Page 123 of Twisted Lies
‘Yeah, the nightmares are the worst,’ she agreed. ‘I still get ’em,’ she said honestly. ‘And you wanna know the worst ones?’ she asked, watching his hand carefully. ‘They’re the ones where in your dream it’s not real or that there’s a chance you can change things, alter the outcome, there’s hope that it never happened, that it was a dream within a dream. You know one of the cruellest dreams I ever had was that my brother was still alive and that no one had told me. I didn’t care about why no one had told me or why they’d kept it secret. I wasn’t angry. I was just happy to have him back. Until I woke up.’
His expression told her he’d had similar dreams. They were the worst; the cruellest tricks that the resting mind could play.
‘Jacob, I understand why you did the things you did,’ she said, switching from the truth to total lie. She would never understand the torture he’d inflicted on people who hadn’t committed the crime against Emily. These people had not been responsible for the nightmares that haunted him.
‘We understand that you befriended Amelia Dixon to get access to her financial records. We know you got access to the property records of witnesses. You even got old payroll information and you were looking for someone named Karen.’
And that name change had saved Leanne’s life. Until now.
She had been right under his nose, had even collected the boys from school the day that Keith Phipps had been murdered. It didn’t escape her attention that it was also an error in names that had misdirected her and her team.
‘He’s still alive. Don’t you understand how that eats away at my insides? Every day he lives a life where he’s protected, coddled. I know he didn’t serve any real prison time. It was in all the papers. He’s never paid for what he did to Emily. You tell me how that’s fair?’
‘I can’t, Jacob, because it isn’t. The person who caused my brother’s death is still alive too, but I have to hope she’s never known a minute’s peace since.’
He frowned, as though wanting to know more. She had distracted him slightly from his own story by sharing some of hers.
‘But he’ll do it again. I have to stop him. He’ll never change.’
Kim suspected he was right on that score.
‘You’re wrong, Jacob,’ she said. ‘There are people, good people, making sure it doesn’t happen again.’
A small tear escaped from the corner of Leanne’s eye. She’d got the message.
Jacob shook his head.
‘I can’t be sure. I have to finish what I started, and she is my last obstacle. I think she knows where he is.’
He pulled at the claw, and Kim saw the straight lines of tearing flesh. Agony contorted Leanne’s face, and Kim knew she had to do anything she could to get Jacob and his claw away from her.
‘Jacob, I swear to you that she doesn’t know the location of Boy X. He’s been moved for his own protection. She doesn’t know where he’s been taken.’ She paused. ‘But I do,’ she said, before turning and heading out of the room.
One Hundred Six
Kim’s only thought as she ran was the prayer that he would follow her. She had to hope that the logic of what she’d said would dawn on him and that his focus would be drawn away from Leanne and redirected at her.
The sound of the heavy metal door opening behind her confirmed that it had.
Never before had she found herself running away from a murderer.
She had to think quickly. She couldn’t call out to Bryant. There was no way he’d hear her, and she had to stay one step ahead of Jacob.
She decided to keep travelling anticlockwise around the building. Bryant should be coming in the opposite direction: if they met, they could overpower Jacob together, because she was willing to bet that he’d brought his despicable claw with him.
Okay, evasion until help came, she decided, stepping around the corner of the building.
‘Fuck,’ she said under her breath as a wall-mounted security light illuminated the whole area, telling Jacob exactly where she was.
‘Come on, Bryant,’ she said as she began to run.
She could hear the footsteps gaining behind her. She’d thought outside was the better option, but now she wasn’t so sure. She had no idea where they were. If there were more motion-activated lights, they were going to keep giving away her location.
The decision was taken out of her hands as she reached a ten-foot-high metal fence that prevented her journey around the perimeter of the building.
Damn, she’d only managed a quarter of the way; Bryant was nowhere in sight.
She could still hear Jacob behind her and, although he was gaining, he hadn’t yet caught her. The sensor lights she was illuminating were providing a clear path of light for him to follow.
