‘What about …’ Daniela hesitated. ‘Was she taking anything else?’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Anything worse than alcohol.’
Leo frowned. ‘Not that I know of, no.’
‘If she was depressed, she could’ve been on medication, right? Did she talk to you about that?’
‘She never mentioned it.’
‘I only ask because, y’know, you being a doctor and all.’
‘I wasn’t her GP. If anyone prescribed her anything, it’d be Doctor Abrams.’
Daniela hesitated before saying, ‘Listen, I think Auryn was into more than she told you.’
Leo’s jaw tightened. ‘It’s possible. We didn’t tell each other everything. Not like the old days.’
The undercurrent of bitterness in his voice refused to go away. ‘I’m sorry,’ Daniela said. It was hugely, woefully inadequate, but what else did she have? If she could change the past she would. And then she’d make a fortune selling the secret – How to Erase Past Fuck-ups by Daniela Cain.
Leo touched Daniela’s arm in an absent gesture of acknowledgement. Daniela had to look away again. She hadn’t expected to react this strongly to Leo. But a combination of shock and grief, plus the rekindling of so many memories, conspired against her. For the first time in years she thought about the softness of Leo’s lips against her own.
Daniela finished her cigarette, took a steadying breath, then said, ‘I think Auryn might’ve been into something bad. Like, really serious bad.’
Leo turned so he could see her properly. His mug of tea sat forgotten. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘The police found money at Auryn’s house.’ Daniela watched Leo’s face to try and guess whether he already knew this. ‘Steph wouldn’t give me the details, but it sounded like a lot.’
‘Well.’ Leo pursed his lips. ‘Lots of people keep money at home.’
‘I don’t mean a few notes under the mattress. This sounded like a substantial amount. And Auryn’s not the sort to hide her money beneath the floorboards.’
‘No,’ Leo agreed. ‘Her job in London was basically advising people about investments. She wouldn’t be careless with her own money.’
‘That’s what bothers me. It shouldn’t’ve been there. Where did it come from?’
‘Auryn wouldn’t get involved with anything illegal. She couldn’t.’
Sure, she could. Anyone could get mixed up in something bad, no matter their intentions.
Leo must’ve been thinking the same, because he said, ‘All right, maybe that’s naive. I know the stuff people hide behind respectable facades – I see more than enough at the hospital. But Auryn? It makes no sense.’
‘Yeah, you’re telling me.’ Daniela drained her lukewarm tea. ‘Except, it has to make sense. Somewhere, there’s an answer that makes perfect goddamn sense. Just not right now. And sure as hell not to me.’ She rolled the empty mug between her palms. ‘Someone killed Auryn. I’ve no idea if the money’s got anything to do with it, but I need to find out.’
‘Daniela, the police will do that.’
‘Auryn came back here, after she told everyone she’d left. Why? Who was she hiding from?’
A frown creased his brow. ‘What makes you think she was hiding?’
‘I don’t know.’ In truth, it wasn’t something Daniela had properly considered. But it made sense. ‘Think about it. If she needed to go someplace no one could find her, where the roads were closed so she couldn’t be followed, it makes sense to come home.’ Daniela watched Leo’s face. ‘So, who was she hiding from?’
Leo sagged. ‘All right, this will sound bad out of context, but Auryn was still in contact with my dad. I think he went to see Auryn in London recently.’
Daniela stared at him. ‘Why would she—?’
‘Money.’ Leo winced at the word. ‘Dad always said your family owed him for the way your father treated him—’
A hammering on the front door made them both jump. Daniela tensed, looking at Leo, but he seemed just as surprised.
Leo recovered first. ‘Hang on,’ he called. ‘I’m coming.’
As he went to the front door, Daniela stood up. She grabbed her boots and socks, and snatched up her jacket. The front room had only one exit, so she had to follow Leo into the hall.
‘Who is it?’ Leo asked through the door.
No answer. Leo turned the handle, and frowned to discover it locked.
Instinct made Daniela pull her boots on hurriedly. No time for socks.
Leo’s fingers released the lock. The door swung open. Stephanie stood outside. She looked past Leo, straight to Daniela.
