Page 112 of Dead to Me

She saw Marcie shudder slightly and look down at her abdomen, and then slowly fold towards the floor as her brother tried to catch her, as if it was only now she saw it that the wound had become real.

Later, Marcie’s health would probably matter to Anna a lot.Anna had, after all, been the one wielding the knife.But right now, she couldn’t seem to care.

She was here, and Reid was Reid.She levered him as gently as she could into a sitting position against the wall.He’d closed his eyes and there was sweat along his forehead.

She saw the full glory of his bruised face now, and it made her ache.

They beat the shit out of him,she thought.All because of me.

‘God, Reid,’ she said.

He opened one eye, blearily, and gave her a half-smile.‘I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life,’ he said.And he reached out clumsily and grabbed her hand.‘Though I may love you more if you can find me some fuck-off-strong painkillers.’

Anna was smiling and crying at once as she answered.‘So you’re saying you love me even without the drugs?’

‘Yes, I am,’ he said.‘And I do.’

And Anna leaned in and kissed him, accompanied by the highly romantic sound of sirens approaching– finally– at speed.

There was, of course, no easy resolution to what had happened that day.As Reid and Anna were helped to sit in the back of one ambulance Marcie was already being loaded onto another.The doors weren’t yet shut when a Jaguar slewed into the driveway and disgorged Philip and James, the two of them white-faced with fear.

With perfect timing, Ned was brought out of the house at this point, wearing handcuffs, the result of Reid having explained his role in covering up Holly’s murder.

‘Shit,’ Anna said, half rising to her feet.

‘Stay here,’ Reid said, gently but firmly.‘You don’t need to do anything else.’

And despite his wobbly gait and what must have been a terrifically painful head, he hobbled over to Philip and explained that his wife was about to be taken urgently to hospital, where she would be under a state of arrest for the murder of Holly Moore and the attempted murder of himself and Anna Sousa.

Philip took three running steps towards the ambulance, and Anna wondered whether he’d taken any of that in.But it was at least good to see that he cared a little for the woman he’d cheated on persistently.

James was staring at Reid, his face slack with shock.‘I… you’re an actual police officer,’ he said.

Reid gave him a confused look.‘I… yes.We met yesterday.’

‘I know, I… I thought you were a fake,’ he said, and his eyes travelled to Ned.‘I’m… I’m sorry.I didn’t trust anyone.’

And then he sat heavily on the ground, on what must have been viciously uncomfortable gravel, and he started sobbing into his hands in a way that all but broke Anna’s heart.

There was more, too, later.When Anna had climbed into the back of a squad car with Reid and used her replacement phone to call Gael at last.

‘OK,’ she said as he answered.‘I’ve done some stuff and I want you to listen and try to be OK with it, because I really need your help right now.’

‘Jesus, Anna,’ he said, in a voice that was far warmer and more steeped in relief than she’d expected.‘I thought you were dead.You can… Just come and tell me everything and we’ll work it out.OK?’

And actually, he basically did, though much of it made her uncomfortable.He listened while she explained that this had never been about a group of kids killing their friend, but about a woman filled with rage at the student her husband had taken advantage of.‘Only she got the wrong girl,’ she added, with an empty feeling of sadness.‘She killed Holly Moore instead of Esther Thomas.One innocent girl instead of another.’

She told him that her brother Eddie had been her only confidante, but that she’d twisted the truth to manipulate him.Told him it had been James, in a moment of rage when he realised she’d cheated, and that they would have to rally together if anyone found out.

‘So James Sedgewick didn’t know?’Gael asked her.

Anna sighed then, long and loud.‘Not until I gave him enough information to make it click.I was wrong and Maria was right.I think he tried to kill himself that day.He realised that this all came back to that necklace, and Esther’s affair with his dad.Which meant someone in his family killed her.She died because of him and he didn’t even have anyone to confide in.’

Gael nodded, slowly, and then said, ‘But you were right, too.Therewasdanger.Esther Thomas would not have been safe.Nor would whatever young woman Philip chose to move in on next.’

He listened while she told him about Kit Frankland and Ryan Jaffett too, and his expression was nothing but understanding.Understanding, and maybe a little sad.

Once she’d finished, he sat back with a sigh.‘What you have, it’s… it’s going to be some goddamn story.’

---