The Silent Ones: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller(76)

For a moment I see a glimmer of my friend again. She seems so vulnerable and sad. Getting angry with her obviously isn’t helping and isn’t getting me closer to seeing Josh, so I try a different tactic.

‘Beth, this has raked up all your sadness about Andrew. You’re bound to feel bad.’ I shake my head. ‘But you’ve never told me or the police that you knew Bessie. Why not?’

‘Do you know what Bessie told me? She said they could’ve tried one or two procedures but they all knew he was too far gone. So a team decision was made and they did nothing.’ Her hands ball into hard fists. ‘They did nothing.’

‘I’m sorry you’re feeling so bad, Beth, but Bessie was old, and as you say, she had—’

‘Her distant memory was clearer than yours or mine!’ Beth retorts. ‘And when I found out about Corey, that’s when something snapped inside me. It felt like someone flicked a switch. Both Bessie and your mum were part of that team. They were instrumental in letting Andrew die. And then Corey, too… I can’t handle it.’

Her hands fly up to her head, pressing hard against her temples.

Corey… Andrew… who exactly is she talking about? She’s in a bad way.

‘I’m giving you one more chance, Beth.’ I hold my phone up in the air. ‘I want to see Josh right now or I’m calling the police. Nothing you’re saying is making any sense at all. ’

With lightning speed, she snatches it from my hand and tosses it into the sink, which is filled with soapy water.

‘You idiot!’ I plunge my hand in and fish around for it. When I pull it out and shake off the excess water, the screen is predictably black and unresponsive.

Instead of screaming at her, I turn and walk towards the door. I’ll knock on a neighbour’s door and ask them to call the police.

‘You’re as bad as them,’ Beth says, following me, jabbing me hard in the back. ‘Your sister, your parents… you are all liars, the lowest of the low. You must’ve laughed so hard behind my back, called me a gullible fool believing Andrew never suffered… but not now.’ She smiles. ‘Now, none of you are laughing. I’ve ruined all of your lives. Your business is finished, and the villagers hate each and every one of you.’

In that one sentence she reveals who has been informing my customers and also the local press. She’s probably behind the terrible online reviews for InsideOut4Kids, too. How could I have trusted her so blindly? There must have been so many signs if I’d only paid attention.

‘Beth, you’re making no sense. I’m a victim here, just like you. I didn’t know about Andrew and I didn’t know until today that Chloe was responsible for Corey’s fall. They all lied to me, and now I find that you knew all about it too. Did Chloe tell you?’

Her face is twisted as she looks at me with utter contempt.

‘Bessie Wilford told me. Her husband Charlie was best friends with your dad since they were at school together.’

Bessie Wilford again? A dark uncoiling of something too awful to describe starts in my lower abdomen.

‘Ray confided in Charlie to assuage his own guilt about going along with your witch of a mother and protecting her favourite eldest daughter.’

I hate what my family did to me, but I’m not about to share that with Beth and fuel her crazy hate-fest.

‘You sicken me, all of you. Even you, Juliet.’ She continues, ‘You made your sister a director in favour of me, the person who encouraged you to start the business in the first place…’

‘And you know I was grateful for that!’

‘But not grateful enough, it seems. Not grateful enough to give me a job when it took off. You knew I was struggling financially.’ She took a breath, got control of herself. ‘But I digress. Your dear family only told you part of the truth today. You want the whole story?’

I take the final couple of steps and reach for the back door as she takes her phone out of her handbag and presses a couple of buttons.

She places it on the table in front of me. I look at the photograph that fills the screen.

‘Meet George,’ she says.

A smiling young man sits at a table covered in playing cards. He’s holding one up at the camera and smiling. One side of his mouth droops slightly, but he’s got a cheeky look about him, and he’s handsome.

I look at Beth vacantly.

‘I don’t know who this person is.’ I’m tired of her games. The only thing I want is to see my son. Now.

‘George lives at an assisted living centre in Edinburgh,’ Beth says, watching me. ‘When he was five years old, the manager of the place told me, he suffered a fall in which he incurred a head injury and suffered a bleed to the brain. His family gave him up for adoption because they couldn’t cope with his subsequent disabilities.’

Her words sound far away and my legs feel weak.

‘George is your brother’s new name, Juliet. Corey didn’t die; your parents lied to you and had him fostered. All this time he’s been alive and living in Scotland.’

The ground falls away from me.





Fifty-Nine





‘I had to punish them all, don’t you see that?’

I slump down on a kitchen chair and Beth stands over me. My friend’s kind face, the happy demeanour I love so much, is no longer in existence. Her features twist into a hard knot.