Killer Princesses: Gripping and gritty, a twisty and tantalising thriller...

by Jennifer R Hollis

  “Oh, don’t start that again, Mardie,” laughed Karen. “I had nothing to do with it, and Debbie knows it. Deb, this is ridiculous. Let’s go.”

  For a fraction of a second, Debbie’s grip loosened, but then Marie’s phone beeped in her other hand. Renee often didn’t bother messaging her back, and for once, Marie wished she hadn’t. She glanced down at the screen and tried not to react.

  Gone to Fair Lawns – sorry. I think she knows. I need to sort it out.

  “Is that from Renee?” asked Debbie, her grip tight again.

  “No.”

  “You’re lying again, give me your phone.”

  Marie lurched forward and tried to free herself, as Debbie reached across her to snatch the phone. Their heads clashed, and Marie turned on her ankle. A searing pain shot up Marie’s leg as she fell to the ground with a thud. Her head bounced off the side of the path. The bag of presents and her car keys flew out of her hands, out of reach.

  “Argh, help me!” she cried, as she tried and failed to sit up.

  “Oh God, Debbie, what have you done?” tutted Karen.

  Debbie was staring at Marie’s phone, wide-eyed.

  “Oh, Karen, look at this message,” urged Debbie. “What does this mean? She’s gone to kill Gillian?”

  “I don’t know,” whispered Karen. “I thought Gill was away?”

  “What if Gill didn’t go?” asked Debbie. “Renee seems to think she’s there. We need to go to Gill’s house; we have to stop her.”

  From the floor, delirious from the pain still shooting up her leg and the bump on her head, Marie looked up and laughed. Debbie and Karen both looked back down at her with a mixture of shock and disgust.

  “You idiots,” said Marie, as she winced in pain. “That’s not why she’s there. It’s Renee’s business, not yours. Stay out of it.”

  “I knew it,” shouted Debbie as she shook with rage. “I knew you were in it together.”

  She stepped forward, Marie’s phone still in her hand, and grabbed the car keys from the floor.

  “We’ll take these; we don’t want you warning her, deleting evidence or running away, do we?”

  “Not much chance of that,” groaned Marie, as she looked down at her leg with another delirious smile. She’d started to feel lightheaded, and she wasn’t in control of what she was saying.

  “But wait, no, don’t take the phone. I need to call someone. Rachel. Call Rachel, please. You can’t leave me; it’s cold here. Christmas Eve. I’ll tell you the truth, everything, about Renee and Kevin, I’ll explain. Check the presents, you’ll see. Need an ambulance, though, I-I don’t feel good.”

  “I am taking these Marie,” confirmed Debbie. “You’ve had your chance to explain. I knew Kevin was involved anyway, and you’re just trying to delay us.”

  “Deb, are you sure?” asked Karen, as she looked down at Marie on the ground with a mixture of concern and contempt. Debbie had already returned to the car and started the engine.

  “Karen, please!” pleaded Marie, her voice trembling. Her head had started to throb, and her ankle was swelling.

  Karen sighed and looked between Marie and the car. Debbie was already shouting Karen’s name and encouraging her to get in. With a shrug of her shoulders, Karen turned away from Marie and got into the car.

  “Help!” yelled Marie, as Debbie and Karen sped off into the distance.

  29: Confessions

  Monday 24th December 2018, 17:40 – Kevin

  The grandfather clock ticked in the reading room at The Manor. In the corner, a record player deck turned without sound. Kevin sat in the largest armchair, a glass of freshly poured scotch in one hand and an open book in front of him. He had been sitting there for the best part of an hour, yet he hadn’t read a single word.

  He stared into the ornate mirror between the bookcases on the opposite side of the room. He rubbed his short, spiky beard, and then his temples, where grey flecked his dark brown hair.

  His mind drifted, as it so often did, back to Renee. When they were together, he felt so alive, happy, even. But he hadn’t seen her in almost two months. He looked around him and sighed. He had a big house, money, a marriage of over twenty years. Yet, he felt so empty and alone without Renee.

