Watching Over You (33 page)

Knowing she couldn’t reason with her anymore, Charley tried a different tack.

‘This is ridiculous,’ she said, her tone of voice dismissive.
‘I can
’t do this through a door. Open up, Ella, or I won’t talk to you anymore.’

Ella slid the books into a bag and then sat on the bed. She stayed quiet for a while to see. Would Charley really not talk to her
anymore
?

She’s bluffing. She just wants to get out of the closet. Ignore her.

But minutes later, she couldn’t bear it.

‘Charley?’ she spoke into the silence.

‘Oh, so now you want to talk.’

‘Are you mad at me?’

‘Of course not. I just want to talk to you face to face. That’s what friends do, Ella.’

‘I don’t need a friend.’

‘Yes, you do. Everyone needs friends.’

You need to get away!

Ella slapped at her face, knowing that Charley was right. She would be much better if she had someone to help her get through the bad times. Then, perhaps she would feel better soon and the dark days would be replaced with sunshine.

She’ll leave you.

She shook her head, trying to rid it of the uncertainty.

They all leave you eventually.

‘Stop!’ she sobbed. ‘I don’t want to listen to you anymore!’

‘Who are you talking to, Ella?’

‘I’m a bad person, Charley.’

‘No, you’re not!’

‘I don’t know what to do.’

‘Let me out and we can talk things through.’

‘It’s too late. I’m all fucked up again.’

Charley could sense victory and her voice rose with excitement. ‘Let me out, Ella, and we can have fun together. I can help you. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’

‘I’m beyond help. I told you.’

‘I don’t give up on people. I’ll help you. Would you like th
at, E
lla?’

A pause. ‘You’re trying to trick me!’

‘No, I’m not. I just want to get out of this closet.’ Charley laughed half-heartedly. ‘It’s not much fun in here, is it?’

‘It’s not supposed to be fun.’

‘I know.’

Silence again.

Charley wanted to bang and kick at the door but she held in her frustration for one last time.

‘Let me out, Ella, please,’ she begged. ‘I’d like to be your friend.’

‘You promise you won’t hurt me?’

‘I promise.’

Chapter Thirty-Six

The second Charley heard the key turn in the lock and the door open a smidgeon, she held onto the side of the frame and kicked out with all the strength she could muster. The door caught Ella straight in the face, knocking her to the floor. Charley blocked it as it flew back at her. Then she ran.

Behind her, she heard a scream but was out of the bedroom and into the hallway before Ella yanked her back by the hair.

‘Come here, you lying bitch!’

Charley grabbed for the door lock, fingers reaching to open it. But the more Ella pulled, the more she couldn’t grasp it. Turning slightly, she slapped out at her face. Ella punched her on the side of her head and she cried out in pain. Adrenalin pumping through her, Charley bunched up her fists and hit out like she’d never thought possible. After a few blows had landed, she finally gained enough breathing space to make a run through the door.

Ella followed, pouncing on her back and wrapping her arms around her neck. They fell to the floor. Charley kicked back as she tried to crawl away. She could see the entrance door in her sight, out onto Warwick Avenue. If she could get to the street and run, she could summon help.

‘No!’ cried Ella.

In desperation, Charley kicked out again. She was not going to let Ella get the upper hand.

But Ella managed to scramble in front of her. She blocked her exit at the top of the stairs.

‘You had no intentions of helping me, had you?’ she said, eyes narrowed in anger, bloodied fists formed, ready to pounce again.

Charley shook her head. ‘All I wanted was to get out of that closet and as far away as possible from you!’

‘Back to your precious Aaron?’

Charley’s heart sank as Ella held up her bloodied hands. There was blood on her trousers too.

