by Agatha Frost
“Leah was my friend.”
“Then you need to pick your friends more wisely.” Brooke’s eyes snapped onto Julia. “You say you know what she did to my father, and yet you still care enough about her to break into my shop to uncover my lie? I don’t know if you’re stupid, or if I should admire your conviction.”
“I just want the truth.”
“The truth?” Brooke’s eyes glazed over. “If Leah had told the truth at the trial, my life would have turned out very differently.”
“I’m sorry about your father.”
“Are you?” Brooke cried. “Was he your teacher at Hollins?”
“For a time. I didn’t take drama as a GCSE subject, but he taught me in my early years.”
“And what was your assessment of him?” Brooke cocked her head back. “Be honest.”
Julia’s feet felt glued to the spot as dread tightened every muscle.
“I liked him,” Julia said carefully. “Everyone did. He was funny and sweet.”
A soft smile crossed Brooke’s face for a second before the icy glare returned.
“A lot of people shared that opinion.” Brooke’s jaw tightened. She looked like she was biting back tears. “He was a good man, but bad things happen to good people, don’t they? Do you know what it’s like to lose a parent?”
“I do.”
“Then you know the void their absence leaves behind.” Brooke’s lashes fluttered as she stared into the distance. “How did they die?”
“Cancer.”
“Ha!” Brooke shook her head. “Then nature decided it was their time to go. Don’t you think that makes it easier?”
“I was twelve.”
“Then you’ve had longer to get over it.” Brooke’s face drained of colour. “My father didn’t have the luxury of natural selection. Leah robbed him of his reputation, making his life impossible, so he ended it. He was the sunshine in my life, my best friend. I haven’t felt that light in over twenty years. Do you know how that feels?”
Julia understood perfectly, but Brooke was not in the frame of mind to accept empathy. Julia might have had longer to miss her mother, but the void had yet to close. Julia didn’t think it ever would, not completely. Still, she shook her head, conceding.
“I thought things would get easier with time,” Brooke continued. “I waited for the colour to return to my life. I sought love and had a child, but it barely changed things. My life and heart have been grey since the day he died, all because of Leah. She was the cancer that ruined my family.” Brooke swallowed hard before taking another step forward. “Are you a Christian woman, Julia?”
“I don’t know.”
“So, you don’t believe in Heaven?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“Well, I do.” Brooke’s lips tightened. “I turned to God when my father left me. I thought I would find some solace in religion. I didn’t, but I took the Bible to heart. It gave me some strength to know that my father was in Heaven waiting for me. Knowing I will one day join him is what gets me out of bed in the morning.”
Julia understood grieving, but Brooke had ventured beyond that. Her grief had developed into an obsession, and it had clouded her vision. Julia wanted to remind her that she had a son to live for, but she bit her tongue.
“Heaven is where good people go when they die,” Brooke explained. “There’s another place for the bad people.”
“Hell.”
“Exactly.” Brooke smirked. “Where do you think you’ll end up?”
The question made Julia quiver. She shrugged, not wanting to feed into Brooke’s game.
“Well, are you a good woman, or a bad woman?”
“I don’t think it’s that simple.”
“Isn’t it?” Brooke snapped. “Our actions and intentions determine where we go in the next life. I have no doubt that I will be reunited with my father. No doubt at all. I have sinned, as we all have, but God can see through to our hearts. The Bible teaches us ‘an eye for an eye.’ In this case, it’s a life for a life.”
“And Jesus told us to turn the other cheek,” Julia reminded Brooke. “If someone asks for your shirt, you give them your coat as well. You don’t beat evil with evil, you rise above it.”
“Rise above it?” Brooke snorted. “We’re not talking about a coat, we’re talking about my father’s life. A life ruined by a silly girl. It’s a simple equation. Her actions directly led to my father’s death, so she got what she deserved.”
“And what did she get?” The question dried out Julia’s throat. “Did you kill Leah?”
