All Fall Down: A gripping psychological thriller with a twist that will take your breath away (24 page)

W
endy wrestled
her way out of a long, traumatic dream, only for the details to vanish upon waking, leaving her nothing but a feeling of the most profound sorrow.

Then she opened her eyes and understood why.

Is Georgia all right?
– that was her first clear thought.
Had they left her alone during the night?

Somehow the four of them had managed to sleep, lying back with their hands resting in their laps and their feet bound together. The little twitches and kicks from the others had disturbed her sleep and influenced her nightmares: now she recalled how at one point she’d been deep underwater, her legs trapped in a discarded fishing net.

The room was unusually gloomy, even though Wendy had a sense that it was quite late. The birdsong was muted, whereas normally she would wake to hear them in full voice. On a fine day she liked to creep downstairs and step barefoot on to the lawn, the cool grass sparkling with dew beneath the rising sun, the whisper of the sea like a soothing chant. . .

All just a daydream now, a hopeless fantasy.

She wondered why they’d been left undisturbed for so long. Gabriel and his followers were surely running on adrenalin, enhanced by whatever artificial stimulants they were taking. So why weren’t they up and about?

Something’s happened
. Wendy had no idea where the conviction came from, but once lodged in her mind it wouldn’t be argued away.

Around her lay the three other points of their awkward, poignant cross. Josh had managed to roll on to his side with his hands tight beneath his chin, just as he used to sleep as a child. Wendy felt a wave of tender concern as she studied the bruises, the dried blood that marked his and Evan’s faces.

I want revenge
, she thought with uncharacteristic venom.
I want the people who did this to suffer
.

Rob was snoring, but Wendy tuned it out and listened with all her might; after hearing nothing for five, ten minutes, she dared to wonder: had they gone? Was it possible that these monsters had lost their nerve and chosen to sneak away, never to be seen again?

Oh, please
.

And then she heard it: a voice from the next room. It was female – Lara, probably. Not words, but a yelp. A cry of alarm.

Something’s happened.

K
yle didn’t move
at first. He wanted to make the most of this opportunity to study her face. Usually Lara hated it when he leered at her, but right now she had other things on her mind.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked.

‘He won’t wake up. I’ve tried listening for his heart but I can’t, because of how he is. . .’ She choked back a sob. ‘I don’t think he’s breathing.’

Kyle frowned. ‘Where’s Ilsa?’

‘I-I don’t know. She might have gone outside.’

His frown deepened. He didn’t like it that Ilsa could have moved through the house without him hearing. What was she up to?

‘Milo?’ he asked.

‘I didn’t want to wake him yet.’ Lara looked embarrassed. ‘I thought he might panic.’

Whereas I won’t
. Kyle swelled a little at that. Even though Lara hated his guts, it was him she’d come to for help.

Following her upstairs was another rare treat. Her bare legs were long and tanned. She wore only a baggy white t-shirt and possibly a thong, possibly not; a tantalising thought that carried him to the landing, where she turned and made a shushing gesture. Milo was curled up on the floor outside Georgia’s room, like a faithful family dog.

The bedroom Gabriel had chosen for himself was the daughter’s room, judging by the personal effects. The bed was a large single, up against the wall, and Gabriel was lying with his back to them, no more than a beached whale beneath a thin duvet.

That explained her doubts; apologetically, she said, ‘I couldn’t move him.’

‘All right.’ First they needed more light. Kyle swept the curtains open and experienced a moment of utter confusion.

The world had vanished.

Then he registered the droplets of water on the glass, the sense of a shifting mass, and realised what it was. A dense sea fog had descended during the night.

‘Jeez.’ He turned, knelt on the edge of the bed and placed one hand on Gabriel’s thigh, another on his spine. The Leader didn’t stir.

‘Oh my God.’ Lara issued a long, quiet moan.

‘Gabriel?’ Pressing harder now, Kyle half stood, pulling on Gabriel’s shoulder until eventually the giant mass moved and he flopped on to his back. Kyle stumbled off the bed but just managed to avoid falling to the floor.

