All Fall Down: A gripping psychological thriller with a twist that will take your breath away (32 page)

R
ob felt
his spine turn to ice. He said nothing; just concentrated hard on the tasks at hand. Jason had the body, and Collins picked up the motorcycle helmet and the bag of cash. Rob followed them through the trees, focusing on each simple breath, on putting one foot in front of the other.

It took four or five minutes to reach the truck, which Jason had bumped on to a grass verge on a lane adjacent to the one where Rob had parked. The body was placed in the back and covered with a tarpaulin, weighed down with several bags of sand.

The three men climbed into the cab and drove the short distance to the other vehicles. The motorbike was lifted aboard and laid alongside the body. Rob had no idea what they were going to do with either, and he didn’t want to know.

Once Collins had climbed back into the truck, Rob shook hands with Jason. As he tried to pull away, Jason tightened his grip. ‘Don’t ever get cold feet about this.’

‘I won’t.’ Rob was indignant, as well as scared. ‘Why do you say that?’

‘The look on your face when Col mentioned water-skiing.’ Jason let go of his hand, only to jab a finger at him. ‘Just remember, you’re on shaky ground. We did what you wanted, the way you wanted it.’ He nodded towards the truck. ‘Same with this.’

It was like being punched in the gut. Rob clutched his stomach. ‘Wh-what are you saying?’ he stammered. ‘We didn’t ever. . .’

‘Is that what you told yourself?’ Jason gave him a scathing look. ‘You might have put it out of your head, but I ain’t forgotten a word. You wanted Kelly dead, you made that totally clear.’

‘I probably did – as a figure of speech. He’d just ruined my life.’

‘It weren’t no figure of speech, Rob. You gave me the address of his villa. Told me how you’d tracked him down and found out it was bought in his girlfriend’s name. You even said that, the year before, he’d been boasting to you about his water-skiing lessons. “Hope the bastard drowns”, you said to me.’

‘Yeah, but that’s—’ Rob broke off, because Jason had a murderous look in his eyes.

‘We’re done here, mate. You just get that business into profit nice and quick.’ Jason winked. ‘I’m thinking I might buy you out, once you’re ready for the pipe and slippers.’

He slapped Rob on the shoulder, nearly flooring him, then got into the truck and drove away. Rob stumbled back to his car, dropped the keys, bumped his head on the wing mirror as he bent to pick them up, then collapsed into the driver’s seat.

He was a mess.

I
t was
a good twenty minutes before he felt safe to drive back. Even then he was on autopilot, brooding over Jason’s version of their shared history. It was true that for a time he had despised Iain Kelly, and probably had wished him dead on various occasions, sometimes in front of witnesses. But that didn’t mean he had gone about arranging that death.

Oddly, what sprang to mind was a vague memory of a history lesson from school: something about a king in conflict with. . . an archbishop, was it? A famous quote:
Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest
?

Had Rob issued a similar instruction? Had he really passed on what he’d learned from the enquiry agent about Iain’s new home in Spain? He genuinely had no recollection of that. What he did know was that he had felt truly shocked when he heard of Kelly’s death, and he hadn’t seriously challenged the assumption that it was an accident.

It wasn’t yet seven o’clock when he pulled up at home. Russell Drive was quiet, though he caught Phil Denning peering out from his bedroom window. Rob gave him the finger, then let himself into the house.

He listened for activity, heard none, and crept upstairs. He inspected himself in the bathroom mirror and realised a shower was necessary. While he stood under the hot water, he thought about who he was and what he’d done.

And he thought about Julie Jacques. The fact that he’d slept with her didn’t make it a certainty that Kyle was his son: far from it. He thought the dates were probably off by a few weeks, at least, though he was aware that at some stage Dawn Avery might turn up with news that Kyle’s DNA showed a familial match.

But either way, he knew Wendy would never accept that it was right to kill Kyle rather than hand him over to the police. And that, he thought, made his next decision somewhat easier.

A
fter drying off
, he eased the bedroom door open. Wendy was a silent form beneath the duvet, and didn’t stir until he’d climbed into bed beside her.

‘Spoon,’ she said, so he moved on to his side and cuddled up against her.

She breathed deeply. ‘You smell nice.’

‘Really?’

‘Shower gel.’ She breathed again. ‘And. . . soil, is that? Sort of loamy.’

‘Of course not.’ He chuckled. ‘Alarm’s due any time now.’

‘It already went, didn’t you hear it?’

‘I slept in Josh’s room.’

Now it was her turn to laugh. Rob held her tight, nuzzling against the back of her head, and somehow he knew she was smiling, in a fond way, as if his idiosyncrasies could never fail to amuse her, even while they drove her quietly mad.

‘This announcement,’ he said, and felt her flinch.

‘Don’t, Rob. We don’t need to—’

‘We do. I think I should be the one to leave, and we should tell the kids that I was the reason.’

