‘I knew she wouldn’t just leave me,’ Angela said, tears streaming down her face.
Adrian moved closer still. This time she noticed and swung the gun back round to him, which made him feel strangely better than when it was pointing at Imogen.
‘What are you talking about? He’s not your husband?’ Imogen said.
‘I never married him, I can’t. He’s my biological father. My mother was called Angela Corrigan. I’m not the Angela Corrigan on the marriage certificate. My full name is Catherine Angela Corrigan. Not that anyone really checks them, anyway. When we moved here everyone made funny eyes about the age difference, but no one said anything.’
‘Because no one cares about you but me,’ Reece said.
‘Shut your mouth,’ Adrian hissed at Reece. He turned to Angela again. ‘When did it start? When did he first …?’
‘I am not sure exactly. I don’t remember when. A few years before my mother died – three maybe. I remember finally telling my mother and she was so upset. Then she was gone. She left me a note saying how she never wanted to see me again. I wasn’t as close to my mother as I was to him. Daddy’s special girl, they always called me. I didn’t understand until I got older how wrong everything was, until my friends at school talked about boys and things like that. Even though I knew it didn’t feel right, what we were doing, I thought it was just normal in every family.’
‘You were just a kid, you didn’t do anything wrong,’ Adrian said.
‘I thought she left. I thought she hated me.’
‘She threatened to take you away from me. I couldn’t lose you, Angela. You’re mine.’
Angela turned to Reece.
‘So, she confronted you? Is that what happened? You bought me that greenhouse, told me it was to make me feel better, when really it was just an unmarked grave.’
As Adrian tried to process this information, Reece struggled to his feet; the wound on his arm was barely bleeding. Before Adrian had time to move, Corrigan lunged for Angela, knocking the gun from her hand. The gun went off as it fell to the floor. Adrian felt the bullet whizz past his ear.
Instinctively, Adrian clutched at the side of his head and pulled his hand away. No blood. Adrian looked behind him at the hole in the plasterboard – three inches to the left and the bullet would have hit his head. The way he felt at the moment, he wasn’t entirely sure if he was relieved or not.
If the gun had fallen differently it could have hit Imogen. He looked at it lying there on the dustsheet. He wanted to point it at Reece and pull the trigger. He could pick it up now and claim it accidentally went off in the skirmish, killing Reece Corrigan. He could stop this man – a man who uses sex as a weapon, a way to gain power over people, people like Leon Quick, his own daughter and now Adrian, a police officer. Imogen would back him up if he pulled the trigger, he knew she would, especially if he told her why.
The temptation was strong, but there were other factors to consider, like the identity of the two men in the van. Reece was the only one who could tell him who they were.
He picked up the gun.
‘Adrian!’ Imogen shouted.
He had zoned out again.
He turned to see Imogen pulling Reece Corrigan back by his shoulders. He had his hands wrapped around his daughter’s neck and was pressing his thumbs hard into the centre of her throat. She clawed at him and her legs flailed.
Adrian rushed over, realising yet again that he had left the moment and become preoccupied with himself. He wasn’t fit to be back on the job.
He swung his arm with the full weight of his body, the gun still in his hand, the butt slamming into Reece’s jaw. Corrigan let go of Angela immediately and fell to the ground. Adrian stood over him and hit him again and again with the gun. The sadness inside Adrian instantly transformed into anger and then some sort of perverse pleasure as the skin split and blood poured from Corrigan’s face.
Corrigan stopped moving and Imogen grabbed hold of Adrian’s wrist as he was about to hit him one more time.
‘Stop! He’s done. He’s out,’ Imogen said before calling behind her. ‘Angela. Are you OK?’
Imogen looked at Adrian. He could feel the anger on his face and he could see how concerned she was. He nodded that she could let him go. She turned to Angela and helped her to stand.
‘I know what you must think of me,’ Angela said as she ran her fingers over the red marks on her throat.
‘None of this is your fault,’ Imogen said. ‘Just hold tight. I have already called for some assistance and an ambulance.’
‘You should have let him kill me,’ Angela sobbed. ‘Then he would definitely go to prison.’
‘He will. They will confirm the identity of your mother and with your testimony against him for the years of abuse you endured, there is no way he can get away with it this time,’ Imogen said.
Adrian turned to Imogen. ‘Are you OK?’
The faintest blue lights pulsated against the ceiling. Their back-up had arrived.
Angela walked slowly over to Reece Corrigan’s unconscious body and stood over him, a look of disgust on her face. No longer afraid. He was unconscious and blood trailed from swollen eye to the dusty floor.
‘You don’t know what he’s like,’ she said.
Adrian placed his hand on Imogen’s shoulder to steady her. She looked shaken and confused by what they had just witnessed.
Before either of them had a chance to react, Angela picked up her foot and drove the heel of her shoe into Reece’s eye. She was making sure he didn’t get out of here alive. His body twitched as she pulled her foot up again before slamming it down one more time, this time in the other socket. There was no movement this time – he was already dead.
‘Angela, stop!’ Imogen screamed.
‘I’ve got no one left. No one.’
Angela removed her foot again. This time the shoe stayed in place. She stumbled backwards until she was by the edge of the room, the full-length window that hadn’t yet been installed.
‘This is your chance to start a new life,’ Imogen said.
‘In prison?’ Angela said, glancing behind her and appraising the fall.
‘Given the circumstances and what you’ve been through, I don’t expect you would serve a long sentence, Angela. Just step away from the window.’ Adrian edged forwards with his hands held out. ‘Come to me.’
‘I can’t,’ Angela said, stepping backwards, a bloody imprint left where she had been standing.
Tears streamed down her face. She teetered at the edge.
Adrian was close enough to touch her now – he could grab her and pull her inside – but she could just as easily pull him out with her. He needed to talk her down. He spoke quietly to her.
‘He’s gone now. He can’t hurt you or anyone else anymore. Just step forwards and grab my hand. Once the judge knows what he did, he will be lenient. I know it.’
‘You can’t know that.’
‘Now that he is gone, I think a lot of people will come forward and testify as to what kind of man he really was. No one is going to blame you for what happened.’
Adrian moved forwards a little more and reached for Angela’s cheek with his thumb, wiping her tears away, trying to ignore the sheer drop just inches away from him. He felt himself sway a little, his fear of heights getting the better of him. He still had his hand held out to the side in case he needed to grab the window frame to stop himself from falling.
‘Come inside, Angela. You can trust me. I promise he can’t get to you. He’s dead. He can’t get to anyone,’ Adrian implored Angela with his eyes.
He could feel the tears of relief that Reece Corrigan was dead forming and he wanted her to know that he understood, that he was glad Reece was dead, too. Adrian remembered Angela’s face tangled among the brush and how she had trusted him then. He could get her to trust him again. He hoped she could see everything he was trying to convey.
Angela stumbled forwards into his arms and sobbed into his shoulder. He held onto her tightly; he wanted her to know that she was safe from that man, that he couldn’t hurt her anymore.
He turned his head slightly to see Imogen. The look on her face was of complete fear. She didn’t trust that he had a handle on the situation. He knew Imogen thought he was going to fall, that she thought she was going to lose him. He had done that. He knew he had to make a change. He couldn’t put her through that again.