The Broken Ones: Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve: Worth The Risk

(Adam)

I met Jim Browning in a more public place, by the pub, just in case Mark was following me. The last thing I needed was for him to get wind of our connection. I explained the recent events to him, played him the recording in a quiet area of the harbour, and afterwards his expression was unreadable.

Finally after an excruciating few minutes, I asked him "Well?" He cleared his throat and blinked at me, "Your thoughts?" He let out a small, exasperated laugh.

"Oh son you don't want to know my thoughts right this minute. I knew Caldy was despicable, but this just takes the cake!"

"Do you believe him? Could Sarah be capable..." He stopped me with the wave of a hand, and he seemed a mixture of amused and annoyed.

"Just...stop right there. Mrs Wallace was at home all night, she made several calls from her landline to her mother, John's work, John's mobile and to Mark who lied through his teeth as to where he was it seems!"

"Where did he say..."

"He claimed he was with a woman at a bar, a white lie he'll say, well...if this wasn't a murder investigation!" I nodded, yeah there was no harm in lying if the person you were lying about being with hadn't been hit by a car and left dead in the road.

"Do you think Mark killed John?" Jim let out a deep, frustrated sigh, shook his head and shrugged.

"It is more than possible, but what we have here is circumstantial. We need hard evidence that Caldy was driving the car that killed John. Right now all we can do is place him with the victim, and your evidence doesn't really help us either. You left before the incident occurred so..." He shrugged again, "...but don't lose hope, we'll keep digging!"

I looked down at my shoes, feeling less hopeful than I had at the start of this conversation, "What we can get Caldy on is tampering with evidence!" Jim suddenly blurted out, "He could get up to 36 months for that!" It didn't make me feel any better!

We parted ways, and I headed back home to check on Sarah when something I heard caught my attention. I heard someone say "See you tomorrow Alannah!" Alannah Caldwell?

A dark haired woman came out of the pub smiling, I called her name, "Alannah?" And she turned in my direction.

"Yes?" She smiled sweetly.
"Alannah Caldwell?"
"Alannah Gunn! I go by Gunn nowadays!" She corrected me.

"Hi, um Adam Masters, Brindleton Bay Gazette. Can I talk to you about your brother-in-law? John Wallace?"

"Ex!" Once again she corrected me.

"Pardon?"

"Ex brother-in-law, I'm divorced?"

"Ah, apologies!" I nodded sympathetically. "Can you spare me a few moments?" She agreed and I began to dig into the lives of Sarah and Mark.

I asked her a few tame questions to start with, and she answered them gracefully. We touched on her divorce from Mark, she seemed quite sad about it and not at all bitter. "Mark is not what people see, he's not this tough detective with no heart! He feels, he feels very much!" She smiled sadly.

"Was it the miscarriage that caused you to split up?" She shook her head, still smiling.

"Oh no, sure that didn't help. Mark wanted a child, despite our...arrangement." Arrangement? At my puzzled look she laughed softly and added, "Mark and I, we married because I was pregnant that's true, there was love between us...but we weren't in love!"

"As I said, we agreed to marry for the sake of the baby, but I always knew what Mark was...who he was!" She looked me dead in the eyes and continued, "I know exactly who you are Adam Masters, I know you're involved with Sarah and I admire your loyalty. I also trust you to keep this off the record!"

"Believe me, Mark is not the monster he appears to be. I knew early on in our relationship that he was gay, and I knew he was trying so hard not to be. My pregnancy was an accident, a happy one that helped us both through some tough times in our lives but...it wasn't to be. And you can't fix things with a baby!"

"I spoke to Mark this morning and he told me that his sexuality was about to come out into the open. This is a small town and people judge, he was scared! Now he thinks you'll print it in your paper, and I'm asking you not to!" She pleaded with me with her eyes, and I felt myself nodding in agreement. I didn't even have time to ask about Sarah and John's murder...

