The Perfect Stepmother

by King, Karen

  The task might have been easier if Maria hadn’t made a run for it, scared because she knew that Lily was onto her. Protecting her own skin instead of looking out for her stepdaughter. The police said that Maria had always maintained her innocence, had insisted that Alicia had fallen down the stairs by accident. Well, if Maria was so innocent, why had she run away instead of trying to help another little girl in danger?

  ‘I’ve made you a cup of coffee.’

  Lily opened her eyes as Seb placed the coffee on the table in front of her. He looked pale, tired, worried and a bit guilty. So he should be.

  ‘Thanks.’ She could barely get the word out.

  Seb rubbed his stubbled chin as he gazed at her. ‘Look, Lily, I know you’re upset, worried, scared, but please don’t take it out on me. I love you and want to support you. I love Emma too. None of this is my fault. Or yours.’

  His last words were like the floodgates that opened the dam. She couldn’t hold up any longer; tears flowed out of her eyes, ran in rivers down her cheeks, onto the hands she put up to shield them, her body wracked with sobs. Seb was beside her, his arms around her, hugging her. ‘It will be okay. Emma will be okay. We’ll find her.’ His voice was thick with emotion.

  ‘I knew there was something suspicious about Maria, I knew it. And no one would believe me.’

  ‘I know, Lil, and I’m so, so sorry, but no one could have guessed that it was this bad. How could we know Maria was a convicted murderer?’

  He was right. Lily had thought that Maria was a schemer, marrying her dad for his money, a manipulator sneaking into their life, getting close to her mum then her dad because she wanted to better her own life. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought that she had killed a little girl. She shouldn’t blame Seb. He was devasted about Emma’s disappearance too.

  Gareth was sitting at the other end of the sofa, his head sunk in his hands. He raised it now to look at Lily, his eyes red. ‘You’re right, Lily. You did warn us and I refused to listen to you. Now I’ve put my precious baby girl in danger.’

  Lily swallowed. Her dad looked so weak; he had hardly eaten or slept since Emma had disappeared yesterday. None of them had. They were all so worried about Emma and now the truth about Maria had shocked them all to the core. This must be so horrible for Dad.

  She reached out and put her hand comfortingly over his. ‘I can’t believe it either, Dad. I thought there was something not quite right about Maria, but I never for a moment thought it was anything like this. It’s… terrible. Horrible.’ Lily couldn’t take it in.

  Seb pulled her closer to him. ‘You heard what the police said – they’re working on the theory that Maria panicked and ran off with Emma,’ he said reassuringly. ‘They’ll find her soon.’

  ‘I hope they do because I don’t trust her not to hurt Emma. Not after what she did to that little girl,’ Gareth said bitterly.

  ‘I wonder if that woman sent the letters,’ Lily said. ‘Maybe she was related to the Wright family and recognised Maria.’

  Seb nodded. ‘Perhaps she was worried too, when she saw her with Emma. Maybe she thought Emma might be in danger.’

  She was. Lily gulped back the sob that sprang to her throat. She had to hold it together, keep a clear head and try to figure out what might have happened to Emma. Something was niggling at her; something didn’t feel right. They were all assuming that Maria had taken Emma, but what if they were wrong?

  ‘Do you think that woman might have taken Emma?’

  ‘Because she thought she was in danger, you mean?’ Seb asked.

  Lily’s stomach knotted as she forced herself to voice the terrible thought that had crept into her mind. ‘Or to get her own back, if she was related to the Wrights.’

  Seb was horrified. ‘Surely not? You’d have to be sick to take that kind of revenge. Especially when you’ve lost a child yourself so know the pain you’re inflicting on the child and their family?’

  Gareth shook his head in disbelief. ‘I don’t understand you, Lily. You’ve been suspicious about Maria all along, and now we have proof that she’s murdered a child and is the prime suspect for your little sister’s disappearance, you seem reluctant to believe it.’

