Until her dying day, if anything happened to Scarlett, she’d never forgive him.
He’d gone off to spend the night in a B&B, according to Colleen, and as far as Joanie was concerned the bastard could stay there.
‘Come on then, I’ll come up with you,’ Bridget offered, holding out her arm.
And without so much as a protest Joanie took it, still unsteady on her feet.
Glad of the help and the company.
‘I’ll make some tea,’ Colleen called after Bridget, as the woman led Joanie out of the room.
Colleen looked around her then.
Overwhelmed by feelings of utter despair. She didn’t know what to do with herself.
Picking up the cups, she began cleaning up the kitchen, anything to keep her mind off what was going on around her.
The madness of it all.
Placing all the cups in the sink, as she filled it with hot soapy water.
Glad of a few minutes alone. The peace and quiet.
She glanced at the door and, checking that the coast was clear, she opened the pantry. Reaching up to the top shelf for Michael’s secret stash of malt whiskey.
Unscrewing the cap, she took a huge swig.
Gulping the liquid down, resisting the burn.
Placing the bottle back up on the shelf, she waited.
For something. Anything. To happen.
That warmth, that heat.
But the alcohol wasn’t touching her tonight. Not anywhere near.
She was too numb for even that.
They all were.
Forty-One
Sitting on the wet muddy riverbank, as the rain lashed down around him now, Daniel stared straight ahead. Looking further down the river. Way off into the distance, his eyes fixed on the silhouettes of unlit objects – barges and low footbridges.
He sat still, as if in a trance. An eerie silence all around him. Broken only by the sound of lapping water and the heavy downpour of thick heavy rain. The droplets hitting the water’s surface, sending large ripples circling outwards. The rhythmic motions mesmerising to watch.
He was crying, he realised, as a low strained screech escaped his mouth from somewhere deep at the back of his throat.
Looking down into the murky water.
The deep, dark depths of the Thames.
What had he been thinking?
Killing a child? A little kid. His niece.
He leant over then, throwing himself onto the wet grass beneath him. Vomiting violently until there was nothing left inside him. Just the remnants of hot bile burning at the back of his throat as he dry-heaved.
All he could think about now was Nancy, and how much he hated her.
For everything she’d done to him. For everything that she was and that he would never be.
She deserved to suffer. Isn’t that what he kept telling himself all evening? His mantra tonight, to help him justify his sick and twisted actions.
That his sister deserved to feel pain, so acute, so soul-destroying that she’ll never be the same again. Just as she had done to him.
That Nancy should have everything taken from her that she ever gave a shit about. That she should have her entire world ripped out from beneath her. That Daniel should be the one to do it to her.
Her and that two-faced hypocrite, Jack.
Spitting a mouthful of acidic saliva out, Daniel tried to get rid of the nasty taste that lingered in his mouth.
DI Jack Taylor. The bent copper, the family confidante. The snake.
It was ingenious really; Daniel was actually impressed. The fact that the bloke had managed to get Nancy up the duff. That he’d wormed his way so tightly into the family, securing his place there.
It was all so fucked up and twisted that it was almost hysterical.
The funniest thing of all was that Nancy didn’t have a clue.
His poor, naive, pathetic sister.
Jack had been there that night. The night that Daniel had killed their father. Jack had taken a cut of the money too, in return for his silence.
His dad’s very own best mate, the bent copper. Everyone had their price it seemed, even Jack.
He’d duped Nancy the night of their dad’s funeral too. When Nancy had been attacked.
How clever she thought she was, when, all along, it was Jack who had set that up, to stop Nancy from getting any closer to the truth.
To stop her from digging any further into what had happened. Jack had done that to save his own arse. Because she’d got close to finding out everything, and then she would have found out that he had been involved too.
And then he’d only gone and impregnated her. It was impressive, Daniel had to give the man that.
The lengths that Jack would go to, to save himself from being caught out. To get what he wanted.
And now, he was there, with all of them.
The Byrne clan. Playing happy families. The doting father. The loyal partner to Nancy. When the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
Daniel laughed, wiping the tears that poured down his cheeks, his mood lifting slightly.
Nancy had got her comeuppance already, and the ironic thing about it all was that the stupid bitch had no fucking clue about it.
He looked at the river’s surface once more, noting how the rain was easing off. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting here. Just staring into space. Trying to slow his racing mind.
The water’s erratic movements becoming suddenly still as the rain gradually began to stop.
He wondered how deep the riverbed went, what else was down there tangled amongst the reeds and rubbish and God knows what.
What other secrets the river kept from the world, left for dead, floating in the waters with all the sewage and discarded waste.
He shivered. It was time to get going. Daniel got to his feet, wiped the mud off his hands. Smearing it down his trousers.
Noting the blood. Congealed now, all down his arm.
He wiped that too, only it had dried already. Stained his skin.
The jagged cut from the sharp rugged tree branch that stuck out of the water. He’d scraped his skin along it when he’d reached out into the water. His hands desperately clutching at the bright pink coat.
