by Edie Baylis
Jane had sent those letters. Jane had been faking threats to her own son and was behind the scam with her daughter!
Jane had planned the whole thing. She’d led them on this wild goose chase to find a daughter she’d known wasn’t theirs. She’d got that bloke - whoever he was, to pose as Mulligan and she’d probably had something to do with Lacey disappearing too... Oh fuck. She was a bloody good actress! What the hell...?
Seth glared at Jane, watching her flick through the paperwork with a puzzled expression. Nice try Jane, he thought. You won’t get out of this one...
“You need help,” Seth muttered. “You need to see someone.”
“Wait!” Jane cried, suddenly realising what she was being accused of. “You actually think I did this?”
Seth laughed sarcastically. “Funnily enough, yes.”
“I don’t believe this!” Jane yelled, throwing the folder on the kitchen table and moved to leave the room.
Leaping up from the table like a panther, Seth caught hold of Jane’s arm, quickly swinging her around to face him. “I don’t think so,” he snorted. “I fucking killed a man for this last night and all along it was YOU! Pretending this was all to do with some crazy conspiracy theory about people using young girls in brothels and all that bullshit!”
He gripped Jane’s face. “You’re actually that deranged to set out all this bollocks about Grace too?” he raged. “Who the fuck was it? Who the fuck was the bloke you paid to impersonate Mulligan?”
Jane couldn’t comprehend any of this. “What?”
“The pretend Mulligan? Who the fuck was it? I’ll kill him. That is, after I’ve killed you!” Seth spat. Suddenly another realisation seeped into his brain. “Oh my God! The adoption! Who’s really adopting Grace? You clearly know and have set this up from the off haven’t you? You’ve done all this so we can’t get her back! Feel guilty do you?”
“If you couldn’t cope with getting your daughter back after you let her go in the first place, then you should have said you crazy pathetic attention-seeking bitch!” He raked his hand through his hair once more. “Oh my God! I still can’t believe you’ve done this!”
Tears welled up in Jane’s eyes. “Seth I haven’t! It’s not me! You’ve got to believe that!”
“What sparked this off? Have you been lashing out at everyone around you because you can?” Seth raged, his face inches from hers. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”
“NO!”
“Ah, so you’re admitting it was to do with something then? Well what the fuck is it? I knew you were crazy. Just knew it! Getting back with me was to set me up once and for all - for what happened in the past, yes? It all makes sense now.”
He walked over and grasped Jane by her shoulders. “You’ve been too quiet and nice all along – it’s just not like you. You’ve never been emotional and then suddenly you’re telling me you love me, we get married, have Toby... Oh fuck, I expect that was an accident as well yeah?”
“How dare you!” Jane screamed. “You’re the crazy one if you think any of this is true!”
Seth laughed hollowly. “Oh God, I’ve been so stupid. So fucking stupid... Then there was all that paranoid shit. The shit about me and Lacey? The phone calls? None of it happened did it? Just admit it!”
“How can I admit it?” Jane screamed. “It’s not fucking true! I can’t believe you’d actually think this is down to me.” How could he? How could he think she’d do this?
“Do you know what?” Seth stared into Jane’s eyes, his gaze cold as ice. “You could do with a hard slap!”
Jane bit back the tears burning in the back of her eyes. “Seth, how could you th...”
“It’s probably a good job Grace is being adopted – although I wouldn’t trust who you’ve set up to do that. And I’ll be stopping it!” Seth placed his large hands either side of Jane’s face. “You don’t deserve Grace and neither do you deserve Toby. You deserve fuck all! I want to wring your goddamn neck!”
“You bastard!” Jane screeched, punching Seth squarely on his jaw. “You’re not listening to me!”
Seth wiped the blood from his cut lip irritably. “Christ Jane, you need to see someone and I’m going to make sure that happens.”
“You’re the one that’s crazy Seth. For thinking any of this in the first place!”
“You need a fucking doctor Jane!” Seth roared.
