‘Is that necessary?’
‘It’s precautionary. We need to do an ultrasound in any case, to work out how many weeks pregnant you are. You haven’t put down a next of kin?’
‘Oh . . . my husband. He’s working abroad in Dubai.’ It was easy to mix Lucy’s life and mine up. The best lies always had some truth in them.
‘How did you get the bruise to your face?’
I touched my temple where Jonny had hit me.‘I bumped into a door when I was tired. Stupid really.’
She leaned away from me slightly as if to examine me. ‘Okay, well it doesn’t look serious, just bruising. I’m going to go and book in your ultrasound. Let your husband know you need to stay in overnight. And have a look at this.’ She handed me a leaflet – How to Quit Smoking for Good – and then strode away. I waited five minutes and then grabbed my handbag and opened the curtains. There was no sign of her.
‘Excuse me, where’s the nearest bathroom?’ I asked a passing nurse. She pointed down the corridor and I set off towards it. I glanced back but the nurse had already disappeared. I walked past the toilets and headed towards the ward’s exit, forcing myself to go slowly.
The doctor was standing with her back to me by the desk, talking to a nurse.
‘There’s something not right going on. She’s got a nasty bruise on her face from being punched with force and she’s been overdosing on Benzodiazepine. I think it could be domestic violence. Can you call the police for me?’
I backtracked to the toilets and ducked inside, locking the door behind me. I had to get out of here. If the police were called and found out I’d been lying, I wouldn’t get bail again. But if I was going to get past that desk, I had to act normally.
I unhooked my hair from my ears and tried to cover my bruised temple as best I could. It wasn’t great but there was nothing else for it. I opened the door and walked towards the desk, plastering a serene smile on my face.
The doctor had gone but the nurse was still there.
She was talking on the telephone in hushed tones, but I heard her say ‘domestic violence’. She put her finger up to me to indicate she’d be with me in a moment and stepped away from the counter to try to stop me from hearing what she was saying. She barely looked at me. I hovered for a moment as if I wanted to ask her something and then mouthed that I’d come back later. I forced myself to walk slowly as I headed to the exit.
When I got through the doors, I felt immediate relief – but what now? I needed Lucy, but then I remembered the sleeping pills. Why had she told me to take two to three tablets a day? And was she having an affair with Mark? Was this her way of stopping me from realizing, making me clouded and distracted? I should go to the police, but they already thought I was involved with Mark’s disappearance and Jonny’s murder.
But this could be a mistake. It sounded ridiculous and the doctor had said a side-effect of the tablets was paranoia. Lucy was besotted with James and there was no way she would ever try to hurt me. She’d always been there for me. When I’d first moved to London, not telling my parents where I was going, Lucy had let me stay with her in her aunt’s house. She’d lent me money from her aunt’s inheritance to set up my jewellery business. She’d been there every step of the way, encouraging me to follow my dreams.
She’d been my best friend, counsellor, sister and mother all rolled into one. Everything that I’d lost. She meant the world to me and she was the only person who could make me laugh until I cried. She was the only one who really knew me. This wasn’t Lucy. This was someone else.
Chapter 40
Jenny Hughes
Monday 24 July 2000
I couldn’t find Rachel. I was alone. Jonny had run off and now the dark was starting to set in. We’d been out here too long. We’d missed dinner and I knew I was going to be in real trouble when I got home.
An animalistic howl crashed through the trees, pulling me back to the moment. What was that? A fox? Jonny?
‘Rachel!’ I ran forwards but I wasn’t sure where the scream had come from. It seemed to echo all around me, bouncing off the trees.
God, where was she? I kept calling but there was no response. All thoughts of trying to scare her disappeared. I just wanted her to be all right.
I wanted Mum to shout at me for taking her to the woods and for missing dinner. I didn’t even care if Rachel told Mum I’d gone off with Jonny. Anything but this sick feeling that was twisting inside my stomach like a snake.
I ran towards where I thought the noise had come from. The trees loomed above me. I dug through tangled thorn bushes, my arms ripped and bleeding, but I couldn’t find her. Where was she?
