It was a good plan. The only problem was that the phone was now way out of my reach. So to summon help, I’d have to release my hold on his arm.
The front door was locked and the back door looked miles away. If I made a dash for it, he’d get me before I reached it. And – this was the bit that terrified me – he was a whole lot closer to that lethal-looking poker than I was, and I knew for certain he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.
What I needed now, I thought desperately, as he wriggled, squirmed and cursed beneath me, was a minor miracle. Correction: what I needed now was a major miracle. John Wayne swooping over the horizon with the cavalry would be good.
Then, as if someone up there had been listening, there came a loud banging on the front door.
“‘Help me!” I yelled. “Come round the back! Quickly.”
After what seemed a lifetime, the back door crashed open. It wasn’t John Wayne who stood there, but Gerald Crabshaw. I groaned and slackened my hold on Donald’s arm, as I realised it was all over for me. A numbness swept over me, which was the only thing that stopped me breaking down and sobbing for my mum.
I didn’t resist as Gerald pulled me away. All the fight had left me and I slumped to the floor.
“I’m so sorry, Katie,” he said. “I tried to warn you—”
“Keep her there, Crabshaw,” Donald panted as he scrabbled towards the poker. “While I…”
His words ended in a yell of pain as Will’s boot came down hard on Donald’s outstretched arm. Thank God. Not the cavalry after all, but something much, much better. Will.
Where had he come from? I could only think he’d come in behind Gerald. And thank goodness he had. Talk about perfect timing. If I’d been the sort to swoon, I would surely have swooned then. Instead, I pushed Gerald away and snatched up the poker.
“Ok, you. Get over there and don’t move,’ I said. “I’m calling the police.”
“There’s no need,” Gerald said. “They’re on their way. I’d already called them when I saw Will. Please, Katie, put that thing down. I’m on your side. Ask Will.”
“Well, I would,” I said, never letting the poker drop for one second. “But he’s a bit busy with your partner in crime at the moment. So stay back.”
“Will. Tell her please,” Gerald said. “Tell her how I drove up to your farm and asked you to come down to the pub with me because she was in danger.”
Will had, by now, got Donald face down on the floor again. But this time, Donald must have known he was well beaten for he made no attempt to struggle free, probably because to do so would result in a dislocated shoulder. Or worse.
“He’s telling the truth,” Will said. “I must admit, I thought he’d flipped or something. Couldn’t make head nor tail of what he was saying. But when he said you were in danger, I thought I’d better come along and check it out. Just in case. Even though you’d told me you were going to see Elsie Flintlock, which I didn’t believe for a moment. I always could tell when you were lying.”
“No you couldn’t, because I never lie,” I said.
“Oh really? What about the time…”
“Ok. Ok. Let’s leave it at that. And thank goodness you came.” I had, by this time, started to shake as the reaction set in. “Oh God, Will,” I managed as my teeth started to chatter. “He – he was going to kill me, you know.”
Donald screamed as Will gave his arm an extra-hard tug.
“Please, Will. Don’t,” I begged. “There’s been more than enough violence around here and I really don’t think I can stand any more. If, as you say, the police are on the way…”
“I called them,” Gerald said, his voice shrill with barely controlled hysteria. “I want you to know that. I never meant things to get this far, and when you told me just now that Doreen’s death hadn’t been an accident, I knew I had to put a stop to it.”
I rounded on him, chattering teeth forgotten as I raised the poker once again. “You didn’t try very hard,” I hissed. “Just shouted something after me, then drove off. And you were part of the plan to get me here in the first place, weren’t you? All that talk about giving me a story of the century? That was just a ploy to get me here so that Donald here could…”
“I thought he was just going to frighten you into leaving things alone,” Gerald said. “That’s what he said. But after you told me about Doreen, I tried to stop you coming in here, Katie. Just you remember that. So I drove off to get help,” he glanced at his watch. “I told the police it was urgent. I – I had nothing to do with those women’s deaths, you know. I didn’t know what he’d done. He just said he was going to sort Marjorie out. I – I thought he meant he had some dirt on her and was going to blackmail her into backing off. That’s how he got to me, you know. Blackmail.”
“Shut up, you fool,” Donald snarled.
“You’ve called me a fool for the last time,” Gerald said, turning on him. “When the police get here I’m going to tell them everything. You see, at first, I really believed John Manning had killed Marjorie – I’m sorry about that, Will – but when Katie told me they’d let him go, I started thinking about how Donald had gone up to Pendle Drove that afternoon to meet her, although he said she never turned up. So I came to the pub to challenge him.”
“That would be when Elsie Flintlock overheard you,” I said. “Donald told her that you’d been running up a bar bill. And that was what you’d had words about.”
“Which is nothing but the truth,” Donald said, although his voice was a bit muffled. “Look, Will, let me up, will you, so that I can explain? It’s not fair that this crook should be allowed to push the blame on to me. And after all, I’m not going anywhere, am I?”
“Too right you’re not,” Will said, as he let Donald move into a sitting position.
“Thanks.” He glared up at Gerald. “Let’s face it, Crabshaw, you’re the one who’s been breaking the law here, with your dodgy land deals. What was it? Did Doreen Spetchley threaten to blow the whistle on you? The way that Marjorie Hampton did?”