‘Were you not listening back there, you silly bitch?’ Ella taunted. ‘I told you, I stabbed him! He was unconscious when I left but I doubt he’ll be alive now. There was blood pouring from his stomach. I think he –’

Charley felt a sob bubble in her throat but it released itself as a roar of fury. Arms outstretched, she charged at Ella, knocking them both down the stairs. They tumbled over; for a moment, she was disorientated until they reached a stop. Charley landed two steps above Ella, who fell further, smashing her forehead on the tiles as she clattered to the floor.

Dazed, Charley glanced at Ella; saw she wasn’t moving. She sat a moment longer, enough to catch her breath. Still, Ella was motionless. Realising she would have to step over her to get past, she tried to stay calm.

To her left, through the balustrades, she could see the door to her flat. It stood ajar, streaks of blood on the handle. She sobbed again. All along, she’d thought Ella was bluffing. Had she really killed Aaron?

Her natural instinct was to make a run for it, out of the entrance door and into the night, to get the hell out of the house. But seeing the blood there, as well as on Ella’s hands, she knew it was likely that she
had
hurt Aaron.

She looked at the entrance door. Would Ella have locked it so that she couldn’t get out? After all, she’d been sneaky enough to remove her phone and shoes.

She glanced over at the door to her flat again. Could it be Ella’s blood on the handle and not Aaron’s?

With a resigned feeling, she knew what she had to do.

She got up slowly, moving down onto the next step and then onto the floor. Taking a deep breath, she stepped over Ella, half expecting a hand to shoot up and grab her ankle. But all she heard was a groan. Then she ran to the entrance door.

She heard a scream behind her as she reached it.

‘Don’t leave me!’ Ella cried.

Startled, Charley turned back, noting the demented expression in Ella’s eyes. She knew this was her only chance. It was either her or Ella, and she wanted out. She wanted to get on with her life without some mad bitch stalking her, watching her every move.

‘Nobody leaves me,’ Ella seethed. ‘Nobody fucking leaves me!’

Charley glared at her for a moment. ‘Don’t count on it.’

She opened the door and ran, flying down the steps, praying she wouldn’t stumble. Wanting to put as much space as she could between them, she headed across the green and over to the busier roads up above. The rain hindering her view, the earth slippery beneath her bare feet, she kept on running. There was no one around. What the hell was the time? She had no idea.

If she could see someone – anyone – in the distance, she could run to them. But she didn’t dare shout out until she was farther away.

She reached the road and, oblivious to the cuts on her feet, the discomfort from the fall, she ran straight ahead. It was a few
seconds
before a car came into sight. She waved her arms in the air, praying she wouldn’t be ignored. As it drew nearer, she stepped into the road in front of it, causing it to halt with a screech. In the dark, she could make out a man and woman sitting in the front, the man gesticulating wildly at her.

‘Please!’ She ran to the woman in the passenger seat. ‘Please,
I need
your phone. My neighbour has attacked me. My
boyfriend
…I don’t know where he is. I don’t know what she’s done.’

‘Don’t give her your phone, Maggie,’ the man told her. ‘It could be a trick. She might car-jack us or something.’

‘Please!’ Charley reached across to him. ‘Give me your PHONE!’

‘Look at the state of her, Charles!’ Sensing her distress, the woman rummaged in her bag and gave Charley hers. ‘Can I help?’

Charley held on to her chest. It hurt to inhale, thinking of Aaron. But, before she could reply, she heard the noise of a car screeching along the road towards them. Its engine roared as the accelerator was floored. And she knew.

She knew it would be Ella.

As the car came into view, panic engulfed her again. She was in the middle of the road. In her frame of mind, she knew Ella would drive straight at her.

She turned back to the couple. ‘Call the police,’ she pleaded. ‘Thirty-seven, Warwick Avenue. Please!’

Quickly, she ran back to the pavement. There was nowhere to go but farther into the grassed area. The sound of her cries ringing in her ears, she tore across the wet ground. Her feet slipped on the muddy grass and she scrambled to stay upright. Glancing over her shoulder, fear mounting inside her, she saw Ella clip the wing of the car that had stopped. Then she watched in terror as she mounted the kerb and drove straight at her.

