Suddenly, his brief spell of euphoria was replaced by a sense of shock that almost winded him. What about Hannah? She’d be expecting a letter from Rosa before long. Oh God, what was he going to do? If Hannah didn’t hear from her daughter in a few weeks, she’d report her missing, and an investigation would be launched. It was far too early for the body to be found – he needed it to decay sufficiently so there’d be no evidence of pressure on Rosa’s neck. If the bodies remained undiscovered for several years, Rosa’s injuries would probably be attributed to the car crash.
Danny chewed a fingernail while he racked his brains for an answer. At last he found it – he’d have to keep Rosa alive for the foreseeable future. She’d write glowing letters home to Hannah, who’d be delighted to know how well Rosa was doing. Then at some point in the future – well, he’d worry about that later.
Danny grimaced. It was obvious that things weren’t going to be as straightforward as he’d hoped …
Chapter 58
Having escaped from the Hampstead house with only minutes to spare, Ivy drove back to Sussex, devastated by what she’d discovered about Danny. As she opened her front door and stepped into the hall, she could hear the landline ringing. She was tempted not to answer, but something made her pick up the receiver.
“Hello?”
Eleanor was on the other end of the line, with the news that Hannah Dalton had been rushed to the hospital in Allcott.
“She didn’t want to go,” Eleanor said sadly. “She’s determined to die in that cold old house of hers. I blame Rosa – why on earth hasn’t she taken her mother to live with her in that big mansion of hers in London? Lady Muck, that one – thinks she’s too good to visit her mother or look after her properly.”
Ivy gripped the phone so tightly that her knuckles turned white. “Poor Hannah,” she whispered. “I wish I could have done more for her –”
“The one who should be doing it is Rosa,” Eleanor said crossly. “I intend giving that daughter of hers a piece of my mind when she comes back to Willow Haven – if she comes, that is. Maybe she’ll consider herself too grand to even come back for her own mother’s funeral.”
Ivy felt bowed down by all that had happened, as though a ton weight was resting on her chest. When would it all end?
“Is Hannah …”
“I don’t think she’ll be coming home again, if that’s what you mean,” Eleanor replied. “I doubt if they’ll let her out of hospital. I mean, it’s not as though she has anyone at home to look after her.”
Ivy knew that this was another oblique reference to Rosa, but she was the only one who knew that Rosa wouldn’t be coming back. Part of her was relieved to know that Hannah would pass away before Rosa’s body was found, and she’d never need to know that her beloved daughter had predeceased her.
“I’ll pay for a private room for Hannah,” Ivy said firmly. “I’d like to make sure that her last days are spent in comfort.”
“That’s very good of you, Ivy,” her mother said approvingly. “Of course, you shouldn’t be the one who has to do it –”
Ivy didn’t want to listen to a further diatribe about poor Rosa’s shortcomings. She was already filled with guilt that she’d come to hate Rosa so much. How could she ever have believed that her old classmate had stolen her husband? Danny was the one who’d done the stealing – he’d robbed Rosa of her life.
“I’ll ring the hospital straight away and get things sorted out,” she said, quickly changing the subject. “And I’ll come down to see Hannah at the weekend – give her my love when you visit her, won’t you, Mum?”
“Of course,” said Eleanor. “In the meantime, your father is ringing round all the airlines in the phone book. I was sure Hannah said Rosa worked for British Airways, but your father contacted them – and several other airlines – but no one there knew who Rosa was. We contacted her sister Joan, but she thought Rosa worked for Emirates or Cathay Pacific …”
“There are hundreds of airlines, Mum,” Ivy said gently. “Rosa could be working for any of them. Anyway, I’m sure someone will find her soon enough.”
“He also found Rosa’s email address on Hannah’s computer, so he sent off an email to her. But there’s been no reply so far.”
“Well, assuming she’s busy, she probably hasn’t had time to check her emails yet,” Ivy said, thinking to herself that if Rosa was really alive, she’d undoubtedly have a modern phone that allowed her to pick up her emails instantly.
