The One You Trust: Emma Holden Trilogy: Book Three

by Paul Pilkington

  Emma yawned. She felt so groggy. ‘Stephen Myers.’

  ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Em, that’s awful.’

  ‘It’s okay. It was just a dream. Did I wake you up?’

  ‘No, I’ve been awake for ages. I can’t seem to get back to sleep.’

  ‘Worrying about Peter Myers?’

  ‘Peter Myers, and everything else. Do you really think he’s a threat to us?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Emma said. ‘I really don’t know. I’d love to believe what Mark Gasnier says, but I’m scared, because we know how dangerous Myers is.’ She yawned again.

  ‘Sorry,’ Lizzy said. ‘I shouldn’t be discussing this in the early hours of the morning. You’ll never get back to sleep with me talking about him.’

  ‘It’s fine. If I’m going to have another dream like that, then I’d rather stay awake.’

  ‘I can understand that. It must be horrible for you.’

  Emma pulled the duvet up to her chin. ‘These nightmares, they’re not a surprise really. It’s just a reaction to the stress of everything that’s happened. I know that when things settle down, then the likelihood is that they’ll stop.’

  ‘Yes, but that doesn’t make them any easier to deal with, does it?’

  Emma shrugged, then continued reluctantly: ‘The nightmare, it wasn’t just about Stephen Myers. It was about Dan, too. He was saying all these strange things, about not trusting him, and about there being no future for us.’

  ‘Right. That’s probably because of what happened yesterday, with Dan and Stuart, and the photograph.’

  ‘You’re probably right.’

  ‘How do you feel about Dan having known Stuart?’ Lizzy looked at her friend in the half-darkness. ‘We haven’t had a chance to talk about it yet, have we?’

  Emma sighed. ‘I don’t really know how I feel. To be honest, it doesn’t seem that big a deal now. Stuart had been dating one of Dan’s housemates – that’s how they got to know each other. Stuart had talked about me to Dan when they went out together, and he’d checked me out online. Then, months later, after losing touch with Stuart, Dan recognised me and we got talking.’

  ‘It all sounds pretty reasonable.’

  ‘You think so?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Emma blew a deep breath out. ‘I’m glad you think that, Lizzy. It means a lot to me, because I really trust and value your opinion.’

  ‘Ditto.’ Lizzy reached for Emma’s hand and squeezed it. ‘Did Dan explain why he didn’t just come out and tell you the truth?’

  ‘He said he’d wanted to, but he was scared that it would put me off him if I knew about the connection.’

  ‘And is he right?’

  ‘Maybe. I probably would have been put off, if I’d found out that he knew Stuart.’

  ‘So again, that’s a reasonable explanation.’

  ‘Yes, it is.’

  ‘But you’re dreaming of Dan saying those things to you, about trust and there being no future.’

  ‘Meaning?’

  ‘Well, I’m no expert, but maybe the dream reveals that the experience has unsettled you in terms of your relationship with Dan.’

  ‘Possibly.’

  ‘I might well be reading too much into it,’ Lizzy said, ‘but when everything else is over, when Peter Myers is back behind bars, and this other person has stopped bothering us, then you might have to address it again with him, to make sure that things don’t fester.’

  Emma nodded. ‘I know.’

  Lizzy looked over at the clock and grimaced. ‘Not quite five yet. Maybe we should just get up, even though I’m sure we’ll regret it later.’

  Emma agreed. But within a few minutes, they had both fallen back asleep.

  Emma woke to the smell of bacon. Lizzy was still fast asleep next to her, mouth open like a fish on a slab. Their early morning conversation seemed almost dream-like, but the reality of what they had discussed was fresh in her mind. Lizzy was right. Dan’s concealment of his friendship with Stuart probably would take time for her to come to terms with, and she shouldn’t just try to bury her feelings. But she was determined that it wouldn’t overly affect things, either.

  She swung her legs out of bed and planted her feet on the floor, stretching, feeling surprisingly refreshed despite the disturbed sleep. Padding across the room and out into the passageway, Emma was met by Will, who had just come out of the bathroom.

  He was fully dressed, but not all of his clothes were his own – she recognised his blue shirt as one she’d bought for Dan as a birthday present the year before.

  ‘Hi, Em. You like it?’

