‘I had to buy a new one of these,’ Molly explained conversationally as she came back into the room carrying a suitcase. ‘When I was interrupted with Janice, I was forced to leave my old one behind.’
Olivia watched her sit it down by the pool, opening the case to reveal a record player, her mind immediately going back to the kitchen of the house in Honington Lane, where she had watched Gary Lamb burn to death. In the deep end of the pool, Fern had started bawling her eyes out.
What the hell was Molly playing at? Was she really responsible for all of this? For the threatening notes and the murders?
And was her name even Molly? Olivia had known her for over a year, had shared a house with her, considered her a close friend, but Fern knew her too, had called her Meg, so who the fuck was she?
While she was distracted, Olivia tested her restraints more calmly. Not that she felt in the slightest bit calm, but panicking wasn’t going to help her get out of this chair. Her wrists were cuffed behind her back and she could feel the chain twisting between the slats of the chair back, while her ankles were bound with rope to the front legs. She tried wriggling her hands free, but the cuffs were too tight. The only way she could get free is if she managed to break the chair. She tested the slats, but they held firm.
Noah was her best hope. She had come here to meet him and his car had been outside, so he had to be around here somewhere.
He had wanted to meet her here. Had insisted she come to him. It was important he had said.
She stilled, a terrifying thought occurring to her. Is he part of this? Are Noah and Molly working together?
No. She tried to convince herself it was a ridiculous notion. They hated each other.
Or had that been an act?
She thought back to Noah’s messages, urgently trying to get her out to the farm, then Molly insisting on being the good friend and driving her out here.
Shit.
‘Is Noah in on this with you?’
Molly removed a record from its sleeve, placing it on the player. ‘Noah is no longer your concern.’
‘Where is he? I want to see him. Is he here?’ Olivia looked frantically around. ‘Noah? NOAH?’
‘Shut up!’ Molly got to her feet. ‘You’re giving me a headache.’
‘He’s here.’ Fern paused her sobbing, anger behind her words. ‘I’ve seen him. Your arsehole of a boyfriend, he’s in on it with her.’
Was that really true?
Where was he? If he was really in on it, she wanted to see him. Wanted to know why he was doing this to her.
‘NOAH?’
Olivia’s jaw cracked as Molly slapped her hard across the face, leaning in so her face was inches away. ‘I told you to shut up.’
Anger bristled against the fear and Olivia rattled her cuffs, tried to lurch forward, pleased when Molly flinched. Unable to use her fists, she spat in Molly’s face. ‘Fuck you!’
The cold look Molly gave her chilled right through her and she realised she no longer recognised her lodger at all. Still she held her stare, tried not to react when she received another stinging slap.
Molly stepped back, eyes still on her as she slowly wiped the spittle from her cheek. She turned and walked back to the record player, lined up the needle. ‘Right, bitches. Let’s have some music while we have a little chat.’
Olivia knew what track was going to play, still couldn’t help the shiver down her spine as the familiar Christmas tune echoed around the room.
Molly sat herself down on the edge of the empty pool where she had a full view of both Olivia and Fern, and began to swing her legs back and forth. ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. This was my sister’s favourite Christmas song, you know. She always used to choose this one.’
Olivia watched her carefully, waiting for her to continue. Down in the pool, Fern had stopped sobbing, but was still moving restlessly on the cross. Olivia suspected that, like her, she had a feeling this story was going to end badly.
‘Of course, she doesn’t get to celebrate Christmas anymore. But I think you both know that.’
Olivia exchanged a glance with Fern. Molly had to be talking about Margaret. She wracked her brain trying to remember the name of Margaret’s older sister.’
Abigail? Anna? It began with A. Alison? No, not Alison. Alice.
‘You’re Alice,’ she said quietly.
‘Well done, Olivia.’ Molly… Alice gave her a little clap. ‘Finally, you’re catching up.’
‘What happened to your sister was an accident.’
Alice scowled at Fern. ‘An accident?’
‘We didn’t kill her. We never caused the fire. Margaret knocked the lamp over and the place went up in flames. We tried to get her out, I swear.’
‘LIAR!’
‘It’s the truth.’
Olivia watched the exchange, her mind reeling. Fern had been in the cottage that night? ‘You were there?’
Fern’s eyes widened as she looked at Olivia. ‘We were just going to play a stupid prank. No one was supposed to get hurt.’
‘You never said anything. All these years and you never said.’
‘It was an accident!’
‘Yes, but you left us.’
‘Okay, stop.’ When Olivia and Fern continued to eyeball each other, Alice clapped her hands together. ‘Hey, bitches! Eyes to the front of the class.’
When they both looked at her, she smiled thinly. ‘Better. I think we all know who is in charge here, so show me a little respect, please.’
‘Fucking psycho.’ Fern muttered the words under her breath, though it was loud enough for Olivia to hear, so Alice would have heard also.
Olivia watched as she jumped down into the pool, slowly wandering over to Fern, her gaze flicking between the pair of them. ‘Might I remind you that you’re not in a position to call me names. You might have got away with bullying my sister, but I won’t tolerate it.’
She sat down, straddling Fern’s legs, pulled something from her pocket.