Gabriel’s face was visible now. Lara edged closer to Kyle, her body actually nudging against his as she stared, horrified, at what had become of the man she worshipped.

Kyle glanced at the blank sheet of mist beyond the window, and for a moment it was as though they had all been transported – as a consequence of their crimes, perhaps – to a kind of netherworld; a purgatory.

‘I don’t believe it.’ He looked and sounded genuinely stunned. ‘This is. . .’

Perfect
, he thought, but could not say.

R
ob woke to a nightmare
, his whole body stiff and aching. His first impulse was to turn and stretch, but neither his arms nor his legs would properly obey. Opening his eyes, he found Wendy regarding him with a sad smile.

‘I wish I could say it was a bad dream.’

‘Uh?’ He lifted his head, winced, and saw the twins were stirring. ‘You okay?’ he asked Wendy.

‘About as well as expected.’

‘Any idea if Georgia. . .?’

She shook her head. The anxiety was worn deep into her face. Rob felt his stomach lurch as it hit home all over again: the desperate trouble they were in.

‘Do you think we should call out?’ he asked, but Wendy gave a start, turning towards the wall. There were voices coming from the next bedroom.

They listened carefully, heard a door open, then creaks on the stairs. Wendy said, ‘I think something’s gone wrong.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Just listen.’

So he did – sceptically at first; but then, as he heard more movement, more hushed voices, he began to think Wendy was right.

G
abriel was stone dead
; the dullness of his eyes made that clear. But still Kyle went through the motions of trying to find a pulse, listening for a breath, watching for the telltale rise and fall of his chest.

Nothing, on all scores.

‘What do we do?’ Lara asked.

Lost in thought, Kyle didn’t respond at first. ‘I suppose he didn’t look well – last night, I mean.’

‘He wasn’t,’ Lara agreed. The tears had started to flow. ‘He s-said to leave him but I w-was worried. So I s-slept here. . .’ She pointed to a thin, crumpled duvet on the floor, then was overcome, dropping to her knees and sobbing into her hands.

Kyle watched for a moment, before kneeling down and drawing her into an embrace. To his astonishment, Lara didn’t resist. Didn’t even wrinkle her nose at the smell of him, or flinch as his hands roamed over her back and – very nearly – her tight little butt. He felt himself getting aroused, but knew there were other priorities.

She’d placed the gun on the floor beside her; Kyle could easily have taken it, but didn’t want to poison the mood. Gently, he said, ‘We need to discuss this. I’ll wake Milo. Can you go and look for Ilsa?’

On the landing he paused to listen for any sounds coming from their prisoners. Lara started down the stairs, just as Ilsa strolled into sight from the kitchen.

‘Awake at last!’ she said, with her usual snooty disapproval. There was a whole hotchpotch of different nationalities in her DNA, but Kyle had only ever thought of her as a Nazi.

‘Where were you?’ he demanded.

‘Taking a walk in the garden.’

Kyle snorted, as if he didn’t believe her, then prodded Milo with his foot. ‘Come on, sleeping beauty.’

Milo stirred, rubbed his eyes and sat up, then realised that the four of them were clustered on the narrow landing. ‘Where’s Gabriel?’

This could have been Lara’s moment, but her nervous hesitation gave Kyle his chance.

‘He’s dead.’

T
heir first reaction
, not unnaturally, was disbelief, so Kyle strode into the bedroom and waited as they filed in after him.

‘Until we’ve decided how to play this, we don’t want the family knowing.’

It was advice that Ilsa immediately disregarded. ‘What has happened to him?’ she asked in a strident voice.

‘Ssh!’ Kyle hissed. ‘I have no idea. I was downstairs, asleep.’

‘Gabriel wasn’t well,’ Lara said. ‘I offered to stay with him, but the bed isn’t. . .’ Her voice cracked. ‘Wasn’t big enough. I slept on the floor.’

‘Didn’t he. . . I don’t know. . . cry out or something?’ Milo asked, staring incredulously at the body.

‘I didn’t hear a thing. I kind of slept really heavily, I suppose.’ She looked stricken with guilt. ‘This morning, I tried to wake him and. . . and—’

‘Came to alert me,’ Kyle finished, then turned to Ilsa. ‘You were nowhere to be found.’