I waded into the water, peering upstream and down, but there was no trace of her. My legs were wet and cold, my trainers squelching as I scrambled back up the bank.
I called her name again and again but there was no answer. I begged for her to come out. That I was sorry. That I’d be a better big sister.
The sky was darkening and I didn’t have a torch. ‘She can’t be far,’ I kept telling myself over and over again. I searched frantically until I was out of breath and there was a stabbing pain in my chest. Where was she?
The sun sank beneath the tree line turning everything grey and black. God, she could have been taken by someone. I tried to hold back the tears. What was I going to tell my parents? I couldn’t go home without her.
I’d found the willow tree, which was leaning over the brook, as if crying into the dark water.
I wiped my own tears from my eyes. The temperature was dropping. I’d look one last time and then I’d have to give up. I prayed she’d somehow got past me and was waiting for me at home. That must be what had happened. Mum and Dad would be furious.
On my last search I forced myself to go slowly, peering into the darkness. I used a stick to whack at the ferns. I walked further from the brook, beyond the tree line. Nothing. I turned to come back.
It was then that I spotted it. A small mass on the forest floor in the clearing, opposite the willow tree.
My body froze.
I stood there for what felt like hours, my body shivering in the chill evening air, and then I managed to inch towards the shape. The size of a child.
As I got closer, I could make out her favourite Care Bears T-shirt in the gloom, but it was spattered with black-red liquid. She was lying on her front. I couldn’t see her face. The back of her head was matted with blood.
I turned away. It couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be. My stomach lurched and I threw up onto the grass. My chest and throat burned. I sank to my knees and sobbed. The wood was spinning above me.
Somehow my legs and arms began moving and I pulled myself up and staggered over to her. Maybe it was worse than it looked? Maybe she was just unconscious? I told myself as I dropped to my knees beside her.
My hands were clammy and cold. Everything was still spinning. I gently rolled her over towards me. Her eyes were open, but she wasn’t looking at anything.
‘No,’ I whispered. Her eyes were doll-like, as if made of glass. Her lips were slightly parted, and there was dirt and moss in her mouth. Her skin was marble-white, her cheek cold to the touch.
She was dead. And it was my fault. I had brought her here. I wished I could take it all back. I wished I could give her life again.
I didn’t know how much time had passed but it was so dark it was hard to see past a metre. I shivered beside her. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t leave her, but she was too big to carry; I’d never make it home with her.
I should get help, but when I looked around me, everything was black. The woods looked different and I couldn’t work out which way was home.
I stroked Rachel’s soft hair, whispering to her that I was sorry. I took my ring off and put it onto her finger. She’d loved the purple stone, begged for me to give it to her. I’d said it was too big, and it was.
I knew I should try and get help, but I couldn’t leave her. Rachel hated being on her own.
Who had done this?
And then it came to me.
Jonny.
He’d looked so angry when he’d come towards me, that dark look in his eyes. When he’d run away, he must have come across Rachel. Poor Rachel.
I felt a sharp pain and realized I’d been tugging at my hair. There were blonde clumps of it in my hands, but I couldn’t stop. This was all my fault. Why had I left her in the woods alone? And I’d made Jonny angry.
Rachel looked so little among the trees. I didn’t want to ever be apart from her. Deep sobs shook me; I couldn’t breathe properly. I closed my eyes and prayed this was all some sort of nightmare. When I opened them, Rachel would be laughing at me, a game she’d been playing. And she’d properly tricked me. I would laugh with her. But when I did finally open my eyes Rachel was still lifeless on the grass.
I gazed into her face. I hit my head with my hands, again and again. It had to stop. Please, someone make it stop.
Adult voices filled the air. They were calling our names.
‘We’re here!’ I stood up. ‘Over here!’
The voices were far off. Strange. I didn’t recognize them. Two men calling. With a sudden vice-like fear gripping me, I realized that they could be the killers. They’d come back looking for me. Somehow, they knew I was still here.
