The Adulterer's Wife: a breathtaking psychological thriller

by Leigh Russell

  ‘No,’ Ackerman said quietly. ‘This has nothing to do with your friend Katie.’

  ‘She’s not my friend,’ Nina muttered, with a dark look at me.

  ‘A witness saw two women going into Julie’s house that night, a witness who thought the second woman might have had dark hair.’

  ‘Oh, and so I’m the only dark-haired woman in London, am I?’

  ‘The point is, whoever got out of the taxi to help me home went inside my house.’

  Nina glared at me. ‘I don’t care who went into your house. It wasn’t me. And I thought I made it clear that I don’t want anything to do with you again. Ever. Now get off my property before I call the police.’

  She went inside and slammed the door. I was dismayed by her continuing hostility, but Ackerman was smiling.

  ‘Come on, then,’ he said.

  ‘Where to?’

  ‘We’re going to pay your friend Katie a visit.’

  ‘I have to get home by six. If I break the conditions of my bail they’ll lock me up again.’

  He grinned. ‘By the time we finish with your friend, you won’t have to worry about your curfew anymore.’

  ‘I can’t risk it.’

  He scowled in disbelief. ‘You’re saying you want to leave this until tomorrow? Really?’

  ‘Listen, Katie works in a primary school and she finishes work at about three fifteen. She could be home by three thirty. Let’s go and see her then, when we’ve got a bit more time.’

  He nodded. ‘Very well. Come on then, let’s get you home.’

  42

  The following day seemed to pass really slowly, even though I didn’t get out of bed until eleven. Too wound up to eat, I sat around for three hours drinking tea and fretting.

  At last, Ackerman came around at half past two and by three o’clock we were sitting in his car once more, waiting. This time we were parked a few doors away from Katie’s house, watching out for her.

  ‘Is that her?’ Ackerman enquired a couple of times as cars drove past.

  At twenty to four, I spotted her getting out of a car and scurrying up the road towards us. I jogged my companion’s arm.

  ‘That’s her.’

  He grunted, and we got out of the car and met her on the pavement. Although she looked taken aback, she seemed glad to see me.

  ‘Julie! This is a pleasant surprise.’

  She certainly didn’t look like a woman who had murdered my husband, but there was a chance she might be able to throw some light on what had happened that night when we entered my house.

  ‘And who’s your friend?’ she asked.

  ‘This is Ackerman.’

  ‘Ackerman?’

  ‘Yes.’

  It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment to wonder about his first name. I had accepted his alias as just that.

  ‘His name’s Ackerman,’ I repeated.

  ‘Okay. Ackerman it is. I’m pleased to meet you.’

  She held out her hand and he shook it. He appeared to be at ease, but I had the impression he was watching her closely.

  ‘Are you coming in?’

  She turned and led us inside.

  ‘I’ll put the kettle on.’

  We all went into the kitchen and Ackerman stood while I perched on a stool.

  ‘So, it’s nice of you to pop in like this,’ Katie said as we waited for the kettle to boil. She gave me a sly look. ‘This is all rather sudden, isn’t it? Where did you two meet?’

  Realising that she was under the impression that Ackerman was a new boyfriend, I hurried to explain that he was just a friend.

  ‘He’s helping- ’ I said, but he silenced me with a shake of his head.

  ‘You know the police have accused Julie of murdering her husband?’

  ‘Yes, I heard. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? I mean, I know Julie and I’m sure she would never do anything like that. Still,’ she lowered her voice, addressing Ackerman, ‘I suppose they must have some reason for suspecting her? They did find him dead in bed, didn’t they? It’s going to be hard for Julie to prove she had nothing to do with it.’ She sighed. ‘It’s a mess.’

  ‘You were in a taxi with Julie on the night her husband was murdered,’ Ackerman said quietly.

  She didn’t answer and I had the impression that she was now watching him. They were playing a game I didn’t fully understand.

  ‘I gather Julie was drunk that night? She was seen leaving the restaurant in quite a state.’

