Chapter 65
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
‘How’s Danny?’ Sarah asked, dropping to sit next to Juliette. ‘I’m sure the paramedics will be here soon.’
‘I think he’s going to be okay.’ Juliette looked down at Danny who was cradled in her arms. He’d woken up a minute ago, although he was groggy and his eyes were closed.
‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t want it to turn out like this. I tried to think of a way around anyone getting hurt.’ Sarah was shaking, as if she was in shock too, but there was something not quite right.
‘What is it that you’re not telling me?’ Juliette asked.
‘He was going to kill you both. We talked about it before you arrived.’ Sarah looked at her with so much guilt it was hard to comprehend.
‘You know I haven’t been straight with you, but you don’t know all the reasons.
Before Richard murdered my sister, he made her life hell.
He dragged her down so low, he hit her constantly.
He had affairs too. And yet he wouldn’t let her leave.
I think he must have seen it as a kind of failure, although why he didn’t say he wanted Louisa to go is beyond me. I guess that was control too.’
‘Do you think he loved Daisy too much for her to go?’
‘I honestly have no idea. But he didn’t love Louisa. He made her think she had ME. He drugged her daily, to keep her tired, docile, something he could use and manipulate to make himself feel better.’
‘He told me you have ME too.’
‘It’s a lie. I let him believe a lot of things about me over the past year.
I needed him to think I was on his side.
That I would live with what he’d done and hidden away.
He had me over a barrel really. I’m an accessory to murder, and my sister didn’t have a proper burial, which is against the law.
It’s the reason I could never go. I couldn’t leave Louisa here. ’
‘Oh, Sarah.’
‘I had no choice. We made a pact on the night he… I could stay here if I never talked about what happened. I made him add my name to the deeds of the house in return for my silence.’
‘Did he agree?’ Juliette was beginning to see how clever Sarah had been.
She nodded. ‘I needed something for Daisy. She’s the innocent victim in this.’
‘So are you.’
‘No, I’m not. Because I manipulated you.
When you moved in, I reached out to you because I needed to tell someone else without Richard knowing.
He murdered my sister. He threatened to murder me and Daisy if I didn’t help cover for him.
He murdered his father too.’ Sarah told Juliette about Jack.
‘He’s a psychopath because of that man.’
Juliette disagreed. ‘He has his own mind. He didn’t have to take after his father.’
‘I suppose not, but he’s still a manipulative, arrogant, evil, twisted killer. Although I was at fault too. I put the idea into his head that you knew too much, that we had to talk to you and then you suggested we meet for dinner and—’
‘Why didn’t you just leave?’
‘Because I wanted justice for Louisa.’ Tears dripped down Sarah’s cheeks.
‘I couldn’t leave her out there a minute longer than necessary.
I was horrible to her and she deserved so much better.
When I first came to work here as Daisy’s nanny, I had this mad idea that Louisa had abandoned me.
When she came to live here with Richard, we fell out as she became distant, wanting to spend all her time with him.
I realise now it was his way of controlling her.
But I-I’m afraid to say I wanted to hurt her and I wanted her life.
I wanted to live here in luxury with a handsome man and I wanted Richard for myself.
So I slept with him. It was okay at first but the longer I was here, the more I could see what he was doing to Louisa.
And yet I still didn’t help her. I was a terrible sister. ’
‘He’d obviously manipulated you too,’ Juliette said.
‘He was so nasty to her, but I couldn’t see what he was doing. Until one day, I saw him adding drugs, sedatives I think, to Louisa’s drink. He said he’d been doing it for years, to keep her under control. I pretended I thought it was a good idea, but I hated it.’
Danny stirred. Juliette cried out but his eyes closed as quickly as they had opened. She squeezed his hand, thankful to feel its warmth.
‘What about Daisy?’ she asked Sarah.
‘It’s her I did this for and yet I’m going to lose her now.’ Her voice was quiet, defeated. ‘But I had to do it.’
Juliette knew what she had to do too. ‘It was self-defence, Sarah.’
‘No, it wasn’t and you know—’
‘It was self-defence.’ She stared at Sarah ensuring she understood.
Sirens in the distance alerted them there was help on the way. Juliette looked down at Danny who was regaining some of his colour. She glanced fleetingly across the room where Richard lay next to a puddle of his own blood. His skin tone was already turning grey.
‘You had no choice,’ she went on. ‘He was going to tie me up and kill me, then Danny. Okay?’
A silence fell on the room, the only sound laboured breathing. A little girl appeared in the doorway.
‘Auntie Sarah, I heard something and I woke up.’
Sarah rushed to sweep Daisy up in her arms. ‘Come on, poppet, back to bed. There’s nothing to be scared of.’