Olivia thought she was going to be sick when she saw the blade, realising it was a flick knife. She watched as Alice ripped it downwards, tearing open the front of Fern’s top. Wrestling against her cuffs, Fern started screaming, the blade carving a line across her exposed belly. Droplets of blood, that looked almost black in the candlelight, dripped onto the white tiles of the pool floor.
‘That is for lying and pretending that you tried to save my sister.’
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’ Fern was gasping and sobbing, trying to roll away as Alice drew another line of blood forming a cross on her stomach.
‘Stop! Leave her alone!’ Olivia hated Fern, even more now, learning about the prank, but she couldn’t watch her being tortured like this.
Alice paused, glancing over at Olivia. ‘So you do care what happens to her? I thought so. You try to pretend you weren’t part of what happened to Margaret, but I know the truth. You lured my sister to that cottage that night. You pretended to be her friend and you betrayed her.’
‘She was my friend.’
‘Liar! Stop it with the lies or I will come and carve you up too.’
She was delusional. How was Olivia supposed to convince her that it simply wasn’t true. Alice only wanted to believe her own twisted version of events.
The record had finished playing, and the only sound was coming from Fern, who was still wailing, almost hysterically now, as she pleaded with Alice.
Olivia watched Margaret’s sister, still trying to come to terms with the fact she had shared a house with her for a year. She had been living with a psychopath all this time and hadn’t realised. All the times Molly had cooked for her, they had stayed in watching movies, sharing everything with one another. Had anything been true?
Molly… Alice, she had to keep reminding herself, could have poisoned her or stabbed her in her sleep. It was scary realising how vulnerable she had been all this time. Of course, Alice wouldn’t have taken that easy route. She wanted her big finale, to watch Olivia suffer.
The thought of that terrified her to the core. She had seen what had happened to Gary, watched the video of Howard. It was better not to think about what Alice had planned. Better instead to focus on escaping.
It wasn’t over until she stopped breathing.
‘Will you shut the fuck up?’ Alice smashed her fist into Fern’s face, and Olivia flinched. ‘I can’t concentrate.’
She got up from the pool floor, shaking her head, went over the far side, picking up one of the three plastic canisters that Olivia had noticed, uncapping it and splashing the liquid over Fern.
The strong petrol fumes filled the room and Fern’s sobbing and struggling intensified. ‘No, Alice, please don’t do this, please, I’m begging you. I’ll do anything.’
Olivia yanked harder at her cuffs, trying to break the slats of the chair, as Fern was doused with the other two canisters. She squeezed her eyes shut, knew she couldn’t watch this. She had been frightened when she first gained consciousness, understood she was dealing with a crazy person, but now knowing what was about to happen, she was terrified.
‘Open your eyes, Olivia.’
There was no way she could watch someone else burn to death.
‘I said, open your fucking eyes, bitch!’
‘Don’t do this to her, please.’
‘Open your eyes, Olivia, or I will come over there and force you to watch.’
Hearing Alice moving towards her, Olivia complied.
‘That’s better. I don’t want you to miss this.’ Alice pulled herself out of the pool, walked towards her. She had the knife and Olivia stilled as she moved behind the chair, felt her scoop up her hair, twisting it around and pulling tightly, as she leant down to rub her mouth up against her ear. ‘I enjoyed fucking with you,’ she whispered. ‘Stupid bitch, it was so easy. You thought you were going mad.’
Olivia held her breath, forcing herself to remain calm, not show any reaction, knowing that was what Alice wanted.
‘You know I fucked your boyfriend. Screwed his brains out in fact.’
Alice had slept with Noah?
‘All those years with you, he needed it.’
Toby?
‘Didn’t take much to make him stray.’
Olivia recalled that awful post on Facebook that had ended their relationship. ‘It was you in the video.’
‘I needed to get him out of your life,’ Alice said simply, letting the knife slide round to caress Olivia’s cheek. ‘That way I could be the sympathetic friend offering a shoulder to cry on and the perfect lodger to help you afford the mortgage.’
Plus it cleared the way for Noah. Olivia thought that, but didn’t say it aloud.
Fern had said she had seen him at the farmhouse, but Alice hadn’t confirmed he was helping her. Plus he hadn’t yet made an appearance. Although it was looking increasingly likely he was involved in this, Olivia was still clinging to the faint hope he hadn’t completely used her.
Alice dropped her hair, stepping away from the chair back over to the record player. She stared down at Fern who had quietened to a whimper, reset the needle on the record.
‘Let’s have some more music, shall we?’
Olivia knew that if she survived tonight, she would never be able to listen to this wretched song again.
She watched as Alice walked round to the far side of the pool. Fern was watching her too, frantically twisting her head to see where Alice was. Seeing the woman pick up one of the paraffin lamps, holding it over the pool, she went bug-eyed and started pleading again.
‘Begging isn’t going to help you at this stage,’ Alice told her. ‘However, unlike you I’m not a completely heartless bitch, so, any last words, for me, or for our captive audience, or for Margaret?’
When Fern let out a bloodcurdling scream in response, she shrugged, glanced over at Olivia and smiled cruelly. ‘Okay. Don’t say I didn’t ask.’
And with that, she let go of the lamp.
