An Early Grave (32 page)

CHAPTER 53

‘Look at it, Georgina. Read what it says.’

Georgina’s crying garbled her words. She crawled around on all fours like a pig on a truffle hunt. Then Tara watched as Georgina laid her hands upon the brass plaque, fixed to a spike lodged in the soft ground under the tree.

‘Baby Isis,’ said Kingsley, his voice growing louder and splintering with emotion. ‘He was never given a proper name.’

‘I know,’ Georgina sobbed. She kept a hold of the plaque and, pulling hard, withdrew it from the earth, clasping the cold metal plate to her chest.

A volley of car doors closing and voices calling out interrupted the exchange between them. Kingsley glanced to the source of the noise, and in doing so he spotted Tara lurking by the tree.

‘What do you want, cop?’ he shouted. ‘This is none of your business. Go away.’

He turned to face her. His right hand wielded the knife. She was well aware of what he could do. But his focus upon Tara was his downfall. He’d turned his back on Georgina. On her knees, three feet from her ex-lover, she had a firm grip of the plaque, and she pointed the metal spike towards Kingsley. Tara gasped. Kingsley spun round, but too late. Georgina drove the spike upwards through his side. It pierced his clothing, his skin and sank easily into soft flesh. He cried out, groaned and dropped to his knees. His knife landed at the hands of Georgina.

Tara ran to stop her.

‘No, Georgina! Leave him be. You’ve done enough.’

She looked at Tara and smiled.

‘Tara?’ Callum shouted. She couldn’t yet see him, but she could tell there were others with him. Suddenly he emerged from the darkness, stopping exactly at the spot by the tree where she had been hiding. His voice distracted her. Georgina held Justin’s knife. In a fluid movement she rose to her feet and stepped behind Tara. Her left arm swallowed Tara’s narrow shoulders; her right hand pushed the knife at her throat. Kingsley lay on his side bleeding heavily, struggling to raise himself onto one arm.

‘Not so fast, my Belfast Boy,’ said Georgina, sniffing tears, but sounding more her old self. ‘One careless move and your little friend will bleed all down her lovely dress.’

‘Let her go, Georgina. She’s done you no harm.’

‘Georgina!’ Anthony Egerton-Hyde stopped abruptly on the path. Ollie, Stephanie and Katrina stood beside him.

‘Hello, my dear husband,’ Georgina said. ‘And Ollie Rutherford. Now we’re all here.’ The politician ventured towards his wife.

‘Georgina, what’s going on? Let the girl go free.’

‘Don’t come any closer, or I swear she’ll die. She means nothing to me.’

Tara felt the cold steel at her throat, the same blade that drew her blood earlier in the day. She didn’t think it possible to feel a greater fear than when Kingsley had pressed himself against her in the church. Now she knew how it felt to be in the grip of a murderer. Georgina was taller and much stronger. Everyone around her stood powerless. She had assumed her dominant role among this group of people. She was in control. She would dictate what would happen. Tara glanced from Callum to Egerton-Hyde. Neither one seemed brave enough to rescue a woman in distress.

‘Please, Georgina, let her go,’ said Egerton-Hyde. ‘We can talk about this. I love you; I’m your husband for goodness sake. You can tell me what it’s all about.’

‘None of them know, Georgina,’ said Kingsley, his words peppered by shallow breaths and weak laughter. ‘The people you’ve killed didn’t know, except for Tilly, and she was never going to tell. She was your best friend, Georgina. She helped you, and you killed her.’

‘He tricked me, Anthony.’ The breaking tear-soaked voice returned. She sounded like a six-year-old stamping her feet in the playground because the other children wouldn’t play to her rules. ‘He told me that everyone knew.’

‘Who tricked you, darling?’

‘Justin.’ She stepped backwards pulling Tara with her to indicate the bleeding man cowering on the ground.

‘Kingsley?’

‘Yes, bloody Kingsley,’ she yelled.

‘Why don’t you tell them what happened, Georgina?’ Tara said.

‘You shut-up. I don’t take orders from you.’ Georgina pulled her arm tighter around Tara’s neck. Tara cried out as the knife cut at her bare shoulder. She saw confusion and frustration pull at Callum’s face. Trying to figure it all out. He should have been looking at Kingsley threatening with the knife. Not Georgina. He’d come face to face with the person who killed his wife and daughter, but it wasn’t Justin Kingsley.