“Your father tried to decipher the plane’s logo in that photo on Hannah’s phone table,” Eleanor added, “but he couldn’t make it out. I wonder if one of her tenants would know what airline she works for? I think I’ll write to that house of hers in Hampstead –”
“Don’t bother writing, Mum – I’ll call to Rosa’s house myself,” Ivy said hastily. “Please don’t worry, you have enough to do – I know that you and Dad will be the ones taking care of Hannah’s day-to-day needs.”
Her mother grunted, pleased that her daughter acknowledged the supportive role they were playing in Hannah’s life.
“Well, don’t delay too long if you’re coming to visit Hannah,” Eleanor added, “I doubt if she’ll be with us for very much longer.”
Chapter 59
Later that evening, Ivy stood gazing out of the kitchen window across the pristine lawns of their estate. She knew what she was doing was simply a delaying tactic, something to occupy her mind while she tried to pluck up the courage to confront Danny. Because once she spoke to him about Rosa, their lives would be changed forever.
Ivy shivered. She’d no idea what the outcome of her confrontation would be, but she felt she owed it to Danny. She was still desperately hoping that he would deny everything, and could somehow prove to her that he hadn’t been the one who’d harmed Rosa …
With a sigh, Ivy left the kitchen and headed for the drawing room, where she knew Danny was reading the daily newspapers. She couldn’t put off this confrontation any longer.
Walking into the room, Ivy now wore a concerned expression.
“Oh, by the way, Danny – have you heard? Hannah’s been taken to hospital. She’s not expected to live much longer.”
Danny looked up, a shocked expression on his face. “In hospital? Oh my God – I didn’t think it would happen so soon –”
“You said you were going to let Rosa know about her mother – have you contacted her yet?”
“Er, no, I forgot, I mean –”
By now, Danny had jumped up from his chair and had started pacing the floor.
Ivy stared at him stonily. “I thought you’d also like to know that the Council are going to drain Harper’s Lake.”
Danny blanched. “Oh, my God – when?”
Ivy shrugged. “I suppose they’ll start soon enough.”
By now, Danny’s face had gone totally white. Ivy’s own heart was pounding so loud that she felt certain Danny must hear it. She knew he must be realising that his deception would soon be known to everyone. With Rosa in the lake for the previous twenty years, it wouldn’t be long before all her letters to Hannah were queried. Even if Rosa’s body was too decomposed to prove murder, the letters Danny had written would make the case against him.
Ivy took a deep breath. “I know what you did, Danny,” she said softly.
“What do you mean?” her husband asked angrily. At first, it looked as though he was going to try and bluff it out, but eventually his shoulders drooped, and he almost seemed to shrink before her eyes.
“I’m sorry you had to find out, Ivy. I was hoping you hadn’t seen Dad’s car, and that the phone calls would keep you away from the lake –”
“So you were the voice on the phone that terrorised me?”
Danny nodded. “I found a piece of waterweed in the wash basket after you got back from Willow Haven, so I knew you’d been in the lake. I hoped I could prevent you from discovering Rosa’s body.”
Ivy smiled sadly. “I thought I was the actor in this family – but you played me li
ke a fool, didn’t you, Danny? All that concern about the mystery caller, and all those suggestions that I contact the police. You knew that I couldn’t! And the letters, postcards and emails you wrote to Hannah – how could you be so cruel?”
Danny shrugged his shoulders. “But they made her happy. Besides, I know what you did! What I did wasn’t any worse than what you did to my parents. We both simply tried to protect them from the truth.”
Ivy was shocked – so Danny knew all about her own trail of deceit!
“Don’t you dare try to put me in the same category as you!” she retorted. “I know what I did was wrong, but I didn’t kill their child! You killed Rosa, and for years you cold-bloodedly kept up the pretence that she was alive!”
“For Christ’s sake, Ivy, I was only seventeen!” Danny shouted. “It wasn’t planned, and I’d no idea what to do when it happened. I lost my temper when Rosa told me she was pregnant – she’d sworn she was taking the pill. She threatened to tell everyone about the pregnancy, so what was I to do? My parents would have forced me to ‘do the right thing’ and marry her. But I only wanted you, Ivy – I always have.”
