Page 109 of Dead to Me

James had never convinced his mother that he and Holly had been using their bedroom; he’d told her the necklace was Holly’s, and Marcie had assumed that Holly had been in there with Philip.Marcie had known Philip was cheating with someone; she’d just been waiting to find out the other woman’s identity.

She killed Holly for it,he thought, numbly.And she believed Anna was the same.Marcie thought she was sleeping with Philip.

‘That isn’t…’ he said, and then, in a hoarse voice, he asked, ‘What did you do to her?’

Marcie’s eyes slid past him and, maybe on another day, he might have been quick enough to turn and pull out the baton he carried.Though perhaps not.Ned had trained for years and was not likely to be troubled by an out-of-practice DI with a stick.

In a blur of agonising movement he found himself spun round and shoved against the kitchen wall by his neck.In an enraging, horrible echo of the night before, his head banged straight into the wall.

Reid thought he might pass out.He closed his eyes and tried to breathe, almost relieved at the painfully tight hold on his arm.It gave him something to focus on.

Ned,he thought.It’s Ned.Why didn’t you ask where he was?

At that point he realised what had bothered him about the photographs: Marcie had an ex-special forces brother, and James’s bodyguard had come from the special forces.Something he should have put together before.

‘This has all gone wrong,’ Marcie said, her voice high and tight.‘He knows about Holly.’

Shit.Shit, shit, shit.

Reid had one free hand.His only available weapons were a phone and a baton, in two different pockets of his jacket.

But even as he had the thought Ned reached into each side of his jacket, finding first the phone then the baton and flinging them both away.

Great, Reid thought.That’s… great.

‘You have to get rid of him, Eddie,’ Marcie said, her voice all but hysterical.‘He’s– it’s all going to come crumbling down.Please, Eddie.Please.You can’t let this happen to James.’

‘That’s… that’s madness, Marce.You know it’s madness.’Ned’s voice was not quite calm.‘We don’t even know what the journalist has told people.’

‘Then we deal with her, too!What else can we do?’Marcie asked, her voice sharp, and Reid opened his eyes, trying to turn enough to see something.He could only see half of Eddie’s arm.Ned’s arm.Whatever his real name was.

Reid tried to speak but the hold on his neck made it strangely hard, totally aside from the wicked pain still flooding his head.

‘There’s– squad car– coming,’ he said.

There was a pause and then Marcie said, ‘That’s a bluff.He was totally wrong about everything.He doesn’t have any evidence…’

Reid wanted to swear.She was almost entirely right, except for the squad car not being a bluff.Assuming they actually turned up at some point.He just needed to keep everyone talking until then.

‘Lots of– evidence,’ he said.‘Email from– Anna.Sent on to– lots– people.’

‘Annadidn’t have a clue,’ Marcie said.What had happened to the kind, caring woman he’d thought he’d met?The one Anna had written about?‘She walked straight into that ball and let me stick a bloody needle full of scopolamine into her.She thought she had nothing to worry about.’

Reid felt a tearing sensation inside him.He couldn’t believe it.Wouldn’t believe it.That she’d done to Anna what she’d done to Holly.

There was rage in him, but, above all, despair.He’d let her die.He’d let it happen.

‘Marce,’ Ned was saying, and Reid could feel his grip slackening ever so slightly.‘We can’t do this.’

‘I amnotgoing to let my son suffer,’ Marcie said, her voice shaking.‘And if you can’t do what you need to– what James needs you to– then please, please just hold him.Hold him while I do it.I will fix this.’

Ned’s grip on him tightened to the point where it was hard to breathe.Reid didn’t need to look round to know that Marcie had gone to get a medical kit.It was how she operated, wasn’t it?The swift needle to the arm.Clinical.Professional.Quiet.

And Reid wondered how he’d ever thought anyone else responsible.

‘Eddie,’ he said, his voice still half choked.‘Ned.This isn’t– going to help.’

There was absolute silence from Marcie’s brother, and his grip remained wickedly tight.Even through Reid’s frantic, panicked thoughts, he understood that Ned would doanything for his family, and that his sister knew how to use that fact in her favour.

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