An Affair of the Heart (16 page)

A few moments
after Diana had left, there was a click, and the storeroom door
swung open. Helen’s legs tumbled out onto the floor again, and
somewhere from underneath the coat there was a muffled moan.

Diana was
pleased with herself. She was in Helen’s car, driving it round to
the back of the house. She had already erased Helen’s message on
her father’s answer phone, and once her father had gone to bed that
night, she would sneak downstairs, stuff Helen’s body and things
into her car, and drive her somewhere for another tragic car
accident. Considering how unprepared she had been, it was all
working out incredibly well. Her father was due back any minute
now. But with a little more luck, she would be back in the house,
calm and relaxed, before he got there.

She was
wrong.

A black BMW
came up the drive, and a moment later Alex Williams was dropped off
at his front door “Pick me up at eight,” Alex told him, and he
watched as the car drove away.

Slowly, Alex
walked up the steps to his front door, remembering how Sarah had
been so impressed by the grand entrance. She had been so excited
when the house had first been built, even he had been happy to be
involved in her plans for its decoration and furnishing. Now it all
depressed him. He opened the door and was about to go in when he
heard the sound of another car behind him.

Alex turned and
watched the police car pull up. A man and a woman got out.

“Nothing to
worry about, Sir,” DS Hanson said. “I’m Detective Sergeant Hanson.
Your daughter was with a Mr Robert McCord when we arrested him this
evening. We thought it best that we give Miss Williams a lift
home.”

Alex looked at
the detective, and then he looked at the young woman standing just
in front of him, her expression pleading with him not to give her
away. He was about to do just that, but something inside him made
him stop. There was something about this young woman, something
familiar.

“Is that
alright, Sir?” DS Hanson said, beginning to get a little
suspicious.

“Yes, that’s
fine,” Alex told the policeman. “Thank you, officer.” Alex then
turned to Rachel. “So, you were with McCord, were you?” he asked
her.

Rachel nodded,
unable to speak.

“Then I think
you and I are going to have some words tonight, my dear. You had
better come inside.”

“Yes...dad,”
Rachel said, and she quickly trotted up the steps and went into the
house.

Alex nodded to
DS Hanson and said, “Good night, gentlemen,” and went into his
house, closing the door behind him.

Alex Williams
and Rachel Carter stood in the hall facing each other. Neither of
them spoke for a moment. Outside they could hear the sound of the
police car driving away.

Alex was the
first to speak. “You’re Rachel Carter, aren’t you?” he said.

“Yes, I am. How
did you know?”

“I recognised
you.”

“From my
picture?” Rachel shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I was on
steroids when that picture was taken. I put on a lot of weight. And
I don’t think they published any other pictures of me. After all,
I’m not that important, am I? So, how did you really recognise me,
Mr Williams?”

Alex looked at
her in surprise. But before he could say anything, Rachel went on
talking. “I felt so nervous on the way here, I almost chickened out
twice,” she said. “But as soon as I got here, seeing the doorway
and this hall, I felt so...so comfortable, like I was at home, that
I’m not nervous or scared at all anymore. In fact I feel quite
bold!” She pointed her finger at him. “You and I are going to have
words, Alex Williams! But it’s you that’s going to be on the
receiving end!”

Alex at last
managed to get a word in. “Now, look here, young lady,” he began,
but Rachel interrupted him.

“No! You look!”
she said, taking off her glasses and stepping closer.

Alex stared
into her blue eyes and suddenly felt cold. He didn’t know if it was
a draft from the front door behind him, or whether he was actually
feeling something out of the ordinary. But he was sure about those
eyes. It was the same familiar feeling he had felt when he first
saw her. It was like a fleeting taste, or smell, terribly familiar,
but just out of reach.

A sudden urge
came over him, and hesitantly, he reached out his hand and touched
Rachel’s chest, gently pressing his palm between her breasts. He
could feel her heart beating against his hand. It seemed to be
going so fast, and so hard, that each beat was like a knock against
his hand. An urgent, insistent knocking.

And suddenly he
couldn’t move. It was as if the strength just drained right out of
him. And at the same time, all the tension in him, all the anger
and frustration that had torn and raged within him since Sarah’s
death, seemed to drain away too. Just fading away as he felt her
heart beating once more.

