Beneath the Moon and the Stars (31 page)

‘That’s a bit too much of a coincidence for my liking, Caz,’ Zach said and Casey glared at Finn for putting the idea in Zach’s head in the first place.

‘You see, you start spreading that kind of shit around and people start to take notice.’

‘She’s rich and her parents certainly didn’t have any money. She doesn’t work.’ It was like a floodgate, now he’d started Finn couldn’t stop.

‘Stop it.’ Casey pushed his hair off his face, his hands shaking with supressed anger.

‘Look I’ll prove it to you.’

He moved quickly, letting himself through Joy’s back door, which he knew she always left unlocked now. To his annoyance, Casey didn’t follow. Joy wasn’t there, by the sounds of it she was upstairs, singing badly.

Opening the kitchen drawer, Finn took out the three plasticine animals he had hidden in there when Joy was sick. He moved back outside and thrust them out for Casey to see. ‘I found these in her kitchen the other day, when she was sick. I hid them, I didn’t want anyone to know…’

Casey stared at them for a second and groaned.

‘You said that the diamond thief always left behind plasticine animals, linking herself to each robbery.’

‘This isn’t what it looks like.’ Casey grabbed the plasticine animals from Finn and squashed them in his hands so they were no longer recognisable.

‘Casey! That’s evidence,’ Zach scolded. ‘I think we should call the police.’

‘I am the god damn police. This has nothing to do with her and if we involve the police it could ruin her.’

Just then Joy appeared in the back garden, looking across at them in confusion. Her face lit up when she saw Finn, but quickly fell at their stony expressions.

‘I need a word,’ Finn growled, stalking towards her, but Casey snagged his arm.

‘Leave this – I’m asking you to leave this. You’ll hurt her, you’ll feel like scum after and if you take this any further it will ruin everything she has worked so hard to build. Please drop this.’

But anger boiled through Finn – Casey was loyal to the bitter end and Joy had betrayed that. If Casey was too stubborn or too loyal to do anything about it then he sure as hell would. Removing his arm from Casey’s grasp he grabbed Joy’s arm and marched her back inside.

*

‘Ow, what the hell are you doing?’ Joy fought against him and he let her go as he closed the door behind them. She could hear Zach and Casey arguing still out in the garden, though she couldn’t hear the specifics. ‘What’s going on?’

‘You need to give it back,’ Finn’s voice was low, sinister, his eyes dark.

‘Give what back, what are you talking about?’ She had spent the morning drifting round in a glorious bubble of bliss. After Finn’s suggestion that they could be friends who hold hands and cook dinner together, and knowing that the amazing sex was now going to be a regular feature, she didn’t think anything could break her mood. Now Finn was shouting, looking at her as if she was something unpleasant he had stepped in. Her bubble had just burst spectacularly.

‘Don’t play coy with me – the diamonds, everything you took from Ashton Manor Tuesday night. Give it all back or I’ll go to the police and I’ll tell them everything.’

‘What?’ Her brain raced whilst she tried to piece together the limited information that Finn had given her. ‘There was another diamond robbery at Ashton Manor. Oh God, that’s Casey’s parents’ place isn’t it?’

He let out a low snarl. ‘Give it back. I don’t care how you do it, whether you break back in there or post it through their letterbox, but you’ll give it back.’

‘What?’ Hurt sliced through her like a knife. ‘You think I’m the thief, that I would steal from Casey? How dare you suggest that?’

He stepped towards her so menacingly that she took a step back. ‘I covered for you, I never told the police when you concealed your plates, when you went out dressed in black every night there was a robbery. I hid those bloody plasticine animals so Casey wouldn’t see them – and then you betrayed him and me. Now you’ve made it personal, you’ve attacked someone I love and I’m not going to let you get away with it. You’ll take it back and then you’ll pack up and leave this village and never come back.’

Joy felt hot angry tears prick her eyes but when she spoke her voice was low. ‘I know you don’t trust me, you’ve made that very clear with your refusal to give me your heart…’

‘That has nothing to do with this…’

‘It has everything to do with this, because if you trusted me enough with your heart you wouldn’t be standing in front of me now accusing me of something so appalling. I don’t have many friends as you are well aware and I’m not in the business of stabbing in the back those that I do have. I would never do this to Casey and he at least knows that.’ God, she hoped he did.