...she had said goodbye and was walking away, leaving me stunned. So Mark had got to her before me? Figured! It was difficult for me to see Mark Caldwell as anything but a devious human being. But the way Alannah talked about him, she was far from stupid, she was intelligent and sharp! Rather than becoming clearer, things were getting more and more confusing!

I arrived back at the cottage to my door lying ajar, I entered cautiously as I heard someone talking, one solitary voice, male...

"Yeah, no I haven't touched anything! I'm not an amateur!" Mark Caldwell was talking on his phone, standing in my living room. There was blood on the floor...and Sarah was nowhere to be seen! "Okay, just...hurry please!" Mark's voice was panicked.

"What the fuck are you doing in my house? Where is Sarah???" Mark looked at me with a shocked expression. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER???" I yelled at him.

"HEY!" He shouted back, "I just called this in, I turned my back for a moment and..."

"So you're still following us?" He looked guiltily at me and nodded a yes.

"I saw you leave her here, I followed you to the harbour, then when you caught up with Alannah I came back here to check...I found everything like this I swear!" His voice cracked with emotion, "Who's blood is this?" He cried and screwed his eyes shut trying to block out images of Sarah bleeding and badly hurt, "I...I've not touched anything, there's a team coming round...oh God where is she?"

No one could fake this much distress, I could feel his pain! I was distressed too, and totally confused over what had gone down in my house. Mark pulled himself together and ran a hand through his hair, "Okay um, no sign of forced entry. No sign of a scuffle just...this!" He whimpered as he looked down at the blood again.

"Mark? We need to focus!" He looked up at me with startled eyes and nodded his head automatically. "Let's go back to the start and try to piece together what might have happened!" How was I staying so calm? Because someone had to! Mark gave himself a shake and finally exclaimed,

"Right, let's do this!" He wiped his face roughly with his hand and surveyed the room, as my heart threatened to burst out of my chest!

(Sarah)

My head was thumping, my throat was scratchy and I could taste blood. It felt like my eyes were glued shut, every time I tried to open them they would sting. My cheek was throbbing as I finally managed to open my eyes, I instinctively touched the painful part of my face and my hand was covered in blood. And then I remembered, as a familiar voice began to speak, "You've only yourself to blame you know!"

Una stood above me holding a knife, looking sad and angry at the same time. "I told you not to struggle, but you had to hit me didn't you?" She pointed to a scratch on her face where I'd struck her to get away, back at Adam's. I didn't recognise this place at first, but then I realised we were on the top floor of Webster and Baird.

Una began to pace and weep. My memory was coming back in small pieces, she'd appeared at Adam's cottage banging on the door demanding to be let in, so I did. I'd nothing to fear from her, but when she came in she was crazy! Like a wild animal, she grabbed me and said Mark wanted to see me. And that's when I hit her...

...and she hit me back, I landed on the coffee table and the last thing I remembered was hearing my head crack on the corner. "Una why are you doing this?" I mumbled, I felt drowsy and the pounding in my head was making me feel sick.
"Shut up I have to think!" She snapped at me. Her eyes were crazed! I'd never seen her like that, it was frightening. All I could concentrate on was the knife so I looked away.

"Una, please tell me what's going on? If this is about Adam..." She cut me off with a shriek.
"Adam??? Oh that's just the tip of the iceberg sweetheart!" She laughed angrily, it was almost maniacal.
"What have I ever done to you?" I felt hot tears sting my cheeks as I could feel her staring at me with her big brown eyes.
"You really don't know? Are you really THAT STUPID???"
"Una you're scaring me." I blinked, as she was screaming at the top of her lungs.
"You get them all, even your brother chose you over me! My God Sarah what the fuck have you got that I haven't, eh?"
"What are you talking about?"

"The night I met John, I thought yes a good looking guy, give him a smile and a wink and chat him up but no...oh Una I see you've met my gorgeous hubby! BITCH!" She shouted the word bitch right in my face.
"I don't understand..."She cut me off again.
"Then Mark and I hooked up, it became a regular thing, it was nice! But he was only sleeping with me to get information on YOU! To have a spy in your camp!" Her eyes bulged at me, I was terrified.

