Secrets and Lies: A Collection of Heart-stopping Psychological Thrillers

by M K Farrar

  “You okay?”

  Callie’s voice made her jump.

  “Yeah, sorry, miles away,” she said, quickly tucking away her phone.

  “You’ve gone pale.” She frowned suspiciously. “You’re not going to get sick on us again?”

  “No, nothing like that. I was just reading about a girl going missing in London, and thinking how frightening that must be. We have to be careful, don’t we? It’s easy to get complacent when you’ve lived here for ages, but it can be a dangerous city.”

  Callie was looking at her curiously, and again the thought of how their front door had been left open all night jumped into her head. Tammy had been mad about it. Considering a young woman was missing, she guessed her flatmate had a point for once.

  “Well, I hope she shows up.”

  “Yeah, me, too,” Liv agreed, wishing that more than anything. At least then she could let go of the annoying niggling feeling in her gut that was telling her something wasn’t quite right.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Three Weeks Earlier

  “OLIVIA, CAN I SEE YOU in my office?”

  Liv looked up from the paperwork she’d been elbow deep in to find Tony standing beside her desk. His thinned dark hair had been swept back with some kind of product, but it only served to make it appear thinner and greasier, the bald spots shining through under the unforgiving office lights.

  “Oh, sure, Tony. You mean now?”

  “Yes, now.” He turned and walked back to his office, leaving Liv with a sinking sensation in her gut. Ellen wasn’t back in work for the second day, and she hadn’t replied to any of Liv’s calls or text messages either. It wasn’t like her, and Liv was worried. Was that what Tony wanted to speak to her about? He knew Olivia was Ellen’s closest friend in the office. If something had happened to her, she’d be the first to be told.

  Callie was sitting across from her, and she caught the older woman’s eye and pulled a face.

  “What do you think that’s about?” she hissed.

  Callie shrugged, her lips twisting. “I have no idea. You being sick the other day, maybe?”

  Nerves roiled in her stomach. “He seemed fine about that. He told me to take an extra day and everything.”

  “Do you think he has concerns about your drinking?”

  She blinked in surprise. “My drinking? I hardly drink anything. A few drinks on a night out, that’s all.”

  Callie pulled that same face again. “You have been drinking more lately, Liv. I know it’s normal when you’ve met someone new to get a bit carried away—”

  “I haven’t got carried away.” Her cheeks burned hot. Was that what everyone was saying about her? Did they all suspect that she hadn’t really been sick after all, and had called in sick because of a hangover?

  She pushed her chair back and got to her feet. “I’d better go and see what he wants.”

  Nausea burned acidic at the back of her throat. Was he about to fire her? She needed this job. It was all she had. All her friends were here. If she didn’t have it to come into every day, she’d be at a total loss. Tony had taken a chance on her at the start, training her up when she had zero experience with anything. Sure, she had a CV now, should she need to find a new job, but people would start asking questions when she went into interviews, and there would be questions she wouldn’t want to answer. Just the thought sent alternating rushes of hot and cold flooding through her, and the room spun as a sudden bout of vertigo hit. She reached out and clutched at the side of her desk until it passed, and then put her head down and walked to Tony’s office. She lifted her hand and rapped her knuckles against the door before opening it and stepping inside.

  Tony looked up from his computer screen as she entered, and she was relieved when he smiled at her.

  “You wanted to see me?” she asked, trying to keep the tremor of nerves from her voice.

  “That’s right. Take a seat.” He gestured to the chair on the opposite side of the desk to his own, and she crossed the room and slid into it.

  “I wanted to talk to you about the Richmond property.”

  It was all she could do to stop herself exclaiming, thank God, out loud. “Oh, you did?” she said instead.

  “Yes. The owners live in Dubai, and I guess they’ve decided the time has come to cash in their investment. They want us to start showing it in the next few weeks, and I need the listing ready. The house could potentially be a big commission, if we can manage to move it.”

  Relief made her legs weak. “Of course. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  “You can take the company car while we’ve got the place listed. The property is a bit out of the way, and the nearest Tube stop is a good twenty-minute walk. I don’t want you having to do that every time we need to show the place.”

  “Great, thanks, Tony.” She perked up at the idea of having a car for a few weeks. Having one long term in London wasn’t practical, but it would be fun until the novelty wore off. The car had the estate agent’s logo blazoned across both sides, so it wasn’t as though she was driving anything exotic, but it would still make a change from catching the Tube everywhere.

  “And, Olivia, don’t let me down.”

  “I won’t.”

  She got up to leave, feeling one hundred times lighter than she had when she’d walked into the office.

  At least Tony wasn’t annoyed with her. She wondered why Callie had said that about the drinking. Had the other woman heard that Liv was getting the Richmond property, and had had her nose put out of joint about it? Maybe it had been Callie’s way of trying to take her down a peg or two, though she’d never been like that before.

  It didn’t matter. The main thing was that her job didn’t look as though it was in any kind of danger, and Tony wasn’t holding it against her about the other night at her flat.

  Things were looking up.

