Shadow of Suspicion (Haunted by the Past) Read online

  The small girl’s eyes popped open and she smiled. She nodded her head, her curls bouncing around her chin. “You have to save her. Please.”

  Jason rubbed his eyes, but the phenomenon remained. Her words slowly penetrated his stunned brain.

  “Callie? Are you telling me that Callie is in trouble?” He rubbed his chin, confusion rolling through him. “But that’s not possible. The woman trying to hurt Callie is dead now.”

  The child shook her head. “Bad lady came back. She has Callie. You must go and save her.”

  Jason’s whole body turned to ice and his mind struggled to comprehend. It had been Lucinda trying to hurt Callie, hadn’t it? Why then was he seeing Sophie? Anxiety rose up and almost choked off his breath. They must have missed something. The question was what?

  “Who is the bad lady and where did she take Callie?” Jason ignored the part of his brain that told him he’d lost the plot. He knelt down in front of the small, ghostly child. “Can you take me there?”

  The child’s eyes widened and fear shot through her expression. “Can’t go back there, please.” A sob escaped the child; the sound echoed with a strange hollow quality. “Don’t want to go back there. I was so cold!”

  Jason bit down a frustrated growl. He had to encourage the girl to talk. “Where is she? Can you tell me?”

  The child faded slowly before his eyes. Her small hands rubbed at her arms as if she tried to warm herself. Her soft crying lingered in the air as she disappeared completely.

  “No, please tell me where?” Jason sprang forward, but his hands connected with only air. “Damn it”

  He leapt to his feet and kicked a nearby piece of metal across the ruined forecourt. It hit the remains of a brick wall with a resounding clang. “Think,” he demanded of himself. Where could Sophie have been talking about? She’d been so afraid.

  He wracked his brains. What was it Trish had told him and Callie about Sophie? Suddenly the answer popped into his mind and he smacked his forehead. “Of course!”

  Where else could Sophie have meant but the place where she’d died. Jason pulled his phone from his pocket with trembling hands. He had to find out where the nature reserve was that Trish had spoken of. He tried ringing her phone, but received no answer.

  “Come on! Come on!” He clicked off. Where the hell was she? His phone rang. Jason breathed a sigh of relief and answered without bothering to check the caller display.

  “Trish?”

  “No, it’s Max.” The deep male voice sounded irritated. “Can you come pick me up? My bloody car has just packed in. The engine blew or something. I’m stuck just outside of town.”

  “Max?” Jason had trouble processing the words being flung at him.

  “Yes, Max. As in Max Fuller, Mitch’s father. What’s wrong with you? You sound all strange.”

  Jason blew out a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Thank goodness you called. I need you to tell me where the Fuller nature reserve is.”

  “What?” Max sounded stunned. “Why on Earth would you want to know that?”

  “Because I have it on good authority that Callie is in trouble. She’s being taken to the nature reserve and we haven’t a moment to lose.” Jason held in his temper. He struggled to remove the van keys from his pocket with one hand, while holding the phone to his ear with the other. His long strides ate up the distance to his awaiting van.

  “What kind of ridiculous nonsense is this?” Max huffed. “Callie is perfectly safe now that your mad ex is out of the picture.”

  “Max, I don’t have time to argue. Just pretend that what I’ve said is true, and tell me where the hell that nature reserve is.” Jason ground out.

  “Alright, alright. Keep your hair on! I can show you if you want. I’ve broken down on the way to the reserve anyway. Pick me up on the main road.”

  The phone clicked off. Jason jumped into the van and started the engine. He shoved the gearstick into reverse, the tires screeching in protest at the speed in which he whizzed backwards. Jason quickly shifted into first and jammed the accelerator to the floor. He shot down the road, uncaring of the blaring horns that buzzed around him as he cut up several cars to reach the high street.

  Callie’s face leapt into his mind. His heart rolled over in his chest. What if he was too late? His stomach twisted into sick knots. How could he bear it if he never saw her again? The truth was he couldn’t. Why had he ever thought he could let her leave him? He’d been dithering over whether to let her return to London or to risk a relationship with her. It had been easy to consider her leaving when he knew he could always visit her if he chose to.

