Chapter 58
FIFTY-EIGHT
JUSTINE
‘In another life, I think we could have been a thing, Justine. I might have kissed you back and we could have got married. Pia was never right for me, but you care. You’re all about family.
I wanted a family but Pia didn’t.’ He set the hoist contraption that he’d obviously engineered to lift her up.
It buzzed until it snapped into place. ‘I knew we kept all this crap for a reason. It’s come in handy thanks to Pia’s poor dead mother.
’ He laughed as he turned the main light on.
‘Please, stop this,’ she said with a sob, knowing it was too late. A few bangs in the distance made her jump.
He tilted his head. ‘We’ve gone over this already, Justine.’ He paused. ‘It’s just death. We’re all going to die. I’ll die soon; you’ll already be dead. By fighting death, we’re just delaying the inevitable.’ He scrunched his brow. ‘A diagnosis like mine can make a person pretty philosophical.’
He went on about how he’d dragged Kain to the car, how he’d killed someone called Zavier. He mentioned another man she didn’t know called Briggs. It got harder for Justine to understand what he was wittering on about as he became more erratic. ‘You’re insane.’
He shrugged. ‘Maybe so but that’s irrelevant.
Thank you for the insult. Insane is leaving a man who can’t even stand up, high on drugs and drink, lying on his back in a cell, but we don’t talk about that.
Insane is putting up with a serial cheat and insane is helping pond scum.
Kain was beyond help but you were so nicey-nicey, just because you had a drink problem yourself all those years ago.
I hate that no one was there to help me but I won’t go on about that again.
When I see you, I hate you. I hate that you couldn’t do a better job of being a wife because if you had, your husband wouldn’t be all over the place like a horny dog. ’ He began to turn her in the hoist.
She knew she’d be dangling over the tank very soon. Her eyelids felt heavy as the tablet started taking effect. Tears slipped down her cheeks.
He climbed up the ladder next to the tank and came face to face with her. ‘I wasn’t joking when I said you’d be joining Lindy. Look down?’
Justine opened her mouth to scream. Panicked breaths escaped through her lips.
The stench of the slime that had mixed in with Lindy’s floating hair made her baulk.
She couldn’t go in the tank. ‘No, no, no, don’t do this to me.
I’m begging you, Simeon.’ She grabbed him. ‘One last hug for old time’s sake.’
She sank into his chest, not wanting to let him go because as soon as she let go, she was going to die in the most horrible way ever.
Her knuckle brushed the metal of the crowbar.
She thought of Danny and the tank in the other room slowly filling up.
Had it filled up yet? It was no use pleading with him.
She was done with pleading. Simeon wanted both of them dead because he was losing his shit. She couldn’t help the yawn she let out.
‘Time to go, sleepyhead. I’ll see you on the other side, probably in hell. You tried to help scum, you married scum and now it’s time to die in scum and pay your debt in full.’
She reached across and snatched the crowbar at the same time he unbuckled her.
She slashed his face before gasping as she hit the cold, slimy water.
A huge splash followed as the liquid sloshed over the top.
She listened for Simeon but she couldn’t hear a thing.
She wanted to scream as she came face to face with Lindy’s dead-eyed stare.
It was no good trying to climb out, her vision was already prickling.
She let out the tiniest of snores and her eyelids closed. The fight was over.