Page 58 of Cruel Crypts
“I don’t.” His voice was confident as he turned back to the folder of photos, grabbing a legal pad and pen. “I’m going to win this Stratford case, and then George will have to cough up for my Scotch.”
“Does he know how expensive your tastes are? A whole case is going to set him back at least a few grand, right?”
Tapping his pen against the pad, he shot me a conspiratorial smile. “Add a few more zeros onto that number.”
“Bloody hell.”
37
ELENA
An instinct made me turn right instead of heading straight for my mother’s room. I reached the corridor that led to Anthony Ashcroft’s home office and immediately noticed that the door was ajar, a sliver of light visible in the darkened hallway. With quick steps, I made for the office and flung the door open.
“Mum!”
My mother spun around with a screech, clapping her hand over her heart. “Elena! What are you doing?”
“Never mind what I’m doing, what areyoudoing?” Papers were scattered everywhere, littering the desk and floor, and the filing cabinet in the corner of the room was wide open, a screwdriver lying on top next to the portable nanny cam. I’d only cleaned in here once before, but I distinctly recalled that it had been neat and tidy—no papers left out anywhere, and I was positive that the filing cabinet had been locked with a combination lock.
“I’m looking for evidence.” Her eyes were wild. “We need evidence, Elena.”
“No, we don’t,” I hissed, trying to keep my voice low, although I was fairly certain that both Anthony and Maria Ashcroft were out, and I’d left Knox at Hatherley Hall. “Listen to me.There is no evidence. Anthony Ashcroft has no skeletons in his closet, okay? And even if he did, we arenotgoing to ruin this family’s life. Is that clear?”
I was shaking by the time I’d finished, mostly with anger and adrenaline and a tiny bit of fear. Confronting my mother like this was something that I’d never imagined I’d have to do, but there was no other way. She had to understand.
“How dare you—”
“Stop, Mum. We already went through all of this. As a courtesy that you don’t deserve, and neither do I, I’m giving us both until Sunday to get everything together and make preparations for what comes next, and then you and I are going to leave. Disappear. And we’re not coming back.”
“No. He needs to pay!”
“He doesn’t! He was just doing his fucking job! It wasn’t his fault!” We were both shouting at this point, the need for caution forgotten. Tears were blurring my vision, and my mother’s teeth were bared in a snarl, her entire face red as she exploded at me.
“I never! In all my life!” She gasped for breath, clutching at the desk. “You’ve betrayed this family, betrayed the good names of Myers and Blackwood!”
“Yeah? Well, I don’t want your name! Jason Myers is a murderer, your sister is gone, and you don’t deserve the name any more than I do. I was complicit in your plan, but I refuse to be part of it any longer. On Sunday, I am telling the Ashcrofts everything. Every. Thing. You’d better be gone by the time I do. I’ll join you later…if they don’t arrest me for what we’ve done.”
“How can you do this to me? That man killed your aunt. My sister. Your uncle is locked up, and they’ve thrown away the key, and we have nothing left! In the meantime, he gets to carry on his life in his fancy house with his perfect family and perfect life and millions in the bank. He has everything, and we have nothing. Heneedsto pay.”
“He didn’t kill her. She committed suicide.”
She began to shake, her voice hoarse, cracking with every word. “I was the one who found her. You can’t even imagine what that was like for me.”
I took a deep, calming breath. “I know. And I know we lost everything. I know it destroyed us. That past year in Bristol just about killed me, living on the breadline with no money, not enough to eat or heat the house, having to survive in that area where someone would happily stab either of us so they could take our last tenner. I know what it was like, both of us crying ourselves to sleep at night, that haze of grief that we could never get away from. But we don’t have to go back there. We can leave these people to their lives and make a fresh start somewhere else. I’m not going to do this anymore.”
“I owe thousands to Pike! How do you expect me to pay that back? He’ll send people after us if I don’t pay.”
“Maybe if you hadn’t decided we needed fake IDs and references, oh, and our real identities buried, you wouldn’t owe shady loan sharks anything.” I bit down on my lip to stop myself from saying anything else because I had gone along with her plan to begin with, after all. I could see now that my heart had never been in it, which was why I’d attempted to stay away from Knox almost as much as I’d been drawn to him, but I’d still been in the wrong. That agonising grief and that twisted need for justice had brought us to this point, but now we were done. I wasn’t going to let this go any further.
It was time to right our wrongs.
She slumped against the desk, all the fight going out of her. “There’s no changing your mind, is there?”
“No. I’m going to tell them on Sunday evening. That gives you all day tomorrow and most of Sunday to get everything in order and make arrangements. You can leave before I tell them—and I’m saying that because you’re my mum, and I do love you. I don’t want to see the last of my family locked up. Hopefully, if I am arrested for falsifying documents or whatever, the police will be more lenient on me than they would with you, but I’m prepared to face the consequences.”
“Fine. In that case, there’s no time to waste.” Grabbing the nanny cam, she came around the desk, sweeping past me out of the office, leaving me alone.
My tears fell in earnest as I began to straighten the room as best I could, piling up the papers and then carefully placing them back inside the filing cabinet. I couldn’t do anything about the broken lock, but hopefully, Anthony wouldn’t be working over the weekend, and I could explain everything on Sunday.