The Dead Dog Day

by Jackie Kabler

  It had been a struggle, deciding what to do with her, especially as he’d foolishly decided to get to know her first, and then found himself, somewhat to his surprise, far from immune to her charms. His affection for her had crept up on him, frightening him, making him wonder if he could actually do this, go through with his plan.

  Now, he looked at her, her eyelids still fluttering. Oh, shit. He closed his eyes, summoning up the image of his parents, his mother’s soft voice, his father’s gentle eyes, the wreckage of the plane, the pain of his childhood. The old fury bubbled up again, quietly at first, and then in a fierce torrent, and he opened his eyes and roared, just as she started to sit up, eyes wide with fear. He paused only for a second, looked at her, feeling nothing, his hands finally reaching for her throat, and starting to squeeze, and squeeze …

  CRASH. There was an immense noise behind him, a sound of splintering wood and smashing glass, but he was lost, fuelled by misery and anger and memories, squeezing, squeezing, listening to her gasping, oblivious to her hands clawing at him in terror, aware only that her life was ebbing away and that his could start again.

  ‘STOP! STOP!’

  The voice rang in his ears and then he was being dragged backwards, his hands being pulled from her throat, his body being flung to the ground, the room suddenly full of police officers and panic and noise.

  And Alice. Alice was choking, men lifting her up, telling her to breathe, telling her it was all going to be alright, that she was safe now. Alice, still alive.

  ‘I’ve failed,’ thought Benjamin, as his face was ground into the carpet, his hands yanked violently behind his back. ‘Mummy. I’ve failed you.’ And then the tears began, and he cried as if he might never stop.

  60

  In Cheltenham, Cora put down her fire extinguisher and laughed with relief.

  ‘How on earth did you get in? You scared me half to death!’

  Oliver, the neighbours’ cat, who’d sneaked in past her at the door as she’d arrived minutes earlier, stared at her with malevolent eyes and hissed. Cora hissed back.

  ‘And be more careful in future. That’s two ornaments you’ve knocked over there, you clumsy creature. Right, out!’

  She pointed at the door and Oliver, having found nothing of interest in the lounge anyway, slunk out of it and headed down the hallway. Cora saw him out of the front door and locked it firmly behind him.

  ‘What a day. Now – hot chocolate!’

  And once more, she limped towards the kitchen.

  61

  Thursday 12th April

  ‘I just can’t believe it, Cora. It’s like something out of a book. Or maybe even too far-fetched for a book. It’s insane.’

  Nicole, her hands cupping a virtually untouched mug of black coffee, shook her head and looked at Rosie, who was literally open-mouthed.

  Cora grinned. ‘Rosie, shut your mouth. And yes, I know, I can hardly believe it myself. Nobody can. I sure can pick ’em, eh?’

  Rosie, mouth now closed, exchanged a sympathetic look with Nicole.

  ‘You’ve still got us. And what about the hunky policeman? Any developments there?’ Rosie poked Cora in the arm.

  It was pouring with rain outside, the occasional crack of thunder rumbling in the distance. In Cora’s living room, the three of them were snuggled together on the sofa, the table in front of them laden as always with cakes. Rosie and Nicole had both left work early, desperate to hear every detail, but neither had expected the stupendous story they’d just heard.

  Cora poked Rosie back. ‘Stop it. It’s too soon. But …’

  She paused.

  ‘Well, maybe. He’s asked me out for a drink. We’ll see. He’s got a child, remember. Not really my type.’

  Nicole cackled. ‘Not really your type! He’s bloody gorgeous.’

  Cora smiled. Adam had been on every TV news programme during the day, as the showbiz world was rocked by the news that Benjamin Boland had been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Jeanette Kendrick and the attempted murder of Alice Lomas. And yes, the policeman had looked rather gorgeous, she must admit. She put down her mug and picked up a Danish pastry.

  ‘Anyway, he rang this afternoon, partly to suggest meeting up and partly to clear up a few things,’ she said, then paused to take a bite.

