‘Something’s not right,’ says Luke. ‘She wouldn’t sleep through the landline, would she?’
Amanda shrugs. ‘It’s likely, if she’s had a heavy night.’
He checks the message he sent to Simon. It’s been read, and Luke sees the dots as the other man types out a message. It’s intermittent. Simon’s taking his time to find the right words perhaps. Is he trying to get his story straight? Maybe Luke was worrying about the wrong thing – Helen could be having an affair. He’s overdramatised what might have happened to his wife when the truth is much simpler. They haven’t been as close as they were. They go to bed at different times, barely talk about anything that doesn’t involve the kids or work. Luke’s face feels hot at the thought and he hopes Amanda won’t ask any more questions about Helen.
After several minutes of composing, two lines of text appear:
Sorry, phone was dead. Helen stayed at ours last night – just dropped her home. Simon.
Is that it? He’s been worrying the best part of a day and that’s all the explanation he gets?
There’s silence between him and Amanda. Luke doesn’t want to ask her opinion on what it all means.
‘Anyway,’ she says, moments later. ‘I’m going to make a quick detour.’
She turns into Erica Wright’s road.
Erica’s standing in the street, hands in her hair, screaming. People are opening their front doors and staring at her.
‘Shit,’ says Luke. ‘What the hell has happened now?’
They pull up and he jumps out of the car.
‘What’s wrong?’ he says, rushing to her. The poor woman is shaking uncontrollably. ‘You look awful.’
‘He’s taken Craig!’ She reaches for Luke, taking hold of his hands. ‘We have to find them … Jason … It was Jason. He killed his own mother … Inkerman Street.’ She’s tugging at his hands. ‘But there’s no time. Will you help me find them?’
Luke can barely take in her words – she’s not making any sense.
‘Come on,’ says Amanda, snapping Luke from his thoughts. ‘You get in the back, Erica.’ She stops at the car door. ‘Are you just going to stand there, Luke?’
The canal is only twenty minutes away. Luke thinks it’s a pointless journey – why would Jason drive Craig to a place they went fishing as children? Isn’t that too obvious?
‘But he went back to the house on Inkerman Street,’ Erica says. ‘With Leanne. He’ll go to familiar places – where he knows he can’t be seen. And he knows that canal – it’s so dark at night. Not many people would go walking down there at this hour.’
Luke doesn’t know how Erica’s managing to sit upright. He’s never seen someone look so ill and not be in hospital.
‘I took a picture of Jason’s car and number plate,’ says Luke, ‘when I was outside his house the other day.’
‘I’m impressed,’ says Amanda with a smirk.
Luke wants to tell her to fuck off, but with their passenger within earshot that would be inappropriate, not to mention unprofessional.
‘We’re here,’ says Amanda, as they pull into a pub car park. ‘We’ll have to go the rest of the way on foot.’
‘I can’t see the car,’ says Luke after getting out.
‘They’ve probably parked further up,’ says Amanda. ‘I can’t see him dragging Craig through a car park.’ She opens the passenger door. ‘Do you want to wait here, Erica? I could stay with you.’
Luke almost protests – he can’t chase after two convicted criminals alone.
‘No, no,’ says Erica, almost tumbling out of the car. ‘I need to be there for him.’
‘But he might not …’ Luke begins, but Amanda cuts him off with one of her looks.
They each take one of Erica’s arms and guide her along a footpath that’s lit with one solitary lamppost. Luke tries to bury his fear, but he can’t stop the nausea rising in his stomach. What if Jason is here? The three of them are hardly tough opposition.
After they’ve been walking for ten minutes, Erica stops.
‘There!’ Her voice is louder than it’s been since they saw her on the street, but barely more than a whisper. ‘I can see something over there.’
Oh God, thinks Luke. He’s not prepared for this at all.
38
Craig
‘Where are you taking me, Jason?’ I say.
I glance at him. He’s sweating … out of control. He’s driving too fast and it’s only a thirty-mile-an-hour zone. He’s going to get pulled over, but that’s probably too much to wish for. He’s barely said a word to me.
