Chapter 25
My heart sinks. Holly is looking right at the camera, so she knows she’s being recorded. Why didn’t she tell me any of this?
She looks white with shock, her eyes red, her face wet with tears. She wipes her cheek with her sleeve.
‘Are you all right?’ Teri says off-screen.
‘I want to call Kate,’ Holly says in a small voice.
‘Who’s Kate?’ Teri says. She knows full well who Kate is. What the hell is wrong with her?
‘It’s my stepmum,’ Holly says, shuddering.
‘All right. We’ll call her in a minute. What’s your name, sweetie?’
‘Holly.’
The camera pans over to Scarlett. She, too, is sobbing, wringing her hands together.
‘And what’s your name?’ Teri asks.
‘Scarlett.’
‘Where do you live, Scarlett?’
Scarlett turns and points. ‘Over there.’
‘On Roscoe Crescent?’
She hesitates, then gives a quick nod.
The camera spins back to Holly. ‘And who was driving?’
Holly’s face falls. She drops her head, her eyes scrunching up, her mouth distorting.
‘Who was driving?’ Teri asks again, calmly.
Holly is shaking her head. I’m pretty sure she can’t speak – she’s crying too much.
‘I’m only asking so you’re protected,’ Teri says. ‘Just like we discussed. You understand?’
And immediately I wonder, discussed what? I’ll have to ask Holly later.
Then Teri says, ‘In case the police have to get involved.’
I put a hand over my eyes.
‘Are you all right, Kate?’ Teri asks me. ‘You seem a little green.’
‘Shut up,’ I say. I stare back at the screen. Poor, poor Holly. She looks like she’s going to faint. She must have been absolutely terrified.
‘The police?’ Holly shrieks.
‘Maybe.’
‘They’re going to come here?’
‘They don’t have to – it’s up to me. So, tell me, who was driving just now?’
‘I was,’ Holly says.
‘You were,’ Teri says. ‘And your name is Holly.’
‘Yes.’
‘What’s your last name, Holly?’
‘Holly Price,’ she says in a small voice. ‘Are you going to call the police?’
‘No, sweetie. I don’t think we need to call them, do you?’
Holly shakes her head. ‘No.’
‘Do you have a driving licence, Holly Price?’
She shakes her head again.
‘Can you speak up, please, Holly? It’s very important. For your own protection, you understand? So. Do you have a driving licence, Holly?’
‘No.’
‘Do you understand what just happened?’
‘I want to call my stepmum.’
‘In a minute. Do you understand that you just hit me with this car—’ The camera moves to Scarlett’s car, with a full view of the licence plate, then back to Holly.
‘So, you were driving, yes, and you hit me as I crossed the road. It’s okay, sweetie.
You don’t have to cry. Do you agree with what I just said? ’
‘Yes,’ Holly says.
‘Is that your car?’
‘I want to call Kate.’
Behind her, Scarlett says, ‘That’s my car.’
‘That’s your car, Scarlett.’
‘I really need to call my stepmum,’ Holly cries.
‘Right,’ Teri says with a sigh. ‘Of course. You can call your stepmum. You did great, sweetie.’
The video ends.
I look up at her. ‘You videoed them?’
‘I just wanted to have a record – that’s all.’
‘What’s wrong with you!’ I cry. ‘Oh, my God. I can’t believe this. You never told me you videoed them!’
She gives a one-shoulder shrug. ‘It just didn’t come up.’
‘And when I got there, you pretended you didn’t know their names – you didn’t know which one was Holly and which one was Scarlett! And you were supposedly in so much pain, but not so injured that you couldn’t make this video?’
She looks at her foot. ‘I was in shock.’
‘And you knew Holly. You’d met her that morning, with me.’
‘It was fleeting,’ she says. ‘I didn’t remember.’
Realisation dawns on me, like I just swallowed a bucket of wet cement. ‘Oh, my God. You planned this whole thing. This is a scam! You knew exactly what you were doing.’
She scoffs. ‘That’s going a bit far, don’t you think?’
‘You’re just a cheap, grubby little con artist.’
‘Now, now. No need for—’
‘This wasn’t an accident, was it? I saw you that morning – you asked where we were going, and I told you. You knew Holly would be on Roscoe Crescent.’
‘So? I didn’t know she was going to go joyriding, did I?’
‘You would have come up with something else. You put people in situations where you get hurt, then you play nice, you record them, you worm your way into their lives pretending you just want to help, and when they’re far too deep to dig themselves out of the hole, you blackmail them.’
