Chapter 2
SCARLETT
I’m going to hell. The funny thing is, I’ve never given much thought to whether I believe in God, the Bible, heaven and hell but I suspect I’ve broken the rules to pass the shiny gate and walk barefoot on the carpet of white cloud.
The scary thing is, I don’t care why I’m going; I’m only terrified that when I get there, my dad and Gregory might not be waiting.
‘Miss Heath!’
Katrina Martin slams a hand on the cold, metal table between us, dragging me from my trance.
‘I’m sorry,’ I whisper, allowing myself a brief glance upward before settling my eyes on the invisible movie playing out on the surface of the table.
‘You were saying?’ Her annoyance is obvious.
I don’t know what I was saying. I was thinking about my soul, burning alone, but I don’t think I said that aloud.
‘Scarlett!’ she snaps again.
DI Barnes sighs heavily. ‘All right, Trina, calm down. She’s had a shock and it’s the middle of the night.’
His soft tone causes me to search his face. For some unfathomable reason, he’s being nice to me. He turns up his lips ever so slightly, comforting me as much as I can or care to be comforted.
‘Scarlett, you said you were at the party.’
‘We were dancing.’ I explain the next half an hour of the party in seconds as I watch the scene replay in my mind.
Gregory’s strong hand on my back, pulling me into his firm chest as he moved us around the dance floor, his brown eyes never leaving mine, desire sparking between us.
‘We didn’t want to stay for the fireworks. ’
‘And Geoffrey drove you?’
I’d wanted to get in the Bentley and drive to where Gregory could consume me with sheer pleasure.
I’d wanted to be held by him and never let go.
But the feeling disappeared as soon as we slipped into the back seat of the car.
An unsettling eeriness had chilled my bones.
Gregory pulled me into him to warm me but I could still feel it, like a presence, something unnerving.
‘Yes. He drove us to the Shard, to Gregory’s apartment. I’ve been staying there.’
I stop myself before I tell them why I’ve been staying with Gregory.
I promised I would tell them what he told me to say and that’s all.
I don’t have a lawyer. We agreed not to have lawyers at first because we have nothing to hide.
That’s the story. My mind blurs with confused images: my dad’s funeral, me on my knees at his hospital bedside as I realised he’d been murdered, the dark-haired boy from my dreams who watched his father beat his mother half to death.
‘Scarlett!’ Trina shouts, startling me, causing me to blink my dry eyes quickly.
‘Yes.’
‘What happened when you got to the Shard?’
‘The Shard. We parked and Jackson or Gregory, I don’t remember who, one of them noticed the tyres of Gregory’s Mercedes had been slashed.’
The hairs on my skin had pricked up. We knew who it was and we knew he was in the vicinity.
Gregory told me to take the car and leave but I couldn’t, I wouldn’t.
I couldn’t leave Gregory to face Kevin Pearson alone.
But there was more than that, something deeper, darker within me that wanted to see the end of my father’s killer.
Bile rises in my throat and I swallow it down.
Gregory took my hand in his, instinctively protecting me, and Jackson pulled his gun from the glove compartment of the Bentley.
Jackson led the way, his gun cocked and raised as we left the basement and rode the lift to the sixty-fourth floor.
‘We took the lift to Gregory’s floor. Jackson got out first, then Gregory, then me.’
‘Nothing else happened in the car park?’ Trina queries. ‘You noticed the tyres then just left? Jackson or Gregory, they didn’t look around the car park? Check for an intruder?’
‘I, err, I don’t remember. Maybe, I don’t think so.’
‘So presumably, they weren’t taken by surprise?’
‘I, err, I’m not sure. I guess they thought it would be best to leave the basement and get to the apartment.’
‘You’re aware that the man who died tonight was Mr Ryans’s father, aren’t you?’
‘I, err…’ We didn’t discuss this. My chest begins to throb as my heart rate rises. They know. If I say yes, I only confirm what they know. Don’t I? ‘Yes, I know that.’
‘Keep going, Scarlett, you’re doing well.’ DI Barnes casts a warning eye in Katrina’s direction. ‘So you got out of the lift at the apartment.’
I take a deep breath. I won’t let Gregory down. I nod.
‘For the record, please, Scarlett.’
‘Yes, the door was open.’
‘Fully open? Wide open?’ Katrina jumps in.
This woman is starting to piss me off. ‘No,’ I snap. ‘The door was ajar.’
DI Barnes gives away their position with a subtle nod, letting me know I’ve said the right thing.
‘Jackson kicked open the door and right away, he was shot in the leg. He fell to the floor.’ I need to concentrate now.
