Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
I scream, and Leo rushes to cover my mouth with his hand. ‘Please, Ria. You have to be quiet.’ He looks past me. ‘Has he gone?’
I nod, trying to scramble away from him. ‘Get off me!’
‘I’m sorry. I had to stop you screaming. If he finds out I’m here—’
None of this makes sense. ‘What . . . what were you doing in there? You’ve been here this whole time – why didn’t you help me?’
‘Ria, please, just listen. I got home from Giles’s and you weren’t here.
I assumed you’d gone back to the flat. But then I heard the kitchen door open.
Before I could say anything, I heard a male voice.
I thought you’d called the police. I hid in the utility room and after a while I heard Declan talking to you.
’ He holds up his phone. ‘I missed the first bit, but I recorded him, Ria. Everything he said about Kimmy. I . . . didn’t want to believe it, but deep down I always suspected it was someone in Silverleaf. ’
I stare at him, my brain scrambling to process what he’s telling me. ‘You should have helped me,’ I hiss.
He tries to reach for me, but I elbow him away. ‘If he’d done anything, I would have rushed out,’ he assures me. ‘But I had to get evidence. I couldn’t get Giles to say anything when I went over there. It’s like he already knew what I would try to do.’
I’m still not sure what to believe – my trust level has fallen to zero with everyone.
‘Please, Ria,’ Leo continues when I don’t respond.
‘I know I’ve messed up, but we can go to the police now.
And this keeps me out of it. I can cut the part where he mentions me.
You were right about everything. This place .
. . I wish I’d never seen it. We should never have moved here. Look, I need to cut those ropes.’
‘Declan took all the knives. And the scissors.’
Leo checks the kitchen drawers. ‘What did you do with the knife you had earlier? When I first got home?’
It takes me a moment to remember. ‘I left it in the living room.’
‘It might still be there.’ Leo rushes off, and my brain scrambles to form a plan. I can’t trust him, but working with him is the only way to get free.
He comes back holding the knife.
‘Give it to me,’ I demand. ‘I can do it.’
‘How? Your hands are tied. Please. Just let me do it.’
With little choice but to let him, I give a nod. It takes him a while to do my wrists, and while he slices through the rope, we both stay silent, listening out for Declan. When Leo finally cuts through the last strand, I grab the knife. ‘I’m doing the rest myself.’
‘Okay,’ he says, backing away.
If Leo took a long time, it takes me even longer to slice through the rope binding my ankles. When I finally free myself, I jump up and rush to the bifold door, even though I saw Declan lock it myself.
‘You need to call the police,’ I demand. ‘Now! Tell them what Declan’s done.’
‘Ria, please, just listen to me.’
‘No! Call them now. You said you don’t have to be part of it. Declan killed Kimmy, and he attacked me. We know that.’
Leo gives a deep sigh. ‘But he didn’t actually admit it in the recording. He didn’t say it explicitly.’
‘It doesn’t matter! He admitted it to me! It’s enough, Leo.’
‘Okay,’ he says. ‘But this could be the end for me, whatever happens. Giles will never let me get away with involving the police. He’ll make sure my life is over.
’ He takes a deep breath. ‘But I deserve it after what I did to you. If it means you’ll be free, I’ll accept the consequences.
’ He pulls out his phone and starts tapping.
‘Wait!’
His head jolts up. I can see on his screen that he’s already dialled two nines.
‘Our marriage is over,’ I say. ‘There’s no way back for us.
But . . . I know you’re not a bad person, even after everything.
You wanted to help that boy you operated on.
That’s how this all started.’ I think of all the lives Leo has saved, how he’s worked tirelessly day and night to care for his patients, to go above and beyond for them.
That has to count for something. ‘You made a mistake with that poor boy you operated on,’ I continue.
‘I think you’ll suffer enough, knowing his death was preventable.
And you’ll have to live with the other things you’ve done.
Hiding a body. Lying to me. Even if that was a result of Giles’s hold over you.
And you let this lifestyle, this place, suck you in and make you someone you’re not.
’ Tears burn in my eyes. ‘We didn’t need to live in such a big house.
Even if we’d gone on to have kids, it would still have been way too big.
’ I take a deep breath. ‘You save people’s lives, Leo.
That’s what you do. This isn’t just about me.
It’s about the people you can help in the future.
’ I pull his phone from his hand. ‘Don’t call the police yet.
I’ll do it later, when we get out of here. And I’ll leave you out of it.’
Leo is crying now, too, and I almost reach out to hold him, just one last time. But I can’t.
There’s a pounding on the door, and we both freeze.
‘That’s not Declan,’ Leo says, grabbing my hand. It’s a habit he’ll find hard to break. ‘He has our keys. Wait here.’
But I don’t wait; I follow Leo into the hall, holding the knife at my side.
Leo looks through the peephole. ‘It’s Eleanor,’ he says, frowning. ‘What’s she doing here?’ He doesn’t wait for me to reply but shouts through the door. ‘We can’t answer the door. We’re locked in!’
‘Why, what’s going on?’ Eleanor calls.
‘We don’t have time to explain.’
Leo turns to me and falls silent, and then a key turns in the lock and the door opens. She freezes when she sees us.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I ask, holding up the knife.
Her face pales. ‘Ria, please . . . put the knife down. I just want to talk.’
