outcome she was going to enjoy.
Phil looked down at Suzanne Perry, then back to Fiona Welch. ‘So why her, Fiona? Why Suzanne?’
Fiona Welch shrugged. ‘Why any of them?’
‘I don’t know. Julie Miller. Adele Harrison. What makes them so special? You tell me.’
Her eyes slipped away from him. Down to the right. ‘Because I could. Because they were there.’
Liar, he thought. ‘Nothing to do with Mark Turner?’
She flinched, like a chink in her armour had been exposed and he had pierced it.
‘Nothing. Nothing at all.’
‘No?’ He had to keep pressing, work that sword into her.
‘You sure about that? The fact that they’re all ex-girlfriends of his is just a coincidence, is it?’
‘Shut up.’ She slapped him. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Phil didn’t shut up. He ignored the pain in his face, kept going. ‘What’s the matter, Fiona? Didn’t you like the competition? Was that it?’
‘Shut up…’ screamed at him.
‘What, his exes made you jealous? Not very master race that, is it? Jealous of a barmaid?’
‘Shut up!’ Another slap.
Phil recovered quickly, looked at her face. Saw something there, something she hadn’t shown before. Fear. Insecurity. He smiled inwardly. He had hit a nerve. Found her weakness.
He pushed that sword further in.
‘That why you killed her, is it? Because you were jealous? What was it, did he still think of her? Talk about her? Call out her name at the wrong time?’
‘Shut up, shut up, shut up…’ More slaps, out of control. Her voice strident, pleading.
‘Or was it more than that? Did he have second thoughts, not like what you were doing to her, try to let her go?’
‘No…’
‘Maybe he still liked her?’
‘Stop it…’
Phil picked up the undertone of her words. He knew what had happened. ‘That’s it, isn’t it? He had sex with her. And you didn’t like it, did you?’
She put her hands over her ears.
‘Maybe he liked the power he had over her and forced her, maybe she wanted it too. Doesn’t matter. They did it. And it hurt you. How am I doing?’
Phil laughed. His bitterness almost matched hers. ‘Fiona Welch, homo superior. Jealous of a student and a barmaid…’
Her hands flailed, face contorted. She didn’t know what to do, how to respond. She screamed.
‘And you killed her.’
She looked round, eyes wide, staring, like a trapped animal.
‘No,’ said Phil, putting it together, ‘you didn’t kill her. Or you didn’t mean to. It was an accident. Something done in anger. Nothing to do with proving a point, showing how superior you are. That’s all just justification after the fact, isn’t it? You accidentally killed her then panicked. Messed up her body so we would think there was a sexual sadist on the loose.’
Her hands were back over her ears, eyes screwed tight shut. Tears were running down her face.
‘Isn’t that right?’
She took her hands away. ‘Shut up! Shut up…’
Phil knew he had broken her so, not waiting to see how she would respond, he turned his attention to the figure standing behind Fiona Welch.
‘That you over there, Ian? Or should I call you Wayne?’
A ragged intake of breath that Phil took for surprise.
‘Did she make you do it? Fiona here. Did she make you kill all the women?’
He stepped forward. Phil saw his face in the light for the first time.
And gasped.
It was ruined. Burnt beyond any kind of reconstructive surgery, red and angry, white and dead. His teeth bared like an angry, vengeful skeleton.
Phil focused, kept going. ‘What did she tell you, Ian? How did she get you to do it? Did you know you’d killed your own sister? Did you not recognise her?’
The hulking figure looked between Fiona Welch and Phil. Phil didn’t know what he was thinking because there was so little of face left and what there was couldn’t express emotions. He opened his mouth. And a sound came out that Phil never wanted to hear again. Like the dying of a wounded animal.
He came forward, screaming.
And that was when Suzanne Perry made her move.
104
‘It was my job to…’ Mark Turner sighed. ‘To… look after her. I used to come in every day to see that she was all right. That she had something to eat and drink and, and went to the toilet.’
‘Where was this?’
‘In…’ He hesitated, corrected himself. ‘Where she, where we kept them.’
‘So there was just Adele there at this time?’
He shook his head. ‘Julie came to join her soon after.’ ‘Keep going.’
‘And Adele and I… I just saw her there and I… I wanted to…’
‘Help her?’
His voice was tiny, fragile. ‘Love her…’
Mickey struggled to keep his face as straight as possible.
‘And I… I… it built up over a few days. I wanted to say something, let her know it was me, but I…’ He sighed. ‘I couldn’t.’
‘Frightened of what Fiona would say,’ said Marina in Mickey’s ear.
‘One day I built up courage. I knew I was taking a risk but I… I couldn’t help it. When I was getting them out of their, of their… and I was helping her to the toilet I stopped her, spoke to her. Showed her it was me.’
‘And what did she do?’
‘Well, she was… it was… she cried.’
He fell silent for a while. Then continued.
‘And then I… I told her how I felt.’
‘And what did she say?’
‘That she felt the same as me.’
I’ll just bet she did, thought Mickey. Anything to get out. ‘So what did you do?’
‘We… started having sex. And… and plotted.’
‘Her escape?’
He sighed. Nodded.
‘Or both of your escapes?’
Another sigh, heavier this time.
‘And Fiona found you.’
‘Yeah.’ Tears welled again in Turner’s eyes. ‘And she… stopped it.’ He looked away. Looked at anything but Mickey.
But Mickey wasn’t letting it go. ‘Stopped it? How did she stop it, Mark?’
‘She, she…’ The tears fell. ‘Told me that if I didn’t… if I didn’t…’
He couldn’t say the word. Mickey wanted to hear it. Mickey wouldn’t say it for him.
‘If you didn’t what, Mark?’
