34 Days: A gripping psychological thriller with a killer twist

by Anita Waller

  ‘I’ve been really comfortable.’ Anna switched on the kettle. ‘The only thing that’s spoilt it is the call from Gainsborough. Still, that appears to have blown over. Biscuit?’

  Jenny nodded. ‘Thanks. So, is there anything else you need in here that would improve it?’

  ‘Good heavens, no. Honestly, Jenny, I think you’ve thought of everything. I’ve been so comfortable, and it’s been lovely being with Adam and Grace for the week.’

  ‘Maybe you’d like to have them for a couple of days to stay in Sheffield at some point?’

  There was the briefest of hesitations, but Jenny noticed it.

  ‘Of course. You know I would love that. There’s so much to show them. If they want to come at some time in half term week, that would be good, but not until the Wednesday, because on the Tuesday night I’m going to the match. I know how Grace feels about football, so it would be better to have them from Wednesday onwards.’

  Jenny shook her head. ‘No, they can’t do half term. We’ve decided to go to Florida for ten days, catch up with Tim and Steve, and do the whole Orlando thing. Believe me, it took a lot of persuading to get Mark to give up on an Owls/Arsenal match, but we’ve booked it. We’ve not talked about it with you, because we’re keeping it from the kids. Grace will be an absolute wreck if she knows too early. We figured the day before would be soon enough to tell her.’

  ‘Oh, that’s wonderful for them. Let’s leave it until a little nearer Christmas for them to come to me. Get the holiday over, and by the time you get back the shops will already be looking very festive. We all need a good Christmas this year.’

  They chatted for a few minutes, and then Jenny took her cup to the small sink unit, washed it, and put it away. ‘I’ll leave you to sleep, Anna. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it. Next time you come, will you bring me the letters, please?’

  Anna’s mouth opened in shock. ‘What? But... why on Earth would you want them? They’re securely locked in my safe, and nobody knows about them. And that’s the way it has to stay. They’re dynamite, Jenny. Pure dynamite.’

  ‘I’m going to put them in a safety deposit box. They won’t be in the house. I just think Sheffield is too far away. You said it yourself, anything could happen to you, and my first priority for everyone’s sake would be to retrieve those letters. That might not be possible if they’re in Sheffield.’

  ‘But, they won’t go away. There’s only the two of us know the combination.’

  ‘I’ve thought about it, Anna, and I’d rather they were in the bank, safely locked away.’

  Anna was stunned. Jenny had obviously decided she didn’t trust her any more, but she had no idea why the situation had changed so dramatically.

  ‘If that’s what you want...’ Anna said slowly.

  ‘Yes, it is. Next time you come?’

  Anna nodded. ‘Next time I come.’

  Jenny smiled as she left the room. ‘Night, Anna. See you in the morning.’

  Anna didn’t speak. Couldn’t speak.

  She washed her cup and the plate that had held the biscuits almost without registering what she was doing. This new development had thrown her. Something was clearly simmering in Jenny’s mind, something that had set her so much against her mother-in-law she was now distancing herself from her.

  Anna struggled to sleep that night, trying to make sense of the change in Jenny. She was aware it wasn’t a sudden change; she couldn’t pinpoint the turning point though.

  Next morning she was packed and ready to go by half past nine. Grace was tearful.

  ‘But, I like having you here, Nan.’

  Anna laughed. ‘I know, sweetheart, and I like being here. But I live in Sheffield now, and I have to go feed Eric!’

  Adam kissed her, and she hugged him. ‘See you soon, Adam.’

  She climbed into her car, and Mark closed the boot lid. He leaned in the window and kissed her.

  ‘Drive carefully, Mum. Let us know when you’re home. Love you.’

  ‘Love you, too, and I’ll text when I pull in to the car park, I promise. Stop worrying. I know this run like the back of my hand now.’

  He stepped back, and Jenny leaned in to kiss her.

  ‘Take care. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.’ Her tone was cold. ‘And give MG my regards.’

  Anna’s heart rate increased, and she turned on the ignition. She looked at Jenny and nodded. There was no smile on her face.