Silence. A long silence.

And then she said, ‘I’ve changed my mind.’

‘What? When?’

‘I couldn’t even say, for sure. The past few weeks, maybe.’

‘But isn’t that just a reaction to the trauma? Because the reasons you gave me at Christmas made perfect sense, and they still do. I’m too selfish, too bound up in work, and I’m—’

He stopped.
Could he say this
?

‘I’m not a good person, Wendy. Whereas you are.’

‘What are you trying to tell me?’ She only waited a second before adding, ‘That you’ve done things you shouldn’t? Things you regret – or things you
ought
to regret? That you’re keeping secrets from me?’ She sniffed, rubbed her nose, then broke from his embrace to turn and look at him. ‘Well, guess what, Robert Turner? Same here. And I doubt if it makes
your
life a misery, fretting over whatever it is that
I
might be ashamed of. . . does it?’

He grunted, his way of only half-conceding. ‘I’m just worried you might regret not doing it. You seemed to feel so strongly that separation is the right thing for you.’

‘Perhaps I did – and who knows, perhaps I will again. But not now.’

‘Honestly?’

‘Honestly.’ She held his hand. ‘Right now I want us to be together. For better, for worse – like the man told us, all those years ago.’

But I’m a killer
. Just for a moment – the merest fraction of a second – Rob thought he’d said the words out loud. But no, Wendy’s expression hadn’t changed. She continued to regard him with a degree of affection, tolerance and love that he didn’t deserve, and never would deserve, and he understood that telling her outright would be the cruellest thing he’d ever done.

But how could he live with Wendy when he could barely live with himself?

‘
W
ell
?’ she said, with a sleepy half-smile. ‘What do you have to say?’

There was an enigmatic look in her eye, and it occurred to Rob that she knew, somehow; that she knew – or suspected, at least – and on the matter of protecting their family, had decided that she could condone almost anything.

‘For better, for worse?’ he said.

She nodded. ‘That’s the deal. One day at a time – expiry unknown, and hopefully a long way off. . .’

He grinned; he couldn’t not.

‘In that case,’ he said, ‘I’d have to be a fool to say no.’

T
he writing
of
All Fall Down
took place during a turbulent but exciting period in my life. After several years of uncertainty and a number of setbacks, my deal with Bookouture represented the chance of a fresh start. At the point when the contract was signed, of course, there was no way of knowing whether the first book in the deal,
See How They Run
, would be a success. If it wasn’t, then I knew I would probably have to put writing aside and find a new career.

Often when I’m writing one novel, I discover elements or themes that I want to expand upon in the next book – and so it was with
All Fall Down
, which takes from my previous book the idea of a family in jeopardy. In
See How They Run
, my protagonists were a young couple with a baby; here I decided on a mature couple with grown-up children. Instead of threatening intruders appearing in the middle of the night, I wanted an idyllic scene – a summer barbecue – interrupted by a man in desperate need of help.

For my antagonists, I’d long had it in mind to write about a group of people who together are capable of crimes that they would scarcely consider if they were alone. As well as the real-life examples of Charles Manson and the other cult leaders referenced in the book, there’s also a lot of fascinating scientific research – such as the famous Milgram experiment – that demonstrates just how easily a commanding personality can persuade others to commit acts of extreme violence.

Although the most high-profile examples tend to come from the USA, Gabriel and his followers were actually influenced by a news story in the UK that has stayed with me for many years, and concerned a vulnerable young woman who was lured into friendship by a group of her peers. Over several days she was subjected to horrific torture and finally murdered. The savagery of the crime was shocking enough, but what haunted me about it was the deceit, the betrayal. And while most of us can just about understand how someone might kill for revenge, or greed, or passion, it’s extremely difficult to accept the idea of tormenting and killing purely for fun, as part of a twisted game or ‘challenge’. With that in mind I created a group that has progressed, quite calmly and methodically, towards the ultimate goal of mass murder.

Secrets of one type or another lie at the heart of this story – indeed, the working title for the book was
The Secrets
– and with older protagonists, I had the chance to create characters who were perhaps a little more compromised, and not quite the straightforward ‘good guys’ that a younger couple might have been. Rob and Wendy also have to contend with the difficult realisation that their grown-up children have lives as messy and complicated as their own.

As it turned out, the success of
See How They Run
far exceeded my wildest dreams, and introduced my work to a huge number of readers, many of whom were kind enough to leave reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, Kobo and elsewhere. If you have read and enjoyed
All
Fall Down
, I would be extremely grateful if you could add a review to the site or sites of your choice – and please do also get in touch to let me know what you think of the book.

Y
ou can contact
me or find out more about my books via the links below, and receive news of my new releases by signing up to my email list:

Turn the page to read about
See How They Run
and for a sample chapter…

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• Tom-Bale