by Edie Baylis
It was bad enough Aiden was behaving like the local lunatic now. According to rumours his brother had been murdered. She didn’t know why, or if it was true, but there was some shit going on around here and she didn’t want to be part of it. She needed to get away as soon as possible. That was a definite.
She didn’t know how she would achieve that but achieve it she would. The leverage one specific CCTV tape could give her meant she stood a very good bloody chance.
Selena glanced back around the room just to check everyone was still in a state of blissed-out blankness and got up from her seat just as the television flashed up the latest breaking news.
Absentmindedly watching as she edged towards the door, her heart suddenly accelerated when a photograph of Lacey flashed up on the screen.
The newsreaders mouth moved up and down and Selena froze hearing a body strongly suspected of being Lacey Garner’s had found earlier today, dumped in a trade bin at an undisclosed location not far from here.
Selena felt nausea rush over her. That was it. She’d have to speak to Jane Wright. She had to tell her who was behind this and that she hadn’t meant to be part of it. Maybe the woman would believe her and do something to help? But first she had to get that tape.
SETH SAT IN HIS OFFICE at the Glint and put his head in his hands for what felt the ten-thousandth time. He couldn’t apologise to Jane any more than he had done already. Neither could he blame her for not forgiving him.
He wasn’t sure whether he’d ever forgive her if she’d accused him of the things he’d thrown at her last night. Contrite was an understatement of how he felt. The whole thing was such a bloody mess and he had little idea how to even start rectifying it. But he would. Somehow.
Seth knew he’d grossly fucked up, but he had to put things into perspective. Whatever he’d done, he needed to find the man who he should have finished rather than the one he had.
He’d killed the wrong man, he knew that and there was fuck all he could do about it. It also proved that he’d been incorrect about Miller. Jesus Christ! How could he have got everything so wrong?
Seth reached for the decanter and poured himself an extra-large whisky. He knew it was early, but he didn’t care. He glanced at Dan, who understandably hadn’t been pleased to discover Maggie had been put in such a horrible position last night. Again, he could only apologise so much and so many times to everyone – it changed nothing. Neither did it change that this clown with the swallow tattoo knew the answers.
Seth clenched his jaw. Because of his own screw-up, the bastard was still walking around somewhere.
This guy knew the reasons behind this elaborate set up and Seth was struggling to imagine why someone he didn’t know from Adam would be so hell bent on destroying his life. He had to find out. Quickly.
Regardless of what state his and Jane’s marriage was in presently because of his wild accusations, they’d agreed all they would concentrate on right now was to find out who was doing this. The most important part of that being to stop this joke of an adoption.
Seth snatched the telephone from its cradle as its shrill ringing pierced his eardrums. “Yes?” he barked into the mouthpiece.
“Mr Wright? Carl Mulligan here,” the voice said.
Seth exhaled nervously. “Carl. Any news?” He needed some news. Some GOOD news.
“Well, yes and no...” Mulligan said. “I’ve got a date to hear your request for a warrant to lift the anonymity of the potential adoptive parents.”
“Good!” Seth said eagerly. “When is it?”
Carl paused. “A week today.”
“A week?” Seth roared. “That might be too late!”
“I know,” Carl agreed. “I explained the urgency, but this is the soonest they can do it. They originally set you a date for three weeks’ time, so what we’ve now got is certainly an improvement.”
“Yeah, that’s great that is,” Seth spat. “Bloody super! What if it’s gone through by then?” He could almost hear Mulligan shrug on the other end of the line.
“I appreciate it’s frustrating Mr Wright, but there really isn’t any other way we can do it I’m afraid. I can’t make it any quicker, even with my contacts.”
Seth nodded to himself resolutely. Fuck! “Right, ok thanks,” he muttered. “Keep me updated.” Putting the phone down, he stared at Dan for a few seconds before placing his head in his hands again.
“Got anything to say?” Seth snapped, aware that Dan had still not uttered a word.
