by A. B. King
“Huh,” I exclaimed, “I'll tell you something that is even more ironical than that!”
“Go on.”
“You killed the wrong twin!”
“What are talking about; killed the wrong twin?”
“Exactly that. It was Dian that spied on you, but it wasn't Dian that stood talking to Julia by the bridge. It was Danny, and Danny knew nothing about it, she had been set up by her twin for a joke; you murdered the wrong one!”
He looked hard at me, then at Danny standing listlessly at his side. “So what?” he said slowly, but with real meaning, “Even if you're right, it doesn't matter anymore now, does it?”
“Two pointless deaths,” I taunted, “and now you're planning on two more. Where do you think it will stop?”
“What do you care, you won't be here to find out?”
The bantering tone had vanished now, and I could tell that the idea of the whole business being pointless from the start had really got under his skin. If only I could string him out just a bit longer?
“So, what happens now, then?” I asked.
“Very simple, really,” he said, putting his other hand inside his coat and producing a tyre lever. “I shall give Danny a good bang on the head with this useful tool that I have retrieved from your car, and then with a gentle push she will slide away into the water. You, being the sort of man you are, will attempt to do something about it.” He paused, and glanced at the syringe he was holding. “It won't do you any good of course, because with one shot of this you will be just like her. The tyre lever will be put where the police will eventually discover it, suitably smothered in your fingerprints naturally. You may then sing like a canary about me if you wish, but as it happens I have already taken the precaution of establishing an unshakeable alibi, whereas you will have none. Ergo, Danny is murdered by you, and you finish up inside for a goodly part of your future life. All your so-called 'evidence' is here-say, so I shall be in the clear at last. All very neat, wouldn't you agree?”
“And if I refuse to play ball?”
“Oh, I think you will. Can you really look me in the eye and honestly say you would run away and leave Danny, or even Dian if you prefer, to her fate?”
He was right of course, and I'm pretty sure he could read that fact in my eyes. It was a no-win situation, if I ran, she would most certainly die anyway, and with my fingerprints already on the tyre lever I'd have a hard time convincing anyone I didn't do it. Even if I was proved innocent, I could never live knowing that my cowardice had led to Danny's death. But even if I made a dive for him, it was odds on the needle would finish up knocking me out and I'd still be in the same fix. I was still teetering in a state of indecision when the first spatters of rain landed on me, but I paid them no heed.
“So, what's it to be, Mr Detective?” he taunted.
I was teetering on the verge of gambling everything on one suicidal charge, pinning my hopes on being able to overpower him before whatever drug he was using knocked me out when something caught my eye just off to my right. It was just the merest flicker of movement in the water, and for split second I thought it was a large fish, yet in the same instant I realised that it was someone swimming underwater, and aiming to pass beneath the bridge. My eye-flicker was only a decimal part of a second’s distraction, but Parsons spotted it.
“Good try,” he said sarcastically. “Sometimes the oldest tricks work the best; trying to get me to believe that someone is creeping up behind me. I'm surprised you didn't shout out 'grab him Fred’, or something equally stupid! Like I said, you've watched too many old films on TV. Won't wash I'm afraid, so what's it to be?” He waved the needle in the air to illustrate his point.
I kept my eyes firmly on him as the underwater swimmer vanished beneath the bridge. I couldn't see who it was, but instinctively I knew that someone somewhere had sized up the situation and was coming to investigate. I tensed every muscle in the belief that if this swimmer broke surface near the bridge it would distract Parsons just long enough to give me the opening I needed.
“Let her go,” I called, “and I'll give you my word that we will not say a word of this to anyone.”
“You,” he sneered with emphasis, “are yellow to the core!”
That was arguably true, but I have always tried not to show it. I saw a swirl of water to my left, and close to the broken part of the bridge at the spot where I suspected Parsons fully intended to push Danny in. With startling suddenness a figure erupted through the surface and proceeded to climb up the bank towards the bridge. To my astonishment it was a fully dressed young woman, and as she hauled herself out of the water and up towards the bridge, her dress clinging to her slim young body, and in much less time than it takes me to tell, I realised with a feeling of utter disbelief that it was Tracy!
“Hello Andrew,” she said calmly “I've been waiting here for you to join me these last fourteen years.”