  Katie laughed. I wasn’t sure, but I thought she sounded nervous.

  ‘Quite a few witnesses saw her,’ he went on. ‘But you were with her. So, how drunk would you say she was?’

  ‘She was very drunk,’ Katie conceded, with an apologetic glance at me.

  ‘Your other friend, Nina, told us she left the taxi first, so it must have been you who was responsible for helping Julie to get home safely that night?’

  He paused. Like me, he must have been expecting her to protest that she had done no such thing, but she hesitated.

  ‘A witness saw you entering Julie’s house with her on the night in question, anyway,’ he added, as though it wasn’t important. ‘It was kind of you.’

  ‘Yes, I saw her home safely. Someone had to. She could barely put one foot in front of the other,’ she replied. ‘I wouldn’t trust anything Nina says. I could tell you any number of occasions when she’s lied, but you can’t blame her. She can’t help it. She’s a complete fantasist, but she can seem very plausible, so you do have to be careful around her. In fact, she told Julie a dreadful lie only a few days ago, didn’t she, Julie?’ Registering my silence, her expression altered. ‘Didn’t she, Julie? You know what a liar Nina is.’

  ‘One of you is lying,’ I agreed, ‘but is it Nina, or you?’

  She gave another nervous laugh. ‘You know it’s not me.’

  ‘The thing is, a witness saw me entering the house with you just before Paul was murdered.’

  ‘You see,’ Ackerman added, ‘the problem is that Julie was barely capable of standing when she arrived home that night.’

  ‘What are you saying?’

  ‘Our witness states she watched you help Julie into the house because she couldn’t walk unaided and couldn’t even stand without support. So that raises the question, how did Julie manage to overpower and kill her husband, given that she could barely stand up without help. And if it wasn’t Julie who killed him, who else was there with her? Whoever it was must be the killer the police are looking for, don’t you agree?’

  Katie shook her head. ‘I don’t really understand who you are, or what you’re doing here. I’d like you to leave.’ She turned to me, her eyes burning with a curious intensity. ‘Not you, Julie. Of course, you’re welcome to stay. We’re still friends, aren’t we?’

  She stood up as though preparing to escort Ackerman out of the house. But instead of moving towards the door, she twisted round and seized a knife that was hanging on a rack on the wall. Ackerman raised his arm to block her blow. I watched in horror as he staggered backwards, blood streaming from a wound on his forearm. With an inhuman screech, Katie leapt at him and slashed at the side of his head. His legs buckled under him and he fell to his knees. He knelt for a second before he pitched forward, and his forehead struck the floor with a loud thud. After that he lay still, while a pool of blood appeared on the floor beside him.

  ‘Ackerman!’ I called out. ‘Ackerman!’

  I wished I had found out his first name.

  ‘It’s a shame you killed your friend,’ Katie said in a curious flat voice. ‘He was only trying to defend me against your vicious attack.’

  With a loud grunt, she slashed at her own forearm with the knife.

  ‘What have you done?’ I shouted, beside myself with terror.

  She laughed. ‘He could see you meant to kill me, so he tried to stop you, and now I have to kill you before you finish what you came here to do.’

  ‘That doesn’t even make sense. No one will beli
eve I killed him. We were working together. He came here with me- ’

  ‘Did he? Or did he follow you here because he realised what you were planning to do and wanted to prevent you from killing anyone else? Or perhaps you both planned all this together for the money, and Bella found out. Only he thought better of it. He tried to argue you out of getting rid of me, because what did I have to do with all of your sordid mess? You didn’t know about my affair with Paul.’

  ‘What?’

  If I hadn’t been so terrified, I would have been tempted to laugh at the thought of Paul and Katie together.

  ‘Paul would never have been interested in you. He went for young blondes.’

  ‘Of course, you never suspected your good-looking husband might be having an affair with a frumpy overweight woman like me, did you? But he was screwing me for months. He even told me he loved me. I believed it too, until you told us he was having an affair with Bella. How could he do that to me? As soon as I heard that, I knew.’