  Faced with the prospect of losing Callie permanently, Jason suddenly realised what he’d refused to see before. His fear had blinded him to his own feelings. He loved her. Truly, madly and deeply. He just hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself or to anyone else. He’d been so caught up in protecting his heart and now it could be too late. What a fool he’d been.

  He’d thought he’d loved Lucinda, but he finally saw his feelings for his ex as they really were. Why had it taken him so long to figure it all out? He’d been dependant on Lucinda after the loss of his brother and his mother’s abandonment of her family. It had never been real love, the kind you built a future on. He’d been attached to Lucinda. She’d been nothing more than a habit.

  What he felt for Callie went far deeper. He thought of all the times they’d laughed, fought and the kiss that they had shared. He’d been an idiot to hold her at a distance for so long. For the first time in his life, he knew what it meant to be in love. He’d do anything to make her smile, laugh, and be happy. He’d lay his life down to keep her safe and never once would he regret it.

  He’d wasted so much precious time. What if he never got the chance to tell her how he felt? Pain ripped through him and his eyes blurred. He blinked rapidly to clear his vision. He had to reach her. This couldn’t be all he’d have of her. They had a life to live and a future to plan. He’d tell her all that was in his heart, if he was just given the chance.

  Please, God. Let her be okay. Don’t let it be too late for me to tell her how I feel. He thumped the steering wheel and let out a roar. Whoever had taken Callie had better not have hurt her. Jason would make the culprit pay dearly if even one hair on her head had been harmed.

  He flicked on his indicator. His tires squealed as he turned the van onto the main road. Horns blared out behind him for the second time, but he ignored them. His eyes stared ahead with concentrated focus. He had to find Max and then Callie…………..before it was too late.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Callie stared in shock. Her brain refused to accept what her eyes were seeing. The lovely kind woman she’d come to know stared back at her with cold, deadly eyes. No wonder she’d known Callie would be at Lucinda’s funeral. It made complete sense now. Callie had talked it over with Trish just the other day. Hurt lanced through her heart at the betrayal. She’d thought Trish was her friend.

  “All this time you pretended to be my friend, encouraged me to be a part of the family……..why?” Callie had to know. How could she have been fooled so badly? “Did you ever actually care or was it all an act?”

  Trish shimmied out of her dress and unzipped her fat suit, all the while keeping her gun in one hand. “I’m an accomplished actress, dear. I can cry at the drop of a hat. It was one of the things they loved about me in the theatre. I think I could have made it in films or TV if I hadn’t met Max.”

  She paused, her face slightly dreamy for a moment. Her eyes snapped back to Callie. “As to why, I had to keep you onside. I knew you’d never suspect me if I was your friend. I wanted you to stay in town. It makes it easier to dispatch you and blame it on someone else.”

  Callie recalled every kind word, every caring glance, or tear filled expression on Trish’s face. All a lie! She glared at the woman before her, the betrayal hard to process. Trish stepped out of the fat suit and dropped it to the ground. She stood before Callie dressed in a s
imple t-shirt and leggings, her thin frame restored.

  Trish held her arms wide. “Amazing, huh.” She smiled, but it was a hard, thin slash across her face. She slipped her arms into her coat, the garment now swamping her. “Believe me, I’ve needed every one of my skills to keep Max from guessing that I’d found out his little secret.”

  The implications of Trish’s words made her feel ill. How in the world could the woman believe her own husband, Sandra’s brother no less, was Callie’s father? It was sick, twisted, and completely wrong. Max was her uncle. Trish had to have some kind of mental problem. How she’d dreamed up such a terrible scenario was beyond Callie. Then again, the woman had created a whole other person. Nothing else should surprise Callie, considering.

  She swallowed hard. She had to penetrate Trish’s delusion somehow. Callie prayed Trish wasn’t too far into her insanity to listen to reason.

  “Trish, this is crazy.” Callie kept her voice as calm and steady as she could. “Your husband can’t possibly be my father. Think about it! He’s Sandra’s brother.”

