‘They were pseudonyms used by two of the first Minders, again based on Shakespearean characters, alongside Gardiner and Lago. The existence of that team is all in your imagination.’
‘Liar!’ she said defiantly. ‘They were all working for the Hacking Collective. I shot Gardiner and Lago before Flick arrived. Look.’ Her head turned to where she’d left their bodies but the area was empty. ‘Where are they? What have you done with them?’
‘Bianca, Adrian, Lago and Gardiner are the figures that you think have been chasing you. Your first four kills were actually the Echoes who haunt you. Everyone you think has been helping or hindering you only exists inside your own imagination … the pregnant woman in the hospital grounds who warned you about me, my killer … you are, and have only ever been, working alone.’
‘No! I’m not mad!’ Emilia shouted. ‘Tell him,’ she directed at Flick. But Flick looked like a rabbit caught in headlights, unsure of which direction to turn.
‘Think back to each scenario you have been involved in,’ continued Karczewski. ‘Was there any interaction between Bianca and Adrian and a third party not affiliated to your mission? A shop assistant, a police officer, a member of the public? Are there any witnesses who can prove you haven’t been alone in all of your excursions?’
Emilia frantically recalled every situation she had been in with Adrian and Bianca but aside from their own field ops, they had never spoken to or been acknowledged by anyone other than her. He was correct: she had been alone in the hospital grounds; the jetty in Geneva; the Eurostar she travelled in; the lorry car park where she thought she had attacked Bianca. The truck driver had only asked her if she was all right because she was alone. The waitress at the cafe where she’d seen her family had muttered something under her breath when Emilia had ignored her because she was the only one present.
‘My children!’ she said suddenly. ‘I’ve seen my real family,’ she blurted out. ‘Justin and the girls, I saw them at their school, then I sat behind them in a cafe. I’ve watched videos and seen photographs of us together. I felt a physical connection between us. Something inside me longed to be with my family again.’
‘You weren’t longing forthem,’ Karczewski said, his tone unexpectedly softening. ‘You were longing for what they have. You and I tried to start a family naturally and then through IVF but after five years, we had no success. Your yearning to become a mother has manifested itself with imagined feelings for two children you’ve never met. And their father, well, he’s an ex-boyfriend of yours from university. He has since married and they are his daughters. You once showed them to me on his Facebook profile.’
‘I have a Caesarean scar …’ She lifted up her top to expose her stomach, but no scar existed. Ted waited quietly and patiently as Emilia processed his revelations.
‘But everything I’ve done, the people I’ve killed, it was so that I could be with them again,’ she said. ‘If they don’t exist, it means it’s all been for nothing.’
‘I’m sorry, MJ, I truly am.’
‘And you and I …’
‘Everything I told you about how we met and our marriage is true. It’s why, after the first killings, I didn’t want to tell those in charge that you’d returned. They would have kept you off the books and locked you in a secure unit without trying to treat you. I couldn’t let that happen so I told them your life had been terminated until I could work out how to help you.’
‘If we were that much in love, why did I want to be a Minder? Because Flick said that means being separated for five years. Why did I want to be away from you for that long? Why didn’t you fight for me?’
‘Being unable to have a family changed your perspective on marriage. You became distant, you pushed me away and threw yourself into this project. When you told me you wanted to be one of the five, I begged you to change your mind. But you’d already undergone the procedure without telling me; the DNA was already inside your head. After you were hit by the car, I naively thought this could be our second chance. But along with your brain’s reconstruction came the Echoes’ regeneration.’
It was almost too much information for Emilia to absorb. Her head was spinning with flashbacks of the life Karczewski described along with her behaviour. Now she wished she had taken his advice all those months ago and used her amnesia to start her life afresh.
‘What about the baby?’ she said urgently. ‘The girl Sinéad brought with her to the safe house?’
‘You left her in the village pub’s toilets before you drove away.’
‘Is she okay? Is she safe?’
‘How could I know that? I only know what you know.’
‘The story about my colleague who killed four people we worked with – that was an actual event but it had nothing to do with me, did it?’
‘No, I planted a seed of doubt in case the truth of what you did to the first four Minders ever bled through. If that happened I hoped your memory would cross wires and attribute what you did with another event so you wouldn’t realise your involvement.’
A deflated Emilia paced back and forth in silence, contemplating what the revelations meant. ‘What will happen to me now?’ she asked eventually. ‘What should I do?’
‘It’s up to you.’ Karczewski moved towards her and placed his hands on her shoulders. ‘MJ, what you need to remember is that what your brain has done is nothing short of miraculous. Following a significant trauma, it’s come back to life. This has potentially huge implications for neuroscience. You could put right your wrongs by helping the team that once worked for you.’
‘You said they’d lock me away and leave me to rot.’
‘That was before your brain repaired itself. Now you’re an anomaly.’
‘I’m a laboratory rat.’
‘You’re a case study.’
‘I’m a killer.’ Emilia let out a long, exhausted puff of air. Her arms were sapped of energy and fell to the sides of her body, but still she held on to her weapon. Twice she had lived this life and all she had to show for it was a trail of bodies and a head full of voices. She had the answers she craved, but they were the wrong ones.
A groan caught her attention and she glanced towards the crucifix; she realised that she alone must have foundthe strength to tie Elijah Beckworth to it. She looked again to Flick and noticed her face was grimacing and her hand was resting on the middle of her stomach, as if protecting something valuable. The penny dropped and a sour smile edged at her lips.