  He’d fallen for her, every side of her. There was the Renee that everybody saw. Confident, bubbly, brash. She sometimes went too far, but always charmed her way out of trouble. And then, the Renee underneath who was kind, caring, vulnerable and desperate to prove her worth to people.

  There were moments when he thought she’d fallen for him too. But then something changed. Her messages became less frequent, and she didn’t even respond to his requests to meet up. She was pulling away from him, and he couldn’t blame her. After all, he’d had a year to leave Gillian, and he hadn’t done it.

  He took his first sip of scotch, which warmed and soothed his dry throat. He picked up his phone, and his thumb followed a familiar path to one of Renee’s social media profiles.

  He flicked through the old photos and smiled to himself. He looked deep into the mischievous eyes that stared out at him from every picture. In all of them, Renee was having fun, surrounded by friends. In some of the images, there was a man alongside her. Each of them looked a bit shell-shocked but very pleased with themselves.

  A notification popped up on his phone, and he looked at it in disbelief. Had Renee felt the intensity of his thoughts? He took a sharp intake of breath and opened the message.

  I’m outside. Are you home? Need to talk.

  He sat up straight in the armchair. Of course, he wanted to see Renee, but not here. She shouldn’t have come to The Manor; what was she thinking?

  He tiptoed down the hallway and looked through the front window. Sure enough, Renee was striding towards the front door. He gently opened the door, held it ajar and tried to play it cool.

  “Renee, what a surprise. Let me get my coat, and we’ll go out somewhere?” he suggested as he cast a furtive look around the street.

  “No, I need to talk to you right now. Gill’s away, right?”

  “It’ll be nice in the pub down the road, Christmas Eve…”

  “It needs to be now Kevin, and in private, we won’t get a better chance,” said Renee.

  She looked at him with sadness in her eyes, which caught him off-guard. As he lowered his defences, she pushed the door open and strolled towards the reading room, her heels clicking against the wooden floor.

  “Shit!” he muttered under his breath as he followed her hastily down the hallway.

  His heart thumped against his chest as he closed the door to the reading room. He turned to face her, to attempt to get her out of the house again. But she’d already sat down on the velvet sofa and started crying into her hands.

  “Oh God, Renee, what’s happened?” he whispered as he sat down next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

  As he touched her, he felt a spark, like a static shock. A tingle ran up his arm towards his chest, doing little to ease his heart rate. He pulled her close, inhaled the smell of her and her perfume, and kissed her on the head.

  “Talk to me, please Ren.”

  She rested her elbows on her knees and balanced her head on top of her hands. How was it possible for someone to be so beautiful, when tears fell from their eyes, and their lips trembled?

  “Kevin,” she whispered. “I need to tell you something,”

  “Come on then,” he urged. He dared to be hopeful.

  “Before I tell you, I need you to know how I feel about you.”

  Finally, she looked up, and her fierce amber eyes met his.

  “I know I’ve not been myself these last few months and I’ll explain why. But first, I need you to know that I care about you, more than I’ve ever cared about anyone else before. I want to be with you, Kevin, and I have missed you so, so much.”

  His heart leapt; he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “I thought... I thought you’d found someone else,” he mumbled. �
�Or that you didn’t want to see me, after, you know, the abortion.”

  She looked back at him, and the tears came again.

  “Shh,” he hushed as he pulled her back towards him.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s my fault. You shouldn’t have had to go through that alone. I should have left Gillian and told you that you’re everything to me. I love you; I have done for a long time. These last two months without you have been hell. Our relationship was never over for me.”

  “So,” she sighed as she pressed her head into his chest. “Whatever I tell you now, whatever happens, you’ll want to be with me? You’ll leave her?”

  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Of course, he wanted to be with Renee; he wanted it more than anything. But it wouldn’t be easy, and he needed to be honest.