  SHE LEFT THE OFFICE early, planning to stop by the property on her way home to take some photographs. As expected, the traffic was a nightmare getting out of central London, but once she’d got through the worst of it, she was able to breathe. She hadn’t realised how tense she’d been in the office. Ellen not being there meant she was missing the buffer she normally relied on to make communication with the rest of the office staff easier, and what Callie had said about her drinking had left her confused and on edge. Plus, she was still hyperaware of where Tony was at all times, a part of her worried he might try to ask her out, or even that he would bring up Sunday and make things even more awkward. It might be strange to some, but work had always been a bit of a sanctuary for her—a place where she knew her role and was comfortable in it—but over the last few days, that seemed to have slipped away.

  Hopefully, things would go back to normal when Ellen came back to work, and Liv could pretend Tony had never shown up at her flat with a random fruit basket. Over time, it would all be forgotten. She was worried about Ellen, though, and quickly glanced down at her phone to see if she’d returned any of her calls yet. It wasn’t like Ellen not to get back to her, and she hoped nothing bad had happened.

  There was a Sat Nav built into the car—something that was a necessity in their line of work—so it didn’t take her long to find the big Richmond property. She pulled up to the front of the driveway, where a set of gates blocked the house from the road. Checking the bundle of keys Tony had given her, she depressed the button in the middle of the fob, and the gates rumbled and slid open.

  She drove through them then hit the button to close them again. The last thing they needed was someone unsavoury getting access to the place. If squatters managed to get in, they’d have a nightmare trying to get them out again, and it wasn’t as though they’d be able to show prospective buyers around with a bunch of people camping out in the living room.

  Liv climbed out of the car and slammed the door shut behind her. She stood for a moment, looking up at the house. The place was huge. Six bedrooms, three bathrooms, four reception rooms, and a south facing garden. The fron
t door opened onto a wide entrance hall with black and white chequered tiling, like stepping on a giant chessboard.

  It was going to take her a while to get through the listing for the property and make sure she had enough photographs. The place had been standing empty for some time as an investment property, so was unfurnished, and would need some airing out before they showed it to anyone. People who had over three million pounds to spend on a home tended to be a bit fussy about how it smelled when they came to view it. People joked about baking bread when someone came around to view a property, but an unpleasant smell could put a potential buyer off as quickly as anything.

  Liv got to work, making notes on each of the rooms and taking photographs to use in the listings. It would sell easier if it were furnished, so people could see how their lives would look already in situ, and she made a mental note to speak with Tony and see if it was worth the investment getting one of the companies they used to come in and stage the place. They still had a couple of weeks before it would go on the market officially, and sometimes you had to spend money to make money. This place would make an incredible family home, if indeed a family purchased it. She hated to see these beautiful homes just sitting empty while they increased in value, only to be sold on to yet another investor. At the end of the day, they’d sell it to whoever offered the right amount of money, but it would be far better to have children running the huge hallways, and for the massive country kitchen to be filled with the scent of cooking and the sound of laughter for once. She knew buildings didn’t have feelings, but a strange part of her wondered if the big old house might be lonely.

  As she was finishing up, she spotted a door beneath the stairs. She pulled it open and reached into the darkened space beyond, feeling for a light switch. A momentary stab of panic jolted through her—images of things lunging out of the cellar and grabbing her hand in the dark flashing in her mind—but she located the switch and flicked it on, filling the space with light.

  Still, she hesitated before poking her head through the doorway. A set of stairs led down into what appeared to be a converted wine cellar. She looked up to where a large hook was embedded into the ceiling, and a shiver wracked across her shoulders. Someone walking on her grave.

  She didn’t like the place, but it would be a good selling point. People with tons of money always thought they were wine connoisseurs.

  Lifting the camera, she took a couple of snaps of the cellar before backing up the stairs. She was happy to flick the light back off and pull the door shut behind her. It wasn’t as though she’d be making the cellar the main focus of the house. There were plenty of other selling points, so just a mention would be enough.

  Feeling she’d done enough for the moment, she locked the house back up and climbed in the car to drive the twenty minutes home. The traffic wasn’t too bad, and by some miracle, she found somewhere to park on her street.

  Just as she was climbing out, her phone buzzed. Her thoughts first jumped to Ellen, but then she picked up her phone to see it was a text message from Michael.

  Need to see you. Miss you.

  She stared at the message with a jolt of happiness, all her previous concerns forgotten.

  She typed in a reply. When?

  Tomorrow, after work.

  Can’t wait.

  With a secret smile, she slipped the phone into her handbag. Everything else in her life felt like it was on shaky ground right now, but at least her love life seemed to be going well. She wasn’t expecting it to last—these things never did for her—but she was enjoying what they had in the moment.

  Liv let herself into her building and took the stairs. She had her head down as she reached her flat, so at first didn’t notice the person waiting for her. She looked up with a jolt, her stomach lurching.

  A blonde sat on the floor, her back against Liv’s front door. Her head was buried in her knees, her arms wrapped around her shins. The first thought that jumped into Liv’s head was the blonde she’d seen Michael arguing with, but a split second later she came to her senses and realised it was Ellen sitting there.