As he hauled Scarlett back out of the water.
Full of regret and remorse at what he’d been thinking of doing.
He turned to her then.
The child. Sitting there silently just a few feet further down from him on the riverbank.
Freezing cold. Her clothes soaked through, stuck to her.
Her eyes staring at the river. Those same piercing green eyes that mirrored Nancy’s.
Her trembling lips, an icy shade of blue.
She’d gone into shock, he realised. Her whole body jolting, shaking violently.
Walking over to her, he took off his jacket and wrapped it around the child, scooping her up in his arms. Holding her to him. Close now.
Out of necessity, not love.
He only wanted to warm her up. To keep her alive.
Walking back down towards the footbridge then. Back towards Richmond.
Tonight his lesson well and truly learned, he thought, as he took the steps of the bridge one by one. Looking out across the London skyline.
A thousand twinkling lights all sparkling under a thick blanket of darkness.
And as much as he hated his sister, as much as he wanted her to pay for what she’d done, even Daniel Byrne had his limits.
He might be a lot of things, but a child killer wasn’t one of them.
Forty-Two
Washing up the cups, Colleen Byrne placed them down on the draining board. Glad to make use of herself tonight; she had a feeling it was going to be a long one.
Staring out of the window, into the courtyard at the back of the house, she was lost in her thoughts.
There was no point in going home now.
She wouldn’t get any sleep tonight, and as much as deep down she wanted to, she’d
only drink herself into a coma.
She couldn’t do that. Not tonight of all nights. Nancy would never forgive her.
She needed to stay busy, to keep her head, in case Nancy called with news of Scarlett.
She needed to put her daughter and granddaughter first today.
But all this waiting around, feeling useless, was killing her.
About to put the kettle on and make herself and Bridget a pot of tea, she leaned closer to the window, peering out into the blackened courtyard, and staring at the doorway on the side of the garage.
Open now?
It hadn’t been a minute ago, she was sure of it.
Or was she?
That big glug of whiskey she’d just knocked back a few minutes earlier and all the worry and drama of today had left her feeling emotionally and mentally exhausted. Still, with everything that was going on right now, they all needed to be vigilant.
Colleen stared into the darkness as if someone would suddenly just jump out and reveal themselves.
Of course they didn’t though. There was no one there. Backing away, berating herself for being so paranoid, she stopped dead still as she caught a movement out of the side of her eye.
A quick flash of white.
Inside the garage. She was sure of it now.
‘For fuck sake!’ Colleen said, shaking her head annoyed then as she realised what was going on.
It was that family liaison officer from earlier.
It had to be. The cheeky beggar. He’d said that he was going to have a wander around the house, and check that everything was secure. But Colleen knew what he was really up to.
Typical Old Bill. Only that lot would stoop so low as to take the opportunity of Scarlett going missing, so that they could have a snoop around their home, and poke their nose in with things that didn’t concern them.
The plod really were the fucking pits.
Always looking for something to catch Nancy out with. Just like they’d done with Jimmy for all those years. Hounding this family, even now. Today of all days when her child had gone missing.
Incensed that they’d be trailing through all of their personal belongings, at a time like this, Colleen wiped her hands down the front of the apron she’d put on, ready to go out there and give the nosey bastard copper a piece of her mind.
And she’d make sure Jack did too, when he finally got wind of this.
Marching out across the courtyard, Colleen stepped inside the garage.
‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing, snooping around in here?’ she said, met with only darkness.
She reached up to switch on the light, but the place still stayed in darkness, the bulb blown, she realised. She couldn’t see very much, the only sliver of light streaming in from one of the courtyard’s lights outside the back door.
There was nobody here, just the highlighted silhouette of Jimmy’s beloved Bentley parked up in the middle of the garage floor, still covered with a dust sheet. Jimmy’s pride and joy, that none of them could bear to drive, nor sell since his death.
Other than that, the garage was empty.
Silly old fool, she thought to herself as she realised that she was imagining things now. That maybe the garage’s side door had been open all along.
She was getting as crazy as Joanie. Turning to leave, Colleen reached the door, just as a movement to her left caught her eye.
Something lurking in the shadows in the corner of the room.
A figure.
‘Michael?’ she said, turning to look and catching his build. ‘Jesus, Michael. You gave me some fright. Skulking around in here, just because Joanie’s banished you from the house. And with good reason too, I hasten to add. I thought you were staying down the road at a B&B?’
Only Michael didn’t answer. Instead the man stepped forward.
Closer now.
A hooded jumper covering his features.
Until he turned to face her, the light from the courtyard trickling in through the window.
Lighting up a distorted, scarred face so damaged and scarred that Colleen opened her mouth, ready to scream for help.
Stopping in her tracks the second that she heard the sound of his familiar voice.
‘It’s all right, Mum! It’s me.’
‘Daniel?’ she said then, her voice thick with emotion ‘Son? Is it really you?’