  “Me and Gillian, it’s not a real relationship anymore, you know that. But it’s so complicated, beyond what you could imagine.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I will leave her, Ren. Whatever you say to me, I want to be with you. But it won’t be as simple as me packing my bags and moving down the road. We’ll need to leave, go abroad even, without telling anyone until we got there. Could you do that?”

  “Yes,” she agreed instantly. “I don’t have anything here to stay for. I’ve got an apartment in Spain, near Torrevieja. I bought it years ago, when I sold my businesses. No-one knows about it; we could start there.”

  He lifted her head gently with his finger and wiped the tears from her cheek with his thumb. She leaned into him, and he kissed her. It was soft, at first, and for a few seconds, he felt as though they were the only two people in the world. But then, the upstairs floorboards creaked, and he came back down to earth, reminded that they weren’t alone.

  “Let’s go to yours, we can plan it all out,” he suggested, and he stood up, holding her hands.

  “I haven’t told you what I came to tell you yet. I have a confession, Kevin.”

  “Come on then,” he urged. “Nothing you say could change my mind.”

  Renee took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and squeezed his hands.

  “I’m pregnant. We’re having a baby.”

  “No, we can’t be!” he said, his mind racing. “You had an abortion. I haven’t seen you properly since then.”

  “I didn’t go through with it,” she whispered, her eyes were still closed.

  “I’m sorry, I should have told you, but I kept putting it off. I didn’t know how you’d react, whether you’d want any part of it. That’s why I’ve been avoiding you.”

  If he were anywhere other than The Manor, this could have been the happiest moment of his life. He felt the shock of the news, but it didn’t upset him in the least. It was the most beautiful bombshell anyone had ever dropped on him.

  “It’s OK,” he assured her, as he pulled her up to her feet and into an embrace. “It changes nothing, and it gives us another reason to escape together, doesn’t it?”

  He moved his hands from her back, towards her waist, and ran one of them tenderly over her stomach. “I wondered why you were wearing this old jumper,” he smiled.

  “I’m four months gone, it shows through most of my clothes, except this,” she chuckled.

  “Any other secrets, Renee?”

  “Only that I’ve spent the money I asked you for, for the abortion. Sorry. If I’d given it back, you would have known.”

  He laughed and pulled her closer. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, Renee Beck. Just you, and me, and this one,” he whispered, his hand still on her stomach. Despite the circumstances, he couldn’t stop smiling.

  “Now I want you to go back to yours. I’ll move some money around, grab a few bits, find my passport, and then I’ll come over. We’ll work it all out from there.”

  “You want to leave tonight?” Her face was suddenly alive and excited at the prospect of adventure.

  “Why wait?” he beamed. “Now come on, let’s get you out of here.” He re-opened the door to the reading room and looked down the hallway. All was clear. He led Renee down the hallway, avoiding the creakiest floorboards.

  As he walked, he felt lighter. In a few hours, he thought, he could run away, and start a new life with the woman he truly loved, and their child. They had almost made it to the door when three loud, urgent knocks broke the silence. The hairs on the back of Kevin’s neck stood up, and the smile faded from his face.

  “Are you expecting someone?” asked Renee, as she put her coat on.

  “No. I suppose it could be carol singers. Wait there.”

  Renee stepped into the lounge, hidden from view, as Kevin opened the door. When he did so, he came face to face with Debbie Gomez, who looked angry and scared in equal measure. Behind her was Karen Goldman, who looked more embarrassed and apologetic.

  “Debbie, Karen, what are you…?”

  “Where’s Renee?” demanded Debbie.

  “Not here,” he shrugged.

  “Her car is literally right outside.” Debbie gestured to the vehicle parked diagonally across the driveway. He looked at his feet, bit his lip and didn’t respond.

  “Where’s Gillian, is she safe?” continued Debbie.

  “Of course, she is, didn’t she tell you, she’s gone away,” he replied, through a strained voice. “Now, sorry you’ve wasted your trip, but I’m a bit busy.”

  Karen rolled her eyes and tried to drag Debbie away, but she remained resolute.

  “Renee!” she shouted, and Kevin winced.

