‘Please, Nick,’ Maggie begged. ‘He always meant to come back for you! I know you still love him! If you’ve got any feelings left for him, you’ll call an ambulance now!’
‘Hmm.’ Nick tapped a finger to his mouth. ‘Let me think about that.’ Tap, tap, tap, as Duncan’s breathing became more and more laboured.
‘Please,’ Maggie sobbed, looking not at Nick now but at Duncan, capturing his unfocused gaze, willing him to hold on.
‘Okay. I’ve thought. And the answer is . . .!’ He made the words perky, like a game show host. ‘No! Whatever feelings I once had for you, Dad? You’ve ripped them out and stamped all over them and kicked them to death! So don’t look at me like that. You’ve only yourself to blame. Now hurry up and die, because I don’t want to have to stab you again. It’s not like I’m a psychopath or something, eh, Mags?’ He chuckled.
There was no hope.
None.
Of course there wasn’t.
Maggie tuned Nick out. She concentrated only on Duncan, and as the blood left his body and he faded in front of her eyes, she lifted her voice and spoke only to him. ‘That walk we did on Saturday up the hill, when we saw that wee frog in the grass, and the branches of the trees were all dancing away in the breeze – mind that? And I finally identified a dunnock disguised as a sparrow, and you said all I needed was the Fair Isle jumper and clipboard to make me a proper bird watcher, you cheeky bugger? And we had ourselves a wee paddle in the stream. And all the time I was wanting to say it but that’s not me, I’m not a heart-on-her-sleeve kind of girl, am I? I was wanting to say you’ve given me a life. You’ve made me that happy, Duncan Clyde, and I think I’m not being too big-headed if I say I think I’ve made you happy too? Me and Isla. Oh aye, we’ve had a good life, you and me, and nothing’s forever, eh? But we’ve had it good. We’ve had it so, so good, and I don’t have to say it because you know you’re the love of my life and I wouldn’t change a thing.’
But he was gone.
He had gone, before he could hear her say it.
Now Nick was saying something. He was moving towards her. She made herself breathe, slow and even. She closed her eyes, and she took herself off on that walk up the hill with Duncan, to the wee frog and the dunnock and the stream flowing by.
But it didn’t happen.
Nick said, ‘How very touching,’ and then he was pressing something into her palm, and when Maggie opened her eyes she saw it was the handle of the knife, the knife he had used to stab Duncan. She tried to pull her hand away but his hand was round hers, forcing her to grip the handle.
‘Perfect,’ he said cheerily, walking away from her and looking down at Duncan, head on one side. ‘Just . . . here, I think.’ He dropped the knife. ‘And there would be a bit more stuff knocked around, I feel. You made it too easy for me, Mags.’ He grabbed a shelf unit and pulled it over, books and ornaments tipping out onto the carpet. Then he pushed over a chair.
‘A tragic sequence of events. Duncan wanted to reconcile with me, but evil stepmother Mags wouldn’t let him. Things got a bit heated. You’ve always been so fucking volatile, Mags! You’ve always hated me for no reason and resented my closeness to Dad – so much so that you made out I was some kind of nutter and persuaded him to abandon me all those years ago. When you found him texting me, you smashed his phone. Where’s Dad’s phone?’
Dad. The word was all wrong on his lips.
‘Never mind, I’m sure I can find it. In the bedroom charging?’
He was back in less than a minute with Duncan’s phone, holding it by the edges. He bent to Duncan’s body and took Duncan’s hand in his gloved one.
‘Ooh, goody, fingerprint recognition. Dad always did like a gadget.’ He straightened; strolled to the couch. ‘Okay. Let’s see. I’ve left my phone in the house, switched on, so it should get this pronto, eh, Mags? Nick. So sorry for everything. Can we talk tomorrow just us two? Dad’s old-school. Would spell out the “two”。 Maggie went apeshit. Or no, Dad doesn’t swear. Maggie went ballistic after you left. Don’t come back here. I’ve locked myself in the loo. She was scaring me TBH. Going to try to calm her down. Let me know time and place if you want to meet. Dad. Would he add a kiss? Probably, in the circumstances. Right. Perfect. Off it goes. It’ll flash up on my screen, and there’ll be nothing to say whether I was there to read it or not. The wonders of modern technology.’