I was so stupid. I scrabbled to the nearby fern and ducked into it. My stomach reeled. My whole body was shivering. It was as if I’d been in a freezing bath and had just got out. I didn’t think it’d ever stop. I held my breath, trying not to cry in case they heard me. I peered through the fan-shaped leaves.
A man came crashing through the undergrowth. ‘Girls, where are you?’
He stopped dead when he saw Rachel. He put his hands to his mouth and let out a low, strangled moan.
More men appeared.
My dad pushed himself forward through the crowd of men. I ran to him. Nothing else mattered but reaching him. I threw myself into his arms sobbing.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Dad was here. Everything would be all right. I longed for him to put his arms around me, but he didn’t. I looked up into his face, which was pale, his eyes full of horror as he stared down at me.
‘Jenny, what did you do?’
Chapter 41
Julia Talbot
Friday
Bailey’s Accountants was in a beautiful steel and glass high-rise tower near London Bridge. The reception was stunning, all polished white marble and glass walls. It was 6pm but the place still looked busy, with people sat on the plush armchairs having meetings. Lucy was meant to be working late tonight to catch up with the audit and her time away supporting me.
I’d tried to call my landline when I was in the police station, but she hadn’t answered. She must have gone to work. I needed to see her. To ask her about the sleeping tablets, get it straight in my head. I was sure her doctor had got the dosage wrong, or she’d got confused when she gave them to me. I also needed to talk to her about Jonny. I was in real trouble, and without her help, the police would be charging me with Mark’s disappearance and Jonny’s murder very soon. Lastly, I needed to ask her about whether she’d been having an affair with my fiancé.
I walked over to the receptionist, pushing my hair behind my ears and smiling at her.
‘Hello, how can I help you today?’
‘I’m trying to get hold of Lucy. Could you let her know I’m here? My name’s Julia Talbot, she’ll know who I am.’
‘Lucy? Do you know her surname and which business she works for? We have a lot of companies in this building.’ The receptionist smiled at me.
‘Lucy Webb. She’s with Bailey’s Accountants.’
She looked back down at her monitor. I glanced at the people around me, all in fitted suits or business dresses, and I tried to smooth out the crumpled T-shirt that I’d been wearing for the past few days.
The receptionist looked up at me. ‘Lucy Webb’s not coming up I’m afraid.’
‘Really?’ I tried to lean over the counter to see. ‘It’s Webb with a double “b” at the end.’
There was more tapping. ‘Still not coming up,’ she said. ‘We’ve got a Lucy Robson; she’s the only Lucy we have at Bailey’s Accountants.’
‘No, it’s not Robson. Could you try Kayleigh Webb?’
‘We’ve got no Webbs here in this building at all. Do you want me to put you through to Lucy Robson at Bailey’s Accountants?’
‘No. No, thanks. I must have got her name wrong . . . or the wrong building. Sorry.’
The receptionist looked at me, evidently confused, and I turned and hurried away. I fought the panic that was threatening to overwhelm me. I pulled out my cigarettes but then remembered – the baby. As I went outside I dumped them into the nearest bin.
This was the right building. I’d met Lucy here for her birthday drinks last year. We’d gone to a cocktail bar around the corner.
I racked my brain, but I couldn’t remember a single time I’d met one of Lucy’s colleagues. Even on her birthday drinks it always ended up being just her and me. Lucy would say that someone had cancelled last minute because they were ill, another had childcare issues and another had to stay late because of work and might join us later. They never did.
Something inside was irritating me, like a loose thread that I couldn’t tie off.
Had she been made redundant and hadn’t told me? She hadn’t told me about needing sleeping pills either. Was her own life unravelling, but I’d been so caught up in mine I hadn’t even noticed?
I hadn’t spotted Mark’s affair or that he had a serious drug habit. My whole adult life I’d been obsessed with guarding my own secrets. Had I been so closed off to everyone else’s pain, their own problems, that this is how I’d ended up here?
Once this was over, I was going to change. I was fed up of this. From now on I was going to stop running from everything. And I only knew one person I had left who could help me to do that.
