Finding Grace(82)

‘He committed suicide six months ago. They told him he’d be paralysed for good but he was such a fighter. He worked so hard on his exercises, every day for years, and got back some movement in his hands and arms but it wasn’t enough for him. Couldn’t live with being a virtual vegetable any longer, he told me.’ She takes a step towards me and her face contorts in pure malice. ‘He never stopped loving you, you know. God knows why.’

The relief that it might be true, that finally he might be dead, is tempered by the tangle of stuff that no longer makes sense. If Angela is here, then who has Grace?

Her eyes look deranged. I have to try and get her to talk.

‘So you… and Stefan… did you get together after university?’

She gave a bitter laugh. ‘We were always together, you stupid cow. You always were blind as a bat, swallowed every lie he ever fed you.’

‘You were in a relationship with him?’

‘Way before you.’ She nodded, stepping nearer to me. ‘And while he was with you, too. I devoted myself to him. He didn’t always treat me well but we understood each other. He was always truthful with me about the others, put it that way. He told me he’d marry me one day.’

‘The others?’

‘There were scores of women. That’s how he recruited the people who worked for him, too. But they never meant anything to him. Until you.’

I could laugh, if I didn’t want to sob with desperation to see my daughter. She seriously believes he cared about me? But I have to keep my cool here.

‘I don’t know why he loved you. But he told me he did. Before he died.’

‘Loved me! Rape, murder, blackmail and lies – that’s a funny way to show it. Where’s Grace?’

‘You’re lying. He never raped you.’ Her eyes look wild. ‘But let’s talk about Stefan, shall we?’

My eyes endlessly search the surrounding trees as she speaks. I don’t trust a word that comes out of her mouth. She can’t have done this alone. I remember her as a bit of a mouse, scared of her own shadow.

‘They thought they’d found him in time after he managed to overdose, thought they could save him,’ Angela says vaguely. ‘I went to see him in hospital. He wanted to talk to me, you see. I thought that at last he would tell me he loved me, but no. He only wanted to say a few words. “Make her pay for how she’s ruined me.” That was his dying wish. It’s the one last thing I can do for him.’

I feel nothing for that lowlife. So far as I’m concerned, if he’s dead, then the world is a better place. But I stay quiet in the light of her obvious crazy infatuation.

‘Where’s Grace?’ No sooner have the words left my lips than a figure dashes through the sparse trees to my left. I turn towards it.

‘Wait!’ Angela calls, but I ignore her.

I rush towards the trees but there is no more movement. Grace isn’t here.

‘Did you really think it would be that easy? That I’d bring her here?’ Angela spits out the words. ‘If you want her back, I’m going to need money. A lot of it.’

‘If Stefan is dead, why carry this on?’ I’m starting to unravel inside. I can feel it. I need my daughter, I want to see Grace more than I want to breathe.

‘To have you suffer, like he suffered at the end. Mission accomplished. But there’s more to come.’ She looks around the park furtively. ‘Walk to the car with me. Any funny business and your daughter will die. One phone call from me is all it will take.’

A phone call to who, if Stefan is dead?

‘I – I’ll follow you in my car,’ I stammer. I really don’t want to be in a vehicle with crazy Angela. I need to stay as much in control as I can.

‘No. The deal is, you do everything I say without question. You want to see your daughter? Then you come in my car.’

She starts to walk towards the park exit and I follow her.

‘How far away is she?’ I ask, dreading the answer is Newcastle.

‘Not far,’ is all she’ll say.





Fifty-Nine





‘Put this over your eyes.’ She throws a stretchy thick black headband over to me. ‘And put your hood up. Head down.’

I pull it over my head and position it across my eyes slightly lopsided so I still have a slice of vision. But she pushes the back of my neck so I’m forced to dip my face and all I can see is the gear stick and my left knee.

‘Remember what I said. Any funny business and you’ll never see your daughter again.’

My heart is banging so hard against my chest and I feel hot, light-headed. But I have to keep it together.

I push away my own self-critical admonishments: I should never have come alone, I should’ve told Blake, the police…

It’s too late now. I’m here. And I’m going to see my daughter. Nothing matters so long as I can find Grace.

Angela embarks on a rant as soon as the car begins to move. I try and take it all in but I can only absorb snippets because I’m focusing so hard on not having a full-blown panic attack.

‘When Stefan died, his benefits stopped. His savings were swallowed up paying off debts… We… I realised you were the answer. To getting the revenge he longed for and a much-needed injection of cash.’