Jane lurched forward, her fists beating against Seth’s chest. “Don’t you dare! I’m not mad! I don’t need a fucking doctor!”
Seth sneered at his wife. He couldn’t deal with this. “Oh yes you do. By God Jane, you sure as fucking hell do. And you’d best not stop me getting you sectioned because otherwise I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”
EVEN THOUGH HE’D APOLOGIZED several times, Aiden had been getting daggers from the barmaid who he’d had to bin off the other night and she was showing no signs of budging. She had a face like a fucking slapped arse every time she looked at him.
After a couple of hours it was obvious he wasn’t going to get anywhere with her and unlike most women, she’d actually meant it when she’d said he wouldn’t get another chance. Her loss at the end of the day...
All was not lost. There was a tasty little brunette with big tits who’d been giving him the eye half the night and she’d happily accepted a drink off him. Now seated with her at a table, Aiden had been putting pints down his neck and his usual charm and bravado was on top form.
He winked at the brunette and casually squeezed her thigh under the table. As long as Anna didn’t suddenly show up in some kind of horrible twist of fate, then he was on to a winner.
Deciding he’d happily forget about the barmaid now he had this nice little stunner’s interest, he sauntered back to the bar to get his new acquaintance another drink.
JASON MILLER DIDN’T LIKE showing his face around the backwoods of town – it gave the wrong impression, but he hadn’t a lot of choice.
Five crummy dumps he’d been round looking for Aiden Barber and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. He’d begun to wonder whether his staff were taking the piss judging by the list of pubs they’d compiled where they thought Alan’s brother could be found.
Jason had garnered a hefty collection of strange looks as he and Tom had got out of the back of his saloon with the blacked-out windows when it had pulled up outside the front of these dives.
He’d also noticed the uncomfortable silence which had descended when he’d walked in with the larger man trailing two paces behind him. The rollup-smoking collection of drongos had all but virtually chucked their pints of Stella down their football tops in shock.
He hated these type of places and the deadbeats within them. Jason sneered. This was why he ran a classy joint, rather than a dump and probably why Seth Wright felt at home in these sort of joints. The man might have the posh club and expensive house now, but it was no secret where he’d come from.
Whichever way he looked at it, he was right to pull his association with the Wrights. Especially now they psycho had wiped out one of his staff, if not two. The more he thought about it, the more likely it was that Wright was behind that despicable attack on Billie-Jo.
Jason glanced up at the forlorn façade of the pub they’d pulled up outside of, thankful this one was the last on the list. If Barber’s brother wasn’t in here, then that was it. He wasn’t prepared to do anything further. His conscience was clear in as much that he’d tried his best to find the man.
Stepping from the car, Jason straightened his suit and stepped into the pub.
MAGGIE HADN’T FULLY understood why Jane needed her to come over so urgently until she’d arrived at the house. Anna had looked extremely nervous when she’d let her in and as she was shown through to the kitchen, she’d realised why.
Seth had blood down his shirt from his bust lip and Jane’s tear-stained face was smeared with black from her smudged makeup. The atmosphere was like ice, not to mention the large amount of smashed glass and cro
ckery littering the tiled floor.
Maggie looked at Seth and Jane facing each other off from opposite ends of the room, eyeing each other with distrust and her heart sank. They’d obviously had a blazing argument and the last thing she wanted was to be dragged into it. “W-What’s going on?” she stammered nervously, wishing she’d insisted Dan come with her.
“Ask Jane!” Seth seethed, his green eyes spitting fire.
“Seth thinks I’m the one behind all these fucking letters threatening Toby, behind the fake detective and behind everything!” Jane spat. “Tell him will you?”
“Tell him what?” Maggie cried. What was she supposed to say?
“Tell him it wasn’t me of course!” Jane shouted exasperatedly. Was Maggie EVER going to get less dense?
Maggie didn’t want to look at Seth, let alone argue with him. He’d always scared her. Especially when he was like this. She sneaked a glance as he paced up and down by the work surface cracking his knuckles, his eyes manic. She didn’t want to get involved.
