‘I should have left you to die in that coffin but you know something, Cherie, it wasn’t enough for you. I thought you were my friend. I trusted you back then when you took me to that party.’
‘I know and I hurt you. I’m truly sorry. You weren’t meant to kiss Isaac. I lost it, I’m sorry.’ The road below became blurrier. Maybe it was the vodka she’d consumed earlier, the drug she’d been injected with, or the lack of air in the damn box that the lunatic beside her had trapped her in. ‘I’ll do anything to make it up to you, Lucy. Please, just give me a chance. We don’t have to keep reliving the past. We can move on from it.’
Tears streamed down the woman’s cheeks. ‘What did I ever do to you? I was just the new girl. That was my only crime. You barely knew me, how could you hate me that much? Okay, Isaac kissed me once but that was it.’ She paused and stared at the sky with glassy eyes. ‘Since that day, I’ve had to live with all that baggage while you all carried on with your merry little lives. You’re married, you have children. Bella and Oliver.’
Cherie began to hyperventilate. ‘Please don’t hurt them.’
‘Me, hurt them? I’d be more worried about you hurting them after what you did. I saw a version of you that you probably don’t want the world to know about. Does your husband know the real person behind the mask you wear? If not, he will after this. I’ve left everything written down in a notebook, in the van. Everything you did to me is in that book. I’m finally ready to tell my story even though every word I wrote down felt like a stab to the heart.’ She paused and smirked. ‘It looks like death is a good option for you. You pay for what you did to me and you escape seeing your children look at you in a way you never thought possible. They will hate you but you know something, I bet they’ll go easier on you because you died. Or will they? Whatever, you won’t be there to see how much they all despise you.’ Lucy laughed through her tears, a brown curl falling over her red-rimmed eyes.
The notebook. She had to get Lucy off her and get the notebook before the police arrived. She could push Lucy over the edge, claim it was self-defence or suicide and have everyone feel sorry for her, including her own family. Christian would come back home with the children and he’d be none the wiser. She’d go back to AA to deal with her drinking, start again. Get another job. Whatever it took, she’d do it. She reached for the railings but the world began to spin as she looked back.Get a grip, Cherie. You can do this.As she went to grip the railings, she felt a tug at her wrist. Rope – binding her and Lucy together. Blood pumped around her body, thudding in her head and ears.What next? Think, think.She couldn’t hear the sirens any more. She was going to faint or maybe she was going to be sick. Her stomach rolled as she gripped the railing with the other hand. The metal was getting slippier as the rain got heavier.
‘I knew you’d try to shake me off. I really am prepared for everything. We’re doing this together, Cherie. I’ve killed three people, but you know something, when all this comes out, the world will see what you all did and that you deserved what you all got.’
Mind awhirl, Cherie thought of Alex. It was now obvious that Lucy had killed Penny and used the messages to lure her to the pond. If only it had been Isaac. Everything would now be okay. She knew Lucy had sent the original messages that the others mentioned. Her old friend had been meticulously planning her revenge for a long time. Who was the other victim? She was still alive and Lucy had only mentioned Alex and Penny. Who was the third?
‘You’re thinking hard and your maths is right. Three people and it will soon be five, if I count myself and you.’ Lucy paused and wiped her tears away. ‘I can see your pea brain whirring around. Who’s my other victim? I wanted to kill the other two that were with you on that fateful night but you know something, I never knew who was behind those last two masks.’ Lucy let out a huge laugh as more tears spilled out. ‘Seeing as you didn’t ask, the other one was my own father. The reasons are no concern of yours but let’s just say this, he turned out to be a big disappointment. All I can say is that people who stand by and do nothing are as guilty as those committing the crime.’ She shrugged. ‘What is a concern of yours is, if I can kill my own father, I will have no problem killing you. When I look at you, Cherie, all I feel is hate and fear and anger. Time may tick by but a person never forgets how you made them feel, which is why we are going together, now. I’m looking forward to it. You can embrace it too.’
Cherie felt the tug at her wrist, gulped and closed her eyes.
Chapter Seventy-One
‘Lucy, you don’t have to do this.’ Gina took one tiny step towards the woman in the long black coat as she was about to let go of the railing, which Cherie also gripped with one hand, her eyes still closed. ‘Can I come a little closer, so that we can talk?’ She held her palm up to Jacob to keep him right back. One wrong move and both women would be dead.
A flood of tears streamed down Lucy’s face. ‘I like you, a lot, I always did. This piece of shit doesn’t deserve anything. I’ve left you something in the van. Everything is in the notebook. I wanted you to have it. I knew you’d understand. It had to be you, Gina. Only you would understand.’ Her lower lip trembled as she held back another sob.
‘Please, Lucy, just let me go.’ Cherie tried to loop her elbow under the rail to get a better grip, but the gap was too small to feed her arm through.
‘Tell her what you did. It’s confession time.’ Lucy stared down at the road.
‘I can’t.’
‘Tell her!’
‘What do you need to tell me?’ Gina took another half-step forward but she was still too far away to make a grab for anyone if the two women were going down. Cherie shivered in what looked like soaking wet leggings. Lucy’s coat was open and reaching out in front of her as if it was beckoning her to follow it over the edge.
Cherie screamed as Lucy teased her by leaning forward a little. ‘Okay, years ago I hurt Lucy, I hurt her badly.’
‘Tell her how.’
A tear streamed down Cherie’s face. Gina took another step.
‘Get back.’ Lucy’s wide eyes stared at Gina. This woman knew so much about her, she knew about Terry, and Gina needed to understand how much she knew and how, if Lucy took Cherie over that edge, she’d never have her answer.
‘Years ago, my friends and I locked Lucy in a coffin at Halloween. It was meant to be a prank and it went too far. I was jealous because I saw Isaac and her kissing at the party. When I recognised her at the café, I kept going back to apologise, but every time I just couldn’t do it. I wanted to, but you didn’t recognise me and you looked so happy, Lucy. I didn’t want to bring up the past and make you sad again.’
‘You mean you were a coward. Tell the lovely detective what happened after you dug me up from that horrible box. She wants the details from your mouth.’
‘Please, Lucy. You’ve written it all down. I can’t—’
Lucy tugged again and Cherie screamed out. ‘I guess I’m in control here and I’m giving you no choice in the matter, just like you gave me no choice back then when you buried me in a box with only three matches for company.’
‘I hurt Lucy.’ Cherie sobbed and almost choked as she continued to blurt out her darkest secret. ‘We got her out of the coffin and we threw things at her – stones. Alex whipped her with a branch as we teased her about her dad being a coffin maker. We said they were like the Addams Family.’
Lucy wailed as she listened to what Cherie was saying. Gina took another half-step, still not near enough.
‘How long did this go on for?’
‘I don’t know. Lucy, I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I was so horrible back then. I should have stopped it.’
