The Heatwave

by Katerina Diamond

  ‘I won’t tell anyone. I’ll just forget I ever saw that, and you can go.’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m not done here.’

  Jasmine started to sob; she couldn’t control the tears as they came. She had never wanted her parents more than she did right now. She felt so small, so young and so helpless. She knew his strength, she had felt his muscles pressed against her. Jasmine tried to pull her wrist free, but he just locked his hand even tighter around it; it was barely an effort for him.

  ‘Please …’ she begged, scarcely hearing her own muffled voice through the sobs.

  ‘Just sit down and let me explain. I didn’t want it to be like this.’

  He pushed her onto the bed but yanked her forward as she went to lie back. He looked annoyed at her assumption that he would assault her that way. As if it would be unthinkable.

  ‘I saw what you did to those girls,’ Jasmine whimpered, terrified she was going to set him off again.

  ‘It’s not what you think.’

  ‘Those girls aren’t really dead?’

  ‘Oh, they are dead. I didn’t kill them though.’

  Jasmine hadn’t expected him to say that; then again she wasn’t sure what she’d expected when she walked into this room. It wasn’t anything like this. Was he insane, had he killed these women and forgotten?

  He reached into the messenger bag and pulled out a crumpled tissue. He unwrapped it to reveal a necklace. Jasmine’s necklace. Was this his trophy? The thing he would rub between his fingers in order to remember the excitement of the moment she died at his hands? She had read enough about serial killers to know that they liked to keep a memento of their kills.

  Tim grabbed two photographs from the bed and handed them to her. One was a folded picture of a girl with a bright smile, billowing black hair and the most mesmerising dark brown eyes. The other picture was of a dead body.

  ‘What is this? Why did you steal my necklace? What are you going to do to me? Are you going to kill me?’ she said, desperately trying to hold back her tears.

  ‘That necklace belonged to this girl. Her name is Rosa. She’s wearing it in the picture, see?’

  Jasmine examined the picture and saw that she was wearing a necklace like hers.

  ‘There’s probably loads of those necklaces around. It could have come from anywhere. Where did you get this picture?’

  He unfolded the picture and Jasmine saw that Tim was standing with Rosa.

  ‘This was taken before my fiancée went missing. When they found her, she had been murdered. Look at the necklace in the picture; it’s the same one. You think when they make each one, they put all those tiny little glass beads in exactly the same order?’

  The necklace Rosa was wearing was identical to Jasmine’s necklace. How was that possible? Jasmine was struggling with what he was telling her, what he seemed so desperate for her to comprehend.

  ‘I don’t understand … what are you saying?’

  ‘The last person to see Rosa alive was your father. I think he killed her. I think he killed all these girls.’

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Jasmine stared at Tim, the stranger who lived in their house. Had he completely lost his mind? She kept looking back at the picture of the girl. Something about the girl’s face stirred some recognition in her, but she couldn’t quite place it. Was this Tim’s manipulating his way out of trouble after she had found his sick and twisted secret? That didn’t explain the necklace though.

  ‘Tell me who you really are. Don’t lie to me this time. No more lies.’ She could hear her voice shaking as she spoke.

  ‘OK. I promise.’

  Jasmine folded her arms, partly for security but also so that he would see that she meant business. He had to know she was no longer vulnerable to his charm. She just wanted to know the truth. At least she thought she did.

  ‘Is Tim even your real name?’

  ‘It is. My name is Tim Fulton. I am a soldier in the British army, currently on medical leave. I came here looking for the person who killed my fiancée. Every lead, every avenue led me to your father.’

  ‘You’re lying,’ she spat.

  ‘We can ask him, if you want? Show him those photos and see what he does.’

  She couldn’t tell if she believed him or not; she had believed him before and he had been lying.

  Except he seemed so convinced of what he was saying.

  ‘Is that why you’re here? What were you planning on doing to him?’