“How dare you try and pin it on me?” Gerald protested, his face scarlet. “I’ll own up to the property scams, yes. And the duty free stuff. But as for the rest of it—”
“As for the rest of it, it’s my word against yours,” Donald said smoothly.
“Hardly,” I said. “There’s the small matter of you trying to drug me. I’m sure the police will find traces of whatever it was you slipped into my drink in that poor plant over there, which is where, luckily for me, most of it ended up. And then, of course, there’s this. I recorded every word you said.”
I reached behind the plant and took out my phone.
“I always said you were a bright girl, Katie Latcham,” Gerald said, but I ignored him and focussed on Donald, who was staring at me with such venom, I felt like something cold and slimy had just crept down my spine.
“It’s all here.” I forced myself not to flinch under that malevolent gaze. “About how you killed Marjorie. And, of course, your little bedtime story about the frozen leg of lamb. Remember? Not to mention what you did to poor Doreen. Do you want to listen to it while we wait for the police?”
As it turned out, there wasn’t time, as I was interrupted by the sound of approaching sirens.
Will, still holding Donald, turned to me and smiled. Big, solid dependable Will, with his rugby player shoulders and gloriously sexy blue eyes. Why had I never noticed them in that way before? And what on earth was I doing thinking about it now, of all times?
***
Will and I stood, side by side, and watched as the police cars drove away, Donald, stony-faced and silent in one and Gerald, talking his head off in the other.
“The policeman was quite right, you know,” he said.
“Do you mean Ben Newton?”
“I mean the one who said you were all sorts of an idiot for getting yourself in this situation in the first place.” He glared at me and shook his head. “Honestly, Katie, I could…”
“It’s Kat.
And he didn’t call me an idiot. In fact, if you remember, he said it was very resourceful of me to record Donald the way I did.”
“He was only saying that because he fancies you,” Will said. “And I do remember him from school now. Geeky kid with glasses. I think he fancied you back then, and all.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Will.” I wasn’t in the mood for his teasing.
“Anyway, if he didn’t call you an idiot, that’s what he meant,” he growled. Then he took my hand and turned to face me, his gorgeous sexy blue eyes unusually serious. “When I think what could have happened. If I hadn’t been in the yard when Gerald arrived. If we’d been a few minutes later getting here. If…”
Gently, I took my hand from his and placed it on his lips to stop him. I didn’t want to think about what might have happened. Didn’t want to go any further down that particular road. Not now. Not ever.
“But you were there,” I said, my voice husky. “You were there for me, just like you’ve always been.”
“Just like I always will be.”
My breath caught in my throat, my fingers where they rested on his mouth, felt as if they were melting. What was going on here? This was Will, remember? My almost brother. The guy who moaned at me, teased me and used to call me Scaredy Cat, who’d tied my plaits to the back of my chair. The guy with the sexy blue eyes and the most kissable mouth I’d ever seen.
Why had I not noticed that before? If I took my hand away and lifted my head just a fraction...
It was the sweetest, the gentlest, the most un-brotherly kiss, that turned my knees to water and left me clinging to him, scarcely able to breathe. I murmured a protest as he pulled away, his eyes questioning. Was I sure? I’d never been more sure about anything in my life. All that rubbish, about how weird it would be to kiss the man I’d grown up thinking of as my brother, was just that. Rubbish.
Certainly there was nothing remotely sisterly about the way I answered his unspoken question by wrapping both arms around the back of his neck and kissing him back. Only this time, the kiss was deeper, more urgent, and wiped everything else from my mind.
I forgot about Donald and his murderous ways, about Gerald and his dodgy land deals. Shane with his iffy duty frees. Even about my mum and dad and what they’d say when they found out about my part in Donald’s arrest. With Will’s arms around me, I felt safe and comforted. Like I’d come home. And it felt so, so good.
Until I remembered what Jules had told me.
“The vet,” I said, as I pulled away.
“What?” He looked dazed, like I’d just roused him from a deep sleep.
“Your sexy Swedish vet. Jules told me that you and she…”
He laughed. “Anneka is in her mid-forties and happily married to Sven. I think Jules may have been winding you up. Why do you ask? Were you jealous?”
“What, me? No, of course not. It was just that I—” I broke off, looked up at that very kissable mouth again, and decided it was time for the truth – even though it had taken me for ever to realise it was the truth. “Of course I was jealous, you oaf.”
“Good,” he said and rewarded my honesty by bending down to kiss me again. “Now you know how I felt when I saw you with that smooth Irishman. And as for…”
“Well, and here was me thinking I’d missed all the excitement,” Elsie Flintlock’s voice made us both whirl round. “About time, too. I must say, Will Manning I was beginning to despair of you.”
“Oh God,” I groaned as I watched Elsie bustle off, cackling away to herself, no doubt in a hurry to be the first with the story. “That’ll be all round the village in a nanosecond.”
“Do you mind?” Will asked, his arms still around me.
I shook her head. Why would I? Everything was more than all right with my world now. Donald and Gerald were helping the police with their enquiries. Shane Freeman was going to have to answer some awkward questions. I had a brilliant story to take to the editor tomorrow. And I’d lost an ‘almost’ brother and gained gorgeous, sexy Will, who was without doubt the best kisser on the planet.
The only tiny cloud on my horizon was how to convince my mum that I never, ever wanted to eat roast lamb ever again.
THE END
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