Chapter 42
Alana Loxton
Friday
Mamus´ka Café was busy, the waitresses rushing to serve the evening crowd. Loxton checked her mobile again. Kowalski had told her nine o’clock, but it was now ten past. Maybe he’d changed his mind, realized what a mistake meeting her would be.
She sipped her coffee; it was hot and burnt her tongue. She glanced again at the doorway as someone came in. Not him. He wasn’t going to show. She was surprised by how ready she was to give up. She was tired and perhaps Fraser had been right; it was time to walk away. She could just email Kowalski what she’d found.
But then the door banged to and she saw him striding into the café. She felt relief and her spirits rise. A couple of women sitting near the entrance watched him with interest, but when he sat down opposite Loxton, they went back to their conversation, disappointed.
‘Sorry I’m late. Finding a parking space around here is like trying to work out what’s happened to Rowthorn. Impossible.’
She smiled as he checked the menu, which was adorned with photographs of the food. The waitress came over and smiled at him.
‘Poprosze˛ o kawe˛ i gulasz wieprzowy z cebula,’ he said.
She wrote it down and turned to Loxton. ‘Anything for you?’
‘No, thank you,’ Loxton said.
The waitress went to get Kowalski’s order.
‘You should eat,’ he said. ‘Polish food is the best and you’re getting real skinny.’
‘I’m not hungry.’ Her stomach was jittery and the idea of food was unimaginable. ‘Any developments with the case?’
‘Reynolds is now sure that Cane was murdered,’ Kowalski said. ‘He’d had a lethal dose of ketamine injected into him.’
‘Whoever killed him knocked him out and then administered the overdose?’ She thought of the gash to his head.
‘It looks like it. A user wouldn’t put that much into their system; they’d know it would be lethal.’
‘It’s not a gang killing. No big show of retribution as a warning to oth
ers . . .’ Loxton shook her head.‘Someone wanted to silence him and avoid detection.’
‘DC Bale also got the results of Cane’s and Talbot’s phone downloads. It shows that Talbot was in contact with Cane after Rowthorn’s disappearance on Tinder and Facebook Messenger. And that’s not all. Talbot’s been pinpointed by her mobile’s GPS to the Night Jar Bar around the time of Jonny Cane’s death.’
‘So, she killed Jonny Cane.’ She shook her head. She wasn’t sure Talbot was a killer, but Fraser had his doubts.
‘Maybe, or maybe she had help. We know the blood in Steele’s flat has come back as Rowthorn’s. Turns out Steele was as involved as Rowthorn in the insider trading and money laundering. He and Rowthorn fell out about a week before the wedding, Rowthorn threatening to come clean to the investigators, and Steele furious at Rowthorn that he might drop him in it. We’ll be able to charge him with Rowthorn’s murder and the trading, once we get hold of him.’ Kowalski smiled at her, excitement in his eyes. She knew what it felt like when the pieces all started coming together.
‘You think they were all about to get caught and things got ugly between them?’
Kowalski nodded at her. ‘It’s looking that way. I think Cane wanted to ruin Talbot by corrupting her fiancé. Get him sent to prison, like he was. It looks like Cane stalked them both before approaching Rowthorn about the money laundering. Rowthorn got Steele involved and then the bank started investigating them. Our latest theory is that somehow Talbot found out about Cane’s involvement and maybe she did kill him out of revenge. We’ll know more when forensics is finished and we can arrest Steele and Talbot. She’s disappeared with the same diligence and skills as her fiancé, but we’ll catch up with her eventually.’
‘What about us trying to find Rowthorn? Talbot and Steele need to be followed. They might lead the surveillance team straight to him.’
‘Winter hopes Steele will crack, once he’s re-arrested. No one believes Rowthorn’s still alive.’
‘He’s underestimating him. He won’t crack.’
‘You don’t need to tell me that. I’ve never known two people lie so convincingly.’ The waitress placed a coffee in front of Kowalski, smiling at him.
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