‘Planning to leave?’ Stephanie asked.
Daniela had started to relax, but Stephanie’s tone stopped her. ‘What’s wrong? What’s happened?’ Daniela asked. She realised with a lurch that this looked a lot more like a professional visit than a family one.
‘How can you ask that?’ Stephanie stepped inside and closed the front door. ‘Everything’s wrong. But, if we’re being specific, there’s something I need to ask you.’
‘Oh?’
‘It’s about this.’
Stephanie took a plastic bag out of her pocket. The weight of the object dragged at its confines as she held it up to the light. A metal flick-knife, the handle black on red.
Daniela clutched her jacket, fingers searching for the familiar shape that should’ve been in there. No …
‘I found it in the bedroom at the Crossed Swords,’ Stephanie said. ‘Figured it fell out of your pocket when you stormed out. That correct?’
Leo had backed away, a hand pressed to his mouth. His eyes were wide with disbelief as he looked at Daniela.
‘Can you explain?’ Stephanie asked. ‘Please?’
There was a pleading note in her voice. She genuinely wanted Daniela to explain this away.
Daniela drew a shaky breath. ‘It’s mine,’ she admitted. ‘I know I shouldn’t have it. But this isn’t what you think.’
‘No?’ Stephanie stepped towards her. ‘Then what is it?’
‘For God’s sake. I didn’t hurt Auryn, okay? I know that’s what you’re thinking.’
Something flickered across Stephanie’s face. ‘I think we should probably go to the station at Hackett.’
‘You’re arresting me?’
‘I don’t want to.’ Daniela had heard that before, but Stephanie sounded genuine. ‘I need you to explain this to me, and it’s best if we do that at the station.’
Stephanie reached out as if to catch Daniela’s arm. Daniela jerked away. ‘Steph—’
‘We can do this officially if you want.’ She reached for her again. ‘Is that what you—?’
Daniela slapped Stephanie’s hand away. She used more force that necessary. Incredulity filled Stephanie’s expression, washed away a second later by anger.
She lunged for Daniela, who ran.
Daniela fled through the cramped kitchen and threw her shoulder against the back door. The door shuddered but didn’t budge. Locked.
Daniela spun to see Stephanie coming into the kitchen. Her bulky frame filled the narrow doorway and made the small room even smaller.
‘Wait,’ Daniela said. She held up her hands in appeal or surrender.
Stephanie stalked across the room. She’d shoved the incriminating knife back into her pocket. Her right hand now clasped something at her side. Daniela spotted the fluorescent marking on the plastic case. Incapacitant spray.
Daniela backed away until her hip bumped the kitchen counter. She kept her hands up, like she was surrendering, making Stephanie come to her. Her eyes were fixed on the spray. Just the sight of it made her stomach curl. The canister was pointed at the ground. For now.
She won’t use it. She won’t hurt you.
The look on her sister’s face spoke otherwise.
‘Hold your hands out in front of you,’ Stephanie said.
‘No.’
‘Don’t be stupid about this. You don’t—’
&nb
sp; Daniela ducked under Stephanie’s outstretched arm, and Stephanie threw herself sideways to pin Daniela against the kitchen counter. Their shoulders collided. Daniela bounced off the counter, recovered her balance and sprinted for the door.
Leo was in the hallway. He tried to block her way and Daniela shoulder-barged him, knocking him backwards into the sitting room.
Daniela grabbed the front-door handle. The door stayed closed. Stephanie had locked it behind her.
Stephanie came crashing out of the kitchen like a bull. Daniela took off up the stairs.
On the top landing, she ran for the only open door, which led into the bathroom at the front of the house. The frosted window was partially open. Daniela wasn’t entirely sure she could fit through it but—
A weight slammed into her back, jolting Daniela off her feet and knocking all the wind out. She landed hard, her arms taking the brunt of the impact. Stephanie had rugby-tackled her.
Daniela struggled to throw off the bigger woman. A hand grabbed her right wrist and yanked it behind her back. If Stephanie got the handcuffs on her, it’d be over. It was probably over already. Once the police got you on the ground, they didn’t let go.
