After the Accident: A compelling and addictive psychological suspense novel

by Kerry Wilkinson

  Julius: Dad had been through a lot and I know it meant a lot to him. I was so proud of them.

  Emma: Dad held both hands up in the air and said: ‘Let’s eat!’ It was like a rallying cry – and he immediately shoved his fork into his food and started to eat.

  I can’t remember what was on my plate. I didn’t eat much on that holiday – but, whatever it was, I started to eat, too.

  I remember the next bit in slow motion. I can still picture it now. Dad reached for another forkful of rice and then he started to choke. He grabbed his throat and, within a second or two, he was starting to turn purple. He was trying to talk – but the words were stuck as he gasped for air.

  Mum reached towards him – and I think I probably did, too – but that’s when he toppled sideways out of his chair onto the floor. There was a crack as his skull hit the ground and then a second of silence where it felt like the world had stopped and nobody seemed to know what to do.

  Julius picked up a chunk of fish from Dad’s plate and turned to me. His eyes were wide as he shouted…

  Julius: ‘What did you do?’

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  THE REAL-LIFE MAGIC

  Emma: Dad has an allergy to shellfish. He’s lived with it his whole life and it’s something that was drummed into us as kids. Julius and I both knew about it – as did more or less everyone he knew.

  There were two plates of paella at that buffet: one with pork, the other with a mixture of fish.

  Julius: The staff rushed across as Dad continued to choke. I honestly thought he was going to die in that moment. Amy and Chloe were crying – but it felt like everyone was.

  Mum dumped out her bag on the table and was hunting through everything inside. I didn’t realise what she was doing at first, but she grabbed Dad’s EPI pen, dropped to her knees and then injected it into his chest.

  It was… surreal. Like real-life magic happening in front of your eyes.

  Emma: Dad started to come around almost instantly. He took this really big, husky gasp and then started to breathe properly. His face went back to its normal colour and, aside from him being on the floor, it was almost as if it never happened.

  Julius: One of the staff members helped me get Dad back into his chair. He was still breathing really heavily, plus there was obvious distress and disorientation. Nobody could believe what had just happened.

  Daniel was on his feet and thanking people for their concern. He was telling everyone that it was all OK now. It was good of him – someone needed to do that. Dad needed space.

  Daniel: I don’t want any credit. I did what needed to be done.

  Julius: The manager was by us at that point, but Dad managed to croak that everything was fine. Daniel thanked the staff for their quick reactions and told the rest of the diners that he hoped they enjoyed their meals. He really proved himself in those moments.

  Daniel: Beth was the real hero that night, with that pen-thing. I dread to think what would have happened if she’d not been there.

  Emma: When I think of it now, it all must have happened so quickly – but I also see it as this long, drawn-out moment. I remember all the facial expressions and all the small movements people made. I can still see Daniel on his feet, calming people down when it felt like things could get hysterical.

  Julius: There was finally a moment of calm as I nudged Dad’s chair back to the table. He was still breathing heavily and his face was swollen. He looked to the girls and assured them he was fine. He tried to make a joke of it – ‘A cliff didn’t get me, and neither will a fish!’ but nobody laughed. The girls were terrified.

  Emma: Julius picked up the plate that was in front of Dad and passed it to a waiter. The waiter was momentarily confused, wondering why someone was giving him a full plate – but he took it anyway.

  It was after he left that I realised everyone around the table was looking at me.

  Julius: There was a slow, dawning moment. I wanted to shield the twins from it – but they’d seen it the same as everyone else.

  Emma: It was Mum’s stare that hurt the most.

  Julius: Daniel spoke first.

  Daniel: I said: ‘You’ve been causing trouble all week.’ I think I was speaking for everyone when I said that.

  Julius: There was a feeling of sadness more than anything else. Dad was blank and Mum looked broken-hearted. She was very quiet when she spoke – but we all heard it. She looked directly at Emma and said: ‘You know your father is allergic to shellfish.’

  Emma: I’d obviously seen what happened – and heard Julius’s: ‘What did you do?’ – but it was only then that it properly sunk in.

  They thought I’d deliberately poisoned Dad.

  Julius: Everyone around that table knew what she did.

  Daniel: She knows what she did.

  Liz: I don’t think there was any doubt about what Emma tried to do to her father. She should have been prosecuted.

  Victor: She got his food – and then he almost died. What more is there to say?

  Emma: Mum was almost whispering when she was talking to me. She said: ‘I think you should leave the table now.’

  I wanted to defend myself, but, as I looked around, I realised she was saying what everyone else was thinking. Dad was still struggling to breathe – but he was staring at the empty space on the table in front of him. Nobody wanted me there, so I did the only thing I could. I stood up and I left.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Day Seven

  IT’S A SECRET

  Emma: I didn’t leave the cottage until five minutes to midday the next day. I heard Mum and Dad get back to their cottage the night before – and I heard them moving around in the morning – but nobody knocked on my door.

