Highland Secrets (English Edition) (17 page)

Molly
took a knife from the table and moved towards me again. My heart tightened painfully and I tried to shout out. But what difference would it make? Nobody would be able to hear me. It suddenly became clear to me that the wimpering sound that I had heard a few evenings ago when I was out walking had not been the cat. It must have been the Italian girl. If only I had listened a little closer, then she might still be alive. And then I wouldn’t be hanging here either and be staring at the bloody blade of a butcher’s knife which this psycho would soon use to cut out my lower abdomen.

I tried to wriggle when Molly moved closer. She
put the blade into my right calf and a sharp pain went through me as she cut through the fabric of my skirt and through my skin. I could feel the warmth of the blood that ran down my leg and then cooled down and left behind a horrible damp feeling on my pulsating leg.

“I would have given anything to see your face when you opened the blog. You did open it, didn’t you?

I glared at her and tried to ignore the burning pain in my calf, but tears were stinging my eyes. She put the blade into my other calf and I closed my eyes in anticipation of the pain. Molly laughed.

“I want to take a little bit more time with you. After all, everybody thinks you’re in London. Nob
ody is going to miss you. It would also give me a special thrill to torment you and to know that Adam is sitting just a few meters above us annoyed that he actually did have feelings for a woman.” She withdrew the knife, put it down on the table and hit me in the face instead.

“This blog was my idea too.
A mixture of Alfred’s old Internet sex addiction and my daughter who has been a successful blogger for years. She writes about her life with multiple sclerosis and the people love it. I have never understood it. In any case, I asked her a few weeks ago how to set up a blog and she helped me create one. When I was able to do it, I created a new one. I couldn’t use the blog I had set up with my daughter. I was certain that she would keep checking up on what I was doing. So I had to develop another blog which I then put the sex videos on.”

She approached me again and slashed my clothing across my body until it hung down on me in shreds and I was stood in front of her almost naked.
She then put the knife to one side again, picked up a camera and took a photo of me. “For the blog”, she mumbled, took the card out of the digital camera and put it in the PC that was underneath the table.

“You won’t believe it, but the p
erverts out there are into this sadomasochistic stuff.”

A few minutes later, she got up from her chair and left without even looking back at me. I gasped and moaned after her, but I gave up when I heard the scraping sound of the shelf.
On the monitor with the sex videos, there was new-found proof of Adam’s activities, but that could no longer affect me. The sexual pleasure noises, the ongoing cries of pleasure and the heavy breathing may still have affected me because it was torture to have to listen to these noises hours on end, but Molly had switched the sound off. Perhaps she wanted me to hear more of what was going on in the house.

However, I closed my eyes and let my head sink down to my chest. Exactly like the body that hung opposite me. My entire body was covered in
goosebumps and the fact that I was locked in here with a dead body left me feeling really cold. How could it affect me if my head was filled with panic, fear of death, anguish and pain. And somewhere in between there was the feeling of relief that Molly was the ripper rather than Adam.

And Alfred who had helped her with everything here.
This nice old man was a rapist and a murderer? I didn’t want to believe it. He was so attentive looking after me when I was ill. Had he only done it because he fancied me? I didn’t have any reason to doubt what Molly had said. Why should she conceal the truth considering I was doomed to die? But doubting Alfred’s culpability meant doubting Molly’s culpability too and she was the ripper. All the evidence lay right in front of me. How jealous and crazy did you need to be to take somebody’s life? Did Molly even have any hang-ups about doing it? Maybe she did the first time?

At some point in the last few minu
tes with Molly, I must have just given up because I was feeling calmer. I didn’t try to defend myself anymore. Had I accepted my imminent death? Maybe it was even best not to defend myself because Molly would stop having fun with me and kill me quicker.

I felt powerless and
empty. Thirst and nausea raged through my body and my muscles protested against my posture. They were shaking with exhaustion and tension. I had given up. How could I give up so quickly?

I must have fallen asleep because Molly’s voice woke me from my slumber. She wasn’t in the room with me, she was stood with Adam in the kitchen. Adam seemed to be irritable as always and leaned against the door frame, while Molly stood over the stove and stirred something in a saucepan.

“You look terrible. When was the last time you shaved? Drink a drop of whiskey and forget this girl.”

“What girl?”, grumbled Adam.

“The girl you haven’t been able to get out of your head for days. Did you think I wouldn’t notice? You are moody, absent-minded and I haven’t seen any other women here since
she left.” Molly turned away from the saucepan and briefly looked right into the camera which must have been installed in one of the shelves directly opposite the door. She was putting on a show. Just for me. She was just showing me that Adam wasn’t indifferent to me. “You shouldn’t have let her go”, she said now and looked at Adam.

“Maybe I should have
kept her here while there’s a lunatic out there?” Adam pursed his lips. “I also saw the doubt in her eyes. She really believed that I was behind all of it.”

