The extra money would certainly make life easier when she returned to the office.
‘We’re cutting your husband out first.’
It was a male voice, deep and confident.
‘Stay with us, my darling. You’ll hear a horrible noise in a moment, but it’s just the cutters. They won’t hurt you. I’ll be with you all the time.’
The woman was still there. Rosie could see her face, peering through the hole where the glass had been.
As the noise of the cutters filled her ears, Rosie became aware of more people moving around outside, talking urgently. A blinding light shone from lamps trained on the vehicle. She couldn’t move her head to get a good look at Liam. The air was filled with the violent sounds of creaking and grinding metal as part of the roof was wrenched back and they cut through the pillars to his front and side.
‘He’s AB negative,’ Rosie said, but she couldn’t make herself heard.
‘She’s pregnant.’
‘Jesus Christ.’
There were worried mutterings outside.
‘Let the ambulance team know and make sure the hospital is clear about what’s coming in.’
‘Heavily pregnant too,’ came the woman’s voice. ‘About to pop, if you ask me.’
Rosie had forgotten to mention the babies. She assumed everybody knew, just by looking at her. She’d been so worried about Liam that she’d forgotten about herself.
Outside the car, the voices were sounding more concerned.
‘We need to move over to the woman’s side. She’s the priority.’
‘We’re going to be cutting close to your head, my darling,’ said the woman. ‘Try to blank out the sound. Close your eyes too; it will protect you from any broken glass.’
A hand came through the shattered screen and squeezed her arm. It was warm and reassuring, the female firefighter reaching out as best as she could before the cutting began. She was making sure the children were okay.
‘It won’t be long – we’ll have you and the baby out in no time,’ she said.
‘Babies.’ Rosie replied. ‘It’s babies.’
The cutting began, and she closed her eyes, remembering Gina’s beaming face as they sent her off on her adventures.
That’ll be us soon, she’d thought to herself. Me and Liam. We’ll have smiling faces like that, and people will be happy for us too.
Rosie was aware of Liam being manoeuvred out of his seat to her side. She couldn’t turn to look because her neck was in so much pain. She also heard more concerned voices. Something about a pedestrian.
Why wasn’t Liam helping them? Why did they have to pull him like that? She willed him on silently. Help them, Liam, help them get you out.
‘Just a couple more minutes,’ the female voice said in a soothing voice. ‘We’ve got an ambulance team on standby; you and your baby will be in safe hands in no time.’
‘Babies,’ Rosie insisted again, frustrated that she couldn’t make herself heard. ‘Babies.’
As the heavy cutters tore through the metal structure to her side, she suddenly realised. The babies. They’d been lively all evening, as if they couldn’t wait to get out into the world and start their lives. But ever since the crash, she hadn’t felt them moving. They were completely still.
Trinity Heights Psychiatric Hospital – May 2018, 21:48
Rosie sensed Vera Philpot was checking up on her, but as she drifted in and out of consciousness, it was hard to follow what was happening and where Vera was in the room.
This drug regime was exactly what she wanted; it shut down her mind, blanked her thoughts and rendered her body useless. She could lie there, all day and night, barely aware of the passage of time. With Sam a ward of court and in the care of her father, and the inquests and funerals out of the way, she could abdicate all responsibility. The culmination of it all was sweet relief when it came: a bungled attempt at suicide at the flyover, being sectioned in Trinity Heights and a cocktail of drugs which dulled the pain.
Every shred of dignity was gone. The woman she was, the responsibility she’d managed, the salary she’d commanded – none of it mattered. Her world was broken. All there was to look forward to was the paradise of oblivion and the feeling that she didn’t have to do anything. Everything was taken care of.
The money, the baby and the job could all wait. First, she had to get her head straight.
Vera was the perfect nurse to have on the ward. She was gentle, reassuring and kind. She reminded Rosie of her mum. How she still missed her. She’d have known what to do. Vera had made her feel more confident that she wouldn’t try to jump again. She’d convinced her she had to hang on for Sam’s sake; he needed to know his mother. But Vera also made the agony slip away. It was she who brought the pills, arriving like an angel to make Rosie forget.
‘I’m just going to throw out these flowers that your dad brought. They’ve all wilted. I’ll be back soon.’
Rosie couldn’t even remember her father visiting. Had he come with Sam?
