Chapter 64
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
Danny had thought Richard and Sarah were a strange couple, but this was beyond anything he could imagine.
They had deliberately set out to trick Juliette about the little girl who lived with them.
Make her think she was hallucinating so that they could continue with the misconception.
But he couldn’t fathom out why. Unless Sarah was right when she said Richard had murdered his ex-wife.
Richard and Sarah were arguing.
‘You can’t keep doing this, Richard. It’s insane,’ Sarah cried. ‘No, you’re insane!’
‘Sarah, Sarah, Sarah.’ Richard sighed. ‘Why do you have to spoil the fun? I was going to set it up as a murder-suicide. So, let’s see.’ He looked at Danny. ‘That baby your wife is carrying? It isn’t yours. It’s mine.’
Despite the situation, Danny couldn’t help but scoff.
‘It’s pretty obvious to me but I’ll spell it out to you,’ Richard went on. ‘While you were in London, Juliette and I have been fucking on a regular basis. I’ve had more fun with her than you, so.’ He shrugged. ‘What are the odds?’
Danny sat stunned. Not because of what Richard was telling him about his wife. But because he didn’t believe a word of it and was wondering why he was playing this card.
Richard raised the gun an inch and aimed it at Danny’s chest. Juliette screamed.
‘Look, whatever has happened, we can talk about it,’ he said, trying to calm the situation.
‘Sure we can. But I’m still going to kill you.’
Juliette shook her head, using her eyes to plead with Sarah. But Sarah was silent now. Staying still.
‘That’s what I’m going to tell the police when they find you,’ Richard went on.
‘I’m going to say you came round to confront me.
I wasn’t in, nor was Sarah. Juliette followed you in here, where you argued and then you grabbed this gun.
There was a fight and you shot her. Then you shot yourself. Murder-suicide. I have it all planned.’
‘That wouldn’t work. You’d still be charged with murder because you left your gun out of a locked cabinet.’ Danny shook his head. ‘And how would we even get in if you were out? Plus neither of us is going to be willing, so one of us could get away before you have the chance to kill us both.’
Danny couldn’t believe his voice was so composed, as if there wasn’t a mad man standing in front of them with a shotgun. But the circumstances dictated he stay as calm as possible.
‘I’ll make it work.’ Richard nodded. ‘Because if I let you go, you’ll send the police. They’ll start snooping round too and I don’t want them to find out what happened to Louisa. Sarah was right, I killed her.’
Juliette burst into tears. ‘Please let us go and I promise we won’t interfere anymore. No one will know that we’ve even been friendly with you and I could—’
Hearing the distress in his wife’s voice, Danny got to his feet. He had to do something.
‘No!’ Juliette grabbed for his arm, but it was out of her reach.
Before Richard could react, Danny grabbed the barrel of the gun and pushed it up into the air.
Juliette screamed again as the men grappled with the gun. Richard managed to get it from Danny and he pushed him with such force that he fell backwards onto the table. Losing his balance, he tumbled off its side, cracking his head on the marble worktop. He dropped to the floor.
‘Danny!’ Juliette rushed across and knelt beside him, ignoring the danger she might have put herself in if Richard came at them. Danny’s eyes were closed, he was out cold. ‘Call for an ambulance! Danny? Danny, ohmigod.’
When she heard no movement, she glanced up again. Sarah was still standing there.
‘Ring for help! Please.’
‘I can’t,’ Sarah replied.
Juliette cried out in frustration. ‘Where is your phone?’ Why was Sarah being so obstructive?
Richard rummaged around in the drawer. He pulled out a piece of thick rope.
Juliette frowned. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Move over to that chair,’ Richard demanded.
She looked up at them both. ‘Please! You have to help Danny.’
‘On the chair,’ Richard roared.
Sarah pulled her upright and it was then Juliette caught her eye. Sarah was pleading with her to do as she was told. Did she have a plan?
But Richard grabbed Juliette by the chin.
‘Do you really want to know what happened to Louisa? Well, I’m going to tell you before I kill you too.’
Juliette was sobbing openly now as Richard tied her hands together.
‘I killed her, and then Sarah and I buried her in the woods. Your friendly neighbour, your new friend was in on it too.’
Juliette froze. That couldn’t be true. Could it? Had they both fooled her all along?
‘Louisa was such a liability. I was glad to get rid of her in the end.’
As Richard ranted, Juliette saw Sarah reach behind the bread bin and pull out a large kitchen knife. Watched as she raced across the room towards Richard.
‘You bastard,’ Sarah cried, plunging the knife upwards into his chest.
It went in so hard that Juliette heard Richard grunt. He came out from behind her, his face creased up in pain. And then he was stumbling as he made his way across the kitchen.
‘What have you done?’ He held his hand out to Sarah. ‘You mad bitch.’
Sarah stayed where she was, the knife with Richard’s blood hanging down by her side. When he fell and didn’t get up again, she came towards Juliette.
Juliette cowered, for a second thinking Sarah might attack her too. But then she was cutting her loose.