To Murder Matt (35 page)

Veronique hated her brother. She always had but then she had loved him too until this.  Now there was just a ripe and festering hatred for him. Any love she may have felt for him in her misguided and groomed youth was gone. Now she knew what he had done and she moaned. A sound that came from her core, from deep inside her.  A guttural cry that filled her and the room she was in.

“Nico.  I want to die.  I can’t live through this.”

“Shhh my love, you can and you will be ok.” He had tears in his eyes. Tears of sadness but also relief. She could slowly begin to live again.  He rocked her and when she slept he held her still.

In the morning, when Nico was downstairs making breakfast, Veronique got up and went to the bathroom. She saw herself in the mirror for the first time in a month.  She splashed her face with cold water, and looked at herself again. She looked so old and so bitter.

“You ok in there?”  Nico was outside.  He tried the handle of the door, which was locked.

“Yes I am.”  She felt the resolve start to enter her soul.  She felt herself getting stronger, and she felt the strength rising within her like a snake uncoiling, before it strikes.  She had felt this once before, the last time Matt had crossed her. The last time she had run away and that hadn’t worked.  This time, this time she would run towards him, and face her fears.  This time, she would attack, and not defend.  This time, there was no room for him to attack again.  This time, she would do what she had to do.  She would make him pay for everything.

When she emerged from the bathroom, she had washed and styled her hair, had done her makeup and she was calm and controlled.  Never again, was she going to be a victim to any one.

She put her clothes on with precision, and started to pack a bag with a few essential items including her French house keys, her credit cards, some cash, her sleeping pills and her passport.  It was all so clear now, so obvious.  The answer was so simple now that she had made up her mind; the thoughts were going around and around in a loop. 
Murder Matt, to murder Matt.
And she agreed it was what she must do to be rid of him and to avenge her son’s death.  It had been Dean’s words that had first given her the idea.  He wanted to kill Matt, but she realised that unless she did it, she would never have the satisfaction of knowing she had taken control and made him pay.  She had to get there first.  For all she knew, Dean and Ellen were already on their way to France. She hadn’t a moment to lose. She had to be the one to murder Matt.

She started to laugh, as she thought of the knife plunging into him over and over again. This time though, he would not be able to stagger away. This time she would stab and stab, until his heart stopped beating. Only then, could she be happy again.  It wouldn’t bring Michael back, but he could rest in peace. She could rest knowing she had ended Matt’s life.  Even if she were sent to prison for the rest of her days, she would smile to her last moment on earth. She would run, laughing, towards her grave. She would see him in hell, and welcome it. 

Nico was surprised when Veronique came downstairs, all calm and collected.  She kissed him and went out the front door and started down the path to the car. He started after her, running behind her, still in his bathrobe.

“Where are you going?”

“I have something I have to do,” she said calmly, too calmly for Nico's liking.

“Wait I will come with you. Come back inside.”

“No, it’s best you stay here. I don’t want you implicated.”

“Implicated in what?” Nico didn’t like what he was hearing.  She got into the car and lowered the window.

“I have to do this alone. Trust me Nico. I finally know what I have to do.”  She smiled in a way that frightened him and he didn’t frighten easily.

“Wait!”  She drove off leaving Nico stood in the street.  He had no idea what she was doing, or where she was going, but knew he had to go after her.

She was sitting in the airport departure lounge, when a man came and sat by her. If he had known what she was thinking, he would have avoided her at all costs.  She had been thinking of all the different ways to kill someone. Matt, in particular. With every method, she saw him die in a new way. She thought of the pros and cons of each method.  She was still undecided, when he started to talk.  At first, she didn’t listen, and had tried to ignore him, but then he mentioned the word murder, and her hearing zoned in.

“Murder? Sorry?”

“Yes, I said, that is a good murder mystery in your hand. It is a good book.”  She looked down and remembered she had bought the book in the bookshop at the airport in the hope of some inspiration.

“Ah.” She said, suddenly understanding his comment.

“Yes. I read them to relax. I am a homicide detective.  Sometimes reading them helps us with our work when we have a difficult case. Sometimes they point out things we haven’t even thought of.”