  Trish’s face twisted into a bitter mask of hatred. “Don’t you think I’m not painfully aware of that? Do you really think I would entertain such a notion, if I didn’t know for a fact that it was true?”

  Her shriek echoed through the woods. “They made a complete and utter fool of me. I was so in love with him, but it was all a lie! Do you have any idea how I felt when I found out?”

  Callie clenched her jaw. Trish was out of her mind. “You are wrong. Whatever you think you know, you have to be mistaken. You need help. I think you should see a doctor.”

  “You keep telling yourself that, dear.” Trish choked on a sob. “I know different and so do your grandparents.”

  Callie shivered at her words. A sliver of doubt wedged itself inside her. Rebecca’s visit flowed through her memory. Her grandmother had been so hostile. She remembered thinking at the time how strange it was. If Trish told the truth, it would explain Rebecca’s attitude towards her. Callie clasped a hand to her throat. What was she thinking? She shook her head in denial. It couldn’t be true. It was too awful to believe.

  Trish paced backwards and forwards, her voice rising and falling as she spoke. Callie wanted to block out the words that fell from the woman’s mouth, but she couldn’t. No matter what, she had to know if Trish was simply deluded or whether what she’d told Callie was actually true. She owed it to Sophie to learn the truth, if nothing else.

  Trish’s voice became hollow. “We’d only been married a couple of months when I found out their terrible secret. I was working late and Max went to visit Sandra. I never gave it a second thought. I was so happy and so blissfully ignorant.” She stopped still and stared into space. “What a blind, trusting fool.”

  Her gaze snapped to Callie. The torment in Trish’s eyes stabbed through Callie like a knife. “My work colleagues sweetly let me go home early that day. I went to surprise my Max, only it was me that was in for the shock of my life.” She leaned towards Callie, her face wracked with pain. “They didn’t even see me at the window. The argument was so loud and fierce, it’s a wonder the neighbours didn’t hear everything.”

  “What argument? What happened?” Callie whispered.

  She struggled to keep abreast of Trish’s wondering thoughts. She desperately hoped that whatever Trish had heard or seen, there was some other explanation. She refused to accept Max as her father. It was too awful to believe.

  “You still think I’m wrong, don’t you? I can tell by the expression on your face.” Trish’s lips twisted into an ugly sneer. “I’m not wrong. I wish I were. Do you want to know what I saw?”

  Callie forced herself to nod her head. She clenched her hands into fists. Her nails dug into her flesh, but she didn’t care. She bit her lip and braced herself. Her body trembled. She felt as if she was poised on the edge of a precipice, and the next few moments would determine whether she flew or dropped to the ground like a stone.

  Trish bared her teeth. “I saw my husband in nothing but his underwear. That bitch Sandra had only a sheet wrapped around her. I could hear Rebecca screaming at them. She demanded to know what the hell they were doing.” Trish wiped her streaming nose with the back of her hand. “Do you know what Max said? He told them he loved Sandra, as a man loves a woman. She was the only woman he’d ever loved and he wasn’t sorry for what they’d done. He made it clear it wasn’t their first time.”

  Callie held a hand to her mouth. Nausea worked its way up her throat. This couldn’t be happening. The entire world seemed to tip on its axis and for a moment Callie thought she might faint. Trish’s words rang through her head like a death toll.

  “My husband stood there and declared his love for another woman………..his sister no less.” Trish thumped her chest. “He stabbed me right through the heart with his words. I thought I would die, the pain was so great. The next thing I knew, Rebecca was demanding to know if he was Sophie’s father. He was so proud when he told them he was.”

  Callie held up a hand. “Stop, please.”

  She retched and the contents of her stomach emptied out onto a patch of grass beside her. Shock numbed her whole body. “I can’t believe this. Please tell me this isn’t true!”

  “I wish it wasn’t.” Trish stared at Callie, her expression sorrowful. “You know, I never wanted any of this. I’m not the sort of person that enjoys hurting another. I’ve been left with no choice.”

