Page 39 of The Stranger in Room Six
I’m rummaging through a drawer when the door swings open.
‘What are you doing in here?’ asks the carer at the door.
‘What do you mean? This is my room.’ I reply boldly. If there’s one thing you learn in this business, it’s to think fast.
‘This is Miss Marchmont’s room. You must have got lost.’
I put on my frail voice. ‘Oh dear. Really? I seem to be getting more and more confused.’
‘That’s all right, love. Let me help you back.’
‘Thank you,’ I say. When we reach my door, I insist that I’ll be fine on my own. I hide my gun under a floorboard I’ve managed to loosen, then sink down onto my bed and heave a sigh of relief.
My phone pings again. This time it’s a voice message, robotic as if it’s been funnelled through some AI system.
‘This is a firm deadline. If you don’t find that list by July 12, expect to be replaced.’
July the 12th is the barbecue they’ve all been going on about here. Why then?
But it’s the final word of the message that freaks me out. Replaced. We all know what that means in this business: missing without trace.
I’ve got to find those bloody names. No matter who gets in my way.
25
Belinda
We’re sitting in the visitors’ room, reunions exploding all around us. One couple is yelling at each other. ‘You promised you’d stay straight this time,’ says the man.
The toddler on the mother’s knee bursts into tears. ‘Now look what you’ve done,’ snaps the woman.
‘That’s right. Blame me as usual.’
Another couple try to hold hands until a guard shouts, ‘No touching!’
I just sit, stunned into silence.
‘My husband and Karen had a child?’ I ask, just to confirm I’d heard this correctly.
She nods.
Then I laugh. ‘You’re lying; you must be.’
Penny casts a scared look around the visiting hall, ringing with children’s yells and guards barking. ‘It’s true,’ she says. ‘That’s why I called you just before your husband died.’
‘That was you?’ I gasp.
‘Karen asked me to, in the hope that it might bring things to a head and push Gerald into leaving you. I was meant to tell you about their child too, but I got scared when you said you were going to report me and I rang off.’ She shakes her head. ‘I’m sorry it turned into such a tragedy. I never meant this to happen.’
I’m numb, trying to take this all in. A child? An affair was bad enough but this …
‘How did they meet?’ I whisper.
Penny looks guilty. ‘She was a friend who needed some accountancy advice. So I asked Gerald if he’d see her and then he took her on as a client. It was clear from the start that there was an attraction between them.’
A shiver goes through me. ‘Really?’ I falter.
‘I’m afraid so.’ She shrugged as though this was inevitable. ‘It was like watching sparks fly. Then two years later, Karen got pregnant and had a little boy. He’s three now.’