As Tracy emerged from the river, water streaming away from her soaking clothing Parson's head whirled round, and as he saw the girl moving towards him, his eyes suddenly dilated in sheer horror, and for a few moments he looked utterly paralysed with fear. Then he screamed! It was a horrible, inhuman scream of utter animal terror, and for a split second it paralysed me with its suddenness. But only for the split second! I launched myself forward as he screamed, swinging my right fist as I went. My blow caught him on the side of the jaw, but in the same instant I felt the stab of the needle through my clothes and into the flesh at the side of my chest. The force of my charge bowled him over with the full weight of my body on top of him. I hit him savagely again and again with all the strength I could muster, sheer hate and savagery at what the man had done and was planning to do swamping my reason; I wanted to punch the very life out of him, yet already I could feel my senses swimming and the power of my blows gradually faded into nothingness. I felt him struggling and wriggling beneath me, but I clung to him, determined that for as long as I could I would hold on to him. I was aware of voices shouting in the distance, and then I was drifting down a long misty tunnel into nothingness. I fought to keep control, and then there was a loud explosion and I heard no more.
There was a loud buzzing in my ears that I found extremely annoying. I turned my head this way and that in an effort to get away from it so that I could sleep. I was so tired, so incredibly tired, yet the buzzing wouldn't go away at first, then after a few minutes it finally started to decrease. Perhaps I could sleep after all?
“Neil?” said a strange female voice. “Can you hear me, Neil?”
It was a nice voice; it had sort of friendly overtones that I quite liked. Somebody had called my name, and I wondered who would want to do a thing like that?
“Now come along Neil, wake up,” said the voice again. “Come on, open your eyes.”
I obediently opened my eyes, and the buzzing gradually faded away from my ears. I was lying flat on my back, and bending over me was a very pleasant young woman in a nurse's uniform.
Nurse's uniform? Good Grief, I was in hospital! Quite suddenly I remembered that last mad charge on the bridge, the stab of the needle, the futile scramble to overpower Parsons, and then finally the loud explosion. I struggled to sit up, but the nurse restrained me.
“It's all right, Neil,” the nurse said soothingly, “just take it easy.”
“Where's Danny?” I asked, a feeling of panic building up in me, “Is she all right, is she safe-”
“Miss Fortescue is quite safe,” said the nurse reassuringly, “as a matter of fact she's waiting to see you; are you up to it?”
“You mean; she's here?” I asked stupidly
“That's right. She's absolutely fine now, and she wants to talk to you.”
A wave of sheer relief flooded over me at her words. Danny was safe! I hadn't been too late; she was safe and well! I could almost have cried with relief as the knowledge sunk in.
“How long have I been, well, out of it?” I asked after a few moments.
“About eightee
n hours,” said the nurse, straightening the pillows and counterpane (I wonder why nurses always do this when they are talking to you?) Luckily, you have a strong constitution. What with the drugs and the lightning you've had quite a time of it. Still, if you are lucky the doctor may even allow you to go home later today. Now, are you ready for your visitor?”
“Believe me, nurse,” I said with absolute conviction, “she will be better for me than any medicine you can prescribe!”
She smiled, and stepped back to the curtain that was drawn round the bed. “Then I'll leave you two to talk.” she said.
She stepped outside the curtain and I heard her say; “He's round now, you can go in.” The curtain flicked, and there was Danny, as radiant as I have ever seen her. Just knowing that she was alive and well all but brought tears to my eyes, and for a moment I couldn't get any words out. I suddenly realised I was blubbing like a fool.
“And how's my hero?” she said as she came in, pulling the curtain closed behind her. It was said lightly, yet there was something in her eyes that I had never seen before, an expression that showed that she really cared.
“I don't know how your hero is,” I finally managed to say as I fought to control my trembling voice, “but I'm not doing so bad myself.”
She bent over me, and the kiss that she gave me sent tingles all the way to my feet and back again. Frankly, I would willingly go to my execution for a kiss like that. Finally she came up for breath and sat down on the chair beside the bed, and at the same time she leaned forward and held my right hand with its grazed knuckles between both of her delicately fashioned ones.
“You have had us all so worried,” she said, gazing at me with that same caring look in her eyes that I hadn't seen before. “I don't know exactly what Parsons had in that hypo he rammed into you, but the doctors told me that the dose was all but lethal. What with that and the lightning strike that hit the tree on the bank behind you, the police thought you were already dead when they picked you up. Luckily Tracy wasn't hurt, and she kept her wits about her enough to apply first aid and keep you alive. You have been right to the edge, and even now I can't believe you have survived. Do you know, once I found out what had happened I actually prayed for you, and I haven't prayed for anyone in my whole life!”
“I guess I was pretty stupid; jumping on him the way I did,” I admitted sheepishly. “I should have grabbed the hand that held the hypo, but as usual I didn't think.”