  She swallowed. ‘Benjamin has told the police absolutely everything, apparently. Admitted murdering Jeanette, and that he fully intended to kill Alice too. He had a key to her place apparently, even though they hadn’t been dating long, so he didn’t even need to break in. It was just so lucky that Adam recognised that picture of Alice as a child in that newspaper, and acted on a hunch and rushed round to her flat. She was in a picture of Guy Ferill’s family, and Adam says she was totally unmistakeable even as a small girl. He had her home address in the system of course – took all her details when she was questioned. Another minute or so and it would have been too late, he said. I’ve never much liked her, as you well know, but – bloody hell, I wouldn’t have wished that on her.’

  She closed her eyes for a moment, trying not to think about Benjamin’s hands around Alice’s throat, those hands that had been so gentle when they had been together, the hands that had done such wonderful things to her in bed. She shuddered and opened her eyes again.

  ‘And she’s pregnant, too. It would have been two lives he’d taken.’

  Rosie was looking horrified, hands instinctively moving protectively to her own bump.

  ‘Flipping heck, Cora. That poor girl.’

  The three of them fell silent, each lost in her own thoughts. Cora sipped her tea slowly, remembering the phone conversation she’d had with Adam earlier that day. One of the biggest of the dozens of questions she’d fired tearfully at him was why Benjamin had felt the need to date and sleep with Alice before attempting to murder her. It was something she couldn’t understand – why not just kill her, like he’d done with Jeanette?

  Adam, his voice full of kindness and sympathy, which had made Cora cry even more, had gently told her some of what Benjamin had explained to him, in what was apparently a full and open confession.

  ‘He was having some doubts, Cora, about whether he was ready to settle down. And in his clearly rather sick mind, he thought he might be able to kill two birds with one stone – excuse the pun, sorry, that was ill-judged – and have a bit of fun with Alice before he finished her off. It made sense to him, apparently, although he also said he felt terribly guilty about sleeping with her, when it was you he really cared about. Every time it happened, he felt sick afterwards, he says.’

  Adam filled her in on some of the details – how Benjamin had engineered a meeting with Alice in a club and asked her out, taking a gamble that as she and Cora weren’t exactly friends, Alice would be happy enough to date him behind her colleague’s back. How he’d put off the murder, using the newsreader to satisfy the sexual urges he still sometimes had, but then feeling disgusted at himself and terrified Cora would find out. How he wanted to pull off another perfect crime, biding his time. How he’d even tried to throw suspicion onto Alice herself.

  ‘So sneaky. Unbelievably sneaky,’ Cora said out loud.

  Rosie and Nicole turned to look at her.

  ‘Which bit?’ asked Nicole.

  ‘The recording.’

  Nicole nodded, and took a large bite out of her chocolate muffin. Rosie shook her head slowly and reached for a second slice of Victoria sponge.

  ‘He’s a clever one, that Boland,’ she mumbled through a mouthful of cake.

  Cora plucked a sultana from her pastry and popped it into her mouth. Clever indeed, she thought, remembering the recording of Alice that Benjamin had made on his mobile phone, Alice talking about feeling guilty about something bad she’d done.

  ‘According to Adam, who’s spoken to her again at length, she’s now admitted what she didn’t say when he first questioned her – that what she was actually feeling terribly guilty about was dating Benjamin behind my back. Same as when we overheard
her saying a similar thing in the café. And Benjamin knew that, of course. He just got lucky, realised he could use it to throw attention onto her. It certainly worked. I went straight to Adam with it, didn’t I? Dammit, I kept Benjamin fully up to date with the police investigation, for goodness’ sake. He knew exactly what was going on all the time.’

  She groaned.

  ‘Don’t beat yourself up, Cora. None of this is your fault. And maybe Alice isn’t as bad as you thought, eh? At least she felt guilty about what she was doing.’

  ‘Yes, I know. I’ve been thinking about her a lot, actually. I’m going to go and see her, try to clear the air. I’ve had enough of this stupid feuding – there are so many more important things in life. If I can take anything positive from all of this, it’s that life is short, too short for petty jealousy and bitchiness.’

  Cora stood up and walked to the window. The sky was almost black, the rain battering the pavement below. A lone pedestrian scurried past, umbrella half inside out, coat flapping. She sighed and turned back to her friends.

