good friends on Facebook; Abbie should have been pleased when she learned the truth.
I just wanted to touch you, Abbie - to kiss you, to hold you. I’ve been watching you and waiting for a long time. But you didn’t want me, did you? I’m not good enough, am I?
And now Abbie would tell, and nobody would understand. It would be exactly like the last time. Nobody had understood then either.
You rejected me, Abbie. You’ll never know how much that hurt. How could you do that to me? I didn’t mean for you to die - but if you live, that’s the end of everything for me.
As soon as Abbie could speak, every carefully constructed edifice of this life would be destroyed, and that couldn’t be allowed to happen. That’s if the driver didn’t speak first.
Time was running out. It was time for somebody to die.
And Ellie was going to have to help. But was she frightened enough yet to do as she was told? Without Ellie the plan would never work. She provided the vital missing piece - the lure.
Something else needed to happen - something that would really shake Ellie. She had limits, but she could be manipulated - especially if it was anything to do with her children.
I need to make her scared - scared to death of the alternative. Scared of what I might do to her children. Then she’ll do as I ask.
There was a sort of inevitability about it all now - a sense of hurtling at breakneck speed towards a conclusion without any way of slowing things down. It would all be over soon. Life could return to normal, as if none of this had ever happened.
And now it was all down to Ellie.
* * *
Although Leo wasn’t a religious person, she had always believed in forces for good and forces for evil. She had never been capable of seeing an aura, but she didn’t doubt that people had them. Two individuals sitting perfectly still with expressionless faces could give off entirely different types of energy which could positively crackle around a room. So when she walked into the kitchen on Wednesday morning, despite only having sight of Ellie’s back, she knew that - had she been capable of seeing it - Ellie’s aura would have been the mud colour of tension.
What now?
After making herself scarce the previous evening she had been hoping that this morning life would be back to normal.
Everybody else had eaten breakfast and Ellie was clearing the dishes away. Max was on his way out of the door with the twins and on the face of it, everything seemed to be fine. He said he’d packed Jake’s and Ruby’s bikes into the boot of his car and was taking them off to a grassy place. Ruby wanted to ride without her stabilisers, apparently, and Ellie said she couldn’t bring herself to watch. She’d excused herself on the grounds that she would make Ruby nervous. Jake, on the other hand, said he would see how many times Ruby fell off before he decided whether his were coming off or staying on.
Max left with a cheery wave, but Leo felt that it was a bit half-hearted. Obviously things hadn’t worked out quite as well as he’d hoped last night. She wished she knew what was really wrong. It wasn’t like her sister to behave like a jealous harpy. She sat down at the kitchen table.
‘What’s going on, Ellie? I know you have this idea that there’s something between Max and that PE teacher, but that’s not the only thing, is it? You’re so jumpy every time the phone rings, and you seem scared of your own shadow. Is it something to do with Friday night, because you still haven’t told me why you went out?’
Ellie banged the dishes down on the worktop and the cutlery tumbled onto the floor. She muttered an expletive, but didn’t turn round to face Leo as she spoke.
‘Forget Friday night, Leo. I’ve told you – it was nothing.’
‘So why is it so important that Max doesn’t know, then?’ Leo asked.
Ellie spun round.
‘Don’t you dare mention it to Max. It’s got nothing to do with you. Leave it.’
She bent to pick up the knives and spoons and thrust them into the dishwasher basket.
Leo wasn’t about to let this go.
‘What’s wrong with you two? This is so unlike the pair of you. You seem fixated on this Alannah woman, but what does Max have to say about it?