"What happened?"
She blushed, and laughed a little.
"Well, sparing the details, ...we ate, had a picnic, ...everything was brilliant. I was lying in his arms...I told him I loved him. He said he loved me too. He was holding me very tight, ...and then I told him that I was pregnant."
"Pregnant?"
"Yes. With Sam."
"He's the father?"
"Yes....Oh shit...I've never told anyone that...before...why am I telling you now? Why? I hardly know you...."
Peter took both her hands in his and said very calmly: "What happened next?"
"I don't know..." she started crying again. "It was very weird....I told him he was the father...I actually genuinely believed that he was going to be very happy about it! I thought he might be the one...that life was really coming together all of a sudden...But then it just all fell apart. He seemed to get really distraught. He got up, started pacing the ground all around the waterfall...he started acting a little weird. Then he came back across to me, sat down beside me and told me that our relationship was over. That it 'had' to be over. 'Because he loved me.' I started to freak out. I thought he was joking at first. Then he started packing up everything, really quickly. He never spoke after that. I was crying my eyes out, trying to get him to speak to me, trying to get him to tell me exactly what the hell he was talking about... I didn't understand. Then ...then..he walked me back to the car. He helped me in, really carefully, as if I was suddenly the most delicate flower in the world...and then he drove me home. He dropped me off at my house...and then I never saw him again for a long time...Until once about eight months ago, and then once again, more recently."
"Recently?" Peter asked, hope surging within him. Hope that he was wrong after all...
"Yes."
"Where?"
"On a mortuary slab in the Cairngorms. He's dead. He died climbing in the Cuillins of Skye."
.
--------------------
.
Peter made it to the bathroom just in time before he threw up. He knelt on the floor in front of the toilet and wretched several times. The world was spinning around him.
He shivered again, violently, and he felt a deep cold pass through him. A more sinister feeling than he had ever felt in his life before. He wretched again.
Carolina was standing at the door to the bathroom, looking down at him, a large, white, cotton dressing gown now covering her nakedness. The time for intimacy had long since past.
"What's the matter, Peter? What's happening?" Concern was written all over her voice.
"I don't know..."Peter lied. "I think it must be something I ate...I don't think the shepherd's pie in the pub was cooked through. Maybe it was off..."
"Mrs Daniels would be really upset to hear that. She looks after the kitchen very well. No one has ever been sick before..."
Peter was standing up now, realising that he was still naked and that Carolina was covered up. He reached for a towel and covered himself.
"Carolina," he said, stepping forward and resting a hand on her shoulder. "Do you have a photograph of the man who took you to the waterfall?...Sam's father?"
"Yes. A few. Why?"
"Please can I see them?"
"Why?"
"I think I might know why we are so attracted to each other. But first, please can I see the photographs?"
"Okay... is something wrong Peter?"
"I'll go and make us both a cup of tea. Can you get the photographs?"
.
Peter walked back into the front room, put on his pants and trousers, and then went into the kitchen, found the kettle and popped it on.
He took two cups from a cupboard, found milk in the fridge and made two cups of strong tea. They were both going to need it.
As Peter had listened to Carolina tell him about her ex-boyfriends, it had suddenly all fallen into place.
Everything.
Why he was here in Knuttsford.
Why he was so attracted to her, and she to him.
And also why the father of Sam had split up with Carolina.
It all made chilling, perfect sense.
At first, as the truth had dawned on Peter, he had felt scared. A terrible, oppressive sense of fear. The shivering, the deep, intense shivering that he had experienced was confirmation of the truth. KK had heard everything that Carolina had said too. He had let Peter know.
Then, as Peter had calmed down, the fear and dread had been replaced by an incredible feeling of elation. An excitement. A feeling of euphoria. He was so 'hot', almost 'boiling'. Very shortly he was going to meet 'KK'.
But now Peter knew the truth, what could he tell Carolina?
Should he tell her the truth?
No.
Should he lie to her?
Again no.
Should he bend the truth?
No.
Fuck...what a mess!
.
Carrying two cups of tea into the front room, he sat down and waited for Carolina. As he waited he saw his uneaten plate of apple pie and suddenly felt ravenous. He picked up the plate and wolfed it down. Carolina walked in just as he finished it.
"It was delicious. Absolutely brilliant. I wish I had that recipe!" he said, smiling.
Carolina smiled. "Glad to see you're feeling better. So suddenly. I was really worried about you for a second..."
She sat down beside him, a few photographs in her hand.
"Peter, can I say something?" she asked, not really asking permission, but seeking approval for saying something that she knew would sound a little weird.
"Please..."
"I feel really strange about this. Somehow it doesn't feel right...something has changed between us. And showing you these photographs feels really bizarre. I almost feel sick too, and to tell you the truth, I don't understand why!"
"Please show me the photographs, Carolina. Maybe then I will be able to explain everything."
Carolina turned the first photograph over.
