An Affair of the Heart (17 page)

Rachel gasped.
Her head came up and her legs stuck straight out. Slowly she
relaxed, and her head fell back to the floor. “That hurt,” she
moaned. And she started to cry.

Diana laughed
and punched her again.

Rachel heard
the blow this time, as well as feeling it. It was really hard and
loud. She was winded, and there was a sharp pain in her chest.

“Stop it! Stop
it!” she pleaded, gasping for breath.

Diana punched
her a third time.

Now Rachel felt
a much worse pain, and this time it didn’t stop after the punch.
She felt breathless, her heart missed a beat, and she suddenly felt
hot and faint.

There was a
flash of yellow and gold light, and Rachel heard a loud ‘gong’
sound. Almost immediately she felt Diana’s weight lift from her
body, and at the same time her hands became free. She rolled over
quickly, gasping for air and clutching at her chest. Even without
her glasses, Rachel could see Diana on her knees just in front of
her, propping herself up with one hand, and clutching at her head
with the other. And then she saw the other woman. She had bright
red hair, her clothes all looked sort of messed up, and she was
holding an enormous copper saucepan in her hands. She was also only
wearing one shoe and she had an intensely manic expression on her
face. Standing there right in front of Diana, she looked just like
some strange demented tennis player.

Helen
Worthington gripped the saucepan in both hands and swung it with
every ounce of strength in her body. It was a beautiful, two
handed, upwards forearm smash that would have been worthy of any
Wimbledon champion. Rachel watched it all as if it was in slow
motion. The base of the pan caught Diana Williams full in the face
with an enormous ‘gong,’ and a definite crunch. There was a
splatter of blood, and Diana was lifted right off the floor. She
just flew, her body going head over heels and landing with a crash
on top of the side table. Decorative china smashed and flew in all
directions, and the table collapsed. Diana just lay there in the
wreckage, her arms and legs spread out.

Helen
Worthington spun round, following through with her swing. She lost
her balance, hit the wall, and slid down to the floor. There she
sat, sort of dazed, still clutching the giant copper saucepan. She
looked up at Rachel, and smiled with immense satisfaction.

“That’s the
best bit of work I’ve done with a saucepan, in or out of the
kitchen, in years,” she said rather too calmly. Taking a deep
breath she added, “Actually, that’s the
only
bit of work
I’ve done with a saucepan in years.”

Helen looked
down at the saucepan. There was a deep, bloodstained dent in its
base. She held it up for Rachel to see, saying, “Let’s see them air
brush that out on her next photo shoot!”

Rachel merely
closed her eyes and fell forward, rolling over onto her face.

“I think she’s
only fainted,” Alex said, clutching at his head. He was kneeling
beside Rachel in the hall. “Thank God! I’m going to phone for an
ambulance.” Alex got up and hurried into the lounge.

“Better make it
two,” Helen Worthington replied as she heard him pick up the phone.
She was holding Alex’s handkerchief to the gash on the back of her
head. It was already bloodstained. She was standing over Diana,
looking down at her motionless body. “Unfortunately, this one’s
only sleeping too,” she said with a chuckle. “But I’m glad to say
that she does look like she’s been hit by a number 53 bus that
reversed over her just to make sure.”

Helen turned
and limped after Alex. She was still only wearing one shoe, and
gave up trying to walk with it when she got to the lounge doorway.
She leaned on the door, shook her foot, kicking the shoe off, and
then continued on her way.

“Don’t forget
the police,” she told Alex when he put the phone down.

“I don’t want
them involved,” Alex replied.

“They are
involved. You can’t keep this quiet, Alex. Your daughter brained
both of us and was trying to punch the life out of that girl in the
hall. Call them!”

Alex still
hesitated. “Diana’s not well, that’s all,” he argued. “She just
needs to talk to a psychiatrist. To sort things out.”

