Page 70 of The Hideaway
She hadn’t done that, though; she’dwantedHannah to die, be left to rot in her own sodding jungle. And then the others. Ben – she’d killed him in cold blood, for God’s sake. If shehad somehow got rid of the other three, she might have had a chance to come up with some kind of story about them all turning on each other, with no one left alive to contradict it. But there was no way she could have taken them all on by herself.
No, she is a criminal, and people know it. She could be on the run for the rest of her life.
But over the past few weeks, she has started to feel a touch braver. No one is coming for her. No one even has any idea she is alive. She’d made it to this internet cafe a fortnight back, did a quick check for herself online:TWO DEAD IN SANCTUARY TRAGEDY. INFLUENCER’S MURDERER PRESUMED DEAD.
She might just have got away with this. And it is agood thing, what she’s done. Getting rid of Hannah, wiping out her dangerous brand of influence from the world.
But the thing is, she’s only wiped one of them out. And that bothers her. In just a few hours of surfing Instagram and TikTok, she can see that these influencers seem to multiply, to breed like rabbits. Every time one of them disappears, another springs up in their place.
Another, like Olivia.
Olivia with her three million Instagram followers, and her reels on the healing power of affirmation. Olivia, who preaches about how modern medicine and traditional therapy justcan’t get to the root of traumain the way that chanting and raising your vibration can.
Olivia, who is, at this very moment, offering her followers the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come and meet her at her retreat near Santo Domingo, less than two hundred miles awayfrom where Carly is right now. It is fate – it is destiny. Surely it has to be. This is Carly’s life’s work now; her mission.
She has it all planned out. In her vlog, she will be Laura from Hertfordshire, a yoga teacher who’s been travelling for some time but is now living simply on the Venezuelan coast after going through a tragic event last year. She’ll make sure to bring tears to her eyes, to talk about her insomnia and her terrible anxiety. She’ll say how, if she gets the opportunity to work with Olivia, she’ll be able to pass her techniques on to other people, help spread her amazing work.
She’ll even offer to come a day early and help Olivia get everything set up for the retreat. Make it all perfect for the other guests. Just say the word, and she’ll be there.
Carly checks her reflection one more time, clears her throat, practiseshellounder her breath in her most clipped English accent.
She takes a deep breath, and hits record.