Chapter 19 #2
The car approached quicker than I had predicted, and I dutifully moved us off to the side like a good citizen. I looked behind me to make sure it wasn’t some vast SUV that I’d have to clamber halfway up the stone wall that lined the road to avoid. If I hadn’t, I’d probably be dead.
The car was barrelling down on me at a million miles an hour. “Oh, shit,” I said. My stomach dropped, and instinct kicked in.
“Kenny, run, boy!” I yelled and frantically tried to get away.
Kenny started to bark up a storm as he outpaced me. “Go, boy, go!” I yelled. I’d never forgive myself if he was hurt.
What the hell was happening? The massive black car was now fewer than twenty metres away from us and was veering well over to the side of the lane, one of its wheels on the grass, aiming straight for us.
Ahead, I could see where the trees ended and the verge opened to a few metres wide on each side with space to climb the stone wall and get into a field.
I had to make it another hundred or so metres, and we’d be okay.
There was no way to jump the fence in the trees; the bank it ran on was steep, and, though dry after several weeks of no rain, it was made of loose dirt that, no matter how gainful you were on your pins, would have you falling backwards as you slipped and slid.
The car was now right behind me as I sprinted as hard as I could in loose summer shoes.
It bumped up against the back of my legs, and I nearly went flying.
I dared to look back to try and see the driver, but it was all shadows, and the act almost cost me as my legs fumbled and nearly ended up under the wheels.
The car pulled alongside us, and just in time, I let go of Kenny’s lead, as it blindsided me and I went flying into the bank.
As soon as it had come, the car disappeared. The driver veered back onto the road properly and sped off in a cloud of dust.
I lay there in a heap on the bank. “Ow.” I didn’t seem to be dead or particularly hurt, but being thrown several feet by a car was, I can tell you now, dearest reader, not exactly a pain-free experience.
It was several minutes before I could stand up. The world was spinning, and my legs were jelly. I couldn’t see Kenny anywhere, which was making my chest ache. If they had hurt him, I would rip this fucking county apart to get revenge.
Eventually, I managed to get to my feet and, like a newborn lamb, wobbled my way along the path.
The entire outer side of my left leg was covered in dirt and had a graze underneath it from where I’d landed after going flying.
My right leg, which had taken the brunt of the whack, was throbbing with pain, as was my elbow, which had taken a portion of the hit too.
Everything was going to hurt for days. My limp was a thing of beauty.
I stopped walking as I came to the end of the trees. My heart thundered in my chest so hard I thought it would explode. I was dripping in sweat. My legs were still unsteady.
I leaned over and rested my hands on my lower thighs, sucking in deep breaths. The jingle of metal alerted me. Kenny was coming towards me, with his lead dragging along behind him, the catch on it making the noise.
“Good boy,” I said and kissed the top of his head.
He licked my leg. I stood up straight, which, oh, ow, that was a mistake.
That’s when I noticed the car had come back.
About a hundred metres further down the hill.
Waiting. Its engine running. It had clearly driven down the lane, found somewhere to turn around and then come back to finish the job.
“The killer,” I whispered. This was the person who had murdered Riz.
My heart was beating so hard in my chest that I feared I’d vomit. Oh, God, the person who’d shot Riz in cold blood and possibly tried to kill Jed was in that car, and they wanted me dead. Maybe they’d been watching Riz’s house. They might know what I knew.
Panic started to fill me. But I didn’t have time for it to settle as the car revved, and its wheels squealed. It hurtled towards me.
“Shit.” I was standing in the middle of the road. Where could I go? Could I vault the fence in time? What about Kenny?
It all happened so fast. Before I even had time to dive, it was on me. I cringed, flinging my hands over my face, like that would save me. I screwed my eyes shut.
There was an almighty shriek. And then nothing. For several seconds, I stood there, my eyes closed. Then my mind clicked; the sound I had heard was a handbrake stop.
I dared to open an eye. The car was no more than a metre from me. Its engine running. But it hadn’t hit me. I opened the other eye.
A car door opening shook me out of my daze
“You couldn’t help yourself, could you?” asked a voice that I knew from somewhere.
I looked fully at the person who had emerged. Dhapinder Bliss was standing beside the car. Dark sunglasses covered her face. She wore a black trouser suit with an Emerald green blouse underneath and shiny black heels. Her hair was blown out and full of volume. Honestly, she looked fabulous.
“You … y-you?” I mumbled.
