Dangerous Promises (19 page)

‘It’s a bit dull in the winter. Besides, it’s only open on a Saturday.’

Mona’s face fell. ‘Is it? Oh, that’s a shame. There’s something… I don’t know, kind of magical about them. Don’t you think? Especially at night. They remind me of being a kid. All the best films have fairground scenes in them.’

‘Do they?’ Royston asked. He thought about it for a second and then added, ‘Which ones?’

Mona put her empty glass down on the window ledge and reeled off a list, ticking them off on her fingers: ‘There’s
Brighton Rock
,
The Third Man
,
The Lady from Shanghai
,
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
,
A Taste of Honey
,
Paper Moon
. Oh, there are loads of them.’

‘You’re a fan of old movies then?’

‘Yeah, they’re the best. There’s another one too.’ Mona looked at Sadie and frowned. ‘I can’t recall the title. Do you remember? We were talking about it just the other day. It’s to do with these two guys who meet —’

Sadie instinctively grabbed hold of Mona’s elbow, squeezing it hard as she interrupted. ‘You really must come and meet Joel’s parents.’ She smiled at Royston. ‘Sorry, I hope you don’t mind. I promised I’d introduce them.’

‘Of course not. Nice to meet you,’ he said to Mona. ‘Will you be coming back to see us again soon?’

Mona smiled widely. ‘Yes, I’m sure I will.’

Sadie quickly propelled her away. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ she hissed under her breath.

Mona giggled. ‘There’s nothing to worry about. He wouldn’t guess, not in a thousand years.’

‘He’s a reporter, for God’s sake.’

‘I know.’

Sadie kept her voice low as she forged a way through the crowd. Even though music was playing and the room was full of chatter, she wasn’t taking any chances. And then the full meaning of what Mona had said suddenly sank in:
He wouldn’t guess.
Was she still playing games or was she serious? ‘You’re crazy. I don’t even know what you’re doing here.’

‘You invited me. Well, as good as.’

‘What?’

‘You said you couldn’t come to London so I knew I had to come to you. I mean, we need to talk, don’t we?’

‘Yes, I think we do.’

‘I need a drink first.’ Mona gazed down at her hand as if surprised to find that a glass wasn’t in it. She turned abruptly and headed for the kitchen. ‘Come on.’

Sadie trotted behind, not wanting to let her out of her sight. It had been her intention to be in control, the one asking questions, the one putting Mona on the spot, but somehow the balance of power seemed to be shifting. She felt fear flutter in her chest. Now that the moment of truth was drawing close, she wasn’t entirely sure that she wanted to hear it.

While Mona poured herself a vodka and tonic, Sadie tried to think of somewhere they could talk in private. The conservatory, she decided, was the best option. Rather than going through the living room where she was bound to bump into people she knew, she led Mona through the back door and into the garden instead.

‘It’s cold,’ Mona said, glancing up at the sky. ‘It’s going to snow again. Don’t you think? I like the snow. It makes everything seem… different.’

But Sadie wasn’t interested in the weather. ‘What’s going on?’

Mona looked at her, wide-eyed. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You know exactly what I mean.’ Sadie expelled a sigh of frustration, her breath emerging as a cloud of mist in the icy night air. ‘Sending the book, calling me at the flat, turning up here and pretending to be my friend. I don’t understand. I don’t get it.’

Mona frowned. ‘I’m not pretending anything. We are friends, aren’t we?’

‘How can we be? We’ve only met once. We had a five-minute conversation.’

‘It was longer than that.’ Mona sipped on her drink as she walked. ‘And anyway, it only takes five seconds to know if someone’s going to be your friend or not. We hit it off. You can’t deny it. There’s a connection between us.’

‘No, there isn’t.’

‘Of course there is.’

Sadie pushed open the door to the octagonal conservatory. It was furnished with rattan chairs and tables and filled with plants, mainly tall potted palms that cast long shadows in the gloom. A thin light came from the living room along with the sound of laughter and the chink of glasses. There was a temporary pause in the music – maybe someone was changing the tape – and then it started up again: the Drifters singing the Sixties hit, ‘Under the Boardwalk’.

Sadie quickly glanced around, making sure they were alone before speaking again. ‘I don’t know what you want from me.’

Mona stepped in behind her and closed the door. She sipped on her drink, keeping her sly eyes on Sadie. ‘Sure you do.’ A smile flickered at the corners of her lips. ‘Hey, I know it’s kind of scary but you can do it.’