It was a photograph of Carolina and a young man, sitting on a rock in a valley beside a mountain stream.
Carolina looked beautiful. But it was the man that drew Peter's attention.
As Peter looked at the man, he felt a searing pain in his sides. An intense burning sensation that rose quickly to a peak, and then subsided. Strangely, Peter did not feel worried. He recognised it for what it was.
Recognition.
Peter had found KK.
.
Peter smiled.
Not because he liked the man he saw: a killer, a cheat, a sick psychopath who felt no compunction at committing the most unspeakable deeds. No, he felt relief that finally, an end was in sight.
KK was a good looking man. Handsome. Tall. Peter could immediately see why the most beautiful women were attracted to him. Even from the photograph he could feel the charisma emanating from it.
Peter reached out his hand, and Carolina passed over another photograph. It was one of KK by himself. He was sitting on a bed.
Peter recognised the bed immediately.
"Where was this taken?"
"In your bedroom at the Fox and Hounds. He was living there for a year when we started going out together."
"And you made love to him in the same bed that we've been sleeping in?"
"Yes," she said, almost sheepishly.
Almost immediately a vision appeared in his mind, the same vision he had had whilst driving the car up to Forest Rise.
"Did you make love in the shower?"
Carolina stared at him.
"I don't know if I want to answer that question..."
"I think you just did..." Peter replied, and Carolina turned bright red.
Peter held out his hand and Carolina handed the last and final photograph over to him. It was a photograph of KK standing at the bottom of the Matterhorn.
"That one was taken by his last girlfriend. Apparently they split up just after that trip. He was heartbroken. That's when he came to Eng
land."
"Was he not English?" Peter asked.
"No," she replied. "He was..."
But before she could finish the sentence, Peter did it for her."...Polish?"
She stared at him. "How did you know that?"
"I have one more question for you, and then I am going to tell you something you may find very hard to believe, but which is entirely, and incredibly true."
"You're scaring me, Peter...what is this about?"
"First, tell me please, what was his name?"
Before she could voice the reply, the word popped up into his mind. The word that Valentia had mentioned several times, but which Peter could not understand.
A Polish name.
"No wait," Peter said hurriedly. "Let me tell you! ...His name...his name was Mariusz!"
"How do you know these things?" Carolina asked in amazement, standing up and glaring down at Peter.
"Please don't be scared. Come here...sit down..." Peter reached out his hands to Carolina, and drew her back down to sit beside him. He took her hands in his.
"Okay, now for the truth. Can you remember I told you that I had a car accident a few months ago? That my kidney's failed? That I almost died? But then they found a kidney donor, and I was given the gift of life again?"
"Yes..."
Peter took her fingers, and laid them gently under his shirt, resting on his scars.
"The kidneys came from a man who died in a climbing accident. They saved my life."
Peter looked directly into her eyes, raising his eyebrows as he spoke, letting the meaning of his words find their own time and way of sinking in.
At first Carolina seemed confused, and then he saw the realisation dawn.
When it did, he saw the shock in her eyes, and she pulled her hands back to her lips, taking in a deep breath, and muffling a cry.
Then slowly she extended her hands again, her fingertips gingerly finding their way back to the edge of his scars, and slowly tracing the line of the cuts along his body.
"Mariusz... Mariusz is in here?"
Peter nodded.
And with that simple gesture, they both understood.
.
An hour later, Peter was standing at the door, just about to leave. Carolina was in his arms and they were hugging each other for what, both knew, would be the last time.
As Peter turned to walk away, Carolina suddenly called after him.
"Wait... don't go yet...I have something that I should give to you!"
Before he could say anything more, she turned and went back into the hallway. She opened the door to the cupboard under the stairs and reached inside. She pulled out a large carryall black canvas bag, and brought it back to the door.
"The last time I saw Mariusz alive, he came to my door after I got home from work one night. He told me was going away for a while...At that point, I hadn't seen him for about eight months. I didn't know where he had been or what on Earth was going on ...he didn't stay, didn't come in, didn't even really talk. He just gave me this, and asked me if I would look after it for him. Guard it for him until he came back to get it."
"Peter, he promised me that one day he would come back for it. He asked me not to open it or tell anyone else about it. I agreed. He promised he would come back..." she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"And now I know he did... Peter... Mariusz kept his promise, and now I will keep mine. I am giving it back to him. Please take it away."
Peter understood. He reached out, took the bag from her hand, and left.
As he walked slowly back to his room in the pub, Peter knew that another very large piece of the jigsaw puzzle had just fallen into place.
.
The next step was to look inside the bag.
Chapter Eighty Seven
.
.
The Fox and Hounds
Knuttsford
May 8th
02.30 a.m.
.
.
Peter stood at the door to his room above the Fox and Hounds and stared at the bed.
Was it a coincidence that he had followed Mariusz to Knuttsford, to this pub, to this very room, in which he had fucked the very same woman on the very same bed?
