Naomi folded her arms. ‘Sure you have. And what if I’m not fazed by Kerry’s suggestion? What if I welcome the idea of that letter being examined by police, followed by interviews with those professionals?’ No one spoke. She pulled a business card from her bag and handed it to Nathan. He didn’t take it, so she threw it on the grass in front of him. Kerry Marshall looked down and studied the card. ‘There’s the name and address of the solicitor. You meet me there ten days from now, it’s the last day in April. If not, I’ll use the medical evidence in that letter to get the marriage annulled anyway, and then Kerry here might want to take it in as evidence, as long as she’s willing to admit how she stumbled upon it. It may well open the investigation again, Nathan, which doesn’t trouble me at all.’
‘You’re insane,’ Nathan yelled. ‘You’re a cheap and conniving filthy whore.’
‘Nothing you throw at me will make your words true, Nathan.’ Naomi looked at him steadily; her expression didn’t change. ‘He has a temper, Kerry, in case you didn’t realise.’ She was watching Nathan as she said it. ‘Not five minutes ago, he was telling you how much he still loved me and now a little crack and you’re seeing the tip of the real Nathan. He’s vicious and aggressive. He’s a dangerous psychopath and he’ll use you for all you’re worth. Then he’ll screw with your mind and then he’ll leave you without showing any remorse. Don’t say you weren’t warned.’
‘Be careful.’ Kerry Marshall leapt forward and spoke in Naomi’s face. ‘I don’t like your tone. Here’s a warning for you. I’m a police officer, not a bit of a spoilt kid. I interviewed key witnesses and had a direct involvement in this case.’
‘Yeah, a very close one by the looks of things. Is that appropriate, Kerry, in your line of work – being involved with suspects?’
‘Nathan was cleared –’
‘So was I. Would you want to be my best mate?’ A pause. ‘Someone is lying here, Kerry. We can’t both be telling the truth. Don’t invest too heavily in Nathan. You don’t know him and you have your career to think of. This isn’t a game. Lives are in the balance and he’ll destroy yours without a second thought.’
Kerry Marshall breathed heavily through her nose and Nathan stepped alongside her and put an arm around her waist.
‘You’re sick, you know that? Kerry’s not taken in by you at all. I’d leave while you can, Naomi, before PC Marshall gets upset. You’re playing with fire.’
‘I’m still your wife, so I’m well used to playing with fire,’ Naomi said. ‘I have your settlement here. It’s the best you can hope for.’ She fastened the bag and slung it over her shoulder. ‘How about I keep it safe until I see you on April thirtieth?’
‘You won’t see me then.’
‘We’ll see. You’ll get the forms through the post. Bring them. Nine a.m. sharp.’ Naomi shifted her attention to Kerry. ‘I suspect he knows something about the disappearance of Simon Wilde. Take care of yourself, Kerry. I really mean that.’ She started to walk away, towards the umbrella of trees.
‘Get help,’ Nathan shouted. He tried to pull Kerry Marshall close to him, but she was stiff and resistant and stared after Naomi who was about to be swallowed by overhanging trees and shadows.
Naomi called over her shoulder, ‘See you soon, Nathan.’
‘Like hell you will.’
Naomi vanished and Kerry Marshall watched the spot where she’d disappeared.
Nathan spoke to her profile. ‘See what I mean? She’s beautiful, but she’s crazy.’ Kerry didn’t move. She stood rooted in the grass like a tree, resisting the wind while her hair was helpless in it. There was an east-west divide in the sky. The west was clinging on to some light though the sun was long gone. ‘You can see right through her, can’t you?’
Kerry turned to him and smiled. ‘In my line of work? Course I can.’
‘Thanks for calling her bluff. I think she was ruffled.’
‘I was the one bluffing, Nathan. I don’t know anything about annulments. I just thought that if I put her on the spot, she might panic and back down.’
‘So you’re saying that if I don’t meet her there, the solicitor won’t be able to do anything?’
