Sixx barked at him again, then bared his teeth, snarling.
‘Can you walk?’
‘What?’
‘Go up the stairs.’
He hesitated at first, but when Sixx barked at him again, saliva spattering the floor at his feet, he found the energy to make it to the stairs.
They followed after him.
When Sean stood at the top, she shoved him forward.
The house seemed to have taken on the air of something dark, unsettling.
Raja was now beside him, pointing ahead. He crossed through the utility room and into the vast white space that was the kitchen, the hub of the house, all surfaces gleaming.
He got to the sink, then turned to face her.
He heard the growl from Sixx coming up beside her. The Husky looked more wolf-like than usual with his sharp, yellowed teeth bared as he edged closer to him, closing the space between him and his wife, who looked almost unrecognisable as the woman he’d married.
He saw the tension in her upper body, shoulders hunched as her hands made fists at her sides. Her light-blue top clung to every inch of her body with the cold sweat that drenched her.
‘Raja?’ He took a step closer and Sixx snarled.
‘Stay where you are,’ Raja said.
‘I’m sorry, Raja. Please, this has gone far enough now.’
Sixx barked again.
He looked ready to strike at the first command. Sean’s eyes lowered to the dog, a sense of fear really starting to take hold of his body.
Raja sucked in a deep breath, then blew it out slowly, as if the next words out of her mouth would be hard to speak. ‘Do you remember the day we said our vows?’
Sean looked at her. ‘What?’ He paused. ‘Of course I do.’
He saw the remnants of dried tears on her pale face. Her blue eyes were bright, more prominent. ‘What I did,’ he said. ‘I am truly sorry.’ He stared at the bruising to her face, the colours radiating out from her broken nose as if it were the first time he’d seen the damage. ‘I don’t even remember doing this to you. It’s a blur.’
He took a step closer.
Sixx growled a warning and Sean stopped in his tracks.
A small smile pulled at the corner of Raja’s lips.
Sean felt fear dance up his spine like icy fingers. He swallowed hard and, in that moment, something in her eyes told him.
She knew his dirty little secret. She’d known for some time.
He sighed, heavy. ‘Di told you, didn’t she?’
‘She didn’t have to.’ She waited for him to say he was sorry. He didn’t. Wouldn’t or couldn’t, she wasn’t sure what was stopping him. ‘Di told me when you were meeting up with her… your little Skye.’
He flinched when she mentioned her name.
An eyebrow rose. ‘She was in our house, talking to me about fucking wallpaper samples, colour schemes, material, and all the time you were both… You really thought I’d never find out?’
He swallowed hard. ‘I was going-’
‘Going to tell me?’ she interrupted. ‘Going to tell the fragile little wife that it all meant nothing? That it was a mistake?’
‘It was,’ he said, walking closer to her. Sixx rushed forward, snapping his teeth, snarling. ‘Jesus!’ Sean said, jumping back. He looked at Raja. ‘Call him off before someone gets hurt!’
She stepped closer, then lowered her body until she was squatting next to the dog, and ran her fingers through his fur. ‘Shhhh,’ she soothed. Her eyes never left Sean’s and he began to sense something else was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
‘Raja. Tell me you haven’t done anything stupid, anything to her, to Skye?’
She smiled and retrieved her mobile from her jeans pocket. She tapped at the screen and extended her arm towards him, so he could see the photograph.
‘That was how Skye was doing the last time I saw her.’
Sean’s eyes narrowed, trying to make sense of the image he was seeing. Then all the blood, skin, lips, teeth and mass of blonde hair came into focus.
He gasped, as if his breath had been sucked out of him in one swoop.
‘No,’ he said, shaking his head. Tears began to brim in his eyes then, when he looked back at her. ‘You didn’t. Couldn’t?’
‘To your little whore, dear husband, yes I did,’ she said. ‘And I’d do it again and again, a thousand times over if it meant hurting you. Even then it wouldn’t come close to the hurt you’ve caused me.’
Sean felt his heart beat faster in his chest.
‘I saw you in our bed one time.’
Sean flinched, and closed his eyes as a tear rolled down his cheek.
‘She was moaning your name.’ Raja’s voice cracked, faltered as she spoke. ‘That same week, I found the key she gave you, to her place and I knew you’d been seeing her there too.’ She paused. ‘That key gave me the opportunity I’d been looking for.’
Sean understood what that meant. ‘No,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘I let myself in, and she came along with me and one of my dogs without much fuss.’
Sean opened his eyes, stared at her. She didn’t look like the woman he knew, the one he’d fallen in love with.
‘Her skin was easy to cut.’
‘Stop this!’
‘She thought she was pregnant, Sean!’
He avoided her eyes then. ‘She wasn’t sure if she was pregnant and, even if she was, it might not have been mine.’
She cocked her head to one side. ‘That’s all you have to say? In your defence? It might not have been yours?’
‘Raja, I never meant for it to happen, but you…’ He paused. ‘You stopped letting me anywhere near you in those months when we knew Knox would be up for parole, that he was likely to be rereleased.’