With a grunt of effort, Daniela twisted and managed to flip onto her back. She found her face inches from her sister’s. Stephanie’s features were contorted. The strength leaked from Daniela’s arms in the face of that rage. Stephanie was almost four years older than her, and had always been bigger and stronger. There was no way to fight.
Stephanie got a forearm across Daniela’s throat. She leaned her weight on it and Daniela choked. With her free hand, Stephanie raised the canister of incapacitant spray. Daniela really, really didn’t want to get hit by it at such close range.
She jerked an arm free and rabbit-punched Stephanie in the ribs. The angle was bad, but there was enough force behind it that Stephanie grunted in pain. Her forearm came off Daniela’s throat. Daniela gasped for air. Then she punched Stephanie in the face.
There wasn’t enough room for a decent swing. But in prison, Daniela had been in three fights, all short and brutal and ending with vicious suddenness. She’d come off worst the first time. After that, she learned to do whatever it took, and do it first.
With anyone else Daniela would’ve gone for the eyes, a raking swipe to blind and disorientate, or an open-hand strike to the throat that could, hypothetically, crush the windpipe. But even in the madness of the moment, Daniela couldn’t do that to her sister.
But the punch was enough. It caught Stephanie on the jaw and snapped her head to the side. Daniela felt the impact all the way to her shoulder. The blow stunned Stephanie and she slumped against the wall. As soon as the weight lifted off her chest, Daniela squirmed out from under Stephanie and scrambled to her feet. She dived for the window.
She’d flung one leg over the sill when Leo grabbed her arm and tried to haul her back. Daniela had forgotten him.
Leo held a small, fluorescent canister.
Daniela jerked her head away as Leo fired the incapacitant spray. If Daniela hadn’t turned it would’ve hit her full in the face. The spray splattered her cheek and neck. She clamped her eyes shut and flailed her arms, striking Leo. Leo cried out, and Daniela heard the clink of the canister bouncing off the linoleum.
Daniela fell backwards. She put out a hand to catch herself. It hit the glass window and shoved it open wide. She lost her balance.
There was a moment of weightlessness, of panic, before gravity snagged her.
Daniela’s hip glanced off the sill. Her legs smashed into the frame. She fell headfirst from the window.
The sloped roof of the porch below broke her fall, and very nearly broke her neck. She hit the wooden roof with a bang that must’ve been heard throughout the village. The impact scattered her senses and blinded her with white light. The roof buckled beneath her weight and spilled her to the unforgiving ground. The second impact hurt more than the first.
Someone yelled something. Daniela heard it as a muddy wash of sound. It felt like something had jarred loose in her head.
Animal instinct got her back to her feet. She stumbled away from the house, holding her breath. Droplets of liquid fire collected on her cheek and in the soft folds around her right ear. She kept her right eye squeezed shut but dared to crack open her left eye. She couldn’t run blind. Her vision was blurred and watery but she saw the outline of the garden wall ahead, and, beyond that, the road. Her cheek burned. She swiped at the skin with her jumper sleeve and only succeeded in spreading the spray more.
She started running, a lurching, loping stride. The cold air was a blessing on her streaming eyes. She let out her breath in an explosive gasp. The peppery stink filled her mouth. She gagged, stumbled, kept running.
Even if she’d wanted to, she couldn’t look back. Her balance was precarious. At any moment it felt like her legs would spill her to the ground. The fire across her cheek was spreading, eating into her skin, becoming an urgent siren, especially where it’d spattered her ear and nose. She sucked air through her mouth to avoid dragging the fumes into her sinuses. The stink seared her lungs. If any of the substance had got into her eyes she couldn’t even have run.
She stumbled onto the road and headed for the woods opposite Leo’s house.
24
It wasn’t possible for Daniela to move quietly through the woods. She was half-blinded, gasping, winded and, in all honesty, she expected to get caught. Stephanie would come after her. All Daniela was doing was prolonging the inevitable.
She lost her footing on a muddy bank and slid down into one of the many flooded ditches that criss-crossed the woods. Water flowed into both boots.
