21

Kate wrapped her arms around her waist. They were dropping like flies, and no one knew who would be next. It was almost her and maybe it still would be. Fear closed her throat, and she coughed to clear it. “Can we just go back a bit? Zed isn’t Zed, he’s a cop. So what’s your real name?”

“Zander, with a Zed.” He raised an eyebrow, and grinned. “So close enough. My name is Dad’s idea of a joke that only he finds funny.” He rubbed his ear. “Yeah, Is. No, we’re all right for now, so long as we don’t touch the floor. Did you get Hank’s COD? Yeah, that’s what I think. Roj got blasted by the door handle in the garden room, so we can’t get out that way either. He’s alive, just out for the count.”

“I kissed you,” Kate said. “After I’d known you less than a day, and you said nothing.”

“To be fair, I kissed you back.” His cheeks grew rosy under the beard, which only served to make him cuter.

It was all Kate could do not to sigh and kiss him again. She should be mad at the man. He was playing a role and had taken her for a fool. Perhaps he hadn’t intended to string her along. If only she knew for sure.

Paul smirked. “And he kissed you on camera as well. The whole world knows.”

“Actually, they don’t.” Zander drummed his fingers on his thigh. “The only people watching are my squad. We got a D notice issued soon as Silas died. Nothing has or will be aired on the court’s instruction. The show is cancelled.”

“What about my fee?” Jay asked.

“Stuff your fee,” Ginny muttered. “People are dead. So why are we all still here?”

“All suspects,” Kate answered. “They don’t want us fleeing the country. I’m assuming they were hoping to stop more deaths.” She looked at Zander, which was, incidentally a lovely name. “Was kissing me an act, too?”

He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. I’d never do that.”

The lights flickered back on. The tannoy squealed. A woman’s voice filled the room. “OK, we have the lights and cameras back on, but still can’t get the doors open.”

Zander glanced towards the windows. “OK, thanks, Is. Keep working on it.”

The sun was setting, the sky a glorious red.

“Just in time, too. It’ll be dark soon. Is the floor still live?” Kate asked.

“I have no idea,” Liz said. “Why don’t you stand on it and find out?”

“Are you crazy?” Kate asked.

Liz shook her head. “I’m not the one who fell in love with a cop after only knowing him for one day.”

“Oh, and it wasn’t you and Roj in the garden three nights ago, giggling and splashing in the hot tub.”

“We were playing giant noughts and crosses,” Liz protested.

Kate scoffed. “In the dark, and in the hot tub? Pull the other one, it’s got bells on it.”

“OK, kiddies, that’s enough,” Zander said. “Let’s just accept that being in the house might have knocked everyone’s inhibitions for six and possibly made us act in ways we might not otherwise have done.”

Kate frowned. She didn’t like that one bit. “So, if you had the chance to kiss me again, outside of here, would you do it?”

“For crying out loud, woman!” Paul erupted. “Just forget his flaming kiss, will you? I don’t care if he never touches you again. I want to get out of here. Alive. That should be our number one priority right now. Not how much the cop actually loves you, if he even does.”

The door to the hallway opened and Mr. Horner came in. “Is everyone all right?”

Paul spun around. “They’ve fixed it?”

Mr. Horner nodded. “Yes. We can get you out one at a time. Liz, if you’d like to come with me, we’ll get you to safety first.”

“With pleasure.” Liz leapt to her feet and ran tile to tile across the room.

Zander touched his ear and grimaced. “Liz, don’t go anywhere with him.”

Kate leaned into him. His unsettled look matched the way her stomach turned and alarm bells ringing in her mind. “He didn’t come in the main door. He was here all along, wasn’t he?”

Zander nodded. He rose. “Liz, I need you to come back over here.”

“Why? We can leave. I’m not staying here a minute longer than I have to.”

Mr. Horner grabbed Liz and held a knife to her throat.

Liz screamed.

Mr. Horner scowled. “Shut up. Unless you want to die too.”

