Urban Myth (22 page)

Three days later

T
hey said I was lucky to be alive. The ambulance got me to the hospital just in time.

My blood pressure was so low it was almost off the charts. I was given an immediate transfusion. Then they’d set about fixing my nose, which had been badly broken when Belinda Wallis smashed me in the face with the shotgun.

The slug wound was pretty serious, but it was all tissue damage. No vital organs were harmed. My shoulder would heal soon enough, but I’d be left with a scar.

So it could have been a whole lot worse, and it surely would have if the police hadn’t arrived when they did. We had DC Metcalfe – or Angel – to thank for that.

Her suspicion had been aroused when she received the text from Temple telling her he wouldn’t be back at the station for several hours. It just didn’t ring true, she said, for two reasons. Firstly, Temple – who I now knew was her lover – did not put a kiss at the end of the message like he always did. And secondly, he had been desperate to talk to her just a few minutes earlier.

Angel had therefore hurriedly checked the GPS signal on his phone. When she discovered where he was she became concerned because of what she’d seen on Genna Boyd’s DVDs. So she’d got the cavalry together and they arrived before I bled to death and Wallis regained consciousness.

According to Temple, the two DVDs had been shocking and
illuminating
. One was footage of Nathan Slade being bludgeoned to death by crazy man Damien Roth. Apparently Genna had managed to get a copy of the ‘snuff’ movie without the others knowing.

The second DVD lasted ten minutes and featured Genna’s
confession
to a web camera in which she told the complete story about what they had been up to. She described it as her insurance policy in the event that things went wrong and she was threatened in any way. If she’d been able to tell Roth about it before he decided to kill her she might still be alive.

I still couldn’t take it all in; how we’d been unwitting participants in a grotesque ‘real life’ horror movie. The hidden cameras. The drugged food. The fake paranormal happenings. The concealed
basement
doors. According to Temple, we hadn’t spotted the exterior entrance to the basement because the cover was flush with the ground and hidden beneath a section of removable turf. The trouble they’d gone to defied the imagination.

The story was big news and reporters had been laying siege to the hospital and to the hotel where Nicole and the kids were staying. My family were physically OK but they were all in an emotional state, especially Tina, who couldn’t stop crying. Family therapists were already involved in helping them through it.

There was still a lot that I didn’t know about what had happened, like how I’d found the strength to stop Wallis from slaughtering my family.

But thank God I had. They were still alive and we were still together. That was the important thing.

The blows I’d inflicted on Wallis had not caused too much damage. She’d suffered a fractured cheekbone and mild concussion. She was already well enough to be questioned about where the bodies of their victims – including Nathan Slade – were buried. So far she had refused to provide the information, but DCI Temple reckoned it was only a matter of time before she did.

The detective had already charged her with attempted murder and with being an accomplice in the murders of Genna Boyd and Nathan Slade. She was facing a lifetime behind bars.

Temple himself was almost fully recovered from his ordeal, the drug having worn off. He had cuts and bruises, but they didn’t amount to much.

Of course, I’d thanked him for saving our lives. If he hadn’t come bursting into the basement when he did we would all have been killed.

Temple had assured me that none of the video footage from the hidden cameras would ever be made public. After Wallis’s trial in the New Year it would all be destroyed. His assurance had come as a great relief. The last thing I wanted was for any of it to turn up on the internet.

We had agreed to return to England for the trial. But it was
something
we wouldn’t have to think about for a while.

In the meantime, I intended to organize another birthday surprise for Nicole. I felt I owed her that much.

But this time it would be in a five-star resort in Florida or the Bahamas. Far away from any haunted houses and desolate moors.

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