‘No.’ I paused. I didn’t even know where to start. But therewas a question burning. The obvious one. ‘What happened at the cave?’
The knot was beginning to come loose. Just a little.
‘That crazy woman turned up and shoved Lewis off the ledge.’
‘Wait. Brenda?’
She closed her eyes for a second, remembering. ‘We went into the caves– that tunnel was way more difficult to crawl through than he promised me– and he showed me the Serpent Stone, and it was all cool.’
‘He didn’t try anything? To hurt you?’
‘What? No, of course not. Why are you asking that?’
I was aware we needed to get out of here quickly. I had no idea if Brenda had called the police, although I now knew why she wouldn’t. She didn’t want them finding a kidnapped woman tied up in her basement, one who was going to tell them she had murdered Lewis. Charles had started banging on the door again. How long before he discovered the back entrance?
‘I heard him say something to Miranda, that’s all. But I’ll explain later.’
‘I think you must have misunderstood. What did he say?’
‘Miranda was worrying about you spending all of Charles’s money, and he said, “I promise you, Miranda. It’s not going to turn out like that. I’m going to fix it.” Then he told her to trust him.’
‘Uh-huh.’ To my surprise, she laughed. ‘You got the wrong fucking end of the stick, Patrick.’
‘But—’
‘Patrick. I promise you. Lewis didn’t want to kill me. He was showing me the cave, and then Brenda arrived. She was holding a gun. A rifle. She started ranting at him about Morag,about how he needed to leave her alone. He said he had no idea what she was talking about, but Brenda said Morag had been freaking out the last few days, like she was frightened of the Grants. Something about that boy who died here? Samir. She kept shouting at him to leave her daughter alone.’
I stared at her. Brenda had been so close to the truth, but she’d got the wrong man. ‘It was Zack that Morag was scared of.’
‘Right. Whatever. Brenda kept yelling at Lewis, and then she demanded he hand over his phone so she could take a look at his messages. She tried to grab it, Lewis backed away from her, right up to the edge– and then she jabbed him with the rifle and he went over.’
‘Fuck.’
‘Then she forced me to her car at gunpoint. I think she was panicking. I was, like, begging her not to shoot me, but she just kept telling me to shut my mouth.’
I let this all sink in. ‘There’s so much I need to tell you I don’t even know where to start. But we need to get you to the police so you can tell them what happened.’ At least now they would have a witness to tell them I hadn’t had anything to do with Lewis’s death, even if I no longer knew what his conversation with Miranda was all about.
‘You need to untie me first.’
‘I’m trying. I think Brenda must have been a Girl Scout.’
It was still ominously quiet upstairs. What was going on? Had Charles given up and gone away? Or was he trying to find some other way in?
‘So Charles has been going crazy, huh? Trying to find me?’
‘Crazy full stop.’ I found myself laughing, too, on the edge of hysteria.
As I worked on the knot I told her about Morag and Zack and the scene I had just witnessed at the house. She alreadyknew Morag was dead because Brenda had come down here and sobbed and shouted about how the Grants poisoned everything, how she wished they’d all died along with Elizabeth.
When I told Jasmine that Charles was Avril’s dad, she didn’t seem at all surprised. Had Brenda told her?
‘There’s one more thing you need to know,’ I said. ‘About how Charles found you. This might be a bit of a shock.’
‘Uh-huh?’
‘He used an app the company developed to find you. Or rather, one they stole. That’s why you look exactly like Holly’s mother. It was no accident.’
‘Fuck. Oh my God. That bastard. That lyingbastard.’