‘I’m saying I don’t know. Why would you even think about showing up if she’s lying? The solicitor will need the statement to be verified, so he’ll probably submit it to the police. The risk for her is, if she’s caught providing false information, the whole case could be blown open again.’
Nathan laughed. It just came out, a spontaneous reaction he didn’t plan. ‘I can’t believe she nearly ruined our plans tonight. When I don’t show up, she’ll throw a tantrum and leave and that will be the end of that. Shall we go inside?’
After a long hesitation and a thorough search of his eyes, Kerry said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ She started to walk forward.
Nathan bent down to pluck a stiff business card from the grass. And as he followed Kerry Marshall into the archway of trees, it occurred to him that her backside looked great in skin-tight jeans.
But he was thinking about Naomi and about bitter regret. He’d been in bed with her and failed to ensure that she could never produce a letter like that. He’d assumed that Dan had done the job for him and Dan hadn’t. Unless she was lying. He hated Dan; hated Naomi Hamilton. But what use was hate? He needed to focus and tidy up the mess, and there was only one sure way to counter the evidence in that letter. It was loaded with risk and difficulty and possibilities, all of which – as he walked through a dark tree-lined tunnel behind Curvy Kerry – were flooding him with surprisingly pleasant feelings. A husband had certain rights after all. Who would believe she hadn’t complied? He’d have to act immediately. Tonight, when she was least expecting him.
30
Nathan couldn’t concentrate on Kerry Marshall that night, despite her glossy coral lips and her low hanging top. He didn’t really taste his steak, which was so rare and juicy it probably could have been resuscitated. He limped through a long hour of small talk and refused the dessert menu and coffee at the end. Kerry did the same. She was tired anyway, she told him. Kerry slipped to the bathroom then paid the bill as promised. The evening drew to a close with an unmemorable kiss in the car park, then Nathan waved and watched her drive away and wondered when she’d remember to put her headlights on.
Relieved to be alone, he got into his car and pulled out the solicitor’s business card. Fifty grand. Nothing like the sum he wanted, but it was insurance. If he could get Naomi into as remote a spot and as tight a corner as she’d managed with him tonight, he’d demand more money then make sure she could never describe herself as ‘untouched’. He couldn’t worry about Solomon’s threats; he had no time to wait for courts of law or rely on stupid judges to make decisions about his future. An adventure abroad appealed. The world was spacious enough. The more lost in it he became the better. With bargaining power, Solomon might even relent with Lorie.
Nathan pushed his speed and made it home in twenty-five minutes. The house was dark and soulless. He hurried to his room to change into black jogging bottoms and a hooded black jacket. He zipped it to his chin and hunted for something to cover his face. All he could find was a navy scarf, which wouldn’t do. He went onto the landing and pulled down the loft ladders and climbed. He found a couple of bags from his teens containing old clothes that his mother couldn’t throw away, some of them Dan’s. Among a bag of school ties, he found three Halloween masks and picked out a full head mask which was a rubbery skeleton with stringy white hair.
Nathan stuffed the mask down his jacket and descended the ladder and had no patience to fold it away. It could wait. He took a Stanley knife from a small tool box that his dad kept under the stairs, and jammed it inside his pocket. Then he found a pair of black leather gloves, left the house, locked the door and walked to the end of the drive and scanned the street carefully. There were no unusual cars, nothing to suggest he was being watched. So he got in his car and backed up and set off for Bramhall.
Checking his mirrors eve
ry few seconds, he was satisfied he wasn’t being followed. The sky was as black as coal and was free of clouds. The miles passed quickly, but not quickly enough to match the rush inside his veins. Nathan arrived in Bramhall at three minutes past ten. He flicked off the headlights and rolled into the quiet little street opposite the cul-de-sac where the Hamiltons lived at number four. He cut the engine, then got out and checked that the mask was still inside his jacket. Tick. He carefully closed the door and locked it and made a thorough search of the area, checking inside parked cars and behind trees and bushes. Tick.
