Page 11 of The Serial Killer’s Sister (The Serial Killer’s Daughter #3)
There are three missed-call notifications on my mobile – all from Serena.
I’d turned it off while DI Walker was here so as not to be distracted, but now I know I should return her call or she’ll worry and likely drive over to check up on me.
I don’t want her getting mixed up in any of this.
The police might well believe that Henry wouldn’t be stupid enough to hang around my place now, but I don’t want to chance it in case they’re wrong.
‘Sorry, Serena. I didn’t hear my phone.’
‘Thank God for that! I was in full panic mode after the third try and so I called The Right Price to speak to Ross—’
‘Oh, really?’ I screw up my eyes and silently curse my friend for caring so much about me that she’d call my husband at his estate agency. Please have been out conducting a viewing. ‘Was he there?’
‘No …’
I heave a sigh. ‘Good,’ I say, without thinking.
‘… but he came into the office just as Yasmin was about to hang up, so …’ Serena falters as I give an audible groan.
‘Er … should I not have spoken to him?’ Bafflement spills out through the words.
I rub a hand over my forehead. Damn. I should’ve foreseen someone telling Ross, and pre-empted it by calling and explaining the situation immediately. I think it’s too late now …
‘What did you say to him?’
‘I only said I’d been trying to get hold of you, but of course, he was confused as to why I wasn’t with you, given the time.’
‘Please tell me you didn’t mention the suspension. I haven’t had a chance to talk with him.’ Like a child, I cross my fingers as I wait for her response.
‘Not in so many words,’ she says, slowly. I can hear guilt in her tone. ‘But he might have got that impression.’
My stomach dips. ‘How?’
‘Well, I had to say something about why I was worried, didn’t I? So I did imply that you’d had to go home early … like, against your will.’
I hold my sigh in and count to three to calm myself. ‘It’s fine, I don’t expect you to lie for me, Serena. It’s my fault, I could’ve dropped in to see him on my way home. I was just in the worst mood and stupidly thought it’d be better if I waited until he got back from work.’
‘Probably best not to air your laundry in public anyway,’ Serena says. Her falsely light and breezy voice takes on a heavier, uneasy tone. ‘Although, that ship might well have sailed.’
My heart plummets. ‘He hasn’t seen the footage, has he?’ Now it’s my turn to be in full panic mode. It really needs to come from me, with me controlling the narrative as much as possible. Limit the damage somehow.
‘I’m sorry, Anna, I think …’ She’s speaking, but the words are no longer reaching my brain, or at least my brain has stopped paying attention, because the sound of the key in the lock has superseded them.
‘Got to go.’ I hang up and head straight for the door. Ross’s face is pale, startled, as I leap at him the second he walks in. Not wishing to give him a chance to get a word in first, either, I plant my lips firmly on his and kiss him hard. He pushes me away.
‘Ow, Anna.’ He presses his fingers to his mouth. ‘Jesus.’
‘Sorry, just pleased to see you. Been a hell of a day.’ I place my hands on his cheeks, offering a smile. He squints.
‘Yes. So I heard.’
‘Let’s sit, shall we? I’ll get the wine.
’ And before he can decline, I rush towards the kitchen.
I slam around for a bit, collecting two glasses from the dishwasher before snatching the already opened bottle from the fridge.
My hands shake as I pour the remaining liquid almost equally between them.
I add a little more into mine, swig a mouthful, check it’s equal, then take the glasses into the lounge.
Ross isn’t sitting.
‘Here.’ I give him his glass and take a seat on the cuddle chair by the window. There’s a chill in the air, but it’s a warm May evening so I know it’s nothing to do with weather and everything to do with atmosphere. ‘I have a few things to say.’
‘Me too,’ he says, taking a sip of wine.
‘Can you sit with me?’ I pat the space beside me, my stomach tensing as I watch his face.
We’ve been good together lately. Our bumpy patch from last year seems like a distant memory.
Or it had done, until this moment. Now, as I await his reaction with trepidation, that patch comes hurtling to the fore once again.
Our discussions about the future of our marriage, my resolution that we shouldn’t bring children into this world even though it was at odds with my yearning for them, were some of the hardest conversations we’d ever had.
We made it past that test, though; put our arguments behind us – laid them to rest – after Ross came around to my way of thinking and we moved on.
But now, with this new challenge, the old issue feels like it’s bubbling just under the surface, threatening to expose itself. Nothing is ever truly buried.
‘Look, it doesn’t matter what spin you put on it …’ Ross sits down, but not beside me, and he keeps his eyes averted. ‘You should’ve told me straight away, not let me find out in such a … a … humiliating way, Anna.’ He’s keeping me at arm’s length, preventing physical contact.
‘Humiliating? You think you found out in a humiliating way? Try being dragged into Craig Beaumont’s bloody office and being forced to watch it in front of him!’ My face is hot, about to burst into flames, my entire body’s volume of blood seemingly squashed into it at this moment.
‘I’d take that over a client, someone who’s known me and my family for years, being sent a video link on her mobile phone while I was trying to close a deal, Anna.’
‘Bit rude to look at a video while having a meeting.’
‘That’s not the point and you know it. She opened it, watched with her mouth agape, then stared at me as though I was a serial killer—’
‘That’s not funny.’
‘No. And neither is seeing my deranged wife about to attack a child, Anna.’ His eyes bulge, the vein on his temple throbs. I haven’t seen him this angry. Ever. ‘What were you thinking?’
I stand up and begin to pace. ‘Obviously I wasn’t thinking, was I? I was reeling from the detective’s visit. My mind was all over the place. But whoever posted that video did it to make me look bad—’
‘They didn’t have to try very hard.’
A deep ache pulls at my stomach as the contempt in his voice hits me. ‘It didn’t happen the way it looks. Honestly.’ I suddenly feel so tired, and sit back down, head in hands.
Ross huffs. ‘The camera never lies.’
‘Well, actually, that’s not true. But anyway, it’s not that – the footage was abruptly stopped, Ross.
Just at the point it seemed like I was going to lay my hands on her.
If it’d been allowed to play out, you, and everyone else, would’ve seen that I didn’t hurt her, I was apologetic and helped her back to the pavement. ’
‘You’re not getting it are you? Even if what you say is true, you’d already scarred that poor girl with the way you launched at her.’
‘But … like I said, I apologised …’ My words sound feeble now, and as Ross shrugs and averts his gaze, I fear I’m wasting them.
‘If that’s the way you treat kids, Anna, maybe it’s a good thing we’re not having them.’
My jaw slackens and I have to fight back tears. Great. He is still holding a grudge about our agreement not to have children. All these years working hard to create this life, and within a day, it’s gone to rat shit. How can something that’s so challenging and difficult to gain be so easy to lose?