‘In a minute. Do you understand that you just hit me with this car—’ The camera moves to Scarlett’s car, with a full view of the licence plate, then back to Holly. ‘So, you were driving, yes, and you hit me as I crossed the road. It’s okay, sweetie. You don’t have to cry. Do you agree with what I just said?’
‘Yes,’ Holly says.
‘Is that your car?’
‘I want to call Kate.’
Behind her, Scarlett says, ‘That’s my car.’
‘That’s your car, Scarlett.’
‘I really need to call my stepmum,’ Holly cries.
‘Right,’ Teri says with a sigh. ‘Of course. You can call your stepmum. You did great, sweetie.’
The video ends.
I look up at her. ‘You videoed them?’
‘I just wanted to have a record – that’s all.’
‘What’s wrong with you!’ I cry. ‘Oh, my God. I can’t believe this. You never told me you videoed them!’
She gives a one-shoulder shrug. ‘It just didn’t come up.’
‘And when I got there, you pretended you didn’t know their names – you didn’t know which one was Holly and which one was Scarlett! And you were supposedly in so much pain, but not so injured that you couldn’t make this video?’
She looks at her foot. ‘I was in shock.’
‘And you knew Holly. You’d met her that morning, with me.’
‘It was fleeting,’ she says. ‘I didn’t remember.’
Realisation dawns on me, like I just swallowed a bucket of wet cement. ‘Oh, my God. You planned this whole thing. This is a scam! You knew exactly what you were doing.’
She scoffs. ‘That’s going a bit far, don’t you think?’
‘You’re just a cheap, grubby little con artist.’
‘Now, now. No need for?—’
‘This wasn’t an accident, was it? I saw you that morning – you asked where we were going, and I told you. You knew Holly would be on Roscoe Crescent.’
‘So? I didn’t know she was going to go joyriding, did I?’
‘You would have come up with something else. You put people in situations where you get hurt, then you play nice, you record them, you worm your way into their lives pretending you just want to help, and when they’re far too deep to dig themselves out of the hole, you blackmail them.’
She shrugs. ‘It’s a living, Kate.’
‘Oh my God! You’re horrible. You’re just a horrible, horrible person! Holly loved you! We trusted you!’
She lifts her phone and replays the video, but this time even louder. ‘Do we have a deal, or do I need to send this video to Max?’
I blink at her. ‘Send it to Max? You don’t even know him.’
Something passes over her face. There’s a slight curling of her lip. ‘I know where he works. Sterling and Wicks, isn’t it? I can give them a call and explain that I’m trying to reach Max Price in Zurich and could I get his mobile number. I’m sure I can come up with a convincing story.’
Before I have a chance to think, I’m clawing at her, trying to get her phone, my arms flailing.