Ivy’s lower lip trembled. “How could you be so selfish?”
Danny shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever. I wasn’t going to let her spoil my chances of winning you. You’re a lucky woman, Ivy – you’ve never had to worry about me straying, because you’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted.”
They stared at each other in silence, and Ivy realised with a feeling of shock that there were tears running down Danny’s face.
“I was in total panic – I didn’t know what to do,” he whimpered at last. “Then I remembered Dad’s car in the lake, and it seemed the perfect place to hide Rosa’s body. No one would find her for years, if ever, and even if they did, they’d assume she and Joe had been in the car together when it crashed.”
Ivy found she could hardly breathe. “So you’ve known all along that Joe’s body was in the lake.”
Danny laughed bitterly. “Of course! I was the tiresome kid who used to spy on his older brother! You may have fooled other people, but I knew exactly where you and Joe used to go. I’d follow you and watch you screwing in the barn at Johnson’s farm, or down by Harper’s Lake in the long grass.” He gave a faint smile as he looked at Ivy’s incredulous expression. “Needless to say, I was riddled with jealousy. At that point I hated my brother so much that I wished he was dead. Then when it actually happened, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to make you mine at last.”
Ivy found herself trembling. “How did you know what happened that day?”
Danny grimaced. “I was up on the hill with my camcorder, when I heard a screech of brakes. In the distance I saw a red car plunge into the lake. I ran down the hill as fast as I could, not knowing if it was Dad’s car or not. But by the time I got down there, I saw you climbing out of the lake and sitting on the bank, your hair and clothes soaking. I knew then that Joe must’ve been inside the car with you, and that it was too late to help him. So I hid and waited to see what you’d do – and when you went home and told no one what had happened, I knew I was being handed the perfect opportunity to step into his shoes. I hoped you’d feel so guilty that you’d need someone to lean on, and I intended being there to offer support.” He smiled sadly through his tears. “Pathetic, wasn’t it? But I wanted you so badly that I was prepared to keep quiet about what had happened. I let my parents and sister suffer so that I could have you. I let my obsession for you take over my life. I’d have done anything – and did – to make you mine.”
Ivy shuddered, suddenly feeling unclean. Unwittingly, she’d enabled Danny to fulfil his sick fantasy.
“You’d never have married me if Joe hadn’t died, would you?” Danny challenged her. “He was the one you really wanted to be with – I’ve always been second-best.”
Ivy said nothing. What was the point in protesting that she loved him when she wasn’t even sure any more?
In the silence that followed, Ivy’s brain was trying to work out all the permutations of what she was hearing.
“But how did you expect to explain away Rosa’s letters if her body was ever discovered?” she asked at last. “Because then people would know she’d never written them. And what about Hannah – didn’t you think she’d wonder why her daughter never visited her in almost twenty years?”
Danny’s face was now contorted with rage. “At seventeen, I couldn’t think twenty years into the future – it seemed like a lifetime away. After Rosa died, I was in a total panic. And to prevent Hannah getting worried and contacting the police, I hit on the idea of the letters. I used to sneak into the school secretary’s office during lunch hour and use the word processor there to type them. It was nerve-racking, I can tell you! Later on, when we were in London and I was earning a good salary, I was able to get my own computer, and eventually I kept it at the house in Hampstead. By then I was also able to include money each time I wrote to Hannah, to make her life a bit easier.”
“And to ease your conscience,” Ivy said sarcastically. “But you must have considered that Hannah might go looking for Rosa, or send someone to check up on her? You must have been thrilled when she started pretending she’d been to visit Rosa.”