‘Why would you want to frame me?’ I ask him. ‘What have I ever done to you?’
He turns to look at me; his eyes are wild, filled with hatred.
‘Keep your eyes on the road,’ I say.
‘Don’t tell me what to do,’ he says, but he turns to face the front.
His knuckles are white where his hands are gripping the steering wheel so tightly.
‘Being killed in a car wreck would be better than what I’ve got planned for you,’ he says, almost laughing. ‘You’re such an idiot, Craig. When I asked you to pick Leanne up from Sunningdales, you did it, no questions asked.’
‘Why would I have asked questions?’ I say. ‘You’re my— you were my friend. I can’t believe …’
I turn to look out of the passenger window. Seventeen years of my life I’ve spent in prison. There were times I wondered whether I could have hurt Lucy and then erased it from my memory. All those years at the beginning when I was beaten nearly every day. I’d recover, then I’d be punched again. The years spent with no hope, with only my mother visiting me. I should’ve known that Jason visiting me towards the end was about him more than me, but why would I suspect my best friend of something like that? I wouldn’t have believed it if someone else had told me. We’ve been through loads together. It was all fake. I thought we’d grown apart when I was inside. I’d come to terms with that. Then this past year when he got back in contact, I thought everything would go back to how it was.
But he was never there for me, not when it mattered. I heard nothing from him after I was arrested. I should’ve remembered that.
He’s a murderer.
Cold. Sociopathic.
Some of the most hard-hearted killers I met in prison could instantly turn on the charm to get what they wanted. He’s no different to them.
I’ve seen Jason with my own eyes, with his mum and Leanne; he’s capable of so much more than I ever was.
I turn to face the front.
‘Come on, Craigy boy. Man up! Are you crying, eh? All those years inside and now it’s all going to end. You should’ve been convicted for Jenna’s murder as well. I’ve had that hanging over my head for years … people whispering about me. The police should’ve fucking found her necklace, the top … bloody incompetent pricks.’
‘Hanging over your head? But you killed her!’
He bursts out laughing; he sounds like a maniac. He is a maniac; he’s insane.
‘Seventeen years of my life!’
‘Seventeen years … blah, blah, blah. You’re like a stuck record. What have you got to live for anyway? You’ve come back home, and no one wants you there.’
‘I loved her,’ I say.
‘Which one?’
‘Lucy,’ I say. ‘I barely knew Jenna.’
‘Yeah, whatever,’ he says. ‘Well, your Lucy soon forgot about you, I can tell you. I can’t believe she agreed to meet me.’
‘She wouldn’t have been up for it with you,’ I say. ‘She hated you. That’s why you killed her, isn’t it? She wouldn’t let you do what you wanted to her.’
‘Fuck off. You don’t know anything about that night.’
I can’t shake the picture of him on top of her – him with his hands around her neck. ‘I thought you were my friend,’ I say, wiping my face.
‘Right. And my friendship had nothing at all to do with the fact my precious, darling mother told me I had to keep a
n eye on you. She always preferred you to me when we were growing up. Do you know how that felt? I couldn’t spend time with my dad either, without you tagging along. When you were getting bullied, my mum actually paid me to protect you. Did you know about that? But after you were sent to prison, she came to her senses. She betrayed your mother – her best friend – to protect me. She gave me an alibi. It was all too easy. Especially as I managed to plant a few traces of you on Lucy. And I don’t know how I’ve managed to keep a straight face while your mother has been banging on about Pete Lawton all these years. That wasn’t even his real name. It was my mate, Gary. Your mum really believed you were innocent, didn’t she?’
‘Of course she did. She was right to.’ I glance out of the passenger window. I know where he’s taking me. His head’s stuck in the past. ‘How could you kill your own mother?’ I say.