‘So where were you Tuesday night, you were out for hours?’

‘I can’t tell you that. I’m hoping that if we have any kind of future together, you can find it in you to trust me in this. Trust me when I say I didn’t have anything to do with the theft at Casey’s parents’ house or any of the other robberies.’

Finn opened his mouth to speak but then Casey burst through the back door. He took in the situation in seconds – Finn’s angry stance, the tears in her eyes – and quickly moved between them.

‘Get out,’ he said to Finn. ‘You have no right to come in here accusing her like this. This is my business, my case and it’s mine to deal with how I see fit – and accusing one of my friends is not how I wish to play it. If you wish to pursue this, if you go to the police behind my back, then our friendship is over, do you understand me.’

Joy was stunned, riddled with guilt that Casey would choose her over Finn, the man he had loved for fifteen years. She couldn’t allow it. ‘Casey, no, you don’t have to do that.’

Finn stepped back, shocked. ‘Casey, I’m doing this for you…’

‘Just get out.’

Finn glared at her for a moment, then left, slamming the door behind him.

Casey watched him go and turned back to face her. He was livid.

‘Casey, I swear, I didn’t…’

‘I know.’

She stared up at him, furiously wiping the tears from her eyes. Suddenly an idea came to her. ‘I can prove it.’ She moved quickly to her rucksack and rummaged inside for her camera. ‘I have photos of my latest strike, from the other night. They’re time stamped, I haven’t loaded them onto the website yet, look let me show you…’ She trailed off as Casey stopped her with his hand.

‘I don’t need to see any proof Joy. I know you didn’t have anything to do with this. I pride myself on being an excellent judge of character; it’s one of the most important parts of my job. Finn, sadly, has never been a good judge of character. As far back as I can remember, he’s made bad decisions. The women he slept with who sold their stories to the papers, Pippa who I hated from the first moment I met her, and now this. He can’t see the good from the bad and the ugly.’

Joy laughed despite her tears. ‘Am I the good or the ugly?’

‘Oh, hideous, grotesque, some might say.’ He wiped her tears from her cheek and pulled her into a big bear hug. ‘Finn is fiercely loyal to me and if he knew you a little better he would do the same for you.’

She released her face a little from his chest so she could breathe and speak. ‘He sort of did. He said he hid my maquettes so you wouldn’t see them. It just hurts that he would think me capable of doing this.’

‘He doesn’t know you, he’s tried to push you away because he’s afraid of getting hurt. If he knew you like I do, he wouldn’t think it. But we’ve known each other for over thirty years, when it comes to loyalty he’s bound to choose me over you.’

‘He doesn’t have to choose at all.’

‘I know, he’ll come round, don’t judge him too harshly.’

‘I’m not sure if I want him to come round at all now.’

Casey sighed into the top of her head.

*

Joy had waited for it to get completely dark before she loaded her gear back into the car. National Heritage had emailed The Dark Shadow that morning, saying how impressed they were with the two strikes she’d done in the local woods so far but how they were hoping to have all three done before the forthcoming bank holiday as they wanted to have a nature trail including the three strikes en route.

She was out tomorrow night for her birthday so she knew she had to do it tonight. It was just an inconvenience that her last local strike was so close to Ashton Manor, there might be some kind of police presence.

Finn’s house was in darkness so she guessed he was already in bed. Safe in the knowledge that he hadn’t seen her, she got in her car and drove off.

*

Finn sat up in his car as he watched her drive off. So she was taking the stuff back. That was something he supposed. But he wasn’t going to lose Casey’s friendship over this; he had to prove to him he was right. Or maybe he just had to prove it to himself that she wasn’t to be trusted, then he wouldn’t feel such a fool for pushing her away so spectacularly when he loved her so much.

He had seen her loading her car up and as she went back to her shed for more boxes he had hidden himself in the front seat of his car.

He watched Joy round the bend and disappear from sight. He turned the car on and pulled out onto the road. He kept his headlights off as he picked his way round the quiet country lanes, following her tail lights as she made her way towards Ashton Manor.

