by June Taylor
She had asked the site manager if he would come and find her when Karin was on her way because she wanted it to be a surprise. He said it was the least he could do, as her help was much appreciated. In the meantime, Louie tossed things into the skip, keeping an eye out for Karin in case she arrived unannounced. Finally she heard that Karin was only five minutes away.
Positioning herself in one of the gardens backing onto those on Ashby Road, Louie had found the perfect view. Having already done a recce, she discovered that most of the houses on this side were also empty, so she was unlikely to be seen or challenged. Through the gap in the hedge, separating the two gardens, she could watch over Karin without her knowing that she was just a few metres away from her.
Louie spotted her walking down the path, fumbling with her gardening gloves. Karin had only just managed to slip them on when her phone started to ring and was now struggling to get to it. Louie smiled to herself, hearing her say hello, but when Karin stumbled and reached out to grab the dilapidated bird table she almost cried out for her to be careful.
‘Are you okay?’ Louie asked, refraining from running through the hedge to find out if she was injured.
‘What do you think? Not until you leave me alone.’ Karin’s voice sounded angry, snarling out the words as she inspected her hand. She tucked it under her arm to dull the pain. ‘What do you want now, Louie?’
‘Have you decided yet?’
‘On what?’
‘Me or him.’
She had turned her back, so Louie could no longer see her face. Also the sway of some leafy branches meant she only had a partial view, although could still make out Karin’s fiery red hair, tied back in a messy ponytail.
‘I told you,’ said Karin. ‘Aaron knows everything now, so there’s really nothing you can say or do to break us up.’
‘Are you sure about that?’
Karin spun round, almost facing her, and Louie ducked down just in case. Had something made her aware of her presence? But as she didn’t investigate further, Louie carried on talking. ‘So what about The Midland? He knows about us in the toilets, does he?’ She shielded her mouth to make it sound like she wasn’t outdoors. ‘And don’t tell me you’ve given him the full confession on everything else, Karin, and that he’s fine with that too. Even if you’ve told him some of it, you won’t have told him all of it. Or you’ve lied. You seem to like doing that.’
‘Piss off, Louie. Look, if it’s money you want—’
‘It is.’
The silence that followed was invaded by a bee buzzing, and then a squirrel hopped onto the fence, which made them both jump. A hedge trimmer somewhere in the distance.
Karin was standing very still, like she had taken root in the garden.
‘If you’re going to marry granddad, then yes, I absolutely do want your money.’
‘How much?’ asked Karin, sounding nervous.
‘How much is it worth?’
The bee continued to buzz while Karin considered it. ‘I’ll give you five thousand and then you leave me alone.’
Louie made a hissing noise, causing Karin to hold the phone away from her ear. ‘Come on, Karin, you’re going to have to do better than that. If you’re choosing him over me then I want it all. Every last penny. I have copies of the letters. It’s all in there, what you did. The police have only to contact your Swedish mamma and you’re done for. She’d be only too happy to fill them in. Wouldn’t she?’
Karin slumped down onto the ground, as if someone had deflated her.
‘Choose me and we don’t have to do any of this.’
Hitting her thigh with her injured hand, Karin swore, taking a few breaths to recover.
‘I’m only doing this to protect you,’ Louie explained. ‘However. Let me make this clear to you. If you relay one word of this conversation – ever – to that prick you’re intending to marry, I promise I will tell him every last detail. I swear I’ll leave nothing out. I do know everything, Karin.’
‘I didn’t think you were this much of a bitch, Louie. What happened?’
‘You left me. And I still don’t really know why.’
‘I’ve told you. It was for both our sakes.’
‘All your money.’
‘No fucking way, Louie.’
This left her no option then, and Louie cut the call. When Karin realized that, she got up and returned to the bird table, wrenching it out of the ground in her temper. The wood was rotten and it snapped in two towards the bottom. Karin flung it down again but Louie could see that she was holding onto her fingers and maybe she was bleeding.
‘Karin. Are you okay?’ she shouted, fighting her way through the bushes.
Karin backed off, like she was seeing a ghost rushing towards her. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ She checked over both shoulders, to make sure they hadn’t attracted the attention of her colleagues, but there was no one in sight even she had wanted them.
Louie gave her a gentle smile. ‘Let me look.’
‘Get the hell away from me. Why aren’t you in Morecambe?’ Then she realized she was trapped when she hit against a thick wall of conifer behind her. ‘You have to go. Please. I’ll sort the money out later, I promise.’
Louie went in closer.
‘The Midland gave me unpaid leave for my exhibition. I can take as long as I need,’ she said.
Producing the scarf from her pocket, she wrapped it tightly round Karin’s hand. It was bleeding, but not too much. Karin looked confused when she saw the scarf but said nothing. When the first aid was done, Louie took a firm grip of Karin’s other arm and she immediately began to struggle.
‘If you scream or make a fuss, you know what will happen.’
She pushed Karin towards the hedge into the adjoining garden, forcing her through it, bringing her to a standstill alongside the house on the other side.