Jane frowned at Maggie’s lack of response. “Aren’t you going to say anything?” she hissed.
Maggie forced herself to look Seth in the face. “Jane wouldn’t have done this.” Surely she wouldn’t have? She might have been acting off lately, but to do that? No. She couldn’t have.
“But you don’t know that for a fact do you?” Seth raged, facing Maggie head on. “What else explains this?”
Maggie took a step back, unsure where to place her eyes being as Jane was also staring daggers at her. “Well no... I can’t know anything for sure, but th...”
“She needs to see a fucking shrink!” Seth barked, pouring whisky into a tumbler, his hands shaking so violently with pent up rage it splashed all over the worktop.
“Maggie!” Jane hissed. “You’re not being much help. Tell him it couldn’t have been me!”
Maggie’s eyes flicked from Jane to Seth and back again. “I-I’ve already said I didn’t think it co...”
“You’re the one who said Jane wasn’t herself, Maggie,” Seth barked.
Jane’s eyebrows knitted together fiercely. “I see you’ve both been discussing me then?” she yelled. “Going crazy am I? How dare you! You have the cheek to do that with the state of your fucking head?”
Maggie felt tears bite. She hadn’t come here to get a round of abuse. “I never said anything of the sort!”
“LIAR!” Seth raged.
“I never said Jane was crazy, Seth!”
“Didn’t sound that way to me!” Seth added.
“I was worried when you kicked off at the spa, Jane. You were acting strange.” Maggie explained, even though she knew it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference.
“Maybe you’d act weird if the fucking papers were going round accusing you of having abortions and getting phone calls about your husband shagging a school girl!” Jane slammed her fist down on the green folder sitting on the kitchen table. “I’m sick of people trying to set us up. This is another example! You both think I’d do this sort of shit to my own family?”
Jane’s eyes narrowed. “Good job I wasn’t so narrow-minded and easily taken in to not believe you when it was you in the firing line wasn’t it Seth?”
Seth smirked nastily. “You probably set that up too!”
“I don’t believe this!” Jane screamed and turned to Maggie. “Well get this Maggie, he’s only gone and topped the bloke he reckons was sending the letters and who I reckon was involved with Lacey and now he feels guilty because apparently it’s not him, it’s ME!”
“You’ve killed someone again?” Maggie wailed.
“Oh shut up!” Seth hissed, aware Anna was still in the next room. “And for the record, I feel guilty over nothing!”
“Yeah, he killed him and a few more besides I don’t doubt, but Seth being Seth went ahead without bothering to tell me. It appears he tells me fuck all these days. If he had then I’d have made him show the picture of the bloke to you first to ID him.”
Glancing between them both, Maggie wished more than ever that she hadn’t answered the phone when Jane had called.
“Go on then Maggie,” Seth raged. “You fount of all knowledge, you. This guy you saw – you know the one with the girl who I was apparently fucking and the one that was sending the letters. This is the guy right?” He fished the crumpled photo from his wallet and shoved it in Maggie’s hand.
Flinching, Maggie took the photograph and stared at it.
“Well?” Seth barked, throwing a sarcastic smile in Jane’s direction whilst he waited for Maggie’s answer, proving he’d been right all along.
Maggie glanced up. “He looks similar... When was this taken?”
“The other week,” Jane said, looking at Seth. “Why?”
Maggie shook his head. “Then it’s not him...”
“What?” Seth cried.
Maggie looked directly into Seth’s emerald eyes. “It’s definitely not the same man. The guy I saw on both occasions had a tattoo of a swallow on his neck.”
Jane squared up to Seth. “This is NOT down to ME!”
Seth stared at Jane and slugged the whisky down in one. Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!
AIDEN HADN’T NOTICED the hush descend in the bar because he was already fairly drunk and was also too busy concentrating on looking down the brunette’s top to let much else distract him. That was until he heard his name mentioned.
“Is there an Aiden Barber here?” Jason asked the barmaid.