It’s time. Gregory went after his father.
No, Gregory told me to look after Jackson, then he went after his father.
No, Gregory told me to look after Jackson and then he went upstairs.
Damn it! My eyes are burning under the pressure of the room, the intensity of Katrina’s stare, the thought that I might let Gregory and Jackson down.
‘Gregory told me to look after Jackson and I did. I tied a tourniquet around his thigh.’
‘Where was Gregory?’
‘He ran; he left. He went upstairs.’
Katrina snarls. ‘He went upstairs? He just left you and Jackson with an armed man who’d already shot one of you? He just went upstairs?’
I look at DI Barnes, begging him with wide eyes for help, but he doesn’t jump in; he puts his head down. I’m alone.
‘He ran. Like I said. It was all so fast. Next thing I knew, Gregory was back, running through the lounge. Then there was fighting, shouting, tussling. They were in the downstairs bathroom.’
‘Who?’
‘Gregory, and his father, Pearson. There was banging and smashing, like glass being shattered. Then they burst into the lounge, wrestling, fighting, then into the gym. At some point, a gun slid into the lounge and they followed, struggling. There was a chain, something from the gym, I think, around Gregory’s neck. Pearson was strangling him.’
There was a chain around Gregory’s neck, his face was red, his eyes were wide, pupils dilated, as he fought for his life.
They flipped over and over again, first Gregory on top, then Pearson.
The chain stayed pulled tight to his neck.
Jackson was shouting at me to do something but I didn’t know what to do.
I didn’t know how to help. I was useless and I was watching the man I love die.
‘The chain was so tight on his neck, his muscles were straining, his face was red. Pearson was killing him.’
Gregory thrust an elbow back into his father’s throat and took the opportunity to pounce.
Towering over him, Gregory thrust his hands around his father’s neck, pushing his thumbs into the windpipe.
He held his position through kicks and flailing limbs until Pearson stopped moving, lifeless, or so we thought.
Gregory slumped back against the wall to catch his breath before checking that I was okay and moving to help Jackson. That’s when it happened.
‘There was blood. I know now that Gregory had been stabbed with something but when they were struggling, it wasn’t obvious who was bleeding. Maybe both of them.’
As Gregory tended to Jackson, I saw Pearson’s body twitch. I made steps towards it. I had Jackson’s gun in my hand.
‘He was dying. Gregory was dying. There was a gun on the floor. That’s what Gregory went upstairs for, I realise that now.’
Pearson suddenly sprang up. Grabbing the gun beside him, he raised it and aimed at Gregory.
I had no choice.
‘Somehow, Gregory managed to grab a gun from the floor and the rest was so quick. A blur. He—’
I can’t do this. I can’t do this to him.
‘He. Gregory. He.’ I take a deep breath and exhale as subtly as I can manage. ‘He shot him.’
I shot him. A dry lump forms in my throat; my eyes are on fire. It was him or Gregory. That’s why I took the shot. But right before I did, Gregory wasn’t the only man I thought of.
‘Just so I can get this straight, Gregory’s dying and you and Jackson are watching?’ Katrina sits back in her chair and plants one hand firmly on her waist.
‘I. We. It wasn’t like that. Jackson was injured. What was I supposed to do?’
‘Right. And dying Gregory, who earlier left the room and wandered upstairs, suddenly found the strength to pick up a gun and shoot his father through the head?’
I wince at her blunt version of events.
‘It wasn’t like that. He didn’t wander; he ran. And he was dying! He was dying and he would be dead now if—’ I shake my head and will impending tears not to fall.
‘How long have you known Gregory Ryans hated his father?’
‘I… I don’t—’
‘How long, Scarlett?’
‘It’s not like that.’
Katrina stands, sending her chair crashing against the wall.
‘That’s enough, Trina!’ DI Barnes is on his feet too.
‘It’s not like what? Why are you protecting him, Scarlett?’ She’s barking, leaning towards me, both hands on the table, her words wet on my face.
I’m not protecting him. He’s protecting me.
He’s protecting me and you’re behaving like he’s a murderer.
I rise without conscious thought until I’m face to face with her.
‘What the fuck did you want him to do? He was going to die! One man in that room was never going to make it out alive and I’ll never be sorry that it wasn’t the man I love, that it’s the fucking bastard who picked the fight! ’
She takes a step back from my rage. A sadistic grin starts to rise on her lips. ‘Do you know he couldn’t even call you his girlfriend? Unrequited love, that’s what you’re protecting.’
She’s a jumped-up, moody bitch and she’s trying to rattle me but her words drive a knife through my gut, taking the energy out of my legs, forcing me to sit.