‘Justin told me they all knew, Anthony. They were going to ruin me if I didn’t pay him.’

‘Tilly helped you,’ said Kingsley. ‘You would have died out here, but for her.’

Callum backed away, disappearing in the gloom of the trees. Tara’s heart sank. Somehow she hoped he would be the one to save her. Instead he’d run off to deal with the news in his head that the woman he admired, the woman who promised him a fresh start was the person who had taken away what he loved most. Georgina had brought him so much grief and had utterly destroyed him inside as a man.

‘I couldn’t take the risk,’ said Georgina.

She addressed the words pleadingly to the onlookers rather than the wounded Kingsley.

‘When he blackmailed me, I couldn’t take the risk that Tilly wouldn’t talk. Justin told me they knew, and they would go to the police if I didn’t pay him.’

‘I needed money, Georgina. That was all. You ruined my life that night, here on this very spot. But it didn’t stop you; you became rich and a big success. You didn’t stop to look back. The least you could do was pay for destroying my future. No one had to die. Especially not Tilly.’

Her nervous laugh sprayed over the stricken Kingsley.

‘You think?’ she said. ‘Tilly was the easiest. Yes, she knew my secret; she helped me, but she also had Callum.’ She looked around her, but Callum was gone. ‘Callum! Do you hear me? She took you from me, Callum. You were always
my
Belfast Boy.’

Tara watched the face of Egerton-Hyde in case he gave himself away. Surely he had to know Georgina’s story for him to have killed Zhou Jian.

‘Why didn’t you stop this after Tilly?’ Tara asked. Georgina wrenched hard at her with every word. ‘Three more people died, Justin? Because of your blackmail three more innocent people died.’ She tried to shout the words, hoping that Callum, wherever he’d got to, might still be in earshot.

‘I didn’t realise…,’ Kingsley said, his voice trailing off.

There were sounds of car doors closing, a blue flashing light reflected off a building next to Folly Bridge. Georgina edged further from the onlookers and closer to the stricken Kingsley. His voice resumed, breaking Georgina’s attention upon the imminent arrival of the police. ‘At first I thought Tilly died in an accident,’ he said. ‘Never believed Georgina was capable of murder. I needed more money from her, and she paid every time. But when I heard that Peter was dead and then Zhou Jian, I realised it was Georgina. She was out of control. I tried to stop her. I tried to warn Charlotte, but she wouldn’t listen.’

‘They were going to ruin us, Anthony,’ said Georgina.

‘None of them knew, Georgina. I never told them.’ Kingsley winced as he drew breath.

‘But Peter still had the power to ruin us. He and Anthony…’

‘That’s enough, Georgina,’ Egerton-Hyde called out, panic shrouding his usually calm voice.

‘Why Zhou Jian?’ said Tara.

Georgina swung around to face Kingsley. As her heels sank in the ground, Tara’s body twisted but she managed to adjust her stance. Georgina’s grip on her had not weakened.

‘You told me he heard us talking, Justin. In Austria. You told me he heard everything.’

Tara recalled something Callum had mentioned. Zhou Jian once asked him if Justin had a child. It seemed the Chinese scientist had stumbled upon a conversation between Justin and Georgina. The mention of a baby. He’d known little else. He’d overheard a snippet of a quarrel, and it lead to his death.

‘Did you kill Charlotte?’ Egerton-Hyde asked his wife. He spoke forsakenly in the voice of a man who sees his life and career lying in tatters before him.

‘She had to die, Anthony. Don’t pretend you weren’t relieved. She could have ruined you, too, remember.’

Two police constables, one male and the other female, came into view from the darkness of the path. It didn’t take long for the girl to realise they needed back-up, and she spoke into her radio. Their arrival sparked greater panic in Georgina.

‘Stay back. I’ll kill her.’ She wrestled Tara, tightening her grasp around her throat, with the knife now jabbing at her side.

‘They’ve come to help you, Georgina,’ said Tara, grimacing as the woman’s fingernails squeezed into the bare flesh of her shoulder.

‘Too late for help,’ she cried, her trembling body fusing with Tara’s.

