Cassie saw her hand tighten around her phone, gripping it as if her life depended on it. The way Cassie was feeling, it might. ‘Will you, Kim?’ she asked her, with a doubtful frown. ‘Will you really?’
The air between them crackled for an instant, and then Kim moved, darting with remarkable agility towards the back door.
Cassie spurted after her, skidding to a halt as Kim stepped outside and then stopped, a yelp of pain spilling from her mouth. She’d stood on some glass, Cassie realised as the woman gingerly lifted one foot. Presumably it had spilled from the split binbag Cassie had seen dumped untidily outside the back door. Kim really might have done better to clean it up, she thought with a flash of satisfaction.
Kim hobbled on, leaving a red snail’s trail behind her. Cassie raised an eyebrow in surprise. Obviously her adrenalin was fuelling her flight. She was terrified. As she should be. Anger twisting her chest, Cassie followed her. The back gate was locked, fortunately.
Reaching it, Kim emitted a woeful sob and looked desperately back. She’d deduced, presumably, that Cassie would be on her before she was able to scale it. Turning slowly, she surveyed Cassie fearfully for a second, her face deathly pale under the glow of the security light, and then, her gaze darting sideways, took off again, across the garden this time to scramble over the neighbour’s fence.
Cassie’s own adrenalin kicked in, launching her into action. Kim wouldn’t get far once she reached the lane. Grit biting into the bare soles of her feet, along with the wound, should slow her down. Cassie prayed it did. The car was parked a little way up the lane. She needed to get to it. She couldn’t lose her. She had to find Samuel, find out how much Kim knew about Josh.
Climbing over the fence, she’d almost caught up when Kim wrenched open the neighbour’s gate, squeezing through the gap and sprinting off. Cassie noticed the limp as she fled. A toxic mixture of anger and contempt burning inside her, she hardened her resolve and raced after her.
Passing Adam’s car, Kim glanced frantically over her shoulder, a look of stone-cold terror on her face.
Cassie pressed the fob as she approached, flinging herself inside and starting the engine as she yanked the door closed. Kim was fleeing for her life. Cassie’s incentive was so much stronger: the life of Josh’s child. A chance to save her marriage once she’d shown Kim’s true colours. She didn’t know how Adam felt, but she aimed to grab that chance. She had to try.
She drove slowly, determinedly, the slim figure of the woman running in front of her fixed in the beam of her headlights. She felt that same primitive urge she’d had once before, to vanquish her nemesis, her tormenter, now the tormented. Imagining how easy it would be, her heart pounded, blood whooshing in her ears as she fought her desire to press her foot lower on the accelerator. She could simply drive away. But shecouldn’t.She needed to know where Jemma was. She needed to find Samuel.
Repeatedly Kim glanced over her shoulder, her expression terrified. Clearly she believed that Cassie was intent on mowing her down.
Squinting through the windscreen wipers that sloshed ineffectually against the lashing rain, Cassie willed her to stop. She must know she couldn’t hope to escape.
Kim looked over her shoulder once again, her pale face a mask of terror, and then, as if finding a last reserve of strength, she veered suddenly towards the woods.
God, no.Panic wrenching her stomach, Cassie slowed the car, watching as Kim wove through the tall beech trees that bordered the lane. With no street lights away from the cluster of cottages, the woods were dark, thick with foliage. She had to go after her. Kim would keep running. Wherever the path through the woods took her, she would keep going. Cassiehadto follow. There was no other way to find Samuel. Jemma was running scared. It was the only explanation Cassie could think of. She wasn’t at home. Wasn’t answering her phone. She and Kim had to be in league together, possibly trying to extract more money from her. She didn’t know what madness had driven all of this, but she did know that keeping up with Kim might be her only hope of finding her grandson.
Quickly she checked the glove compartment, hoping against hope that Adam might keep a torch in there. Nothing. Flipping the boot lock, she hurried to the back of the car and rummaged through his work things. His toolbox was there, his high-vis jacket, decorator’s dust sheets. Finally, tucked to the side of the well, she found what she was looking for. Thank God. Always practical, always dependable; she’d known he would have one.
Breathing deeply, she swung around, ducked under overhanging branches and made her way into the woods. She trod tentatively at first, pointing her torch if even a raindrop plopped from the trees, and then moved faster, branches and brambles tearing at her flesh and her clothes as she followed the only visible track.
Where the hell was she? She couldn’t see her.Fuck!She stopped. Panting heavily, cursing liberally, she didn’t hear the twig snap behind her a split second before something thudded hard into her back.
She hit a fallen branch sharply as she went down, felt a weight drop on top of her, winding her; a knee forced painfully into the small of her back, pinning her down. ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you, Cassie,’ Kim hissed close to her ear, ‘with your journalist’s badge, your fancy house, your airs and graces. I gather you’ve worked it all out, with the help of your poor gullible husband, who you’re actuallynotclever enough to hold onto. I bet you haven’t worked out why, though, have you?’ she went on, applying more pressure, pressing the heels of her hands between Cassie’s shoulder blades. ‘I’ll tell you, shall I?’
She waited, as if Cassie was capable of answering. Then, ‘I know what you did,’ she whispered.
Cassie felt her heart turn over.
‘He wastalkingto me, Cassie, on the phone. Iheard.Everything!’
‘What?’ Cassie gasped. ‘What did you…’ She stopped as Kim increased the pressure, compressing her ribcage until she felt the air being forced from her lungs.
‘Would you like to know what we were talking about?’ Kim asked. ‘He was begging me to see him. He was telling me how much he loved me.’
Liar!Cassie screamed inside.Kim had had a relationship with Josh, Cassie didn’t doubt that. What kind of relationship, she didn’t know. A one-night stand? An obsessive relationship that was all in her imagination?Josh hadn’t loved her. He’d loved Jemma. To her bitter regret, Cassie hadn’t realised how much.
‘Love, Cassie. You know, that thing I seriously doubtyouknow anything about,’ Kim continued, dripping vitriol. ‘He lovedme! I lovedhim. Unlike that bitch Jemma, who used him, hurt him,crushedhim, thinking she could rob him of his child. Unlike his fucking bitch mother, who made him utterly miserable, emotionally damaged him, robbed him of his ability totrust! That’s what you did, Cassie. I hope you’re proud of your achievements.’
She was insane. Cassie’s heart boomed. ‘I can’t breathe,’ she gulped, grazing the flesh from her cheek as she twisted her head to one side.
‘Good,’ Kim snarled. ‘Die!’
Cassie’s blood froze. Was that what she wanted? To kill her?
‘I made Josh a promise.’ Kim babbled inanely on, unaware of Cassie creeping her hand closer to the torch, which had landed beside her. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was something. ‘I promised at his graveside that I would avenge his death. That I would make everyone who’d wronged him in life suffer the same kind of loss that he had, thatIhad.’
Panic gripped Cassie’s stomach. She had to talk to her. Try to reach her. Play for time. ‘I know how much you loved him, Kim,’ she said carefully. ‘I know when you lost him, you—’
