by LK Chapman
‘Surely you’re worried about Katy–’
‘She’s fine, Natalie. She just picked up some bug at nursery that’s given her a rash, but the doctors aren’t worried about her. They’re just being cautious.’
‘I just can’t right now,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I’m ready for a new relationship. Me and Josh have only just broken up, my head’s been a mess–’
‘Or,’ Toby said, his eyes fixed on hers, his voice low and menacing, ‘or, this whole thing has been fake.’ He ran a finger down her cheek, along her scar and around her chin. His touch was so soft that she broke out in goosebumps. He was looking at her differently now: not as a new conquest to drool over, but as a person. And he could see her, because when it came down to it, she was no good at hiding. If he hadn’t been so blinded by his lust he probably would have seen through her right from the start.
‘No,’ she said helplessly, as he moved himself more firmly in front of her. ‘You said it yourself. Josh has treated me badly, I’m not still interested in him–’
‘Then there’s nothing standing in your way from being with me, then, is there?’ he said, a slow smile spreading across his face.
He knows full well I’m lying. He knows, and now he’s playing with me like a cat with a mouse.
57
Panic flooded her. No one was likely to be coming back to Toby’s house any time soon. She was alone.
‘Toby,’ she said, ‘not like this. This is all wrong.’
‘I just want to know if this has ever been real,’ he said. ‘You’ve always been blowing hot and cold with me, playing silly games. I’ve put up with it long enough.’
Natalie tried to squirm past him but he grabbed her arm. ‘I thought you cared about me,’ she said, pulling her arm free and rubbing it pointedly so he could see he’d hurt her. ‘I thought this meant something to you.’
‘Don’t be so deluded,’ he said, ‘you knew exactly what this was. This never meant anything, Nat. It was just sex. And you’re the one who’s really at fault here. You’re the one who is being dishonest. Just tell me the truth.’
‘Please, let me leave,’ she said, trying to keep her voice calm. ‘This whole thing has been one huge mistake.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry I misled you. You’re right, I’m the one at fault here, and I – I’m sorry.’
He snorted. ‘I don’t get you at all. You must be mental to be helping Josh when he’s tried to drag you down the way he has. He said awful things about you.’
Natalie stared at him. Was he serious? Was he still going to try and maintain that Josh did all of it?
‘I’ve lost all respect for him now. He–’
‘You’ve lost all respect for him?’ Natalie exploded. ‘After you have been trying to cheat on your wife with your stepbrother’s ex-fiancée? After how you treat the women at the hotel?’ She jabbed her finger at him, anger temporarily burning away her fear. ‘You wrote that stuff to me! You wrote it, and you framed Josh for it that afternoon you came to visit me at the flat! Just because I haven’t managed to prove it yet, doesn’t mean I don’t know for certain it was you! And you know what else? I’m going to tell Jodie exactly what you’ve been up to. I’m going to tell her the second she gets home, unless you help Josh right now by telling the truth about exactly what you know, and exactly what you’ve been up to!’
‘What?’ Toby said, taking a step back. ‘I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! You and Josh, the pair of you deserve each other, you’re both completely insane!’
‘Then I will tell Jodie! I’ll tell her that you tried to sleep with me, that you hassle all the female staff at the hotel, so much that they leave after just a few weeks–’
His face turned thunderous, his eyes popping. ‘Those stupid girls brought it all on themselves!’ he said.
Natalie shoved him out of the way, hard. ‘You’re a pig,’ she said. ‘The way you treat women is disgusting!’
‘And what about the way they treat me?’ he yelled. ‘Jodie’s not the same since we had the kids, we hardly ever have sex–’
‘She’s probably exhausted!’ Natalie said. ‘Kids are hard work. Do you really think that gives you the right–’
‘Well, at least I’m not deluded,’ he snapped back. ‘Running around like this after a man who tried to ruin your self-esteem just to get you to stay with him, or whatever the hell he was trying to do? It’s pathetic, Natalie. I thought you were made of stronger stuff than this! Josh doesn’t deserve–’
‘Josh deserves justice!’ she yelled. ‘You gave him pills and told him to kill himself. You should be ashamed! But you’re not, are you? All you care about is your own ego. That’s why you couldn’t handle it when Mikayla said it was over, could you? When you heard she’d found someone else.’