Brooke’s eyes twinkled as the corners of her lips darted up; she was enjoying every second.
“I did,” Brooke whispered, her head moving closer to Julia. “And I’d do it again if I could.”
Julia’s heart dropped. The last light of hope she had been clinging to had just been snuffed out before her. She clenched her fists in disbelief as tears welled.
“How did you kill her?”
“I stabbed her,” Brooke said in a matter-of-fact voice. “I went to her house, and I stabbed her.”
“And her body?”
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
Brooke considered her response for a long, dragged out minute.
“I took her out into the fields, I dug a hole, and I dumped her. You’ll never find her. I don’t think I could retrace my steps even if I wanted to.”
“And did it work?”
“Excuse me?”
“Did it fix you?” Julia’s heart thumped in her chest. “I don’t think it did. That rage and misery will swirl around in you until the day you die. You went through one of the worst things a person can go through. I sympathise with that, I really do, but Leah wasn’t the thing holding you back from moving on. You’ve had twenty years to find her and kill her, and I don’t doubt you would have succeeded if you had wanted to. The problems you have go much deeper than one person. It’s ingrained within you. What Leah said about your father was wrong, but she didn’t kill him. He made that choice. And Leah didn’t force you to fester in your grief for this long. That was also your choice. This has nothing to do with Leah; this is about you.”
Brooke’s eyes widened. A car drove past the shop, its headlights shining through the window, but Brooke didn’t blink. Julia knew she had just told her what she had always known, and she doubted Brooke was going to let her get away with it.
“How dare you!” Brooke hissed. “What do you know?”
“I know that if you let a broken bone heal, it becomes the strongest part of the bone, but if you ignore the break and just keep splitting it apart before it can mend, it’s going to make things so much worse. You never allowed yourself to heal because it’s easier to stay stuck in that dark place. The darkness becomes a comfort, a security blanket. It becomes the only familiar feeling you have, so you stay stuck under that blanket. Change is a test, and you didn’t want to be tested. It became easier for you to pin all your issues on the woman you perceived to have ruined your entire life, and what has that made you?” Julia waited for Brooke to respond, but her stunned expression said it all. “You’re a murderer, and you’ll have to live with that until you take your dying breath.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Brooke said as she reached into her leather jacket, “but you’re not going to be around to find out. It’s time for you to take your dying breath.”
Brooke pulled a large knife from her jacket. It glittered as another car drove past the window. Julia took another step back, but Brooke copied the motion, closing the gap between them even more. Julia knew it would take hardly any effort at all for Brooke to stab her.
Before that could happen, the staff room door crashed open, knocking the headless mannequin over. The confusion allowed Julia to back away from Brooke, who was transfixed by Roxy running into the shop with the microwave over her head. A deep, rasping scream filled the shop as Roxy dumped the microwave on Brooke. Brooke crumpled under its weight and lan
ded on the floor with a thud. The knife fell away from her grasp. Julia kicked it, and it slid under the rack of dresses.
“Have I killed her?” Roxy cried as she backed away.
Julia knelt and pressed her fingers against Brooke’s neck.
“She has a pulse,” Julia said. “I think you’ve just knocked her out. You took your time to make your entrance.”
“I didn’t expect her to pull out a knife!” Roxy stepped back and clamped both hands against her head. “How were you so calm?”
“I knew you’d be listening to every word.” Julia allowed herself a sigh of relief. “I’m assuming you heard her confession?”
Roxy nodded, eyes dropping to the floor. Julia wanted to hug her, but the kitchen door burst open again, and Johnny ran in, red-faced. Barker and DI Christie followed. Barker’s relief was obvious the moment his eyes landed on Julia.
“I’ve been trying to call you!” Barker’s gaze drifted to Brooke on the floor. “A microwave?”
“It was a microwave or a tin of soup,” Roxy said. “I didn’t think chicken soup would be enough to stop that madwoman stabbing Julia.”