‘Back again! Here are your clothes from the laundry. I’ll hang them on your chair. Maybe you can try to put them in the wardrobe later?’
It felt like Vera was only gone for a matter of seconds, but as she focused on the digital clock on her bedside table, Rosie saw that she’d been on her own for an hour or more. And if Vera thought she was up to getting out of bed, she was badly mistaken. It was as much as she could do to open her eyes.
Vera was gone again. But there was a movement in the room. Rosie tried to prise her eyes open. She’d had a lovely dream, that she was a little girl and she and her mother were cooking. She wanted to be back there, at a happy time, away from the realities of the present.
Someone was touching her leg. Was she being bed-bathed? The drugs had kicked in. She couldn’t fight the tiredness. But somebody was running their hand up her bare legs. They were smooth hands, a woman’s perhaps. And she couldn’t move her mouth to ask them to stop.
She woke again, not sure how long afterwards. She couldn’t even see who it was. They were stroking her hair. Who was stroking her hair? Nobody would do that except Liam, and he was dead. She shut out the thought and forced the darkness away from her mind, drifting off again.
Where was Vera? She wanted Vera back. Who was this person in the room? If only she could wake up properly.
Rosie heard Vera’s voice along the corridor, attending to the patient in the next room. She didn’t even know her neighbour’s name yet, and she didn’t care. Just getting through the day was enough to cope with.
The person who was with her in the room tensed when Vera’s voice became audible, as she made her way back. Were they even supposed to be there? Through the haze of oblivion, Rosie’s heart quickened. What if this person meant her harm? She couldn’t move, couldn’t even cry out. As she faded back into nothingness, she sensed the person moving towards the door. They were speaking, but the words were distorted in her head, echoing around her mind so that wasn’t even sure whether she’d imagined it.
‘I’ll be back, Rosie. We’re not done yet. I like it when you’re all mine. I like it when we’re alone, and I can do what I want to you.’
Carry on reading Two Years After
Author Notes
I was originally going to write a completely different book from Friends Who Lie, then in December 2017 I went to Spain on holiday with my son, saw lots of great locations, and came back with a strong idea for a story which I couldn’t resist writing straightaway.
Most of the action in Friends Who Lie takes place in Benidorm. Now, if you read any of my thrillers you will know already that I have a soft spot for Spain, particularly the area down the coast from Alicante, which includes Benidorm and Torrevieja.
Benidorm is full of British pubs and eating places and the Brits have flocked there for years to enjoy the Spanish sunshine and the beautiful beaches.
I tend to go out in the winter, it’s too busy and too hot for me in the summer. But even in the winter, when the
resort is packed with retired people from all over the world, Benidorm is just a great place to be – there’s so much to see and do.
This book is directly based upon my experiences during my visit, and if you head over to my website at https://paulteague.co.uk you will find a picture gallery showing some of the key locations featured in my story.
I hesitated about making it bitcoin that Caitlen discovered on her computer, but I needed something that could create incredible wealth for her completely out of the blue. Essentially, I needed plot device which could drive a wedge through a group of friends and bitcoin seem to be a modern way of doing just that.
At the time I went to Benidorm I had just got interested in cryptocurrencies and was learning about how they were kept safe and secure, but also how vulnerable they could be.
I was wary of getting too bogged down in explaining what bitcoin is or where it is stored and how it’s protected. Hopefully I managed to convey the key points without turning it into a bitcoin user manual.
I also think that you’re going to see cases quite like this in the future as people discover that they’ve bought and perhaps lost considerable amounts of money dealing in cryptocurrencies.
I often feel when I’m writing my thrillers that these are as much books about relationships as they are tense whodunits. Caitlen’s relationship is pretty messed up, as are some of the other characters in the book.
Most of them have something to hide, and that doesn’t necessarily make them bad people. As with most of the characters in my books, they’re just flawed in a very human way.
With Matt and Harriet I was keen to explore the type of relationship that just won’t die, when two people are compelled to be with each other in spite of the world conspiring to pull them apart.
In Caitlen’s case she’s just fallen into a relationship with the wrong guy and she can’t figure out how she’s going to escape and can’t face the drama of doing so.
We’ve probably all known people like that at some time, and if you’ve been in situations similar to these the solution often seems so simple yet at the same time impossible.
