The Pact: A dark and compulsive thriller about secrets, privilege and revenge

by S J Bolton

  ‘That’s why you need me alive.’ Amber said. ‘You need me on your side.’

  Megan didn’t argue but began replacing Felix’s clothes and bat in the sports bag. She did it carefully, using the ski mask as a makeshift glove. ‘This will prove his guilt,’ she said. ‘His prints should be on the bat. There’ll be DNA that ties him to Dad, Xav and Talitha. Maybe Dan as well. But you’re a loose end we need to tie up.’

  What the hell did that mean?

  ‘I’ve got a plan, Amber, want to hear it?’

  With no other option, Amber nodded her head.

  ‘We leave here, and we drive straight to the police station in Oxford,’ Megan said. ‘We tell them the truth about what happened twenty years ago.’

  So that was her choice: confess and serve time or be bludgeoned to death by the man who was once her friend. At that moment, Amber wasn’t entirely sure which she’d choose. The latter would be quick, and she’d die leaving her reputation intact.

  ‘And when I say the truth,’ Megan went on, ‘I mean a version of it.’

  Amber walked back towards the table. ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘I tell them that the others – Dan, Xav, Felix and Tal – were in the car with me that night,’ Megan said. ‘But not you. You’d had too much to drink and you’d passed out hours before we even decided to go.’

  It wasn’t so very far from the truth. She’d been almost totally out of it that night.

  ‘I’ll tell them I offered to take the blame because I knew I’d screwed up my A levels,’ Megan went on. ‘The deal was they’d all support me. Tal would get her dad’s firm to represent me, make sure I didn’t get too harsh a sentence, and then, when I came out, they’d all take care of me.’

  ‘Take care of you how?’

  ‘Give me a job, help me find somewhere to live, set me up with some money. I can be vague about the details – it was a long time ago. The important thing is, you knew nothing about this until very recently, maybe the last week or so. We need to agree a date, say the time I made you all meet me at Talitha’s old house.’

  It wasn’t possible. This would never work. And yet, that was a tiny glimmer of hope she could feel, wasn’t it?

  ‘You were horrified,’ Megan went on. ‘You couldn’t believe it. We knew you wouldn’t keep it to yourself – the others went into a full-on panic and Felix decided to take matters into his own hands.’

  ‘I resigned,’ Amber said. ‘That would fit. I would have had to resign from government once I found out what my old friends did.’

  Megan gave a cold smile. ‘Yep, that actually works quite well. So, what do you think? Can you do it?’

  She wasn’t sure. ‘Why would you let me get away with it?’ Amber asked.

  Megan got to her feet. ‘Because enough lives have been ruined, Am. You really were out of your head that night. You barely knew what you were doing. Of all of us, you were the least to blame.’

  Amber shook her head. Much as she’d like to believe that was true, she could remember every moment of that drive along the A40.

  ‘And you have two little girls.’

  ‘What will happen to you? You’ll be confessing that you lied to the police, committed perjury.’

  Megan shrugged. ‘I may have to go back inside for a while. Not long, I shouldn’t think, not now Tal’s no longer around. When I’m out again, I’ll take my money and go.’

  Could it really be that simple?

  ‘Felix won’t let us get away with it,’ Amber said. ‘If we take him down, he’ll drag me with him.’

  ‘He’ll try,’ Megan agreed. ‘And he may succeed. But it will be our word against his, and why would I lie now?’

  It would be the end of her career. Her entire life would change. But she’d still have a life.

  ‘You’re right,’ Amber said. ‘I’ll do it. Let’s go.’

  Megan picked up the sports bag and Amber opened the door as a massive gust of wind almost blew it into her face. The night had grown even wilder. Waiting only until Megan had jumped down, she set off at a half-run along the path towards the car. She’d started the engine before Megan had climbed inside. Throwing the car into reverse, she backed away from the shed and turned the vehicle around before driving at the gates. A few yards away she stopped, waiting for Megan to jump out and open them. The other woman didn’t move.

  Amber said, ‘What’s up?’

