Chapter 25
It took me a few seconds to process it all. But then …
“Of course it was you,” I said.
She smiled and swung the gun up at us. “I mean, I didn’t try that hard not to get caught. But the police are useless, and everyone else around here was so wrapped up in their own problems that they didn’t even notice.”
She laughed. “Do you know, I honestly expected to be arrested the very day I shot Riz. But, bloody hell, I’m still here a month later.
I’m a bit bored of hiding, actually. I had so many other plans, and I can’t do any of them now.
Oh, well.” She cocked the gun. “Then this morning I get a phone call from DS Maslin asking some interesting questions. And I thought, yes, time to go out in a blaze of glory.”
I threw myself at Ollie and pushed him down as the first shot rang out.
“Fuuuuuuck!” he screamed as we fell down the steps towards the doors to Nigella’s house.
“Run!” I managed to get the door open and pushed him inside as the second shot rang out. A pane of glass an inch from my hand exploded.
Ollie pushed me to the floor, and we crawled along the ground to get inside, with Katrina’s mad laughs following us.
The windows behind us shattered in a hail of bullets. An absolute cacophony of noise descended on us, complete with the sounds of screams from inside. I scrambled along the floor, dragging Ollie.
We made it into the kitchen, and I threw Ollie towards the nearest large object. I scooted behind the kitchen island, where hands clung to me.
Beside me, Nigella and Verity huddled on my right, while Sonia clutched my left arm. On the other side of the room, behind the huge dresser that Nigella used for ornaments, cookbooks, and various accoutrements, were Guy, Simon, and now a shell-shocked Ollie.
“What the fuck is happening?” Ollie screamed.
“Arden, are you okay?” Simon yelled.
Nigella looked at me. “Why is she trying to shoot us?”
“She killed Riz,” I said loudly.
Another hail of bullets. “This is no fun,” Katrina said. “Come out and play.” Her footsteps hung back. Every bullet made my heart stop with fear. They ripped through the room. Deafening. I clenched my jaw against every new noise. So loud, so piercing.
Nigella had her phone out, calling the police. Sonia was texting Ade.
“I don’t care if I live or die, as long as I take out some of the men who killed my son.” Her voice came out loud and clear.
There was a silence.
“Your … your Rabbie …”
“I told you it was his middle name. His real name was Stuart,” she said.
I dared to look over. Guy and Simon were both the palest white.
Ollie breathed out. “S Murray.”
“You never said he was bloody Scottish!” I yelled at Simon.
“I didn’t know he was.” Simon sounded confused.
“Boarding school,” Katrina answered. “My husband insisted. Never had a hint of his own accent.”
“What the hell is happening?” Nigella whispered.
I shook my head. The dust and fragments of paper from the obliterated kitchen were slowly falling around us like a particularly warped Christmas snowfall in June.
“Yes, why don’t you tell us everything, Katrina?” I yelled to her. I heard her footsteps on the concrete outside and the sound of the door opening.
“It’s quite simple, you see, my son’s death.
We were told it was an accidental overdose.
We hadn’t been close when he died. My husband hated that he was gay.
The boy he raised as his own had, in his eyes, rejected him.
” Her voice was thick with emotion. “Rabbie took it hard. He changed his name back to his father’s when he joined the army.
“I was devastated when he died. But I barely had time to grieve; my husband was dying. Long, slow, painful death. Messy and undignified way to go. I had my mind so full of caring for him, that it was only when he died I was able to fully process Rabbie’s loss.
Fully process how bizarre it had all been. ”
“What do you mean?” I asked. Everyone looked at me like I was mad. The more she talked, the more time for the police to come. Verity dug her nails into my hand; she was shaking with fear.
“Well, that my boy would die like that. His friend Jeremy told me at his funeral that it seemed odd. I just assumed it was guilt, I knew Jeremy took as many drugs as Rabbie did. Gave them to him. He killed my boy as much as anyone. But he was right. So, I put pressure on my husband’s friends.
Andrew was very senior in the army. He knew people.
They’d had dinner at our house. When I asked questions, they felt obliged to find answers for me. ”
She paused. The only sound were ragged breaths. “That’s how I found out about a man called Simon Anson,” she said.
Nigella gasped. “What did you do?” she whispered to the others.
“Katrina, if you want me, I’ll come, but let everyone else go,” came Simon’s voice.
She laughed again. “Why would I do that? Don’t try and play your MI6 games with me. I came here to do what I originally intended to. To kill the person that you love the most.”
Simon was in MI6? Well, of course, he fucking was. That actually made complete sense.