Was Peter following in the footsteps of Mariusz, or was Mariusz commanding and directing his every move?
He walked into his room, closed the door behind him and leaned with his back against the door, trying to visualise what it was like making love to Carolina. Remembering.
He would not be seeing Carolina again. They had discussed it and both agreed that the 'something' which had happened between them was almost supernatural in nature. The intensity of the attraction between them was not normal.
In fact, it was not normal at all.
The moment Carolina had seen Peter she had been drawn to him. She had seen something within him that she knew was special to her, but couldn't understand what or why. She was convinced that she had met Peter before. Yet, all the time, it was Mariusz to whom she was attracted.
And the moment Peter had seen Carolina he had been drawn to her, mostly because of her breasts. He had been fascinated by them, and yet now he knew it was not him that was enraptured by Carolina's figure: it had been the 'Mariusz' within him. Mariusz had been a lover of large breasts, Peter never had.
Peter had no desire to chase after Mariusz's women. In fact, if he had met Carolina before he had had the operation, would he have been attracted to her at all? And what if the relationship had developed? Peter would have spent his whole life wondering which part of him Carolina had loved: the Peter part or the Mariusz part?
And then there was Sam. Poor little Sam. The son of a mass murderer and serial killer. If they had stayed together, could Peter have pretended to be the 'dad' to Mariusz's son? No!
He felt truly sorry for Carolina. She had had some really bad luck, and yet, at the same time, some good luck. Sam had been her salvation, in more ways than one.
Peter had decided that it would be best not to tell Carolina more about Mariusz. She didn't need to know that he was a serial killer, to live with the stress of trying to decide whether or not she should one day tell her son who his father had been. Or to worry that one day, the madness might be inherited and passed from father to son; to have to keep an eye on her son, continuously monitoring to see if he developed a fascination for knives, or an unnatural desire for killing little animals.
No. It was best if she never knew the truth.
Salvation? Yes. Peter did not know all the details of that romantic afternoon spent together lying on the grass in front of the waterfall at the Grey Mare's Small Tail, but he was pretty sure he knew why Mariusz had taken her there.
To kill her.
In fact, he may have been just about to kill her when she turned to him and told him the good news: he was going to be a father.
A father!
At that point everything changed. Mariusz could no longer kill her. Kill his own son? Kill the mother of his son? And yet, he knew that if they stayed together then one day he would. So he had to leave her, ...never see her again. Because if he did not, the temptation to kill her would one day be too great, and his son may end up without a mother. Like Mariusz had.
So he had walked away.
She had never seen him again, but Peter had a very strong feeling that Mariusz had seen her many times since. That he took the house in Ironbridge and then later in Forest Rise, because they were both far enough away from Knuttsford so that he would never be seen, but close enough to occasionally drive through the village and see her or his baby son in passing.
Mariusz had undoubtedly stalked Carolina from a distance, but never close enough to be seen by her. Never close enough to allow contact. Never close enough to let temptation win over, and for him to kill her.
In the eyes of Mariusz, Carolina was now off limits. To him and everyone else. She would be kept safe.
Peter felt like he knew Mariusz well now. He was inside his thoughts. He kn
ew Mariusz now. He knew him.
.
His attention turned to the bag that Peter had placed on the bed.
He stared at it for a while. What would he find inside?
Walking slowly across the room to the mattress, he picked up the bag and put it on the floor. There was a padlock on the zip that ran from one end of the black canvas bag to the other. It was a strong brass padlock, and Peter did not have any way at the moment of removing it.
Instead, he went to his rucksack, pulled out the Swiss Army Knife he had bought in Zermatt, and stuck it deep into the side of the canvas bag, slicing it open from one end to the other.
He reached inside and pulled the contents out, spreading them over the floor.
Peter's heart began to beat faster. Peter knew he had struck gold.
At long, long last, he had found Mariusz.
The bag contained quite a few things, which Peter carefully arranged in little piles in front of him before he would look at them in more detail.
First, there were some clothes. None of them were particularly remarkable, except for a white plastic bag, which when opened, revealed a seemingly old American army uniform, maybe from the Second World War. Wrapped up in the uniform was a DVD of Saving Private Ryan.
Instantly, Peter understood. He knew what the GI uniform was for, and also the macabre association with the body now being dug up in Forest View. A vision of a scene from Saving Private Ryan flashed into his head. A man being killed slowly by a knife in his chest. Peter did not understand the reason the roles had been reversed, why an American had this time killed a German, and not vice-versa as it was in the film. Yet he knew that Mariusz would have had a reason for what he did. It might be warped, perverted or insane, but to Mariusz it would have been very logical.
Next there was a bag. It contained photographs, almost all of women. Some naked, some obviously taken whilst in the throes of love making, and some which were just normal portraits or everyday snaps.
Knife After Death: A chilling crime thriller Page 21