“Stabbing?” Barker echoed, clamping his eyes shut. “This is why I didn’t want you rushing into things without me.”
“She didn’t stab me,” Julia said with a sheepish smile. “And she confessed to everything.”
“She did?” Christie asked. “Oh, I could cry with happiness right now. What did she do?”
“She murdered Leah and buried her body,” Julia croaked. “She said she’d never reveal where she hid her.”
“We’ll get it out of her,” Christie said confidently as he pulled his phone from his pocket. “I need to call this in. Forensics are going to rip this place apart.”
“The deleted video footage!” Johnny exclaimed, clicking his fingers together as she hurried to the computer. “It might—”
“You can’t touch that!” Christie cried. “This is a crime scene.”
“Our prints are all over everything already,” Julia said. “We broke in.”
Johnny turned the computer on again. The trash can folder illuminated the screen, but it was empty. Johnny clicked back into the camera software. The lost clip had been restored. He double clicked on it, and the grainy video jumped up onto the screen, picking up where the last clip had ended.
The door opened, and a shadowy woman in nothing more than a t-shirt ran into the dark shop, limping and clutching her hand. Julia knew exactly who she was despite the poor quality.
“That’s Leah,” Johnny said.
They continued to watch, and a second figure burst in. This one was tall and lanky, with shaggy black hair.
“Max,” Julia muttered. “Brooke’s son.”
Max dove on Leah. He dragged her back towards the door, her legs and arms flailing. They both vanished into the darkness, and the door slammed behind them. They waited for something else to occur, but the shop looked as though nothing had happened. Johnny fast forwarded the clip, but it contained no other movement until Brooke arrived to open the shop at eight in the morning. Max followed her in, his eyes darting right up into the camera.
“I don’t understand,” Roxy said, her brows tight. “That’s not what Brooke said.”
Brooke groaned on the floor. Before anyone could do or say anything, Julia darted for the cellar door.
“Julia!” Barker cried, running after her. “Wait!”
Julia tore open the door and took the stone steps two at a time into the dark, cold cellar. While her eyes were adjusting, she heard chains rustling on the far side of the room. Without a second thought, she ran towards the sound. The double doors to the yard outside world flew open, letting in the light of the moon. Julia squinted, catching a glimpse of Max as he darted up the wooden steps to the doors. Without glancing back, he dashed into the yard. Julia ran after him, scrambling up the wooden ladder.
She emerged into the yard to find the back gate still swinging. She barrelled through it in time to see Max emerging at the top of the street just as a blaring police car sped towards Mulberry Lane. The two collided with a thud, sending Max up into the air. Tyres screeched to a halt out of view. Julia pressed her hand against her mouth.
“Julia!” Barker’s voice echoed from the cellar. “You need to see this.”
In a daze from what she had witnessed, Julia turned around and walked back into the yard. She climbed carefully down the ladder into the cellar, which was now illuminated by a single bulb hanging from the beams. The light revealed a sewing machine and racks of more plastic wrapped dresses. Everyone stood crowded around something in the corner.
“A police car just hit Max,” Julia said calmly. “Someone needs to call an ambulance.”
“Two are already on the way,” Roxy said as she backed away from the corner. “I can’t believe it.”
Julia was about to ask what Roxy couldn’t believe, but the crowd shifted enough for her to see. Leah was slumped in the corner, her left wrist handcuffed to a pipe. Her head lolled against her shoulder, and her eyes were clamped shut, but her chest softly rose and fell under a filthy white t-shirt that was several sizes too big.
“She’s alive,” Julia mumbled. “Leah’s alive.”
Chapter Seventeen
Julia woke with a start, banging her head on the wall behind her. She found herself sitting upright in a chair, with her arms folded tightly across her body. The scent of strong disinfectant and the sound of muffled machine beeps reminded her she was in a hospital; it took a moment to remember why.