“That must have hurt
you”, Molly affirmed and nodded sympathetically. She was a good actress, this psychopath.

“Yes, it did”, said Adam sadly and my heart performed a somersault. He really saw more in me than just one of his playthings. The nausea I felt in my stomach turned into
gentle butterflies in the blink of an eye. But what did I get out of knowing this? I would die down here and he would never know. At least that made me feel a bit more at ease.

“Does it annoy you that your father knew you so well?”

Adam raised his head and looked at Molly before shaking his head. “At first I was angry. I tried to upset her and brought the Italian tourist here. I wanted to hurt her because I had started to become attracted to her. But then …” He broke off and to my annoyance let the rest of his words hang in the air.

Later, I was
able to see Adam in the gallery. He was stood in front of the portrait of his father which I had restored. He looked at it pensively. “You’ve won again”, he said. “But it doesn’t matter. I’m a madman in her eyes. And even if that’s not the case, she is better off in London. Maybe I really do feel something when I look at her, but how could I ever be sure that she won’t lie to me?”

A tear ran down his
red hot cheek.

Adam turned away from the painting and pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. He
dialled a number and waited, then he put the phone down again. “Maybe it’s better that she’s not there. Maybe it’s better if I don’t think about her anymore”, Adam shouted angrily and thumped the wall next to the picture of his father with his fist.

I blinked the tears out of my
eyes and fought against the heavy lump in my throat. It didn’t make any difference to know that Adam felt attracted to me. It just made it even worse for me hanging in the basement and seeing him. I closed my eyes and tried to suppress any noise. I was completely helpless. I felt a terrible burning sensation in my throat from thirst. I desperately focused on every pain in my body just to take my mind off of Adam and Molly and my imminent death.

Hours must have passed. I had lost all feeling in my hands and feet. I could barely feel my limbs.

A noise must ha
ve distracted Adam and Molly from their breakfast because they were both looking out into the kitchen. The frame became small and another one came to the fore when Adam entered the reception area. The heavy front door had been pushed open and Alfred entered the house with a number of uniformed police officers.

I started to get hopeful. I pulled at the fetters in desperation and made a moaning sound against my gag. I tried to shout, but there was no point. I stared mesmerised at the monitor and prayed that the police officers would find me. Then I thought about the last search and about the fact that the Italian girl was perhaps still alive at that time and she wasn’t found either. The hope I had subsided as quickly as it had appeared. However, I still prayed in silence.

One of the men moved towards Adam and the two other officers stood either side of him. No, I thought. It didn’t look as if they were going to question M
olly.

“
Adam MacLeod, you are under arrest on suspicion of murdering Sandy Stattford and Kendra Miller and abducting Maria Favelli and Linda Sands.”

“What? No!
”, I gasped against the saliva in my mouth. I couldn’t see Adam’s reaction because he stood with his back to the camera, but he didn’t offer any resistance to the handcuffs being put on him.

Two other men sudden
ly appeared in the house. I struggled to see their faces because they were caught in the incoming sunlight. However, one of them appeared to be Connor, the man who I met at the distillery.

“Gentlemen”
, he said calmly, “this here is Mr. MacLeod’s lawyer.”

“My name is Ferguson”, said the lawyer and he moved towards the group of police officers. He extended his hand to the highest ranked officer and nodded. I was almost relieved to see Mr
. Ferguson. Hopefully he could clear Adam from being suspected of murder. I trembled with anger when I merely thought about the fact that they were going to punish Adam for something which he didn’t do. “What evidence do you have against my client?”

Somebody passed Mr
. Ferguson a file. He leafed through it and frowned. He looked up at Adam briefly, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. The camera was too far away for that. “Do you have any proof that my client created this website?” The website! I almost burst in indignation. Of all things the website! This would definitely make Adam a suspect. I sniffed hopelessly and in despair. If I was going to die, then Adam should at least be spared.

“The information was posted on the Internet from this telephone connection.”

I was almost bursting with frustration. They believed that this horrible blog was Adam’s idea. Even I knew that he wouldn’t do something as stupid as that. After all, he played one of the leading roles in each of the videos.

The lawyer also seemed to have come to this conclusion
because he snorted derisively. “Don’t you think that would be a very stupid thing for my client to do?”

Adam
pushed himself between them and took a look at the file. He seemed nervous and twisted and turned in the hands of the officers and tried to loosen himself to get a better view at the file. “Did you say Linda Sands?”, he asked hoarsely.

The officer ignored Adam and pointed to something in the
file which the lawyer merely reacted to with a shrug of the shoulders. Adam pushed between the two of them again.

“
Linda Sands? Are you sure?”, he said more frantically now. I felt a pulling sensation in my stomach when he said my name and I heard the panic in his voice. Tears streamed down my face and soaked my gag.

“Why do you want to know?
”, said the officer snarling.