  ‘Oh, and the Chris thing? Pretty clear now that Jeanette was trying to tell the security guard she’d been attacked because of her father, Christian. He was never known as Chris though, according to her family – that’s why the name didn’t ring a bell for anyone. If it had, maybe the link to Benjamin would have been spotted sooner and …’

  She felt tears welling in her eyes again.

  ‘Oh, Cora. I’m so sorry.’ Nicole’s voice was gentle. ‘Jeanette was very badly injured, remember. It’s likely she was just trying to say something, anything, to get that message across. “Chris” was probably as much as she managed to say before she …’

  Cora nodded.

  ‘He’s still claiming he loves me, you know. Benjamin. Adam said that he’s saying it over and over again. “Tell Cora I love her. Tell her I would never have hurt her. It’s just something I had to do, to move on with my life, I was almost ready to commit to her for ever.” That sort of thing.’

  ‘Oh Cora. He probably did, you know. He was just so screwed up, so obsessed with his twisted revenge …’

  Rosie’s voice cracked slightly. She looked close to tears. Nicole leaned over and stroked her arm.

  Cora turned to stare out of the window again. Yes, he probably did love her, she thought numbly. What a waste. What a terrible, tragic waste.

  62

  Sunday 15th April

  Alice’s eyes looked distended, the lids pink and puffy; her make-up-free face was blotchy and streaked with tears, her nails chipped and broken. Propped against pillows in her hospital bed, she clutched the pink pashmina that was wrapped around her shoulders, and shivered. But it was her neck that Cora’s horrified eyes were drawn to over and over again, the livid bruising, the clear impressions of fingers etched onto delicate skin. She felt sick. Benjamin had done this. Those were Benjamin’s finger marks, the visible, horrible proof that he had tried to kill this woman. She shivered too, and dragged her eyes back to Alice’s.

  They’d been chatting for over an hour, hesitantly at first, both wary after years of professional enmity. But eventually, the barriers between them began to crumble slowly in the face of their shared trauma. Now, in this little, private, London hospital room, which smelled of a mixture of disinfectant and Chanel No5, Cora was actually holding Alice’s trembling hand. She allowed herself a small wry smile. Wendy and Sam would think they were seeing things – who would ever have thought it!

  ‘I was kept in the dark too, as a child,’ Alice was saying. ‘I was very young, and I knew my uncle had been killed in a plane crash, but no real details – not the fact they’d been drinking or anything. The family sort of fell apart after the accident. Everyone adored Uncle Guy so much, and without him all the fun seemed to go out of our lives - we’d all been so close before, but after he died everything changed. It was such a devastating time, it affected everybody, and although I never knew the specifics of what happened, I picked up on all the tension and unhappiness. It was horrible. I didn’t have a very happy childhood, not after that. But we and the Kendricks always kept in touch, so I knew Jeanette, and that’s why when I decided I wanted to work in TV, I came to her. It seems weird now that neither of us ever realised that Benjamin was the kid who lost his parents in the crash, but we really didn’t – it was one of those taboo subjects in both of our families, and as we grew up I think we both just sort of wanted to put it behind us.’

  Cora nodded. She could understand that. Alice shivered, even though the room was stiflingly warm.

  ‘And Jeanette – well, she helped me. She was so good to me, Cora. I know I’m not the brightest girl in the world, but she took a chance, she gave me the opportunity …’

  A sob wracked her frail body again and she slipped her hand out of Cora’s and fumbled on her bedside table for a tissue. She blew her nose noisily, then took a deep breath and continued.

  ‘That’s why I was so upset, when she died. I know everyone thought I was just being a stupid diva, but I was devastated. We were friends, you know? She was probably the only true friend I had, in all honesty. There are a couple of others, from school, who I keep in touch with – in fact, I was speaking to one of them on the phone, that time in the café when you overheard me, and again that time Benjamin recorded me. I assumed it was Agnes – you know, from Sportsworld? – who’d given that recording to the police, I feel bad about that now. That’s another person I need to apologise to. I rang her up and screamed abuse at her down the phone, she must have thought I’d gone crazy!’