“Not really. What is there to say?” Dan mumbled. Things didn’t get much worse than this. Everything was unravelling quicker than the speed of light. If Seth hadn’t jumped off the deep end without checking his facts, or thought things through a little more, then perhaps things wouldn’t be quite so untenable.
“This had all gone tits up hasn’t it?” Seth said, realising as he spoke it was a classic ‘state-the-obvious’ remark.
“You could say th...”
“Sorry for interrupting,” Martin burst into the office.
Seth glared. Would he get no time to fucking think straight today or what? “What is it Martin? I’m snowed under here.”
“I thought you should know that a body’s been found. They think it’s Lacey Garner’s. Thought I’d tell you because of Mrs Wright’s appeal bu...”
Seth groaned. He knew Jane would start blaming him again for making the girl leave and now it looked like she was dead. “Oh well, I guess that’s that then.”
Martin looked uncomfortable as he glanced at Dan and then back at Seth.
“Anything else?” Seth barked. He knew he was being snappy but didn’t have the time, nor energy for extra grief on top of everything else.
“Yes there is actually. The body was found in a trade waste bin. They showed it on the news – it’s all cordoned off, but from what I could see, I’m certain it’s the bin outside that lock up of yours on East Yard.”
Seth sat bolt upright. “What? My lock up?” He looked at Dan who was staring straight at him. Oh shit! Shit, SHIT! “Thanks Martin. If anyone comes sniffing around, contain it as best as you can.”
Nodding, Martin left the room and once the door had closed, Seth turned to Dan. “Before you fucking ask, it wasn’t me!”
“I never said it was, but Jesus, someone’s managed a top job on you haven’t they?” Dan said. He could hardly believe this consistent chain of events had been so meticulously engineered and was astounded as to the detail and ingenuity behind it all.
“Haven’t they just,” Seth muttered, topping up his whisky. “The problem is the remains of Alan Barbers’ body is still busy disintegrating in a barrel of acid in my lock up in the other yard. The yard opposite where someone’s dumped Lacey’s body.”
Dan stared at Seth vacantly, unsure he was hearing correctly, but judging by Seth’s expression, presumed he was. “Jesus fucking Christ!” he said quietly.
Seth felt like giggling with hysteria. He sparked up a cigarette. ‘What else is going to go wrong?” he snarled.
“This perhaps?” Jason Miller roared as he kicked the office door open and pointed his gun at Seth’s head.
JANE WAS STILL SEETHING after Seth’s accusations. And hurt. However, all that mattered at this point in time was putting an end to all of this shit. Only then would she decide what she was going to do about him. For now she’d take some of her anger out on that two-faced bitch of an au pair.
Aware Anna had put Toby down for his mid-morning nap, Jane knew now was the time to act. She’d only managed to keep her temper contained last night and so far this morning purely because she refused to do anything in front of her son which could upset him.
Now Anna was on her own, she’d deal with her and once she had, the bitch had better make a very sharp exit before she completely lost her self-control and killed the lying whore.
Jane would love nothing more than to kill Anna, but couldn’t. Not whilst there was a smidgen of a chance they’d still be able to get Grace back.
Walking into the kitchen knowing Anna was sipping her tea at her kitchen table and still believing she hadn’t been sprung in all the shit she’d pulled, Jane stomped over, grabbing her around the throat.
Pulling her out of the seat, she slammed a terrified and shocked Anna hard into the fridge-freezer. “Right you fucking lying bitch!” she snarled, squashing her face painfully against the door of the fridge. “Tell me what your part in all of this has been.”
Anna tried to control the escalating terror fast threatening to overcome her and render her useless. “W-What do you mean?”
“What do I mean?” Jane raged, grabbing Anna by the shoulders and twisted her around to slam her back against the unit. “What I mean is, tell me what you’ve done to help this intricate set up work?”
“I-I...” Anna faltered. What could she say? Although she hadn’t agreed with anything which had been asked of her by Tina she could still do well to remember these people may have killed her mother. For that alone she wouldn’t breathe a word.
She’d already caused enough problems for her sister. No, she’d find the resolve to stand her ground.