  Megan was staring at something in the dark beyond the windscreen.

  ‘Put your lights on full beam,’ she told Amber. ‘And make sure these doors are locked.’

  Heart thudding, Amber followed Megan’s instructions. In the bright glare of the car’s headlights, she could see clearly what Megan had only suspected. A heavy-duty chain had been wrapped and padlocked around the inner-most rungs of the gates. Megan’s knowledge of the key code wouldn’t help them in the slightest. They were trapped.

  61

  ‘He’s here.’ Megan was looking beyond the gates to a car parked on the other side. ‘That’s my car. I told you he had it.’

  It had never occurred to Amber before to ask what car Megan had been driving. Now, she saw a small blue hatchback, a little – no, a lot – like the one that had passed them on the road over. Had they been followed this whole time?

  Megan’s pale face had blanched; she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes from the locked gates, and the small blue car facing them. There was no one in the driver’s seat.

  ‘What do we do?’ Amber’s heart began to thump against her chest wall. ‘Back to the caravan?’

  ‘He’ll break that lock in seconds,’ Megan replied. ‘We’re safer here. Give me your phone. No, not that one. Your real one.’

  Megan had dialled one digit of the 999-emergency number when they heard a cry from the other side of the yard. Both women turned to face the rear window. A dark figure was running towards them. They lost sight of him for a split second as he vanished behind the globe.

  ‘It’s Felix,’ Amber whispered.

  The tall man, his fair hair plastered to his face by the rain, reappeared. He was shouting something.

  ‘All he can do is break in.’ Megan’s voice was shaking. ‘When he tries, drive forward and back, as fast as you can. I’ll call the police. Our story stays the same, Amber. Hold it together.’

  ‘Amber! Wait up! Amber, wait!’ Felix was yards away. Amber revved the engine and gripped the handbrake.

  He reached them. His hand slapped down hard on the driver’s window as Amber released the brake and the car shot forward.

  ‘Amber, for God’s sake.’ Felix ran alongside, banging on the window. Amber kept her eyes straight ahead.

  ‘Reverse!’ Megan yelled. ‘Hello, hello, police?’

  Amber could see nothing behind but did as she was told. A second later, the car hit something and crashed to a noisy halt. Megan’s phone clattered onto the dashboard and then the floor as she braced herself against the windscreen. Felix caught them up. His eyes went briefly to Megan before he banged on the window again.

  ‘Let me in, you need to hear this, both of you.’

  He tugged on the door handle.

  ‘Move, Amber,’ Megan yelled from the footwell. She was trying to locate the dropped phone. ‘Drive forward.’

  The car shot forward and Felix vanished. Amber heard what sounded like a cry of pain. She stopped inches from the gate and looked back. Felix had gone.

  ‘He’s on the ground.’ Megan, too, was looking back, peering over the seat. ‘I can’t find that phone, give me your other one.’

  ‘It’s in my bag. Did I hit him?’

  ‘No.’ Megan was rummaging in Amber’s bag. ‘He’s tricking us.’

  A rapping on Megan’s window made them both leap in fright. They turned, as one, to see Daniel, soaking wet, pale and thin, staring in at them.

 
62

  Through the open window, as though afraid he might dissolve before her eyes, Megan reached out to Daniel.

  ‘You’re OK? What the hell happened? Where have you been?’

  ‘I knocked him out.’ Daniel looked dreadful, his face gaunt and covered in scaly patches of eczema. He seemed out of breath, close to exhaustion. ‘I saw his car parked off the road a few hundred yards away.’

  A coughing fit grabbed hold of him and he bent double for several seconds.

  ‘I’ve been watching him for days,’ he said, when he’d recovered his breath. ‘I wasn’t sure I’d be on time.’

  He glanced over at the gates. ‘We need the key to that padlock,’ he said. ‘We have to get you both out of here. Can you watch him while I look for it?’

  ‘I’ll do it,’ Megan said as she wound up the window. ‘Amber, stay in the car.’

  Something was wrong. How could Dan have seen Felix’s car parked a few hundred yards away when, according to Megan, Felix had been driving her car?