Charley ran until she feared her lungs would explode, gaining momentum as she heard the noise of the engine getting closer. She looked ahead in the dark, hoping that a shadow would loom up in the distance, revealing itself slowly as somewhere she could hide. But she knew there were only one or two benches ahead, the odd bin perhaps. If she stooped down behind one, it wouldn’t stop the car from injuring her, but it might slow down the imminent impact.

Where the hell were they?

Ella was nearly behind her now. Charley knew the game was over. In a moment, she would be ploughed down. Looking over her shoulder for one final time, she realised the car was so close that she could see Ella’s face now. A look of pure determination was set upon it, not a hint of panic. A sob caught in Charley’s throat. Oh, God, Ella really wanted to hurt her.

Charley held her stare for a moment. It was as if time stood still for them to acknowledge each other one last time. From somewhere deep within, she found enough breath to scream.

Rearing out of control, the car sailed past her, tearing across the grass. Head on, it crashed into a tree a few feet ahead. A thunderous bang woke up the quiet night, reverberating through the ground. Charley covered her ears; the noise was deafening but over in seconds.

Steam rose from the bonnet where the radiator had been crushed; the front of the car was embedded in the tree. Ella hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt; the force of the crash had thrown her through the windscreen, half in and out of the car.

Unable to stop herself, Charley ran towards it but, as she drew close, she could see Ella’s eyes were dead, still. Blood seeped from the side of her open lips. Her arms stayed where they had fallen.

The sense of déjà vu overwhelmed Charley as she stood barefoot in the rain. In her mind once again, she could hear the sirens of the emergency services. She could see the flashing lights of the vehicles coming into view. Except this time, it wouldn’t be in her imagination. This time it would all be real.

The couple in the car came running towards her. The man reached her first.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t believe you but you can’t be too careful nowadays. But when I saw that…that maniac run up the pavement and head towards you, well, I –’

‘Did you call for help?’ Charley interrupted, holding onto his arm as she felt her knees wobbling.

‘Yes, love, they’re on their way.’ He took off his coat, wrapped it around Charley’s shoulders.

His wife came up beside them with a puff. ‘I can’t believe my eyes,’ she said, before looking over at the car. ‘Is she…is she…?’

Charley nodded. It was all she felt able to do. Soon more assistance would arrive. No one could help Ella but for now, the images Charley had carried of Dan in the car had been erased.

The nightmare really was over.

But there was still one thing she needed to know. She turned back towards Warwick Avenue and ran.

Epilogue

The next two weeks went by in a blur of police statements,
hospital
visits, and packing. As soon as Charley had all her belongings in boxes, she was never setting foot inside thirty-seven, Warwick Avenue again.

The incident had been front page headlines in
The Sentinel
for three nights, news on the local television channels the following evening. No one could understand how a young woman living in a quiet and respectful street could have been so violent. Some of the neighbours had been interviewed. Only Jake Carter, from number thirty-six, refused to speak to the journalist when asked.

Ella had left Jean’s door open in her rush to get back to
Charley
. The police had gone across to find Jean’s body alongside several notebooks thrown to the floor around her. On reading their contents, they came to the conclusion that Ella, in her warped state of mind, thought she had motive to kill the elderly neighbour. Jean’s home help, Ruby, had been devastated and had insisted on adopting Tom rather than let him be re-homed. It was the least she could do.

Brendan Furnival was out of hospital and recovering from his injuries. Charley had mentioned to the police that Ella had confessed to her but on further questioning, Furnival had refused to say he knew who his attacker was. And, although he’d always have the mental, and some physical, scars after the attack, Charley still couldn’t help coming out on the side of Ella over that. Some things must have been hard for her to bear.