  ‘Good choice,’ she said. ‘How did you—?’

  ‘Dan sneaked into your bedroom to get it. You and Lizzy were both dead to the world. I was going to wear the one I had on yesterday, but Wednesday’s the day I’ve got a couple of regular morning meetings to go to. So he offered me one of his.’

  ‘It suits you. Lucky you’re the same size.’ Emma had already offered Lizzy the choice of her clothes – again, it was fortunate that they were both size eight; it made the last-minute stay-over idea much easier.

  ‘Is Lizzy still asleep?’ Will asked, looking over Emma’s shoulder towards the bedroom door.

  She nodded. ‘We were awake for a while in the early hours, so I guess she’s catching up.’

  ‘We both woke up early too,’ Will said. ‘Just before six. We had a chat for a while, tried to get back to sleep, and then decided to just get up. Even had time to nip out for some bacon.’

  ‘I noticed. It smells delicious.’

  ‘I’m surprised it hasn’t woken Lizzy,’ Will joked. ‘You know how much she likes bacon.’

  They entered the kitchen, where Dan was buttering some toast. He too was dressed. ‘Hey, Em. Hungry?’

  ‘I am now,’ she said.

  ‘Great. Lizzy’s up?’

  ‘Still aslee—’

  ‘No, I’m here,’ Lizzy said at the doorway, rubbing her eyes. Her curly hair was wild. ‘Couldn’t resist the smell.’

  Will winked at Emma. ‘Told you.’

  They all sat down around the table and tucked into the food. Dan flicked the radio on and they let the jovial voice of the breakfast DJ fill the silence.

  They all knew that it was simply a prelude to facing reality, but everyone was happy to take the opportunity to just sit down and enjoy breakfast. However, it was getting towards eight, and although Lizzy had a free morning, Emma knew that soon both Dan and Will would have to leave for work.

  They would have to start talking soon.

  ‘I have a suggestion,’ Dan said finally, as he swallowed his last bite of toast. ‘I discussed it with Will this morning, but of course we’ve all got to be happy with it, especially you, Em.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘Why don’t we all go up to Salford this weekend, to Media City?’

  ‘Really?’ Emma had fully intended to call the organisers of the Up My Street reunion that morning to let them know that she could no longer attend. The thought of travelling up there on her own, with Peter Myers on the loose, had seemed neither sensible nor appealing.

  ‘It seems like an ideal solution,’ Dan said. ‘I really don’t like the idea of us staying just where Peter Myers expects us to be – as unlikely as it might be that he’ll come here, I don’t want to risk it. If we go up there, stay two nights, say, and keep in contact with the police, hopefully we’ll be able to return knowing that Myers has been recaptured.’

  ‘But we’d be going closer to where he comes from,’ Lizzy said. ‘Do you think that’s wise?’

  ‘I know it sounds counterintuitive, but surely that’s the one place he won’t expect us to be – he won’t be looking for us in the North West.’

  ‘You’re probably right,’ Lizzy said. ‘It’s definitely an idea. And, I’ve got to admit, the thought of getting away from London for a few days is very appealing.’

  ‘Can you even get the time off?’ Emma asked. ‘Haven’t you got perfor
mances tomorrow?’

  ‘I could pull a sickie. It’s not like I don’t have a good reason to not want to perform. I could tell them the truth, and try for compassionate leave, but they might say no.’

  ‘And if someone found out?’

  ‘They wouldn’t.’

  ‘But if they did, you’d probably lose your job.’ Emma looked unconvinced.

  ‘They won’t find out, don’t worry.’

  Dan could understand her reluctance. ‘As I said, Em, it’s just an idea. We would all need to be happy about it.’

  ‘I’m just not sure I’ll be in the mood for a reunion,’ she said.

  ‘Of course.’ Dan nodded. ‘I guess, ultimately, if we go up there and you decide you don’t want to go, then we’ll just do something else. The trip will still serve the same purpose.’

  The idea was starting to sound more appealing. As Dan had said, they would be away from the place where Peter Myers would come looking and, secondly, they would all be together, finding strength in numbers. There was a lot to be said for that. ‘What do you think, Will?’ Emma asked.

  ‘I think as long as you’re okay, we should do it.’

