‘Stay where you are! In fact’ – he waved the gun around – ‘Both of you on the settee.’
They moved across the room and sat down again. Juliette pleaded with Sarah, then Richard.
‘Please,’ she said, her voice a tremor. ‘Whatever is happening here, let us go. We’ve done nothing to you and I promise we won’t?—’
‘I found the phone this afternoon with your text messages to Sarah.’
Juliette paled.
‘Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?’ Danny looked at them all in turn.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
Danny had thought Richard and Sarah were a strange couple, but this was beyond anything he could imagine. They had deliberately set out to trick Juliette about the little girl who lived with them. Make her think she was hallucinating so that they could continue with the misconception. But he couldn’t fathom out why. Unless Sarah was right when she said Richard had murdered his ex-wife.
Richard and Sarah were arguing.
‘You can’t keep doing this, Richard. It’s insane,’ Sarah cried. ‘No,you’reinsane!’
‘Sarah, Sarah, Sarah.’ Richard sighed. ‘Why do you have to spoil the fun? I was going to set it up as a murder-suicide. So, let’s see.’ He looked at Danny. ‘That baby your wife is carrying? It isn’t yours. It’s mine.’
Despite the situation, Danny couldn’t help but scoff.
‘It’s pretty obvious to me but I’ll spell it out to you,’Richard went on. ‘While you were in London, Juliette and I have been fucking on a regular basis. I’ve had more fun with her than you, so.’ He shrugged. ‘What are the odds?’
Danny sat stunned. Not because of what Richard was telling him about his wife. But because he didn’t believe a word of it and was wondering why he was playing this card.
Richard raised the gun an inch and aimed it at Danny’s chest. Juliette screamed.
‘Look, whatever has happened, we can talk about it,’ he said, trying to calm the situation.
‘Sure we can. But I’m still going to kill you.’
Juliette shook her head, using her eyes to plead with Sarah. But Sarah was silent now. Staying still.
‘That’s what I’m going to tell the police when they find you,’ Richard went on. ‘I’m going to say you came round to confront me. I wasn’t in, nor was Sarah. Juliette followed you in here, where you argued and then you grabbed this gun. There was a fight and you shot her. Then you shot yourself. Murder-suicide. I have it all planned.’
‘That wouldn’t work. You’d still be charged with murder because you left your gun out of a locked cabinet.’ Danny shook his head. ‘And how would we even get in if you were out? Plus neither of us is going to be willing, so one of us could get away before you have the chance to kill us both.’
Danny couldn’t believe his voice was so composed,as if there wasn’t a mad man standing in front of them with a shotgun. But the circumstances dictated he stay as calm as possible.
‘I’ll make it work.’ Richard nodded. ‘Because if I let you go, you’ll send the police. They’ll start snooping round too and I don’t want them to find out what happened to Louisa. Sarah was right, I killed her.’
Juliette burst into tears. ‘Please let us go and I promise we won’t interfere anymore. No one will know that we’ve even been friendly with you and I could?—’
Hearing the distress in his wife’s voice, Danny got to his feet. He had to do something.
‘No!’ Juliette grabbed for his arm, but it was out of her reach.
Before Richard could react, Danny grabbed the barrel of the gun and pushed it up into the air.
Juliette screamed again as the men grappled with the gun. Richard managed to get it from Danny and he pushed him with such force that he fell backwards onto the table. Losing his balance, he tumbled off its side, cracking his head on the marble worktop. He dropped to the floor.
‘Danny!’ Juliette rushed across and knelt beside him, ignoring the danger she might have put herself in if Richard came at them. Danny’s eyes were closed, he was out cold. ‘Call for an ambulance! Danny? Danny, ohmigod.’
When she heard no movement, she glanced up again. Sarah was still standing there.
‘Ring for help! Please.’
