The Visitors(85)

Holly felt a trickle of sweat edge its way down her spine.

‘How did you…’

‘I lived in Manchester myself for five years. Worked in the clubs there as a student and knew the scene very well. In fact, I knew a lot of people back then, some of who I’m still in touch with online.’ She tapped her lacquered nails on her thigh. ‘I drew a blank until I bumped into a guy called Jay, an old acquaintance of Brendan Godson. He told me the awful news… that Brendan had died under a truck. A terrible accident, apparently. Must’ve just stepped out into the road, they said at the time.’

Holly felt the blood draining from her face.

‘That didn’t really mean anything to me until Jay got into his stride and asked whether I wanted to hear the rest of the story about Brendan and his family… it featured, he said, a psycho woman they’d employed, called Holly. He couldn’t remember her surname but he thought I might be interested as she too was from Nottingham.’

Holly closed her eyes. She’d retained her first name but changed her surname when she returned to Nottingham. She’d paid a lot of money for new documentation and ID.

‘How is this relevant to us?’ Mr Kellington said curtly.

‘Because she isn’t who she says she is,’ Emily snapped at him. ‘She has a very chequered past that I think will interest you. She’s the one who damaged that vase and set me up very cleverly. When I tell you the story, you’ll understand what she’s capable of.’

Holly stood up, trancelike.

‘I have to go,’ she said in a vague manner. ‘I have things to do at home.’

Josh stood and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. ‘I could ring your landlady if you like…’

She shrugged him off.

‘I’m not a lodger. I’m a visitor there.’ She paused and spoke softly. ‘I’m always just a visitor in everyone’s life… I come and go, but nothing ever changes.’





Chapter Seventy-One





Holly





Holly rushed past David in the kiosk. He called out to her, but she didn’t look back.

She couldn’t face the bus but managed to hail a cab on Huntingdon Street. She sat slumped in the back, staring sightlessly out of the window, her head full of unwanted images.

Markus… Emily… There wasn’t much time. She had to put her plan in place now. She had to get back to Manchester to find Evan.

‘You OK, love?’ the driver asked, looking at her in his rear-view mirror.

She said nothing but knew she looked a state. Unbrushed hair, pale, drawn face… but what did it matter? What did anyone understand about it all?

When she got home, Cora was out. She felt like crying with gratitude.

She dropped her handbag at the bottom of the stairs and rushed upstairs. In Cora’s bedroom, she pulled off the quilt and pillows and heaved the mattress half off the bed, then began piling the cash on the floor.

When that half was empty, she hauled the mattress the other way and began doing the same on that side.

‘Holly? Are you feeling quite well?’

She let out a small scream at the voice behind her. Cora stood in the doorway with a strange, calm look on her face.

‘David rang me to tell me what happened at work. He’s on his way over here now.’

‘You won the lottery,’ Holly said accusingly. ‘I found the letter.’

‘If you’d just asked me, I would have helped you, you know,’ Cora said, stepping towards her. ‘I could have given you some money.’

‘I need all of it!’ Holly spat. ‘Your life is virtually finished; you’ve no need for all this cash. My child’s life is at stake. I have to find him.’

She turned back to the bed and carried on taking out wads of cash, stuffing them into a black bin bag she’d grabbed from the stairs.

Cora stood, watching her, saying nothing. Holly was unnerved.

‘Why are you staring at me like that?’ she snapped at the older woman. ‘Just go – leave me alone.’

‘You know, when I was a young woman of your age,’ Cora began, ‘I too thought that—’

‘I don’t want to hear any more of your stupid stories!’ Holly glared up at her, wide-eyed. ‘You talk too much, that’s how I found you in the first place.’

‘Found me?’ Cora’s voice faltered. ‘But I met you in the post office. I found you.’

Holly stopped stuffing money in the bag and wiped her brow with her forearm and shook her head in irritation.

‘I’d been in a few shops you used. It was just lucky that day that things went wrong and you came to my rescue. But I watched you… before that. In the café, with Pat.’

Cora’s composure began to wobble.

‘You knew me before… but how… why were you—’

‘It was obvious you had money by the way you talked,’ Holly said. ‘Telling Pat you didn’t trust the banks and you’d got plans underway to draw it all out. I thought it was just savings and then I found the letter about your lottery winnings.’

They both started at the sound of footsteps bounding upstairs.

‘David!’ Cora gasped in relief.