  ‘I want him to admit it. She didn’t deserve what he did to her.’

  Jasmine shook her head. She couldn’t accept what he was saying.

  ‘My dad didn’t do it. There’s no way. He’s lovely, ask anyone. He’s not capable of those hideous things. Whoever did that to those girls was a monster and my father is the furthest thing from a monster on this planet.’

  ‘Are you telling me there’s nothing you find strange about him? Even just these past few weeks here I can see that he’s off. There’s something missing.’

  ‘No. You’re seeing what you want to see. He’s not what you’re saying.’

  Tim ignored her. ‘I wasn’t sure at first, but now I know he did it. I know he killed Rosa.’

  Jasmine knew she had to keep him talking ’til she could get away from him and warn her father. ‘Tell me about her, where is this supposed to have happened?’ Her head was spinning. Everything he was saying was a lie, but she could tell he was utterly convinced of it. He must be insane, there was no other explanation for it. He was mistaken.

  ‘I was stationed in Belize,’ he began. That explained why he’d been in the photo of her parents, at least. Maybe Rosa gave her necklace to Lisa and Frank, and that was why Jasmine had it? ‘We were taking part in three months of covert jungle training at the Batsub base. While we were there, I met a girl from the village near the training ground. She was incredible, warm, loving and we fell in love. She was the world to me.’

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘Back in 1998.’

  Jasmine felt her mouth go dry; that was when they had gone to Belize for the summer.

  ‘So, what do you think happened?’ she challenged.

  ‘She worked in the foodbank in Ladyville. I met her when we were delivering some stuff from the base there; that was one of my duties. We worked with the locals and wanted to help out. It was almost instant between us. That spark. She had grown up in an orphanage and was really dedicated to giving to people who were less fortunate than her,’ he said, a smile on his face she hadn’t seen before, a memory of something cherished but lost. He was obviously very broken; maybe he didn’t even know how broken he was. He had convinced himself of something that just couldn’t be true.

  Jasmine stood up. She needed to move around, her pulse racing as she tried to understand what he was saying. He must be out of his mind. But the timing was right and she thought she could remember the food bank. She felt sick as she realised that she had been contemplating what Tim was suggesting, just for a moment.

  ‘I remember the foodbank,’ she admitted. ‘The charity we went there with got our group to build new shelving in the storage room and we painted it all the colours of the rainbow.’

  It was as if Tim hadn’t heard her.

  ‘One day, near the end of the summer, she went out and never came back. The last time her colleagues spoke to her, she was on her way to the bus stop to go into the city. The police searched for her, but they just thought she had run away. Lots of young women disappear in the city for a myriad reasons. Finding her just wasn’t a priority. But I spoke to as many people as I could, and the last time she was seen, she was talking with an English man who matched the description of your father.’

  Jasmine could hear the words he was saying, but she could hardly bear to listen. It was just a misunderstanding. He might think he knew what had happened to his fiancée, but he was wrong. She guessed he might be lying to himself to avoid facing the fact Rosa hadn’t felt the same way about him as he di
d about her. She’d probably just left.

  ‘How do you know she didn’t just run away?’

  ‘Because they found her body,’ he told her, a flash of anger crossing his face. ‘Just before I left, they pulled parts of her out of the river. She had been dumped in there and the alligators got to her.’

  ‘That must have been awful,’ she said, ‘but that doesn’t mean it was my father. There were forty people working in our group; it could have been one of the other men. And if she was in pieces like you say, then how do you have that picture then? Is that her? The woman covered in blood?’ She asked. She didn’t even know if anything he was saying was real. Was this another diversion tactic of his? Was he still trying to confuse her? She had found his pictures, so he might tell any lie to stop her from calling the police until he got what he wanted. If only she could figure out what that was.

  ‘That’s her. None of the other men matched the description that was given to me. There is no doubt in my mind that your father killed her.’

  ‘So where did that photograph come from if they didn’t find her body until later?’ Jasmine insisted.

