Chapter 37
THIRTY-SEVEN
GEORGIE
The coffee shop is rammed with the Saturday crowd.
Families with pushchairs, runners with dogs.
Harassed-looking dads with toddlers eating croissants.
The noise is chatter and clinking cups, the scrape of chairs against the tiled floor.
It smells of coffee beans and pastries, reminding me of when we’d come here after the rhyme time session at the library when the children were little.
Me, Beth and Tasha with Henry, Matilda, and Lily and Joshua too before she left.
We’d order toasted tea cakes and babyccinos and talk about milestones and nap schedules and husbands and Magnolia Close.
Now we’re silent. Waiting to meet a killer. Fighting to get our lives back. All of yesterday we waited for Keira’s next message – next voice note. Next threat.
There was nothing.
None of us slept last night, and when I woke up this morning to the reality of Nate asking for a divorce and then leaving to play golf like his life is just going to carry on, I knew I had to do something to fix this.
I couldn’t stand the waiting anymore. I didn’t want the threat to Oscar hanging over me for a second longer. So I messaged Keira.
Beneath the tension circling our table is a pang of sadness.
Everything is changing. The children are growing up, and Beth will have another baby soon, and she and Tasha will go to baby groups together again – and where will that leave me?
On the outside, watching a life I used to have slip further away.
I’ve tried to picture what comes next – Oscar split between two homes.
Nate told me this morning over coffee that he wants to sell the house.
‘We’ll both be able to afford something half decent if we sell this place,’ he said with the same nonchalance as deciding what to eat for dinner.
I’ve tried to imagine living in a smaller house on a nothing road far from Magnolia Close. I’ve tried to tell myself I could rebuild. Reinvent. Thrive. But every time I close my eyes, all I see is grey. Gloom. A future that looks nothing like the bright, glittering one I worked so hard to protect.
A waitress appears at our table, notebook in hand. Her hair is wispy, and her face is tight. She looks run ragged and stressed. ‘Ready to order?’ she asks. It’s the second time she’s come to our table.
‘So sorry. Just one more minute,’ I say with my sweetest smile as I check the time. ‘We’re just waiting on someone.’
The waitress frowns, the corner of her mouth twitching like she’s holding back a sigh, and then steps away without a word, retreating towards the counter.
The bell above the door jingles. All three of us jump, but it’s not Keira.
Just another group, eyeing our table, trying to work out if we’ve just sat down or are just leaving.
‘Where is she?’ Tasha hisses, eyes darting from our faces to the menu we’re all pretending to look at.
My stomach rumbles. I couldn’t face my smoothie this morning or my usual positivity post on Insta.
‘You’re just… so fucking ordinary.’
Hurt slices through me every time I hear those words repeated in my thoughts.
Beth’s eyes never leave the door. ‘Keira doesn’t strike me as someone who adheres to timekeeping.’
‘She’s playing with us,’ I say.
Beth nods. ‘She knows we’ll wait,’ she says. ‘It’s a final power play. We have the photograph now – proof she knew Jonny – and this is her way of trying to remind us that she’s still in charge.’
‘I want my life back,’ Tasha whispers, biting her thumbnail, eyes darting between us. ‘Are we really going to show the photo to DS Sató?’ she asks.
‘I don’t know,’ I reply, feeling suddenly uncertain.
Adrift. I want my life back too, but what life is that?
The marriage I’ve been pretending isn’t rotten and dead.
I’m an admin assistant working part-time in an estate agent’s.
Chair of the PTA. Host of the Magnolia Close residents’ group.
Chief party planner for our events. An Instagram influencer without the followers I need to be seen.
It’s pathetic. I’m pathetic. My life isn’t big and beautiful and amazing.
It’s empty and ordinary, just like Nate said.
‘I’m sorry,’ Tasha says again, and something sharp coils inside me.
I want to tell her to stop apologising, to just get on with it.
Sorry isn’t going to save us now. ‘But is there an option,’ she continues, voice small, ‘where Keira agrees we all walk away from today? She’s got things on us.