  ‘Knew what?’

  ‘That he had to die, of course. Him and that young cow Bella.’

  ‘So it was you that killed them both?’

  ‘Of course it was me.’

  She glared wildly around, as though looking for Paul, so she could vent her anger on him again. Her eyes came to rest on me and I shuddered at her maniacal glare.

  ‘You thought your new friend, Ackerman, was turning against you, and you saw that as another betrayal. That’s why you killed him, before you attacked me.’

  She brandished her knife at me, grinning as she waved it in front of my face. I stared at her bloody hand, calculating how to grab the blade without seriously injuring myself.

  ‘That’s a lie!’ I cried out. ‘It’s all lies! Everything you’ve said is a lie! It doesn’t even make sense. No one’s going to believe you, and you’ll be locked up for the rest of your miserable life!’

  I didn’t know what I was saying, I was so shocked.

  Katie smiled. ‘Only the survivor will be able to tell the truth about what happened here today. That person’s version of the truth will be the truth, and no one will be able to contest it, because there will be no other witness. Only one person is going to survive this.’

  Grasping the truth in her words, I pounced. Avoiding the knife, I seized her arm and twisted it until she dropped her weapon. We both lunged, but I reached it first. Plunging the blade into her chest, I sank to the floor and crouched beside her, mesmerised by the quantity of blood spurting from her wound. There was so much blood.

  My surge of elation gave way to horror. I don’t know how long I stayed there, staring at her white face and struggling to comprehend what had happened. Losing Paul had been painful, but our relationship had come to an end before his death. In some ways this loss was starker. Katie and I had been close since we were five. I couldn’t remember life without her. It causes unspeakable sorrow, of course, but no one’s surprised when a marriage breaks up. We expect our friendships to last.

  By the time the emergency services arrived, Katie had bled to death.

  It was a policeman who discovered Ackerman was still breathing. Feeling helpless, I watched them carry him into the ambulance.

  43

  It was always difficult to work out what Inspector Morgan might be thinking.

  ‘Let me get this straight,’ he said, his expression inscrutable as ever. ‘You broke the terms of your bail by staying out after six, and your excuse for that infringement is that you couldn’t go home because you were killing your friend? Have I got that right? Is that what you’re telling us?’

  ‘My client has already answered that question in her statement,’ Andrew’s voice cut in before I could respond. ‘This was a clear case of self defence. You’ve seen the medical report. The man who was there looking after my client’s interests sustained severe lacerations to his limbs and head. These injuries were caused by Katie Collins who violently assaulted him before turning on my client. Unfortunately, he's unable to give a coherent account of what happened that day, but my client’s statement is quite clear, and all the evidence bears out what she said. The woman who killed her husband and his mistress is herself dead. My client killed her in self defence. I would have thought you’d be delighted to close your case.’

  I nodded. ‘That's right. She went crazy. First off, she attacked Ackerman. I mean, she just went for him. He didn’t stand a chance. By the time I realised what was happening, he was lying on the floor, bleeding. I thought he was dead. I didn't have time to call for help because she turned on me next, screaming and slashing at me as I tried to defend myself. I managed to wrestle the knife from her, but it was pure luck that I stabbed her in the chest or she would almost certainly have killed me.’

  ‘That was certainly a lucky blow for you,’ Morgan said. He looked thoughtful. ‘And you were lucky to escape injury yourself when the other two people who were present when this incident took place were subject to such violent attacks. After all, here you are chatting to us while the others, well, one is in hospital, and the other is in the mortuary.’

  I nodded again and muttered about having seen the attack coming and being nimble enough to dodge away, while Ackerman had been caught off guard. Although Andrew assured me they couldn’t hold me for long, the police kept me locked in a cell for another day. I grew frantic with worry, but they took no notice of my loud insistence that they release me immediately.