“Mmhmm.” She wondered why he was sat next to her but took it as a sign for her to listen, after all the universe always delivers your wishes. “What a horrible job you have. It must be awfully depressing.”

“Yes it can be at times.”

“Tell me.  Is it true it is almost always someone the deceased knew?”

“I would say that is true in about ninety percent of the cases. At other times, the person is just in the wrong place, and time, and it is a random act of a killer.”  She nodded again. Matt most definitely knew her.  She didn’t care if she was caught. She would probably turn herself in after he was dead anyway. She had nothing to live for any more, nothing to lose.  “Some people try to make it look like suicide you know.”  Veronique sat up, suddenly very interested.

“Oh how do they do that?”

“I wouldn’t normally tell someone this, but you look normal enough.”  He chuckled. “I can normally tell a murderer at a hundred paces.
”

If only you knew
Veronique thought
Give me time. This time tomorrow...
Inwardly she smiled maliciously. It was like a sweet secret that entwined around her heart and moved like vines inside her mind and body.

“One of the most common methods is they cause a natural looking tear in the brake fluid pipes, allowing the brake fluid to escape so when the person goes to brake there is nothing to stop and they crash.  But,” he paused, “sometimes they survive. It depends on the car and the speed at which they were travelling.  I am sure lots of cases are missed by lazy police who just write it off as an accident.” She smiled her sweetest smile. “Oh that’s my plane being called for boarding.  Nice meeting you.”  He stood up and gathered his things and left, not realising that he had just given her a few more ideas to think about.

She arrived at the airport in Nice and rented a car.  It was odd driving up through the coastal hills of Southern France. She had been away for a while and it was strangely familiar and yet unfamiliar too.  She realised she was finally going to get him for everything he had done to her; for all the beatings, the rape, the forced sex sessions, for the loss of her childhood and her innocence, but most importantly it would be for the loss of the person she loved the most, for her Michael.  The closer she got, the lighter she felt. Soon, it would all be over.  She stopped a little ways down from the villa, and parked the car in behind some trees, in some thick bushes. She didn’t want anyone to know she was there. She didn’t want anyone to see the car, or report it either, and so she hid her tracks carefully.  Luckily, she knew the area like the back of her hand.  She let herself into the villa, grateful for the first time ever that she hadn’t thrown the key away. She knew she would need it again.

She crept inside the house, passed the kitchen and the servant’s quarters.  Inside, she heard the housekeeper speaking to her husband.  Her accent was thick, and colloquial, and totally familiar to Veronique.

“That hussy in the bakers tried to charge me tourist prices for the bread today!”

“I am sure you didn’t let her get away with it,” he said in a resigned manner.

“Too right I didn’t.  And you know what? The whole village is alive and talking about you being hit by the master.  They think it is because you aren’t working hard enough for him.  I told them straight, it was because you came to protect me but they didn’t believe me.”

“Yes dear.”

Veronique crept passed the door, and out to the pool. She knew that if he were in the house this is where he would be.  She walked quietly, and slowly, over to the sun lounger under the sun umbrella, where he lay relaxing by the pool.  He had a bandage on his head, which surprised her, and he appeared to be sleeping. By the side of him, was a low table with a drink on it. She moved stealthily towards him, and reached into her bag to get out her sleeping tablets.  Her heart was beating so loudly, she was surprised he didn’t hear it, and she tried to hold her breath.  Getting out the pills, as quietly as she could, she opened the capsules, one by one, and let the powder fall into his drink.  She managed to get about four or five in before he started stirring.  She stopped what she was doing and stepped back behind his sun lounger.  His hand came out and he sat up slightly, took his drink and drank it all in one and then he laid back and went back to sleep.  She placed the empty and plain capsule bottle by the side of him to make it look like he had taken them.  She quickly wrote a quick suicide note and dropped it on the floor by the sun lounger.

Veronique was astounded.  Was it really that simple?  She started to back away from him and as she did so she bumped against something causing it to clatter to the ground.  He woke up, and turned around drowsily.  He squinted at her, but the sun was behind her, and so she was silhouetted as a black shape against the sunlight. 

