Chapter 69
LIZZIE
I’m almost at Mum’s when I see a shadowy figure running out of the front door of her house. For a moment I think it’s Nick and call to him, but the person carries on running, bolting around the corner, the opposite direction from where we live.
Is it a burglar?
I increase my speed, pulling up outside the house, then run inside. ‘Mum!’ I shout. ‘George!’
One of them must be awake. One of them startled the burglar or he wouldn’t have run for it empty-handed like that.
I hit the light switch in the hall and make my way down to the back room – the door is wide open.
Cautiously I step inside, my hand flying to my mouth at the horrific scene inside.
George is lying sprawled out on the floor, blood pouring out of a gash in his head.
On the carpet beside him is the table lamp, splattered with blood.
The burglar must have hit him with it. In bed, almost comatose, is my mum.
Lying on the floor beside her is a cushion.
My blood turns to ice and my body trembles so much I have to grip the doorframe for support.
What the hell has happened?
Who was running from the house?
My feet feel like blocks of lead as I walk over to Mum and feel her wrist for a pulse. It’s quite strong, thank God. Slowly I kneel down and feel for George’s pulse. It’s there but very faint.
‘What’s going on here?’ a voice asks behind me, and the room blazes with light.
I look up and see two police officers.
‘Someone phoned us to report a disturbance. We were driving past and saw the front door open,’ one of them explains.
I get to my feet. ‘Someone has attacked my stepfather. And my mother seems to be drugged,’ I reply, my voice shaking.
‘Are you the only people in the house?’ the taller police officer asks.
‘Now yes, but I’ve only just arrived. I saw someone running away from the house, they left the front door open,’ I stammer.
‘Do you often visit your mother in the middle of the night?’ the taller policeman asks as the other one bends down to check George. My breath catches in my throat. Please let George live.
I suddenly realise how suspicious it looks for me to be standing here in the middle of the night, with blood over me. George’s blood. I wish I hadn’t come now. I should have stayed at Jodie’s.
‘I was worried about my mum. I think someone is trying to harm her. There was a fire here yesterday…’
Paramedics arrive, and another police car. The house is rapidly swarming with police.
‘I think you’d better come to the station with us and make a statement,’ the police officer says.
‘Someone was running away. Someone broke in,’ I tell them.
‘You can tell us all about it at the station,’ he says. He looks around. ‘Is there a door camera or any kind of security camera here?’
‘Mum didn’t like them. She felt that she was being spied on,’ I say. The times I’d asked her to get a doorbell camera for security reasons. Nick always supported her too. He didn’t even want a doorbell camera at our house.
Theories are spinning around in my mind. Who has done this? Who had such a grudge against George that they would want to kill him?
Maybe the same person who attacked Alison, because I’m not convinced that was an accident.
Was that the same person who’s been targeting us, sneaking into our house?
If only I’d got a better look at whoever was running away.
Then I recall how my first thought was that it was Nick.
God, no. It couldn’t be!
But Alison hinted that he was hiding something. And there was that anonymous text I got about asking him what really happened when my father died. And he didn’t protest about me going to stay at Jodie’s, it was as if he wanted me out of the way.
I shake my head. It couldn’t be. I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it.