by R. J. Parker
‘And Elliot, he’s the only one you’ve told. And he’s used it against you. Abused it so he can be unfaithful without reproach.’
Leah put the fork to her mouth, but her lips wouldn’t open.
‘Year after year, knowing deep down you were unhappy but not thinking you were worthy of anything better.’
She tried to block out his words, concentrate on what she had to do.
‘You’ve convinced yourself you’re as happy as you’re ever entitled to be, deceiving nobody but you that you have a loveless marriage worth salvaging. But what if you could start again?’
Chew and swallow. But it seemed like an insurmountable task.
‘Wipe all that guilt and negativity away. Start afresh as Leah Talbot and not the sister who should have died on the road. I can see who you are. They never have. They’ve broken you down for something that wasn’t your fault. And you’ve taken it for too long.’
Leah slid the piece of meat into her mouth and chewed quickly.
Tate was silent as her teeth worked it. He watched her with fascination.
Leah swallowed it.
He picked up his wine glass and sipped. ‘You can change. Look what you’re capable of. I know you’re a vegetarian.’
Leah tried not to react as she felt the bolus of meat sink inside her.
‘Can’t you see why we’re sitting here together? You had your own accident on the road, but you survived. Surely you must acknowledge the significance of that? You came to me with blood on your hands and we both experienced an undeniable connection. You believe you killed your sister. They already suspect you did. Might they be right? Are you already a killer?’
Leah held his green eyes. ‘One bite. It’s done. Take me to them.’
Tate nodded but seemed unsure. ‘Think you’re ready?’
Leah’s hands were shaking. They still held the cutlery.
Tate’s eyes dipped to them. ‘Leave the fork here.’
She dropped it onto the table.
Tate emptied his wine glass. ‘It’s just us here now. We have as much time as we need for this.’
Leah stood but the room lurched.
Tate remained seated, studying her.
‘Did you drug me?’
He pursed his lips and shook his head. ‘I think you’re just a little overcome.’
She slid her foot forward to steady herself. It didn’t connect with the crowbar. But she still had the serrated knife in her hand.
Tate took his napkin from his lap, dabbed his lips and tossed it on the table. ‘You can come at me with that if you want. I’m unarmed. Is that what you’d like to do?’
‘No.’
‘No because you’re scared or no because I’ve never done anything to harm you?’
‘You said you wouldn’t lie to me, take me to them.’
‘And I will. I just want to make sure you realise there’s a reason you haven’t planted that blade in me yet.’ He stood up slowly, his chair sliding out behind him.
Leah took two paces back. She was getting further away from the crowbar.
Tate fumbled in his pocket and took out a small set of keys. He held them up.
Leah recognised them. They were to the dilapidated stone outbuilding at the rear of the property that used to be the apple store for the press.
He threw the keys over to her side of the table. ‘You lead the way.’
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Was this a trap? Leah half turned to the door but swivelled back again.
Tate was still standing in the same position on his side of the table. He raised his palms. ‘I don’t have a weapon. This is your choice now.’
Leah scraped up the keys from the table with her empty left hand.
Tate’s expression didn’t shift. He watched her with breathless interest.
‘They’re still alive? You can’t lie to me.’
‘I promise, they’re alive for as long as you need them to be.’
She backed away a few more paces until she bumped into the doorjamb.
‘I’ll follow you out. The back door is open.’
Leah regarded the cutlery in front of him. He could easily pick up his knife and pounce. She slid past the doorjamb so she was standing in the hallway with the kitchen door to her right.
‘I’ve been making all the right decisions on your behalf.’ He leaned forward and snuffed out the five candles of the candelabra by pinching them with his fingertips. ‘Now it’s your turn. Go. I’ll join you now.’
Leah turned and strode quickly through the kitchen. The smell of cooking was heavy and the atmosphere smoky. She reached the back door and gripped the handle. No key. She couldn’t leave and lock it from the outside. She opened it inward.
Turning back she saw no sign of Tate in the hallway. She stepped through the door and the cold evening doused her face. The last of the golden sunlight was just disappearing. Leah stumbled along the wet paving-stone path, past the garage, and headed towards the half-collapsed stone structure fifty yards beyond it, her irregular breaths clouding around her. There were no other properties within shouting distance. Nobody would be able to hear.
She stopped and glanced back at the house. Through the window of the back door she couldn’t see Tate in the kitchen. Her eyes shifted to the lit window of the dining room. He was no longer standing at his side of the table.
Leah staggered on towards the apple store. It had always been too damp to keep anything but tools in there. Were Elliot and her father really imprisoned inside? As she approached, she took in the battered blue doors and the collapsed roof which sagged inwards at the middle.
Her fingers trembled as she tried to maintain her grip on the knife and insert the first key into the rusted padlock securing the doors. Fragments fell out as she waggled it and pushed harder. ‘Come on.’ She looked back and saw Tate closing the back door behind him.
Leah pushed the key all the way in and twisted it. The padlock opened and she took it from the hooks and allowed it to fall into the mud.
Tate’s footfalls made her spin back in his direction. He was striding in her direction, his eyes on hers.
