Me. Her. Him - Chapter 75

Background: Angela is shocked when William, an old friend from her past, who she hoped never to see again, comes back into her life, after he applies for a role at her work and successfully secures the job. William’s sudden reappearance puts Angela on edge. She’s terrified he’s discovered her secret, which she needs to protect her family from. William’s convinced Angela knows what happened to his former girlfriend, Caz, who hasn't been seen for twenty years, and that something terrible happened to her. The only person, who can help Angela, is her once best friend, Michelle, but Angela hasn’t seen Michelle for more than a decade. Faced with the threat of William’s return, they know they’ll need to work together to save their future, even if this does mean reopening old wounds, and revisiting a past they'd rather keep buried.

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It isn’t even twenty-four hours, before I find out what happened, after I left Michelle last night. It’s on the six o’clock news. 

I returned home last night in a daze, amazed I managed to make it back in one piece. I apologised to Paul for the texts William sent using my phone, blaming them on a sudden crisis moment, which was a mistake. He was a mess. He keeps looking at me now, as if he thinks I might make a sudden break for the door, and never come back.

I’m about to take a sip of my tea, when the presenter on the news cuts across to a dark haired reporter standing in a field, where in the background, there’s intense police activity. The sound of the increasing wind buffets around the microphone, his black jacket is rippling in the breeze.

‘Yes, police were called to the scene in the early hours of this morning, after witnesses reported seeing, what they thought, was a vehicle on fire, in the field you can see here behind me. We have since learned from police that some human remains have been recovered from inside the vehicle.’

I nearly spill my drink down my top. I grab the remote and turn up the volume, glancing across at Paul as I do, but he hasn’t even looked up from his phone. I place my mug on the coffee table. 

‘Okay, and have the police said if they’ve been able to yet identify the body?’ the news reader asks.

‘I’m afraid it’s too early to say, but if you look at the vehicle behind me.' The reporter stands to the side a little. 'You can see it has been, near enough, completely destroyed by the blaze. Any human remains found will be miniscule, and due to the nature of this incident, it might prove impossible to identify who was inside. Police are mainly appealing for witnesses, and for anyone who was in the area, who might’ve seen something unusual last night, to come forward.’

The field the reporter’s standing in is in Essex, I know that much from the report. It can’t be too far away. I play with the charms on my bracelet, and as I glance down I notice it’s the book charm Michelle got me that I’m holding tight onto. I shove my hand under my leg.

‘It’ll be drugs related,’ Paul remarks beside me. ‘Whoever it was in the vehicle must’ve owed money to someone.’

‘Mmm, yes, most likely,’ I say.

I pull out my phone. My mouth is dry. I haven’t heard anything from Michelle. She didn’t tell me yesterday if she would be getting in contact with me again, once she’d dealt with William. Was he the man in the back of the burnt out van? It’s too much of a coincidence.

Visions enter my head of Michelle driving to that field, William in the back, and then her getting out and setting fire to it. I try to shake the images away but they get bigger and bolder. How the hell would she have got home? Did she arrange for someone to pick her up? I imagine William's screams inside my head, him trying to kick at the door to get it open. His cries are getting louder in my mind, taunting me. I hear him begging for my help. 

I feel sick. I get up from the sofa, and make my way out into the garden, to get some fresh air. Paul’s now switched the news channel over to something else; he doesn’t seem interested in whose body it could be. In his mind it’s drugs related, not our problem.

I call Michelle's number, but it goes dead straight away. Shit. She’s blocked me. I try it again, and again, thinking it might, by some miracle, connect, but there’s nothing. She’s cut me off. How can she leave me like this, without an explanation, without preparing me?

Perhaps she’s left the country, gone abroad under a false name to live a new life.

I head back into the house, clutching my phone so tight it makes my the tips of my fingers turn red. I have to try and settle into this new phase of my life. What other choice do I have? Things might not be as perfect between me and Paul as they once were, but then we’ve both kept secrets from each other, and I’m going to need to continue to lie to him. 

A week passes before there’s a further update from the police about the van. Nothing has been said to say that they’ve identified the body, though. The update makes headline news. The reporter said the police are trying to trace a dark haired woman, seen driving a van in the area on the night the vehicle was set ablaze.

Michelle. Michelle. My head spins. There’s a number to call on the screen for people who may have information. There’s also a number for callers who wish to remain anonymous. A few of my colleagues have spoken about the case at work, but no one’s seriously interested. The moment they started talking about it, I had to go into the bathroom and throw up in the sink. They have no idea that the man, who was in the back of the van, was William, the man who worked with them all for a couple of days. If they knew who it was, then they might suspect it was me who set fire to the van and killed him. Michelle.

I try her number again, but once more it goes dead. She really has walked out of my life. The presenter is repeating the number again on the screen. Her eyes seem to be fixed on mine, as though imploring me to tell all I know. Then my phone starts ringing, it’s an international number. My first thought is that it’s a scam, but then. What if it’s Michelle?

‘I need to go outside,’ I say to Paul.

I hurry into the garden and answer the call before the person has time to ring off.

‘Angela.’

I hear Michelle’s voice. It’s her. In the distance I can hear seagulls crying.

