Page 52 of Final Betrayal

Gathering his change into his pocket, he heaved on his coat and trudged a lonely trek through the merry crowd. He couldn’t escape quickly enough.

Cyril Gill poured a double whiskey from the decanter and stood looking out the window of his million-euro dream house. Just when business was going so well, despite the delay with his current project, that thorn in his side was back in Ragmullin. Along with him, the only other person who could make trouble for Cyril was his own daughter Louise.

He swallowed his drink and poured another. He was used to getting his own way, but when it came to family, his hands were tied. Leaning his head against the cool glass of the window, he tried to think of a way out. One thing he knew for sure, he had to do something, and quickly.

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

‘I thought we agreed we would not be in contact. It’s too easy to track our?—’

‘It’s Amy. She’s dead. Some bastard murdered her. What are you going to do about that? Tell me! What the hell are you going to do about it?’

‘Jesus, back up there. Amy? Dead? What the?—’

Richard Whyte hung up.

Cyril dropped the phone and the glass and raced up the stairs. ‘Louise! Louise! We have to talk. Now!’

Louise thought it safer to be away from the house at the moment. Huddled in her silver-coloured parka jacket, she rushed down the shingle driveway and out onto the road. It was dark. Of course it was. Her father had built this house in the middle of nowhere.

She hated living outside the town, and never having mastered the skill of driving, her red Mazda sports car continued to rust away in one of the four garages at the back of the house. More extravagance on her father’s part. Compensating? For what? She wondered about that as she made her way along the narrow path that edged the side of the road.

It was all her father’s fault again. Shouting and roaring up the stairs about Amy being dead. That couldn’t be true. She’d rushed past him, out into the night, without her phone or bag. She had to find out for herself. As the lights of approaching cars illuminated her route and then plunged her into darkness again, she had no fear for her safety. She’d lived in Ragmullin all her life. She knew the town inside out.

It couldn’t be true about Amy. Their relationship had suffered badly. Teenage friendships rarely survived into adulthood, Louise knew, but she also knew the two of them were intrinsically linked by their past.

The road once again became silvery grey with yet another car behind her. Head down, she continued to walk. But this car didn’t pass her. The light snaked alongside her and stopped. She kept walking. Almost there. Three minutes and the Parkland Hotel would be in view and lights would pave the way towards Amy’s house. Perhaps she should nip into the hotel. A hot whiskey with cloves stuck in a lemon would warm her up. She was beginning to feel the cold through the feathered layers of her jacket. And something else, too. A tinge of fear. That car hadn’t moved.

Quickening her steps, Louise was jogging when a hand gripped her arm and swung her round. She opened her mouth to scream, but only a groan accompanied the spatter of rain on the road.

‘Louise? I thought it was you. How are you doing?’

‘Oh God!’ She shuddered. ‘You terrified me. Don’t you know you shouldn’t creep up on a defenceless woman on a dark road.’ The words tumbled out of her mouth as she tried to disguise the terror thumping double beats in her heart.

‘Fancy a drink?’

He was insistent without sounding it. It was his body language. Head twisting and turning. Trying to see if anyone had noticed them? A tic at the edge of his mouth, and continuously sniffing. She needed to appear calm.

‘No thanks. I wanted some fresh air. Had to get out of the house. I’m fine. I love the rain.’

She extracted her arm and began to walk again. He kept pace.

‘Leave me alone.’ Brave words, but she was shaking all over now.

‘Ah, come on. A drink will warm you up.’

She stopped and swirled around. Drew back her hand and hit him. She surprised herself almost as much as she shocked him. His jaw slackened and his mouth hung open.

‘That was a silly thing to do, wasn’t it?’

Seizing the opportunity while he was apparently stunned by her action, Louise turned and ran. Further into the darkness, where the road was empty.

The one thing she had feared had happened.

Her past had caught up with her.

All she could do was try to outrun it.

Megan Price took the last of the china ornaments out of the box she kept under the bed. He hadn’t found that when he’d ransacked the house for things he could sell. She took them out every night and cleaned them. Because these little figurines were precious. They were all she had left of long ago.

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