Jumping up, she looked through the window of the room she had fallen asleep outside of. Leah was propped up in bed in a blue gown with white sheets neatly tucked around her. Her bruised and scratched arms were by her sides, and one hand had a thick bandage around it. Wires and tubes trailed off her, but otherwise, she looked like she was taking a peaceful nap. Julia scanned the corridor; she had no idea what time it was in the windowless depths of the hospital. Her panic eased when Barker rounded the corner carrying two cups in his hands.
“Morning,” he said, passing her one of the cups.
“Is it?”
“The sun has just risen. I thought you might need a strong coffee after last night.”
Julia slurped the hot coffee—the caffeine was just what she required. After leaving the boutique the night before, she, Roxy, and Johnny had been whisked straight to the station to give separate statements about the events leading up to finding Leah. The police had kept them until the early hours of the morning before releasing them. They didn’t so much as thank them for cracking the case, and they even had the nerve to say that they wouldn’t be charging them with breaking and entering on ‘this occasion,’ while reminding them that calling 999 was free. Julia drove straight to the hospital to see Leah, but her friend had still been unconscious when she arrived. Julia remembered sitting in the chair, but not falling asleep.
“Brooke and Max have been taken to another hospital,” Barker explained as Julia continued to stare into space as her mind woke up. “They’re under constant supervision. Brooke’s awake, but Max was still in surgery the last I heard. The car hit him pretty bad.”
“Will he survive?”
“They think so.”
“Good.”
“Is it?”
“There’s been enough death.” Julia sipped her coffee and turned to the window. “They both need to face justice for what they’ve done.”
“And we still don’t know exactly what happened.” Barker sighed before stifling a yawn. He looked like he hadn’t slept. “Brooke isn’t saying a word, so we won’t know anything until Leah wakes up and gives us her version of events.”
“I’m just glad she’s alive.” Julia gazed into the room. “She looks so weak.”
They turned when a doctor turned the corner. She was looking over notes attached to a clipboard, lost in her thoughts. She smiled sympathetically when she noticed them.
“You’re awake.” The doctor held out a hand
to Julia. “I’m Doctor Maryam Khan. I don’t usually like people sleeping in the corridors, but the police told me what you went through, so I let it slide.” She smiled again, the corners of her eyes crinkling. “It’s a good job you found her when you did.”
“Is there any news?” Julia glanced at Leah. “What’s happened to her?”
“I’ve just been looking over her bloodwork and x-rays.” Doctor Khan flipped through the papers. “There’s the deep cut on her hand, of course, which she’s fortunate isn’t severely infected, and surface abrasions and contusions. However, there are no signs of internal trauma. She does have a high concentration of diphenhydramine hydrochloride in her blood.”
“What’s that?”
“A common antihistamine found in over-the-counter sleeping pills.” Doctor Khan dropped the clipboard to her side and exhaled. “We’re well into overdose territory. In my professional opinion, she’s been fed large amounts of the medication.”
“Is it lethal?”
“It can be.” Doctor Khan tipped her head from side to side. “But I’m confident she’ll live. She’s just asleep right now. Her blood pressure is a little low, and she might be irritable or nauseous when she wakes up, but that’s about it. We’ve given her a vitamin and fluids intravenous to build her back up. We could force her out of this sleep with some adrenaline shots, but I don’t think that’s necessary. From the sounds of it, she needs the rest.”
Doctor Khan entered the room. They watched as she checked the readings on the machines while scribbling on the clipboard. When she was satisfied, she bowed out of the room and left them to continue observing Leah.
“Sleeping pills.” Julia shook her head as she rubbed her temples. “Remember when we saw Max smoking in front of the shop the day after Leah was taken? He had a bag from the pharmacy in his hand. They’ve had her chained up in that basement while pumping her full of pills to keep her docile. I was there yesterday afternoon. If I’d just—”
“Seen through the floor?” Barker wrapped his arm around her. “There was no way you could have known.”