  ‘It just doesn’t add up. If Maria has taken Emma, why didn’t she run off yesterday? Where has she kept her all night?’ she pointed out. ‘I think we should consider whether someone else has taken Emma. Someone connected to the…’ Lily paused, hardly able to bring herself to say the word, ‘murdered… little girl.’

  ‘She probably thought that would look too suspicious if she did a disappearing act straight away, but once she discovered we knew about her past, she fled,’ Seb suggested.

  Lily bit her lip. She couldn’t get out of her head how shaken Maria had looked when she’d received that letter. And how she had fainted at the church fundraiser. She had been terrified. The more she thought about it, the more Lily thought the woman she had spoken to on Saturday, the woman who had given Emma the doll, was connected in some way. Then she remembered what the woman had said about working at a garden centre. She must live locally as she’d been to two village events and there were two garden centres within easy driving range. She’d go and see if the woman was there, talk to her. She picked up her car keys. ‘Will you stay with Dad, please?’ she asked Seb. ‘There’s something I need to do.’

  Seb looked concerned. ‘What are you up to?’

  ‘I’ll be back really soon.’

  She headed out of the door before either of them could stop her. Emma had been gone over twenty-four hours now. She had to move fast if she wanted to find her little sister alive.

  53

  Maria

  She didn’t have much time. The police would be looking for her; Maria knew that she would be their first suspect. Everyone would think that if she could murder once, she could do it again; they wouldn’t bother to look for anyone else. She had to act quickly if she wanted to save Emma but she had no idea where to look. The only clues she had were the letters, and the woman. The woman had known who she was, had given Emma Alicia’s doll, so had to be connected to the Wright family in some way. And whoever she was, she didn’t live far because both the summer fayre and the church fundraiser were local events, not widely advertised. Perhaps she could ask Kimona; she might remember the woman talking to Maria at the fayre.

  No, Lily would have told the police what she’d discovered by now and they would probably already be knocking on the doors of anyone she knew. They would be questioning the staff at the salon, her clients. She knew the police would have given her registration number out so that if any officer saw her car, they would stop her and arrest her. It was hopeless. Hopeless. How had she thought she could possibly find Emma?

  Even if they didn’t think Maria was involved in Emma’s disappearance, people would think she had run off because she was scared to face up to Gareth once he knew who she really was and what she had done. She hoped Gareth didn’t think that. And she really hoped that he knew she would never hurt Emma.

  It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter what anyone thought. All that mattered was finding Emma and bringing her home safe and sound. She wouldn’t – couldn’t – let anything happen to the little girl. She had no idea where to start looking though; she was driving slowly around the streets, her eyes peeled for the strange woman, all the while knowing it was useless. She pulled up in a park about twenty minutes from the house, unbuckled her seatbelt and took a bottle of water out of her bag, then sat sipping it as she tried to think. Someone had coaxed Emma to climb the wall and go with them. Either they had got straight into a car parked by the back of the house or had walked over the field and through the woods to the houses on the other side.

  Oh, Emma, where are you, darling? she thought, closing her eyes and tapping at her wrist to calm herself down. Tap. Tap. Tap.

  She thought of that woman again. Lily had said that she’d been talking about the plants. If only she knew where she lived. Then something flashed across
her mind. At the summer fayre the woman had been carrying a plastic bag with the name of a shop on it. A supermarket not far from here. Maybe they would know her. She could ask but she had to get there quickly before her face was plastered all over the TV and internet.

  She went to fasten her seatbelt, ready to drive off, when suddenly her car door was yanked open. She turned, startled to see a figure dressed in black, their face covered with a balaclava. She opened her mouth to scream but before she could utter a sound she was dragged out of her seat. Something hard struck her on the back of her head and everything went dark.

