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Moss moved forward and positioned himself firmly between Clementine and Elaine.
“Out with it,” Moss growled.
Billsdon silently pressed his gun to Elaine’s temple. The threat was there. Move and she would die.
Elaine didn’t look at either man. Instead, she glared malevolently at Clementine. “Yes, I hate you. I always have. I hate you for being so stupidly stuck up. You are always peering down your nose at me, pretending you are so well connected and liked by everyone. You were always crawling around that Sally Walcott. I heard her once tell a real friend of hers in a shop that she was sick of you calling by unannounced as you used to. She always went to her sister’s house to get away from you because you were always popping up when she went about her business.”
“Don’t allow her to try to taint your memories of your friendship with Sally. Elaine is jealous and spiteful, remember?” Moss interrupted.
“Sally was not the kind of woman who would have pretended to be friends with anybody. You know what she was like, Clementine,” Cameron warned. “Whereas that fiend didn’t. Sally wouldn’t give her the time of day, would she? Why, from what I can remember, and from what you told me, Sally didn’t even want the chit on the committee.”
“She would have objected to her being Chair, I know that much,” Clementine admitted.
“I am afraid that there is nothing Elaine won’t do to damage people,” Moss assured her. “She is a liar, a thief, and a cold-bloodied killer. That is proven seeing as she has just walked past a dead man, entered his house, and then started cleaning up as if she had every right to. Not only that, but the only thing she has cleaned up is the poisoned cake.”
“She can rot in gaol,” Clementine whispered, and meant every word.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The magistrate looked at Moss. “Give a shout to my men, would you? They can take her to gaol.”
Mr Billsdon then turned to Cameron and opened his mouth to speak. Unfortunately, removing his gaze from the killer was a dire mistake. Elaine twisted around and yanked the gun out of his loose grip. She fumbled with it for a moment as she turned it the right way around before she lifted it and pointed it straight at Clementine.
Clementine’s eyes widened as she found herself staring down the wrong end of the pistol. She had never seen such a terrifying sight and knew that death could happen any moment.
“Moss,” she stammered.
“Put the gun down,” Mr Billsdon commanded fiercely.
Moss lifted his weapon but couldn’t take the chance that any shot he took would make Elaine instinctively jerk her finger in reflex when she was hit. That would invariably kill Clementine. It wasn’t worth the risk. Instead, Moss moved toward Clementine with the intention of planting himself firmly
before her, and therefore physically protecting her and taking the shot himself. Unfortunately, the flurry of movement in Elaine’s peripheral vision was enough to panic the killer, whose instinctively tightened her finger on the trigger.
The loud blast of the gun exploding made Clementine’s ear’s ring. She had been staring at the gun, and watched Elaine’s finger move, and instinctively threw herself onto the floor. Unfortunately, when she tried to step back her heel caught on the step leading to the hallway. The backward motion of her upper body propelled her into the hallway, and she slammed painfully onto the floor with a heavy thud. Winded, Clementine then lay still and gazed blankly at the ceiling while she tried to comprehend what had just happened.
Moss saw her fall and instinctively lifted his gun. He didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger this time and felt no remorse as he saw Elaine stumble back against the dresser when the shot slammed into her. She gazed down at her shoulder with a look of blank surprise on her face before she glared at Moss. Strangely, rather than cry out or slump to the floor, her face twisted into something cruel and malicious. With a feral screech, her fingers clawed, and Elaine charged across the kitchen at Moss. Mr Billsdon was ready for her, though, and wasted no time slamming a punch into the side of her face that made Elaine slump to the floor. He then pinned her down to stop her getting back up again. He slid the gun across the kitchen floor and, despite the wound, yanked Elaine’s arms behind her back whereupon he pinned them in place using his body weight.
Seconds later, his men burst into the kitchen, their guns drawn in readiness. What descended upon the Captains’ kitchen then was absolute chaos for several moments, but Moss barely registered the cacophony. Shoving a stunned Cameron roughly out of the way, he charged into the hallway and fell to his knees beside Clementine. He had to find out if Clementine had been hit or, worse, dead.
“Clementine?” Muttering curses and promises, Moss fell to his knees beside her and gathered her into his arms. The thought of losing her brought about a devastation within him that threatened to shatter his world. It rendered his thoughts incomprehensible and his heart frozen.
“God, I love you,” he whispered. “I know we haven’t known each other for very long but I don’t want to spend another day without you. I know this is love. I know we are meant to be together.”
Clementine blinked at him in amazement. To begin with, she wondered if she had hit her head just a little bit too hard when she had hit the floor, and she was hallucinating the very best dream she had ever had. She was stunned but was certain she had just heard him utter the words she so longed to hear. Her heart soared. She jerked and looked at him, desperate to hear him say it again.
“Moss?” she whispered, not least because she wasn’t at all sure she had the strength to say anything else. She didn’t want to do or say anything that would break his monologue. He had revealed so much in the last minute or two; the kind of things that she never truly believed he would ever tell her.
Moss leaned back and huffed a laugh when he saw her looking at him. “Where did she hit you?”
“She didn’t. I hit myself,” Clementine muttered ruefully, rubbing at a particularly sore spot on the back of her head. When she tried to sit up it was to find Moss holding her a little more tightly and refusing to allow her to move. She happily settled back down and gazed up at him with absolute adoration. “Is it true?”
“Yes, my darling, I am afraid it is. The killer is Elaine,” Moss whispered sadly.
Clementine shook her head. “No. What you said a moment ago.”
Moss blinked at her and tried to remember but his recalcitrant mind refused to focus on words. All he could think about was the brilliant future that had now started to reveal itself to him. It took him a moment, but eventually Moss realised what he had said and what she wanted to hear again.
“Yes, I love you,” he whispered fervently. “More than I ever thought possible, if I am honest.”