It had just dawned on Ivy that Hannah’s pride had unwittingly aided and abetted Danny in successfully maintaining the deception. The poor woman had believed Rosa was alive – Danny’s letters, postcards, phone calls and emails had assured her of that – and she’d accepted that Rosa was far too busy and successful to spare time for her mother. But Hannah hadn’t wanted people in the village thinking Rosa was selfish and uncaring. So in order to hold her head high in her own community, Hannah had maintained the lie that she saw Rosa when she visited her in London and other locations, whereas she’d probably just gone to stay at a hotel or visited her sister Joan in Bicklebury.
Ivy grimaced. It must have been awful for Hannah, living near her own well-meaning but boastful parents. With an unmarried absentee daughter, it would have been like salt in her wounds.
Danny nodded. “Yes, Hannah’s pride was a great help. But I knew that if the letters ever stopped, Hannah would definitely go looking for Rosa, or ask the police to search for her. I couldn’t let that happen, so I had to keep on writing them, and have Rosa make the occasional brief phone call to Hannah.
“Oh God, I’d forgotten about the phone calls!” Ivy exclaimed, shocked. “How did you manage to do that?”
Danny smiled, a hint of pride in his voice. “When you thought I was working late, I was actually doing an evening course in sound editing for trainee radio producers and presenters – of course, I was never going to be using it for that. Afterwards, I bought my own editing equipment, and digitally edited fragments of Rosa’s voice from the old recordings on my camcorder, making new words out of them. Once you get the hang of it, it’s surprisingly easy to split or join words and syllables. For example, from words like “bad”, and “Mamma’s” I could make up the word “Bahamas”. Then I’d dial Hannah’s number and play Rosa’s words back to her.” Danny shrugged his shoulders. “Of course, the messages from Rosa had to be brief and the line quickly cut off, since there could never be any two-way conversations.”
He clearly thought he’d been very clever, and Ivy had to agree. She’d been fooled by Rosa’s voice herself.
“And the picture on Hannah’s phone table – of Rosa in her flight attendant’s uniform – I suppose that was your handiwork as well? And all the holiday photos Rosa sent her mother –”
Danny shrugged his shoulders. “They were just photos I borrowed from social networking sites, and in my darkroom I substituted Rosa’s face.”
Ivy found it difficult to breathe. “But at some point, Hannah was going to die – what did you plan to do then? At this very moment she’s in hospital, and unlikely to ever come home again.”
Danny lowered his head. “I couldn’t even think that far ahead. You’ve no idea what all this has cost me, Iv
y – not a day went by when I didn’t worry myself sick about the situation. I even tried several times to buy the land that included the lake, but the Council wouldn’t sell it.”
“Aw, poor you!” said Ivy sarcastically. “What about poor Rosa? She’s been denied all those years of life! She might have had a family by now, and Hannah might have been a grandmother.”
Danny groaned. “I know, but I was desperate, so I didn’t think beyond the immediate situation.”
“But as the years went by, you must have realised you were getting yourself in deeper.”
“Of course I did! I hadn’t a clue how it would end – I even tried to get Hannah to leave Willow Haven – I made threatening phone calls, but she went to the police, so I had to stop.”
He looked at Ivy. “Yes, I know it was despicable, but if I’d managed to get her away from the village, my troubles might have been over. If Hannah had severed ties with the residents of Willow Haven, when she eventually died, no one would realise that Rosa hadn’t turned up for her funeral. But Hannah didn’t want to move. Her network of friends and neighbours were in the village – so I had to think of something else …”
Ivy’s lip curled. “And that something else was a computer. I thought you were helping Hannah because you were a nice person, but you were just making things easier for yourself. If Rosa could email her mother, you wouldn’t have to post letters and cards from all over the world. All those trips you made – supposedly to retail conferences – they were just to ensure that Hannah got letters and cards from exotic locations, weren’t they?”
Danny nodded, turning a sad face towards her. “I really did like Hannah – I couldn’t do anything to harm her. I even thought of stealing the letters while she was alive, but I was afraid she might report them missing, or start asking neighbours about them. Then even more people would know about them. It was too risky, so I just had to keep on writing them.”
Danny smiled tentatively at Ivy, as though looking for her approval.
Still Waters Page 28