Trick of the Dark (52 page)

'We separated because we couldn't handle the extreme forces between us. My life since then has been about waiting for her to be ready. And taking care of her so she can have the best possible life until that time arrives.'

'And that means killing people who stand in her way?'

Again that brilliant smile. 'Why not? It's not like they were on the same plane as Jay and me.'

'Does she know about this?' Charlie tried to sound conversational too, to hide her intention to understand the pathology of what she was confronted with.

Lisa nodded. 'Naturally. It's important that she understands I'm still as committed to her as I ever was. We remain the keeper of each other's secrets.'

'Each other's secrets?' The echo question. Always a powerful tool. Even with those who had crossed the line.

'She knows I kill for her when it's necessary. And I always knew about this.' Lisa waved vaguely at the alcove and its contents.

'You knew she'd killed her mother?'

Lisa reared back, an expression of outrage on her face. 'Killed her mother? Don't be ridiculous. It was Howard who killed her mother. He'd found out about Rinks van Leer and he followed Jenna here that last morning. He was determined she should die rather than violate his mad Christian principles. By the time Jay arrived to talk to her mother, Jenna was dead. He'd whacked her on the back of the head with his cricket bat. Which he then left lying on the floor beside her.' Lisa rolled her eyes. 'Well, duh. So Jay arrives on the scene in time to see him legging it up the prom. She's scared he's come to put a stop to her escape plans so she runs up to the flat here. And she sees her life falling apart before her eyes. Mother dead, stepfather about to be arrested for murder. What's going to happen to her? The sky's going to fall on her head. The police, the church, the media. She's not going to be sitting her A-levels and going to Oxford in the middle of all that, is she? The lesser of two evils is a runaway mother, right? Am I right?' She paused, waiting for a response.

'Absolutely,' Charlie said. This wasn't the time to try and pick holes in what felt like the authentic version. 'So she hid the body?'

'Exactly.' Lisa sounded as if she were congratulating a particularly slow pupil. 'There were still leftover building materials all over the place. Jay had spent enough of her life in a makeshift existence to know the basics of construction. She took out the bottom shelves and walled up Jenna's body with her suitcase.' Lisa peered round Charlie. 'I don't think she expected to turn her into a mummy, though.' She frowned. 'When she told me about it, it sounded as if she'd sealed Jenna in some airtight environment. But those heating vents, and the chimney - they must have dried out the corpse and carried away any smells up into the roof space.' She wrinkled her nose. 'Old people smell anyway, don't they? You wouldn't think twice about a bit of stink in an old person's flat.'

'She told you about it?'

Lisa nodded eagerly. 'That's how special our relationship is. She's never told anyone else, but one night when we were in bed together, she told me. I had to find a way to repay that trust. So when Jess Edwards threatened her, I did what had to be done.' Again, that smile, so normal it was recalibrating Charlie's measure of crazy. 'The same with that Swedish programmer. I can't even remember his name now.' She shook her head, frowning. 'How odd.' She shrugged. 'Anyway, that was a real help to Jay because I got my hands on all his work too. She told me I'd proved my point, that I didn't have to do this any more. But when I saw her that afternoon last summer in Oxford at Schollie's and she told me about running into Magda and how that had made her feel, I could see she wasn't going to be happy unless she had her sweet little bride to play with for a while. And I can't stand to see her unhappy.'

'You killed Philip Carling? It was you?' This time, Charlie couldn't hide her shock.

'Of course. I was at the same conference as Jay that weekend. We had a drink together right after she'd bumped into Magda. She was on another planet. I did what anybody who really loved her would do. I made her happy.'

There was a long silence. 'You're telling me this because you're planning to kill me, right?'

Lisa's reply was forestalled by the ringing of Charlie's phone. Lisa pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the screen. 'Nick Nicolaides,' she said. 'Who's he?'

'Just a friend,' Charlie said, trying for casual.

'A friend? Really? Well, let's see what your friend has got to say to your voicemail.' She waited, holding the phone in front of her so she could keep Charlie in her eyeline. Before long, the voicemail chime rang out. Lisa pressed the icon to put it on speaker and listened intently, her expression darkening as the significance of the message dawned on her.

