Jane is between me and the door, but I’m not sure if she feels like a threat anyway. Then my neck starts to singe with pain and I remember that I’ve already been knocked out once.
‘What was the point?’ I say. ‘To cut my hair…?’
‘It wasn’t a bad start,’ Jane replies. Her posture has changed from slumped and downtrodden to being rigid and primed. She reaches into the drawer that’s closest to her, fumbling underneath some tea towels until she finds what she’s looking for and places it on the table at her side. It looks like some sort of plastic gun, like a heavier water pistol.
‘Is that a stun gun?’ I ask.
‘What gave it away?’
I rub my skin once more and look up to see Jane smiling.
‘I thought I’d be able to keep this going for months,’ she says. ‘I was going to see how much I could get away with and slowly drive you mad.’
I look from the Jane to the gun and back again. It’s much closer to her, although I have no idea whether these sorts of weapons need to be primed or loaded. Whether they simply work with a point and a click.
‘What did you want to achieve?’ I ask.
‘What do you think?’
‘Did you want to… kill me?’
Her lips are tight but, from nowhere, Jane snorts with derision. ‘Kill you? I don’t think I’d have it in me. I suppose I thought about it some nights – but never seriously. I thought I could mess with you and then watch as you blamed everything on your missing husband. You’ve got to admit, it’s a good alibi?’
It takes everything I have not to laugh. It would be a good alibi if it wasn’t for the fact that David is dead. I knew that. I know that, even though I had a momentary wobble.
Jane thought she could mess with my mind by making me believe David was back – but that’s only because she doesn’t know the truth.
I killed him.
Her plan would have been perfect if David really had disappeared.
She’s so assured that I know I have to ask the question to which I don’t particularly want the answer. The question to which I probably already know the answer.
‘Why?’ I say.
It’s Jane’s turn to look away. She glances upwards towards Norah’s room and then focuses back on me. ‘All I want is the truth,’ she says. ‘I think you owe me that.’