‘I was in the garden.’ Ilsa sounded defensive – and they all noticed it.

‘So wh-what happened to him?’ Milo sniffed; he too had started to cry.

‘The likeliest explanation is a heart attack,’ Kyle offered. ‘He was a big man, carrying all that weight – and under a lot of stress.’

‘Oh, God,’ Lara cried, and threw herself into Milo’s arms.

Kyle frowned at her choice. ‘It’s very sad, but we have to think about us, and what we do next. . .’

‘Oh yes?’ Ilsa snorted. ‘And who made you the leader?’

‘I did,’ Kyle said lightly. The other two were blubbing, and probably couldn’t care less who led the group, but Ilsa planted her feet in a way that signalled wholehearted opposition.

‘I disagree. In Gabriel’s absence, I was the one to take charge.’

‘Maybe you were. But this time Gabriel’s absence is permanent, which changes everything.’ Kyle took out his phone and tapped in the passcode. ‘And this changes it even more.’

‘What are you doing?’ Ilsa asked. Milo and Lara caught her tone and broke apart.

‘Calling 999.’

‘You—’ Milo made a clumsy attempt to snatch the phone but Kyle dodged away, laughing.

‘That was a
joke
, you moron.’ He tapped on the gallery and held the phone out. The other three crowded together to look.

Mouths fell open.

Lara studied the screen and said, ‘That’s Ilsa. . . and Milo.’

‘Correct. But you don’t miss out.’ Kyle deftly swiped the screen, displaying image after image, and waited for the truth to hit home.

Milo looked as though he’d been punched in the stomach. ‘You took photographs of us with Baz?’

‘Lots of them. Hidden cameras are exceptionally good value nowadays.’ Kyle chuckled. ‘Oh, and the originals are stored elsewhere, so doing away with my phone – or with me – isn’t going to help you at all. Just in case that was on your mind.’

‘You traitorous little worm,’ Milo growled, his grief apparently forgotten.

‘Dirty,
pervy
sneak—’ Lara added, but Kyle raised a hand.

‘Save it. We have things to discuss.’

‘Like the terms of your blackmail?’ Ilsa’s gaze shifted to something Lara was trying to show her.

‘Not really,’ Kyle said. ‘This is more about
my
protection, given that I’m outnumbered. I have no intention of using these pictures – in fact,
I
’m in some of them. I did this to bind us together, so that we all understand what’s at stake, and no one gets any ideas about going it alone.’

At this he eyed Ilsa. He’d anticipated that she would have the greatest difficulty in accepting his authority, in part because he’d so skilfully played the role of weakling and loser for so long. And if he hadn’t been certain that she’d detested him before this, he was left in no doubt about it now.

‘What do you want?’ she asked, after exchanging another sly glance with Lara.

‘A discussion. Let’s face it, the Brood is finished. What we have to decide on now is an exit strategy.’

‘And you have something to propose?’

Kyle nodded. ‘The family must die, there’s no doubt about that. But forget all the ritual crap. We have a gun – and when the time comes, we use it.’ He mimed the act of shooting at close range. ‘Five bullets. Four executions. . .’

‘Four?’ Ilsa frowned.

‘And one suicide.’

O
ne kill each
.

The phrase Milo had used played in her mind almost constantly – that and his apologetic offer to make it quick, if he could. As if that was any consolation.

Georgia knew she must have slept a little, but it hadn’t really felt like it. Trying to remove the screw was unbearably painful. Her wrist burned from the way she was stretching against the cuff. Her fingers throbbed as badly as when she’d once caught them in a cupboard door; all the skin had been rubbed from the pads during the hours she’d spent trying to grip the screw tightly enough to turn it.

But it was nearly there; another half turn, perhaps two, and it would be loose enough to remove easily. . .

In between work on the screw, she’d rested, and tried to stretch and move around as much as the handcuff allowed. She’d lost all track of time, but thought it was around seven or eight in the morning when the need to pee became unbearable. To avoid wetting the bed, she managed to twist her body far enough to urinate on the floor, and afterwards wiped herself with a corner of the sheet. She felt horribly ashamed of herself, and the smell was rank, but this was still better than lying in a pool of it.

