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In her peripheral vision, Kim could see the fear in Eloise’s face, but she couldn’t turn her attention away for a second.
‘Stay with me, Rose,’ Kim begged. ‘Explain it all to me properly and I can help you.’
Kim felt no remorse for barefaced lying to a woman wielding a seven-inch blade.
To her left, she saw Bryant approaching the back door. She shook her head to indicate that he should not enter. He could see she was safe and he could watch her from there. The tension in the room was like a tightly strung guitar string. One movement and it might break.
‘Don’t you see how utterly despicable they are?’ Rose asked. ‘They say they talk to dead people, commune with the other side. They’ve all earned their living from people like me; desperate, grief-stricken people who had a loved one ripped away and who want to say goodbye properly. I have to tell him I’m sorry. Don’t you understand that? I shouted at him. I called him names. That’s his eternal memory of me, his mother.’
By Kim’s estimate the sirens were about a mile out.
Rose heard them but continued anyway. She wanted to explain why she’d taken three lives. She wanted Kim to understand.
‘These tricksters give us hope that we can connect with them again, be reassured that they’re not suffering, that they are at peace. I don’t know what was done to my boy by whoever was in that van. I don’t know how they tortured him or made him suffer. I don’t know if he’s at peace. I have to know that he’s okay and these people promise they have the power to do this, and it’s nothing but a scam, a ruse to make money.’
Her voice was filled with rage, but a tear was also forcing itself from the corner of her eye.
Half a mile.
The tip of the blade was an inch from Eloise’s chest and her ragged breathing was bringing it even closer.
Kim said nothing. Her best strategy was to let Rose talk herself dry.
‘None of them could contact my Brad because they’re all fake. Surely you can see how cruel that is?’
‘You don’t know the whole story, Rose,’ Kim said as the squad car pulled up outside the house.
Bryant had left his position at the back door to bring Penn and his companion to the rear of the house.
Rose frowned but she didn’t move the knife.
‘Just stay still, Rose,’ Kim said, holding up her hand. ‘Don’t hurt anyone else. It’s time you knew the truth.’
SEVENTY-NINE
‘Wh…what’s going on?’ Rose asked as her mouth tightened and her eyebrows drew together.
‘Just stay still, Rose,’ Kim instructed as Penn entered the house.
‘Who’s that?’
And then she saw the person who’d walked in behind him.
‘Josh…wh…what are you…?I don’t understand.’
Kim was unsure who was more in shock: Rose or Josh. She was sure that Penn had explained the situation to Josh, but she guessed that seeing his friend’s mum poised, ready to commit her fourth murder, was a terrifying sight.
‘Josh knows why no psychic can reach Brad,’ Kim said, touching Josh on the arm.
‘He isn’t dead, Mrs Foster. I lied. I made it all up. He told me to. He ran away.’
Rose began to shake her head and looked beyond Josh to Kim. ‘I don’t know what you’re doing or how you’re trying to trick me, but I know he’s dead. These people have put you up to this. I know you, Josh.’
Josh shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t want to do it, but he was my best friend. He asked me to lie, and I agreed. I felt so guilty when I helped you search for him. I was fifteen. I didn’t think it through. I didn’t understand the hurt it would cause.’
‘No…no…’ Rose protested.
‘Brad planned it all. He waited for a stretch of good weather. He’d been saving his dinner money for months and doing odd jobs after school like cleaning cars and mowing lawns. I didn’t think he’d actually do it. I thought he was just talking rubbish, until that morning when I turned up and you were having that argument. He ran back upstairs to grab the money he’d saved. He told me that your row was a sign that this was the day.’