‘Michelle, Michelle where are you?’ I say, my voice coming out fast.

My stomach's ballooned inside me. 

‘I’m fine, there’s no need to know where I am.’

‘Michelle was that . . . did you set fire to the van with William inside?’ I ask. There’s silence on the other end. ‘Michelle, answer me.’

I curse myself for raising my voice. 

‘Yes, but do you think he would’ve just dropped this if we’d let him go? Of course not, Angela. I’m sorry I left you like that, but I had to get out of the country. But I’m sorting things out. I’ll be able to come back in a short while, and then perhaps, we can get together. Look, I . . . I know William said some things about me Angela, while we were in the back of the van, but, I hope what he said isn't going to have an impact on our friendship. You must understand I don’t feel that way about you now.’

I don’t know if I want to see her again, now I know what she did. A few days ago I thought she wanted to be rid of me.

I rub my arm. ‘Michelle, there’s no way the police will be able to identify William’s body, is there?’

‘Of course not. Whatever’s left of him will be very miniscule. The van was mine, it wasn’t William’s, well it was a friend's, it was about to be destroyed anyway.' 

‘Michelle, I . . .’

‘Just sit tight, Angela. You can relax. I’ll come back for you, with all of this out of the way we can be best friends again, like we once were. I’m sure Rebecca will be overjoyed as well, won’t she? We can be a little family again, like we once were.’

‘Yes, I suppose,’ I murmur.

I realise she hasn’t even mentioned Paul.

‘It’s over, Angela. It’s time to celebrate. I’ll be in touch.’

Celebrate. How can she even be in the mood for celebrating? 

‘But, Michelle. You . . . you killed a person. That . . . that can’t have been easy,’ I say, wanting to hear some sort of remorse in Michelle’s voice for what she’s done.

‘It was nothing, Angela,’ she says.

I can’t help but shake my head. ‘Michelle, you killed a person. Did you not feel anything?’

‘It was no different to when I did it before, Angela,’ she snaps.

I pause, as I take in what she’s just said. Her words repeat over and over inside my head. Time itself seems to have stopped. 

‘What do you mean, Michelle? It was an accident with Caz. Caz died in an accident.’

In the background a seagull screeches, which makes my skin erupt in goosebumps. 

‘What I mean is, Angela, is I just summoned the same courage I had to when we had to get rid of Caz, that’s what I meant. I’ll speak to you soon, Angela.’ Her voice has hardened. 

‘Wait, Michelle. I need to know the real reason why you said we needed to stop seeing each other.' 

I wait for her response. Someone's shouting. I wonder if she’s using a payphone to call me.

‘I . . . you’d been with Paul for three years by that point, hadn’t you? Look, you already know about how I used to feel about you, so . . . so I might as well tell you everything.’ There’s stiffness to her voice as she speaks. She doesn't want to do this. ‘I really could not bear the thought of you loved up with someone else. It killed me every day seeing you with him and I just couldn’t take it anymore, Angela. I feared I might, that I might do something that would  . . . I decided to leave to protect you, Angela. Believe me, it was really hard for me having to come to that decision, but I couldn’t cope. But those feelings I once had for you are in the past. There’s nothing for you to worry about, okay.’

I hold my hand up to my forehead. ‘Okay.’

The line goes dead. I swallow and look back towards Paul sitting in the living room. I’d heard it in the last part of Michelle’s sentence. Panic. Her words repeat again inside my head: It was no different to when I did it before, Angela. She’d been referring to Caz. But . . . she killed William in cold blood, I know that much, but did she . . .

I think back to that day, helping Michelle move Caz’s body into the garage, after putting Rebecca back in her cot upstairs. Michelle told me to go back into the house and see to Rebecca once we’d finished moving the body. She was only with Caz for . . . I can’t remember for how long. But could Caz have been alive? An image slips into my head of Michelle strangling Caz once I was out of the room, oblivious to what was going on. Michelle loved me. William’s sneering voice fills my head. No . . . she couldn’t have killed Caz. Caz died in an accident. I clutch my stomach as I slip back into the house. I glance at Paul, stretched out on the sofa, as I slide the patio doors shut.

‘Everything alright, amigo?’ he asks, looking over his shoulder at me and grinning, as I step further into the room, my mind still in a daze.

‘Yes,’ I reply. ‘Everything’s going to be fine.’

Tears prick my eyes even as I say the words.

I can’t risk Michelle coming back. I won’t be able to trust her. She’s already killed two people. What’s to stop her from trying to kill Paul, so she can have me to herself again? She’ll try and make it look like an accident. I can picture the scene now, me inconsolable, Michelle pulling me in for a tight hug and promising to take care of me, telling me she’s all I’ll ever need. She did it once before. She can do it again. 

 I know what I have to do.

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Character List:

Angela Watkins - Protagonist 

Paul Watkins - Angela's husband

Rebecca Watkins - Angela's daughter 

Michelle Blake - Angela's former best friend 

Kirsty - Receptionist (Angela's friend) 

Olivia - Angela's boss

William Harris - Angela's former friend 

Caroline (Caz) - Angela's friend 

Hayley - Angela's former friend

Lauren - Angela's former friend