But she knew, without a doubt, that it really was. Daniel. Her Daniel was home.
Colleen stared at Daniel’s disfigured face. The thick scar tissue that replaced the perfect complexion he once had. The patch covering his left eye. The awkward limp as he walked towards her.
It didn’t look anything like Daniel, but it was him.
Her child, her boy.
She had missed him so much over the past five years that it had physically pained her.
‘Daniel?’ she said, overcome with emotion. So happy to see her son here in front of her, in the flesh. After all these years. Though he didn’t look well. He didn’t look well at all. ‘What happened to you, son?’
Even with his hood up, in the dimly lit room, Colleen could see that whatever injuries had been inflicted upon him were catastrophic.
He was unrecognisable, even to his own mother.
‘Nancy,’ Daniel said, then. No longer willing to cover things up or soften the blow for his sister. His mother needed to hear the truth tonight.
All of it.
No matter what the outcome.
‘Your darling daughter did this to me. Or at least, she handed me over to someone else to do her dirty work for her,’ Daniel said, no real emotion in his voice.
He’d lived with this knowledge for long enough now that it almost sounded matter-of-fact. It was long overdue that his mother knew it too.
‘No. Not Nancy. She couldn’t. I mean, she wouldn’t…’ Colleen said, shaking her head. Not wanting to believe what Daniel was saying was true.
That one of her children could inflict so much pain on the other.
That they were capable of hating each other so much.
‘But Jack? He said you had gone travelling around the world. He tracked you down. To Ibiza. He said he’d found some transactions from your bank cards. That he’d seen footage of you on camera?’
‘Did you see the footage?’
‘Well, no…’ Colleen said. ‘But he said. He told us all…’
She trailed off as she realised how foolish she’d been, simply taking Jack’s word for it. But why would she have questioned him? Jack had no reason to lie.
‘He’s in it with her, Mum. They both wanted rid of me. Nancy, for what I did to Dad…’ Daniel paused then, waiting to see the shock on her face, the realisation of what he was admitting. ‘But then, you already knew that, didn’t you, Mum?! Seeing as you were the one that initiated it. That night of Nan Edel’s funeral. When you got so drunk that I had to take you up to your room. Do you remember? You told me everything about Dad then. The truth. About all the terrible things he’d done. To you. To me. To all of us. All of his lies.’
Daniel spat.
Colleen shook her head. Straining to remember, to think.
Her mother’s funeral had been the most heart-rending day of her life, and of course, Colleen had ended up getting blind drunk. Stuck in the house with Jimmy and Joanie glaring at her. Whispering about her. Her own kids then too, Nancy and Daniel, who had barely bothered to go near her all day.
She’d lost it.
Shouting and screaming in front of all of their so-called friends and family.
And Daniel had helped her.
He’d walked her from the room, Colleen remembered, because for once he seemed to be genuinely looking out for her. An act so kind, so compassionate, just when Colleen had needed it most.
She couldn’t remember much else then.
Only that when she had woken, Daniel had gone. But he’d always seemed softer towards her after that night.
‘You told me you wanted him dead. You poured your heart out
to me. Telling me all about what he’d done on your wedding night. About the men he’d been with behind your back. You asked me to kill him. Surely you remember telling me that?’
Colleen shook her head. As if trying to shake the memory out of it, but she couldn’t hide it anymore.
She thought she’d dreamt it. Really she did, up until this moment, when Daniel was finally saying it out loud. Colleen honestly thought she’d dreamt it all.
But she had asked Daniel to do it. That’s how desperate she had been. That’s how much she’d hated Jimmy.
The man who had broken her completely, who had taken everything that meant something to her in her life and turned it into crap.
When Jimmy had died, Colleen had just known that it was her son that had pulled the trigger. She’d always known.
Because she’d given the order.
‘I did it for you, Mum. And for me. For how he always treated me. With such contempt. As if he couldn’t stand the sight of me. Irony huh? Look at the state of me now. Now nobody can.’
Colleen was crying then, heart sorry for the mess that her family were in.
They were all just one great big fuck-up, the lot of them.
And she’d caused it all. Playing them off against each other, using Daniel as a muse, she’d known how vulnerable he had been back then. How unstable he was.
She knew because he reminded her so much of herself.
Weak, and easily manipulated.
How she used to be.
‘Nancy left me for dead. She did this to me.’
‘I’m sorry, Daniel.’ Not knowing what else she could say, what could make any of this better. Nothing could. Colleen knew that now.
‘I don’t want to hear it, Mum.’ Daniel shook his head.
He meant it too.
He wasn’t here for sympathy, or an apology.
Tonight he was cutting himself free.
He was done with this family, done with them all.
‘You need to know that Jack was part of it,’ Daniel said then, needing to get everything off his chest. To unburden himself by telling his mother the truth.
‘Your trusted police officer was hiding away, watching, when I pulled the trigger that night. He was happy to take half the money from me too. Blood money.’
The Forgotten_An absolutely gripping, gritty thriller novel Page 28