Where was Hazel? Knowing it was unlikely that she would have gone off somewhere in the early hours of the morning by herself, I went to step into my jeans. Then, remembering where I was, I put on the green cocktail dress. I ran a brush through my hair and checked my face. I hadn’t bothered to remove my make-up and spat on a tissue, rubbing it under my eyes to make my face passable. I pushed my feet into the satin shoes that matched my dress and left the room to look for her. I told myself there was probably a perfectly rational reason for her to go for a wander around the enormous house at nearly three in the morning. There didn’t seem to be anyone about, which was a relief.
Walking along the corridor, trying to shift the heavy feeling pressing down on me, it dawned on me that I had little choice but to go to Vinnie’s room to look for her. I was nervous, but couldn’t turn my back on her now I knew how dangerous he could be. I walked quietly towards his bedroom, stopped outside, and leaned my head closer to the door and listened. Voices came from inside. If I’d have stood here listening to him in his bedroom with someone else a few hours earlier, I would have been hysterical with jealousy. Now I was just frightened. I heard a muffled cry and recognised it as Hazel’s voice. She was pleading with him and sounded terrified.
My heart raced, and I took a deep breath to try and control my rising panic. I placed my hand on the door handle and slowly turned it, relieved, yet horrified, when it twisted and the door opened. Pushing it ajar, I could hear her cries more clearly now.
‘Please, Vinnie, I couldn’t do it,’ she cried, her swollen lips distorting her voice. ‘He’s disgusting.’
Her pleading was lost on him. I bent my head to look around the door and peered inside. He was crouched over her. Her nightie had been torn from her shoulders and now barely concealed her bruised body. She was too busy shielding her face to notice me. Her right eye was swollen shut and her thighs grazed and bruised. Vinnie knelt between her legs.
How could I have thought myself in love with this monster?
Holding her down with one hand around her neck, he bent his arm back. ‘You’re a fucking bitch,’ he hissed, saliva spraying through his gritted teeth. ‘Your childish behaviour has embarrassed him and he’s called off our deal.’
‘I didn’t mean to upset him,’ she sobbed, trying to protect her face.
‘So, why overreact and claw at his sodding face then? He wants us out by the morning and it’s all your fault.’ He clenched his fist, getting ready to strike her again.
Desperate to stop him, I glanced around the room and spotted a heavy glass ashtray. I grabbed it, lifting it high. He turned to face me, shock at what I was about to do registering on his features. I knew how much stronger than us he was and that I had one chance to make this count. Squealing in revulsion, I slammed the heavy object as hard as I could against his temple, watching in dazed horror as it split his skin, shattering into pieces onto the carpet.
He stared at me, momentarily stunned. Then, closing his eyes, he dropped like a slaughtered bull onto the carpet next to Hazel. She pressed her hands over her mouth to stifle her screams. Shocked by what I’d just done, I bent down to lift his leg off her and helped her to stand.
‘You killed him,’ Hazel whispered.
My heart pounded painfully. I let go of the remains of the ashtray still in my hand, and shivered. ‘What do we do now?’ I asked, swallowing a wave of nausea. ‘We can’t leave him here. They’ll come for us.’
‘You saved my life, Mimi,’ she panted. ‘But did you have to hit him so hard?’ Hazel continued, trembling.
‘What? You’d rather I make him angry by tapping his head?’ I tried not to panic. ‘He’d have killed us.’ I pointed at Hazel. ‘He’s already battered you.’
Vinnie’s warm blood oozed across the rug reaching my feet and making them sticky. I stepped back.
Hazel grabbed Vinnie’s dressing gown from the chair and pulled it over her ripped nightdress. Tying the cord belt, she took hold of my shoulders. ‘We have to get rid of him.’
What did she just say? I stared at Vinnie, humiliated to realise how easily his movie star looks had distracted me from his dark personality. ‘How? Where?’
Hazel’s hands shook, and I wished we could go back twenty-four hours.
‘Get a towel,’ Hazel said. ‘Put it around his head before he really starts to bleed.’
I glanced at a large glass shard embedded in Vinnie’s skull, relieved to note it was stemming the blood flow.
‘Quickly,’ Hazel said. ‘We’ll need to get rid of this rug. We don’t want blood seeping through to the carpet. We don’t have time to clean this place.’
My legs trembled, as I walked to the bathroom to find a towel. A terrifying thought occurred to me as I carried it to Hazel to wrap around Vinnie’s head. ‘If he’s bleeding, doesn’t that mean he’s still alive?’
‘Only just, by the look of him.’ Hazel retched as she lifted his head. ‘Help me.’
We struggled to wrap the towel around Vinnie’s head. Once done, Hazel sat back on her haunches. ‘That will have to do for now.’ She raked her hands through her messy hair. ‘I’m going to get dressed, wait here.’
‘You can’t leave me alone,’ I said, horrified at the prospect of being left with him.
‘If someone comes, answer the door, just don’t open it.’ Hazel grimaced as she pulled a handkerchief out of his dressing gown pocket. ‘If they think he’s in here with you, they’ll be too scared to insist on coming in. Make some excuse,’ she hesitated. ‘Say he’s in the bathroom.’ Hazel winced as she walked to the door. ‘You’d better wash his blood off your shoes.’