“You are a
fool, Alex!” Helen said walking up to him. She reached into the
pocket of her stained and battered looking jacket and pulled out a
crumpled photograph. “I came here tonight to show you this.” She
handed him the photograph. Alex held it in both hands, peering at
it closely as Helen explained. “It’s a still from a security camera
in the bank in Chicago where your money disappeared. It was taken
at the exact time that the account of Mrs Sarah McCord was closed.
You can clearly see the woman collecting the cashier’s cheque. I
knew it was Diana as soon as I saw her. You see, she was wearing
that same black leather jacket when I picked her up at Manchester
airport. She must have flown back to Milan from Chicago, got your
message, and then flown straight here. I thought she looked a bit
ragged for a supermodel. I bet you that money of yours is in a bank
in Milan. Just think of it, millions and millions of Euros, all in
Milan, surrounded by all those designer fashions and accessories.”
Helen sighed. “It makes my heart pound.”

Alex slowly put
the photograph down and telephoned the police. When he had
finished, he walked into the middle of the room and just stood
there. Helen suddenly felt sorry for him. His whole world had come
crashing down on him in a matter of weeks. He looked crestfallen.
But with Helen, compassion for others didn’t last long. She walked
over to him.

“We can still
win this case, Alex,” she told him. “Even if Diana doesn’t
implicate McCord, there’s still enough evidence against him to damn
his testimony when we come up in court against the Carter’s. No one
is going to believe him now!” Alex was shaking his head, but Helen
ignored him. “Not only was McCord cheating you,” she went on. “But
he was lying and cheating Sarah, too! Both of you were the victims,
Alex! Duped by an evil and manipulating daughter who was only
interested in your money! And McCord was in it with her all the
way!”

“No!” Alex
finally managed to say. “We have to stop this now!”

“But we can
still win!”

“Win what?
There’s nothing to gain, Helen! Dragging all this into the open
isn’t going to help me, or Sarah, or Diana for that matter! It has
to stop now!”

“But it’s what
you wanted!” Helen raised her voice. “You came to me, remember? You
wanted someone without a heart to steal a heart for you! You said
you wanted them punished for what they did! Well, you’ve got what
you wanted! I don’t know what’s come over you, Alex! But you can’t
go soft on me now!” She pointed towards the hallway. “That girl out
there and her mother aren’t going to stop! And neither is the MRI!
They think they’ve won! We both know they haven’t! I can smash
them, Alex! I can do this! Just say the word!”

Alex looked at
her intently. “Alright,” he said. “But first go over to that bureau
and look in the second drawer down on the left.” Helen looked
puzzled. “Go on,” he told her.

Helen did as he
asked. Inside the little drawer she saw an orange and blue card.
She pulled it out and stared at it in amazement. It was an organ
donor card. It was signed by Sarah Williams.

Helen spun
round and marched back to Alex, waving the card at him. “You lied
to me!” she accused him. “You told me you didn’t have this! You
lied! You’ve had it all the time! You bastard, Alex! You complete
and utter bastard!”

Alex was
shaking his head. “I didn’t know it existed until the MRI asked you
about it,” he said. “That’s the truth, Helen. Out of curiosity, I
looked, and there it was, in the back pocket of her jeans. I never
even knew she had one. Oh, we spoke about it once. I don’t believe
in the idea of transplants or anything like that. It’s just the way
I feel, the way I am. But after we spoke about it, no, after we
argued, and I told Sarah the way I felt, I thought that was the end
of it, and I never thought anymore about it. But she obviously did.
McCord was right; I didn’t let Sarah discuss things like that with
me properly. But she must have discussed it with him. After all, he
did say that he was there when she filled it in.”

Helen looked at
the card in her hand, and then she looked at the open fire. “We’ll
burn it!” she said, and she marched over to the fireplace. Alex
quickly followed her, grabbing her hand and the card she still
clutched.

“You can’t do
that,” he told her.

“But if we burn
it, we win! No one will ever know that it really existed, not for
sure!”

“No!”

“But we can
win, Alex!” Helen was almost pleading with him.

Alex reached up
with his free hand and brushed Helen’s cheek, his fingers moving
into her hair. “I’m sorry, Helen. I can’t let you do this,” he told
her. “If you burn the card, I’ll have to tell everyone that I saw
you do it.”

Helen stared
into Alex’s watery eyes and sighed. “Something tells me that you’re
not looking at me with the same dispassionate eyes as you did when
you first came into my office, Alex. I’m really disappointed in
you. I thought you were harder than this.”