'Charlie, it's Nick. Amazing, but the telecom people got back to us. Jay made one call from the mountain. She was on the line for twelve minutes. The number she called is the landline for Lisa Kent. Isn't that the woman you were talking to about Jay? I think you might need to cover your back here. Call me when you get this.'

It could hardly have been worse, Charlie thought. Absolutely no prospect of talking her way out of this with a promise of silence now.

Lisa's top lip drew back in a sneer. 'Oh, Charlie, you couldn't leave well alone, could you?'

'What did you say to her, Lisa? Did you talk her into cutting the rope? Was that what the call was about?' Time to go on the attack, Charlie thought. Passivity wasn't going to get her anywhere now.

'She called me because it was on last number redial. She wanted me to alert the mountain rescue because she didn't have a number for them and her battery was low. I persuaded her that if they weren't there within two hours, she should cut the rope and save herself. Then I went shopping.' She grinned. 'It took me at least two hours to get round to calling them. Which was a good thing, because Kathy was being very difficult about the sale of
doitnow.com
.'

'I don't think cutting the rope made Jay very happy.'

Lisa shrugged. 'Temporarily, no. But it was best in the long run.'

There was no doubt in Charlie's mind that she was dealing with one of the most disordered personalities she'd ever encountered. That she had allowed herself to become besotted with her was deeply shaming. But then the sophistication and consistency of Lisa's delusion and her capacity for concealing it were remarkable. The problem now was that in order to maintain the integrity of her beliefs, Lisa would have to kill Charlie. It was time to start trying to save herself the only way she knew how. 'Killing me's a really bad idea,' Charlie said.

'I don't think so.'

'Lots of people know I've been investigating Jay. Nick Nicolaides. Maria. Corinna Newsam. If I turn up dead here, with Jenna's body, it points straight to Jay. You'd be putting her right in the firing line.'

Lisa laughed. It didn't sound in the least mad; more like an ordinary person who's heard a good joke. 'Good try, Charlie. But not good enough. You see, when Jay hid the body, she also took the murder weapon back home. Wiped it down and put it back where it belonged, in the shed in Howard Calder's yard. It's been there ever since.' She took a couple of steps back into the hallway and reached down with her left hand, never taking her eyes off Charlie. She reappeared, a cricket bat in her hand. 'Until this morning. And look, here, on the top of the flat side. Burned into the wood. H. Calder. It's probably still got traces of Jenna's DNA on it. Soon to be joined by your DNA.'

'Why would Howard kill me?'

'Obviously, because you found out he'd killed Jenna.'

Charlie shook her head, bemused. 'Why would Howard keep the murder weapon? As far as he was concerned, he left it at the scene of the crime. How would he deal with it turning up in his shed?'

'Good question. Jay reckons he thought the whole after-math of the crime was God doing him a favour. He must have been baffled by the disappearance of the body and the reappearance of the cricket bat. She always thought that's why he made such a big deal of hassling the police about Jenna's disappearance. He thought he was bombproof because God was on his side. He'd done God's work, getting rid of the sinner. Completely nuts, if you ask me.'

He wasn't the only one, Charlie thought. 'Nick knows about you,' she said. 'He's a police officer. He's going to ask some questions.'

'He'll be a voice in the wilderness. I'll get away with this, Charlie. Just like I always do.' She leaned the bat against the door jamb and took a step forward, raising the pepper spray. 'Goodbye, Charlie.'

'No, Lisa.' The voice came from the hallway. Lisa froze, a look of happy amazement spreading across her face. She half-turned as Jay Stewart walked into the room, the spray still pointing at Charlie but her eyes swivelling towards the door.

It was a half-chance for Charlie, but she didn't dare take it. She had no idea whose side Jay was on. Was she here to help Lisa or to save Charlie? Or something else entirely?

Jay looked beyond Charlie to the ruins of the wall she'd built nineteen years before and shuddered. 'Jesus,' she said, her face twisted in pain. 'I never imagined ...' Her voice trailed off and she dashed a hand roughly across her eyes. Then somehow she pulled herself together. Charlie saw her shoulders square and her jaw set. 'It's time for this to stop, Lisa. This isn't helping me. I don't want any more deaths on my conscience.'

Lisa's smile was strained for the first time. 'They shouldn't be on your conscience. They're not worth bothering about.'