He nodded slowly. ‘You think I killed her?’
‘Did you?’ Natalie said. Fear was prickling down her spine now. Toby was still standing in her way.
‘No!’ he said.
‘I’m going to tell Jodie,’ Natalie said, though her voice was smaller as she realised what a mistake she’d made threatening Toby. Her words sounded stupid now. Would he even care if she spoke to Jodie? But apparently he did, as he said, ‘You’re really willing to destroy a family over this?’
‘What, like you tried to destroy me and Josh?’
‘I am not letting you tell Jodie,’ he said. ‘You are going to stay here, and we are going to talk this through until you come to your senses.’
‘Let me go.’
‘You’re not leaving until we’ve sorted this out.’
She tried to dart past him and he grabbed both her arms. In a blind panic, she threw her head forward, smashing it against his with enough force that he let her go and staggered backwards. Natalie didn’t waste a second. She dashed out of the room towards the stairs, but as she started to sprint down them, Toby’s footsteps weren’t far behind her.
58
Natalie let out a scream as he grabbed her shoulder at the bottom of the stairs. ‘I am not letting you destroy my family!’ he said. ‘You’re not leaving this house until you’ve calmed down and started thinking straight.’
He was holding her tight. But she wasn’t far from the front door. If she could just get him to let go, she would be able to get out. ‘Toby,’ she said, ‘just tell me the truth.’
‘If I had killed her, I’m hardly going to tell you and let you walk out of here, am I?’
His small blue eyes were fixed on hers, but she couldn’t read them. ‘I’m pleading with you,’ she said. ‘Surely there’s some part of you that doesn’t want Josh to suffer. If there’s something you know, just tell me.’
Toby’s grip softened. ‘It won’t help,’ he said. ‘It’s like Josh wants his life to be bad. If it’s not this, it’ll be something else, and it’s not your responsibility or mine to help him if all he wants is to self-destruct.’
‘Well, I’m not going to kick him while he’s down,’ Natalie said. ‘Not like you did. I’m going to do my best to help, and maybe a little kindness for once is what he needs.’
A flash of pain crossed Toby’s face and he was silent for a moment. ‘What is it you think I know?’ he asked eventually.
‘I don’t know,’ she admitted. ‘Maybe what Mikayla did straight after breaking up with you. Did you see anything unusual, or anyone unusual? People are saying there was someone else there that day – did you see anybody? Was it the other guy Mikayla liked? Did she call him?’
He shifted uncomfortably. She was right! He did know something. ‘Toby,’ she pressed him. ‘Please. Just tell me.’
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Okay. But if I do, you don’t talk to Jodie. That’s the deal.’
‘Yes. I won’t talk to Jodie.’
He held her gaze for a moment, as if checking she was telling the truth. Satisfied, he began to speak. ‘I followed Mikayla, just for a minute or two after she split up with me. I stayed hidden, and once she thought I was out of earshot, she
called him – this guy she was into. I didn’t hear his name. I hardly heard anything, really. She was upset. She was crying, she said she wanted him to come and pick her up.’
‘Do you think he did come to get her?’
‘I don’t know. I was so angry that she had called him, I just turned around and ran the other way. That’s it, though, Natalie. That really is all I know. I’m telling you the truth.’
Natalie was silent for a moment. ‘You need to tell the police that,’ she said. ‘Now that Josh has turned himself in, you need to go and tell them what really happened that morning. It could help him.’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Do you really think the police didn’t check who she’d called on her phone that day? They would have known exactly who this guy was. If they were suspicious about him, they would have arrested him at the time. Nothing I have to tell them will make the slightest bit of difference. All it will do is make me look suspicious.’