She sighed. “It had nothing to do with you! But I should have known; that day you came around for a nosey. Lying about how you wanted to see Sonia. No one ever wants to see Sonia.” She laughed mirthlessly.
“What?” I said.
“Don’t fuck with me, Arden!” She pointed a stun gun at me.
“Jesus Christ!” I squealed and jumped back about a metre. My whole body protested.
“I know it was you. Your dirty little fingerprints all over it. The sort of thing you’d do, with your murderer boyfriend, probably. Trying to find a new person to blackmail, were you?”
“What?” I asked again. What the hell was she on about?
She looked exasperated. “Don’t deny it. You. You broke into the office last night. The police are already there. I’m sure they won’t find any evidence. Far too experienced for that, aren’t you? But I know it was you.”
What. The. Fuck? “Wait,” I said. “You think I broke into your office? Me? Why?”
Dhapinder looked like she wanted to kill me. Which, to be fair, I think she actually did.
“I’m sure you weaselled loads of information from Sonia on your little evenings out; she probably told you all about the money in the office. I’m sure you were biding your time.” She pressed a button, and the stun gun crackled, then she lunged at me. I shrieked and jumped back again.
Kenny barked and jumped at her and knocked the stun gun from her hand. It was Dhapinder’s turn to scream, as forty kilograms of dog bowled her over. His lips were pulled back, exposing his teeth. “Kenny, no!” I wasn’t having my dog put down because he attacked someone.
Dhapinder screamed again and sank beside the car, her face going pale. I grabbed Kennedy and tried to pull him back, but he was still barking and snapping at Dhapinder. “Shush, boy, it’s okay, the psycho bitch won’t hurt us,” I whispered into his fur.
“What in the ever-loving name of Jesus Christ is going on here?” came a voice off to my left.
Dhapinder and I both turned to see Katrina Pettigrew standing a few metres away.
She was wearing a straw sun hat, with a lightweight white skivvy and a red summer jacket over it.
On her bottom half were a pair of waterproof walking trousers and sturdy boots.
In one hand, she held a walking stick, similar to those favoured by Nordic walkers.
In her other hand, she held the stun gun and looked at it like it was alien technology that had dropped off a spaceship.
I saw, what I assumed was her car, its driver’s side door open, idling behind Dhapinder’s further down the hill.
“This man!” Dhapinder stuttered, pointing at me. “This man and his dog! He attacked me! His dog is out of control. Thank God you’re here, I thought he was going to kill me.”
“I see,” Katrina said, continuing to look at the stun gun. “But this is yours, is it not?”
Dhapinder’s eyes darted between us.
“So, you happened to have – wait, aren’t these illegal in the UK?” she asked. “You just happened to have one of these to hand?”
“He was in the middle of the road! I stopped to ask him to move out of the way, and he set his dog on me!” Dhapinder yelled.
“Yes, I saw him in the road. I also saw you jump out with this already in your hand.” Katrina looked at me after she said this. “Arden, what happened to you?” She took me in, head to toe and arched an eyebrow. “It looks … like someone ran you off the road.”
Katrina turned her head slowly to Dhapinder. “Which would put you firmly in the wrong, then,” she said.
Dhapinder began to say something. “Quiet!” Katrina barked with a force of will I hadn’t expected from a sixty-year-old widow. “Why don’t you get back in your car and go back to wherever it is you need to be?”
I kept a hold of Kenny, whose growling had largely subsided, but he was still in attack mode. Dhapinder looked like she wanted to spit tacks. After several seconds of mulling Katrina’s words over, while I stood rock still, Dhapinder held out her hand.
“I’ll take my property back, then, please!”
“The hell you will,” Katrina said, holding up the stun gun to the sun and admiring it. “No, I don’t think you need this, deary.”
She gave Dhapinder a withering look when the latter opened her mouth to complain. “In you get,” Katrina said, cocking her head at the car. “Drive away.”
Dhapinder threw me a vicious look and then righted herself. Clearly fuming. “This isn’t over, Arden,” she whispered and then got in her SUV.
With Katrina’s car behind her, she had no option but to go forward, and I managed to haul Kenny to the side of the road as she sped off in a squeal of tyres.
“So, it’s true,” Katrina said once the sound of Dhapinder’s vehicle was long gone. “You really do attract trouble like it’s going out of fashion.”
I collapsed on the grass.
Katrina hadn’t redecorated since she’d bought the house from the Sweets.