‘Do what?’

‘You know what.’

Sadie swallowed hard. ‘I-I don’t,’ she stammered. ‘Tell me what’s going on.’

A frown settled on Mona’s forehead and a look of distrust crossed her face. She paced to the left and the right as if it might be a set-up and the police were lurking in the undergrowth. She poked among the palms and peered into the corners. When she was sure that they were the only two people in the conservatory, she returned to Sadie and said very softly, ‘I’ve done mine and now you have to do yours.’

Sadie forced herself to utter the words. ‘Are you… are you saying that you killed Eddie?’

Mona smiled again, a chilling smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. ‘A deal’s a deal. You can’t go back on it now. Not after I’ve kept to my side of the bargain.’

Sadie gulped what remained of her wine, still desperately hoping that the girl was bluffing. ‘I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you did anything.’

‘He’s dead, isn’t he?’

‘That doesn’t mean you did it.’

‘Who else?’ Mona whispered.

‘Then prove it,’ Sadie said, still grasping at straws. She had that vile sick feeling in her guts again. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t. She wanted to grab hold of Mona and shake her like a rag doll. But what if she wasn’t lying? A trembling ran through her bones, a seismic fear that drained the blood from her face.

Mona pursed her lips. ‘What do you want to know?’

Sadie shrugged, struck dumb by terror.

‘The Mansfield estate,’ Mona said. ‘Carlton House, Number 93.’ She gave another of her weird giggles. ‘Eddie wasn’t very house-proud, was he? The place was a real tip, cans everywhere and it stank of fag smoke. You’d think he’d tidy up every now and again. Still, that’s men for you; dirty bastards, all of them.’

Sadie stared, her heart thumping. Mona couldn’t know any of this unless she’d been to the flat. ‘No,’ she muttered, shaking her head. ‘You couldn’t. You —’

‘Oh, come on. It’s not as though you even liked the guy. He was a shit, Sadie, a user. He got what he deserved. It’s pointless to get all sentimental over him now.’

‘You’re crazy!’

Mona’s face took on a hurt expression. ‘Don’t say that. I only did what we agreed.’

‘We didn’t agree
anything
.’

‘Of course we did. And you can’t go back on your word.’

‘What?’ Sadie felt as if the whole exchange was surreal, a nightmare that she wasn’t able to wake up from. ‘I never promised anything. I didn’t want Eddie dead. Why would I?’

Mona inclined her head and gazed at her for a moment. Eventually a smile slid on to her lips. ‘It’s okay. You’re just scared, right? I get it. But there’s no need. I’ve got it all planned out. You won’t get caught, I promise. It’s foolproof. You won’t even have to go into the house.’

‘No, I won’t. Because I’m not going near it. I’m not having any part of this. Do you understand? I don’t… I don’t want anything more to do with you.’

‘It’s a bit late for that.’

‘I want you to go away and leave me alone.’

Mona sipped on her vodka, leaving a pale pink stain of lipstick on the rim of the glass. ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ she said. ‘As soon as my back’s turned, you’ll go to the cops and tell them what I did.’

‘I won’t,’ Sadie lied. ‘I swear. I promise.’

A malevolent gleam crept into Mona’s eyes. ‘The thing is,’ she said, ‘if you do that then I’ll have to tell them everything: how we met on the train, how you told me about your husband and I told you about my father, how we hatched a plan to get rid of them both. Except after I did Eddie you got cold feet and tried to double-cross me.’

‘They won’t believe you. Why the hell should they?’

‘No, you’re the one they won’t believe. I mean, why would I do away with Eddie Wise? I didn’t even know the guy. And if you thought I’d murdered him, if you had even the slightest suspicion, then why didn’t you go straight to the cops? But you didn’t. Not even when I turned up on your doorstep. No, instead you brought me to a birthday party.’ Mona pulled a face. ‘It’s not going to look good, Sadie. It’s not going to look good at all.’

‘I’ll… I’ll just say that I thought you were crazy, that I thought you were making it up.’

‘And what about Joel?’

‘What about him?’

‘He’s going to wonder why you lied.’

‘I didn’t.’

‘You didn’t tell him the truth.’

‘He’ll understand.’

Mona wrinkled her nose. ‘Are you sure? Only he’s bound to question it all, isn’t he? Why you didn’t tell him straight out that we’d never met before or that I’m not really called Anne. Why would you keep that from him? And when he hears about the plans we made —’

‘We didn’t make any plans.’