‘Right. Now I want you to call your guy in the yellow hat and tell him that you’ve had to attend to something urgently. Do it.’
Louie hated having to adopt this tone with her.
After Karin had made the call, she guided her out into the next street, where she had parked the rental car earlier. Karin resisted getting in at first and had to be reminded of the consequences if she didn’t. Did she really want to end up in jail, her life ruined?
She got in the passenger side without any more fuss after that.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked when Louie started the engine.
Karin sounded frightened and Louie regretted that also. But she would understand. Eventually.
‘We’re going to get your passport and your driving licence.’
‘What the hell for?’
‘Fasten your seatbelt. I don’t want you to get hurt, Karin.’
30
Karin
‘You can always change your mind,’ said Louie. ‘You do have a choice. Even at this point.’
Did she? Really?
‘How’s your hand?’
‘As if you care.’
She made Karin stop, wanting to take a look at it, and carefully unwrapped the scarf that she had put round her hand earlier. At first Karin thought she did actually care, but then realized why she had removed it. ‘I’m afraid we have to leave that off now or it’ll look like something it isn’t. Keep that hand out of sight.’ Louie stuffed the scarf back into her jeans pocket.
As soon as she spotted the bank’s logo on the sign up ahead, Karin knew exactly what was happening. Louie was definitely behind all those notes. And now she was going to steal everything. Why hadn’t she closed that stupid joint account? Karin asked herself. Initially it was because she feared that Louie might somehow be able to find her, so had simply left it open and gone back to using her own one. Maybe she could have asked for a confidentiality clause or something.
Too late now.
In any case it didn’t seem to matter because Louie announced that the money was to go into her personal account, not the joint one. Which was sort of obvious r
eally, when Karin thought about it.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Louie, as if genuinely trying to reassure her. ‘The fact that we have a joint account will make it look like it’s a legitimate transfer.’ She grinned when she added, ‘Which of course it is.’
Louie had certainly done her homework, gone through every potential question they might be asked, found out that Karin would need two forms of ID. Giving her a thorough briefing in the car on their way here, she had instructed Karin on what she would be expected to say once they were inside the bank.
‘And no funny business, Karin. You know what’ll happen.’
Louie’s arm was so tight around her waist she felt glued into Louie’s side, forced to fall in line with her step just so she could remain on her feet. A few yards from the bank’s entrance Louie brought them to an abrupt stop, pulling Karin into the wall but being careful of her hand.
‘One last chance. Choose me and you get to keep the money. But if not, I can’t just sit back and let you give it all away to that slime-ball.’
‘Listen, Louie.’
Karin was trying to make her voice sound strong, yet she knew she was facing the inevitable now.
‘You have to promise me that once this is done you’ll leave me alone. I mean forever. I need to hear you say it before we go in there.’
Karin felt a shove in the small of her back, driving her towards the entrance.
Louie held her firm as the doors swished open. Passing through them, she whispered in Karin’s ear that she had to remember to smile.
The cashier was overly pleasant, with a rather sickly manner. She thought them a sweet couple, saying ridiculous things about how lovely they looked together and how lovely it was they were getting married. This was made all the more convincing by Louie’s adoring gaze on her wife-to-be, kissing her on the cheek at every opportunity, and Karin was even made to flash up her engagement ring. The cashier said how lovely it was, and how delighted she was for them both. Louie had a tight grip of Karin’s uninjured hand throughout the whole charade, squeezing it every now and then to keep Karin on track.
During their exchange Karin smiled and nodded, wishing only to wake up from this terrible dream and be able to walk away from it. It was one of those scenes from her life where she was looking down on herself: at her dad’s funeral, and when her stepdad was swinging from the beam; nearly all of the time she was living on the streets. As though this wasn’t her life at all, at least not the life she was meant for.
At the same time, Karin clearly heard herself making the request to transfer her entire fortune from her personal account into Louie’s, leaving a mere £500 on which to live. That was Louie’s idea. Karin also heard herself explaining where the money had come from, and the cashier saying she only wished she had a mother who was that generous.
‘Now, are you sure you don’t want this to go into your joint account?’ she asked them again. It was the only time she raised a flicker of doubt, but when Karin felt Louie’s nails digging into her hand, she smiled, and answered: ‘No. It’s because we’re having an art studio built. Also Louie’s looking after the wedding side of things, so if we could leave £500 in my account and put the rest into Louie’s. It just makes sense for us to do it this way so we can keep track of our expenditure.’
The cashier tapped away on her computer, pushed forms through for Karin to sign, explained there would be a £25 charge and that the transfer would be done by CHAPS. She also informed them that the balance would be unlikely to land in Louie’s account today as it was too late in the afternoon, but it should be there in the morning. She then went to double-check with a colleague and came back to say it might not actually appear on Louie’s screen until Monday, but that wouldn’t mean it hadn’t already gone through. She didn’t think there would be any problem.
Karin felt nauseous.
