Beth looks at her neighbour. Dishevelled, clammy, sick-stained. Then she looks at the woman who’s the size of a rhino but has somehow managed to slither her way into Beth’s life. Something snaps inside her, like an elastic band, so powerful that her arms flail outwards. Of course she strangled Mark. He was threatening her family, and their lives are worth a thousand times more than his. She lied to Simon about the sleeping pill – that was easy – then when he was asleep she took Eddie’s old tourniquet belt from the pouch in her shoebox. It felt apt to use it after she’d kept it for so long, carrying her brother’s shame to help her live with her own. She can’t believe Mark is still alive, but hopefully he’ll never regain consciousness; it’s what he deserves, his own fault for behaving so despicably. Like Kat, like Saskia.

‘You’re all so stupid!’ she screams at the top of her voice. ‘So blind to the truth!’ She’s shouting too loudly; she needs to think about her next-door neighbours, but it’s flooding out of her now. She looks at her ex-friend, the dribble of saliva that’s worked its way onto her collar. The sweat at her temples. Her unkempt hair.

‘The police are coming,’ Saskia warns. ‘I’m going to tell them.’

How dare she act so calm? So smug? Beth is the one in control here, not Saskia. She needs to understand that. Beth looks at the floor, sees the lump of concrete, imagines launching it at Saskia’s stuck-up face.

Then a moment later, it’s in her hands, and she’s smashing it down with a blood-curdling scream.

Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Joseph

‘What do you reckon then?’ Joe asks as they walk back to the car.

‘Can’t discount it, I suppose. But Beth Packard? It’s hard to imagine, and Mark’s account isn’t exactly crystal clear. First, he thinks his attacker is some big drug dealer called Rudy, then suddenly he sees Beth’s face – the woman he hates; let’s not forget – just before he blacks out. I don’t know.’

‘Yeah,’ Joe muses. ‘There’s a lot that points to it being a work of fiction, but I can’t help thinking he sounded genuine.’

‘Let’s talk to Beth tomorrow,’ Jason suggests. ‘See how she reacts to our new witness statement.’ He starts the engine and the police radio sizzles into life. They don’t need to listen to the constant thrum of instructions as uniformed officers are sent to various disturbances around the borough, so Joe leans forward to turn it off. But with his fingers on the dial, he pauses. ‘Did you hear that address?’

‘The smashed window?’

‘I’m sure that’s the Packards’ house. Busy day for them, isn’t it?’