  54

  Lily

  She’d been to two garden centres now and the woman wasn’t working there, nor did anyone recognise her from the description Lily gave them. As the afternoon ticked by Lily could feel her heart sinking. She’d had numerous phone calls from Seb, who was worried about her, and about her dad, who Seb said had sunk into a deep despair. As she pulled up in the car park of yet another garden centre, she closed her eyes wearily. Please, God, let me find this woman here. It was her only hope of helping her little sister. While she didn’t think Maria had taken Emma, Lily definitely held her responsible for her kidnapping. Gareth would never have married Maria if he had known about her past, then Emma would have been safe. Or if she had spoken up sooner, told the police about the letters she’d received. Maria was too concerned with saving her own skin, instead of trying to protect her little stepdaughter.

  Lily blamed herself too. She had suspected Maria was hiding something, had known that woman had unnerved her. She should have questioned her.

  I told Dad about the letter though, and he knew that woman had given Emma a doll. How could any of us have guessed the truth?

  Was that why Maria had been so overprotective of Emma, because she thought someone might harm her? Or because Alicia’s death had actually been an accident and she was scared Emma would have an accident too?

  She knew that neither Seb nor her dad could understand how, after months of being suspicious of Maria, she could now be convinced that Maria wasn’t responsible for Emma’s disappearance, but it just didn’t make sense to her for Maria to hurt Emma. She loved her. She had built a new life for herself and now Emma’s disappearance had dragged up her old one. Everyone knew who she was and what she had done. She remembered how Emma had shrieked and run over to Maria when she had fainted, shouting, ‘Mummy’s dead,’ how Maria had hugged the little girl when she’d come round and assured her that she was fine. Lily was sure that Maria wouldn’t hurt Emma.

  Another thing that kept niggling away at her was the similarity between Emma and Alicia, the little girl who had been killed. That woman must have noticed it. If she was related to the dead girl, could she have taken Emma as an act of revenge? I’ve taken your child because you took mine. She shivered. Surely no one could be that evil?

  She blinked back the tears. She couldn’t fall apart; she had to be strong. She was determined to find her little sister and bring her back home. Alive.

  She got out of the car and walked into the garden centre, acting as if she was casually browsing while she checked out the staff, as she had done in the other garden centres.

  Ten minutes later she realised that she’d drawn a blank again. The woman wasn’t here. Her shoulders sagged as she realised that she would have to drive further afield and it was already late afternoon. In a couple more hours the garden centres would be closed. If only she had thought, when she was talking to the woman, to ask what centre she worked at.

  Dejected, she turned to go when the doors to the side of her opened and someone walked out of the staff quarters. The woman. Lily caught her breath as those piercing grey eyes met hers. She half-expected the woman to turn and run but she stood still, as if waiting for Lily to come over to her.

  Lily slowly walked over, trying to compose what to say.

  ‘I’m guessing it’s not advice about plants you want?’ the woman asked.

  Lily shook her head. ‘Emma’s missing. Someone’s taken her.’

  The shock that registered on the woman’s face surely couldn’t be false?

  ‘When?’ she asked.

  ‘Yesterday.’

  ‘Where’s Stefanie?’

  ‘I don’t know. I was wondering if you knew anything about the Wright family? About the little girl who…’

  ‘Was murdered,’ the woman ended bitterly. She studied Lily for a moment. ‘I’ve finished work now. Let’s go and have a coffee and I’ll tell you what I know.’

  Lily nodded and they went to the canteen at the back of the garden centre. As they sat down with their coffees, the woman told her that her name was Joan, and that she was Sarah’s sister, Alicia’s aunt. ‘How much do you know?’ she asked.

  ‘The police said that Maria… Stefanie… always insisted that it was an accident, that Alicia tripped.’

  ‘She would, wouldn’t she? And even if it was an accident, it doesn’t change the fact that a five-year-old child died. Her actions destroyed my sister and her family. Anthony couldn’t cope with the grief and killed himself not long after Stefanie was sentenced. Sarah had a breakdown and was sectioned. I had to take Simon in and bring him up. Poor Sarah has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals ever since.’

  It was such a sad story. Lily’s heart went out to the family when she thought of how much they had suffered. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said softly. ‘Is Sarah still in hospital?’

