Chapter 55 Camilla

55 CAMILLA

NOW

Camilla feels like she is in a trance as she heads across the sand with Kate and Darcy. Then she thinks of what Jacob told her and Kate on the phone about Darcy. Animal skulls. Ha! What next? This day couldn’t get any weirder if it tried.

The sky is dark, the blare of the disco in full swing behind them. It’s almost eight. The gym is visible ahead, a light shining through the windows. Jade is meeting them there.

As they approach it, she feels conflicted, suddenly reluctant to see this through. She had a funny feeling when Darcy came in just before, which is to be expected after what Jacob said. She felt sick at the thought of Darcy carving up small creatures, and right as she was flicking through the possibilities for the skulls— a nature project? paganism?— Darcy threw her a look that chilled her blood. Flinty, that’s what it was. Her eyes were flinty.

But Cameron’s voice is back in her head, pleading for her help. She thinks of the blood she saw on the deck the morning after she slept with Antoni. Of course it was his blood. How could she have thought otherwise? She imagines Antoni waking in the middle of the night, going outside for a smoke. Rob climbing over the deck, silently slitting his throat.

Her hands form tight fists, and she resolves not to leave the gym until she finds out the truth, whatever that is. They gather by a tall palm tree set back a little from the path, about twenty feet from the gym.

“Are they inside?” Kate whispers.

“The lights are on,” Darcy whispers back. She glances at the watch on her wrist. “One minute.”

The animal skulls may not even have been Darcy’s , Camilla thinks. She wonders about the previous owners of the house. And Charlie… Oh God, what if they’re his? Jacob would never want to face up to something like that, would he, not when the poor kid is already suffering so much after his parents’ divorce?

“Now,” Darcy says, stepping toward the gym door. Adrenaline floods through Camilla’s body, and before she knows what she’s doing, she’s following her, the door of the gym swinging shut behind them while Kate keeps watch outside.

INSIDE, ROB IS SITTING ON the weight bench, head back, shorts pulled down, topless. Jade is between his legs; she sees Camilla and leaps back, leaving Rob with his penis bobbing, his eyes half closed in pre-orgasm.

“Get out,” Camilla barks at Jade, who shrinks back against a wall.

Rob sits up, his shorts falling to his ankles. “What the fuck is this?” He glares at Camilla, then Darcy, his eyes wild with confusion and anger.

“We have a few questions,” Camilla says, holding her nerve. “About the Spinnaker Guesthouse killings.”

Rob raises his eyebrows. His eyes fixed on Camilla, he slowly lifts a dumbbell from the rack next to him and holds it on his lap.

“Gym’s busy,” he says. “Come back later.”

“Out!” Darcy yells at Jade, who scuttles quickly for the door, but pauses instead of racing out. Rob raises the dumbbell at Darcy as though to threaten her, or perhaps strike her. Suddenly Darcy reaches both her hands forward, pushing the dumbbell down onto Rob’s lap. Camilla reacts quickly, seizing a nylon skipping rope from the floor, frantically wrapping it around his neck. OK , she thinks, this is going a little faster than I planned , but her anger is guiding her. Darcy moves away, the dumbbell clanging to the floor.

Quickly Darcy pulls out her phone and holds it close to his mouth, recording.

Rob strains against the rope, his hands clawing at his neck. He tries to reach for the dumbbell but it has rolled out of reach, his feet skidding on the floor, unable to gain purchase.

“Tell us,” Darcy pants. “You were with Hugh Fraser on September the tenth at the Spinnaker Guesthouse.”

Rob grimaces, his eyes sliding to Jade, cowering now in the corner, but Camilla tugs tighter on the rope, then loosens it slightly.

“You murdered six people in cold blood—say it.”

“What the fuck?” Rob gasps.

Camilla tugs on the rope again. “Why did you do it? And now Antoni, too. Why?”

She sees Darcy putting her phone back in her pocket, and for a moment she slackens the rope, wondering what Darcy’s going to do. She sees her reach inside the sleeve of her kimono, producing a long, thin steak knife.

“We can help you remember, if you like,” Darcy says, tapping the blade against the tattoo on his neck, visible above the coils of the rope.

“Jade?” he calls out stiffly. “You all right, babe?”

“Yes,” Jade says in a thin voice. “Oh God, Rob…”

Camilla doesn’t hear the rest, and for one terrible moment she worries that Jade is going to intervene. Darcy quickly jabs the knife toward Jade.

“Stay there,” she growls at Jade, who shrinks into herself. Then she turns it back to Rob, who flinches.

“The Spinnaker Guesthouse,” Camilla repeats now, voices in her head screaming at her, asking her what she’s doing. “Dover. September 2001. You were there, with Hugh Fraser.”

“No, I wasn’t.” He strains, and she tightens the rope at his neck, making him squirm in pain.

“You killed six people. One of them was my twin brother. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you for what you did?”

“It wasn’t me,” he grunts. “Jade? Where are you?”

“Bullshit,” Camilla says, but even to her own ears she doesn’t sound convincing.

“You better let me go,” he says, his voice hoarse, “or I’ll rip your fucking head…”

He doesn’t finish his sentence. Before Camilla can stop her, Darcy swings round and plunges the knife into his shoulder, a look of complete fury on her face. Rob gives an animalistic scream, raising his eyes to Darcy’s in shock. She stares back at him. Dark, glossy blood gushes down Rob’s chest, covering the floor, her hands.

So much blood, stark against the white floor. Camilla watches as he slumps forward. The knife sits in his skin, glinting in the red mist.

She’s frozen to the spot, the rope slackening in her hands. But then, from the corner, Jade begins to shriek.

Camilla looks up at Darcy, who watches Rob, her expression strangely blank.

“We need to get out of here,” Darcy says.