Natalie took a step towards the door, and Toby stepped closer too, trying to position himself between her and the exit, but she was too quick for him. He hadn’t locked the door behind him when he’d arrived home and it opened easily when she pushed down on the handle. In her eagerness she practically fell out into the street.
‘Natalie, stop!’ Toby shouted, as she struggled to regain her balance. Then he lowered his voice to a hiss. ‘You cannot go to the police about this.’
One look in his eyes was enough to tell her that it was time to go. Time to run.
59
She burst through the door into Rob and Verity’s house and almost collided with Rob in the hall.
‘Natalie? What on earth–’
She quickly turned back to the doorway, peering outside into the street. Could Toby have managed to get to his car fast enough to follow her as she drove? She hadn’t seen his car behind her, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t. Adrenaline was still pounding through her after her desperate flight from Toby’s house. Had she not managed to dart across the road just before a car sped past, blocking Toby’s path, he would have caught up with her. As it was he’d been forced to pause, giving her enough time to dash to her car and speed away.
Rob helped her inside and pushed the door closed, and she sank back against the wall, her breath coming in jagged gasps.
‘Natalie?’ Rob said, taking hold of her as she sagged down to her knees. ‘Take some deep breaths.’
She did as he asked, but when she breathed out it turned into a low moaning sound as the terror of the last hour or so overwhelmed her.
Rob held her as she cried a few huge, frightened sobs, and then she pushed him away. ‘It was him,’ she said. ‘It was Toby.’
‘Natalie, look at me,’ Rob said. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Has Toby done something to you? Has he hurt you?’
‘You don’t understand,’ she said, ‘you don’t understand!’
‘No, I don’t.’
‘There’s no time!’
She tried to stand but she couldn’t, and Rob took her hands. ‘There’s time for you to tell me what this is about. You’re frightening me.’
Rob listened to her as she choked out the whole story, his face filling with increasing horror as she outlined her plan with Toby and her belief that Josh was innocent of everything.
‘But now he’s turned himself in, and I need to help him, but I have no evidence it was Toby who killed Mikayla! I couldn’t find anything. The only thing that convinced me was how he reacted to me running away from his house, how he said I couldn’t go to the police about it–’
‘Natalie, you’re telling me that you believe Toby killed Mikayla and yet you have been getting close to him, putting yourself at risk, for the sake of helping Josh?’
‘Toby said himself that he was angry Mikayla called this other guy she had feelings for at the lake. He must have snapped and drowned her out of jealousy. Or maybe this guy she phoned came to the lake and that’s when things turned nasty. If I only knew who he was–’
Rob let go of her hands and stood up abruptly. ‘I’ll make you some tea.’
She struggled to her feet and followed him into the kitchen. What else could she do? Her nerves were shredded and she needed to think.
She sipped her tea slowly, while Rob sat opposite her, his eyes dark and troubled.
‘I don’t know what to do,’ she said softly. ‘I’m frightened. It’s been … it’s been so hard.’ She covered her face briefly with her hands. She was physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted. She’d pushed herself to breaking point with her subterfuge, and it had come to nothing.
‘Listen, there’s…’ He sighed, and the look on his face sent chills through her. ‘There are things you need to know.’
‘Please, I can’t think about anything other than this–’
‘It’s about this. It’s about the lake.’
At these words, she stared at him in astonishment. What could Rob possibly know? But there was clearly something – he looked as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, his eyes haunted as he met her gaze. ‘What is it?’ she asked, her voice almost a whisper. ‘Tell me.’
He was silent for a long, excruciating moment, and then his words, when they finally came, were not at all what she was expecting.
‘It was me,’ he said. ‘I’m the person Mikayla called.’
Natalie’s mind buckled at his bizarre statement. What on earth was he talking about? Was this some kind of joke? Was he playing with her?
‘I don’t understand,’ she said at length. ‘You didn’t know Mikayla.’