‘I didn’t mean to kill her. It was an accident – she wouldn’t keep quiet.’ He looks at me, shakes his head. ‘She shouldn’t have taken my stuff. That weed was worth thousands – and it wasn’t even mine. Do you know what they’re going to do to me when they find out? I’ve got a family.’
Rain begins pounding on the windscreen. The wipers are going full speed, but it’s all I can do to see the road ahead. Shit.
‘I don’t believe you,’ I say.
‘And I don’t give a fuck what you think.’
Suddenly, he takes a hand off the steering wheel; I only feel the first two punches, then everything goes dark.
‘Wake up, you piece of shit.’
I can’t move. Where am I? Hands grab my jacket by the shoulders and I’m thrown to the ground.
‘Get up,’ he says, kicking me.
I turn onto my stomach, using my hands to push myself up. The pain in my right temple is throbbing, but I need to find my strength. I’ve had worse beatings than this one. Never show that you’re hurt, that’s what my friends inside used to tell me.
‘Give me your phone,’ he says.
‘What?’
He pats across my jacket and pulls the mobile from my pocket.
‘You’re going to record your confession,’ he says, looming over me, his breath stale in my face. ‘You’re going to tell everyone you killed Jenna Threlfall. Then you’re going to tell them that you can’t live with it any more and you’re gonna say goodbye.’
I look around. We’re by the canal. Jason’s dad used to take us fishing here in the summer as kids. Should I have suspected that Jason was jealous of my presence back then? I thought he was happy to have his friend come, but he probably wanted his father’s attention for himself. Jim always treated me like a son.
‘I’ll tell it to the police,’ I say, but my words don’t come out right.
‘It’s not going to happen like that,’ he says. ‘They sent you down for Lucy. Most people think you killed Jenna as well. No one will question it – they won’t know it was me.’
He grabs my elbow and yanks me towards a gap in the railings, sitting me against them.
I look up, but I can’t keep my head straight.
He slaps me across the face.
‘No,’ he says. ‘You need to be here. I’m not going to make it easy for you.’
‘I want to go home now,’ I say. I can’t think properly. ‘I’m going to be sick. My mum’ll be waiting for me. She worries, you know. I think she’ll know where I am.’
He slaps me again.
‘We’re going to practise,’ he says. ‘Repeat after me: I killed Jenna and Denise. I’m sorry.’
‘Repeat after me,’ I say.
‘No!’
‘I’m sorry,’ I say. But I can’t remember what I’m meant to be sorry about.
‘No, no, no!’
‘I’m sorry, Mum.’
‘For fuck’s sake.’
‘She’s coming,’ I say.
‘Who’s coming?’
‘My mum.’
He bends over, laughing.
‘I’ve heard it all now,’ he says. ‘Your mum isn’t going to save you. She couldn’t help you all those years ago – she’s not coming to save you tonight.’
He kneels before me, holding up my mobile phone.
‘I killed Jenna,’ he says. ‘I’m sorry. That’s all you have to say.’
‘Son!’ A voice in the distance, or did I imagine it?
‘Shit,’ says Jason.
He puts his hands around my neck.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
A woman’s voice.
It’s my mother.
39
Luke
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ says Erica.
She stops when she’s only two metres from them.
Jason has his hands around Craig’s neck, whose head is only inches from the edge of the embankment. There’s blood pouring from his nose and mouth; he looks barely alive.
From the corner of his eye, Luke sees Amanda on her mobile. He’s holding his own up, recording what’s in front of him. He hopes there’s enough light from the lamppost behind them.
‘Police,’ she whispers. ‘We’ve found Craig Wright and Jason Bamber.’
Luke wished she’d said it louder, but he wants Jason to think the police are already on their way. His face is sweating but cold. It’s only just stopped raining and the pathway is slippery. It might only take one small push to shove Jason into the canal.
Jason looks up at Erica. His clothes are soaking. He’s wearing the same white shirt Luke saw him in the other day. It’s filthy.
‘What does it look like I’m doing?’ he shouts.