"And the clients list..." She looked at me in confusion, "...for the drugs bust?" Then she laughed again, looking at me as if I was an idiot.
"Oh, yeah I lied about that!"
"Why?"
"I wanted Adam to think Mark was warning him off of his precious baby sister. I wanted him to fall into my arms but NO!"

"You're not making any sense..."
"I sent him a text telling him to stay away from you, and he did, that job offer he blew you off for? Bullshit, he was scared off by me!" She looked proud of herself, and I wanted to vomit.

"Una why..."
"HE WANTED YOU! NOT ME! He...wanted you!" She sobbed, and I almost felt sorry for her like I had done many times before. "He was shoving me aside to get to you, it was like John and Grant all over again!"
"John? Grant?" I shook my head in confusion, what was this all about?
"I came onto him, your precious John, many times, laid it on thick! He was never interested. I even told him I would be his bit on the side, no strings but he was having none of it!"

"That night, when I saw him with Mark I was so drunk, they were fighting. After John left him on his arse on the pavement, I went for him. He said some horrible things!" She whimpered and covered her face with her hands for a few moments.

She continued, "Those stupid lovebirds left their keys in their car. I don't know why I did it, it's so stupid!"
"Did what Una?" I had to ask, but I was dreading the answer. I knew what she was going to say, and it made me feel dizzy as my heart began to pound wildly in my chest. I could barely look at her.

"I drove into him, I ran him over!" She answered me with an eerie calm that sent shivers down my spine. "I didn't ever intend to hurt John, I loved him!" She looked at me as if I would understand, but how could I? Even if I had found out about my husband and my brother when John was alive, I would never in a million years do what she did! "It was a moment of madness!" I couldn't take any more, that statement made me see red.

"WHAT?" I gritted my teeth as she stared at me with those big brown eyes.
"He didn't love me back, no one ever does!"
"Una, you don't even know what love is!" She was in love with everyone, John and Mark and Grant...even Adam! I always felt sorry for her, saw her as a poor soul who was just looking for her soulmate...but she was a nutcase! How did I not see it before??? The way she was pacing the floor like a wild animal and gesturing wildly made me want to scream!

"YOU ALWAYS GET THEM!!! ALWAYS!!!" She shrieked at me.
"What the hell happened to you?" I mumbled, she was crazed.
"Daddy said he loved me!" She whimpered, and she became quite childlike.

"I was daddy's best girl!" She nodded with a sad smile on her face, "Then daddy left!" She spat, and her face changed from happiness to rage. "They always leave! They take what they want and they get the hell away!"
"John didn't take anything, he was honest with you from the start! Adam too! John didn't deserve to die Una! His only crime was being married!" She shot me a murderous look.

"Yes, to YOU!" My God did she really hate me that much?
"Una..."
"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! I DIDN'T MEAN TO DO IT I AM NOT A MURDERER!!!" She cried out, but it wasn't me she was trying to convince.
"But that is exactly what you are!" What did she want from me? Forgiveness? Sympathy? She killed my husband!!!

Suddenly I heard footsteps coming up the stairs and Adam was standing there...with Mark! "Una?" Adam called out to her as she grabbed me and pulled me up, holding the knife to my throat.
"Get the fuck away from her you psycho bitch!" Mark's voice was shaky and unsure, he made a dive for her with panic in his eyes, but Adam held him back.

"Una? Why don't you put the knife down, eh? And let Sarah go, what do you say?" Una stood motionless for a moment, the knife was pressed against my skin, it scratched a bit but the pressure wasn't that strong. I could see Mark was dying to go for her, but Adam still held him in place.

Then all of a sudden Una yelled "FUCK YOU!" And that was the last thing I remembered!

To Be Continued...

Previous Chapters:
The Broken Ones