The karaoke plan had been my escape. A few drinks, a few songs, a night away from everything that was pressing down on me. I’d told Kit I’d be back late, told him to fill his boots. As I walked out the door, I was already thinking about the first song I’d sing.
Nothing about that evening felt like the beginning of an ending. The news broke the next morning. Theo Silverton, murdered. The appeal from his ex-wife, Danielle, played on a loop: “Theo was a wonderful father to our two children, and he was taken away from them way too soon.
” She stood there, tear-streaked, asking anyone who knew anything to come forward. DS Connor Swain stood beside her, repeating the phone number, urging witnesses to call. I watched it all, feeling the weight of it settle in my chest. Gary was a mess.
He came to me, trying to convince himself he could do something to fix it. He talked about calling the anonymous line, offering them a fake tip-off, just to see what would happen. I told him he was insane. “Look at you, Gary.
You’re falling apart. Just keep your nerve. Keep your head down and your gob shut. ” He looked at me, hollow-eyed, and muttered that the ship had already sailed.
I promised him I hadn’t made the call. He wouldn’t stay to hear it. That same day, Ronnie came to see me, looking more relaxed than he had in weeks. He told me he’d handled it.
He’d spoken to Fiona and paid her off. I couldn’t believe it. “She wouldn’t take my money,” he admitted, leaning in close. “I owe her one now.
” The words landed like a stone in my stomach. An empty promise. A favor. I hated the feeling of it, keeping him close, watching the tension build in Maria’s face as she pressed Gary about deleted messages and whispered phone calls.
Kit was doing his best to keep things normal, planning a quiet night in. He asked me to go to the deli with him for Christmas ingredients, and I agreed, trying to act like nothing was wrong. He mentioned the Turkish Delight he’d seen me obsess over. I smiled, but my mind was somewhere else entirely.
The thought of Fiona wouldn’t leave me. I knew what she was capable of. When Ronnie told me she’d been making demands, I felt the walls closing in. “This is not about the money,” she’d said.
“You owe me now. And trust me, I’ll make you pay one way or another. ” Those words echoed in my head all day, all night, every time I tried to close my eyes. Then Kit got a message.
It was from Sarah. “I got your text. What’s up? ” I saw his face change as he read it.
He tried to play it cool, but I knew better. I told him about the thing on the radio, Danielle’s appeal. He said they’d played it over and over. “Maybe I can just phone that number back and give them a fake tip-off,” I said, half-joking.
He didn’t laugh. “You’re not serious,” he said. I was. I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching me.
There were little moments, little cracks in the surface. Maria confronted Gary about the deleted texts, about the whispered phone calls, about the secrets. Kit looked at me differently. Sarah looked at me like she knew something she wasn’t saying.
And Mary—sweet, confused Mary—was still going on about a gun she’d hallucinated. “I had a funny turn watching a Western,” she explained, her voice shaky. “Guns going off left, right, and center. It disturbed me.
” I forced a smile and told her I forgave her, but the mention of a weapon made my blood run cold. Kit and I had dinner with Sarah and Ken. I tried to keep up the pretense, but I could see the strain on everyone’s face. Ken talked about the appeal, about how Danielle looked on the news.
“Not a dry eye in the house,” he said, and it was true. I felt the weight of it pressing down on me, the constant fear that someone would start asking the wrong questions. Gary wasn’t himself. He snapped at me during a quiet moment, his voice sharp.
“If you’re not even going to talk to me, we might as well just go. ” He was brittle, frayed at the edges. I tried to soothe him, told him we had to be patient, but he wasn’t having it. “The medication makes my brain dull,” he said.
“It’s shutting down all the bad thoughts, but it’s squashing everything else too. ” I wanted to tell him that everything was going to be okay, but I didn’t believe it myself. The dinner party at Kit’s place was supposed to be a fresh start. Kit had gone all out, setting up place cards and a recipe for oxtail ragout.
Sarah and Ken were there. Gary was there. Maria was there. It was a powder keg, and we all knew it.