“Veronique?” He said sleepily.  She stepped back into the shadows, and she disappeared into the darkness of the shade.  He put his head down and went back to sleep.  A sleep that she hoped would last forever.  She crept passed the servants again, and returned to her car.

Driving away, she laughed and sang at the top of her voice.  She was free, finally free of him, and Michael had been avenged.  She had never been so happy.

F
rom the moment that Veronique had come downstairs looking like her normal self, he knew something was very wrong.  He knew that she wasn’t thinking straight and he had to work out where she could have gone and get to her to stop whatever she was planning to do.  She would only put herself at risk.

He sat down and went through everything he knew about her right up to the moment she left.  One thing kept repeating in his mind.  It was all to do with Matt.  That had to be the answer. When Michael had died he had sworn vengeance, but all his enquiries had drawn a blank.  Matt wasn’t in France, wherever he had gone to recuperate from his injuries, it hadn’t been there and with his money, he could have hidden anywhere.  Only a few days later, he had returned to the UK to be with Veronique. She was his primary concern.  He would get Matt at a future date.  He didn’t expect that he would suddenly be thrown into action now.

Nico grabbed his things, and jumping into his car, he left for the airport.  Veronique was only just ahead of him by an hour, or so, and if he was quick he might just be able to catch up with her.

The flight to Nice had left about half an hour before, he got there and the next flight was two hours later. He bought a ticket and waited impatiently in departures. Whilst he was there he thought about what she had said about Dean and Ellen visiting the day before.  What had they said to her to create such a change in her? It was as though they had turned a switch in her head and she rebooted as the “old” Veronique.  He remembered her saying something about them going to visit Matt.  Luckily he knew the address, otherwise he wouldn’t have a clue where to go.

In Nice, he was annoyed that the woman had delayed him with all her questions at the car hire place. All he wanted was the car, not a twenty-minute speech on driving and car safety. He had said “yes, yes” grabbed the keys and left in a foul temper.  He got into the hire car and drove as fast as he could up to the villa. It was approximately twenty minutes, but he did it in just under fifteen. He didn’t know what he was going to do, or say when he got there.  He screeched to a halt, and ran inside, leaving the car door open.  He didn’t know if Veronique was still there, had even been there, or had left, but he couldn’t take any chances.

The manservant opened the door, and looked at him suspiciously. He had a big bruise on his jaw and a swollen lip.

“Yesh?” His swollen mouth made it difficult for him to speak and he looked at him sideways, not sure whether to trust him or not.

“I have to see Matt.” The manservant shook his head.  He didn’t want any more fights and whilst he didn’t quite understand what was going on, he could see the man was in an agitated state, and he had already had enough after yesterday. He wasn’t going to risk it.

Nico wasn’t going to take no for an answer, and pushed past the elderly man, and moved him aside as though he were swatting a fly.  He went from room to room, shouting for Veronique.  He asked the man where she was. He shrugged his shoulders and mumbled that she wasn’t there, and he hadn’t seen her for almost a year.  Nico didn’t believe him. He went outside to the pool, where Matt lay with a bandage on his head.

He looked a deathly pale, even under his tan. He grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook him awake, his eyes taking a while to focus.

“What?!”

“Where is Veronique?”  Matt laughed. He must be dreaming again.

“Not here. You lost her?  Join the club.”  He closed his eyes, and Nico shook him awake.

“Where is she?”

“In my bed, well fucked. She could be dead for all I care”

“I’ll kill you. If it’s the last thing I do,”  Nico raged.  He looked passed him and saw the brown tablet bottle on the table. He picked it up and read the label.

Patients name. Veronique Mellor. Mogadon 5mg.  1 Tablet to be taken before bed.

Do not exceed this dosage.

It was dated the week before, and it was empty.  He didn’t know how many pills were in there, or whether she had taken them all, or even why the bottle was there.  All he knew, was that she had been there, and very recently. He dropped the bottle, and in his panic, he ran from the poolside, and into the house. He just didn’t know what had happened between her and Matt, and that was what worried him the most. Where was she?