Chapter 55
Fifty-Five
Gemma
I wipe my teary face and hug Quinn hard.
Whatever I thought of her, however angry I’ve been, in this moment, I love her more than anything.
She saved Cora and I will forever be indebted to her.
‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ I can’t stop repeating those words.
I don’t know why she came over at that exact moment, but had she not, my baby girl would be lying dead on the tiles we stand upon. Ethan can’t stop hugging Cora.
‘I, err, I came over to say how sorry I was. What I did was unforgivable and I know everything I touch turns to shit.’ She looks down.
I pull away and hold a hand up. I don’t want to hear it.
She saved my child’s life. My family is safe because of her; nevertheless, we need to leave Clover Lane and not come back because someone killed Jasmine.
Her bones are in our house and I don’t know what Aunt Dorette had to do with it all.
All I know is we’re in danger and we need the police here.
Morgan…I can’t see her. She was here a minute ago.
I glance up at the apartment. The power still hasn’t come on because the whole lane remains in darkness.
‘I didn’t mean to hurt you or Dorette,’ Quinn slurs.
Though she’s slurring, she seems a lot more sober than when she was lying in the middle of her studio floor. Ethan seems to have sobered up too.
‘Quinn, it doesn’t matter now. We need to call the police and leave. I’ll phone you when we’re settled and maybe we can meet up next week, have a proper talk.’ All I want to do is find Morgan and go, but it looks like Quinn came for a heart-to-heart. She has no idea that we found bones in the snug.
Ethan clears his throat. ‘Cora’s cold. I’m going to take her upstairs to get changed. I’ll pack and I won’t let her out of my sight, will I, chubby cheeks?’ He blows a raspberry on Cora’s cheek, and she laughs.
‘I’ll talk to Morgan.’
Poor Morgan. I know she’ll be up there blaming herself. It wasn’t her fault and I need to make sure she knows that. Ethan starts walking back into the house.
Quinn sobs so I hug her. ‘Quinn, it’s okay. We’ll talk about everything next week.’
‘I did it for Harry. I needed a new character and your aunt had struggled to flesh hers out. We spent nights working on Klara together and she said it was something her publisher wasn’t interested in, but I began to love that character.
’ She continues to waffle at speed. ‘We drank together, we worked on her together and one night, we’d had far too much gin in her snug.
I spotted something, it was your necklace in one of those cups on the dresser, the one with the lip pendant. ’
I don’t know if I openly gasped but in my mind I did.
‘I asked her about it because I couldn’t work out how she got hold of it.’
My stomach squirms. Quinn doesn’t know about the bones we found rolled up in that rug. Jasmine’s body is in my house, and my aunt hid her. ‘What did she say?’ My voice quivers as I speak.
‘She said it was yours and you left it. I asked if you had two, then she sobered up fast and told me to leave. Dorette had never been that sharp with me, so I knew I was onto something. She stormed out of the room, telling me to close the door on my way out, taking the necklace with her. Instead of leaving, I ran after her and grabbed the necklace. We fought for it and it ended up on the floor somewhere. I chased after her up the stairs and I followed her into her office, then the balcony room. She grabbed her packet of cigarillos and went outside. I told her I knew that she had something to do with Jasmine’s disappearance and that if she let me have Klara, I’d keep it to myself. ’
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. All this time Quinn knew my aunt was involved in what happened to Jasmine and she didn’t tell me because she blackmailed her. I can’t stop thinking about Jasmine.
Quinn continues while I tremble in the cold.
I can’t move. I have to hear more. ‘I told her about that day, well about you pushing Jasmine. Jasmine grabbed your necklace as she fell backwards into that rock. I said that she was unconscious when we left her, which means your aunt must have killed her.’
I frown. ‘I went back to see if she was okay but she was gone. I called her, I looked for her and I thought she’d gone home.’ I swallow down bile. ‘There’s something I have to tell you. We found something in the house.’
Quinn nods. ‘What?’
‘Bones, remains – they’re behind the dresser in the snug.
I know they’re Jasmine’s because her bag and coat were there too.
Ethan knocked the wall down earlier today.
I’m scared for my family which is why we have to leave.
I think whoever hurt Jasmine is coming for us.
’ I pull the necklace out of my pocket. Since finding it, I’ve kept it close.
‘I found this under another floorboard.’
Quinn stares, her mouth open as she processes what I said then she frowns before continuing.
‘That’s where it must have landed when I threw it.
’ Quinn looks up and then back at me. ‘I also bought those cherry lips just to see how you’d react.
I wondered if you had something to do with what happened to Jasmine. You and Dorette.’
‘You really thought that? I had no idea that her body was in my aunt’s house.’
She runs her fingers through her hair. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything.’
I’m not having her suspicious of me when I’ve done nothing but be upfront with her. ‘You were on the balcony arguing with Aunt Dorette. Is that why you killed her?’
‘I didn’t kill her. She was angry when I left, and as I walked up her drive, I saw the coils of her smoke reaching into the air.
She was very much alive then. She was drunk, she was angry and I know she was upset that her career seemed to be going down the pan, but she wasn’t suicidal. Someone had to have pushed her.’
‘You had a lot to lose.’
‘I’m not a killer.’
‘What happened in the car with your mum, Quinn?’ Two people have died within moments of Quinn being with them. My aunt and her mum. She told me herself.
‘Don’t do this, Gem.’
‘What happened?’ I shout.
Quinn’s jaw starts to wobble. ‘I was arguing in the car with Mum. Always arguing, that’s me.
She was never happy about the way I brought Harry up, and her nitpicking got to me so I exploded on her.
She lost concentration…it was raining. We crashed, hit a tree and… I tried to get her out and I couldn’t…’
She’s crying now. I don’t try to comfort her because I don’t know what to believe anymore.
I turn my back and head towards the house to get Ethan and the kids. Snow starts coming down again in chunky flakes.
He runs out with Cora. ‘I’ve searched the whole house. Morgan is gone.’
‘Call her.’
He pulls her phone from his pocket. ‘She left this.’