Wild with fear, her eyes dart to the side and she jerks herself to sitting, obviously preferring her fate at the hands of a woman she imagines is dangerous than to have her flesh stripped from her bones by fire.
I grip her arm tightly and heave her up. ‘We have to move. I’ve called the emergency services,’ I lie as she finds her feet and stumbles unsteadily alongside me. I imagine someone will alert them and they’ll soon be arriving. So, though, will Jack. We need to be gone before he does.
Slipping and slithering, we make our way precariously up the embankment, me holding firmly onto her. A quick check of the road tells me the coast is clear, although a car has just gone past and might well turn around. Quickly, I urge her through the gap in the guard rail. I feel her wilt as I guide her towards the vehicle I’ve ‘borrowed’ from my landlord. Wrapping an arm around her, supporting her, half carrying her, I guide her to the passenger door, opening it and helping her in. She doesn’t protest much. She’s woozy from shock and clearly in pain from the injury to her wrist. Possibly also drowsy from smoke inhalation. Or else a side effect of medication.
Her chest is wheezing, I note. I hope she’s not going to die on me now I’ve realised it might suit my purposes better to keep her alive. It pains me to think it, but Jack does appear to care for her, or at least for the child growing inside her.
Scouring the road again, I race around to the driver’s side, climb inside and drop the locks. She looks at me dazedly as I reach to buckle her seat belt. ‘Where are we going?’ she asks croakily.
‘Not far,’ I assure her, starting the engine.
Glancing in the rear-view mirror as I pull away, I note a car approaching at speed. Her car, I think, Jack probably at the wheel, blue lights and sirens close behind him, Won’t they all be surprised when they find no one in the wreckage? Her body just vanished. Jack, I imagine, will experience a sickening sense of déjà vu.
She’s in and out of consciousness as I drive, and I grow concerned for her, until I hear her mumbling Jack’s name, and then my heart hardens. I have no time for sympathy. Perhaps if anyone had had any compassion for me…
Arriving at our destination, I park the car and hurry around to help her out. It’s dark, thankfully, and the road is relatively deserted. There are no CCTV cameras around here – I’ve checked, so I’m confident we won’t be seen.
She’s disorientated, as meek as a lamb as I encourage her through the building’s outer door. Just as well. I don’t need her kicking off now.
It’s not until she’s halfway up the litter-strewn stairs that she realises where we are. ‘Lina’s flat?’ she murmurs, her face registering surprise.
‘The one next door,’ I inform her.
FORTY-NINE
She’s wide awake as she sits on the sofa staring at the corpse in the armchair. ‘You’ve killed him?’ She emits a stifled breath as she turns her petrified gaze to me.
Making sure the front door is locked and bolted, I walk across to the kitchen area to get her a nice cool glass of orange juice. ‘I didn’t kill him,’ I answer, walking back to her, though I doubt it will assuage her understandable concerns. ‘But I’m surprised one of his other tenants didn’t. Can you believe he served them all eviction notices? As if anyone who wasn’t desperate would want to be here in the first place,’ I add, eyeing the mouldy ceiling in disgust as I offer her the glass.
Her eyes never leaving mine, she takes it, her hand trembling. She’s scared. She would be, I suppose.
‘The man was obnoxious,’ I go on, ‘refusing to carry out even basic repairs on the poxy flats he charged a fortune for. My mother’s flat was disgusting, damp and vermin-infested, as you no doubt gathered. The plumbing was dodgy and the fire was faulty. You could say he was hanged by his own petard.’
She studies me intently, her brow furrowed and her eyes horrified. She clearly thinks I’m mad. So be it. Jack has obviously convinced her I am, just as he tried to convinceother people. Having failed in his attempt to get me sectioned, claiming I was a danger to Evie because I wouldn’t admit I had ‘mental health issues’ – which I most certainly didn’t, apart from the depression, the flip side of which was the odd manic episode – he’d obviously already been plotting to dispose of me by other means. He wouldn’t have to go through the messy procedure of contesting custody of Evie with me out of the picture, would he? Plus, he would have access to the funds in our bank account. He hadn’t considered I’d moved them, in case I should be deemed incapable of handling my own affairs.
I look back to the landlord, who really shouldn’t have tried his luck with me. ‘He refused to service my gas fire,’ I explain, nodding towards it. ‘Said he’d got no money for luxuries, and if I wanted smoke alarms I could buy my bleedin’ own.’
‘So how…’ Kara shakes her head, obviously now a confused little bird.
‘He paid me a visit later that day, hinting I could pay him in kind, that he’d throw in a full service.’ I curl my lip. ‘I mean, can you imagine having sex withthat?’
Her eyes trail after mine as I glance towards him, and I can see that she’s disgusted by the idea too. The T-shirt covering his beer belly proudly declaresMY LEVEL OF SARCASM DEPENDS ON YOUR LEVEL OF STUPIDITY.I mean, would anyone?
‘I invited him in,’ I continue, watching as she places the glass on the occasional table next to her. She’s no fool, I realise, even though Jack has taken her for one. ‘Obviously I offered him a beer. He was my landlord, after all, it was only good manners. It was while he was sipping it, trailing his beady little eyes over me and contemplating what else might be on offer, that he realised he might be getting more than he bargained for.’
‘You drugged him?’ She stares at me aghast, her hand going protectively to her stomach.
‘Let’s just say I rendered him harmless and then left him in front of a nice cosy fire. The carbon monoxide fumes did the rest. At least he went peacefully.’ I glance at him with some small degree of satisfaction. ‘I don’t like controlling, self-important misogynists who take advantage of women. Clearly you do, or you wouldn’t be with Jack.’
Her face pales. ‘You’re Melanie?’ she says, visibly scrambling to put the pieces together. ‘How did you…’
‘…come to be working at the hospital?’ I finish, while she’s trying to fathom out which question to ask. I’m sure she has many. ‘I bought a new identity. Off someone very much like him.’ I nod again to the abusive man in the chair, who’s beginning to reek. ‘You can get anything nowadays at the right price. My mother helped out, as I couldn’t easily access funds due to the fact that I’m dead.’ I smile again whimsically.
Kara clearly doesn’t share my sense of humour. Her expression is appalled. ‘Linaknewyou were alive?’ she murmurs, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief.
‘I’ve just told you she helped me.’ I try to be patient with her as she’s obviously having trouble keeping up.
‘Does she know abouthim?’ she asks, aghast. ‘Please tell me you haven’t involved Evie in any of this.’