We have something on her. No one goes to the police. We pretend none of this ever happened.’
I want to believe that. I want to believe we can walk away from this today, but as I look between my friends, see the fear tightening Beth’s mouth and the guilt swimming in Tasha’s eyes, I know the truth – we all know it. It’s not going to be that easy. Not anymore.
Keira has threatened our families. Gone to extreme lengths to drag us into something none of us understand. There’s no way this is over. Not by a long shot. But still, I’m resolute on one thing – we can’t go to the police. We can’t talk to DS Sató. This mess we’re in is ours to fix.
The bell jingles again. Another group enters the café looking for a table. The waitress gives us a pointed look, and I shake my head. ‘She’s not coming,’ I say to Tasha and Beth. ‘We should leave.’
It’s as we’re gathering our coats that our phones buzz in unison. I pull out my phone, my heart suddenly racing as the words of the message blur and then sharpen. Panic surges through me, tightening around my lungs like a vice.
I have your children. Do exactly what I say or you’ll never see them again.
Beside me, Tasha gasps. Beth sways on her feet like she’s going to collapse. A hand flies to her mouth. Only I remain frozen. Body. Mind. Unable to process the message. She has my son. My entire world.
‘She’s lying,’ I say. Hope. Beg. Pray. ‘She has to be.’
‘Call Alistair,’ Tasha whispers. Beth’s hands fumble with her phone as she pushes out of the café, Tasha and I following her out onto the high street. The day is bright, and the air bites with a faint promise of winter.
We move away from the shoppers on their way to the market and stand on the corner of a narrow road, leading to a used record shop. Beth taps her phone, holding it to her ear. I want to tell her to put it on speaker, but it’s too late, she’s already talking.
‘Hey,’ she says, trying to keep her voice light. ‘Everything OK with the kids?’
There’s a pause. A second. Maybe two. Too long. Beth’s face drains of colour. Her eyes flick wildly between us. Keira isn’t lying. She has Oscar. The fear threatens to crush me.
‘Do you know where they went?’ she asks, that same fear in her voice.
Another pause.
‘You let them go? With someone you’ve met once? Alistair, she’s a stranger. We don’t know her.’
She falls silent.
‘I know, I’m sorry. It’s just… we don’t know this woman. Please go and get them.’ There’s a shorter pause, and then Beth says, ‘Thank you.’
Beth ends the call, her bottom lip trembling.
‘Keira came to the house. She told Alistair she’d been knocking for all of us.
She told Alistair that she was there to collect the children for a pirate playdate.
She told him she’d arranged it with us last week, and Alistair assumed we’d forgotten and let them go. ’
‘And he believed her?’ Tasha asks.
Beth looks like she’s going to be sick. ‘He thought it was harmless. He said Henry was really excited to go, and Keira gave him her address and suggested he collect them after lunch.’
‘Lanie—’ Tasha starts.
‘She’s with Alistair,’ Beth says. ‘She’s safe.’
‘But the others aren’t,’ I add and even though my voice is steel, I’m cracking inside. Oscar is my whole world. If anything happens to him, I won’t survive it.
Beth’s gaze shoots to mine. ‘He’s on his way there now. He’s going to drive. He’ll be there in a minute. I’ll message him,’ she says, tapping on the screen. ‘And tell him to call me when he gets there.’
Another flurry of messages from Keira land.
Do exactly what I say.
Go to the police station and confess to Jonny’s murder. Convince the detective you’re all guilty. All of you. You had your chance to kill my ex and you failed. Now you’ll take the blame for this before the police link me to Jonny.
If you do this, I’ll return your children to Alistair and they’ll come to no harm.
‘Oh God,’ Tasha whispers. She crouches down, head by her knees, tears running down her face. ‘This isn’t happening… Oh God, oh God.’
‘Tasha.’ Beth’s voice is cutting in a way I’ve never heard before. Tasha straightens in an instant. ‘You need to keep it together.’
