‘What the fuck did you do?’ she hissed as Gerry wiped his face with his hands.
‘What I’ve wanted to do for years. Killed the fucker.’
‘No,’ Penny whispered, looking down at Cam’s body. ‘Not like this. This wasn’t what we planned. You were supposed to leave with those fucking idiots in the classroom. Ruth knows about the money – I made sure she saw the accounts. Cam would have been finished. No matter how much he tried to blame me it would have been his word against mine. Christ. I even made sure she saw that he’d done it before. There was no way he could have wriggled out of the charges. That’s what we planned – he’d have been disgraced, you’d have won and nobody would have got hurt.’
Gerry smiled and scratched his head. ‘Sometimes things don’t go to plan. Sometimes a better solution comes along.’
‘This isn’t better!’ Penny yelled. ‘This is murder!’
‘Or is it? I wiped the gun and wrapped his hand round it. Poor guy must’ve killed himself rather than face up to what he’d done. He’d have been arrested for embezzling school funds. Maybe he couldn’t live with the shame.’
There wasn’t time to make sense of this. Gerry needed to get away.
‘Go! Now!’ Penny said. ‘Something’s gone wrong and the police are on their way. I’ll do what I can to make this better but there are no guarantees, Gerry.’
It wasn’t triumph Penny had seen in her brother’s face, she realised, it was contentment. He’d finally found some peace after harbouring his hatred for so long. But it wouldn’t last if he were caught. She’d spent so much of his childhood trying to help him, to make things better, that it was second nature now. Despite his wealth and power, Gerry would always be that frightened little boy who needed his big sister to make things better.
‘Gerry, get out. Go round the back, through the hedge, the way you came.’
He still wasn’t moving. His eyes were fixed on Cam and, just for a second, Penny expected her brother to pick up the gun and shoot his tormentor again. Then he turned to her. ‘It’s over.’
Penny reached out and placed a soothing hand on his arm, just like she’d done when they were children. ‘It’s over, G. He’s gone. And now you’ve got to go.’
Gerry nodded his understanding and walked to the door. He turned back to her, eyes brimming with unshed tears. ‘It was–’
He didn’t finish his sentence. The door was pushed open so violently that it crashed against the wall of the office and black figures filled the rectangle of space.
‘Armed police! Down! Now!’
As she knelt, hands laced on top of her head, Penny gave her little brother one last smile. Gerry, kneeling beside her, smiled back and she nodded. He was right. It was over.
After
Natalie Beckett stared at the shifting pattern of light on the high fells. She’d chosen the theatre café as the venue for this meeting because it felt right somehow. This was where she’d first understood the story; where she’d realised that she’d found a way to get her career on track. It was also where she’d put all that to one side and done the right thing by calling the police. Now it was where Annie Bainbridge had agreed to tell her side of what had happened over eighteen months ago. Events that still echoed around the small town.
Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned to see Annie Bainbridge move from the top of the stairs to the counter where a waiting barista gave her a wide smile of recognition. Natalie wasn’t surprised. Despite the actions of her mother and uncle, Annie Bainbridge was well liked here, some even thought of her as a hero – a role she’d downplayed – or a saviour. Whatever she thought of her own actions, there was no doubt that Annie’s quick thinking and bravery had saved the police a lot of time and effort and may well have saved the lives of her classmates.
Annie must have sensed Natalie’s gaze as she turned and smiled, raising her hand in greeting. The two women had met before, both during and after the court case, and had shared the first small sparks of friendship. A friendship that Natalie wouldn’t betray but hoped meant enough to Annie to allow her to trust that she’d tell her story with sympathy and compassion.
‘Hi, Annie,’ Natalie said, standing up to give the girl a hug. ‘You okay?’
Annie placed her latte carefully on the table and returned the affectionate greeting. ‘Not too bad. Glad my first-year exams are over. My teachers told me that A-levels were the hardest exams I’d ever sit but first-year law is brutal.’
She took a sip of her coffee, allowing Natalie the chance to study her more closely. The long copper hair was tied back in a single plait, finished with a tartan scrunchie and her make-up was minimal but skilfully applied. Her checked shirt and ripped jeans looked well lived in but clean and her purple DMs suggested somebody secure in their fashion choices. Annie Bainbridge looked like a confident, assured young woman. Anybody meeting her for the first time would never suspect that she’d endured a life-changing ordeal.
‘Staying at your dad’s?’ Natalie asked. She knew that Annie had moved in with her father after her mother’s arrest. He lived in Carlisle and Annie had transferred to a school in the city to sit her A-levels. By her own admission she’d not done very well but Fellbeck Academy had written to the exam board explaining her extenuating circumstances and she’d scraped the grades she needed to study law at Newcastle.
‘Yep. It’s a bit quieter than Newcastle.’
‘We could have met there; you didn’t have to trek all the way here.’
Annie looked around, taking in