“You already killed Riz!” Sonia screamed at her.
Katrina continued laughing. “Oh, I know. But Simon hated Riz deep down. They barely tolerated one another. Riz told me, he was so heartbroken, well, he pretended to be, I’m not sure if he was capable of real emotions unless it was about his career. He was always like that.”
“So, who does Simon love?” Nigella asked.
“Oh, you know, Gella, it was you who told me. That they were sleeping together.”
“Guy?” I asked loudly.
“What?” Sonia yelled. “Them two are doing it?”
Nigella looked shocked. “Really?”
“What? No. You idiots,” Katrina yelled. “Arden. Him and Simon.”
There was a pause. “You and Simon slept together?” Ollie yelled at me. I cringed and wanted to sink into the ground.
“When the hell was this? You told me there was nothing between you,” Ollie continued.
“Yeah, when have you two been shagging?” Guy asked. “When I asked you out again?”
“You asked Arden out again?” Simon yelled.
The gun went off, and a huge chunk of Nigella’s kitchen ceiling collapsed onto the ground, with dust and plaster everywhere. There was another chorus of screams – I think most of them were mine. “This isn’t Hollyoaks!” Katrina yelled. “Can you all shut up?”
“Christ almighty,” she continued. “As I was saying. I found out about Simon Anson. I already knew he was responsible from Jeremy. The man my son had been dating, who’d killed him, and my plan was already in motion. But I needed more. And then with some digging, I was able to find the real story.”
“How?” Verity breathed.
I closed my eyes and squeezed them tight. “Tarquin.”
She laughed again. “Yes, he was incredibly happy to have a visitor in prison. I promised to help get him a better lawyer, and he spilt every secret on Guy Frobisher he had. Told me the full story. Names, dates, he was only too glad to help. And when I asked how I could really, really hurt Simon Anson, his face lit up.”
Tarquin. Ruining my life from a ten-by-ten-foot cell.
“So, I enlisted my old friend Riz to get in touch. He had plans to be an MP. And apparently, Guy Frobisher was desperate to run for Parliament. Tarquin had the photos sitting in the inbox of an old email account he’d never got rid of. I logged in and got them.”
“And as for Jed,” she scoffed. “That idiot. Well, I never meant to kill him. Make him a vegetable, maybe, not that you can really tell the difference.”
“You leaked the photos for revenge on Guy?” I said. “And put Jed in hospital, not caring if he lived or died. But why did you kill Riz?”
“Easy,” she said. I heard her pulling out a chair from the table and taking a seat. “He wanted to confess everything. He chickened out.”
Marina’s words came into my head. Riz was in over his head. The photos of Guy were supposed to embarrass him. Not shake the entire establishment.
“But I’d gone too far for him to ruin it.
I didn’t kill Macauley Sheridan to speed up the election, I didn’t destroy every scrap of my old life to make the trail go cold, so he could freeze on me.
No, no. Simon, you had to suffer, I’m afraid.
And for that to happen Arden had to die.
But Riz chickened out. We’d planned it that afternoon after his radio appearance.
We’d kill Arden that night. Then when we followed him, he said we couldn’t do it while he was with Errol.
We argued. And I shot him.” She sounded as if this was the only logical solution.
“You’re fucking mad!” Verity screamed. Her nails dug into my hand.
“Yes, well, quite. But you lose a child, my dear, and see how you feel when the men who killed him are wandering about free. You’ll discover it’s quite easy to stop caring about things like that.”
“We didn’t kill your son, Katrina!” Guy yelled. “We never laid a finger on him. He died of an overdose! It was his own stupid fault!”
I almost groaned at that. Yup, call the mad woman’s son a drug addict who got what he deserved.
“Katrina,” I yelled over everything else.
“Look, I know you loved Rabbie. I’m so, so, sorry for what happened to him.
No one deserves to die like that. I’m sorry you couldn’t be with him.
I’m sorry your husband created that rift between you, but that’s not anyone in this room’s fault.
They don’t know what’s going on. Why don’t you and I stay in here? Just us. You want me, don’t you?”
Far away, I could hear police sirens. Hurry up, hurry up.
Katrina was silent. “Fine. The women can go. They shouldn’t suffer for the sins of men.”
“Okay,” I said. “They’re going to go out the door and leave through the front of the house. You’ll not harm them, will you?”
“I said I wouldn’t,” she said in an aggrieved tone. Like, she was offended I’d think she was a liar.
I beckoned for the girls to go. “We can’t leave you,” Verity said. “She’s a nutter. She’s going to kill you.”