Chapter 37
Kimmy.
My first thought is not for myself. ‘Jameson,’ I breathe.
Kimmy laughs. ‘Don’t worry, Euan is taking care of him.’ I back away from her and she raises her shotgun, aiming it directly at me. The other gun. ‘Don’t go any further, please. And don’t do anything foolish.’ Her command is crisp, and there’s no question that she expects me to obey.
‘I don’t understand,’ I whimper, letting my fear show on my face – it’ll make her feel more confident. Overconfident is what I need.
Of course, the fear is no facade. I’m terrified. The cold look on her face as she hefts that gun with utter composure … Pointing it right at me.
Kimmy smiles, enjoying herself. ‘You don’t like to be kept in the dark, do you? You need to understand everything and everyone. Well, not this time. You don’t get inside my head, Eils.’
Despite the gravity of the situation, I slip my hand into my pocket and thumb the screen of Leo’s phone.
I disabled the lockscreen before I set out, and left the voice recorder app open.
I tap what I hope is the play button – it’s a best guess, a stab in the dark.
I want Kimmy’s story, even as the gravity of the situation becomes clear, and I fear for my life.
It’s likely Leo’s phone will end up at the bottom of the loch, or smashed underfoot and chucked in a drift of snow.
But possibly not. Maybe the words I capture will be discovered by those who need to make sense of what’s happened here tonight.
If I’m going to die, I’d at least like to think truth can live on.
‘Tell me,’ I say. ‘How did you do this – why did you do it?’
Kimmy stands perfectly still, shotgun barrel unwavering.
‘I suppose we have time,’ she muses. ‘But don’t you even think of trying anything, Eilish Culpeper, I will shoot you as soon as look at you, d’you hear me?
I’ll take pleasure in it. You were that little bitch’s bitch, her friend, sidekick, partner-in-crime. ’
Gen. ‘I had nothing to do with what she did to you—’
Her face twists with anger. ‘Shut up! I don’t want to hear it, Eilish.
She was a vile creature, and you stayed with her, defended her, validated her.
She ruined me – I was suicidal, for a while, after those photos.
Bet you didn’t know that. And she was awful to Leo, always picking fights and making it out to be his fault, a nightmare girlfriend with all those irrational demands and monstrous jealousies, even before he and I hooked up.
He was loyal for so long … And when he sought some comfort elsewhere, she went for him.
Hit him where it really hurt – his father.
You have no idea how scared Leo was of his dad back them.
He still is – bit pathetic actually. She took Alex out in the crossfire and didn’t even care.
And what about what she did to you and Jameson?
You can’t just sweep that under the carpet, surely? ’
‘I get that you hated Genevieve, but I don’t understand what that has to do with now, with all this. Euan—’
‘He did my job for me, on the beach. To be perfectly honest with you, I’m not sure I’d have got up the courage that night.
I wasn’t in the States as it happened, but everyone thought I was.
I checked in at the airport on Facebook, told all my friends the date I was flying.
They’d have been able to work out I never actually got on a plane, but as I wasn’t planning to kill her that night, I didn’t think I needed that strong an alibi.
I only meant to watch her – watch all of you, I suppose.
Torturing myself. Dreaming of killing her.
It was a habit of mine. That’s how I realised he was watching her too. ’
Her face wrinkles in distaste. ‘I saw you all playing happy families that night. Leo went back to her – chose her, even after what she did to me. That’s the crime he’s going to do penance for, now.
Of course, it all went to shit after the sun went down, didn’t it?
I heard you lot screaming at each other from halfway down the beach. ’
I can tell she’s enjoying herself, showing me how clever she’s been.
I let her go on, don’t interrupt the flow.
Let her see me as weakened, outclassed. Inside, my brain is hurtling.
I’m trying to work out a way to overpower her and get the shotgun off her – I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know about my kickboxing.
Did I mention it the other night? Even if I told them, when we were catching up on each other’s lives, she won’t have been listening; she didn’t rate me as an adversary – then or now.
But it’s a very different matter taking someone out on equal footing on a mat in the gym to being out here, with a gun raising the stakes.
No margin for error.
I murmur encouragingly and Kimmy keeps talking. I try not to think about Jameson, back at Tarnmore. With him.
