She shivered. Orla was bad, but her twin was truly the stuff of nightmares.
‘H’lo?’ said Steve’s voice at last, fogged with sleep.
‘It’s Annie,’ she said, and she told him what had happened.
‘I’m on my way,’ he said.
Annie put the phone down. She went to Layla, squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.
With nothing to do but wait, they both stood in silence, looking at the body on the floor.
How did she survive? wondered Annie. She stared at the dead, glazing green eyes. Orla, how did you do it? Or is it true that the devil takes care of his own?
‘You don’t think this could have anything to do with what happened to me in the park, do you?’ Layla blurted.
Annie’s eyes whipped from the corpse to her daughter. ‘What?’
‘Oh Jesus, maybe I should have told you…’ Layla was clutching at her head.
‘Told me what?’ Annie demanded.
‘About the man who tried to snatch me.’
Steve Taylor, Eric and Jackie Tulliver turned up half an hour after Annie made the call.
Annie and Layla had taken the time before the troops arrived to get dressed. Layla was now sitting on her bed in the adjoining room to Annie’s, with the connecting door firmly shut. She didn’t want to look at what she’d done, she didn’t want to know about it. She was shivering with shock. She still felt sick. When she heard the low male voices mingling with her mother’s in the master suite, she glanced up fearfully at the door.
Minutes passed, though it seemed like hours to Layla.
Finally, looking pale but otherwise composed, Annie came through the door and closed it behind her. ‘Body’s gone. They’re cleaning the room up.’
‘The gun?’
‘They’ve taken that away, and the spare ammunition.’
‘What will they do with her?’
Annie looked at Layla. Usually pin-sharp, Layla was acting dazed. As well she might. And what was this about a man in the park? Layla had refused to elaborate, beyond saying that some guy had made a grab for her. She’d been in such a state that when she said she couldn’t talk about it now, that it would have to wait until the morning, Annie had no choice but to back off, though her mind was in turmoil over what it could mean.
‘They’ll get rid of the body. It was Orla,’ said Annie, almost talking to herself. ‘She was one of twins… Orla and Redmond Delaney.’
Annie felt as if her head was about to spin off with all the questions whizzing around in her brain. How come Orla hadn’t died in the plane crash? Why had she waited eighteen years to show up here, intent on doing what she had tried and failed to accomplish back in 1970 – to kill Annie? Worst of all – where was Redmond? The thought of him skulking around London was terrifying. Shit, maybe he had planned this. Maybe he was out there right now, waiting for his twin to return. And when she didn’t…