‘That’s your excuse?’ she said, indignant. ‘Skye was because you have needs?’
Sean looked at her, his head shaking, silently pleading with her, but he saw the true pain in her eyes.
‘What about my needs? I could never give you children; you said Laura was enough for you.’
‘She is.’
‘You might have got another woman pregnant,’ she spat.
Sean rounded on her, grief choking him. ‘And if she was, you killed her, and her baby!’
She shook her head, drowning out his words. If Skye had been pregnant, she’d have fought harder for her life. Raja knew that without any shadow of a doubt.
‘I’ll ask you again,’ she said. ‘Do you remember the day we married, our vows?’
‘Raja, please…’
‘Answer the fucking question!’
‘Yes!’
‘You remember our vows?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, clearly you don’t remember them as I do.’ She circled around the kitchen, Sixx close beside her. Sean edged away from her, realising too late that she was making sure he would be backed into a tight corner from this angle.
‘“Will you be faithful to her…”’ she began to recite.
Sean closed his eyes and felt his adrenaline start to kick in, despite the exhaustion in his limbs. ‘Raja…’ he said, his voice soft.
‘“I will!”’ she screamed, her face now glowing red in anger. ‘That’s what you said!’
Sean backed away from her when she grabbed a knife from its block on the island kitchen unit.
‘Raja, don’t be stupid!’ he said, but regretted it the instant he said it when he saw her face. He saw the knife moving in her trembling hand. ‘Honey, I didn’t mean that. It’s clear you’re under some pressure. I can help you.’
He eyed the dog as he spoke, willing him to stand down, and trying to defuse the events that were fast spiralling beyond all control.
He looked at the bruising around the bridge of her nose again.
What had really happened that day? What did he actually remember?
The sliver of memory he
did have started to come back to the forefront of his mind.
He knew he’d been wrong raising a hand to her, but in his heart he was so sure all he’d done – and that was bad enough – was strike her temple.
He had been drunk, but he had always been sure he’d never beat her black and bloody.
Never hit her so hard it broke her nose.
‘The day we argued…’ he said, watching her face.
He saw something register, flash in her eyes then. Her lips curled into a smile.
‘You did that,’ he said, pointing to her face. ‘Didn’t you?’ She didn’t react, just held his gaze. ‘Somehow,’ he said, brow furrowed, as he tried to see the real truth in it all for the first time, ‘you did that to yourself.’
Then
21st April
‘Stop it! I’m calling the police,’ she screamed at him, just as he turned on her and swung his fist, catching her in the side of the head.
The blow to her face sent her hurtling to the floor…
Raja landed hard on her shoulder, pain jarring her body and nearly knocking the wind from her.
She swallowed the urge to cry out, but she couldn’t stop the tears pricking at her eyes when she looked back at him.
He looked at her, open-mouthed. Then he saw the cut running through her left eyebrow. ‘My God, Raja, I’m so sorry,’ he said, as he scrambled to the floor beside her.
‘Keep away from me!’
Sean gripped her by the arms, his face so close to hers she could taste the sourness of him. ‘Let me see.’ He ran one hand through her hair, pushing it away from her face.
He saw the pain in her eyes, and deeply regretted lashing out. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. In all their years of marriage, despite any heated rows they’d had, he’d never, not even once contemplated, raising a hand to her.
Deep down he knew it was the guilt he felt inside. The guilt of sleeping with Skye that tore away at him. This, coupled with the alcohol and the fact that Raja had spoken to the press, threatened to turn him into something he feared.
Somebody he swore he’d never become.
Now he’d broken that promise to himself, and he felt deeply ashamed.
He went to kiss Raja’s face, but she avoided his mouth, arching her head away. She pushed his hands from her face. ‘Don’t touch me.’
‘Raja, please.’
She pushed herself up from the floor and ran to the hallway. He ran after her when he saw her make for the front door.
‘No! Raja!’
‘I’ll tell them. I’ll show the world what you did,’ she screamed as she fumbled with the catch on the door.
Strong arms gripped her body and she grabbed the first thing she could see.
The vase on the hall table.
She grabbed it and brought it down on his head as hard as she could.
Sean went down hard on his knees, his head reeling.
Raja paused; she couldn’t hear, as if all the sound had been sucked from the room. Then she heard the barking outside. She looked through to the kitchen. Sixx was snapping his teeth, breath and saliva misting up the glass in the door, as though he was something savage.
She ran for the door when Sean began to get himself back on his feet.
She let the dog back in. Sixx ran through the kitchen and cornered Sean in the hallway.
Still dazed, Sean paused, staring at the dog, then at her face when she emerged from the kitchen.
Raja knew. Deep inside, she’d kept the pain hidden about what he was doing with Skye Bradshaw. She’d tried to find a way, find something to hurt him as much as he’d hurt her.
It was then that an opportunity had presented itself.
‘Get down to the gym,’ she said, breathless.
Sean frowned. ‘What? Why?’
‘Sixx!’
The dog barked ferociously at him, ready to strike.
‘No, call him off!’ Sean screamed, fear in his eyes.
‘Get down the stairs then.’