‘Hurry up and get in,’ Leo says. ‘Shut the door.’ He snatches the key from Eleanor’s hand. ‘Why are you here? Did Declan send you? How did you get this key?’
She glances at both of us in turn. ‘Giles has spare keys to all our houses. I found them when we had the meeting yesterday. But I don’t think he ever uses them – he hasn’t noticed yours has gone.’
I stare at her. ‘I know it wasn’t you who put those candles in here.’
Eleanor steps towards me. ‘I told you it wasn’t. Someone put that candle in my house to make it look like it was me. I . . . I think it was Giles. It must have been.’
‘It wasn’t Giles,’ I say, glancing at Leo.
‘I think it was. It was all part of his sick game.’
‘What game?’
‘To make everyone think you’d lost your mind.
I know that now, and I don’t want any part of it.
’ She glances at Leo. ‘I’m sorry, Ria, I should have told you everything.
They’ve been lying to you. About when you moved to Silverleaf.
’ She gestures to Leo. ‘Even him. I wanted to tell you, right from the start, but Giles threatened to tell Rufus about our affair, and even Rufus was putting pressure on me to stay quiet and keep out of it. They said it was to protect you, so you didn’t know the extent of your memory loss.
But I see it was all bullshit. And now Rufus knows about the affair, I’ve got nothing to hide.
Besides, he’s been lying to me too, as you well know. ’
I wince; clearly Eleanor knows Rufus lost his job, and probably that I was blackmailing him. But she doesn’t look angry, just sad. Like she truly did want to tell me all along. I want to trust her, but how can I be sure?
Eleanor steps closer to me. ‘Alex Vale,’ she says. ‘That was me. I tried to help you.’
Silence folds around us.
‘Whatever’s going on,’ Leo says, ‘you need to be quick. We have to get the hell out of here before Declan comes back.’
‘Declan?’ Eleanor asks.
I tell Eleanor that it was Declan Kimmy was seeing, and she stares at me. ‘Declan? But . . . I don’t understand . . .’
‘We don’t have time for this, Eleanor,’ I say. ‘Can you just go?’
But she ignores me. ‘Kimmy and I were good friends,’ she says.
‘And when I saw your sketch, I knew straight away it was her. But I tried to talk myself out of it. Everyone kept telling me that it was your brain injury making you see things. And . . . I was angry with her. We’d had a fight the last time I saw her.
And . . . I had a miscarriage, right there in her kitchen.
’ She dabs her eyes. ‘I blamed her for it, but I’ve had loads of tests since then, and it wasn’t stress that caused it.
I have a gene mutation that means I can’t carry a baby unless I have blood thinners. ’
‘Why are you telling me all this now? You haven’t exactly been friendly to me.’
‘We really can’t do this,’ Leo says. He rushes to the living-room window to peer outside. ‘There’s no sign of him,’ he says.
Eleanor frowns. ‘Why are you worried about Declan?’ she asks.
Leo and I glance at each other. ‘Just say what you’ve got to say,’ he says, before darting back to the window.
‘I’m sorry, Ria. I’m sorry I didn’t have the courage to stand up to Giles. I was fooled by his charm.’
‘You told me – and then denied – that you and Giles were having an affair,’ I say.
She hangs her head. ‘Can we go in the living room and talk properly?’
‘No!’ Leo and I both say in unison.
‘Giles and I did have an affair,’ Eleanor says. ‘Briefly. I was telling the truth, but then you went to tell Giles and I was scared what he’d do, so I denied it.’ She shakes her head. ‘He was furious with me after that.’
‘Why are you telling me all this now? You’ve barely spoken to me since we moved back.’
She hangs her head. ‘I know. I’m sorry. I was trying to keep a distance. I knew that if we became friends again, I’d end up telling you everything. It was my way of dealing with the lie.’
‘I don’t even care any more,’ I say. ‘I just want to get out of here. Can you just go? Please!’ I open the front door to usher her out. In the distance, a siren blares.
Leo rushes back to the hallway and grabs my arm. ‘You called the police?’
‘No!’
We both look at Eleanor. ‘It wasn’t me,’ she says. ‘Why would I? Will you just tell me what’s going on?’
But neither of us does. She’ll find out soon enough. The whole of Silverleaf will know by morning. It’s all over now.
The siren grows louder, and Leo rushes outside. But it’s not a police car making its way through the gate, it’s an ambulance.
We watch as it pulls into the driveway of number one and two paramedics step out. They hurry round to the back of the ambulance and unload a stretcher. When they get to the front door, they rush past Georgia to get inside.
Moments later they come out, and this time there’s someone on the stretcher.
We all rush over, and Georgia and Patrick stand with their arms around each other, watching as the paramedics lift Declan inside.
‘What happened?’ Eleanor asks. Her face is a mask of horror, but it wouldn’t be if she knew what he’d done to her friend. To me.
‘He did it again,’ Georgia sobs, as Eleanor puts her arms around her. ‘Tried to kill himself. This time he might not make it.’ Her sobs are so loud that everyone in the crescent must hear.
I watch as Georgia climbs inside the ambulance and the paramedics close the door, while Patrick gets into his car. And I pray that Declan does survive, that he is forced to face the consequences of his actions.
By now all the other neighbours have gathered, summoned by the commotion. Giles and Xander, Rufus. We all look at each other, but no one says anything.
And then, silently, we make our way back to our houses. Nothing will be the same here now. Like seeds that need to grow, secrets refuse to stay hidden for long.