Emma Holden Mystery 03-The One You Fear

by Paul Pilkington

  ‘It had better be,’ Dan replied. ‘Otherwise the police are definitely going to want to speak with you again.’

  ‘I know, I know. But I swear, no more. I’m really sorry.’

  She didn’t know why, but Emma believed him.

  After Scott Goulding left, Emma paced up and down in the hallway, thinking about what had just been said. ‘Making a production about me, auditioning for the part of Stephen Myers, using a script – it’s got to be them, surely.’

  Dan nodded. Emma could see he was angry. ‘Firework Films.’

  15

  ‘Do you want me to call in sick?’ Dan asked. ‘I will do, if you want me to be around today. The guys can do without me for a day.’

  Emma shook her head. ‘No, you go in. I’ll be okay, honestly.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Definitely.’

  Dan didn’t look convinced. ‘Okay, but if anything happens, you’ve got to call me right away.’

  ‘I will. ’

  After Dan had left for the office, Emma called Lizzy and Will and explained what had happened. Will was preparing for the parachute jump, but Lizzy had a free day, so promised to call over later that morning.

  ‘How about we go to Firework Films, and have it out with them,’ Lizzy said during the call.

  But Emma explained that she and Dan had decided the best thing to do was walk away from the situation and move on.

  Emma changed into her jogging gear. She hadn’t been for a run since the trip to Cornwall, and now she longed to stretch her legs and push her body physically. The air was cooler than it had been lately, although it was still sunny. As she pounded down Marylebone High Street towards Regent’s Park, she considered the current situation. It did feel as if she had finally reached the light at the tunnel’s end. They had successfully smoked out the stalker, and revealed him to be far less threatening than they had all feared. And they’d uncovered the plot against them by the production company. They had taken these people on, and won. It felt good.

  Once in the park she stepped up the pace, powering past the other joggers and dog walkers, feeling her legs burn as she reached the summit of Primrose Hill. There she stopped and admired the view. It seemed a lifetime ago that David Sherborn, masquerading as Eric, had approached her at that very spot. Yet it was only a matter of weeks. Hands on her hips, she caught her breath. As she gazed at the London skyline, her thoughts turned to her father. He was out there, somewhere. She had every right to be angry with him, but she just felt sad. She pulled out her mobile and dialled his number once again. As with the other times, it went straight through to the answer service. ‘Dad, please come home. We’re not mad at you about anything. We just want you back here. I need you. The wedding is next week. I really want you to be there to give me away. You have to be there.’

  The lie about the wedding had been a spur-of-the-moment act designed to succeed where her past pleas had failed. But now she had said it, she longed for it to be true.

  Maybe once the wedding happened, the dream would stop.

  You really need to read this.

  Stuart Harris’s letter – it was still in her sock drawer. She exhaled and looked up towards the sky. Maybe she should read it. Setting off back down the hill, now running even faster than before, she was unable to shake the letter from her thoughts.

  ***

  ‘Hey,’ Lizzy smiled, as Emma answered the door. They hugged and Lizzy followed Emma through into the apartment. ‘I hope you’ve got the kettle on, because I’m parched.’

  ‘Just boiling now.’

  ‘So, how are you?’

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘I can’t believe Scott Goulding just turned up like that. Dan’s fake police call must have really spooked him.’

  ‘It did.’ Emma poured the boiling water into the teapot.

  ‘You think this is the end of it?’

  Emma nodded. ‘I think so. I think Scott’s days as a Stephen Myers impersonator are over. It sounds like he got caught up in something that got more serious than he expected. I believed him when he said he was sorry.’

  ‘To be honest, Em, I was so relieved when you told me who had been doing this, and why. It just made it all feel so much less sinister.’

  ‘I agree.’

  ‘You sure you’re okay?’ Lizzy quizzed. ‘You look like you’re worrying about something.’

  Emma smiled ruefully. ‘You know me too well. I nearly opened Stuart’s letter before.’