  Daniel: Everyone had breakfast together on the final day – and it was a joyous occasion. It was nice to be surrounded by people who enjoyed one another’s company and who were all on the same page.

  That’s how the entire holiday should have been.

  Emma: I don’t know if this happened – but I’d assume Dad went out in a car that morning to collect whatever it was he had to collect, from wherever it was he had to collect it. He wouldn’t have left the island without completing the one job he went there to do.

  I’d almost forgotten about it by the time I got to the lobby. There were taxis ordered that were due to take us back to the airport. They weren’t coming until 12.30 – but I had to check out at 12, which meant thirty awkward minutes in that lobby.

  Mum and Dad were by the main hotel doors, while the twins were nearby on a small sofa, playing on their iPads. Daniel and Liz were hanging around, but there was no sign of Julius.

  I sat on a chair across the lobby from everyone, trying not to make eye contact. I had a magazine that I was going to read – or at least pretend to – but then Victor plopped himself down on the arm of my chair.

  Victor: I was trying to be friendly. Nobody else was talking to her. I said: ‘Your holiday went about as well as mine.’

  Emma: I replied: ‘Your wife dumped you and went home almost as soon as she arrived.’

  Victor: ‘Exactly!’

  Emma: He laughed and said that, in many ways, it meant he’d had a better time of it than me. I suppose it was hard to disagree, though I didn’t feel much like laughing. He’d had a strange sort of reinvention in those few days he’d been AWOL. Singledom and island life probably suited him more than it would most people. I guess it’s easier when you’re a forty-year-old man living off daddy’s money.

  He rested a hand on my knee and said: ‘I’m here for you.’

  I gave him the full ‘Really?’ treatment and he shrugged it away.

  Victor: Worth a go, wasn’t it?

  Emma: I told him that I wasn’t interested and then picked up my case and headed across towards the twins. There was still no sign of Julius – and if Mum or Dad wanted to tell me to leave the girls alone, then they could at least do it in front of their faces.

  As it was, nobody bothe
red me. I put my case on the floor and sat on it in front of Amy and Chloe. I thought for a moment that they’d continue playing on their iPads. They didn’t put them down immediately, but, after a few seconds, Amy lowered hers first. She glanced across to the door and then said, very quietly: ‘Daddy says we’re not supposed to be talking to you.’

  Daniel: The absolute gall of that girl – after what she’d tried to pull the night before.

  Emma: Chloe had put down her iPad by that point too – and both girls were looking at me. They were dressed identically, with matching tops that said ‘Galanikos Girl’ across the front.

  I told them that if I didn’t see them for a while, then it wasn’t because I didn’t want to. I explained that their dad and I had had a bit of a falling out, but that I hoped, in time, we’d make it up and I’d be able to spend time with them again.

  Amy said: ‘Is that like how Mum and Dad have had a falling out?’ – but I wasn’t sure what to say. Julius and Simone were divorcing, which was a lot past a ‘falling out’. Then again, I wasn’t sure how much I would be talking to my family in future.

  I probably repeated that I hoped we’d work things out, but that, if not, I wanted them to know it was nothing they’d done.

  I was going to leave it at that, but, as I went to move, the two girls exchanged a glance that was so full of self-awareness that it left me stumbling a bit.

  They’d done something similar on the cliff when I’d found them. Amy had started to say: ‘The other night…’ when that look had passed between them the first time and she’d stopped herself. In the end, she’d told me she’d overheard her mum saying that Julius had lost his job.

  On the cliffs, I thought they were entrusting me with that secret, but, in that moment in the lobby, I realised there was something else and that the girls were asking each other’s permission to share it.

  Amy whispered: ‘Go on,’ but Chloe was still staring wide-eyed at her sister.

  I said: ‘What is it?’ and Amy replied: ‘It’s a secret.’

  I waited and it was like they were having a long back and forth, even though neither of them spoke a word.

  I said: ‘It sounds like you want to tell me…’ – and they looked to each other one more time before Chloe finally said it.

  Chloe: I don’t know what I told Auntie Emma in the lobby.

  Amy: I don’t know either.

  Emma: Chloe said: ‘We woke up on the first night.’

  And then Amy added: ‘When Granddad fell.’

  There was a pause and I could picture those two little girls sitting on the secret for almost a week, desperate to tell someone. They’d almost told me on the cliffs and they probably knew this was the last opportunity.

  Chloe finished the sentence – and she said: ‘Daddy wasn’t there.’

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  THE EVEN SMALLER THINGS

  Julius: I don’t know if Emma made them say that, or if she made it up all by herself. If either of the girls did say that I was out of the room on that first night, then all I can say is that I would have been in the bathroom, or possibly on the balcony. I never left the room.

  Emma: Have you ever done a Sudoku puzzle? It’s the one where there are nine boxes of nine squares – and you have to fit numbers one to nine into each row and column.

