Here To Stay

by Mark Edwards

And I had a very good idea about who had leaked the story. The same people who had persuaded Effy to lie. The same people who were trying to ruin my life.

I didn’t let her finish. I hung up and switched off my phone.

i wouldve hung up too cause bitch what

what happened on that blank day in Chloe’s journal.’ ‘What?’

lord

Gemma had told me they’d bought the painting supplies while I was with the police, announcing their plan to redecorate, to make the place ‘more to their taste’. No doubt there was more new furniture on the way too.

smh

If I ever got rid of them, the whole house would need to be scrubbed and fumigated.

As I headed up to my and Gemma’s bedroom, I felt jittery and unsafe. What was once my haven, a place of security and comfort, now felt like a deathtrap.

There, among the Brylcreem and deodorant, the Vaseline and Veet, was a bottle of Eau Sauvage. My missing aftershave.

But as I lifted it, the lid fell off and I caught a faint whiff of the scent. I was thrown back in time. Back to the darkest night of my life. Standing in George and Edith’s living room. The room stank of blood and excrement. Of violence and terror. But somewhere deep in that cocktail of foul smells I could detect something else. Something sharper and cleaner. Something familiar.

He’d never completed his warning, if that’s what it was. He had said Not, then began another word starting with ‘w’ before breathing his last. But what if it wasn’t two words he was trying to get out, but one? Knotweed.

In his final moments, the best George’s broken, dying brain could manage was this word, this attempt to warn me, to tell me who had killed him. This and the aftershave. There was no longer any doubt in my mind. Jeff had killed my neighbours.

And at that moment, the bedroom door opened and he was standing there, his lip curled into a sneer.

oh shit

The mask Jeff usually wore – the no-nonsense but avuncular family man – had been well and truly ripped off.

‘How did you do it?’ I asked, as calmly as I could. ‘Get to George and Edith’s and back so quickly? Why weren’t you spattered with their blood?’ Jeff’s eyes flicked between the bottle of aftershave and my face.

He must have sold them already. Maybe that was how he was able to afford his phone.

‘You’ve finally cracked, Elliot,’ he said. But something passed over his face, so fleeting it barely registered. A look of realisation. Of surprise. Probably thinking about how he’d messed up by wearing my aftershave that night.

But I was on a roll.

‘I’m sick of listening to you. You can tell your lies to the police.’

With Jeff gone, it wouldn’t be that hard to get Lizzy out too.

‘You can tell all that to the police,’ I said, lifting the phone to my ear.

But rage filled me, adrenaline acting as both a salve and a motor.

He turned me round and pushed me out of the room, a constellation of pain bursting from my shoulder joint.

consider me disappointed.

And whatever you say about my qualities versus his, he’s winning. He’s come on to my territory and taken it over. I should be able to protect my own home.

‘But that other tom’s not around now,’ Gemma said. ‘Charlie must have won in the end.’ ‘Only because the other cat got run over.’ ‘Oh.’

I hated them. Jeff and Lizzy. They had invaded my house and humiliated me. They had inflicted untold damage on their children. They had almost certainly committed some terrible crime in France. They had tried to get me jailed for child abuse. And worst of all, Jeff had murdered the lovely couple next door, smashing in their skulls with a hammer before returning to dinner as if nothing had happened. They were evil. There was no doubt in my mind.

‘Don’t say it.’ But she did. ‘The only way to stop them is to kill them.’

‘You could do it, Elliot. I know you could. For me. For us.’ ‘You’re not serious.’

idk but ion rlly trust her

‘The world will be a better place without them in it. You have to agree with that.’

nah ion trust that cause why you forcing it..

Maybe a family.’ Her eyes shone with emotion. ‘I’d like that,’ I said. ‘But it can never happen. Not with Mum and Dad around. Could you imagine raising a child in such a terrible atmosphere?

oh yeah she rlly selling it now little ms "i don't want kids"

How none of this would have happened if Gemma and I hadn’t rushed to get married and move in together.

Was that a flash of anger in her eyes? Or just disappointment?

She should have done it sooner. Because then he would never have opened the door and let them in.

‘I’ve kind of already asked them to stay.’

my lord..

‘But they are.’

‘She’s fifteen years old! And you had sex with her. Right here in our bedroom.’

what-

The names she heard them call Henry behind his back, even while they borrowed money from him and took advantage of his kindness.

Not too much of a bleeding heart to screw her, though, was he?

History repeating itself.

he went back in the middle of the night and torched the caravan. Mickey and Delilah were still inside.’

That morning, Henry had found his beloved cat, Kenny, dead in the back garden. He’d been poisoned.

I had little doubt about who had killed Henry’s cat.

‘I found out. Henry emailed me and told me that he had enlisted the help of some bikers from this pub he used to go to on the seafront. They turned up and literally chucked my parents out.’

I sighed. ‘Let me guess. They moved in with them and made their lives a living hell.’

‘Yep. They were there for ages. Nearly two years. It almost killed Stuart. He told me he actually tried to kill himself, that Jane found him with a noose around his neck and stopped him. There was another incident before that, too. Mum started a fire in their kitchen by not putting a cigarette out properly, though luckily Stuart found it and put it out in time.’ Gemma absent-mindedly stroked the cat. ‘So Stuart and Jane took drastic action. They handed in notice to their landlord and basically made themselves homeless. They lived in a hostel for a little while. But it was the only way they could get rid of Mum and Dad.’

wow. that's pure insanity.

‘Wait.’ Something had jarred. ‘You mean they emailed you in October, not August, right? That’s what you said earlier.’ Also, I clearly remembered Gemma telling me about the email just after we got home from Vegas. ‘Oh. Oh yes, of course. October.’ She averted her eyes. She was clearly lying.

told you that you cant trust her..

‘When in August?’ ‘I can’t remember exactly.’ ‘Was it before or after you met me?’ She didn’t respond. ‘Was it before or after?’ Her reply was whispered. ‘Before.’

She hadn’t told me until October, when we got back from Vegas. She’d acted like she had only just received the email.

That’s why he would rather have made himself homeless than live with them. And Jane’s terrified of them too.’

And then Stuart said, “If only we knew someone who could deal with them for us.” And when I met you, I remembered that.’

smfh

That she had decided, as soon as she met me, that I could help her do away with her parents.

‘You thought . . .’ I forced the words out. ‘You thought that, as someone who knows about chemistry, I would know how to kill someone and get away with it?’