Working on the screw was so hard, but so boring, that she managed to tune it out and let her mind drift off. She fantasised about nice things – her own bed at home, a big roast dinner, playing on her
Sims
games – while trying to block out a regular pulse of fear.

One kill each. One kill each.

The toilet paper she’d got from Milo had helped to create a drier, firmer grip, but it had quickly shredded, the fragments dissolved by her sweat. That didn’t matter so much now; neither did the pain, because she could feel she was getting somewhere.

She was close, but was she close enough? For hours it had been silent, but now she could hear movement in the house.

Time was running out.

‘
G
eorgia
?’ Unusually, it was Milo who got it first.

Kyle nodded. ‘Adopted kid, troubled past – she goes crazy and kills the family, then takes her own life.’

Lara looked sceptical. ‘What about the gun?’

‘Belonged to Dad. Not impossible.’

Ilsa had a wry smile. ‘And the fire, to remove our DNA?’

‘That still happens. Before she tops herself, she sets the house alight.’

Milo shrugged, and so did Lara; even Ilsa looked to be warming to the idea. She leaned over and murmured to Lara, before addressing Kyle: ‘What does this mean, “When the time comes”?’

‘There’s also the question of our future. I’m certain that Rob’s got a stash of money hidden from the taxman.’

‘But you didn’t find it when you searched the house.’

‘There wasn’t time then.’ Kyle glowered at her. ‘Anyway, we get hold of that, share it between us and then we’re free to move on with our lives.’

‘What reason does he have to tell us where it’s hidden?’ Lara asked, and Milo winced.

‘That’s a good point. They know they’re not getting out of here alive.’

Kyle said, ‘Trust me, I reckon I can convince him to co-operate.’

Nodding thoughtfully, Ilsa said, ‘Perhaps we will go with your ideas, Kyle, but this does not mean you have the same authority as Gabriel.’ As she spoke, she was reaching behind Milo, taking something from Lara. ‘You are not the true leader, and never will be.’

Kyle humbly bowed his head. ‘That’s understood.’

‘I hope so. If you are tempted to deceive us, please remember that we have this. . .’

Both she and Lara were smiling triumphantly as Ilsa brought the gun into view. Kyle slumped his shoulders, as if conceding defeat, only to thrust his hand into his pocket and bring it back out in a fist.

‘Nice try.’ He opened his fingers and let them see the cartridges. ‘No good without ammo, I’m afraid.’

Ilsa went pale, her grand revolution snuffed out at birth. Milo gazed dumbly at Kyle, as if he’d witnessed magic, and said, ‘You emptied the magazine?’

Kyle nodded. ‘Last night, when it was my turn to guard the family.’ He stepped forward and casually took the gun from Ilsa. ‘Best if I take it, don’t you think?’

That was the moment of capitulation. While he had their full attention, he held up a hand. ‘Now, let’s spare a moment for the elephant in the room. . .’

He thought it a clever pun but Lara, when she realised what he meant, burst into tears again. Ilsa, though, seemed willing to take a pragmatic view.

‘We have to do something with Gabriel,’ she said.

‘Exactly. A burial at sea would be the best option.’

Milo snapped his fingers. ‘Yes!’ he said excitedly. ‘I think they’ve got a boat.’

‘It’ll have to wait until dark,’ Kyle said. ‘We’ll dispose of Gabriel, then back here to deal with the family. Agreed?’

With his plan grudgingly approved, Kyle concluded the meeting. Ilsa opened the door, ushered the other two out of the room, then barred his path.

‘I am suspicious about your reaction to Gabriel’s death,’ she told him. ‘For the rest of us, the pain is clear to see. But you. . . there is no grief. No shock.’

Kyle knew exactly what she was implying, and of course Ilsa knew that he knew. So he settled on a sombre, dignified expression, and said, ‘Gabriel’s ethos was all about adapting to change, quickly and ruthlessly. I guess I just learned that lesson better than you did.’