  ‘Hang on, Megan, I’m not sure—’

  Too late. Megan had unlocked the car and jumped out. She and Daniel were staring at each other, exchanging words that Amber didn’t catch. There was a brief hug. Amber pressed the button that would open the window again.

  ‘Come on,’ Daniel was saying to Megan as he led her away from the car. ‘Watch yourself. I didn’t hit him that hard.’

  ‘Meg!’

  Amber wasn’t heard. Knowing something was going horribly wrong, she put the car into reverse again and followed them. Megan glanced back but didn’t stop. Within seconds, she and Daniel had reached the point where Felix lay slumped on the ground.

  Amber twisted in her seat so that she could see the tableau being played out in the red gleam of the car’s reverse lights. As her two old friends neared Felix’s prone body, Daniel dropped back and Amber saw what she hadn’t noticed before. Daniel was carrying something in his right hand, slightly behind his body, as though trying to conceal it from Megan. In the darkness, it looked like a hammer, presumably what he’d hit Felix with. He was still carrying it like a weapon, and why would he need to do that unless—

  Amber’s hand hovered over the car horn. This wasn’t right. The car, for one thing – Megan’s car, parked directly outside the gates – and yet Dan said he’d seen Felix’s car up the road. Felix could not have driven two cars here. How had Daniel got here when Daniel couldn’t drive? He could though, he’d learned years ago. Was driving something you forgot?

  She had to get Megan back in the car.

  Megan was peering down at Felix. As she crouched to – Amber wasn’t sure, check he was still alive, look for the padlock keys? – Daniel swung his right arm up and back, before bringing it down. Megan collapsed beneath the blow, and then Daniel turned and ran straight at Amber’s car.

  63

  Amber put the car into drive and slammed her foot down. She drove straight at the steel gates, losing her nerve at the last moment, taking her foot off the accelerator a heartbeat before she hit them.

  Several airbags exploded on impact and for a second, Amber thought the thundering noise against the side of the vehicle was a weird echo of the crash. Then the passenger-side window splintered as Daniel swung his hammer at it a second time. On the third strike, she saw the metal tip break through.

  Amber ran. Flinging open the driver door, she sprinted away along the gravel track, past the prone bodies of her two friends. If she could get to the caravan, the locks might hold long enough for her to call the police. As she darted behind the huge golden globe, she glanced back to see Daniel reach Megan’s unconscious body. He raised the hammer to strike, then seemed to change his mind; the hammer dropped to his side again.

  ‘Amber!’ he yelled.

  The caravan was twenty yards away, but if she ran for it, he’d see her.

  ‘Amber, where are you? I only want to talk.’

  She needed a weapon. Not two yards away was the statue of a cherub, less than two feet high. If she could get to it, if she could lift it . . .

  Daniel didn’t know where she was. He was moving, but slowly, checking every possible hiding place. For the moment, he’d lost track of her.

  ‘I had to do it, Amber,’ he called. ‘They’re in it together.’

  He was getting closer.

  ‘I’ve got a plan. I need to talk to you.’

  Felix could not have driven two cars here, so Daniel must have been at the wheel of Megan’s blue hatchback. It had been Daniel who’d been hanging around outside her house earlier, who’d followed them here.

  Talitha would never have opened her door to Megan at night. To Felix, possibly, but to her old friend Dan, back from the dead, she wouldn’t have hesitated. Talitha had loved Dan, and it had got her killed.

  Amber bent to the ground and picked up a small stone. She waited until Daniel was looking the other way, then threw. It landed, noisily, by the gargoyle shed and Daniel turned on his heels.

  Amber backed out of her hiding place until she reached the stone cherub. Heavy though it was, she managed to lift and hold it against her chest. Daniel, meanwhile, thought she was behind the shed. Using a torch to light his way, he was peering into the bushes, pulling at the ivy.

  The caravan was ten feet away. Amber quickened her pace as Daniel straightened up, turned, and saw her. She ran, made it to the caravan door and up the steps. Once inside, she drew the bolts that might hold Daniel back for a minute or two. Only then did she reach for her phone.

