In the Sullivans’ living room, Richard turns to Elena. ‘Why don’t they ever just pretend they don’t know? Why do they always tell the baddie exactly what they’ve seen?’
Because hindsight is 20/20, Elena thinks, her eyes pinned to the screen.
Marcia’s voice is a whisper. ‘Jane is dead.’ She swallows visibly. ‘Why were her keys still in your pocket if you unlocked her room before we left? Ben, what did you do? Is this cabin fire something to do with you?’
A heavy sigh from Ben. He closes the distance between them, leaning towards her to take her hand.
‘I had to take care of things, Marcia, for both of us. Jane was already dead when I unlocked her room. I don’t know if it was the smoke or the sleeping tablets. She’s so tiny, maybe I gave her too much. Either way, we’d both have been in huge trouble. They’d charge us with murder.’
‘I didn’t do anything!’ Marcia says.
‘Oh, come on. You were there. You knew I put the pills in her juice, you knew she was still in the house when we left.’
‘But you said you unlocked the door.’
‘We both know that’s what you wanted me to say. If you’d really been worried about Jane, you’d have pushed me on that, checked yourself.’
‘That’s not true! Oh my god, Ben, you killed her!’
‘Wekilled her. And we’re safe. I took care of everything.’
‘What about the message saying she was going to the cabin – you sent that from her phone to yours? And a Facebook message to my phone too? And ... and the Facebook post?’
‘Yep.’ A small smile. Ben seems pleased with his cleverness.
‘Don’t they have cell tower information or something, to see where the text message was sent from?’
‘Yeah, but not to the precise location of a house. It will look like she sent it en route.’
‘We can’t do this, Ben. We have to tell someone.’
A slow headshake. Ben moves closer. ‘No, we don’t.’
The ominous background music grows louder, and the scene shifts to a funeral – Ben with tears in his eyes, Marcia pale and shellshocked, as Jane is buried. They walk off in different directions and the screen fades to black.
‘Is that it?’ Richard sits up straighter. ‘They just get away with it?’
They just get away with it.Elena closes her eyes.
‘Oh wait, there’s more,’ Richard says.
Her eyes snap open.More?
Marcia, clearly older now with a different hairstyle, is in her house when a noise draws her attention to the garden. It’sdark outside, but she walks out to check. A figure materialises, making Marcia jump.
‘Ben, you scared me.’ Her voice is shaking. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘You’ve been talking, Marcia,’ Ben says. ‘I can’t let that happen.’
The knife glints in the moonlight. It’s deep inside Marcia before she can make a sound. She drops to the ground, eyes open. A trickle of blood slips from the corner of her mouth. And now the credits roll.
Elena stares.What the ... That’s not what happened. Is this—She tries to calm herself. What does this mean?She puts her head in her hands.
‘Elena, are you OK?’ Richard’s hand is on her back.
She shakes her head and gives the universal answer forI don’t want to talk. ‘Just tired.’
Saturday dawns with a text. A text from Kyle. Her heart hammers in her ribcage as she reads it. Four words.
