And then slowly, from the darkest recesses of her mind, crawled forth a solution. A mad idea, a thought borne from anger during one of her runs when she’d stopped by the Young Farm. She’d imagined it burning to the ground with Bella in it. And the seed of crazy, quickly grew shoots of possibility, and as the roots of a plan began to form in her head Gina’s despair was replaced by drive. A chink of light had lit the gloom of a blackened room. She had hours to think it through, work it all out, get everything straight in her head.
Then in the morning, she would change the course of her life, and Max and Mimi’s, forever.
CHAPTERFORTY-ONE
Morning has broken.I love that song even though I could never sing it in church without sounding like I was actually murdering the blackbird. Nobody could apart from the choir.
The bedroom is still dark, but I can see a sliver of light where Jimmy didn’t draw the curtains properly when he came to bed. I can hear the dawn chorus outside and even though my heart and body are like lead, their chatter lifts me because I’m glad for them. The little birds that are free from human troubles.
Oh to be a bird right now. To be able to put my head under my wing and hide from the day that I know, once it has begun will alter my life and that of my children’s forever.
It’s been the longest night and I am exhausted from taking apart my plan, walking through it every step of the way and weighing up the consequences.
All I have to do is slide gently from this bed for it to begin.
I won’t wake Jimmy because he can sleep through a storm and Mimi having a night terror. And he’s used to me, and my early morning runs so won’t think anything of it.
I’ll dress quickly in my running gear then head into Jimmy’s study and take the key for the Young Farm. Next, I’ll go down to the kitchen and take my trainers from the utility room. And from the store cupboard above the washing machine I’ll take the two small disposable barbeques, a pack of firelighters, and matches. I will slip them into my backpack then creep out of the back door.
Nobody will take any notice. The neighbours, if they’re up, will have seen me many times before and anyone I pass on the route, commuters, dog walkers, won’t take a bit of notice. Why would they? Joggers jog at stupid o’clock.
But remember. Bad things still happened in the nicest of places and nutters still roamed free, even in Little Buddington. One of them might be on their way to burn down a house and kill its occupant. Or maybe light two barbeques in the bedroom of the woman who wants to steal their husband.
Carbon monoxide poisoning is painless so she should be grateful for that. However, there’s a margin of error because I won’t decide until I get there which method I’ll use. I’d like to make it look like a suicide, but what if Bella wakes when she smells the fumes? I might have to restrain her or knock her out, but logic tells me that’s too risky.
These CSI chaps are very clever. Which is why I might just start a fire and burn the witch until there’s no trace of a hammer blow, or a pillow stuffed into her smug, botoxed face. Lord, I might pop her trout-pout lip fillers in the process. Never mind. Once she’s toasted to a crisp, nobody will care.
It will all be so magnificent, my moment of triumph, watching from the top field as the orange and yellow flames flicker in the windows and out there, far from the road it’ll be a while before anyone notices the smoke. They might even think it’s the chimney. Who cares? All I care about is getting rid of Bella because once she’s gone, I’ll put my marriage back together. Simple.
Nobody will suspect me. Babs and Robin especially. They’d never believe I was capable. Jimmy doesn’t know I know. It will just be a terrible tragedy and afterwards, if he’s sad, I’ll be there to comfort him. Me and the children will save him.
It’s kept me going through the night, this plan and all I have to do is push back the duvet and place my feet on the floor and then it can start. The new day.
I turn my head and look at him, the love of my life. One of the three reasons I get up each morning. I want to lean across and kiss him, but I resist. There’ll be time for that later. Instead I slowly crawl from under the duvet. Sit. Swing my legs to the side and place my feet on the floor.
As I leave the room I don’t dare look back and silently, close the door behind me.
CHAPTERFORTY-TWO
BABS
Happy Friday.What are your plans for today?
Babs read the Facebook post and scrolled through some of the comments before clicking off the app. She had zero interest in the wonderful or mundane things people were filling their Friday with. Not when hers was going to go exactly the same as all the others she’d scrubbed and dusted and hoovered through.
She looked up at the house she was due to clean, knowing that the occupants would’ve left to catch the commuter train into the city, leaving her alone to tidy up their mess. It was 9.30am and as much as she tried to summon the energy, knowing she had three more homes to get to before the end of the day, try as she might, Babs couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm to get out of the car.
Maybe she’d fried her brain so badly that it couldn’t be bothered to send messages to her limbs in which case, she’d be stuck on Mrs Glynn’s drive for the foreseeable future. Her bidet would not be getting bleached any time soon. Hilary, as she preferred to be called, liked her three bathrooms to have the Domestos treatment once a week and the thought didn’t fill Babs with pleasure.
Babs blamed her bout of malaise on over-worked grey matter being at the end of its tether. Ever since Robin’s, she’d taken apart their conversations in the hope it would make things clearer for herself. It hadn’t and if anything she was even more bemused than before.
In a way, once she’d sobered up the next day, Babs was left feeling like the bad apple because she was the only one thinking of bucking the trend and doing the unthinkable – leaving.
One good thing was they’d all got a lot off their chests and in Gina’s case, Babs hoped that her and Jimmy could sort things out. But she’d said all she could on that matter and now, would have to wait and see.
Her thoughts then turned to Robin who really did have it tough. It’d been incredibly uncomfortable when she’d brought up the vicar having an affair and Babs had been so flipping glad she’d never outed him.
She’d so admired Robin in that moment, saying that if she was going to go then it would be on her own terms not because the vicar had forced her hand by being caught with his cassock up.