  She didn’t have it. She didn’t have either of them. They were still in the car.

  The door buckled inwards with the force of a hammer strike. Daniel’s second blow broke the upper bolt; the lower one went on his fourth strike. A gust of wind blew in and Daniel followed. He and Amber made eye contact, and he took a moment to get his breath. Then he swung the hammer, as though firming up his grip.

  Amber felt the table edge digging into the back of her legs. Nowhere left to run.

  ‘You don’t have to do this,’ she begged, as she crawled backwards along the padded bench seat. ‘I won’t tell anyone, I promise.’

  Daniel closed the door, as though it would make any difference. There was no one to hear her screams.

  ‘Dan, I have two little girls. I won’t do anything that risks losing them, you know that. I won’t tell.’

  ‘I wish I could believe you.’ He was moving slowly now, trying to get his breath back. He really did look very ill.

  ‘Megan phoned the police,’ Amber tried. ‘They’re on their way.’

  ‘Megan’s still alive,’ Daniel said. ‘She’ll come round in a while, with a hammer in her hand.’ He waved the weapon in the air. ‘A hammer with Felix’s blood on it. And Xav’s, and Tal’s. Yours too. By that time, I’ll be back at my retreat in Cumbria.’

  He smiled at her then, showing his perfect white teeth. She’d never seen anything more terrifying.

  ‘I’ve been having a nervous breakdown, Amber,’ he said. ‘That’s why I had to go away. I’ll be devastated when they break the news to me that all my old friends are dead.’

  The bench ran out and Amber could stand upright again. She glanced left then right, hoping for the miracle, a door to the yard she’d missed, but to one side were Gary Macdonald’s clothes and to another a shelving unit. His bed was behind her.

  There was a window over the bed. And Daniel had not yet manoeuvred his way around the table.

  Amber turned and leapt onto the evil-smelling bed, pushing aside the curtains, fumbling with the window lock. The night air rushed into her face as the window opened and she pushed herself through it. Gravity took over and she was falling to the ground.

  Her ankles were grabbed.

  Pain tore into her thighs as she was pulled back up. She reached out for leverage of some sort, something to grab hold of. She kicked out
and squirmed against the side of the caravan, but the edge of the window felt like a knife blade as she was pulled against it. Then she felt a hand on the waistband of her jeans and she was moving upwards.

  She splayed her elbows, but he had her around the waist now, and she was almost back in the caravan. She grabbed hold of the window frame. For a second, the hands pulling her released, but then the hammer slammed into her right hand and she felt the bones crumble beneath it.

  As she fell onto the bed, a hand grabbed hold of her hair and she was dragged along the tabletop. She caught a glimpse of the whisky bottle flying across the caravan. Her scalp was burning and then the floor was rushing up to meet her and she was released for what she knew would be the last time.

  The air whistled above her head as the weapon that would kill her hurtled through space. Solid matter met solid matter, and the weaker of the two gave way. Bones crumpled and broke; blood burst free like a firework. A cry sounded, that might have been human, and then a final breath was released like the last wave before the tide turns.

  Someone was touching her head. ‘Amber? Are you OK? Amber, talk to me. It’s over.’

  Megan’s voice. Megan, pale and blood-stained, was coaxing her upwards. Amber risked looking up. Not inches away, Felix was kneeling over Daniel’s supine body, fingers at his throat. The cupid statue, with blood on one of its wings, lay a short distance away from Daniel’s head.

  ‘He’s dead,’ Felix said.

  ‘Good,’ Amber replied.

  64

  After he ended the call, Felix felt as though he could breathe again. He’d had serious doubts about Megan’s ability to drive with a head injury, not to mention Amber’s with a broken hand, but the two women had made it back to Amber’s house. They’d spend the following day there and then, the next night, Megan would drive her car to one of the long-stay car parks at Heathrow Airport. From there, she’d take public transport to Kent and contact her lorry-driver friends who would get her to the continent.