  ‘And you take care as well, Jenny. I’ll be fine.’

  She pressed on the accelerator and the car slid away from the drive, on its way back to Sheffield and Michael.

  She pulled up a mile further on and rang him.

  ‘I’m on my way.’

  ‘Good. I’m already here, fridge stocked up, Eric fed. You need to go tell Lissy you’re home as soon as you get here, so she doesn’t come in and overdose poor Eric. My God, I’ve missed you and this place. Drive carefully, and come back to me, Anna.’

  She laughed. ‘Give me an hour.’

  ‘Well, don’t speed. You’ve only got one piece of mail, and it’s from DVLA. Do they do speeding fines?’ he chuckled.

  ‘I hope not. No, that’ll be my new driving licence. I had to change my name and address on it. I’m legal now, it seems.’

  They disconnected, and fifty-five minutes later Anna pulled into the car park. Worry had travelled back with her, and she didn’t know what to do. There had been threat in Jenny’s voice, and she was all too aware of what Jenny could do when someone crossed her.

  She sent a brief text to Mark, saying she was safe, and was very quickly engulfed in Michael’s arms. He held her for a long time and then released her, saying, ‘Go tell Lissy you’re home.’

  Jon answered the door; Lissy still wasn’t well, and he’d left her to have a lie in. Anna said she would pop around later to see how she was, and she returned to Michael.

  Anna picked up her mail and opened the brown envelope. It was her driving licence, and she smiled with pleasure at the name Anna Groves. She put it in her purse and grinned at him.

  ‘Just have to keep that from prying eyes.’

  He looked serious for a moment. ‘I wish we didn’t, Anna.’

  ‘So do I. But, the family have been through so much since I walked out on Ray...’

  ‘I know, and it’s only been six months,’ he finished the thought for her.

  Michael poured out two cups of coffee and they finally began to relax on the sofa. Uppermost in her mind was the Jenny situation, but she kept quiet. She didn’t know what to say, how to say it; the issue was difficult when the subject was a serial killer.

  Chapter 45

  Anna and Michael parked the car in the car park of a nearby casino and began the trek up to Hillsborough. Blue and white shirts filled the pavements, and the fans were clearly in a good mood. They didn’t see too much Premiership opposition at their ground; today was special.

  Michael shivered and said he hoped it would be warmer inside the ground. Anna merely smiled. She went to one of the stalls and bought him a scarf, wrapping it around his neck with care.

  ‘There, you look like one of us now.’

  They passed through the turnstile, and Michael winced. She laughed at his expression.

  ‘I said you would have to breathe in.’

  ‘You didn’t say anything about not breathing at all,’ he grumbled.

  They climbed the steps hand in hand, and then Michael knew exactly why she had wanted to come.

  Hillsborough looked magnificent under the luminescence of the spotlights. The stands were already filling up and becoming a sea of blue and white; the pitch was immaculate, and he thought back to the pictures Anna had showed him of a few years earlier when that same pitch had been under six feet of water following the floods. It took his breath away, and he knew next time she said let’s go to a match, he would simply say yes.

  The Leppings Lane end of the pitch was filling up with Arsenal supporters, but it was clear the loudest voices woul
d come from Sheffield.

  They chatted about anything and everything, and when the players came out on to the pitch, Michael was as enthusiastic as the other twenty-five thousand Wednesday supporters. It briefly occurred to him the Arsenal players might well feel intimidated by the mighty fan base, and then they settled down to watch the football. The first goal came from Ross Wallace after only twenty-seven minutes, and Michael experienced the bouncing combined with hi-ho Sheffield Wednesday first hand.

  By the end of the match, he was exhausted. Anna was glowing; a 3 – 0 win over Arsenal had certainly made her eyes shine. 36,000 fans from both sides had taught him exactly what his new wife loved about the game.

  They walked back to the car, following a singing, laughing crowd of fans, and it was after eleven o’clock by the time they reached home. Anna plugged her mobile phone in to the charger and noticed a text had come through from Mark, now enjoying the sunshine of Florida with Jenny and the children.