The streets were dead. Lifeless. Silent. There was no wind, no chill, no resistance from the elements. He’d been handed the perfect conditions to become a predator, to creep in the stillness to corner and disable his prey. It felt like a gift. He fought the exhilaration and forced himself to move slowly and cautiously. His trainers made little noise on the ground, but the risk of this kind of hunting was falling prey himself. The failure of the last visit was vivid in his head.
Nathan didn’t want to walk down the cul-de-sac in full view of anyone who might be watching. So he wandered down the adjoining lane and found a track which led to an open field behind the houses. At the end of the track, there was a waist-high fence which he hopped over soundlessly. The ground was dry and hard. The silhouette of a horse was drawn into the darkness in the distance. It was still, head down. He put up his hood and followed the fence for fifty metres or so until he was behind the Hamiltons’. Now he was looking at a three metre wall and a row of trees at the bottom of the garden. He could see little of the house from here.
Nathan climbed over the fence again and landed in a bed of spiky weeds which clawed at his pants. The garden wall was in his face a couple of paces later. Bare trees were overhanging at the top. He found a small gap between the trees and positioned himself at the foot of the wall, looking up into the gap where he wanted to be. It was too dark to see the brickwork, so he groped around near the bottom until he found some corrosion in the brick. From there, he shoved the tip of one trainer into the small cavity and managed to propel himself upwards and grab the top of the wall and then hoist himself the rest of the way.
The view from the top was outstanding – a full picture of the back of the house with several lights on and only one set of curtains fully drawn.
‘Hello,’ he breathed.
His pulse ticked over in appreciation, almost like applause. He examined the rooms with a flood of excitement. Anticipation made his nerve endings tingle. He felt strong and invigorated and powerful. And ready. His fingers brushed over the bulge of the knife in his pocket, after which he pulled the gloves from his jacket and slid his hands inside them.
There were five windows across the top. Two were glowing with light and were bedrooms. The kitchen light was on downstairs. Annabel approached the sink right inside the window. She was holding two glasses. As she filled them with water, a guy with long, messy hair put his arms around her from behind and she smiled and closed her eyes and tipped her head onto his shoulder. The guy’s hands spread across her stomach and she slowly spun around to kiss him and hand him a drink.
‘Interesting,’ Nathan whispered. Next to the kitchen window was another window, the top of which was open, if he wasn’t mistaken. It was hard to tell from here. His best guess was that it was the utility room. The opening wasn’t very big. Next to that window was a spectacular row of what looked like bi-folding doors. A patio was in front of them. The curtains were fully closed.
Some movement caught his attention upstairs. He fixed his stare on the smaller of the two lit windows and could see nothing now. The curtains were almost closed, but there was a gap in the middle. He could see a cream wall. He waited. Nothing happened. The other room was in full view and was large and empty; the wall behind the bed had wallpaper in cream and sage green, which was Camilla’s favourite colour. He could see a door on one wall which drew his attention to a small dark window beside the large luminous one. The bedroom had a bathroom. It was almost certainly the master bedroom.
More movement from the smaller upstairs window. His eyes slid left. Nothing. He sat down, legs dangling garden side, and glued his eyes to that window. After a patient ten-minute wait, he was rewarded by Naomi’s top half walking past the gap wearing only a black bra. He tensed all over. His hands lay flat against the stone; his arms locked straight, his back stretched long and rigid. Next thing, she was actually walking right up to the window in her skimpy lace bra. He drew breath and held it, while she held the curtains and drew them. He exhaled and stared at the covered window and was left with a clear vision of her shape, which brought back pleasing memories plus a dose of raw regret.
‘Patience,’ he told himself. He sat motionless for five minutes and watched. It was the best entertainment he’d had in a while. Naomi’s bedroom light went out. Annabel was still in the kitchen with Long-haired Lover, flirting outrageously, which brought back more pleasant memories and yet more stabs of regret. Annabel was totally hot. Naomi arrived in the kitchen dressed in a white knee-length nightshirt at about the same time as Camilla entered the big bedroom and closed the curtains. Which only left Henry. Where was he?