Rachel also
stood stock still, as if frozen to the spot, as Alex continued to
stare into her eyes, his hand still pressed against her chest.

“Daddy! What
are you doing? Who the bloody hell is that?”

Alex and Rachel
sprung apart like two young lovers caught by an unexpected parent.
Diana was standing behind Alex by the open front door. Her
expression was one of complete puzzlement. She slammed the door
shut and walked up to them, looking at Rachel and then at her
father.

“What’s going
on, Daddy?” she demanded.

Alex was white
faced, like he had just had some kind of terrible shock. He
swallowed and pointed at Rachel, saying in faltering words, “She
has...er...Sarah’s heart...”

Rachel quickly
put on her glasses and said, “Hello! I’m Rachel! You’re Diana,
aren’t you? You’re the one who met Robert McCord at a fashion show
in New York last year, and persuaded him to break up your father’s
marriage because you didn’t want his young wife to inherit all your
money!”

“That’s not
true!” Diana blurted out. She was completely shocked by Rachel’s
outburst. She turned to Alex. “Don’t believe any of this nonsense,
Daddy! It’s not true, I tell you! Its just McCord! He’s put her up
to this!”

Alex just
stared at her, totally bewildered by what was happening to him.

Rachel had the
bit between her teeth. She kept going now that she had Alex’s full
attention, accusing Diana of even worse deeds. “You mean you didn’t
introduce Sarah to your father because you were showing off how
rich you were going to be? And you weren’t angry at all when Alex
started to love Sarah more than you? And you didn’t mind at all
when they got married, and you realised that she was now going to
inherit all of Alex’s money when he died?”

“It’s all lies,
Daddy!” Diana said desperately. “You know I wouldn’t do anything
like that to you! I love you, Daddy!” She put her arms around her
father, hugging him tightly. “Please believe me, none of this is
true!”

Rachel took
another stab. “You mean Alex isn’t dying of leukaemia? And you
didn’t decide to look him up only after the hospital contacted you,
and asked you if you might be willing to have a test to see if your
bone marrow was compatible for a transplant?”

Alex looked
closely at his daughter, his eyes filling with tears. He looked so
devastated.

“Don’t believe
her, Daddy!” Diana pleaded with him. “It’s not true! None of it is
true!”

Alex pushed
Diana away from him. “But how does she know that I’ve got
leukaemia?” he asked her. “Only you knew that.”

There was a
brief, painful silence, after which Diana screamed and punched
Rachel in the mouth, knocking her glasses from her face. And before
her startled father could react, she turned and kneed him in the
groin. Alex doubled up in pain. Diana grabbed him and shoved him
against the far wall. Then she picked up a large vase from one of
the side tables and smashed it over his head. He collapsed in a
heap, unconscious. Finished with him, Diana now marched over to
Rachel, who was stumbling about on the floor, trying to find her
glasses and clutching at her blood filled mouth.

Diana kicked
her over with her foot, rolling Rachel onto her back, and kneeling
across her body, she pinned her down. Rachel tried to wrestle with
her, but without her glasses she couldn’t see too well, and Diana
soon had a firm grip of both her wrists.

“You’ve got a
big mouth!” Diana told Rachel. “You just couldn’t keep it shut,
could you? You interfering, useless little bitch! You’ve ruined
everything! You’re going to pay for what you’ve done today!”

Rachel
struggled, her legs kicking. “Get off me!” she yelled.

“Oh, not so
happy now, are we?” Diana taunted her. “It’s okay to mess up my
life, isn’t it? Lots of fun then! But oh, no! It’s not so funny
when you’re on the receiving end! No, it’s not so funny then, is
it!”

“Get off me!”
Rachel repeated, kicking and struggling harder. “You’re only making
things worse!”

“Making things
worse?” Diana was outraged. “Me? You’ve got a nerve! It’s you who’s
made everything worse! And like usual, I’ve got to sort it all out!
Well, this is one job I’m going to enjoy! It really is ironic. I
never planned for Sarah to die. But, oh God, how I wanted her to!
It would have been much easier! But I just couldn’t work out a
foolproof way to do it! That’s why I came up with this idea. This
way, I didn’t have to kill the stupid cow, but I still got back
what was rightfully mine!” Diana laughed. It wasn’t very
humorous.

