‘She’s sleeping!’ I snap. ‘Blissfully, I imagine, since I was forced to inject her with a little something to keep her quiet,’ I add, thinking it a good opportunity to remind her she’d better not try anything smart.
She looks at me aghast. ‘She’s sick,’ she says, as if I’m not aware of this fact.
‘I know she is, but not quite as sick in the head as Jack would have you believe. Just like he tried to make you believeIwas sick in the head. I’m not.Heis.’ I jab at my temple to emphasise that fact.
She recoils, clearly concluding that I actually am mad, which suits my purpose. The more dangerous she thinks I am, the better. Hopefully her fear will make her compliant.
‘I did feel bad about injecting her.’ I sigh sorrowfully as I walk across to survey the standard lamp. Satisfied that it will do, I bend to tug the plug from the wall and then tip the lamp over. ‘Whoops, sorry.’ I smile in her direction as it crashes to the floor, causing her to jump, then lean to rip the wire from beneath it. She’s scared. I note her petrified gaze as I walk back towards her, flexing the wire between my hands.Good.
‘She did help me,’ I ruminate for a moment as I stand over her. ‘Selling her house to fund my new identity, doing everything I asked of her thereafter.’ Out of guilt, I remind myself. Because she’s concerned for Evie. She was never concerned for me. Even on the day I stuck Derek the pig and told her why, she wasn’t concerned for me. She called me a liar.
‘He touches me,’ I protested. ‘He follows me around. He cornered me in mybedroom.’
‘Liar!’ she cried. ‘Why would you say those things? What iswrongwith you?’
I stood dumbfounded as my loving mother ran a despairing gaze over me. That was when I saw the flash of guilt in her eyes. Sheknew.She knew and she was defending him.
I’ve no doubt she blamed me for Derek leaving her for a woman half his age. She thinks she’s fooled me into believing she’s making amends now. Yes, she’s confused, forgetful sometimes, meaning I have to keep explaining just how manipulative Jack is, what he’d done. What drove me to do what I need to do now. All the while, though, she’s probably scheming for a way to get me out of Evie’s life. It won’t work. I’m onto her. I’m onto them all. The anger that’s festered inside me simmers dangerously. My downward spiral into depression, my subsequent manipulability because I’d simply wanted someoneto love me had all been because of her. Does she really think I will ever forgive her that?
‘What is it you want?’ Kara asks, her voice a terrified whisper.
I ignore her. I would have thought it was perfectly obvious what I want. ‘She told me I need help.’ I confide that much. ‘I survive my husband’s attempt to murder me and she tells meIneed help. My ownmother. You’d think she would have tried to be in my corner for once, wouldn’t you?’
‘What are you going to do?’ Kara shrinks away from me as I test the wire for strength.
‘Did she really imagine I would place myself at the mercy of mental health services again?’ I ask with a bemused eye-roll. ‘There was no way on God’s green earth I was ever going to do that. Ineverneeded help. It’s Jack who hasissues. I told her over and over. Just like she toldyou.’
There’s nothing but horror and deep incredulity in her eyes.
‘You still don’t believe it, do you?’ I ask, growing agitated now at her blind trust in people. ‘You will, when he admits to everything. Hands,’ I instruct. ‘Behind your back.’
FIFTY-TWO
JACK
Jack waited in the soulless interview room he’d been shown to, checking his watch irritably as the minutes ticked by, precious time wasted, time Kara might not have. He gave it another minute then debated whether to just leave. He was here voluntarily; they couldn’t keep him. At least he hoped to Christ they couldn’t. Might they be trying to conjure up some reason to do just that?
Wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, he tried to stay calm. There was nothing, he reminded himself, apart from an ancient WhatsApp message. What the hell were they doing? He had to get out of here. He still had no idea where Evie was. Glancing at the camera, through which he felt he was being observed, he got to his feet. He was halfway to the door when it opened and DI Blake walked in.
‘Sorry to have kept you waiting,’ she said with an inscrutable smile. ‘The digital forensics investigator was tied up with something else.’
Jack frowned. ‘Digital forensics investigator?’
‘She collects and analyses digital evidence from computers, mobile devices, that sort of thing,’ Blake provided.
Jack felt his gut turn over.Wasthere something on his phone? Historical information he’d forgotten about? He and Natalia had had a few sharp exchanges via text, but there was nothing incriminating. At least, he hoped there wasn’t.
‘She’s been taking a look at the CCTV footage obtained from the car park roof around the time Imogen Taylor fell to her death,’ DI Blake went on as he followed her out.
Jack took a sharp breath. ‘And this is pertinent to me because…?’ he asked, as she led him a few yards along the corridor and pushed through another door.
Waiting until he was inside, she closed the door and turned to him. ‘As I mentioned, I felt obliged to take another look at your wife’s disappearance after your mother-in-law spoke to us.’
‘And?’ Jack ran a hand over the back of his neck, his agitation and apprehension growing by the second.
‘We hoped you might clarify something,’ she went on, heading for the monitor her colleague was sitting in front of.
Jack followed, cold foreboding creeping through him.