He hesitated but only for a moment. Sixx looked like he would rip him to shreds with one wrong look.
He went first, through the kitchen and utility room, and down the stairs to the basement gym, Sixx and Raja behind him.
‘Sit there,’ she said, pointing to the changing area beyond the equipment.
He sat, but he didn’t want her to leave him, not like this. He didn’t trust her not to do something stupid. He certainly didn’t want her telling anyone about this.
He made to utter a protest but she gave him a warning look, her usually bright eyes now darker, and Sixx came up beside him, jaws mere inches from his face.
*
The cold, hard kitchen floor. There she sat for some time as she played the events that had just passed over and over in her head.
Sean was bound and gagged in the basement gym. Lights out. He hadn’t dared move when she’d bound him. Sixx had seen to that.
He now sat beside her, licking her face and whimpering as Raja stared at the empty space in the doorway where Sean had been, his face full of sorrow and deep regret.
How close she’d come to telling him she knew about Skye.
How close she’d come to telling him she’d seen them together, writhing around in her own bed as if she never existed.
A deep feeling of sickness began to rise inside Raja’s stomach. She clutched at her abdomen, remembering the text she’d seen on Sean’s phone from his little whore. She remembered the bitter sting of jealousy when Skye had told him she might be pregnant, and that, if she was, it was his child growing inside her.
Raja suppressed an urge to scream, to let go of all her torment and sadness at never having given Sean a child of their own.
She pushed herself from the floor, let Sixx out into the garden and then went to the hall. There she stood, in front of the full-length mirror, staring back at her reflection.
The redness from where he’d struck her was starting to fade.
Raja headed upstairs to their bedroom. She sat down at her dressing table and retrieved her mascara from her make-up bag. She applied the black colour to her eyelashes, then headed back downstairs.
In front of the mirror in the hall, she grabbed her top with both hands at the neckline and paused a moment. Then she ripped her hands in opposite directions with force until the fabric tore.
Then she headed back into the kitchen and threw the knife block to the floor, the blades scattering across the tiles. She swept her hand across the worktop, sending some drinking glasses to the floor.
Each glass broke into a mixture of large fragments and tiny shards.
Hesitating for only a brief moment, Raja raised her foot and sucked in a deep breath as she walked across the mess, no protection on her feet.
When she walked over the last shard of glass, she gasped, her breath stolen away, as the sharp edges cut through her skin.
Slowly she raised her right foot to inspect the underside.
It was bloody. As she lowered her foot again, a drop of blood hit the floor.
She then staggered across the kitchen as if she were trying to escape someone. To anyone inspecting the blood pattern she left in her wake, it would be reasonable to conclude she’d been trying to get away, protect herself from a scuffle.
When she reached the island unit in the middle of the room, she stopped.
She stared at the empty doorway to the kitchen. She gauged the distance from where she stood to the edge of the door frame.
She had to time it right and at the right angle.
When she was certain she had it right, she picked up the bottle of vodka beside her and twisted the cap off. She took a few large gulps, barely registering the burning sensation at the back of her throat.
She went to replace the bottle, but stopped short. She hurled it at the door frame instead, flinching a little as the bottle broke and clear liquid spread across the floor and ran down the door frame.
After a deep breath, she ran towards the frame, making sure she skidded in the mess.
She hit the floor hard before she scrambled to her feet.
Then, before she ran out of courage, she gripped the door frame with both hands to steady herself, and launched her face into it.
The force of the blow nearly knocked her out cold as her nose connected with the wood, cartilage crunching and blood spattering across the white paint.
She landed hard on the floor as a white-hot pain surged across her face. Tears began to well in her eyes when she risked touching her ruined nose.
Her nerves raced to life under her touch and she started to cry. Her nose was definitely broken and she could feel it swelling almost immediately. The pain in her foot from the broken glass paled in comparison to the throbbing that rushed through her face.
She managed to crawl towards the mirror in the hall on shaking hands and knees, blood dripping down her chin and onto the marbled floor.
When she reached the mirror, she stared at her face.
Sweat and tears had had the desired effect on her mascara. It now streaked in long, thick, black lines down her face, adding to her dishevelled look. Blood had poured from her nose and chin, staining her ripped top.
She looked perfect.
A victim of a husband’s alcohol-fuelled rage.
Despite the pain and the vivid colours of purple and blue beginning to appear around her nose, Raja smiled at her reflection. With bloodstained fingers she clutched at the telephone on the hall table next to the mirror.
She knocked the cordless phone from its cradle, her body shaking with shock.
She scrambled to pick it up, and pressed one number three times, blood smearing the button as planned and for effect.
When the operator’s voice answered her call, she pinched the bridge of her nose, making every cry of pain that emerged from her lips as believable as possible as she said, ‘Ambulance. Please come quickly… My husband, Sean, he… He attacked me…’
When the call ended a few minutes later, Raja allowed herself a small smile, then winced at the sting in her nose.
She leaned against the front door.
When the paramedics arrived, she’d make sure she fell at their feet after struggling to open the door through all her hurt and pain.
Trial by Execution Page 30