Jay shook her head. 'We always end up on the opposite side on this one, Lisa,' she said sadly. 'We're not a superior species, you and me. We're human, just like the people you've killed. I want it to stop. That's what it's going to take for me to be happy.' She moved back towards the door, so Lisa couldn't watch both her and Charlie at the same time.

Lisa's head swivelled between them like a spectator at a table tennis game. 'You don't know what's best for you, Jay. You never have. That's always been the trouble.' She pounded on her chest with her free hand. 'I'm the one who knows. All over the world, people accept I'm the one who knows what's best. They come to my seminars, they buy my books. Because I understand, because I know what's best.'

Jay shook her head. 'I'm not arguing, Lisa. I'm done with this.' She held out her hand. 'Give me the spray.'

Lisa looked as if she was going to cry. The conflict between what she wanted to do and what Jay was asking of her was ripping her up. 'I can't do that,' she cried. 'You've got to trust me, Jay. Go, now. Just go. You don't have to be part of this. I'll deal with it. Like I always do.'

'I'm not going.' Jay took a step closer to Lisa, closing the angle and making it harder for Lisa to keep both women in her sights.

Suddenly Lisa pushed Jay in the chest, shoving her hard against the wall. 'I'm doing this for your sake,' she screamed, whirling round to face Charlie.

Charlie squeezed her eyes tight shut and threw herself at the floor. But instead of the aerosol hiss she expected, she heard a scuffle of feet, a thud and the clatter of something metallic hitting the wall. Then a voice shouting, 'No, Lisa.' A scream and the sound of bodies moving.

Charlie scuttled backwards till she hit the chimney breast then opened her eyes to see Lisa on the floor, struggling with Jay. 'Let go of me,' Lisa screamed. 'I'm doing this for you.'

Jay wrestled against her, grunting as Lisa elbowed her in the ribs. 'For fuck's sake, help me here,' she shouted.

Charlie hadn't been in a fight since she'd turned six, but the odds were decent and it was her life that was on the line, she reminded herself as she threw her body over Lisa's thrashing legs. She turned her head in time to see Jay land a punch that rocked Lisa's head back to hit the floor. Dazed, Lisa tried to swing her fist at Jay, but Charlie was able to grab her wrist.

And then it was all over. Lisa went limp, all fight gone from her. Without getting off her, Jay pulled the belt from her jeans. 'Tie her ankles up,' she ordered Charlie.

Feeling foolish, like a character in a bad TV show, Charlie did as she was told, then stood up. Warily, Jay eased herself up and away from Lisa, who turned her face away and hugged herself tightly. Her jaw was already red and swollen, a bruise in the making. 'I'm sorry,' Jay said, rearranging her clothes and running a hand through her hair.

'It's a bit late for that,' Charlie said. 'Four people dead because you didn't put a stop to her before now? Sorry doesn't begin to cover it.'

'So what happens next? You're going to wreck some more lives? And for what? Some crazy idea of justice? I know all about your relationship with justice, Dr Flint. There's four dead women whose families know all about it too.'

All the rage that Charlie had been keeping in check suddenly surfaced. 'Putting Lisa Kent behind bars will save lives. Mine, for example.'

'You know that's not necessarily true. Surely it's clear to you that she's mad as a box of frogs? You must have a colleague who'd agree with you that she needs to be sectioned. For her own safety. Look at her.' She pointed to Lisa, who was mumbling incomprehensibly into the carpet. 'If that's how she reacts to the small matter of me turning against her, I think it's safe to say you can demonstrate she's completely off her chops.'

Charlie shook her head. 'Her delusions are too organised. She'll get herself together and convince the powers that be that she's as sane as anyone can reasonably be expected to be. Then she'll be out, and who knows what she'll think is necessary then? There's no way round this, Jay. We need to call the police.'

'You'll be putting Howard Calder behind bars too.'

'It's where he should be. He killed your mother. Don't you care about that?'

Jay sighed and stared out of the window. 'I think Howard's inhabited his own personal hell for twenty years. Prison, punishment, pain - that would be a relief for him. So no, I don't want the law to extract its pathetic price from Howard. I'm happy for things to stay just the way they are.'

'You don't have the right to make that choice. There's a price we pay for being part of society. You don't get to make rules that apply only to you. I don't care how much money you have or how clever a businesswoman you are. The law isn't always fair. Nobody knows that better than me right now. But it's the best we've got. Now give me your phone.'