Olivia slumps into the armchair by the fire as though her legs can no longer keep her upright. She covers her face with her hands. Anastacia is pacing my living room as she tells her version of events, and Jay is standing by the fireplace, the dog on the floor by his side.
‘So they’re dead?’ Olivia says, removing her hands and staring up at Jay with her pale face. She looks a mixture of terrified and furious.
‘Of course they’re dead,’ snaps Jay. ‘If they’d had any chance of survival the idiot John-Paul put paid to any of that.’
‘Then why didn’t you just go to the police?’ Olivia wails. ‘It’s not like it was Mum’s fault. John-Paul was the one who’d taken them.’
Anastacia stops pacing and exchanges a glance with Jay. ‘He wasn’t in his right mind,’ she says quietly to Olivia. ‘And I wouldn’t have put it past him to hurt you. That night … I don’t know if he would have taken you as well if you hadn’t been trapped.’
‘So that’s why you didn’t ring the police? Because you thought he’d hurt me? Then what? You just let him go?’
Guilt is written all over Anastacia’s face. I watch as she locks eyes with Jay and, from the fury in his expression and the infinitesimal shake of his head, I can tell he’s silently communicating with her. And suddenly I know exactly why she didn’t go to the police.
‘You killed him, didn’t you?’
‘No!’ Olivia cries. ‘That can’t be right. He’s back. He’s been seen in Stafferbury.’
The look that passes between Jay and Anastacia tells me I’m right.
‘It was self-defence,’ cuts in Jay. ‘He went for her after she told him it was her fault he’d been caught with drugs in Bangkok.’
A sob escapes Anastacia’s lips. ‘I was terrified. He was deranged.’ I can tell from her face that she’s actually telling the truth. ‘In Thailand I was so angry with John-Paul, so angry, for the way he beat up Jay.’ The look she gives Jay is tender, but there is something else behind it too. Guilt, perhaps. ‘And I wanted to impress you,’ she says now to Jay, ‘so I agreed to take three of the Buddhas.’ She turns back to Olivia with a stricken expression. A confession between mother and daughter. ‘I knew it wasn’t the exact requirements of the customer. That was all eight of them. But it would be some money and it would be a way for me to prove to Jay how much I loved him. But then, at the last minute, in the minivan on the way to the airport I lost my nerve. So, as we were getting out of the van I shoved the ornaments into John-Paul’s bag. I never thought for a minute he’d get caught. And I thought even if he did the drugs were so well sealed …’ She groans. ‘But then … he was pulled out of the queue and his bag searched. And that was when … I didn’t mean for it to happen,’ she wails. ‘Please believe me, love,’ she says to Olivia. ‘It was just bad luck …’
Nobody speaks, not even Jay, although by his expression I can tell he’s heard this before. We’re all frozen in that moment until Anastacia speaks again. I know what she’s going to say and bile rises in my throat.
‘After I told him … that night … he went for me. I had to run for my life. He chased me into the stables, screaming that he was going to kill me. He wasn’t in his right mind, I knew that. And I …’ she pales ‘… I grabbed the first thing I could find, a pitch fork, and I – I drove it into him. It wasn’t premeditated. It was about survival. And then … Jay …’ I can see she’s trembling ‘… Jay turned up and …’ She looks at Olivia imploringly. ‘It was wrong to cover it up. But I was so scared of losing you. You had nobody else. If I’d called the police I could have gone to prison, and then what?’
Olivia shakes her head in confusion. ‘So John-Paul isn’t back in Stafferbury? Then why did you say he was? Why did you say he was looking for me?’
‘I … we …’ Her eyes flick to Jay and then back to her daughter. ‘We wanted people to think John-Paul was still alive. So over the years we would book things under his name. Just in case anyone was looking for him. We hadn’t done it for a while and then –’
‘Is that why you hid in the cabin opposite mine?’ I interject. ‘To make me think it might be John-Paul dossing down?’ I take the card Samuel gave me from my coat pocket and hold it up. ‘This was found in the cabin.’
Anastacia snatches it, turning it over in her hand. Then she hangs her head.
So she had been going in and out of the cabin with the dog. Jay must have been in on it too, gave her the key, then pretended not to know what I was talking about when he came to meet me that day.
‘But you ruined it all when you stupidly booked that B-and-B in the high street under his name,’ snaps Jay, ‘which led his brother here.’
‘I didn’t even know he had a brother!’ wails Anastacia, rounding on Jay. ‘How could I know that this would happen?’
‘So you panicked,’ says Olivia, in a strangled voice, ‘and told me that he was back.’
Anastacia looks shame-faced. ‘I had to go along with it when I found out his brother had arrived.’
‘So why did you tell me he’d killed Derreck?’
‘It was stupid … I was worried you’d find out that Derreck was really Jay. And …’
I remember Dale’s comments about the county-lines stuff, a Stafferbury drugs ring and Jay’s previous conviction. I’ve no doubt Jay – Derreck, whatever he wants to call himself these days – is involved.
Olivia’s eyes narrow. ‘Your friends … Maggie … they deserve to know the truth about what really happened.’ She turns to Jay. ‘This is all your fault,’ she spits. ‘I bet it was you who helped cover it all up.’
‘Yes. And I’ve been clearing up her fucking mess ever since.’ His tanned face is contorted with fury. ‘You,’ he snarls at me. ‘If you hadn’t come here, poking around, none of this would have happened. Thanks to you I’ve had the police sniffing around, looking into my affairs. My businesses.’
‘It has nothing to do with me,’ I say, trying to remain calm. ‘It sounds like they’ve been looking into you and the drugs ring for a while.’
Anastacia shoots Jay a scathing look. ‘Like I haven’t been covering for you too. Your drug deals. Getting Wesley involved. I told you not to do that. And then there’s Ralph …’
‘Shut up. You’ve already said too much.’
‘Stop!’ Olivia stands up. ‘Stop it. This ends here. It all ends here …’ She lets out an anguished sob. ‘Please, Mum. Just tell the police what you did. It was self-defence with John-Paul. And the others …’ A tear trickles down her face. ‘Their deaths weren’t your fault.’
Anastacia rushes to Olivia and takes her hand. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Tell them, please. For me.’
I stand up, too, and then I hear it. A laugh. Cruel and deep and guttural. It’s coming from Jay.