  ‘Oh, right. What stopped you?’

  ‘I don’t know. I guess maybe I’m scared of what it’s going to say.’

  ‘I can totally understand that. But you do want to open it, don’t you?’

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘Because I know that you did care about Stuart, and you wouldn’t want to deny him his chance to say goodbye.’

  Emma closed her eyes. ‘I feel as though if I do open it, I’d be cheating on Dan.’

  ‘But it wouldn’t be like that, Em.’

  ‘I know, but that’s how it feels.’

  ‘Then don’t open it. Let me do it. Where is it?’

  ‘On our bed.’

  Lizzy got up from the table.

  ‘Lizzy!’

  But she was already heading for the bedroom. ‘Now,’ she said, returning with the letter, ‘shall I open it?’

  After a second, Emma nodded.

  ‘This will be part of moving on,’ Lizzy said, sliding her finger under the seal. ‘Closing that chapter in your life and starting afresh.’

  Emma didn’t feel anything like certain about this. But Lizzy was right – if she didn’t open the letter, how would she ever truly be able to move on? There would always be that thought – what had Stuart said? And yes, deep down she did want to give Stuart his opportunity to say what he wanted to.

  Lizzy opened the envelope and pulled out a photograph. As she examined it, her forehead creasing, Emma read the handwritten message on the back.

  I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist! Just wanted to show you how happy my brother was with his fiancée Sally before you came back on the scene and ruined it all.

  Fiancée? Stuart hadn’t told her about that.

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ Lizzy said, still examining the photo. ‘Tell me that’s not who I think it is.’ She passed it to Emma. Stuart was smiling at the camera, his arm around a girl, who was also smiling broadly.

  It was Sally – Stuart’s fiancée.

  But they knew her under a different name: Amy, Will’s new girlfriend.

  PART FOUR

  16

  Will took a gulp from his second coffee of the day, before walking into the bathroom and looking in the mirror. ‘You can do this, you can do it.’ He didn’t feel entirely convinced. In fact, first thing that morning he had nearly called Amy to postpone the jump. He’d thought up some pathetic excuse – he was feeling slightly unwell, so it was best to wait until he was a hundred percent. But ultimately he’d resisted calling her, and instead tried some self-motivational techniques he’d once read in a magazine in the dentist’s waiting room. It was now twelve thirty. Amy would be arriving in half an hour to drive them to the airfield. Then there would be no going back. Amy would offer him a get-out, that was certain, but he wouldn’t be able to take it. He spent the next twenty-five minutes listening to his favourite rock tracks, turning the volume up so loud that at first he didn’t hear Amy’s knock. When he realised, he scrambled for the volume control and raced towards the door.

  ‘Hey,’ Amy said with a smile. ‘I thought you were ignoring me.’

  ‘No, no, of course not.’ Will felt much more out of breath than he should have been.

  ‘So, are you ready?’

  He swallowed his nerves. ‘Yes, I’m ready.’

  ***

  ‘I don’t understand this,’ Emma said, staring at the photograph. ‘The girl Will is going out with was Stuart’s fiancée? And she’s pretending to be someone else?’

 
‘Are we sure it’s the same person?’

  The question had to be asked, but it was clear – the girl in the photograph was the same girl whom Will was dating. Although Amy had been going out with Will for only a few weeks, Emma had met her on three occasions, and Lizzy had seen her twice. And there was no mistaking her. ‘We both know it’s her, don’t we?’

  Lizzy nodded. ‘Then what do we do?’

  Emma shook her head. What was all this about? ‘Well, we’ve got to tell Will, of course. But I’ve got to tell him in the right way. You know how he feels about her – he’s in love. The other day he told me she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him. So it’s going to devastate him when he finds out who she really is, and that she’s been lying.’

  ‘I know. I just don’t get it, Em. What is this woman doing? What’s her agenda?’

  ‘I’ve got no idea, but I know someone who might be able to shed some light on it all.’

  ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘Charlotte, Stuart’s sister.’

  ‘So we speak with her first, and then decide how to break the news to Will?’

  ‘I think it’s all we can do. We need to try and find out more about who she is before we do anything else.’

  ‘But Charlotte Harris – she’s not exactly on friendly terms with you. What she did – giving you the photograph, pretending it was from Stuart, and the thing she wrote on the back – it was pretty nasty. She might refuse to talk to us.’

  ‘She might, but I don’t think so. I think she wants to tell me more, for me to ask about what happened. Maybe the photograph was bait.’

  ‘You think she knows that this girl is seeing Will?’

  ‘No idea, but we need to find out.’

  ***

  ‘I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist opening the letter.’ Charlotte Harris took a seat opposite Emma and Lizzy in the same café where they’d met the previous day. Emma had been right – she was more than happy to meet with them – and just an hour after the initial call, here they were face to face.

  Emma looked at her closely. She was trying to look triumphant, but behind that bravado Emma could sense something else – sadness, possibly. This might explain why she looked so much older than her years. Her face seemed tense, her eyes reddened.

  ‘Why did you do it, Charlotte?’ asked Emma.

  ‘As I said,’ said Charlotte slowly, ‘I wanted you to know how happy my brother was before you came back on the scene.’

  ‘You make it sound like it was my decision to come back into Stuart’s life. But it wasn’t. It was the other way around.’

  Charlotte looked affronted. ‘You led him on.’

  ‘I didn’t. I explained to you last time we met, I didn’t lead him on.’

  Again, this didn’t look like the answer Charlotte wanted to hear.

  ‘He didn’t tell me that he was engaged,’ Emma insisted. ‘He mentioned he’d been seeing somebody, but he made out that it wasn’t serious.’

  Charlotte snorted. ‘Wasn’t serious? They were due to get married today!’

  Emma was stunned. ‘What? Today was supposed to be their wedding day?’

  ‘Yes. It had been planned for almost two years. So all that time you were with Stuart, Sally was looking forward to what should have been the best day of her life. When Stuart died it totally devastated her. It’s devastated us all, but for her it’s worse – Stuart was her future. And that died too, along with my brother. Now she feels like she has nothing to live for.’

  ‘I’m really sorry for her. I am.’

  ‘Two days after Stuart died, she tried to take an overdose. The only reason she didn’t die is because I happened to come around to her flat and find her just a few minutes after she’d taken the tablets. The hospital staff saved her.’

  Emma thought back to the girl that Will had introduced them to. The confident, energetic, happy girl called Amy. She didn’t bear any resemblance to Sally. For a second it made her question again whether the two girls were indeed the same person. But there was no doubt. It was time to ask the question. ‘Do you know that Sally is dating my brother?’

  Charlotte looked genuinely shocked, and then disbelieving. ‘You’re lying.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘It’s true,’ Lizzy added. ‘The girl in the photograph with Stuart, she’s the girl that Will is going out with.’

  Charlotte was silent.

  ‘She said her name was Amy,’ Emma continued. ‘None of us had any idea who she really was until we saw the photograph this morning.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Charlotte finally. ‘She did have a sister called Amy, but she died when she was a baby. Why would she…’

  ‘We thought you might know,’ Emma said. ‘We thought you might be able to explain what was going on.’

  Charlotte put a hand to her head. ‘Why would she date your brother, why…?’

  Emma tried a different tact. ‘Tell me about Sally. She said to Will that she’s a sports teacher at a comprehensive school, is that right?’

  ‘Yes, yes, that’s right.’

  ‘And she’s very adventurous – travelling, skydiving, things like that.’

  ‘Yes, she is. For their honeymoon, they were going to Nepal, trekking in the mountains; it was going to be wonderful – a real adventure. Stuart had been really looking forward to it.’

  ‘How did they meet?’

  ‘At a screenwriting course. Stuart wanted to expand his options, you know, from just acting to working more behind the scenes, too.’