Jason laughs; it echoes in the tunnel nearby. Eerily wicked. Luke has never heard a sound like it – not in real life.
Amanda steps forward, standing next to Erica.
‘The police are on their way,’ she shouts. ‘Get off him.’
Jason narrows his eyes.
‘Well look who it is.’ He’s staring at Luke. He takes his hands from around Craig’s neck, grabbing the man’s collar and shoving his head hard on to the ground. ‘Hiding behind two women, eh?’
Luke walks towards Jason, his heart pounding. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s never hit anyone before.
Amanda grabs his arm.
‘No, Luke.’
‘I’ve recorded you,’ says Luke. ‘I know it was you who killed Lucy and Jenna.’
Craig whimpers; Jason slaps him hard across the face.
‘No you haven’t,’ he says. ‘You’ve only been there a minute.’
Where are the sirens? The police can’t be far away – it’s not far from town. There’s a manhunt for Craig, they should be here by now.
Then Luke sees them.
Four officers dressed in black behind Jason. Luke tries not to look at them again.
‘Erica!’
Amanda rushes towards her as the older woman’s knees buckle, grabbing her arm. Luke takes hold of the other. Erica is so light, but she’s almost a dead weight.
‘I need to lie down,’ she says. ‘Lie down.’
The police officers run towards Jason and Craig. Jason doesn’t put up a fight as they handcuff him. Craig is motionless, his eyes closed.
‘We’re going to need two ambulances,’ says one into the radio.
Luke kneels on the ground next to Erica, collapsing with relief. He wants to burst into tears.
There are two paramedics kneeling over Erica. She wanted her son to take the first ambulance, not that it had been up to her. She closed her eyes after seeing police officers take Jason away.
‘Stay with us, Erica,’ they’re shouting. ‘Come on, love.’
Blinking slowly, she turns to face Luke as though she knew he would be there.
‘Is that you, Craig?’ she says.
‘No,’ he says. ‘It’s Luke.’
‘Oh, yes. That’s right. Luke.’
The paramedics bring out a wheeled stretcher.
‘Will you come with me, Luke?’ she says, her voice hoarse, brea
thless. ‘I don’t want to be alone.’
He looks over to Amanda. There are tears in her eyes.
‘Go on,’ she says.
He climbs into the ambulance after Erica and one of the medics.
‘Is it OK if I come?’ says Luke as he sits on one of the fold-down seats, but the man in green ignores him.
The doors slam shut, locking them in.
‘Luke?’
‘I’m here, Erica.’
‘Has she been ill for long?’ says the paramedic. ‘Did this come on suddenly?’
‘I barely know her,’ says Luke, to the man’s back.
He immediately feels guilty for saying it. He does know Erica: she doesn’t have any friends; she hardly ever goes out; she reads romance novels to escape reality; she’d do anything to protect her son.
‘She said she hasn’t been feeling well,’ says Luke.
The medic sits on the chair next to him. Erica tries to sit up.
‘Are you there?’ she says.
Luke glances at the man next to him; he nods.
Luke kneels next to Erica, holding the rail under her bed to stop himself falling when the ambulance turns a corner.
‘Everything’s going to be all right now, isn’t it?’ she whispers, her eyes closing longer than they’re open.
‘Yes,’ says Luke. ‘We know it was Jason. You were right about Craig.’
She opens her eyes fully.
‘I think I’m going soon,’ she says. ‘Tell him that I love him.’
Luke moves away from the stretcher.
‘You have to help her,’ he says.
‘We’re nearly there. They’re waiting for us. If you could stand clear, please, sir.’
Luke does as he’s told. He watches as the double doors are opened and they drag the stretcher from the back. He steps out of the ambulance; he doesn’t know what to do now.
He goes through the doors to Accident and Emergency, but they’ve taken her away.
She might have been confused, but Luke knows that Erica has been right about her son all along.
40
Erica
We’re moving, but I’m lying down.
It’s like my mother’s standing over me now.
Am I dying? Is this what it feels like?
Only a Mother Page 23