Two for Joy - Louise Collins Page 0,19
been a nice nanny, they visited her once a week, and she always gave him boiled sweets. She’d been a smoker, and the smell of smoke smacked him in the face like a physical force when he went into her house. She’d told him it was good for his lungs, completely ignoring all the scientific research and reports.
Romeo would play with bubbles in her yard, and when he got older, he’d sit beside her and watch her fill in the crossword.
He knew he should’ve felt something when she died, but there was nothing, only an emptiness in his chest. She died post-magpie after he’d accepted he wasn’t going to feel anything, had stopped trying. It was who he was.
Romeo saw the slight confusion in his mother’s watering eyes, it was the first time she’d come close to seeing the monster. She didn’t understand why he wasn’t crying, or showing any emotion, and instead of admitting the truth, and telling her he was void of all feelings, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and whispered that he was being strong for her.
The suspicion vanished, and she cried harder while attempting to tell him he was such a good son.
Both his mother and father loved him, but he couldn’t return that love, and had tired of trying to force it, bring it to the surface—it wasn’t there. He decided that day he wouldn’t shatter their lives, destroy their love, by letting the monster out.
He would lock it away until after they died.
****
Romeo looked at Holly’s shirt. It was near enough completely open, not so much as flashing her bra, but she had it on full display. The same bright red as her lipstick, and the material shimmered. Holly lowered her gaze looking pleased. She’d thought he was checking her out, and any denial that he wasn’t would’ve only fueled her fire. Romeo said nothing.
When he glanced back at Paul, he wasn’t leaning against the wall like normal, but had taken a few steps closer for a better view. Romeo raised his eyebrow at him and he backed off, muttering.
“I think you should accept the reasons that led to you killing rather than blindly accepting you’re a monster. Only then can you move forward.”
Romeo glared at her. “Are you a journalist or my psychologist? And why would I want to move forward. I’m stuck here for life.”
Holly carried on as if he hadn’t spoken.
“You were neglected by your parents. Picked on by your fellow students. Overworked in the workplace.”
He was never neglected by his parents. He’d been popular at school, good looking, and clever, and at work he crushed any opposition, his boss loved him until he took his job, too.
“Those negative relationships would’ve contributed to what you did to Asher Campbell.”
“Who?”
“Number five.”
He grinned at her.
“When number five picked you up in his car, how were you feeling?”
“Nervous, apprehensive.”
“Because you didn’t want to go through with it.”
“If I didn’t want to go through with it, I wouldn’t have. I was nervous and apprehensive in case it didn’t happen. I’d got my hopes up before.”
Holly flicked through her notes. “He wasn’t the first person you tried it with. Trisha Noble said she had a lucky escape from you.”
“Who?”
“She picked you up along that road two nights before you got your number five. She said how you looked panicked, distressed, claimed a taxi driver had threatened you at knifepoint. She said you were convincing.”
“I did get an A in drama.”
“She took you back to her place, you had a coffee in the kitchen, then called the opposite taxi firm to the one you claimed attacked you.”
“Sounds about right.”
“There were no CCTV cameras. Her son was asleep in his bedroom. They lived in a remote location, no neighbors. No one saw you, so why didn’t you kill her?”
Romeo scrunched his eyes shut. There must’ve been a reason he hadn’t gone through with it, he just couldn’t remember.
“It’s because you didn’t want to. You have a conscience, a heart. That day, you looked inside yourself, and couldn’t do it.”
“There would’ve been a reason.”
Holly smiled. “There is. You’re not a complete monster like you think you are.”
“Tell that to the family and friends of the ones I killed.”
“There’s a bit of good in you, I know there is, there has to be, but you’ve repressed it, disconnected from it. That night with Trisha was probably the last time you let that good out.”
“You’re wrong.”
It didn’t matter what he said, Holly had made up her mind. Him not