  “Please Trish, it’s not my fault who my parents are. You have to know this horrifies me as much as it has you,” Callie pleaded. “I would never have come here had I known. Let this end here and allow me to leave. Hasn’t there been enough pain over this?”

  “Come now, dear. I am not a fool. You would never let Sophie’s death go unpunished, if I let you go. We both know that.” Trish cocked her head to one side and regarded Callie through hooded eyes. “Besides, I refuse to share this world with my husband’s unnatural children. If that idiot Lucinda hadn’t blown herself up instead of you, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Everything would have been taken care of already. It would be over.”

  Callie gasped. “You mean you really were friends with Lucinda? You persuaded her to plant that bomb?”

  “Yes, I was Lucinda’s friend.” Trish smirked. “That kind of happened by accident. Sandra had moved away for some years after Sophie died. I was happy and tried to forget the sordid truth. Out of sight, out of mind, so they say. My Mitch was born and I truly believed we could make it as a family.”

  Trish began to pace again. “Then a few of years ago, Sandra moved back here. Max started spending time with her and I became suspicious. I used my theatrical background to change my appearance and spy on them.” She laughed. “Lucinda ran into me during one of my surveillances. Max happened to glance in our direction, so I engaged her in a conversation in case he recognised me through my make-up.”

  She shook her head. “I needn’t have worried. He didn’t suspect a thing, but I ended up with Lucinda chewing my ear off and shoving her number at me. She thought we’d hit it off.” She shrugged. “I decided to encourage the friendship. I could let off steam with her, and she was useful to have around when I spied on Max. Besides, I always believed that things happen for a reason. I was right too. I knew it the moment you turned up. Lucinda was very handy to have around when it came to dealing with you.”

  “Was it Lucinda who pushed me down the stairs?” Callie asked, her voice trembling. She’d never have imagined Trish was so devious. Lucinda obviously never found out the identity of the woman who was supposed to be her friend.

  “No, that one was me. I simply let Lucinda think that I’d done it for her.” Trish grinned. “Stupid girl was so grateful that I cared so much about her, but she told me not to take such risks again. Of course, when you split her and Jason up, she changed her mind. It was easy to convince her to run you down. I thought I may have had difficulty in getting you to the street, but you came so easily. It would have been perfect
, but she stuffed that up as well.”

  “And the photograph?” Callie forced the words out of her tight throat. She could not believe the lengths Trish had gone to. The knowledge left a hollow ache in her chest.

  “That was Lucinda. She liked the idea of scaring you rigid. I was angry with her over that. It gave you evidence for the police. Thankfully, they had no way of tracing it.” Trish glanced at her watch. “I think we’ve covered everything we need to. It’s time to finish this. I have to be home before Mitch.”

  Callie leapt to her feet and held out her hands. “Trish, please don’t do this. You’ll never get away with it. Think about Mitch. How would he feel if he learns his mother killed both his half-sisters?”

  “Don’t you speak my Mitch’s name!” Trish screamed. She waved the gun at Callie’s chest. “He will never, never know the truth. I won’t have him tarnished by this. There is no reason for him to ever find out that I was involved in your disappearance. After all, if anyone remembers anything from this morning, all they would have seen is Sue, Lucinda’s bereaved friend. They will never suspect me.”

  Callie stepped back with a cry. Terror gripped her in its icy claws. She clamped her hands over her ears, afraid she would hear the gun explode and end her life. Sobs ripped out of her and she sank to her knees.

  A hand clamped around her wrist. Trish hauled her to her feet with surprising strength for such a thin woman. She planted her hand between Callie’s shoulder blades and pushed her forward.

  “Move. I want this over with.”

  Callie wiped her damp face with the sleeve of her coat. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. “Why kill me and Sophie? Why aren’t you taking this out on Max and Sandra? They are the ones that betrayed you. I’ve done nothing wrong and neither had Sophie.”

  “As much as I hate what he’s done, I still love Max. I couldn’t hurt him.” Callie could hear the deep pain in the older woman’s voice. If the situation hadn’t been so deadly, she would have felt sorry for Trish. “Besides, I’m not really killing you. I’m simply stamping out something that should never have existed in the first place.”