Daniela dropped to her knees in the ditch, then dunked her face below the water. The cold was an indescribable relief. She scrubbed her cheek with both hands and peeled her eyes open to rinse them. She stayed down as long as she could hold her breath, then came up, gasping and shuddering, sucked in another breath and submerged her face again.
After the fourth repetition, the burning began to subside. She sat up slowly, blinking muddy water from her eyes. Her vision was foggy. Fire itched her face, but it was a throbbing discomfort rather than a stabbing urgency. She sluiced water over her face again, then raised her head. Rain pattered off the leaves around her.
Her desperate flight had taken her less than two hundred yards from the road. If Stephanie – or Leo – had come after her, they would’ve caught her. She didn’t have the strength for a second fight.
Daniela rested against the edge of the ditch, trying to bring her ragged breathing under control, and listened. She heard nothing. That didn’t necessarily mean anything. Stephanie wasn’t the stealthiest, but she knew the basics of sneaking up on someone.
After a long minute of silence, Daniela pushed to her feet. Water drained from her sodden clothes. She pulled herself up the muddy bank as quietly as was possible. At the top, she paused, listening again.
From the road she heard voices. It was a quiet discussion, not intended to be overheard, but sound travelled easily in the silence.
The logical thing to do was leave. Put as much distance as possible between herself and her sister, give them both time to calm down. But instead, Daniela crept through the trees towards the road.
She got close enough to see Leo’s house. The front door was open. Two figures stood just outside.
Stephanie was watching the trees, her expression closed, unreadable. Leo had hold of Stephanie’s hand and was talking quietly. It didn’t look like he was restraining Stephanie, nor offering reassurance. It took Daniela a moment to figure out he was fixing a support bandage around the officer’s wrist. Leo’s eyes were red from being too close to the spray when it went off.
‘I know you’re out there,’ Stephanie called.
Daniela flinched, although Stephanie couldn’t have spotted her, wedged as she was in the shadows behind a large birch.
‘There’s nowhere to go,’ Stephanie said. Her voice carried throug
h the woods. ‘The roads are closed. You can’t get out of town. We’ll find you.’
A bubble of laughter surfaced inside Daniela. It was like when they were kids – when Daniela was in trouble and Stephanie was sent to bring her home. Daniela’s humour turned sour. They were no longer kids, and this was far from a game.
Leo murmured a quiet reassurance to Stephanie, who didn’t seem to hear. Her gaze swept the trees. Daniela shuddered as Stephanie’s eyes passed the knot of branches where she hid.
Stephanie must’ve been more badly hurt than Daniela realised. When Stephanie at last allowed Leo to lead her back to the house, she was limping and her movements were slow, as if the blow to her head had disorientated her. Daniela felt a pang of guilt. She hadn’t meant to hurt her. All she’d wanted to do was get away.
She thought of Stephanie holding the incapacitant spray, and the guilt crystallised into something else. She couldn’t believe Stephanie had been willing to do that.
Can you blame her? She thinks you killed Auryn.
None of Daniela’s actions would have helped convince Stephanie she was innocent. She should’ve done what Stephanie said and gone with her. But the idea of being arrested, of those handcuffs fastening around her wrists …
She couldn’t go through that again. Not ever.
And now, because she’d panicked rather than acting rationally, her sister thought Daniela was capable of murder. That hurt worse than anything.
Leo helped Stephanie into the house, then paused to look back at the woods. His expression was pained. It twisted Daniela’s insides. Somehow Leo had called Stephanie and alerted her that Daniela was at the house. Maybe he’d texted whilst in the kitchen.
Daniela tried to nurture her annoyance; to raise it from a dull glow into a fire. But it was too difficult. She was freezing cold and soaked to the skin again. The few wonderful moments of warmth beside the hearth in Leo’s house were already a distant memory. She was too numb, inside and out, to feel anything.
She thought back to the bitterness Leo had tried to hide. Even before today he must’ve hated Daniela for what she’d done to his family, and for contributing to his break-up with Auryn. And now, he thought Daniela had murdered the woman he still loved. The expression on his face when he’d seen the knife …
The Flood Page 15