  It wasn’t clear to me how long I might have remained in custody, but the following day Ackerman recovered sufficiently to make a statement after which Andrew had no difficulty in getting all charges against me dropped. Even though he had been unconscious when I grabbed the knife from Katie, Ackerman confirmed that she had tried to kill him, after she confessed to murdering my husband and his mistress.

  Exonerated, I went home dazed by my release. I had grown so accustomed to the tag on my ankle that my leg felt strangely naked without it. The solicitors who had been working on Paul's probate while I was in prison advised me that I was finally able to get hold of at least some of Paul’s estate. They assured me the rest would follow soon. I was at liberty, I was a wealthy woman- and I was all alone. It was now no longer in question that Katie had killed both Paul and Bella.

  Imagining what might have happened if she had succeeded in killing Ackerman as well, I shuddered. There was a good chance I would have been convicted of murdering all three of them. I couldn’t imagine the impact such a sentence would have had on Dan. Our relationship would almost certainly have been over. He would have continued living with his grandparents and I might never have seen him again. Just the idea of it made me feel like crying. Whatever else happened, I had to get him back home with me as soon as possible.

  Reckless of the expense, I went straight to King’s Cross and booked a ticket on the next train to Edinburgh. The journey seemed interminable but at last I reached my destination, the house where my son was living. It felt as though many years had passed since I was last there. Trembling with almost unbearable excitement, I rang the bell. When Stella answered the door, she started back, clearly surprised to see me. With a cold glare, she asked me what I wanted. From the way she addressed me, we could have been strangers.

  ‘What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at home at this time? You shouldn’t be here at all.’

  ‘What do you mean, what do I want?’ I replied, seizing on her words. ‘I’ve come to take Dan home.’

  ‘I don't think that's going to be possible.’

  For a moment I thought my heart had stopped.

  ‘Why... not?’ I stammered.

  I couldn't say any more. If anything had happened to my son, my life would lose its meaning. I felt my eyes water, but she assured me that Dan was fine. Having escaped a threatened prison sentence, it seemed that I now faced a different kind of challenge.

  ‘Dan wants to stay here with us,’ my mother-in-law announced with an air of finality. ‘We’ve applied for custody- ’

 
‘What?’

  ‘We’ve started the process to legally adopt him.’

  ‘Adopt him?’

  ‘Yes. Mark and I are adopting Dan.’

  ‘You can't do that. He’s my son.’

  ‘I think you waived any parental rights when you were arrested for killing my son.’

  ‘I didn't kill Paul, and you’re lying if you suggest for one moment that I did.’

  ‘The police think you killed him.’

  ‘No, they don’t. That’s why they’ve released me. My innocence is no longer in question. It never really was. The police now know Paul was killed by a woman called Katie Collins, and they’re satisfied I had nothing to do with it. There’s no substance to that accusation against me at all, and there never was. Now, I’d like to see my son, please.’

  She shook her head. ‘It’s too late. We’ve already sent off all the paperwork, and put the wheels in motion- ’

  ‘To hell with your paperwork,’ I retorted, losing my temper with her. ‘I want to see my son.’

  ‘Dan doesn’t want to go anywhere. He’s happy here with us.’

  I noticed she lowered her voice and it occurred to me that he might be in the house.

  ‘Where is he? Is he there?’ I demanded, deliberately raising my voice. ‘I want to see Dan. Where is he? Dan?’

  Stella shifted her weight, in an attempt to block me from entering, as though she was afraid I might try to barge past her. Her movement infuriated me.

  ‘Where is he? Is he here?’ I shouted as loudly as I could, hoping Dan would hear me. ‘I want to see Dan right now!’

  ‘He’s not here-’ Stella said, unaware that Dan had just appeared in the hall behind her.

  ‘Mum?’ He stepped forward. ‘What are you doing here?’

  His expression was difficult to interpret but I thought he looked pleased to see me, so I called out to him.

  ‘Dan! It's all right. The police have found out who did it. They've let me go. They know it wasn't me. I'm innocent. It's all over. We can go home now.’

  To my huge relief, his face broke into a broad grin.