  She managed a weak smile, and Cora smiled back. Alice sniffed and carried on talking, her voice hoarse.

  ‘But I really don’t have many friends, and I know it’s all my own fault. I’ve been so horrible to everyone at work, and I’ve hated myself for it, but once I started with that sort of bitch persona it just got harder and harder to stop. All I really have is my looks, Cora, I know that – I’m not clever like you, or like Sam or Wendy or anyone else there, and I’ve just felt so scared and insecure ever since I started the job. It just seemed easier to keep everyone at arm’s length, so nobody would know how out of my depth I was.’

  She paused again and cleared her throat.

  ‘So it ended up that in the last few years it was Jeanette I was closest to. We never let that be known, not at work, but we really were very close. And I know the way I was acting made the police suspicious of me, but I just couldn’t control it. Every time I walked into that newsroom, walked past her office, it hit me again. And the funeral was just horrific. It’s been terrible.’

  She stopped and wiped her eyes. Cora sat quietly, letting her compose herself. Poor Alice, she thought.

  Alice took a sip of water, slumped back on her pillows and stared at the ceiling.

  ‘So – I wasn’t myself, Cora. And I’m sorry, so sorry, for what I did to you. It was such an awful time, and Jeanette was gone, and then I was dumped by this guy I’d been seeing, and I was so desperate for someone to just hold me, and tell me everything would be alright. And you were nice to me, even though I didn’t deserve it, and I still couldn’t stop myself being a bitch. And then, after that day when I was being so nasty to you in the make-up room, and you ignored my question and walked out – do you remember …?’

  Cora nodded.

  ‘Well, it was just after that, that Benjamin came up to me, in that club. I knew he was your boyfriend, but I tried to justify it to myself, told myself you’d started being mean to me again so you deserved to be cheated on. I just went along with it. I deserve everything I got, Cora. I’m a horrible cow, and I deserve what happened to me.’

  ‘No!’ Cora said fiercely. She grabbed Alice’s hand again.

  ‘No, you don’t deserve what happened to you. Neither of us do. It was not my fault, it was not your fault, OK? Never say that again. It was him. All him. You remember that.’

  Alice’s eyes filled with tears once more.

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

&n
bsp; They sat in silence for a while. The room was filled with flowers, vases on every available surface, cards bearing messages of support and sympathy. At the end of the bed, the TV was showing an old episode of Columbo, the sound muted.

  ‘He knows now, that I’m pregnant,’ Alice said eventually.

  Cora looked up. ‘Benjamin does?’

  ‘Mmmm. That police officer told him. He said Benjamin was glad, then. Glad that he didn’t finish it. You know, kill me. He didn’t really ever want kids, but he told the police he’d never hurt one.’

  She paused and wiped her eyes again. ‘He told me, over and over again you know, that he didn’t love you. That he was going to finish with you, so we could be together. That’s why I thought it was OK for me to be with him. But when I saw his face, that day on the Embankment, when you caught us together, I knew the truth straight away. I could see it in his eyes when he looked at you. He did love you in his twisted way, Cora. Everything he said to me was a lie. Just to get close to me, so he could use me for his final fling sex games and then … kill me.’

  She lay back on her pillows and closed her eyes, looking suddenly exhausted.

  Cora nodded, her heart hurting. It was so dreadfully sad, all of it. Benjamin, the little boy whose life had fallen apart, who’d grown up to be so wonderful in so many ways, but with the secret pain, the pain which had turned into a sickness which would eventually destroy him. And all of them who’d been dragged into it with him … Jeanette, Alice, and Cora herself. Jeanette was gone, and the two who were left would never forget this, never really get over it, Cora knew that.

  She looked at Alice.

  ‘The baby – it’s OK?’

  Alice opened her eyes and smiled for the first time that day. ‘It’s OK. And yes, I know its dad is a killer, and that’s not going to be an easy conversation to have one day. But it’s the only good thing to come out of this horrible mess, Cora. I’m having it. And then it’ll be the two of us, and I won’t need anyone else. I’ll love it and protect it and care for it and everything will be alright.’