“Because I got Alfred to take her to London. Immediately after the last time she was here.” Adam looked desperate. I asked myself whether I was that important to him or whether he was just saying it: You’re
wrong. She wasn’t abducted. You can’t blame me for her disappearance at any rate. And I didn’t want him being blamed for my disappearance and that of the other victims either.

The police officer removed a picture from the file
that I couldn’t recognize either and held it in front of Adam’s nose. “That’s her, isn’t it?” he enquired abrasively.

Adam tugged at his arms like crazy to break free. “Linda! Oh God, that’s really her. I will personally kill whoever has done this.”

I looked on the screen for Molly, but she wasn’t there. When had she taken off? Had nobody noticed that she had disappeared?

Adam
suddenly started to shout frantically and nodded towards the picture. “That must have been taken in the basement.”

I could hear the scraping sound of the shelf and then Molly switched th
e light on. She hadn’t disappeared. My heart started to beat like crazy with fear as I saw the look of fierce determination in her eyes. She came towards me slowly. She reached out for the bloody knife in passing that was still lying on the table. My gaze darted from the knife to Molly and then to the woman’s body on the other side of the room and the screen on which the men were still gesticulating frantically in confusion.

“I won’t allow him to have you”, she mumbled with a psychotic expression on her face. The white in her eyes was infused with red veins. She pulled the gag from my mouth with a rapid movement. “But what I want is for him to hear you scream. He should know how close he was to saving you and then lost you.”

“Why are you doing this to him?” I said with a hoarse and almost silent voice and my throat dried out with each letter.

“Because he’s a warped, ungrateful boy who just plays with women’s feelings. And because he
got my Alfred wrapped up in it all.”

Molly approached me and pressed
the tip of the knife against my lower abdomen.

“Help!
”, I croaked even more hoarsely.

“You’ll have to
do more than that”, she said angrily and pressed the tip of the knife far enough into my skin that it penetrated it. I winced from the pain, took a deep breath and tried to drown out my pounding heart with the next scream. However then I heard footsteps on the basement steps. There was frantic scratching and loud cries.

Molly
lunged and, with a confident smile on her face, I saw how she pointed the knife towards my lower abdomen. Then there was a loud bang from rattling metal hitting the floor. Molly collapsed in front of me and numerous men broke into the basement room.

I laughed hysterically as the relief overwhelmed me like a tidal wave. “Adam”, I groaned as I made him out through the
blur of tears.

One of the police officers pulled a knife out from his belt and cut through my
fetters and Adam caught me when my knees started to give way below me. Somebody brought a blanket from somewhere and put it over my shoulders. Another man pulled the blubbering Alfred away from his dead wife.

“He knew everything”, I
stammered weakly. Adam took me in his arms and carried me upstairs into the living room where he sat me down on the large sofa. While the officers took my statement, the bodies were moved from the basement, Alfred was taken away and the forensics went to work, Adam held my arm tight. Connor brought me a hot tea that I enjoyed more than any other I had had before.

I had barely noticed how
chilled to the bone I was before now. Maybe the fear of death had suppressed all of that. Or the aftermath of the shock was just catching up with me.

“Should I send for a doctor?
”, asked Adam worried.

I shook my head. “
I just need a shower and perhaps a bandage for my calf”, I said tired.

Adam enquired whether the officers were finished with me,
then he lifted me into his arms and carried me into his bedroom. I didn’t have the strength to protest and I was even happy that I didn’t have to sleep alone. And I really needed to sleep. I was completely exhausted. According to Alfred’s statement, I had been in the basement for two days. I had lost any sense of time in the dark down there. And even though I fell asleep a number of times and had been unconscious, I felt as if I hadn’t slept for a week.

When Adam laid me down gently in his bed and took care of my injuries, I felt both the relaxing sensation in my muscles and the pain in each part of my body. I protested against it with a quiet groan.
Yet, I indulged in Adam’s soft touches which felt like balsam for my maltreated body.

Adam
ran me a hot bath and slowly placed me into the incredibly relaxing water. He washed me with a washcloth and I didn’t protest. I was too exhausted to think about how intimate this was and about what he was doing with me. And I was also too tired to really take in the fact that I actually escaped from Molly. And I asked myself, why did she hesitate at the end when she raised the knife in her hand? She could have ended it all for me, but she didn’t. Maybe it was something entirely different to kill somebody who you have been living under the same roof with for at least a few days?

“I’ll bring you something else to eat and some tea in a minute”, said Adam quietly, after he had laid me down in his bed.
Adam had a distracted expression on his face. He seemed to be distant the entire time, but I could understand him. I was just as shocked as he was. And it must have been a shock for him to find out that the two people he had spent so much time with had committed all those evil acts without him knowing.

“I could do without anything that Molly has cooked.
The last meal I had from her saucepan didn’t go down very well”, I said trying to make light of the situation.

Adam
just nodded and then got up from the bed.