“Silas’s death was murder then?” Zander took a cautious step towards Horner. “And I’m assuming you killed both him and Erin.”

“Don’t move or I’ll kill her right now.”

Zander raised his hands and took two steps backwards. “OK. I’ll back off.”

“It was an accident. No one should have died. Not yet.” He edged towards the door, knife still at Liz’s throat.

“No one was meant to die? So what went wrong?”

Mr. Horner shuffled backwards. “Silas worked it out. He knew everyone had criminal records and that you were all handpicked. And then he said it all on camera in the diary room. Well done on working out who was who and what was going on, by the way. Even without realising he was a rat for other reasons that simply being dead.”

“Hang on.” Kate shifted on the chair. “If you’re a cop and number thirteen should have been a farmer…”

“He got rearrested just before he should have come in here,” Zander replied, not taking his gaze off Mr. Horner. “Just providential I knew farming. And good on Silas for working out what your plan was. We’re still in the dark. Care to enlighten us? You could put the knife down, take a seat, discuss it like grown-ups with us.”

“It’s simple. The courts aren’t doing their jobs. None of you got the sentence you deserved—if you got a sentence at all. You have to pay for your crimes. And you were all going to on live TV.”

“That begs another question,” Zander began.

Kate shivered. Horner… Why was that name suddenly ringing a bell in her mind? And it wasn’t from the nursery rhyme—they’d already established that. It was something else. Had one of them wronged him somehow?

“What question is that?” Mr. Horner hissed.

“The insurance people would have shut you down, if we hadn’t issued a D notice. Taken you off the air. Sent everyone home.”

He scoffed. “My house. My TV company. My rules. The camera crew film what I tell them to. If the broadcasters shut me down, well, I’m live on the internet.”

“Actually, you’re not. At least not since I’ve been here. My tech blokes and a court order saw to that.”

Mr. Horner swore, tightening his grip on Liz.

“Let her go,” Kate said. “She hasn’t done anything.”

“None of you are innocent. You all need punishing.”

“Going back to Silas,” Zander said. “He worked it out?”

“He blabbed in the diary room. When I confronted him as he left the room, he said he’d keep schtum if we paid him. Else he’d go to the cops and plaster it all over the internet. I put the money in the boot room, but when he went to collect it, he said he’d changed his mind, and that he’d tell the world anyway. If the courts didn’t punish people, then the sentence should be commuted. We fought and he fell. His neck snapped. I had no choice but to make it look like suicide. I forgot the money was there until you found it.”

“And Erin?”

“Lucky guess maybe. I have no idea how she found out. I appeared in her mirror as a clown while she was ranting at the camera and she was literally scared to death. She jumped straight out the window.” Mr. Horner laughed manically.

Kate scowled. “That isn’t funny. And seriously, is your name actually Jack Horner? Why don’t you just go sit in the corner and eat pie?”

Zander took a step towards him. “Put the knife down. You don’t need yet another charge against you.”

Liz whimpered.

“You don’t want to argue with Zander,” Kate said.

“Why not?”

“He’s kind of lethal with a cane. And he doesn’t need it. He told me. It’s all for show. Part of his undercover act.” She glanced at Zander, really hoping he’d go with her on this and remember the game of duck, duck, goose and how he tripped up Roj.

Zander smirked. He moved fast and smacked Mr. Horner’s leg with the cane.

Whilst their nemesis was off balance, Kate pulled Liz free. “Take a breath,” she whispered. “You’re OK.”

Using the cane like a sword, Zander swept Mr. Horner off his feet and tackled him, the way she’d seen TV cops floor bad guys hundreds of times. They both landed on a thick pile rug, which must have rubber underlay as neither of them were electrocuted.

“Someone get me something to secure him with. Jack Horner, you’re under arrest.”

Kate looked at Liz. “What’s that look for?”

Liz grinned. “He is good, isn’t he?”

Kate laughed. “Yeah, but get your own. I kissed him first.” Then she froze. She just remembered where she’d seen the name Horner before. It was Liz’s acting surname. But how could she tell Zander without being overheard?