  “Shh! Please go away,” he begged. It was in everyone’s best interests, including his own, to get away as soon as possible.

  “What?” Renee’s voice came from behind him.

  “What on earth are you two doing here?” she asked, a look of bewilderment on her face.

  “We’re here to see Gillian,” answered Debbie and without warning, she pushed past Kevin into the hallway.

  “No,” he hissed. “You can’t be here. You all need to leave now!”

  But Debbie was already halfway down the hallway, looking into the rooms. Karen trailed behind Debbie, trying to persuade her friend to leave.

  Renee turned to Kevin with a confused expression and a shrug. He delicately closed the front door and hurried towards Debbie and Karen. They had reached the entrance to the reading room.

  30: Apologies

  Monday 24th December 2018, 17:50 – Ethan

  Ethan redialled Jade’s mobile number, but it went straight to voicemail again. He’d followed the direction Marie indicated, but then he had to choose which route to take at the end of the road. He’d opted for Croydon but was now backtracking to Melwood.

  He finally caught sight of Jade on Melwood High Street. By the time he reached her, she’d hobbled beyond the junction and was opposite the pub they had lunch in a few months ago. A misty rain had started to descend from the darkness above. He needed to get both himself and Jade inside and safe.

  “Jade,” he called through deep breaths, as he ran in front of her. “Jade, are you OK?”

  She stopped in her tracks, her thin face illuminated by the garish Christmas lights above. Her hair and forehead were damp from a mixture of rain and sweat.

  She rolled her eyes, clenched her jaw and muttered, “for God’s sake,’ under her breath.

  “What are you doing out here, it’s starting to rain.”

  “What does it look like I’m doing?” she snapped, and stared at him, deadpan. “Walking along minding my own business, unlike everyone else.”

  “Where are you going, though? To your house?”

  She sighed again and shrugged her shoulders. Ethan took a deep breath and tried to put himself in her situation. Of course, she wouldn’t want to return there, but she needed to rest and didn’t have anywhere else to go. That might be why she’d ended up Renee’s.

  “Jade, why don’t you come to my house for a few nights? I won’t pester you, I promise, and I’ll tell my parents not to bother you either. But at
least you’ll be comfortable, and there will be plenty of food. You know how much my Mum cooks. And it’s Christmas!”

  He watched her pull a familiar facial expression. It meant that she was thinking something through, and weighing up the pros and cons. His promise not to bother her seemed to have made an impact.

  “OK, fine,” she accepted, and her face finally flushed with some colour. Despite her hesitation, his chest flooded with relief.

  “Great, let’s get a quick drink in the pub and get out of the rain. Then I’ll get us a cab home?”

  “Sure,” she sighed again. “But all this - it’s on one condition.”

  “What’s that?” He asked, frowning as he took her bag and put it over his shoulder.

  “I don’t want you to ask me any questions. But I have a few for you. And I want the whole truth.”

  “All right then,” he responded, reluctantly, and they crossed the road together to enter the busy pub.

  Thanks to Jade’s crutches and bruises, the barman served them first. A large group even offered them a couple of chairs.

  “The first question,” began Jade, over the blaring Christmas music and chatter around them, “is what were you doing that night I got attacked? Why were you at the garages?”

  He took a deep breath and looked down at the table. “I don’t know where to start,” he mumbled.

  “Well, I’ve realised you weren’t there by coincidence, so tell me why you were.” She picked up her drink and stared at him with bruised, bloodshot eyes.

  “I suppose it started the night of Gillian’s meeting, you know, the one at her house when I walked you home. You said you were going out, back into town, and that worried me. So, I waited until you left your house, then I followed you. It was me by the bins; you shouted at me. And I saw where you went.”

  Jade put her drink back down and stared at him, her mouth open. “Jesus Christ, Ethan!”

  “So, some evenings since then, I’d hang around, make sure you were OK. But also, I was trying to figure out more about... you know,” Ethan looked around and lowered his voice, “Princesses, and who’s behind it, so that I could tell the police.”