“No.” He laughs mockingly. “I want Penny. I mean it. Tell the police I have her and you lose your entire family. I won’t just kill Penny, I’ll murder your stepson and his precious wife and daughter too.” He grins. It’s deranged. All teeth and gums and malice. My head tilts forward on my neck, suddenly as heavy as a boulder. I can’t speak.
As my eyelids droop, I examine the road, trying to work out if he’s taking me back to Middlesbrough, to that house, or if we’re heading in a different direction. Little Ingleby perhaps. But I don’t know the roads well enough to work it out.
Penny.
Desperation washes over me. Fighting the drug, I try to raise a hand. If I could just grab the wheel, make us crash… But my arm is so heavy. Drool escapes from my mouth.
Magnus laughs. “Oh, how embarrassing. Look at yourself, Faye.”
He’s still laughing as my limbs grow heavy and the road ahead fades into nothingness.
CHAPTER 56
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Speed is everything.
He checks the clock and presses his foot down on the accelerator.
Magnus Blackburn looks over at the unconscious woman in the passenger seat of his car, the face that he knows so well. He doesn’t have time to deal with her in the way he would like, but he knows a good place to dispose of her.
Once they are up on remote roads, he scans ahead and checks his mirrors to make sure they are alone. Satisfied there are no witnesses, he slows the car to a crawl, but does not pull over. Then he unclips her seatbelt, opens the passenger door and pushes her out onto the road.
After snatching the car door closed, he speeds off, looking behind in the rearview mirror at Faye Mathis, a heap on the tarmac.
She’ll live if she isn’t run over. It doesn’t matter to him either way now she’s served her purpose. Money transferred, it is time to get as far away from here as possible. He drives on.
Dina is waiting for him at an agreed location a few miles away. He soon sees the lay-by coming into view up the road. He pulls up behind Dina’s second-hand car – bought with cash from a dodgy garage – and gets out. She runs over to him, a big smile on her face. She flings her arms around his neck and pulls him in for a kiss. He pushes her off, roughly.
“There’s no time,” he barks.
“Penny?” he asks. “Is she still in the boot?”
Before taking Faye to the bank, he’d bundled an unconscious Penny into a large suitcase and shoved her in the boot of Dina’s car.
“Yes,” she says. “She’s probably still unconscious but I took her out of the suitcase like you said.” She rolls her eyes and mumbles. “What are we doing with her anyway?”
“Taking her with us,” he says.
Dina’s brow creases. “What? Why?”
“Because I said so.” He grabs Dina’s wrist and pulls her over to the car.
“But the police?—”
“Don’t question me.” He opens the car door.
Dina, red-faced, yanks open the door to the passenger side. “What the fuck, Magnus?”
He doesn’t answer her because he doesn’t answer to anyone and can do whatever he wants. All Dina needs to know is that he isn’t willing to leave his fiancée yet. He wants to have some fun with her before he says his final goodbyes.
CHAPTER 57
CLAIRE
We are sisters
We are partners in crime