When Rachel had
first decided to come and talk to Alex, she had known that she
would have to confront Diana at some point. But she had never
expected Alex’s daughter to turn violent. Angry yes, but not this.
Now Rachel was getting really frightened. She was frightened by
what Diana was saying, and by the way she was behaving. It was as
if she had gone completely crazy.

“Let me up!”
Rachel demanded. “You’re hurting me!”

Diana ignored
her pleas. “If I’d only known she was going to have a fatal
accident,” she continued, gripping both of Rachel’s wrists in one
hand. “I wouldn’t have had to do all this crap either! All I had to
do was sit tight. But you can never second-guess the future, can
you? She may have only died because of the affair between her and
McCord, so maybe I did sort of kill her. Who knows? It doesn’t
really matter now, of course! One way or the other, the silly cow’s
still dead! But the fun thing is, now that you’re here, I still get
to kill her anyway.”

“What are you
talking about?”

“You’ve got her
heart, haven’t you?” Diana replied, staring into Rachel’s eyes.
“That’s what’s so ironic! You came here to mess up everything for
me. But instead, I’m going to put everything right in one go! After
all, what one accident can do for one interfering bitch, it can do
for two, and my bastard of a father! I’m going to stick you all in
one car, trundle you down a country lane, and get rid of the lot of
you!” Diana suddenly put on a tragic expression. “How the
newspapers will love me!” she said, clutching at her heart with her
free hand. “The poor bereaved daughter! ‘It was such a shame!’ I’ll
tell them. ‘Daddy had just made it all up with that young
transplant patient. How brave of her to come out here that night.
Everyone had become friends. And then how tragic! To die like that,
all together, as they drove her back to the hospital.’“ Diana’s
expression turned rather unpleasant again. “What a shame,” she
added coldly.

“You’ll never
get away with it!” Rachel blurted out, terrified now. She tried to
pull her hands free, but Diana’s grip was too strong.

“Oh, but I
will!” Diana said, her voice calm and cold now. “But first you have
to pay! Just like Sarah, and Daddy dear! And do you know why?
Because he cut my mother and me out, just when he was getting rich!
The heartless bastard!” She laughed again. That same humourless
chuckle. “That’s a joke, isn’t it? Heartless! Get it? No?” Rachel
remained silent, as if mesmerised. “You will do! And soon!” Diana
continued, and she reached out with her free hand and began gently
caressing Rachel’s chest. “No, mother wasn’t good enough for rich
Daddy! Rich Daddy wanted lots of younger, prettier little bimbos at
his side! Now rich Daddy isn’t good enough for me! But his money
belongs to me! And I’m going to get it! All of it!” Diana pressed
harder against Rachel’s chest with her fingertips. “Silly Sarah
thought she was going to get it all, but I soon fixed her, didn’t
I? But now it seems she’s come back to haunt me. Stupid, silly,
Sarah!” Diana’s fingers prodded harder against Rachel’s chest each
time she spoke the last three words. The hardest prod accompanying
Sarah’s name.

“But Robert
knows everything! He’ll tell the police!” Rachel finally managed to
say, and she resumed kicking and struggling as she felt Diana’s
fingers pressing even harder into her chest.

“Oh, yes!
Darling, handsome Robert McCord!” Diana’s voice took on a mocking
childish tone as she continued. “Is Sarah’s little hearty still
beating for her handsome hero then? Poor little Sarah, poor little
Robert.” Her voice went back to its harder tone. “He’s going to
prison! For stealing money from Daddy dear, and for cheating on his
profession. He’ll be ruined! And that’s what he deserves! The two
timing bastard! As for telling the police, what can he say? It’s
just my word against his. And everybody knows how I’m such a
loving, caring daughter, and he’s a two-timing, lying, cheating
bastard!”

“You still
won’t get away with it! You won’t!” Rachel wailed, desperate now.
She began to struggle as hard as ever, twisting and arching her
back, and almost lifting Diana off the floor.

Diana just
laughed again. “My, my, how strong you are!” she mocked. “But I
think now it’s time for little Sarah’s hearty to go beddy-byes!”
And raising her fist, Diana suddenly punched Rachel hard in the
chest.