  A sickening realisation hit Emma. She sensed that Lizzy had the same thought. ‘Sally is a screenwriter?’

  ‘She’s had a few things on the radio – plays and sketches. But she always wanted to go into television and film. It just hasn’t happened for her yet.’

  They sent me the script.

  Sally wrote scripts.

  Emma turned to Lizzy. ‘She knew we were going to Cornwall. I mentioned it one day when we were all together. And the trip to Windsor, Will knew about that and he probably told her. She told Scott Goulding where to go.’

  ‘What’s going on?’ Charlotte asked. ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘I’m only beginning to understand it myself. We need to call Will.’

  She pulled the mobile out of her pocket, but before she could dial Will, it rang. She didn’t recognise the number.

  ‘Emma. It’s Scott Goulding. This morning I got an email from the person, and I really thought I needed to tell you about it. The message is really weird.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘They thanked me for my work, but said they would no longer require my services because I’m not involved in the final scene, a double suicide, which is being shot today. That’s all that the message said.’

  Emma cut off the call, waves of sickness swelling and rolling inside her. This time she did dial Will.

  Lizzy saw the horror in her friend’s face. ‘What is it, Em? What’s happened?’

  Will wasn’t answering. ‘It’s Will,’ she said. ‘I think she’s planning to kill him.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The tandem parachute jump. I think she’s planning to commit suicide, and take Will with her.’

  17

  ‘How are you feeling?’ Amy asked, as they approached the airfield. ‘Are you still sure you want to go through with this?’

  Will was staring out of the window, looking at the strip of tarmac that would be their launching point. He’d felt better, but Amy’s relaxed manner helped to contain his nerves. After all, he would be strapped to her the whole time – she was the one who would be dictating everything – the timing and execution of the jump, the opening of the parachute, the direction of their descent, and the landing. All he had to do is enjoy the ride. ‘I’m fine,’ he said eventually. ‘I still want to do it.’

  ‘Good, that’s good.’

  Will thought about sending a text message to Emma. Not really a goodbye message, but you never knew, did you? Bu
t he couldn’t find his mobile. He must have left it at home.

  They turned left through the entrance and up the main driveway to a small car park, where only three other vehicles were parked. The airfield wasn’t much more than the take-off and landing area. Will could see only a single plane – a flimsy-looking craft that didn’t fill him with confidence. There was a small prefabricated building in front of them, which looked like something from a prisoner-of-war camp.

  ‘That’s where the briefing room is,’ Amy explained, yanking up the handbrake. ‘There are also changing rooms and toilets.’

  ‘I’ll need the toilets, probably more than once,’ Will joked as he undid his seat belt. The next strap that would be wrapped around him wouldn’t be so familiar.

  He expected Amy to laugh, but she didn’t.

  ‘You ready then?’ she asked.

  Suddenly she seemed so serious. But that was probably a good thing. If you were going to put your life in the hands of someone else, surely it was better if that person was taking things seriously and being professional about it all.

  Inside the building they were greeted by a tall well-built man about Will’s age. ‘This is Harvey,’ Amy said. ‘He’ll be flying the plane.’

  ‘Pleased to meet you.’ Harvey held out a large hand.

  ‘You too.’ Will’s hand was shaking as he brought it up to greet him.

  ‘So I hear this is your first time doing a jump?’

  Will nodded.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Harvey said, ‘it’ll be absolutely fine. You’re in safe hands, I promise. I’ve been doing this for years, and my colleague here, she’s a fantastic instructor and jumper.’

  ‘Good, that’s good.’

  For the next fifteen minutes, Amy talked Will through the pre-jump training. Again, her professional persona had taken over, and there was no room for informal chat. They covered all the necessary issues, which most importantly included how to touch down safely. It was the one part of the jump where Will had to ensure that he positioned himself correctly, rather than merely relying on Amy. She also talked him through exactly what would happen, in what order, from take-off to landing. There would be no surprises.