  ‘What about the other problem?’ she said. ‘That hasn’t just gone away, has it? There’s still someone out there, blackmailing Will and Dad, and trying to wreck our relationships – someone who knows secrets about us.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Lizzy said. ‘We can’t afford to forget about that.’

  ‘I agree,’ Dan said, ‘and we won’t. But, at the moment, I think our priority has to be what’s happened with Peter Myers, and to protect ourselves from that. The other situation, it can wait.’

  ‘Dan’s right,’ Will said. ‘We need to put the Myers situation first.’ He looked at them all in turn. ‘Even if it means going to jail, I don’t care. I just want us all to be safe from that man.’

  ‘Okay,’ Emma said, slowly. ‘Let’s go.’

  Dan looked pleased. ‘Great. We can head off first thing tomorrow morning.’

  Chapter 23

  ‘You okay?’ Lizzy asked. She had returned from the bathroom to find Emma resting her head on her hands at the kitchen table.

  ‘Bored,’ Emma said, getting to her feet. ‘I’m desperate to go for a run. Especially with it raining. There’s nothing better than running in the rain for clearing your head. I really feel as though I need it.’

  It was ten thirty. Will and Dan had been gone for an hour and a half, and time was ticking by at a snail’s pace. They’d watched TV for a while, but the choice was mind-numbing and more than a little depressing. So they’d turned back to the radio, and had both been reading the trashy celebrity magazines that Lizzy had in her bag. But there was only so much gossip you could look at.

  ‘Maybe you should do it,’ Lizzy replied, sitting down at the kitchen table too. ‘I’ll come with you.’

  ‘Do you think it’d be wise?’

  Dan had been adamant that he thought it would be best if Emma stayed in the flat, no matter how unlikely it might be that Peter Myers would be in the vicinity. Will had also been cautious, but Lizzy appeared more relaxed.

  ‘Look, I’m as worried as you about the thought of Peter Myers being loose, but we’ll go mad if we stay in here all day, listening to the rain hitting the windows. And surely we’d be safer out there than in here, which is just where he’d come looking for us.’

  ‘Don’t,’ Emma said, hardly bearing to consider that possibility.

  Lizzy grimaced, immediately regretting having brought that up. ‘We could just go out for a few minutes, stay close by.’

  But Emma was having second thoughts. ‘Maybe we’ll go out later, after lunch.’

  ‘Of course,’ Lizzy said. ‘Your decision, totally. I’ll go along with whatever you think is best.’

  Emma smiled her appreciation.

  ‘Em, are you sure you’re okay about going to the reunion? I mean, if you’re not, maybe we could go somewhere else, instead.’

  ‘It’ll be okay. And as Dan said, if I decide I don’t want to do it when we get up there, then I’ll just leave it.’

  ‘Do you think it might be a bit uncomfortable, you know, if anyone talks to you . . . about Stuart?’

  Stuart had been one of the stars of the show for quite a few years and, with Emma, they’d been the golden couple. It was only natural that she would be forever linked with Stuart when it came to Up My Street, and his absence would be noticeable and significant.

  ‘I’ve thought about that. I’m prepared for people to talk about Stuart and, to be honest, I would be sad if people didn’t mention him. He should be remembered at the reunion. But hopefully I won’t have to break any bad news. Most people will probably know what happened, because word gets around quickly in our business, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Probably. I remember that when this girl, Abigail, died in a car accident over in Australia, it got back to us almost immediately, even though she’d left the show I was in a few years before.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘And what if you run into you-know-who?’

  ‘Charlotte? Then I’ll say hello and be nice. It’s such a shame she feels the way she does, because we were close for so long.’ Emma sighed. ‘But I can understand why she feels upset and bitter about what happened. She’s lost her brother, and she thinks it’s my fault.’

  ‘But it wasn’t!’

  The unpleasant altercation eight weeks before with Stuart’s little sister, Charlotte, was still fresh in Emma’s mind. ‘I know, but she’s looking for an explanation as to what happened, and, as far as she’s concerned, I’m it. I hope she comes around, and it would be great if we could be on friendly terms, but if not, it won’t spoil things – there will be plenty of other people to catch up with. The cast I worked with were lovely, so it would be great to see some of them again.’ Emma’s voice warmed as she began to see the reunion in a more optimistic light.

  ‘Sounds like it could be an ideal distraction, then. How many people are they expecting?’