I do think there are many lessons to be learned from social media in terms of how people project themselves in public and what’s going on in their private lives.
With Rhett and Naomi it really is a case of keeping up appearances. They’re in deep trouble. Rhett did something wrong but not unforgivable, and they are just trying to keep their heads above water. At the same time they’re incredibly embarrassed by the situation and don’t want anybody else to know about it.
I wanted to make Gina a likeable character to come into Caitlen’s life, one who offered her the possibility of a different future. We’ve all been at stages in our lives where we’re not happy and sometimes daydreaming about change can be intoxicating to us. Gina represents that possibility of change in Caitlen’s life, the breath of fresh air that she so desperately craves.
By the way, Gina also pops up in Two Years After where we encounter her just before she moves out to Spain.
You’ll notice that I like to have a few little digs about things that I observe in everyday life and this time it’s people who smoke e-cigarettes who come off worse. Poor old Porter and his exploding cigarette! I know lots of people who vape and it surprises me in the UK that we haven’t been stricter about it. However, my books are not there to make political points, I just wanted to set Porter up for a scene which I hope made you laugh.
The karaoke scenes are based upon my own experiences in Magaluf when I first tried my hand at it in a bar on the island. My wife and I were sitting next to a British couple and, although our partners were not the slightest bit interested in having a go, the other lady and I were keen to try our hand, so we performed a duet of ‘You’re The One That I Want’. I was terrible but she was great – getting up to perform a song with me gave her courage and she was away on her own after that. I think karaoke is a hilarious gift to mankind, and of course some people are excellent at it, but I wanted to bring that sense of fun to this book.
The funny thing about this story is that the murder takes place on the first page and the resolution pretty well occurs on the last page. The rest of the book explores the pasts, the jealousies and the personalities of the people who may have committed the crime. I hope you get a sense of rising tension and throughout the story you’re trying to guess who it is who commits that foul murder at the Benidorm Cross.
I’ve walked up to the Benidorm Cross on a hot day and it’s exactly as described in the book. The comment I made about somebody leaving the ashes of a loved one at the Cross are based on fact. There really was an urn filled with ashes placed next to the Cross when I visited.
I hope that my love of the resort comes over clearly in this book. If you haven’t been there, you really should give it a try. If, like me, you prefer a quieter holiday I suggest you pop over during the winter months. However, if you like nightlife and quite a raucous environment, then summer is the best time for you to visit.
If you’ve enjoyed reading my thrillers I would love to hear from you, and if you’ve got tales of Benidorm to share, then all the better!
I send out an email to my readers every month with details of my latest books and what I’m up to as an author. I’d love you to sign up and then drop me a line in reply to my welcome email to let me know what you’re reading at the moment. Just head over to my website at https://paulteague.net/thrillers.
I look forward to hearing from you very soon!
Best wishes,
Paul Teague
Also by Paul J. Teague
Don’t Tell Meg Trilogy
Book 1 - Don’t Tell Meg
Book 2 - The Murder Place
Book 3 - The Forgotten Children
Standalone Thrillers
Dead of Night
One Last Chance
No More Secrets
So Many Lies
Two Years After
Friends Who Lie
Paul J.Teague & Adam Nicholls
Now You See Her
Coming Soon!
If you enjoyed Don’t Tell Meg, you’ll love the Morecambe Bay Trilogy:
Left For Dead - available for pre-order here
Circle of Lies - available for pre-order here
Truth Be Told - available Jan 6 2019
About the Author
Hi, I'm Paul Teague, the author of the Don't Tell Meg trilogy as well as several other standalone psychological thrillers such as One Last Chance, Dead of Night and No More Secrets.
I'm a former broadcaster and journalist with the BBC, but I have also worked as a primary school teacher, a disc jockey, a shopkeeper, a waiter and a sales rep.
I've read thrillers all my life, starting with Enid Blyton's Famous Five series as a child, then graduating to James Hadley Chase, Harlan Coben, Linwood Barclay and Mark Edwards.
If you love those authors then you’ll like my thrillers too.
Let’s get connected!
https://paulteague.co.uk
[email protected]
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Author, except where permitted by law.
This book was re-edited and re-released in October 2019. It was originally published as Who To Trust.
Copyright © 2019 Paul Teague writing as Paul J. Teague
All rights reserved
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