‘It’s all going to look very odd. Yeah, he’s going to ask some awkward questions, like why you didn’t say anything when you came back to find me at your flat today or why you brought me here to his parents’ home when you thought I might be a cold-blooded killer.’

Sadie knew she was right. She could feel her chest growing tighter, the breath being squeezed out of her lungs. ‘I’ll explain,’ she said hurriedly. ‘I was confused, scared. I’ll tell him how I didn’t believe you’d actually done it.’

‘And you think he’ll be okay with that?’

‘He trusts me.’

‘For now.’ Mona leaned in close to Sadie, so close that their faces were almost touching. ‘But I don’t think the police will be as understanding. No, they’ll take a different view entirely. They’ll think you’ve been hiding something – and they’ll be right.’

‘Maybe I’ll take my chances.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Mona snapped. ‘You’re way too smart for that. You grass me up and we’ll both go to jail. I’ll swear to God that we were in this together. If I go down, Sadie, I’m taking you with me.’

Sadie stepped back, unable to bear the proximity of the girl. It was like standing too close to the Devil. ‘Why are you doing this to me? It’s not right. I never agreed to… You know I didn’t.’

Mona’s voice suddenly changed again, switching from a threatening tone to one that was almost wheedling. ‘Hey, it’ll be all right. You see if it isn’t. We’ll be okay. In a week or two everything will have settled down. The cops have got more important crimes to worry about than who killed a nobody like Eddie Wise.’

‘He wasn’t a nobody. He might not have been perfect but —’

‘By Christmas they won’t even remember his name.’

Sadie, battling against an ever growing panic, knew that any further remonstrations were pointless. You couldn’t argue with a crazy person and Mona was deranged. It was better, surely, not to antagonise her. What if she made a habit of carrying kitchen knives around? One wrong word and she might flip. No, it was better to try and keep the girl sweet until she could figure out a way of getting shut of her, of getting her away from the house. ‘Maybe,’ she said softly. ‘Maybe you’re right.’

Mona gave a triumphant smile. ‘See? I knew it. I knew you’d come round eventually. I’ve got so much to tell you.’ She put down her glass, reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a few folded sheets of paper. ‘It’s all here, all the details and there’s a map as well. You’ll have to wait a few weeks of course, perhaps even a month but —’

‘Not now,’ Sadie interrupted, quickly waving away the papers. ‘Not here.’

But Mona, insistent, pushed them into her hand. ‘Go on. You’ll need them.’

Reluctantly, Sadie put them in her own bag. What choice did she have? At the same time she glanced towards the glass partition to make sure they weren’t being observed. ‘We shouldn’t be seen together.’

‘Oh, don’t worry about that. No one’s going to remember me.’

‘They might. It’s too risky. You should go. I think it’s for the best.’

Mona glanced over her shoulder towards the crowd gathered in the living room. ‘But the party’s just getting started.’

‘There’ll be other parties, better ones. Please, just leave.’

Mona gave a sigh. ‘If that’s what you really want.’

‘It is.’

‘We can meet up tomorrow.’

‘No,’ Sadie said. ‘You have to go back to London. You have to go back straight away.’

‘So when will I see you again?’

‘Not for a while.’ Then, before Mona could think of more reasons for staying, Sadie walked determinedly towards the door that led out into the garden. ‘Come on,’ she urged. ‘Quickly!’ And fortunately Mona followed her. They crossed the lawn and went along the path that ran adjacent to the side of the house until they came to the front gate. ‘There’s a taxi rank on the corner, right at the end of the street. You can pick up a cab there.’

‘It’s not far to the hotel. I’ll walk.’

‘Where are you staying?’

‘The Bold.’

Sadie knew the hotel, a large white building on the promenade. She could call the police and get them to arrest her. Did she dare? Mona’s threats were still revolving in her head, a spinning whirl that made her feel almost dizzy. One call could change everything. But if she made the wrong decision…

‘Why don’t you come with me? We could have a drink together.’

Sadie’s fingers tightened around the glass of wine she was holding. ‘I can’t leave the party. Look, I have to go. I’m sorry. Joel will be looking for me.’

‘Okay.’

‘And don’t ring me at the flat again. It isn’t safe.’

‘So how —’

‘I’ll call you,’ Sadie lied. ‘But not right away. We need to wait. We need to wait a while.’