Sleepwalk (46 page)

‘We came here often didn’t we Ell? We walked along the coastal paths ……… all those summer nights we spent hand in hand. It was us against the world; remember?’

Ellie could hear the sea. She could smell the clean sea air and she could hear the waves crashing onto the rocks hundreds of feet below. He had parked on the cliffs
and she knew
where
. It was hardly rocket science.
Branscombe. It was where
t
he
y
always
ended up
when they went walking.
W
hat had he given her this time;
another one of his lethal experimental cocktails? David
had missed his vocation in life. If he’d followed a scientific path instead of a mathematical one he could have been a professor by now and perhaps he would have satisfied his chemical curiosity instead of imposing it on her. He would have excelled himself in science. But then, anything David excelled in, he did so for all the wrong reasons. So; he had become Manager of a bank at the tender age of twenty nine…… Lucky break? Or had the previous Manager been slowly poisoned? Ellie wondered if David had any Swiss bank accounts.
Movement!
Ellie felt the sudden pressure of his hand on her crotch; felt his fingers fumbling for the zip on her jeans and felt the wetness inside her as he probed with his fingers searching for her clitoris. Ellie didn’t flinch. She couldn’t move. She lay helpless on the passenger seat as he fumbled around for a minute or two and then he withdrew his hand.

You Bastard
……… she wanted to say ………
you sick Bastard
. Then she realised he had been looking for a reaction to see if the drugs were wearing off.

‘Do you remember the day we came up here and those kids were flying their kites? They went too close to the cliffs didn’t they? Then the smallest kid with the red kite; his came down over the cliff edge and got caught up in the gorse bush. I climbed down and untangled it and you gave me such a telling off. You said I was stupid and that I could have been killed. Do you remember Ell?’

Oh I remember David. And if I knew then what I know now
…………

Ellie wondered how long she had been in this comatose state and whether Mary would have phoned the police. She wondered why David had brought her up here …….. to reminisce? Unlikely. To kill her; to kill them both? Oh God …….. what had he given her? If only she could move her hands and feet she could open the door and make a run for it. What if it didn’t wear off? Was this to be their destiny? Was he going to push her off the cliff? What of her visions? Why had she not seen this happening?
Movement!
His hand again probing at her crotch; only this time she felt the urge to move her muscles. Ellie bit her tongue and tried to detach her mind from her body. She relaxed and remained still until he stopped. As David reminisced some more and watched the sun going down on the horizon Ellie began to feel; slowly at first; her left eye; her toes; the fingers on her left hand, until gradually the feeling began to return to her body.

Had David always been this crazy or had she made him this way by leaving him for Abi?

That was stupid. You couldn’t make someone crazy. They had to already be crazy surely?

He’d always been a control freak. She’d known that in the early years. To start with she kind of liked letting him take control. She imagined Flick was like that with him now. Allowing him to take the reins and keeping him happy; cooking his meals; washing his clothes; having his babies………. old fashioned in some ways. Perhaps there was a thin line between being old fashioned and being walked on……. being controlled………..

‘We should have had a dog Ell. We could have walked him up here. Ollie would have loved that. Things may have turned out differently if we’d kept up our walks after Ollie was born don’t you think?’

She heard him shifting in his seat and the creak of the leather as he twisted himself sideways and she knew what was coming. As he plunged his hand across her and downwards Ellie opened her eyes a little and grunted her distaste but she still couldn’t move her arms or her legs.

‘Oh ………… you like that don’t you Ell ……… eh? You’re so wet. Soon, my baby girl ……. soon our bodies will be one again.’ He studied her face; her flickering eyes. One eye was more open than the other and her mouth was slightly twisted but that was normal given the amount of chloroform she’d inhaled. Ellie began to moan and saliva seeped from the corner of her mouth. He took some paper towels from the glove compartment, wiped her chin and soaked up the excess saliva in her mouth.

‘There my love. That’s better isn’t it?’ He groped her body some more, moving his hand under her blouse, pinching her nipples and making them hard then he put his hand at the back of her head and twisted her hair round and round pulling it tight and began to move her head from side to side, demonstrating his power over her; then he slammed her head back hard as he pushed his hand down her jeans once more. Ellie moaned loudly. Inside she was screaming for him to stop but her words were intelligible. Her mouth and voice box did not seem to work but she suddenly seemed to find some strength in her left arm and she brought it clumsily across his face bruising his right cheek. She reached for the door handle but her body did not follow and her hand stopped just short of the catch. David reacted swiftly and brought his right hand across her face hard knocking her sideways over the handbrake, then he grasped her hair once more and almost ripped it from her head as he pushed her away until her head smashed against the passenger side window. He stopped abruptly and returned to his seat; his breathing loud and erratic.

‘It was always you Ell. It was only ever you. Why? …………. How could you? I loved you so much. I would have given my life for you and how did you repay me? Oh God I want you so badly………. So badly………..’

Her left eye was half open. It was in itself a vantage point for her because David would have to move forward in the drivers seat considerably for him to know. She could see to her left slightly and had a reasonable view through the front windscreen of the sun setting on the horizon. They were parked, as she had suspected at Branscombe on the cliffs; a little too close to the edge for her liking. The deep blue sky was streaked with crimsons and yellows like an oil painting; the sun in all its descending glory being the centrepiece of this astounding natural beauty reflecting in the dark water below, also now streaked with crimsons and yellows but enhanced by ripples dancing on the ocean waves as they peaked and fell like silver ribbons in the sunset. Ellie tried to turn her head a little and she managed to move it just slightly. David was sitting very still with a white cloth spread across his lap busily preparing a hypodermic syringe with clear fluid from a small glass bottle.