I tried to keep things light, pouring wine, laughing at Todd’s jokes. But Maria was radiating anger. She’d been drinking, and she wasn’t holding back. “You know, truth be told, me and Gary, we’ve been having a few marital problems lately, haven’t we?
” she said, her voice dripping with venom. “Just the usual stuff. Secrets, lies, whispered phone calls, deleted messages. ”
I watched Kit’s face.
He knew something. Everyone knew something. “It’s funny you should ask that, Kit,” Maria said, her eyes glinting. “Gary hasn’t just been playing with my life.
He’s been playing with yours, too. But then you knew that, didn’t you? That’s why we’re all here tonight. ”
Gary tried to stop her, but she wasn’t listening.
“To Gary and Sarah. We’ve been at it for weeks. ”
The room went silent. Kit stared at me, and I couldn’t meet his eyes.
Maria laughed, bitter and broken. “I should have known you’d always end up back in her bed. It’s like riding a bike, isn’t it? The town bike.
”
Kit’s voice broke through. “I actually want to hear what Kit thinks. Come on, you’re the detective here. What do you make of it all?
”
I looked around the table, at all the wreckage I’d caused. Maria’s fury. Kit’s silence. Sarah’s shame.
Gary’s defeat. I wanted to disappear. Then the unthinkable happened. The lights went out.
I heard a scream—mine—and the sound of scuffling. When the lights came back up, Todd was gone. Kit’s phone was missing. I felt a cold panic clawing at my throat.
I found him outside, sitting on the doorstep in the dark. He looked broken. “Theo,” he said, and his voice cracked. “Where’s Todd?
”
I tried to get more out of him, but he just shook his head. “Answer my question,” he said, his eyes boring into mine. “Do you believe in God? ”
I hesitated.
“I believe something. I do. I believe that God has a plan for everybody. But what I can’t work out is why he has this plan for me.
Why has he done this to me? ”
He was spiraling, and I couldn’t pull him back. “Sarah, you know I never meant to hurt him. What did I do?
All I did was love him. ”
I saw the darkness in his eyes, the same darkness that had driven him to hurt Todd before. I tried to walk away, but he grabbed me. “Where I am, because I’m not finished talking to you yet.
The idea of you and Todd together, do you know what it does? It makes me feel sick, sick to my stomach. ”
I pushed him, tried to get loose. He lunged at me, and I grabbed the metal pole from the scaffolding.
I didn’t think. I just swung. The sound was sickening. He fell, and I stood frozen, staring at what I’d done.
I called Gary, my voice shaking. “Please, just come quick. ”
He found me there, staring at Theo’s body. He was calm, too calm.
He checked the pulse. “Is he definitely dead? ” I nodded. “What happened?
” “He was going to kill me. ” “Right, so it was self-defense? ” I hesitated. “It was kind of, I don’t know.
” “What do you mean, kind of? Did he touch you or not? ” “No. ”
Gary’s jaw tightened.
“Where’s the pole? ” “Up the scaffold. It’s at the top of the scaffold. ” He took a breath, then told me to get out, to clean myself up, and to make sure someone saw me before the body was found.
“So then you’ve got an alibi. ”
I did what he said. I washed my hands, I changed my clothes, I tried to look normal. And when the police came, when they started asking questions, I pointed them toward Gary Windass.
But the guilt didn’t stop. It consumed me. I went to Gary, desperate for him to share the weight. “You can’t come running to me to pay for your mistakes, eh?
” he said, his voice hard. “I hate myself, I do, but what were we meant to do? ” “Tell the truth,” I said, but he just shook his head. “We can’t.
I’ll go to prison. ”
“You called me because you knew I’d do anything for you,” Gary said, his eyes glistening. “And you get to walk away scot-free while I face this. All I do is think about what I’ve given up for you.
What I might still have to give up. I might lose Maria, the kids. All because you asked me for a favor and I was too stupid to say no. ”
I begged him.
I pleaded. “Please, Gary. I am begging you. ”
He looked at me, and for a moment, I thought he might soften.
Then he shook his head. “I can’t lie for you anymore, Sarah. I’m sorry. ”
The words hung in the air between us.
He walked away, and I was left alone with the truth.