She shrugs. ‘It’s a living, Kate.’
‘Oh my God! You’re horrible. You’re just a horrible, horrible person! Holly loved you! We trusted you!’
She lifts her phone and replays the video, but this time even louder. ‘Do we have a deal, or do I need to send this video to Max?’
I blink at her. ‘Send it to Max? You don’t even know him.’
Something passes over her face. There’s a slight curling of her lip. ‘I know where he works. Sterling and Wicks, isn’t it? I can give them a call and explain that I’m trying to reach Max Price in Zurich and could I get his mobile number. I’m sure I can come up with a convincing story.’
Before I have a chance to think, I’m clawing at her, trying to get her phone, my arms flailing.
‘What are you doing?’ she cries. ‘Stop it! Somebody help me! Help!’
But I’ve got it. I’ve got her phone.
I turn away from her, rounding my back while I tap on the screen, desperately trying to get to that stupid video, to delete it, my heart pounding, my vision blurry, and all the while she’s behind me, pulling at my arm, trying to get her phone back, so I shove her with my elbow and run off a few feet, still tapping while she’s screaming behind me, ‘Give it back!’
Finally, I manage to delete the video.
‘Kate!’ someone shouts. I look around. It’s one of the other teachers, Simon. ‘What’s going on?’
‘She attacked me!’ Teri cries, hopping on one foot.
‘Everything is fine!’ I say, handing Teri her phone back. ‘Just a misunderstanding. Thank you, Simon.’
Teri looks at me with big eyes. ‘A misunderstanding? You’re a total psycho! You attacked me! And that’s after your stepdaughter did this—’
I take a step forward. I’m so close, I can smell her breath. ‘You need to watch what you say. You understand me?’ Then I take a step back, my eyes not leaving hers.
She straightens a little, but there’s something in her eyes, a quick realisation that I mean business, and that maybe, just maybe, I’m not the pushover she assumed me to be.
I brush my hair out of my face. ‘We’re fine, truly,’ I say, still looking at Teri. ‘A misunderstanding.’
Teri doesn’t reply.
Simon stares from me to her. ‘All right,’ he says finally. He gives me one last confused look before walking away.
‘You are a horrible person,’ I say, my voice low. I nod at the phone in her hand. ‘Your video is gone, and you need to get out of my sight. Now.’
She bursts out laughing. ‘Have you lived under a rock all these years, Kate? It’s in the cloud!
There’s a copy on my laptop at home! God, you’re an idiot.
’ She shakes her head. ‘Look. You give me the money, and I’ll wipe it.
Otherwise, I’ll go to the police and tell them what Holly did and that you begged me, blackmailed me, into not calling them. What do you say?’
I stare at her in disbelief. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so evil – and that’s saying something. ‘How much do you want?’
‘Twenty-five thousand pounds, please.’
My jaw is on the floor. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Of course.’
‘I don’t have that kind of money!’
‘Come on, Kate. You’ve got almost ten thousand pounds. You can get the rest. Just log into Max’s account and take it.’
Jesus, that’s the last thing I need. Evidence that I’ve broken into Max’s account. ‘I don’t have access to his account.’
‘I tell you what. I’ll take whatever cash you have in your precious shoebox as a guarantee. Then you’ll have seven days to come up with the rest.’
I can’t think straight. My mind is a whirlwind. All I know right now is that I need to get this mad woman off my back.
‘Come on. Let’s go home—’ she points to my car ‘—and let’s get my money.’
I press my fingers against my temple. ‘It’s not at home. It’s in my car.’
She raises her chin. ‘Interesting. So you got worried I might go back into your house and steal it after last night.’
God, was it only last night? ‘It was you, in my bedroom.’
‘Obviously, Kate. You don’t show someone like me ten grand and expect me to walk away. So…’ She steps away from my car and gestures towards it. ‘Let’s go.’
I unlock my car, get inside and rummage under the passenger seat. I pull out the box. It’s all flattened now, some of the money coming out from under the lid. I hand it to her.
‘Do I need to count it?’
‘Do whatever you like,’ I say, taking hold of the door handle and pulling it shut.
‘Hey! Can I get a lift?’ she says, hands on her hips.
I open the window. ‘I’m not going home. I have to pick up Holly.’
She lifts the battered shoebox in her hand. ‘What am I supposed to do? Hobble home on my cane with this sticking out from under my armpit?’
‘I don’t care what you do, Teri,’ I say, rolling up the window.
‘One week, Kate!’
I drive off.