He smiled at me before leaving. “Let me know if you need anything. Gov.”
There was no going back now. The original crime scene had been bad enough, but there was nothing left of that now, the stables had been cleared and with them any lasting evidence. And now, both the stables owner and the perp’s wife had apparently fallen off the face of the earth.
Who had done it then? The media would have a field day. Shit! I could just see the lawsuits rolling in—defamation, emotional duress, and who’s to say how much the Bishop’s stable had lost in revenue? Worst of all this was just about to land heavily on my doorstep. John may well get his promotion, but at what cost?
I’d been well and truly stitched up.
* * *
The door opened, we both looked up as Sally entered the room, the cattle prod held out in front of her. She threw a bundle of baler twine at my feet.
“Right, I want you to tie her hands together.”
She gestured to Hilary. I stood up, watching as Sally sneered at us, gently grabbing Hilary’s hands. I put them behind her back as instructed and tied her wrists with the rough orange twine.
“Tighter! I don’t want her to get away…”
I tightened the knots before stepping back. Sally grabbed my hands and dragged them behind me, roughly tying my wrists.
“Right, come with me.”
She held the door open and ushered us out into the farmyard. It was early evening, the yard lights were on, casting harsh shadows. She walked us onto the stable yard and towards the tack room.
“Sit down. Make yourselves comfortable.”
There were two wooden chairs in the centre of the room. Hilary and I sat down and Sally roughly tied our legs to the legs of the chair. I whined as the twine cut into my flesh. This only seemed to please Sally. Once she was happy that we were firmly tied she took a step back.
“Right. Sadly, I can’t keep you as my guests anymore. The time has come for me to move on. Sooner than I would have liked, but there you are. So, you are going to stay here.”
I gasped, she was going to leave us, I didn’t know how long it would be before someone would find us, but hopefully, we would be discovered and freed. Oh, God, an end to this madness. Then, as Sally busied herself, dragging things into the room in front of us I realised the horrific truth.
She had first placed two straw bales on the floor before us, onto that she placed an electric heater. Reaching down into a bucket she pulled out a soaking wet towel, strong fumes hit us and I recoiled realising the towel had been dipped in a bucket of petrol. Sally draped it across the top of the heater.
“Sally! Please… What are you doing?”
“Well Kate, I want to give a message to my previous employer. Oh, I’m going to give a message to both of my previous employers! The only difference will be that, for you, Hilary, it will be somewhat more direct.
Now, I don’t want to be here personally. I am so very sorry, but I need to leave you alone for just a little bit longer. As you can see, the heater has a time clock on it, do you see that? I’ve set it so I will be far away when it switches on and when it does… Well, can you guess what’s going to happen?”
She was shaking with nervous excitement, almost like a child with a new toy.
“You’re going to let us burn to death.” Hilary’s voice was low, very matter of fact.
“Yes! Gold star! You are going to die, but let’s face it, that was always going to happen. Better still, there’s a suicide note which will be found in my cottage, telling them how I was so shocked to be sacked and how I just can’t carry on. That should stop them from looking for me. I mean, the fire will be large enough that they won’t be able to tell that the charred remains aren’t mine!”
“Sally, you don’t need to do this. You could let us go… Please, stop this now. We can make sure you get the help you need.”
“The help I need? It’s beyond that now. If I’m caught, I’ll rot in prison, so, as I said, what’s another couple of people dead? You know, killing the first one, that bitch Olivia, well I had to do it. Do you understand? I needed to do it for you, Hilary. She was going to take everything we had worked to create. She would just leave you there. I did it because I loved you. I couldn’t see you hurt…”
“But… When you did that, you destroyed everything…” Hilary moaned.
“Me?! You gave up! You allowed this to happen! You drove me to this! I tried everything, I worked hard. I warned you. Damn it! I told you, be careful taking her as a sponsor. I told you what the other grooms were saying, how the other riders were laughing at your stupidity. How the bitch just wanted a way for her talentless daughter to get into high-level event riding. She would have taken everything, and you let it happen. You spineless bitch. Do you remember what you said to me? Do you remember that night, I said, please look for someone else, don’t sign with her! You told me I didn’t understand. You said, how could you understand you’re just a groom!”
“Sally… Oh, God, I never meant to hurt you…”
“But you did! You ignored me, then you belittled me. You acted so high and mighty. You always treated me like a child! I mean, sending me to bed early for fuck’s sake!
But what would a
