Page 177 of The Guilty Girl

‘Lucy was in your apartment? For fuck’s sake. Did you watch her every second she was there?’

‘No. Should I have?’

‘I bet the sneaky little bitch accessed your computer. She probably copied your hard drive. Why else would she agree to meet you up there?’

‘She liked me.’

‘She despised you, like I despise you. I want the truth about what happened the night of the party. Now!’ She couldn’t help the screech in her voice. Her baby could be dead, and Terry was acting like a total fuckwit.

He leaned forward. ‘You never understood me, Brontë. All you wanted was money. I was the one putting my head on the block for you.’

‘If you don’t tell me what went on after the party, I’ll call the guards myself.’

‘You’re a bitch, you know that? Lucy liked me, and I couldn’t understand why she’d changed. She resisted when I tried to kiss her and I hardly had the condom on when she started calling me a rapist. She started screaming that she was going to the guards, that she had—’

‘Evidence?’ God, but he was so stupid. ‘And then you go and kill her in her own house! It’s crawling with cops and forensics. Your DNA must be everywhere.’

‘The bitch got away from me, yelling blue murder. I grabbed a knife and went for her in the living room. She fought like a demon. Bruised the shit out of me. I totally lost it then. It was like I was in a final round just seconds before the bell. I chased her up the back stairs and I … I shut her up for good.’

‘That was so fucking stupid. Even more stupid was killing Jake Flood. Why?’

‘I found the little shit cowering behind the drinks table. He saw and heard everything. I went for him with the knife and he started to run. I was high on adrenaline, like I am in the ring, and I grabbed him and threw him across the room. He went through the patio door.’

‘Then you had the bright idea to involve my father.’ Her blood pressure was surely through the roof, but she couldn’t calm down. ‘For fuck’s sake, Terry!’

‘Where else was I to go with a half-dead teenager? I bundled him into his car and drove him to Barney’s. He had to help me because I’ve made you both so much money. He said he’d deal with Jake, and I hightailed it to the airport.’

‘Why leave?’

‘To give myself an alibi. If I was in Spain, I couldn’t have killed anyone, could I?

‘You didn’t think that other people might need an alibi, did you? Don’t answer that.’ She felt nauseous and still her baby was motionless. ‘You shouldn’t have come back.’

‘I had to. What Lucy said about that little weasel Sharon … I couldn’t trust the kid. Plus there was Ivy with a mouth on her. They were threatening everything I’d built up.’

‘You shouldn’t have killed the kid.’

‘If your dumbass father had got there before the guards they would never have found her.’

‘I can’t believe that Ivy turned up at my house.’ Brontë shook her head angrily. ‘The bitch my husband was fucking prances up to my front door and … Oh fuck it, Terry, you’re a dose, you know that? A bloody great dose.’

She dragged herself up from the armchair and walked around the room, tapping her tummy anxiously. Still no movement. She paused at the window and glanced out.

‘Holy shit! Fuck!’

She sensed Terry moving to stand beside her. ‘Is it the baby? Has the little bastard moved?’

‘Look outside! It’s the guards! They’ve brought the bloody army!’

As she turned to leave the room, the baby kicked and she sank to the floor with relief.

‘It’s over, Terry. The whole thing is over. Your stupidity has brought everything down around our ears. I hope you rot in a hole.’

‘I never wanted you on board anyway,’ he spat. ‘Barney thought you could help us find more girls after Sarah got cold feet. Photos are old-school, he said. It’s all video now, he said, and my Brontë is good at that. Your dear daddy. The money I was about to make from Sharon alone … If I go down, rest assured, you and your old man are coming with me.’

A huge crash rang out from the hallway, and Brontë Harrison’s world collapsed along with her front door.

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