I did as she said. I couldn’t stop crying as the red water ran from my feet and down the sides of the sink. Spotting one of Vinnie’s ties, it dawned on me that if we were going to make him disappear, then we needed to make it look as if he’d left of his own volition.
We needed to hide his things. Vinnie was too proud of his personal effects to leave them behind. I ran across the room, tiptoeing around his body. I pulled his suitcase from where he’d left it next to the wardrobe. Wrenching his bespoke suits from hangers, I threw them and his underwear from the drawers untidily into the case.
Hurrying into the bathroom, I opened his leather wash bag. I held it above the sink and brushed my shaking arm across the glass shelf, sweeping his toothpaste, aftershave and razor into the bag. Then, taking his toothbrush from the glass, I dropped that in. I pushed away a mental replay of what I had done to him, and hurriedly zipped up the bag, before throwing it into the case.
I scanned the room for anything I might have missed. ‘Wallet,’ I whispered, remembering the brown leather wallet he always had crammed with notes and ready to hand to tip someone lavishly. Though I was now sure it was more to show others how successful he was, than generosity. I pulled open the bedside drawer, retrieving his wallet and a pair of gold cufflinks.
The light reflected off his heavy gold watch. Taking a deep breath, I unclasped it, cringing at the touch of his flesh as I removed it from his wrist. ‘Damn,’ I groaned, aware that I also needed to pull off his pinkie ring. It was a bit of a struggle and I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to complete the grim task. The heavy gold chain around his neck was all that remained for me to take from his body.
Finally, exhausted and sweating, I pushed the last vestiges of Vinnie’s possessions into a side pocket in the case.
The door opened. I froze until I spotted Hazel’s hair.
‘What are you doing?’ Hazel frowned, spotting the open case. I explained hurriedly. ‘Good thinking. Make sure we’ve got everything. Is his wallet in there?’ I nodded. ‘Because we’re going to need money. It’s our only way of getting out of Scotland.’
My trembling hands made it difficult to close the catches on Vinnie’s case. ‘I’ll take this to our room,’ I whispered to Hazel, desperate to get away.
After checking that there was no one else in the hallway, I crept to our bedroom. I couldn’t bear the thought of returning to Vinnie’s room, but knew I had no choice. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself and got going.
‘Do you think it’d be safe for us to return to London?’ I wondered, not ready to leave the city I had fallen in love with. ‘Everyone at the club knows we came here with Vinnie and his mates. Won’t they ask us questions if we go back without him?’
Hazel considered. ‘I suppose they will. We need to get rid of him before we think about running away. Help me roll him onto his back,’ she said. ‘That’s it. Now lift his arm over your shoulder and I’ll do the same.’ We groaned with the strain. ‘It’s going to be an effort, but I’ve done this a few times with my brothers when they’re drunk. I’m sure we can manage to get him out of here if we’re determined.’
He was heavier than I expected. The effort of carrying him in the warm night air was exhausting.
‘Where are we going?’ I asked, as it dawned on me that we hadn’t discussed the next step of our plan.
‘This way.’
We dragged him along, his head flopping between our bodies. Too late, I wished I had thought to change out of my heels.
‘There’s a back staircase,’ Hazel said, nodding in the direction. I noticed that despite our struggle to move him, Hazel’s voice appeared stronger. ‘I checked it when I went to change,’ she said. ‘It’s late so hopefully we won’t be disturbed out here.’
We hoisted him up a little further onto our shoulders.
‘Shit, he’s heavy,’ Hazel whispered, her voice strained with the effort.
‘Where exactly are we going?’ I asked as we rounded a corner at the end of the corridor.
Hazel gestured to a service lift. ‘There are some woods out the back.’
Once down on the ground floor, we manoeuvred Vinnie outside.
Hazel stopped abruptly. ‘Shh.’
‘What?’
‘I heard someone.’
We waited. When there was no further sound, we moved away from the doorway.
‘I’m scared,’ I admitted, pushing aside the thought of someone discovering us with the body. I wasn’t sure I could go through with this.
‘Shut up,’ Hazel whispered. ‘You were the one who smashed him over the head, remember?’
The idea that this was my fault frightened me. I choked back tears. I didn’t want to end up spending the rest of my life in prison. ‘I was trying to stop him killing you.’
‘I know.’ Hazel’s voice softened. ‘But you were the one who killed him, not me. I’m trying to help you hide his body. Now let’s get a move on. The sooner we do this the sooner we can get far away from this place.’
After almost dropping him, we eventually reached the wooded area. I was grateful for the denseness of the thick leaves overhead. They diminished the pearl whiteness of the moonlight and gave us much needed cover.
A revolting thought occurred to me. ‘We need to strip him and dump his clothes.’
‘Good idea,’ Hazel agreed. ‘I’m going to find something for us to dig with. They must have a gardener’s shed where we’ll find spades.’