When it was over, and they were back out on the street again, it seemed a burden had been lifted, but then came the aftershock as Karin visualized the money being zapped into Louie’s account, as if by some high-powered suction device. She returned to feeling angry again. And yet, however unpredictable Louie might be, Karin still struggled to think her capable of this. Until she reconsidered how much she had hurt Louie. How badly she had let her down.
Cars were stacking up at the traffic lights on North Lane, the normality of the day remained uninterrupted, people going about their business as usual. An old man with a walking frame ran out of time on the crossing and a bunch of students dressed as nuns had a private laugh at his expense. Any other day and Karin might have said something. A few years ago Louie would have backed her up. Maybe she would now. It was irrelevant how different the world felt to Karin, because it was carrying on regardless. To think that, only last Friday, on her twenty-second birthday, she had £957,000 to her name, then one week later it had gone. That it had landed there at all had taken some getting used to, but the fact nearly a million pounds had vanished from her account was even harder to accept. And what was she to tell Aaron? She shuddered to think what new set of lies this would generate, having only just cleared a backlog that hadn’t been quite so necessary in the first place.
Poor Aaron. She really didn’t deserve him.
‘Satisfied now?’ she said, turning to Louie.
‘Not really, no.’ It was as if Louie had penetrated her thoughts. ‘He’s a dick. He doesn’t deserve you or your money.’
Louie tried to come near but Karin managed to dodge out of her way as someone needed to enter the bank. She set off walking in the direction of Ashby Road with a brisk anger in her step. Louie was soon by her side, causing Karin to pick up the pace.
Her longer stride helped Louie stay slightly ahead and she started walking backwards to address Karin face on. ‘Look. I’m not going to force you onto the street again or anything, Karin.’ Every few steps she had to turn round to check where she was going as Karin refused to slow down. ‘That’s what he’d end up doing to you, though. Are you listening to me? I’m only keeping it safe for you.’
She pulled hard on Karin’s arm, forcing her to stop.
‘Ow,’ said Karin. It was her sore hand.
‘I’m sorry, wrong arm. But, like I said, Karin, if you breathe one word of this to him, or to anyone, I am watching you like a hawk. Because you know what happens next. Don’t you?’
Louie stood facing her, hands in the pockets of her jeans. She shrugged, elbows out, and said: ‘Come back to me any time, Karin, and I’ll be waiting for you. I just love you, I can’t help it.’
Karin didn’t react, not even when Louie gave her a cautious peck on the lips. She waited a few extra seconds, watching Louie’s face drop when she rubbed her hand across her mouth and spat her disgust onto the pavement. In almost the same movement, she pushed Louie into the wall causing her shoulder to bounce off it.
After her initial surprise, Louie’s smirk returned, and Karin felt a spike in her temper. Not wishing to risk a public scene, she managed to swallow it back down, muting her fury. Stepping closer to Louie’s face, she said: ‘Don’t you ever, ever, come near me again. I’ll always hate you for this, Louie.’
31
Mel
Mel hadn’t seen Karin since last Thursday when they parted company at Swank after the art show. That was three days ago. She wondered what state Karin was in by now, having seen how wound up she was that night. The malicious notes from Louie, Will’s disappearance, maybe even her relationship with Aaron must all be weighing heavily on her mind. All this on top of her working flat out for the launch this coming Saturday as well.
As expected, when Karin walked through the door, she looked completely worn out.
Mel was about to make it a whole lot worse.
To soften the blow, she had prepared a lasagne and beckoned Karin into the kitchen to prevent her from disappearing upstairs. Karin kicked off her work boots, yawning, and flopped into a chair. She said she wasn’t really hungry and was supposed to be going to the cinema with Aaron tonight
, but felt too tired even for that.
‘Just text him and then have something to eat,’ said Mel, sliding Karin’s phone down the table until it was in front of her. ‘You look shattered. I’ll run you a nice hot bath after you’ve eaten and then why not just go to bed? Or, I’ve stocked up on supplies and we can have a girls’ night in.’
‘That’s really sweet of you, Mel, but I’m fit for nothing.’
Karin yawned, and Mel ruffled her hair to say that was okay. Karin gave her a weary smile then picked up her phone and began to type out a message, like it was a huge effort even to do that.
Mel served the lasagne, but Karin could only manage a few forkfuls before declaring herself full. She was almost asleep, her chin collapsing into her hand. Finally she put down her fork in defeat, pushed back her chair and was about to make her excuses.
‘Don’t go just yet,’ said Mel. ‘Look, erm. I’m really sorry to have to do this, but there’s something you need to see.’ She rooted under the growing pile of takeaway leaflets, magazines, junk mail and theatre booklets on the table. ‘This came a few days ago. I really think you should open it.’
Karin froze when she saw what it was, sliding back down her chair like she had suddenly melted. The letter K stuck onto the front of the envelope was ominous, its style all too familiar. She refused to take it.
‘Do you want me to open it then?’ Mel offered. ‘I mean, we ought to see what she wants.’ But then she hesitated, adding, ‘Well, whoever it is wants.’ Because how could they be sure where to point the finger? ‘Look Karin. I think you and I both know this isn’t going to go away, not unless we deal with it.’