  ‘I’ve got no idea. I don’t know very much about it as it’s all come through my agent. But I expect there should be quite a few people there, seeing as the show has been running for so long, and the cast turnover is pretty high.’

  ‘Cool,’ Lizzy replied. Then, ‘So, where’s the hoover?’

  ‘Hoover?’

  ‘Yes.’ She smiled. ‘If we’re going to stay inside, I want to keep busy.’

  ‘Oh, don’t be—’

  ‘No, I mean it. Just show me where it is, and I’ll make a start.’ She looked down and around at the floor. ‘I mean, this place could do with a clean.’

  ‘It’s in the bottom of the main wardrobe, in our bedroom, but really, Lizzy, I don’t expect you to do our housework!’

  But Lizzy was already out of the door, and within a few seconds had come back out of the bedroom, dragging the vacuum cleaner by the hose. And then she was off, vacuuming down the hallway like a pro.

  Emma watched her, feeling lazy. She decided to join in and, locating the polish and duster in the cupboard, went to work on the photo frames in the lounge.

  She paused at the photograph of her and Dan, taken just one year into their relationship, holding hands, the Eiffel Tower their backdrop. Dan had booked the three-day break as a surprise for their first-date anniversary. They’d travelled first class on Eurostar, having got a great last-minute deal which had included an upgrade, and had stayed in a lovely little hotel called the Hotel Louvre. They’d been taking the photograph, with Dan stretching his arm out and turning the camera back on themselves to try to get them both in shot, when a passer-by, a local Parisian student, had offered to take their picture.

  It had only been a few years ago, but they both looked so much younger, and so carefree. She wondered just how much they had aged in the past few months.

  Lizzy entered with the vacuum, the machine still whirring noisily, and stopped as she saw Emma staring at the photograph.

  ‘I’m just remin
iscing,’ Emma explained, over the noise.

  Lizzy nodded and carried on cleaning, getting on her knees as she manoeuvred the hose around the base of the sofa. ‘You know, this is really rather satisfying,’ she shouted over the noise, her head almost disappearing under the sofa. ‘It’s much more fun cleaning someone else’s home!’

  Emma gave the Paris photograph a final wipe with the duster and placed it back onto the mantelpiece. She was just about to pick up the next photo – a family shot of a five-year-old Emma with her mother and father at a holiday camp in Wales – when she heard a jarring noise coming from the cleaner.

  Lizzy extracted herself from under the sofa. ‘What the—?’

  ‘Something’s caught,’ Emma said, pressing the off button with her foot. She crouched down and took the hose from Lizzy. A quick waggle of the hose revealed that whatever had been sucked up had now travelled up into the bag. Which was a pity, as it would be a messy job to recover the item.

  ‘Probably money,’ Lizzy said. ‘Happens to me quite a lot, but unfortunately it’s always one or two-pence pieces. Never a pound coin.’

  ‘It sounded like metal,’ Emma agreed, opening up the vacuum cleaner’s casing and easing her hand into the bag. She felt around among the clumps of dust and fluff, pushing her hand in as far as it could go.

  ‘My hands are a little smaller,’ Lizzy said.

  Emma stretched just that bit further. ‘It’s okay, I’ve got it.’ Like one of those grabber-machine games at the funfair, Emma clung on to the item firmly as she drew it slowly back through the opening.

  As it emerged from the inside of the cleaner, she couldn’t quite believe it. She picked off the dust that masked the gold band. ‘It’s Dan’s wedding ring.’

  ‘Wow,’ Lizzy said. ‘Lucky we realised. I wonder how it got there.’

  ‘Fell off, I guess.’ But Emma was perturbed, and Lizzy could see it.

  ‘Is it too big, then?’ she said.

  Emma slipped the ring onto her own finger. ‘No. At least, I didn’t think so.’

  Just then Lizzy’s phone rang from the kitchen. Emma sat on the sofa, inspecting the ring, as Lizzy took the call.

  Around the inside of the ring were Dan and Emma’s names, along with the date of their wedding. It had been such an amazing day – the most brilliant day of her life so far. She closed her eyes and pictured the stunning Minack Theatre in Cornwall, its stone amphitheatre bathed in golden sunshine, as the ocean sparkled blue behind it. It had felt like the happy ending that they all deserved.