Kim looked at the distraught girl cradling the head of her groaning father, but she had to get after the girl’s mother.
She hit the fire alarm button as she raced out of the door. The siren rang out immediately, blasting her ears. But it was the fastest way to get help to Saffron and her father. Yes, she could wait for help from whoever responded to the fire alarm but every second that passed put space between her and an emotionally distraught woman with a four-inch blade.
She looked up and down the corridor and saw a flash of silver gown disappear around the corner.
And even though she was on her own she could see where Hannah Winters was heading.
One Hundred Five
Kim heard the sobbing as she opened the roof door.
‘There’s nowhere to go, Hannah,’ Kim said, spotting the woman to the left of a roof light. The knife sat on the ledge beside her hand.
‘Don’t come any closer,’ she said, without turning.
Kim ignored her and took a step as quietly as she could. In Hannah’s twisted mind the roof was a link to Sadie.
‘It’s all gone,’ she said quietly. ‘Sadie is dead, Laurence is dead, Saffie hates me.’
Kim should have guessed that her only regret was for herself.
‘Laurence isn’t dead,’ Kim said, using her voice to cover the fact she was taking another step.
Kim saw her nod her head. ‘Good, not that it matters. You saw the look on his face. Doesn’t matter that he was the one who planned it. And I was the one that made sure it happened. It’s because I never told him. I let him suffer all the guilt for her death.’
‘Was that his punishment for sleeping with her?’ Kim asked, moving closer.
She shook her head. ‘No, it was his punishment for loving her.’
She turned, and Kim saw the emotion in her eyes.
‘You think I’d have done it had she been a quick, meaningless fuck?’
She turned back to the night sky, her fingers tapping on the blade.
‘Was it really worth it?’ Kim asked. ‘All the secrets, lies. Was it worth the murder of a young girl and her unborn child?’
‘As I care nothing for what you think, I will say yes. Laurence and I had twenty-five fantastic years together.’
‘But your daughter is dead because of what you did.’
‘My daughter is dead because of what my husband did. Graham didn’t even know about me until you told him.’
‘What about Saffie?’ Kim asked. ‘Isn’t she worth living for?’ she asked, taking another step. She was now only a few feet away.
‘We will never be close again. Not after what she knows about what I did, especially after the abortion. She wanted to keep the child, and I forced her into it. She’ll never forgive me for that alone.’
‘Why did you force her?’ Kim asked.
‘Her career. World famous concert pianists don’t travel the world with a young baby in tow.’
‘But why the importance of her glittering career? Why not just for her to be happy. Why wasn’t that enough?’
‘Because I had to show him it was worth it,’ she said, simply.
Kim suddenly understood. Hannah knew that Laurence had secretly loved Lorraine back then and had always been trying to compete with a dead woman. And that included children he could be proud of.
‘It would have been easier to compete with her if she were still alive,’ Kim observed.
The dead could do no wrong.
‘You’re probably right but I’ll never know.’
She turned to face Kim who was now standing beside her. Their eyes met and locked.
‘I told you to stay away,’ she said, tonelessly. A woman whose every emotion had been wrung out of her.
She was flat, empty, devoid of feeling anything.
‘I have nothing left,’ she said, grabbing Kim around the shoulders. ‘And it’s all your fault.’
Kim had no time to react as Hannah launched herself over the side of the building taking her along too.
Kim tried to break free as they hurtled through the air, locked in some kind of sick embrace.
Hannah’s silver gown billowed around them as they rushed towards the ground.
One Hundred Six
The ground hit them like a speeding train, but something had cushioned the impact of her chest. Kim was winded but still alive.
Beneath her lay the body of Hannah Winters.
Suddenly her senses came back to her. All of them.
She screamed out in pain as the agony travelled around her body. She felt as though every bone and muscle was screaming out in protest. She tried to move away from Hannah, take the weight off her chest. She had to try and get help for the woman even though she knew it was too late.
As she tried to move her left leg, blinding red hot pain flashes travelled around her body bringing stars to her eyes.
But she had to try and move. She placed her forearms on the ground and tried to use them to move along.
Every inch brought flashes of agony and waves of nausea.
She looked up to try and shout for help and that was when she saw them.
Her three colleagues entering the bell tower.
One Hundred Seven
‘Jesus, Dawson, slow down,’ Bryant called around Stacey to the sergeant who was leading the single-file charge up the narrow, winding stone staircase.
Bryant was sure they’d been climbing for hours. If he looked down he could see the eighty metres they’d ascended, and when he looked up he could see they were almost there.
‘Geoffrey,’ Dawson called again now they were closer.
Bryant thought he heard some kind of whimper in response.
‘He’s up here,’ Dawson called.
Bryant heard the relief in Dawson’s voice. Thank God, the kid was probably frightened of the dark and was just finding his way back to the stairs. Secretly he’d thought his colleague had been overreacting to the danger the kid was in. It had all seemed a little far-fetched to him that the kid would be at risk of death for refusing to join some kind of school club. He couldn’t wait to get back down and christen Dawson with his new nickname of drama queen. Wait until the guv knew he’d had them climb a million steps to save a boy from ringing a bell.
Oh, how he loved to tell this kid he was wrong.
He made the final few steps with a smile on his face that eased the lactic acid burning his thigh muscles.
‘Hey drama—’
‘Fuck,’ Dawson said, shining his torch into the middle of the space.
Oh shit, Bryant thought, swallowing hard. His colleague hadn’t been wrong after all.
One Hundred Eight
Stacey joined her colleagues in shining her torch into the middle of the room.
Three beams converged on the figure of a young boy rooted to the spot.
‘Don’t step forward,’ Dawson warned, aiming his beam down.
The floorboards had given way leaving the boy standing on a thin beam of wood at the very centre of the space. They’d been climbing for at least four minutes and nothing had sailed past them. Stacey had no idea how long he’d been balancing precariously on the single plank, but she guessed it wasn’t going to continue to support him for long.
‘Don’t move, Geoffrey,’ Dawson said.
‘O-okay,’ Geoffrey stuttered, hanging on to the lip of the bell.
Stacey knew that if the beam beneath him broke he would not be able to hang onto that lip. The boards beneath her own feet felt solid and stable around the outside but that was a good five feet from the gaping hole beneath Geoffrey’s feet that dropped all the way to the bottom of the tower.
‘H-help me,’ he whispered.
The fear in his voice kicked her right in the stomach.
‘You just stay still,’ Dawson advised, calmly. ‘We’ll get you down, I promise.’
Stacey marvelled at her colleague’s steady voice when even she could see there was no way they could reach him. Every step forward risked both his life and theirs.
Bryant was already on the phone to the fire service. Unless they were waiting right around the corner Stacey suspected there was little they could do in time.
‘Look around,’ Dawson said, shining his torch towards the wall. ‘Look for something that can help.’
All three torch beams turned away from the trembling child, but Dawson continued to speak, to reassure the boy.