  “Elles?” she said in surprise. “What are you doing?”

  At the sound of her voice, her friend lifted her head.

  Liv’s heart crumpled at the sight. Her whole face was swollen from crying, her eyes bright red, her skin blotchy.

  “Oh, my God. What did he do to you?” Anger replaced her initial sorrow. “Did that son of a bitch hurt you?”

  She dropped to the floor beside her friend, wrapping her arm around her shoulders and pulling her in for a hug. Ellen shook her head against her chest. “No, nothing like that. He’s leaving, though. It’s over. I couldn’t stand to be in the same house as him while he was packing, so I just came over here.” She lifted her head. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “No, of course not! You should have called me.”

  “I know. I wasn’t thinking straight. I kept hoping he’d change his mind, but then he started packing boxes, and I knew I couldn’t stay there watching him. Every time he put something in a box, I wanted to yank it back out again.” She gave a small laugh, but it contained no humour. “Actually, that’s what I did, and he was getting madder and madder. I had to get out of there.”

  Liv gave her friend another squeeze then got up and pulled Ellen to her feet. “Come on, let’s get you inside. I’ll put the kettle on, or maybe you need something a little stronger? I’m sure I’ve got a bottle of wine in the fridge.”

  She sniffed and nodded. “Tea would be good, thanks. I’m not sure I’d trust myself on wine. I’d probably only end up doing something silly.”

  A bolt of worry shot through her and she gave Ellen a concerned glance. “No, don’t do anything silly. You call me before anything like that goes through your head, promise?”

  Ellen nodded and wiped at her face with her hand. “Promise.”

  She let them both into the flat. She was relieved to see Tammy wasn’t home yet. Her flatmate wasn’t the most sympathetic of people, and there was still friction between them after the whole ‘leaving the door open incident.’

  Putting the kettle on to make the tea, she glanced over her shoulder to where Ellen perched on the edge of the sofa. “So, has he explained to you what’s happened? Why he wants to break up?”

  She shook her head miserably. “Not really. Just that he realises he doesn’t love me anymore, and it isn’t fair to keep living as a couple. He says he’s going to keep paying the rent until the lease on our place is up.”

  Liv frowned. “He’s going to keep paying the rent? How’s he going to afford to do that if he’s moving into somewhere else? Is he going home to his parents?”

  Ellen shrugged. “I doubt it. He and his dad have never got on. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s met someone else.”

  Her mouth dropped. “What? No, not Ryan. He wouldn’t do that to you.”

  “If you’d asked me a week ago, I’d have said the same thing, but now everything’s changed.” Her shoulders shook, and she put her hands back over her face.

  Liv quickly finished making the tea then brought the two cups over and set them on the coffee table. “Oh, honey. I don’t know what to say. Do you want me to see if I can have a word with him? Find out what’s going on.”

  “I don’t think it will do any good,” she replied between hiccupping sobs.

  “Maybe not.”

  But Ellen hadn’t actually said no, had she?

  “You can always stay here for a bit, if you want. I know there isn’t a whole heap of space, but if you can’t stand to go home ...”

  Ellen shook her head, and Liv tried to ignore the sense of relief spreading through her chest. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Ellen around, it was that she knew Tammy wouldn’t be happy about having another person around making a mess.

  “You’re sweet to offer, but I’ll be fine to go home once Ryan has got all his stuff out. I just couldn’t bear to be there, watching him go, you know? It was all too painful.”

/>   “Of course. Whatever you want. But you’re always welcome here, if you need to get away.”

  Ellen gave her a thankful smile. “What would I do without you?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Present Day

  “HEY!” SHE CALLED. “HEY! You need to wake up now. We don’t have time for this.”

  Shit, shit, shit.

  The blow to the head she’d given him to keep him quiet had been too hard. Now what was she supposed to do? She’d reacted out of panic, of fear that whoever had been walking around upstairs would find them. Would the person come back? Had they heard anything suspicious? She thought she’d managed to silence him in time, but she had no way of knowing if the person had left because they’d done what they’d come here to do, or if they’d heard something and had decided to either come back with help, or else go to the police.

  The constant sense of the trickle of time passing refused to leave her. It chewed at the edges of her mind like rats on a sack of corn, leaving her frayed and anxious. She paced the floor and nibbled on her lower lip, her fists clenching and unclenching. How was she supposed to fix this? Would more cold water to the face wake him?

  She came to a rest in front of him again. Every muscle in her body was taut with tension, and an irrational anger bubbled up inside her. Though it wasn’t his fault he was unconscious, it still felt as though he was doing this purely to spite her. If he wasn’t aware of what was going on around him, she couldn’t even use the threat of more pain to get him to tell her what she needed to know.

  Though it was of no use for the moment, she went to the small rucksack she’d brought with her. Crouching beside the bag, she undid the top and pulled out a notepad and ballpoint pen. It was the only way she could think of for him to tell her what she needed without allowing him to speak. She couldn’t let him talk. That was where the danger lay. But if she could break him enough to prefer to tell the truth, rather than use the freed hand to try to escape, he could write down what she needed to know.