Leah pulled open the doors and let the failing daylight into the interior.
The first face she recognised was her father’s. He was sitting on a black metal garden chair. He was gagged with a length of green plastic hosepipe and the same held his hands to the arms and bound his ankles together. ‘Dad!’
His features were deathly pale, and his blue eyes rolled sluggishly up at her.
Then Leah saw Elliot. He was seated on another metal chair and bound by the same. But his face was a mask of dark dried blood.
It felt like the breath had been sucked out of her chest and her hand went to her mouth.
There were deep cuts to his face and Leah knew what Tate had used to make them. His jeans had been scored, the material slashed multiple times. There were incisions on the backs of his hands and the arms of his tan shirt were threadbare and saturated red.
‘Elliot!’
His head was on one side, his eyes closed and there was no reaction to her exclamation.
She went to her father first, attempting to loosen the plastic gag that was cutting so severely into the sides of his mouth. The knots at the back were too tight. Could she saw through them? Her gaze shot to the door and she could see that Tate was only about five paces away from the apple store. ‘Stay away!’ She brandished the knife.
Tate halted and held up both his hands.
‘I’ll kill you!’
‘This is an understandable response,’ he said calmly.
‘I swear I will!’ She held the blade out to him.
He nodded. ‘But isn’t this an overreaction?’
Leah dragged her father back in the chair. Could she close the doors? She quickly took in the rusted tools hanging on hooks on the stone wall opposite her. There was a hoe, a rake, a long wire brush. Nothing sharp.
‘Haven’t I already prepared you for this?’
/> Her focus darted back to where Tate was still standing.
‘Katya, your nosy neighbours, Lownes; you’ve seen them all in the last twenty-four hours. Haven’t I desensitised you to this now?’
‘Elliot!’ She turned to him but he didn’t stir.
‘He’s lost a lot of blood. I spent more time with him than I did your father. Got to know a lot about you through my chats with him.’
Leah’s eyes bounced between them. Was Elliot dead? His eyelids were stuck down with dried blood.
‘But considering he was your husband, I was done with him surprisingly quickly. Elliot didn’t really know you, did he? Didn’t care to know you, only what you could do for him.’
Leah’s father grunted as he tried to move.
‘Just sit tight.’ Tate addressed him. ‘This won’t take long.’
Leah got in front of the chair so she was blocking her father. ‘Stay back!’ She arced the blade in front of the doorway.
‘I will, as long as you need me to. I promise.’
‘Elliot!’
Still no response. But with both of them tied up she had to defend them from Tate alone.
‘Listen to me. Try to breathe. Try to calm down. This calls for a substantial paradigm shift. But I’m going to talk you through it. We’ll get through this together.’
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Again, Leah considered slamming the doors and leaning her weight on them.
‘I’ve told you, I won’t try to come inside.’ He’d read her mind. ‘You’ll be shut away in the dark with them and then what?’
‘If you leave now, I promise I won’t call the police.’ But she knew the offer was as futile as the first time she’d made it.
‘I’ve no intention of leaving. Not when we’ve made such progress.’
‘Progress?’ She spat scornfully.
‘Your father…’
Leah didn’t move from her protective position in front of him.
‘I think he’s having difficulty.’ Tate’s gaze was on him.
Leah turned the steak knife around in her hand, so she was holding it like a dagger. She brandished it at face height, the blade protruding from her fist. She knew she’d have no hesitation in stabbing him if he came at her.
But he remained where he was.
Her father retched behind her.
‘I think you’ve got him overexcited,’ Tate declared.
But she still didn’t move.
‘Bear in mind, he doesn’t know who I am. Doesn’t know who you are.’
Leah could hear her father groaning against the gag.
‘He hardly knows who he is let alone what he’s doing here. If you stab me he won’t be happy or sad. And if he is briefly relieved you saved his life, he won’t even remember your name in a few minutes’ time.’
Leah stepped quickly back so she was beside her father and could look at him.
His fearful eyes bulged and swivelled between the two of them.
‘Maybe he thinks you’re Olivia. Perhaps that’s who he’d prefer to save him now, even though she’s been gone for so long. Despite the fact you’ve tried to do everything in your power to fill her space.’
She had to release the gag, but she couldn’t afford to take her eyes off Tate. ‘Dad, try to breathe slowly.’
‘He’s been waiting for her to walk through the door all this time. But it’s not going to happen. You’re never going to be the daughter he wants to see.’
Leah’s father arched his back as he tried to rise from the garden seat.
‘You’re holding that knife to the wrong person.’ Tate’s tone was calm.
‘Dad, breathe in through your nose.’
But he continued to buck and struggle against his bonds.
‘This is how he suffocates every day. Confusion and fear is all he knows now. Is that really the life you want for him?’
‘Dad, it’s OK. You have to keep still.’
But he kept squirming.
‘I imagine he’s never mistreated you. Tried to protect you from what happened. But you’ve always picked up on that quiet disappointment. He’s been grieving for so long and now, every time you tell him you’re not Olivia, it’s like he’s finding out she’s dead for the very first time.’