‘Yes, I did,’ Rob insisted. ‘She had a Saturday job at that pet store where I used to help out in the holidays when I was back from uni. She had a crush on me. I didn’t encourage her, or anything.’
‘So you were the person she called that morning!’ Natalie said. Her words came out broken: odd, faltering sounds as her mind still refused to take in what he’d said.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I – she kissed me once. I got talking to her one day, and she lunged at me. I didn’t push her away as quickly as I should have. That’s all it was. But she read a whole lot more into it.’
‘Rob, why didn’t you just tell me?’ Natalie exploded. ‘Why did you keep it a secret when you knew what people were saying about Mikayla’s death? When you knew Josh was upset about that day?’
‘Because I feel ashamed!’ he said, ‘and embarrassed. And guilty.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I was twenty and she was only sixteen. I shouldn’t have kissed her back and I shouldn’t have let her think I was interested in her. But I didn’t think it was a big deal at the time. I guess I felt flattered. I kind of liked her attention.’
‘So, you made a mistake–’
‘And she called me in tears and asked me to come and get her from the lake. And I said no.’
‘You said no?’
‘I didn’t want to get involved.’
‘So you weren’t there?’
Rob took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. ‘I changed my mind in the end and I did drive there – she was only young and she was obviously upset. I wanted to take her back home to her parents. She shouldn’t have been out there on her own feeling like that.’
‘And what happened when you got there?’ Natalie demanded. ‘Josh has gone to the police and turned himself in for killing her. He was so upset by what people have been saying he started to believe it! So if you know anything–’
‘I never saw her. I – I chickened out.’
Natalie stared at him. ‘You chickened out. What do you mean?’
He didn’t meet her eyes. ‘That’s why I feel guilty. If I had gone there earlier, if I had actually bothered trying to find her…’ He shook his head. ‘But I saw the ambulance and the police cars and I just left again.’
Tears stung Natalie’s eyes. ‘How could you spend all these months saying nothing? You know how upset I’ve been.’
<
br /> ‘I didn’t know you were investigating Toby! I didn’t know you were putting yourself through all of this.’
‘Why doesn’t anyone care about the truth? Why is everyone happy to make Josh the scapegoat?’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m so sorry. But it makes no difference. I can’t help Josh.’
‘Of course you can! You can tell the police exactly what happened in that phone call!’
Natalie waited, boiling with impatience, while he got up and took her empty mug over to the sink. ‘Do you want another?’ he asked her.
‘No!’ she said. ‘All I want is for you to tell the police–’
‘There’s nothing to tell,’ he said heavily as he sat back down at the table. ‘They already spoke to me at the time because they know she called me. I just told them she was upset and wanted me to come and get her. She didn’t really even tell me what she was upset about, just said she needed me. That’s all there was to it. I have nothing new to tell the police.’
But when Natalie scrutinised his face, she could tell that was not all there was to it. From the deep lines across his forehead to the pained look in his eyes, it was obvious there was much, much more.
For a moment they sat in oppressive silence, the air thick with unspoken words, until Natalie couldn’t bear it any longer. ‘What else aren’t you telling me?’ she asked as calmly as she could. ‘I know there’s something.’
He shook his head, and in her desperation she wanted to reach across the table and give him a slap. Why was he drawing all of this out so much? Didn’t he understand what she was going through? Couldn’t he see she was in hell? She jumped as her phone began to ring, the pealing sound fraying her nerves afresh.
Toby. She rejected the call with a shiver of fear and focused on Rob. ‘Tell me!’ she said, her voice high and strained. ‘Can any of this really get any worse?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It can.’
‘Well, there’s no way out of this thing now,’ she snapped. ‘I just have to carry on. I have to make sure the right people get justice. If I can’t do that, Josh’s life is ruined, and mine too. I don’t even have a job to go back to. I can’t go back and work for Toby – I’m sure he won’t let me set foot in the hotel even if I wanted to. No doubt he’ll do his damnedest to make sure I can’t get work anywhere else as well.’