Hazel had run off into the darkness before I had time to stop her. Pushing away my squeamishness, I stripped Vinnie. I kicked his once beautiful bespoke grey suit out of the way, and stood up. This was a living nightmare. I noticed Hazel coming back. She was holding up a huge shovel that looked as if it was used for coal rather than soil.
‘I also found this smaller spade.’ She handed the larger one to me. ‘Quick, we don’t have much time.’
We dug for what seemed like hours. We needed to hide all traces of him. Even though he was dead, he still had the power to hurt us. The thought was terrifying.
Then his head moved.
I dropped the spade and covered my mouth to stop from screaming. ‘He’s still alive,’ I grimaced, swallowing bile rising in my throat.
‘Shush.’ Hazel’s controlled tone was chilling. ‘We have no choice. We must get rid of him. Now, dig.’
I slammed the blade of the shovel down into the hard earth with as much force as my exhausted arms could muster. ‘Surely this is deep enough now?’ I whispered a few minutes later, my body trembling with the effort of trying to remain calm.
Vinnie groaned. The sound seemed to echo through the night air.
I was too scared to look at him, even though I could hear him battling to breathe inches from my feet. ‘He’s still alive.’ I shuddered.
‘I can see that,’ Hazel spat. ‘Keep going. We’ll soon be finished and then we can forget about everything that’s happened tonight.’
You might be able to, I thought. My shoulders were agony and my blistered hands stung. My heart almost stopped in my chest when Vinnie opened his swollen eyes and slowly drew his gaze up from my feet to stare at my face. I could barely breathe.
‘Mimi, for fuck’s sake stop staring at him. Dig. We’re nearly done.’
Yearning for the nightmare to end, I frantically continued digging.
‘That should do it,’ Hazel said, eventually. ‘Right, I’ll grab him under his armpits. You take his ankles.’
I reached down, recoiling when my palms connected with his hairy flesh. ‘Do we have to?’
‘After what’s happened; what do you think? Right, one, two, three…’
His warm blood made his ankles slippery and difficult to hold. We hoisted him barely an inch from the ground, dragging him the few feet towards his makeshift grave. Straining with his weight, we then released our grip on him, dropping him into the muddy hole. He landed with a sickening thud.
‘It’s not big enough,’ I panicked, barely able to breathe, my heart was pounding so hard. By the look of the stunned expression on Vinnie’s battered face, I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t believe this was happening.
‘Shut up,’ Hazel snapped, jumping into the hole next to him.
I grimaced as her feet landed heavily next to his tanned stomach, and watched as Hazel’s muddied hands grabbed behind his knees. She pulled them up with difficulty until his feet fitted into the shallow grave. ‘There, now help me out.’
Terrified that he might grab Hazel’s ankles, I didn’t hesitate. I took Hazel’s outstretched hand and pulled. Standing upright next to me, she withdrew her hand from mine and wiped my hands vigorously against the skirt of my ruined cocktail dress.
He whimpered quietly. I saw him staring at me, as if he was imprinting the image of our murderous faces to savour for eternity. We stared in petrified silence as bloody bubbles dribbled from his bruised mouth. I turned away and vomited.
‘Don’t think about it,’ Hazel said, elbowing me. I winced from the force of the nudge to my ribs. ‘We need to cover him up.’
I noticed the sky had lightened to a salmon pink. Soon dog walkers could come through the woods for their early morning stroll. It wouldn’t do for one of them to sniff our handiwork. I shovelled the heavy soil over his body as quickly as I could manage. Closing my eyes, I willed the image of his final silent plea to disappear from the back of my sore eyelids. The muscles in my neck and back ached. I straightened up with a little difficulty and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, relieved that we had almost completed our gruesome task.
I opened my mouth to speak, when the earth shifted near my left foot, revealing Vinnie’s hands and face. I squealed and dropped the spade.
‘Keep going; hurry,’ Hazel cried.
Picking up my spade, I frantically shovelled soil until he was hidden once more. We needed to disguise the freshly dug soil, so Hazel and I dragged a heavy, rotting branch, resting it over Vinnie’s grave.
‘We need leaves, lots of them,’ Hazel said knowingly, as if she did this sort of thing often.
Sobbing from the trauma of what we were doing, I wiped my eyes with the back of my dirty hands. Then I searched for more camouflage to conceal our handiwork.
Finally, we were done. Hazel and I studied the area, to see if anyone could tell what was there under the branch and leaves. We had done a good job. No one passing by would ever suspect that there was a body buried here.
‘We must make a pact never to speak about this to anyone,’ Hazel said.
I willingly agreed. Who would I tell and why would I tell them?
‘Do you promise?’
‘Of course I bloody do.’
We stared at each other. I wondered if my face had hardened as much as Hazel’s appeared to have done since the beginning of our trip to Scotland.
‘Where to now?’ I asked, glancing across the lawn at the rear of the imposing building.
‘I’ve no idea, but we need to go inside and get our things,’ Hazel said. ‘And remember, if you hear anyone coming, run for the shadows.’
We took a deep breath and ran out of the darkness of the wood, across the dimly lit backyard, and into the servants’ entrance at the back of the building.