Nathan turned himself around and shinned down the wall and landed softly and safely between two trees. The most direct route to the house was across a flowerbed and then a long stretch of lawn. He stepped forward out of the shadows and assessed the best course, then he pulled the buried mask from his jacket and put it on and pulled his hood up. He stepped back beneath tree cover and followed the wall which skirted the garden. When he was level with the house, he left the comfort of trees and bushes and emerged beside a small garden room. Beside it were the bi-folding doors. He passed them. He was now directly beneath the open window. It would be a squeeze. He’d need something to stand on and he’d have to enter feet first, which would pose real difficulties.
As he weighed up options and techniques, he was plunged into darkness. The kitchen light had gone out. He inched to his left and ducked as he passed the large kitchen window. He came to the back door and expected nothing, but the door handle gave way in his hand. Euphoria. He pushed the door open an inch and listened. He could hear laughter and chatter from another room. The kitchen was in darkness but the door out of it was surrounded in light. He gently closed the back door and locked it, then pulled the key out and slipped it inside his pocket beside the knife.
The mask was hot and itchy; to torment him, the house – like his bedroom – was sauna-warm. He scanned the kitchen through the skeletal mask and saw a door that must lead into the room with the open window. Where to go? He needed to make it to Naomi’s room right above his head, but with bodies everywhere, the risks were huge. But necessary. And undeniably thrilling.
He headed for the door right ahead and opened it a sliver. He found an oblong hall with a dresser and a pale wooden floor. Long-haired Lover sprang from a nearby room holding two empty glasses and Nathan flew to the utility room and had just made it inside when light from the kitchen spilt into the little room. He couldn’t close the door now. He stood behind it and peered through the narrow gap between two hinges. Long-hair was helping himself to a plate from a cupboard, then cake from the fridge and was drowning it in cream when he glanced up and noticed the open door. He frowned and put the carton down.
Nathan didn’t freeze, but his arm muscles tensed right into his neck. He carefully withdrew the knife from his pocket and pushed up the blade. Long-hair went to check the back door and found that it was locked. This seemed to pacify rather than perplex him. His frown had vanished when he paced across the kitchen towards Nathan and fully opened the door. Nathan was flattened against the wall behind it. There was a pause, then the sound of the window being closed. When the door moved again, Nathan raised the knife, but the door slammed shut and he was alone in the dark room, and then a plate was lifted from a granite worktop and the kitchen light went out.
Nathan didn’t hesitate. Still clutching the knife, he exited the
little room and approached the door leading to the hall, and, finding the hallway empty with an inviting flight of stairs which would lead right to Naomi’s bed, he slithered past three doors and a dresser, glanced up to find a vacant landing, and took the stairs rapidly and silently two at a time. He located Naomi’s bedroom door, which showed no signs of life beyond it, and slinked triumphantly inside with the ecstasy of success pulsating through his body. The hard part was over. He intended to enjoy the rest.
31
Joel and Annabel were entangled in each other’s arms and legs on the sofa. Naomi was on the smaller sofa too lost in thought to focus on how lonely they always made her feel and how easily and infuriatingly her thoughts could stray to Dan when she was with them. She’d tried not to think of Dan since her visit to Solomon. His name raised too many questions and aroused too many feelings. Dan equalled danger. For the moment, ending her marriage was the only goal. After tonight, that felt a little closer. But so did risk and harm. Perilously close. Nathan’s words were still vibrating in her head, You’re playing with fire, Naomi.
The day after her visit to Solomon, she’d been out and bought herself a car – a Nissan Micra. Nothing flashy. Siobhan was right. For safety, she needed one. She didn’t know where she was going to live when college began after the break. Nowhere felt secure anymore, not with Nathan on the prowl and Solomon lurking in the shadows with his many spies. Was there anything he didn’t know about her? You’re playing with fire, Naomi.
‘What’s on your mind?’
It took a while for Naomi to realise that Joel was speaking to her. She stared at him.
Annabel said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Where’ve you been tonight? You’ve been miles away since you got home.’
Naomi dragged herself into the present and tried to smile. ‘Just giving the new car a run out.’
The Darkness Visible Page 31