Page 82 of The Best Friend
‘No. You keep Louisa quiet. I’ll go.’
‘Let me see my son. Please!’
‘Quiet!’ she snaps. The car headlights blink off. Darcy lays her knife down on the table, fluffs her hair and smooths her t-shirt. She crosses the room and turns out the light before she leaves, closing the door behind her. Light from the utility room above drifts down the stairs, so at least we’re not in total darkness. Callum guides my arms around the back of the chair again and starts to re-tie my wrists.
‘Can you at least tie them in front?’ I ask. ‘It’s so painful when they’re pulled back like that.’
‘Sorry,’ he says. ‘I have to do it this way.’ Once he’s done, he comes back around the front and crouches down in front of me, taking a length of material from his pocket.
I shake my head as I realise what it is. ‘You don’t need that,’ I whisper. ‘I’ll be quiet, I promise.’ The thought of being gagged makes me light headed. What if I can’t breathe properly?
‘Sorry,’ he repeats, pushing the cold, dusty material between my teeth. He straightens up and walks behind me, tying the material tight at the back of my head.
The doorbell sounds, distracting me from my panic. Surely Marianna would have a door key. Is Darcy going to answer it? I hold my breath and strain my ears. From above, out there on the driveway come faint voices, Darcy’s laughter.Who is it? Who is it?Oh my God, I know that voice.
‘Mmmmmhph!’ I try to call out, but this bloody gag has done its job of almost silencing me.
‘Shh,’ Callum whispers. ‘No one can hear you.’
I ignore him, writhing in my seat and straining against my gag for all I’m worth. Callum grips my shoulders hard until I squeal in pain.
‘I asked you to be quiet,’ he says.
The tone of his voice chills me so I quiet down, but I can’t stop the tears of frustration running down my face. It’s Jared’s voice I hear up there. He’s so close, he could come in here and save me. He could race down the stairs right now and see what his precious Darcy has done to me.
‘If she gets in touch, I’ll let you know,’ Darcy says, her voice louder now.
Lying bitch.I’m sure she wants me to hear. Jared has obviously come here looking for me. He must have got my message. If only he’d arrived a few minutes earlier he would have seen my car. Now it’s too late.
As the front door closes and his footsteps crunch away over the gravel, hope drains from my body. He believed her. He’s going to drive out of here and go home. And I’ll probably never see him again. He’s leaving. And I’m left here with a modern-day version of the Kray twins.
The light comes on, making me squint for a moment. When my vision clears, I see Darcy coming back down the stairs. If only I could rip this gag off my mouth so I could quiz her about what Jared was doing here, about what lies she told him.
‘In case you didn’t hear, that was your darling husband,’ she says, walking across the room and turning to face me, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘Apparently, you left him a garbled message. Something about me picking Joe up from school. It’s okay, I told him he wasn’t to worry.’ She smiles and tosses her hair back. ‘I reassured him. Told him I saw you collect Joe. That the children were late coming out of class but that everything’s fine now.’
My blood heats up and my heart pounds. If only I could rip the bonds from my body and scratch her evil face off. But the more I struggle, the more the ties dig in, and the more impotent I feel. My muffled cries grow stronger, the gag cutting into the edges of my mouth as I try to yell.
‘Oh for God’s sake, shut up or I’ll shut you up,’ Darcy snaps. ‘You sound like some kind of sick zoo animal.’
I give one last grunt before abandoning my attempts to yell at her, knowing it’s pointless.
Darcy turns away from me, her bright hair swinging, a waft of her perfume invading my nostrils, clinging to the back of my throat. But something distracts me from my misery. My heart gives a small leap as I hear a familiar sound – it’sMr Brightsidecoming from upstairs, getting louder.
‘Where the hell is that music coming from?’ Darcy says. ‘Is that… Is that yourphone?’ Her eyes widen with panic as my eyes glitter with triumph. She turns back and grips my shoulder so hard it feels like she’s going to break it. For all her planning – she hasn’t got everything covered – she forgot about my mobile phone which is sitting in my bag in the hall upstairs.
‘Go and turn that bloody thing off,’ she hisses to Callum.
He heads for the stairs
My heart thumps as I hear Jared’s footsteps approaching the house once more. He’s come back! He must have called my phone and heard it ringing inside the house.
‘Damn, it’s too late,’ Darcy cries. ‘Cal, wait!’
The doorbell rings. Now, there’s banging on the door. ‘Louisa!’ Jared yells. ‘Are you in there? What’s going on? Darcy! Open the door! Let me in!’
‘You’ll have to go and shut him up,’ Darcy hisses to her brother. ‘Go round the back so he doesn’t see you.’
Callum disappears up the stairs, his footsteps receding. Darcy crosses the room and turns out the light. The doorbell is still ringing, the banging continues. Jared is threatening to call the police now.
