Was she talking to me or to Amy? With her arm around my neck, it was hard to breathe. I desperately fought for tiny gulps of air.
‘And what?’ I gasped. ‘You wanted what she had, so you killed her for it? Or you wanted to get back at Mike?’
Rachel hesitated for a second, as if remembering where she was. Who she was with. ‘Nah…’ Her bared teeth brushed against my earlobe. ‘I killed her because I knew I could,’ she hissed.
‘Amy’, I stuttered. ‘Amy knew about you two. She found out. That’s why she changed her will.’
‘She found out about Mike. Never had concrete proof, but knew he was up to something. She was starting to keep tabs on him, going through his bank statements and stuff. She confided in me, at first. I was her shoulder to cry on. And then one day, there was just something different about her. The way she looked at me… And I could see it had occurred to her that maybe, just maybe, it was me. So I decided it was time. It was just a case of waiting until the right moment.’
‘I came over that night – I knew Mike was at the pub, so I called in on Amy for a nice cosy chat and spiked her drink. I made my excuses – told her I wasn’t feeling well. She was off with me anyway. I saw myself out, then ducked beside her car and loosened the lug nuts on her front wheel - even took one all the way out. Turns out all those evenings I spent helping Phil at the garage weren’t a complete waste of time after all.
‘The car was parked right outside the house – can you believe it? She’d have seen me if she’d looked out the window.
‘I gave it just enough time for the meds to kick in before I rang her, saying there was an emergency over at Howton Farm and I wasn’t up to going. That would always get Amy out, even if she had drunk a glass of wine. Always on district duty, that one. The timing had to be perfect – she had to leave while she still felt OK to drive. The car was a ticking bomb by then. It was just a matter of time.’
Rachel’s grip tightened on me. If she pinned me any harder, I would choke.
‘And guess what? I pulled it off! It all went to plan – until you showed up.’
‘And Phil? You framed your own husband?’
‘He was the two-for-one! It was easy enough to send messages from his Facebook to Amy, he didn’t even know I’d done it. You thought you were going mad after I deleted them. And I left the sedatives in his garage for the police to find – they were all ears when I tipped them off. Amy was dead and he was going down for it. He’s a dead weight anyway.’
Rachel laughed, then laughed again, catching her own joke.
‘He’s actually a dead weight in every sense, these days. He’s out at Southend Rock, in front of the caravan park. I knocked him out and rolled him over the edge. The water’s deep over there, by the cliff. It’ll take them ages to find him and when they do, they’ll assume it was suicide.’
My insides turned to ice. I had to get out of here – she had killed Amy and Phil, and I was next.
‘And you were too easy,’ Rachel laughed. ‘I couldn’t believe how quickly you believed Amy was cheating on Mike. You wanted to believe she wasn’t happy and you were so ready to think the worst of her. You really didn’t know your sister at all, did you?’
My anger flared, reigniting my instinct to fight. But how? Everything in the self-defence class had been about kicking or hitting your attacker in the groin, but that wasn’t going to work here. I couldn’t move any part of my body except my left leg, and if I moved that, I’d lose my balance. But maybe that was just what I needed.
I threw myself back against Rachel, leaning my weight onto her. She was startled by the sudden movement and momentarily lost her balance, stumbling a little. I swung my free leg up in front and kicked hard against the door, sending us both tumbling backwards.
We landed together on the floor with me on top, the impact knocking the wind out of me. Rachel’s head hit the ground with a sickening thud and her arm flopped to the side. I jumped to my feet, my breath a ragged panting, ready to kick or punch.
She was out cold. I carefully nudged her with my foot. Nothing.
Where was the key? I tiptoed into the living room, panic thundering in my chest. Where could she have tossed it? I rummaged through her bag and jacket pockets with shaking hands. She must have hidden it somewhere.
I glanced back over my shoulder – Rachel was still lying there on the kitchen floor, still out for the count. My heart hammered. I wiped my face with the back of my hand – sweat mixed with snot and tears. I prayed to Amy that I would get out of this in one piece.
The phone. I would ring Adam for help, then barricade myself upstairs until the police arrived. Rachel had tossed my mobile to the ground when she’d snatched it off me. There it was, under the TV table. I picked it up, found Adam’s contact details, and pressed ‘call’.
Come on, come on… I silently pleaded with it.
Then there was a thud, and everything went dark.
Rachel was sitting over me when I woke. I was on my back on the living room floor, my wrists and ankles bound tight with plastic cable ties, a dull ache in my head. I tried
