‘They must have found something on Rupert’s body,’ Mum says, hitting the brakes.
But it’s too late. They have already seen us.
Several officers turn and run towards the car, and before we know it, the doors are open and they are shouting at us to get out.
I look at Mum, terrified that this might be the last time I see her. She looks across at me too, and I can see the fear in her eyes.
‘I’m so sorry,’ I say, reaching out for her hand before they can drag her away from me. ‘This wasn’t your fault. I’ll get you out of this.’
I expect to see the handcuffs go around Mum’s wrists any second now, but then I feel the cold hard steel on mine instead. A police officer pulls me from the car and pushes me against the bonnet.
‘Chloe Maguire. We are arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Rupert Hall. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’
‘Mum!’ I call out as I’m dragged away to one of the waiting police cars, but she is unable to get to me, held back by several officers who she no doubt knows from work. I think about how mortifying this must be for her to have her daughter arrested by the very people that she works with, but that thought soon leaves me when I’m put into the back of the car and the door slams shut.
Now, I’m more worried about myself.
Where are they taking me? What are they going to ask me? How am I ever going to get out of this?
I stare through the window at my house on the other side of the glass and wish I was free to be able to go in there and relax in my bedroom. I wonder how long it will be until I am back here again, if ever. But how has this happened? How did the police know it was me who killed Rupert? They only just found his body, and if there was any evidence there, I would have thought that it would have linked the corpse to Mum, not me.
I don’t understand this, but I know better than to say anything until I have a lawyer with me. Instead, I stay silent as the police car pulls away from the kerb, and I keep my head down as I see several of the neighbours standing in their doorways looking out and no doubt wondering what the hell is happening on their quiet little street. But just before the car turns the corner, I glance back and see Mum still standing outside our house.
She has her head in her hands.
Her worst nightmare has just come true.
She has tried to protect me, and now I’m doomed.
Maybe this is what I deserve.
But I still don’t understand how it has happened.
43
HEATHER
I had meant what I had said to Chloe in the car shortly before she was arrested outside our house. I was willing to give myself up and take the fall for Rupert’s death, if only to absolve myself of my guilt and hopefully shock her into not committing any more crimes against innocent members of the public. But I never got the chance. My daughter was arrested before I’d even parked up on our drive, pulled from the seat beside me and hauled off into the back of a police car by one of the guys I used to chat to in the canteen at the station.
Now she is in custody, kept under lock and key and facing serious prison time, which means I have failed in my duty to protect her. I cannot do anything to help her now, even if I wanted to. That’s because the evidence that the police have on her is damning, impossible for any lawyer to get her out of, so I can’t even hope to try and take the blame for what happened on the off chance that it might get her out of her own charges.
How did she get caught?
It turns out that Jimmy has got his revenge from the grave.
At the time that Chloe was arrested, it was 100 days since the night she killed Jimmy in her bedroom. That might have seemed like an insignificant milestone to her, even if she had been aware of it but not to Jimmy. That’s because Jimmy had arranged for a special something to be delivered to the local police at midnight on the anniversary of the date.
It seems that when Jimmy had agreed to my demand that he visit our home if he wished to sleep with Chloe as he requested, he was rightly aware that he was taking a risk in doing so. As an insurance policy against that risk in case anything was to happen to him, he set up an automated email to go to the police in 100 days’ time, which only he knew about and only he would be able to stop. Of course, the fact that he had ended up being killed in our house that night had meant that he hadn’t been able to stop it, and his death had started a ticking clock that neither of us had been aware of.
The email had Chloe’s name in the subject header, alongside the words Rupert Hall’s Murder and the date of death, but it was the video that was also attached to the message that would prove to be the damning piece of evidence required to put my daughter behind bars.
It seems that Jimmy hadn’t just witnessed my daughter killing Rupert.
He had filmed it as well.
The email had stated the location that the crime had taken place, as well as the area where the body was buried, which was why the reports had come over the news channels today about the police digging in the woods. Jimmy had