“Oh Neil, for God's sake stop putting yourself down,” she chided me gently. “Ever since we met you've been doing that. The plain unvarnished truth is that if you hadn't done what you did, like as not we would both be dead by now. I've already had a word with Grayson, and those were his words, not just mine. Oh, and in case you are interested, by the time the police scraped Parsons off the bridge I gather he wasn’t fit for much after what you did to him?”
“Me? Why; what did I do?”
“I'm afraid you hit him so hard you broke his jaw. It seems you were still trying to knock his remaining teeth down his throat when the police saw the flash of lightning that they thought had killed all of us!”
“Police?” I was still having trouble in engaging brain, everything was happening too fast for me to grasp.
“Tracy alerted Grayson as I now know you asked her to do, and they were on the scene moments after you floored Parsons. He's since confessed everything.”
“Oh God, Tracy!” I exclaimed as my still semi-drugged brain finally remembered the dripping figure emerging from the waters of the river “Is she?”
“She's fine Neil, honest. It was an absolutely brilliant stroke on her part. When you told her in that last phone message where you were heading, she remembered the whole scenario that must have been enacted when my sister died, and she figured that the killer might try the same thing again. As soon as she had phoned the police she got one of her friends to bring her to Willows End on the back of his scooter. She saw what was happening and realised that Parson's had to be distracted. She plunged into the water fully dressed; she gambled on the fact that if Parsons had drowned my sister, and knowing how strongly she resembles me she thought that if he set eyes on her coming out of the water it might just make him jump and distract him enough for you to do your hero bit! Well, it did more than that I gather; he was a shocked gibbering wreck close to a complete nervous breakdown when the police got to him. He actually babbled to the police through what you had left of his mouth that my sister had come back to haunt him! I guess that flash of lightning must have added to the effect.” She paused, and then added in an odd tone of voice; “Maybe she did come back, in a way?”
“And you?” I asked. “How are you now, really? I mean, you looked absolutely dreadful when I saw you on the bridge?”
“I'm fine, honest,” she assured me with one of her magical smiles that always send my blood pressure through the roof, “I guess the whole situation was the end result of my own stupidity when you come to think about it.”
“But, what happened? How did he trap you?”
“It was as I was driving away from the office that I saw Parsons, and he recognised me just as I saw him,” she said ruefully. “He flagged me down, and like the completely impractical idiot I am, I stopped. At my invitation he stepped into the car, and there he told me that he had come across some startling information that would help me no end. He said he had something to show me, and reached into his pocket. Too late did I realise what he held in his hand, and, well, seconds after that everything sort of faded away. I don't remember him sticking the needle into me, but I'm told that that was what happened. The next thing I remember is being in an ambulance with you and Tracy. I recovered pretty quickly, but they were real worried about you. Grayson had a talk with me, and between him and Tracy I was able to fill in much of what had happened, but more importantly, I suddenly realised that after all these years my memory has returned.”
I looked at her in astonishment.
“You actually remember; everything?” I asked.
She nodded. “It was all pretty much as you surmised,” she said. “I suspected that Julia was up to something, and I spied on her after she left the camp. You have to remember that I was only fourteen years old so I didn't quite understand at the time what I was looking at, but I saw Andrew Parsons tanning her bare backside real hard, and then I watched in fascination as he laid her down on the ground and had sex with her. I'd had sex-education at school, but with no experience other than watching dogs doing what comes naturally, it was the first time I'd ever seen such a thing going on between people, so I was mesmerised by the whole business. I suppose I must have given myself away because they stopped suddenly, and I immediately high-tailed it back to camp. Looking back on it all, I know I must have been thoroughly stupid, because as I dashed back to the tent I suddenly thought what an absolute hoot it would be if I could persuade Julia that she was talking to me about what I may or may not have seen, but in fact it was my sister! Absolutely stupid of course, but at the time it seemed a real scream. I quickly persuaded my sister to impersonate me after telling her some silly yarn about seeing Julia playing 'peeping tom' on the antics of another couple I already knew were canoodling further up the footpath. This was when she passed her ring over to me, so that Julia would think she was talking to me. Anyway, the thought of the pair of them talking so obviously at cross purposes seemed hilarious to me, and I was really looking forward to having a good laugh at the whole business. You have to remember that we had played similar jokes in the past because people simply couldn't tell us apart. What I truly never realised for a second was that it could end so tragically. Sure enough, a few moments later Julia came walking back across the bridge and started on at my sister. After a few seconds I came out of the tent to add to the confusion, and it was just at that point that I saw Julia push my sister into the water. I knew that Danny, the real Danny, couldn't swim. Suddenly it was no longer funny, and I sprinted for the river ready to dive in and save her, but I was too late. As
I ran forwards, that was when the lightning struck. The rest, as they say, is history.