Later, once all the forensic evidence had been gathered,
Charley
was told by the police that a man found dead in his bath the day before, in the north of the city, had also been linked to Ella. Even now, it was hard for her to imagine she had once shared a house with a killer. She’d read Ella’s notebook again, plus the loose pages she’d seen in the closet, but was no nearer to understanding whether it was all true, partly true, or completely fictional – another thing that would remain unsolved. Charley had her suspicions, but it wasn’t her place to speculate.

The worst thing on the night in question had been not knowing about Aaron. Had she left him dead at the house? She’d raced back across the muddy field, hoping that the ambulance wouldn’t be too far behind.

She’d found him slouched against the back of the settee, eyes closed, head lolling to one side. Blood had soaked through his jumper and his jacket, pooled at his jeans. She’d lifted his head to feel for a pulse, crying with relief when she had found one. Moments later, the ambulance had arrived and he’d gone to
hospital
and straight into surgery. It had been a long and tense evening but thankfully, he’d pulled through. Seeing him the next day, sitting up in a hospital bed with colour in his cheeks and that smile she knew so well, was the moment that she realised everything was going to be okay.

‘Come on, you,’ she smiled at her passenger. ‘Are you sure you can manage to walk that far?’

‘Of course, I can,’ Aaron replied. ‘I can survive anything.’

‘So all those ouches, ows, oohs, and ahs – they’re all for show, then?’

‘It’s my equivalent to man-flu and I’m using it as long as I can get sympathy.’ Aaron looked at her with the expression of a puppy who wanted a cuddle. ‘She nearly took my spleen!’

Charley indulged him with a tickle under his chin. ‘You’re such a wimp.’

‘I know.’

They’d parked up in a new development of apartments and
houses along Wedgwood Terrace, a couple of miles away in
Me
ir He
ath. It was another beautiful area of the city. But this time, Charley was going to view a flat with an intercom and a camera and, she hoped, some friendly neighbours.

Aaron released his seatbelt, wincing as it caught across his stomach. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to take me up on my offer?’

Charley placed her hand on his thigh and leaned across to kiss him.

‘I’m really grateful, but this is another short-term lease. Six months.’ She smiled at him shyly. ‘And then, who knows after that?’

‘If we get that far, maybe we should start afresh with a new pad? I could sell my house too.’

Charley nodded her reply and smiled.

The estate agent was waiting for them at the entrance and let them into the two-storey building. ‘Service charges are in with the rent. There’s a fully fitted kitchen with all appliances,’ she said, going into practiced sales mode. ‘And wait until you see the view from the lounge area.’

Aaron followed the two women up to the first floor. ‘If it has a walk-in closet, we’re not moving in,’ he said.

‘Sorry?’ the estate agent turned back to him.

Charley giggled. ‘He wants to know if it has lots of storage space.’

‘Yes. And it has ample-sized bedrooms, too.’

Charley turned to give Aaron a warning look. As they drew level to the landing, a face appeared over the banister of the upper floor.

‘Hi there,’ a voice shouted down to them.

They all looked up to see a man, mid-thirties.

‘Are you moving in?’

‘Yes, I might be,’ said Charley.

‘Great.’ He came down the stairs to them. ‘It’s a nice place to live. Not much goes on. We keep ourselves to ourselves, you know. It’s quiet too.’

‘Sounds just how I like it!’ Charley enthused.

‘Marvellous. I’ll probably see you around.’ He continued on past them. At the top of the stairs towards the ground floor, he gave a friendly smile. ‘I’m sure we’ll get on like a house on fire.’

Charley shuddered as if someone had walked through her. Those were the exact words that Ella had said to her on the first day they’d met. Memories of the last few months came flooding into her mind. How lucky she had been to escape from Ella’s clutches. To get out of that closet, to find Aaron and to find him alive. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him too.

‘You okay?’ Aaron touched her arm, a look of concern on his face. ‘You’ve gone a little pale.’

Charley took a deep breath as she pushed her thoughts to one side. Then she nodded at him.

It was all about the future now. There was no need to dwell on the past.