‘Talk to us, Georgina,’ said the female constable. ‘We can sort this out. No one needs to get hurt. Let the girl go.’

Her well-meaning words had the opposite effect. The blade cut at Tara’s dress opening the wound made earlier by Kingsley. Tara screamed in pain.

‘Please, Georgina,’ she said, her vision blurring from tears. ‘Tell us about the baby.’

Georgina seemed to re-analyse her situation, glancing from one anxious face to the next. Stephanie had a firm hold of Ollie’s arm. Beside them Katrina stood in tears, hands clutched to her cheeks. Egerton-Hyde looked forlorn, arms hanging to his sides, eyes fixed on the figure of his wife desperately locked in a place from where she would never emerge unscathed. The police officers mumbled words to each other, but seemed resigned to the stand-off, awaiting those more expert in handling this kind of incident.

‘I didn’t know I was pregnant,’ Georgina wept. ‘You have to believe me; I had no idea. Just a terrible pain. We were out here, walking in the darkness. It all happened so quickly.’

The bystanders looked on, their faces suddenly swept by fear. Callum crept silently from the trees behind Georgina and Tara.

He paused on the grass, waiting for his moment.
Kairos
, the right and opportune moment to free the woman he’d come to love. Never thought he would feel love again after Tilly. Now he had a new life calling him. He hovered on the threshold between paradise and disaster. He must save her.

‘I didn’t know what to do,’ Georgina continued. ‘A baby? I couldn’t be a mother. Not then. I had plans.’

‘You killed our baby, Georgina.’ Kingsley tried to raise himself onto one arm. ‘You gave birth to our son, and then you squeezed the life from him.’ Pain coursed through him, and he cried out. Georgina’s scream met with his. A terrifying harmony released to the night. Callum edged closer.

‘It was the wrong time. Don’t you see? Now I could be a mother, but not then. I wasn’t ready. I had so many things to do.’

Callum took another step. He could almost reach out and touch her.

‘I could have raised him, Georgina,’ Kingsley wept. ‘I wouldn’t have left you. We had a child together…’

Georgina screamed again, a horrible mocking laughter filled the night as yet more flashing lights bleached the darkness, and sirens came in answer to the madness.

‘Your child? It wasn’t yours, Justin.’ Georgina laughed hysterically. ‘Isn’t that the great irony? All this time you believed I had your baby.’

Kingsley’s face, wracked with pain, fought with something so much more than he could bear. His life destroyed all those years ago, and now the realisation that it need not have happened this way.

‘Where are you, Belfast Boy?’ Georgina howled in the air. Tara sensed time was running out for her. ‘Callum? Do you hear me?’

‘I hear you, Georgina.’ Startled, she turned her head to face him, and her voice softened, dropping to a whisper.

‘Callum, my darling. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do. Our baby. I couldn’t keep it. You understand, don’t you?’

‘Listen to yourself, Georgina. How could you do that to your own child? You killed your best friend, my wife and daughter. Did we mean nothing to you?’

‘I loved you, Callum. I loved Tilly and Emily, but I was so scared. It would have been fine if Justin hadn’t come back. He tricked me.’

Kingsley gave a loud groan. Georgina flinched, squeezing Tara closer. Her hand was shaking, trying to keep the knife pressed at Tara’s neck.

‘Let Tara go, Georgina.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Please, Georgina. I love her. Please don’t take her away from me. I couldn’t bare it.’

‘Callum,’ Tara cried.

‘I’m so sorry for getting you into this, Tara.’

Kingsley raised a trembling hand and caught the hem of Georgina’s dress. She looked down and tried to pull away. Kingsley held firmly, crying in pain. Tara felt the grip loosen around her neck. Suddenly free, she pulled away, falling to the ground. Georgina slashed with the knife at Kingsley’s outstretched arm, the blade slicing into his wrist as he struggled to keep hold of her dress.
Kairos
. Callum seized his moment. He rushed at her. His arms swung out for the tackle. The knife came up; Kingsley lost his grip on the dress and flopped to the ground. Callum caught Georgina. Took her at the waist. He pushed on through as the knife pierced his stomach. His legs pounded on the pathway. Georgina tumbled backwards, crying out, fighting desperately to stay on her feet. Callum pushed on. The path ended by the water’s edge. They splashed into the dark river.