Jane’s eyes narrowed menacingly. “Listen you little bitch, you’ve been lying all along. Sitting there all nervous, like butter wouldn’t melt. Who’s your boyfriend?”
“B-Boyfriend?” Anna tried to squirm out of Jane’s grip. What had Aiden got to do with it? Ok, so she wasn’t supposed to have anyone in the house, but it wasn’t him who’d caused their problems.
“Don’t insult me by pretending you haven’t been seeing a man. Who is he?” Jane snarled. Anna’s lack of response flicked a switch in her head and she delivered a crushing head-butt to the bridge of Anna’s nose.
With Anna wailing in shock and pain, Jane gave her an additional backhander to silence her. “Be quiet you silly girl – you’ll wake Toby. Your boyfriend, whoever he is, will soon be fucking dead. He’s the one setting us up isn’t he? And you’re helping him!” She prodded Anna hard in the chest.
Eyes watering from the stinging pain in her nose, Anna stared at Jane. “I haven’t done anything! I don’t know what you’re talking about. He’s got nothing to do with it!” Their true colours were seeping through now weren’t they? Aiden was right. They must have killed her mum. She had to get out of here.
“Now you’ve admitted you have a boyfriend, tell me his fucking name,” Jane spat, her grip back tight around Anna’s throat.
“You’re hurting me!” Anna wailed. She needed to distract the woman. Come on Anna. Think. THINK! These people are psychotic. “He’s a friend that’s all. He hasn’t had anything to do with any of your problems.”
“How come things in the house keep ‘appearing’ seemingly from nowhere? Explain that!” Jane snarled. She was getting impatient. The best plan was to put the little cow in the cellar.
Yes, she’d do that. She’d tie her up and keep her in the cellar until she decided to be honest. Whether she liked it or not, Anna’s boyfriend – whoever he was, was connected to this and she would get the information out of her. It was clear Seth had failed with bells on, so this was their only option right now.
“Your boyfriend has been linked to lots of incidents Anna, including a violent attack on a woman, plus involvement in prostitution rings with young girls. Know that did you?” Jane seethed, venom pouring from her voice.
How she wanted to slice this dumb girl up piece by piece for giving a monster like that an inroad to her house and her child. “And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!”
“Y-You’re lying!” Anna garbled. It couldn’t be true. Jane Wright was feeding her this to assuage her own guilt. Well it wouldn’t work. Aiden loved her and he was a gorgeous, kind and thoughtful man. How could this woman even suggest such a ridiculous thing? “It won’t work Jane. You can’t make me believe your lies. From what I’ve heard you’ve gone crazy. Even your own husband doesn’t believe you!”
Jane began raining punches down in Anna’s face one after the other. “You stupid bitch!” she screamed. “You can’t see the wood for the trees can you?”
Anna’s eyes rolled back in her head as she slumped to the ground. She lay panting breathlessly on the floor in a pool of her own blood and tried to formulate rational thoughts in her spinning mind.
Deciding playing dead for a minute or two might give her the breathing space she needed, Anna overrode the urge to sob and scream out of pain and remained lying motionless on the quarry tiles.
Glancing at Anna as she lay prone, Jane busied herself with collecting the things she needed from the drawer in the pantry. There was a roll of heavy-duty duct tape in there which would do nicely to bind Anna to a chair in the cellar until she decided to talk.
Jane didn’t even see it coming when she was whacked in the temple with a copper saucepan.
FORTY FIVE
AS SOON AS SHE HEARD the car pull up, Anna peeked out from behind the bushes. Confirming it was Aiden’s car, she ran out from her hiding place and jumped in the back seat, clutching Toby tightly against her chest.
Without uttering a word, Aiden screeched off and Anna was finally able to take a deep breath of relief. She’d wiped the worst of the blood off her face with the back of her sleeve before she’d left the house. Knowing she had no time to waste, she hadn’t bothered washing herself up further or changing her bloodied clothes before she’d quickly lifted Toby from his cot and rushed down the stairs.
