Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
SADIE
By the time I reach Jack’s car, my heart rate is slowly coming back down. It’s been high ever since I saw Luna, and it was certainly high when she had that knife in her hand and was advancing towards me.
‘How did it go?’ Jack asks me as we get into his car, the one he drove me here in and parked around the corner from Luna’s place so she wouldn’t see that we had arrived together.
‘I better check,’ I say as I take out my phone and find the app that will tell me how successful my interaction with Luna just was.
When I do, I see what I expect to see.
Luna’s kitchen.
Sure enough, she is in there, as is Jude. While that happy baby stares out of the window, Luna is staring at the handwritten message I just left her on the back of that family photo. The message in which I told her to smile for the camera.
The camera in the corner of her kitchen that just recorded everything.
My plan to catch Luna really began when I gifted my children their early Christmas presents at my parents’ house.
After a couple more presents are unwrapped, I see that there is only one more gift lying untouched at the bottom of my bag, so I take it out carefully before showing it to Arthur and Ruby.
‘This is a shared present between the two of you,’ I say, reading what is written on the label as if it came straight from Santa’s grotto and not my bedroom upstairs.
‘This is a special gift that Mummy arranged with Father Christmas, and he wants me to explain it carefully to you. Do you understand?’
Arthur and Ruby nod their heads. I check the door to make sure my parents aren’t about to walk in and see what is inside. They aren’t, so I hand the present over and my children both work to quickly tear off the wrapping paper.
‘What is it?’ Arthur asks after not being able to figure it out himself.
‘It’s a camera,’ I say to both him and his sister, pointing to the photo on the front of the box that shows the little device inside and the tiny window from which it is able to film things. ‘It records sound and images.’
‘What’s it for?’ Ruby asks as I take the box from Arthur and start opening it up for them.
‘It’s so I can see and hear you even when I’m not with you,’ I explain. ‘It’s because I miss you.’
‘We miss you too,’ Ruby tells me sweetly, and I smile.
‘Here’s my idea. If you put this camera in your home, somewhere like your kitchen, I’ll be able to see you every day,’ I tell them.
‘I’ll see you in the mornings when you’re having your breakfast, and I’ll see you at night when you’re having your dinner.
I’ll also see you when you have any snacks, as well as when you are sitting at the table doing your homework. ’
‘We can wave and talk to you!’ Arthur cries, suddenly on board with this gift, but I shake my head.
‘No, you can’t do that,’ I say firmly.
‘Why not?’
‘Because this is our little secret. Your daddy and Luna won’t know about it. If they do, they might not like it and then we won’t be able to do it. But if we don’t tell them, it can be our fun little game, just between the three of us.’
Arthur and Ruby think about that before nodding their heads excitedly.
‘I will set it all up and make sure that it is working,’ I say. ‘I can test it on my phone. Once it is, I will need one of you to put it somewhere safe in your kitchen. Somewhere Daddy or Luna won’t see it. Do you think you can do that?’
‘Yes, I know a place!’ Arthur cries. ‘The shelves!’
‘I want to do it!’ Ruby tries.
‘You can both do it together,’ I tell them. ‘Just make sure you do it when nobody else is in the kitchen, so they don’t see it. This camera has to be hidden. Do you understand?’
Arthur and Ruby nod.
‘We have to be good because Mummy is going to be watching us,’ Ruby says to her brother, which makes me laugh.
‘And listening too,’ I remind her. Then I focus on getting the camera ready so it can be used when Arthur and Ruby go home.
I realise that I’m putting my trust in two young children who don’t understand the importance of what I am really asking them to do.
They just think this is a fun game with their mother. But I know it will work.
Arthur and Ruby are good.
Now that goodness is going to help me catch the bad.
Now, I watch and listen to the footage that my children’s perfectly positioned camera has recorded today.
As I do, I smile at Jack because it has worked.
I have everything I need here to show to the police.
Everything that both says and demonstrates that Luna has been a menace to my family since she first found us.
From talking about what she has done to picking up a knife and telling me that she can’t let me go, the police are going to be very interested in everything that the camera has picked up.
Of course, there is the issue that the camera was secretly put in the house and Luna had no idea it was there, but I can explain that by saying that my children came up with the idea for a Christmas present so we could see each other more and I just went along with it, not wanting to make the divorce more difficult on them than it already had been.
Even if Luna tries to get this evidence discredited, it will do the job of at least getting the police to look at her seriously and they will then have a reason to conduct DNA tests around the sites and on the bodies of the people Luna has hurt along the way.
There will be something that connects her to those she has hurt, whether it is Gemma at the hospital or that man whose flat she was seen leaving just before he died.
I think the news said his name was Darragh.
I’m sure the police will be interested to see why Luna was with him around that time, and why she never came forward to try and help any investigation after his death.
There is no doubt that what the camera has recorded today is damning.
Luna looks like the woman I know her to be.
Dangerous. Deadly. Deranged. Like she’ll do anything to keep her true self hidden.
I have no doubt she would have done too, if Jack hadn’t been watching the camera footage and knew when to knock on the front door to interrupt us.
He couldn’t do it too early in case Luna hadn’t said or done anything incriminating.
But he couldn’t leave it too late either, in case Luna was successful in killing me.
But he timed it just right, and I think it has worked.
‘I’ll call the police,’ Jack says to me, and as I allow him to do that, I get out of the car and tell him I want to go and get a closer look.
I walk back the way we just came, towards the house we left, and I stop when I’m a safe distance away, but the property is in view.
I’ll stay here and keep watch.
This spot offers me a good view.
I’m ready for the show to start.