  ‘I got this photograph from a box I found in your parents’ bedroom.’

  His words had the desired impact. Jasmine felt as though a jolt of electricity had shot through her.

  ‘You’re lying.’

  ‘I swear, I’m not.’

  ‘This doesn’t make any sense! Who are those other girls then? Why are there so many?’

  ‘Those dead girls are all photos I found in that box. I don’t know who the others are yet. Maybe you can help me find out.’

  ‘I’m not helping you! You must be crazy if you think I’m going to listen to any of this.’ She went to walk past him, but Tim thrust the necklace into her hand.

  ‘Where did you get this?’ he asked.

  ‘It was a gift for my birthday. My eleventh birthday.’

  ‘When you were in Belize?’

  ‘That doesn’t mean anything. You’re trying to trick me.’

  ‘How could I know that it was from that year you stayed in Belize? It could have been any birthday, but you got it around the time my Rosa disappeared. I know because I bought it for her in the market in Ladyville.’

  ‘Why did you come here?’ Jasmine said, starting to cry again. ‘Why are you trying to hurt us? Did you sleep with me just so you could go through my things? Just so you could try and trick me into believing all of this nonsense?’

  ‘I’m not proud of what happened. I couldn’t have you being suspicious of me. I could tell that you knew straight away I was lying. I hadn’t factored in that you would be older and smarter. I just needed to distract you enough until I got proof.’

  ‘It’s easy to fake a photo if you know what you’re doing. How do I know this isn’t all part of some bizarre scam or something? You haven’t exactly been honest with me from the get-go. If this photo is what you say it is, and my father supposedly killed your fiancée, then why didn’t you go to the police once you had the proof? Why did you stay here?’

  ‘I watched your family as much as I could from the outside. Once I knew I was on the right track with your parents I became friends with them and made them trust me.’

  ‘So everything about you is a lie? You’re not this wonderful man who goes round helping people in need, it’s all part of the act to get to my father?’

  ‘I’m not a bad person, he is,’ he snapped, rubbing at his temples as though he were trying to clear his thoughts, get them in order. He seemed confused now, less convinced of the truth he was trying to sell her.

  She could tell he hadn’t anticipated this much resistance from her. He was desperate for her to believe him, without question. He was becoming unhinged. She needed to get out of that room, and soon.

  ‘I don’t want to hear this. You have to start being honest with me. You have to tell me if you killed Mr Morrell. Did you go back and hurt him?’ She spoke softly; she wanted him to think of her as an ally, as someone he could trust. She had to get out of there; if he thought she was going to run and tell the police then he would never let her go.

  ‘I swear, I didn’t. I wouldn’t.’

  ‘So, he really did kill himself?’

  ‘Maybe, or maybe your father helped him. I do believe he loves you, Jasmine, as much as he is capable of loving anything,’ he said. He seemed to be calming down. The less she resisted him the more chance she had of getting out of there alive.

  ‘So what do we do now?’ she asked, not only wondering about the immediate situation but about what he might have planned next.

  ‘I want you to help me.’

  ‘Help you do what?’

  ‘Find out who all these girls are. The photos were all jumbled together in the box and so there are no dates to go by. There’s no information whatsoever, in fact. Just girl after girl, butchered as if she meant nothing. Your father did that.’

  ‘I feel sick,’ Jasmine said, sitting back down, unsure how to carry on from there. The more she pretended that what he was saying was even remotely reasonable, the more seeds of doubt infiltrated her thoughts. He couldn’t be telling the truth. Could he? It all came back to that necklace. She knew her father had given it to her; the only question now was where he got it from. At some point before it belonged to Jasmine, it had belonged to Rosa. Was her father the only person who could have taken it from one and given it to the other?

  ‘All of these girls have families. Every single one of them deserves better than this.’ He thrust the photo of his fiancée in her face again. She didn’t want to look.