Tasha wipes her face and nods. ‘I’m sorry. I just don’t understand what she’s asking. She’s saying we—’
Beth cuts her off. ‘Alistair has just messaged. He’s knocked on Keira’s door, but there’s no one home. He’s trying the park.’
‘She’s hiding them somewhere,’ I hiss, fighting back the burn of tears.
‘What do we do?’ Tasha cries.
I take a breath. ‘Be fearless,’ I whisper.
‘What?’ Tasha asks.
‘We do what she’s asking,’ I say. ‘What other choice is there? She has our children. She isn’t just threatening anymore. She’s actually doing this.’
‘So we go to the police and we confess to murder,’ Tasha replies, still breathing hard. ‘And then what? We rot in prison for the rest of our lives?’
‘Our children will be safe,’ I say. ‘That’s what matters.
’ That’s all that matters. Even though we’re talking about doing the one thing we’ve said we’d never do – talk to the police – my words hit with the force of a shove.
What we do now doesn’t matter. Oscar is all that matters.
Not Instagram. Not Magnolia Close. Not my life. Just Oscar.
Beth is staring at her phone. She’s gone completely still.
‘What is it, Beth?’ I ask.
‘Maybe,’ she says slowly, ‘maybe there’s a way to do exactly what Keira is telling us to do that doesn’t end with us getting arrested and charged with murder.’
‘Of course we’ll be arrested,’ Tasha cries. ‘She’s telling us to confess. If we confess, DS Sató is going to arrest us.’
Beth shoves her phone into her bag. ‘Keira’s message said we all have to confess, so that’s what we do. But we go in separately. We each say we killed Jonny, but we acted alone.’
‘How does that help us?’ Tasha asks.
My mind is already racing ahead. Disrupt. Evolve. Own it. Isn’t that what I thought that night in the pub when we first met Keira?
‘It muddies the investigation,’ Beth says, her voice gaining strength. ‘DS Sató will have three different confessions. She won’t know who’s telling the truth. She won’t be able to charge any of us.’
Beth’s gaze darts between us. She must see something in our faces because she takes a breath, and when she speaks again, her words come slower.
‘I used to be a solicitor, Tasha. I know what I’m talking about.
The CPS – the Crown Prosecution Service – has to authorise any charges,’ she explains.
‘DS Sató can’t just charge us with murder when she wants.
She has to ask them first. If she goes to them with three separate confessions, mixed stories, mixed evidence, the CPS will never agree.
They won’t risk taking a case that messy. ’
Disrupt. Evolve. Own it.
‘But the children—’ Tasha whispers. ‘Can’t we just go to the police and tell them Keira has taken them?’
Beth looks thoughtful. ‘We could, but—’
‘But what if they don’t get to her on time,’ I cut in.
I’m sick of the sit-back-and-wait-and-see-and-hope-it-all-works-out approach.
It’s what’s led us to this moment. ‘She has our children, Tasha,’ I cry out.
‘This is not the time to worry about what happens to us. It’s the time to do exactly what she’s telling us to. ’
Beth turns to her, gently but firmly. ‘Keira is clearly desperate and crazy, but she’s not stupid.
She isn’t going to risk keeping the children for any longer than she has to.
And even she won’t hurt them unless she feels it’s her only option.
She’s blackmailing us. We have to believe that if we do what she’s asking, she’ll return them. ’
We stare at each other. The silence is loaded before Beth talks again, laying out more details of her plan, making sure we all understand our roles. What to do. What to say and when.
‘I’ll go first,’ I say when there’s nothing more for it.
And with that, the three of us hug each other tight, and I turn and push through the crowd of shoppers.
The police station is only a few streets away.
I think of Oscar. No matter what else happens, Oscar is special.
He is the light that brightens every room.
He is what makes me amazing. Because I’m his mum.
Nate is wrong. My life is big and beautiful because of Oscar.
I will do anything to protect him. Even confessing to murder.