speak to Anwen. Anyway, the police went with Cassie, they suspected Anwen of being involved in drug dealing. Anwen was arrested and charged. Cassie is at the police station, she is safe. She phoned me from there about you.’

  ‘Why did she think I was in danger?’

  ‘She said something about a cloth, I don’t know what she meant but she said she was getting worried about Gabriel. Apparently she’d put a red cloth in his pocket; it was meant to be a warning. If Anwen hadn’t sent that text she’d have stayed with you I think.’

  Juliet nodded. She understood now why Cassie had gone off after the barbeque, why she’d looked so serious.