  ‘I’m not going to help you. Go now and I won’t tell anyone. If you’re not a bad person like you say, then you need to leave us alone,’ Jasmine implored, afraid to entertain his theory for a moment longer, afraid that she was starting to believe him.

  ‘Look at those pictures. Don’t they deserve justice?’

  ‘What you’re suggesting can’t be true. It just can’t.’

  ‘Just give me today at least. Please. I’ve been trying to identify these other women but I don’t even know where to start. Together we might have more luck.’

  Why was he willing to let her go? If he had been the one who hurt those girls would he have wasted this time trying to convince her of anything? Surely it would have been quicker just to dispatch her.

  ‘I will give you an hour to get out. After that I’m calling the police.’

  ‘If you call the police, your dad will go to prison. Is that what you want? Prove me wrong if you can, just tell me where to look, tell me what to look for.’

  ‘Don’t you want him to go to prison?’ she asked.

  ‘I do but I need more evidence to make sure. Please just give me time to find some more.’

  Jasmine thought about his proposition for a moment. She didn’t know why she was even considering doing what Tim wanted, but there was something in the back of her mind telling her she must get to the truth. She couldn’t live with the niggling doubt in her mind that Tim had put there. She believed that he believed what he was saying to her, but she wanted to prove him wrong.

  ‘I need some air,’ Jasmine said, her nausea getting stronger. She couldn’t look at those photos for another second.

  He didn’t stop her as she walked calmly from the room, out into the small corridor and then into the garden. She gulped but couldn’t get the warm air into her fast enough. She thought about those women, their photographs in a box under the bed. She knew the box Tim was talking about. She had never looked in there because it was her father’s box. She wondered if this was why her father was so adamant about respecting each other’s privacy; he wanted to keep his secrets private. Jasmine thought back to the way he’d expertly dismantled the fish when they went to Wales together on family trips and she was reminded of the cuts on the women’s bodies. Her father handled a knife like an expert, like someone with a lot of practice.

  The sun beat down on her, and she felt dizzy as the images of those poor girls’
faces appeared in her mind like a highlight reel. She could feel herself falling but had no power to stop it. The last thought in her mind before she lost consciousness was that her father was a stranger.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Now

  The end of the road, that’s where I am. Both figuratively and literally. Still dressed in yesterday’s clothes, awoken this morning by an eager spaniel who was sniffing and licking my hand as I lay on the bench where I had intended to stop for only a few moments but instead slept the whole night.

  I walk down the road I once lived on. The good memories of this house completely overshadowed by the bad. I can’t see it yet, but I can feel it, like the sinister black mansion in a horror movie, looming with malicious intent. I hope it will be a hole in the ground when I finally reach it, even though, in my mind’s eye, it’s still the same as the day I left. I approach a bend in the road I have walked down a hundred times before, knowing full well what I will see when I take those next few steps. The sight that was once so welcome instils fear in me now. It’s just a house. It’s just a house. It’s just a house.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Then

  Jasmine banged her fist against the door of Felicity’s house. She could hear Carol’s music blaring again. She pounded harder and pushed the doorbell several times. The door swung open to reveal Carol in her dressing gown. She always had a smile for Jasmine.

  ‘Felicity!’ she screamed up the stairs as she made her way back into the kitchen and closed the door. The house vibrated as the music started again.

  Jasmine sat on the sofa in Felicity’s lounge. She could tell by the look on Felicity’s face that she looked ghostly. She had rushed out of the house as soon as she could and turned up at Felicity’s, banging frantically on the door for someone to let her in.

  ‘You need sugar,’ Felicity’s mother said as she appeared with a glass of pineapple juice. It was the most motherly thing Jasmine had ever seen Carol do.

  ‘What happened?’ Felicity asked.

  ‘I just don’t feel well. I’ll be fine. I think I’ve got a summer cold coming,’ Jasmine said, desperate to get rid of Carol so she could confide in Felicity.