The barmaid eyed the man’s expensive tailored suit appraisingly and smiled. “Yeah he’s here, but personally I wouldn’t bother. He isn’t much cop in any way,” she said scathingly. “What you drinking?”
Jason smiled coldly. “I’m not interested in your personal opinions love and I don’t want a drink either. I just want to know who he is.”
The smile fell from the barmaid’s face and she nodded behind him curtly. “He’s over there. Blond hair. Sitting at the table with that brown-haired tart.”
Aiden glanced over his shoulder just as Jason Miller turned around to follow the barmaid’s gaze and his stomach dropped into his shoes. Jason Miller? What the fuck was he doing here?
“Aiden Barber?” Jason said, stepping over to where Aiden sat.
“Yes,” Aiden acknowledged. How should he play this? This could be either good or bad. Maybe he was going to offer him work? “How can I help you?” He extended his hand.
Jason Miller ignored Aiden’s outstretched hand and jerked his head. “A word?”
Aiden got up unsteadily, shooting the brunette at his table a nervous smile. He eyed the big bloke flanking Miller and hoped they hadn’t got wind of his dealings. Warily he followed Miller and the big man out to the corridor by the toilets where it was quiet.
“I’m Jason Miller,” Miller stated. “Your brother worked for me.”
Aiden nodded. “That’s right. What can I do for you Mr Miller?”
Jason Miller cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I have some bad news...”
A knot of fear pulsed through Aiden’s body at Miller’s words. Not knowing what else to do or say, he decided to remain silent and that waiting for Miller to continue was the most sensible option.
“I’m afraid your brother Alan has been killed....” Jason said abruptly.
“W-What...?” Aiden spluttered, unsure whether he’d heard correctly.
“He’s been murdered. I’m so very sorry...”
“M-Murdered?” Aiden garbled. The world swam before his eyes and he put his arm against the wall to steady himself as waves of nausea rushed over him. “H-How?”
Jason Miller pursed his lips. “I’m not sure. Nor are we sure as to why, but I can assure you we’ll be looking into it.”
Aiden blinked rapidly, still unable to digest the information. “B-But, but...”
“I know this is a shock, but there isn’t a lot else I tell you at this moment in time.” Miller fished a business card from his inside pocket and handed it to Aiden. “Call me in a
few days and I’ll let you know if we have any further information.”
Without waiting for an answer or further questions, Jason Miller nodded at Aiden and walked back out of the pub.
Aiden staggered against the wall and put his head in his hands before slowly sliding to the ground. As a low guttural howl escaped from his mouth, he rapidly realised he knew exactly why his brother had been killed and who was responsible for it.
He’d got his brother killed because Seth Wright thought Alan was HIM.
FORTY FOUR
SELENA WAITED UNTIL ELIZA had bundled the terrified little girl roughly into her car before she dared to make her move. She glanced at the collection of zoned out girls slumped on the saggy sofas spaced around the perimeter of the shared lounge. She was confident their daily late-afternoon dose of brown had rendered them incapable of taking a blind bit of notice as to anything she may be doing. It was now or never.
Digger was out with Steve Lomond and there wasn’t much of a window before they got back. It had been bad enough watching that poor child sitting miserably in the corner all day looking like the weight of the world was on her shoulders, but she’d been powerless to help or even speak to the kid.
Eliza went berserk if anyone so much as smiled at the terrified girl, so how those two had ever been deemed acceptable to adopt was well beyond rationality. Selena knew they were formally adopting the kid any time soon because Eliza had been boasting about it. As to why, she had no idea.
Eliza and Digger had no time for children and appeared to despise this particular kid more than most, which only made it even more unfathomable.
How she’d love to go to the police and tell them that those two were allowing a little girl to sit in the corner of a brothel all day. In fact, how she’d love to tell the police everything she knew about that pair...
Maybe she would. But she had to get what she needed over and done with first and foremost. If she got away with that without being murdered then she had her insurance sorted as well as the proof she needed to get out of this shit hole for ever.