  ‘She came out a couple of months ago. I hope she doesn’t hear about this case – it will bring it all back to her. We haven’t let her know that Stefanie is out of prison – she got released early on parole.’

  ‘Did you send Maria the letters?’

  Joan drained her coffee. ‘What letters?’

  ‘Someone sent letters to Maria to say they knew who she was.’

  Joan shook her head. ‘Not me. Not my style. I said it to her face.’

  That surprised Lily. ‘You confronted her?’

  ‘I told her I knew who she was, yes. Thinking she can start again, act like a saint, after what she did to my niece.’ The woman pushed her cup away and picked up her bag. ‘I’m sorry to hear about your little sister, and I hope you find her. But Stefanie is the one you need to question. If she’s murdered once, she could do it again.’

  The coldness of her words chilled Lily. She hates Maria, she realised, and she could understand why. She believed that Joan hadn’t sent the letters, but could she have taken Emma?

  The ringtone of her phone announcing an incoming call momentarily startled Lily. She grabbed it out of her bag, hoping it was news that Emma had been found. It was Seb. Again. ‘Excuse me,’ she said as she answered the call.

  ‘Maria’s been taken now too.’ Seb sounded frantic. ‘The police discovered her car on a patch of wasteland the other side of the woods. The driver’s door was open wide, the keys still in the ignition, and there’s blood on the ground by the car door. The police think that Maria was dragged out of the car, injured and taken somewhere.’

  Oh God. They were dealing with someone really dangerous here. Had they killed Maria? Would they kill Emma?

  55

  Maria

  Maria’s head was throbbing and she could hardly breathe. She opened her mouth to take in a deep breath and realised that she was gagged, and whatever it was that was gagging her was so tight it was cutting into the sides of her mouth. God, her hands were tied behind her back too, the rope binding them cutting into her wrists, her arms pulled so far back that her shoulders hurt. She tried to move her legs and was relieved to discover that they weren’t bound together.

  A chill ran through her as she remembered the blow to the back of her head. Her head was hurting so much, she thought it was a miracle the blow hadn’t killed her. The fact that her kidnapper had brought her here, wherever it was, and tied her up, showed that they wanted her alive. Why? What did they intend to do with her? And where was she?

  Maria cautiously opened her eyes, petrified of what she
would see. It was so dark that for a moment she thought she was blindfolded but she couldn’t feel anything over her eyes so surely couldn’t be. After blinking a few times and focusing hard, she could see shadows in the darkness, a tall cupboard, she thought, and something lower down. She couldn’t make out what it was. She turned her head around, trying to focus, to get her bearings. Was she tied up in a cellar? Perhaps she was wrong thinking the killer wanted her alive and the truth was she had been abandoned and left to die. Her eyes darted around the blackness, searching for answers. They rested on a glimmer of light in front of her, low down on the ground as if it was coming from under a door. A garage or shed then, she thought.

  This was connected to Emma going missing, she knew it was. She wondered if the kidnapper had taken Emma so that Maria would come looking for her. If so, would they let the little girl go now? She shivered as the next question floated into her mind. What did they intend to do to Maria?

  Tears pricked her eyes. How stupid she had been to think that she had paid the price for her part in Alicia’s death and could start her life over again. This would never be over for her. She would have to pay for it for the rest of her life.

  Maybe the kidnapper intended her to pay for it with her life.

  She trembled, fear wrapping icy fingers around her heart.

  Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You have to save Emma.

  Maria took some quick, shallow breaths, concentrating on stilling the fear that threatened to overwhelm her. She couldn’t give in to panic or hysteria. A little girl’s life was at stake.

  Then it occurred to her that Emma might be here too. If only she could call out to her, but with the gag so tight in her mouth, it took all her effort to mumble, which she did as loud as she could. She strained her ears to listen for a reply, for any sound to indicate that she wasn’t alone. Nothing. There were no outside sounds either, no traffic or people talking, no signs of life.