  Yes!!! It said, followed by, and we saw you!

  Anna had set the recorder to record the televised match so that she could relive it; she knew Michael would enjoy the re-run as well. He had been impressed. She knew she had to watch it as soon as possible, hoping only Mark had seen her in the crowd.

  She showed Michael the text, and he pulled her into his arms.

  ‘Look, stop worrying. He can’t know I’m with you. He’ll just assume you’re there on your own.’

  And then she sobbed. ‘Jenny knows.’

  ‘Jenny knows what?’

  ‘She knows somehow there is a man in my life. She’s been checking my stuff, and saw two texts from you on my phone. I didn’t want to worry you by telling you. No, I’m wrong. I wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened. As I left on that Saturday morning, she whispered, “Give MG my regards.”’

  ‘Look, whatever happens, we’ll be fine. We’re married now, and there’s nothing they can do about it. I love you, Anna. And you love me. Do you want to come clean, or do we carry on hiding it until Jenny forces us to “fess up”?’

  Anna was troubled, and it showed in her face.

  ‘Let me think about the best way forward. I honestly don’t know what to do. With the investigation...’ her voice faded away.

  ‘Anna, you do seem unduly worried about this investigation. What’s wrong? Do you know something you’ve not told me?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, I’ve told you everything Gainsborough has passed on to us. I just didn’t want to complicate matters by having people think I was seeing you before Ray was murdered – that would give me a damn good reason to want him dead. Especially as we’ve now got married. And no.’ She held up her hand as she saw him about to interrupt. ‘I don’t regret that. I wouldn’t change anything we have. We have time to decide what to do; they’re not due back from Florida for another week.’

  It was only when they watched the replay they realised they might have an issue. They were both on the screen after Wallace’s goal had been shown several times; the camera had panned across the kop Wednesday supporters and captured Michael turning towards Anna with his arms held out. It was a fleeting vision, but clearly Anna.

  It was also like looking at an older Mark; the new scarf around his neck was exactly the same as Mark’s, and she knew if Jenny had also watched the match, she would have seen exactly what she was seeing now.

  Anna turned to Michael, knowing she couldn’t hide this from him. ‘We have a problem.’

  He laughed. ‘Damn right we have a problem. It’s so obvious we’re together. We have to come clean, Anna, we have to.’

  She shook her head. ‘That part would be simple. If Mark watches a rerun of this, and I don’t doubt he’s left their recorder on for it, he’s going to see the most obvious thing in the world; the man taking me into his arms is the older version of himself – and also Tim.’

  ‘Oh, Anna.’ He pulled her close. ‘These are our kids, not our parents. They can’t tell us what to do, how we must behave. You’ll not lose them, they love you. And they support you. I know very little about your life with Ray, but I can put the pieces together, and I believe it wasn’t a good life. And the kids knew, didn’t they?’

  She nodded, miserable.

  He stood. ‘Let’s go to bed. We need to sleep on this. And I mean sleep. I don’t want you to be awake half the night with worry. I’m here for you, and we’ll sort it.’

  ‘There’s something else I need to sort tomorrow,’ she said. ‘And you’re right. I can’t do anything for a week anyway. So let’s try and forget it.’

  Chapter 46

  They were both quiet and ate very little for breakfast. Neither of them had slept particularly well, and after clearing away the scant breakfast detritus, Anna went across to the wall safe and keyed in the combination.

  She took out the card, explaining how to reset the code just to make sure she didn’t end up locking it permanently and keyed in the new code of 0112.

  ‘Need help?’ Michael looked puzzled.

  ‘No, but I need you to keep this number safe. If anything should happen to me, you’ll need to get in here to clear it out. I’ve changed the number to both of our birthdays, 01 for yours and 12 for mine. I’ve keyed it in as 0112. Remember it, Michael, will you?’

  He took out his phone and tapped in his security number before entering the safe combination in his notes.

  ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Nobody can get at that, unless they know my security number.’

  ‘I need to do that on my phone,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘Put a security code on it. If I had done that already Jenny wouldn’t have been able to see your texts. Sometimes, I’m so stupid.’