‘This will make you feel more……… accommodating I think………’ He tilted the syringe upward and squeezed until a small squirt of the clear liquid shot from the needle and then he was on her and she felt the sting in her arm ……………

Felicity felt sick. Margaret had made a cottage pie and she sat at the dining room table, her plate untouched, watching her mother spoon-feeding her father with tiny morsels and his mouth opening and closing like a little bird. He had always said he could not bear the thought of becoming old and senile and losing his dignity. Throughout her childhood when she had been out with her father and they had witnessed someone elderly or unfortunate enough to have lost the use of their limbs or the power of speech or some such faculty her father had often commented;

‘Look at that poor old sod. If I ever get like that; bloody well shoot me.’

As Joseph Breen sat in his wheelchair; his body crippled with the Parkinson’s disease and his sanity rarely present, opening his mouth for his dinner with a look of sheer pleasure and gratitude in his eyes, Felicity wanted to cry.

‘Try to eat something dear. You need to keep your strength up for that dear little baby.’

‘I’m sorry Mum. I just don’t have the appetite for it. I’m sorry.’

The phone rang and she pushed her plate away and stood up. ‘I’ll get it.’ She went into the lounge and returned a few minutes later. ‘It was DC Peters. She’s coming over again. She wants to ask some more questions.’

‘What about your dinner?’

‘I’m not really hungry. Maybe I’ll eat it later.’ Felicity covered her plate with foil and put it on the kitchen worktop then went to check on the baby who was sleeping soundly in his carry cot. She sat down beside him and gazed on his tiny perfect face. Did he look like David?; a little perhaps. It was hard to tell at this stage. He had dark hair; masses of it. It didn’t stop at the nape of his neck either. He had a fine layer of soft downy hair across the upper part of his back and his shoulders. The nurses had said it was baby hair and that he would soon lose it. His skin was perfect and when he opened his eyes they were David’s eyes for sure. Deep blue like the sea; but she was told they too, could change. She wondered where David was; and if the police had found him. Just three days ago if someone had suggested David was capable of infidelity she would have laughed in their face ………. and now; now she had to face these serious allegations that her husband was not just capable of having an affair; a fact, even by his own admission of guilt; but that he had raped; and he had murdered; and he had tried to murder her ………..

The doorbell rang and she made her way down the hall to answer it in a solemn trance-like state.

‘Hi Flick. Can I come in?’

DC Peters followed her into the lounge where Charlie was still sleeping.

‘I’m sorry to disturb you again. There’s been an incident and I just need to ask you a few questions. Is that ok?’

Felicity shrugged her shoulders and nodded.

‘Flick; I’m going to tell you what we know; rather than keep you in the dark. It may give you a clearer picture of ……. everything that’s happened. And I hope you might be able to help us to prevent any further incidents……….. Ok?’

Felicity nodded and sat back on the sofa, her eyes fixed on baby Charlie.

‘Two years ago we were all present in Court when Eleanor Wilson went to trial for …….. Well I don’t need to go over the history of it all. I’m sure you remember as well as I do. We believed at the time that we had a good case; everything pointed to her. We couldn’t believe it when she walked free. Of course there were certain stipulations which, with the assistance and guidance of our American contacts, Eleanor has adhered to and now…….. in rise of certain recent events ………. I expect you heard about the Hit and Run this weekend?’

‘What; no! Who ………?’

‘An old chap leaving his local club on Saturday night on Western drive again …….’

‘Is he ………?’

‘He’s alive. He’s in hospital; but he’s in his seventies and he’s very weak …….’

‘Oh my God! And you think Ellie ……. No; you think David ……….. you think it was David?’

‘The car was a red Fiesta hired by Ellie. The victim has said that the driver was a man dressed as a woman. In fact; he was wearing a wig; a blonde wig. An officer from the river authority saw your husband leaving a certain area of the river bank where we later found a blonde wig. We had the wig tested and the hair inside the matting matched that of your husbands which we took from the house in
Rose Lane
. Felicity; David has been trying to make himself look like Ellie and going around killing people and blaming her for his premeditated actions. He’s been trying to frame her. Do you have any idea why he would do something like this?’

Felicity sank back into the sofa.

‘DC Peters; All my life I searched for my Mr right. Until three days ago I truly believed I had found him. I’d never met anyone like David. He was such a gentleman. I suddenly thought ……….
there is a God
. My friend said I should rent him out because I’d make a fortune. He looked after me …… he cared about me ……… he is a perfect father to Ollie and he was going to be the perfect father for our baby. He’s good looking; he’s charming; he’s respectful and I fell so much in love with him…………’

‘This must be very hard for you.’

‘That’s an understatement.’

‘Do you want me to go on with this?’

‘Yes……….. I need to know what happened.’

‘Ok……. the car
was found later that night ……. w
ell; in the early hours of the morning. It had been
abandoned
in a lay-by on the A37
to Exmouth. However on further investigation Ellie was found in the car; lying across the front seats. She was out cold.’

‘Oh my God! Is …….. is she okay?’

‘We don’t know Flick. We thought she was asleep at the time. She was arrested and taken into custody. She wouldn’t say anything except……… It must have been
her
because
she couldn’t remember
. Then the new evidence came to light incriminating David and earlier today after confirmation of the forensics testing we told Ellie she was free to go home… but she never made it home. She was seen parking her car outside and then she disappeared, leaving her
hand
bag on the pavement and her keys in the driver’s door of her car.’

Felicity looked puzzled.

‘At Mary Darch’s house? Where she was staying? ……. She left her handbag on the pavement?’