*

Joy had spent the day stewing about Finn and how hurt she had been by it. But he’d got one thing right. It was time to leave the village, time to move on and put the whole nasty episode behind her. After being let down by the villagers, the only thing that had been keeping her in the village was Finn, but now he’d let her down too. The threats from the villagers had stopped for now, but they would always hate her and there was seemingly nothing she could do about that. There was nothing keeping her in Bramble Hill anymore.

But she still couldn’t get Finn out of her head – every time she closed her eyes, he was there, touching her, kissing her, caressing her – and now it hurt even more after his betrayal. She had to exorcise her demons somehow and it wasn’t until she had been carving unseeing for about ten minutes that she realised what she was creating. For the first time in her life, her art had become personal. Even though she knew it was a mistake, that she would regret it after, just like her night of passion with Finn, now she’d started she couldn’t stop.

*

Finn stood, touched at the magnificence of it. He was stunned at the fine lines, the detail, the muscles, the contours of the flesh, all captured intricately. Every line, every groove erotically captured in full – the night before with Joy. Carved into the fallen oak was a life-sized Finn and Joy, limbs tangled, eyes closed with desire, her head thrown back in ecstasy as he kissed her throat. It was beautiful.

He had seen her car disappear into the trees and he’d got out of his own car and followed her on foot. Knowing she was heading for Ashton Manor, he had pulled his camera out of his pocket and primed it ready for filming as he stealthily made his way through the trees.

He had watched unseen as she unpacked her trunk with chainsaws and other power tools and then to his utmost confusion, he’d watched in horror as she had started to carve.

The camera lay forgotten in his hand as he stood there over the three hours it took for her to finish her masterpiece. He felt sick at the accusations he had foisted on her earlier that day, now it all made sense – the secrecy, the black clothes, even the plasticine models. Joy was The Dark Shadow.

She finally turned off her chainsaw and ran her fingers over the shoulders, the arms and the back of the wooden Finn, carefully brushing off all the sawdust. She sighed sadly and he found himself stepping forward to hold her.

Suddenly she turned round and she froze when she saw him. Then her face crumpled and she launched herself at him, hitting and slapping every part of him she could reach.

‘You bastard. You couldn’t just trust me could you? This is all I have, this is all I am. My parents are dead, I haven’t had a home in eleven years. I’ve moved around so much I don’t have any friends. I gave you my heart and you threw that back at me. This is the only thing I have – but now you’ve ripped this from me as well.’

Keen to avoid the bruises, he pinned her quickly to the nearest tree with his weight and caught her hands to stop her hitting him.

‘I’m sorry.’ She struggled against him, but he was stronger. He brought her hands to his mouth and impulsively kissed her knuckles. ‘I’m so sorry.’ He felt the fight go out of her and she slumped against him. He kissed her forehead. ‘I swear, I’ll never tell anyone who you are or what you do. You have my word on that.’

She pushed him away from her and he let her.

‘Until the next time you fall out with me or decide you hate me again. Then you’ll decide that will be an opportune moment to out me.’

‘And don’t you think your talent will be enough to carry you? Joy, you’re amazing…’

‘It’s the mystery that is the success of The Dark Shadow – the creations that appear overnight, no one knows who did them or even when as sometimes my sculptures take days to be discovered. Without the mystery, the intrigue, there is no Dark Shadow.’

He watched her as she walked back towards the carving, shaking her head sadly.

‘Casey knows?’ he asked quietly.

‘Yes.’

Crap. Casey had warned him not to accuse Joy and he hadn’t listened. He had been determined to prove he was right – and hurt her spectacularly in the process, more so than when he had slept with her.

He approached her and she stiffened when he touched her.

‘Joy I’m sorry, I truly am, I should have trusted you, I’m really sorry. Can I make it up to you, somehow, please?’

She turned back to face him. ‘I don’t want anything to do with you now.’ Her voice was empty, devoid of emotion and this scared him more than the violent outburst moments before. ‘I’m leaving at the end of the month. You won’t see me again.’

Panic ripped through him. ‘What, no. Where are you going?’

She shrugged, indifferently.

‘Why, because of me?’

Her eyes flared and he took a step back.