His smile was gone completely now. I knew his voice. There was no question in my mind, and suddenly I saw the piece of the puzzle that had been missing all along.
‘Mrs Philips!’ Tamara’s voice cut through the night air. She was angry, and no doubt felt justified to be so. ‘Again, Mrs Philips? Did you not embarrass yourself enough accusing my mother earlier?’
Tarquin still had hold of my hand. I tried to pull it away, but his grip trebled the instant I tried. I was pinned.
Tamara closed to where we were standing. ‘I believe I will have to reconsider my previous request to keep you on, Mrs Philips. I do not see how this can possibly work when all you do is accuse people.’
Tarquin’s eyes were locked on mine.
‘I’m right, aren’t I?’ I nodded as I said it, certain I had finally worked it out. Tarquin had come into the firm and proved himself capable and worthy of being retained. That wasn’t enough though.
‘What evidence were you destroying?’ I wanted to know. My brow furrowed as I tried to work it out for myself.
Tamara touched Tarquin’s arm. ‘Leave her, darling. The poor woman is clearly deranged. Let’s go to dinner. We can look for a new wedding planner tomorrow.’
If I lived to be a thousand, I would never have predicted what happened next.
Holding my right hand with his, he spun off one foot and swung his left fist in a wide circle. It connected with Tamara’s head, slamming it backward. Her body followed suit as the power of his blow sent her flying. One moment his fiancée was standing next to him, the next she was in the air, and a half heartbeat after that, she hit the ground and crumpled into a heap.
Tarquin didn’t even bother to look at her.
I was hyperventilating already, terror gripping me. His grip on my hand registered as pain in some distant corner of my brain, but it was masked by the horrifying knowledge that I was in the grasp of a killer.
‘If you must know,’ he replied as calmly as if he were asking me to pass the salt, ‘John didn’t want his sexual preferences to become public. There was an email chain in which he foolishly attempted to sway my course. I made sure he crashed – all it took was a little nudge when he realised his brakes no longer worked – then I came back here to erase all trace of the crime.’
With a jolt, I realised he was talking about John. ‘You were blackmailing him,’ I guessed.
Tarquin actually grinned at me. ‘It was so easy. Now I can take over the firm. I am the obvious choice to run it and can appoint myself as CEO once I get rid of Derek. How much do you think I should pay myself?’
‘What about Tamara?’ I whimpered as the pain of my crushed hand began to really tell.
He sniggered. ‘That dopey, brainless idiot? She was entertaining to a point. Did anyone really think I was going to be dumb enough to marry her though?’
I was drowning in a sea of confusion. I was arranging their wedding, but he had no interest in the bride? What planet had I landed on?
He laughed again and tugged at my arm. It was then that it finally occurred to me that I probably ought to scream.
I got as far as drawing in a sudden and deep breath, then he punched me in my gut.
I don’t know when you were last punched in the stomach. Honestly, I hope you never have been, but the air left my lungs as I doubled over, and sparkly lights danced in front of my eyes as I tried to breathe. I wanted to scream but there was no way I could.
Tarquin followed up the punch by grabbing a handful of my hair. His hand twisted around, yanking strands from the roots to yet again make me gasp in pain.
He was looking around, checking to make sure no one had seen or heard us. ‘I think, it’s time to go. Wouldn’t you say, Mrs Philips?’
If he wanted an answer, he didn’t give the chance to provide one. I gasped in fresh pain as he dragged me across the carpark by my hair.
‘I should really be thanking you, of course. You coming to me has saved me the bother of having to come up with a way to kill you. Tamara told me all about you trying to solve the case. Well, I couldn’t have you somehow stumbling upon the truth, now could I? I was going to come to your little cottage in the country, but this is much easier.’
‘Stop right there.’
I got to gasp in pain again as Tarquin spun around to face the new voice and dragged me in a circle with him.
I had to crane my neck to see, probably tearing out even more of my hair in the process, but there, like a knight in shining armour, was Vince.
‘Let her go,’ he growled, his hands clenching and unclenching with ready energy.
‘Who the fruit basket are you?’ Tarquin snarled. Obviously, the word he used wasn’t fruit basket, but I don’t like that kind of language and I certainly wasn’t going to repeat it in my own head.
‘I’m the guy you really need to worry about,’ Vince came a little closer. ‘I’m the guy who knows who you are. It took me a while to track you down. I’ll give you that.’
I felt like cheering but I was still gasping for breath and felt like my core was on fire.
Vince circled to his left, his eyes on Tarquin the whole time. ‘John worked it out too, didn’t he?’
‘He was a pervert,’
