The Visitors(88)

‘I don’t care,’ she’d told the voice in her head. ‘I don’t want to live.’

She’d lain there for just five or six minutes when she heard shoes scuffing on the asphalt. She heard Brendan talking on his phone and the beep as he unlocked the car. Next, she heard the heavy rumble of an approaching HGV.

Then suddenly, his boot-clad feet were next to her face, and as the rumble of the truck grew closer, she reached out and grabbed his ankles, pulling hard and sending him careering off balance and into the road.

The screech of brakes, Brendan’s scream… She didn’t wait to see the glorious result of her impulsive gamble.

She’d crawled to the edge of the chassis, squeezed out from under the jeep, picked up her rucksack and walked away.

She just walked away and she didn’t look back.





Chapter Seventy-Three





David





‘I don’t know how long I was in the clinic, but it seemed a long time,’ Holly says softly. ‘Nobody believed me about what happened, about Evan. I told the nurses, the doctors, and they just thought I was deluded.’

‘What about Brendan?’ I ask her. ‘Did they find out what you did?’

‘No. Incredibly, I got away with it. They thought he’d been distracted by his phone and stumbled into the road. The caller on the end of the line heard the truck and the long beep… It was classed as a tragic accident. But you see then she had my son. Still has. I have to find him, David.’

‘We haven’t got long. The ambulance will be here, and then…’ I look at poor Mrs Barrett’s prone, lifeless body and feel a catch in my throat. But I have to press on. ‘You told me you were scared of someone from your past trying to find you… that someone was watching you.’

‘I got… confused,’ she whimpers. ‘Some of it I did so you’d protect me, so you’d get closer to me. I sent the letter to myself; I imagined someone at the end of the garden… I mean, I convinced myself it was true.’

‘But now you think there was nobody there?’

Holly shrugs and squeezes her eyes closed. ‘It’s like a house of cards has collapsed around me. All this time I’ve believed Geraldine would look for me, that she’d suspect I was the one who killed Brendan. I’ve felt Evan’s presence in my head… as if he’s missing me too.’ Her voice drops and becomes faint. ‘But none of it was real.’

‘But why hurt Mrs Barrett? After everything she did for you… and you pretended to be my friend. This is how you repay us?’

‘I liked you, David. I really did.’ She says it in such a regretful tone, I almost believe her. ‘You know what it’s like to be an outsider. Perhaps we could have been true friends under different circumstances.’

I stand up. ‘I have to call the police now, you know that, don’t you, Holly?’

She smiles at me.

‘You still don’t understand the final part of my plan, do you, David?’

I look at her.

‘I didn’t hurt Cora. You did. You pushed her so hard she cracked her head on that fireplace.’

I shake my head and scowl at her. She sounds just like Mr Brown – blaming everything on me, trying to wriggle out of what he’d done.

‘No, Holly.’ I swallow hard and stare at her stretched mouth. ‘The truth is, you got mad and pushed her. I followed you just to try and help, that’s all.’

‘You pushed her, David. Your fingerprints are all over the headboard. There’s a copy of the lottery letter addressed to Cora in your crummy kiosk at work. I put it there, you see. There’s a recorded conversation between your mother and Cora, both worrying about your erratic behaviour and the possibility that you haven’t been taking your medication.’

She holds her phone up above her head.

‘When I went outside for air, I rang the police, not the ambulance. And they’ll be here any moment.’

I stare at her, lost for words. Eventually I say, ‘Why? Why betray me, your one true friend?’

‘I wanted to find Evan, and for that I needed money, lots of it. I’d been watching Cora for a while; I knew she’d be in the post office queue that day. I’d got to know her routines, but only with a view to finding a place to stay. I thought she was probably well off but never actually knew she’d had a lottery win until I found the letter, and then it all dropped into place. And you… you were a gift. An oddball next door who everyone knew was strange.’

I pause, unsure whether to tell her. Nothing around here seems certain any more. Holly doesn’t seem like Holly any more. Perhaps she’s just like all the others.

‘What is it?’ She narrows her eyes at me.

‘Markus told me what happened. When you were in the hospital.’

She stares.

‘Geraldine couldn’t cope without Brendan. She became terribly depressed, and…’

‘Go on.’

‘Holly, she went into the garage with Evan and killed them both. Carbon monoxide poisoning.’

Her face crumples in on itself. I cover my ears as she roars in pain like a wild animal.

I want to put my arm around her shoulders but I can’t quite manage it.