“I am, when I’m
right,” he replied, sadly, and managed a weak smile. “But I’ve been
wrong all along. Until I found the card, I genuinely believed that
the MRI had made a mistake. And after I found the card, I hung on
to the possibility that they were just guessing, that they never
really found it that night. But that was wrong, too. The only
mistake they made was to show me the wrong body when I came to
identify Sarah. After that they must have panicked. That’s all it
was. The rest was all my fault. Just me, doing what I do best,
ruining everything. Even McCord will come out of this looking
better than me. If he was as bad as you say, he and Diana would
have been long gone once the money had been transferred. But McCord
stayed. Not because he had to, or because he was doing anything
underhand. No, he stayed because he knew what Sarah wanted, and he
knew that I was trying to stop her. He really loved her, Helen.
Even though I can’t help hating him, I have to grant him that.”

They heard the
distant sound of sirens. Helen looked at the donor card, now all
crumpled up in her hand. Then she looked at the fire again, just a
short distance away. Above it was the portrait of Sarah Williams,
looking down at them both, smiling. Slowly, Helen allowed Alex to
take the card from her.

“This is going
to ruin my reputation,” Helen said, softly.

“No it won’t.
You’ve already achieved enough notoriety from this case to keep you
going for years.”

“But to give in
like this...It’s just not natural! Burn the card, Alex! Burn it,
and we can still win this case!”

Alex smiled at
her and shook his head. “You won’t be giving in,” he told her.
“I’ll arrange for the MRI to get their hands on the card, you just
make sure Hargreaves looks surprised when it turns up in court. As
for the money, forget it. Drop the charges against McCord, and tell
the police the money was just mislaid in an incorrect account, and
that it’s turned up. All you have to do after that is lose
gracefully.”

“Lose
gracefully?” Helen repeated, stepping away from him. “Look at me!
These clothes cost a fortune! And they’re all ruined! And I’ve got
a king-sized headache! I want compensation, Alex! I want revenge! I
want–” Helen made a fist with both hands and growled. “Arrrggghh! I
hate you Alex! You’re making me do something nice! I hate that! I
hate it!”

When Rachel
woke up she could hear an ambulance siren. It was a few moments
before she realised that she was inside it. She half opened her
eyes and squinted, trying to focus, and realised that she wasn’t
wearing her glasses. But even without them, she could just make out
three blurred figures in the ambulance with her. There was a
paramedic, a policewoman, and Alex Williams. Alex had a bandage
around his head. Rachel could hear the policewoman talking.

“You don’t get
on very well with women, do you Mr Williams?” WPC Foster was
saying.

Alex shook his
head. “So it would seem,” he replied. “The funny thing is, Diana
hit me with a vase that was one of a matching pair.”

“Oh, expensive
was it?”

“It would have
been, if Sarah hadn’t thrown the other one at me the night she
died.”

Rachel
swallowed. “Alex…” she muttered weakly, her eyes half open and
blinking.

Alex leaned
forwards quickly. “You’re going to be alright, Rachel,” he said
anxiously, holding onto her hand. “You’re on your way to hospital.
You’re going to be alright. Just don’t worry about anything.
Helen’s in another ambulance with Diana. Like me, Helen’s got a bad
head. The paramedic said she was lucky not to get a fractured
skull. As it is, they’ll probably want to keep her in hospital for
a day or two. But she’ll be okay. She even took that pan with her,
she said it was just in case Diana woke up in the ambulance.”

Rachel smiled.
“Where are my glasses?” she muttered. “I can’t see without my
glasses…”

“I brought them
with me. Here.” Alex gently put her glasses on. “Alright?”

Rachel blinked
again, and looked around at their anxious faces. “That’s better,”
she said, and then she made a face and added, “I feel funny.”

“That’s just
the medication,” the paramedic told her. “The blows to your chest
have opened up the wound from your surgery. I’ve got a monitor on
you just as a precaution, but your blood pressure and your heart
rhythm are both fine. Just take it easy, and we’ll be at the
hospital in no time.”