She knew she looked a frightful state, but Aiden hadn’t even commented, even though she could see his eyes in the rear view mirror as they sped along the road. “Thanks for coming to get me. It was awful,” she said.
“Yeah, everything’s awful for you isn’t it? Shut up for once will you?” Aiden snapped.
Anna swallowed, feeling the overwhelming need to burst into tears. She’d been expecting him to be angry about what had happened to her, but he hadn’t even remarked on her dishevelled and obviously injured appearance. Neither had he said anything about why she was clearly distressed and had called him from a phone box in a state of panic asking him to come and pick her up.
“Aiden?” Anna said nervously. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” Aiden roared, his eyes glaring menacingly in the rear view mirror’s reflection. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong – Seth-Fucking-Wright is what’s wrong. He’s murdered my brother!”
Aiden drew in ragged breaths through his all-encompassing rage. He’d lost it big time since Alan had been taken out and didn’t give a flying fuck what he did, or how he did it anymore.
“Killed your brother?” Anna whispered, shocked. “Oh my God, that’s terrible! Why would Seth have done that? What on earth was your brother involved in?” So it was true. The Wrights went around killing people left, right and centre.
She glanced down at the little boy in her arms, still sleeping peacefully. Seth and Jane didn’t deserve children. She’d done the right thing by taking Toby with her. Regardless of anything else she couldn’t leave him with that crazy woman and her serial killer husband.
“What do you mean what was he involved in?” Aiden screamed. “Why did he have to be involved in anything?”
“I-I didn’t mean... I just meant...”
“That’s the fucking point, Anna. My brother wasn’t involved in anything. He was a good man. A nice man,” Aiden shouted, the anger he felt about selling out his own brother to save his own skin bubbling to the surface again like a volcano.
“I-I’m sure he was,” Anna said gently, hoping to calm Aiden down. He was obviously upset. She leant forward from the back of the car and placed her hand on his shoulder.
“Get the fuck off me!” Aiden screamed, the car swerving violently.
Anna cried out as she slammed against the side of the door. “Aiden?” she whimpered. “What are you doing?”
Aiden glared
at Anna in the mirror. He wanted to kill her. He wanted to punch her stupid fucking face full of holes. The stupid, stupid bitch. He’d had enough. Enough was more than well and truly enough. He was done with it. After all this with Alan he was finished. He wasn’t putting up with this bullshit any longer. Anna could go and fuck herself.
“Alan was murdered because Seth Wright thought he was me!” Aiden said, his voice a lot calmer than he felt.
Anna tried to smile. “Oh don’t blame yourself.” Poor Aiden. He was taking this really hard. She had to make him see none of it was his fault. “When Jane was threatening me just now she said all this rubbish about you being responsible for awful things. Don’t worry, I told her quite clearly that sh...”
“Shut up!” Aiden snapped. “What the hell do you know? I’m done with listening to your pathetic bleating. Just piss off!”
“What?” Anna cried as the car abruptly screeched to a halt at the side of the country lane.
“Get out of my car,” Aiden growled.
Placing Toby on the back seat next to her, Anna sat forward and put her hands on Aiden’s shoulders. “You’ve had a dreadful shock with your brother, don’t be si...”
“I said get the fuck out...” Aiden snarled, twisting around in his seat to face Anna. He ripped her hands away from him. “I could never be paid enough to put up with you. The longest fucking time of my life this has been and I’m not doing it anymore.”
Anna stared uncomprehendingly at the man she loved. “P-Paid?”
Aiden laughed. “Yes, paid. Your sister’s idea actually. It helped pay off her debt, but I’m done with it.” He looked her up and down slowly. “I mean for fuck’s sake – look at you! You really think I’d have done you without some big reason?”
A single tear rolled down Anna’s cheek. Was he being serious?
“Oh and you’re wrong about Seth,” he smiled. “I despatched your mother, not him. Easy fucking money that was. Again, your sister’s idea. Now get the fuck out of my car and my life. I won’t tell you again.” Leaning over, Aiden opened Anna’s door and effortlessly slung her out onto the grass verge.