  ‘Or trusting,’ he said with a smile. ‘You’re definitely not stupid, Anna.’

  She felt happier Jenny could no longer get at the letters. During the long sleepless night, Anna had decided that the letters would remain with her; she would not take them to Lincoln.

  Having changed the entry code for the safe, she knew Jenny could no longer get at them. She would wait five years and then give them to her. She could do what she wanted with them then, but for now, Anna felt she needed the security of hanging on to all three of the letters. The Jenny she had loved had changed again, and become someone she didn’t know anymore.

  The old Jenny wouldn’t have gone through her suitcase, checked her phone; this new Jenny needed help, and giving back those letters had the potential to create all sorts of problems, would possibly give Jenny the means to blackmail her, make her give up Michael – and that was unthinkable.

  Michael thought nothing of her changing the combination on the safe. He was aware of her three letters for her children that were to be given to them on her death but the only other thing in there was her passport. It crossed his mind she would need to change her name on that, but there was no rush.

  ‘Pass me your phone, and I’ll put a code on it. Do you want the same number as the safe? You’ll remember it then,’ Michael grinned.

  ‘Well it does feel a bit like shutting the stable door,’ she said, but handed him the phone anyway.

  Before he could set it, the phone rang.

  He looked at her. ‘It’s Tim.’

  ‘No...’ Her voice cracked.

  He held out the phone, and she pressed to answer.

  ‘Tim? This is an early call.’ She tried to inject enthusiasm into her voice.

  ‘I can’t sleep.’

  ‘Right. Well, it’s lovely to hear from you. Are you okay?’

  ‘Sort of. Are you?’

  ‘I’m fine. Did you enjoy the match?’

  ‘It was amazing. Did you watch it?’

  ‘Yes. Mark, Jenny, and the kids are staying with us for a couple of days. Mark, Adam, Steve, and I watched it. Who is he, Mum?’

  ‘Pardon?’

  Who is the chap who looked as if he was going to eat you, the one in the next seat?’

  ‘I have no idea. He said his name was Andy, but he was just a fan, like me. What exactly are y
ou getting at, Tim?’

  ‘That’s not how it looked. Maybe I’m over-reacting, but I worry about you. You’ve never really felt any grief for Dad, and I was concerned...’

  ‘Concerned?’ Anna allowed her voice to rise a little. ‘Concerned about what? I mean, I don’t know who that chap was, he just disappeared straight after the final whistle, but even if I’d gone with him, can I just ask what concern it is of yours? Or Mark’s?’ All the time she was raising her voice, there was a little moment of happiness in the back of her mind Tim had said, “never really felt any grief” rather than “grieved.” Tim had always understood what was happening.

  ‘Look, you’re vulnerable at the moment. I do worry about you. I’m a lot of miles away from you. Mark didn’t seem concerned about it, but I couldn’t sleep for thinking about it.’

  ‘Didn’t Jenny watch it?’

  ‘No. She was sunbathing with Grace by the pool.’

  ‘And didn’t you get excited by the goals? Didn’t you want to hug and kiss everyone in sight after each of the goals? Well, guess what, Tim, so did I. And so did every one of our 25,000 or so fans. Does Mark feel worried as well? For goodness sake, you two boys give me a lot of problems. Now, back off, or I’ll snog Westwood in front of everybody next time.’

  Tim’s laughter echoed down the line. He knew of his mother’s admiration for the goalkeeper.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mum. I’ve watched that bit at least half a dozen times; each time more convinced than ever that you’ve married some stranger without telling us. I’m an idiot. Mark wants you.’

  She drew in a breath while she waited for her firstborn twin to take the phone.

  ‘Hiya, philanderer,’ he said with a laugh. ‘Has Tim been reading you the riot act? He was furious when he first saw it, so I knew he’d ring you. He just doesn’t understand the passion of the game, does he? Was it good?’

  ‘It was amazing. Jenny didn’t watch it, then?’

  ‘No, she’s no football fan. Neither is Grace. Right, I’ll let you go. Take care, Mum, and try not to get into any bother. Tim would be on the next plane.’