Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
LIAM
Rain drizzles down the car windows as we trundle along, looking for a space to park.
It’s been three days since Ellie and Freddie confronted us with that damned CCTV picture, and we’ve not heard a peep since.
We keep waiting for the police to come crashing down our door, knowing that the secret is too big a burden to expect others to carry for us.
I can only hope that the story we gave Freddie is big enough to keep him onside, and that he’s fallen hard enough for Ellie to stay there. Men have committed greater sins for a woman they want.
By the time we get to the pub, we’re soaked. It’s busier than usual, with people ducking in to avoid the rain shower that’s now bucketing down. People nurse pints, their hair plastered to their faces and their dripping coats leaving puddles on the floor.
Freddie’s at the bar, writing in his notepad while Ellie works behind the bar.
‘Hey,’ Kat says, taking a stool along from Freddie while I sit next to her.
Ellie smiles. ‘Be with you in a second.’
Freddie gives an awkward nod while I shrug off my coat before helping Kat remove hers.
The TV on the wall is muted; some show about buying houses is on.
For the first time in forever, I don’t get a twinge of jealousy seeing it. We have a home. A place that’s all ours. Within a week or two, Kat’s parents will be out, and Ashworth will be rotting in concrete, and our future begins.
‘Sorry guys,’ Ellie says, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. Her face is a little thinner than usual, dark circles hiding beneath makeup. Or trying to. She looks like she’s slept as fitfully as we have. ‘What can I get you?’
Freddie, however, looks unfazed entirely.
‘My best friend back?’ Kat whispers.
Ellie gives a sad smile. ‘I’m working on it. Things are just a lot right now.’
Kat nods, and I slip an arm around her waist, dragging her stool a little closer to me. It kills me that she’s hurting. This needs to end.
‘I’ll have a large vodka and coke,’ Kat sighs.
‘Just the coke for me,’ I add.
‘Busy at work? Kat asks Freddie, who tucks his notepad away and faces us.
‘Working on a little something,’ he says, his smile looking like he’s fallen straight out of an early Hugh Grant rom-com. Damn, I can see why Ellie’s fallen for the posh fucker. Even I find his grin a little bit disarming, and I’m one hundred per cent Kat’s.
‘So everyone will know about what the fuckers have done?’
The bell above the door rings before he can answer me. I turn and almost fall off my chair when Ashworth himself walks into the pub. Rain has darkened his grey hair, and he narrows those beady eyes at Freddie, seemingly taking no notice of us.
He looks almost grandfatherly up close. Like he’d pull out a pocket of Werther’s rather than hurt innocents. Kat stiffens beside me, her muscles tensing beneath my fingers. Blood rushes past my temples as I force myself to stay glued to my stool.
‘Frederick Baker, you’re proving a hard man to track down,’ Ashworth says as he approaches us.
‘Didn’t I answer all your questions at the station?’ Freddie says, not even looking up at him.
‘More crop up from time to time. We’re requesting another interview with you.’ Ashworth grazes his eyes over Ellie before looking at Kat, and finally me. His eyes narrow as he tries to place my face, and I tighten my grip around Kat as her fingers dance over the knife she has in her belt. ‘You…’
‘Me,’ I say, my fingers tensing into a fist. The urge to jump up and stab his beady fucking eyes out is overwhelming. Breathing through it is painful, but slitting his throat in public isn’t the way to go. Not if we want to remain free.
‘William, isn’t it?’ Ashworth asks. ‘I remember you.’
His eyes narrow before he breaks into a reptilian grin.
‘Oh, this is too good. Little boy all grown up and becoming a vigilante. You always did like to bite. Didn’t you?’
My stomach roils, and I physically have to hold Kat back from jumping at Ashworth.
‘You won’t get away with this,’ Kat spits.
Ashworth laughs. ‘And this must be your little friend. I did think it was a stretch that such a petite little thing was doing all this on her own.’
Kat’s mouth opens, but Freddie interjects. ‘Don’t say anything, either of you.’
It’s a good point. We don’t know if he’s wired up with a van full of his copper pals outside.
So we sit there, wanting nothing more than to spill blood, while holding our tongues.
Ashworth reaches out and touches a lock of Kat’s hair.
I can’t even smack him away in case I give him a reason to arrest me.
Right now, he has nothing linking Kat and me to this, though I can imagine he’ll look for any excuse to take us in.
Doing nothing feels like he’s ramming red-hot pokers into me.
My grip tightens further on Kat. ‘Such a pretty little thing. They’ll love you inside. I might have to pay you a visit.’
Ashworth turns to Freddie, patting him on the shoulder. ‘I’m not sure we’ll need that chat after all. I hear your paper’s about to have a reshuffle, maybe lose a junior reporter. Such a shame.’
The room buzzes around me as Ashworth leaves. Too many witnesses to pursue him.
‘He can’t die soon enough,’ Kat breathes, the fight going out of her.
‘He’s coming for us,’ I say. ‘We need to end this before he gets our names into the case files.’
‘He has no reason to implicate you,’ Freddie says. ‘Well, nothing he can link to without some serious side-eyeing on how he’d know. But he’s like a cornered animal. He’s going to lash out.’
Time’s running out.
Ashworth needs to die.