Holly gasped, the air locking in her throat.
‘Yes, I thought you might be surprised,’ Emily told her. ‘It didn’t take me very long, actually, to uncover what went on there. Once I found out you’d been hired by Brendan Godson.’
Holly felt a trickle of sweat edge its way down her spine.
‘How did you…’
‘I lived in Manchester myself for five years. Worked in the clubs there as a student and knew the scene very well. In fact, I knew a lot of people back then, some of who I’m still in touch with online.’ She tapped her lacquered nails on her thigh. ‘I drew a blank until I bumped into a guy called Jay, an old acquaintance of Brendan Godson. He told me the awful news… that Brendan had died under a truck. A terrible accident, apparently. Must’ve just stepped out into the road, they said at the time.’
Holly felt the blood draining from her face.
‘That didn’t really mean anything to me until Jay got into his stride and asked whether I wanted to hear the rest of the story about Brendan and his family… it featured, he said, a psycho woman they’d employed, called Holly. He couldn’t remember her surname but he thought I might be interested as she too was from Nottingham.’
Holly closed her eyes. She’d retained her first name but changed her surname when she returned to Nottingham. She’d paid a lot of money for new documentation and ID.
‘How is this relevant to us?’ Mr Kellington said curtly.
‘Because she isn’t who she says she is,’ Emily snapped at him. ‘She has a very chequered past that I think will interest you. She’s the one who damaged that vase and set me up very cleverly. When I tell you the story, you’ll understand what she’s capable of.’
Holly stood up, trancelike.
‘I have to go,’ she said in a vague manner. ‘I have things to do at home.’
Josh stood and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. ‘I could ring your landlady if you like…’
She shrugged him off.
‘I’m not a lodger. I’m a visitor there.’ She paused and spoke softly. ‘I’m always just a visitor in everyone’s life… I come and go, but nothing ever changes.’
Chapter Seventy-One
Holly
Holly rushed past David in the kiosk. He called out to her, but she didn’t look back.
She couldn’t face the bus but managed to hail a cab on Huntingdon Street. She sat slumped in the back, staring sightlessly out of the window, her head full of unwanted images.
Markus… Emily… There wasn’t much time. She had to put her plan in place now. She had to get back to Manchester to find Evan.
‘You OK, love?’ the driver asked, looking at her in his rear-view mirror.
She said nothing but knew she looked a state. Unbrushed hair, pale, drawn face… but what did it matter? What did anyone understand about it all?
When she got home, Cora was out. She felt like crying with gratitude.
She dropped her handbag at the bottom of the stairs and rushed upstairs. In Cora’s bedroom, she pulled off the quilt and pillows and heaved the mattress half off the bed, then began piling the cash on the floor.
When that half was empty, she hauled the mattress the other way and began doing the same on that side.
‘Holly? Are you feeling quite well?’
She let out a small scream at the voice behind her. Cora stood in the doorway with a strange, calm look on her face.
‘David rang me to tell me what happened at work. He’s on his way over here now.’
‘You won the lottery,’ Holly said accusingly. ‘I found the letter.’
‘If you’d just asked me, I would have helped you, you know,’ Cora said, stepping towards her. ‘I could have given you some money.’
‘I need all of it!’ Holly spat. ‘Your life is virtually finished; you’ve no need for all this cash. My child’s life is at stake. I have to find him.’
She turned back to the bed and carried on taking out wads of cash, stuffing them into a black bin bag she’d grabbed from the stairs.
Cora stood, watching her, saying nothing. Holly was unnerved.
‘Why are you staring at me like that?’ she snapped at the older woman. ‘Just go – leave me alone.’
‘You know, when I was a young woman of your age,’ Cora began, ‘I too thought that—’
‘I don’t want to hear any more of your stupid stories!’ Holly glared up at her, wide-eyed. ‘You talk too much, that’s how I found you in the first place.’
‘Found me?’ Cora’s voice faltered. ‘But I met you in the post office. I found you.’
Holly stopped stuffing money in the bag and wiped her brow with her forearm and shook her head in irritation.
‘I’d been in a few shops you used. It was just lucky that day that things went wrong and you came to my rescue. But I watched you… before that. In the café, with Pat.’
Cora’s composure began to wobble.
‘You knew me before… but how… why were you—’
‘It was obvious you had money by the way you talked,’ Holly said. ‘Telling Pat you didn’t trust the banks and you’d got plans underway to draw it all out. I thought it was just savings and then I found the letter about your lottery winnings.’
They both started at the sound of footsteps bounding upstairs.
‘David!’ Cora gasped in relief.
He stood in the doorway, his expression incredulous as he took in the wads of cash scattered everywhere.
Holly looked from David to Cora. She felt trapped, like a rat in a cage. Her head swam with faces, past conversations. It drummed a beat of fear into her chest. She stood up, still, closed her eyes against it. She heard their voices far, far away.
Then Cora’s hand touched her shoulder. Holly swung around and pushed with all her might. She watched as the old woman staggered back, slipping on the cash underfoot.
David cried out, tried to reach her, but he was too far away.
As Cora toppled backwards – it seemed like slow motion to Holly – her head hit the edge of the black iron fireplace with a dull thud.
Holly stood over her and watched the thick pool of red trace its way neatly around the edge of the stone hearth.
She stiffened as David grasped her arm.
‘What… have… you… done?’ His words sounded like an old record, slowed right down.
They both looked at Cora on the floor, her eyes wide and staring, her body bent at an unnatural angle.
‘Holly, what have you done?’ David repeated.
'I have to get some fresh air… I have to get out of here.’ Holly’s legs felt as if they didn’t belong to her. She took long strides out of the room.
Holly watched as David bent over Cora’s body, feeling for a non-existent pulse.
‘Please.’ He looked at her as she left the room. ‘Call an ambulance.’
She ran downstairs, through the kitchen and burst out of the back door, gulping in air.
How did it get to this? What could she do now… she had to get the money and go. It was her only chance to find Evan again.
She made the call and stepped back inside. There wasn’t much time now.
Holly half-filled a glass with water from the tap and drank it. Then she took a deep breath and slowly climbed the stairs again.
David sat next to Cora’s body, his head bowed in sadness.
When he saw her he slowly rose to his feet.
She thought he looked queasy, as if he might be sick at any moment. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again.
‘Just say what you want to say,’ she told him. ‘For once in your life have some bloody courage.’
‘It’s time,’ he said. ‘To tell me the truth about what happened back in Manchester.’
Chapter Seventy-Two
Holly
‘We’ll keep Evan at ours, look after him while you get your strength back,’ Geraldine had told her.
‘No!’ Holly had squared up to her. ‘I want him with me.’
‘You can’t live here any more, Holly, for obvious reasons. You had sex with my husband behind my back.’
‘I didn’t! He—’
‘Save it. I don’t want to hear it.’
‘But you said… I thought Brendan was leaving. You said we’d live together like sisters.’