Heathen/Nemesis

sleep the events of the night returned to them. The drive to the Wax Museum, the slow exploration, the meeting with Dashwood and Parsons and the terrifying aftermath. All of it was re-run through their subconscious like a video recording. Their escape from the waxworks, through a small window which opened out into a side alley, and then the long drive back to the cottage.

Donna wondered if, indeed, she had just awoken and the entire bizarre chain of events had been the product of her fevered mind.

If only that were the case.

She need only look at the cuts and bruises on her own body and on Julie’s to know that the events had been all too real.

‘We have to leave here tonight,’ Donna said.

‘We need to rest,’ Julie protested.

‘We can rest when we get back to London. I don’t think they will, but if they come looking for us and find us here . . .’

She allowed the sentence to trail off.

Julie closed her eyes for a moment.

‘The police will come,’ she said.

‘That’s another reason we have to get out of here,’ Donna said.

‘Why? When they come, you can tell them what happened. Tell them everything. Like you should have done in the first place.’ There was a trace of anger in her voice. ‘Let them take care of this business now, Donna.’

‘No. It isn’t their business. Besides, if they find out what happened there’ll be problems. How the hell are we supposed to explain what happened at the waxworks? They’ll lock us both up. They’ll think we’re insane, and I wouldn’t blame them if they did.’ She regarded her sister for long moments then spoke again. ‘We have the advantage now. Dashwood and his men think we’re dead. They won’t be expecting us to go after them. They think they’ve got rid of us. They’ll be off guard.’

‘What the hell are you talking about, “Go after them”?’ Julie said incredulously.

‘Like I said, they think we’re dead. They won’t be expecting us,’ Donna said almost excitedly.

‘You’re mad,’ Julie said quietly. ‘Donna, for God’s sake, they’ve already tried to kill you Christ knows how many times, and you’re still not satisfied. Do you want to die?’

‘I want them to die,’ she rasped.

‘Forget it, it’s over. They’ve got the bloody book, that was what they wanted. Let them have it. Let them keep it. We’re alive, that’s all that matters.’ The anger had turned to desperation.

‘It’s not about the book, Julie, it never was.’

‘No, it’s about revenge. Your need for revenge. It’s become an obsession with you, Donna. It’s eating you away and you don’t even know it. First it was Chris’s affair, and now it’s that book, and even after everything we’ve been through that’s not enough for you. You won’t be happy until you’ve got us both killed.’

‘You don’t know what I’m feeling,’ she said angrily. ‘It was bad enough knowing about the affair, then being involved in something which could have caused our deaths, but now I find out my husband could have been a murderer, too. You heard what Dashwood said tonight. Chris was one of them.’

‘And you believe that?’

‘I’m going to find out and I’m going to wipe those bastards off the face of the earth.’

‘You can’t even see what it’s doing to you, can you? You can’t see what it’s made you. All that matters to you is this ridiculous need for revenge. You couldn’t have it against Chris or Suzanne Regan so you used the hunt for the book, instead. And now that’s gone you’ve found another excuse to carry on.’

‘Perhaps that’s all I’ve got left, Julie.’

‘Well, I won’t help you. I’m sorry but I can’t take any more. I’m not going to be there when you get yourself killed. I won’t watch you die, Donna.’

‘Part of me died when I found out about Chris and Suzanne Regan,’ Donna said. ‘And perhaps you’re right, perhaps this whole thing has been about that, an extension of the anger I felt. Somebody had to pay for it. Somebody will pay for it. And if you won’t help me, then I’ll do it alone. I can’t stop now. Not until this is over.’

‘It is over,’ Julie shouted, tears running down her cheeks. ‘Jesus Christ, how many more times? How much more pain can you stand? You were looking for the truth and you thought you’d found it. Well, you didn’t.’ She sniffed back more tears. ‘He wasn’t having an affair with Suzanne Regan. He was having an affair with me.’

Eighty-Three

Silence.

The words Julie had spoken brought only silence from her sister. For dreadful seconds Donna was reminded of her first sight of the policeman on her doorstep bringing her news of her husband’s accident. How long ago was that? A month? It felt like years. Suffering had a way of distorting even time.

Now she looked blankly at her sister, momentarily unsure she’d heard right. The words gradually found their way into her consciousness. They began to take on their full meaning.

She swallowed hard.

‘I don’t believe you,’ she said finally, her voice a hoarse whisper.

Julie sucked in a weary breath.

‘It’s true. Do you want dates, times, places? What do I have to say to convince you?’ Julie answered wearily. She sank back on the sofa, one hand over her eyes.

She waited for the explosion of rage and recrimination.

It never came.

Donna sat at the other end of the sofa, hands clasped around one knee.

‘How long had it been going on?’ she wanted to know.

‘Nine or ten months.’

Donna felt as if she’d been struck by an iron bar. Her head was spinning.

‘Jesus,’ she murmured, trying to recover her wits. ‘Why?’

‘I don’t know. It just happened, I ... We never intended it to happen.’ She looked at her sister, her own shame intensified by the confession. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘So am I,’ Donna said. Then, more vehemently, ‘Did you love him?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘I wouldn’t have thought that was a multiple-choice question, Julie. You either did or you didn’t.’

The younger woman shook her head.

‘Did he love you?’ Donna persisted.

‘No.’

‘You sound very sure. Ten months is a long time; are you telling me you never felt anything, either of you?’

Julie didn’t speak.

‘It was just sex then, was it?’ Donna hissed. ‘No love, just plenty of fucking. Was that it?’

‘Donna, he loved you. I knew he’d never leave you, he always made that clear.’

‘Did you want him to leave me? Were you trying to get Chris away from me?’

‘No, I would never have done that. It was his decision. Like I said, he loved you.’

‘But you hung around, just in case he changed his mind, right?’

‘It wasn’t like that.’

‘Then tell me what it was like, Julie,’ Donna hissed.

‘We were more like friends.’