  When you’re doing one, there comes a point where you’re so far into completing the puzzle that the final ten or twenty numbers almost write themselves into the grid. You’ve done all the hard work – and it’s that which makes the final bit seem so easy.

  It felt like that when the twins told me that Julius was out of the room. I’d had so many little bits of information – and then this last little piece suddenly made the rest make sense.

  It was past checkout time, but Julius wasn’t in the lobby. I asked the twins where their dad was, and Amy said he was still packing in the room, so I took the lift upstairs and headed along to his door.

  There was a maid’s trolley towards the other end of the corridor, but the floor was otherwise quiet. I almost knocked before I realised that the latch had been locked in place and that Julius’s door was open a crack.

  Julius: It had been a busy morning. Everyone had breakfast together, except my sister, and then the girls had wanted one more hour at the pool before we went back up to pack. I’d sorted them out first but hadn’t quite finished my own packing. I was only running a few minutes late – and the taxis weren’t due until half-past twelve anyway.

  Emma: Julius’s suitcase was open on the bed and there was a scattering of clothes and other things around the room. It was a bit of a mess – and I couldn’t see Julius. I moved inside, looking around the corners to see if he was in there somewhere.

  I found myself over by the balcony door, which was open – although Julius wasn’t out there either. The door to the bathroom was closed and I figured that was the only place he could be. I was about to move, which is when I spotted the bin at the foot of the bed. It was almost full, mainly of food wrappers – but sitting on top was the necklace that Julius had bought at the airport on the first day.

  I picked it up and shook it around – and it made the same whooshing sound that it had when we were in the shop. The noise that had entertained the girls so much. Julius had been wearing it at the first dinner, and then I’d not seen it since. I’d not even thought about it.

  The necklace was still in my hand when I looked up and realised Julius was standing in the middle of the room.

  He said: ‘What are you doing?’

  Julius: That’s a reasonable question, isn’t it? I’d not heard her come into the room and then, all of a sudden, I come out of the toilet and she’s standing right there.

  Emma: When we were in the hospital, Dad said that he was looking out over the cliffs and then he heard the wind whistling before he fell.

  It felt like a really normal observation, except that I had walked to the hotel next door that night and didn’t remember it being windy. I said that to Julius and then rattled the necklace, which made a sort of cooing, low hum.

  Like a gentle wind on a quiet night.

  Julius: Emma said: ‘I have to tell you something.’

  Emma: After I rattled the necklace, Julius said: ‘What are you talking about?’

  I told him about the ‘Who benefits?’ line that Scott had mentioned. Scott always thought Dad had something to do with his own father’s death because it was my dad who benefitted the most.

  Julius hadn’t known about the documentary and Scott at that point. It was all news to him and he didn’t know what to make of it.

  Julius: She said: ‘I need the money.’ I said: ‘What money?’ – and Emma replied: ‘Dad’s money.’

  Emma: Scott got that thought stuck in my head, except that I’d missed the most obvious thing. Mum didn’t have long to live, so if Dad also died, who was next in line? It wasn’t me. It would be the favourite son… the one who’d lost his highly paid banking job and not told his parents.

  It would have been Julius who inherited the business.

  There was literally nobody who would have benefitted more than my brother.

  Julius: I was confused. I didn’t know what money she was talking about, but Emma kept saying: ‘Dad’s money’ as if that meant something.

  She asked if I could lend her ‘ten- or twenty-thousand’, that she wanted to get her own place and that she couldn’t afford it on her shop wages. She kept saying: ‘You earn loads; you can afford it.’

  Emma: I kept thinking of the night before, when Dad had been poisoned. I was so certain I’d put the pork paella on his plate. As certain as a person can be. I wouldn’t have made that mistake.

  But Julius was right behind me in the line and there was rice on his plates. When the twins were on stage everyone had to turn, except Julius and Daniel. Daniel was further along the table, so perhaps he didn’t notice – or maybe he didn’t care.

  Julius could have easily switched a plate with Dad in that time. It wa
s Julius who called the waiter across and got rid of it so quickly afterwards. If I’d been paying better attention, I bet I would have noticed that Julius had the pork paella in front of him.

  Julius: Emma was getting upset at this point. She said: ‘I had to do something. I can’t live like this any longer.’ I asked what she meant and she said that Mum didn’t have long to live. When Dad died, everything would be split between us – but she couldn’t wait that long.

  Emma: Then there were the even smaller things. Julius said that Daniel had disapproved of some of Dad’s spending at the airport – but I’d not seen any of that. In fact, I couldn’t understand why Daniel would care. He’d got a free holiday out of things.

  The only person who’d mentioned Dad’s spending was Julius. In the taxi on the way back from the hospital the first time, he’d said that Dad had been throwing money around since Mum got her diagnosis. I didn’t care – but he did. It meant it would be less left over to inherit.

  Julius: It took me a while to catch on. I thought it might have been a mistake with the meal the night before, but I said: ‘Are you saying you tried to kill Dad?’