‘Shut up! Dad, I’m going to untie you now. Try to calm down.’
‘Let him go. If he was still the father you knew, you know he’d want an end to this.’
Leah put her free hand on her father’s shoulder.
‘And don’t you need an end to this? Every weekend watching a man trapped in a mouse wheel. Those moments of clarity, when he knows who you are and what you do for him, shrinking away, learning that his wife and favourite daughter are dead over and over again?’
‘It won’t work,’ she barked at him. ‘Whatever you’re trying to do…’
‘Put the knife in him,’ he said collectedly. ‘It’s been a long day for him. A long day for you. You both need that relief now. You both deserve it.’
Leah’s father moaned through the gag.
‘What would you want if you were in his position? I know what choice I’d make.’
‘Dad, I’ll free you now.’ Her voice trembled. ‘Just wait…’
‘For what? I think you’re more afraid of the consequences than actually doing it. I’ll take responsibility if you want. You can say you found them both butchered here.’
‘If you want to help me! Go!’ she yelled, her throat grating each word.
‘I can do it for you.’
Leah tugged in a breath.
‘Is that what you want me to say?’
Her father bucked in the chair.
‘It is, isn’t it?’
‘Stay the fuck away from him!’
‘Give me the knife.’ He extended his hand. ‘You know I’m not going to harm you. Give me the knife.’
‘Take one step….’
‘No.’ Tate took a pace forward. ‘You won’t do that.’
Leah’s father shouted aggressively through the hose, his anger directed at Tate.
‘He knows I’m a threat. He’s defending you. Maybe he thinks you’re Olivia.’
Leah’s leg muscles stiffened as she prepared to launch herself at Tate but then another voice started screaming behind her.
Chapter Sixty
Leah didn’t shift her attention from Tate. It was Elliot. He was alive. A small gap of relief opened in her, but the revelation didn’t negate the danger she was in. Elliot was tied as securely as her father.
‘Looks like somebody’s decided to step up to the mark.’ Tate’s eyes were over Leah’s shoulder. ‘Better late than never.’
‘You promised you wouldn’t come inside.’ Leah was still poised to launch herself at Tate.
‘I did. And I won’t. I think you might need my help now though, but I won’t enter until you invite me to.’
Elliot yelled against his gag again.
‘You can’t really complain about your predicament, Elliot.’ Tate said past Leah. ‘You told me about this place. You led me here. And you didn’t need a lot of inducement either.’
‘Elliot.’ Leah didn’t dare look in his direction.
He kept screaming.
‘Elliot!’
He stopped.
She guessed the pain of his wounds must be overwhelming. ‘Can you get free?’
Tate’s face was impassive. As if he knew how the conversation was about to go.
Leah heard Elliot struggle and the hose creaking as he moaned in agony.
‘He doesn’t need to do that. Put himself through any more trauma. Neither of them does.’
‘Try to get loose, Elliot.’
He breathed erratically and a sob escaped his nostrils.
Tate sighed slightly. ‘You’re expecting too much of him. Elliot, you can stop now. It’s a waste of your time and ours.’
She could hear Elliot’s movement continue but quickly decrease.
‘When has he ever put himself on the l
ine for you? When has he ever done anything but look out for himself? Think that’s going to change in circumstances like this?’
Leah’s father twisted his bound hands.
‘But look at you, prepared to kill for them both. Do either of these gentlemen deserve your loyalty? What have they done to make you risk your life for them?’
‘Step back.’ Leah tightened her fist on the knife handle.
He didn’t. ‘Do you believe Elliot thought of you when he was sleeping with Katya or Gaynor or Allegra or Nicola? Happily making a mockery of your marriage time and time again? Do you know how easily he gave up those details to save himself, not realising that each cut I gave him was a punishment and not an incentive to give me more.’
‘I told you, I don’t love him anymore.’ Was this what he needed to be told again or was she condemning Elliot to death by saying she no longer cared for him?
‘So you said. But do you feel so worthless that you’re going to let him get away with it?’
‘I don’t want to see him again,’ she retorted but Tate’s reaction made Leah seal her mouth tight.
His satisfaction was plainly visible. ‘And why did he get away with it for so long? Who made you feel so worthless?’
She didn’t look at her father. Kept her eyes unblinking on Tate’s.
‘What comfort was Elliot to you on Valentine’s night? You could have died in that crash. Would he have been concerned, or would he have seen that as a very convenient way out? He wouldn’t have had to confront you about Katya then, as she wanted him to last night. Do you think he cared that you sat alone on the floor in your shower for so long?’
Abhorrence broke through her. She knew he’d been in the house but now there was no doubt he’d seen her there, thinking about Olivia and how the accident of so many years before had been the catalyst for the person she’d become, living in a house with a husband who didn’t love her.
‘That’s why you came to see me again this morning. It was the first time you’d exerted your will in a long time. And you found that that’s exactly what I’d done with Alice Booth. Taken back the control she took from me years before. You can exert your will again. I think you’re capable but saying the word to me is exactly the same.’