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She taps it and a small menu appears, offering a total home lockdown or separate zones.
‘Bloody menus!’ she says. Her hands are shaking.
‘Fitness suite,’ Anna points.
Nicole taps on it and is offered ‘Fitness suite lockdown internal’ and ‘Fitness suite lockdown external’.
‘Internal,’ Anna says. ‘That’s the one.’
Nicole taps it. Their heads turn to look down the glass corridor towards the fitness suite. The glass door at the end ofthe corridor swings shut, as does a door behind it that leads to the gym. They hear multiple locking mechanisms engaging.
Nicole exhales. Her breath sounds shuddery. ‘Did we do it?’ she asks.
Anna nods. ‘I think so.’
Cautiously, they walk down the corridor and peer through the glass door. Every door they can see from there is shut, including the sauna. Nicole checks her phone. The dot is still glowing inside it.
‘Even if the sauna door hasn’t locked, he won’t be able to get far,’ she says.
‘We’ve got him,’ Anna says. She looks as if she can hardly believe it. ‘If not in the sauna, then in here. Shall we call the police?’
Nicole looks at her phone, but hesitates. Instead of calling, she returns to the menus, searching for something she saw earlier, an option titled ‘Sauna’. She taps on it and is offered a range of temperature settings. Anna is watching. Nicole hears her swallow, but Anna says nothing. Nicole turns the sauna temperature up to the highest level possible. ‘Before we do, let’s just see how trapped he is.’
They wait. After a while, they hear a very faint, rhythmic sound, as if someone is banging on the back of a door.
‘It locked him in,’ Nicole says. ‘It must have a hidden security lock. Because normally you can’t lock it.’ For the first time, she congratulates Tom for his insistence on having the best of every system.
Her eyes meet Anna’s. ‘Can he turn down the temperature from inside the sauna?’ Anna asks.
‘The manual controls are just outside the door. I don’t think there’s anything inside because, normally, there’s no option to lock it, it’s not an issue.’
‘There’s no emergency cord?’
‘I don’t think so. There was no need for one. There was no possibility of being shut in there.’
‘Unless this situation arises.’
‘Yes,’ Nicole says.
Olly is shut in her sauna, trapped in there. He could be in handcuffs within a few minutes. But what evidence is there that he killed Tom, apart from the word of a homeless guy? Nicole believes him, but will the police? Nicole is an avid watcher of police drama on TV. She knows you need evidence to convict someone. She’s certain of his guilt, but would a jury be?
She feels strangely, preternaturally calm, just the way she did when she pushed that pillow over Granny’s face. ‘What if we don’t tell the police that he’s here? How many years of your life has Olly stolen?’
Anna holds up one hand, all fingers extended.
‘How much has he robbed you of?’ Nicole asks. She sees something in Anna crumble. ‘He hollowed you out, didn’t he?’
A tear slips down Anna’s cheek and she wipes it away roughly. Another falls and Nicole reaches out this time, using a fingertip to wipe it gently herself.
‘What would you say if I suggest we don’t call the police?’ she asks.
Anna is looking at her intently, making calculations of her own. ‘They could be back here any minute.’
‘But they won’t be wanting to search the Barn. Why would they?’ She walks away from the fitness suite, back into the main living area, and Anna follows. ‘Can you hear anything from here?’ she asks.
They listen and can’t hear Olly banging on the sauna door any longer.
She thinks they can do this and do it right under the noses of the police. She remembers the famous Roald Dahl story about the leg of lamb. If that housewife got away with it, why can’t she? She just needs Anna on board.