‘So, Euan was watching you all too – Johnny, he was then. I was watching him when he stalked her into the water. Couldn’t believe his luck, getting her alone like that.
Couldn’t believe mine either. I saw what he did.
I watched her die. I was hidden from view, no one even knew I was there that night.
As soon as I realised what had happened, I got out of there.
I’d have liked to stick around and see you all come undone, but I didn’t want to be caught anywhere near West Sands, in case her death was ruled a murder.
I’d have done it myself, you know. I was going to do it someday …
’ Her teeth flash between ruby-red lips, but her pretty smile is gone.
She is a shark, an apex predator: careless, ruthless, efficient.
‘Years passed. I dealt with my demons. It took me a long time to get Genevieve Learmonth out of my head.’
‘But how did you and Euan—’
‘Oh, I properly fangirled him. Like one of those girls who fall in love with serial killers and write to them in prison. Only Euan didn’t go down for what he did.
I tailed him when he left the beach that night, and I learned enough to track him down.
He knew I knew. Of course it was risky – he might have killed me too – but I told him my story and he came to realise I really wasn’t a threat to him.
We bonded over our hatred for Genevieve and … well, we fell in love.’
‘Right, but you’re with Leo now.’
‘Well, Leo certainly thinks I am. I was always curious about him. I wanted to know why he’d chosen her over me.
I wanted to punish him. I play a long game, Eilish.
You should know that about me. Leo’s a means to an end – a very comfortable means, too.
I hadn’t decided how I was going to punish him.
So I’ve been taking advantage of every good thing about being the future Mrs Leonard Noble and had a very nice time to myself while I worked it out.
But my heart has always belonged to John. We’re very similar.’
Similarly deranged.
‘What about his relationship with Becca?’
She laughs. ‘Can you imagine the sort of wealth we would have had as the grieving widow and widower of Leo Noble and Becca Morrow? It was worth being apart for a while to pursue more lucrative partnerships. We’d marry them, enjoy the lifestyle that came with them for a few years.
Then … maybe they’d both die in horrible accidents.
Not too close together of course. Eventually, we planned to come back together and pool our money.
We’d have been set for life. And I’d have finally gotten revenge on Leo for choosing Gen over me. ’
I shake my head. It’s an incredulous tale, and yet … ingenious.
I need to know more. ‘But you’re not married yet, and Euan’s only just started going out with Becca. Surely you won’t make much money from their deaths now. This wasn’t the plan, so what happened?’
Her lip curls. ‘Fucking Alex Porter happened.’
My legs are going numb, and I shift almost imperceptibly to keep the blood flowing. Kimmy resettles the gun against her shoulder with capable ease. Otherwise, she is perfectly still, her eyes fixed on me.
‘I knew from Leo that Alex had started going on about Gen’s accident, saying he thought there was more to it.
He’d never mentioned it before – mind you, until he went to rehab he was always half cut or high so, there’s that.
Anyway, it was right after we all got together – me and Leo, Becca and Euan.
And Alex. That was a fun night – until afterwards, when Alex started asking Leo strange questions about Genevieve.
Like, did he know anything about her family, and did Leo really think you were responsible for what happened to her – they all believed you were the killer and concocted that story to protect you, that was true enough.
Suddenly it was like Alex didn’t believe it anymore.
He started trying to organise this reunion.
Leo even joked that he was planning some detective novel style denouement.
It was just a laugh to Leo, because he hadn’t ever questioned that you did it.
But when I found out from Leo that Alex was the only one of you that went to the funeral, I realised it was possible he actually knew something.
Euan had to be there – it would have looked strange if he didn’t attend his stepsister’s memorial.
Alex was always too perceptive for his own good – when he wasn’t drunk.
If he’d recognised Becca’s new boyfriend as the distraught stepbrother from Genevieve’s funeral, he might’ve wondered why on earth Euan was lying about who he was, and why he’d hooked up with Becca under false pretences. ’
‘So why didn’t Euan talk Bex into saying no to the reunion? Surely it was dangerous to let it just happen and play into Alex’s hands.’
She tilts her head. ‘Do you really think so? Has Alex prevailed … or is he currently lying dead under a foot of snow?’
I lick my lips, a shiver of fear going through me. ‘So you and Euan let this happen so that you could … kill Alex?’